I personally didn't like RE4. It just felt like run to this location, take something, shoot things, run out of ammo, cuss, and lose because that girl got kidnapped. Rinse and repeat a million times.

I didnt like Fable 2 as much as Fable

I liked GTA 4 alot more than San Andreas, but both games I pretty much played and never came back. Also I completely agree with you on RE5.

• GTAIV
• RE5
• socom
• wipeout
  

"Guitar Hero 2 - Guitar Hero 3 - Harmonix left and it just... wasn't pretty. Songs weren't as great and the note charting was kindof a joke."

@Wrect:
The original F.E.A.R. was on PC and 360.

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time was terrible compared to Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.

I haven't been enjoying Street Fighter 4 as much as I enjoyed some of the past games.
 
But how can you like San Andreas more the 4? Damn. Vice City or 3, maybe. But San Andreas? That is IMO the worst of the 3D gtas.

"

• wipeout
  

"

Not sure if this counts because it's really just a GameCube game but Twilight Princess tried to recapture Ocarina of Time's magic and failed.   Still a good game but definitely the worst 3D Zelda game.   Nintendo needs to take the series in a radical new direction.

Bionic Comando was shite.
 
I doubt we have anything to fear with God of War 3...when have Sony ever forsaken us.

Those aren't "next-gen" games. 
 
They are current gen. 

" Not sure if this counts because it's really just a GameCube game but Twilight Princess tried to recapture Ocarina of Time's magic and failed.   Still a good game but definitely the worst 3D Zelda game.   Nintendo needs to take the series in a radical new direction. "

The new Jet Set Radio Future game. How? BY STILL NOT EXISTING ;'(. 
 
Oh, and Ninja Gaiden II. NGB is by far the superior game.

Far Cry 2.

"Those aren't "next-gen" games.  They are current gen.  "

" Bionic Comando was shite. "

Not trying to sound like a dick but Guitar II better than than Guitar Hero III,seriously?That statement makes me wonder if you've even played them,I thought it was generally accepted that Guitar Hero III was the best in the series,Guitar Hero II fuckin' blows compared to Guitar Hero III,but whatever,that's just my opinion.
I agree with you on Resident Evil 4,I definitely liked it better than Resident Evil 5.Resident Evil 4 was a masterpiece,5 was just a copycat.
 
I haven't played enough of San Andreas to give an educated answer here,but my best friend played both and he seems to think that San Andreas is the better game.
As for GoW,I'm a huge fan of the series and I really hope that GoW III is better than the previous games.
 
Beyond those the only games I can think of that haven't lived up in this gen are Socom:Confrontation (3 and Combined Assault were better),Splinter Cell:Double Agent (Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory were better),Project Gotham 3 & 4 (PGR2 was far better than either of the 360 games),SoulCalibur IV (although I didn't like the 3rd game either,SCII was the shit),Ninja Gaiden II (it was an awesome game but it just didn't impress me the way the first game did and I'm still holding out judgment for DMC4 (I have it but I have yet to play it),I have DMC3:special edition which is awesome so we'll see if 4 is as good.
Anyway,that's all I can think of.

Before I start, I would like to say that last gen was really something in terms of great games. Several games truly knocked it out of the park. While some of the games I list didn't live up to their last gen predecessors, that does not necessarily mean the latest game is bad. 
 
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - I can appreciate Nintendo's ambition with this one, and I think they did a lot of things really well. I loved how they made the game more mature, giving most of the classic enemies a much darker and more serious look (with the exception of the Poes, what happened there?). However, it's more adult appearance was set back by some gameplay issues and a few bad decisions. The game was long, but parts of it did feel unnecessarily tacked on to extend it's length, which really wasn't necessary. I think the lack of an analog for camera control did far more damage than good, but I suppose there is always the Gamecube version out there. Despite some frustrating and stupidly put together segments, the game was not all that challenging, and still some long-lived Zelda problems still were not addressed. Like dude, you always have a wallet full of rupees and nothing to spend them on after you buy a couple key things. That annoys me. Also, it continues with Wind Waker's problem where enemies hardly do any damage at all. You can get the crap beat out of you, but you'll still have plenty of health, and if you're a Zelda veteran, you'll have at least 2 fairies on hand as well. Twilight Princess actually increases that problem by turning heart pieces into 5 piece segments, which in turn provides you with more health than ever before. Also, a lot of the classic Zelda stuff is really starting to show its roots, and it's never been more apparent than in Twilight Princess. The majority of puzzles you'll encounter can only be solved once you acquire a certain weapon or item you'll get in a temple. More games these days require players to think outside the box, and it'd be nice if Zelda would start to do the same. Good God, why did I write so much on just one game? I'm out of control.
 
Guitar Hero 3, Guitar Hero: World Tour - Yeah, I'd agree with you here, but we all know the true originators are now working for Rock Band. A lot went down with the GH series. They were sold to a whole different company and made under a different company who as far as I know had no experience with the genre, so as a result, I don't think it's too unreasonable to expect for them to fall a bit behind. GH3 had a great soundtrack but didn't really bring much to the table. Guitar Hero: World Tour jumped right on Rock Band's trail, but still struggled to catch up. I can't hate too much here. I will say that Guitar Hero: Metallica ended up being a lot better than expected, and I'm certainly excited about playing as Van Halen, but I'll keep my money on Rock Band for now. Well... getting GH: Van Halen for free is really tempting me... and if I'm gonna take them up on that offer, I'll have to act quickly since it's almost over. 
 
I'm actually going to turn the table here and jump to the defense of some of these accused games. 
 
Resident Evil 5 - This is a fantastic game, I don't care what anybody says. Resident Evil 4 is one of my favorite games from last-gen, and if I had to rank the best games from the last generation of consoles, it'd easily place into the top 5. With that said... the odds were against RE5 from the start. Did it disappoint a lot of people? Yeah, but when a game comes out and blows everyone away and is pretty close to being perfect, most people ridiculously demand that the sequel be even better. With that kind of attitude, people are just asking to be disappointed. I think Modern Warfare 2 is pretty much already doomed before it's even been released just because of how universally loved Call of Duty 4 was and how much MW2 has been hyped and the impossible expectations that are being thrown at it. That's what happened with RE5. People act like it did little to improve on what RE4 laid out because it failed to adapt a more modern third-person control scheme like we see in Dead Space. However, I'm going to say that RE5 pretty much reinvented the wheel for the series. Having two players with shared items and real-time weapon/item exchange is a big deal. Not to mention the possibility of co-op. And dude... all this Sheva hate is totally uncalled for. Not only is she awesome and a babe, I've found her to be a smart and incredibly capable ally. People complain about her wasting ammo, but dude, it's not a problem if people stop being morons and giving her the weapons that  they want to use. There's plenty of different types to go around. Aside from the two-player aspect, a lot of it is similar to what RE4 laid-out, but since when is that a problem? How often do you see a series that goes in a totally different direction with each sequel that's made? Yeah, pretty much never. I think they added more than enough for Resident Evil 5 and I think it deserves a lot more respect than it's getting.
 
Grand Theft Auto IV - Dude, I really don't even feel like I need to explain myself on this one. If you think GTAIV is a downgrade, you're wrong. Maybe you don't like the more realistic approach, however, I certainly believe it was a necessary progression for the series. GTAIV grew up and in a big way. I can understand why people have a problem with this, because with this transition GTA has made, the fun factor has been slightly affected. That's not to say GTAIV is boring at all, but it lost the crazy, turbo speed, ridiculous, in-your-face antics of its predecessors. Personally, I can accept that. I think giving the series a more serious tone ended up being very cool. I think the result is arguably the greatest game produced so far this generation. But I still got mad love for my homies in Vice City and San Andreas. Grove Street 4 Life, fools. I won't never forget. Also, if you're that bothered by the new change, go play Saints Row 2. It's fun and still a big San Andreas rip-off. 
 
Okay, I'm done. I could talk about more games, but I wrote a heck of a lot on the few I mentioned. I'm content with that.

" @randiolo said:

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• wipeout
  

"

You honestly prefer Wipeout Fusion to HD?  Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoyed Fusion a lot, but popular opinion holds it as the game that attempted to kill the series before Pures triumphant revival.  Of course if you're actually referring to the PS1 era, then that's a somewhat different story. "

"@Wrect:

The original F.E.A.R. was on PC and 360."

i would say Phoenix Wright and Apollo Justice  phoenix wright was original on GBA in japan so I call it last gen and the current gen Apollo justice
 PW is far better than Apollo Justice

" @Novyx said:

"@Wrect:

The original F.E.A.R. was on PC and 360."

But it was ported to Xbox 360 later. If that doesn't count, then neither does Guitar Hero II or Resident Evil 4.  EDIT: Although I'm not sure what constitutes a different generation of PC games. "

Oblivion
Super Paper Mario (if you count it as a sequel to 1000 Year Door).
Ninja Gaiden 2

Ratchet and Clank.  Though, to be fair I didn't really play that much Tools of Destruction. 

" (Predecessor spelled wrong due to character cap!) 
 
First blog techincally, but in reality the only difference I see in blog posts and forum topics is it says (blog post) in the title. Here goes. 
 
I've been thinkin about what next-gen games (PS3, Wii, 360) sequels haven't been on par with their last-gen predecessor. My choices are below, feel free to post yours. I think Guitar Hero 2 is considered last-gen right? Whatever.
 
Guitar Hero 2 - Guitar Hero 3 - Harmonix left and it just... wasn't pretty. Songs weren't as great and the note charting was kindof a joke. 

Resident Evil 4 - Resident Evil 5 - I don't consider this a bad game, but really, it wasn't even close to how much I loved Reisdent Evil 4. RE4 is definitely one of my favorite games of all time, and RE5 was just pushed to the side after I finished it, but RE4 is just memorable as hell and I continue to play it today. I won't be playing RE5 in 4 years. 

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas -Grand Theft Auto 4 - Really the same thing as above, it's not bad, but the standards given by it's previous installments were just too high, and I guess I just didn't like the realism to it. Most of the stuff they decided to throw away from the old games was because, as they claim atleast, they wanted it to be realistic, which I guess I didn't like.I probably played San Andreas for around 250 hours. Beat it, oh, 4 or 5 times. I only beat GTA 4 once. I didn't like it enough to play through it again when it got the trophy patch. 
 
I'm looking at my shelf of games and I can't think of any more. I pray that God of War 3 won't be on that list next year. My expectations for that game are so ridiculously high it ain't even funny. I heard Mercernaries 1 was great compared to Merc 2, but I can't say I played Merc 1 so I'll exclude that. "

" Guitar Hero 2 - Guitar Hero 3 - Harmonix left and it just... wasn't pretty. Songs weren't as great and the note charting was kindof a joke. 

Resident Evil 4 - Resident Evil 5 - I don't consider this a bad game, but really, it wasn't even close to how much I loved Reisdent Evil 4. RE4 is definitely one of my favorite games of all time, and RE5 was just pushed to the side after I finished it, but RE4 is just memorable as hell and I continue to play it today. I won't be playing RE5 in 4 years. 

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas - Grand Theft Auto 4 - Really the same thing as above, it's not bad, but the standards given by it's previous installments were just too high, and I guess I just didn't like the realism to it. Most of the stuff they decided to throw away from the old games was because, as they claim atleast, they wanted it to be realistic, which I guess I didn't like.I probably played San Andreas for around 250 hours. Beat it, oh, 4 or 5 times. I only beat GTA 4 once. I didn't like it enough to play through it again when it got the trophy patch.

Tenchu, except that I'd say that it's not living up to their predecessor of two-gens ago or their last-gen counterparts.

"Not sure if this counts because it's really just a GameCube game but Twilight Princess tried to recapture Ocarina of Time's magic and failed.   Still a good game but definitely the worst 3D Zelda game.   Nintendo needs to take the series in a radical new direction. "

Silent Hill 5 and Origins
 
The last gen ones (portable and not so portable) are a dissapointment compared to the ps2 and ps ones.

Mercenaries 1 was one of my favourite games on the PS2. It was lengthy enough (and could get pretty long if you went for all the side-bounties and did every mission), there was tons of mission variety and it looked beautiful for the console. Mercs 2 is almost the opposite. It's still kind of fun, but most missions are the same (go here, clear enemies out for certain group, group comes in and takes over), there were some very questionable design choices (who you're allied with doesn't matter anymore, the shop is all sorts of wack because you actually have to buy the supplies/vehicles/air support, then equip it to your quick select. The hell?), it was very short, and aside from the explosions and I guess the vehicles, it was not a very pretty game at all. A disappointment, for me.

gta4, are you serious it has been the only one in the series that is actually playable.

Metal Gear Solid 3-2
 
Snake Eater was a great game, but Sons of Liberty just kicked ass.

Super Paper Mario was not as good for me compared to Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door.  Why the hell did they have to make it a platformer instead of a full on RPG?

Mercs 2 was supposed to descend from heaven heralded by a choir of angels, but instead it was simply crapped out of a cold metal tube onto an assembly line of mediocre disappointing games.  Despite all the problems it fixed from mercs 1, like the impenetrable fog, there was a whole new list of bugs. Everything felt like it had a lot less weight than it did in the first game, and half of the things that were promissed by pandemic were missing. Overall, I still played the shit out of that game, but I doubt I'll be playing it right up until mercs 3 comes out like I did with the first Mercs. 
 
Along the lines of Guitar Hero, I played Guitar Hero III on the PS2, so to me, that is last Gen. As far as I'm concerned, World Tour was the massive letdown. I was counting on it having the band aspect of rockband, but the rest of the game would be classic guitar hero. Instead, I found out theat the characters Like Judy Nails and Clive WInston were made with the character creater and no long over the top, there was a FUCKING CHARACTER CREATER, each character no longer had there own fretboard artwork, and you were forced to play setlists in the campaign. Everything good about guitar hero had been stripped away, and they had become a run of the mill Rock Band clone. They came out FIRST, Rock Band should be copying them!
 
I'm not sure how you would classify last, next, and current gen on the PC, but can we all agree that EA's Command and Conquer games will never be as good as Red Alert 2 and Tiberian Sun?

" @Novyx said:

"@Wrect:

The original F.E.A.R. was on PC and 360."

But it was ported to Xbox 360 later. If that doesn't count, then neither does Guitar Hero II or Resident Evil 4.  EDIT: Although I'm not sure what constitutes a different generation of PC games. "

I figure that I am one of about 5 people who like Fire Emblem on this site, but Radiant Dawn (the Wii one) and Shadow Dragon (the DS one) are nowhere near as good as the first one that came out in the US for GBA or even Path of Radiance (the GC one)
 
Resident Evil 5 is a given, because despite how much I like it, it will always be in the shadow of RE4 (Which pretty much invented the modern Third Person Shooter). However, some people seem to forget that RE4 dragged on in the castle for far too long. I would have liked more village action, because that was probably the best part of the game.
 
Oh yeah, and Super Paper Mario most certainly. It was cute and charming for what it was, but it was still just an overly long platformer.

Devil Mary Cry 4 was solid but, in no way is it better then Devil Mary Cry 3.

People give Guitar Hero III way too much shit...probably because they suck at it.  Had a good song list on it, the bonus tracks were nice, and overall, the game was much more varied.  Also, how was the note charting bad?  Frankly, it made Expert worth playing.  They also made the hammer-ons and pull-offs spot on with where they NEEDED to be, as well as offered a much better guitar.  Sure, the neck separation issue was annoying, but so long as you treat your guitar well, you'll never come up with that problem.

Calling it next gen this far is is like saying you live in the future instead of the present.

" People give Guitar Hero III way too much shit...probably because they suck at it.  Had a good song list on it, the bonus tracks were nice, and overall, the game was much more varied.  Also, how was the note charting bad?  Frankly, it made Expert worth playing.  They also made the hammer-ons and pull-offs spot on with where they NEEDED to be, as well as offered a much better guitar.  Sure, the neck separation issue was annoying, but so long as you treat your guitar well, you'll never come up with that problem. "

" @Kamasama said:

" @Novyx said:

"@Wrect:

The original F.E.A.R. was on PC and 360."

But it was ported to Xbox 360 later. If that doesn't count, then neither does Guitar Hero II or Resident Evil 4.  EDIT: Although I'm not sure what constitutes a different generation of PC games. "

It was released on October 17th, 2005 for PC, and October 31st, 2005 for X360. That seems like the same gen to me. "

Riddick: Dark Athena -- They removed the atmosphere and novelty of the previous game and made it into "just another action game." Plus, multiplayer was pure garbage and would have best been omitted to make a better single player game. I'm just glad they bundled Butcher Bay in with it, or else it would have been a complete slap in the face.
 
Mercenaries 2 -- No explanation needed. Just an all around awful game.  
 
Resident Evil 5 -- A great game on its own, but when you consider the atmospheric achievements of its predecessors, it definitely doesn't carry the torch.  
 
Ninja Gaiden II -- Actually, it was better than Ninja Gaiden concerning weapons and difficulty balance, but the story was the worst I've ever witnessed and the level designs were crap. 
 
Hitman: Blood Money -- It felt like a bunch of missions arbitrarily slapped together with no organization or unity. Contracts and especially Silent Assassin followed a logical sequence of events that made sense (at least enough sense to tie the action together). 

Perfect Dark Zero, which didn't live up to its predecessor of 2 generations ago..