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Weekend Open Forum: Best and worst video game sequels?
For better or worse, the gaming industry has made it standard practice to create sequels and spin-offs of popular titles year after year.
While it’s easy to blame it on a lack of originality, the truth is sales suggest that people like returning to familiar themes. Some best-selling franchises, like the Call of Duty series for example, are on a once-per-year model and carry publishers through the all-important holiday shopping season.
Of course big sales are not always indicative of a game’s quality or enjoyability. The trick is to pack just enough old to serve as a solid foundation and just enough new to prevent boredom and lack of interest. Some sequels in recent years that seem to have gotten the balance right include Starcraft 2, Portal 2, and Skyrim, while others like Duke Nukem Forever fell flat on their face.
In this Weekend Open Forum we want to ask: what are some of your favorite video game sequels of all time, and which franchises should be put to rest already (or given an extended vacation)?
User Comments: 69
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I'm given to believe that most of the gamers here prefer MMORPG and FPS games. For me, the worst "sequel" ever (which is really a spin-off) was the Lost and Damned from GTAIV DLC.
The best (which had a crowded field) was the OTHER one -- TBOGT.
As for the entire series, which has taken a life of its own (people don't think of them as "sequels," as much as chapters in a long-running story or universe, like comic books or serials from the 30s and 40s) I loved IV -- with Nico Bellic. But it wasn't the BEST -- which is, by most people's standards, San Andreas. I still have a huge soft-spot for Vice City, although I have never gotten to play its "...stories" variant, which took place two years earlier in the saga and was called "VC Stories."
The worst of THOSE kinds of games was definitely "Liberty City Stories." It was a waste of thirty bucks that I paid to buy it for PS2 -- because I didn't own a PSP and didn't want one.
I also love Hitman 2: Silent Assassin and Hitman: Blood Money. I've never played Codename 47, but I DID once own a hard disc of Contracts -- and that game still remains my absolute utter favorite of the entire Hitman series to this point. We'll see if I ever get to play the Absolution game, which looks interesting, but there was something neat about the quirkiness of the older technology. The Glacier 2 engine looks like a remarkable feat, but it remains to be seen whether it is TOO slick, or whether it imparts even more realism and therefore better gaming.
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Worst: Final Fantasy X-2
After the true epic of a game that X was, X-2 was mindless, didn't tell any more story and had crap gameplay.
Best: Portal 2
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Best:
Mass Effect 2
Worst:
Mass Effect 3
Mass Effect 2 was a fantastic upgrade on ME1. ME3 was still a fantastic game, but no matter what choices you make, you still get the same ending. The control of your ending is out of your hands (Unlike ME2 and ME1)
Note to person who says Halo Reach was the worst sequel, it's actually a PREQUEL. It was stet before Halo 1. Therefore should not be judged as a sequel.
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::Best::
Mass Effect 2
WoW TBC, WOTLK
CS:GO
BF3
::Worst::
Everything after COD4
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treetops said:
wow I had no idea so many people bought DNF, I really liked it, the multiplayer is fun on a bun
im really hating d3, all I do now is browse the ah and forums
best sequels
war2 war3
d2
mario 2 3, snes mario super mario bros
super punch out
zelda a link to the past
tekken 3
twisted metal 2
street fighter 2
turok 2-3 (not sure which)
fallout 3
fallout 2
worst for me I know a ton of ppl love them
modern warefares\cods mad in the last 4 years
halos
sc2
d3
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I think COD4 was probably my favorite sequel.
And I like every GTA game more than the previous, starting with III until present. And I'm really psyched about the next one.
Same can be said for the Elder Scrolls series, which I also joined on III. Have yet to try Skyrim, but I'm hoping to check it out in the summer.
I recall being pretty disappointed by Panzer General III, having played 2 to death.
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I thought skyrim was a pretty bad sequel..Gameplay was "better" but the questlines were mediocre and many were WAY to short compared to oblivion.
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My list for best would include: Saints Row 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, Final Fantasy VIII, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Red Dead Redemption.
My list for worst would include: Saints Row 3, Red Faction 2, Max Payne 2, Driver 3 and The Getaway: Black Monday.
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Best -- Assasins creed 2 Hands Down
worst -- Duke Nukem Forever.
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KG363 said:
Best: MGS2
Worst: MW2
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Cota said:
Worst:
BF3 (Feels like CoD)
ME
Crysis 2
Starcraft 2
Duke Nuken ffffffuuuuuu
Supreme Commander 2
Age of Empires 3
Stronghold 3
Empire Hearth 2
F.E.A.R. 3 (worst port ever)
The Sims 2
Almost any FPS sequel (Yes my life is full of deceptions :P)
Best:
BFBC2
Skyrim
Portal 2
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Xclusiveitalian said:
Best: BF2 (hands down just an amazing game)
Worst: Diablo 3 (Huge disappointment)
and Duke Nukem Forever Blah!
Other good: Skyrim, or Morrowind.
Uncharted series had some pretty good sequels that also stayed true to the game, and were exciting.
Other bad: Dragon age 2, Max payne 3, ghost recon future solider
I don't own a 360 so can't add them to the list but I own a PC and a ps3, im a pc gamer at heart.
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Alpha Gamer said:
Best
Batman Arkham City
Diablo II
Tekken 3
Street Fighter II
Resident Evil 5
Crysis 2
Assassin's Creed II
Splinter Cell Conviction
Battlefield 3
Worst
Tekken 4
Street Fighter III
Dragon Age II
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Worst: FF X-2
Best: L4D2
Hands down one of the best when it comes to scary. Also great DLC
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Best: Half-Life 2, Mass Effect 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Portal 2
Worst: Halo 3, Crysis 2, Mass Effect 3, Modern Warfare 3
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Worst sequels: Crysis 2, Dragon Age 2, Deus Ex: Invisible War, Far Cry 2 (though, the first one was also terrible), Mess Effect 3
Fifty-Fifty (had some good points and some bad points compared to the first): StarCraft 2, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings /EE/, Mass Effect 2, Skyrim
Good (they were a huge step towards the good way, but still not the best): Kane & Lynch: Dog Days, Call of Duty 2
Best: Neighbors from Hell 2, Half-Life 2, Stalker - Call of Pripyat
Won't explain them, it would be just TL;DR
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Best sequels:
Black and White II
Civilization 2 & 4
GTA Series
Mafia 2
Just Cause 2
Max Payne 2
Mount & Blade Warband
Portal 2
Railroad Tycoon II
Stalker CS & CoP
Spellforce II
Wonderboy in monster land
Street Fighter II
Trine 2
The Witcher 2
Call of Duty World at War
Fallout New vegas
Worst Sequals:
Max Payne 3
Mount & Blade Fire & Sword
Call of Duty 2
Call of Duty Modern Warfare II
Call of Duty Black Ops
Civilization 5
Crysis 2
F.E.A.R 3
Hitman Bloodmoney
il 2 sturmovik cliffs of dover
Never Winter Nights 2
Dragon Age 2
Cities XL series - worst ever tech support I ahve come across and bug ridden game
MOTO GP 2
Saints Row 2
Soldier of Fortune 3
These are the ones that come to mind.
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Worst: Devil May Cry 2, Mass Effect 3 (and not because of the ending), Fallout New Vegas (which should have been an expansion to Fallout 3), HALO ODIOUS I mean ODST
Best: Final Fantasy VI, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Skyrim, Modern Warfare (which is and isn't a sequel, but who's counting).
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This is a bit of an old one, but what about System Shock 2? I think that might be one of the best games of all time. A challenging game with a complex plot, surprise twists, all the RPG elements we come to expect from AAA games today, and put together so well that it can still creep you out playing in the dark late at night, even 13 years later.
System Shock 2 deserves best sequel... and certainly more attention than it's gotten so far.
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Ashdude said:
Best: Final Fantasy IV
Worse: Sonic 3D Blast (and Sonic still hasn't fully recovered!)
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Best :Assassin's Creed 2
Batman Arkham City
Worst : Dragon Age 2
The NFS series began well but now its just trash after trash.
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O on another note.....
Game of Thrones PC release was the biggest disappointment in the history of games. Especially if you watch the show.
I've been meaning to give this a shot:
[link]
If a game can probably capture the depth of well, anything, its going to be a mod of a paradox game.
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worst:
Mass Effect 2 and 3, Dragon Age 2, Splinter Cell Conviction, Crysis 2,
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(and Sonic still hasn't fully recovered!)
lol
it's been almost 20 years and they still can't bring back the original feel of the game. I figured 4 might do it, but it was a disappointment. Kinda sad on Sega's part.
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Best:
-Red Alert (1)
-Dungeon Keeper 2
Worst
-Modern Warfare 3 (PC)
-FFX-2 and FFXIII-2
Im just listing the games I actually played. But seriously, Square should ditch Enix and go back to the days they made good games -_-
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