Gears of War 1, 2, and 3, however, I don't think this really works for games the way it does for music. Most games that were popular enough to spawn a franchise probably had anywhere from a couple dozen to a couple hundred people working on them. So many different parts have to come together (gameplay, graphics, writing, etc) that a game designer doesn't have anywhere near the amount of influence auteurs in other media do. Sometimes the series will change hands from one developer to another and even when that doesn't happen there're still a ton of people coming in and out of the company throughout the lifespan of the series.
The amount of people working on them means they're also ridiculously expensive. Most game series tend to become increasingly risk averse with each installment. To use an example from the music thread: OK Computer, Kid A, and Amnesiac each have their own sound. A new Radiohead album means I can expect an electronic rock album, but it's tough to get more specific than that. A new Gears game though? It'll be a third person, cover based shooter in a dystopic setting. Throughout the campaign you'll usually have at least one companion (controlled by another human or AI). There will be aliens, roadie running, a chainsaw, and a whole bunch of other idiosyncrasies we've come to expect over the past decade. The iterative nature of games make a series of home runs a lot less impressive.
Then again, I've personally been out of the video game game for years now. I'd genuinely be interested in reading counterarguments.
