News BioShock 2 DLC already on disc

Not only that, but it was the trailer shown off at PAX, back in September 2009. This content has been ready for 6 months. Fun times, huh?

The game still works, but as consumers, once again, we got the shaft. Good to know.

I bet the pirates' eyes are lighting up with their torrents only having to be 24KB for the DLC...

EDIT: A quick Google reveals the pirated "DLC" size clocking in at 18KB. So, they've compressed it? xD

 

Get used to paying for episodes, DLC, and games in general on a regular basis or find another hobby that doesnt require a regular outlay of cash. Report back when you find said hobby, I cant imagine one that is free of cost.

S*D

 

I'm worried about this dlc trend, companies are specially putting content to one side in the games creation to release later as dlc which is not the way it's supposed to work. Basically your paying for content that you should have got when you bought the game.

 

Yeah, wait until motherbaord manufacturers start charging for BIOS releases to support new hardware that the motherboards hardware has the ability to support. Or, how about CD/DVD burner firmware updates? Even better video card driver updates that you get charged for...

 

DLC was okay back in the day, The Mehrunes stuff and the Shivering Isles..all good.

Hell even the Burnout Paradise stuff and the GTA IV was good.

But this?? It's miserable.

 

Content that you dont download is not downloadable content, and shouldnt be marketed as such.

It should be marketed as unlockable content, but I guess that wouldnt go down well with gamers, so they have to lie and cheat to get us to pay for it.

 

Yeah, but those were expansions. Shivering Isles was a full fledged campaign. DLC was the horse armor or the thiving lair - which were ridiculous tbh. That's why they don't do expansions anymore. - They make far greater profits on DLC. Shivering Isles added several hours of gameplay, yet was only the price of 4 or 5 horse armors.

 

I still prefer the Valve TF2 way of doing it. Release a game that works fully, then release FREE DLC over time. If I was a software house, that would be the way I would run it. Increases longevity of game and loyalty of customers. Seems everyone is too concerned with money these days...

 

mehrunes dagon was a DLC, and a decent one at that - tbh, the wizard tower and theives lair were good addons which gave you something. unlike the damn horse armour.

and i just thought of another analogy with windows - imagine if MS charged for win7 SP1 - but it turns out that SP1 only unlocked stuff already on the disc. there would be rioting in the streets (maybe not but still, ppl would be pissed).

 

A lot of people seem to see DLC in a negative light, using arguments that 'they paid the game so they are entitled to it'.
I don't think stunts like this do much to wash away that impression.
If DLC is handled well, it can be quite effective allowing those who enjoyed the game to play on a little more (i.e Point Lookout for Fallout 3) but it isn't required to fully enjoy the experience. When it makes the game feel half-finished without it, or lacking features it should have had from the start though, that's when it becomes a cynical marketing ploy. Including things that shipped on the original disc? Well, no wonder people get bitter about DLC.

 

I don't get the anger people.

If you bought BioShock 2 you got BioShock 2. Now you can buy extra shiny bits to add to BioShock 2. Why does it matter that the extra content is already on the disc rather than stored on a server somewhere? It's still extra content to the original game.

You still have what you originally thought was worth buying, where exactly is the problem?

 

I'm sure the pirates are delighted that 90% of the workhas been done for them.

 

The way I see it, the anger is because the "extra shiny bits" are really the sort of stuff that would have been included in the standard game a few years ago. In this particular case (and I don't know whether this is true or not) it would seem that the impression was given in pre-release videos that these additional elements were part of the standard game. & then there is the more technical/pedantic point that this isn't really "downloadable" content, and shouldn't be marketed as such.

There's been a few attempts at analogies above, so here's mine:- I see this as akin to what's happened with the budget airlines. You used to always get a free meal with the flight but they decided that should be an optional extra and started charging for it. They also starting charging for a myriad of other things like checking in >1 bag (and now charging for any hold luggage at all??), giving the option of paying to board before other people, etc... The big difference being that the tickets were supposed to be cheaper in the first place.

Here though, they're still charging the same for the games, and then charging for things that people feel are not actually additional content and should have been included from the get-go. That impression is of course strengthened massively when people find out that the content was already written many months before the game was released and was even included on the CD.

For what it's worth, I have no objection to DLC. whilst the horse armour was obviously laughable, the rest of the Oblivion/Fallout 3 seemed reasonable. You could argue about it's value, but then the DLC got reviewed and you could choose whether to buy or not. Crucially for me, both Oblivion and Fallout 3 had loads of content in the basic game, making the DLC actually feel like additional content. I applaud Valve's approach to DLC, and long may it continue. It really would make me more inclined to buy a Valve game, though equally I understand why others charge if they have done additional work after a game was released.

However, from BT's original write up of this Bioshock DLC:

I would feel very, very annoyed if I had to buy DLC in order to maintain competitiveness in multi-player. None of this sounds like additional content really, just tweaks and rule changes. Why should you have to pay for that??

 

The stuff is there buy you can't have it unless you pay. Like the Hotel Minibar.

 

I have enjoyed Bioshock 2. a lot. Just do not see the point of offering any DLC to online game play. Considring the few that are online. It would have been much better to improve the overall game play by offering new areas to explore and even more enemies to fight. I have started the game and completed it a second time, but Bioshock 2 just did feel the same second time round with nothing. I welcome any DLC for offline game play.

 

I've played it and no matter if it got a good review or not, for me it was well worth it (even playing with keyboard and mouse!) because I just loved the 1st game and the 2nd game as well, it's nowhere near as bad as people make out, in fact far as i'm concerned it's not bad period! But that's a whole other topic (one that's probably already been made) cya later.

 

Seriously what is the problem?
You have a license to play the game the DLC is a second license to unlock additional content.
that is NO different to a sky/virgin/freeview settop box, which all contain additional functionality which requires additional licenses to function. so what if the content came on a disc you only have a license to use part of the content. that is a VERY common practice in the software industry, admitadly not so common in the home user market, but server stuff is very common, just look at oracle, or windows 7 version upgrades

As far as i can tell all the bitching is over the fact its a tiny download to unlock additional features on a disk, that makes as much sense as crying about the fact you didnt have to redownload a bit of software a second time once you bought the license for the full version (think avg, avast, winrar etc.)

As for DLC not being developed after the fact so what, most multiplayer mods will be created during the main build phase, maybe not finished in time for launch but they are almost certainly not conceived of after the game has been released. So sersiously wtf is the problem???

Or it just some wingeing little bitches thinking that they OWN the game not just license the right to play what the publisher sees fit to cover in the EULA, if you dont like it grow up, dont buy it and read the smallprint

 

the analogies you gave - all those companies were up-front about the fact that there were additional features available for an additional fee.

people are pissed because its almost like a stealth fee - you cant argue that the DLC is developed before the game is released, as this DLC had already gone gold with the main game

 

this takes the piss, if it's on the disk you bought, you shouldn't have to pay extra to use it.

 

The problem as I see it is that it's already on the disc, which makes it seem more like they said 'how about we just gimp the multiplayer mode out of the box, and ask for money to unlock features that are already on the disc?"
If the DLC had been available for free in this case, I doubt very much that anyone would be complaining.
Like i said earlier, I have no problem with paying for DLC get additional content when it just adds to the games experience, but not when it just unlocks features that should have been included in the first place.
This seems more like they chopped part of the multiplayer component off because they wanted to get more money for it. That's greed.