Because I don't own an XBox360 (or an XBox, for that matter), I have been largely immune to the Halo 3 hype of the past couple of weeks. I'm not ignorant of it (if someone is shouting in your ear 6 inches from you, you will hear it: that's what the marketing campaign has been like), but I'm not the target audience for these ads, either.

All the pressure salesmanship, however, does serve to highlight what seems to be a rather disturbing trend both in Hollywood and the gaming industry: "sequelitis."

This year has seen Spiderman 3, Fantastic 4 2, Pirates of the Carribean 3, and Saw 4 hit the theaters with a loud splash. It's an act of faith that if your movie is huge, it will continue to spawn more sequels until the grosses drop. However, the lack of quality as the series continues (who though Spiderman 3 was as good as 2, or even 1? Be honest) is marked and (in many cases) crippling to a franchise.

Meanwhile, a quality movie that might have satisfied the viewers more lies gathering dust on a shelf somewhere, still in the can... if the script was even filmed.

It's become much the same way with games. As a kid, not a month would pass when a new machine would pop up in the arcade with a flashy cabinet, some contol configration you've never seen before (Defender scared the wits out of me when I first saw it: about 3 times as many buttons as the other machines, and faster than a NOX-boosted street race car!), and a new concept. Pac-Man, Guantlet, Tac-Scan, Tempest... games that challenged and (sometimes) scared you with their sheer audacity.

Now... C&C3 (I liked it, even if many didn't... but not my point), StarCraft 2, Supreme Commander (not a real sequel, but a recognizable one nevertheless), Halo 3, Resident Evil 4... Final Fantasy XII (I still fail to see how "Final" it is... :lol: )... sequelitis is alive and (debatably) well in the games industry.

What kills me about all this is the lack of inventiveness this has bred. Sure, some upcoming games (Spore and Universe at War) are looking very inventive and original, but their unique looking concepts are buried by the 2's and 3's cascading into the marketplace like an avalanche of stagnation. Even games out on the market (World in Conflict) that have shown promise as a new concept have been drowned out by the incredibly loud Halo 3 campaign.

Not all sequels are bad (Star Control 2 remains one of the most innovative and fun games I've ever played). It's time, however, to reevaluate the number 1, however: after all, without 1, how are you ever going to get to 2, 3, 4, etc.?