The good, the bad, and the ugly gaming sequels...

[70R4N]

Good: KOTOR II. Yeah I know, unfinished but the story in the game is very interesting and they made some improvements to the gameplay. If only the ending wasn't so shite.

Bad: Fallout 3. Blegh.

Ugly: BioShock 2. This one is popular in this topic but I have to agree. Absolutely unnecessary, nothing more than a retread.

Instal TSLRCM (The Sith Lords restored content mod). Current version 1.7. The ending is MUCH better now.

Download: http://deadlystream.com/forum/files/file/13-tslrcm/
Fix: http://deadlystream.com/forum/files/file/12-tslrcm-17-unofficial-fix/

Of course you need to install the latest official patch first.

OT

Good: KotOR 2, Mass Effect 2, Fallout NV
Bad: Black Ops
Ugly: TFU 2

 

[AlternatePFG]

Good: KOTOR II. Yeah I know, unfinished but the story in the game is very interesting and they made some improvements to the gameplay. If only the ending wasn't so shite.

Bad: Fallout 3. Blegh.

Ugly: BioShock 2. This one is popular in this topic but I have to agree. Absolutely unnecessary, nothing more than a retread.

Instal TSLRCM (The Sith Lords restored content mod). Current version 1.7. The ending is MUCH better now.

Download: http://deadlystream.com/forum/files/file/13-tslrcm/
Fix: http://deadlystream.com/forum/files/file/12-tslrcm-17-unofficial-fix/

Of course you need to install the latest official patch first.

OT

Good: KotOR 2, Mass Effect 2, Fallout NV
Bad: Black Ops
Ugly: TFU 2

Yeah, I did. It still doesn't really explain much at all though, aside from a few nice touches. In fact, it seems like the endgame suffered the most of cut content, the whole segment was pretty terrible.

 

[Neiloken]

Good: Kingdom Hearts 2. Made the combat more varied, faster-paced, and generally more awesome.

Bad: Lego Racers 2. A different dev team made what was a decent racer but lacked the simplicity of the first game's build feature and sucked all the joy out of the gameplay.

Ugly: Anything with yearly updates. I may love Pro Evo and Football Manager but thoroughly unnecessary to pay £30 a year or more.

I have to agree with the ugly in this one... Most of those games like FIFA add one tiny thing each year and renew the squads... i say release one every 2 years with the new game modes and just keep updating the squads patch style...

 

[tomtom94]

Good: Kingdom Hearts 2. Made the combat more varied, faster-paced, and generally more awesome.

Bad: Lego Racers 2. A different dev team made what was a decent racer but lacked the simplicity of the first game's build feature and sucked all the joy out of the gameplay.

Ugly: Anything with yearly updates. I may love Pro Evo and Football Manager but thoroughly unnecessary to pay £30 a year or more.

I have to agree with the ugly in this one... Most of those games like FIFA add one tiny thing each year and renew the squads... i say release one every 2 years with the new game modes and just keep updating the squads patch style...

The head of EA has admitted (a while back) that he's considering that business model.

 

[MattyDienhoff]

Bad:

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising

This game just doesn't seem to do anything right. It's a bit too realistic for the Call of Duty crowd, but not realistic enough to be in the same league as the first OFP or the ArmAs (its true sequels). As far as I'm concerned Dragon Rising is merely a half-hearted cash-in on the Flashpoint name, made by a developer who should stick to what they know.

Bad sequels: Mafia 2, it was frustratingly linear, clichéd, full of plot holes and the characters had no depth whatsoever; Vito and Joe are basically Italian American versions of Niko and Roman from GTA4. The police were completely and utterly retarded and you got a whole world with nothing to do in it as the game hated you exploring (You were always on missions, no breaks). The only redeeming point was that the combat was pretty well executed as were the sound elements.

Agreed, and well said. A lot of people I've discussed it with try to deflect criticisms of Mafia 2 by saying it shouldn't be compared to Grand Theft Auto IV. Well, when I played Mafia 2 I wasn't full of false expectations, I wasn't expecting it to be as open world as GTA. Mafia 1 also concentrated its efforts almost entirely on the story (at the expense of replayability), but it worked because the story was good and well executed. In that way it was a more serious, more dramatic counterpart to the Grand Theft Auto games of the time (the stories of which were rather silly by comparison).

Mafia 2 just doesn't measure up to the first one in the story capacity and the "Grand Theft Auto, but more serious" niche has already been filled perfectly, by Grand Theft Auto IV, which in my opinion has a better story, and certainly better gameplay.

 

[MulticolorCharizard]

Ugly Sequel: Any "Ace Attorney" game after Phoenix Wright 3.

Totally awesome, but totally unnecessary.

Unnecessary, true but they have a right to exist, the thing about AA is that it hasn't really got a story that runs from beginning to end, and therefore, has no conclusion AA games will have a right to exist until the story of Phoenix Wright ends. The AJ arc may focus around Apollo but it still is largely about Phoenix and Trucy. I really hope this becomes a long running franchise in the same way that all nintendo franchises are because it tells a damn good tale that has the potential to be neverending and have a HUGE amount of interesting characters.

Okay on topic.

Good: Civilization 4, it just expanded hugely on the Civ experience, the civics were better, it looked awesome and i just felt more like an all powerful god ruler than I did in 1-3 and 5

Oh yeah and...

Bad: Civilization Revelations (OH SHIT)

Ugly: Left 4 Dead 2, good but... why?

 

[northeast rower]

Ugly: Dead Space 2, Isaac had a reason to stay on the space station infested with those THINGS in DS1 and that was to save his gal, why the hell would he need to stay on this new station other than pure stupidity or no will to live?!

From what I understand, Isaac has some form of fatal dementia that needs curing. That, and the government is tracking him down and has locked down the Sprawl, so that makes things difficult.

OP:
Good: Fallout 3, Black Ops, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Geometry Wars 2, Halo: Reach
Bad: Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, Guitar Hero 3 and onwards, Halo 2, Modern Warfare 2
Ugly: Mass Effect 2 (explained below), Metal Gear Solid 4 and onward, Bioshock 2

My qualms with Mass Effect 2 lie solely in its presentation. The game tries to sell itself as an RPG and a shooter and succeeds as neither. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but the RPG elements are flat after the first playthrough (many situations have several dialogue options that have the same results), the gunplay gets stale after about five minutes (Shepard is literally a tripod with a gun), and powers don't feel powerful, and there is no inventory or customization to speak of.

As for the Metal Gear Solid franchise, I thought that 3 was simply amazing and that the series should have concluded there. 4, however, just overloaded the plot with cutscenes and subplots; it also oversaturated the gameplay with gadgets and a nigh-invincible Snake. Peace Walker and the others after 3 that aren't 4 just feel unnecessary to me.

 

[Girl With One Eye]

Good: Kingdom Hearts 2
Bad: Final Fantasy X-2
Ugly: Far Cry 2

 

[Torrasque]

Good: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - The first and second games were awesome, and I loved them. With Wii controls, I could not ask this game to respond better. The upgrading was much better, I wasn't swapping through stupid beams anymore, the story was wrapped up nicely, and the item finder was a god-send. Best sequel I have ever played.

Bad: Black Ops - I liked playing MW2, and I was pretty good at it. I enjoy FPS casually, and I love playing Reach, but I cannot stand Black Ops. Friend of mine told me "just play it more, and you'll get good at it". Campaign was the most painful campaign I have ever played. Zombie mode is WaW with new skins. Multiplayer sucks balls. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - *cringe* I could not play this game for more than an hour. I had to turn it off because it was that bad. ES2 was awesome, and I loved it. I was afraid to pick up Oblivion when it came out, because I was afraid it would be Morrowind 2, but some 400-ish hours of gameplay later, I am glad they swept that mistake under the rug, and kept at it.

Ugly: All GTAs after Vice City. Vice City was awesome, definitely my favorite Vice City. I thought they'd be happy with the GTA series as it was, would quit now (since they abandoned the numbers) and would just let it end here. NOPE! FFX-2 was also a mistake. X was alright, mostly because Auron is a badass, but they could've/should've fucking ended it in X. But noooooo, gotta make a dress-up game sequel! Fucking money grubbing creators...

Edit: Seems I did this wrong. Fix'd *Ugly* section.

 

[Crazycat690]

Good: I want to say Red Dead Redemption, but since it's more of a spiritual successor I instead choose Uncharted 2, I know there's alot of good sequels out there but I really felt that this one was much better than the first game.

Bad: Bioshock 2, yes this is a big baddie, when the games multiplayer is more true to the story than the SP story itself, you know something is wrong. Yes the gameplay was improved, but it was more Bioshock 1.5, so it doesn't count for much. Bioshock is about the story, and when it has so many plot-holes, so bad, it was so horrible! I mean it's like they felt they needed to explain stuff in Bioshock 1 more, but they ended up fucking it all up, they just didn't make a bad story, they also kind of ruined the story from the first game by changing stuff. Like where the Big Daddys come from. It's just plain bad.

Ugly: I will say Fallout 3, it's memorable and have it's moments, but damn the main story, it suck ass! And it's the same shit everywhere.... I've never seen so much copy-paste that's been done, Bethesda is obviously lazy devs. I mean look at the past Fallout games, they have variety, Fallout 3 has brown, brown, a bit more brown, and even additional brown!

 

[inFAMOUSCowZ]

Good-Mass Effect 2- Great story/characters and improved the gameplay

Bad-Fable2- I couldnt stand the game TA ALL. Liked the first and loved the 3rd, but i couldn't stand the 2nd one.

Ugly-Bioshock 2-One of my favorite games last year, but it wasnt necessary to make it.

I'd love to see a third Condemned game, been playing through the first two again.

 

[D Moness]

Good - Seiken densetsu 3 (secret of mana 2): Just improved on everything on the previous game. Picking starting characters that starts on different locations is a great idea.

Bad - Baten kaitos origins : Officially a prequel but released after the first game. They tried to improve the combat and made it more annoying. Special the special item cards can screw up your combat.

Ugly - Every leisure suit larry released after "love for sale". It changed into very unoriginal minigames.

What would i love to see .... Eternal Darkness 2 I would buy that.

 

[Faladorian]

Good: Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect 2 was a really nice and really immersible sequel to Mass Effect 1 (obviously).
While I liked Mass Effect 1, there was a lot of improvement to be made, and man did they
make it in the second one. Damn good game, except the lip-syncing bothered the hell out of
me. Im not about to complain, though. This game was a diamond in the shit pile of gaming.

Bad: Bioshock 2
This game... my god. Bioshock 1 has to be one of the best and most interesting (albeit
short) games I've played. Not many games go for the underwater steampunk utopia look, and
I liked it. All of the plot strings had been tied and the ending was up to you. There was
no opening for a sequel, but 2K MADE one... And guess what? It was bad bad BAD. The story
was laughable, the "plot twists" were predictable as hell, the combat was messy, the
hacking minigames were shorter (good) but also very obnoxious. One thing I did like,
though, is the remote hacking tool. Shoot a drone out of the sky and make it come back and
fight for you. Very nice. This doesn't make up for the horrible story and pretentious
drama that I really wasnt given a reason to care about.

Ugly: Fallout: New Vegas
Now, before you get mad at me, yes I did enjoy this game. I didn't enjoy it even one tenth
of the amount I enjoyed Fallout 3, but I still liked it. That doesn't mean it's not an
ugly sequel. The amount of bugs, glitches, graphical tweaks, and crappy animations just
threw this game over the boat into ugliness. Also, in the first 3 or 4 hours of gaming I
found myself near the end. I actually had to just walk away from the main quest and do
EVERY OTHER QUEST to avoid beating the game so easily. I did everything, and it took less
than 100 hours. Now, I realize even as a sequel it's not entirely fair to compare
it to its predecessor. However, there are some things that Obsidian did that changed the
game. One good thing is they loaned Bethesda some voice actors. That needed to happen.
However, they limited exploration by putting forcefields EVERYWHERE. I can only assume
this was Obsidia, because Bethesda would rather have players get stuck in an area than to
have them not able to explore it. In any case, New Vegas was good but messy.

 

[Neiloken]

ok it has been pointed out that my original Ugly sequel actually does have some slight validity to its story so my runner up ugly sequel is Prototype 2...

Prototype 1, though arguably not as pretty visually as it could've been, was a great game... Huge city, great way of travelling in the city, large variety of ways to eradicate enemies, and a great mind blowing story conclusion...

so why shouldnt there be a Prototype 2 if the 1st was so good? Simply because in prototype 2 u play one of the millions of soldiers you killed in the first game... 'nuff said

 

[supermariner]

The Good: Resident Evil 4, The game that changed the series for the better

The Bad: Final Fantasy 13, it tried, don't think i hadn't noticed. but it failed

The Ugly: Force Unleashed 2, although i did enjoy this game, three things dragged it down into the ugly catagory:
firstly, it's about 18 minutes long
secondly, it ruins the fairly interesting conclusion of FU1 whereby vader accidentally creates a worthy rebellion against himself and eliminates Starkiller, answering the question 'well where is he in the original trilogy then?' and wrapping everything up just nicely
and thirdly, by now we know this wasn't made for any reason other than to make money, there's no passion left in Lucas
and you can tell

 

[The Night Shade]

Wow i came here hoping for a videogame based on the movie

OT:Good:Mass Effect 2
Bad:F:NV
Ugly:MW 2

 

[The Rainmaker]

Bad: LittleBigPlanet 2. It just seems irrelivant to bring out a sequel to a game where the main idea is to create your own levels. Perhaps it should have been a DLC update or a single install disc like Undead Nightmare.

LBP2 isn't even out yet...

 

[DVS Storm]

Good sequels: Mass Effect 2. Well it was needed of course and it turned out to be an awesome game.

Bad: MW2. Cod 4 was awesome but MW2 just ruined the experience of COD games for me. Too many glitches, waepons and quick-scopers.

Ugly: Bioshock 2. The game itself isn't that bad but it's an unnecessary sequel, and nothing compared to Bioshock 1.

 

[baddude1337]

Good: Uncharted 2. It was a better game in every way to the first, which was pretty good anyway.

Bad: Dawn of War 2. It was an okay game but not really anything like or as good as the first.

Ugly: Bomber Man Act Zero. Bomberman did not need a gritty reboot, and certainly not one as terrible as this.

 

[blind_dead_mcjones]

Good: Zone Of The Enders: the second runner (expanded heavily on the plot, amazing boss fight and combat sequences, annoying protagonist from first game taken down to side character, but also ditches the whining and becomes a major badass)
killzone 2, nuff said

Bad: sould calibur 4, spyhon filter: the omega strain (it had promise but was poorly executed)

Ugly: resident evil 5, actually every resident evil game after 3, they should've just ended it there

and i would like to see either, zone of the enders 3 (come on kojima, stop mucking about with the Metal Gear series, you've wrapped it up as much as you can already) and a sequel to syphon filter:logans shadow (need a far more satifying ending than the cliff hanger logans shadow ended on)