*** There's two things I'd like to point out before I get into things. The first, is that I didn't include this in an existing DLC thread because I feel that it's worthy of its own discussion. Secondly, keep your complaints about Xbox exclusivity out of this thread. I'm a PC user, but complaining about not getting Dead Money isn't relevant to what I'm discussing. Don't like it? Then bugger off. ***

Okay, so last night I bought the Undead Nightmare DLC for Red Dead Redemption. At $15 AUD, I was expecting something about as long as one of the Fallout 3 DLC. Boy, was I wrong! The thing's practically an expansion pack. I've been playing (with breaks) for about 6 hours now, and I've barely scratched the surface. Every major settlement is under attack by zombies, and there's one or two quests available in each of these towns -voiced by the original voice actors- to boot, once you've established a safe haven in these areas. There's new mounts, new creatures, new weapons, new outfits, Rockstar's twisted sense of humour, sasquatches and more!

Sure, it's the Mothership Zeta of Red Dead DLC (utterly ridiculous), but it's an absolute blast, and some serious value for money.

On the other end of the spectrum, there's Bioware's DLC for Dragon Age. Coming in at roughly $5 AUD, they're about as long as a Fallout 3 DLC (which cost around $15 AUD!), and fairly entertaining, if not quite up to the standard of the main game.

Now, Bethesda appears to have based their Fallout 3 DLC pricing/content model on Mehrune's Razor, a DLC for Oblivion which cost roughly the same, and lasted about as long. However, in the modern DLC market, it appears that it's not really very competitive (and the Oblivion DLC was all admittedly experimental in the price/content department).
There's DLC out there which cost the same, but are much longer (such as Undead Nightmare), and there's DLC out there which are roughly equal to Fallout 3's in terms of length and quality (such as Dragon Age's), but cost a third of the price.

Can anybody else think of other recent games with DLC that gives Fallout's a run for its money (eithe price-wise or content-wise)?

And most importantly, how should Dead Money measure up in the modern DLC market?

DLC=short, 3-10 hour experience.

Expansion=long, 25+ hour experience.

I'd rather have an old style expansion pack, with a new largish area and new questline, rather than several smaller bits of content (with small areas and small questlines) sold individually. I miss the days of getting a proper expansion, which you could be fairly certain would add loads to your game, and therefore were happy to shell out more cash to buy.

I felt ripped off by the Dragon Age DLCs because they were short and uninteresting. I didn't feel ripped off by the FO3 DLCs, and I spent dozens of hours skulking around Point Lookout.

I enjoyed the FO3 DLC for the exploration opportunities they provided. I'm not so sure I would enjoy a story DLC as much, and it appears that the FO:NV DLC are likely to be story ones. We shall have to see.

I felt that the Fallout 3 DLC were nothing more then original content which should've been included with the game, but ultimately was left out to be released as DLC so that Bethesda could gain a few bucks from its customers. I would rather see a more elaborate expansion to the Fallout games similar to what Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles provided for Oblivion . . .

I wish things would go back to one or two good expansions instead of a bunch of DLC. They can't really cram anything worthwhile in terms of story or content into something a few hours long.

The only DLC I ever buy are ones that add to the experience of games that I play through multiple times.

Bought them all for Fallout 3, bought the proper ones (not the vanity crap or weapon packs) for Mass Effect 2 .. didn't buy any for Dragon Age or Mass Effect 1.

I actually prefer (good) DLC to expansions; they come out sooner and are easy to download/install.

Borderlands has the best DLC of any game I own.

A DLC costs around what going to the pictures would cost, so as long as it gives 1.3 hours or more of gameplay then it's worth it.

Of course, Borderlands is an example of wildly different amounts / quality of content for the same price.

The arena one is...... cut-n-paste, repetitive, and gets old fast (at least for someone who doesn't have a bunch of rowdy buddies to play multiplayer with). Yeah, it gives you more storage space. But the actual arena part - gee, I got to fight three hours of similar fights to unlock a skill point and.... the ability to fight ten hours of similar fights. Oooh. Aaah.

The zombie one was great. Good story, good zones, etc. Big size. Plenty to do. Definitely worth it.

And the armory was even bigger and better.

(Haven't gotten the claptrap one)

So, wildly different size & interest, but same price.

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re: Shivering Isles - remember, that was an expansion. Sold on disc, more than $10, etc. (Was it more than $20? I don't remember...)

Totally agree with Grand Cookie above - the Borderlands DLC is superb. 4 have been released & 1, 3 & 4 are really full-on expansions with many side quests, new monsters and new kit & vehicles in 3. Many, many hours of playing. If I remember correctly, the first 3 only cost 400 msp & the last one was 800, so outstanding value too.

The worst value for money DLC i've bought has to be for Far Cry 2. For 800 msp it gives 3 guns & 2 vehicles - no plot expansion, no side missions (if anything it makes the game shorter because you get good weapons early on!).

As of a few days ago (last time I played Dragon Age: Origins) all the DLC were 240 MSP except the Awakening expansion(?) and a few bundles for ~360 MSP. Which is equal to $3 - $4, not bad at all no matter how little content there is, I would pay $3 for any new content in almost any game. As far as Dead Money, I in no way speak for the majority, but I feel the best case scenario would be a Bloodmoon sized expansion. Probably not going to be nearly as big as Bloodmoon, nor as content filled, but that's what I think. Even one large city, like Tribunal did, would be nice, but there's so much space along the western edge of the map that a few significant settlements could be put there and since there's a mountain ridge running almost the length of the map North/South it could feel isolated if you pretend...

A full expansion would be the best possible option, but it won't be done. Shivering Isles had about the same amount of content as all of Fallout 3's DLCs in a more cohesive, enjoyable package for 20 dollars less. It's the 20 dollars less part that's the problem. No way could you justify a 50 dollar expansion pack. What a ripoff! But 5 10 dollar DLCs spread over 2 years? What a deal!

If people would recognize that things like Operation Anchorage and Mothership Zeta are NOT worth 10 dollars, then maybe this wouldn't be the case. Because they don't, we'll probably never see a full expansion for a Bethesda game again.

That depends on what kind of expansion pack has been released. For example, Warcraft 3's expansion The Frozen Throne costed around as much as the 'full' game did back then.

I don't mind spending 50 bucks on an expansion, as long as I get good value for my money. Money which I can only spend once, so its up to Bethesda on how I spend that money . . .

I would hope that each bit of DLC is similar to Point Lookout in size and style (explorable new wasteland areas), if not a bit bigger. I thought that Point Lookout was well worth the money.

Look at Star Wars Force Unleashed content, I bought all of them and completed them all within the same day and I can assure you I am by no means a "hardcoe" gamer, I was thoroughly disappointed by the content.

FO DLC is quite unique in nature, because in principle FO DLC does not necessitate a stream-lined objective approach. You can wander amicably, after they are all dead, in the Broken Steel content and salvage for hours. Contrastingly, MZ did have a more MQ focus on it but they still left me with lots of content and fun - wandering in space over the ship was a great enjoyment.

Reno

DLC are good to add new quest and small areas, to keep ppl interested on a game for longer, but is nice to get a big DLC, that something that Fallout 3 try to do.
In point lookout you have a new history and you can spend alot fo time exploring (that was like a small expantion or big DLC) Mothership zeta and the pitt where DLC just add 1 small quest and almos nothing to explore, but they add more lore to the game bc they let you see other areas of USA or travel to a Alien ship. And the broken stell was good if you dont care that was quick in the end and to tell you the true look like they release it quick since ppl was complaining about a no open end.

My wish is to see good DLC like Point lookout with good lore and quest, that is my hope for the north passege that they release a big DLC and lets us explore Fo1 and 2 places that will be cool and if they charge 50 dollar for something like that i will paid. I dont care about paing 15 dollar since isnt evry week or evry month and they add stuff with new history and fun places i just hope they can add something that dont end in 3hs like The pitt or Mothership zeta.

Any Borderlands DLC. They added more storyline and more weapons. They are $20 usd each.

Also any sims expansion, they add a ton of stuff even in their stuff packs. For sims the expansions are about $40 usd but add a lot of content like new jobs and clothes and storylines. The stuff packs are $20 usd and I've never bought them but I know they add a crap ton of clothes and deco items.