Great Franchises that have made less than great games

[Irridium]

Bioshock 2 was a decent game, but I think the franchise would've been fine without it.

As for franchises with potential, well the new XCOM remake shows that you can have a turn-based strategy game make money in this market, so maybe we'll get more of those. Which would be fantastic. Not exactly exclusive to the franchise, but still.

 

[daveman247]

Most movie franchises (still think bladerunner could work)

Also some 2000AD comics would make great games i think (Judge Dredd, another rogue trooper). Marvel and DC have had their cracks at it, why not 2000?

I played that game, i thought it was ok but yeah it could have been better. I did like the arresting though ^_^ I still think it could be good if they gave it to a good dev A sandbox game would be cool.

 

[daveman247]

They did actually make an excellent Blade Runner game back in 97 I think it was. Point and click adventure with some hectic gunplay (in the point and click genre) That came out of nowhere. I'm afraid the aged graphics might pull it down today.

Ah, now i remember. But i was thinking more along the lines of a more traditional action adventure (not a straight fps)

 

[Nouw]

Dawn of War Soulstorm was probably the lowest point in the franchise, but at least it's redeemable by the hilariously bad voice-acting.

 

[daveman247]

Mario Kart, most are really good, but Wii was just shit, no multiplayer GP, karts were worthless, and the conditions for unlocking anything were retarded.

You should look into sonic transformed, i think it betters mariocart in some areas

You can do most modes with 4 people too! (GP, world tour)

 

[BearMinerals]

I would have to go with Fable as my first choice. It's a really cool world with great humor and fun characters, yet somehow the games are always just shy of being truly great. All of them are good, mind you, (not counting Fable: The Journey, which I haven't play), but none of them seem to live up to their potential. Fable II was probably the closest they've gotten, though.

Also, Assassin's Creed and Resident Evil.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I would have to go with Fable as my first choice. It's a really cool world with great humor and fun characters, yet somehow the games are always just shy of being truly great. All of them are good, mind you, (not counting Fable: The Journey, which I haven't play), but none of them seem to live up to their potential. Fable II was probably the closest they've gotten, though.

Also, Assassin's Creed and Resident Evil.

I agree with the Fable games. I personally think Fable: The Lost Chapters was the strongest in the series, and then each game kept getting further and further away. But yes, all the games seem to have amazing potential, but never manage to capture it completely.

Kingdoms of Amalur had some great lore and I enjoyed the gameplay. Too bad the storytelling was such a mess. Dragged the game down for me. Sadly, they'll never have a chance to iron it out now.

I KNOW Final Fantasy can get its act together. I've seen moments of brilliance in Final Fantasy XIII, and even more in XIII-2, but still not up to the levels of VII VIII and X (and X-2, which I enjoyed).

Someone already mentioned Star Wars I see. I would love to be able to do a straight up flight combat sim again, like X-Wing. The Rogue Squadron series came close with Rogue Leader, but then Rogue Squadron III shifted focus too much.

If Treyarch just abandoned the Call of Duty part and made a straight up zombie game with the same characters from World at War/Black Ops (NOT Black Ops II, as all those characters are just annoying) and kept going with the storyline, I would be thrilled.

Oh Mass Effect...sigh. If only you hadn't shot yourself in the foot with Mass Effect 3's ending.

Dragon Age, although I get the feeling that they may be starting to grasp their true potential. The Darkspawn are a nice enemy, but Dragon Age II cracked the door open on so much MORE. Creatures that make the Darkspawn look pleasant. Assuming the stuff I've heard about Dragon Age III is true, then I believe they are on the right track.

 

[Zeraki]

The Mega Man X series(one of my all time favorite game series) really started to slowly degenerate with X5.


-X5 is where it started to get too dialogue heavy, held your hand too much(shut UP Alia!) and you couldn't wear armor pieces as you got them. You had to wait until you collected the full set to use it(Lame).

-X6 was kind of alright(it was mostly the same as X5 though), but the nightmare system pissed me off and eventually turned me off the game completely.

-X7... we do no speak of X7

-X8 was okay... but I didn't like the changes they made to the gameplay mechanics. Shield breaking attacks, combo attacks, slooooooow movement.

Kingdoms of Amalur had some great lore and I enjoyed the gameplay. Too bad the storytelling was such a mess. Dragged the game down for me. Sadly, they'll never have a chance to iron it out now.

That was such a damn shame. Amalur had a lot of potential as a series, to see it go the way it did was painful.

 

[AlbertoDeSanta]

The Jak and Daxter Series. I loved the first three titles, but Jak X really just screwed me over. It had the worst Save bug ever and it was a pretty bad racing game. This comes from Naughty Dog who made the Brilliant racing game for the Crash Bandicoot series. Such a shame.

Oh! And Speaking of Crash Bandicoot, Him too. All of his games were excellent... until Radical took over in 2007. I loved 'em all and his games were my childhood. Then Radical raped it. Thanks Radical!

Edit: Crash Tag Team Racing wasn't bad. To anyone who assumed I hated it, I meant from Crash Of the Titans onwards. Those were the worst games in the entire series.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

Well the Need for Speed series has had both amazing and shit games.

Good: Underground 1 and 2, MostWanted (ps2), Carbon, Shift 1 and 2.

Shit: Pro Street, The Run, Most Wanted (2012).

 

[Mikejames]

The Silent Hill series has certainly had its controversies which I'm ambivalent about.

Assassin's Creed. The potential is enormous but every entry so far has been plagued by awful design decisions.

Padding it out hasn't helped either.

 

[wolfreviews]

I think most platformer's (sonic,mario bros,etc) have been on the downhill this gen of console's in my personal opinion.

 

[crazyrabbits]

the robocop 3 fps was horrible? it predates doom by 2 years and was critically acclaimed at the time. it was one of the best adaptations of a movie for years, heck it was better than the movie it was based on

There was an R3 FPS? The one I'm referring to is the 2003 game for the original XBox, which was pretty much a clone of all the other shooters at the time.