A guide to gaming's best DLC

By PSM3 Staff for PSM3 Magazine Subscribe now!

So, you've finished the story, dominated the multiplayer and bagged the achievements and trophies. The game's finished, right?

Wrong. It's getting common to find many of the best bits tucked away in DLC - new story chapters, fresh modes and entire new games available, for a price.

So here's our guide to the best DLC currently available, and the extras that make some of those titles even more indispensable.

Battlefield Bad Company 2

• Onslaught Co-op mode - £7.99: Tired of playing against level 50 players who bomb your base with C4-laced UAVs and endless airstrikes?

Onslaught is BC2's version of 'Horde mode', where you and a squad of friends tackle waves of AI enemies over the game's multiplayer maps. Enjoyable, and on Hardcore, incredibly tough.

• Vietnam - £9.99: Now this is an expansion pack. Forget about a couple of new maps (COD, we're looking at you). How about a whole new game?

In this case five new maps set in Vietnam. This fresh theater of war is more than just a cosmetic tweak, with thick jungle foliage that really switches up the gameplay. Plus you get new guns, including the flamethrower, new vehicles such as the iconic Huey chopper and ten extra trophies.

Plus you get more than 40 timely music tracks including - yes - Ride Of Valkyries (as featured in Apocalypse Now). And it's only £10.

Borderlands

• Extravaspolsion - £15.99: This is all four of the cel-shaded shooter-RPG's DLC packs bundled together, and practically a whole new game in its own right.

The highlight? The Zombie Island Of Dr Ned. It's shorter than the main game (obviously) but also funnier and more involving as you tackle an undead outbreak on the planet Pandora. There's also the super-tough, level-raising search for The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, the battle arena Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot and the mechanical uprising of Claptrap's New Robot Revolution. Great value.

Bioshock 2

• Minerva's Den - £6.29: Sure, this underwater sequel added great multiplayer - amply stocked with modes, maps and extras - but for us BioShock's heart is always the story.

This four to five hour extra chapter is closer to the original game than any of the follow up's main campaign. Playing as Subject Sigma (another prototype Big Daddy) you're caught between two computer scientists fighting over the AI they created together.

It's short but sweet with a new plasmid, new enemies and a twist that's almost up there with the original game's "Would you kindly" moment.

Resident Evil 5

• Untold Stories Bundle - £8.99: The best bit about this collection of DLC is the Lost In Nightmares chapter. Essentially it's a love letter to the old-style Resident Evil, as you investigate a spooky mansion on the trail of Umbrella founder Ozwell Spencer.

It's almost like an HD remake of the original game. Adding to the value you also get the Desperate Escape episode that fills in part of Jill Valentine's story from Resi 5, plus two costume packs for Chris and Sheva.

Heavy Rain

• Heavy Rain: Chronicle 1 - £3.19: Remember the E3 show where Quantic Dream overlord David Cage first showed us Heavy Rain?

This is that demo - including the famous 'dance round the table' bit. Playing as sexy showering journo Madison, you're investigating a serial killer called the Taxidermist, something which mainly involves poking around his house while he's out and trying not be his next victim.