The DLC that accompanied Assassins Creed: Valhalla was incredible. Worth every penny.
But Assassins Creed is a high standard to meet. It sticks to a strong story line, lengthy character development, open interpretation, good graphics with attention to detail, side quests and mini-events; it is a fully fleshed out experience. I have never even encountered a bug in Assassins Creed games. I am sure they exist but... it says something that I never experienced one.
Because that is a cash grab. They know people will pay for it so developers get lazy in designing real things for games (ea is a good sample of this).
What good games got released in the past 6 years ? Most developers are creating “remasters” these days. Some of them are very good (Like Command & Conquer or Mass Effect 1) but some are terrible (samples commandos 2 and 3).
Maybe i am getting old…i don’t know.
The only game that is on my wishlist right now is Exodus.
I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree on that point. I explained the value of cosmetic DLC for keeping artists employed at various stages of dev cycles. If that wasn't convincing to you, our perspectives are just very different, particularly since it has no effect on gameplay and you don't have to buy them. I see nothing wrong with offering an optional product for sale as long as it doesn't provide advantages.
I'll put my answer to that under a jump to spare people the scrolling. There have been quite a few across a variety of genres. This isn't an exhaustive list; I could add more if I wanted to include more indies, but I feel like given the latest posts in the thread, you mainly meant triple A games. I'll try to include a variety of genres. I've at least tried many of these personally. I'm also excluding games I really enjoyed but which didn't find acclaim in general.
Good Games of the Last Six Years
- Baldur's Gate 3 has had massive critical and player acclaim. It's got more and better writing than the vast majority of games, and provides much more player agency than most.
- Cyberpunk 2077 released in an unacceptable state, but patches have gotten it to the point that it's generally accepted as very good.
- Metaphor Re: Fantazio is excellent, highly regarded by both players and critics.
- Red Dead Redemption 2 is generally considered extremely good.
- Satisfactory has been very well received, though I haven't personally played it.
- Alan Wake 2 is pretty great, though not for everyone if you're not into horror.
- Age of Wonders 4 is a great take on 4x and a worthy successor to the long running series.
- Like a Dragon and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth are both great, albeit prone to some silliness. The Like a Dragon series used to be called Yakuza in the west.
- Rabbit and Steel is a fantastic indie game that encompasses the complexities and teamwork required in MMO raiding, but distilled down for 1-4 players so you can limit it to your friends, and it's JUST boss fights, no MMO grind required. (In fact, you start each game fresh.)
- If you like horizontal scrolling bullet hell games, Hazelnut Hex is a magnificent indie with tons of early 90s vibes. Very silly.
- Going back to triple A, Deathloop is a solid first person shooter that adds non-linearity to the mix.
- Disco Elysium is considered a spectacular RPG with a ton of great writing and meaningful choices.
- Elden Ring is obnoxiously hard, but extremely good if you enjoy such difficulty. I played through it with a friend who's better at such games. Unfortunately, if you play multiplayer, you're also forced to tolerate occasional forced PvP, a design choice I consider absolutely godawful.
I won't disparage you or anyone else by implying you've lost your taste with age. I'm 44 myself and can't throw stones. I DO know that it's not uncommon for people to find it harder to enjoy video games as they get older though. A former boss of mine, my best friend, several coworkers, some YouTubers I've seen... at some point in the 40s, a lot of people just find less appeal in games.
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It is true that some DLCs are a good addition instead of the usual unnecessary paywall. Another example I can think of for that kind of scenario is the Mariokart 8 DLC: it included more race tracks in the DLC alone than any previous entry in the series ever did in the full game. It almost felt like an entirely new game for half the usual price.
DLCs have potential, but many companies abusing it to get more money easily usually distracts us from the fact that some are good.
This returns us to:
The problem with lumping in DLC's is that some are pretty good and some are exploited.
It is better to instead focus on the actual problem than to something that is a symptom of the actual problem.
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I agree on several different points regarding gaming...
(1) Once I got to a certain age, I noticed that I am not gaming as much as I used to when I was a kid.
(2) I tend to game more in the winter time, when I have less work, and more free time on my hands.
(3) Many games these days are indeed remasters, there hasn't been a lot of quality creativity in the latest games, and I don't always agree with the direction, that developers often take when producing them.
(4) We can't just play games to have fun anymore, now developers have to push a political or social agenda on people in games, Star Wars Outlaws is just one example of this. Everything looks like garbage in the game too.
(5) Gaming studio's think their not making enough money, so they stick loot boxes and in game transactions, to keep you spending until you drain your bank account dry, and inflate their ill gotten gain profits.
(6) Companies like EA, have gone under fire from parents, who allowed their children to spend 1000 dollars on a skin in the game. After a huge uproar, the studio agreed and gave the money back.
The reality is, the gaming scene has changed, companies like EA ruin for all of us, just as they ruined Plants VS Zombies, when 2 came out, with pay to win philosophy, micro transactions, impossible difficulty without spending. I am not for this type of activity. I want gaming to go back to the way it used to be, one time fee, and thats it.
Back in those days, gaming studio's spent the time to flush out their games, and to make them ready for prime time. They weren't released like Cyberpunk where half the game is missing, cause they wanted to put it out so fast. There was a time when gaming was great.
Gaming was about a way to get out of the real world for awhile, and spend time in another world, within those games, and to have some fun, before the days of loot boxes, micro transactions, useless skins. I miss those days. These days, many gaming companies are as corrupt as politicians.
Look at even Gabe Newel, what happened to HL3 ha? It never happened. Half Life was the biggest IP that grew the company Valve, and he knew it! But he didn't care about HL anymore, and switched direction to silly games like Left For Dead, and a couple other's. Then over a decade later he came out with HLA in VR only.
Yeah, like he made anywhere near as many sales for a VR only game, give me a break. Where's the HL3 ya promised Gabe? Where's the continued episodic releases? Oh ya don't care about that, cause you don't care about us. Now your a hardware company, Steam Box-FAILURE, Valve Index-GREAT NOBODY CAN AFFORD IT, Steam Deck-PEOPLE DO LIKE THAT HANDHELD.
If your a GenZ kid, you will never notice how gaming has changed, cause you only have grown up in modern time. But when you are old, thats when you can notice changes over the decades. Whether you'd like to admit it or not, gaming has indeed changed, and not for the better.
Sure, graphical improvements have been made in games using the Unreal 5 engine, I can't deny that. (But not you Star Wars Outlaws!) But going to this micro-transactions scene, loot boxes, pay to win, keep you spending narrative, no, I am not about that, I won't buy into it, and they won't make money off me. (Talking about you EA!)
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The game I am currently playing the Hunter Call of the Wild has DLC's ...... the base game has 2 reserves or maps and basic guns .... ammo etc ..... good enough to play the game which first came out in 2017 .....
These open world reserves take place in countries all over the world and 5-6 in the US .... there are currently 15 different maps or reserves and they come out usually with one or more per year ..... cost is around $7.99 per reserve ....
Do you need to buy them ..... no ..... but each one is like a completely new game using all of your previous guns ... ammo and equipment .....
You can buy other weapons ..... ammo and equipment with in game money you make shooting animals and birds ..... they also have DLC packages if you want to purchase them for around $5.00 give or take a few dollars .... they all vary ....
They are not needed as most items can be bought later in the game with in game currency depending on what level you are or how many points you have in a specific category .....
Unlike most games where once you play them that is it you are done with it unless you want to replay it again .... these games I play keep continuing on as long as you buy a new reserve DLC which is a whole lot cheaper than buying a new game or sequel to your old one ......
I guess in a way you can consider DLC's in this case to be sequels as far as reserves go ...... weapon packs however are something different and are not needed to enjoy the game the choice is yours but they do have stuff you can't find in the base game even for in game monies ......
As I said in another thread I have almost 800 hours in this game and haven't even played 3/4 of the reserves or completed all the reserves I have played .... the critters keep re spawning .....
The developers will from time to time change the way the animals behave in the reserves and move them around so they don't feed ..... drink or rest in the same times or places ..... they also change the classes of the animals which range from 1-9 .....( birds being 1 to Lions .... Water Buffaloes ..... Plains Bison and Bengal Tigers at level 9) that also creates a challenge .....
So do I think of DLC's as being wrong or bad ..... not if it is done this way .....
Just my $0.02 worth .....
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I love DLCs - but only those who add something significant.
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Correcto mondo sir! DLC is only worth spending money on, if it adds actual/substantial, playable content. Usually called expansion's, which typically also provide a few extra weapons to go along with playable content. But I would never pay for a simple skin, which are typically overpriced in my experience.
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This might be something for you:
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Small note of positivity: I just finished Space Marine 2, then Banishers, and now I'm playing Black Myth Wukong. All on Zorin. Basically without issue (Space Marine 2 needs the Steam overlay disabled).
Gaming on Linux has come such a long, long way.
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I just got the "Way of Wars" DLC for Age of Wonders 4. It's pretty awesome as the DLC is based on Eastern Asia folk lore and culture.
Have You played it lately? It's something else compared to 2016. Hello Games worked hard and It's AMAZING now.
I'm constantly seeing new players in Nexus.
Lately? Now. But in the Past. And there I liked it. But after an Update all my Stuff was gone. My Base was still there but the Buggy's were standing random on the Planet and all my Plan's for building the Parts for the Base and my Spaceship were gone, the Parts of my Spaceship itself, too. The Aliens, that I recruted, too. Was a total Mess. I was really mad at this Point. All the Game Hours ... Gone. So, I never played it.
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You just described many people's experience with playing early access release open world games. You begin a save, expecting many updates will come in the future, as they always do in early access. What you don't expect, is when the game gets updated, your save gets corrupted, and by final release, your just going to have to start a new save anyways.
Thats also what happened to Planet Crafter. Upon its full release, you needed to start a new save, because they added so much to the game, made so many changes. Its like sure, you can load your old save, things might be ok, but they might be all screwed up too.
I used to be a fan of playing early access games, cause I saw it as a way to start playing right away, rather then waiting 2-years to play the game. But now days, after experiencing a game that takes 2-years of updates, and each update causes problems with the save, it sort of ruins the mood, when I realize, that I have to redoo everything now, starting a new save.
Eventually, I will get back into playing Planet Crafter. But right now, I just been getting my kicks just by watching Mr. Spicy play Planet Crafter. Anyways, thats the price you pay, when you play a game that is not fully released, while in the development period.
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Age of Wonders 4 has been uniformly great since launch, and I've really enjoyed their additions.
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The Thing is: it was the final Release. They simply changed and changed it over the Time so that the Stuff (Ressources, Construction Plans etc.) inside the Game changed, too. And as I putted I don't know how many Hours in Exploring and Building all is suddenly different and I had to start again? No.
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Sorry to hear that...
Btw, while we talk, there's an expedition in progress... it's SIXTH (6.) expedition this year alone. They are bringing back good ole Normandy frigate, it's fun.
I hope to see you in Nexus.
Beaut, indeed.