As per title, what do you think are the worst single changes introduced by a sequel, expansion pack, remake... etc.

Rule 1:
This is not a question about which are the worst sequels or expansions. What I'm looking for is just a single thing in particular that was stupidly changed. The game itself could be good, bad or whatever. So I'm sure Might and Magic 9, Duke Nukem Forever or whatnot were terrible, but unless one thing in particular stands out for you, this is not the thread for it.

Rule 2:
It should be a change, rather than an addition. So if a new weapon or a character was introduced that you don't like, it doesn't count, unless it consequently brings about a change to the old game.

Rule 3:
I'm more interested in small changes than major ones, but please post whatever you like.


So here are some of mine:

_ Changing the model of Max Payne in Max Payne 2. I generally don't have a problem when the actor (be it model, voice actor or live actor) is changed in games, movies or TV series, but I really fail to see why on earthe would they do it for this game. I would understand it if for some reason the original was bad but that was so not the case here. In fact, that "permanent, constipated grimace face" became kind of iconic. It's not like the fans were "yeah, I like this game, but I wish they'd do something about the main character's looks".

_ Changing the main screen and loading screen (archangel and archangel fighting devil) of Heroes of Might and Magic III in the expansion. Another iconic image changed. On top of that, they were replaced by something that was obviously put together by a 10 year old learning to use Paint.

Commandos 3
They got rid of all the interaction with the environment. In #2 you could search furniture, hide under beds, hide bodies in crates, move stuff around, raid cabinets/ammo crates for supplies. I guess they felt this was too complicated so they axed it.

STOOOOOOOOOOPID!

I liked the original look better too, but I get why they did- the orignal look was never meant to be. It's not like Sam Lake (the game's writer/creative director) wanted to be the main characters face. It only happened because they didn;t have the budget to hire actors/models. They always wanted Max to look more like he did in the sequel, so having the budget this time around, they changed it.


My pick- the visual style of Discworld 2. Technically the visuals are better in the sequel, in terms of resolution, animation etc. but I liked the style of the first one much more. It actually reminded me a lot of the Josh Kirby covers for the Discworld books, just more streamlined. The sequel looks like just any generic cartoon.

Halo 2 changing the Master Chief's Shield/ Armor health system to regenerating health. It was an interesting idea at the time but its unfortunate popularity pretty much ruined the console FPS genre.

While it spares you the hassle of finding health recovery items, regenerating health tends to take the action out of encounters as you're tempted to hide behind a crate whenever you take damage.

Gothic 3: The simplified/randomized fighting system.
(lets not talk about all the bugs and bad performance this time)

Fallout 3: Changing the series into first person shooters.

Heroes of Might and Magic 4: Completely changing the hero/army structure. It was even received so badly, that they reversed course afterwards.

Mafia II: Obligatory Steam (online authentication)

Unreal Tournament 3: Online authentication

Battlefield 2: Online authentication

Diablo 3: Always online DRM for single- and multi-player (no LAN)

Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded: Constant kickstarter/crowdfunding references in-game, ugh!

Grandia II: Anniversary Edition: DirectX10 (no WinXP or WINE anymore)

Final Fantasy 7: going 3D

Mario Kart: Double Dash: The dual-character karts, obviously...

Super Mario Sunshine: Why change the formula of the incredibly successful Mario 64 at all?

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: The time-pressure, especially right in the beginning of the game, seriously!

Yoshi's Story: Fruity business instead of proper jump'n'run all around. Dafuq is that? Way to kill the Yoshi's Island series really fast...

Add StarCraft 2, RED ALERT 3, C&C 3, and every GTA after SA to this list.

Yeah, that completely killed a lot of franchises for me. :/

Ultima 8 - making Ultima into a platforming game o_O

Privateer 2 - giving enemy pilots a lobotomy and then removing their eyes

Dragon Age Inquisition -- Reduced the amount of ability slots in Dragon Age Origins from something like 20 to just 8 in Inquisition. Even though you can still learn more than 8 abilities and swap them in and out of the ability slots, you can only do this when not in a battle. Which means you either have to know what situation you're going to be in before you get into battle or just learn 8 abilities and not bothering with swapping out abilities. Even Dragon Age 2 lets you use 20 slots so this change really baffles me. 0_o

Homeworld Remastered - removal of LAN

I love Heroes 4. For me, 3 was the pinnacle of the series "classic" model, and there was nothing more to be done with it nothing ot improve, so I was glad that the sequel instead introduced new and different ideas, and I had plenty of fun with it. Unlike Heroes 5, which was just a lame, inferior remake copy of 3.

Gothic 3 significantly changes the appearance of the nameless hero. In Gothic and Gothic II he is a slender dude with a weird ponytail, he doesn't look very strong but hat personality.
In Gothic 3 they reduced his glorious hair to a short buzzcut and made him a lot bulkier... I don't like it.
The Community Story Project, a modification which tries to better the game and make it more like its predecessors, actually restores (or rather will restore) the ponytail.

Actraiser 2 (for the SNES): It completely got rid of the god game/managment of your towns from the first game, and instead turned it into a pure side-scrolling action game. Like... what even dude?!

C&C 3 never had any online authentication.

Fear 2.
The whole game was a major disapointment to me (I put many many hours into a borrowed copy of fear 1), but the weapons selection mechanics in specific really annoyed me.

To be perfectly honest I forget exactly what it was about it that annoyed me.. I think it was how it was clearly meant for picking radially with an analog controller stick, not with a mouse, and how while in that annoying menu time still flowed.
Time flow wouldn't have been bad if the menu had been intuitive at all for me, but I clearly remember fighting with the thing every time I had to open it while playing the game.

Either way, I got both fear 1 and 2 as a bundle many years back on steam for 7 bucks. I always just figured that I payed 10 bucks for the Fear 1 + expansions bundle and got my money's worth. Then they payed me 3 bucks to deal with the shite that was fear 2. (Sometimes I think they didn't pay me enough in that analogy.)