The Mass Effect trilogy (or, perhaps, most of its lore).
And yes, I am serious. It's a franchise that needs some serious cleaning. I never really could consider ME2 nor ME3 sequels stemming from ME1 (but merely inspired by it). To this day I still see ME1 as self-contained. But recently I got to see (with the help of a new theory I hadn't read about) ME2 as a rebooted ME's universe, but obviously under the banner of a sequel to help sells ("Oh look! There's '2' at the end of the title, therefor it's certainly a sequel!"). And I'm not saying it's a bad thing, nor that BioWare were evil and plotted it all along, and are now maniacally laughing in their personal satisfaction of a mission accomplished behind closed doors. I did enjoy ME2 and ME3 to certain extents, and on their own they're both sometimes good and they do have their "moments". But I just considered them both a "different take" on the original lore as established in the original game. Although now I guess that saying a "different take" might turn out to be a "reboot".
In other words I guess I could say that I consider ME1 as " Drew Karpyshyn's Mass Effect ", and both ME2 and ME3 as " Mac Walter's Mass Effect ", rather than giving any of the three games any numbers at the end. I can literally exclude ME1 from my overall trilogy's game-play time and still see no issues on the disconnections from it found within ME2 and ME3, exactly because they are disconnected enough for me to believe that Mac Walters was just given the green light on " just do whatever ", and it ended up being an alternative view (another writer's views) on the universe as it was originally established. Just as much as different writers over the years took Star Wars' general building blocks of lore and from that or around that built (wrote) their own stories which over time became accumulated as being part of Star Wars' " Expanded Universe ".
That, is what I believe happened with Mass Effect, but rather than coming up with more original titles they just named the first one that Mac Walters came up with "Mass Effect 2" so of course at first glance and without much thought put into it you think it's a sequel. Another thing that I believe supports the idea is that the saved-games import feature really is just that, a mere optional feature in the end. Because truly, how many gamers around got to even know about Mass Effect in the first place by starting with Mass Effect 2? A crap load. And guess what, ME3 was (as often mentioned by BioWare especially pre-release) built in mind with completely new comers in the franchise. Yes, that's right, they wanted to make ME3 new comers-friendly, for the supposed "last of the trilogy". It's the "epic conclusion" and you're going to tell people around "hey, this is the final of a trilogy and we think it's a good idea you start there!". But, really, besides that there's something else. If you don't import your saved games from ME1 to ME2 to start with there's no biggie, courtesy of BioWare there's a set of per-determined "canon" outcome for Shepard and you start from "their" point of view on what happened in ME1 (most likely lead writer's).
So, if anything, I would like to see ME2 and ME3 being rebooted as actual sequels to ME1. I would also like if Drew Karpyshyn would be the lead writer of the "rebooted" sequels with of course other writers to give him a hand especially in regards to writing a number of characters and/or missions and side story arcs, but overall would remain a smaller, more focused and organized team as it was back for ME1. In my opinion, too much went wrong since ME2 and especially with ME3 (but really began with ME2) to just shrug it off and call it a night. But I know I'm dreaming in colors, hence why I'm just having fun thinking about it and just replying in this thread for the heck of it. I know it'll never happen. But what could possibly happen one day is that the entire franchise is rebooted, similarly to how Tomb Raider is being rebooted, for example. Although if that happens to the Mass Effect franchise it might take a decade, if not more, since ME4 is already being developed and I suspect that ME4 is going to be the first of a new trilogy. And, unfortunately, I can just smell how milked to death the franchise will be over the coming years, enough so that one day we'll be talking about Mass Effect 8 being better than Mass Effect 11.
Well anyway I know I'm typing this as if it was a fact for everyone. But I'm not speaking for everyone I'm just taking this off of my chest and my mind (again, since I have shared this before on other forums including the BioWare Social Network forums). And, besides it ain't even my idea to start with, to be honest I had never thought of it this way. Really, out of all the "theories" out there (yes including Indoctrination Theory, which I don't like by the way) the only one that satisfies me (yeah it's selfish but whatever) and explains too much to just shake my head at it and ignore it, is the still relatively fresh and under-rated "reboot" theory.
That's
the thread I read the theory from the first time, really it's worth thinking about it (and if you do read the thread, then do read the thread, not just the OP's original post, his following replies to some comments are also defending his opinions and I think that overall it's a nice "theory").
EDIT: And, if not, then I would love a reboot of the Turok franchise (again, since it had been rebooted already in 2008). But this time on the latest engines, such as Duna 2 (Far Cry 3's engine) or CryEngine. Just imagining the lush forests and all forms of bestiary and hybrids (à-la Turok 2 more than T1's) we'd get to fight in such environments. Also it should be very much open-ended and based on survival more than anything, with almost no side-quests to speak of, and one or maybe just a few main goals (with just enough scripted missions and scenes to let the main story flow properly).
Not completely open though, wouldn't want it to turn out like some sort of Skyrim with dinosaurs. But I'm thinking more along the lines of RAGE (exploration part) on maybe a larger extent but with some sort of open-ended exploration and branching off of paths still available (and big enough to give a sense of large landscapes when needed). I would just salivate for a new Turok game... been craving for one since Evolution came out (but my favorite will always remain Turok 2, whilst Turok 1 was awesome nonetheless).
Exult is ok, but still not quite coherent enough.
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