Why do we hate the third installment so much?

[Mistermixmaster]

I have no idea what you are on about. In my experience, the third ones seem to be among the best.
Examples:
- Super Mario Bros 3
- Metal Gear Solid 3
- Persona 3
- Valkyria Chronicles 3
- FarCry 3
- Fallout 3 (which I still find more enjoyable than New Vegas)
- Max Payne 3

But then again, different strokes for different folks, eh?

 

[sXeth]

#1 is the proof of concept. #2 they usually get it done right. #3 they tend to start milking the franchise.

Though there's plenty of exceptions.
Super Mario Bros 3. Last Crusade. Link to the Past. Ultima 3 : Exodus. All would see fairly regular use as the best of their trilogies, and usually even detractors would still list them fairly high.

 

[BrotherRool]

This is just selection fallacy probably. You're picking up on a pattern purely because there are so many third games out there, that some are bound to bad.

The third Metal Gear game is Metal Gear Solid, one of the most famous and influential games of all time. The third game in the Solid series of Metal Gear is Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater, the least controversial of the whole series and widely beloved by most.

The third Warcraft is one of the best RTS' of all time. The third World of Warcraft expansion (Cataclysm) was the fast selling PC game ever until the newest Diablo.

Final Fantasy III got voted the 8th best game of all time by the Famitsu readership. Final Fantasy III (by which I mean VI) is widely proclaimed by many to be a franchise best.

Grand Theft Auto III (3D) was called a landmark in the gaming industry. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the 3rd 3D GTA game and the third GTA PS2 game and the third GTA in the Grand Theft Auto III series, is the best selling game of all time
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It looks like 3 is a lucky number =D Can anyone think of more to add to this by the way? Videogames are numbered so weirdly

Morrowind
Halo 3
Fallout 3
Wing Commander 3
Saints Row 3
Civilization 3

And so on.

That's not what I was going for =D There are a lot of good third games out there. I meant multiple games in a series that could all be considered 'the third' and have high acclaim.

(For example if Assassins Creed 3 was undeniably good, you could say that AC3 was a great game and Assassins Creed Brotherhood, the 3rd game in the series, was even better than 1 and 2)

 

[MammothBlade]

Title says it all. I never really understood why a lot of people seem to despise the third installment of a trilogy so much. From Spider-Man 3, to the Dark Knight Rises, to Mass Effect 3, audiences really seem to think that no matter what happens, the third installment of something a lot. Maybe I'm just starting to notice this or I haven't thought of a reason why, I just want to know why a lot of people seem to hate the third installment of something, weather it's the final installment or the next installment of a series.
Edit: Just wanted to make a quick clarification, I'm just using The Dark Knight Rises, Spider-Man 3, and ME 3 as examples. I don't think they're bad, although I admit I could of used better examples .

A lot of third installments are hated because the franchise either fails to reinvent itself or casualises.

Yet there are some which or great or at least which I enjoy and that's the only thing that matters, for instance DEUS EX HUMAN REVOLUTION GREAT MOTHER, EUROPA UNIVERSALIS III which was/is AWESOME, and plenty of others that roxxor my soxxors.

And another predictor, if the second is good the third will be mediocre/shit. If the second sucks, the third will be great.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

A lot of the times the third installment is about the time all the best ideas have been run into the ground. Or, if it's a trilogy set out to be a trilogy, it'll use the third episode to wrap up loose ends - which, while certainly great for bookkeeping, is less entertaining.

I don't think people go out of their way to hate the third part in a series, I think it's just that, on average, the third installment of a trilogy is utter hogwash. That said, it's really only applicable to story-driven media - videogames, perhaps the only purely mechanically iterative creative medium, needn't suffer from such trifles. Grand Theft Auto 3 is the classic it is because it built on top of a foundation laid down by its predecessors and did things with it that hadn't been done before. A book trilogy doesn't have that sort of leverage - it has to continue from its previous installments, not build on top of its previous installments.

 

[wrightguy0]

What about Grand Theft Auto III? The game that spawned or solidified the trend of sandbox games that still runs stronger, and in fact stronger, today?

and let's not forget San Andreas was also the third game in the III era of GTA and is adored by all

 

[Thoff09]

I'd say its because the third installment is generally the final one, and no one is ever fully satisfied with the ending to their favorite anything.

The final bite of cake is always the most dissapointing.

 

[Sexy Devil]

But spider man was pretty bad...

Spoiler: Spider man 3

That says it all for spiderman, seriously why is that scene even there...

As for Dark Knight Rises I thought it was a decent movie, sans the weird voice for Bane which made him sound like a stuffy gentleman and a few plot holes it was decent. Not great and certainly not the best end to the trilogy but decent.

Mass effect 3 is strange to talk about, it wasn't a bad game per say, it was actually pretty good (ignoring the ending). But the thing is it was hyped to hell and back and full of dlc and other money-grubbing features that caused a lot of community outcry. So basically it was a pretty good game, but was put in a bad light for the community because of a few crappy and useless features, oh and a poorly made ending (which has been fixed now, though that just goes to show how bad it was, they needed a whole new dlc to fix that up).

I don't understand why that scene gets so much shit. It's supposed to be laughably cringe-worthy because Peter's an awkward guy trying to be cool. No excuse for Venom, the other emo scenes, and pretty much everything else in the movie besides Sandman though.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Sipder man 3 sucked, Mass effect 3 was so so and Dead Space 3 is not Dead space. For gaming they water stuff down so much to sell to the mindless hordes more effeinactly.

 

[Wilco86]

Heroes of Might & Magic III is a classic. I liked Dead Space 3 more than Dead Space 2 because there were less stupid action scenes (like BASE-jumping from the orbit to a 1x1 meter hole). Shin Megami Tensei III (aka Lucifer's Call) is a really good game, TESIII: Morrowind, etc...

 

[lord.jeff]

The reason this idea exists is because if a series gets to it's third it means that people tend to care about it, we are willing to ignore thousands of bad original IPs but a sequel that ruins a loved character tends to stick in are minds.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Because non of those third installments are the third installment we really want.

For your reference, here's a list of the third installments we really want.

Half Life 2 episode 3
Half Life 3
And last but not least...
Dungeon Keeper 3

 

[Lugbzurg]

The third Metal Gear game is Metal Gear Solid

Fourth, actually.
Unless you're just not going to count the other "combat oriented" Metal Gear 2 that Hideo Kojima had nothing to do with.

There are some greats at the ends of trilogies. Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Ratchet & Clank 3... I assume Halo 3 and Jak 3 did pretty well, though I haven't played them, myself.

 

[Amaror]

A lot of people pointed out that you statement is far from the rule, but i will explain it to you anyway.
You are right that a lot of third installments aren't liked the best. Why is simple. They are the ending and the ending is IMPORTANT. A lot of times things are set up as a trilogie and the third installment is supposed to be the peak, the best. Since it's mostly not it gets a lot of dislike, even if it's allright.

That's the very same reason i have to dismiss a lot of the examples for good third installments people are giving, because most of the good ones are just third installments and not the third act of something.
Far Cry 3, has hardly anything to do with the other two storywise, as does morrowind and other examples.
One very good example for an amazing third part is return of the kings, of course, but also A Storm of Swords (Third book of a Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones)). And i think i kinda get what makes each part good.
The First one has to set the scene and get things rolling.
The second one has to keep things going, up the stakes a bit, keep people excited.
The Third one has do stuff. It has to up the stakes drastically, make stuff happen and generally just be epic.

 

[BrotherRool]

The third Metal Gear game is Metal Gear Solid

Fourth, actually.
Unless you're just not going to count the other "combat oriented" Metal Gear 2 that Hideo Kojima had nothing to do with.

Yep I'm not going to count it, just as Kojima didn't.

 

[CaptainKoala]

All the hate about Mass Effect 3 is a circlejerk about the ending. In every other way I think it was better than the previous two installments. The writing, the gameplay, the voice acting, everything was better.

Massive spoilers here.

Spoiler

Remember Mordin and the genophage mission? Or Thane's death scene? Remember how horribly sad you were after the Thessia mission? Or resolving the Quarian/Geth war (or not...)?

These moments are among the best in the trilogy, anybody who says ME3 was a bad game obviously hasn't taken into consideration anything but the last 10 minutes.

 

[jdogtwodolla]

Have you played Assassins Creed Revelations? The good of Screed 2 was brought down in Brotherhood and it only fell off from there.

 

[spartandude]

All the hate about Mass Effect 3 is a circlejerk about the ending. In every other way I think it was better than the previous two installments. The writing, the gameplay, the voice acting, everything was better.

Massive spoilers here.

Spoiler

Remember Mordin and the genophage mission? Or Thane's death scene? Remember how horribly sad you were after the Thessia mission? Or resolving the Quarian/Geth war (or not...)?

These moments are among the best in the trilogy, anybody who says ME3 was a bad game obviously hasn't taken into consideration anything but the last 10 minutes.

see i thought apart from a couple of good bits that it was a shit game over all, even excluding the ending, but thanks for lumping me in with the people who only focus on one thing

The writing for most of the game was terrible, exceptions being Palaven?s moon and most (but not all) of Thessia and ofcourse the shooting bottles with Garrus. but apart from that the writting was more or less a joke imo and the combat was annoying because that stupid A button didnt know what to do, granted when the controls worked it was good... when they worked

 

[anthony87]

ME3 generally wasnt hated because it was the third installment in a series it was hated because Bioware falsely advertised their product and then treated the community rather poorly when they called them on it.

Although typically they'll usually come up with complete lies in order to justify their whining.

Im sorry but perhaps I misunderstood you. Are you accusing me of creating a lie? or are you talking about the ME 3 movements and fans in general?

Don't worry about it. S/he just randomly appeared a couple of days ago to righteously defend Bioware in every single thread that mentions them or any of their games....oh god....it's....it's......

THE ANTI-ZEEL

 

[Tyelcapilu]

Mass Effect 1 was as awful (if not more so) as the third one, and the second one wasn't exactly a gift from god.
A better example for the stereotype would be Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, but at least you tried.