Gamers who battle their way to the end of Assassin's Creed 2 face a final, unexpected, challenge - two missing chapters.
Game developer, Ubisoft, has said the missing chapters will be available as a download, but at a cost. In a similar move, Capcom offered a new 'versus' mode for its Resident Evil 5 game as downloadable content - or DLC - for US$5.
DLC was one of the hottest topics of debate on gamer forums last year. Downloads have been a feature of the gaming industry from the beginning, but now gamers are beginning to question whether developers are charging for content that should be included when the game is first bought.
Bioware outraged some gamers by charging for DLC for its role-playing game, Dragon Age: Origins, from the day it was released.
According to 18-year-old Michael Lau, this was an intentional money-making move by the developer. Gamers across the world made the same point on forums, noting the DLC was promoted in the game itself through conversations between characters. 'I feel they did that on purpose, to get more money for their product and I think it's a rather dirty trick - yet a smart one,' says Lau, who has competed in the Hong Kong preliminaries of the World Cyber Games.
Gamer Ringo Fung Wai-yin, 19, agrees, pointing out that, while some DLC is worth paying for, some is 'blatantly just about making money'. 'Ultimately it's frustrating for me, when I have to buy something that I feel I should already have - if its content that's already been developed and is on a disc you've bought ... you should be entitled to it for free,' he says.
Controversy raged over last year's release of Resident Evil 5's versus mode. Gamers alleged that the 'miniscule' size of the DLC - just 1.86MB - meant that the DLC was not a new mode of game play at all; rather it was simply a key to unlock content already on the disc released a month earlier for US$60.