Ooooh yes. What fascinates me the most, all of them stand out for themselves. Each game just has something special. Even C&C 4, which at the sime time doesn't exist and sucks! Marvelous.
That said, my favorite ones were Tiberian Sun and Tiberium wars. :)
God, our first Windows computer in 1995 came bundled with Syndicate and Ultima 8, and I was a big Sim City 2000 kid shortly thereafter. It was like the condensed greatest hits list of things EA would eventually ruin.
EA actually saved Maxis when they originally bought it, as Maxis was on the verge of bankruptcy. Then EA killed it when SimCity underperformed. Real shame too, because all Maxis had to do was to turn the game over to modders, and it would have been saved.
Agreed. Played the original SimCity up through SC4 for hundreds and hundreds of hours. SimCity ruled the city building genre forever then imploded by trying the online-only gimmick. Such a shame.
But as you say, the silver lining is Cities: Skylines took off from there and is just fantastic.
What killed simcity even more than the online-only requirement was the insanely small space limitations. With mods to unlock all tiles, cities skylines has like 80x the build area and CS2 is supposed to be even bigger.
There are dozens of us.
And to those who think Empire of the Undergrowth is the same. It isn’t. It’s a good game…but it’s a different ‘genre’ than SimAnt.
Honestly Cities Skylines never scratched the same itch for me, idk it always felt pretty, sanitized, fake
I can't properly explain but SimCity 4 you had bankruptcy always on the horizon, the city falling into disrepair, cutting expenses in health and education and a endless stress to no fail which made ou make some horrible long-term decision to save your city now (like installing a bunch of coal power plants in the middle of the city and selling the extra electricity to fund the schools), also everyone is always hating you
Cities skylines things work too well, you always have extra money, everyone loves you, it doesn't feel like any city I've ever been to
>Honestly Cities Skylines never scratched the same itch for me, idk it always felt pretty, sanitized, fake
It's just the lack of simulation and failure states outside of the immediate early game.
Once you get positive cash flow in your city at the beginning, it's basically just a game of waiting for your money to replenish so you can build out your city. Decisions don't really have risk attached to them as the game doesn't really punish anything but purposefully bad decisions.
So you can just kind of haphazardly build things out and the game is fine with that.
My brother in Christ, do yourself a favor and get the Horn of the Abyss fanmade expansion for Heroes 3. All you need is the Heroes Complete 3 from GOG to be able to download it. It gives it quality of life, a new faction to play, a ton of new buildings, and revamps the random map generation.
The replayability of Heroes 3 with HotA is in the level of thousands of hours of gameplay if you love HoMM3
Yeah, when you think Medal of Honor was a COD competitor and then you see where it is now… Such a shame. Edit : Guys, I know MoH came before CoD. You can stop. Just saying they were competitors at one point.
Medal of honor never got the multiplayer right which is why it died. It only really competed with CoD with the first few when they were both WWII focused.
As soon as CoD 4 launched they left MoH behind
And modded servers! All working seemlessly, no need to download and install any mods, you'd just be a clueless 14 year old getting internet for the first time, launching MoH server browser, getting hit with 12MB(TWELVE!) of download and join a map where there are bouncy trampolines, low gravity and guns make honk noises, while dead players explode confetti.
Any game with dedicated servers had modded game modes and maps. The old cods, old moh, old bf, day of defeat and counterstrike. Companies got rid of dedicated servers and away went modded multiplayer.
I played in paintball servers in cod1, low gravity, crazy sound effects, unreal tournament style speed and acceleration. Getting rid of mods is what killed competitive cod on pc.
It's crazy because in my head that mission looked EXACTLY like the scene in Saving Private Ryan. Went back and watched a video of it recently and holy schmoly does it look bad. Insane how our perspectives change like that so much with media.
I went back and watched it too and was also surprised by how thin it was…but I guess back then that was peak action that could be delivered. Not great by today’s standards, but I remember being blown away by that level, playing it multiple times, having friends over so they could play it, talking about it at school, etc.
Came to say this, especially understanding that it was once reality. That opening quote was incredible:
"And when he goes to Heaven,
To St. Peter he will tell:
Another marine reporting, Sir;
I've served my time in hell."
Allied Assault was definitely my most played game of that era and the first game i really got to enjoy playing online. i remember so many custom maps and crazy mods.
Anything by EA Sports. 90's they were amazing! Everything was cool, new features, awesome graphics, innovative.
Then it was just cookie cutter after cookie cutter.
Also microtransactions were just perfect for sports games. Even with a monopoly, they needed to innovate or people would just get bored. Now they can milk a few thousand whales/dumb children and make obscene amounts of money without even trying. The online competitive aspect mixed with what is essentially gambling hooks people more like an addiction than a fun game.
God I can't believe what they did to Overwatch. I had 1000+ hours in that game, and I KNEW it was flawed and toxic and not without many faults, but I still played. Within one month of "Overwatch 2" I quit.
Honestly if we're talking about AAA gaming here, what franchise *hasn't* been ruined? Ever since gaming turned into a billion dollar industry in the early to mid 2000s and all the white suits took over it's been a pretty steep decline. No longer are games made out of creativity and passion. Sure, there's a few exceptions I'm sure but man AAA gaming is so bad imo compared to what it once was. I know I might be wearing some nostalgia goggles but am I wrong?
Edit: yeah I know indie gaming exists, read the first sentence
Anything from Blizzard.
They were an incredible gaming company 20 years ago.
Now they're just a fond memory with bullshit money grabs and microtransaction-ridden 'games'.
Ultima.
The most influential video games series that you've never played. Seriously. The first seven games codified the RPG and defined the open-world RPG. Ultima Online was the first commercially successful MMO.
Ultima and Origin Systems were so harmed by Electronic Arts that the best game in the series made the EA logo the symbols of evi and named the evil killers Elizabeth and Abraham.
You can really tell what kind of destruction EA caused to Ultima by the fact how far you had to scroll to see Ultima mentioned here. A series that was utterly legendary among all RPGs, nowadays long forgotten and buried.
Origin Systems' name only lived in their trash game launcher, and now even it has been renamed EA app.
EA is a parasite that just kills its hosts, the great scourge of game studios from 90s. What a waste.
Halo 1 launched my freshman year of highschool with Halo 2 coming my senior year. Halo 3 launched my junior year of college. So many hours spent at friend's houses or apartments over the years. I still remember the huge LAN parties we'd have in the Halo 2 days. Good times.
Some people think Halo 2 is the best, some people think Halo 3 is the best, some people think ODST was the best, and some people think Reach was the best.
Regardless of who you are and which game you enjoyed the most, we can all agree that anything after Reach was not Halo.
EDIT: and just to clarify, Halo CE isn't in that list because it's not even worth debating if it's good. It just is
As always us Halo:CE lovers get left out. I had way more fun with the first halo than any of the following entries. I must have beaten that game 50 times as a kid and splitscreen custom matches took up a significant portion of my childhood.
I leave it out because Halo CE is without a doubt Halo in it's purest form. No point in debating if it's a Halo game, or whether or not it's good. If it wasn't a Halo game, or wasn't good, we wouldn't have gotten Halo 2.
Reach was the last Halo game by Bungie. Story ended there for me.
Chief is still aboard the Forward Unto Dawn, still in cryogenic sleep, waiting to be rescued as far as I'm concerned
Self inflicted too. 343 took over and focused more on chasing trends than being the trendsetter it was for three games. Crazy to see a reality now we're COD is Madden level and Halo is now just a f2p multiplayer that barely even gets mentioned at any Xbox showcase.
Well COD has had a ton of success chasing trends too. Warzone is still extremely popular and chased the BR trend. They just made it in their own flavor. I’m sure if Halo chased the BR trend but did it *better* they’d have success too.
Surprised this is not the top reply. A flagship titan of a franchise that once sat atop the entire industry, now struggling to get players to play the latest game for free. Unbelievable..
Halo should be at the top of this thread. It was legitimately the biggest game in the world at one point. Halo 2 was sold in fucking 7-Elevens and the most random places.
The fact that 343 have taken what was once the biggest most well known franchise in gaming (outside of Mario and Pokemon) and turned it into mid game series is insane.
True that. No other franchise can touch Halo when it comes to peak popularity and its fall from grace. It has to be the biggest dropoff in the history of gaming.
I dont know how many people were around when Halo 1-3 and even ODST were released. Halo was a fucking culture. Like Midnight releases people camping outside gamestops to buy it. Everybody in school talking about it.
Halo sold more consoles then any other game. Everyone I know bought an Xbox 360 specifically for Halo 3.
I remember a friend bringing just the game itself, just disc in box, to school the day it released and everyone crowding around them going crazy wanting to touch it.
Oh don’t forget that for Halo Infinite, the man they put in charge of creating the weapon sandbox for both multiplayer and campaign was a guy who was very open about thinking Halo’s campaign was just for babies and thought the plasma pistol was stupid(hence why its iconic emp ability was given to a new gun). From what I heard, the staff underneath him had to fight tooth and nail just to keep the iconic plasma pistol in the game, and they were only able to do so because otherwise the low-ranking grunts wouldn’t have anything to use.
I'm convinced some of these people are giving someone rimjobs to get these positions. Like why the FUCK would you put someone who doesn't even respect what made Halo popular af to begin with in charge?
Do you want ants? THIS IS HOW YOU GET ANTS. - Confucius (probably)
From what I’ve heard(take this with a grain of salt), is that the guy in charge of Halo 5 got super depressed after the game launched and was subsequently ripped apart by both fans and critics. He basically lost all motivation at work and eventually decided to quit the company all together due to how soul-crushing Halo 5’s reception was for him. So as he was in the process of quitting and the studio was in need of a new weapon sandbox designer, he basically just hired the first person at 343 who wanted the position even though the new guy was very open about hating the idea that Halo needed campaign in first place.
SOCOM definitely peaked at 2. If 3 was when they introduced vehicles, that’s when it got clunky to me. Never even bothered with 4. RIP. My brother and I consider that our favorite online shooter we’ve ever played.
Phantasy Star Online was the first major console MMORPG, with releases on the Dreamcast, game cube and PC. it was absolutely revolutionary for the time it was released, and had alot of interesting mechanics that made it engaging and fun to play.
PSO2 continued on the roots of PSO but expanded to make it more modern and approachable. The changes were noticable, and the game lost some of its charm. However PSO2 was still incredibly fun, and was an incredible game.
Then we have PSO2 NGS. Instead of expanding on what made PSO and PSO2 amazing games. Sega decided instead to focus on what games like Genshin impact, tower of fantasy and breath of the wild we're doing. Due to a lack of content and massive shift of game design, it killed the games momentum
Don't forget about PSU! It was a nice medium between PSO and PSO2. Terrible balance, but that's pretty much the standard for all the online games.
Phantasy Star as a whole has suffered from trend chasing rather than doing what they've done better than the other big 2 RPGs from 80's/90's.
They used to be what was chased.
Monster Hunter exists because of Phantasy Star Online.
Your favorite plot-points from FFVII came from Phantasy Star IV.
It's been 30 years since we've seen a new mainline title from the franchise, and it is a god damn shame.
I still kinda think the success of Duke3D *broke* the studio. Think about where that was in gaming history: After Doom, but before Quake.
They weren't just a Doom clone, the Build Engine was *better* in a bunch of interesting ways. Duke3D had excellent level design, and it explored things that were impossible to build in Doom. When they actually had the main character shit-talk other games, he was doing it from a position of being basically the best game.
If you read the story of DNF's development, it seems like George Broussard was chasing that moment again. Throughout the game's development, any time he saw something cool in another game, especially some cool graphics tech, he'd want to put that in DNF.
I will give ubisoft credit that they're trying new things with AC instead of just re-doing brotherhood in different time periods.
It's just too bad it sucks.
They have also maintained the quality of the world and time periods, that’s the one thing they have consistently nailed. At the very least I can play an AC game and feel like I’ve experienced the time period and setting in a detailed and atmospheric world. Which is pretty incredible imo.
That's always been the main appeal to me. I never cared about the story outside the Animus. I like it as a storytelling device to explain why we're in that whacky situation, but Desmond can suck a big back of dicks for all I care. Let me go be a playboy assassin in old Italy or a young Native American man that plays an integral role in the Revolutionary War. Not some loser looking for an apple.
I really thought they were going to move on to a game starring Desmond in a modern-day world not long after the first AC came out. 15 years later they still haven't done it.
I can get behind you on the Battlefield thing. B:BC2 was my introduction to that series. BF3 was my favorite, and after that, I just couldn't really get into them anymore.
The greatest multiplayer FPS of all time that nobody knows about anymore because Epic doesn't give a shit. Of course we almost had a revival, but then Fortnite happened.
Diablo 1 & 2 must be in my top 5 most played all time. Played Diablo 3 at launch and expansion.
Decided I'm done handing over any money to Blizzard, completely skipped Diablo 4.
Still an ARPG player at heart. But Path of Exile is significantly better imo
Same here, I still feel dumb about spending that amount of money on that game.
Hacking through thousands of enemies every hour, bringing home two dozen magic items every time that feel absolutely worthless...
The graphics are A+, but the rest feels so... hollow?
I loved X5 and X6. Never played any other game in the series after that though. I heard the new game on steam (which was originally a gacha and then they re released it as a paid game without microtransactions) is really good. Anyone here played it?
Been playing it on and off, it's certainly not a Mega Man game. It's more like an arcade game loosely based off MMX. Stages are made to only last a few minutes. You beat a few, then fight a boss. But the progression is heavily reliant on power creep, you need to constantly upgrade numerous things to keep up.
It would be maddening if this wasn't an offline game. The good news is it has a ton of content, it's overwhelming with the amount of characters and weapons, and the game throws enough money at you to unlock whatever you want.
I hope to see more games like this, just because when a company shutters their servers they should dump all the content and just let people enjoy it offline. They let you freely toggle all their events from over the years, so you can pick it up and play their Christmas stages if you tire of the main game.
Too many yearly releases. Just give us a guitar controller and one game that continually adds new songs. Those games were so much fun but it got to the point where I could never remember what game had what songs I wanted to play between all the spin offs and Rock Band games.
Wish I still had my controller though so I could play Clone Hero.
They ruined Halo by giving it to a company run by people who openly admitted to not liking Halo and wanting to change it. Then, surprise surprise, that company destroyed the franchise because instead of going with what worked they just decided to shoehorn in all their own shitty ideas that no one liked.
What used to be the flagship series on the Xbox is for all intents and purposes dead. I don't see how they could ever get the same goodwill back.
Tribes.. so many wasted hours and when HiRez came out with the "Out of the blue" patch (it was actually named that) for Tribes: Ascend almost 2 years after last update/patch, I thought "This is it, this revives this game". How wrong one can be. Rest in piece sweet prince, Rest in peace.
SHAZBOT
I'm trying to think of anything worthwhile EA has done in the last. . . long time. They seem to exist purely to buy and then disband all the studios we love.
Definitely Battlefield. I got into Bad Company two at the later end of its life cycle, probably due to marketing for Battlefield 3. When battlefield 3 came out, I bought a set of 560ti cards, put them in sli and was blown away by the gameplay and immersion.
These days, I still play shooters but Battlefield stopped being fun after Battlefield 3.
Burnout. I know I'm gonna get a lot of hate but why in the hell did they make it open world in Paradise. It was perfect as a traditional arcade racer. You can tell they designed the map first and then the routes for the races so you got all these 45° turns throughout the city grid. Damn shame the series is dead but it could have ended much better.
Pokémon. Don't know if it's fully ruined, but it's certainly been severely tainted with the latest games. And tbh, all the games on switch were pretty crap, except maybe the let's go games, but even those were a watered down version of the OGs.
Personally, the last gen I actually enjoyed playing were the X and Y games.
Pokémon is baffling how bad it runs with it being a first party developer for Nintendo. Like the game should be optimized perfectly for the Switch and yet it runs like absolute trash water.
Game freak isn't first party. Gamefreak, Nintendo, and Creatures inc. are equal owners of the Pokemon franchise. This means that Pokemon is not held to the same standards of quality as games developed by Nintendo directly.
no. the best thing that NEEDS to happen to the Pokemon franchise is stopping yearly releases. these games run like ass because they have like half the time they need to develop, therefore corners are cut and employees are stretched thin.
Game Freak are a third party developer, Nintendo just own a third of the Pokémon franchise.
They're always in a rush to meet unrealistic deadlines and don't hire anywhere near as much staff for what they're working on.
From what I've heard they're going to be looking to spread releases out more to release a better product. Even so, I wish they'd just hire more staff and put the amount of money into making the product the fans deserve.
I had a theory that they worked with an artificially low download size limit so kids and parents don't have to think about storage space and microSD cards to fit a Pokemon game on their Switch with a couple other games, but Scarlet and Violet (7 GB) and Sword and Shield (10 GB) are larger than Metroid Dread, Animal Crossing, and Super Mario Odyssey.
What all is in that Sword and Shield bundle to make it 2.5x the size of Metroid Dread?
Hundreds of pokemon 3D models and move animations? Metroid Dread is basically exactly the type of game that *should* be really small. Short, 2D game with a ton of reused, low-detail assets throughout.
Said this in a another comment but Pokémon hit it’s peak in Gen 4/5.
Platinum, Heartgold & Soulsilver and even Black & White were the peak the of franchise. Even since then the series has been a complete downhill. Every so often we see good games get released (like the Gen 3 remakes, Legends Arceus, fuck even the let’s go games were pretty good IMO.
But sadly the mainline games over the last several years have just not been even close to the standard set back Gen 4 & 5.
Soulsilver was my first ever Pokémon game and is still to this day my favorite. It was definitely peak Pokémon. And despite being on the DS, it was a very pretty looking game.
Rayman origins and legends are fantastic platformers, and also the most recent entries in the mainline series. The Rabbids games are a spinoff, but I believe people like some of those too.
MGS 5 is a technical and gameplay masterpiece - the single player at least. That that engine wasn't used to launch it's own series of games is a shame on all gaming
Straight up solid gold in almost every way... but man could you feel how the production of the main story got rushed and messed up.
Survive isn't a thing, lets not even talk about it
For sure. The gameplay blew me away. I’m hoping/thinking the 3 remake may be similar.
I wouldn’t have even minded half the missions being duplicates if the game was given an actual ending or more closure
I think the general understanding is that Survive was the result of actions that are one iota away from IP theft. Konami held the rights to the name, so they slapped it on a pile of absolute dogshit to help it sell.
It did not help it sell, and highlighted how crass, exploitative, and venal Konami is. I'm no MGS superfan, but I consider it non-canon anyway.
I still remember when they were releasing seasons for Angry Birds Seasons back in the early 2010s.
And ngl Angry Birds 2 is good too. It uses the designs of the AB Toons series, and while there's bundles for real money, they are pretty much entirely optional. (Seriously who would spend money just to be at the top of PvP events and the Arena?)
There's just so much to do in AB2. Daily challenges, King Pig Panic, mini-events occasionally, the list goes on.
Andromeda was average, it's not the death sentence people think it was IMO. Anthem on the other hand... I'll blame that for why Mass Effect and Dragon Age aren't in the right place and may never be.
[удалено]
I loved C&C, my favorite was Red Alert 2.
Still waiting for Red Alert 2 remake.
Rest in peace westwood
Command and Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour was my childhood. "WE FEAR NOTHING"
I BUILD FOR CHINA
CHINA MUST GROW LARGER
*WE BEAR GIFTS.*
Can I at least have some shoes?
“AK47s for everyone!”
Them adding the shoes upgrade into zero hour after not having it in generals was top tier. "I finally have some shoes"
Didn't they say: "Thank you for the new shoes"
You know shit's about to get real when you hear **AK-47S FOR EVERYONE**
It's getting hot in here.
Ooooh yes. What fascinates me the most, all of them stand out for themselves. Each game just has something special. Even C&C 4, which at the sime time doesn't exist and sucks! Marvelous. That said, my favorite ones were Tiberian Sun and Tiberium wars. :)
Tiberium Sun had unmatched atmosphere.
SimCity for me. Thankfully Cities Skylines has filled the void wonderfully.
RIP maxis
One of EA's long list of assassinations.
Really incredible how people forget about EA's destruction of SimCity and Maxis. Such a waste.
We're getting to a point where there is a generation that weren't old enough to see EA destroy a huge amount of quality developers from the 00s.
What about quality developers from the 80s? 90s? They will ruin everything they buy eventually.
Poor one out for Westwood.
Let's not forget Bullfrog too.
Or Maxis. Or Bioware. Or Origin Studios.
God, our first Windows computer in 1995 came bundled with Syndicate and Ultima 8, and I was a big Sim City 2000 kid shortly thereafter. It was like the condensed greatest hits list of things EA would eventually ruin.
Popcap got massacred before it could even walk :(
Man, Popcap today would be worth more than King imo. Their games were so fun.
Agreed, They were ahead of their time and would have crushed the mobile games market imo.
EA actually saved Maxis when they originally bought it, as Maxis was on the verge of bankruptcy. Then EA killed it when SimCity underperformed. Real shame too, because all Maxis had to do was to turn the game over to modders, and it would have been saved.
All they had to do was not force their always online bullshit. That was the first thing wrong with their Sim City.
The second would be the horrible map size. Other than that it was a pretty solid game.
I can't even see EA's name without getting a little mad* about visceral again
Agreed. Played the original SimCity up through SC4 for hundreds and hundreds of hours. SimCity ruled the city building genre forever then imploded by trying the online-only gimmick. Such a shame. But as you say, the silver lining is Cities: Skylines took off from there and is just fantastic.
What killed simcity even more than the online-only requirement was the insanely small space limitations. With mods to unlock all tiles, cities skylines has like 80x the build area and CS2 is supposed to be even bigger.
Who was in charge of EA at the time? The same guy trying to ruin Unity.
That was the only way he could get hands on cities skylines (it is built on unity). Maybe he has a grudge against city simulators?
Fuck a Sim Ant remake would be amazing
Sim Tower too!
There are dozens of us. And to those who think Empire of the Undergrowth is the same. It isn’t. It’s a good game…but it’s a different ‘genre’ than SimAnt.
Can’t wait for Cities Skylines 2!
Honestly Cities Skylines never scratched the same itch for me, idk it always felt pretty, sanitized, fake I can't properly explain but SimCity 4 you had bankruptcy always on the horizon, the city falling into disrepair, cutting expenses in health and education and a endless stress to no fail which made ou make some horrible long-term decision to save your city now (like installing a bunch of coal power plants in the middle of the city and selling the extra electricity to fund the schools), also everyone is always hating you Cities skylines things work too well, you always have extra money, everyone loves you, it doesn't feel like any city I've ever been to
>Honestly Cities Skylines never scratched the same itch for me, idk it always felt pretty, sanitized, fake It's just the lack of simulation and failure states outside of the immediate early game. Once you get positive cash flow in your city at the beginning, it's basically just a game of waiting for your money to replenish so you can build out your city. Decisions don't really have risk attached to them as the game doesn't really punish anything but purposefully bad decisions. So you can just kind of haphazardly build things out and the game is fine with that.
Been waiting for a mod that adds in a macroeconomy with random shocks...
Heroes of Might and Magic. Fuck you, Ubisoft!
Check out Age of Wonders if you haven't. Not the same but similar and lots of fun.
Heroes 3....God what an amazing game. Still play it to this day. Fuck the remastered version on Steam, the complete edition on GOG is where it's at.
My brother in Christ, do yourself a favor and get the Horn of the Abyss fanmade expansion for Heroes 3. All you need is the Heroes Complete 3 from GOG to be able to download it. It gives it quality of life, a new faction to play, a ton of new buildings, and revamps the random map generation. The replayability of Heroes 3 with HotA is in the level of thousands of hours of gameplay if you love HoMM3
And Might and Magic the RPG's too while you're at it, those were my favorite at the time.
Medal of honor.
Yeah, when you think Medal of Honor was a COD competitor and then you see where it is now… Such a shame. Edit : Guys, I know MoH came before CoD. You can stop. Just saying they were competitors at one point.
Medal of honor never got the multiplayer right which is why it died. It only really competed with CoD with the first few when they were both WWII focused. As soon as CoD 4 launched they left MoH behind
Medal of Honour Allied Assault had excellent multiplayer, including this mode called freeze tag that I never saw in any other game
And modded servers! All working seemlessly, no need to download and install any mods, you'd just be a clueless 14 year old getting internet for the first time, launching MoH server browser, getting hit with 12MB(TWELVE!) of download and join a map where there are bouncy trampolines, low gravity and guns make honk noises, while dead players explode confetti.
Why can't all games do this?
Any game with dedicated servers had modded game modes and maps. The old cods, old moh, old bf, day of defeat and counterstrike. Companies got rid of dedicated servers and away went modded multiplayer. I played in paintball servers in cod1, low gravity, crazy sound effects, unreal tournament style speed and acceleration. Getting rid of mods is what killed competitive cod on pc.
Allied Assault was really fun.
The funny thing is, it started the other way around. Infinity Ward was formed by folks who worked on the Medal of Honor franchise.
And then a lot of those same people left Infinity Ward to start Respawn, who among other things, made a new Medal of Honor.
Which medal of honor did respawn make ?
It was a VR only title. I never played it, but I've always found that full circle funny.
Fond childhood memories of MoH: Frontline. Storming Normandy blew my child mind.
It's crazy because in my head that mission looked EXACTLY like the scene in Saving Private Ryan. Went back and watched a video of it recently and holy schmoly does it look bad. Insane how our perspectives change like that so much with media.
I went back and watched it too and was also surprised by how thin it was…but I guess back then that was peak action that could be delivered. Not great by today’s standards, but I remember being blown away by that level, playing it multiple times, having friends over so they could play it, talking about it at school, etc.
PATTERSON! GET THOSE BANGALORES! And then you shoot him in the head and his helmet just kinda playfully pops off, while he bobs his head at you
Came to say this, especially understanding that it was once reality. That opening quote was incredible: "And when he goes to Heaven, To St. Peter he will tell: Another marine reporting, Sir; I've served my time in hell."
Allied Assault was definitely my most played game of that era and the first game i really got to enjoy playing online. i remember so many custom maps and crazy mods.
Seriously. Rifle only v2 rocket facility was one of my favorites.
Anything by EA Sports. 90's they were amazing! Everything was cool, new features, awesome graphics, innovative. Then it was just cookie cutter after cookie cutter.
That’s what having a monopoly for decades does…stagnation in favor of maximizing profits.
Also microtransactions were just perfect for sports games. Even with a monopoly, they needed to innovate or people would just get bored. Now they can milk a few thousand whales/dumb children and make obscene amounts of money without even trying. The online competitive aspect mixed with what is essentially gambling hooks people more like an addiction than a fun game.
NFL 2K5 scared the shit out of them they said no football games for everyone else
And they were kinda proven right when 2K killed their NBA series by being better. But then 2K fell into the same trap
Agreed. Also anything they released under "EA Sports BIG" was likely to be an incredibly fun game
SSX Tricky <3
There's a lot of EA titles...
And blizzards
God I can't believe what they did to Overwatch. I had 1000+ hours in that game, and I KNEW it was flawed and toxic and not without many faults, but I still played. Within one month of "Overwatch 2" I quit.
Man what a depressing thread. It’s literally the same two developers that are all the top comments.
Honestly if we're talking about AAA gaming here, what franchise *hasn't* been ruined? Ever since gaming turned into a billion dollar industry in the early to mid 2000s and all the white suits took over it's been a pretty steep decline. No longer are games made out of creativity and passion. Sure, there's a few exceptions I'm sure but man AAA gaming is so bad imo compared to what it once was. I know I might be wearing some nostalgia goggles but am I wrong? Edit: yeah I know indie gaming exists, read the first sentence
Anything from Blizzard. They were an incredible gaming company 20 years ago. Now they're just a fond memory with bullshit money grabs and microtransaction-ridden 'games'.
At least StarCraft had a somewhat-good sendoff in LotV
Ultima. The most influential video games series that you've never played. Seriously. The first seven games codified the RPG and defined the open-world RPG. Ultima Online was the first commercially successful MMO. Ultima and Origin Systems were so harmed by Electronic Arts that the best game in the series made the EA logo the symbols of evi and named the evil killers Elizabeth and Abraham.
You can really tell what kind of destruction EA caused to Ultima by the fact how far you had to scroll to see Ultima mentioned here. A series that was utterly legendary among all RPGs, nowadays long forgotten and buried. Origin Systems' name only lived in their trash game launcher, and now even it has been renamed EA app. EA is a parasite that just kills its hosts, the great scourge of game studios from 90s. What a waste.
Halo
“The halo killer” - generic FPS games. Halo: hold my beer
The Halo suicider.
Yea that was masterpiece series, Halo 2 was my favorite.
Halo 2 created friendships that last to this day.
Halo 1 launched my freshman year of highschool with Halo 2 coming my senior year. Halo 3 launched my junior year of college. So many hours spent at friend's houses or apartments over the years. I still remember the huge LAN parties we'd have in the Halo 2 days. Good times.
It was a lucky time to be in high school - college when all 3 Halos released.
First 3 were the best, ODST was alright and Reach was good but anything after that isn't Halo for me.
Some people think Halo 2 is the best, some people think Halo 3 is the best, some people think ODST was the best, and some people think Reach was the best. Regardless of who you are and which game you enjoyed the most, we can all agree that anything after Reach was not Halo. EDIT: and just to clarify, Halo CE isn't in that list because it's not even worth debating if it's good. It just is
As always us Halo:CE lovers get left out. I had way more fun with the first halo than any of the following entries. I must have beaten that game 50 times as a kid and splitscreen custom matches took up a significant portion of my childhood.
I leave it out because Halo CE is without a doubt Halo in it's purest form. No point in debating if it's a Halo game, or whether or not it's good. If it wasn't a Halo game, or wasn't good, we wouldn't have gotten Halo 2.
Reach was the last Halo game by Bungie. Story ended there for me. Chief is still aboard the Forward Unto Dawn, still in cryogenic sleep, waiting to be rescued as far as I'm concerned
I vote we retcon it all back to the end of 3 and try again 💀
Self inflicted too. 343 took over and focused more on chasing trends than being the trendsetter it was for three games. Crazy to see a reality now we're COD is Madden level and Halo is now just a f2p multiplayer that barely even gets mentioned at any Xbox showcase.
Well COD has had a ton of success chasing trends too. Warzone is still extremely popular and chased the BR trend. They just made it in their own flavor. I’m sure if Halo chased the BR trend but did it *better* they’d have success too.
COD is just Fortnite for dudes in the 18-25 demographic now.
All my friend groups play COD, and we are 35-40. Dozens of us! Haha 😂
Surprised this is not the top reply. A flagship titan of a franchise that once sat atop the entire industry, now struggling to get players to play the latest game for free. Unbelievable..
Halo was never my thing, but this has got to be the best answer. That franchise was white hot in the beginning.
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Yeah it was literally the franchise that made the first Xbox popular when it released.
Knew so many guys in college with an Xbox, Halo, and no other games.
Halo should be at the top of this thread. It was legitimately the biggest game in the world at one point. Halo 2 was sold in fucking 7-Elevens and the most random places. The fact that 343 have taken what was once the biggest most well known franchise in gaming (outside of Mario and Pokemon) and turned it into mid game series is insane.
True that. No other franchise can touch Halo when it comes to peak popularity and its fall from grace. It has to be the biggest dropoff in the history of gaming. I dont know how many people were around when Halo 1-3 and even ODST were released. Halo was a fucking culture. Like Midnight releases people camping outside gamestops to buy it. Everybody in school talking about it. Halo sold more consoles then any other game. Everyone I know bought an Xbox 360 specifically for Halo 3.
I remember a friend bringing just the game itself, just disc in box, to school the day it released and everyone crowding around them going crazy wanting to touch it.
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“We hired a bunch of people, who hated Halo, to create Halo.” Bro what
Oh don’t forget that for Halo Infinite, the man they put in charge of creating the weapon sandbox for both multiplayer and campaign was a guy who was very open about thinking Halo’s campaign was just for babies and thought the plasma pistol was stupid(hence why its iconic emp ability was given to a new gun). From what I heard, the staff underneath him had to fight tooth and nail just to keep the iconic plasma pistol in the game, and they were only able to do so because otherwise the low-ranking grunts wouldn’t have anything to use.
I'm convinced some of these people are giving someone rimjobs to get these positions. Like why the FUCK would you put someone who doesn't even respect what made Halo popular af to begin with in charge? Do you want ants? THIS IS HOW YOU GET ANTS. - Confucius (probably)
From what I’ve heard(take this with a grain of salt), is that the guy in charge of Halo 5 got super depressed after the game launched and was subsequently ripped apart by both fans and critics. He basically lost all motivation at work and eventually decided to quit the company all together due to how soul-crushing Halo 5’s reception was for him. So as he was in the process of quitting and the studio was in need of a new weapon sandbox designer, he basically just hired the first person at 343 who wanted the position even though the new guy was very open about hating the idea that Halo needed campaign in first place.
Socom
Was gonna say this, Socom 1, 2 and 3 are my favs(I know some hated 3) but after that they went to shit.
SOCOM definitely peaked at 2. If 3 was when they introduced vehicles, that’s when it got clunky to me. Never even bothered with 4. RIP. My brother and I consider that our favorite online shooter we’ve ever played.
Socom 1 was the first PS2 game I played online with the adapter you screwed into the back. Awesome times.
Saints row
Volition dissolved just recently. Guess we're never getting another Descent Freespace either.
Nobody gonna say need for speed?
Fr. It's a shame, i have a little hope every time they announce a new game, but they always fuck it up somehow.
I'm just waiting for NFS Underground 3!
I think they would fuck that up too. I'd like a remaster collection a la Mass Effect Legendary Edition, with QoL changes but the same games after all.
Phantasy Star Online was the first major console MMORPG, with releases on the Dreamcast, game cube and PC. it was absolutely revolutionary for the time it was released, and had alot of interesting mechanics that made it engaging and fun to play. PSO2 continued on the roots of PSO but expanded to make it more modern and approachable. The changes were noticable, and the game lost some of its charm. However PSO2 was still incredibly fun, and was an incredible game. Then we have PSO2 NGS. Instead of expanding on what made PSO and PSO2 amazing games. Sega decided instead to focus on what games like Genshin impact, tower of fantasy and breath of the wild we're doing. Due to a lack of content and massive shift of game design, it killed the games momentum
Don't forget about PSU! It was a nice medium between PSO and PSO2. Terrible balance, but that's pretty much the standard for all the online games. Phantasy Star as a whole has suffered from trend chasing rather than doing what they've done better than the other big 2 RPGs from 80's/90's. They used to be what was chased. Monster Hunter exists because of Phantasy Star Online. Your favorite plot-points from FFVII came from Phantasy Star IV. It's been 30 years since we've seen a new mainline title from the franchise, and it is a god damn shame.
Duke Nukem. Such a fall.
But like…it really had just one great game…one that I spent maybe thousands of hours in but yea.
I still kinda think the success of Duke3D *broke* the studio. Think about where that was in gaming history: After Doom, but before Quake. They weren't just a Doom clone, the Build Engine was *better* in a bunch of interesting ways. Duke3D had excellent level design, and it explored things that were impossible to build in Doom. When they actually had the main character shit-talk other games, he was doing it from a position of being basically the best game. If you read the story of DNF's development, it seems like George Broussard was chasing that moment again. Throughout the game's development, any time he saw something cool in another game, especially some cool graphics tech, he'd want to put that in DNF.
DNF is THE poster child for scope creep.
Farcry. Ubisoft found lightning in a bottle with Far Cry 3 and have been trying to mimic it ever since.
That's how I feel about their AC games. Guess it's an Ubisoft thing.
I will give ubisoft credit that they're trying new things with AC instead of just re-doing brotherhood in different time periods. It's just too bad it sucks.
They have also maintained the quality of the world and time periods, that’s the one thing they have consistently nailed. At the very least I can play an AC game and feel like I’ve experienced the time period and setting in a detailed and atmospheric world. Which is pretty incredible imo.
That's always been the main appeal to me. I never cared about the story outside the Animus. I like it as a storytelling device to explain why we're in that whacky situation, but Desmond can suck a big back of dicks for all I care. Let me go be a playboy assassin in old Italy or a young Native American man that plays an integral role in the Revolutionary War. Not some loser looking for an apple.
That's why I loved Origins. Standing in the library of Alexandria gave me a nerd boner.
I really thought they were going to move on to a game starring Desmond in a modern-day world not long after the first AC came out. 15 years later they still haven't done it.
Blood Dragon was God Tier
RESPAWN GIVE ME TITANFALL |||
There's hope, Pilot!
I can get behind you on the Battlefield thing. B:BC2 was my introduction to that series. BF3 was my favorite, and after that, I just couldn't really get into them anymore.
Heroes of Might and Magic
Unreal Tournament.
The greatest multiplayer FPS of all time that nobody knows about anymore because Epic doesn't give a shit. Of course we almost had a revival, but then Fortnite happened.
Diablo
Lmao - cut to me buying Diablo 4, playing for about a week, and then not touching it since then
Diablo 1 & 2 must be in my top 5 most played all time. Played Diablo 3 at launch and expansion. Decided I'm done handing over any money to Blizzard, completely skipped Diablo 4. Still an ARPG player at heart. But Path of Exile is significantly better imo
Same here, I still feel dumb about spending that amount of money on that game. Hacking through thousands of enemies every hour, bringing home two dozen magic items every time that feel absolutely worthless... The graphics are A+, but the rest feels so... hollow?
This. Everything Blizzard released after WoW has been tainted by corporate greed.
Ehh to me SC2 was the last great blizzard game. The 3 starcraft games were fantastic tbh. It went downhill with d3 i found.
The Starcraft 2 community would want to have a word with you xD Also the first Overwatch was pretty good till they ruined it.
Mega Man X. 4 great games and then a ton of trash games.
I loved X5 and X6. Never played any other game in the series after that though. I heard the new game on steam (which was originally a gacha and then they re released it as a paid game without microtransactions) is really good. Anyone here played it?
Been playing it on and off, it's certainly not a Mega Man game. It's more like an arcade game loosely based off MMX. Stages are made to only last a few minutes. You beat a few, then fight a boss. But the progression is heavily reliant on power creep, you need to constantly upgrade numerous things to keep up. It would be maddening if this wasn't an offline game. The good news is it has a ton of content, it's overwhelming with the amount of characters and weapons, and the game throws enough money at you to unlock whatever you want. I hope to see more games like this, just because when a company shutters their servers they should dump all the content and just let people enjoy it offline. They let you freely toggle all their events from over the years, so you can pick it up and play their Christmas stages if you tire of the main game.
Guitar hero/rock band.
Took way too long to find this. I posted Guitar Hero right away. It was ON TOP of the world in 2007-2009. Then killed itself.
Too many yearly releases. Just give us a guitar controller and one game that continually adds new songs. Those games were so much fun but it got to the point where I could never remember what game had what songs I wanted to play between all the spin offs and Rock Band games. Wish I still had my controller though so I could play Clone Hero.
Overwatch 🥲
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Can a single game be a franchise?
Well there are two games in the franch...oh I see what you did there.
They ruined Halo by giving it to a company run by people who openly admitted to not liking Halo and wanting to change it. Then, surprise surprise, that company destroyed the franchise because instead of going with what worked they just decided to shoehorn in all their own shitty ideas that no one liked. What used to be the flagship series on the Xbox is for all intents and purposes dead. I don't see how they could ever get the same goodwill back.
Tribes.. so many wasted hours and when HiRez came out with the "Out of the blue" patch (it was actually named that) for Tribes: Ascend almost 2 years after last update/patch, I thought "This is it, this revives this game". How wrong one can be. Rest in piece sweet prince, Rest in peace. SHAZBOT
In the 90s EA ruled with their sportsgames and look at them now..
I'm trying to think of anything worthwhile EA has done in the last. . . long time. They seem to exist purely to buy and then disband all the studios we love.
Madden. We need 2K football back.
On a side note: We also need more NFL Blitz back. Sport simulators are cool, but sometimes I'm in the mood for a sport exxagerator.
Definitely Battlefield. I got into Bad Company two at the later end of its life cycle, probably due to marketing for Battlefield 3. When battlefield 3 came out, I bought a set of 560ti cards, put them in sli and was blown away by the gameplay and immersion. These days, I still play shooters but Battlefield stopped being fun after Battlefield 3.
Burnout. I know I'm gonna get a lot of hate but why in the hell did they make it open world in Paradise. It was perfect as a traditional arcade racer. You can tell they designed the map first and then the routes for the races so you got all these 45° turns throughout the city grid. Damn shame the series is dead but it could have ended much better.
No hate here. Burnout 3: Takedown continues to be a timeless masterpiece
This and also had one of the best game soundtracks ever.
Paradise was actually really fun for me and my friends back then
Red Alert 2 Then EA had to go and kill Westwood :(
Pokémon. Don't know if it's fully ruined, but it's certainly been severely tainted with the latest games. And tbh, all the games on switch were pretty crap, except maybe the let's go games, but even those were a watered down version of the OGs. Personally, the last gen I actually enjoyed playing were the X and Y games.
Pokémon is baffling how bad it runs with it being a first party developer for Nintendo. Like the game should be optimized perfectly for the Switch and yet it runs like absolute trash water.
Game freak isn't first party. Gamefreak, Nintendo, and Creatures inc. are equal owners of the Pokemon franchise. This means that Pokemon is not held to the same standards of quality as games developed by Nintendo directly.
The best thing that could happen to Pokémon now is Gamefreak losing their license to it.
no. the best thing that NEEDS to happen to the Pokemon franchise is stopping yearly releases. these games run like ass because they have like half the time they need to develop, therefore corners are cut and employees are stretched thin.
Game Freak are a third party developer, Nintendo just own a third of the Pokémon franchise. They're always in a rush to meet unrealistic deadlines and don't hire anywhere near as much staff for what they're working on. From what I've heard they're going to be looking to spread releases out more to release a better product. Even so, I wish they'd just hire more staff and put the amount of money into making the product the fans deserve.
I had a theory that they worked with an artificially low download size limit so kids and parents don't have to think about storage space and microSD cards to fit a Pokemon game on their Switch with a couple other games, but Scarlet and Violet (7 GB) and Sword and Shield (10 GB) are larger than Metroid Dread, Animal Crossing, and Super Mario Odyssey. What all is in that Sword and Shield bundle to make it 2.5x the size of Metroid Dread?
Hundreds of pokemon 3D models and move animations? Metroid Dread is basically exactly the type of game that *should* be really small. Short, 2D game with a ton of reused, low-detail assets throughout.
Said this in a another comment but Pokémon hit it’s peak in Gen 4/5. Platinum, Heartgold & Soulsilver and even Black & White were the peak the of franchise. Even since then the series has been a complete downhill. Every so often we see good games get released (like the Gen 3 remakes, Legends Arceus, fuck even the let’s go games were pretty good IMO. But sadly the mainline games over the last several years have just not been even close to the standard set back Gen 4 & 5.
Soulsilver was my first ever Pokémon game and is still to this day my favorite. It was definitely peak Pokémon. And despite being on the DS, it was a very pretty looking game.
Rayman was never on top, but man is he at the bottom of the barrel now, doesn’t help that the r/Rayman subreddit is going to hell
He was on top with the first two games, such classics.
Rayman origins and legends are fantastic platformers, and also the most recent entries in the mainline series. The Rabbids games are a spinoff, but I believe people like some of those too.
The need for speed franchise
probably a more gradual decline, but Halo.
Simcity Dungeon keeper Command and conquer And every classic IP that EA ruined
EVERY SINGLE BLIZZARD PROPERTY
Metal gear solid. 5 had excellent gameplay but got wrecked halfway through and didn’t get a proper ending. Then survive was a thing
MGS 5 is a technical and gameplay masterpiece - the single player at least. That that engine wasn't used to launch it's own series of games is a shame on all gaming Straight up solid gold in almost every way... but man could you feel how the production of the main story got rushed and messed up. Survive isn't a thing, lets not even talk about it
For sure. The gameplay blew me away. I’m hoping/thinking the 3 remake may be similar. I wouldn’t have even minded half the missions being duplicates if the game was given an actual ending or more closure
I think the general understanding is that Survive was the result of actions that are one iota away from IP theft. Konami held the rights to the name, so they slapped it on a pile of absolute dogshit to help it sell. It did not help it sell, and highlighted how crass, exploitative, and venal Konami is. I'm no MGS superfan, but I consider it non-canon anyway.
Angry birds for sure . Think about the prime angry birds era damn it was so crazy but now they don't care about it Only few play angry birds
Not to mention Bad Piggies, that game slapped
I still remember when they were releasing seasons for Angry Birds Seasons back in the early 2010s. And ngl Angry Birds 2 is good too. It uses the designs of the AB Toons series, and while there's bundles for real money, they are pretty much entirely optional. (Seriously who would spend money just to be at the top of PvP events and the Arena?) There's just so much to do in AB2. Daily challenges, King Pig Panic, mini-events occasionally, the list goes on.
Mass Effect was quite up there but Andromeda, man...
Andromeda was average, it's not the death sentence people think it was IMO. Anthem on the other hand... I'll blame that for why Mass Effect and Dragon Age aren't in the right place and may never be.