Fallout Series - Fallout 1 & 2 cultivated a strong fan following, and became classic examples of the CRPG genre. It had a great world, clever writing, interesting characters you'd come across, and creative pop-culture references and great pop-culture easter eggs. Fallout Tactics was a bit of a mis-step, but even that retained the essential core traits that made the series.....unfortunately, starting with Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel on consoles in 2004, the series became dumbed down and an action-oriented series, ranging from more action third or first person style of gameplay, and less of an emphasis on strong writing and characters...and this continued into Fallout 3.
Fallout: New Vegas somewhat took things back to the series original roots in terms of atmosphere, writing and characters, especially in comparison to Fallout 3....but New Vegas was still mainly chained to Fallout 3's type of gameplay.
Rainbow Six series - This used to be the go-to tactical FPS series....key word "tactical". You had specific mission planning, team paths, teammate rosters based on ability and stats, etc. You actually had to plan out a mission and use tactics. That all went out the window when the series became a more-arcadey shooter, which even had crap like blind-firing, which is about as UN-tactical as you can get.
Silent Hill series - The first three Silent Hill games were composed from great atmosphere that delivered tension and scares, unsettling philosophical themes, references to cult horror tv shows and movies as well as clasic horror literature.
The first SH dealt with a creepy supernatural town and the mystery of what was causing it while I guy looked for his lost daughter.....what most people who never played the original (or third game) don't realize, cause they're not true fans, is that the original storyline was just as much about a girl named Alessa as it was about the town itself and a mysterious cult within it.
The second game, though a completely seperate storyline, still fit perfectly within the series, dealing with the residual power of the town itself and it's effect the draw peope into their own personal nightmare, and whether or not such a person would succumb to the nightmare or escape from it.
The third game wrapped up the original game's storyline perfectly, particularly the Alessa storyline and the town cult's storyline...again, all wrapped up perfectly in the third installment.
....the series should have ended there as an excellent horror trilogy. Unfortunately, it didn't.
After the core Silent Hill trilogy, Team Silent had been interested in first-person gameplay and were developing what they intended to be a whole new IP...Konami marketing steps in and basically forces Team Silent into shoehorning this new game into the Silent Hill franchise for the same of making more money off the more known brand name.
The result....the first three Silent Hill games had a consistanly positive review average on both Metacritic and Gamerankings in the mid-to-high 80's....
SH4: The Room is where the downfall began, and it's no surprise Team Silent disbanded after Silent Hill 4: The Room. The series then moved to western developers who clearly haven't been able to capture the magic of the original three games as each installment has been recieved worse and worse.
...and the recent HD collection of SH2 and SH3, are probably one of the worst handlings of an HD collection this generation.
Resident Evil - Resident Evil 4 is one of the best console games of last gen, arguably the best....and at the time, it was a much needed refreshing new approach to a series that was become stale and archaic. The thing about Resident Evil 4, despite being an action title, it still managed to have ties to it's survival horror roots. It still had a creepy setting and some unsettling moments, and other series staples. The game received much deserved universal praise.
Unfortunately, Capcom mis-read this praise, and for Resident Evil 5 said "more action!"...and "co-op!". So, what was oroginally a claustrophobic campy horror series (even with RE4) with elements of action....suddenly turned more into an action-shooter with forced-in co-op, which was detrimental the game instead of being beneficial.
...and I'm not so sure about Resident Evil 6, which people are going wild over (don't know why), since nothing had led me to believe Capcom learned their lesson...hell, some parts of the trailer look like a freaking Call of Duty game, which would be a huge betrayal to the original franchise roots.
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey - The original The Longest Journey is a pinnacle entry in the adventure genre and was a much needed shot in the arm at the time. When the sequel was announced, it was like fans prayers had finally been answered.
Unfortunately, Funcom decided to take what was an amazing PC adventure game....and turn the sequel into an action-adventure game for Xbox, cause they figured that's what was making money at the time, they forced in unnessary combat and stealth, both which were poorly executed. The result....well, even across two platforms, it actually sold less then the original PC adventure title....as for thinking they'd make more money by going console, that idea backfired when the console version all out flopped and bombed (the PC version supposedly did "Ok")...and as for the reception - just look at the review aggregate of the original The Longest Journey vs. Dreamfall, and you'll see there was a big drop for the sequel.
F.E.A.R. - The original F.E.A.R. on PC got fast kinetic visceral combat down perfectly in 2005, and successfully mixed it with a creepy atmosphere that delivered tense moments in just the right amount at the right times...not to mention it had the best technical graphics of that year. It was no surprise it was well received, winning many Best Shooter and Best FPS at many places, including Gamespot.
Unfortunately, the multiplatform sequel didn't capture the same magic.....and the third installment was a complete letdown, especially in comparison to the original.
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