I fully agree; Developers who are able to do that deserve kudos. I think the Devs that most impress me are the ones where the dev, instead of taking the original and making "Original 2", take the core gameplay mechanic and go out on a limb creating an original game as a spiritual successor that surpasses the original. Sadly the only examples I can think of were the early Total War series and System Shock2->Bioshock, and I know I can think of better examples but, they escape me at the moment.

I understand you; I simply disagree with you. And you can say that your theory applies to everyone, but that doesn't make it so. For example, it doesn't correlate to my experience at all, which is fortunate for GOG.

I have evidence that the phenomenon is universal, but it would be futile to attempt to explain it here.
But I respect your polite disagreement, and find it's honesty and integrity refreshing.

And I likewise. Happy holidays! :)

1- Fallout 3:
I am suprised nobody has commented on the eternal law of balance in this case (although it aplies to all games and series in particular although it has the occasional exception to the rule.) The better a game's graphics are and the more you can 'do' then the more the core game-play suffers.
There are still some nice bits in this game and the world is undeniably pretty (if you can call a post-apoc landscape pretty...) The problem is, thinking back to F1 I remember going something like 'OMG! WOW etc. (I was young.) How cool would it be to actually walk about and see this for myself!?' The answer is, unfortunately, of a world that looks promising on the outside but lacks life (cannibals aside) or meaningful dialogue (same problem Oblivion had, flat world mods aside) and is full of eventually mind-numbingly boring slow-mo replays of kills (which sucks because I always loved the Fallout combat, sort of.) Aside from that, blow up an entire town then donate to a church and it's like nobody ever cared you were a mass murderer because you donated more than the 5% of your disposable income the religious nutters demand. Basically, rant aside, the moral decisions are never really more than arbitrary which is a bad thing for a Fallout game. In the end it's fun to run about picking people off in a multitude of ways (some amusing) in an attractively realised Falloutish world for a little while, but then I realise that some things are better left to the imagination.
2- I think I used all my disappointment up on that one, if I can be bothered I'll try to dredge up some more for the other 2...

You are empty: Could have been a lot better then what it was. Enemies take way to much damage and it gets tedious after awhile. The best weapon, the electricity gun, will get you killed most of the time unless you are wide open and if it touches any object even slightly then it gets canceled out. I didn't expect much but it got worse as I played it.

That game was awesome!! :D Seriously though, that game doesnt really is a dissapointment, since it didnt have anything to be excited about in the first place. : )

Well, well, well...here's my selection:
1 - X-Com Enforcer
Yep, I fell for it. Absolutely nothing to do with the X-Com series.
2 - Might & Magic IX - The Writ of Fate
Too many bugs to count. Bad UI design and plot.
3 - Might & Magic - Dark Messiah
Well, that's not Might & Magic but something else. Terrible.
Not BAD games, but HUGE disappointments.
Cheers,
Alex

You mean Might and Magic IX ?

Yep! Thanks, just corrected it.

You scared me. For a moment I thought they committed 2 more might and magic. I know a new "Might and Magic" is coming out on Nintendo DS. They never learn, don't they ?

After seeing that picture from the game...if that's "Might & Magic", all hope is lost.

Far Cry 2 - So much potential to be a cool game, utterly wasted.
Starcraft - Seriously, why the Hell is Korea obsessed with this damn game???
Black & White - Blaugh!

1. Pool of Radiance: The Ruins of Myth Drannor. I loved the old gold box SSI games, so I was hyped for this one. Started of okay, but then got into the first dungeon and it was 3 or 4 large levels that all looked exactly the same, and it was a key hunt through all the levels, being attacked constantly by the same enemies. Over and over and over again... Then I think I got bit by a bug that made one of my critical keys disappear, or never appear in the chest it was supposed to be in or something like that. Never played it any further.
2. Ultima 6 and 7. Absolutely loved Ultima 3, 4, and 5. Once they made the shift to the 3/4 isometric view, it lost something. The view was zoomed-in more, so you couldn't see more than about 30 feet around you which made it feel claustrophobic. They got rid of the amazing dungeon room puzzles that 4 and 5 had. 7 was particularly bad for inventory management. You could manipulate almost any item you could see in the game, and there were LOTS of them. It became just a mess trying to drag things around, especially if an item was underneath one or more other items. Combat was awkward and clunky, all of the tactics from 4 and 5 were just thrown in the garbage, you just watched your characters autohack at enemies like some RTS. Storyline was the only redeeming factors in these two games.
3. Jade Empire. Combat system completely ruined the game for me. It boiled down to rock/paper/scissors and using your sword required chi energy. Ridiculous. Disappointment was partly based on how much everyone raved about the game, and partly because other than the combat system, it was great.
Oh, and for the record, Oblivion and Fallout 3, while not without their problems, are excellent games.