Lucky Day
Daywatch
I loved the Heart of Winter expansion, and for a free expansion just because people complained IWD wasn't long enough, I was very, very impressed.
IWD:HoW was not free; it was $30 at retail and took 10 hours to play. Trials of the Luremaster was free, but only if you bought Heart of Winter. Schlocking this off was one of the most visible signs that there was something wrong at the company.
If there was one thing Black Isle did right as a last hurrah was IWD2. Was it better than the original? I think it did everything right and definitely updated it.
Each of the Ultimas improved on the previous version up until U5, but U5 really wasn't that bad. U5 suffered from what U2 did by simply being bigger. U5 really pushed the limits of the old Apple ][ however, but it wasn't a great story. It had a hard act to follow though.
The Bard's Tales and Might Magics were the same for the first III, each improving on the last. However, Richard Garriot criticized BT3 but that was probably for PR reasons.
U6, U7 and the Underworlds all suffered from performance anxiety. Although great in their time few people had the hardware to be able to run them. I believe for the Amiga U7 required a hard drive which few people had.
Wizardry IV was a great sequel in terms of concept. The role reversal was a good idea and then the puzzles were amazing (go up 3 levels to get a pair of winged boots then go back down to fly across the pits?)
Myst III suffered because it was loaded with Starforce. Otherwise, probably a great game (as soon as I finish Riven I'll play it).
The Uru versions of Myst was a poor spinoff because it was launched as single player games and it was designed as Multiplayer. They are now playable to Gametap subscribers as MP and I assume its a lot better.
Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel was a classic of course.
Day of the Tentacle was a great sequel to Maniac Mansion. I never knew what the fuss was over Maniac Mansion, even though it got it's own TV series in Canada.
Zork: Nemesis was poor as it lack of humour and horror theme just wasn't Zork.
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This is kind of confusing. We should split this thread in two.