Hey!

Just bought the new Tony Hawks game and was arguing with a mate over MSN about the 'lameness' of it. He argues that its had more games made of it than the Tomb Raider series and therfore... MUST suck. I was just wondering what everybodies opinions of product recreation is. Tony Hawk's is far from the only game series that has only minor improvements each year.

GTA,FIFA,PRO,TR etc etc

Minor improvements?

Just look at all those EA sports games!

Tomb raider and Tony Hawk series had to look same because players liked them that way.

I would not line "GTA" up in that "series with little improvements"-line, though.
Or you could just as well line up the whole RTS- and FPS-genres as well.

As for the initial question: It always depends on it. There are GOOD "uodated" series and bad ones. There's definetely no way to generally say "games-serials are bad" or "good".
Look at Mortal Kombat for example. The first part was new and exciting, the second part enhanced that, but things like babalities also took away from the athmosphere and then every next installment didn't even get near the greatness of the original two parts, in fact things went downhill pretty fast from there. But now, in the official sixth installment (deception) - not to count all the spin-offs and "best ofs" in - you have a game that beats every other MK hands down. But the series wouldn't have gotten there without the lamer parts in between.
Same for GTA. I for one didn't care for the first two parts (and "London 1969"), GTA 3 on the other hand managed to really get me into its grip. And Vice City was even another giant step further. In terms of gameplay and ideas, San Andreas AGAIN took huge steps forward. The only reason I still like Vice City just as much is because I prefer the 80's-style "Scarface vs. Miami Vice"-look and feel of Vice City more than the "Hood"-feeling of SA.
There are loads of other examples for that, but of course also examples for games that sucked more and more with every installment (up to MK:DA the MK-series was in fact a perfect example for THAT), so as I said: There's no way to have a "general" opinion on it...

Moved appropriate forum.

Most sports games could be put in that category, since there's not really much you can improve in a sports game besides making it more and more and more realistic.

Tomb Raider too. It should've ended by TR4 (she died for crying out loud!) but then they came up with really lame excuses to make more.

GTA definitely is one of the few series that greatly improves with every sequel, and definitely isn't "product milkage".

FIFA gets better each year and has been voted to be the very best FIFA yet this year. Anyway, if I picked up my FIFA96 and compared it to FIFA2006 (10years difference), of course the graphics/gameplay is way different.

Do I see this in Tony Hawk.. ?

If FIFA gets better this year then it is not suprising this years FIFA is voted "best yet". Who voted for that btw?

I vote that the game will probably be the best of the the whole FIFA series as long as they don't put something dumb in it and then take something good out to fill it in like they did with the NBA Live 2001(or 2002,either one)where they made it where you limit the amout of points you use on a created player.(this is probably my first and probably will be my last long post)

But other EASports titles do only improve a little each year. Madden NFL has been released every year since time began (maybe I exaggerate a little but it feels like it!) and though the game has improved hugely there are only significant improvements every few years. Madden 04 and Madden 05 are pretty much the same game with a handful of new features, most of which are infuriatingly only available to people playing with gamepads! :angry:

Apparently, Madden 06 is a huge improvement and the best version yet but I can't be bothered to pay in case it turns out to be pretty much the same as the previous 2 years.

Oh, and personally FIFA 96 was better than any that came after (not graphically but I always found it played better!)! :D

I know what your friend is talking about with Tony Hawks, I used to really like it back in the day, now it's just gone too far and it's the same thing with different shoes on and I can't be bothered with it anymore.

Pro Evolution Soccer, although a god among games, does seem to only get a slight reshuffle on it's yearly outings. And fifa was voted the best by the ten year olds that play it ;)