Stare hard enough at the store shelves lined with sequels, remakes and repackaged collections and you’ll begin to see the video game industry in a different light, sort of like Keanu in The Matrix, but without the green lines and terrible ending. What look like new games are often just old ones given the annual tune up and spit-shine, plus groovy new box art to fool you into thinking it’s a totally fresh experience. Most game publishers firmly believe that you can never get enough of a good thing, and until they hear otherwise, more of what was once a good thing is exactly what we’re gonna get.

The latest example of this is Sony Online’s brand new old game, Champions: Return to Arms. The sequel to Champions of Norrath offers everything that game did with a few extra bits and pieces, but mostly looks, sounds, and plays precisely the same. That’s not such a bad thing if you couldn’t get enough of the first game, but considering this formula hasn’t changed notably since 2001’s Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, it’s starting to stink up the fridge a little.