Game Franchises Getting Better or Worse?

[Dog Pants]

Morning bummers. Today I might be taking Sprog for a picnic in a country park, which is about the extent of my plans.

While browsing my daily routine of blogs and forums I found this on PCG: A quick survey on which game franchises are getting better and which are getting worse. It was an interesting exercise if nothing else, and I ticked at least twice as many worse boxes than better. Discussions are obviously ongoing in the comments, but fuck those guys, I want to discuss it with you chaps.


Mod edit: Split from disco board post, but it's mixed in a bit with some replies to posts from there, so sorry.

[Dog Pants]

Discussions are obviously ongoing in the comments, but fuck those guys

Although I found this to be an interesting comment:

Skyrim really is an ocean with the depth of a puddle

Not that Oblivion wasn't either, but the comparison sums up my feelings very well.

[buzzmong]

Morning. I've a day off work, gonna go cycling in a little while and turn myself into a sweaty mess.

As for the survey, hmm. Quite a limited choice there, but I too ticked more boxes for franchises that are getting worse, most of them are obvious like Battlefield and Fallout, but I think I may have made a mistake by saying the Sims has been getting worse as the actual games have been getting better, but I value the series as getting worse due to the milking of it with DLC.

I did however put that the Elder Scrolls are improving, Skyrim is certainly better in nearly all regards than Oblivion.

[Joose]

Oh dear, hope he's back on his feet soon Tezz

The better/worse survey is an interesting one, as it really depends on your definition of "getting better" or "getting worse".

For instance, take my opinion on the elder scrolls series. If you are just comparing the latest game to the one before it, they I think Skyrim is far better than Oblivion, so its getting better. But if you are talking general trends, then I dont think Skyrim or Oblivion are as good as Morrowind was when that was released, so in that sense they are getting worse. On the other-other hand, if you are saying "is the series now as good as it was when it started" then hell yes. The first TES game was shite, even for its day.

You get similar problems with Fallout. I think FO3 is better (marginally) than NV, but not so much that I would go so far as to say its getting worse. Its near enough the same. But neither are as good as FO1&2 were. But then again, FO1&2 have not aged particularly well; not just visually, but the interface and some of the game design decisions too, so if you are compariong the current FO games with the old FO games played in the present day, then they are definately getting better.

Im sure plenty of people will disagree over my specific examples there, but I would be willing to bet that they would have similar problems of thier own. Maybe with other series and/or coming to different conclusions, but the same basic problem.

Its often not a simple enough situation for the series to fit into either "better", "worse" or even "about the same"

Having said that, some are pretty clear to me. The C&C series for example has gone horribly, horribly wrong in its most recent iterations. Largely due to trying to turn it into a different kind of game. If you make basically the same game over and over, just with shinier graphics and video sections, and every one of those identikit games is fantastically popular, you should absolutely stick to the "aint broke, dont fix it" adage. Flogging old horses is only a problem if they are dead. The C&C horse might have been old, but it was perfectly healthy.

[FatherJack]

I went with how much I played them as much as how much I enjoyed them at the time.

I didn't play the early Fallouts at the time, so while I have them now, it's the newer one I spend more time in. Better.
Pretty much the same story with Elder Scrolls, although I did have Morrowind at the time, but never got into it properly. Better.
Battlefield I used to think was great, but got fed up (mostly with other players) in BF2, more so in BF2142 and haven't bothered buying the newer one. Worse.
Starcraft isn't so impossibly hard I only ever get to see the first chapter of the story anymore. Better. The story wasn't up to much though.
CoD I lost interest in after MW1 and hated after MW2. Worse.
Dragon Age and Bioshock - both great IPs perhaps forever ruined by disappointing sequels. Worse.
Team Fortress better than what? The Quake mod? Or before they added the items? I played the earlier incarnations more, but it's great design, that they've made it free and how I was able to feel instantly comfortable with the classes despite the changes is amazing. Better.
Hitman and Civ I guess are better, but I haven't really played enough to know (despite owning most of them). Better.
Diablo. Worse. And it was never that good.
Counter-Strike keeps getting little refinements, I'm not one of those who say it peaked at 1.6 - that was the one with the riot shield ffs. Better.
Total War's gone downhill since Medieval II, fuck knows why I keep buying them. I don't think I've won a single battle with anything less than vastly overwhelming numbers in anything since and that's boring. Worse.
Sim City, Sims, Command & Conquer, Splinter Cell, WoW, Mass Effect. All exactly the same as they ever were, as far as I can tell.
Crysis might have gotten better, but since the first one was shit I never bothered to find out.

[HereComesPete]

Thanks guys, he's getting there slowly but still waiting to see if there's any long term damage as he's only relatively young.

Fingers and other appendages crossed for FatherTezz.

...Fallout. I think FO3 is better (marginally) than NV, but not so much that I would go so far as to say its getting worse. Its near enough the same. But neither are as good as FO1&2 were. But then again, FO1&2 have not aged particularly well; not just visually, but the interface and some of the game design decisions too, so if you are comparing the current FO games with the old FO games played in the present day, then they are definitely getting better.

I think that technically that FO3 was better then NV (after I modded it a bit), but NV has (in my opinion) a better story and I love a bit of cowboy (aww yeah). And as much as I go misty balled at the idea of the first two I fully agree that I feel the series has got better, lost a touch of story depth but become far more immersive in general. Lost shooting people in the balls, gained 3d realised centaurs that spaff goo at you. Awesome.

Mass Effect - Better, all those who whined about the ending of 3 seem to have missed the 30-40+ hours of settling up, the horrible decisions, destruction and death of people you know and care about, the hard choices and such that all lead up to that final decision.
Counter-Strike - sauce is better than 1.6, who knows what the next one will be like.
Total War - played the old one, not my cup of tea(bag).
BioShock - worse, 2 is wank compared to the first
Civilization - better, polishing the polish, I try not to ever play them ever or I'll end up losing a month or more of my life and getting fired.
World of Warcraft - can fuck off
Team Fortress - better?? Never really played the old one, the new one is fun and easy to jump in and out of.
Crysis - couldn't comment - only use it for stompy robots.
Call of Duty/Modern Warfare - worse, it's just regurgitated crap every few months.
Dragon Age - worse, I did enjoy the sequel more than I thought I would but it was dumbed down to its detriment.
Diablo - worse, it's pretty but it went option lite on character progression.
Battlefield - worse, it's a shame but the commander role, balance and general scope has reduced it to something closer to COD. Hopefully the armoured add on will pick it back up a bot.
Command & Conquer - depends on what they mean - red alert is always daft and fun. The kane stuff is more polished but I think less fun.
SimCity - Never played them.
The Elder Scrolls - generally better, got flummoxed in skyrim, never went back but I intend to.
The Sims - die in a fire.
Starcraft - never really got into them.
Hitman - better, will have to see what the latest one is like on release.
Fallout - as above.
Splinter Cell - only played the first one, the others didn't entice me. I would say worse.

Oranges - Possibly worth stripping this out and putting it in general as a discussion topic??