5 Game Expansions That Changed Video Games Forever

GamesRadar

Ok, they might not be the best out there, but these 5 video game expansions did something to forever change the gaming industry.

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00:00During my first half hour in Elden Ring Shadow of the Earth Tree, I couldn't stop whistling

00:04Liquidator by Harry J Allstars. Picture me slouching down the broad crumbling concrete

00:09walkway that leads to Castle Ensys, my shield rays slaying shambling foes and dodging a

00:14barrage of arrows with this tune stuck firmly in my head. And then picture me speeding down

00:19a late 60s London thoroughfare in my Austin Powers inspired Union Jackadaw and Jaguar

00:24E-Type rip-off en route to blow up the Queen's Park Rangers football team bus with the song

00:28blaring at my car's radio. The connection? GTA London was the first video game expansion

00:33I ever played, and the first I fell in love with. Liquidator is burnt into my brain as

00:38a result, and to be honest, I'm hardly complaining. Shadow of the Earth Tree is the latest expansion

00:43I've played on the other hand, and the latest to make me fall in love. Casting a wider critical

00:47eye of expansions more generally, I'd confidently say there are five that have changed the face

00:51of video games spanning the last 25 years. In chronological order, here's how they

00:56changed the conversation, the legacy they left, and why they're still so relevant

01:00to this day.

01:02Given the internal impact the series would go on to have, it seems almost prescient that

01:05the first ever PlayStation expansion was for the original Grand Theft Auto. Launched into

01:09a console world already occupied by the likes of Tomb Raider, Resident Evil and Tekken,

01:14GTA landed with a bang amongst some great expansion-worthy companies. Still, it was

01:18DMA Designs' Crime Simulator that was granted that honour, and the 30-year time hop and

01:22transatlantic pivot worked ever so well, offering latitude for different language,

01:27outfits, weaponry, cars and indeed soundtracking. This was an expansion as it should be, an

01:31iteration on an original idea that built on its key beats without revolutionising enough

01:36to enter sequel territory, years before Sega's Dreamcast first introduced the idea of console

01:40DLC. Better still, GTA London showed what was possible for this series, and that the

01:45action could easily spill beyond the bounds of the OG Liberty City and its chaos-driven

01:49burrows.

01:51The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion needs little introduction, but it's easy to underplay

01:55what this game owes to the industry the best part of 20 years on from its original release.

02:00Improving on just about every foundation laid by Morrowind, Oblivion pushed every traditional

02:04RPG convention to its limit while simultaneously rolling out entirely new ones, not least fully-voiced

02:11NPCs, which in turn leveraged a broader, more mainstream appeal. The role-playing genre

02:15has always been synonymous with PC players, however landing on PS3 and Xbox 360 helped

02:21to spell an association that's pretty much non-existent today.

02:24After a string of uninspiring cosmetic-facing DLC packs, the less said about horse armour

02:29the better, Bethesda launched Knights of the Nine, a decent but short expansion that was

02:33good if not great. On March 27th 2007, however, Shivering Isles knocked it out of the park

02:39as a fully-fledged extension of Oblivion, adding a totally new location in a magical

02:43realm, more than 30 hours of added game time, new quests, baddies, bosses, armour, spells

02:49and more and what was easily one of the, if not the, most sophisticated expansions

02:53ever made to that point. We didn't know it then, but Shivering Isles was but a peek

02:57behind the curtain at what Bethesda was capable of while pushing the boundaries of the hardware

03:01it was working with.

03:04Single-player Grand Theft Auto DLC has become a bit of a white whale in recent years, but

03:08back before the GTA Online boom, the quote-unquote 4th crime sim installment was given two of

03:13the best offshoot stories the series has ever seen. The Lost and Damned came first, followed

03:17by The Ballad of Gay Tony, each focused on a peripheral character featured in the base

03:22game, Johnny Klebetz, Vice President of the Liberty City chapter of the Lost MC motorcycle

03:26gang, and Luis Fernando Lopez, a former drug dealer now bodyguard of nightclub owner and

03:31socialite Anthony Gay Tony Prince. Each story affects the other, and while running concurrently

03:36with the main game protagonist Nico Bellic's primary exploits, each expansion offers fascinating

03:41crossover and extra insight into the goings-on in Liberty City's central narrative.

03:46Arguably, The Lost and Damned's biggest, most revolutionary, or controversial point

03:50of note however, had nothing to do with its mechanics or overlapping storylines. The Lost

03:55and Damned was an Xbox 360 timed exclusive, first launched in early 2009 for Microsoft's

04:00then-flagship console, and not arriving on PS3 and PC until well over a year later. Timed

04:06exclusives are relatively commonplace in the modern landscape of video games, but this

04:10was the first time a series so big in stature had frozen such a sizable portion of the console

04:16market out for what was a pretty significant length of time. Suddenly, timed exclusives

04:20had entered mainstream consciousness. If something as big as Grand Theft Auto could do it, then

04:25any series could.

04:29With Blood and Wine, there was a clear sense that CD Projekt Red wanted to give players

04:32more of what they loved, without paying any of The Witcher 3's base game issues, well,

04:37any mind at all. For the vast majority, it worked, leaving us with what is undoubtedly

04:42one of the best narrative conclusions to any video game ever. One of The Witcher 3's

04:46crowning features, and indeed one of CDPR's central tenets in their approach to worldbuilding,

04:51is its deep and engaging sidequests, whereby missions off the beaten track had the same

04:56scope and narrative focus as those contained within the primary storyline. Blood and Wine,

05:00in essence, was a full expansion dedicated to these narrative loose ends, that brought

05:04story threads full circle, galvanised existing lore, and added new context to characters

05:09as their arcs wound down just before the credits rolled for the final time.

05:15If I'd had my way, Shadow of the Erd Tree would be sh**. Well, maybe not that bad, but

05:20I wanted From Software to adhere to the same speedy development timeline it had stuck to

05:24in the past, whereby DLC would land 6-8 months or so after the launch of whatever game was

05:29in line for an expansion. Which is to say, if things had gone my way, the first, and

05:34likely only, Elden Ring expansion would have been rushed out the door, less than half the

05:38size of what we have now, with a quarter of the features, foes, and weapons, and, yeah,

05:43let's just say I'm glad the developers didn't listen to me.

05:46Quintessential isn't a word I tend to use lightly, but it's without question the right

05:49one here. Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erd Tree is the quintessential expansion. Not

05:53only that, it's in essence a game unto itself. It's massive, masterfully designed, brimming

05:59with character god-awful baddies, and some of the hardest boss battles to feature in

06:03any video game, even by From Software's standards. My jokes aside, From Software was

06:08under immense pressure to release Shadow of the Erd Tree sooner, given the demand for

06:12the DLC, but broke from its traditional schedule pattern and stuck to its guns. What's come

06:17out the other end is nothing short of remarkable, and as close to perfection as I think we can

06:21hope for at this point with regards to great games delivering great expansions. Through

06:25all of this, a new standard has been set, for From Software, and for the rest of the

06:30gaming industry.

06:31If you can think of any other DLCs that are worth noting, I for sure can. Let us know

06:34in the comments, and for more, make sure to check out gamesradar.com.

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