For me Farcry's multiplayer was a hidden gem when i picked it up for the xbox360. The community made it into a plethora of great game modes and user created maps completely independent of the developers original intent. Farcry 2 had some stupid decisions made for it: restrictions made to the basic building blocks of maps, predator mode thrown out and not replaced with anything interesting, and a weird class system. Hell they even tried to make some dlc that couldn't be used on custom maps. A lot of people thought Farcry 3 would finally improve on Farcry 1 but it looks like they went the opposite direction and just turned it into some COD clone.
When your favorite series derails
- Thread starter Al-Bundy-da-G
- Start date
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Silent Hill and Resident Evil stand out to me.
I got into Resident Evil with 2. 1,2,3, and 4 were good. Code Veronica was okay, I can't put my finger one why I dislike it though. 5 tried to be a second 4, and was a mess, mainly due to the AI partner. Also, I couldn't play Co-Op because 99% of players picked Chris, and the fact that the camera is fixed made Sheva awkward to play. Played the demo for 6, and decided to skip it.
Silent Hill 1,2, and 3 were great. I didn't play 4, Shattered Memories or Origins. Homecoming added enemies with guns. Something that seems odd and just wrong in a survival horror game. Downpour was alright, but the monster design was pretty uninspired.
The way I see most things it ends up like this:
The original is what everything is compared to.
The sequel improves on the original.
The third one either jumps the shark, or fails at mimicking the sequel, or mimics it too well
I got into Resident Evil with 2. 1,2,3, and 4 were good. Code Veronica was okay, I can't put my finger one why I dislike it though. 5 tried to be a second 4, and was a mess, mainly due to the AI partner. Also, I couldn't play Co-Op because 99% of players picked Chris, and the fact that the camera is fixed made Sheva awkward to play. Played the demo for 6, and decided to skip it.
Silent Hill 1,2, and 3 were great. I didn't play 4, Shattered Memories or Origins. Homecoming added enemies with guns. Something that seems odd and just wrong in a survival horror game. Downpour was alright, but the monster design was pretty uninspired.
The way I see most things it ends up like this:
The original is what everything is compared to.
The sequel improves on the original.
The third one either jumps the shark, or fails at mimicking the sequel, or mimics it too well
Wow. Someone else thinks Mass Effect 2 was a decline.Skoldpadda said:
So let's see....
Saints Row 2 was the pinnacle of the series. Saints Row wasn't bad, Saints Row 2 was awesome, and Saints Row 3 was....Stripped for DLC (and other problems like that).
Final Fantasy stopped mattering to me after 9.
WWE games. They've been up and down, though. And they're a license, so maybe they shouldn't count.
Burnout. Burnout was a good idea, but kinda meh. Burnout 2 improved it in every way. Takedown was amazing. 4, whatever it was called, was...Meh. And Paradise was just a step back in so many respects (though still a fun game). I haven't grown to hate the series, but my expectations are lower than a Johnny Gatt comeback.
It seems like every gaming franchise i get myself invested in seems to derail...
-I used to be a massive CoD fan (as in before CoD4 made it super popular) MW2 killed the franchise for me.
-Mass effect, well that's explanatory.
-I feel that Battlefield is starting to follow CoD's path.
-As much as people love it TES has really gone downhill since Morrowind, everything is oversimplified so that Bethesda can rake in more cash.
-AC3 was a massive disappointment and the ending left me laughing at how bad it was, it felt like they'd trapped themselves into a corner and didn't know how to end the story.
I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting but it seems like i can never catch a break when it comes to good franchises.
-I used to be a massive CoD fan (as in before CoD4 made it super popular) MW2 killed the franchise for me.
-Mass effect, well that's explanatory.
-I feel that Battlefield is starting to follow CoD's path.
-As much as people love it TES has really gone downhill since Morrowind, everything is oversimplified so that Bethesda can rake in more cash.
-AC3 was a massive disappointment and the ending left me laughing at how bad it was, it felt like they'd trapped themselves into a corner and didn't know how to end the story.
I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting but it seems like i can never catch a break when it comes to good franchises.
Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts, as an obvious candidate.
Hitman: Absolution
and Team Fortress 2, in the updates, not the game itself. (hatsss)
The sick thing about abso and bolts is that there is SO MUCH POTENTIAL but they just completely trashed the core series theory for some completely new play style, and yet stamped the same title on it. It's not a B&K game, and it's not a Hitman game, no matter how good they are.
Hitman: Absolution
and Team Fortress 2, in the updates, not the game itself. (hatsss)
The sick thing about abso and bolts is that there is SO MUCH POTENTIAL but they just completely trashed the core series theory for some completely new play style, and yet stamped the same title on it. It's not a B&K game, and it's not a Hitman game, no matter how good they are.
Resident Evil - i enjoyed Resi 4 even though i missed the zombies, 5 felt souless and 6 has ruined the series in my eyes for good. I only played through the whole of it because a friend bought it me and i didn't want to be a dick and not play it and my god is it horrible. the stupid amount of stupidly hard or unneeded QTE (like have to spin the stick every time you need to open a bulkhead door), so many controls that they clash with each other ("no game i wanted to roll not duck and still get my head cut off), the overuse of the same bosses and environments (even for Capcom), the worst story in existence (its all done because simmons <3 Ada wong), the utterly useless skill perk system.
its inability to decide whether to be a TPS or a survival horror, it gives you limited ammo and healing items so i found myself either depleted of ammo, one health blip or both when fighting a boss or a area where i'm unable to move. one example being when Leon and Helena have to defend the bus they're in but the fat zombie from five minutes ago had just eaten all my ammo so all i had was a knife against enemies that were out of my reach. ammo also takes up an inventory space even when its loaded into a gun and with like ten slots and at least 4 weapons (some coming with ammo variants)i found i had a best two slots in my inventory for health items to pick up.
And some of the QTE are outright impossible; one that pissed me off to no end was when this one enemy that can only be described as a eel man sits on you and pulls a one hit kill unless you spin the left stick faster then humanly possible.
Seriously, i have no idea how Devil May Cry warranted a reboot when this piece of shit crawled out of development
Sonic - Sonic died with sonic Adventure until generations finally got it back on track. 3D for sonic was a very bad move for Sega from the start and they should have stuck with 2D until they could figure out a good way of doing it. running straight lines and then crashing into barriers to turn is not a good sonic game.
Command & Conquer - died for me after Generals, i didn't realise until i played battle for middle earth 2 first that EA's RTS games were just re-skins of each other so Tiberium Wars played like middle earth 2.
Fable - has been falling apart since the first game, never heard any of molyneux's promises with fable 1 so i find little fault in it. but fable 2 and 3 just got simpler and simpler in gameplay and reducing choices in equipment and making death little more then a speed bump.
"oh dear you got killed, well now you have a scar on your face. bet you feel pretty bad now don't you?"
no. I don't give a flying fuck about my appearance when I wasn't able to any clothing or hairstyles I liked so that scar is completely meaningless. the removal of bosses was an outright dumb dumb move as well as making the evil play through the wrong choice. burn down a competing relgion's temple so yours is the only one in albion, sorry your temple did nothing in the 15 years you've been away but if you chose to defend the temple you burned down it would have flourished and you'd have a whole new place to buy.
its inability to decide whether to be a TPS or a survival horror, it gives you limited ammo and healing items so i found myself either depleted of ammo, one health blip or both when fighting a boss or a area where i'm unable to move. one example being when Leon and Helena have to defend the bus they're in but the fat zombie from five minutes ago had just eaten all my ammo so all i had was a knife against enemies that were out of my reach. ammo also takes up an inventory space even when its loaded into a gun and with like ten slots and at least 4 weapons (some coming with ammo variants)i found i had a best two slots in my inventory for health items to pick up.
And some of the QTE are outright impossible; one that pissed me off to no end was when this one enemy that can only be described as a eel man sits on you and pulls a one hit kill unless you spin the left stick faster then humanly possible.
Seriously, i have no idea how Devil May Cry warranted a reboot when this piece of shit crawled out of development
Sonic - Sonic died with sonic Adventure until generations finally got it back on track. 3D for sonic was a very bad move for Sega from the start and they should have stuck with 2D until they could figure out a good way of doing it. running straight lines and then crashing into barriers to turn is not a good sonic game.
Command & Conquer - died for me after Generals, i didn't realise until i played battle for middle earth 2 first that EA's RTS games were just re-skins of each other so Tiberium Wars played like middle earth 2.
Fable - has been falling apart since the first game, never heard any of molyneux's promises with fable 1 so i find little fault in it. but fable 2 and 3 just got simpler and simpler in gameplay and reducing choices in equipment and making death little more then a speed bump.
"oh dear you got killed, well now you have a scar on your face. bet you feel pretty bad now don't you?"
no. I don't give a flying fuck about my appearance when I wasn't able to any clothing or hairstyles I liked so that scar is completely meaningless. the removal of bosses was an outright dumb dumb move as well as making the evil play through the wrong choice. burn down a competing relgion's temple so yours is the only one in albion, sorry your temple did nothing in the 15 years you've been away but if you chose to defend the temple you burned down it would have flourished and you'd have a whole new place to buy.
THIS - Ninja Gaiden 3 REALLY upset me, NGB and NG2 were the most popular games in my house aside from Halo for a good few years, I used to spend hours a night either battling through the Mission Mode or trying in vain tom survive Master Ninja difficulty (seriously, the first few levels are SOO hard in Master Ninja NG2)j-e-f-f-e-r-s said:
But NG3 just missed the point completely:
1. It replaced the excellent NG2 weapon set with swords only, swords that probably share the same move set, dunno never finished NG3 but they did add more weapons... as PAID DLC
2. Removed obliteration techniques, the limb removal system was integral to NG2s combat, enemies missing arms and legs behaved differently, which changed combat. This was replaced with "mash x to kill dude" or Steel on Bone (yawn)
3. Removed the upgrades, money and majority of projectiles - Streamlining what didn't need streamlining, NG had a decent and simple upgrade system and shops where you could replenish spent health items, projectile ammo and even upgrade weapons at your leisure, choosing when and what to upgrade
4. Quality bar of enemies and bosses, design and combat and the removal of bosses health bars - enemies in NG 3 are dull and/or stupid, the boss fights are dull, NG1 had a boss battle against an attack helicopter, it was a cool fight. In NG3 you fight several but it feels like fighting toy choppers tbh! And how do you make fighting a robo T-Rex suck? Ask Team Ninja.. without Itagaki, Team Ninja has suffered..
5. Multiplayer..... I'm not one of those guys that gets all weepy on Oprah's couch when a game I love has shoehorned multiplayer but NG3s multiplayer was crap, folk give Dead Space 2s multiplayer a hard time, it is AAA compared to this garbage.
I have lost all faith in Team Ninja and the Ninja Gaiden series, Ninja Gaiden Z looks like generic crap (zombies anyone?), Razor's Edge might fix some stuff (i didn't even get in to the dumb ninpo or the soldiers begging for their lives and the awful smart bomb like Ultimate Techniques) but it is too little, too late
BlackSite: Area 51
I know it's not directly related but it still destroyed our chances of ever seeing a proper sequel to the 2005 remake of Area 51.
Reason it was so bad?
The Aliens/Mutants weren't inspired, they were essentially re-skinned soldiers that were perhaps a bit more agile, a stark contrast to Area 51 which had Aliens that were far more bestial in nature.
Buggy as all hell and clearly unfinished, there were huge enemies that upon death would remain in place yet you could walk through as if they weren't there, large barren sections that looked more like a dev testing area rather than a finished location, and weapons that just didn't feel right when fired, it felt like I'd paid for an Alpha of a game.
Features promised and showcased mere months before release inexplicably absent in the 'finished' game.
I know it's not directly related but it still destroyed our chances of ever seeing a proper sequel to the 2005 remake of Area 51.
Reason it was so bad?
The Aliens/Mutants weren't inspired, they were essentially re-skinned soldiers that were perhaps a bit more agile, a stark contrast to Area 51 which had Aliens that were far more bestial in nature.
Buggy as all hell and clearly unfinished, there were huge enemies that upon death would remain in place yet you could walk through as if they weren't there, large barren sections that looked more like a dev testing area rather than a finished location, and weapons that just didn't feel right when fired, it felt like I'd paid for an Alpha of a game.
Features promised and showcased mere months before release inexplicably absent in the 'finished' game.
Devil May Cry is really a bizarre series. It started with the first game which practically invented its own genre "Spectacle fighters". Then came the second game which was outsourced to another developer for reasons that will forever be left unknown. It wasn't a horrible game...not that horrible anyway.
DMC3 was THE redemption on Capcom's part. They gave us a game which aged incredibly well in the gameplay department. It was so good that fans were ultimately let down by its lackluster sequal DMC4. Capcom had decided to cut corners like no tommorow and we were left with a game that repeats itself with absurd level design. Combat was still god but it felt unfocused with two characters with limited movesets and weapons. It is almost tragic to see a company that is this confused and clumsy with its own IP's especialy such an iconic one. It is like seeing a jumbo jet being used as a school bus.
Haven't played the reboot so can't comment on that. Doubt I will ever either.
DMC3 was THE redemption on Capcom's part. They gave us a game which aged incredibly well in the gameplay department. It was so good that fans were ultimately let down by its lackluster sequal DMC4. Capcom had decided to cut corners like no tommorow and we were left with a game that repeats itself with absurd level design. Combat was still god but it felt unfocused with two characters with limited movesets and weapons. It is almost tragic to see a company that is this confused and clumsy with its own IP's especialy such an iconic one. It is like seeing a jumbo jet being used as a school bus.
Haven't played the reboot so can't comment on that. Doubt I will ever either.
C&C for me as well.Hero in a half shell said:
Also, Halo 4 multiplayer. 343i are despicable and have spat in the faces of anyone with a shred of respect for competitive multiplayer and any member of the loyal Halo fanbase. They did wonders with the singleplayer, it was glorious, but as I've said many times before, multiplayer and disc 2 as a whole is an insult. I don't even view it as a mistake, it's a pure insult to me as a videogame consumer and a Halo fan.
Oh, and Splinter Cell Conviction, Rainbow Six Vegas and Ghost Recon Future Soldier. Now, the first 2 of those games are still good games in their own right, but they're not torchbearers for the games they're successors of. They do, however, top of the list for derailed series where the pub/devs have kicked dirt in the eyes of long-term fans. Take Ghost Recon, and play it alongside Future Soldier. I'm not even sure why they have the same name, to be honest. They're totally fucking different genres, they give nothing that can be viewed in the same light and they appeal to a completely opposite spectrum of the market. Ubisoft can go fuck themselves over Ghost Recon Future Solider.
I don't like plainly insulting someone's career, work, creation, hobby, etc., but GR: Future Soldier, Halo 4's multiplayer and C&C4 are fucking bad. They're really, really bad and a barefaced insult to genre consumers and their respectful dedicated fanbases. I think I'd rather be spat in the face and told to fuck off by the developers and publishers of those game, than baited into buying them on the broad mass-appeal marketing as I was.
PR/Marketing: "Our game's like the last one, but better! If you liked it before then you'll love it now, and we're thinking about you throughout development - if you've never played it before, we've made it easier for you to get into our game as well! Everybody's gonna' love it!"
BULLSHIT. That's an impossible feat to do to a titular series that stands tall within its genre. I only see a worse if-not ruined series because of a desire to sell more copies via broader appeal, as opposed to selling copies for being the best in a genre. It's especially clear in those games I've listed above.
I LOVE Resident Evil 4, but I agree. Resident Evil before and after 4 are incredibly different, the genre has changed completely. Resident Evil 4 wasn't scary, but it had its moments where you could see attempts at being scary. Resident Evil 5 was more of an action game than 4 and that takes a lot. I haven't even bothered with 6 and I doubt I'll ever will.Shirastro said:
Besides that I can't really think of anything.
Carmageddon, I love 1, 2 and it's ps1 version to bits but damn did TDR2000, GBA and N64 port suck. Oh well, the last 3 weren't even developed by stainless so I have all rights to declare them not part of the story.
Assassin's Creed for me as well. I liked the first one, but the other ones forgotten about halfway that they're supposed to be about, I dunno, assassinations and assassin stuff. Not mashed gameplay styles together.
Sad, sad thing indeed.
Sad, sad thing indeed.
Devil May Cry.
Now I like me some change. But to take out everything that made the originals 1, 3 and 4 so great, in favor of a reboot that panders to casuals with easy and slow gameplay and story lovers for a story that is mediocre to the core...
Ah screw it, at least Shin Megami Tensai has never failed whatsoever.
Now I like me some change. But to take out everything that made the originals 1, 3 and 4 so great, in favor of a reboot that panders to casuals with easy and slow gameplay and story lovers for a story that is mediocre to the core...
Ah screw it, at least Shin Megami Tensai has never failed whatsoever.
Silent Hill. I am one of those people who get very nit picky when companies make a sequel to a game and get the foundation for the story totally wrong. When Homecoming came out I was so excited to play another installment to my favorite survival horror series. When Pyramid Head came out I was like "He doesn't belong here.", and the fact that The Order were attacking you didn't make any sense to me seeing as how they were non-violent. I know the background to SH pretty well and things like that ruined it for me. Also the fact that it wasn't actually scary, just startling.
Ace Combat. AC4, AC5 and AC0 were the best in the series, all on ps2. Then came AC6 as an Xbox exclusive but it was still decent and then Ace Combat Assault horizon... It was an abomination, it ruined every single fucking thing that was good about this series, it gave us bland and generic protagonist instead of just naming the pilot and leaving it like that, it added stupid QTEs that don't even fucking matter, removed the fictional universe of Belka, Yuktobania, Osea... and replaced it with modern world, taking down enemy aces was bullshit with that awful mechanic that forced you in stupid "take down mode" or whatever, story was shit with cliches such as "America FUCK YEAH!" and "Fuck the Russians!"... This was meant to take series in different and "better" direction when it didn't even need one, for purpose of introducing it to the wider audience. It got branded in reviews "Call of Duty IN THE AIR!" as a compliment... oh, how right they were...
Armored Core - From Software original Hardcore game. Armored Core 3 was the best in the series, but other parts like Nexus, Silent Line, Nine Breakers and of course Last raven were also awesome. This was all nice and pretty until Armored Core 4 and For answer came to ps3 and box 360. It was different yeah, but it wasn't bad, controls were different and this was a deal breaker for most fans. See Armored Core was all about customizing your AC and all of them played differently, levels were tightly designed and each boss required different approach, the games were balls-to-the-walls hard (it is From Software we are talking about) and it really did appeal to niche audience, and when AC4 came it was all simplified: Bosses were completely forgettable, levels were huge and provided more room to move throwing out strategizing movement through the window, most AC setups acted the same and it was too fucking easy compared to say... AC: Last Raven. But all in all it was still decent enough I guess, where the series actually fell apart and went to hell was in Armored Core V, which was abysmal: it was even easier than the 4, ACs were tiny, it was painfully short and they added Fucking multiplayer to the game which was shoehorned so painfully bad that managed to deforme the whole game.
Devil May Cry... You know I opened some old wounds now that I won't even bother with this one as it was recent enough for most of you to know what the big deal is.
And there we go! 3 of my fav games that went to shit, sorry for the wall of text.
Armored Core - From Software original Hardcore game. Armored Core 3 was the best in the series, but other parts like Nexus, Silent Line, Nine Breakers and of course Last raven were also awesome. This was all nice and pretty until Armored Core 4 and For answer came to ps3 and box 360. It was different yeah, but it wasn't bad, controls were different and this was a deal breaker for most fans. See Armored Core was all about customizing your AC and all of them played differently, levels were tightly designed and each boss required different approach, the games were balls-to-the-walls hard (it is From Software we are talking about) and it really did appeal to niche audience, and when AC4 came it was all simplified: Bosses were completely forgettable, levels were huge and provided more room to move throwing out strategizing movement through the window, most AC setups acted the same and it was too fucking easy compared to say... AC: Last Raven. But all in all it was still decent enough I guess, where the series actually fell apart and went to hell was in Armored Core V, which was abysmal: it was even easier than the 4, ACs were tiny, it was painfully short and they added Fucking multiplayer to the game which was shoehorned so painfully bad that managed to deforme the whole game.
Devil May Cry... You know I opened some old wounds now that I won't even bother with this one as it was recent enough for most of you to know what the big deal is.
And there we go! 3 of my fav games that went to shit, sorry for the wall of text.
Most of the ones I can think of have already been mentioned, and I've said this in another thread, but my choice would go to the Rainbow Six series.
How these games have changed... I mean, the first R6 was a hardcore tactical simulator, where a lot of the game was spent in the mission planning phase, equipping your soldiers and planning the mission. Rogue Spear only improved on this, and the sequel was even better than the first game! Raven Shield was pretty much Rogue Spear with better graphics, and that wasn't bad at all.
And then it all went to hell... the numerous spin-off's, the 3rd person perspective, the loss of the mission planning phase, the dumbed-down enemies... I mean, you can see how bad it got when R6: Vegas was hailed as a return of the series to good quality territory... and it still is a pale shadow of the first games! It's no longer a tactical shooter, now it's just... a shooter. Where you do hand signals and rappel off buildings. Yay..?
And the very messy development of the next game in the series, including staff getting shafted or quitting and the game getting pushed back "to the next generation of consoles" doesn't give me much hope, either.
How these games have changed... I mean, the first R6 was a hardcore tactical simulator, where a lot of the game was spent in the mission planning phase, equipping your soldiers and planning the mission. Rogue Spear only improved on this, and the sequel was even better than the first game! Raven Shield was pretty much Rogue Spear with better graphics, and that wasn't bad at all.
And then it all went to hell... the numerous spin-off's, the 3rd person perspective, the loss of the mission planning phase, the dumbed-down enemies... I mean, you can see how bad it got when R6: Vegas was hailed as a return of the series to good quality territory... and it still is a pale shadow of the first games! It's no longer a tactical shooter, now it's just... a shooter. Where you do hand signals and rappel off buildings. Yay..?
And the very messy development of the next game in the series, including staff getting shafted or quitting and the game getting pushed back "to the next generation of consoles" doesn't give me much hope, either.
Resident Evil 6 and Soul Calibur 5 were massively disappointing to me. Not buying another game in either of these series unless I hear many rave reviews.