Franchises that NEED to DIE, and those that will last forever

[Jurian]

I don't get why a lot of people are saying Final Fantasy should stop, I mean, sure there are a lot of games in the franchise, but theyre all seperate stories and solid rpg's, and frankly, I found FFIX better then FFVII.

I don't think some franchises aren't supposed to die, I grew up with Super Mario bros, my little brother grew up with Super Mario Sunshine, and my other little brother is growing up with Galaxy.
I think we can all agree that Mario should stop doing parties and various sport games, but I don't think the platforming plumber we all know and love should ever, ever die.

Same goes for Sonic, Zelda and Megaman.
Those who grew up playing Ocarina of Time, Sonic for the genesis and Megaman 2 will obviously have different standards for games like Twilight Princess, Sonic Heroes and Megaman Starforce.

I do agree on the people that said the sims, really, that needs to end.

 

[eggdog14]

Just to clear up the argument concerning the continuation of halflife: The Episodes may be considered "HL3," however, there is another in the works:

http://www.destructoid.com/half-life-3-practically-confirmed-about-as-inevitable-as-the-seven-hour-war-59336.phtml


------------

And my thoughts on WOW--

It had pretty much ended all MMORPG's until the end of time. It has something like 9 million subscribers, whom I doubt have any intention of switching to a new game. WOW holds an unstoppable monopoly.

Other developers will have to put their MMO development on hold, because they really don't stand a chance until this generation of uber-nerds dies out.

 

[ripper_hugme]

I don't mind the constant wave after wave of Nintendo games, even if the only change in gameplay is minor. They have the style, art direction, story telling (uh minus Mario of course) and characters that have kept me satisfied and they have never made me frown yet at 'new' gameplay choices.

Half-Life 2 was brilliant, but the episodes have been a bit of a drag down. Episode one was practically like deleted scenes with a tiny bit of storyline. Episode two was a change of scenery with a few new things, episode three will most likely be more of the same with a few puzzles involving physics (im still holding out for a new weapon though). But the same can be said about the HL1 expansion packs they were more of the same, which is okay it's what they were supposed to be.

It's games like the Halo series that get me, they are actual sequels. If were up to me Halo 2 would be Halo: Episode 2 and so on for 3. They do little to mix it up and are the same scenarios over and over again (eg. Elites with Grunts in a tight space with lots of cover, more Elites with grunts and oh look one of them has sword).

 

[Natsu_Blaze]

Let me see...
I disagree with all the people bashing Final Fantasy. A series that got good back in '95 with VII and stayed good since (with the sad exception of XI), should not be axed just because it started getting awesome over ten years ago.
Mario... Mario probably should die. There's nothing left you can actually do with it; like Yahtzee said, once you've gone into space there's no new ground to go to. I disagree that Sonic is dead, though. Sure, it's the same basic formula each time, but barring Shadow, which was barely tolerable (stupid emo hedgehog) and Riders, which is basically Mario Super Strikers for the Sonic franchise, it's been a great time each time. The story's always new and different (even though you ALWAYS have to find the Chaos Emeralds, by law), and I don't care what anyone says, Secret Rings was fantastic and just what Sega needed after the crap with Shadow. Zelda's done, I agree. Like Sonic, it uses a formula, but unlike Sonic, there's never anything new, and there's never any real story. You just wander around and kill random monsters until you find the dungeon. And why are there always eight dungeons? No, Zelda's dead. And, sad as it is, I'm starting to feel like Starfox is dying too. Which is really sad, because Starfox 64 is still one of my favorite games.
Now, then... why are people attacking Pokemon? Yes, Diamond and Pearl sucked, I get it, but the rest of it's fun (I'm not counting spinoffs). I found a copy of Sapphire languishing in my brother's closet a week or so ago and started playing through it, and while Steven may be impossible to defeat (Steel/Psychic, lv. 58 Lurching Monstrosity, aka Metagross), the game is a lot of fun, even those odd little Contests that I thought would be about as much fun as watching the Dog Show Channel. Simply put; fourth gen was bad, but if one bad game could kill a series then Jak would have never gotten his third game.

 

[ZeroAX]

please someone kill sonic. my mega drive cartiges cry every night for what their game char has become

 

[Choukou]

What more can you do with The Legend of Zelda? Not much, it's admitted. But it is far from dead. The formula they use has been used over and over by them, and they all made great games, so why change that? They're fun, that's the simple fact. As are the Mario games. As are the Final Fantasies and so on and so on. You don't get rid of a winning formula. It's like throwing away the cure for cancer because it's too much like their previous compound.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

I agree that, after Halo Wars, Halo should end. It's not really so much that it's a bad game, it's just pointless to continue the story anymore.

 

[TSED]

And my thoughts on WOW--

It had pretty much ended all MMORPG's until the end of time. It has something like 9 million subscribers, whom I doubt have any intention of switching to a new game. WOW holds an unstoppable monopoly.

Other developers will have to put their MMO development on hold, because they really don't stand a chance until this generation of uber-nerds dies out.

Uh, you realise that they buy subscriptions on an hourly basis in Asia, right?

That is, if a guy plays WoW for an hour before school, then an hour after school, every day? That's 12 subs a week + however long he plays on Sunday (they have school on Saturdays in Asia).


WoW has no where near 9 million subscribers, just like Lineage 2 has no where near 20 million subscribers.


Furthermore, other MMOs that were around before WoW have had their player base trickle back slowly, as the people that left for WoW realised that it sucked and went home to their first love.


WoW is a horrible MMO. It's boring, ugly, nauseatingly easy. When EQ1 has better graphics than a competing MMO, you know something's wrong visually. When you can kill monsters with your eyes closed and just pressing the same button over and over and over again, you know something's wrong. It's even worse when you can do that in PVP.

WoWites need to realise that the only thing WoW does well is brainwash.

 

[sapient]

Final Fantasy, Warcraft and Metroid.

It's not like RPGs have come and gone however - we're all expecting Bethesda to do a groundbreaking job on Fallout 3, and if they ruin that they have The Elder Scrolls V to save themselves. It'll honestly be the death of mainstream RPGs if these two games are ruined.

Crysis 2 & 3 have potential, as well as Far Cry 2, but the latter being outsourced may be a serious flop. Personally, I found Crysis pretty fun - taking on every camp, killing people in a movie-like setting while I jumped on rooftops and used Koreans as bullet shields. There was nothing wrong with that.

Episode 3 is yet to be announced, release date or gameplay wise, so this may restore glory after the sudden flow of pretty-but-generic shooters (case in point: COD4:MW, MOH: Airborne).

The FPS/RTS genre, however, is definitely over, the only game holding it up being the super brilliantly designed, extremely deep FPS/RTS Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. That game is a triumph, but probably the last of the FPS/RTS hybrid.

 

[cavicchia]

Final Fantasy

if you are saying final fantasy is dead, you are quite mistaken, the last FF game sold about 12 million copies i think, and even if it wasnt amazing, its not gonna stop being made when a company can sell a 60 dollar game 12 million times.

 

[cavicchia]

sorry to double post, but nilpferdkoenig but warcraft is dead, no way theres gonna be another one, except expansions to WoW, and Diablo is dead, the team that developed it has scattered across the world, and probably isnt gonna pull together to push out the steaming pile of poo that would be diablo 3...

 

[REDPill357]

They need something new, there is really no denying it.

***EPISODE 2 SPOILER ALERT***





Why were they getting on the chopper at the end of Episode 2? To go to the Borealis. The next game will probably take place on a frozen ship in the middle of the (ant)arctic, with some interaction with Portal. It will definitely be a change of scenery from City 17.

 

[eggdog14]

And my thoughts on WOW--

It had pretty much ended all MMORPG's until the end of time. It has something like 9 million subscribers, whom I doubt have any intention of switching to a new game. WOW holds an unstoppable monopoly.

Other developers will have to put their MMO development on hold, because they really don't stand a chance until this generation of uber-nerds dies out.

WoW has no where near 9 million subscribers, just like Lineage 2 has no where near 20 million subscribers.


Furthermore, other MMOs that were around before WoW have had their player base trickle back slowly, as the people that left for WoW realised that it sucked and went home to their first love.

9 Million--

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14811

Business Standpoint--

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/01/will-2008-see-t.html




The quality of the game says nothing towards business. There isn't much of a debate here: WOW holds a monopoly, and other pay-to-play MMO's simply will not do as well as they could/should while Blizzard still holds to market.

It's unfortunate, too, as you probably agree: because i'm sure alot of very good MMO's are being overlooked for something so derivative.

**I don't play MMORPG's. They're boring. But my point remains. (Colon-Happyface)**

 

[Beaux]

Twisted Metal - hopefully will last forever, best car combat!

Please God kill Halo I'm tired of people telling me about a Halo "movie" and Halo "4" make it stop!!! Halo 1 was really cool but the new ones suck.

 

[Vortigar]

Pie:
You seen the 100% comboes in the beta of Tekken 6? Even after the latest update.
Namco needs to step up their bug fixing game or get out of town.

They practically flushed SoulCalibur down the toilet with every iteration from SC1 on being worse than the last.

Dead or Alive, seeing that the same company created omething as great as Ninja Gaiden makes you think they could make a proper fighting game.

Mortal Kombat, the developers said they would reinvent it by starting from scratch for the next version, I have some hope, but it should have died before this point really.

Guilty Gear, another fighting game that the developers have proven they ran out of ideas for, X was the last decent overhaul, everything since is just minor tweaks (X2, X2#R, S, AC, wtf?).

Devil May Cry, bad-ass dude does 500 hit combo, yay, I never liked it, it's like Dynasty Warriors with punishing difficulty if you ask me, I'd rather relax with DW.

Dynasty Warriors, As much as I love the simplicity of it and can get high on this stuff like crack they really should try something new. DW6 will finally have you character swimming and scaling ladders! It's so sad that I'm actually psyched about that...

Fear is done, the last expansion was nothing, come on Monolith, you've never let me down, make me Blood 3 and forget The Chosen ever happened, okay? And while we're digging through old stuff, what happened to Shogo? Did the mech-enthusiasts leave the company?

Grand Theft Auto, oh hell yeah this should die, I played practically every 3d iteration and they're all marred by clunky controls (I find it unfathomable that so many people can ignore this), make it smooth or die and let Prototype/Crack Down/Saint's Row take the open world crown. Maybe 4 will be good, but I doubt it (especially after reading a literal quote that one of the designers said they had the best car chases ever made, sorry, Driver 1 beat you there). From GTA3 on they spent ages trying to create the game they were initially planning to make, all this stories stuff is merely cashing in, and everybody just ate it up like the good little puppies they were. People defending this and then crying for innovation make me want to hurl.

Speed round:
(Heroes of) Might & Magic, Guantlet, Sonic, Warlords, Shining real time crap (get me a proper Shining Force or desist)

 

[ke7eha]

Personally, I think that the GTA series should continue, or at least something that is like it. Honestly, I think the developers got something right with the game, which is the fact that you can play it in short sittings and still get a decent experience. I'm a student, so I have very little free time. Whenever I want to play a game, I might have only ten or fifteen minutes in which to play. The grand theft auto games are one of the few that I can really enjoy playing in such a short window of time. I also enjoy the GTA games for their mechanics. I like the larger 'big picture' story that is formed through short missions and random other information gleaned from the world of the game. The stories told... well, I could do with a better storyline, but a game type like GTA would be a welcome addition to my linup of games. Perhaps Rockstar will do something other than Drug Lord/Gang in the next GTA game [and maybe pigs will sprout wings and fly]

I still enjoy a good FPS, when I can get the time to play one of them. Unfortunately, it seems as if the FPS genre has evolved a gameplay structure that almost requires an hour of playtime to get back into the swing of the game. They are really meant to be played in longish sections of time.

The one thing that I lament in the world of video games has been the development of better graphics technology. I enjoy some of the older games because the bad graphics technology available at the time they were written forced the developers to make up for the bad graphics with a good story or good gameplay mechanics [see Hlaf-Life]. Now it seems as if developers feel that good graphics can make up for holes in the story or bad gameplay mechanics. We get it already, you can render all sorts of cool-looking eye candy, now can we please focus on developing a compelling story and a good feel for playing the game?

Another thing that I detest is that games have become much shorter. This is a direct consequence of the increased popularity of online multiplayer gaming. It is becoming as if the single player campaign is bing tacked on as an afterthought to the multiplayer portion of the game, instead of the multiplayer sections being tacked on as a bonus to the content delivered in the single player campaign. I have never been very interested in multiplayer online gaming. This may have a strong correlation to the online 'community' [you know who I am talking about] and to the fact that, up until about two years ago, I was limited to a 56k modem connection, and thus didn't get to play some of these games before the trolls took over and started dominating nearly every server on the web [or so it seems]. Thus, I feel cheated when I buy a game with a short single player campaign that has been 'made up' for with a ho-hum [at least for me] multiplayer game.

As for particular series that need to go away, I really can't think of many. I guess it is just my belief that nothing is past redemption, even a video game series. Also, I believe that if the developers put good work into a game, it may just turn out to be a good game that everybody will like playing a whole lot.

A reply to Count_de_Monet: Doom 3-
There's an interesting can of works that you open. I feel that Doom 3 was an okay game, not spectacular but competent. I guess it all comes down to the core of the game's philosophy, and for Doom 3, I feel as if the game was built as a technology demonstrator. id has, in the large part, stopped making video games and started developing engines. I think this is a great move, because it allows other studios with fresh ideas to buy a working engine and invest their time and money into the story of the game.

For an engine demonstrator, Doom 3 was good, I liked the game a lot. It was not really all that outstanding, but it was fun to play, and everything just worked like I expected it to. There were no really new gameplay elements or a particularly original story, but the game felt relatively polished and did give me a few thrills [especially when played in the dark with headphones on]. I also liked the fact that the game was long enough to actually play, rather than being so short that the game ends just as you figure everything out. I would look forward to Doom 4 in the future, even if it was developed along a similar line. I would like it because it would mean that a good engine was released for other game developers to base a new generation of games on plus a competent shooter that will be a whole lot of fun to play.