This year two eagerly awaited games will come to the gamers: Mass Effect 3 and Gears of War 3. Notice what they have in common? For years now some of our best loved and most powerful franchises have run their course with many of them being touted as "intended to be a trilogy" in some sound byte or talking point when interviewing their designers. Now this is not the case of them all, but this is the predominant theme in some of the top franchises. Others have greater ambitions and are still chugging along nicely (I'm looking at you Elder Scrolls and Fable), and don't bring up Halo, thats a whole different breed of creature on its own right, spread across multiple platforms and developers.



At the core though, some of our beloved games and franchises that started their trek on current gen consoles are now reaching their peak, so to speak. After these two titles some other well loved friends of ours are due, having recently passed their Sequel milestone in the last year or so. It kind of makes you sit back and think... what's next? I mean new games and new hits pop up all the time, but some of the core titles in the current gen world are entering their twilight, soon to have their swan song. Maybe they will branch out into offshoots, spinoff, prequels, who knows. As long, though, as they are not owned by Activision it is safe to assume however that their core story arcs are tying off before they move on to new things, if any at all. That makes me a bit sad and nostalgic, like when I watch a series finale of a beloved TV show.



What about you guys? How do you feel about certain franchises (potentially) ending? Are there ones you hope will close out graceful and leave you with a good memory, or are there ones you hope endure until every last bit of life has been squeezed out of them?