A franchise can be at risk if the iteration underperforms. I think it's one reason games get delayed and budgets get bloated. But sometimes concepts are terribly flawed or not achievable at all.

The game that killed a franchise for me was Doom 3. I beat Doom 64 when i was a teenager and it was so well made. Yeah the first levels were kinda weak but it really ramped up. The n64 game used excellent colors and sounds. I was creeped out a little and could swear i heard babies crying at one point. But the environments were what hooked me. Some levels had different colored skies including light green. There was so much atmospheric detail (compared to games at that time, and i wore big headphones).

Anyway, I was so excited when I heard that Doom 3 might come to xbox that I signed up and attended a conference at e3 2002 hosted by an id employee an ea guy and the dude in charge of the jango fett game. I didnt go so far as to wait in the 2-3 hour line to see game footage. Well fast forward a few years. I bought the special edition metal case thingy and tried to convince myself and friends that this was so much better than any fps to date. I had component cables and optical audio, man I was all excited. I think I got as far as the point where you kill a big spider, then sometime after that you're in a place that resembles hell. And by then I had given up. I know some great games only get good in the last half so I dont know if I missed out. I was so sick of the same shiney metal, flames, and black. Nothing exciting happened and I was bummed. It's to where I dont get excited about anything id makes now.. Maybe a Quake 4 Arena.



Are there any franchises that let you down so bad that you kinda gave up on them?

Doom here too. I recently bought Doom 3 BFG edition on the xbox360 mostly for the reason of having not played Doom 3 yet adored the original doom and doom 2 in my youth. I decided to play the bonus doom and doom 2 original games plus the extra chapter in doom as well as the doom 2 aftermath. I really got back into them and the challenge was good on ultra-violence. After all that, booted up doom 3 and hated it from the start. I played maybe 3 hours? I tried so hard to like it but it just wasn't the same.

They should have made it less, restricted... The first 2 games, in terms of game-play, destroy doom 3 everyday of the week. Including the made up ones.

Edit: Yet somehow I loved RAGE? Go figure.

*sniffles* ..Spyro.. The.. *sniffles* dragon..

.....

Crash *sniffles* Bandicoot

..(sigh)..

*stares out the window as the rain falls*

lol i dont usually lol but that was good

Prince of Persia

I'll second that. But interestingly I didn't want a sequal to Doa 3. I played so much that I unlocked Zack's alien suit. It's a perfect game imo. But sf2: turbo deserved better than world warrior. Sf4 was a nice attempt but the boss and new characters were a big letdown.

pretty much every game except for finalfantasy or gta or pokemon lol

Pokemon, soulsilver was the last game I bought and barely touched it.
And
Final fantasy, I didnt even consider buying xiii-2.

It's good to know someone agrees. I've not heard any remarks about it and didn't know if it was just me.

Doom for me too, the first two were classics, the third was a shallow tech demo.
Also:
- Resident Evil
- Spyro
- Banjo Kazooie
- God of War