Sequels coming too fast?

[cuddly_tomato]

Forza 3 is about to, or has just, hit the shelves, meaning that we can all drive around in circles on digitized tarmac. The problem for me is that I could already do that with Forza 2, which I had barely got out of the package before Forza 3 was ready to land. Was Forza 3 really necessary at this stage? Forza 2 is a great game and is running on the current generation of machines. As well as yet another drain on my wallet if I want to keep up it means that this is going to fracture the Forza community. Those who don't move over to the new game are not going to be able to play with the people who do.

Pretty soon Modern Warfare 2 is set to land. Correct me if I am wrong but we have already had Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 3, Call of Duty 4, and Call of Duty WaW all out during this generation. For the love of crap why do we need that many Calls of Duty?! Two would have been plenty, Modern Warfare and a WW2 theme if they wanted those, but refined with plenty of multiplayer. The chances of communities building up around those games, as they did around UT, UT2004, and Counter Strike, are practically non-existant, as people barely have time to catch their breath before the new game arrives.

I understand why game companies do this - games have a very short "shelf sale" life. You can get Modern Warfare for as little as £15 here now. But instead of Call of Duty 76 why don't they give us something like Badgers of Doom or Island of the Goatie Bearded Fridges?

In my opinion churning out sequel after sequel after sequel year on year is bad for gaming as a whole. It is restricting variety and doesn't really let communities build around games as they used too. What do you guys and gals think? I will read replies after I get back from playing Dynasty Warriors 6.

 

[oppp7]

Ya, same with Left 4 Dead 2. It's not that these are bad, but they're just too soon. Why don't the companies make more DLC or spend more time on their products? Frequent sequels gives me the impression that they're releasing unfinished games...

 

[HE Starwind]

I'm pretty sure the Call of Duty thing is to do with different developers.

But yes, sequels come out way too fast, or so it seems. My theory is only the unawaited sequels arrive quick, whilst the games you've been masturbating about for the last 6 months have not yet arrived. And more than likely, the sequel will be absolute sheet.

Examples... oh here we go, Fallout 2. One of my favourite games of all times, I don't know how many years it was until Fallout 3 came out, which was made by different developers, I paid £39.99 and facepalmed after 5 minutes of playing.

Half Life 2 Episode 3? Still hasn't yet arrived, I've nearly lost my hard-on from Episode 2 goddamnit.

Halo: ODST; Not even worth mentioning that £44.99.

Resident Evil 5; Not even worth mentioning that free gift with my Xbox Elite.

I mean... Mortal Kombat was an epic beat 'em up! But after the original arcade versions it was drastic, and yet they're still making sequel after sequel.

Well I'm tired at the moment, but my list does go on!

I just wish game developers would talk to the communities more before thinking of releasing!

EDIT: I understand this is a different take on sequels being released too early compared to your view of money hungry developers, but what the heck.

 

[Jonatron]

Two words.
Episode Three.

(Damn it, above poster beat me.)

 

[newguy77]

As long as they are good and improve upon the previous game, I'm ready for Crackdown 600 if they want to.

 

[Dr. James]

Two words.
Episode Three.

This

 

[Trilby]

Oh, there are those releases that take their sweet, sweet time (Ep3!), but in general I think I'd agree with you. Quite often I seem to be finding out about a sequel release and thinking "Huh... did I play the first one?" To be fair, this is quite possibly due to me being a little behind the times.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

--space--

Noo you brought up three perfect examples there. Halo, Fallout, and Half-life.

Half-life is supposed to be episodic gaming. It's games are short and sweet and designed to leave us hungry for more. Why then does it take years and years and years for them to get the next episode out? That is an example where sequels should be out and about quicker.

Halo was all about the single player, then went all about the multiplayer (other story though). The paint isn't dry on the Master Chiefs next-gen armor and we are already leaving him behind to drop through the clouds in ODST. Not only that but the new game was obviously designed originally as DLC (those various chapters were going to be downloadable, come on guys look at it), and instead got bumped up to full game status. The problem is it doesn't really cut it as a full game. I love what there is of it, but there just isn't anything like enough. That should have been put back at least another year for a proper full and fleshed out game, not rushed out to meet the Christmas spending spree.

Fallout 3 is an example of getting it right. Not the game itself, but the actual sequel and it's timing. The gap between Fallout 2 and Fallout 3 was perfect, long enough so that Fallout fans were drooling for the next game, but not so long that the magic of Fallout 2 would be lost. When it arrived it was huge, whether it was filled with huge badness or goodness isn't my point - the game was full.

 

[LeonLethality]

I agree I mean an anual release of a NEW game is fine (ratchet and clank did this) but the same or incredibly similar is just too much >.>

 

[Carbonhunter]

I'm afraid that the problem stems from us.
We're so prone to drooling and pining for more that we can't just sit back and play the same game over and over for years at a time for the creators to knuckle down and produce an epic, so companies are reduced to blasting helping after helping at us like we're all Lion-Cow hybrids with four stomachs and a hankering for poorly cooked meat. DLC stuff takes time to create, time which can't be spent on "the new game" so instead of holding us fans back with flaming cattle-prods the designers scrape up some DLC worthy material staple it to an old game engine and paint everything a new colour.
Rant over... but ODST really was too bloody cheeky.

 

[HyenaThePirate]

A Better question is how Forza 3 can come out and be completely, totally awesome while people are still arguing about whether Gran Turismo is EVER going to actually be released... and why it took damn near a decade to make a game that the makers of Forza have essentially emulated (and possibly surpassed) in a FRACTION of the time.

 

[tehweave]

Sequels coming too fast?
Yes.
Thank you.

 

[Nouw]

L4D2 seeing how it usually takes half a decade for valve to make a game.

 

[VanityGirl]

I think Gears of War was a good example of GOOD timing between sequels.
The first was release witht the 360 in 2006, the next game was release 2 years later with better graphics, weapons and story.
I already think the gap between 2 and 3 will be too long, since Epic said they will release Gears 3 on the next gen console, which could be 2012-2015... =\

 

[Yukinari]

If the game isnt boring and stale like its previous game, then i will enjoy it.
L4D2 is the biggest example since apparently its hated just because it could have been a expansion, which it cant.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

I think Gears of War was a good example of GOOD timing between sequels.
The first was release witht the 360 in 2006, the next game was release 2 years later with better graphics, weapons and story.
I already think the gap between 2 and 3 will be too long, since Epic said they will release Gears 3 on the next gen console, which could be 2012-2015... =\

I think the idea that the next Gears should be on the next gen consoles is a sound one. We already have 2 Gears games on the current xbox360, which is plenty. The thing is even that has split the Gears community in twain, half sticking with Gears 1 and half moving to 2. Among the Gears 2 crowd, various bits of DLC with new maps and wotnot are set to further fragment the player-base.

The great thing about online gaming, for me, was seeing the same group of people playing the same games, getting familiar, then having a laugh and a joke while playing. That seems to not happen these days, and multiplayer seems to be not so much about playing and enjoying a game with people, but an excuse for developers to not bother with AI.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

If the sequel is a solid addition to the franchise, then I'd say it was delivered on time. And Foraza 2 came out two and a half years ago, which is a reasonable amount of time by any standard between installments of a game.

 

[johnman]

The only sequals I care about are not coming fast enough. Stalker call of Pripyat has already been released in Russian and eastern europe, but no release date has even been annouced for the rest of Europe yet.
And Half Life Episode 3, well we all know that story. Tell us SOMTHING please!

I also really want a sequal for Dark messiah but theres none coming, and there's no game with combat like it.

 

[Spaceman_Spiff]

I dilike if a sequel comes out for a game on a different console. I don't want to shell out money for something when all I want is the ending to the story.

 

[irishstormtrooper]

I agree I mean an anual release of a NEW game is fine (ratchet and clank did this) but the same or incredibly similar is just too much >.>

Well, in itself, the Ratchet and Clank games are all pretty similar. Not that this s a bad thing, but really, seven games is just too much.