Be Excellent To Each Other

The new DLC for Fable 2 has been announced (it's out in a week) giving you a new island with new things to do.

However, a lot of you have finished it already... will you be bothering?

Which, I reckon, brings up an important question. Unless you're willing to play through the game again (and know pretty much everything that's coming), there's little point in the new content. Indeed, people who buy the game later in its life will arguably have a better experience as when they first start the game they will have loads of additional content available to add into their game from the off.

When I bought Mass Effect, it had been out for nearly a year so I not only was able to nab the DLC, but at a discounted price as it was part of an offer! Bioware are talking of releasing yet more DLCs for it, but I can't imagine their efforts being warranted as pretty much everyone who'd be interested will have played the game to death ages ago.

Similarly, the forthcoming Fallout 3 DLCs which add new areas will land next year, just in time for the millions of people who've bought the game to have finished it already. I see no choice but to hold off finishing the game until they're out, as I've invested so much time into my current game I'm not keen on starting over with a new character later.

What is the point, then of a DLC that expands the story of a game if by the time it's released, everyone has finished the story?

In fact, the only way I think a story-expanding DLC for a story based game can truly work well is if it's like Shivering Isles - essentially self contained to the point that you could just play it and ignore the rest of the main game (which is what I did, creating a new character especially for it).

I tried to play through Fable: The Lost Chapters after already playing through the vanilla version and just couldn't get into it again. So... 'Don't see the point' gets my vote

If it hadn't been possible to just go straight to the Shivering Isles in Oblivion with a new character, I wouldn't have been half as keen. My character (who is already the supreme ruler of everything else in Cyrodiil) is currently enjoying her well-deserved retirement in Bruma.

I think the Devs have already learned their lesson on this.

In Fable, you can still play after completing the game, so thats okay. As far as I can tell, the Fallout ones are all involving seperate characters, (the one that expands the original story has you playing as a member of the BoS, for example), and the GTAIV one has you as a member of a biker gang.

I can barely be bothered to finish games as it is, never mind twice just for an extra 30 mins of play at the same price of a new game. That said, I got Oblivion Goty just for the extra content. Curse my stupidity.

If it means starting again to see a little bit more then no. If it adds to the world giving you new stuff away from the main story then yes.

An entire mission set of riding around on the riotously rubbish American cruiser bikes? Oh, pinch me.

Is the Far Cry 2 stuff story-based, or is it multiplayer maps?

I wouldn't buy a book and then go back and buy an 'extra' chapter. I wouldn't eat a meal and then go back to buy some more salt. I wouldn't sleep with a prostitute and then (snip - Ed).

Fuck. That.

Would you buy a special edition of a film you really liked (and already owned) because it had a director's cut or deleted scenes, etc? I dunno, it seems comparable to that.

I voted wrongly

I meant to vote for the developers leaving things off disc deliberately option, but the cross shows I voted for the don't give a toss option.

I am sorry for breaking your lovely poll.

Funfact: Lots of DLC is already on the shiny discs you have bought, and were planned to be DLC long before the game was released.

Surely that'd be Unlockable Content, ULC if you will.

Unless you skip the credits. If you do that, you go back to the title screen.

But surely then you just have to reload your last save?