Metro last light: "Meant to be Played at a Premium"

I've hinted at how DLC can be used for evil and the new Metro game is handily making my case for me. DLC should only be used to add to an already whole experience. Your Fallouts, your Borderlands, even your Dishonoreds, all knew this rule and lived by it. But its when parts of the whole become chopped off and sold at a price for the more discerning and dedicated player that DLC becomes exploitative.

You wanna drop 40 some odd bucks on a bunch of paint jobs for your guns? Go for it. That's cosmetic, like streamers on the handles of your new bike. You aren't profoundly experiencing a different game than anyone else, but you are more invested and theoretically getting more out of it. If that's what you want, its your money and retailers shouldn't feel remorse for tapping that market. But games are expensive and sixty bucks should get you everything a developer has developed at launch.

When the hardest difficulty setting is billed as "the way its meant to be played" and is then made available only to those who pre-order it and sold at a premium to everyone else, I get steamed. It says a lot about  the game's backers, the state of video game marketing, and a fair bit about the product itself. Single player gaming is seen as a pricey indulgence in the industry today as it is. So they will continue to scramble to find more ways to circumvent the used market and pad their bottom line.

 I'm absolutely fine with publishers finding better ways to feed their shareholders. If they have a product worth selling I'll buy it. I'll take a half pound of cherries with my five pound crate of oranges. It's when that crate of oranges is padded with too much tissue paper, and the last sixth of them are only sold as premium "super oranges" that contains critical plot development... ok I've lost the metaphor. 

The point is, difficulty modes are relatively simple to implement and make a world of a difference in re-playability. It's not a new part of the story, it's not cosmetic, It may not even be that good, and the only reason its not in the core game is because of ass headed marketing jag offs.

So I here stand, thoroughly miffed. Good day internet.