- 09/08/2024
How to completely misread an audience.
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00:00Ever since the age of DLC began, not with a bang, but with a gold-plated...
00:07...video game fans have long been wary of the practice.
00:10You see, for every genuinely great season passed,
00:14there have been many more examples of publishers using DLC
00:18as a low effort cash-grab to siphon more money from their most prophet-legit customers.
00:24I'm Euan, this is Wild Culture Gaming,
00:27and here are 10 DLCs that totally miss the point of the game.
00:31Number 10, The Final Horizon, Sonic Frontiers.
00:35If you're wondering why Super Sonic looks so pissed off here,
00:39it's because the requirements to actually unlock his new super form in Sonic Frontiers
00:44are about as pleasant as a Sriracha sauce enema.
00:47While Sonic Frontiers was largely appreciated by the wacky, wonderful,
00:51and slightly terrifying Sonic fandom,
00:54look, I can only give my insight from the outside looking in, okay?
00:57Its DLC, called Final Horizon, didn't fare so well.
01:01Simply put, Final Horizon brings all the base game's issues to the forefront
01:05and makes them worse.
01:07Frontiers' loose controls and graphical pop-ins were more forgivable in the main game,
01:12as the challenges were simple enough that you could work around those issues.
01:16Final Horizon, however, demands a level of precision platforming
01:21simply not present in the base game's challenges.
01:24Resulting in howlingly frustrating deaths and restarts of the same damn sections
01:30over and over again.
01:31Oh my god, I'm being driven mad.
01:33I mean, look at poor Scott Tailford.
01:35He's goddamn traumatized by this thing.
01:38Final Horizon ensured that Frontiers' final blow saw the game split its trousers open
01:43and let one gigantic Eggman rip over its unsuspecting fanbase.
01:48Number 9, The Ultimate Shortcut Bundle, Battlefield 4.
01:53The joy of multiplayer first-person shooters comes from mastering their unique systems.
01:58Or if you're a sicko like me, it comes from being blown up repeatedly by artillery and hell let loose.
02:04Either way, multiplayer shooters thrive on the sense of achievement
02:07that comes from hard-earned proficiency.
02:10Or, you know, you could just chuck another $50 at the publisher
02:13and unlock enough weaponry to level a small town.
02:16Such was the case with Battlefield 4's Ultimate Shortcut Bundle.
02:20A precedent grand's worth of DLC that gave an undeniable advantage
02:25to those with the means and lack of scruples to pay for it.
02:29Those who purchased the bundle gained immediate access to the game's best weapons,
02:33giving them a massive head start over us mere unfortunate sons
02:37who had to slum it in the normal ranking system.
02:39However, I would say that anyone paying $50 to unlock every gun in the game
02:45probably is just losing at life anyway, but I digress.
02:50So, happy anniversary, Battlefield 4!
02:53We'd like to say that DICE learned its lesson from this, but then it made Battlefield 2042.
02:58Man, you'd think they'd have figured things out 2,038 games later.
03:02Badoom-tsh!
03:04Number 8, Get to Work, The Sims 4.
03:07Ever since The Sims launched way back in 1998,
03:11yes, it really has been 25 years,
03:14its raison d'etre has remained the same.
03:16Players can either live vicariously through their Sims,
03:20or torture the poor sods by making them go for a swim,
03:23then removing the ladder so they can't get out,
03:25like some kind of Sims jigsaw, crafting tests for an ungrateful Sim populace.
03:32Oh, sorry, I literally don't know where that came from.
03:35Anyway, let's talk about the excruciatingly dull Get to Work DLC pack,
03:40which unfortunately interrupts the fantasy with the drudgery of daily labour.
03:45I am definitely not the jigsaw killer.
03:47Now, to be clear, jobs have always been a part of the Sims' lives,
03:51they've just occurred off-screen, out of view of the player.
03:54The Get to Work pack pushes the Sims' bread-earning activities front and centre though,
03:58and in the process makes their lives, and ours, a heck of a lot duller.
04:04Not all the jobs offered in the pack are remotely fun to engage with,
04:08and watching your Sims slog their way through their tedious workday
04:11completely wrecks the idea that they're living their best lives.
04:15Basically, if you want your Sims to suffer, just stick with the swimming pool, yeah?
04:207. The Season Pass – Marvel's Midnight Suns
04:24Marvel's Midnight Suns was a beautifully bizarre mash-up that, against all odds,
04:30successfully combined a wonderfully deep card battler with a Persona-style social system
04:35that encouraged you to hang out with the Avengers between missions.
04:39I do have to ask what the Avengers were doing in a Midnight Suns game,
04:44but, nerd tantrum aside, this was a good title.
04:47Sadly, horrendously poor sales means we will never see its like again,
04:51which is what makes the small slice of additional content we did get so goddamn disappointing.
04:57Midnight Suns' Season Pass was, frankly, terrible.
05:01The original game sang because of its intricate turn-based battles,
05:05which pitted the game's expertly designed cast of heroes
05:08against a thoughtfully crafted selection of enemy combatants.
05:12The Season Pass, unfortunately, failed on both of these fronts.
05:16Now, the DLC featured a bevy of heavy hitters.
05:19Deadpool, Storm, Venom, and Morbius?
05:23Wait, what are you doing here? Get out of here, you wee rascal.
05:26Regardless of Morbius, Morbin, everywhere, none of these characters were given the care they deserve,
05:32with many of them reusing abilities and animations in the game's original group of heroes.
05:38On top of this, the new vampire enemy faction were a chore to fight,
05:42especially with their irritating ability to resurrect fallen troops.
05:46All in all, Midnight Suns' DLC was a wasted opportunity that saw one of 2022's best games
05:52fizzle out of existence, rather than going out in a Johnny Blaze of glory.
05:57Number 6, The Verizon Costumes, Marvel's Avengers.
06:01Ugh, why is that a thing I've had to say aloud with my mouth?
06:06Marvel's Avengers Verizon Costumes.
06:08Stop it, gaming, you're drunk.
06:10Marvel's Avengers is arguably the most potent argument yet against
06:14the game industry's obsession with live service.
06:17What started off as a promising-looking single-player action RPG
06:21soon devolved into an MMO-like mess of repetitive missions,
06:25boring loot, and the bizarre image of Hulk choosing which ribcage to equip to increase his DPS.
06:32Hulk confused by gear system, huh?
06:35Gaming and Marvel fans turned their noses up accordingly,
06:39resulting in the game's eventual delisting,
06:42which is a shame given that some of the combat in here and the graphical fidelity on display
06:46was pretty impressive.
06:48It was just stuck in a terrible shell of a live service.
06:51As warnings against corporate greed and short-sightedness go, they'll come much clearer,
06:56which is why the ability to deck the Avengers in Verizon-emblazoned apparel
07:03is at once completely outrageous and wholly appropriate.
07:07As Verizon is currently under investigation for using toxic lead in their cables,
07:13yeah, seeing the Avengers advertise their brand is grotesquely fascinating.
07:18The world's most famous champions for justice,
07:21sponsored by a company seemingly epitomising the worst aspects of corporate America.
07:275. The True Ending – Beautiful Katamari
07:30Speaking of poorly thought-out cash grabs,
07:33the original Katamari Damacy became a cult classic soon after its 2004 release.
07:39Creator Keita Takahashi's game about amassing random objects into a bigger and bigger ball
07:45was a weirdly attractive delight,
07:47helped by the game's charming visuals and catchy soundtrack.
07:50It was also a cutting commentary on the dangers of consumerism.
07:55The act of ceaselessly collecting items to make a bigger and bigger ball
07:59until there was nothing left to collect
08:01was Takahashi's method of rolling against the destructive nature of consumer culture.
08:05Unfortunately, its publisher did not get the message.
08:08In 2007, Bandai Namco released Beautiful Katamari on the Xbox 360.
08:14Excited by the prospects of charging customers even more money for a game they'd already paid for,
08:19Bandai Namco made the contentious decision to hide the game's true ending behind a paywall.
08:26Although Beautiful Katamari's final levels were included on the disc,
08:30to actually play them, you had to purchase an additional DLC pack.
08:354. Warden's Keep – Dragon Age Origins
08:39OC booted up Dragon Age upon its release in 2009,
08:42soon came across an NPC called Levi Dryden.
08:46Mr. Dryden could be found loitering around the player's camp,
08:49hoping that the hero would help him explore a haunted castle to help clear his family name.
08:53Agree to help him though, and you'd be whisked away to a checkout screen,
08:59asking you to pay £5 for the privilege of helping Levi out of his mess.
09:04Because nothing says grimdark medieval fantasy more than a random NPC joining your camp
09:10and demanding you pay actual real-world money to go on a quest.
09:15It's kinda fun to imagine the conversation a player would have had with Levi offscreen.
09:20Now, Dragon Age was a real labour of love for Bioware.
09:29They spent over a year solely focusing on worldbuilding.
09:33Given that, you can't imagine the writers were too happy to see corporate-mandated DLC
09:38being shoehorned into their baby, with all the subtlety of an action figure screaming
09:42BUY ME! BUY ME! from a Toys R Us aisle.
09:453. Pinnacle Station – Mass Effect
09:48The first Mass Effect game is beloved for many reasons.
09:52It introduced us to one of the most evocative sci-fi galaxies ever created,
09:56and gave life to some of the most beloved party members in RPG history.
10:02But for all its undoubted virtues, the original Mass Effect's combat
10:07has always felt like a bit of a first draft.
10:10Mass Effect wasn't Bioware's first attempt at real-time RPG combat, but it often feels like it is.
10:17Floaty physics, imprecise aiming, and a near-total lack of impact from your weapons
10:22means the game's many fights are occasions to be endured rather than enjoyed,
10:27which is like amplified by double when you throw in the Mako.
10:30As such, the Pinnacle Station DLC was a total misfire.
10:35Its USP was that it provided more than a dozen unique combat scenarios for buyers to indulge in.
10:40Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned issues, actually playing the DLC is an experience akin
10:46to wearing B.O. scented deodorant. It doesn't solve your problems, it just gives you more of it.
10:55Fallout New Vegas was a great RPG, but a pretty terrible FPS.
11:01Guess which part of the equation Lonesome Road focused on?
11:04Prior to the DLC's release, New Vegas developers Obsidian had crafted a trio of excellent DLC packs
11:11to support the main game, and the hope was that Lonesome Road would see their work on the franchise
11:16end on a high note. Sadly, it wasn't a B.
11:18Lonesome Road ignored what made New Vegas so great to begin with, its stellar writing and
11:23quest design in favour of precision VATS highlighting the game's shonky combat.
11:28The DLC was a tiresome trudge through a detritus-lined canyon that bombarded the
11:33player with high-level enemies and mini-bosses galore, in what felt like a bad pastiche at the
11:38Borderlands games. Frustratingly, the final conversation with Lonesome Road's villain
11:44is classic Fallout fare, weighty, thought-provoking, and excellently written and acted.
11:49Yet it stands in such blatant contrast with the tedious three-hour-long gauntlet that precedes it,
11:54you can't help but wonder what might have been if Obsidian hadn't spent so much of the DLC's
11:59runtime playing against their strengths.
12:07As the stratospheric sales of the recently released Marvel's Spider-Man 2 show,
12:12people love nothing more than the chance to slip into the shoes of the webbed wonder.
12:16What is it that makes Spider-Man so much fun to play as? Is it the exhilaration of web-swinging
12:21across New York? The thrill of battling his iconic rogues gallery? The relentless
12:25dad-joke level quipping? Well, according to Activision, it's none of that. The real answer
12:31is the chance to play crappy knock-off games on Peter Parker's fictional cell phone,
12:36which they did in 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man tie-in game. For a mere price of $2.99,
12:42true believers could purchase the Oscorp Search and Destroy pack, allowing them to experience
12:48the giddy, giddy highs of playing two poorly-made rip-offs of classic video games on Peter's
12:54Oz phone. Whether fighting waves of robots in Space Invaders clone Gwen's Hunter or rampaging
13:00through Manhattan as a giant snake-like creature in Destroy the City, the only thing you'll be
13:05amazed by is the fact that someone from Activision genuinely believed someone would pay for this.
13:12The Amazing Spider-Man's delisting means it's no longer possible to sample the dubious delights
13:17of the Oscorp Search and Destroy pack, but maybe that's for the best. This DLC
13:22is one blip that should stay in the dust. Like, forever.
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