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Teeqoz on 20 June 2014
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binary solo said:
Teeqoz said:
My fellow Sony fans will probably bash me for this, but Uncharted. Not only for being Uncharted, but also for being made by Naughty Dog.
Oh and also GTA.

Not quite sure what you mean. Naughty Dog had a solid reputation going into gen 7 but it wasn't OMG best studio evah! The Original Jak and Daxter is the only Jak game to meta in the 90's and it "only" managed 90 exactly best reviewed ND game before UC2 was Crash on PS.

The their first game on PS3 was Drake's fortune. It reviewed well but it also wasn't OMG Gears of War Killer!

So along comes Uncharted 2 and it has a studio name behind it with a credible reputation and a series of well reviewed but nothing that would cause critics to be star struck. And certainly no basis to go from an 88 (Drakes Fortune) to a 96 (UC2) on meta critic. So IMO Uncharted 2 earned what it got on its own merits because it really wasn't standing on the shoulders of giants. In fact it was Uncharted 2 that made Naughty Dog into THE premier Sony first party studio and one of the shining star studios of the whole video gaming industry.

So you can accuse Uncharted 3 of  benefitting from star status sure, but not the series as a whole.

I'm pretty sure TLOU would have got the same praise regardless of who made it so the ND name attached to it certainly helped sales, but not critical reception.

So in the end, of all the 4 games ND has put out on PS3 only Uncharted 3 can really be said to have possibly got better reviews because of franchise or studio name.

And because Uncharted 3 was not quite as well reviewed as Uncharted 2, Uncharted 4 actually has something to prove, beyond eye-watering graphics (for a console). If it seems to be pretty much more of the same only better looking I think it will get critically panned. Even though I am about ready for more of the same Uncharted but better looking.

I've not played enough big name franchises to be able to judge whether franchise name earns extra meta points. I suspect it probably does. But we have seen plenty of cases where franchise name has not done a mediocre game any favours: Gears Judgement; Ratchet and Clank Spin off titles.

I was talking about Uncharted as a franchise.