10 Fan-Demanded Video Game Sequels That Should Never Happen

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00:00 The video game industry loves nothing more than sequels, which makes it a little bit weird

00:04 when some games never actually get follow-ups despite huge fan demand.

00:08 However, all of the following could be a big case of be careful what you wish for,

00:12 as the reality of what these projects would actually turn out to be is a far cry from the pitch-perfect versions

00:19 that we all have in our heads.

00:21 So, with that in mind, I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 Fan-Demanded Video Game Sequels

00:26 That Should Never Happen.

00:28 Number 10 - Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 3

00:31 When it comes to Star Wars video games, Knights of the Old Republic will always reign supreme.

00:36 Bioware's original RPG was a seminal title, and Obsidian's follow-up, while clearly hampered by a limited production cycle,

00:43 has come to be recognized also as an incredible game.

00:47 Consequently, Knights of the Old Republic 3 has always seemed like a bit of a no-brainer,

00:51 as close to a guaranteed success as you can get in the video game world.

00:56 It's a tap-in, an open goal, a sure-fire bet.

00:59 Yet, despite constant demands from fans and even the developers themselves,

01:04 EA have been reluctant to revive the franchise outside of their MMO spin-off and the upcoming remake.

01:09 And while yes, it would be amazing to see a proper third game get announced,

01:13 a release under current EA management would simply be a recipe for disaster.

01:18 See, when fans like me imagine Knights of the Old Republic 3, they see an expansive, detailed RPG.

01:24 Something classically Bioware or Obsidian.

01:28 Unfortunately though, those kind of games just aren't what EA is focused on at the moment.

01:32 And you can bet that if it did come back, it would have forced live service elements and multiplayer,

01:37 essentially being Knights of the Old Republic 3 in name only.

01:41 A sequel in general isn't a bad idea by any means, but in the current climate,

01:45 it's hard to imagine it ending up being anything other than a major disappointment.

01:49 Number 9 - Mirror's Edge 3

01:51 Mirror's Edge 3 should never happen, and here's why.

01:55 Nobody is going to buy it.

01:57 Yeah, you, yes, you watching this video right now might buy it,

02:01 but you're gonna be like one of ten people, and I'm gonna be one of the other ones as well.

02:05 That only leaves eight other people.

02:08 And this is because while Mirror's Edge has a fan following,

02:11 it just doesn't have an audience big enough to justify its budget.

02:14 Fans spent years asking EA to make a sequel, and when they did, it bombed.

02:20 And it's not a mistake the company is likely to make a third time around.

02:24 This is also a case of if EA even decided to bring the franchise back,

02:28 there's probably no way that they'd just repeat the formula again

02:31 and expect it to somehow catch on this time.

02:34 As a result, it's more possible, like Knights of the Old Republic again,

02:37 that Mirror's Edge would be changed so much to make it more marketable

02:41 that it just wouldn't be worth it.

02:42 Likewise, developers DICE are a completely different company these days.

02:46 They're struggling with Battlefield, let alone doing fans of this series justice.

02:51 Number 8, Conker's Bad Fur Day 2.

02:54 Conker's Bad Fur Day was a foul-mouthed anarchistic platformer

02:58 that released on Nintendo's otherwise family-friendly N64,

03:01 an adult-orientated entry in a genre that was otherwise just so muted.

03:05 It stood out, not always for the right reasons, such as its censored console ports,

03:10 and the nostalgia fans have for this deeply funny game

03:13 has always spilled over into a desire for the sequel that never was.

03:16 And while there is an argument that a self-referential crass game

03:19 wouldn't be anything special in a world where Deadpool reigns supreme at the box office,

03:24 the biggest major problem holding back a sequel

03:26 is that the rare of today simply isn't the rare that devised Conker's Bad Fur Day back in the 90s.

03:32 Sure, they're still talented, and Sea of Thieves showed that the spark of creativity

03:36 that launched the company to success is still there,

03:39 but they're hardly the underdog go-getters that they once were.

03:42 Consequently, you could probably swap in any of the studio's franchises for Conker,

03:46 and the same issues would still apply.

03:48 Number 7, Prince of Persia.

03:49 Prince of Persia was Ubisoft's premier franchise in the 2000s.

03:53 The original trilogy pioneered the kind of action-platforming that other games dreamed of having,

03:58 with a distinctive setting and art style that made it instantly iconic.

04:02 You could also turn back time, which scientifically makes every single game better.

04:07 Unfortunately, once the trilogy wrapped, the publisher struggled to find new ways to innovate,

04:11 delivering an ambitious but flawed reboot in 2008,

04:14 and then an interim sequel with The Forgotten Sands.

04:17 Both were decent efforts, but in the wake of Assassin's Creed's popularity,

04:22 a game which in itself was originally a Prince of Persia sequel that became its own thing,

04:26 Prince of Persia felt a little archaic.

04:29 It's for that reason why the franchise probably hasn't returned,

04:32 despite constantly being requested at every Ubisoft press event.

04:35 However, modern Ubisoft just isn't interested in games like this.

04:39 At least the remake is coming, and let's hope that will be good.

04:43 Number 6, TimeSplitters 4.

04:45 The original TimeSplitters trilogy is home to some of the finest first-person shooters ever put to disk,

04:50 and for a lot of people, were probably their gateway into the arena of competitive multiplayer.

04:56 I mean, there's a reason the second game was featured in Shaun of the Dead.

04:59 It was good enough to turn everyone who played it into zombies,

05:02 always finding an excuse to have one more match.

05:06 While the final game ended the trilogy on a slight downer though,

05:09 it didn't stop fans from looking forward to TimeSplitters 4,

05:12 a game which was announced all the way back in 2007.

05:16 Sadly, original developers Freed Radical encountered problems that would plague them for years,

05:20 resulting in the sequel being cancelled and the team being rolled into Crytek UK,

05:25 and then being laid off almost entirely.

05:27 However, recently it has been confirmed that some kind of TimeSplitters project is in the works,

05:32 but a proper TimeSplitters 4 releasing today would lack the driving force that made the OG trilogy

05:38 such a personality-driven set of shooters in the first place.

05:41 The original devs are no longer around to bring it back,

05:44 and its charms were arguably feeling a little dated back in 2005,

05:49 with its arcade focus not having the depth or complexity to challenge more competitive FPSs at the time.

05:55 Number 5, Gun 2.

05:56 It's a bit weird that Wild West games never got popular.

05:59 The two times Rockstar dropped their Earth Shattering Red Dead games,

06:03 or I guess three if you're counting the ones they published,

06:05 a surge in think pieces from journalists followed, wondering if a new boom was about to begin.

06:11 But sadly, the audience's interest never really extended to other games.

06:16 That is, with the exception of one little western game released at the dawn of the Xbox 360 generation, Gun.

06:22 Though it wasn't the most technically polished shooter at the time, and it wasn't exactly good looking either,

06:27 there was something about this title.

06:29 It had a certain charm to it that made it far more than the sum of its parts.

06:33 It helped as well that there were few games at the time doing the Wild West gimmick,

06:36 or simply out for the Xbox 360 at all, which made Gun a popular choice amongst players.

06:42 Those two factors in particular are why a sequel would probably suck if it came out today.

06:47 Gun was hardly a AAA title back then,

06:50 and there's a good chance that a sequel would be a download-only budget game that a full-blown sequel.

06:55 It had neither the characters nor the world to support a big franchise,

06:58 especially in a post-Red Dead world, and is better off being remembered as an early hidden gem of the 360 era.

07:05 Number 4 - Black 2

07:07 Black was low-key one of the best first-person shooters of the PS2 generation.

07:12 With production values that were absolutely mind-blowing at the time,

07:15 the developers at Criterion were committed to making the most bombastic game ever made.

07:20 The gunplay wasn't functionally all that different from similar releases at the time,

07:25 but Black cranked everything up to 11 and made sure not to skimp on the finer details.

07:31 Firing a machine gun here felt like firing a cannon at lightning speed,

07:35 while grenades popped with the flair of a Michael Bay explosion,

07:39 which, combined with the semi-destructible environments and great particle effects,

07:43 made for ridiculously visceral firefights.

07:46 So, by now you might be thinking, "Well, if it's so good, why didn't the developers ever make a sequel?"

07:51 And that's because, well, they kinda did.

07:54 The original game didn't sell well enough for a straight follow-up,

07:58 but the lead creatives did form another studio to craft a spiritual successor called Body Count.

08:03 As covered in a great Rachevick video on the game, while their aims were pure,

08:08 this new title proved just how much of Black's success was lightning in a bottle.

08:12 Even if they did manage to rectify Body Count's mistakes,

08:15 the little details that made Black so memorable are standard practice today,

08:18 so a sequel would just be like another face in the crowd.

08:22 It's kinda like trying to do another Crysis.

08:24 You can't just keep setting the benchmark forever.

08:27 Someone's gonna take over.

08:29 Number 3, Bloodborne 2.

08:31 Now, before you kill me for including this one in the list,

08:34 let me just preface this entry by saying that Bloodborne is my favourite of FromSoftware's games.

08:40 Well, I'm still playing Elden Ring at the time of recording, so the jury's out on that one,

08:43 but Bloodborne is one of my favourite games of the entire last generation,

08:47 and that's kind of exactly why it doesn't need a sequel.

08:51 While the world itself is rich and the combat is, of course, awesome,

08:54 so much of Bloodborne relies on its sense of mystery and surprise to work.

08:58 The original works so well because it starts off as seemingly nothing more

09:02 than a simple Bram Stoker-esque monster tale,

09:05 but it unfolds into this eldritch Lovecraftian nightmare

09:09 about creatures from the beyond controlling reality itself.

09:12 After you've played that card, though, there's kinda nowhere you can go

09:16 without undermining what came before.

09:18 Bloodborne works as such a solid, singular piece of art,

09:22 and while, of course, I would definitely buy a sequel in an instant,

09:25 not everything needs a follow-up,

09:27 and FromSoft could be better off continuing to release spiritual successes instead.

09:32 Number two, Bully 2.

09:34 Even though they created Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and, uh,

09:38 Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis,

09:40 the one Rockstar game that never quite seems to leave the conversation is Bully,

09:44 with its brand of playground hijinks causing a storm

09:47 for both the right and wrong reasons back in the 2000s.

09:50 At the time, it unsurprisingly came under fire for its name

09:53 and the activities players were encouraged to partake in,

09:56 with the most vocal detractors saying Rockstar were encouraging kids

09:59 to be little terrors to their teachers and friends.

10:01 Of course, it was far more tongue-in-cheek than that,

10:04 and way too cartoonish to actually take seriously.

10:07 Still, it was very much of its time,

10:09 and being able to craft a sequel in the same vein

10:12 would be a difficult balance to get right today,

10:14 something Rockstar themselves clearly understand,

10:16 as apparently two sequels have been cancelled over the last decade,

10:20 according to some reports.

10:21 Plus, while Rockstar can still deliver irreverent and goofy humour in their games,

10:26 in general, their releases have expanded beyond the realm of Bully's cartoon goofiness,

10:31 and they need to take a major step back away from their realistic, simulation-heavy worlds

10:36 to deliver that arcade fun once again.

10:38 I mean, I'd definitely welcome that,

10:41 but is it really something the company would be interested in?

10:44 Number one, Half-Life 3.

10:46 Half-Life 3, or Half-Life 2 Episode 3, or whatever the hell its title turns out to be,

10:51 is the most anticipated sequel of all time.

10:54 Its reputation is so extensive that it kinda seems dumb writing an introduction for it in this entry.

11:00 You know how long overdue it is, you know the hype surrounding it,

11:03 and you know the memes that it spawned.

11:05 But it's that insane level of hype which is why the game probably shouldn't ever come out.

11:11 At this point, it's been built up so much that even if it was the best game ever,

11:15 it would probably still be a disappointment to like half of the audience.

11:19 The time for realistic expectations has well and truly passed,

11:23 and if Half-Life 3 is anything other than a top-tier 10/10 game,

11:26 it'll be ripped apart, not viewed as being worth the wait.

11:30 Sure, it would still sell like hotcakes,

11:32 but would the sales be worth the potential dissatisfaction that would stick with Valve potentially forever

11:38 if it's nothing other than the masterpiece players have built up in their heads?

11:42 I don't know, Jim, you tell me.

11:44 So that's our list. I want to know what you guys think down in the comments below.

11:46 Would you actually embrace these sequels, or are you with me in thinking that it might be a case of

11:52 be careful what you wish for?

11:53 Let us know in the comments, and while you're down there as well,

11:55 could you please give us a like, share, subscribe,

11:57 and head over to whatculture.com for more lists and news like this every single day.

12:01 Even if you don't, though, I've been Josh. Thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you soon.

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