It was Rare until the whole...implode, best programmers leave, get bought out by M$, pump out shite.
Now I would probably say that I look forward with genuine happiness to Treyarch and Bethesda. Rockstar used to be on that list but the combination of San Andreas and GTA 4 had pretty much killed off my enthusiasm for them. Red Dead was good, not great, good and had nothing stand out like Vice City for me. A developer on the rocks IMHO.