As in any relationship, even our most beloved game franchises can end up feeling stale if they don't make an effort to keep things new and interesting. We aren't asking for Prophet to wear a racy new Nanosuit to bed every week, or for Sonic to shave his bristles, but we think the eight franchises below could do with a little bit of a shake-up - perhaps taking advantage of the capabilities of next gen platforms. You're welcome to add to the list, as always. Just keep it clean.

Mass Effect

Shepard's part in the Mass Effect tale is officially over, and a new protagonist calls for a completely new story. Arguably, the reapers and their invasion were the least interesting aspect of the series so far - the best parts were when we got to cruise the galaxy, and wander the cities and settlements in search of interesting characters to meet, helping our crew out of whatever random mess they had gotten themselves embroiled in.



It might also be interesting to experience the world without Shepard's celebrity status hanging over you. Let us explore the world when its entire salvation isn't resting on our shoulders. Make it a more personal, intimate tale, and not an overblown sci-fi blockbuster. And with so many fascinating races to get to know, why focus solely on humans? Perhaps we should get the chance to play as some different races during the main campaign, with characters reacting differently based on our background.

Dead Space

Dead Space 3 was a big step in the wrong direction for the series. It stripped the necromorphs of all their mystique, and made them little more than a series of gruesome jump scares. Their origins, and their ties to weird space cult Unitology - once a shadowy and quietly ominous organisation, now represented by a big, blundering baddie - were given way too much unsatisfying explanation.



The unnecessary additions of a co-op mode and weapon customisation (with optional micro-transactions) were signs of how far the franchise had come from its claustrophobic, classic survival horror beginnings, even before we got to the heavy-handed action sequences, and lengthy shoot-outs with (hawk, spit) human opponents. But even the sections that put us in the familiar, confined corridors reminiscent of the Ishimura ring hollow - perhaps it's Isaac himself and the laboured, uninspired plot we're weary of, or the constant re-treading of themes, or maybe, after three outings, the necromorphs just aren't scary enough any more. Whatever the reason, the Dead Space series needs to adapt if it's to survive.

Crysis 3

Crysis is a truly stunning-looking series, but in all other respects - story, gameplay, and a commitment to new ideas - it's about as subtle and refined as a bag of hammers. Any series lucky enough to surpass three instalments really needs its fans to invest in the universe that it's trying to tell, but thus far each new entry to the Crysis series seems to rely a touch too heavily on the strength and pulling power of its multiplayer component.



If the franchise is to live on, give us a stronger, more meaningful plot, intelligent enemies who aren't just Men With Guns or Jumpy Alien Dudes, and a reason to fight other than the fact it just looks cool. More esoteric Nanosuit abilities would be nice, too - super stealth, super armour and super agility aren't exactly novel additions to the formula.

Silent Hill

2012's Silent Hill: Downpour simply couldn't match the foreboding atmosphere of earlier titles. The truly haunting thing about Silent Hill is that it reacts to the fears and insecurities of every poor soul that ends up trapped in its foggy embrace, and Downpour never really capitalised on this. Remember meeting Pyramid Head for the first time in Silent Hill 2? Of course you do - who could forget that monstrous, mute, and unstoppable vision of James Sunderland's tortured psyche? But I suspect you'd struggle to recall any of the monsters Murphy Pendleton conjures up in Downpour.



What early Silent Hill does best, above any other survival horror series, is getting inside your head and poking around. Later iterations, Downpour included, settled for just being a bit creepy. Oh and whilst we're at it - can we possibly get a new set of spooky stock locations? Morgue, motel, asylum, hospital, school - been there, got the rust and blood-encrusted t-shirt.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Poor old Sonic. He really is in dire need of a pick-me-up these days. Sega have attempted multiple rehashes already - Unleashed, Generations, and even kart-racer Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing - but none really managed to propel the blue-hued hog to his former glory. Sonic needs something new. Or perhaps something really, really old: the original Sonic games are still the best by miles and the recent Sonic Generations - which attempted to cash into our nostalgia - showed flashes of brilliance with some fantastic level design and stellar fan service.



But if we're really, brutally honest with ourselves, maybe the time has come to put the series to sleep. How many times and how many ways can you resurrect a small animal whose sole purpose in life is to run fast and rescue things, after all? Not all gaming superstars are meant to live forever, especially common or garden mammals with an average life span of 3-5 years.

Bioshock

Spoilers ahead: Irrational kind of gave any future games away by playfully explaining its own design formula at the end of Infinite ("There's always a lighthouse. There's always a man. There's always a city"). I like to think of all those endless lighthouses at the end of Infinite as portals not to other universes - but to other potential Bioshock games. Serious storyline flaws aside, Infinite is a sly commentary on industry-wide sequelitis that doesn't quite offer a cure.



The problem with peeking behind the curtain and destroying the suspension of disbelief this way is that you can't continue as before, with the exact same concepts, and expect your audience to be surprised. In addition, Bioshock Infinite had a bit of a problem marrying its brutal gunplay to the more sensitive, nuanced story it tried to tell. Any future games need to pay as much attention to the combat as they do to the plot.

Saints Row

Volition has confessed that the need to go bigger and better with every new instalment of Saints Row has painted the developer into a bit of a narrative corner. Where do you go from being the president of the United States and a celebrity superhero, fighting aliens and zombies with giant dildo bats and anal probes and dubstep guns?



Because of this quandary, any new Saints Row games after IV will probably head in an entirely new direction. Whilst this doesn't necessarily mean a more "serious" Saint's Row, it could give Volition a chance to put one over Grand Theft Auto with more involving, satirical story lines. Perhaps set the story somewhere outside of the US, for starters? There are plenty of cities in the world that aren't thinly modelled variations of New York or Los Angeles.

Fable

Becoming royalty in Fable 3 was all very well, but somewhere between stressing out over our diminishing treasury and having to listen to another NPC whine about our broken promises to them, we found ourselves longing for a simpler time, for exciting adventures across Albion without the heavy weight of fiscal responsibility.



Fable's overly simplistic control system is in need of a drastic overhaul too - map one button for magic use, one for melee combat, and one for long-range weapons and you've got yourself a recipe for blander than bland combat. Fable 3 tried to rectify this somewhat, introducing the spell combination system in an effort to spice things up, but there's still a lot of work to be done. The fighting may be lacking, but at least the residents of Albion (or most of them, anyway) still appreciate the comedy value of a well-timed fart.

Source: Rheena.com