The best and worst PC gaming franchises as voted by readers

Shawn Knight

Shawn Knight

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Last week the crew at PC Gamer asked their readers for their opinion with regards to some of the most prominent PC franchises of all time. After more than 22,000 unique responses, the results have been tabulated and it’s The Elder Scrolls that was deemed to be the franchise that was getting better over time. It likely comes as little surprise that the Call of Duty / Modern Warfare series was unanimously voted as the single franchise that was getting worse among the 20 entrants to choose from.

In the positive category, Fallout came in second place although it wasn’t even close as it was 20 percent behind The Elder Scrolls in reader votes. Team Fortress, Total War and Civilization rounded out the top five in that order.

gamer pc gamer poll gaming franchises

Nearly 70 percent of respondents agreed that Call of Duty / Modern Warfare was getting worse with each new release, a sentiment that we’ve heard echoed here in our own comments section for quite some time. In second place with more than 50 percent of the negative vote is Dragon Age, followed closely by Diablo, World of Warcraft and Command & Conquer.

Interestingly enough, the franchises with the most total votes either good or bad in descending order were The Elder Scrolls, Call of Duty/Modern Warfare, Battlefield, Diablo, and Mass Effect. Those with the fewest votes include SimCity, Hitman, Splinter Cell, Counter-Strike and The Sims.

Do you agree with PC Gamers' readers findings or do you think they got some things wrong?

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/49632-the-best-and-worst-pc-gaming-franchises-as-voted-by-readers.html

 
Ehh... Not too fond of Call of Duty. I find Elder Scrolls games to be too boring, last one I tried was Oblivion, got tired of it after like 10 hours. Not really much of a Diablo fan for that same reason either, and I love Mass Effect, I haven't played the new one however, not counting the demo. Counter Strike feels so 10 years ago, and I love Splinter Cell. Although my personal favorite Splinter Cell game is Chaos Theory, I did find Conviction enjoyable, in a different way however.

As far as the most popular games go, they seem to have gotten everything, although I'm nowhere near the die-hard gamer I used to be.
 
You could almost roll Elder Scrolls and Fallout into a single category as one game. Same game engine, same developer, same game mechanics, near identical GUI, etc.

But have to agree with the military shooters losing their interest. Battlefield 1942 came out 10 years ago. And at that time it was a phenomenal game and concept. But it's been done, re-done, re-re-done and then done some more. Toss in the problems with the multiplayer portions - the cheaters and the spawn spot campers, etc., and they're just not entertaining any longer.

I'd say that PC Gamer opinion poll is pretty reflective of franchise popularity right now.
 
TomSEA said:
But have to agree with the military shooters losing their interest. Battlefield 1942 came out 10 years ago. And at that time it was a phenomenal game and concept.
Click to expand...
Whoa, way to make a guy feel old!
I really liked that game, feels very strange that it has already been 10 years!
 
I don't really play FPS anymore, but TES, Fallout, and Civ are definitely on my "must buy list".

I'd also like to respectfully add the GTA franchise, it has its hiccups, and its console-centric year long delay before the PC port, but I still love the whole series, and cannot wait till 2017 until GTA V comes out for the PC.
 
OK, who setup this poll? What is their definition of "prominent franchise"? I mean, I wouldn't even called Team Fortress or Dragon Age a franchise, since there were like 2 games in a series, that makes it hardly a "franchise", not to mention "prominent". Where is Grand Theft Auto? Don't tell me is primarily for consoles, cos so are Bethesda's & COD/Battlefield games (actually, I read Skyrim Dawnguard is X360 exclusive, so I would put it the whole franchise with consoles). Where's Warhammer 40K? If they metioned Team Fortress, where is Half Life, one of the best selling PC franchises ever? Where's NFS (not that I like what happened with that series)?
 
dawnguard isnt a xbox exclusive...only a release 1st..warhammer is mentioned..as was gta's

you should have read the pc gamers article, or even took the survey before getting all upset
 
I do agree with some, that with the Call of Duty franchise, everything pretty much after Call of Duty 4 "Modern Warfare" has been a re-hash! I feel that with Call of Duty 4 they were breaking new ground by thrusting us all into a more modern day first person shooter game. Seeing that prior to that, with everything from Call of Duty 1 to 3 and the various expansions, we had "been there, done that, got the t-shirt" in regards to the World War II aspect of the game. COD-4 broke new ground, it was fresh and it was edgy. But after that, like with Call of Duty 5 we went back to World War II, so for me personally, everything after COD-4 is crap. After 4 were back to WW II and there after we get to re-hash COD-4!

Personally I'm loving COD-4 again, not playing since 2008, I got another copy and have been playing it for about 3 weeks now! I'm at level 41 with approx 85% to 90% of the challenges out of the way! :)
 
am I the only person that really, really, didnt enjoy skyrim all that much? I played oblivion for days of game time but skyrim has some really sucky questilines and the combat is the ONLY better thing, everything else went downhill...
 
I'm sure there are plenty of people who disliked Skyrim - though I feel it's one of the best games I've ever played. I feel the same way about the GTA series - I've hated every one of them and can't figure out why people like it at all.
 
ikesmasher said:
am I the only person that really, really, didnt enjoy skyrim all that much? I played oblivion for days of game time but skyrim has some really sucky questilines and the combat is the ONLY better thing, everything else went downhill...
Click to expand...

I don't understand how Oblivion was a good game at all.
 
A little bit off topic, but I wish they did a reboot of Ultima IV, V, and VI. That was probably pound for pound the best game series I ever played.
 
ElShotte said:
Ehh... Not too fond of Call of Duty. I find Elder Scrolls games to be too boring, last one I tried was Oblivion, got tired of it after like 10 hours. Not really much of a Diablo fan for that same reason either, and I love Mass Effect, I haven't played the new one however, not counting the demo. Counter Strike feels so 10 years ago, and I love Splinter Cell. Although my personal favorite Splinter Cell game is Chaos Theory, I did find Conviction enjoyable, in a different way however.

As far as the most popular games go, they seem to have gotten everything, although I'm nowhere near the die-hard gamer I used to be.
Click to expand...

That makes the two of us. ;)
 
Best:
HALO!!!!!!!
No competition.

Worst:
Grand Theft Auto.
Though GTA3 was awfully fun, the franchise as a whole sucked.
 
No, I'm waiting for the modded version of GTA3 on the new engine.
TBH, the storylines were strong, but gameplay didn't hold me there as Halo's or Hitman's did.
 
I too were waiting for GTA III with the RAGE engine. Oh, and Hitman Absolution is good also. I don't why I like GTA franchise, maybe it's the evolution of PC.
 
Thats the
TomSEA said:
You could almost roll Elder Scrolls and Fallout into a single category as one game. Same game engine, same developer, same game mechanics, near identical GUI, etc.

But have to agree with the military shooters losing their interest. Battlefield 1942 came out 10 years ago. And at that time it was a phenomenal game and concept. But it's been done, re-done, re-re-done and then done some more. Toss in the problems with the multiplayer portions - the cheaters and the spawn spot campers, etc., and they're just not entertaining any longer.

I'd say that PC Gamer opinion poll is pretty reflective of franchise popularity right now.
Click to expand...

Thats my problem with Battlefield... I have a fulltime job and a life. so I want to play a little on some down time. but you play against these tweens that cheat, that play 20 hours a day, that have no life... and its just boring. there should be servers with levels that weed out these tools...
 
ikesmasher said:
interesting quest lines, that were longer then 1 and a half hours. I prefer dragons to oblivion gates though. but everything just seemed more fun IMO.
Click to expand...

Yeah, dragons are better than the gates. I remember the first time I saw a giant shadow pass over me, and then heard the screech, and I just ran straight for the nearest tower. Didn't even bother to look up, I knew what was there.
 
Battlefield started a PC franchise and continued to be one up until the Bad Company spinoff where EA/DICE started screwing over their PC fan base with crappy console games that felt exactly like the pieces of crap they were made for. Sadly BF3 isn't better, They lied to the PC gamers by telling us it would be made for the PC and then ported to the console, but in the end it was built for the console and ported to the PC thus screwing us all over..................................................
 
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