As an aside, how the Hell are scope kills in any way shape or form “realism”? I was hoping they’d fix that for MW3.

Someone has a little too much invested in their favorite game titles…

This is not the Japanese video games era where any garage developer has equal opportunity to come in with an innovative smash hit game.

Gamers are now at the mercy of big companies like EA, and Activision.

Its good to have some disruption of the status quo from apple and Google!

Now smaller game devs has a equal fighting chance to innovate and bring something totally new against the Goliaths of gaming.

For example in CoD4 the main problem was juggernaut which allowed players to take another burst to the face then normally. So they added Stopping power to counter act that. But when the way the game played out you had to have one or the other – and generally both – in order just to survive long enough to have any fun. So what did they do in the sequel? They got rid of one and made the other just as crazy. That didn’t solve the problem, it only made a worse one because now you had no way to solve it. IDK about MW3 as i haven’t played it(mainly because paying 60 dollars for a game that’s almost identical and would charge me to get something i should get for free is crazy) but i’m sure somebody on the inside of the community has a similar problem.

This is the case in CS1.6 to CSS 5 years ago( where they fixed the netcode/hit registry problems by making the models and hit boxes so large it was next to impossible to miss anybody) GoW to GoW2(Recoil was limited, bodies were bigger etc but the shotgun was still random), Halo 1 – 2 – 3 and reach( they fixed the crazy balancing mechanism which made it so you could throw a nade 5 miles and did 3x damage if you didn’t like 5 times in a row and made the pistol less power but broke the new rifle’s range and hit registration and broke the melee system, only to fix it and break it again in halo 3, and then reach they fixed alot of the problems only to made a new one in the unperdictable and nearly uncontrollable bloom). Then you get into single player game like Deus EX – which is seen in many circles as the single greatest game that has ever been created – to invisible war(which dumbed down the leveling system that it didn’t really matter what you put points into, and made all ammo the same so you were always low on ammo) to HR where now you have a better leveling system, that doesn’t really matter and guns are essentially useless if you build yourself up right. Even SC2 – which in many ways is friendlier and faithful to those who played it – has massive flaws(auto mining, terrible balance as T is WAY more power then Z and Z is WAY MORE powerful then protoss which is very hard to really compete with without being the clearly better player).

Essentailly, ever game is worse then the original. Almost all the time.

We are missing out on a ton of fun new things that could have been.. It used to be that the creativity was constrained by technology. But these days we are playing game types that were designed for the technology of the last decade and not utilizing new technology. One exception might be the Wii.

We are missing out on a ton of fun new things that could have been.. It used to be that the creativity was constrained by technology. But these days we are playing game types that were designed for the technology of the last decade and not utilizing new technology. One exception might be the Wii.

Unlike movies, game sequels are often better than the original because new features have been added to something you already love. The new Battlefield looks more real, has a lot of cool new weapons and vehicles and has game modes that make it a ton of fun to play again. GTA4 was a whole new game and a great new story compared to previous one. Good gameplay has a ton of replay value (this is why Pacman and Tetris are still so popular). 

Don’t get me wrong, I do look forward to original titles, but there are sequels I look forward to just as much (what I’d give for a new Hitman game!) It has nothing to do with un-originality. 

Sometimes the developer might not have added enough features to pass it off as a completely new game, and that is indeed unfortunate.

Achron

Minecraft
Frozen Synapse
Space Pirates And Zombies
Xotic
Sequence

I don’t know of any AAA titles that haven’t ever been rehashes of existing themes – that is, just refining a specific genre.  If you want innovation, my general rule of thumbs is to look for games on Metacritic where the critics pretty much hate the game ( 8.0).

There’s no incentive for these companies to change until we all stop buying the same thing over and over again.  When there’s no money left in the franchises, then they’ll find the next new type of game.

However, with 3D getting big, and new display technologies, they can pull the same rabbit out of the same hat for many years to come.

I’m surprised you left out the other big problem with modern games – the ‘DRM’ protection stuff for sure but worse, the way they expect you to pay for “extras”.

Games today are dumbed down to the level of the 20 something children dribbling such acid upon your article.

EA doesn’t charge you extra for Battlelog, which is a really neat feature.  I refuse to pay for any DLC unless I see the value in it.  So far any and all of the DLC COD’s thrown out there, not worth it.  You’ve got millions and millions of mindless sheep buying MW games, and Activision sees a perfect opportunity to exploit their customer base.  It’s just sad it’s come to this.  In the ’80s and ’90s this concept would’ve been shamed off the face of the planet.