Same Engine? Same Gameplay? Same Basic Features? In a New Game?

[Reasonable]

Mvp4eVa said:

Reasonable said:
Welcome to the future of gaming entertainment. It's a shame that the industry has so quickly got to where Hollywood is now - high cost, low risk ventures that try and repeat a winning formula until it won't hold water, then desperately cast about for a new formula to last another few years.

It's understandable in terms of the high cost of big games, and the risks of failure, but it's the sad side of high commercialism over creativity in the entertainment industry.

Also, so long as masses flock to but something like MW2 - which really felt like a even more frenetic repeat of the previous title - things aren't going to change anytime soon.

The problem is particularly an issue on consoles, which are closed environments. On PC I can download lots of new, freely made L4D campaigns - but on 360, I'd have to pay to get a two level expansion campaign (not just picking on 360 BTW, PS3 has same issues with other titles).

Joe Public always has the casting vote with their wallets, but looking at the sales for most popular franchise expansions I'd say for the moment they've voted for more of the same please.

I kind of agree here with you and with the OP, I mean, I think is unecessary to reuse and recycle the same game over and over, the point is with the Call of Duty series from Cod 4, World at War and now MW2 and maybe the next COD they all the same game with different skin using the same engine thats little over 5 years old and surely the next COD in 2010 will be looking and using the same engine like the first one did 4 years ago.

I'm a COD whore and the best of the bunch is still COD4 for me and to a point MW2 but it disapoints me because I would've like for IW to kepp supporting COD4 by releasing new maps instead of making another sequal of the same game.

Why make a new Cod game when the current one is still being played by many gamers, COD4 was still in 2nd place behind HALO 3 of most played in XBOX live after 3 years, so why not still support a good game and make it better by adding more maps, new weapons, new perks thru DLC?

At the pace that COD4 was being played after 3 years straight, I think it would've last another 3 or more years if IW would've supported the game without having to make a new game from the same thing.

Its official: COD is the new Madden.   But I'm a sucker thats keeps on playing it.

 

 

I don't things are quite dire for games yet, but the slippery slope is definately there.

On the plus side you have titles like Uncharted 2 and Assassins Creed 2, which clearly feature both a lot of new content and a lot of engine improvements (Uncharted 2 in particular you can see the engine has received a lot of upgrading plus of course an expansive MP and Coop mode).

On the negative, despite the fact it's clearly great, L4D2 from my PC perspective really is a retread with tweaks and new monsters vs a evolution of the title (although it is larger than L4D itself, which I found great but overly light for maps and content), and to be honest I found MW2 the same.  The SP felt like a rehash with a few new bits and the MP was the same MP tweaked and further improved.  Both titles are a lot of fun, but they are hardly big leaps from the previous title.

Going forward, with time at a premium, I'm going to be avoiding overly similar instalments, and in particular unless MW3 is a big jump I'll be giving it a miss.