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2. Complete Content
I genuinely like the idea of DLC. Having more content than was originally intended for a game that I truly love sounds like a wonderful thing. DLC can be done right, as shown by that ridiculously cool Snoop Dogg voice pack that lets the rapper announce multiplayer matches in Call of Duty: Ghosts. But of course, this practice is frequently abused with the advent of on-disc DLC. Capcom is one of the biggest offenders of this, as it often locked content such as characters and entire stages on its discs and then sold downloadable keys to players later to unlock them.
Even if this kind of content is unfinished, it still feels like a disingenuous practice for many gamers because it’s clear that the DLC was developed alongside the main content of the game. As a result, many people feel like they’re being ripped off after paying 60 dollars for their shiny new product. Honestly, I can’t blame them, especially when games like Dead Rising 2: Off the Record blatantly try to sell normal bonuses like cheat codes for money.
Surprisingly, it’s even acceptable to ship current gen games with missing promised features, as shown by the lack of multiplayer in Ryse during the Xbox One launch. At least with my NES, I know that I have the complete package in every cartridge I own!
You’re rebooting the issue numbering? O_O Does that mean those pages that preview the content of the issue will return? And the unique editorials?
Hand-holding in games has certainly gotten out of control, but even at their worst, Navi and her successors do have one redeeming quality.
My free time comes in completely unpredictable chunks. I might fire up a backlogged epic I’m halfway through and then … crap, what was I doing again? Looking for a cave south of some town? Or maybe it was east? Was I collecting something? Backtracking with a newfangled ability? As much as I hate little miss “Hey! Listen!”, sometimes I do need to have my memory jogged.
Now, all the unskippable spell-everything-out-for-you crap, yeah, that has to die in a fire. But a chirp every now and then from which you can optionally be reminded “hey, weren’t you going to go see what became of so-and-so?”, that can actually be useful.
I totally agree. I would just like it to be a lot less in your face. Like for example, Star Fox Adventures lets you know what to do and where to go if you choose to communicate with Slippy and Peppy. I really like that. God knows how annoying a constantly interjecting Slippy would be :p
Good piece, Anthony. For me, the Plug and Play aspect is the thing I miss most. I can appreciate all the things that today’s system can do that the old ones couldn’t, but man, it was nice to just hit power and start playing. I turn my consoles on to play games almost exclusively; the rest is just noise.
I hear that. That’s the main reason I’m excited for the Summer Wii U firmware update that will allow fast game access.
I remember telling my wife, “Remember when you could just pop in a game and play it?” Now we have to sit through ten minutes of installation with every disc. Luckily, the 3DS seems to be following this your code, and it’s success is proof.