I would have to go with both Assassin Creed games. What I like about their story is I've learnt a bit of history from just playing them and in terms of gameplay I've seen quite a bit of evolution from the first game going to the second one.
I couldn't follow the dialogs with all the names that sounded the same. The plot was basically unfollowable because of that. They addressed that problem to a large degree in Assassin's Creed II; however, I couldn't tell you the name of the main antagonist but I do remember the name of the protagonist (Ezio). That is still an area they need to work a lot on.
Interesting comment. I have both games but have not played them yet, but all the reviews I've seen say ME2 is the superior of the two.
I can't see why. ME is superior for many reasons: Renegade actually meant something, there's no finicky cover system, exploring the ground was less redundant than mining for minerals, there were lots of weapons to choose from and they made a huge difference, weapons were customizable by mounting mods (not upgrades that feel like they make no difference), Shepherd doesn't die, the plot was simple at first and it wasn't until the very end that you realized things aren't so simple, when you were forced to make decisions, they were never easy, your interactions with the council are entertaining, etc.
There's some areas where ME was weak. For example, they recycled the same four basic structures over and over (warehouse, cave, space ship and underground bunker). It can also get a little borning driving in the rover for a long time and coming up with nothing (this could have been addressed by adding more entities to the ground). Those areas of weakness were extremely minor.
ME2 is basically a drowned out ME (characters are simpiler, items are virtually non-existant, weapons are extremely simplified, all maps are substantially smaller, etc.) One of my greatest beefs is conversations with crew members have been condensened into just a few conversations with limited outcomes. With only 6 members of the original crew, you really got to know all members very well. The extra members in ME2 takes far more away than it adds. For example, I can't name one scenario where you end up killing or abandoning a crew member in ME2. In ME, that can happen, not once, but twice.
In the end, it feels like ME2 problems can be sumbed up with two words: cramming (fit as much content into ME2--the go between between story intro: ME, and the conclusion: ME3), consolitis (small maps, simplified controls, etc.).
I've beat ME at least 6 times. I've beat ME2 at least 3 times. I wouldn't mind playing ME again. ME2, not so much. So far, the only things I liked about ME2 were visiting the Flotilla and the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC. Note how both of those involved one of the main charaters from ME in a major way. That should be major hint about the failures of ME2.
Never listen to reviews, critics aren't real gamers.
Yup, they're journalists first.