If you have not already listened to the podcast of this category, this is the final results, so this will spoil the course of the discussion on that podcast! Be warned!
Used to be, a game was just a game. It came out, and that was the game. It wasn’t gonna change. At some point someone thought of expansion packs, and those were pretty dope. And now we’re here. DLC and other add-ons are often a way to milk extra money out of people, pushed by executives more than creators. But sometimes, they’re something really special.
The Winner
Make Them Unique (Total War: Three Kingdoms)
Hey. Look at us. Who’d have thought? Not me! When I was suddenly inspired to add Make Them Unique to the list in the middle of the podcast, I just wanted to shout out an amazing piece of fan-made content. I couldn’t have guessed how my passion would resonate with Kyrie and Jen.
Three Kingdoms is a book that has changed my life. I know that’s dramatic to say, and it’s not like it affects my every moment. I don’t wake up any different. But my taste has fundamentally shifted. And all I want now is a game to do this incredible story justice. Total War: Three Kingdoms does a pretty good job. But with the help of Make Them Unique, fleshing out and giving love to the incredible cast of that story that TW3K passes over, it does even better. If you play TW3K you need to install this. I can’t play without it anymore.
The Runners-Up
The Final Cut (Disco Elysium)
It’s tempting to do some cutesy pseudo skill check joke here, maybe with Shivers? But let’s be honest, we both know that’d be completely insufferable. So instead let me just say that Disco Elysium is an incredible game that I was infamously completely wrong about, and with The Final Cut, it’s more itself than ever. The complete package now has voice acting over the entire game, making sure the feel of those performances never leaves you. Plus, the new Political Vision Quests allow you to actually take the initiative with the perspective you build on your run through the game.
Games like this are so much work it’s obscene. I want another one of these games right now, but I also know it’ll take years to be done right… and I hope people take that time, and don’t push themselves too hard. The Final Cut is a great expansion to a great game, and mostly I’m just grateful that it offered me an invitation to try again.
Title Updates (Monster Hunter Rise)
Monster Hunter always does it right, you gotta give em that. New monsters. New quests. Seasonal quests! Promotional quests! New outfits. New monster variants. MonHun is great at supplying new stuff for you to do, and all these Title Updates are free. Sure, MonHun also does paid expansions. We’ve got one of those coming up later this year! But even just for free, they know how to make a community happy.
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As annoyed as I get sometimes at DLC and add-ons, they can also make games so much more than they were before. Already in 2022, we’ve had some great new fighting game characters and other additions to games that breathed new life. When game devs get a chance to take their existing game, and make it more? You gotta love that.
That’s it for today’s Gimmick Awards! Tune back in tomorrow for more, and I hope you’ve enjoyed what you’ve heard so far!
A big thank you to daanboii (@daanboii on Twitter) for our Game of the Year art!
