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Petrie, Justin, young man, teh n00b, whatever you prefer to refer to me as, by any name, I am simply a passionate gamer. Loyal to no brand, but instead the eternal pursuit of that perfect game. A writer and commentator of all things gaming, and the geek general culture, one may question my sanity, and one may be correct in doing so.

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Good idea, Bad idea: The Franchise (Now with more Jade)
Petrie | 9:42 PM on 02.08.2008 15 comments




Those of us who have been around for awhile in the gaming fold probably remember a time when a game getting a sequel was more the exception than the rule. Publishers and developers at one point *shock* concentrated on the game they were creating, rather than planning ahead for the inevitable downloadable content, and the series of spin-offs and sequels sure to come sometimes only months down the line. Would any of you have imagined how many sports Mario would eventually show his expertise in when you were controlling him on the NES?

Recently though the trend has been to plan out full trilogies without even testing the property out in the marketplace. Some titles took it even father such as Xenosaga's originally planned 6 installments, but trilogies seem to be the standard. Last holiday 2 big releases, Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect both came onto the scene with huge aspirations to become long-running series, and serve as a bench-mark for both the wrong and right way to map out a franchise. This is one instance though, where neither game gets it all right.


If only the characters were as believable as these environments we'd have one helluva game.


If you want to begin a franchise, you need to impress people from a technical standpoint, and in the regard Assassin's Creed is a perfect showcase. The beautifully crafted world suffers from very little slowdown, and everything streams fairly quickly. The load times are explained away in a much better fashion then Mass Effect's constant elevators. Rarely is an slowdown present. when one plays even a small amount of Mass Effect, the product feels like it was rushed out the door without even basic testing. Backgrounds pop-in, animations are constantly skipping around haphazardly, especially compared so Assassin's Creed. Everything in Assassin's Creed from on the programming end is much better able to suspend a player's disbelief.


You might want to consider it a problem when this random guy from Mass Effect has more personality than your entire game's cast.


To really hook people into a franchise though, you need both interesting, believable characters, and a world to match, and Mass Effect has it in Spades. Shepard is a truly fleshed out character, no matter how you choose to develop him/her. The voice acting is top notch, creating a lively world full of colorful characters. Most importantly, the world you take part in feels real. Even the most minor characters are given back stories, and planets you may not even visit are given descriptions and bullet-points, the perfect universe with which to develop further games and flesh things out. With Assassin's Creed, we are given a huge world, but not much to do, and very little story to flesh things out. Voice acting makes you wonder how the in-game characters could even stomach speaking with each other, particularly the player's role. The world in Assassin's Creed just fails to feel alive the way Mass Effect's does.


You made a game whose main allure is the beautiful looking world, and then made a spin-off for what system? The DS! Who green lit this!


Where the games truly differ most though, is how they intend to expand that universe. Bioware plans to use various downloadable content to expand the experience, while Ubisoft is more content to flesh things out via additional titles, like the recently released Assassin's Creed on the DS. Bioware's method will allow anyone with an internet connection to instantly expand their universe, while Ubisoft's method makes it necessary for interested players to purchase an entirely different set of hardware to continue the expansion of the world created. Given the apparent length of the DS title (said to be in the 3 hour range) Mass Effect's DLC also seems the much better value, given it's promised 1 1/2 hours of content for an additional $5 sum. The method used in Mass Effect seems better poised to keep players interested in the series right up until the next installment, with a constant stream of bite-sized content continuing to flesh out the world until Mass Effect 2 hits. That said, being able to take Altair with you on-the-go, and the ability to hook interest from players on all the consoles is a winning step for Assassin's Creed. Will PS3 players want to play Mass Effect 2 after missing the first one?

Mass Effect seems to get it right with regard to creating a background for the franchise, while Assassin's Creed has created a much better engine, meaning it will be much easier for them to pump more content into a sequel without worrying about going back to the drawing board with their code. Both games take a unique approach to bridging the gaps between their main games, and neither one seems to have the perfect combination. The developer who manages to mesh all these points into one game will have a truly epic franchise on their hands. Maybe we were better off though when games weren't planned as a franchise, but instead had to rely just on their own merits. That, and having Jade attached doesn't seem to hurt.




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14 comments | showing # 1 to 14
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liqideos's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/08/2008 22:51
liqideos
Jade Raymond is like a water stick. I mean, replace water with cock, and yeah.

On franchises, blame Sony. They don't green light a project unless they can squeeze at least three titles out of it.
Petrie's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/08/2008 23:01
Petrie
ICO

SotC

I can't totally blame Sony.
liqideos's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/08/2008 23:03
liqideos
Very well then, commend/damn (depending on if you buy into console wars), Sony for such musings/trite rubbish.
007's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/08/2008 23:11
007
Yeah, you need some pictures. And lots. NOW
Petrie's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/08/2008 23:41
Petrie
Pictures of what, Jade? :)
mistic's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/08/2008 23:49
mistic
well I like both games, A LOT! :-) ( though I do play a lot more ME nowadays :-) )
Petrie's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/08/2008 23:52
Petrie
I enjoyed both games, but finished neither. I found AC got repetitive too quickly, while ME had too maqny technical issues I just couldn't overlook.
Def JM's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/08/2008 23:57
Def JM
Your post was better without the pics.

But Metroid, which to me is a franchise, is a good example. There is a difference between the series 2d/3d with a main character being who she is works very well.

Good read.
Petrie's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/09/2008 00:08
Petrie
@ Def JM

The Jade is now conveniently at the bottom for those in need of well, more Jade.
EternalDeathSlayer's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/09/2008 00:14
EternalDeathSlayer
For fucks sake, Jade isn't that hot! She's a nice looking gal, pretty for sure. Cute, even.

But you wouldn't care for her if she didn't make video games. She'd be just another pretty face and we'd all return to wanking it to much hotter girls with way bigger tits and ass. In general, she's barely above average.
Petrie's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/09/2008 00:23
Petrie
EDS:

I agree completely, in fact I'd say she's below average, at least among the women I'd consider attractive in the slightest.

But she is semi-attractive, makes games, and seems to at least have a tolerable personality, and for most gamers that seems to be enough.
liqideos's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/09/2008 02:19
liqideos
@EternalDeathSlayer

Yes. Jade isn't really that hot in hindsight...but that's a part of what makes our community so awesome/pathetic. The second a decent looking girl showed up at E3 with a professional capacity other than: "Booth Slut", shit hit the fan. I attest all of Assassins Creed's success to Jade and only to Jade.

The second Patrice starts talking I fall the fuck asleep, and don't even want to play it anymore. I have to keep a Jade Raymond shrine next to me just to hold interest in doing the same five gameplay variations over and over.

Basically, Petrie covered it pretty well, most of us are graphics whores, and Jade Raymond proves that, while the depth of the subject may be pretty skin deep, as long as we get our jollies aesthetically, it typically covers price of admission.
Always Ten Feet Tall's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/10/2008 03:36
Always Ten Feet Tall
Assassian's Creed was the same shit over and over. Got boring after the 3rd mission.
Petrie's Avatar - Comment posted on 02/11/2008 02:26
Petrie
ATFT:

That's about where the gameplay began to fall apart for me as well.
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