There’s a thing going around Twitter right now asking people to list their five favorite game series, and I thought that was a fantastic prompt for a blog!
The Elder Scrolls
All the way back to Daggerfall, this series has been such a huge part of my gaming history. There hasn’t been a single main series entry I haven’t enjoyed, and I’ve put some time into most of the ancillary titles as well. And when ESVI comes out? I’ll be buying that day one as well.
Sid Meier’s Civilization
Although I don’t go all the way back to the beginning on this one, each iteration of Sid Meier’s Civilization has been fantastic. Although each new version brings some quality of life improvements, the older ones still are fun to play. “One more turn” has become a meme for a reason.
RollerCoaster Tycoon
The most recent RollerCoaster Tycoon wasn’t a hit with fans, but you know what? It’s still not a bad game. Mistakes were absolutely made, but the base game play loop still works. I’ve played them all, and I do think the series peaked with the second installment, but there isn’t a game in this series that isn’t worth the time you spend playing it.
Dead Rising
Not being a console player, I came to this series very very late, but damn, it’s solid. It’s absolute gaming junk food, B-movie action you control. It’s one of the few action games where I will take a melee weapon over a gun any chance I get, because cutting a swath through hordes of zombies feels so very very good.
Tropico
This one, I’ve been playing since the first game, and they’ve all been great in their own way. Hell, I even played Pirate Cove to death back in the day. Long after city-builders fell from favor, Tropico kept going strong.
Glancing over other people’s answers to this question, I was struck by how many classic series I have never even touched. I’ve never played a Final Fantasy game (outside of a brief dalliance with XIV recently). I’ve never played Animal Crossing. I haven’t played any of the Zelda games, Uncharted, Mass Effect, or Resident Evil. I don’t think Pokemon Go really counts for Pokemon, and I’ve barely touched other famous franchises like Tomb Raider, Assassin’s Creed and Hitman.
I wonder how much our gaming identities are formed based on the games we played as teenagers or young adults, and how the difficulty of catching up on long-running game series affects our tastes. If I’m going to jump into a series, I absolutely prefer to start at the beginning, but when the early games haven’t aged well, it sometimes makes the whole thing feel out of reach.
If you could choose one game series for me to play one game from, what would you choose for me? Please note, if it’s not available for PC, I won’t be able to play it, but I feel like this could be the start of a new project (because I need a new project, right?)
Nerd Girl Thoughts 
Warlock 2: The Exiled. No idea if you’d like that, though. But I always hated going into war in CIV and tried to avoid it as much as possible. Yet, when I played Warlock, I couldn’t get enough of fighting against the others!
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Huh. I have the first game just hanging out in my library, but I never picked up the second. I’ll look around for a deal!
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I’ve not played the games in a long time, but I liked some of the changes. Not everything, though. Still, they’re among my favourite games and I love that both of them run on my non-gaming laptop. 🙂
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Oh I like this. I’ll need to think about it though, the top 5 game series aren’t immediately apparent to me. I’ll sit on it through work today, hopefully have some idea by the time I get to write this evening. I suspect Civ will make the cut… Definitely Dark Souls… For the others… Hmm. 🙂
Will also give some thought to a recommendation for you, too!
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Since you asked for suggestions, mine would be Mass Effect. I already played through the trilogy once and I am going through it again because of an upcoming tabletop homebrew adaptation I am going to be playing with some friends.
It is interesting to go through the first one again to get a refresher on the story and the lore. In my opinion it is the best one of the series in those categories but it is the weakest in terms of game mechanics. The other two do game mechanics better but the story and world building feel weaker for me.
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So, if I were only going to play one, you’d recommend the first despite the weaker mechanics? Or am I mis-reading?
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I’d recommend the first, yes. The mechanics may be weaker but they aren’t horrible. There is just not anything special about them. But the world building is pretty good and some of the companions you make in the first game/NPCs you meet will be returning in the sequels. It is always interesting to see what they have been up to between games. 🙂
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Hmmyes definitely something about the games we played as children…
Elder Scrolls is there for me, Mainly because of Daggerfall and Morrowind, Oblivion wasn’t great but was redeemed by the Shivering Isles DLC, Skyrim was also narratively weak, The conflict was underdeveloped, however Paarthurnax and High Hrothgar was not too badly written.
Then of course there is Baldurs Gate, including the isometric versions and the spin off PS2 series Dark Alliance.
Age of Empires series including Age of Mythology
Yes Final Fantasy is another, due to their fairly long and involved stories. Also the fact that most are standalone is refreshing in that you never tire of the characters despite each game being over 100 hours
And finally but not least Total War. No other strategy game has quite the blend of real time battle tactics, resource control and development as they do, plus the historical accuracy of units battles and maps. The modding potential of the early games is incredible as well, I still play the third age mod for Medieval 2.
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