Weekly News Recap 9/13/09

Bit of a short news week this time around.

I've recently been turned on to the virtues of the FPS genre thanks to a friend getting me into Battlefield 1943. It's all the fun of WoW's battlegrounds without all the tedious grinding. Still, now that I'm on board I can't help but be disappointed that there are no immediate plans for additional Battlefield 1943 DLC. DICE says they are too busy working on other Battlefield projects. For once I understand the frustration players feel when a developer stretches themselves too thin. But it begs an interesting question - is it better to shoot for breadth or depth in a franchise? Both Valve and DICE seem to have settled on the former track, expanding their game universes through multiple releases rather than working to better existing games. The ability to support a game through dlc is relatively new and gamers may have taken to it so fast that you'd think it was their God-given right to have their favorite game supported until judgment day. Beneath it all though I wonder if it isn't a good idea for a specific product to continue to receive upgrades over time. Call it the MMO model. Imagine if a classic like GoldenEye were still supported with dlc. Perhaps Rare would still be a household name.

Finally Braid is only $5 this weekend. Did you hear me? Five bucks for Braid. Go get it.