What Game Made You Lose Faith in the Franchise?

There are so many great games that have come over the years, and many have become franchises that maybe weren't originally planned to be, such as Final Fantasy. Others are planned to be franchises from the start, like The Order: 1886.

So you, a gamer, find a franchise you like and start playing through the titles. You're having a blast up until... that one game. That one damn game that changes your mind about the series and your unwavering, never faltering attitude in the series is dead, or at least leaves you skeptical of future releases. I know how some of you white knights might say you won't write off games because of a bad entry. I get that, but I'm sure you may be skeptical of the next installment even if you won't tell me behind closed doors. ;)

QUESTION: Has there been a game for any of you that killed your passion for a franchise? I have two big ones:

I loved the Fable franchise. The original was the game that got, along with Halo: CE, that got me to buy an OG Xbox. Seeing that world, the charm and humor, realized on that system was enough to push me over the edge to buy a system. Fable 2 hit and was more of the same. It was great in my eyes! And then we got the garbage that was Fable 3. Any interaction with someone you had to enter into a closed little mini-event, and so much of the joy was just gone. I loved the industrial setting, but everything leading up to the kingship was garbage, and then that itself was garbage.

And we haven't seen a true Fable game, aside from Fable anniversary, since. :'( Even if we did though, I would go in unsure of if I would actually be checking the game out until I knew that some of the problems of Fable 3 were erased.

I started playing the Jak & Daxter games on the PSP, playing Daxter. It was a decent platformer. Then, on the PS3, I picked up the J&D Collection. A perfect time to play these games since I had always wanted to. So I played through the first game. Wonderful. A fun platformer with a few problems but overall a tight, luscious game that I would have loved more of. I knew Naughty Dog drifted away from the platformer roots though in the sequel, so I changed expectations.

Not enough, apparently. Boy, is this game crap. Terrible vehicle controls, god-awful overworld to drive your terrible vehicles through, gunplay is just bad, and the missions... start off with that many aren't that fun, but it's the fact that their checkpoint system is awful that makes these missions stand out as craptacular as they are.

This game killed all of my interest in the series. I tried starting Jak 3 but just couldn't bother.

QUESTION: Has there been a game for any of you that killed your passion for a franchise?

Mass Effect 3.

1 month of binge playing All 3 games and all I have to say is that I won't be returning to That Galaxy.

Hmm.. Fable 3 is a good one, yeah.

Ha, really don't dig Jak 2? Game is pretty tough. I replayed through the Jak collection myself last(?) year, and Jak 2 still made me almost snap my controller sometimes. Jak 3 is not as tough.

And not being able to strafe is something that really bothered me that time around. Gunplay just doesn't make sense.

I don't know how one loses faith in a franchise. Maybe there's a stinker in the series, but it doesn't remove how great the other titles were.

I think he means it in a sense that you won't be getting all excited about new entries.

Ah, that is more sensible. I didn't jump at any post-Bungie Halo games. Or any non-Bungie Halo games, but that's not because they were bad. It's because I was really a fan of Bungie.

I got to agree with Fable 3. I never gave the game a chance mainly for reasons of rage.

Call of Duty Black OPs I. More of the same. I finally came back to the series with AW.

Madden '05. The repetitiveness and paying full price for a roster update every year got old. Finally I feel I can come back to new features and get a roster update included.

No game ever killed my love for a franchise more than MGS4.. luckily, faith has been restored.

FFXIII is another one that did me in.

I won't even try Ninja Gaiden 3, I can't take that kind of hurt lol.

Mario 64 made my faith waver and Sunshine chopped my legs off, but luckily Mario bounced back.

RE5 was the start of a disaster and RE6 was the finisher. (If you're going to respond by blaming RE4, don't bother lol)

There are others, but these are definitely the big ones for me.

Eh, I had high hopes when Crackdown 2 was announced since I thought the first was a blast and the sleeper hit of last gen but alas, it just wasn't to be though I'm feeling pretty confident about CD3 atm since it seems MS really means to showcase the X1 with the title, we shall see.

up until this one i loved all the main franchise non online games, and yes, that includes the less popular ones like ff viii, x-2 and xii. I just couldn't stand the horrible dialogue, the stupid lines, the cheese, the annoying characters, the linearity, i mean, wtf square, like seriously.

Man, not to drag it off subject too far here and I know my opinion on 64 is minority, but..

Mario 64 - I was a freshman in high school when it came out and everybody was losing their shit over it. I was also blown away by it technically of course. It just felt so sloppy compared to the likes of SMB3, SMW and Yoshis Island. It was obviously a giant leap forward technically, but it felt like a giant leap backwards as a game. I enjoyed it, but I also found it to be disappointing at the same time.

Sunshine - I've bought this game at least 3, maybe 4 different times now. Every time thinking I'll finally just get over it and push through. No go. I want to like it, I just can't. I've beaten every console Mario platformer multiple times over except for Sunshine, I can't even bring myself to clear it just once. I tried so many times, but it's just not meant to be lol.

This and Ass Creed 1 and 3.

Destiny!

yes i play the game and been playing it since the day it came out daily but due to little content it has i doubt i'll get Destiny 2 unless Bungie comes straight up and say our current characters will move to Destiny 2 AND that Destiny 2 will have a full fledged story mode not like the lulz worthy none existent in Destiny

God of War Asscension. Bless em, they wanted to make the gameplay not mindless, but they forgot to make it fun in the process.

• Xcom- Consolized Garbage
• Alien Colonial Marine - Consolized Garbage
• Metro 2033 - "Call Of Duty In A Tunnel" (pc gamers overrated this garbage)
• Bioshock - Consolized Garbage
• Ghost Recon: Advanced Future Exteme - Consolized Garbage
• Rainbow 6: Vegas - Consolized Garbage
• Fallout 3 - Consolized Garbage
• Syndicate - Consolized Garbage
• Battlefield 3 - Consolized Garbage
• Duke Nukem Forever - Consolized Garbage
• Mass Effect - Bioware Garbage
• Dues Ex 2 - Consolized Garbage
• Sacred 3 - Consolized Garbage
• Dungeon Siege 3 - Consolized Garbage
• Portal 2- Consolized Garbage
• Dragon Age 2 - Consolized Garbage
• Crysis 2 - Consolized Garbage
• Fear 2 - Consolized Garbage
• Quake 4 - Consolized Garbage

DA2

Fallout 3 (thank God for New Vegas UE)

GoW3

Skyrim on consoles

ME3

What straight up did:

Sim City 2013

The Sims 4

What NEARLY did:

Zelda: Twilight Princess

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja 4

Metal Gear Solid 2 (this was my first Metal Gear too, thankfully MGS3 was what I played next)

Speaking as TC here, this is exactly what the thread is about! You're right on point going into detail like that.

Aww... :( Take this with the knowledge that I didn't play the multiplayer all that much so I can't comment on the game as a whole, but Halo 4's campaign was, in my opinion, the best of all the campaigns. I'm so eager to get back to it in the Master Chief Collection, and very eager for Halo 5 after Halo 4.

That said, if Halo 4 didn't make your feelings of the franchise shift, the MCC might have due to how broken it has been in the multiplayer. But they just released a big patch that I guess fixes a lot of the matchmaking issues and gameplay issues online. Only 4 months later. :P

Correct. ^_^

And yes, Jak 2 was utter garbage to me! It was a tough game but tough for a whole number of wrong reasons. I hadn't played it during the PS2 era, so I have wondered how my perceptions of the game would be different had I played it back when it released, but my goodness was it garbage.

It was Jak 2 that killed my ambition to finish a game through to see if I'll enjoy it. I pushed through that game, thinking it would get better, then thinking that I made it as far as I have already I may as well just finish the damn thing. Now, if I'm not enjoying a game I'll generally drop it and be done with it. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Final Fantasy 13 really hurt. I thought they learned their lesson, then they released 13-2. Then when I thought there would be no way they would mess up LR what happens? They mess up LR. I can't trust FFXV because I know that it came from the same company that thought we needed a third Lightning game.

The first Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six games on consoles.

Dragon Age: Inquisition.....

....I thought 2 was just a one-time blunder, but after Inquisition I no longer care about the Dragon Age universe and its lore......

God of War Ascension

Do you think that it was because of binge playing through the games that you feel this way?

Looking back, I think my favorite of the three games was actually Mass Effect 3 because I felt the gameplay felt the best, there was the greatest sense of agency, and I actually didn't mind the ending. :P So I'd love to hear why you feel this way about the third game.

Some games that came to mind.

• Red Alert 3.
• FEAR 2
• Dead Space 3
• Red Faction: Armageddon
• Crysis 2
• Halo: MCC

• XCOM: Enemy Unknown (AKA Nuxcom)
• Civilization 5 (Vanilla)
• Shin Megami Tensei - Persona 4
• Guild Wars 2
• Pokemon: Ruby/Sapphire (didnt return to the series nearly a decade after)
• Zelda: Twilight Princess

Games that made me lose faith in a genre

• Gears of War

Games that made me lose faith in gaming as a whole

• Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Angel of Darkness shook my faith in the Tomb Raider franchise. The reboot killed it. Even though you could see them aping the Uncharted play book a mile away, it was still heartbreaking to play.

I get that. I was a fan of the story here, the cutscenes, but I definitely can understand people not being a fan.

The atmosphere definitely felt different than in the previous games. I appreciated it though because it is trying to break away from the first three games and not just trying to recreate those experiences. How did you feel about Reach? Because I felt Reach's atmosphere was even more different from the original three games than Halo 4's was.

And it would have been cool if Marty O'Donnell did the music, but I'm actually an incredibly big fan of the music that the game had. Halo 4's score was something that blew me away and is honestly one of my favorites in the industry. It is in no way as iconic as what O'Donnell created, definitely not, but it's an incredible score in my opinion.

HALO ODST was my last Halo Game.

The reboot is one of my favorite games of the last few years. It trumped Uncharted 3 in every conceivable way. Also lets' not forget the original Uncharted was inspired by the Tomb Raider series.

It generally takes more than 1 bad game for me to completely lose faith in a series. I played Final Fantasy X, XII, and XIII before deciding I'd had enough and would not be purchasing future installments.

GT5, it just felt old and stale.

1.F.E.A.R......I think this was on Xbox 360.

2.SOCOM 4.....I think this was on the PS3.

Say it isn't so! :P

I'm sure you saw that a new patch went live last night / this morning? It supposedly fixed a lot of the issues with online play. And I got an XB1 so we may have to play sometime, even if I'm pretty terrible.

I too have to agree with Stevo_the_gamer,I 'm having my doubts about Halo 5. :(

I would say the last SOCOM, Fable, GeoW, and Halo affected my enthusiasm for those games.

Specifically SOCOM 4, Fable 3, Halo 4, Halo Master Chief, and GeoW Judgement.

Also, Call of Duty. I have been with that series since COD1 and even before with Medal of Honor. I just don't have that excitement I did for COD.

Devil May Cry reboot took a hit for me with the most recent outing. Ninja Gaiden as well.

Yeah, it was amazing how shifting the art style changed the feeling of the entire game. Very somber. I'd recommend going back to play Reach sometime if you get the chance, especially if you loved Bungie's Halo games. It was a well done game.

I'm hoping Halo 5 just nails being a good game. There's a lot riding on it I think. So we'll see. But thanks for providing more detail into why you didn't enjoy Halo 4!

Resident Evil 5

Would you say it's because of Halo 4, the MCC, both? Maybe even something else? I'm really hoping Halo 5 exceeds expectations.

You're just a big ol' hater. :P You gonna try the MCC now that the patch fixed it? I know you were refraining from playing it for a long time because of the issues but wasn't sure if you had given up because it took so damn long or not.

Rainbow Six Lockdown. The moment I saw it was just like the console games I knew it was over, then came the Vegas games, and it was over.

Tomb Raider (reboot). Complete Uncharted wannabe, full of shooting and QTE's and little adventuring.

Dragon Age 2. WTF did they do to the combat. The overall story arc wasn't that good either.

Need For Speed Undercover. With Carbon and ProStreet I was already feeling the wear of the series, and Undercover was the last drop for me.

Crysis 2. I still liked the game but it just wasn't the same.

Final Fantasy XIII. For me the series had ups and downs, but this looks like the start of a permanent down for me.

I opened it and played it awhile back quite a few times. Tried to even get some friends to play with me couch co op style at a BBQ thing. We played it and a week later we tried again but we lost our save. It was rough.

I have a picture I took for another thread with it opened and it has all my other Halo 360 games (along with my GeoW). You may have seen it:

I heard about a patch incoming awhile back, and I'll try again in a week or so. I'm afraid my friends aren't going to play with me though. Losing hours of SP progress sucks. Back to Towerfall, RockBand, Singstar, Street Fighter, Mario, SSB, Bomberman, or whatever (game party go-tos).

Destiny lol. First in the franchise and the last for me to ever buy.

halo 2 (and ODST finished it off). i loved halo 1. the start of halo 2 was also excellent and i was really excited. then it just went to the dogs. if the SP didnt have co-op it would have been a real slog. halo 3 was very fogetable and not even co-op could save ODST. no more halo for me....life is too short.

guild wars 2: dissapointing. i loved guild wars 1 because it was the MMO for people who didnt like MMOs. great world to explore, the instancing system was brilliant and there was no grinding (an optional grind was later introduced but that was mostly for cosmetic things). guild wars 2 just made too many concessions to a normal MMO. a classic example of when a developer should not read its forums :P.

Who's forgetting? You seem to misunderstand: I HATE Uncharted. I'll let you and the Uncharted fans fight over which turd sandwich tastes better. ;P They both take the superficial themes of the Tomb Raider series and mostly abandon the gameplay, replacing it with set pieces, QTEs, and a bunch more pew pew pew.

The original Tomb Raider still holds up today as masertful 3D puzzle platformer. The games that it "inspired" have more in common with a Michael Bay movie than actual Tomb Raider. I don't believe many will ever play them again, let alone point to them as classics 20 years from now. They're shallow distractions, if I'm being generous.

Gears of War 3