Game Brain | Wait and see on new DLC

By Brian Diefenbach
Western Herald

I’m a fan of the old axiom “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

It seems the video game industry prefers “If it ain’t broke, make more of it.”

In previous columns, I’ve discussed the pros and cons of downloadable content (DLC) for games post-release.

At best, you get an excuse to go back to an old(ish) game and enjoy some fresh content.

At worst, you’re getting nickel-and-dimed for content that should have been in the game in the first place.

Two big name titles from last fall illustrate the two extremes perfectly. In one corner we have “Borderlands,” a quirky shooter that plays like “Call of Duty” but feels like “Fallout.”
If you know what game character I’m referring to when I say “Get you one!” you’ve probably spent some time with “Borderlands.”

After playing the beejeezsus out of it, “Borderlands” was more-or-less dead to me. So far, there have been three DLC packs released for it: “The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned,” “Mad Moxxie’s Underdome Riot,” and the most recent, “The Secret Armory of General Knoxx.”

I’ve purchased and played all three titles, and have enjoyed most of them. There’s nothing inherently wrong with them (with the possible exception of “Underdome”); they offer plenty of new quests and loot.

The problem is that I’ve already had my fill of “Borderlands,” so more of the same doesn’t really excite me. However, I am glad to see developer Gearbox offering so much support for its product after launch. Maybe once-partner Valve is rubbing off on them a little bit.

Now we turn to master assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze’s opus “Assassin’s Creed II.” You can pretty much sum up Ezio’s adventures as “Places to go, people to kill – in Renaissance Italy.”

So there are no surprises to be had when the “ACII” DLC offers new people to kill. But what about new places? Sorry, you’ll have to settle for retreads of the same cities you visited in the main game.

Whether it was a game design or marketing decision (or both), the whole “memory” aspect of “ACII” makes a convenient cover for adding new content.

Without going in to too much detail, the game is played through a series of recorded memories, events experienced by the player character’s ancestor. Memories are relived and decoded through a special machine. Failure to achieve an objective or otherwise screw up the timeline results in “desychronization.” The events depicted in the DLC are included under the guise of scrambled memories that a technician has magically restored for you.

Arguably, the DLC content packs “The Battle of Forli” and “The Bonfire of the Vanities” could have been included in the retail version of the game, as they take place during or after pivotal events in the story. Ultimately, though, it’s just as well that they weren’t included.

The content in each addition will last you about two hours of playtime, tops. Unless you keep screwing up the impossible boat stealth mission in “Bonfire,” you’ll be through each DLC in one playthrough. That’s all for $10, 1/6th of the game’s original retail price. In reality, they’re equivalent to far less.

The DLC approach for “Assassin’s Creed II” is interesting, and possibly unique. That doesn’t make it any less of a disappointment; the problem is rooted in the quality of the DLC itself. It could have been worse, they could have released new costumes for Ezio and charged a few bucks a pop.

The sad thing is people would have bought those outfits, too. Heck, people even buy clothes for their Xbox Live avatars. I’ll bet that Microsoft has a policy that if you release something on Xbox Live and charge for it, some idiot will buy it.

I was an idiot, too, when I purchased some DLC without a lot of research or forethought. I got caught up in the hype. I wanted to recapture the magic of the original game experience, but it just wasn’t so.

Keep in mind what makes good and bad DLC. Do you value the game enough to sink more money into it? Take the time to read online reviews and get a feeling from the community.

It’s not as if the content will get yanked after only a few days. Sometimes, if you’re patient enough, there’ll be a price break a few weeks down the road.

Hopefully, as the new DLC market matures, we’ll see less of the nickel-and-dime approach. While there will always be exploitative business practices in video games, it’s up to the consumer to call out the bull mess and keep their wallets shut.

Brian Diefenbach, a copy editor and columnist for the Western Herald, is a senior majoring in graphics and printing science. For more Game Brain, visit WesternHerald.com.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=15471

Posted by kleonard on Mar 10 2010. Filed under A & E, Weekend Scene. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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