It's a DLC Kind of Time

The theme of the moment for me is DLC.  For some weird reason I have purchased some older DLC that was on sale and then I kept stumbling across articles about DLC.  I think the universe is trying to tell me something...probably something like "stop buying DLC!"

One of three DLC items I'm playing.

Old DLC is cheap DLC..  If you do any kind of digital download services you probably know that all of them have their own version of a winter/holiday sale.  I've been keeping my eyeballs peeled watching for good deals on Origin, GOG, and Steam.  I tend to neglect my Origin activities but discovered that Dragon Age:  Inquisition (which is now about 3 years old...if you can believe it) and all of it's DLC was on sale.  Even though I enjoyed Inquisition, I didn't enjoy it enough to dive directly into the DLC that was rolled out later on.  Generally if I love a game I have no qualms buying DLC. but this time I just couldn't make myself do it.  So now, two years later, I grabbed the Game of the Year Edition which features all three of the story DLC's--The Jaws of Hakkon, Trespasser, and The Descent--along with multiplayer upgrades (which I don't care about) and a smattering of cosmetic/armor/weapon items.  I've found myself replaying Inquisition and mostly enjoying the experience (there are still some minor irritations like the "tactical camera").

It might be a little odd to go back and buy old DLC, but I have found that DLC is usually grossly overpriced for the amount of content that you actually get.  For a game that I liked, but didn't love, spending an additional $60 for DLC seemed foolish (Love or hate EA, they make a large percentage of their profits from DLC.  I've written about this before--here).  Thanks to this recent sale, I can finally enjoy Inquisition in it's entirety.

Mass Effect:  Andromeda will not feature a DLC season pass.  I first read about this here, and feel a bit conflicted about it.  First of all, I'm not a big fan of the concept of the "season pass."  It's like pre-ordering a product that you usually have little to no information about.  How much DLC content will you get?  Will it be meaningful content or just cosmetic tweaks?  It's really a roll of the dice.  On the other hand, waiting and partitioning out the DLC into what you want usually ends up being more expensive in the long run.  I tend to buy story based DLC and avoid cosmetic/item packs which usually get lumped together in season passes.

I would say that overall the DLC for the previous Mass Effect games has been very good.  Mass Effect 2 had Lair of the Shadow Broker and Mass Effect 3 had the fan favorite Citadel along with Omega (also, good) and Leviathan (less good, but still fun).  With this mostly good track record in mind, I will most likely be buying the DLC (...and contributing to EA's profits even more).

Free DLC is the best DLC.  I wish more companies would opt to make smaller changes, like cosmetic ones, free.  CD Projekt Red did this with The Witcher 3 where they released small, but free DLC items.  It was fun to log on every week and see what new item or quest they added into the game.

In the meantime, I will be re-visiting the now expanded world of Thedas in Dragon Age:  Inquisition.  Hopefully my DLC purchases were worthwhile and add something new and unique to the game.