Videogame makers bank on sequels

By John Gaudiosi

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) - Sequels may not always match up to the original in Hollywood but videogames can often get better the second or third time around.

Videogame producers are hoping it will hold true with the latest games that will hit store shelves soon including Insomniac Games' "Resistance 2" PlayStation 3 exclusive, Epic Games' "Gears of War 2" Xbox 360 exclusive, Microsoft's "Fable 2," and Bethesda Softworks' "Fallout 3."

"Developers can hit the ground running with sequels," said Ted Price, president and CEO of Insomniac Games. "The game's story and art style have a solid base, the tech and tools are stable and the basic gameplay mechanics have gone through plenty of tuning in the first game."

The second or third time around developers can devote more energy to building game assets instead of trying to get things up and running.

"It's certainly a liberating experience when you're no longer arguing over the main character's name, or waiting for basic systems to be implemented," said Price. "The end result is usually a game that's bigger, more polished and has more innovative features than the original game."

"Resistance 2," thrusts players into an alternate 1950s America invaded by aliens called Chimera. In addition to a single-player campaign, the game offers an eight-player cooperative campaign and online gameplay with battlefields filled with 60 players.

Aliens also feature in "Gears of War 2", which sends gamers into the depths of the planet Sera to tackle a race called the Locusts. The sequel offers a story that can be played with a friend. Online gameplay modes like "Horde" also pit up to five players against waves of heavily armed Locusts.

"We want casual gamers to play the game and be sucked into the universe and finish the game," said Cliff Bleszinski, lead games designer, Epic Games. "We want them to potentially finish with a friend and become a fan of the characters and the setting."