You beat me to it. The new Tomb Raider was fun, but not Tomb Raider. They should have named it something else and saved me $60.

A bit more games, that I remembered:

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey a sequel to The Longest Journey (which was an ordinary point&click adventure game) became a full 3D game (with a camera behind character's back like in TPS), featured stealth and fighting segments and a couple of puzzle-minigames.

Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest unlike first Castlevania which was completely linear with stages and bosses, became a game with (semi) open world, where you wandered between towns and castles, entering them at will. In fact Simon's Quest featured day/night cycle (at night monsters became stronger and towns were infested with ghouls, NPC on the streets could be encountered only during the day), progression system (simple exp/lvl counter, nothing fancy) and two ending (depending on time it took player to kill Dracula).

Super Mario Bros - yes, it is a sequel to a game called simply Mario Bros. There was no princess, no levels, everything was happening in one room/screen - the task was simply to kill as many creatures coming out of sewer pipes.

Damn, missed that comment!
I don't know, I actually liked stealth segments. And a touch of nonlinearity (like made a right answer and you can pass without a fight) was cool.

Armored Core 4 For Answer was a change from the original formula to something much faster paced.

Armored Core V then went the opposite direction to something much slower paced from the original formula.

deleted

Oh, good to know. Armored Core V is the first Armored Core I ever played and the only one I own. Didn't enjoy it much, exactly due to its slow pace. I guess For Answer is worth checking out, then.

And for a change a game that wasn't made: Prey 2. It replaced the protagonist with a downed fighter pilot, or something like that, who is stuck on an alien ship. From what I recall it was supposed to be sandboxy with RPG elements. Quests, talking to aliens etc.. Speaking of which: only a few days ago it occurred to me that the studio behind the original Prey and this cancelled sequel, Human Head Studios, actually still exists and is going to release a new game this year.

It's not murder when it's self defense.

I love the new Tomb Raider games. I think I played for 19 straight hours on my first session.

For me was; Phantasy Star Online, my first online game and The Witcher 3 for an open world that was so alive and left me in awe.

I guess "Murder" was the wrong choice of words, I think "slaughtering" would be the one that I should have chosen instead. ^^

True, but to be fair: it was a reboot and an entirely new series. It was supposed to reinvent the franchise.

I think the "murderous" impression is provoked by the ludonarrative dissonance of the gameplay mechanics. The story is that she has to defend herself, but the gameplay actually rewards each kill and even more so, if it's skillful and brutal, tempting the player to kill out of "base motives", even when conflict could be easily avoided.

I'm also not quite sure where self-defense starts and ends. Is it still self-defense if you shoot an unaware guard in the head, just because he *might* attack you?

(I love the games, btw, I just think it's weird how they try to make Lara more human and come across as more blood-thirsty at the same time.)

When it's a guard for a pirate group or whatever that is out to murder you and has kidnapped your friends? I'd count it as self defense, yes.

Unfortunately reinventing meant 'be like every other third person stealth/shooter/crafting game on the market'. It was well though and made lots of money, probably why they changed.

Damn good example, and I love DW 3 & 5. My best friend and I played the hell out of those.

From the Sega Genesis/ Mega Drive: ToeJam & Earl 2 doesn't have anything in common with the first game other than the player characters. Even the enemies are all new except for one. And of all the changes the biggest by far was the gameplay.

It's a pity. While the second game isn't bad, the first was beyond awesome.