Per the usual, there is no order to my list, just the top franchises of all time, in my opinion of course. Some of these are classic gaming and WOEFULLY need to be updated...
Updated 2012: Anything not updated has stood the test of time. Others.....haven't been so lucky...
I love strategy games, but none of them hit the proverbial "itch" as well as the Disgaea series. From the comedy to the gameplay, each of the games have been a constant joy to play. While I haven't gone nuts and bought EVERY remake of each game, I have bought into the series more than once. Of course it helps that NIS America is now in charge of the series, and their preference tend to match my own (original voices w/ subtitles, extravagant limited releases, etc etc).
I remember looking at this game and wondering why my friends were all going gaga over the first game on an import Saturn. After I borrowed it, I didn't have to even ask. Though I am sad that the 5th game didn't do well in America, I for one played the hell out of it and I hope to see more coming in the future.
How good do I think the series is? How's this, I played the first two game on 2 different systems (Saturn and DC) and completed both. Not finish it, but COMPLETED it, with every ending.
The Gabriel Knight Series:
In it's heyday, Sierra was releasing hit adventure one after another. I personally think Gabriel Knight was the pinnacle of the series and the sequels were even more innovative (an actual good FMV game? one of the first adventure games to use full 3d).
There were rumors that Jane Jensen was trying to create Gabriel Knight 4, but it never surfaced. Oh, what could have been.
At a time when I was at a miserable rut in video games, along comes this series to not only revitalize my love of 2D games, but video games in general. It's hard to put into perspective what this series did for me at the time of it's release, but I remembered why I loved video games. Are they hard? Absolutely, but I loved every minute of the "pain".
This includes BOTH the seminal side-scrolling tales on the NES and the new releases for the last-gen/current gen consoles.
2012 Update: The third game in the series has really pushed this game down on the list. I only played the demo, but even that short time with the game has really soured the direction this series is going in for me, hence the lower position on the list.
I am not a RTS player, but be it the lower troop count or the universe itself, I loved playing Dawn of War. Even more surprising that I stuck with all of the iterations, beat them all.
When the second game came out, I was blown away at how good and how fun the SP campaign was. If ever there was a time to relive the old Baldur's Gate PC games this was it, and in a Warhammer RTS of all places!
2012 Update: Again, the last release of this series does damage to a spectacular franchise. Yes, it had a bunch of SP modes, but they were SO cookie cutter, it wasn't worth playing them all AND that cookie cutter feeling damaged what should have been an explosive finale. I know the first game was the same, but by the time Dawn of War 2: Retribution, we expected more.
As you can tell form the list I am not a big fan of FPS, so an FPS needs to bring something special to the table in order for me to put it include as an all time fav. That is what the F.E.A.R. series did for me. It brought just the right atmosphere, yet not sacrificing good gameplay.
Every series has it's sore points, and the expansion packs for the first game do feel a bit charlie horse-ish, I just hope F.E.A.R. 3 doesn't follow suit.
2012 Update: Just as I feared, the 3 game was simply....okay. It didn't destroy the franchise, but it did do damage. It's a shame that the third game was done by a different publisher,...and it showed. Still on the top 10 though, as I'll consistently go back to the first 2 games.
2012 Update 2: Yikes...FEAR 3. Not good at all, though the change in developers should have said something...
