Franchises that are no longer Must Buys
 

Last night, I read on the Total War forums that CA will not be patching Kingdoms despite some significant bugs with the expansion that prevents several of the new features from working. After an MtW2 that took forever to patch and still has serious problems, I decided to no longer by at Total War games and nothing else from Creative Assembly.

Any other franchises that have ruined you as a buyer, and now you are boycotting?

I'd like to say EA Sports, but saddly I know that I will always grab their next football title knowing full well that they'll sodomise me once again.

maximum football.

Stevie

Miami Dolphins?

I feel the same way about Civ. I get less and less out of each new version since Civ 2. But I'll probably keep buying them.

That's not a knock on the franchise, either. When I first played Civ 1, I was a freshman in college, and maybe a sophomore or junior when Civ 2 came out. Since then, I just don't have the time and energy to devote to really getting into the game.

Doom

both Madden and FIFA from EA were must buy's every year for me in the early 2000s and have completely fallen off the radar now.

I dunno...revolutions looks pretty, well, revolutionary for the next-gen.

Madden since about 2002
NHL since 97
FIFA since 98

Doom since 3
Mario Party since forever
Metroid since Hunters (though I will likely buy any more that come out and bought Prime 3 and love it, it isn't an auto-buy)

All that said, I only have a few auto-buys:
Zelda, Mario, Smash, Mario Kart, Pro Evo those kinds of things.

lol nintendowhore

McDonalds

For me, WWSM. Their lack of support of the U.S. product and at this point the fact that they are really only adding micromanaging features of note just makes it not worth it to me.

But I feel like I'm kind at a point in my life where computer games no longer interest me. I know my time is precious (and will soon be even moreso) so I spend almost all of my free time outside playing sports myself.

I totally agree about Total War franchise. Kingdoms is the first expansion of any of the Total War games that I haven't had any desire to purchase. The graphics looked great in Medival 2 but the game play just didn't improve over Rome TW. It doesn't help that CA isn't fixing the bugs either.

I'm also starting to feel the same way about the FM franchise. It is getting pretty old riding the same merry-go-round every year where the game is released in October, whatever the major issues of the year aren't truly fixed until the end the January transfer window, and then you have to live with whatever minor problems exist after that because they've started on the next years version.

I think this year's disaster of Madden finally did it for me for that franchise. Unless I see great reviews of it from people I trust (or I'm the reviewer of the game), it won't be an automatic.

That's about it.

I only have a few that I buy without a question: Any Zelda game. GTA. NBA2K. The Show. (though I wasn't especially thrilled this year) That's about it for the automatic buys.

My only auto buys anymore are Paradox games and FM. I just wait until they are patched until i jump in, but at least they ARE patched, and often with new features and stuff to keep teh game current. EU2 was getting patches years after release with new stuff. The CK expansion is just 15, so you know I'm getting it sooner or later.

I used to be so faithful to FOF, Madden, RCT, and such. TW was one of my last few auto buys, but now its going too. RCT had horrendous AI in 3, FOF doesn't change enough in each game, Madden never really expands franchise, always flirting with changes, Oblivion was relatively blah compared to the previous Elder Scrolls stuff, Civ is no longer anythign special either (Civ 4, while I could tell was a finely crafted game, just was nothing special), Sid Meier really lost me with his RCT remake, SimCity is leaving behind an amazing franchise to do something compeltely different, although I am loyal to Will Wright and will follow him to Spore.

Nothing left but Paradox and FM.

Nothing left for franchises that is. I will be playing the Culdcept sequal when it comes out, but that's not a franchise yet. If the Star Chamber peops ever came out with anything else, I'd buy it.

Other franchises that lost their "Auto-buy" rights with a lousy game(s):

Heroes of Might and Magic
Might and Magic
Master of Orion (what was #3? Was it even a game?)
Half-Life (2 was good, with the vechicles parts very nice, but these new chapters are ick)
X-Com - Hey, I like Apoc, but Interceptor just losst it.
Wing Commander - Made a good franchise lousy
Pokemon - Now, I DO autobuy the main games, but I do not buy every Pokemon game that comes down the pike.
Monster Rancher - 5's RPG is an inslut to the previously strong strategy game

I have not brought Madden, March Madness or NBA Live in years.

I stopped buying every version of Madden/NCAA about 2 years ago and haven't bought one since. Since then, there is no franchise I consider a "Must Buy." I take each game on a case-by-case basis.

This sums up how I also feel about the Civ franchise. I was just out of college when Civ 1 came out and being single had tons of time to devote to the game. Now with a wife and 2 kids, I simply can't set aside the proper amount of time that the game needs despite really wanting to.

-Cork

The goddamn Seahawks.