Motion to strike all sequels and triquels from this thread?
Compare game development to computing hardware as well as other sorts of computing software. I find it highly unlikely, even ludicrous, that you would dismiss the latest video card or software product entirely simply because it is a sequel to an existing product. Yet game development is a form of software development.
It is interesting how many movie sequels are underwhelming, while when it comes to gaming nearly all of the highest reviewed games are sequels along with most of the games we are looking forward to. Even the games in this thread without numerals tacked on the end are mostly spiritual sequels of earlier titles. Heavy Rain is an evolution of Indigo Prophecy, Red Dead Redemption is GTA5, etc.
The reason for this seems obvious to me: movies rely on a smaller subset of the elements that go into a game and this subset is largely less dependent on improvements over time. Movies contain no gameplay elements to be refined and adjusted over several sequels. They have no software errors or software features such as multiplayer connectivity and co-op to be added. Rarely are the graphics dependent solely on an engine, they essentially maintain the same resolution over time, and special effects are rarely improved in sequels (T2, Bourne Ultimatum aside).
On the other hand, game sequels allow developers to revisit their initial offerings and upgrade the whole set of elements that is much more dependent on technical evolution. In this sense, the technical analogy to the movie industry is closer to converting a single title from VHS, to DVD, to Blu-Ray.