What franchises do you think deserve a break?

@Coafi said:

SILENT HILL!

DAMMIT! I was just about to mention Silent Hill.

After downpour I think the series needs a break, or just better developers. Hideo Kojima should work on the Silent Hill series, and try to bring it back in the spotlight.

@AuthenticM said:

@Coafi: Well it's not as if Konami has been whoring the franchise. It doesn't need a break; it needs to be reinvented. Konami should simply hire the Amnesia guys to reboot the thing. I'd play that.

Reinvention is exactly what Shattered Memories did. And it worked. But for whatever reason, they decided to hand development of the next game to a different company and we got Downpour.

@huntad said:

Call of Duty?

This was my first thought as well. It'll never happen, but a break would do wonders for this series. I think the teams involved could potentially do some amazing things with a little extra time. e,g. a fucking engine upgrade.

@BabyChooChoo said:

@huntad said:

Call of Duty?

This was my first thought as well. It'll never happen, but a break would do wonders for this series. I think the teams involved could potentially do some amazing things with a little extra time. e,g. a fucking engine upgrade.

I don't think an engine upgrade is what Call of Duty needs at this point, though it would help. They just need to get their shit together and not make each entry an exercise in brainless, ADD-addled, Michael Bay explosion narrative design.

Assassin's Creed. After 3, I hope they at least skip a year (preferably two).

@Hailinel said:

@BabyChooChoo said:

@huntad said:

Call of Duty?

This was my first thought as well. It'll never happen, but a break would do wonders for this series. I think the teams involved could potentially do some amazing things with a little extra time. e,g. a fucking engine upgrade.

I don't think an engine upgrade is what Call of Duty needs at this point, though it would help. They just need to get their shit together and not make each entry an exercise in brainless, ADD-addled, Michael Bay explosion narrative design.

Meh, personally I don't mind the brain-dead campaign. To me, it's like going to see the Expendables or something. It's dumb and it's fun, just as long as you set your expectations accordingly. I can understand if others don't feel the same way though. That said, a change of pace would be nice regardless.

@Hailinel said:

@BabyChooChoo said:

@huntad said:

Call of Duty?

This was my first thought as well. It'll never happen, but a break would do wonders for this series. I think the teams involved could potentially do some amazing things with a little extra time. e,g. a fucking engine upgrade.

I don't think an engine upgrade is what Call of Duty needs at this point, though it would help. They just need to get their shit together and not make each entry an exercise in brainless, ADD-addled, Michael Bay explosion narrative design.

And I think that's why Black Ops felt so refreshing. They clearly did a little more work on their story and wanted to do something more interesting than just "WWIII! EVERYTHING BLOWS UP ALL THE TIME YEAH!!!!!!!!!"

@BestUsernameEver said:

@huntad said:

Call of Duty?

Hahaha, funny joke there. Activision will never give any of their franchises a break.

Your thread is games that DESERVE a break. Not games that WILL plausibly get a break. This post doesn't make any sense.

@Buttonbasher said:

@BestUsernameEver said:

@huntad said:

Call of Duty?

Hahaha, funny joke there. Activision will never give any of their franchises a break.

Your thread is games that DESERVE a break. Not games that WILL plausibly get a break. This post doesn't make any sense.

I never said it deserves it or not, I just said Activision never puts franchises on break.

The COD series. It's like a sports franchise now, with yearly installment and a few modification here and there. It has gotten real stale and really should take a break before gamers get numb to buying the same formulaic game year in and year out.

@BestUsernameEver said:

@huntad said:

Call of Duty?

Hahaha, funny joke there. Activision will never give any of their franchises a break.

They do once the games sell terribly. I mean they wanted to make a Guitar Hero movie. A FUCKING MOVIE

@SomeDeliCook: Yeah well, a lot of huge videogame franchises has had a movie or movie plans. Halo, Uncharted, Bioshock, Mario, Guitar hero, Resident evil, angry birds (rio) and Silent hill. There's obviously many more.

Assassin's Creed. Maybe I would enjoy it again, then.

I'm a bit ambivalent about giving franchises a break. (maybe assuming a bit much, but sequel sales seem to bear it out) People like to play certain kinds of games, with new twists, over time. And because game publishers are happy to employ programmers / artists to full fill this market, it seems like a matter of being upset over the semantics of coming up with a new name vs. adding another +1 to the title. If nintendo decided to skip Mario for 5 years there would be financial hardships at nintendo, and anger from a large number of mario fans.

Overall new games and new conceptions of what a game can be are marching onward, so I'm more inclined to play the world's smallest violin when I hear that sort of complaint.

Though, it seems like military dudebro shooter is a tad over saturated. Maybe the current interest is to some extent a reflection of what is most often in the news. Or it could just be that staying visible is really worth that much to snow-ball sales in a franchise.

Tekken could probably take a break for a while. They're always doing something with that series and it's never anything creative, just more wacky. They've somehow one upped their craziness to the point that the games feel like unaware self parody at this point.

Going to have to disagree with everyone who said Mario. NSMB2 wasn't as bad as everyone is making it out to be.

Final Fantasy

• Silent Hill
• Assassins Creed
• Mario
• Zelda
• Uncharted

@BestUsernameEver said:

@SomeDeliCook: Yeah well, a lot of huge videogame franchises has had a movie or movie plans. Halo, Uncharted, Bioshock, Mario, Guitar hero, Resident evil, angry birds (rio) and Silent hill. There's obviously many more.

Angry Birds Rio was just a version of Angry Birds themed after Rio. The game was just marketing for the movie, no different than most licensed games.

all of them. i just think that games are having too many sequels.

OP's formatting is stupid.

@Hailinel said:

@BestUsernameEver said:

@SomeDeliCook: Yeah well, a lot of huge videogame franchises has had a movie or movie plans. Halo, Uncharted, Bioshock, Mario, Guitar hero, Resident evil, angry birds (rio) and Silent hill. There's obviously many more.

Angry Birds Rio was just a version of Angry Birds themed after Rio. The game was just marketing for the movie, no different than most licensed games.

I get that part, but also a good point, there will be an Angry Birds TV show, so still my point.

@Flacracker said:

OP's formatting is stupid.

Not my fault, it just saved like that, and I couldn't get the images to line up perfectly with the bullet points, so I kept it. Also, you're complaining about formatting on a forum page? Come on now. Now it's not enough to have a valid point or good discussion value, it also has to be formatted just the way you like it?

@BestUsernameEver said:

@Hailinel said:

@BestUsernameEver said:

@SomeDeliCook: Yeah well, a lot of huge videogame franchises has had a movie or movie plans. Halo, Uncharted, Bioshock, Mario, Guitar hero, Resident evil, angry birds (rio) and Silent hill. There's obviously many more.

Angry Birds Rio was just a version of Angry Birds themed after Rio. The game was just marketing for the movie, no different than most licensed games.

I get that part, but also a good point, there will be an Angry Birds TV show, so still my point.

Fair enough. I forgot about that.

@Jeust said:

• Silent Hill
• Assassins Creed
• Mario
• Zelda
• Uncharted

They're making a new Uncharted?

Assassin's Creed, Resident Evil, CoD, Gears, Madden, Tekken, Zombie games (though I love them).

@SymbolliC said:

Assassin's Creed, Resident Evil, CoD, Gears, Madden, Tekken, Zombie games (though I love them).

Hasn't Tekken been on a break since 2007? Also, agreeing with Madden even though it is the silliest one to imagine EA ever allowing to 'rest'.

Call of Duty gets my vote. Just let it skip Infinity Ward's titles and it should be good.

• Final Fantasy: Square needs to chill the fuck out with FF. That franchise needs a long breather, and the developers need a break to collect their thoughts on the series and what it's about and what it means, because it has really gotten out of control.
• Mario: Not the entire series, Nintendo just needs to stop crapping out those "new" Mario games that are obviously just lazy cash grabs.
• Zelda: It's not like these games are pumped out ad nauseum, but it's clear the series is in a rut and has been for a long time. Nintendo should pump the breaks and come up with something different.
• Call of Duty: I'm not a hater like most people, but Activision really does need to give that series a bit more time between releases.
• Assassin's Creed: I used to love this series, but then Ubisoft got greedy and had to make it an annual franchise.
• Silent Hill: I'm not a huge fan or anything, but it seems like this entire generation Konami has just been aimlessly flinging shit at a target hoping they manage to hit a bullseye.
• Metal Gear: I'm a huge fan, and I actually think it's one of the better franchises out there in terms of consistent quality and not getting whored out, but I think it would be good for the series as well as its creator if Kojima focused on something new for a bit.
• Mega Man: Capcom has been whoring this series out so much the last couple of years, new games coming so fast and numerous, it makes my head spin.

if they changed significant things on sequels compared to their predecessors, I'd not mind sequels all that much...

the way things are is what bores me, you get literally the SAME game with one MAYBE two new bullet points added.

Resident evil I think Capcom needs to give it some time off and rethink what they want the franchise to be.

@Soapy86 said:

• Final Fantasy: Square needs to chill the fuck out with FF. That franchise needs a long breather, and the developers need a break to collect their thoughts on the series and what it's about and what it means, because it has really gotten out of control.

I'm not sure you understand what the series is about.

Rather than stating the obvious ones (Call of Duty - Final Fantasy - Assassin's Creed) I'll say Dead Space. Dead Space 1 and 2 were both very enjoyable and well produced titles but after seeing footage of Dead Space 3 I'm just not feeling it. It's too little and too soon from the looks of things.

@Hailinel said:

@Soapy86 said:

• Final Fantasy: Square needs to chill the fuck out with FF. That franchise needs a long breather, and the developers need a break to collect their thoughts on the series and what it's about and what it means, because it has really gotten out of control.

I'm not sure you understand what the series is about.

Enlighten me.

@Soapy86 said:

@Hailinel said:

@Soapy86 said:

• Final Fantasy: Square needs to chill the fuck out with FF. That franchise needs a long breather, and the developers need a break to collect their thoughts on the series and what it's about and what it means, because it has really gotten out of control.

I'm not sure you understand what the series is about.

Enlighten me.

Each game is a different experience. Gameplay, characters, worlds, all of those things change over from game to game while only retaining certain thematic elements. That is the constant in Final Fantasy. Whatever form that Final Fantasy XV takes, it will undoubtedly be different from the games that came before it.

@Hailinel said:

@Soapy86 said:

@Hailinel said:

@Soapy86 said:

• Final Fantasy: Square needs to chill the fuck out with FF. That franchise needs a long breather, and the developers need a break to collect their thoughts on the series and what it's about and what it means, because it has really gotten out of control.

I'm not sure you understand what the series is about.

Enlighten me.

Each game is a different experience. Gameplay, characters, worlds, all of those things change over from game to game while only retaining certain thematic elements. That is the constant in Final Fantasy. Whatever form that Final Fantasy XV takes, it will undoubtedly be different from the games that came before it.

I'm aware of all that. I've playing Final Fantasy since FFIV. ;)

@Soapy86 said:

@Hailinel said:

@Soapy86 said:

@Hailinel said:

@Soapy86 said:

• Final Fantasy: Square needs to chill the fuck out with FF. That franchise needs a long breather, and the developers need a break to collect their thoughts on the series and what it's about and what it means, because it has really gotten out of control.

I'm not sure you understand what the series is about.

Enlighten me.

Each game is a different experience. Gameplay, characters, worlds, all of those things change over from game to game while only retaining certain thematic elements. That is the constant in Final Fantasy. Whatever form that Final Fantasy XV takes, it will undoubtedly be different from the games that came before it.

I'm aware of all that. I've playing Final Fantasy since FFIV. ;)

I'm pretty sure the developers are, as well.

@BestUsernameEver said:

@Jeust said:

• Silent Hill
• Assassins Creed
• Mario
• Zelda
• Uncharted

They're making a new Uncharted?

After Uncharted: Golden Abbyss I don't think so, still I think this game is a needless addition to the franchise already.

Honestly I wouldnt care if every company started all new IPs next gen. We have had some great franchises, but I dont know if I will be down for 5 more assassin creed games next generation.

@Soapy86 said:

• Final Fantasy: Square needs to chill the fuck out with FF. That franchise needs a long breather, and the developers need a break to collect their thoughts on the series and what it's about and what it means, because it has really gotten out of control.

I agree with this. Final Fantasy has gotten way too dumb. They should take some time off from planning new 13 sequels (why) so they can really get a grasp on what they can do to make a good FF game that lives up to legacy of the franchise. In the meantime, a bunch of people would start going "Hey remember that Final Fantasy thing?" and in a couple of years they could drum up some real interest in a sequel (whereas now it feels like FFXIII is being shoved down our throats whether we like it or not. Isn't that weird? It's like they decided that FFXIII was a classic without asking anybody else.)

@Dixavd said:

I'll preface this by pointing out how I think that new IP's are extremely overrated as there's an abundance of ideas for new IP's (and there are generally way more that are greenlit than people give the industry credit for) and the ones with worth are the ones which deserve sequels (and usually get them due to how rare it is to actually have an idea which does well enough to deserve another; especially if their first one was reigned in to keep the cost along the lines of a B-level game and they want to make the sequel nearer an AAA game - think Darksiders as an example of this). However, there are a couple franchises which I think are on the precipice of destroying everything they have built up to this point and need to have a hard look at themselves to stop them going over the edge:

• Demon's/Dark Souls : I think if their next game is the same style, in the same setting, with the same combat then they could quickly kill off the love of the franchise in general.
• Assassin's Creed : This series is generally pretty out-there (I still wonder why people thought the ending of ACII was shockingly over-the-top after the almost-out-of-nowhere ending of the first game) but they are starting to make the series fall into the "story is there for the minority followers who have played all the previous ones and are paying attention; everyone else is playing for the novelty of being an Assassin in X scenario" (something which already plagues Kingdom Hearts- instead replacing the Assassin novelty with the "meet Disney characters [and some Final Fantasy character)" novelty). And with each game they are continuing to make it harder and harder for people to join in the latter group.
• Crysis : The story seems to be getting more and more unbelievable (although honestly the story isn't an important part of the game) but they seem to be losing what makes the series such a cult hit in the original one. Hopefully the third might blend the line between 2 and 3 better to give the series a core identity again (rather than just: Battlefield but with a super soldier and aliens, which the series could easily fall into).
• Persona : This is probably going to be a not-well-liked opinion but I really think after 3 and 4 the next main game needs to be vastly different (maybe like 2 to 3 although I don't know much for pre-3 Persona). I honestly don't think they are going to equal their efforts of Persona 3 and Persona 4 with the way they are set-up and I could easily see people getting annoyed at a "sub-par Persona 5" and arguing to being the 3 and 4 character back leading to a string of sequels following those characters and eventually either killing all interest in the entire series from making people sick of the 3/4 characters or by simply reducing them down to their most basic attributes.
• Little Big Planet : I liked LBP1 and 2 but with the number of expansions and downloadable things for each game (like having things from other games appear as DLC0 which keeps appearing on gaming news, as well as things like the karting game; I am getting very tired of the series and they really need to do something vastly different with the series to make me care at all with it (and this is from someone who loves the floatiness of the gameplay, the humour, art-style and music - but it needs to translate into something more or just take a big break).

Those are the ones I can think of that I fear couple cause irreparable damage to themselves if they don't take a step back.

Yikes. How can you say that Persona series needs a break? I mean there has been no Persona game on this generation of consoles, just remakes on handhelds. I don't know man, you & me clearly have big differences when it comes to what defines a "break"

@huntad said:

Call of Duty?

Why didn't this make your list?

Halo needs to stop altogether. Reach was a great place to finish, and the prospect of a whole new trilogy is just.. headache-inducing.

sweeping CoD assassins creed and FF aside i think GTA and Saints Row need a lonnng break. GTA more so than SR.

@Hailinel said:

@AuthenticM said:

@Coafi: Well it's not as if Konami has been whoring the franchise. It doesn't need a break; it needs to be reinvented. Konami should simply hire the Amnesia guys to reboot the thing. I'd play that.

Reinvention is exactly what Shattered Memories did. And it worked. But for whatever reason, they decided to hand development of the next game to a different company and we got Downpour.

Which I would still argue as being an OK Silent Hill game, if only by virtue of its compelling open world and the side missions. However, I would also agree to anyone saying that Shattered Memories is overall a much better Silent Hill game. I played Shattered Memories after I had played Downpour, which in turn made me realise that some of Downpour's neat incidental features (like how you can manually open doors as slowly/quickly as you want) was taken right out of Shattered Memories. That and the chase sequences, though Downpour does a much better job with them than Shattered Memories.

The way SM's story would unfold is also basically what I had hoped Downpour's would be, where Murphy's past (and the reason for his conviction) would be determined by choices made by the player across the game. I don't think Shattered Memories is the definite way to go, though. The lack of any combat, or at least any sort of conflict, during the 'real world' segments deflated a lot of the tension and potential fear of exploring. And for all of the complaints Downpour received about its dull creature design, Shattered Memories fleshy humanoids weren't exactly the most inspired, either. Despite the fact that they'd slightly change their appearance based on how you sculpted your own Harry Mason.

Unfortunately, Downpour's story is just such a disappointing waste that it's easy to understand why Shattered Memories is looked upon so fondly by comparison. They both have their own strengths and weakness, and I think a combination of those strengths would go a long way in creating a damn good Silent Hill game

@living4theday258: Never really thought about GTA, but it's true that it's been going for a decade straight, even when the time in between games is long. The only reason why I don't think it fits to me is because GTA4 really changed up the franchise for good or for bad, and I think Rockstar knows how to change their existing IP's just enough to keep it interesting.

@zombiebigfoot said:

Halo needs to stop altogether. Reach was a great place to finish, and the prospect of a whole new trilogy is just.. headache-inducing.

Am I wrong, or did I hear at E32011 that the new Halo trilogy would all be launching on the 360? That can't be right with the new systems apparently coming out late next year.

Anything with more than 3 games out or anything with a 3 or more in it's last or latest title. Sorry folks. We need some new franchises. BAD!!!

@forkboy said:

Yikes. How can you say that Persona series needs a break? I mean there has been no Persona game on this generation of consoles, just remakes on handhelds. I don't know man, you & me clearly have big differences when it comes to what defines a "break"

My argument is that they have got as close as they could ever get to perfecting the formula of the Persona series with 3 and 4. The next Persona game cannot be competing with those as it will fail dramatically (even more-so due to the gap between 4's release and now meaning that the 3 and 4 games have become beloved) and the novelty of the series has been killed off by the rereleases. There can certainly be another Persona game as soon as next year if they wanted, but if it isn't quite different then they could easily make a game which is not very well liked in-and-of itself or even snipe off a huge chunk of peoples love of the previous games (doubly so if they continued the 3 and 4 storyline). This could even escalate into killing off the entire franchise itself as it is the first one from it in a while and the possibility of it not doing so well could easily make Atlus decide to just scrap the entire thing (if P5 didn't innovate then it would almost certainly get worse scores than the previous games like most sequels do, while at the same time not having a large fanbase still buzzing from the previous games to keep up the momentum in sales). I just whole-heartedly believe that the next Persona game needs to take a break from its own formula. You can certainly disagree with me but my point still stands and the fact that there hasn't been one on this generation of consoles is one of the reasons why I believe it (I expected people to not like me pointing it out anyway, which is why I pointed out that it would likely be a divisive opinion).

@BestUsernameEver said:

@zombiebigfoot said:

Halo needs to stop altogether. Reach was a great place to finish, and the prospect of a whole new trilogy is just.. headache-inducing.

Am I wrong, or did I hear at E32011 that the new Halo trilogy would all be launching on the 360? That can't be right with the new systems apparently coming out late next year.

Halo 4 is a 360 game, so yes, the new trilogy is starting on current hardware.

Final Fantasy, that series hasn't done anything interesting in 40+ years

@Yummylee said:

@Hailinel said:

@AuthenticM said:

@Coafi: Well it's not as if Konami has been whoring the franchise. It doesn't need a break; it needs to be reinvented. Konami should simply hire the Amnesia guys to reboot the thing. I'd play that.

Reinvention is exactly what Shattered Memories did. And it worked. But for whatever reason, they decided to hand development of the next game to a different company and we got Downpour.

Which I would still argue as being an OK Silent Hill game, if only by virtue of its compelling open world and the side missions. However, I would also agree to anyone saying that Shattered Memories is overall a much better Silent Hill game. I played Shattered Memories after I had played Downpour, which in turn made me realise that some of Downpour's neat incidental features (like how you can manually open doors as slowly/quickly as you want) was taken right out of Shattered Memories. That and the chase sequences, though Downpour does a much better job with them than Shattered Memories.

The way SM's story would unfold is also basically what I had hoped Downpour's would be, where Murphy's past (and the reason for his conviction) would be determined by choices made by the player across the game. I don't think Shattered Memories is the definite way to go, though. The lack of any combat, or at least any sort of conflict, during the 'real world' segments deflated a lot of the tension and potential fear of exploring. And for all of the complaints Downpour received about its dull creature design, Shattered Memories fleshy humanoids weren't exactly the most inspired, either. Despite the fact that they'd slightly change their appearance based on how you sculpted your own Harry Mason.

Unfortunately, Downpour's story is just such a disappointing waste that it's easy to understand why Shattered Memories is looked upon so fondly by comparison. They both have their own strengths and weakness, and I think a combination of those strengths would go a long way in creating a damn good Silent Hill game

You took the words right out of my mouth, and probably explained it better than I was going to.