With all the highly-anticpated sequels due this year, many a hardcore fan (myself included) will gobble them up like a turkey pleading for its life on Thanksgiving Day. With the inherent excitement that comes with sequels, however, we must not forget the dreaded curse of the sequel hype.

Often times, intensely-publicized sequels don’t live up to the expectations of the hype. They get raked over the coals because they aren’t the game changing experiences they’ve been advertised to be. Bioshock 2, Crackdown 2, and even Farcry 2 (to a certain extent) were initially overshadowed by the public’s expectations. In retrospect, the sequels were still strong games, but certainly not to the standards we expected.

There’s nothing more nerve-racking than when games over promise and under deliver. For example, every diehard Dragon Age fan (again, myself included) was coming off the high of Origins, only to crash on Dragon Age 2. Bad things really start happening when games like Ninja Gaiden III and Fear 3 are mentioned. Enter the creeping chills of what could have been. Sometimes, bad sequels are just bad sequels.

While we’re all salivating at the likes of Halo 4, Assassin’s Creed III and Borderlands 2, let’s make sure to temper expectations so our inner-fanboys don’t get crushed if the games aren’t the second coming.