Nick Cowen explores the games that have benefited from DLC - whether that’s an expansion of story or new game mechanics, DLC offers developers the chance to make their games bigger and better without building a whole new sequel

Borderlands 2 - Tina Tina’s Assault On Dragon’s Keep

LIKE Fallout 3, Borderlands 2 had quite a lot of high quality DLC, but Tina Tina’s Assault On Dragon’s Keep was arguably the best of the lot. Returning the original Vault Hunters to the game, Assault On Dragon’s Keep was meta-as-hell; the whole DLC takes the form of a Dungeons & Dragons session played out by the Hunters with Tina Tina DM-ing.

The core experience, of course - shoot and loot - remained present and correct, but the DLC offered a wonderfully nerdy sword and sorcery atmosphere to the proceedings. Think Borderlands 2 set in the world of Game Of Thrones and you’re starting to get the idea.

It set the gold standard not only at the time for DLC, but also for Rockstar’s efforts going forward

Grand Theft Auto IV - The Lost & Damned

REALLY we could pick any DLC that Rockstar has pumped out for its open world games over the last decade. The original Red Dead Redemption received a rather fun zombie-themed story. GTA V seems to have a DLC drop every other month that builds on the monolithic experience in the city of Los Santos. And Red Dead Redemption 2 follows this trend with fantastic drops into the online mode. But we’re going to go with The Lost & Damned, the first story pack for GTA IV, because it set the trend for more magic to come.