I have to admit, my first thought was... "What? Three dollars for a graphics option?" But... It's pretty inoffensive compared to what it could have been. I guess it could have been "The blood and gore pack, introducing bloodknights! Lead by Krell! Only 19.99!" So. Eyyy. I guess it's all alrite.
It's just how it is basically.
Originally they had to do that because the ratings organizations won't let them keep their Teen (?) rating if there was blood in it or if they released it as a free DLC since that was considered "part of the game included in the price" or something like that. So with Shogun 2 they released it for like $1 and it was bloody brilliant. Freaking heads flying off, limbs flying off, everyone was getting dismembered. You'd get blood on the screen, in the grass, on the battlements, everywhere. Fountains of it.
It was $3 for Rome 2. Rome 2's version kinda sucked though. Nowhere near as gratuitous or messy as Shogun 2's. Don't know why they decided it was worth $3.
Here it's $3 as well.
Why? Who knows. Maybe they had to animate more stuff. Maybe it was more difficult to figure out how blood works for things like dragons and giants. Maybe they needed more money for their slave gladiatorial fighting arenas.
I bought it anyway~ My enjoyment factor for the Total War games goes up severalfold with the blood DLCs.