Game Series of the Decade?

[Fox12]

Mass Effect destroyed Legend of Zelda. That series is stale, all we got was Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, not the strongest games in the series. But yeah, Bethesda really owned this generation, especially with Fallout, which I liked more than Elder Scrolls.

It's between Fallout and Mass Effect, but I'll give Mass Effect the edge for best series (yeah, yeah, I know).

Edit: Ah, game of the decade, not the generation. Wasn't paying attention, this changes things quite a lot. This adds Kingdom Hearts to the list, and Jack and Daxter. I guess Silent Hill 2 falls short. Why didn't they do this in 2010, far too confusing.

 

[LaoJim]

When these were the choices, you know this is truly was the worst gen ever.

Would you care to expand on this comment at all? There are 64 series there, some great, some overrated and some I haven't played. What games from days of yore are absent. This has actually been one of my favourite generations, maybe second only to the previous one.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Well, taking 2003-2013 into consideration is hard. There were quite a few great series during this last decade, but I can't think of one series that had some spectacular games that also didn't have some truly terrible ones.

With that said, I think I'm going with Call of Duty.

Yes, I said it: Call of Duty. Between Call of Duty, Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: World at War, and Modern Warfare 2, I can't think of a single series that delivered such a high quality experience over the course of the decade. Yes, the franchise has sort of been complete crap ever since IW abandoned improving MW2 in favor of making more money off DLC. Yes, I did comment that Black Ops was possibly the worst game I ever played, but that sort of comes with the territory of being the worst game in such a great franchise and the one that sort of sealed the deal on its fall from glory. However, the first two Call of Duty games are my #2 and #3 WWII shooters respectively (only losing to Allied Assault, which is actually the spiritual predecessor of Call of Duty). CoD4 is still the best online FPS I've ever played, and MW2 is not far behind. Even CoD3's campaign was decent, and World at War was an incredible shooter in its own right, even if it was just a WWII mod for CoD4. Overall, regardless of its problems of late, Call of Duty has simply provided the best memories of this generation for me (so long as we ignore stand-alone games).

Other series that come close include:

Prince of Persia--This would be my choice, but the 2008 game and The Forgotten Sands prevented that. I would have said it was the greatest if the worst in the series was Warrior Within. Sadly, that wasn't the case.

The Elder Scrolls--This is from my love for Oblivion, mostly. But when I consider my apathy towards Morrowind and completely negative feelings towards Skyrim, I just cannot say this.

Fallout--Again, mostly because of Fallout 3. Again, though, that is only one game from the series. New Vegas just fills me with apathy.

Mass Effect--Next to Prince of Persia, this came the closest. However, my feelings towards the first game are just too negative, and my feelings towards the third game range from apathy to negativity far too often, even if it was a good game on the whole. Mass Effect 2 is really the only game in the series that competes with the better games in the CoD series.

Other than that, I don't consider "series" like Galaxy to be actual series (otherwise, I'd have put The Sands of Time trilogy on top), just mini-series within their respective franchises.

 

[Cranky]

Man, I may be biased but I'd pick Halo. It had one of the most dedicated companies I've seen with a masterpiece of a game.

 

[xPixelatedx]

When these were the choices, you know this is truly was the worst gen ever.

Would you care to expand on this comment at all? There are 64 series there, some great, some overrated and some I haven't played. What games from days of yore are absent. This has actually been one of my favourite generations, maybe second only to the previous one.

Oh I didn't mean the whole list, I meant the finalists. I like the elderscrolls games, but they are very, um, 'mild' gaming experiences, is the best way I can put it. Combat isn't too good, puzzles are so scarce they are almost non existent, etc. It's only real appeal just seems to be how open-ended it is. I mean, that's the only reason why I even bother to play them, because everything else they offer is done much better in a dozen other games.

GTA on the otherhand; I've played three of them, and all of them were just the sims:thug life edition. I have nothing good to say about these games. Again, their only appeal seems to be how open ended they are, and that's not how I qualify how good a game or game series is. Even the shooting mechanics in GTA are just awful compared to the dozens of 3rd person shooters there are now.

 

[V TheSystem V]

I do agree with The Elder Scrolls being the best series, as it came into its own and became what we now know and love following Morrowind. Also, screw the naysayers, Skyrim was a god damn fun and beautiful game.

GTA...I don't know. I haven't yet completed San Andreas (gonna binge-play after work tomorrow in preparation for 5 on Tuesday), but 3 had the best missions, Vice City had the best music and protagonist (and more Fernando Martinez, which is a massive plus), and 4 was...boring. Massive world, but it just felt lifeless. They improved the mechanics, but the story was too grounded for GTA and I waited for it to take off, only to be given Three Leaf Clover (admittedly, my favourite GTA mission) and not much else. I am optimistic for 5 seeing as the whole game is based around heists, which look a lot like Three Leaf Clover, but with more depth. Colour me excited.

My personal favourite series of the decade? Mass Effect. Great characters, great story, great atmosphere, and if you look past the ending, it defined the word 'epic'.

 

[LaoJim]

Oh I didn't mean the whole list, I meant the finalists.

Oh I see, that's fair enough. I think that GTA is a great series, but if you not into the whole crime drama thing then it's obviously not going to be for you. Nothing good to say about the games? The living breathing recreation of New York city is sure worth appreciating even if you don't like the story or gameplay style, no?

Even the shooting mechanics in GTA are just awful compared to the dozens of 3rd person shooters there are now.

It'll be interesting to see how much Rockstar have improved this for V. The thing about the GTA series is that it doesn't have the best shooting, it doesn't have the best driving and it certainly doesn't have the best hand-to-hand combat, but the way you move between the different game play styles in one mission make it seem more like an authentic world. Since IV many other open world games have come along and done all these elements better than GTA did.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

Shin Megami Tensei is my game series of the decade. With Persona 3, Persona 4, Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2, Devil Survivor 1 and 2, Strange Journey and the upcoming SMT IV (fucking euro release dates).

No other series has maintained such a consistent level of quality.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Financially, the winner is either Call of Duty 4.x, or Warcraft depending on how you interpret WoW.
Nothing else even comes close. Both are series that have fundamentally altered the gaming landscape; more specifically, they are responsible for stagnating design in their respective genres for at least several years each.

I can't fault companies for wanting to get in on that mad cash, but it got old, fast.
(WoW turned Blizzard into a pirate-paranoid control freak.)

Now, going by actual quality and design, it's difficult.

Halo, much as I dislike the series, I recognize its significance.
It popularized so many shooting mechanics on consoles that it all but shanghaied the FPS genre from PC (for better or worse).
Halo is also the reason why I give no props to Call of Duty 4.x, because Halo laid all the groundwork for it.

The Metroid Prime series demonstrates just how powerful and important good environment design is for "immersion".
To date, I can think of maybe one other game that accomplishes what Metroid Prime does with its environment.

GTA reinvented itself from a 2D arcadish game into one the most fun and open ended sandbox games ever, and it only got better (well, until GTA4, where they started completely missing the appeal of their own series)

As a more personal choice, the Dynasty Warriors* series started out as a fairly meh novelty beat em up, but then started slowly improving itself with each iteration without losing what makes it fun (and Samurai Warriors & Warriors Orochi).

I especially just love being able to sit down and combo hundreds of dudes with a friend and that simple pleasure is something I can't say really applies to any other game SERIES. At least, not in the last decade or so.

 

[V8 Ninja]

Why does there need to be a "Game Of The Decade" competition when we're only three years into the decade? Can we at least wait until the half-way point?

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Shin Megami Tensei is my game series of the decade. With Persona 3, Persona 4, Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2, Devil Survivor 1 and 2, Strange Journey and the upcoming SMT IV (fucking euro release dates).

No other series has maintained such a consistent level of quality.

True dat, yo.

There have been lots of games and a few series I've really liked, but no others where every single release has left me wanting more.

 

[Kanova]

Well I'm more of a GTA guy. Counting the times "the whole world was amazed", GTA has GTA III, San Andreas and GTA IV. Elder Scrolls has Skyrim, tops. And I think GTA has run a more interesting arc too.

Lol "Skyrim tops"

TeS has Morrowind, all of its expansions which would be easy to say are some of the best expansions for ANY game to date. Oblivion and Shivering Isles, again an absolutely fantastic expansion. And then you of course of Skyrim. Still not as good as Oblivion or Morrowind, but is still pretty damn great. And when I say expansions, they aren't just little shitty do-in-a-day expansions.

 

[WoW Killer]

Are we talking decade as "last two generations"? Seems to be anyway.

I'm a big Elder Scrolls fan, but I think honestly GTA has been the biggest series of that era. The way it reinvented itself from this obscure retro series into a trend-setting triple-A has got to be respected. It's one of the only series that's made the trip from 2d to 3d and come out feeling like it's improved.

Can't really say there's anything brilliant come out of it this generation though. GTA was last gen's success story.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Well I'm more of a GTA guy. Counting the times "the whole world was amazed", GTA has GTA III, San Andreas and GTA IV. Elder Scrolls has Skyrim, tops. And I think GTA has run a more interesting arc too.

Lol "Skyrim tops"

TeS has Morrowind, all of its expansions which would be easy to say are some of the best expansions for ANY game to date. Oblivion and Shivering Isles, again an absolutely fantastic expansion. And then you of course of Skyrim. Still not as good as Oblivion or Morrowind, but is still pretty damn great. And when I say expansions, they aren't just little shitty do-in-a-day expansions.

Regardless of good, bad, better and worse, GTA has given more to talk about than Scrolls. GTA got lots of attention for III, San Andreas and IV and every time one of these games came out it was seen as the best thing to happen in gaming that one year. Each had their own little controversy, each expanded on the series and gaming paradigms in ways Scrolls never really did. The media (and everyone else) focused on the Rockstar games and followed a more steady arc than Skyrim, which by all accounts was a surprise hit considering the series was starving for attention since Morrowind - which came out practically 10 years earlier. So in terms of evolution, Scrolls has done impressively, opening and closing the decade. But I feel GTA has been nearer everybody's hearts all along.

 

[infohippie]

I am glad Elder Scrolls won. For starters, it is the only series in that list where I can put hundreds of hours into each game without getting bored. I would have been annoyed if GTA won, given how Rockstar have treated PC gamers they don't deserve to win.

 

[teebeeohh]

really?
we made stupid "best of decade" lists, which is worse than GOTY lists because we only actively remember half of that time and the games we remember from the first half are most likely the ones that are most influential now and not the ones we had the most fun with, 3 years ago, are we running out of shit to write about already? it's like US media speculating on candidates for 2016 mere month after the last election.

and with the stupid logic in that poll i will go with the "shock" series since that includes system shock 2(my favourite game of all time), bioshock which was all around great and infinite which will stand as a shining example of why we need new gameplay mechanics that don't involve killing people. unless it only means games released between 2003 and 2013 in which case how the fuck is xcom on there?

 

[The_Echo]

Kingdom Hearts, Metal Gear Solid, Souls. One of those three should have won.

I would never call The Elder Scrolls Game Series of the Decade. There needs to be a lot of improvement to the combat and storytelling before that can happen.

And I kind of feel like Grand Theft Auto coming in second is almost an insult to the industry.

 

[PrimitiveJudge]

Do not know about this decade to much, but back in my day is all about: Zelda, Mario, Megaman and Sonic.

But I will throw darksiders, and Souls series into this debate. I love them both

Off Topic: I do not give a shit about the media on games, I would rather walk into gamestop and read the boxes