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

[IslandManJack]

Im going to have to say the Spyro games. The first 3 games were wonderful and are very fond games of my childhood. When Enter the Dragonfly came out the series took a sharp turn into the bad video game shit pile.

 

[Cuppa Tetleys]

I think it's safe to say that most of the series mentioned here will be originally published by NINTENDO, and that says something.

 

[Kiefer13]

Command & Conquer. C&C 4 was pure and utter shit. It was one of the games I was most looking forward to in 2010 as well. They took what is easily a candidate for my favourite games franchise ever and somehow managed to remove everything that made it so. I honestly couldn't bring myself to play more than a couple of hours of it before turning it off in disgust and playing Red Alert 2 instead to remind me what a real C&C game was like. This is coming from someone that really enjoyed both C&C3 and RA3 as well, even though I hear a lot of people who are fans of the older games say they didn't like those.

 

[Altorin]

Onimusha.. the one after Onimusha 3 that didn't involve Nobunaga and was complete shit... I was so excited to play it.. SOOOO excited... it was like fucking my eyeballs with a fork.

also, Gauntlet.. the most recent one (I think), that was directed by John Romero

Fuck that long haired bastard.. hasn't made a good game since Quake.

 

[vrbtny]

Harry Potter - Yes I know, film licence games... but 1-3 were great fun while 4-6 were just utter dross.

yeah..... i find still myself playing the first two and thinking...Why the hell do i like these, the graphics are horrible and it's like 10 years old. But i just love them, the quidditch is good in the second one.

So, good point out.

 

[Jennacide]

Shadow Hearts.

The first two games were awesome, the last game was supposed to take the game in a new direction with new characters. It ended up just re skinning all the old characters and constantly slipping in cameos and jokes from the second game. I understand that sort of thing in SH2 because it took place in the same time, place, and with the same hero as the first. In the third there is no excuse. It just felt hollow. Even ignoring that the story was weak, the brick combat system was lame, and instead of improving the graveyard they just flat removed it. So instead of choosing which demons you want to manifest as you just collect them one by one, meaning they are no longer equal in strength taking away the majority of the customization.

Valkyrie Profile. I loved the first two games for so many reasons. Then the fanfic on the DS came out. It put me in a permanent state of sad-face the entire time I forced myself to play it. Not because it's sad, but because I couldn't understand why tri-Ace felt that they needed to rape my dedication to the series as a fan.

You mean I am not the only one who felt that way?

Poor Shadow Hearts. Though I will say I don't /fully/ agree, as SH3 was akin to FF8. Not as good as it's older titles, but still better than a lot of the garbage JRPGs out there. The music was still just as stellar as 1 and 2, the story wasn't that bad, and some of the characters were still good. In particular Frank and Hilde were still awesome, but Johnny and Shania had nothing on Yuri. And nobody matched the hilarity of Johachim.

As for the Valkyrie Profile DS game, I view it the same way as Suikoden Terkris. If you pretend they aren't part of the original franchise, they aren't bad games.

 

[Duraji]

Banjo-Kazooie. Nuts and Bolts made me cry tears of physical pain while playing it. It raped my childhood. I could name some more but they have already been said so no point.

Oh, God, you're not the only one. Seriously, what the hell happened? Rare is now nothing more than a bunch of complete idiots with access to state-of-the-art technology, so the graphics are still great but very little else is.

It would take me a long time to sum up just what went wrong with Nuts & Bolts, but the main problem is that they took out all the sense of exploring a wacky fantasy world and solving puzzles, all while being shockingly free-roaming. Why is this formula so difficult to reconsider? Why haven't there been any more free-roaming 3D platformers in so long?

The worst part of all, though, was not the vehicles. The vehicles could have worked had they otherwise stayed with the formula of discovering things and connecting the dots with ingenious puzzles, but instead virtually all of the jiggies were obtained through racing or battling challenges, rendering the game far more linear and like a transparent GTA clone than it should have been.

Rare KNEW this, too, and teased us on the loading screens by saying that we should rebuy the original Banjo-Kazooie if we wanted the tried and true gameplay of the original. It's almost like they were TRYING to kill such a beloved franchise. Seriously, the first two games are in my top ten list of favorite games of all time, while Nuts & Bolts isn't even in my top 100. =/

 

[zehydra]

There's nothing wrong with the Zelda series, but no, Ocarina of Time was the golden beacon of games, not Majora's mask. Though Majora's mask WAS fun, Ocarina of Time is the game that influenced the most in future game design.

But ah, I fail to see how Wii motion plus will stop them from making a good zelda game...

 

[Lamppenkeyboard]

Super Paper Mario was the best example I think. A fun, whimsical trun based RPG, torn apart and remodeled into a stiff, grindish platformer.

And I think Ocarina of Time wasn't nearly as good as Link to the past.

 

[Kuilui]

For me the two biggest slaps to the face were Resident evil and Final fantasy. What in the world happened to these games? Resident evil went all broken half baked action games and Square Enix must have fired everyone who made ff 6,7 and 9 because the series is utter garbage now. 10 was mediocre but somewhat playable the rest of the new ones I pour gasoline on and burn in a dumpster.

 

[Blue Musician]

Command and Conquer 4 - For the last game of a well established and well beloved series, they decide to completely scrap the gameplay and the mechanics that were in from the first game. "But Jandau!" you might say, "Change is good! Games shouldn't stagnate!". While there is SOME truth to that, it only gets worse from there - Then they proceed to replace the original gameplay with crap. Pure, undiluted crap. Poor visual design of units, simplistic mechanics, clunky controls and interface, dumbed down overall gameplay. Terrible way to send off a legend of the genre.

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.

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...

Supreme Commander 2 - One of the more unique RTS games out there got a sequel that took every cool and original idea the first game had (or had inherited from Total Annihilation) and kicked it out, putting in completely generic RTS mechanics, ending up with a game that in no way stands out and is mediocre at best, all for the sake of getting in on the console market. I hope it was worth it.

EDIT: If you're about to quote me and tell me how awesome Oblivion is, don't bother. I understand I'm the minority on that one and let's leave it at that.

I totally agree with EVERY aspect you wrote, however I never really liked the TES games.

Other ones I would have included would be BioShock (remember, it's a spiritual sequel which fials in the two aspects), Silent Hill 5 and Origins, Call of Duty, Fallout 3 and Thief 3. Sure, some WERE good, like Thief 3, but not as great as the previous ones.

 

[run_forrest_run]

Bioshock 2 spat on the magic of the outstanding original.

 

[AdamRBi]

Well for starters there is Sonic and I probably need not explain why. (we all know the reasons.)

Part from that, I think a game that's on the brink of sliding downhill is Star Fox. The games are few and far between, which would be nice if they were all super spectacular, but since they're not it feels like it's on a gradual dip in the wrong direction.

Also, I have fond memories of older Need for Speed games... you know, before they went Underground. Though with GT and Forza Motorsports it kinda makes sense the direction they chose to go.

 

[Hat of Controversy]

Banjo-Kazooie. Nuts and Bolts made me cry tears of physical pain while playing it. It raped my childhood. I could name some more but they have already been said so no point.

Oh, God, you're not the only one. Seriously, what the hell happened? Rare is now nothing more than a bunch of complete idiots with access to state-of-the-art technology, so the graphics are still great but very little else is.

It would take me a long time to sum up just what went wrong with Nuts & Bolts, but the main problem is that they took out all the sense of exploring a wacky fantasy world and solving puzzles, all while being shockingly free-roaming. Why is this formula so difficult to reconsider? Why haven't there been any more free-roaming 3D platformers in so long?

The worst part of all, though, was not the vehicles. The vehicles could have worked had they otherwise stayed with the formula of discovering things and connecting the dots with ingenious puzzles, but instead virtually all of the jiggies were obtained through racing or battling challenges, rendering the game far more linear and like a transparent GTA clone than it should have been.

Rare KNEW this, too, and teased us on the loading screens by saying that we should rebuy the original Banjo-Kazooie if we wanted the tried and true gameplay of the original. It's almost like they were TRYING to kill such a beloved franchise. Seriously, the first two games are in my top ten list of favorite games of all time, while Nuts & Bolts isn't even in my top 100. =/

The problem is that they decided to turn a once great adventure/fantasy experience full of whimsy and clever writing into a giant vehicle section.

[small]sarcasm[/small]Because playing with legos and driving a car are two things I can't do in real life and have to resort to video games in order to enjoy their pleasure...[small]/sarcasm[/small]

On topic, I'd have to say the Black and White games by Lionhead Studios. The first Black and White was an amazing twist on the whole RTS genre, actually connecting YOU directly to the action without all the menus and buttons. Then they had to make that "God-awful" Black and White 2...

Urgh...

 

[Stuntcrab]

The Call of Duty Series: It was good up until MW2
The Halo Series: The first one (combat evolved) was awesome

 

[Infernai]

Sonic the hedgehog, yes i had to pick the obvious one xD

 

[Stormz]

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.

What they had was barely a story. It was boring, predictable, lacked any sembalnce of characterization, and the characters themselves were forgettable at best. Also, the side quests were mostly lacking context and just thrown out there (with one or two exceptions).

Controls and combat were for the most part identical to the ones from Morrowind, which in turn were almost identical to the ones in Daggerfall. They were cool around the time Daggerfall was out, but they were showing their age with Morrowind and were simply insulting in Oblivion, providing one of the worst combat experiences ever.

Mind you, I never said anything about the number of quests, it's the quality that concerns me, and that quality is non-existant. For the most part, they feel disjointed both from the game and the game world.

The interface was just bad, slow and clunky. It was hard to get any info about anything and some aspects of the game were just poorly handled by it (especially spellcasting). Voice acting was terrible, and it didn't help that EVERY NPC is voiced by about two people. The amount of repetiton and the utter lack of variety was jarring. Hell, the game is infamous for it.

As for the mechanics, they were nonsensical. The fact that majoring the skills you want to lose is actually a BAD idea should point out that something is wrong. Also, the process of leveling some skills (like mercantile) was moronic. Stat boosts at levels required counterintuitive playing to get the most out of, and the shitty interface didn't provide you with nearly enough info to make use of it.

Basically, the game was bad. You are free do disagree, but I'm also free to think so. I grew up with Elder Scrolls games and Oblivion is the first one I didn't like.

EDIT: Oh, and the quest Journal is just bad. Not as bad as Morrowind, but still pretty crap. Though this ties in with the shitty interface thing...

I agree with pretty much everything you say. A long with all that they also watered everything down. Less weapon choices, a little arrow that tells you where you need to go because it seems people don't know how to read anymore, Fast travel to every city in the game right from the beginning, and monsters level up with you making leveling up and gaining skills feel useless.

I loved Morrowind, and Oblivion just took everything I loved about Morrowind and threw it all out.