Friday, July 16, 2021

Naming Conventions

Keeping with the previous blogpost theme of game titles, I decided to have some fun with the concept.  This is just a lark and as such shouldn't be taken it seriously, but I hope that at the very least it will elicit a chuckle or two from readers.  Anyway...here we go!

Resident Evil was followed up by Resident Evil 2, but I feel like there was a missed opportunity in that it could have been called "Resident Eviler" with the third installment entitled "Resident Evilist".

The two Middle-earth action/adventure games are subtitled Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War, but why not combine the two and sell them as a set with the title of "Shadow of More War"?

The stand-alone expansion of sorts for Subnautica is Subnautica: Below Zero.  Since it appears there is a theme of things being underneath when it comes names, how about calling the next one "Sub-Subnautica: Under the C°"?

One would think the sequel to the highly successful arcade game Mortal Kombat would have corrected the misspelling by naming the sequel "Mortal Combat II".

Call of Duty is a very long franchise with no less than eighteen mainline games.  When the series broke away from its historical roots and begin the Modern Warfare, Advanced Warfare as well as  Infinite Warfare games, I was surprised that there was never a "Ultra-Modern Warfare".  Additionally, when the series returned to the World War 2 era, I feel like there was a missed opportunity to refer to it as "Call of Duty: Dated Warfare".

Konami made a muted attempt to update the graphics for the second Silent Hill game.  Perhaps an appropriate title would have been "Silent Hill 2: Extra Quiet Summit Remaster".

If Nintendo ever decides to make a sequel to Super Mario Odyssey, I hope it's called "Super-Duper Mario Odyssey II: Cappy Strikes Back".

XCOM really should have been followed by "YCOM" and "ZCOM"... or better yet combine the three and release it on tablets with the title "XYZ-COM: Baby's First UFO Defense".

Obviously, the sequel to Returnal (assuming it ever gets made) should be "Re-Returnal: She's Back...Again".

Contrary to it's name, Black and White is actually presented in full color.  If anyone ever gets the idea to remake or update the game a great title would be "Black and White: HD Mono Chromatic Remake".

The Last of Us was followed up by The Last of Us Part 2.  If they ever make a third game, it might be possible to win back some alienated fans of the original by calling it "The Last of Us Part 3: Zombie Joel's Revenge".

Considering how many simulator and VR games there are coming out recently, I'm waiting for an inevitable combination of the two along the lines of "VR Simulator: Existential Crisis".

The Chessmaster series started as Chessmaster 2000, followed chronologically by Chessmaster 2100, 3000, 4000 turbo, 5000, 5500, 6000, 7000, 8000 and 9000 before eventually just becoming 10th and 11th editions.  Personally, I'd like to see a final iteration of this franchise labeled as "Chessmaster Googolplex".

Red Dead Revolver was followed by Red Dead Redemption, and then Red Dead Redemption 2.  Rather than sticking a two on the end, I think it would have been more interesting to swap out the word at the end with something else starting with the letter R.  If it's supposed to be the conclusion of a trilogy then how about "Red Dead Resolution"?

The Ace of Combat IP tends to replace the real world intricacies of aerial combat with arcade-style action, but if the studio ever wanted to educate their players on the particulars of how aircraft win control over the skies then it could be called "Dunce of Combat: Dogfighting for Dummies".

Next is the Fallout series which squandered an opportunity to ditch sequentially numbered games in favor of a seasonal theme.  Why call them Fallout 1 through 4 when you could call them "Fallout", "Winterout", "Springout", and "Summerout".

Lastly, there is Total War.  For a long time each entry in the series was based on a semi-historical setting, but the developers have since drifted into adaptations of the Warhammer Fantasy universe.  There has been quite a bit of paid DLC for these games as well.  I certainly hope that someday they release all the content as a single product presented as "Total Warhammer: The Complete Collection".       

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