Okay, so we’ve talked about previews. Now let’s talk about sequels.

Possibly one of the bigger issues when it comes to sequels is not the fact that there are so many of them, but rather that companies seem to insist on calling additional games sequels when they’re only loosely tied into the first one.

Let’s look at the different types of sequels:

1. The Direct Sequel

The direct sequel is fairly straight forward. Typically the same studio/company does each sequel, they tie into the previous games, and have similar game play. Look at, say, the Brothers in Arms games, the Halo series, Diablo 1 & 2. Each might have refinements and improvements in gameplay, but they’re telling an interlocked (or continuing) story. In Mercenaries 2, one character, a Chinese colonel, comes back from Mercenaries 1, but is now promoted and a general. He’s an NPC, but you’ve got the same “main characters” that the player can pick from the original, too.

These are true sequels. They’re like good movie or book sequels – not when the studio says “let’s add more of the same!” to something, but rather when they concentrate on making a solid contribution to the on-going storyline.

(Halo Wars makes for more of the re-imagined sequel, down below, though it’s a prequel (technically), and manages to keep – from what we’ve seen so far – a lot of the same feel.)

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"How is this 'Gaming for Adults'?" you may ask, if you're one of those people that care about the tags on a blog post. I can't imagine that anyone actually does, but hey, more power to them if they do.

Previews of a game are a funny thing. Honestly, I consider it more "adult" in that as you get older, you have less time to play games, and typically you're more critical about which games you do play - while when younger you have more time to play, and are more willing to give a completely new game a shot, as well as be more enthusiastic about a game that isn't even out yet.

(I know those are crass generalizations. I also am way too lazy to create a new category for this kind of post, given how little I use the other ones I have and not knowing how often I'd write something like this.)

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