Ya know, that one series that represents the finest in our industry. The one that's just a bit creamier than the other creams of the crop. In the 90s, that mantle would have probably gone to Zelda (LttP, LA, OoT, and MM is a pretty damn good resume for one decade). Final Fantasy, with its general quality from FFVI to X, would likely also be a contender, as would Mario for Mario 3 in the US, Mario World, and SM64.
These days, picking one is trickier. Many think Zelda has lost its title after an uninspired Twilight Princess and five years of inactivity. If so, what has taken its place? Has anything? Maybe Mario has rebounded enough after Sunshine with the two Galaxy games? Maybe it's one of these newer Western series, such as God of War, Uncharted, or Portal? How about one of the shooters like Halo or CoD?
What do you guys think
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There are too many popular and acclaimed franchises these days to claim one as the "prestige series". Call of Duty is probably the closest, and that gets a lot of hate as is.
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Uncharted seems like a popular choice. I'm not gonna argue since I haven't played it, but IIRC, didn't the original game receive a mixed reaction? It didn't seem like a big deal at all with the original and blew up after UC2. Seems to me like Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed have the same problem. If you want to be in contention for "prestige series" and have relatively few games (2) to show, shouldn't the first be outstanding?
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If something is close to trying to define it, IMO, it's Bioshock or Portal. Portal, more than most other series, shows fresh and unique ideas being applied practically in a familiar environment, while Bioshock shows a very unique narrative structure that could only be obtained through the video game medium. Both series have their flaws, but they're very much representatives of the trends that video games are going through, Maddens and samey-military-FPS offerings aside. They're very much definitive titles as well as excellent titles, that incidentally also have sequels that are a lot worse than their originals, but have a few characters that match how enjoyable the original characters were. Fun parallel that.
I'd mention Uncharted and Mass Effect, but I've only played one game in each, and those feel more like building on mechanics that were already present, with Uncharted going off of Tomb Raider and making it actually good and Mass Effect taking a little from Gears of War and a little from KOTOR in approach to a gameplay/storytelling combination. They aren't by any means bad titles - Hell I like them more than Portal and Bioshock as a whole - but both of their original offerings were pretty damn flawed in quite a few ways and evolved based on taking trends from other modern games and perfecting them. They feel like products of the generation as opposed to innovators of the generation, if that makes any sense.
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PartOfYourWorld posted... Uncharted seems like a popular choice. I'm not gonna argue since I haven't played it, but IIRC, didn't the original game receive a mixed reaction?
If 88/100 average is "mixed reaction", yeah.
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Vlado posted... PartOfYourWorld posted... Uncharted seems like a popular choice. I'm not gonna argue since I haven't played it, but IIRC, didn't the original game receive a mixed reaction?
If 88/100 average is "mixed reaction", yeah.
Critics =/= Players
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It's obviously Mario. Both Galaxy games were amazing. NSMB Wii was pretty good. The DS Mario rpgs were great. By far the highest selling game series (according to wikipedia it's 60 million ahead of pokemon which is in second place). pretty much every game in the main line series has gotten stellar reviews.
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I dunno, but Just Cause 2 deserves all kinds of praise, both in terms of technical achievements and the fun factor of having unlimited grappling hooks and parachutes.
Uncharted 2 is also definitely a high-water-mark for technical stuff. Gameplay isn't that deep, but, hey, it's still deeper than OoT if that counts as a "prestige series".
Bethesda and Bioware are the obvious Squaresoft analogs these days; they make the lengthy popular RPGs with flashy graphics. Well...although World of Warcraft realistically deserves a mention too.
So...one of those.
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Mario for sure. Nobody can argue Mario games are bad - you may not like them, but the current-gen crop gets everything right.
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JJH777 posted... It's obviously Mario. Both Galaxy games were amazing. NSMB Wii was pretty good. The DS Mario rpgs were great. By far the highest selling game series (according to wikipedia it's 60 million ahead of pokemon which is in second place). pretty much every game in the main line series has gotten stellar reviews.
Mario seems to be a perpetual also-ran. I mean, Mario 64 outsold OoT and FF7 (and is, in my opinion, better than both those games) but it was hardly regarded as "the best game out there" by the "hardcore gamers".
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metroid composite posted... JJH777 posted... It's obviously Mario. Both Galaxy games were amazing. NSMB Wii was pretty good. The DS Mario rpgs were great. By far the highest selling game series (according to wikipedia it's 60 million ahead of pokemon which is in second place). pretty much every game in the main line series has gotten stellar reviews.
Mario seems to be a perpetual also-ran. I mean, Mario 64 outsold OoT and FF7 (and is, in my opinion, better than both those games) but it was hardly regarded as "the best game out there" by the "hardcore gamers".
Right, but Mario doesn't haven anything near the level of OoT or FF7 to compete with this gen.
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Things are too split up right now. More huge budget games, from more series, but less frequently, and with more varying reception. CoD is probably the best candidate (I'd pick 3D Mario though).
GTA should probably get a mention for the start of the last decade though. 3/VC/SA. Mario -> Zelda -> FF -> GTA/Halo -> MGS -> 3D Mario/Portal/CoD/Bioshock/Uncharted/Mass Effect/etc.
It'll probably be clearer in five years time what series were closest to the "prestige series" of the era, however you'd define such a thing.
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redrocket posted... Right, but Mario doesn't haven anything near the level of OoT or FF7 to compete with this gen.
Mario also doesn't have an HD game this gen.
"Prestige" to me indicates high-end, pushing the boundaries of what games can do, graphically or gameplaywise. Mario this gen has outings where...the controls are 10 years old, and the graphics are on 5 year old hardware. The physics of orbiting around small planets is kind-of new, but also something that was totally done in the 60s (more than 40 years ago).
What does Mario do that's really pushing boundaries? With Call of Duty you can at least point at Modern Warfare and say that it raised graphical standards, and to a lesser extent hooked a lot of players by bringing RPG-style skill customization into the FPS world. With Mario Galaxy I can't really point at anything and say "See? This is showing what games are capable of now."
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Cats land on their feet. Toast lands peanut butter side down. A cat with toast strapped to its back will hover above the ground in a state of quantum indecision
I'd say that Mario was the "prestige series" during both the 8-bit and 16-bit era, and Zelda and Final Fantasy competed during the 64/Playstation era. I don't think we've really had a "prestige series" since then, which is unfortunate. Though the Galaxy games are great, the New Super Mario series is utterly uninspired and derivative.
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I'd go with portal, personally. It probably isn't the most critically acclaimed overall but not many people really hate it, plus almost everyone has played it at some point thanks to it being free on steam.
edit: Also I think elder scrolls is a bit too hit or miss to be a prestige series. You'll either love it or won't be able to stand it.
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Portal is probably my pick even though I haven't played 2. Unlike Mass Effect, Uncharted, or Assassin's Creed, the first game was universally loved and kept getting bigger and bigger with more word of mouth. It did something new with the first-person genre and, correct me if I'm wrong here, was pretty groundbreaking in the way it told a story. As far as I know, the sequel was also very well received.
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I was thinking a few days ago about the 10 must-play games this gen. I'd put Uncharted 2 as #1.
gaming has outgrown the idea of a 'prestige series' though. if there was one series that towers over everything else, it's Call of Duty, and COD4 would be the game of choice.