Ruined
Why do they do this? Why do the producers of games start off with a stunning, genre-defining game and then go and ruin it all by releasing a sequal better used as cat litter?
I have 2 examples in mind. Firstly, the game One Must Fall 2097 by Epic Megagames (at that time a 3-person company, now making Gears of War for the 360). Although no game where you control 100ft robots and beat seven kinds of crap out of each other can be bad, it was a superb game. Loads of moves, secrets to unlock, different levels, and you could even create your own tournament with a minimum of programming knowledge. Good for me then.
Anyway, a newly released sequel is called OMF : Battlegrounds. I downloaded a demo...and it is bad. Really bad.
It's what I call "Clunky 3D". It's 3D, but the edges are incredibly rough, things move jerkily, you can see where the different character polygons intersect even if you knew nothing about computer games. The dialogue is appalling, the plot painfully cliched, and the gameplaye totally and utterly shit.
Secondly, Perfect Dark. The original Perfect Dark beats Goldeneye in every aspect, and I still think it is the best FPS ever, with the Half-lifes and the Halos coming in a very close second. But Perfect Dark Zero is an awful affair. They made it a prequel instead of a sequel, and the original left so much that could be have been built on for a sequel. Plus the gameplay sucks and the graphics aren't great.
They have ruined the good names of these games. Any other examples?
I have 2 examples in mind. Firstly, the game One Must Fall 2097 by Epic Megagames (at that time a 3-person company, now making Gears of War for the 360). Although no game where you control 100ft robots and beat seven kinds of crap out of each other can be bad, it was a superb game. Loads of moves, secrets to unlock, different levels, and you could even create your own tournament with a minimum of programming knowledge. Good for me then.
Anyway, a newly released sequel is called OMF : Battlegrounds. I downloaded a demo...and it is bad. Really bad.
It's what I call "Clunky 3D". It's 3D, but the edges are incredibly rough, things move jerkily, you can see where the different character polygons intersect even if you knew nothing about computer games. The dialogue is appalling, the plot painfully cliched, and the gameplaye totally and utterly shit.
Secondly, Perfect Dark. The original Perfect Dark beats Goldeneye in every aspect, and I still think it is the best FPS ever, with the Half-lifes and the Halos coming in a very close second. But Perfect Dark Zero is an awful affair. They made it a prequel instead of a sequel, and the original left so much that could be have been built on for a sequel. Plus the gameplay sucks and the graphics aren't great.
They have ruined the good names of these games. Any other examples?
posted by Mkzrj at 8:25 pm
9 Comments:
Command and Conquer Generals isn't as good as Red Alert 2, because EA took over from Westwood and incorporated more unit upgrades, making it more similar to Age of Empires. A mistake, in my opinion. And yes, it is nearly 2 in the morning. The time thing is not wrong.
Oh yeah I forgot about that. C&C reached their peak at RA2 + YR...Generals is still decent, but nothing like their pre-EA brilliance. Damn you EA.
Hopefully EA won't destroy the genius behind Criterion games.
The two sequels to Black will be amazing if they keep up the work from Black and make it longer.
Burnout 5 will also be amazing because it's almost definitely next-gen. Better graphics, more destruction, more insane cackling as an opponent gets slammed into an oncoming truck....
But games developers should learn from Bullfrog, the team behind Theme Hospital. This game is not just one, but many strokes of genius. And although it was extremely successful, Bullfrog never ruined it with a sequel, and instead just kept on releasing more copies as budget games. FANTASTIC!! A genius game for a fiver.
Also, linking back to guns from a while ago...
The NRA says "Guns don't kill people, people do". But really guns help, don't they? Shouting BANG would surely not suffice?
BANG BOOM RATATAT BANG KABOOM!!!
I don't think that will cause too many deaths. You would have to have about 50 severe heart problems to be killed by that. Stupid NRA.
Hmm I agree that PDZ is a much worse game - gameplay wise - but the graphics.. they are pretty sweet textures for a 360 game - compared to others such as chromehounds etc - and in HD it looks great.
Anyways yes I do agree sequals/prequals nowdays just don't hold up to the original, maybe our expectations are just too high? or maybe... the companies behind these games think that they can serve us a load of crap and we will buy it just because of the name, regardless of whether its any good.
Well i hope that they dont fuck up halo3, (which would be pretty hard to do) and also the next C+C game... hope thats more like RA2 compared to generals... i never liked generals :P
Well maybe the graphics aren't so bad. But the game suxors.
If they made Halo 3 the same as Halo 2 but with 4 player online Co-op, I would be happy.
Or just remake PD on the 360 or PC. It's only problems were being too advanced for the 64 and sometimes suffered from awful frame-rate problems when you used too many explosives/N-Bombs (such a brilliant wepaon) or simply too many bullets flying at once :(
Make a remake of it - like Conker's Bad Fur day - which is a great game.
Hayden.
The Laptop Gun, Farsight, Slayer, Reaper, Mauler, Calisto, Cyclone, Phoenix, CMP 150, N-bomb, RCP120, Cheese, Magsec (one of my favs) - so many incredible guns.
I remain adament that no game has ever come even slightly close to the weapons choice of Perfect Dark. Not one. Ever. And if you hear someone say PD needs a railgun or repeating cannon or tank etc. - eat them.
Oh yeah, no other game has ever come close to the brilliance of all the different weapons. *nostalgia*
Post a Comment
<< Home