General Xbox 360 DLC advice needed

Being not only cheap, but also late to the Xbox 360 game, I have picking up some GOTY editions.

• Oblivion GOTY
• RE5 Gold
• Arkham Asylum GOTY
• Fallout 3 GOTY

I am currently playing Oblivion but have yet to install Shivering Isles or Knights of the Nine DLC disc. My question is, when should I install DLC for the best experience? Should I wait until I complete the normal game as if I had bought it before the DLC was released or should I be installing from the start?

I understand this is going to be a preference thing and there's no correct answer, I was just hoping for some advice from some of you guys with more experience with goty editions and what worked best for you.

For Oblivion and Fallout, what is going to happen when you install the DLC is that you will get a message in-game (like a letter) telling you about the new quests enabled by the DLC. Then it simply becomes another quest in your list that you can do at any time. The exception is Broken Steel, which requires you to complete the main storyline of Fallout 3. The other DLC of Fallout 3 can be played anytime after exiting the first vault.

For all the games, I would simply install everything before you play.

I've always been a little obsessed with doing things 'in order', which is why I haven't installed the Oblivion disc 2 yet. But still there is a nagging feeling of what if there are things on that disc that would make the entire game experience more enjoyable overall, like a really great dlc quest reward or awesome new player housing, etc.

Sounds like in your experience Spokker it won't mess anything up or derail the original game. The reason I decided to finally ask about this today is I got a used copy of FO3 today and wanted to install both discs to make sure the game isn't defective, but also didn't want to install disc 2 d/t the 'doing things in order' issue I already mentioned. I think I might just go ahead and install the Oblivion DLC this afternoon and stop worrying that it might somehow screw up the order of how the game was meant to be played. I appreciate you taking time to respond with your experience, thank you.

Yeah, the DLCs are in entirely seperate areas in pretty much all Bethesda games, you know it when you get to it, and the order honestly doesn't matter, storywise or plotwise.

My preference would be to install it up from for a more seamless experience.

Sorry, it should say up front*

(on mobile, can't edit)

You should definitely install the DLC of Fallout 3 even if you're not going to play it right away. One of them raises the level cap so if you happen to max your level before installing the DLC, any EXP gained after that is lost.

Alright took everyone's advice and installed disc two for both oblivion and fallout 3. Haven't noticed anything different about oblivion yet other than the additional loading message when I started playing. Thanks again all. Needed a bit of motivation to stop being so linear.

With Fallout 3, there are certain items that become available in the main world, outside of the DLC maps that are related to the DLC. Or DLC related items will start appearing in the main map, if that makes sense. Maybe it is something you won't notice, but when I played through it as the DLC released, the introduction to DLC related items into the capital wasteland was a welcomed addition.