Topic: Do You Still Care About DLC In Games?

I, like most of you, have an extensive backlog of games across numerous consoles. So whenever I finish a game, I'd like to immediately move on to the next one. However, I can't always do that because certain games have DLCs that I'll also need to finish before moving on. This has honestly made me lose interest in DLC because I just want to play a new game after finishing the current one.

Naturally, there are some games that have amazing DLCs that I want to play. For example, I absolutely loved the DLCs in Assassin's Creed Odyssey. I've also heard great things about the DLCs in Witcher 3.

But I still get annoyed because of my completionist mentality of needing to finish everything before moving on to the next game. That's why I'm considering skipping DLCs whenever I can just so that I can spend more time on playing other games.

Right now I'm playing through the original FEAR and that game actually has two lengthy expansions clocking in at around 10 hours together. I could be playing through both FEAR 2 and 3 during that time instead of playing through expansions that apparently aren't even canon. Granted, I'm really enjoying my playthrough of FEAR and I wouldn't mind playing more if it. But it just feels like a waste of time to be playing DLC instead of actual games.

So while I'll probably won't skip the DLCs for every single game, I'm not as interested in DLCs as I were before. When there are so many games I could be playing, it makes me frustrated nowadays to continue playing the same game after I'm done with it. So to me it makes sense to skip DLCs even though there will be people who say "Oh you absolutely need to play this in order to understand the story". Well from my experience, there are rarely any DLCs like that out of the ones I've played.

Kind of a mini-rant/cathartic post but I've really wanted to share these thoughts for a while. So what are your thoughts on DLCs today? Do you still care about them as much or do you have a massive backlog that you just want to move on to the next game?

depends, if in a timely manner yes..... if its years later like cp2077 then no, if its a game i was on the fence about, also no.

quality and price can affect it too,

too many variables to say yes or no

Depends. Lego games, I usually play the DLC but don’t put the same effort into collecting everything. Back in the day, I must have spent a fortune on Sims, Sims 2 and Sims 3 expansion discs, along with stuff like the Elder Scrolls discs on PC as well. I’d like to get back to full expansions, instead of tiny little bits of content. The new Assassin’s Creed along with a few of the big Sony games have done this but too many games add fairly rubbish content.

In theory DLC is great, the idea of more and more being added to your favourite games is awesome. I was really excited about the concept back when it was new. But in reality I am often over a game by the time it drops and either don’t get into it or, more likely these days, completely ignore it.

First bit of DLC I really tried was Deus Ex Missing Link.. bounced off it having loved the main game. More recently XBC2 Torna, unfinished having loved the base game 🤷‍♂️

Good topic here... and probably difficult to give a 'generalised' answer!

I think overall that DLC is a good thing, especially if it relates to a game that you love - which has otherwise been exhausted of all content. Price point is also key, and whether or not the additional content is perceived as 'worth it'.

Som of my favorite recent DLC:

• Returnal: Addition of Co-Op mode + the new trophies / story elements / tower section. I've been highly vocal about this being my 2021 GOTY, and this was the perfect excuse to return after the platinum.... love this game, was a pleasure to go back. Also, DLC being 100% free was a bonus (I would have paid for this)
• MH Rise: 'Sunbreak' (Master-Rank) expansion has been a pleasure so far, really ramping up the difficulty curve and adding tons of new features alongside a decent-ish end-game. Quite a high admission price, albeit I feel the hours I've plugged in have more than justified.
• GoT: I played the full game earlier this year, loved it, and then dived straight into Iki Island. I think this did a great job of expanding Jin's character arc, developing the concept, and really just giving people more of what was already great. I bought the entire PS5 Director Cut version, so didn't necessarily feel an additional sting for the DLC.

I'm interested in the forthcoming Elden Ring DLC... assuming this is sure thing based on what I've read

i’m jaded to it all . feels like i’ve been playing games for a long time even though i’m not old

Out of curiosity I looked back through my list of games played (via glancing over my trophy list) and counted how much DLC I’ve actually played and it turns out I can count on one hand the number of DLC’s I’ve played in the last 5 years. This is out of dozens and dozens of games played, and several of them with substantial DLC available, some of it very popular. For some reason DLC has just never appealed to me, in general.

The few times I have played DLC it has been part of a “Compete Edition” or “Game of the Year” package that I played much later after release. But even then, it usually gets played by me only if it’s integrated into the main game. So for example the Control DLC in the complete edition got played almost unknowingly by me because the supplemental missions just popped up during the campaign and I played time in the normal flow of doing all side quests.

One of the very few pieces of DLC I’ve played was ironically just a couple weeks ago with the Yuffie DLC for FF7R and is one of the rare instances of my going back to a game and playing it’s totally separate and independent DLC.

There are so many instances of DLC being ‘left on the table’ that I have access to but can’t find the time or willpower to go back to a game that I have completed. Returnal, Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, Mass Effect, Kena, Horizon Zero Dawn, etc, etc.

I just have some kind of disconnect in my brain I guess. Once I’ve moved on, I’ve moved on.

Apologies for the double post, but it occurred to me that in fairness I should note I have enjoyed the short supplemental extra releases which are an expanded form of DLC. These “half-step” sequels are tough to categorize but often started as DLC and then grew into a separate game, released on its own which can be bought and played without owning the original base game, despite clearly being linked to that game narratively and gameplay-wise.

So we’re talking Spider-Man Miles Morales, Uncharted Lost Legacy, Infamous First Light, and so on. I think Left Behind would even almost qualify since I did buy and play that on PS4 despite not owning The Last of Us Remaster at the time, only having played the PS3 version beforehand. So I don’t think you have to own TLoU to buy that DLC, although I’m not sure why you’d want to play that one on its own.

Third party haven’t done this approach much and I struggle to think of an example outside of the Sony first party content I’ve listed. The closest third party game that comes to mind is Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, which fits the bill as a stand alone game that is linked to the larger base game (even in name) and has many recycled assets from the base game. Or rather, one could argue that GZ came first and is the base game and that The Phantom Pain is a separate expansion piece which borrows from GZ, despite it being about 10 times larger. Regardless, it’s one of the few examples where you can play one without playing the other.

I barely ever play DLC. Once I'm done with a game I'm done with it and by the time DLC arrives I'm out of the loop, I've moved on, I can't remember how to play any more etc. Often, I wait for GOTY editions that come with the DLC and just play the whole thing with all the additional bits. As much as everyone cries about it, I actually prefer day one DLC so I can just play it when I'm into the game, but I get why people have issues with it.

Basically, gaming was better before DLC.

Dlc? It all depends. I replay some, but not all, games I like. For those games I replay dlc/updates can add value to the replay. Then there are the games I love like Fallout for which I want more, more, more.

For me it depends on if i get the DLC with the game or that i have to buy it seperately later on. If i buy the extended, ultimate, goty of whatever edition after launch of a game i'll play it. I did that with games like The director's cut of Ghost of Tsushima, Ac odyssey, spiderman remastered to name a few. With those games i played the dlc right after i finished the main game and then it felt part of the game itself.
Games i buy on launch day i barely buy DLC, since usually that means having to wait a few months before the DLC releases and by that game i am usually playing another game. Thats why i barely buy a complete edition game at launch, latest exception to that being Lost Judgment. But that one was because of my love for the RGG games that i can never get enough of their games. But yeah thats an exception,.

I've just noticed that the version of "Resident Evil 7" that I'm playing has all of the available DLC content bundled in with it. Does anyone know if it's worth playing?

@RogerRoger i agree , that’s a good point about DLCs giving you that feeling of being disconnected from the main game no matter how grandiose it may be .

Like most others have said, it kind of depends but on the whole I'm generally not a fan as it's extremely rare I'll return to a game just for DLC. One of the main reasons being that it often throws you into an endgame save where you and enemies are top level but the muscle memory you had for the game has gone.

For instance, I bought the Frozen Wilds DLC for HZD and never got more than 5 minutes in as I just could not get to grips with the combat after so long away. I only played it earlier this year when I went through the whole game again.

The big exception I can think of were for the Witcher 3 pieces of DLC. It had the same issue that it took me ages to get back into the game (plus, they'd introduced enemy scaling since I completed it so previously low level enemies were destroying me) but I'm glad I did as they were both amazing.

But now I buy so many games down the line that I end up with them included like Control. And then I happened to have just finished playing Ghost of Tsushima a month before the DLC dropped so it was fairly easy to go back to that.