Alongside our Game of the Year top 10 list and personal picks from the Push Square editorial team, we are recognising the best PS5 games of 2024 in select categories. Today is the turn of the best PS5 DLC of 2024.
Bronze Trophy: Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred
Particularly on the live-service side of the games industry, expansions can do more than just add content to a game; they can revitalise and re-engage an otherwise flagging community. That's what Vessel of Hatred managed to do for Diablo 4, building on the ever-improving seasonal content rollouts to deliver a substantial improvement to the entire game. With the Vessel of Hatred expansion built into Diablo 4, the Blizzard title has never been better.
Read our Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred PS5 review through the link.
Silver Trophy: Final Fantasy XVI: The Rising Tide
The second and main DLC for Final Fantasy XVI, this expansion rounded out Square Enix's RPG in style. It expands on the lore of the universe with a chapter taking place towards the end of the story, also allowing for the combat system to become even deeper and more spectacularly absurd boss battles to take place. Building on the base game, it's The Rising Tide that finally makes Final Fantasy XVI feel complete.
Read our Final Fantasy 16: The Rising Tide PS5 review through the link.
Gold Trophy: Destiny 2: The Final Shape
The community sentiment towards Bungie may have soured (once again) in the time since The Final Shape released for Destiny 2, but the actual contents of the expansion were what temporarily put the looter shooter back on a pedestal. It was lauded as a proper, fitting end to the Destiny 2 story 10 years in the making with an excellent campaign, a genuinely challenging raid, and a final mission that truly tugged on the heartstrings. What's happened since — both in-game and with the developer — has seen the overall experience fall again, but The Final Shape turned Destiny 2 into an elite looter shooter all over again.
Read our Destiny 2: The Final Shape PS5 review through the link.
Platinum Trophy: Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
In the category it actually belongs in, there was absolutely nothing stopping Shadow of the Erdtree from topping this list and being crowned the best PS5, PS4 DLC of 2024. Adding enough content other studios would see fit to spin out into a standalone sequel, The Realm of Shadow effectively added more Elden Ring to Elden Ring — not a bad thing when Elden Ring just so happens to be one of the best PS5, PS4 games around.
By going for verticality rather than sheer stretches of land mass, Shadow of the Erdtree managed to surprise with its secrets and twisting paths to create a location that keeps you guessing in terms of how far down you can go rather than its kilometre length. It is simply fantastic in every possible regard — the standards for DLC just got raised another level.
Read our Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree PS5 review through the link.
Do you agree with our picks for the best PS5 DLC of 2024? Share your thoughts in the comments below and check out more of our Game of the Year coverage through the link.
Comments 38
Void shadows from warhammer 40k rogue trader is by far the best piece of dlc.
The Lake House was my favorite DLC. Sure it’s short, but it’s a bridge between Alan Wake 2 and Control, two of the best games of all time. I loved it.
That said, I get why Erdtree won. I loved Elden Ring, I really did, but Erdtree sort of just felt frustrating. The huge gap of time between the base game and DLC allowed me to Gohan myself, so to speak. I wasn’t even sure if I remembered how to go Super Saiyan. I pushed through it, and it was solid, but it was also just another punishing area of Elden Ring. With a game as obtuse in storytelling as Elden Ring, it sort of made me realize how important the story is for me to really enjoy DLC properly. The imagery is great, but it felt like more of the same rather than something genuinely new.
Well seeing as I only bought the diablo 4 dlc I have to vote that. I was going to purchase the elden ring expansion but I just never got round to it. Maybe in the new year.
DLC SHOULDNT COUNT FOR.....oh sorry force of habit. Carry on now. This did at least remind me that I bought both FF16 DLCs and have not booted it up yet.
WWE 2K24 Bray Wyatt / Fiend concept pack
I mean yeah its one of the best expansions out there even if i do have some issues with it. Art design in it is easily the best From has ever done in my opinion as well, i was constantly dropping my jaw at the various sights in the game.
No love for FF14 here it seems.
If I saw this same category for last year, I’d have voted for Spider-Man 2, sorry just had to air frustrations; probably the biggest disappointment of this generation.
Lake House was crazy good. Currently playing Control AWE dlc again now and the little tid bits Remedy drops in it about Lake House is so awesome now that I've played it.
My vote goes to Atlas Fallen's Reign of Sand update. Because the amount of gameplay variety and replayability it adds will keep it in my rotation for longer than any of the other options.
I didn't play a ton of DLC this year, but my #1 would be Side Order for Splat 3. I love how the devs introduced rougelike elements to Splat and hope they bring it back for the 4th game.
After Side Order, I'd go with Shadow of the Erdtree and the Nier crossover content in Stellar Blade.
So much looking forward to diving into Elden Ring again! Do you guys recommend a new game + including the dlc or a totally new game? I beat the end boss on my first run.
FFXIV Dawntrail if you can count it as dlc. Otherwise "fork them all" option.
@Darude84 I went totally new character and although it took me a while to get to the DLC (I did pretty much everything in the main game before jumping in) it was worth it. Made me appreciate the game all over again, and now that I knew the game's systems, I could make an even better character
@Gremio108 Makes sense, thanks for the advice!
I still disagree that there's ZERO justification for Erdtree in the GOTY category because that was just a wholea** videogame, imho. Like, if it was the size of the other Soulsborne games' DLCs, I'd be with y'all. Sure.
But we're talking 30h of new content here.
Shadow of the erdtree was empty and boring to me and yet another disappointment this year. I'd have to give my vote to FF16's rising tide. That was a really fun DLC.
@Darude84 I think it comes down to whether you want to jump straight into the DLC, or build up to it. Either way, you'll have a whale of a time
I haven't played any of the DLC this year other than Snowrunner's Year 4 pass.
Shadow of the Erdtree overshadowed almost everything; I forgot how much really solid DLC we actually got.
The Alan Wake stuff is brilliant, Stellar Blade’s was pretty nifty, and FF16’s was surprisingly good (aside from that survival mode trash that needed to have been left on the chopping block. What a tedious chore it was to slog through that filth. Wouldn’t have bothered if these scummy devs hadn’t forceably attached trophies to it. Thankfully you can use those boosters to sleepwalk through that garbage, which is exactly what I did because that crap isn’t worth playing legit).
@Cloud39472 Calls Erdtree empty and boring but praises FF16's DLC hmm 🤔
Wait, I'm a little confused at the dlc category. Why didn't you guys vote Shadow of the Erdtree Game of the Year? 🤨
@somnambulance I loved Control and Alan Wake as well, but I don't think the crossover was a great idea. With it, the second part completely lost that nice feeling the first one had.
@DennisReynolds Does FF16 RT have huge empty areas devoid of life like elden ring? Am I missing something here? It's not even like I was comparing them either. Just saying which one I prefer.
@Balaam_ You might as well just admit how bad you are at these games. The trophies aren't the problem bro, its you.
@Cloud39472 Pretty much yeah FF16 as a whole is devoid of life once you leave the hub and linear path. Eldtree is not devoid of life well it is lore wise but content wise its chuck full of content. In fact Eldtree has more content then FF16 entire game DLC included.
I'm surprised because Shadow of the Erdtree only has 43% of the votes.
@Darude84 I did it with NG+. Had to change my build as my magic user just didn’t have enough oomph. Ended up on a dex. Enjoy it. It’s masterful.
@Darude84 i played new character all the way to the end, prior to the last two main game bosses before I jumped in. I struggled in the shadow world, so finished the main game, and started a NG+ run. The expansion did not go to NG+ (logical i think, as I did not finish it). So if you are on the fence, go into the shadows, see how it is. If you have the headroom/timeroom for a NG+ start, i can say i enjoyed the hell out of the vengeance i dealt up to the DLC
@DennisReynolds Shadow of the erdtree was big but empty with huge areas filled with nothing to do,useless loot and very little enemy variety. The main areas were full of things to do, sure and the scenery was pretty but the bulk of optional content in it was empty, boring and unrewarding.
Your last statement is just completely false. Even if it were true, bigger doesn't mean better. Again, I wasn't comparing them. I prefer Rising Tide to Erdtree as I found Erdtree to be a huge disappointment. Moment to moment, Rising Tide was far more fun to me than Erdtree.
Thanks for all the responses! I think I’ll build a new character and do a full new run, so it won’t get too easy. On my first run I had to respec my character completely for the Elden Beast. I think I’ll try to build that character from the ground up this time and integrate the dlc at the end of my new run.
Ah Shadow of the Erdtree, the true game of the year 😁
Removed - trolling/baiting
@TheArt Weird to dismiss my criticism for such dumb reasons. You're acting like I said Shadow of the erdtree is terrible and The rising tide or rather FF16 as a whole is better than Elden Ring. I never said any of that.
You can criticise something without disliking it. Shadow of the erdtree is good, not perfect. Also you don't need to "win" anything here. It was just a discussion, not some Internet battle. Grow up, jesus christ.
Removed - trolling/baiting
Removed - flaming/arguing
Removed - unconstructive
The Talos Principle 2 DLC, Road to Elysium, is absolutely fantastic. It's a pretty major expansion to the base game and has some really unique and different puzzles in fantastic settings. Highly recommended!
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...