Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Pack (AKA the DLC Fairness debate)

[Fall-Of-Enosis]

So the Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Pack releases tonight, for XBOX. If you haven't heard yet, here's the low-down.



Three of the maps are new. Two are old MW4 maps redone.

The maps look great, but my only beef is that the packs will cost bloody 1200 MS points!!!!

15 bucks!!!!

Not sure as to when they will release for PS3.

Thoughts boys?

[Pure Mongrel]

The only Stimulus here is for Activision

$15 for 3 new maps is outrages and a rip off, especially considering the games is hacked and glitchy! Instead of DLC, how about a patch!?!?!

Modern Warfare 2 is now in my trade pile and I will not be buying another Call of Duty or Modern Warfare game!

This DLC is becoming an out of control cash cow for may distributors and as long was gamers keep paying it will only get worse!

I have just traded in Bio-Shock 1 & 2 and will not be purchasing anymore of their games either after I discovered the new DLC is already on the disk. You are paying money for unlock codes now!

I am not against DLC if it adds game play life to a game, but these prices are going up and up and what you are getting is less and less. I payed for the DLC on Dragon age and I bought the expansion for it. They were worth the dollars ... but $15 for 3 new maps? They should be given away free as an apology for not Beta testing their game! (When you think about ... we payed to play the beta )

Now there are reports of EA wanting players to pay for "premium" demos! Give me a break! (EA sports lost me ages ago when I discovered people I was playing Tiger 09 against online bought their uber golf gear from EA instead of earning them by actually playing the game)

Many quality games manage to give much of their DLC for free, or at least at a reasonable price, to thank their loyal customers, but this will become a thing of the past as profit margins grow on DLC.

Don't get me wrong, I am not against a company making good profit from its franchises and products. Blatant cash grabs for features that should have been in the original game, DLC that is already on the original disk or DLC that is "padded" by crap or already released content for big dollars is just criminal and insulting IMHO.

I thought games like "The Orange Box" might have started a new trend of value for money as a focus for game developers. (Boy was I wrong!)

Imagine if a game like that was released by EA or Activision? They would have split that up and made DLC out of most of it!

(Before anyone gets up me ... I know Dragon Age belongs to EA ... I am surprised that I can't spend MS points to buy better armour and a sword! )

[Fall-Of-Enosis]

Ya mate, this is all true. Sad to say, that I will be paying for it later this week. Now what really sucks is that if you talk to any of the boys in the PC CODMW2 div, you'll find that they are getting the new maps FOR FREE.

No expansion pack, nothing.

Hows that for maddening? Nothing against the PC boys (I own one too) but whats good for the goose is good for the gander. If they get it for free, so should we.

[Chief]

That's consoles for you unfortunately, the main reason I'll always prefer PC. The CoD games have always had DLC free on PC, I picked up World at War for $25 on Steam and was surprised to find all the DLC included.

Not the only game to do that either, quite a few PC ports of games come with DLC included though they're usually released a few months after the console versions.

Fact is the console community is generally happy to pay more for very little and publishers are more than willing to take advantage of that. While people may complain, they still buy it in the end and as long as that's happening nothing will change.

[FunkyJ]

Great rant...

Just one itsy bitsy tiny fly in your ointment...

EA did publish the Orange Box:
The Orange Box - Xbox 360 PC PS3 - EA Games

[Pure Mongrel]

ROFLMAO .... some one pass me a wash cloth please? I seem to have egg on my face ...

Ok, so why did EA not break that game up for DLC? Was that because Valve had a say?

FunkyJ your in the "Industry", what is your take on the way DLC is done? If my rant is unfair, what am I missing?

This is not an attempt at a flame war ... all sides of the topic should be debated.

[maggot_bag]

i find the whole DLC thing disappointing it's pretty rare to find additional content that adds much to the original game.

[Arep]

So what DLC haave people found that have been worth it? In my opinion:

Fallout 3 DLC (though I may be biased because I loved the game itself)
Borderlands: Zombie Island of Dr. Ned (I hear General Knoxx is worth it, too, but I haven't gotten that far to try it)
GTA IV DLC (Though I haven't tried it myself, I heard it was worth the price)
Force Unleashed DLC (Jedi Academy, Tatooine and Hoth levels were worth it IMHO)
Mass Effect 2 (You get a whole new member of your party with one of them)

[Chief]

All the Borderlands DLC is great, only problem is that it's better than the rest of the game
Dragon Age: Origins stuff is pretty decent.
Assassin's Creed 2 stuff is great, you get to hang out with Machiavelli.
RE5's extra mission DLC is good but the VS mode is a pile of rubbish.
Valkyria Chronicles' content is brilliant, one adds an extra hard difficulty mode and the others add some very cool missions.
Folklore's DLC is cheap and quite lengthy and also has a few bits and pieces that are free.
Burnout Paradise has some brilliant DLC, but Ultimate Box is so cheap now it's best to buy that as it includes most of it.


Multiplayer games I find the DLC generally isn't worth it, there's often not enough people playing the extra maps for it to really be worthwhile.

[Fall-Of-Enosis]

Okay, I'll admit it. I payed the outlandish price of 15 american dollars for the MW2 map pack.

Is it worth it?

Well are the maps good? Yes the maps are GREAT fun, especially the one with all the apartment buildings. And I know that two out of the five maps were MW1 remakes, but I never played MW1 multi, so they are like new maps to me. Anyways, I haven't played all of them, but they are really fun. So the maps are good, but was it worth the price?

Not really.

Fifteen dollars for what you get, isn't really worth it. A smaller price would have been worth it.

But as long as people are paying for it, they'll keep the prices up.

The maps get my approval, but the price does not.