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Sequels, now more than ever sequels are clogging up our consoles and video game stores but it doesn’t stop there films are the same just look back a few years at the Friday the 13th series or the Halloween series they just kept pumping them until the once highly revered name was turned into a joke.
But why is it that when a company releases a game that is different surprising and most of all fun it slowly starts to take over the charts and within a few months the developers have confirmed that there will be a follow up so we wait... and wait... and all of the hype builds posters litter streets and magazines and you are truly excited about this game then finally after the months of shrewd secrecy and awesome adverts the game arrives with a sudden rush of excitement you rip open the transparent plastic cover and ram the game in your console. The start up screen loads and a rush of adrenaline surges through your body you start a new game and pass the tutorial and get into the first level after a few minutes you begin to realise with a sinking heart that this game is just like the first and no more origonal than sliced bread.
So why is it that today’s games designers believe that they don't need to put the effort into their sequels, that the same game but with an enhanced graphics processor or better A.I will amuse our idle minds and keep us happy. But the games do amuse us and they do sell so the designers get away with it all because of the trend that we are trying so hard to keep up with.
But what is to come in just a few years time where will the sequels be...?
Tomb raider: The last revelation 45
Lara Croft is back in her most monotonous 'adventure' yet. She will be walking around many'a pool with nothing more than a handkerchief to cover her, Of course she will fight the same bad guys over and over but never fear if you get bored of that tough what did you but the game for.
"Hey you didn't expect us to make a different game did you!" Scoffed the spokes man from Eidos between fits of hysterical laughter. Later another spokes man cam out and said
"we regret to say that one of our employees released information about this game we would like to say that his information was totally wrong and that *sniggers* ahem the game is *sniggers* ahem totally ahem new *sniggers" after this speech he promptly buried his head in his hands and when it reappeared he said that 'oh sorry I got something in my eye'
1 month later that game was released and it sold millions then a week later millions were all taken back when Eidos announced that there was no nude cheat and that buyers should just enjoy the game but to the buyers despair there was no money returned.
Tony Hawks Good skater 25
After the huge success of the pro skater, average skater and bad skater series' Tony Hawks (now 85) has released the 25th of the good skater series with new slightly improved graphics and the addition of Tony’s patented walking stick he can pull of moves like 'the back breaker’, ‘the jay walk' and many more plus there are a few more areas such as the retirement home and the duck pond.
3 weeks before the U.K release of the game a spokes man said
"well we popped a cap in the bustin' moves and before they were trippin' it was bangin' you know we did some s*** to the tricks and it was hip"
World press were baffled.
However many young children interpreted this as
"Buy this game and we will give you a free skate board and p.c" so the game sold millions but after a few hours when the kids realised that none of these promises were true they tried returning the game only to get this message from the spokesman:
"you dont want jack you dont get jack we popped this geeezzzzeee"
The kids interpreted this as:
"sorry children but the prizes were taken to mars with their owners upon death you will get them back"
World press were still baffled.
Grand Theft Auto 99: Lice city
The 99th GTA adventure and this time the city is overrun but lice! you must run around and drive around to squash all of the lice in this the most tedious adventure yet with a very slightly better damage meter and slightly more interactive surroundings it truly isn’t an exciting experience.
1 month before the release date group of reporters went in search of a spokesman from rockstar to inquire as to why they condoned violence so much and to ask about accusations of violence themselves. All the press found was a burnt out car with the writing 'Rockstar dont cond- uh like violence' scrawled along the side.
Press accepted this and left the whole violence story alone.
The game sold multi-millions of copies and all were happy until they realised that the game could be completed in an hour or 10 minutes with cheats when they saw this there was a mass exodus of adults and children alike to get to the shop before it closed. No money was refunded.
Another burnt out car was, later that day placed on a podium with the message
"grand feft auto 100 will b betta' now leeve us alone!"
The press were happy and left the story alone.
Tekken 83
The newest in the series of beat em ups Tekken is back and more boring than ever you can have fighting mode, fighting mode and the latest addition 'fighting mode' with all of the OLD characters and we mean old they have new special moves such as 'The war speech’, ‘berate with stick' and many more.
"We really put effort into this game just the other day we stopped at an old peoples home and watched them in their natural habitat" said a spokesman who was clearly still bitter that Dead or alive 3 (Dead or alive now on its 78th game and still going strong) was better than tekken tag tournament tournament.
The game went on sale 2 weeks later and sold in the hundreds of thousands but then when the children realised that the old people in the game didn't give you real 50p coins they all tried to return it but to no avail.
"um they do give you real 50p's *whispers to helper "yea that should do it"* they are just invisible" and so the children left with smug smiles upon their angelic faces.
The sims add on number 233
In this the latest exciting new addition to the sims series you get to equip you special sim with, wait for it , a hat yes a hat a big black top hat in fact thats right all for just £49.99.
"yes we are very excited about this add on said a sims spokesman who then started stuttering incoherently and smoking from the head *a man shoves him out of the way*
" uhhh yea what mike is trying to say is that we studied a hat for a long time before making this so it should be good"
The game sold like hot cakes selling a total of 2 million games in 10 minutes but when the people realised that the hat kept changing into a rabbit they rushed to the shops to helplessly try and get a refund.
"um yes we are sorry about that we appear to have been watching a magicians hat for the past year" said the spokesman before running off down the road giggling demonically.
And it doesn’t stop there what about the films of tomorrow…?
Scream 23: The dead mans 13th revenge!
Its here the 13th instalment of the scream series since the final one *member of press shouts up* "but uhhh wouldn’t that mean that they had to uhhh …end ?"
*narrator* quiet you! and this time its the same as ever except for one thing…this time … someone gets killed *press* " but some one always gets killed" oh yea well this time uhhh Courtney Cox gets her top off *press* OH OK! *smiles and looks content*
A week before the U.K premier when copies where floating around on the internet but of course the producer was insisting that nobody would actually have watched it a spokes man announced
"Ha ha yes, no nobody has seen this film they may have downloaded it but we told them not to watch it *crosses arms smugly* so we DON’T think they’ll be watching it for at least another few months"
The film came out and was a storming success with the public … weeeeeell at least until 98 minutes after the people came out of the cinema complaining about the crudity and the fact that Courtney Cox didn’t get her top off.
"But she did get her top off that sweater scene whooow that was hot" (the producers later revealed that the spokesman was bi-sexual) The press accepted this as they didn’t want to be called homophobic.
I know what you did last summer 20 years ago
Oh no the man is back fish-hook and all but this time he’s mad- uh no well not mad old but he’s still got it the only problem is that he has to take his pills every 5 minutes oh and he needs his zimmer frame.
One month before the USA premier of Scream a spokesman claimed
"this is the greatest film for old bug- um I mean elderly people ever it will really hype their image and make them look a bit more ‘cool’ for a change"
The film was a smash hit success but when the old people realised that it cost them more than 50p to get in (which was coincidentally after the film had finished they complained.
"well since this has been brought to light we will give the old people some of *old person aims gun* uh I mean ALL of their money back *old man nods and lowers gun*"
And so scream went bankrupt.
But there is one form of media where sequels are just as good as the origonal. Books are the best example of sequels that work look at lord of the rings or the redwall series and you will see that the last is as successful if not more than the origonal and the redwall books have 13 to date
So why is it that books can still succeed after 5 or 6 predecessors perhaps it is because the people who write the books especially the older ones remember the reason they started for the enjoyment or for their children or grand children.
Admittedly the first few in a highly successful series of games will undoubtedly fair well but there are a few of us who look beneath the surface and see that they have lost their flair and excitement of the first one, the one that got us hooked.
So on the final note I would like to ask the developers to think about the games and to put more money into the new ones, try to make something different not just think about the money because that is the truth that the industry has just got greedy and makes games for the money instead of the gameplay its self. Maybe just maybe there are a few developers inside the industries who really care so to them goes this message.
Thanks for reading
R<>K
But why is it that when a company releases a game that is different surprising and most of all fun it slowly starts to take over the charts and within a few months the developers have confirmed that there will be a follow up so we wait... and wait... and all of the hype builds posters litter streets and magazines and you are truly excited about this game then finally after the months of shrewd secrecy and awesome adverts the game arrives with a sudden rush of excitement you rip open the transparent plastic cover and ram the game in your console. The start up screen loads and a rush of adrenaline surges through your body you start a new game and pass the tutorial and get into the first level after a few minutes you begin to realise with a sinking heart that this game is just like the first and no more origonal than sliced bread.
So why is it that today’s games designers believe that they don't need to put the effort into their sequels, that the same game but with an enhanced graphics processor or better A.I will amuse our idle minds and keep us happy. But the games do amuse us and they do sell so the designers get away with it all because of the trend that we are trying so hard to keep up with.
But what is to come in just a few years time where will the sequels be...?
Tomb raider: The last revelation 45
Lara Croft is back in her most monotonous 'adventure' yet. She will be walking around many'a pool with nothing more than a handkerchief to cover her, Of course she will fight the same bad guys over and over but never fear if you get bored of that tough what did you but the game for.
"Hey you didn't expect us to make a different game did you!" Scoffed the spokes man from Eidos between fits of hysterical laughter. Later another spokes man cam out and said
"we regret to say that one of our employees released information about this game we would like to say that his information was totally wrong and that *sniggers* ahem the game is *sniggers* ahem totally ahem new *sniggers" after this speech he promptly buried his head in his hands and when it reappeared he said that 'oh sorry I got something in my eye'
1 month later that game was released and it sold millions then a week later millions were all taken back when Eidos announced that there was no nude cheat and that buyers should just enjoy the game but to the buyers despair there was no money returned.
Tony Hawks Good skater 25
After the huge success of the pro skater, average skater and bad skater series' Tony Hawks (now 85) has released the 25th of the good skater series with new slightly improved graphics and the addition of Tony’s patented walking stick he can pull of moves like 'the back breaker’, ‘the jay walk' and many more plus there are a few more areas such as the retirement home and the duck pond.
3 weeks before the U.K release of the game a spokes man said
"well we popped a cap in the bustin' moves and before they were trippin' it was bangin' you know we did some s*** to the tricks and it was hip"
World press were baffled.
However many young children interpreted this as
"Buy this game and we will give you a free skate board and p.c" so the game sold millions but after a few hours when the kids realised that none of these promises were true they tried returning the game only to get this message from the spokesman:
"you dont want jack you dont get jack we popped this geeezzzzeee"
The kids interpreted this as:
"sorry children but the prizes were taken to mars with their owners upon death you will get them back"
World press were still baffled.
Grand Theft Auto 99: Lice city
The 99th GTA adventure and this time the city is overrun but lice! you must run around and drive around to squash all of the lice in this the most tedious adventure yet with a very slightly better damage meter and slightly more interactive surroundings it truly isn’t an exciting experience.
1 month before the release date group of reporters went in search of a spokesman from rockstar to inquire as to why they condoned violence so much and to ask about accusations of violence themselves. All the press found was a burnt out car with the writing 'Rockstar dont cond- uh like violence' scrawled along the side.
Press accepted this and left the whole violence story alone.
The game sold multi-millions of copies and all were happy until they realised that the game could be completed in an hour or 10 minutes with cheats when they saw this there was a mass exodus of adults and children alike to get to the shop before it closed. No money was refunded.
Another burnt out car was, later that day placed on a podium with the message
"grand feft auto 100 will b betta' now leeve us alone!"
The press were happy and left the story alone.
Tekken 83
The newest in the series of beat em ups Tekken is back and more boring than ever you can have fighting mode, fighting mode and the latest addition 'fighting mode' with all of the OLD characters and we mean old they have new special moves such as 'The war speech’, ‘berate with stick' and many more.
"We really put effort into this game just the other day we stopped at an old peoples home and watched them in their natural habitat" said a spokesman who was clearly still bitter that Dead or alive 3 (Dead or alive now on its 78th game and still going strong) was better than tekken tag tournament tournament.
The game went on sale 2 weeks later and sold in the hundreds of thousands but then when the children realised that the old people in the game didn't give you real 50p coins they all tried to return it but to no avail.
"um they do give you real 50p's *whispers to helper "yea that should do it"* they are just invisible" and so the children left with smug smiles upon their angelic faces.
The sims add on number 233
In this the latest exciting new addition to the sims series you get to equip you special sim with, wait for it , a hat yes a hat a big black top hat in fact thats right all for just £49.99.
"yes we are very excited about this add on said a sims spokesman who then started stuttering incoherently and smoking from the head *a man shoves him out of the way*
" uhhh yea what mike is trying to say is that we studied a hat for a long time before making this so it should be good"
The game sold like hot cakes selling a total of 2 million games in 10 minutes but when the people realised that the hat kept changing into a rabbit they rushed to the shops to helplessly try and get a refund.
"um yes we are sorry about that we appear to have been watching a magicians hat for the past year" said the spokesman before running off down the road giggling demonically.
And it doesn’t stop there what about the films of tomorrow…?
Scream 23: The dead mans 13th revenge!
Its here the 13th instalment of the scream series since the final one *member of press shouts up* "but uhhh wouldn’t that mean that they had to uhhh …end ?"
*narrator* quiet you! and this time its the same as ever except for one thing…this time … someone gets killed *press* " but some one always gets killed" oh yea well this time uhhh Courtney Cox gets her top off *press* OH OK! *smiles and looks content*
A week before the U.K premier when copies where floating around on the internet but of course the producer was insisting that nobody would actually have watched it a spokes man announced
"Ha ha yes, no nobody has seen this film they may have downloaded it but we told them not to watch it *crosses arms smugly* so we DON’T think they’ll be watching it for at least another few months"
The film came out and was a storming success with the public … weeeeeell at least until 98 minutes after the people came out of the cinema complaining about the crudity and the fact that Courtney Cox didn’t get her top off.
"But she did get her top off that sweater scene whooow that was hot" (the producers later revealed that the spokesman was bi-sexual) The press accepted this as they didn’t want to be called homophobic.
I know what you did last summer 20 years ago
Oh no the man is back fish-hook and all but this time he’s mad- uh no well not mad old but he’s still got it the only problem is that he has to take his pills every 5 minutes oh and he needs his zimmer frame.
One month before the USA premier of Scream a spokesman claimed
"this is the greatest film for old bug- um I mean elderly people ever it will really hype their image and make them look a bit more ‘cool’ for a change"
The film was a smash hit success but when the old people realised that it cost them more than 50p to get in (which was coincidentally after the film had finished they complained.
"well since this has been brought to light we will give the old people some of *old person aims gun* uh I mean ALL of their money back *old man nods and lowers gun*"
And so scream went bankrupt.
But there is one form of media where sequels are just as good as the origonal. Books are the best example of sequels that work look at lord of the rings or the redwall series and you will see that the last is as successful if not more than the origonal and the redwall books have 13 to date
So why is it that books can still succeed after 5 or 6 predecessors perhaps it is because the people who write the books especially the older ones remember the reason they started for the enjoyment or for their children or grand children.
Admittedly the first few in a highly successful series of games will undoubtedly fair well but there are a few of us who look beneath the surface and see that they have lost their flair and excitement of the first one, the one that got us hooked.
So on the final note I would like to ask the developers to think about the games and to put more money into the new ones, try to make something different not just think about the money because that is the truth that the industry has just got greedy and makes games for the money instead of the gameplay its self. Maybe just maybe there are a few developers inside the industries who really care so to them goes this message.
Thanks for reading
R<>K
Page:
genesisofthesith wrote:
>
> I was refering more to sequels, and how we like them to be pretty
> similar, but when it comes to new games, I have to believe that if its
> a good game, no matter how bizzare or different it is, people will
> take notice of it.
I dont know ut 2003 was definately a sequel and so was mario sunshine but mario wasn't redically different shines instead of stars better graphics but thats about it it still has the funny little 'Leeeeeets gooo' as he jumps into the graffiti. The only real reason ut2003 was acclaimed as not really a sequel is because it was radically different but not in the gameplay are the controls remained the same (which is definately a good thing) but the graphics far exceeded its predecessor with the new 'rag doll' technology. In a way i think you are both right.
>
> I was refering more to sequels, and how we like them to be pretty
> similar, but when it comes to new games, I have to believe that if its
> a good game, no matter how bizzare or different it is, people will
> take notice of it.
I dont know ut 2003 was definately a sequel and so was mario sunshine but mario wasn't redically different shines instead of stars better graphics but thats about it it still has the funny little 'Leeeeeets gooo' as he jumps into the graffiti. The only real reason ut2003 was acclaimed as not really a sequel is because it was radically different but not in the gameplay are the controls remained the same (which is definately a good thing) but the graphics far exceeded its predecessor with the new 'rag doll' technology. In a way i think you are both right.
Armatige Shanks wrote:
> genesisofthesith wrote:
> As
> much as we would love to think we are open minded, when it comes to
> games, we don't like radical change, only slight modifications.
>
> I dont know, I like UT2003, I like Tetris, I like Mario Sunshine...
> these are all radically different games, I liked platformers,
> shoot-em-ups, puzzle games without needing to spend a lot ot time
> slowly aclimatising...
>
> I don't think that were not open to new ideas, rather that, the gamers
> that matter (Casual Gamers) want a new idea that is instantly
> appealing...
>
> And although there are lots of games released with fantastic new
> ideas, because they ;ack a hook, the get ignored (as much by hardcore
> gamers as by anyone else)
I was refering more to sequels, and how we like them to be pretty similar, but when it comes to new games, I have to believe that if its a good game, no matter how bizzare or different it is, people will take notice of it.
> genesisofthesith wrote:
> As
> much as we would love to think we are open minded, when it comes to
> games, we don't like radical change, only slight modifications.
>
> I dont know, I like UT2003, I like Tetris, I like Mario Sunshine...
> these are all radically different games, I liked platformers,
> shoot-em-ups, puzzle games without needing to spend a lot ot time
> slowly aclimatising...
>
> I don't think that were not open to new ideas, rather that, the gamers
> that matter (Casual Gamers) want a new idea that is instantly
> appealing...
>
> And although there are lots of games released with fantastic new
> ideas, because they ;ack a hook, the get ignored (as much by hardcore
> gamers as by anyone else)
I was refering more to sequels, and how we like them to be pretty similar, but when it comes to new games, I have to believe that if its a good game, no matter how bizzare or different it is, people will take notice of it.
genesisofthesith wrote:
> As
> much as we would love to think we are open minded, when it comes to
> games, we don't like radical change, only slight modifications.
I dont know, I like UT2003, I like Tetris, I like Mario Sunshine... these are all radically different games, I liked platformers, shoot-em-ups, puzzle games without needing to spend a lot ot time slowly aclimatising...
I don't think that were not open to new ideas, rather that, the gamers that matter (Casual Gamers) want a new idea that is instantly appealing...
And although there are lots of games released with fantastic new ideas, because they ;ack a hook, the get ignored (as much by hardcore gamers as by anyone else)
> As
> much as we would love to think we are open minded, when it comes to
> games, we don't like radical change, only slight modifications.
I dont know, I like UT2003, I like Tetris, I like Mario Sunshine... these are all radically different games, I liked platformers, shoot-em-ups, puzzle games without needing to spend a lot ot time slowly aclimatising...
I don't think that were not open to new ideas, rather that, the gamers that matter (Casual Gamers) want a new idea that is instantly appealing...
And although there are lots of games released with fantastic new ideas, because they ;ack a hook, the get ignored (as much by hardcore gamers as by anyone else)
I get the point, but think that with books sequels can be completely different to their predecessors, the themes, characters etc. can be extremely different to those that they follow, and as such have less chance of being too formulaic and identical to the original. With games, you have to have a lot of identical aspects, otherwise people will complain that their favourite part of the game has been removed. To take the example of the Lord Of The Rings/Middle Earth books, they were all set in one particular world, but other than that were completely different (well, the few Ive read have been), wheras if Virtua Fighter 5 came out, with none of the original characters, except one character who made a brief appearance during an end sequence, you can be sure that all the VF fans would be up in arms. As much as we would love to think we are open minded, when it comes to games, we don't like radical change, only slight modifications.
> But there is one form of media where sequels are just as good as the
> origonal. Books are the best example of sequels that work look at lord
> of the rings
The Lord Of The Rings 'Trilogy' is actually one long book split up into six books, commonly released as three editions of two books. But having read the books you would have known that? The middle earth books are not sequels to the story, but rather spinoffs set in the same world. The Lord Of The Rings is itself a sequel/Spin off to The Hobbit.
Suddenly the idea of a sequel to the spinoff of a spinoff doesn't seem as absurd.
> origonal. Books are the best example of sequels that work look at lord
> of the rings
The Lord Of The Rings 'Trilogy' is actually one long book split up into six books, commonly released as three editions of two books. But having read the books you would have known that? The middle earth books are not sequels to the story, but rather spinoffs set in the same world. The Lord Of The Rings is itself a sequel/Spin off to The Hobbit.
Suddenly the idea of a sequel to the spinoff of a spinoff doesn't seem as absurd.
Rabbit<>K wrote:
> Whats it copyed from!?
---
It probably isn't. I just said it because I like saying that to newbies. :-D
This post is copied.
> Whats it copyed from!?
---
It probably isn't. I just said it because I like saying that to newbies. :-D
This post is copied.
Page: