Things have been slow on the gaming front insofar as new ones (except for Left 4 Dead 2, which I'll review in the next week) but there's one aspect to both online and console gaming that is both a blessing and a curse: Downloadable Content. Downloadable content, or DLC, is usually aspects that one can obtain for free or a small fee to add to the experience of the game. In some cases it contributes significant benefits, while in others it's purely cosmetic.
To that end, you'd think this content would be universally praised because of what it can add to any given game, but such is not the case. Wheter it's ridiculous pricing for miniscule garbage or system exclusive crap, something spurs serious hatred for most DLC in gamers. Here are some cases to ponder:
The Beatles: Rock Band originally featured 45 songs, drawing a few from every album they've ever made (and a few singles). The first DLC available "filled in" the songs from Abbey Road, allowing you to play through the whole album. Cool, right? Ah, but there was hatred. You see, they also included a bonus "Abbey Road Medly" track that runs from "You Never Give Me Your Money" to "Her Majesty" without interruption. Still cool, right? Here's the hatred. That Medley wasn't available outside the package deal of "Whole Album" and most people wanted to use their pre-order free song voucher for it. Instead they had to buy the whole album at $17. Aside from that Wii users had to pay for every track individually.
Among the freebie DLC gripes:
Batman: Arkham Asylum's challenge maps are repetative. The PS3 exclusive bonus of playing as the Joker (for Challenge Maps) is ok, but only worth really doing if you're just bored with being Batman.
Tomb Raider underworld on XBOX gets bonus costumes as DLC. PS3 doesn't. So, as much as I want Lara to wear the yellow and black Body Glove brand diving suit, I have to settle for the generic grey and blue one. No big deal for me, but I can see where this would just be annoying.
This segues into the next topic: Exclusive Content. This practice is just plan bullshit. I can see exclusive games on certain consoles (Halo on XBOX, God of War on PS3) but to limit ANY content for a multi-system game to just one system is retarded. Preorder content is equally as stupid. I'm going to start off with one of the most obnoxious preorder bullshit fiascos I can think of from recent memory: LittleBIGPlanet.
If you pre-ordered LBP from EB, you got a certain costume for free. Best Buy, a different one. These were based on PS3 franchises, so it's not even like it was "store logo t-shirt" useless. These were outfits based on God of War & Heavenly Sword, which are both insanely popular (well HS has waned significantly but you get the point). People wanted them. Other people (workers from the stores?) seemed to have a high number of the preorder codes on eBay. Desperate schlubs doled out anywhere from $1 to $50 for a VIRTUAL COSTUME (I paid $1 for each, btw). You know what happened about 3 months later? Media Molecule decided to release those Preorder DLC freebies as purchases in the PSN Store. So, all those idiots who shelled out more than $3 for the Nariko from Heavenly Sword outfit can stare at the PSN Store where they sell it happily for $2.99 ($5.99 for the entire set of 2 costumes and virtual stickers for use in level building) and punch themselves in the... wallet. Yeah, much can be said for people's impatience, but at the same time something can be said about bad PR tactics. If they intended on these items to become DLC, why not mention that somewhere as part of the pre-order.
I'm thinking something like "Get this costume NOW!* (*Costume to be released as DLC in MONTH/YEAR). Then you'd have a whole lot less scalping of the preorder codes, not to mention more praise for the cool factor.
More exclusive content crap that irks me is in the form of system-based exclusivity for multi-platform games. Shining example: The Beatles: Rock Band "All You Need Is Love" track, available for XBOX360 since 9/9/09 with procedes to benefit Doctors Without Borders. Huh? You're donating to a CAUSE with the sales and you're going to limit it to 1/3 of the people?
Stupid.
I could rant on and on about this stuff - Gigawatt Blades in inFAMOUS (PS3 PO from Gamestop), special baseball bat in L4D2 (PO for XBOX), Lord of the Rings Online's stuff like Siege of Mirkwood (Special Cloak Goat and other crap for PO)...
Thing is, DLC - whether free or a low fee - is great in most respects. Some items are totally worth every penny (Metal Gear Solid expansion pack for LBP was awesome). Some items aren't worth their weight in saffron (nearly every single character in PAIN).
