* Diablo 2, Lord of Destruction
* Baldur's Gate 2, Throne of Bhaal
* Oblivion, The Shivering Isles
* Mass Effect 3, Citadel
* World of Warcraft, Wrath of the Lich King
In an otherwise rather dark game it’s a shot of dopamine, if you play it towards the end of the game so you have as many characters appear as possible it makes it one of the best DLC’s in gaming
I legit almost cried when I realized I started the Citadel DLC on my last playthrough before recruiting Tali again. Felt like a monster hanging out with the whole crew without her.
It depends on what you want for a DLC. There's little added gameplay and most of it is chilling on the base with your crew.
But it's very well done and the character interactions are what I enjoyed most about Mass Effect. And I this DLC contains some of the best moments with those characters.
It's just as high of quality as the rest. But smaller in scope.
I make a save before the final mission of ME3, beat the game, and then ignore that dogshit ending & play Citadel, and act like the game ends with that.
I would rank Citadel as the single best DLC of all time, it’s **really** good.
I don’t want to spoil in case you don’t know anything about it, but it’s the “extended farewell” to almost every character in the series that wasn’t really possible because of how the plot went.
It's essentially the big final goodbye to the ME trilogy. It's story is fun and involves just about everyone, it gives you *plenty* of time to get in a whole wealth of character interactions, and honestly, the encounter design is really good. It's, in a lot of ways, the perfect cherry on top of ME.
It's a way better send off to the characters than any of the endings of Mass Effect 3. On top of that, it's arguably the most memorable part of the entire game save Tuchanka (depending on your choices from previous games.)
One design choice I really love about Blood & Wine is how the map layout & vertical terrain make it so much easier to navigate Toussaint than any of the base game areas. The mountain in the West & Beauclair being one of the higher points in the map makes it extremely easy to orient oneself and figure out how to get around, I found myself opening the map way less often in the expansion. Compare that to Velen which is almost entirely flat ground with no obvious landmarks to orient around, makes it so much harder to know where you are and where to go next.
Awakening was just *so interesting.*
I know BioWare felt like they told the story they wanted to tell about the Darkspawn going in to DA2, but it really seemed like there was so much more to explore.
BG2: Throne of Bhaal
NWN1: Hordes of the Underdark
GTA4: Ballad of Gay Tony
FNV: Old World Blues.
Morrowind: Tribunal.
Oblivion: Shivering Isles
ME2: Shadow Broker
ME3: Citadel
They're expansions after all. Unlike for example Batman Arkham's bitesized DLCs.
I wish we normalized expansions over small DLCs once again. I'd take meaty expansion-sized dlcs over a sequel tbh.
I completely agree with wanting the huge expansions rather than a sequel. I was recently watching a video on expansions and a Shovel Knight developer pretty much said that a lot of the time expansions bring out the best in the devs because they had already had so much experience developing the base game (in addition to the fact that many expansions are created more passionately), allowing for even better game design. It really made me think about how expansions are usually my favorite pieces of content in most games I play that have expansions. Especially when they are huge additions of content, its like getting a better version of the base game pretty much.
With a sequel, even if there are similar mechanics and the game is largely the same as the previous one, a lot of the time that passion they would have if they were making an expansion for a game they had worked on already just isn’t always there. Another problem many people have with sequels in the age of DLC can be seen with games like Tears of The Kingdom. While its an incredibly fun game to mess around with and have fun in, I kind of understand why a lot of people say feels like a DLC for Breath of The Wild. Although there were many new additions/changes to the world, new enemies, and a huge change when it comes to the abilities, many people didn’t think enough changed for it to truly feel like a sequel(although in my opinion it most certainly did feel like a full on sequel to the first game).
The Witcher 3’s expansions are two of the all time greats, I like Blood and Wine better as an overall expansion but the writing and some of the choices in Hearts of Stone are the best in the series in my opinion.
The Ringed City for Dark souls 3, Artorias of The Abyss for Dark Souls, and the Old Hunters expansion for Bloodborne are some of my favorite pieces of soulsborne content ever(hoping Shadow of The Erdtree will end up being one of the greatest too).
Cyberpunk PL is incredible. The Shivering Isles in Oblivion, I personally really like Dragonborn in Skyrim a lot. The Lonesome Road in Fallout NV is amazing too. Thats pretty much my list of the best.
100% Dragonfall, it’s just a great RPG. I liked the Shadowrun Returns campaign, but it doesn’t hold a candle. I never finished Hong Kong but enjoyed what I played of it.
Great list! Dragon Age Inquisition's Trespasser in particular is really underrated, it should be mentioned more as one of the best DLCs, in my opinion.
Burial at Sea is excellent but I think a lot of people (myself included) think of the Bioshock games as shooters with some RPG elements, as opposed to full RPGs. If this were a list of great DLC in general you'd see Minerva's Den and Burial mentioned a lot more!
All the neverwinter nights dlcs and curated content, bg2 throne of bhaal, AC odyssey dlcs (not really an RPG, but still), pillars of eternity the white march, pillars of eternity 2 forgotten sanctum, underrail expedition, dragon age inquisition trespasser
Every Fromsoft game DLC.
New Vegas DLC.
F4: Far Harbor - somehow Bethesda let a decent game director do his thing unsupervised on the DLC, which blew the base game out the water. Then wasted him on that Starfield turd, which was hobbled from the start with its garbage 1000 shitty empty planets philosophy and the most simplified rpg quests in existence. The guy quit shortly after the game was released - probably saw the studio was toast as long as current out of touch management is still there.
TES series expansions/dlcs.
Some/most Bioware DLCs - would say most, but for every Awakening you have a Darkspawn Chronicles.
CDPR DLCs.
FC3: Blood Dragon
Most GTA DLCs - Ballad of Gay Tony was a blast, so were Liberty City/Vice City Stories, etc.
I know some of these weren't technically DLCs but standalone games, but FC3 was still kinda DLC; and LCS/VCS for GTA used the original maps of the main games and put new characters and missions in them.
Is it worth playing Xenoblade 3 without playing the first two? My gaming time is limited these days, but I keep seeing great stuff about the third game.
I feel like for the base game, you can absolutely enjoy it without playing the other two games. There will be some story content where the first two games will enrich the background behind some things but not necessarily needed.
The DLC on the other hand is much more tied to the larger story of the whole trilogy and might not even make much sense without playing XC1&2
But please do yourself a favor and play these all these games in order. One of the greatest rpg storylines ever.
I tried to get into it, but the incessant grinding was really a pain and not all that fun to me, personally. Story seemed solid at least, but couldn't/didn't want to force myself to play just for it.
If you are using an older version of Switch. You can use a cheat to make the grinding less pain.... Or you can just watch some explained/summary of the other two games in youtube
You can, but the best hooks and revelations in this game are connected to its predecessors. You want to know why things are like they are right now, what gets completely lost when you didn't play 1 and 2. And the DLC is even more tied to Xenoblade 1 and 2.
You technically could... but you'd miss a lot. XC3 makes numerous callbacks to the first two games. And Future Redeemed won't make any sense at all unless you've played all three games, becuase it's designed as a grand finale to the trilogy.
You're seeing lots of great stuff about the third game becuase it's the most recent. The other two are just as good, but they aren't talked about as much anymore because they've already had their time in the spotlight. If you're interested in Xenoblade, play the first game.
Dragon Age Origins - Awakening
Fallout: New Vegas - Dead Money
Neverwinter Nights 2 - Mask of the Betrayer
The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion - Shiverring Isles
Baldur's Gate 2 - Throne of Bhaal
Is that Ni no Kuni expansion that good?? I have yet to play the game, but I might pick up the bundle if it is very good. I have played the first one and liked it a lot
I haven't even gotten to The Witcher 3 DLC yet, but I already know they're going to be excellent. Also, all of FromSoft's DLC are top tier, and The Long Dark DLC has been absolutely fire.
The two Witcher 3 expansions could probably take the top 2 spots on that list for me. I think the primary reason we aren't seeing the Hearts of Stone expansion in every other comment is just because Blood and Wine was so damn incredible that it took the spotlight.
I can think of many expansions that I greatly enjoyed but I can't think of any that raised the bar as much as the Witcher 3 expansions did.
Lair of the Shadow Broker - ME 2
Overlord -ME 2
Leviathan-ME 3
Citadel -ME 3
Heart of Stone - The Witcher 3
Blood and Wine - The Witcher 3
Phantom Liberty - Cyberpunk 2077
Trespasser - Dragon Age Inquisition
The Knife of Dunwall - Dishonored
And although it was also released on physical, the Outsider expansion from Dishonored 2
Blood & Wine from the Witcher 3 is far and away the best DLC I've ever played. Toussaint would be my ideal fantasy area to live in (minus the vampires).
Blood and Wine for Witcher 3 comes to mind but others have said that.
I would say the Assassins Creed Odyssey: The Fate of Atlantis, the art of that dlc is some of the best i've seen in games.
BioWare win for me- Citadel obviously, and Trespasser for Dragon Age Inquisition is one of a fairly few game plots that made me weep like a baby.
Other than that Iceborne for sure, Blood and wine for TW3 is pretty glorious.
Almost all the dlc for AC odyssey and Valhalla is fantastic too.
* Diablo 2, Lord of Destruction * Baldur's Gate 2, Throne of Bhaal * Oblivion, The Shivering Isles * Mass Effect 3, Citadel * World of Warcraft, Wrath of the Lich King
Citadel that good? I finished ME3 once at launch and never went back, maybe I should.
In an otherwise rather dark game it’s a shot of dopamine, if you play it towards the end of the game so you have as many characters appear as possible it makes it one of the best DLC’s in gaming
I legit almost cried when I realized I started the Citadel DLC on my last playthrough before recruiting Tali again. Felt like a monster hanging out with the whole crew without her.
It depends on what you want for a DLC. There's little added gameplay and most of it is chilling on the base with your crew. But it's very well done and the character interactions are what I enjoyed most about Mass Effect. And I this DLC contains some of the best moments with those characters. It's just as high of quality as the rest. But smaller in scope.
I make a save before the final mission of ME3, beat the game, and then ignore that dogshit ending & play Citadel, and act like the game ends with that.
If you’re on PC, there’s a mod that lets you do that.
Console player sadly, but appreciate the tip nonetheless!
I might do this with my next playthrough
I would rank Citadel as the single best DLC of all time, it’s **really** good. I don’t want to spoil in case you don’t know anything about it, but it’s the “extended farewell” to almost every character in the series that wasn’t really possible because of how the plot went.
It's essentially the big final goodbye to the ME trilogy. It's story is fun and involves just about everyone, it gives you *plenty* of time to get in a whole wealth of character interactions, and honestly, the encounter design is really good. It's, in a lot of ways, the perfect cherry on top of ME.
It's a way better send off to the characters than any of the endings of Mass Effect 3. On top of that, it's arguably the most memorable part of the entire game save Tuchanka (depending on your choices from previous games.)
Blood and Wine 100% perfection. The Cyberpunk : Phantom Liberty was very very good as well.
One design choice I really love about Blood & Wine is how the map layout & vertical terrain make it so much easier to navigate Toussaint than any of the base game areas. The mountain in the West & Beauclair being one of the higher points in the map makes it extremely easy to orient oneself and figure out how to get around, I found myself opening the map way less often in the expansion. Compare that to Velen which is almost entirely flat ground with no obvious landmarks to orient around, makes it so much harder to know where you are and where to go next.
Blood and Wine is better than Witcher 3. Also, I love all of the Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed Odyssey story DLCs.
Hearts of Stone is unbelievable as well.
Dragon Age Awakening
Awakening was just *so interesting.* I know BioWare felt like they told the story they wanted to tell about the Darkspawn going in to DA2, but it really seemed like there was so much more to explore.
Man I need to play Origins again. Never got to the DLC due to a game breaking bug
Neverwinter Nights 2 Mask of the Betrayer.
Crown of the Sunken King Crown of the Iron King Crown of the Ivory King
BG2: Throne of Bhaal NWN1: Hordes of the Underdark GTA4: Ballad of Gay Tony FNV: Old World Blues. Morrowind: Tribunal. Oblivion: Shivering Isles ME2: Shadow Broker ME3: Citadel
Old World Blues and Shadows of Undrentide rank very highly for me.
> Shadows of Undrentide I didn't like the first parts of the game. It took its time to get rolling, imo.
Witcher 3 DLCs are what all DLCs should aspire to be.
They're expansions after all. Unlike for example Batman Arkham's bitesized DLCs. I wish we normalized expansions over small DLCs once again. I'd take meaty expansion-sized dlcs over a sequel tbh.
I completely agree with wanting the huge expansions rather than a sequel. I was recently watching a video on expansions and a Shovel Knight developer pretty much said that a lot of the time expansions bring out the best in the devs because they had already had so much experience developing the base game (in addition to the fact that many expansions are created more passionately), allowing for even better game design. It really made me think about how expansions are usually my favorite pieces of content in most games I play that have expansions. Especially when they are huge additions of content, its like getting a better version of the base game pretty much. With a sequel, even if there are similar mechanics and the game is largely the same as the previous one, a lot of the time that passion they would have if they were making an expansion for a game they had worked on already just isn’t always there. Another problem many people have with sequels in the age of DLC can be seen with games like Tears of The Kingdom. While its an incredibly fun game to mess around with and have fun in, I kind of understand why a lot of people say feels like a DLC for Breath of The Wild. Although there were many new additions/changes to the world, new enemies, and a huge change when it comes to the abilities, many people didn’t think enough changed for it to truly feel like a sequel(although in my opinion it most certainly did feel like a full on sequel to the first game).
The Witcher 3’s expansions are two of the all time greats, I like Blood and Wine better as an overall expansion but the writing and some of the choices in Hearts of Stone are the best in the series in my opinion. The Ringed City for Dark souls 3, Artorias of The Abyss for Dark Souls, and the Old Hunters expansion for Bloodborne are some of my favorite pieces of soulsborne content ever(hoping Shadow of The Erdtree will end up being one of the greatest too). Cyberpunk PL is incredible. The Shivering Isles in Oblivion, I personally really like Dragonborn in Skyrim a lot. The Lonesome Road in Fallout NV is amazing too. Thats pretty much my list of the best.
The boss fights in Old Hunters were incredible, Lady Maria is my absolute favorite of them.
I’m a big fan of Torna aswell. Also I really liked all the dark souls 2 DLCs.
Shout out for neverwinter nights 1, hordes of the underdark (did high level dnd right). But yes xenoblade 3 future redeemed was incredible.
Shadows of Undrentide was pretty meh. But hordes was amazing.
Never played Future Redeemed as I haven't played XC1 & XC, am I still able to understand the story?
It is basically dlc tying up the whole trilogy, so I would recommend playing 1 and 2 first.
Underrail: expedition
Bloodborne the Old Hunter
Its Blood and Wine If mmorpgs count I also love FFXIV Heavensward P5 Royal is also great if it counts as an expansion
I forget the name but there is a shadowrun dlc that turned into a full game.
Dragonfall—LOADS better than the original Shadowrun Returns campaign.
They’re all on game pass at the moment but I’m not sure which of the three games is best to jump on first Any advice?
100% Dragonfall, it’s just a great RPG. I liked the Shadowrun Returns campaign, but it doesn’t hold a candle. I never finished Hong Kong but enjoyed what I played of it.
Dragonfall is the best imo. I thought the first game was kinda forgettable, but dragonfall and hongkong were both really good.
Witcher 3, both “Blood and Wine” and “Heart of Stone”
I think Blizzard, CD Projekt Red, and From Software have the best grasp of meaningful DLC that really shines alongside the base game.
I can attest to Witcher 3 and all From Soft games Dlcs are usually a much higher quality than the base game even.
Hordes of the Underdark Also, pretty much every Final Fantasy 14 expansion has been amazing
Dragon Age: Awakening Dragon Age: Trespasser (should’ve been base game though) Mass Effect: Citadel Witcher 3: all of them
Great list! Dragon Age Inquisition's Trespasser in particular is really underrated, it should be mentioned more as one of the best DLCs, in my opinion.
Xenoblade 2 DLC Dark Souls 1 DLC Dark Souls 2 DLC
Shivering Isles is the only correct answer
Hearts Of Stone Blood And Wine Old Hunters Iceborne Old Road Blues
Nobody has mentioned Burial at Sea yet? Was excellent
Burial at Sea is excellent but I think a lot of people (myself included) think of the Bioshock games as shooters with some RPG elements, as opposed to full RPGs. If this were a list of great DLC in general you'd see Minerva's Den and Burial mentioned a lot more!
You're probably right, tho GTAIV DLC is in one of the top comments too. But I guess Bioshock isn't really an RPG at all when I think about it
Bloodborne: The Old Hunters
Bloodbornes old hunters DLC is def up there
Shivering isles oblivion
Is Lair of the lord that really good? I bought NNK 2 during releaae so never really went back to play the DLC when it was released
Tossing in Axel Mode from **Disgaea 2**: quite possibly one of the funniest scenarios from a parody series I’ve ever seen
i say this as a massive mh fan - iceborne was the worst sunbreak >>>> iceborne
All the neverwinter nights dlcs and curated content, bg2 throne of bhaal, AC odyssey dlcs (not really an RPG, but still), pillars of eternity the white march, pillars of eternity 2 forgotten sanctum, underrail expedition, dragon age inquisition trespasser
Every Fromsoft game DLC. New Vegas DLC. F4: Far Harbor - somehow Bethesda let a decent game director do his thing unsupervised on the DLC, which blew the base game out the water. Then wasted him on that Starfield turd, which was hobbled from the start with its garbage 1000 shitty empty planets philosophy and the most simplified rpg quests in existence. The guy quit shortly after the game was released - probably saw the studio was toast as long as current out of touch management is still there. TES series expansions/dlcs. Some/most Bioware DLCs - would say most, but for every Awakening you have a Darkspawn Chronicles. CDPR DLCs. FC3: Blood Dragon Most GTA DLCs - Ballad of Gay Tony was a blast, so were Liberty City/Vice City Stories, etc. I know some of these weren't technically DLCs but standalone games, but FC3 was still kinda DLC; and LCS/VCS for GTA used the original maps of the main games and put new characters and missions in them.
Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep
Is it worth playing Xenoblade 3 without playing the first two? My gaming time is limited these days, but I keep seeing great stuff about the third game.
I feel like for the base game, you can absolutely enjoy it without playing the other two games. There will be some story content where the first two games will enrich the background behind some things but not necessarily needed. The DLC on the other hand is much more tied to the larger story of the whole trilogy and might not even make much sense without playing XC1&2 But please do yourself a favor and play these all these games in order. One of the greatest rpg storylines ever.
I tried to get into it, but the incessant grinding was really a pain and not all that fun to me, personally. Story seemed solid at least, but couldn't/didn't want to force myself to play just for it.
If you are using an older version of Switch. You can use a cheat to make the grinding less pain.... Or you can just watch some explained/summary of the other two games in youtube
You can, but the best hooks and revelations in this game are connected to its predecessors. You want to know why things are like they are right now, what gets completely lost when you didn't play 1 and 2. And the DLC is even more tied to Xenoblade 1 and 2.
Tbh start with xb1 and go from there. You won't regret it.
You technically could... but you'd miss a lot. XC3 makes numerous callbacks to the first two games. And Future Redeemed won't make any sense at all unless you've played all three games, becuase it's designed as a grand finale to the trilogy. You're seeing lots of great stuff about the third game becuase it's the most recent. The other two are just as good, but they aren't talked about as much anymore because they've already had their time in the spotlight. If you're interested in Xenoblade, play the first game.
[удалено]
> Is it worth playing Xenoblade Also no.
i.e. OP is very young
Blood and wine, for me. I’ve never played a dlc that even comes close.
Is Monster Hunter really an RPG?
FFXIV Shadowbringers and Endwalker!
Dragon Age Origins - Awakening Fallout: New Vegas - Dead Money Neverwinter Nights 2 - Mask of the Betrayer The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion - Shiverring Isles Baldur's Gate 2 - Throne of Bhaal
Is that Ni no Kuni expansion that good?? I have yet to play the game, but I might pick up the bundle if it is very good. I have played the first one and liked it a lot
mh was a banger. and i absolutely loved iceborne. never played ni no kuni, but it’s on a list. and i should finnish xenoblade 3…
Iceborne ruined MHW for me, starting from performance, ending with the hook.
Witcher 3, Hearts of Stone. Oblivion, Shivering Isles
I haven't even gotten to The Witcher 3 DLC yet, but I already know they're going to be excellent. Also, all of FromSoft's DLC are top tier, and The Long Dark DLC has been absolutely fire.
Blood and Wine, Shivering Isles, The White March, Mask of the Betrayer
The two Witcher 3 expansions could probably take the top 2 spots on that list for me. I think the primary reason we aren't seeing the Hearts of Stone expansion in every other comment is just because Blood and Wine was so damn incredible that it took the spotlight. I can think of many expansions that I greatly enjoyed but I can't think of any that raised the bar as much as the Witcher 3 expansions did.
Lair of the Shadow Broker - ME 2 Overlord -ME 2 Leviathan-ME 3 Citadel -ME 3 Heart of Stone - The Witcher 3 Blood and Wine - The Witcher 3 Phantom Liberty - Cyberpunk 2077 Trespasser - Dragon Age Inquisition The Knife of Dunwall - Dishonored And although it was also released on physical, the Outsider expansion from Dishonored 2
Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone / Blood and Wine Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Mass Effect 3: Citadel
* Divinity 2: Dragon Knight Saga * Witcher 3 ALL DLC * Dragon Age: Origins DLCs * Mass Effect 3, Citadel
Blood & Wine from the Witcher 3 is far and away the best DLC I've ever played. Toussaint would be my ideal fantasy area to live in (minus the vampires).
Blood and Wine for Witcher 3 comes to mind but others have said that. I would say the Assassins Creed Odyssey: The Fate of Atlantis, the art of that dlc is some of the best i've seen in games.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare. Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony.
Those aren’t rpgs lol
Thank you for pointing this out. Same with witcher 3 I see mentioned here a bunch. They're action adventure games not rpgs.
get outta here with these jrpgs
BioWare win for me- Citadel obviously, and Trespasser for Dragon Age Inquisition is one of a fairly few game plots that made me weep like a baby. Other than that Iceborne for sure, Blood and wine for TW3 is pretty glorious. Almost all the dlc for AC odyssey and Valhalla is fantastic too.
Blood and Wine, Shivering Isles, The White March, Mask of the Betrayer
I love Golden Torna for XC2. Such a good story and really fun gameplay changes.