There’s also no Versus mode, this is what made Left4Dead 1 and 2 so awesome. Almost nobody played co-op in L4D, except for achievements. Note that there is no grinding for unlocks in L4D but it’s much more fun game.

I can’t help but wonder if the rise of DLC is helping companies get a better grip with audience demand for/reaction to single player games. Previously, sales were the end-all-be-all of a game’s success, and this of course couldn’t entirely predict the performance of a franchise or genre going forward. Now, though, developers can invest a relatively small amount of time and resources into DLC and immediately see how the customer base responds to tweaks, additions, and what-have-you to pretty much any game. And guess which DLC gets the most buzz? Quality, story-based DLC that caters most heavily to dedicated solo players who want more out of their favorite titles. Even Borderlands, which is as much a co-op franchise as anything else, used story to set their DLC apart!

Strange times.

However, there are lots of games I won’t get to play simply because I lack the time to play everything, so I’m happy that good co-op games exist for people who like that sort of thing, and I enjoy reading the write-ups.

The simple fact is that SO MANY games are exclusively multiplayer these days, which means: servers will likely be empty in a few months, gameplay will be broken by free-to-play mechanics or ultra-hardcore players, queues, lag, the imposition of responsibility (mostly in team-based games), and the horror of other players’ behavior.

Imagine if a movie came out and required that you go to the theater to see it, paying full ticket price to sit next to screaming kids, getting stepped over by pushy jerks, the works. Sure, there are advantages to that model, and it’s worth going out to the movies a few times a year, but the controlled experience of a home entertainment system is something that everyone should be able to appreciate. So it is with single-player games, but it often feels like the industry wishes we would just go away.

It seems like it would be fairly simple to release a new heist as DLC, and they’re already planning to give one away for free to everyone who preordered the game. The only problem with this approach that I can see is that instead of people progressing smoothly through heists targeted at level 10, 20, 30 players, they’ll release a new one and the playerbase will have either stopped playing or have ground their way up to level 100. It could be a bit of a nightmare to balance in order to satisfy everyone.

Going by your description, I’d be surprised if they didn’t release more maps for this – it’s probably a matter of (a) when, (b) are they any good and (c) whether / how much extra you’re asked to pay. Hopefully they release a few before the community drifts away.

The premise: Earth has been conquered by a race of very aristocratic aliens who quickly impose their peculiar high society upon the planet (one character is the Duke of Tejas [Texas]). One quirk is “allowed burglars,” professional thieves whose exploits are perfectly legal so long as they are not caught within 24 hours of having committed the crime and who make a significant amount of their money by actually competing against one another in what amounts to a professional circuit.

I would describe them as a strange melange of Frasier and Star Wars, but they have made me wish for more sci-fi heist stories.