The sequels I don’t want to play –

I don’t want to play: The Last of Us: Part III

Now don’t get me wrong here… Read this paragraph before you hit your desk or tear a teddy bear in half. I love The Last of Us and I love The Last of Us: Part II. And that said, I want more post-apocalyptic drama from Naughty Dog, but I don’t want to pick up where the other game left off. I don’t mind Abby as a character, but I don’t want to play as her anymore. I also don’t want Ellie’s grief, loss, pain and deep-seated darkness to characterize the third game. Instead, I want Naughty Dog ‘s “threequel” to be a return to what made the first game so superior. I want to play as Tommy and Joel (and to some extent Tess), and I want the adventure to take place before the events of The Last of Us. A playable prologue, pure and simple.

I don’t want to play: Starfield 2

Bethesda’s ultra-hyped space epic was never, for me, the game it should have been, or was said to be beforehand. This is, in more ways than one, the definition of an over-hyped disappointment and that “perfect” 5/10 game that never got off the ground and never came close to the heights that Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim did. Instead, Starfield felt to me like a stale, stiff menu simulator with pointless exploration and a wafer-thin story, and I certainly don’t want a sequel. Just like I don’t want Redfall 2 or Brink 2. In fact, Bethesda should never have started developing Starfield, instead they should have put everything into The Elder Scrolls VI.

I don’t want to play: Resident Evil 9

As much as I love Lady Dimitrescu and the atmospheric, mini-maze-like Castle Dimitrescu, there is no escaping the fact that Village and Resident Evil 6 are the two least memorable games in this beloved horror series. As I said, I liked the first chapter of the Castle and consider that part to be of Resident Evil 4 class, but I consider the swamp and factory toward the end to be one of the weakest parts of a Resident Evil game in many, many years. I don’t really think the first-person perspective also works as it should in this game, although it did in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. That said, I want many more Resident Evil games in the future, just not a ninth that continues this formula and story. Instead, I want a lavish remake of Code Veronica next, and then I want a spin-off in the form of Resident Evil 2.5, where we can experience the events immediately following Resident Evil 2.

I don’t want to play: Gears of War 6

E-Day is, as far as I’m concerned, the right bet when it comes to Microsoft and the next installment in the Gears series. If I had my wish, this would have been the game released after Gears of War 4. The return to Epic’s core values for Marcus Fenix and his allies is what I want from Gears of War and so I look forward to the next game in the series. In the same breath, Gears of War 6, a straight continuation of the lackluster fifth game, is not something I want to play. I don’t want to pilot Kait Diaz or Del Walker, and I never want to windsurf on a frozen lake in Gears of War. At least no more than I want to explore blood-soaked catacombs like Super Mario.

I don’t want to play: Halo Infinite 2

I fully understand that this may feel like the worst attack of concentrated double standards you’ve ever encountered. I love Infinite, so why is this here? I absolutely think the single-player portion of Infinite was and remains absolutely brilliant, but I also realize in retrospect that the open-world portion of this game added nothing. Halo was a semi-open world from the beginning, which in retrospect is a better setup for what Master Chief is, what it stands for and should be. It was also the more “organized” underground segments in Infinite that I remember most today, which means I don’t wish for an Infinite 2, but mostly a return to regular “levels” like in Halo 1-3. For Halo 7, I would actually like Halo Studios to pay much more attention to the Flood and build a grander horror atmosphere. Sure, the Flood -part remains the worst part of Halo: Combat Evolved, but for me it’s more about the endless repetition of the same tired moments than anything else. I do like the Flood and the mythology behind it. Something that combines glorious outdoor environments with claustrophobic indoor levels with a touch of GTFO inspiration can go a long way.

I don’t want to play: Wolfenstein 3

With Sweden’s MachineGames being praised for their diligent work on Indiana Jones and the Golden Circle, many gamers have been longing for that latest installment of their Wolfenstein saga. For my part, I rather hope MachineGames has moved on and left BJ in the rearview mirror. I’d rather not have more of that, especially considering how mediocre I found both New Order and New Colossus. Instead, I hope they are currently working feverishly on Quake V because they have shown not only that they are masters of Quake design (Dimension of the Machine is ridiculously good), but also ingeniously adept at concepting and development. I hope they are working on a sequel to Quake III: Arena with all that entails.

I don’t want to play: Portal 3

I know the designers at Valve who put Portal and Portal 2 together are fantastic. After all, we are talking about two of the best made puzzle titles of all time. In the same breath, I think Portal has done its part, exploring every possible nook and cranny of what can be done with the first-person puzzles on which Portal is based, and I just hope Valve puts its energy into other things. Besides Half-Life 3, which I will never stop dreaming about, I hope they concentrate instead on Team Fortress 3 and Left 4 Dead 3.

I don’t want to play: Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

Of course, since I found Black Ops 6 unimaginably boring in terms of the story mode and the single player portion, I sincerely hope that Treyarch will now look elsewhere and do something different with their continued Call of Duty journey. Because yes, in my opinion, that has really done its job now. I don’t want to see any more of Adler or Woods, and the whole thing with classified Black Ops missions and government conspiracies started to feel old in the hands of Treyarch years ago. It’s time for something new. Call of Duty is vast and its mythology has anchors in every conceivable conflict, past and future. Do something completely new with brand new characters and step away from the loaded PlayStation 4-optimized garbage game engine and jump into something new that impresses both graphically and gameplay-wise. No more silly corridors with a shooting range-like structure and idiotic enemies. No more forced checkpoints, which means that the stupid random enemies no longer appear out of nowhere (which means that, as a player, you can usually just run forward and destroy enemies this way). Give us something new. Give us the future of Call of Duty.

I don’t want to play: Need for Speed: Unbound 2

Need for Speed III, Hot Pursuit, Underground, Shift, Most Wanted…. There are so many truly memorable racing titles in this venerable game series, and there is so much potential to get it right, to capitalize on today’s street racing culture and create something that will last in the long run. Unbound, however, was not a game that succeeded in that, as it felt rather outdated and conceptually weak in terms of gameplay. Instead of a true sequel here, I hope EA returns to what once made Need for Speed the genre’s most popular series: Underground. Give us Underground 3 for crying out loud, steeped in JDM culture and set in an open, ultra-clean, rainy and neon-soaked Tokyo. Then build the best police chase experience ever. Think The Crew, but with a specific Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit -like setup where everything takes place online and eight players act as police, while 16 players are speed-mad street racers. Your job is to drive from Chicago to San Francisco as fast as possible, while the police’s job is to stop you. Drench this with Ray-Traced Frostbite graphics that truly crush the competition in the genre, and with a rocking and spirited soundtrack to boot.

I don’t want to play: Forza Horizon 6

The first game in this hyper-popular series was personally the best. Colorado was a great place forPlayground Games super fast road racing and the concept of the car festival there in the mountains felt fresh and new. However, that was 13 years ago and since then the formula has become increasingly stale and repetitive. Colorado was replaced by southern France in the sequel, then Australia in the third, Scotland in the fourth and Mexico in the fifth. The format and the competitions themselves remained the same, with slightly more variety than in the debut title. For my part, the charm of Forza Horizon 5 died after about four hours. The world felt dead, I felt like it was all about polygons set up purely for my entertainment rather than actually driving around in a real world, and I think it’s time for a change here as well. Give me Forza World instead. The first title should be set in Japan and focus on drifting. Let me race in an AE86 from the bottom of Ikaho Onsen to the top of Mount Haruna and skip the festival part this time.