In your opinion, the franchises that went down hill this gen?

Final Fantasy takes the trophy here by far.

It's just... all the magic is gone. Not only is it hard to get hyped for these XIII games, it's evoking a "here we go again" response. It's amazing the day and night difference of the franchise before 13 (and 14) to now. The name has almost become toxic.
 
What's with all the Gran Turismo mentions?

GT5 is absolutely the best in the series, better visuals and by better I mean fucking fantastic, better physics (best on console sims imo), more cars and more tracks. Then you have the new additions such as kart racing, nascar, special events which are great, a course generator, day night cycle, weather, and a really good online mode. The series just gets better with each game, the only thing I didn't like was the constant loading and the load times, but patchs helped eradicate some of that. And the GT5 home page is much better than the home screen in GT4.
 
My god. What happened to gaming this gen.

All my favorite franchises went to the shitters D=

FF XIII was an acceptable game, nothing special, fun system and crappy story.

Anything after XII just feels like a massive disappointment. Balthier and Fran were so hot :x
 
Grand Theft Auto
Final Fantasy

Watching the games and spinoffs of these games is just sad. I didn't play FF13's but I played this gen's GTA4s (Main game, Gay Tony, and Black and White of the Dammed).
 
Pokemon just keeps getting better and better. I think anyone who seriously believes Pokemon is in decline are just nostalgic for the "good old days".

Or perhaps they have a different opinion than yours. Especially since that person's favorite Pokemon game is Platinum.
 
Grand Theft Auto
Final Fantasy

Watching the games and spinoffs of these games is just sad. I didn't play FF13's but I played this gen's GTA4s (Main game, Gay Tony, and Black and White of the Dammed).

I wanna give GTA5 a chance before I mark it on the list as well, but yeah, Final Fantasy wins by a motherfucking mile.

It's so frustrating to see such a fantastic franchise destroy itself in every category. From FFXIV disaster, to the vaporware of Versus, to the ill decisions of making sequels to arguably the worse iteration in the mainline series. It's baffling what they are doing to themselves.

Anyways, the real answer is every franchise. Name anything from the PS2/XBOX era and you'll certainly find some sort of decline.
 
What's with all the Gran Turismo mentions?

GT5 is absolutely the best in the series, better visuals and by better I mean fucking fantastic, better physics (best on console sims imo), more cars and more tracks. Then you have the new additions such as kart racing, nascar, special events which are great, a course generator, day night cycle, weather, and a really good online mode. The series just gets better with each game, the only thing I didn't like was the constant loading and the load times, but patchs helped eradicate some of that. And the GT5 home page is much better than the home screen in GT4.

Thank you. We all know it has some gran turismo-isms, but it's nothing to be put in a list like this.

I actually feel good that the series didn't went downhill like most of other japanese series.
 
I have to agree with the repeated mentions of Splinter Cell.

The last game was okay I guess, but that franchise used to be my motherfucking shit. The first Splinter Cell blew my god damn pants off at the time. Then they ended out last generation with the unbelievably good Chaos Theory. What the hell happened this time around?

It depressed me deeply to see what the latest Splinter Cell is going to look like. What a generic and boring looking game.
 
What's with all the Gran Turismo mentions?

GT5 is absolutely the best in the series, better visuals and by better I mean fucking fantastic, better physics (best on console sims imo), more cars and more tracks. Then you have the new additions such as kart racing, nascar, special events which are great, a course generator, day night cycle, weather, and a really good online mode. The series just gets better with each game, the only thing I didn't like was the constant loading and the load times, but patchs helped eradicate some of that. And the GT5 home page is much better than the home screen in GT4.

That's a lot of bulletpoints, true, but putting it all together was the problem with that game. Also, there weren't enough races. Things got real boring real fast, and it seemed you had to buy a special car for every race. There was no real sense of progression (for me) like I felt in GT1-GT3.
 
1st post nails it.

The only series I can think of that had improvements might be Street Fighter and Call of Duty, and both are pretty debatable.
Call of Duty 4 was a revelation. Can't deny that. I know it's hard to look fondly on it now after seeing MW3, BLOPS2, and countless imitators.

I stopped playing Call of Duty after MW2, but yeah, CoD4 was absolutely amazing at the time.
 
Pretty much all of them except fallout and far cry. Special shout out to Civilization 5, which is a terrible game and a blight on the series.
 
Final Fantasy goddamn on the first fucking place for real

I was also a little disappointed with Crysis 2 other than the tech on consoles
 
So much negativity in this thread. I'm enjoying games more than I ever have in the past.

Also for those that listed these series, MGS4 and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 do nearly everything better than their predecessors.
 
So much negativity in this thread. I'm enjoying games more than I ever have in the past.

Also for those that listed these series, MGS4 and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 do nearly everything better than their predecessors.
MGS4 definitely worsened the gameplay-non-gameplay ratio tho
 
Final Fantasy
Mega Man
Kingdom Hearts
Star Ocean
Elder Scrolls

Improved this gen:
Yakuza

Stayed the same:
Tales of
Metal Gear Solid (love peace walker, even if MGS4 isn't up to par for MGS3)
 
I wanna give GTA5 a chance before I mark it on the list as well

GTA 5 is already guaranteed to be better than 4 since they're putting jets and planes in general back in as well as parachuting and a whole bunch of stuff missing.

I don't think it will come close to San Andreas because SA had masterful mission design and diversity that I don't believe Rockstar will surpass because of their new belief that things have to be realistic or make some kind of sense. There was no logic in jetpacking out of area 51 or doing a hovercraft race, but that's why it was so damn fun to play. They won't try things like that in GTA 5. It'll be crazier and more fun than 4, but likely not as much as SA.
 
Lots of amazing new games, though! And stuff like Xcom that probably shouldn't be compared directly to the original, but I couldn't say it's better, just more aligned with modern expectations. Let's face it, except as a hard mode or an expansion, few of us want a game that kicks you in the balls as much as the first couple Xcom games did. Maybe if I was a ten year old with a summer ahead of me and no money. Not as an adult with a taste for trying lots of different games. Dark Souls is as far as I want to go down that route, and it happens to be full of hidden ways to save lots of time (Pyromancy! Weaknesses! Master key!).
This. Well said.
 
At least the second time I've seen that listed.

I want to say perhaps some of you have unrealistic expectations for video games. But maybe you just have different tastes in games, which is perfectly fine.

I'm curious to know which you are referring to more, I'd hope Elder Scrolls. To deny a Final Fantasy decline would be pretty crazy, I'd say so.

My problem with Elder Scrolls is into focusing purely on atmosphere and exploration, while leaving behind everything that makes an elder scrolls game. A mix of morrowind and skyrim would certainly produce a more optimal result than just one or just the other, but leaving gameplay behind in the wake of visuals is a decline for me.

A very similar problem with FFXIII of course, very little substance for all that flash it manages to produce.
 
I'm curious to know which you are referring to more, I'd hope Elder Scrolls. To deny a Final Fantasy decline would be pretty crazy, I'd say so.

My problem with Elder Scrolls is into focusing purely on atmosphere and exploration, while leaving behind everything that makes an elder scrolls game. A mix of morrowind and skyrim would certainly produce a more optimal result than just one or just the other, but leaving gameplay behind in the wake of visuals is a decline for me.

A very similar problem with FFXIII of course, very little substance for all that flash it manages to produce.
Yep, Elder Scrolls.

Oblivion, while dated now, I thought was pretty amazing when it came out.

Skyrim? I thought it was the bees knees. Nothing to really complain about aside from some repetitive quests. I thought the gameplay did a good enough job as a whole.

Morrowind is still my favorite game of all time. The atmosphere is unmatched. But it's one of those right place, right time kind of things. It's unfair to ask them to recapture something like that.

Video games are more streamlined now. That's just the reality. The old games are still there for us to play.
 
You babies. Everyone knows HD towns are really expensive to generate.

Sadly I can't post screens, but level 5 has done a fine job with hd towns in rpgs this gen, as have many other devs both from the west and east.

I don't remember who made that quote but id be surprised if anyone did not think that line was bullshit then, and its been proven wrong many times. Square might not be able to do them, but they can't seem to make good games anymore either.
 
SOCOM (I am Cry)
Ghost Recon (SOCOM's direct competitor also fell short)
Resident Evil (Sigh)
Grand Theft Auto
Final Fantasy (LOL)
Splinter Cell
Final Fantasy Online (FFXI was great FFXIV was basura)
Devil May Cry
Def Jam
 
Did you like Saints Row 3? I guess it goes too far in the opposite direction, so it's probably not in the same league as SA was, they had all these tools but no good reason to use them... But I'm more hopeful about a follow up to that than the weird idea Rockstar has of realism (riding a bike, killing guards and stealing a jet? That crosses the line. But murdering 1,000 innocents in the space of an hours doesn't. Huh?).

Yeah saints row 3 is way too far in the opposite direction where it's hard to take anything semi-seriously. Plus the mission design in that game is pretty bad. Like 10-15 missions are introductions to boring activities and most of the rest are run around and kill a ton of enemies. Only a few missions have you doing cool stuff like free falling out of planes (and through them sometimes).

I think a better comparison to the PS2 GTAs and san andreas in general is just cause 2 and not saints row. Saints Row is too wacky and zany, like you can dress up as a clown and explode people with a giant fist or drive a truck with johnny gat's head that shoots flames out of his mouth, but Just Cause 2 has you doing wild things that at least fall into reality, or action-movie reality at least which is more like San Andreas. I think the wackiest thing you could do in that game is dress up like a gimp and beat people with a dildo.
 
Mega Man has gotten better this gen. Followed by death.

Last gen we got the abysmal X7 and passable X8 and command mission, this gen we got GoAT Mega Man 9 and pretty good Mega Man 10.

Then we almost got a new Legends! And then it died. And then SFxMM. Ugh.
 
No, because Saints Row 2 was better in this area, it blended humor and serious moments perfectly.
I was a fan of SR2, but I thought the high points were higher in SR3 and the pacing was worlds better.

The fact you didn't HAVE to do all of the side missions was a godsend for me. I just don't have the patience for that stuff.

I did deeply miss the more involved character creation tools from Saints Row 2. I played that game as Moss from The IT Crowd and it was FUCKING AMAZING.
Well, yeah but that doesn't mean it's a good thing. Plus when they compare themselves to GTA they better step up with something better than SR3.
I think they definitely consider themselves as the non-serious GTA. So they leaned into that.
 
First post seems pretty representative of neoGAF as a whole, recently. It's annoying too, because I actually still like gaming.
Gaming is hardly limited to franchises that existed before this gen. I enjoy playing games too, but I can still point out franchises that, in my opinion, had very disappointing entries this console cycle. Metroid has been the most disappointing, personally.
I'd say fighting games are the only ones that haven't seemed to have suffered.
I'd say Pokemon has been doing just fine. Better than fine even.
 
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