Top 8 Franchises That Should Go Away

In this week’s The 8 Ball, 411mania’s Marc Morrison explores the franchises that really need to go away.

[Intentions]

Well... That's depressing.

[NewMonday]

GOW needs a new start, end the story of Kratos and make a fresh start like inFamous: Second Son

[plaZeHD]

Or, or a new IP. BOOM!!!

[Sandmano]

I dont want GOW to go away but I would like to see his brother Deimos story they really could work with that and he seems pretty badass too. Deimos for next gen IMO

[morganfell]

Top 8 Cheap Websites Run From A Parent's Basement That Need To Go Away:

1.....
2.....
3.....
4.....
5.....
6.....
7.....
8 411mania.com

I am often seen criticizing journalists on this site. More people should join in. Game journalism attempts have become the absolute scourge of our industry and have damaged endlessly a hobbie most of us truly love.

There is nothing wrong with opinion pieces but that is all which these sites inflict upon us now. It wasn't always that way. Many persons that visit here are too young to remember. There was a time when articles possessed the minium of opinion and were chocked full of facts and objective reporting.

Nowadays writing about this industry, and it is "about" since these people do not work "in" the industry, is full of cheap opinion and concern little else than the almighty "I". Enough.

Reviews have degenerated into a screamfest of what a particular person wants and flow with the anger when they do not get their desires fulfilled. It's all about them, what they want and little about the actual game. They do not review for the gaming public at large and as such their writings are not for the main demographic.

Articles such as the trash linked above are no better. I have seen houses propped up by Jacks, Queens, and Aces that were better supported than those opinions. And these writers and many of the people whose minds are numbed by this article's rhetoric are oblivious. Their pieces are strictly designed to generate web hits rather than provide a service od genuine insight and fact to the community.

Insightful, vivid writing that abounds with humor, facts, honesty, and revelation is a thing of the past. The sooner more of these sites, even cheap ones such as 411.com, go the way of 1Up the better off we will be at the end of the day. The destruction of games caused by developer attempts to please some website's 17 year old and thus garner a magic 9 or above review is the damnation of our pasttime.

Reviews are no longer objective and meticulous affairs, not even the ones at publications such as Game Informer. As such they are little more than a collection of one person's desires. I would prefer games be a creation based on inspired development rather than the requirement to service a handful of people with a vindictive pen.

The reason we no longer witness such writing? Real journalism requires talent, particularly when writing about an industry based upon that very same and very rare gift.

[kreate]

Dont agree w god of war.

Its not like sony been milking the franchise like some other games.
There's only been 1 god of war on ps3 so far other than ascencion or collections.

Hate to use halo as an example but its the one that comes to mind for the moment.

Halo 3. Halo wars. Odst. Reach. Halo 4. All on one generation of a console.

Call of duty games coming out every year.
This is milking a franchise. Where god of war isnt, so I dont think god of war should go away but grow and expand upon it.

Final fantasy shouldnt go away either. Every final fantasy is different... well except ff13-1 thru 13-3. The 13 series should go away, not the whole franchise.

[Aloren]

@Kreate,

Halo is not any more milked than God of war though, it's pretty much the same.
Since the release of Halo 3 (end of 2007), there's been 5 halo games (one of which was a spinoff in a different genre) + 1 hd remake.

In the same time frame, there's been 4 GOW games (2 on psp and 2 on PS3... yeah, I'm including the one that comes out in a few days)+ 3 collections on PS3. Also, there's been a god of war release on PS3 every year since 2009, just like halo.

[Autodidactdystopia]

all but god of war i agree with,

god of war is nice

[subtenko]

Websites that should go away, starting with:

411mania

Dont anger Kratos D:

[WarThunder]

Halo need to be number 2 on the list.

[PeaSFor]

COD
Mario games
Gears of war
RE
Halo

[007Bond]

GOD OF WAR
GEARS OF WAR
UNCHARTED
HALO
CALL OF DUTY
INFAMOUS
ASS CREED
SAINTS ROW
MASS EFFECT

[ritsuka666]

1. Resident Evil"

I totally agree here... =/

Unfortunately yes, it died in the 90s.

Resident Evil should be renamed into Resident Action now, it might be a silly name, but it's more accurate to what these games are today.

[killcycle]

Could not have said it better.

[EbeneezerGoode]

Sadly true! :(

Resi 1 Remake on gamecube was awesome... and I try not to use that word too much these days.

I actually really loved Resi 4 but it was borderline pushing things with shooty shooty.. it had the scares and the tension to back it up... then everything went down hill. Silly silly Capcom.

[EbeneezerGoode]

downhill from resi 5 onwards i mean

[SugarSoSweet]

agreed

[d0nT wOrrY]

Sadly I've to agree with God of War. The game had an awesome ending after a long brutal journey. Plus, I'd love to see a new IP from the creative Santa Monica.

[Minato-Namikaze]

They are working on 3 games right now. Most likely a new ip in there somewhere

[pr0t0typeknuckles]

i agree with all of these especially new super mario bros,theres nothing new about all 3 games.
god of war has years left in it, its just that kratos story is done,maybe they should start with a different protagonist set in egypt.
and i love assassians creed but it seriously needs a break

[Pozzle]

Personally I'd love to see a new Mario game that's 3D. I don't mean something like Mario Galaxy though, which is still fairly linear. I'm talking about something like Mario 64...but on a much, MUCH larger scale. Make the worlds huge, exploratory and diverse. Make the Mushroom Kingdom/Castle a hub that's large, expansive and full of hidden secrets.

The latest 2D Mario's haven't been bad per se, but it really seems that Nintendo are taking the easy route by making them so...well...samey. Even Paper Mario Sticker Star wasn't much of an upgrade on previous Paper Mario games. Nintendo really needs to go all-out and make a Mario that's just...amazing. Something that makes people stop and say "wow!"

[iwin86]

I hope one day, this sort of articles go away. For example you can set Kratos to Old Egypt and whola - new setting, new opportunuties.
And really ? Madden ? Football is a sport. Sport is here to stay. Can't you get it into your head.

[Godmars290]

They need to explain how the world comes back after GOW3.

[r21]

Will this heat up? I'll assume so.

[SlyFamous02]

END GOW!!!!! That is blasphemy!

[InTheLab]

If you're tired of it, don't buy it. Don't talk about it. And don't write a silly article of this type with no CoD on it...

[Sandmano]

Well said...

[clintagious650]

Studio Santa Monica are just as talented as Naughty Dog so I believe if they were to create a NEW IP. It would be just as good as God of War or Uncharted. I can only imagine them creating an rpg game. How beautiful the game would look. Or how bout a samurai game like god of war but with samurai abilities but he can have transformqtion abilities like onimusha or devil may cry. I can dream lol.

Edit: I disagree with any game they say needs to go especially when they are still selling well and are fun to play & still get good reviews. I'll agree with resident evil though the franchise been going down hill since RE4.

[LightofDarkness]

Yeah, they could continue God of War in a spiritual successor kind of way, but Kratos' story should end. I loved the games, but it's over. I'd like to see a new character that truly echos tragic heroes depicted in various mythologies, with a full range of emotions and such. Not just "Kratos mad" and "Kratos sad". Plus, I find him to be somewhat repugnant, senseless brutality isn't exactly a turn on for me.

Gears of War is quite done in just about every manner, and I agree that they should retire it.

I don't want to see FF go down just yet. They are literally one terrible FF away from that final nail in the coffin, but they can still turn it around (Bravely Default shows they still have it in them).

Resident Evil, in its current state, is quite dead. It needs a serious reboot. The series' main villain is dead, the plot has become so convoluted that Kojima would embarrassed by it and the gameplay is simply gone. Hopefully, a popular uptake of Revelations on consoles will send the message: bring back the horror (and puzzles, and claustrophobic environments)!

[EbeneezerGoode]

Resident evil - OCULUS RIFT - PC - REBOOT

MANSION
PHOTO REAL GRAPHICS
OLD STYLE PLAY NEW STYLE PRESENTATION

SIGN ME UP

If Capcom don't make it I'll make it myself! :)

[BigBoss1964]

So God of War should go away but not a single mention of Call of Duty....

[Fishermenofwar]

Right on the money...

[JaredH]

But the website has such quality writing that they actually mention Call of Duty, and most franchises, after the list in "complainer's corner"

[Fishermenofwar]

How about a New Final Fantasy game about a slightly feminine Emo protagonist..

I haven't seen one of those in a while (-_-)

_______/\_________\o/______ SHARK!!!!!

[vividi]

I love God of War but I think it needs a change, another story and another protagonist, like the new killzone and inFamous

[DEATHxTHExKIDx]

The article failed COD is not on the list. That series above all others needs to go away.

[x5exotic]

God of War, one of the few games where the story is actually good, has beautiful art, great graphics, and some of the most fun gameplay needs to go away? The gaming industry would be boring as hell.

Same for Final Fantasy.

No mention of CoD? All the FIFA/other sports crap that get a new game every year because some player switched teams?

Halo, ME...we already have too many shooters about aliens

Uncharted: UC3 is an unapologetic ripoff of its predecessor which means they've run out of ideas, as little as they had in the first 2 games.

I don't think AC should end. Sure most of the games suck and they milked the ezio story way too much instead of going straight for AC3, but it's still interesting and I'd like to see how it all ends.

But if ending AC means more Prince of Persia, then yeah f*** AC.

Also, Grand Theft Auto, Liberty shitty this, liberty shitty that, tired of all of that? What do they do next? Give us our beloved san andreas, but only los santos.

"it takes X of hours to go from one side of the map to the other"
is that what gaming is about now? Is it so much fun to take HOURS to drive through the same replicated buildings of the same city?"
Basically it's "we're gonna make a map bigger than old SA except all of it will be monotonous and lacks variety".

Not to mention it being too realistic now in a game where I used to have fun doing what I wanted, and the removal of cheats made it a very mediocre series.

[RuleofOne343]

How about these games stay & the Dimwits from that site go away .

[KillrateOmega]

Kratos' story should end. I love the character and it would be a shame to see him become oversaturated and milk to death for money. Let him leave on a respectable note.

Resident Evil was spot-on. The game isn't even scary anymore. Now it's been reduced to some action-shooter. It's getting driven into the ground. Hopefully, Dead Space doesn't suffer the same fate.

Most people seem to want their favorite characters and franchises to go on forever, but if love something, you have to know when to let it go. If you just keep rehashing the same character/series and pumping out games for him/her/it, then there will come a point where that character/series has become oversaturated and will at some point no longer even be respectable. Stories have to have endings. Let it be a good ending.

[HonestDragon]

Another list like this? Man, can't writers ever think of an original list to publish anymore? N4G has seen this type of list at least five times with some similar choices in the passed few months. It's always either "Top 5 Franchises That Need to Die" or "Top 10 Franchises That Need to Go Away" or "Top 8 Franchises That Need a Break".

And of course, go figure that this writer has the same choices that other writers do. We have all seen Final Fantasy, Gears of War, God of War, Assassin's Creed, New Super Mario Bros, and Resident Evil on lists like this. This guy has only a few different choices: Lego series, Madden, and Cities XL. It still doesn't take away the fact that this list has been done to death.

Yeah, you know what, someone should do a list of "Top 5 Video Games Lists That Need to Die". That's something different. At least it will show how uncreative writers are being with lists these days and how cliche it is to use the same franchises over and over. Plus, all lists like this do in the end, is bring out the angry fanboys and snobs of certain franchises. It gets repetitive and boring.

[ceballos77mx]

A new God of war set in the Aztec mythology would rock.

[lx1]

i agree that would rock

[first1NFANTRY]

Why use GoW as the main focus of the article?

There are far worse games in that list which ACTUALLY do deserve to go away.

We can see through your hate.

[Spenok]

I have a better article idea.

"Top 8 websites that should go away."

[jakmckratos]

God of War should never go away. It literally only comes out every 3 years on consoles now. I WILL say that it needs a new mythology..Norse or Egyptian sound good to me. Whether or not Kratos should be the main character?? That's a toughie. I would say it kinda HAS to be about him. Maybe he moves on to the next pantheon to destruct even more unjust Gods.

[lx1]

the thing with god of war is that you cant replace kratos. he is the reason we play the game.

[lx1]

and i like the fact that they had to use kratos on this article so that we can click on it

[Max-Zorin]

Rotfl at how Call of Duty didn't make it on the list.

[shivvy24]

yea i know ey , out of all the games this should be 1

[chobit_A5HL3Y]

most of them shouldn't go away. they should just be re-booted~