Most consistently successful franchise

[pulse2]

What do you believe is the most consistently successful franchise? This is in YOUR opinion and it has to be a franchise made up of a trilogy or more. I say your opinion because going by ratings means little or nothing if you in particular didn't enjoy a game as much as the others in a franchise. For example Half Life for me started off great, second was awesome (if not long ) but 2.1 and 2.2 were a bit meh for me, I felt as though they were just DLC packs passed off as actual games, if I were to ignore them, get the third one (if it ever comes out) and the third happens to be awesome, then yeah, it might be the most consistently successful franchise for me, but the 'episodes' let it down for me.

The MGS series is another one, there has yet to be a MGS game that I didn't think was amazing. Yes MGS4 had lots of annoying cinematics but overall, I felt it was a superb finish to an incredible series.

Halo again 'would' be for me, but I personally felt the third and the end of the second let me down a little bit. ODST was a refreshing change and reach despite what people may have said against it was to me a superb finale (to bungie anyway).

So while there are franchises I thought were 'good', MGS is probably at the top. Well at least until I get my hands on Uncharted 3 that is.

 

[Weaver]

For me it's Civilization. I've never bought a civ game or expansion and been disappointed.

 

[Cogwheel]

Half-Life 2 is pretty decent, I guess?

Other than that, Legacy of Kain. All four of the games are excellent, though Blood Omen certainly falls a bit behind the rest.

Edit: While Avernum messed up a few times (why hello there, Avernum 4), Geneforge has been good without fail, in my experience. Too bad the series is over.

 

[trooper6]

Well you asked "successful" rather than "high quality" or "satisfying" or anything like that. So you seem to be asking about market success rather than aesthetic judgement.

If you go by that, I suppose I have to pick the Madden games. I don't play them, but they are consistently on the top 10 sales lists every year. So those.

 

[Aris Khandr]

Pokemon. I'm not sure any franchise has done as consistently well as Pokemon. That series alone is a large part of why Nintendo's portable market still exists.

 

[katsabas]

Metroid comes to mind. Fuck Other M.

Wipeout. Fast. Reflexes. Skill.

God Of War.

Burnout. For me at least.

Someone here mentioned Legacy Of Kain. I second that. Also, when the fuck are we gonna get the last chapter ?

 

[Condor219]

Every MGS game was spectacular in my opinion. All its metacritic scores are stellar as well, so maybe there's some solid proof.

And has anybody ever played the Geneforge series? They are PC turn-based RPG games (the 5th and final being released maybe a year ago). All those games had good plots, numerous moral choice-based story divisions, challenging gameplay, and surprising immersion, despite the fact the graphics were sprite-based at the high end of PS1 levels at best.

 

[redrefugee]

Conventional I know, but Mario (the main series, not the spin offs) and Zelda.

I have no idea how they are going to beat Mario Galaxy....virtual reality maybe?

 

[steriletiger]

I would say the Grand Theft Auto Series. All the way from PS1 to now they have always been fun top sellers. Also, GT3 helped shape the sandbox environments many many games have used since. Also, these games encourage and reward us embracing our darker, crazier side. Where else can I drive around, running over pedestrians, evading the police, and have a prostitute in the back seat at the same time?

 

[Darknacht]

Does 'games made by Black Isle' count as a franchise?

If not then the early Zelda games.

 

[pulse2]

I would say the Grand Theft Auto Series. All the way from PS1 to now they have always been fun top sellers. Also, GT3 helped shape the sandbox environments many many games have used since. Also, these games encourage and reward us embracing our darker, crazier side. Where else can I drive around, running over pedestrians, evading the police, and have a prostitute in the back seat at the same time?

See I would be inclined to agree with you, despite my issues with GTA4 which I can overlook seeing as it was hands down amazing, but Vice City on PSP wasn't as fun for me the second time around as it was the first even though Liberty City stories was rather fun, also GTA London for me was meh as was GTA2.

The rest were superb.

Conventional I know, but Mario (the main series, not the spin offs) and Zelda.

I have no idea how they are going to beat Mario Galaxy....virtual reality maybe?

The problem I found with nominating Zelda was that there were Zelda games that set a benchmark so high that it made other ones I played seem dull if not mediocre

Otherwise Zelda would have been amongst my top choices.

Mario on the other hand HAS had some shortcomings, no thanks to Square and several annoying Mario game spin offs ¬_¬

 

[AlternatePFG]

Fallout. Aside from Brotherhood of Steel, pretty much every game in the main series has been great. (Tactics, I haven't played yet but it's a spinoff anyways)

 

[Cerrax]

Fallout. Aside from Brotherhood of Steel, pretty much every game in the main series has been great. (Tactics, I haven't played yet but it's a spinoff anyways)

Fallout would have to be the only franchise I can say I have not been disappointed in. I have a ton of different game franchises that I love, but I can't name a Fallout title that was ever truly bad.

 

[steriletiger]

See I would be inclined to agree with you, despite my issues with GTA4 which I can overlook seeing as it was hands down amazing, but Vice City on PSP wasn't as fun for me the second time around as it was the first even though Liberty City stories was rather fun, also GTA London for me was meh as was GTA2.

I have only played one GTA game on a handheld which was the China Town Wars which I thought was really good and one of my favorite DS games. GTA2 was the 1st one I ever played and was hooked. Even my mom thought it was hilarious although she would balk if she saw what GTA4 contained. haha. So, I am mostly viewing this from a console only view.

 

[ZehMadScientist]

I have quite enjoyed the Legend of Zelda series so far. I'm not too keen on ds releases but I thought those were enjoyable too.

 

[Strain42]

Ace Attorney. I have yet to play an Ace Attorney game I haven't liked. I think that the first game was fun, witty, wonderfully executed, and I think it's only gotten better as time has gone on. The closest to a hiccup in my opinion was Apollo Justice, but I still enjoyed it a great deal.

The biggest complaint I have for the series is that Capcom currently isn't localizing Ace Attorney Investigations 2. But that's not the series fault.

 

[Pingieking]

From a market success standpoint, all of the EA sports franchises and Call of Duty. Halo are Mario are not doing too bad either.

As for my personal favorites... Total War, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. I really want to say Europa Universalis + Victoria + Hearts of Iron (can I package them into one franchise because the games are kind of continuations of one another?), but the problem is that vanilla sucks for all of those; it's the mods that are epic.

 

[pulse2]

See I would be inclined to agree with you, despite my issues with GTA4 which I can overlook seeing as it was hands down amazing, but Vice City on PSP wasn't as fun for me the second time around as it was the first even though Liberty City stories was rather fun, also GTA London for me was meh as was GTA2.

I have only played one GTA game on a handheld which was the China Town Wars which I thought was really good and one of my favorite DS games. GTA2 was the 1st one I ever played and was hooked. Even my mom thought it was hilarious although she would balk if she saw what GTA4 contained. haha. So, I am mostly viewing this from a console only view.

China Town wars was awesome Achieved quite a bit when greatness surprisingly wasn't expected from it.

 

[Akytalusia]

.hack, xenosaga, metroid, zelda, GTA, Touhou, elder scrolls, kingdom hearts, suikoden, disgaea, arc the lad, fallout, DMC, fallout, ultima (well, most of them), warcraft, resident evil, castlevania, final fantasy, seiken densetsu... *thinking*

off the top of my head, those are all really good trilogy+'s i personaly enjoyed.