Gaming Franchises you have checked out of

[Arnoxthe1]

The Halo series. I had a blast playing the games and reading the books, but I decided to call it quits after Reach. I felt it was a good high note to end the series on. The story had closure, with all major loose ends properly tied in a bittersweet send-off at the very same spot that it all began. I also had a hunch that the franchise would take a hit in quality once Microsoft took the helm with their 343 Industries lapdogs. Based on tidbits I've seen and heard from others, I'd say my decision turned out to be a wise one.

What I didn't expect was the end of Bungie-era Halo titles doubling as a eulogy for Bungie themselves. Oh sure the studio's still around, but they're pretty much dead to me after the thoroughly uninteresting Destiny games and stabbing Marty O' Donnell in the back.

Halo, I've played every Halo game there is but after 4 and 5 I have no faith in the series anymore. If Halo 6 ends up on PC I'll still give it a try though.

Assassins Creed, I bought the first one but didn't finish it until 2 years after release, then I bought brotherhood that I never finished. Later I got Assassins Creed III with my new GPU but I never finished that either. I also got Unity with my GPU, I played it for a while then quit. Then I came back maybe a year afterwards and it turned out I quit at the last mission. By then I realized that they're all the same and it's not a fun formula so I've given up on it now.

I'm fairly certain my first post on The Escapist was slagging off "Halo 4" and my posts have only went downhill quality wise since then, but honestly the real killer for me was "Halo 5". Not that it was the worst game ("4" still takes that honour), but it was a clear indicator that 343 Industries had finally created a style and identity for themselves, and I want nothing to do with that, and I don't want to see a franchise I love from their perspective.

Almost all of this.

4 definitely had some problems. No doubt whatsoever about that, but it did do some things right too. There seemed to be a lot of glimmers of brilliance in it you would spot when you played it and some heart in it, but those glimmers never really lasted. So Halo 4 was very forgivable, especially considering the massive pressure 343 was under at the time when it was first developed.

5 was like getting fucking backstabbed and then getting teabagged by Microsoft. I don't think you guys hate Halo 5 as much as I do. But the worst part about Halo 5... The very worst thing about it... Is that people bought it anyway and said it was good. It was the greatest tragedy in gaming that year, hands down, and it seemed nobody but Angry Joe so much as batted an eyebrow at it.

Far Cry - 2 I didn't like, and we are never getting another game like Far Cry Instincts again. The best Wolverine FPS ever made.

Actually, Far Cry 3 comes close. Not that close, but close enough. The takedowns for example. You have to play it with Ziggy's Mod though. It's 10x better with it and you can do takedowns at any time, no matter if your enemy has seen you or not. And you'd think that would be OP'd but funnily enough, it isn't at all. Because the moment you go out there, you're going out in the open just to stab a dude, which will make every enemy that sees you open fire on your stupid ass, killing you very quickly. You still very much need to play it smart. I'd say Ziggy's Mod is actually harder than Far Cry 2. And this is coming from a very strong fan of FC1 and 2. Also Vaas.

Having said all that though, yeah I really miss Instincts too. And you can't buy it on the PC on top of that! D:

 

[DeliveryGodNoah_v1legacy]

Legend of Zelda- Motion Controls. I don't care how "great" they were, or how accurate they were made, I DON'T WANNA WAGGLE MY PLASTIC FOR 12 HOURS. I barely want to do it for the 30 mins I play Wii Sports or something. Also, they fail to grab my attention anymore. Nintendo is always too afraid to actually try anything bold, and I'm getting bored. "But they add new mechanics almost every game!" Oh what, a new way to "hookshot", transform to crawl through something, and move up a wall? I'm fucking floored.

Look, I know they are almost always very well crafted, highly polished experiences, but it's the same highly polished experiences. I am looking forward to what the Breath of the Wild can offer though, even if it does just look like they went too far into the bland open world development.

Gran Turismo- I'm not 100% sure what put me onto the series to begin with. Maybe because when I was younger I had the PS1 and it had the largest library of cars and tracks around.

I enjoyed the series up until 5. At that point the selection of "sim" like racing games had grown, and I got my fill with just as polished and much more exciting racing games. Gran Turismo always had this problem of robotic, bland, stay in line NPC racers, and I guess 5 was when I had enough of it.

 

[BrawlMan]

Far Cry - 2 I didn't like, and we are never getting another game like Far Cry Instincts again. The best Wolverine FPS ever made.

Actually, Far Cry 3 comes close. Not that close, but close enough. The takedowns for example. You have to play it with Ziggy's Mod though. It's 10x better with it and you can do takedowns at any time, no matter if your enemy has seen you or not. And you'd think that would be OP'd but funnily enough, it isn't at all. Because the moment you go out there, you're going out in the open just to stab a dude, which will make every enemy that sees you open fire on your stupid ass, killing you very quickly. You still very much need to play it smart. I'd say Ziggy's Mod is actually harder than Far Cry 2. And this is coming from a very strong fan of FC1 and 2. Also Vaas.

Having said all that though, yeah I really miss Instincts too. And you can't buy it on the PC on top of that! D:

I actually don't play on the PC, but thanks for the advice. It is sad that Ubisoft never ported Instincts to the PC though. They probably did it just so that console owners would have something PC gamers don't. I find it silly. Yet, they did crappy port for the Wii. Luckily for me, I kept my X360 copy and still have a 360. There's too many games on the console that I'm never giving up.

 

[Weaver]

Most AAA games, honestly. There are some big ones that I used to love, though.

I second this, there were a ton of franchises I was into for a long time but they kind of all became samey, lukewarm piss-water loaded with crappy DLC so I've really just stopped playing nearly all of them. Civilization is probably the only remaining AAA franchise I care about - if you even want to consider it AAA.

 

[Zydrate]

Hard to say. Franchises are always capable of bringing me back but;

I've yet to beat AC: Syndicate. I basically cleaned up the entire city of bonus objectives and that just left me with the story that I just can't seem to give a shit about.

Borderlands Pre-Sequel is unplayable. Despite being fully geared in purple/epics from the key-chest in the main town, I'm in my low 20's and every enemies takes a thousand hits to kill and I can only take a few before my shields go down so most of my time is spent in cover or dying. I love the games, love the style and the franchise but I can't play it without a partner. Which I don't have.