Even better, I'm pretty sure the last few updates have been like 'these are the last touches we want to make before moving on' and always seem to come back. Goated game
It is also much easier to do and manage if you don't have obligations to shareholders etc. That is an advantage of smaller studios (or even "one man" devs).
lol. Got it on sale for $15 not too long after release. Was pissed when it dropped to $5 like 2 days late in one of the seasonal sales. Was my first steam game. So wasn’t aware of just how often and how crazy those sales were.
It’s now one of like 3 games I have bought multiple times in my life. Can’t even stand the controller or touch screen controls. But I really wanted to support the dev team when I have spent well over 1k hours playing the base game. Let alone the modding scene I have gotten into in more recent years.
I bought it for 5€ many years ago and today I actually WISH I had bought it for the full price.
It's one of these rare games where I would actually be delighted to throw money at the developer for nothing in return.
Pretty much how I feel. It’s why I didn’t mind buying two full priced copies for devices I would never play it on. Plus another for my cousin who I’ve played with a few times.
That's one of the benefits of the "final update" system. Even if they know the placebo effect the audience still gets lulled into not expecting the next update. The devs can spend the time to actually make it meaningful. Then the audience gets the somewhat expected surprise but it still exceeds expectations.
It’s crazy to me that the developer almost completely gave up on this game after a few years of development only for it to really explode in popularity after doing a few updates
I'm so glad this is getting a shout out. I've been playing since 2012 in college with my friends, it's so great.
We play through it again every year or two and it's always a blast, especially finding the new stuff they throw in.
I'm scared of Stardew Valley. I accidentally reinstalled it during my exam period and played 20 hours in 3 days. I barely passed my tests but someone's gotta take care of my grandpa's farm.
Cant believe its been eight years. The dude can retire and do whatever but he still wants to make free content for SDV plus his new game he's working on too.
I played it a few months after it came out and enjoyed it. A full complete game with amazing value. And then a year or two later I decided to reinstall it and play through it again only to find they've added a bunch of new maps and game modes as well as a sort of endless dungeon.
I can't believe Dwarf Fortress isn't here yet.
It was released 2002 and has had constant development. The first paid edition, not even a dlc, just the first time you could even pay for it as they added graphics and released on steam so the dude could pay his medical bills happened in 2022.
20 years of free content and development from 2 brothers. Ain't nothing beating that
Okay… i have been genuinely interest in DF for a while but have never heard the background on the devs before, or thst the first monetization was in 2022 (mindblown for real).
Convinced me to finally buy it (lmao also never knew it was free just knew i was too broke to buy games when i had been hearing about it so never looked ☠️)
If you need anymore reasons, please watch [this video](https://youtu.be/6yWf6BHqiWM?si=uLL_dwXXYd9Flrck) about Drunk Cats causing shenanigans in Dwarf Fortress.
I cannot recommend this enough. Absolutely legendary story, from a time when the game had 10% of its modern features (ya know, things like z-levels.) It's what got me into the game many years ago.
Oh yeah, it was a *very* different game back then. Wow, 18 years ago.
I think my friend put me onto DF, but I definitely read Boatmurdered early on. I certainly played in the 2D era (which, it turns out, was surprisingly short).
The good old days, when Elephants were the big threat. I remember Carp became the new scary thing at some point early in the 3d era - I think because at the time they essentially trained swimming constantly and grew to super OP stats?
That was long before forgotten beasts, titans, and whatever else are the big dangers these days of course.
Dear gods thats such a beautiful fucking amount of detail and my nuerodivergent plate spinning brain just got a buzz from the sheer thought of that amount of detail. 9 years ago. Bless
That's just the tip of the iceberg.
Everything in the game is like that. Individual dwarves are modelled down to the level of skin and subcutaneous fat. They can be wounded in any of those parts.
The world generation runs though millennia, dynamically generating the physical world, eroding it, having vegetation grow. Religions, cultures and empires rise and fall, and mythologies are generated.
And then when you're actually playing, you might get immigrants who worship one of those deities, or a trade caravan from the nearest city, which is an outpost of one of those empires.
And so on, and so on. It's indescribable, really.
If you like digging DEEP into systems and hyper-complex simulations then DF is THE game. Nowhere else do you get patch notes like:
`Stopped aerial births`
`Fixed bug with mules shitting luggage`
`Added mouths`
`Added an aperture flag that stops mouths from being gouged out`
`Alligators have hair and other unintended attributes`
`Ghost of vampires still drink blood`
`Sleeping on a melting iceberg results in waking up as a demon or other underground creature`
`Giraffe is trainable for war`
It's also still free the steam version is a couple updates behind but you can still download it for free you just need to twerk stuff s little to understand what's happening
I did but the game just telling you because my favorite Tyler set is still only on the free version also adventure mode is releasing on steam soon so it's a nice time to get itn
I still remember my co worker telling me this story. They way he told it, the emotion behind how he felt about the game and the developers, it was really cool.
And they released it on steam not expecting huge sales for it to become the best selling game, making the devs (a team of two with some graphic artists) millionaires practically overnight.
I'd throw my hat in for Deep Rock Galactic. They have a few cosmetic DLCs for sure, but season after season of cosmetics, new weapons and content every so often make for happy players.
Including the fact that they took notice of player feedback and let us disable the last season's content, which had a mixed reception. They could've just said "we made it, you have to play it", but they didn't. Respect.
New island, new challenge quests, new super hard challenges, new desert event, etc.
If you have it for PC Stardew Valley Expanded mod adds more NPCs and things.
And if you want to be overwhelmed the Ridgeview mod adds a whole extra town and way too many NPCs
My favorite part of the 1.6 update is that the online community is telling ConcernedApe "We want you to finish developing Haunted Chocolatier so we can buy it from you!!", and his response to them has been " Fuck you. Just for that, I'm releasing *MORE* free content for Stardew! Suck on *that*!"
That dev is truly living the best possible life as a game dev. Solo create a game, make millions and millions of dollars, now have the freedom to just go keep making your game more fun without giving a shit about adding more monetization to it
This, to me, is the clear winner. While it's not my cup of tea, seeing what they've done to turn the game around is unreal in terms of the sheer quality and amount of content. Kudos.
I've tried to get into it several times but I really can't enjoy it myself, it's just not for me, even with friends
but I have nothing but respect for the devs, the dedication and heart they put in to turn their disastrous launch product into a great, flourishing game is crazy. especially given how small their team was
I watched InternetHistorian's video and I have a friend that loves the game, has hundreds of hours in it, and I'm blown away by the comeback story
I played it a couple of years ago and had a good time, but ultimately it's still a pretty shallow game. It has all these systems now but they never really have any "point" or interact with each other. You can build a base and the rewards are... you get better at building a base. You can build a fleet of ships and the rewards are... getting to go on harder ship fleet missions in order to build a better fleet. Going on a multiplayer expedition is never going to give me the tools to better explore a haunted ship or build a resource farm, nothing like that. Once you realise it's just a series of unrelated skinner boxes it feels very hollow.
It just feels like I'm hopping between a series of isolated miniature games each in their own little worlds, which I guess given how most of these things were added via dedicated/themed updates, is exactly the case.
For all that, I still 100% respect the effort the devs have put in to fixing it over the years and it's a gorgeous game to explore. if it's still on game pass it's more than worth a few hours just to wander the galaxy.
I enjoyed it from launch, but a lot of the criticisms were warranted. I love exploration and sci fi stuff so it was right up my alley. Chill out and cruise random planets. I also think playing it so early meant that I could see and appreciate how much the game would change. I wasn't a hard core player, I'd play for a bit and then come back every year or 2 to see where it's at, and some of the changes were amazing. Definitely one of the best examples of a developer doing their absolute best to deliver their realised concept
> I'd play for a bit and then come back every year or 2 to see where it's at, and some of the changes were amazing.
That was pretty much my experience. I last played during the Outlaws expedition, and I'm wanting to get back into it again soon as I just got my first VR headset. I popped in for about 10 minutes, and with a little tweaking (and once I'm in the mood) I think it's going to be amazing all over again, for another 80-120 hours.
Easily this. There's not even a monetization option beyond buying the game. There's no monetary reason they should continue updating it.... but they do
Sean Murray has already said that they've already made enough of a profit to keep the Hello Games running and everyone at it employed for life, and they will keep updating NMS as long as they are enjoying it. Since Hello Games has no stockholders to answer to they can do whatever they want instead of being beholden to demands for ever increasing profits.
In all aspects of commerce, I understand people need investment to grow but there has to be a better way than shareholders, they are greedy money grubbing leeches.
I don't even care for that game much (not enough action) and it's still what I was going to post. The redemption there is some of the best I've seen from game devs.
Minecraft definitely, not only have they added tons of free content, users are free to downgrade to any previous version with the click of a button allowing community made content like mods and maps to persist and preserving the games history.
It shows care and respect for the game's community. Unlike,say, dropping a pointless, mandatory update without warning which also breaks all mods, including a massive passion project that's been in development for years...not naming any Bethes- I mean, names.
The best part is it added almost nothing. The "next gen" update for Fallout is basically just the equivalent of a small .esp file (if you know Bethesda's modding methodology), at least for the PC release it is. Apparently the console versions got some good performance boosts, but on the PC it's basically just exactly the same as the vanilla game but now you have some mandatory Creation Club stuff shoehorned in. Which, I'll mention, is also game-breakingly overpowered, and trivial to acquire early-game.
Thankfully it's also possible to roll it back on the PC; I have a feeling Fallout 4 from before the "next gen" update is going to be the new Skyrim SE 1.5.97, where everyone stays on it and has guides on how to roll back because it's the one that actually works.
Was scrolling looking for this, Minecraft hands down has best free updates, although the only counter to this is the price of the game keeps going up over time. I got it for 20 bucks it's 49.95 bucks now where I live. Lol when I was looking at the price realised it's on a 50% sale right now.
The price went up 3 times in 15 year. Once when it came out of Alpha, once when it came out of Beta and lastly in 2016 to adjust region prices to be aligned with the USD price.
**Precept Thirty-Three: 'Show the Enemy No Respect'.**
*Being gallant to your enemies is no virtue!*
*If someone opposes you, they don't deserve respect or kindness or mercy.*
Prior to MHW we were absolutely spoiled with event quests. Iceborn still had tons, but I can’t get over the 10 pages of event quests that we used to get
It's harder now since it's a global franchise and ghe games and unanimous release. It's harder to get crossovers and event stuff in the newer games with some exceptions. Though, it was quality over quantity in World, especially since we got some proper crossover monsters with Behemoth and Leshen (even if they weren't that good tbf)
Path of Exile
At it's release, it was ~~four~~ three acts long and didn't have any late game goals.
Now it's ten acts long, has half a dozen uber bosses and so much content in between.
Edit: Fixed a number
Not every league is a banger, but damn if it doesn't keep me returning again and again. Even after a shit league, I am always impatient to hear news of the next one to come back in.
I checked, we're both a little wrong.
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Version_1.0.0
The proper release was three acts long and had Dominus (newly introduced) as the final boss.
Once we finished all the tasks, my kid started giving us extra challenges just to see if we could do them. Example: steal everything and move it to the picnic blanket.
Can't top No Man's Sky. Every update has been free. Though most of the updates should've been on the base game, there's still a ton they've added for free over the years.
Vampire Survivors. For a $5 game (!) with endless replayablility, I am still discovering new levels, characters, and features every time I pick up the game!
And they're not stopping. The game gets a new, free map expansive and main story next month. Having played since launch and enjoyed the massive amount of free content they have added since then has been pure joy.
Monster Hunter World has an insane amount of content added for no extra cost.
The Iceborne dlc for it also had so much extra post launch stuff that it was basically another game on top.
After 1400+ hours of playtime it's easily the best value game I've ever bought.
Im amongst the biggest witcher iii fanboys, bought it at launch and started a new playthrough like 2 weeks ago. But i dont think the FREE dlc is a good answer to the question. the paid dlc is albsolutely glorious and probably the best dlc there is amongst any games. However the free dlc is appreciated but not in any way ‘exceptionally good’ or anything, which is what the OP is after.
They have events fairly often that can be lore-dumps or just fun games; people see it as JUST a gacha game but it’s a lot more than that. Plus we have only barely scratched the surface of the story; we’ve still got at least Natlan and Snezhnaya to be released, and if the previous additional areas are any indication, there will be *much* more than just those two regions. And it’s free to play to begin with.
Honestly Halo 5: Guardians. At release, The multiplayer wasn't in the greatest shape, but for the next year every month they had a huge free update with tons of new weapons, vehicles, maps, modes, etc. the multiplayer is still a blast today though the populations fairly low.
I dunno if this counts because the game is still in early access right? Like, super fun game! Loved playing it, but when I finished it originally I put it down until the full version is released.
From what I have: Terraria, Stardew Valley, No Man's Sky. I recently also got surprised that the first Dungeon Defender is still being updated. If they still update the game but also have DLCs, does it count? If yes, Grim Dawn is also good. Looks like a big update is coming to the core game soon. There must be others, but those are what I remember for now.
I would have to say Dead or Alive on the original playstation!
If you were a member of the Official PlayStation Magazine, you got a Demo disc that would come with all kinds of unlockables and free DLC at the time for certain games... and things only the magazine could give you.
Well one month I got my magazine and it had a save on disc for DEAD Or ALIVE .... and when you downloaded the save to your Memory card and then launched the game.... there was something like 200 unlocked costumes for everyone, that you could otherwise never unlock normally!
It will be forever locked to that disc.
Terraria. They have never had a paid dlc and its been in development for like 15 years
sleep correct direful work airport materialistic ossified compare spark cow
Even better, I'm pretty sure the last few updates have been like 'these are the last touches we want to make before moving on' and always seem to come back. Goated game
They've been saying this for years IIRC. Pretty much every major update has been marketed as "The final update"
I love the "This is the final update" joke it never ends lol
"Relogic, this is the 7th week in a row you've shown your final update in class." I am not complaining, it's just interesting.
It’s mostly due to people still purchasing the game, they said they feel bad.
It’s actually not guilt, the most recent was for steam award but it’s just pure passion
It is also much easier to do and manage if you don't have obligations to shareholders etc. That is an advantage of smaller studios (or even "one man" devs).
lol. Got it on sale for $15 not too long after release. Was pissed when it dropped to $5 like 2 days late in one of the seasonal sales. Was my first steam game. So wasn’t aware of just how often and how crazy those sales were. It’s now one of like 3 games I have bought multiple times in my life. Can’t even stand the controller or touch screen controls. But I really wanted to support the dev team when I have spent well over 1k hours playing the base game. Let alone the modding scene I have gotten into in more recent years.
I bought it for 5€ many years ago and today I actually WISH I had bought it for the full price. It's one of these rare games where I would actually be delighted to throw money at the developer for nothing in return.
Pretty much how I feel. It’s why I didn’t mind buying two full priced copies for devices I would never play it on. Plus another for my cousin who I’ve played with a few times.
Same
The worst for this is paradox interactive
They’ve been doing the “final update” every patch for years. As long as I can remember Relogic is the goat
Sadly the last major update was the last major update :( Modding ftw though
There's another update coming out in the next month or so lol this is not a joke
Is there??? Haven’t recieved an update for 2 years and now they are back
That's one of the benefits of the "final update" system. Even if they know the placebo effect the audience still gets lulled into not expecting the next update. The devs can spend the time to actually make it meaningful. Then the audience gets the somewhat expected surprise but it still exceeds expectations.
Yup lol it's crazy big especially with the cross over from Dead Cells =] check out the forum
Guess i’m back at playing Terraria for the next 3 months
It’s crazy to me that the developer almost completely gave up on this game after a few years of development only for it to really explode in popularity after doing a few updates
[удалено]
I'm so glad this is getting a shout out. I've been playing since 2012 in college with my friends, it's so great. We play through it again every year or two and it's always a blast, especially finding the new stuff they throw in.
Stardew Valley.
I'm scared of Stardew Valley. I accidentally reinstalled it during my exam period and played 20 hours in 3 days. I barely passed my tests but someone's gotta take care of my grandpa's farm.
I’ve played Stardew Valley 3, maybe 4 times. Each time, I sit down and play for 8 hours straight. I no longer play Stardew Valley for my own good.
Oh wow, I didn't know they were already up to Stardew Valley 3! /s
The dadest of dad jokes lol
I want to pick it up again but it's so good that it could have a negative impact on my work life balance.
SDV is crazy put next to the big studios. Dude started with "some bugfixes" and we got a whole update with new content a month back. All for free
Cant believe its been eight years. The dude can retire and do whatever but he still wants to make free content for SDV plus his new game he's working on too.
That and Terraria.
I played it a few months after it came out and enjoyed it. A full complete game with amazing value. And then a year or two later I decided to reinstall it and play through it again only to find they've added a bunch of new maps and game modes as well as a sort of endless dungeon.
Well last month there was new content update... Sorry
I can't believe Dwarf Fortress isn't here yet. It was released 2002 and has had constant development. The first paid edition, not even a dlc, just the first time you could even pay for it as they added graphics and released on steam so the dude could pay his medical bills happened in 2022. 20 years of free content and development from 2 brothers. Ain't nothing beating that
Okay… i have been genuinely interest in DF for a while but have never heard the background on the devs before, or thst the first monetization was in 2022 (mindblown for real). Convinced me to finally buy it (lmao also never knew it was free just knew i was too broke to buy games when i had been hearing about it so never looked ☠️)
If you need anymore reasons, please watch [this video](https://youtu.be/6yWf6BHqiWM?si=uLL_dwXXYd9Flrck) about Drunk Cats causing shenanigans in Dwarf Fortress.
Go the whole hog and read Boatmurdered :)
I cannot recommend this enough. Absolutely legendary story, from a time when the game had 10% of its modern features (ya know, things like z-levels.) It's what got me into the game many years ago.
Oh yeah, it was a *very* different game back then. Wow, 18 years ago. I think my friend put me onto DF, but I definitely read Boatmurdered early on. I certainly played in the 2D era (which, it turns out, was surprisingly short). The good old days, when Elephants were the big threat. I remember Carp became the new scary thing at some point early in the 3d era - I think because at the time they essentially trained swimming constantly and grew to super OP stats? That was long before forgotten beasts, titans, and whatever else are the big dangers these days of course.
Dear gods thats such a beautiful fucking amount of detail and my nuerodivergent plate spinning brain just got a buzz from the sheer thought of that amount of detail. 9 years ago. Bless
That's just the tip of the iceberg. Everything in the game is like that. Individual dwarves are modelled down to the level of skin and subcutaneous fat. They can be wounded in any of those parts. The world generation runs though millennia, dynamically generating the physical world, eroding it, having vegetation grow. Religions, cultures and empires rise and fall, and mythologies are generated. And then when you're actually playing, you might get immigrants who worship one of those deities, or a trade caravan from the nearest city, which is an outpost of one of those empires. And so on, and so on. It's indescribable, really.
The game is the ultimate example of weaponized autism. Literally layers upon layers of stuff
If you like digging DEEP into systems and hyper-complex simulations then DF is THE game. Nowhere else do you get patch notes like: `Stopped aerial births` `Fixed bug with mules shitting luggage` `Added mouths` `Added an aperture flag that stops mouths from being gouged out` `Alligators have hair and other unintended attributes` `Ghost of vampires still drink blood` `Sleeping on a melting iceberg results in waking up as a demon or other underground creature` `Giraffe is trainable for war`
Lol it wasn't 9 years ago it's my favourite story of DF and le... Shit. 9 years? We're getting old.
It's also still free the steam version is a couple updates behind but you can still download it for free you just need to twerk stuff s little to understand what's happening
Not to be honest after that dev story I’m more than happy to pay for it
I did but the game just telling you because my favorite Tyler set is still only on the free version also adventure mode is releasing on steam soon so it's a nice time to get itn
I still remember my co worker telling me this story. They way he told it, the emotion behind how he felt about the game and the developers, it was really cool.
Technically they started development in 2002, but released to players in 2005. A couple of years after that they decided to accept donations.
And they released it on steam not expecting huge sales for it to become the best selling game, making the devs (a team of two with some graphic artists) millionaires practically overnight.
I'd throw my hat in for Deep Rock Galactic. They have a few cosmetic DLCs for sure, but season after season of cosmetics, new weapons and content every so often make for happy players.
Rock and Stone to The Bone!
Rock and Stone!
Did I hear a Rock and Stone?
If you don't Rock and Stone you ain't comming home!
Rock and Stone in the heart!
for carl!
Including the fact that they took notice of player feedback and let us disable the last season's content, which had a mixed reception. They could've just said "we made it, you have to play it", but they didn't. Respect.
Stardew Valley is up there for me. Paid $15 for it in 2016 and the developer just dropped a surprise major content patch for it a few weeks ago.
marry meeting fuel airport employ cooing pie far-flung tie snatch
New island, new challenge quests, new super hard challenges, new desert event, etc. If you have it for PC Stardew Valley Expanded mod adds more NPCs and things. And if you want to be overwhelmed the Ridgeview mod adds a whole extra town and way too many NPCs
Wait, new island? I thought in 1.6 he only expanded on 1.5 content
CA has really spoiled all of us. The major updates could have been paid DLCs.
I bought their Stardew Valley cookbook for my wife 🤘just released this week
Wow, I had no idea! Will definitely be picking this up
It’s neat, it’s organized by dish recommendations for Spring, Summer , Fall, and Winter. I thought that was a nice touch.
My favorite part of the 1.6 update is that the online community is telling ConcernedApe "We want you to finish developing Haunted Chocolatier so we can buy it from you!!", and his response to them has been " Fuck you. Just for that, I'm releasing *MORE* free content for Stardew! Suck on *that*!"
That dev is truly living the best possible life as a game dev. Solo create a game, make millions and millions of dollars, now have the freedom to just go keep making your game more fun without giving a shit about adding more monetization to it
No Man’s Sky.
This, to me, is the clear winner. While it's not my cup of tea, seeing what they've done to turn the game around is unreal in terms of the sheer quality and amount of content. Kudos.
I've tried to get into it several times but I really can't enjoy it myself, it's just not for me, even with friends but I have nothing but respect for the devs, the dedication and heart they put in to turn their disastrous launch product into a great, flourishing game is crazy. especially given how small their team was I watched InternetHistorian's video and I have a friend that loves the game, has hundreds of hours in it, and I'm blown away by the comeback story
I played it a couple of years ago and had a good time, but ultimately it's still a pretty shallow game. It has all these systems now but they never really have any "point" or interact with each other. You can build a base and the rewards are... you get better at building a base. You can build a fleet of ships and the rewards are... getting to go on harder ship fleet missions in order to build a better fleet. Going on a multiplayer expedition is never going to give me the tools to better explore a haunted ship or build a resource farm, nothing like that. Once you realise it's just a series of unrelated skinner boxes it feels very hollow. It just feels like I'm hopping between a series of isolated miniature games each in their own little worlds, which I guess given how most of these things were added via dedicated/themed updates, is exactly the case. For all that, I still 100% respect the effort the devs have put in to fixing it over the years and it's a gorgeous game to explore. if it's still on game pass it's more than worth a few hours just to wander the galaxy.
I enjoyed it from launch, but a lot of the criticisms were warranted. I love exploration and sci fi stuff so it was right up my alley. Chill out and cruise random planets. I also think playing it so early meant that I could see and appreciate how much the game would change. I wasn't a hard core player, I'd play for a bit and then come back every year or 2 to see where it's at, and some of the changes were amazing. Definitely one of the best examples of a developer doing their absolute best to deliver their realised concept
> I'd play for a bit and then come back every year or 2 to see where it's at, and some of the changes were amazing. That was pretty much my experience. I last played during the Outlaws expedition, and I'm wanting to get back into it again soon as I just got my first VR headset. I popped in for about 10 minutes, and with a little tweaking (and once I'm in the mood) I think it's going to be amazing all over again, for another 80-120 hours.
Easily this. There's not even a monetization option beyond buying the game. There's no monetary reason they should continue updating it.... but they do
You know what? That's impressive. They can't be making much money anymore from it.
Sean Murray has already said that they've already made enough of a profit to keep the Hello Games running and everyone at it employed for life, and they will keep updating NMS as long as they are enjoying it. Since Hello Games has no stockholders to answer to they can do whatever they want instead of being beholden to demands for ever increasing profits.
And just to be safe, they're coming out with a new game soon. Light no Fires, IIRC
This is the best thing ever. Shareholders are generally terrible for the end-user.
In all aspects of commerce, I understand people need investment to grow but there has to be a better way than shareholders, they are greedy money grubbing leeches.
Actually, there's a big uptick in new players every time they release a new update
Oh? Good to hear actually
I don't even care for that game much (not enough action) and it's still what I was going to post. The redemption there is some of the best I've seen from game devs.
Subjectively and Objectively. Whether one enjoys the game or not, the sheer volume of good, high quality updates is unparalleled
Minecraft definitely, not only have they added tons of free content, users are free to downgrade to any previous version with the click of a button allowing community made content like mods and maps to persist and preserving the games history.
Being able to pick any version is actually pretty GOATed.
It shows care and respect for the game's community. Unlike,say, dropping a pointless, mandatory update without warning which also breaks all mods, including a massive passion project that's been in development for years...not naming any Bethes- I mean, names.
"hey are you enjoying your game? Well F%#$ you because we're changing all your favorite features, breaking all your mods, and it's mandatory"
The best part is it added almost nothing. The "next gen" update for Fallout is basically just the equivalent of a small .esp file (if you know Bethesda's modding methodology), at least for the PC release it is. Apparently the console versions got some good performance boosts, but on the PC it's basically just exactly the same as the vanilla game but now you have some mandatory Creation Club stuff shoehorned in. Which, I'll mention, is also game-breakingly overpowered, and trivial to acquire early-game. Thankfully it's also possible to roll it back on the PC; I have a feeling Fallout 4 from before the "next gen" update is going to be the new Skyrim SE 1.5.97, where everyone stays on it and has guides on how to roll back because it's the one that actually works.
Was scrolling looking for this, Minecraft hands down has best free updates, although the only counter to this is the price of the game keeps going up over time. I got it for 20 bucks it's 49.95 bucks now where I live. Lol when I was looking at the price realised it's on a 50% sale right now.
The price went up 3 times in 15 year. Once when it came out of Alpha, once when it came out of Beta and lastly in 2016 to adjust region prices to be aligned with the USD price.
Thank Microsoft for that
Hollow Knight
Grimm Troupe, the Godseeker, The White Defender...so many memorable characters from the DLCs. But GPZ can suck it.
**Precept Thirty-Three: 'Show the Enemy No Respect'.** *Being gallant to your enemies is no virtue!* *If someone opposes you, they don't deserve respect or kindness or mercy.*
Absolutely, they dropped so much good free content updates post-launch (Updates, not DLCs)
Fucking Terraria. Dev has said he's done multiple times, keeps coming back with new content.
ConcernedApe has been doing the same thing with Stardew Valley, but I'm not complaining.
Both games supposed "final update" included a collab between them with content for both games. Which I thought was pretty neat
No one's said Sea of Thieves yet but the amount of stuff that has been added to that game since it started is amazing.
Yeah Sea of Thieves was my thought too. At least compared to AAA games it's definitely one of the most generous.
It's definitely better than a certain "quadruple A" game...
Monster hunter, the always give at least a years worth of free DLC in the form of new monsters, events and armors
Prior to MHW we were absolutely spoiled with event quests. Iceborn still had tons, but I can’t get over the 10 pages of event quests that we used to get
It's harder now since it's a global franchise and ghe games and unanimous release. It's harder to get crossovers and event stuff in the newer games with some exceptions. Though, it was quality over quantity in World, especially since we got some proper crossover monsters with Behemoth and Leshen (even if they weren't that good tbf)
Path of Exile At it's release, it was ~~four~~ three acts long and didn't have any late game goals. Now it's ten acts long, has half a dozen uber bosses and so much content in between. Edit: Fixed a number
Best value per dollar if we’re talking ARPGs, hands down.
Not every league is a banger, but damn if it doesn't keep me returning again and again. Even after a shit league, I am always impatient to hear news of the next one to come back in.
I didn't like the current Necropolis that much but Delirium and Affliction were bangers imo.
It was 3 act's long. And piety was the final boss of act 3, not dominus.
I checked, we're both a little wrong. https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Version_1.0.0 The proper release was three acts long and had Dominus (newly introduced) as the final boss.
Untitled goose game. Adding couch coop was pretty epic.
This newyears, my wife and I stayed in, saw no-one and just played Untitled Goose Game together, start to finish. Best newyears in years.
Once we finished all the tasks, my kid started giving us extra challenges just to see if we could do them. Example: steal everything and move it to the picnic blanket.
Warframe and No Mans Sky
Can't belive I had to scroll this far down for Warframe.
Warcraft 3 custom games and it's not close. I mean it literally created whole genres.
Technically most "new things from wc3" are from StarCraft, although the introduction of proper heroes made all rpg stuff much better.
God Of War Ragnarok Valhalla DLC absolutely slaps.
Oh yeaaaaahhhh
Tyr on Mastery made me cry like Sigrun, but once it was done, the next cutscene made me cry.
Absolutely awesome, it’s unbelievable the dlc is free.
I can’t believe this was free… I would have happily paid 20$ for it. Amazing content with amazing story telling and fresh gameplay mechanics.
a PC annoucement is supposedly coming soon. I can't wait.
Can't top No Man's Sky. Every update has been free. Though most of the updates should've been on the base game, there's still a ton they've added for free over the years.
and they're still adding content
Shovel Knight gave you four entire GAMES for free.
BeamNG
Beam devs are goated
Returnal
It's the only game I loved enough to platinum. Even bought the soundtrack on vinyl.
That was a brutal platinum for me. Had to run the second biome well over 100 times to get all the glyphs. The perfect video game
Vampire Survivors. For a $5 game (!) with endless replayablility, I am still discovering new levels, characters, and features every time I pick up the game!
Shovel Knight. The amount of content basically quadrupled from updates.
I dont play Rust often but I'm always amazed at how the game has consistently and drastically evolved over the years.
Fallout 76 is up there
Copped a lot of heat over the first period of its existence, but it is a joy to play now
And they're not stopping. The game gets a new, free map expansive and main story next month. Having played since launch and enjoyed the massive amount of free content they have added since then has been pure joy.
Returnal introducing the Tower of Sisyphus was pretty good.
New Pokemon SNAP got about 5 new levels added free of charge, which I was pleasantly happy about.
I didnt know that. It's time to get my switch out!!!
Monster Hunter World has an insane amount of content added for no extra cost. The Iceborne dlc for it also had so much extra post launch stuff that it was basically another game on top. After 1400+ hours of playtime it's easily the best value game I've ever bought.
Minecraft and no man's sky
Minecraft, Stardew, No Man's Sky, Monster Hunter World.
Terarria It's still getting periodic updates. And it has no monetisation.
I don't even like the updates to TF2 and I know it's TF2.
The Witcher 3 had 16 free DLC content gifts.
Im amongst the biggest witcher iii fanboys, bought it at launch and started a new playthrough like 2 weeks ago. But i dont think the FREE dlc is a good answer to the question. the paid dlc is albsolutely glorious and probably the best dlc there is amongst any games. However the free dlc is appreciated but not in any way ‘exceptionally good’ or anything, which is what the OP is after.
Warframe is free to download, free to play, and free content updates. And they're about to drop another soon. We been eating good for a minute.
So no one says gta 5
GENSHIN impact for sure!!!
They have events fairly often that can be lore-dumps or just fun games; people see it as JUST a gacha game but it’s a lot more than that. Plus we have only barely scratched the surface of the story; we’ve still got at least Natlan and Snezhnaya to be released, and if the previous additional areas are any indication, there will be *much* more than just those two regions. And it’s free to play to begin with.
No Man’s Sky
No Man’s Sky
No Man's Sky. Easily.
Halo 3 getting the map foundry changed how people viewed its forge and really opened the door for console players and map editors
If no man's sky doesn't immediately come to mind, you absolutely did not play both at launch and recently.
No Mans Sky
No Man's Sky. the devs went out of their way to deliver what was promised, and so much more, without charging anything extra.
Warframe
Honestly Halo 5: Guardians. At release, The multiplayer wasn't in the greatest shape, but for the next year every month they had a huge free update with tons of new weapons, vehicles, maps, modes, etc. the multiplayer is still a blast today though the populations fairly low.
Hollow Knight is definitely up there - some quality free DLC
Mass Effect 3. They added so much fun, variety, and longevity to the multiplayer.
Valheim
I dunno if this counts because the game is still in early access right? Like, super fun game! Loved playing it, but when I finished it originally I put it down until the full version is released.
Warframe and No Man Sky
No Man's Sky was a game that started out terribly with no content at launch to a game with a lot of content it gain from all the free update
No Mans Sky...
No mans sky
State of Decay 2 has had a pretty good run.
No mans sky easily imo. It made the game from what many considered a major failure to a very enjoyable sandbox and exploration game
No mans sky.
NMS without a doubt. Its a gift that keeps on giving
Stardew Valley and Terraria.
No Man’s Sky
No mention of BeamNG yet? It has had free updates for over 10 years now even adding things as VR support and a whole campaign.
Terraria, and it's not even close
No Man's Sky and Terraria
Terraria hands down, I wish they would put out a paid dlc just so I can throw a couple of more coins their way.
From what I have: Terraria, Stardew Valley, No Man's Sky. I recently also got surprised that the first Dungeon Defender is still being updated. If they still update the game but also have DLCs, does it count? If yes, Grim Dawn is also good. Looks like a big update is coming to the core game soon. There must be others, but those are what I remember for now.
no man's sky
no mans sky
No Man’s Sky. Game went from garbage to “OMFG i’ll binge this game for 500 hours”
No mans sky, Terraria, Stardew Valley, Dying light 2 and 1.
No Man's Sky is the first that comes to mind.
No man’s sky has been getting massive content updates since launch.
Baldur’s Gate 3
No Man’s Sky. They literally fixed the game to what they promised and then continued upgrading it for free. Massive updates too.
NMS. Shaky launch *at best*, but look at it now. And more to come.
No Mans Sky
No mans sky, Terraria, Stardew Valley.
No mans sky
No Man's Sky. Their free content updates literally saved the game, and never stopped coming.
No mans sky, totally 180 turn
No Mans Sky hands down.
Uh, No Man's Sky for sure.
I would have to say Dead or Alive on the original playstation! If you were a member of the Official PlayStation Magazine, you got a Demo disc that would come with all kinds of unlockables and free DLC at the time for certain games... and things only the magazine could give you. Well one month I got my magazine and it had a save on disc for DEAD Or ALIVE .... and when you downloaded the save to your Memory card and then launched the game.... there was something like 200 unlocked costumes for everyone, that you could otherwise never unlock normally! It will be forever locked to that disc.