Jonesy89: While it does a few things that I'm not sure were wise, especially how many of the quests are combat heavy, I do appreciate that they didn't horribly betray the established lore and provided a satisfying conclusion to the stories of the side characters and the Hero. Dragon Fire was a fine ending, but as an entry itself, it was just ok. Then again, I'm apparently in the minority as I adore the first two games, with three coming off as campaign padding (which it turns out was the case), and four's unplayable combat is a pain in the neck that makes it frustrating for me to play.
Wages of War was padding, but for good reason. I can see why they didn't just want to throw you into Shadows of Darkness. The population shrinks in that game and they are much more suspicious, so jumping from Shapeir, where you were well received to begin with, to a place where you aren't trusted and you have no friends to help you would've been rough.
I like the underlying story to Wages of War and I've always liked that large overworld map. It added a grander and less isolated element to the game. It really didn't have many more places (if any) over QFG1 and QFG2, but it felt like it did because of that map. I also prefer Tarna's layout compared to Shapeir. All those winding streets never did it for me.
That all said, I like QFG2's story better, though QFG3 has a special place for me since it was the first QFG game that I actually played and owned.
QFG4's may downer is the combat (and all the bugs, but I haven't run into any of those for a long time). I usually adjust the sliders and put it on auto. I love the story and the little side quests that can vary with each class. It's not the first game to give you that variety, but the unique aspects of each class are more interesting than EOF and WIT from QFG2. I really love what Shadows gives the Paladin to do. There wasn't a ton in QFG3 of extra stuff, but the Piotyr side story in Shadows is great. I also think the Thieve's Guild is the best of the lot by far.
I think the reason I discount QFG1 so much is because it doesn't have the story development of the others. I'd say that it really has the least story of any of the games. That's not to say the story it has is bad, but it's the simplest of the games. That makes it a great place to start.