How could they screw this up??? Favorite game series that just went to hell.

[omega 616]

snip

My memories of Morrowind are a little faded but isn't Oblivion almost a carbon copy? I loved both games and from what I remember there both very similar, just one is nicer looking than the other.

Oblivion has a lot in common with Morrowind, but the problem is that while Morrowind had an interesting world with intrigue and exotic locales, Oblivion has flat characters, poorly constructed plot and a game world that looks like the forest behind my house. A lot of the mechanics were simplified and the end result functioned poorly. Also, the interface was adapted for the consoles and in the process made clunky and unresponsive.

It was a boring game with nothing going on set in an uninteresting bland world with VERY outdated gameplay and poor mechanics.

I got the same feeling from Morrowind though, thats what I am driving at. I still loved both but both seemed to have as much depth as a puddle, the inventory was easy enough in both games and they both had the same feel.

 

[Grey_Focks]

The Halo series. The original was pretty damn awesome, the second not so much, and the third was (in my opinion) just so much re-heated dross that I haven't even bothered with ODST. And now Reach is coming out. Bungee have flogged this particular dead horse so much that it's now not even a smear on the ground.

How is 4 games and an expansion pack flogging a dead horse? I think they've added enough new things to each sequel to keep it fresh while still maintaining the feel of Halo just fine, but you are of course entitled to your opinion.

OT: The Battlefield series. Why the hell are they trying to make it more like CoD, with it's pseudo realism? Battlefield has NEVER been realistic at all! Now that unique feel of the series is dead and gone, and now it just feels like MW with vehicles. Thanks Dice.

 

[Manji187]

Pretty much every single major franchise? Curse that thing called "love of money".

 

[nothingdeletemeplease]

My biggest on would have to be Final Fantasy after FFX and Hironobu Sakaguchi left I just haven't enjoyed them. Though I didn't enjoy VIII that much. That is why I follow Hironobu's new studio Mistwalker. Final Fantasy is dead to me. Also they screwed up Earthbound (Mother 2) with a sequel only released in Japan and no more sequels to follow.

 

[Lemon Of Life]

Call of Duty and Bioshock. The CoD series has been all over the place, with great and bad games. Bioshock 2 just ruined it for me.

 

[Leviathan_]

Empire Earth (II and III were horrible)

Grand theft Auto (After San Andreas)

CoD (After CoD4)

Command and Conquer

Spyro series (After A Hero's Tail)

Pokemon (after emerald)

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Uhm, Neverwinter Nights 2 was pretty damn terrible. I regret pre-ordering it... I mean, for a game it's okay, but series has gone downhill ever since.

Oh, and Guild Wars. Loved it for 3 years, then the "add-on" with 6 hours campaign and recycled armor skins and boring missions + power creep to nth power came along.

The Hero system I think spelled the end of GW as people could do missions easily on their own which killed the need to have a party for a mission. So sad though as the best part of it for me was getting a party and doing it with them.

Also Square Enix ruined FF7 with all the spin offs.

 

[Deviluk]

C&C.

W h a t h a p p e n e d.

 

[Xerosch]

Silent Hill. There are no coherent sentences to describe how I cursed what they did in 'Origins'. And then came 'Homecoming' which in my case is unplayable. I'd drag myself through it, but the camera settings and combat sabotages every effort.

'Condemned 2' was not a terrible game for itself, but it was just a HUGE pile of vomit after the excellent (and SUBTLE) firsxt game.

'Sonic'. Need I say more?

 

[Abedeus]

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - Elder Scrolls were always the forerunners in Open World RPGs, with Morrowind reaching cult status. Then they put out Oblivion, a game with atrocious controls that should have been scrapped after Daggerfall, zero story, atrocious writing, terrible voice acting, moronic mechanics, a cluttered and poorly designed interface and an open world more boring than a can of spam. They did make up for it a bit with Fallout 3, but I still fear for the Elder Scrolls series...

Also one of the most amazing graphics I've ever seen (especially nature), interface nor the controls were bad (on PC, at least), in fact they were really intuitive, awesome and incredible modding tools that created hundreds or even thousands of mods, upgrades, unofficial patches and adventures...

The only problem I had with Oblivion was that it was more fun to goof off than do the main story. But hey, that's why you have the modding tools.

Oh, oh... and "cult classic" isn't what you think it is. "Heavy Metal" is cult classic. "Daikatana" is a cult classic game. Morrowind is an excellent and critically acclaimed game, which automatically makes it the opposite of a cult classic.

 

[Petromir]

Napoleon:TW / Empire:TW - The Total War series started going downhill with Empire, but it was still decent. A ton of crappy design decisions, terrible coding, unfinished and buggy release and pants-on-head-retarded AI were still compensated by many positive moves, such as a better diplomacy system, revamped construction/economic system, etc. Then Napoleon shows up and guts the game, taking away the entire Macromanagement aspect of the series and leaving you with pretty much only the battles against the (still retarded) AI.

Well all the Total wars were buggy on release, hell the last two have been the most stable on mine.

The AI simiarly has usually varied from at best has read through a book on how to do it, to hilariously shit. Its never been that good, but the greater complexity of warefare later makes it much more obvious.

And there pleanty to do at the macromanagmement end on Napoleon. Some of its been removed (but less than halved), but thats mostly been made up by the fact you have to think about your troops more on the campeign map. No more carefree jaunts round the other side of the map raping and pillaging, now you have to think about them.

And now you can aleviate the AI problem by playing with real people......

 

[ResiEvalJohn]

Everybody look at my avatar.

Now slowly nod your head in agreement.

 

[Woodsey]

CoD probably - mainly because 1 & 2 had some soul.

Yeah, MW had a couple of sad moments but still, it never really matched the first 2 - just watch the trailer for CoD, then watch the trailer for MW2.

 

[C95J]

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - Elder Scrolls were always the forerunners in Open World RPGs, with Morrowind reaching cult status. Then they put out Oblivion, a game with atrocious controls that should have been scrapped after Daggerfall, zero story, atrocious writing, terrible voice acting, moronic mechanics, a cluttered and poorly designed interface and an open world more boring than a can of spam. They did make up for it a bit with Fallout 3, but I still fear for the Elder Scrolls series...

There was a story, and the controls were monumentally better than Morrowinds. Sure it didn't have as many quests and Morrowind, but it still had a hell of a lot more than Fallout 3 did. The interface was the smoothest of the series, A lot of voice actors from Morrowind went onto Oblivion as well, The Mechanics were a lot better than the randomness of Morrowind.

Really, those are some pretty stupid complaints.

told.

 

[Abedeus]

Uhm, Neverwinter Nights 2 was pretty damn terrible. I regret pre-ordering it... I mean, for a game it's okay, but series has gone downhill ever since.

Oh, and Guild Wars. Loved it for 3 years, then the "add-on" with 6 hours campaign and recycled armor skins and boring missions + power creep to nth power came along.

The Hero system I think spelled the end of GW as people could do missions easily on their own which killed the need to have a party for a mission. So sad though as the best part of it for me was getting a party and doing it with them.

Hero system is what saved the game. I never felt the need to party with other people. All pugs so far were:

a) stupid
b) moronic
c) disobedient
d) unskilled
e) ALL OF THE ABOVE.

And yeah, e) is the most common option. After Nightfall, I never EVER had to join a PuG. Thank God. If not for the heroes, I would probably continue playing with henchmen till I got bored with the missions.

 

[captainaweshum]

Pretty much every single major franchise? Curse that thing called "love of money".

I half agree. There are some examples of franchises that are still really strong and only getting better, however, it's because they are early in their lineage.

The Mass Effect franchise for example. I played the first one and loved it. Then the second one came out and it basically cut all the bad parts of the first one and improved on the good bits.

The Chrono Trigger franchise.

Possibly Breath of Fire I dunno cause I haven't played past the first two.

And I'd say Halo if it wasn't for ODST and Wars which really should not be considered canon.

 

[Macgyvercas]

Mine would have to be the Zelda series. I mean Twilight Princess was okay, a bit of pandering to the fans (but I'm not complaining) was present, but still it was decent. But it's apparent that we will never see a game as strong as OOT or (the golden beacon of games) Majora's Mask.

The Wii motion plus is making sure of that.

Hopefully Nintendo will listen to reason and include an option to use classic controls. I doubt it though.

OoT was rather excellent, except for one thing:

Spoiler: The only flaw in an otherwise perfect game

My favorite Zelda game is ALttP, though.

 

[Elburzito]

The Halo series. The original was pretty damn awesome, the second not so much, and the third was (in my opinion) just so much re-heated dross that I haven't even bothered with ODST. And now Reach is coming out. Bungee have flogged this particular dead horse so much that it's now not even a smear on the ground.

You should get ODST if you liked the first one. Great story and the gameplay almost goes back to the original formula.

OT:Tes IV: Oblivion ruined for me. Morrowind was so much better. It had more guilds, less linearity, and a better story. Only problem was the combat.

 

[MisterM2402]

But it's apparent that we will never see a game as strong as OOT or (the golden beacon of games) Majora's Mask.

I totally disagree. The Windwaker was an amazing game, with a huge world, a great story, and lots of islands to explore!

No. Just no.

I half-agree - OoT and MM were fantastic games, and there will probably never be another one as ground-breaking or the same calibre as these N64 classics, but I have to say that Wind Waker and Twilight Princess were both superb as well (just not as much).

Simon the Sorceror - I know they only made the 3rd one 3D since the market for 2D games was "too small" (apparently), but this was the single worst decision for the series. (In the first place they WERE making it in 2D, but that all changed)