Good series ruined by the biz
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I dunno, the series seems to have recovered with HR.Smeatza said:
OT: I hate to bring it up, but... the trinity of Activision's milked franchises: Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero, and Call of Duty. What was once fun and unique is now stale and old. I feel hesitant to say that any one series has been "ruined", but Activision has pretty much driven them all into the ground (except for maybe COD, but even then it is getting dangerously close).
No one has said Call of Duty? (EDIT: nevermind BreakfastMan has)
Call of Duty 1, was good, quite challenging and some very cool depictions of WWII. Call of Duty 2, introduced the regenerating health, but was still challenging, presentation improved in some aspects and failed in others.
I never got to play Call of Duty 3, but it was never released for PC which indicates that something was going wrong.
-Finest Hour was awful
-Big Red One was meh
-Modern Warfare 1 was acceptable but it wasn't Call of Duty, after that CoD then became the poster child for everything wrong with modern FPSs becoming super mainstream. World at War introduced Nazi Zombies which was just jumping shark more. Just to let it be said, I don't completely hate Modern Warfare, but it's taken the series away from what I liked. It's only a matter of time before they remove the singleplayer component entirely
I'd mention Assassin's Creed from what I've seen (ok first game, good sequel, re-tread with tacked on multiplayer, ANOTHER retread), but I'll refrain.
Call of Duty 1, was good, quite challenging and some very cool depictions of WWII. Call of Duty 2, introduced the regenerating health, but was still challenging, presentation improved in some aspects and failed in others.
I never got to play Call of Duty 3, but it was never released for PC which indicates that something was going wrong.
-Finest Hour was awful
-Big Red One was meh
-Modern Warfare 1 was acceptable but it wasn't Call of Duty, after that CoD then became the poster child for everything wrong with modern FPSs becoming super mainstream. World at War introduced Nazi Zombies which was just jumping shark more. Just to let it be said, I don't completely hate Modern Warfare, but it's taken the series away from what I liked. It's only a matter of time before they remove the singleplayer component entirely
I'd mention Assassin's Creed from what I've seen (ok first game, good sequel, re-tread with tacked on multiplayer, ANOTHER retread), but I'll refrain.
Spyro, God rest his soul. They should have put him to bed long before Elijah Wood came into the picture. But now they've resurrected him again for this Skylanders business, morphed him to look like a character from "How to Train Your Dragon," and ugh...I can't bear to think about it anymore.
This isn't a game, but I'm pretty sire an Transfan would side with me here.
Transformers: Armada, the show had great potential, I loved the Anime styled animation, the action was great, but it was all let down when Hasbro rushed it out, leaving unfinished animation, poorly translated dialogue, and overall ruined by the retarded release schedule.I heard the Japanese version is much better, but there aren't any decent subs or dubs around.All the characterization & story development was ruined by the badly translated dialogue & the action ruined by unfinished animation.
Still,I was only a kid when it aired, and I couldn't nitpick & spot the errors, so I loved it(Oh, how a fool I was...)I still have every single episode on VHS.
And for video games, I'm going to go with the Call of Duty; Modern warfare games.
Sweet jesus, they are dreadful.Call of Duty 4 was genuinely good, and when it was a hit..Well, something snapped in the bastard company of Activisions head, now it's a slog of repetitive, Russian demonizing shooting galleries & overblown drama & action scenes.
Transformers: Armada, the show had great potential, I loved the Anime styled animation, the action was great, but it was all let down when Hasbro rushed it out, leaving unfinished animation, poorly translated dialogue, and overall ruined by the retarded release schedule.I heard the Japanese version is much better, but there aren't any decent subs or dubs around.All the characterization & story development was ruined by the badly translated dialogue & the action ruined by unfinished animation.
Still,I was only a kid when it aired, and I couldn't nitpick & spot the errors, so I loved it(Oh, how a fool I was...)I still have every single episode on VHS.
And for video games, I'm going to go with the Call of Duty; Modern warfare games.
Sweet jesus, they are dreadful.Call of Duty 4 was genuinely good, and when it was a hit..Well, something snapped in the bastard company of Activisions head, now it's a slog of repetitive, Russian demonizing shooting galleries & overblown drama & action scenes.
The Troika staff worked on the game without pay for that part of the game. And it wasn't just Activision that screwed over Troika, White Wolf screwed them too by doing nothing to promote the game since they were going forward with the new edition of World of Darkness.Daystar Clarion said:
As for other series ruined by the biz,
Might and Magic and Heroes of Might and Magic - The way that Ubisoft has treated the franchise is just deplorable. Heroes 5 was released in worse shape than Heroes 4. Even though Heroes 5 turned out to be pretty decent after the last expansion and all the updates, Ubisoft decided not to go back to that developer, I know they had other projects but Ubi could have waited, and went with a new developer that basically had to start over.
However, the franchise was suffering even before it was bought by Ubisoft. Thing went downhill ever since New World Computing, the original developer of the franchise, joined 3DO. 3DO really mismanaged the franchise by cutting corners and forcing a bunch of pointless spin offs in an attempt to make a quick buck.
Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines.
In hindsight, it was probably a bad idea using a 'beta' version of the Source Engine, all because Activision wanted the game out before Valve released Half Life 2. Just imagine, if Troika had the finished Source Engine build, how much more beautiful and stable the damn thing would've been.
And yet we have a game which is so full of game breaking bugs that even though a decade has nearly passed, unofficial are still coming out trying to iron out all the kinks.
In hindsight, it was probably a bad idea using a 'beta' version of the Source Engine, all because Activision wanted the game out before Valve released Half Life 2. Just imagine, if Troika had the finished Source Engine build, how much more beautiful and stable the damn thing would've been.
And yet we have a game which is so full of game breaking bugs that even though a decade has nearly passed, unofficial are still coming out trying to iron out all the kinks.
No one brings up WarCraft? Huuh.
Not to hold it up as some pinnacle of gaming storytelling or anything, but anyone remember Kael'Thas? I could go on and on and on, but I'm just going to say "Tempest Keep was merely a setback" and leave it at that. Or Illidan "Sir Not Appearing In This Expansion Except For One Dungeon Where He Dies, And It's Not Even The Final Dungeon" Stormrage.
Also I'll back Diablo and Final Fantasy, and unback Mass Effect.
Not to hold it up as some pinnacle of gaming storytelling or anything, but anyone remember Kael'Thas? I could go on and on and on, but I'm just going to say "Tempest Keep was merely a setback" and leave it at that. Or Illidan "Sir Not Appearing In This Expansion Except For One Dungeon Where He Dies, And It's Not Even The Final Dungeon" Stormrage.
Also I'll back Diablo and Final Fantasy, and unback Mass Effect.
It had atmosphere to spare. That's what people loved about it. The art style wasn't anything to write home about by itself, the writing wasn't either, but take those two, combine it with truly outstanding music, and you've got something that's much more than the sum of its parts.Austin Howe said:
This is filled with just general hate. Maybe gain a bit more positivity man, Diablo 3 looks quite good.
Banjo-Kazooie. That game was incredible. To make it better, the epilogue has Mumbo-Jumbo talking about the (at the time) upcoming sequel, Banjo-Tooie! Then, at the end of that game, Banjo-Threeie was mentioned! Guess what game we still don't have after over a decade? All because Microsoft seemed to think it wouldn't be popular. The series is very popular! But, Microsoft thinks everyone out there just wants more cookie-cutter shooters.
Conker. His N64 debut, Conker's Bad Fur Day was phenomenal! But, for the same reasons as Banjo-Kazooie, we still haven't gotten the second game, which RareWare still desperately wants to make!
Army Men. Playing games where you're a two-inch-tall, green plastic soldier. Sounds awesome, right? Well, it was! Until 3DO went bankrupt, and 2K Games (BioShock, Duke Nukem Forever) bought the franchise. Now, it's horrible. They "Callofdutyitized" it. Why would you want to take something as light-hearted and colorful as this and make it dark and gritty? Just why!? Also, these newer ones are just not as much fun. Not to mention that they killed off all of the major characters! And Soldiers of Misfortune... No words can describe this idiocy...
<Halo[/I] and Call of Duty were a lot better, back when they first started. I had a blast with the original Halo. It was a nice, slow-pacld to explore! In some respect, it felt kinda like Half-Life in space. Then, I tried ed adventure, with so much happening in every level. There was so much of this huge world to immerse into! Then, I played Reach. Boy, talk about "dumbed down". That was boring. I felt like I was playing a constant game of Red Light, Green Light. The shooting seemed like it was on rails, and the random wandering was just stupid. And I will never forgive them for that jeep glitch. Also, why can I barely turn my head when I'm sitting in a helicopter? Call of Duty... Man, have you guys seen the cover to the first game? It looks like an entirely different franchise! You don't see some silhouette going all "LUK AHT MEH EIM TEH UBERDUDE!!!!11!!" There's a small, ragtag group of soldiers crowded together, forming some sort of strategy together, as there are much more powerful enemy forces (even a tank) in the background. Oh, and it's rated "T". Not "M". The series really lost any sense of "duty" and "honor" that it might have had before.
Guitar Hero, while I didn't enjoy it, I do know that it was brought down, due to one very foolish decision: Slapping the songs in the games illegally. They got sued so many times for not licensing most of the songs they put in, that they had to cancel the entire series! And, about EA, I think there was one thing they actually made better. The 007 games, like NightFire (all three versions) and Everything or Nothing. Those were incredible. Activision ruined them, though.
Conker. His N64 debut, Conker's Bad Fur Day was phenomenal! But, for the same reasons as Banjo-Kazooie, we still haven't gotten the second game, which RareWare still desperately wants to make!
Army Men. Playing games where you're a two-inch-tall, green plastic soldier. Sounds awesome, right? Well, it was! Until 3DO went bankrupt, and 2K Games (BioShock, Duke Nukem Forever) bought the franchise. Now, it's horrible. They "Callofdutyitized" it. Why would you want to take something as light-hearted and colorful as this and make it dark and gritty? Just why!? Also, these newer ones are just not as much fun. Not to mention that they killed off all of the major characters! And Soldiers of Misfortune... No words can describe this idiocy...
<Halo[/I] and Call of Duty were a lot better, back when they first started. I had a blast with the original Halo. It was a nice, slow-pacld to explore! In some respect, it felt kinda like Half-Life in space. Then, I tried ed adventure, with so much happening in every level. There was so much of this huge world to immerse into! Then, I played Reach. Boy, talk about "dumbed down". That was boring. I felt like I was playing a constant game of Red Light, Green Light. The shooting seemed like it was on rails, and the random wandering was just stupid. And I will never forgive them for that jeep glitch. Also, why can I barely turn my head when I'm sitting in a helicopter? Call of Duty... Man, have you guys seen the cover to the first game? It looks like an entirely different franchise! You don't see some silhouette going all "LUK AHT MEH EIM TEH UBERDUDE!!!!11!!" There's a small, ragtag group of soldiers crowded together, forming some sort of strategy together, as there are much more powerful enemy forces (even a tank) in the background. Oh, and it's rated "T". Not "M". The series really lost any sense of "duty" and "honor" that it might have had before.
Guitar Hero, while I didn't enjoy it, I do know that it was brought down, due to one very foolish decision: Slapping the songs in the games illegally. They got sued so many times for not licensing most of the songs they put in, that they had to cancel the entire series! And, about EA, I think there was one thing they actually made better. The 007 games, like NightFire (all three versions) and Everything or Nothing. Those were incredible. Activision ruined them, though.
Assassin's Creed is the first that comes to mind. The series has a really good foundation and a lot of potential, but now it's full of over-priced spin-offs with minimal progression (60 bucks each for two side-stories with minimal useful additions to gameplay/story and a multiplayer? No, that doesn't seem greedy at all). Ubisoft can redeem themselves if they wrap up the story neatly with AC3, but AC2.5 and 2.75 as something to chew on between that doesn't justify much.
Kingdom Hearts is another one. Again, good foundation and lots of potential (even if it does rely heavily on hitting the nostalgia bone pretty hard, it stil worked), but...oh my what happened? It has been 6 years since the last major installment in the franchise. Since then, there have been a million spin-offs and remakes of said spin-offs (additionally, all on handheld systems). Really, how much plot has been added since KH2? Very little, and HOW many games came out? A lot of them just explore stuff that already happened. And so many of them are just pure nonsense (I've read some stuff on the 3DS game. Just...wtf?) I've just competely zoned out from the franchise. Odds are I'll get the 3DS one to justify getting my 3DS and because I'm a total tool. They don't even plan to end it with KH3 x____x. They're still putting more priority on Final Fantasy projects. Come ooooooon, 3 plz.
EDIT: Forgot about the sequel stuff.
Okami, because Okamiden just doesn't cut it. Doesn't need to be a franchise, but there is still room to wiggle around.
The entire 3D platforming genre: Because unless your name is Mario then your project won't be greenighted. They just don't sell like they used to, and it's hard to make a good one. 3D platforming is a lost genre. Adam Sessler was right on how funny it was that Ratchet in the Future series was touted as being the last of his kind, and good 3D platformers are something of an endangered species.
Rare: Complete agreement with everyone. If a good Conker or Banjo game was made (...and it was on something that isn't an Xbox) then I will toss money at them.
Kingdom Hearts is another one. Again, good foundation and lots of potential (even if it does rely heavily on hitting the nostalgia bone pretty hard, it stil worked), but...oh my what happened? It has been 6 years since the last major installment in the franchise. Since then, there have been a million spin-offs and remakes of said spin-offs (additionally, all on handheld systems). Really, how much plot has been added since KH2? Very little, and HOW many games came out? A lot of them just explore stuff that already happened. And so many of them are just pure nonsense (I've read some stuff on the 3DS game. Just...wtf?) I've just competely zoned out from the franchise. Odds are I'll get the 3DS one to justify getting my 3DS and because I'm a total tool. They don't even plan to end it with KH3 x____x. They're still putting more priority on Final Fantasy projects. Come ooooooon, 3 plz.
EDIT: Forgot about the sequel stuff.
Okami, because Okamiden just doesn't cut it. Doesn't need to be a franchise, but there is still room to wiggle around.
The entire 3D platforming genre: Because unless your name is Mario then your project won't be greenighted. They just don't sell like they used to, and it's hard to make a good one. 3D platforming is a lost genre. Adam Sessler was right on how funny it was that Ratchet in the Future series was touted as being the last of his kind, and good 3D platformers are something of an endangered species.
Rare: Complete agreement with everyone. If a good Conker or Banjo game was made (...and it was on something that isn't an Xbox) then I will toss money at them.
It's a fan-rage keyword that can mean a lot of thingsGobbieGoldchain said:
It can mean that;
Making things accessible. You know that in some games you have to scroll down several menus to take the action you want. Putting that action on a hotbar is dumbing it down.
It can also mean; Due to the utter pointlessness of a feature that only 5 people actually used, we removed it. It is now dumbed down.
It can also mean that consoles have a far bigger market and thus any game that is both for the console and pc must have been dumbed down for the retarded console users, because of reasons.
Or it can literally mean that features were removed because they were too complex for target audiences.
Pretty sure Nuts and Bolts is meant to Banjo-Threeie (which, let's face it, is an incredibly stupid name. Tooie worked, Threeie doesn't). It's too bad that Nuts and Bolts deviated so much from the rest of the series. But I actually think it was decent at least. I do agree we need a new ACTUAL Banjo-Kazooie game with the old gameplay mechanics. But I don't think Nuts and Bolts was actually bad. I thought it had interesting ideas with the vehicle creation at least. Though trying to focus so much on the vehicle aspect really killed it.Lugbzurg said:
I both agree and disagree with the AC one. For me, AC's sequel, which I consider just 2, was sooooo much better then the first. It was a great example of a good sequel. Take the aspects people enjoyed and improve on them while getting rid of how incredibly repititve it was and making a new, and better, character to follow.Raggedstar said:
But, at the same time, I do think Brotherhood and Revelations are too much. I really didn't care for Brotherhood for many reasons, and haven't gotten myself invested enough to play Revelations yet. They really did milk that setting too much. Hopefully 3 will be able to bring it back. But even then, the gameplay really didn't suffer too much. It still worked pretty solidly. Even if Brotherhood kinda forgot why AC2 was fun (yes, let's make 2/3 of the map really open with little to no chance to hop from rooftop to rooftop and then set most everything else in tight corridors).
As for KH, what really killed me was opening for 2. It's been a while since I played it, but I remember spending hours following a character I knew nothing about doing stuff that I really didn't care about nor did it feel like a Kingdom Hearts game. The reason for doing so was explained at the end of the intro. And I suppose it would have helped to play the GBA game they had released. But that doesn't excuse the fact that it really seemed like a time-waster with no real point in the end that blocked me off from the actual fun part of the game.
Crash Bandicoot - 3 great game and Naughty Dog decides wisely to quit while they're ahead, however every developer since who has tried to revive the series seems to not grasped this and it makes me sad to see my childhood dragged through the mud.
Timesplitters - Recession caused Free Radical to go under and is bought by Creek. However Crytek afraid of money and happy fans decides not to release a sequel instead to carry on releasing glorified tech demos and sequels to Homefront. Sorry still cut up about Timesplitters D:
Timesplitters - Recession caused Free Radical to go under and is bought by Creek. However Crytek afraid of money and happy fans decides not to release a sequel instead to carry on releasing glorified tech demos and sequels to Homefront. Sorry still cut up about Timesplitters D:
What are you talking about? They only made three Spyro games for the PS1. Everyone had the common sense to let Spyro fall into obscurity before any idiot got there hands on it and made it an obvious cash-grab. There were no average, yet completely unremarkable "Legend" games and Spyro retired in his prime.Lilani said:
OT: Crash. Wrath of Cortex and Twinsanity were fun, but when they started with the "Mojo" and hijacking mutants bullshit, I couldn't take it anymore.