Yeah, you’d think no one would buy COD because it’s the same game every time. Really they are as new and refreshing as a mod. IW and Treyarch are professional mod makers. People buy there products because the formula works right now: Fast explosive Campaign + Insta-kill nobody saw you multiplayer + “Zombie Mode” (Seriously what’s the big deal?) = Top selling and multi-award winning game.
I’m not really a “COD hater.” I loved COD4. It’s just that WAW was a WWII MOD of COD4, MW2 (Not CODMW2) was a MOD/expansion/DLC sequel. Now Black Ops feels like a Cold War MOD. Multiplayer has changed a little but there are still easy noob-like tactics to win. Nothing innovative like Portal.
Game companies like Valve and Bioware know how to do it. They make us gamers happy! You know why? Because they take YEARS to make their games right. There’s a HUGE difference between HL1 and HL2, Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2, Team Fortress 1 and Team Fortress 2, etc etc etc. Valve learned from L4D2, and that’s great.
Portal 2 is coming out and it’s not going to be an expansion or just more maps. It has improved physics with liquids that speed you up, or bounce you up high, those slow vortexes, suction tunnels, huge detailed environments, and you can count on Valve to write a gosh darn good script with geniusly dark humor.
Bioware has Dragon Age 2 coming out which should be epic while being a different game than the original. Once again it has changed–in more ways than just slightly improving the graphics.
In other words, BUY the games that took time to make. Don’t buy yearly titles. That’s why Bioshock 2, L4D2, Assassin’s Creed 2/Brotherhood, and half of the COD games suck-they made them in a short uncaring timelength.
EDIT: Another thing that ruins games is when the developers decide that added multiplayer will make there games better. It does not. I.E. Bioshock 2 and AC Brotherhood.