No, please, don't look so surprised. It's a well-guarded secret that the only thing the last five Call of Duty releases have changed is the amount of money the IP eats every Christmas and the number of scapegoat stories blaming video games for crappy parenting, sure, but you must have had some inkling that it would crop up in a list such as this. It's all been said already: starved campaigns, unchanging multiplayer, a consumer-gouging approach to content, and design so incoherent it makes Final Fantasy antagonists look emotionally balanced. Instead of repeating these truths, let's just stick a metaphor in here: The cash cow's udders have long since been rubbed raw and are now experiencing friction burn. Which other video game franchises are long-past their initial appeal? Let us know in the comments!
A freelance games writer, you say? Typically battling his current RPG addiction and ceaseless perfectionism? A fan of horror but too big a sissy to play for more than a couple of hours? Spends far too much time on JRPGs and gets way too angry with card games?
Well that doesn't sound anything like me.
