10 Next-Generation Franchise Comebacks

JamesO writes "Pro-G has posted an article which looks at their top ten most wanted next-generation comebacks. By this time next year there should be three next-generation consoles on store shelves. Games like Halo, Metal Gear Solid, Splinter Cell, Super Mario and GTA are certain to appear at some point in the lifetime of these consoles, but what about older franchises we'd like to see again?" From the article: "Few games have scared people as much as System Shock 2. Developed by Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios, it's another great game that was released by EA that hasn't seen a sequel in years. Set onboard the Tri-Optimum starship Von Braun, you played a UNN soldier who is part of the crew on the Rickenbacker....When Looking Glass studios went into liquidation the future of the series became very uncertain, with a true sequel now looking very unlikely. A spiritual successor, in the form of BioShock from Irrational Games, is due in 2006." Any games you want to see resurrected?

Comments

Custers Revenge

[Gr33nNight]

Yes I will take a sequel to one of the best games of all time: http://www.classicgaming.com/rotw/custer.shtml Custers Revenge

Re:Custers Revenge

[evil-osm]

I second that, and throw in a vote for Pong myself.

Re:Custers Revenge

[hunterx11]

I don't think the current political climate lends itself to releasing a new AO-rated game.

Re:Custers Revenge

[goodenoughnickname]

It could probably pass for M if they kept the penis 3 pixels long.

On second thought, given the higher resolutions games are in today, that would be rather embarrassing.

Re:Custers Revenge

[Neo-Rio-101]

Damn, that was the best joke I could come up with for this article, and not only did you get first post but you got to the joke first!

Chrono Trigger

[n1ywb]

Nuff said.

Re:Chrono Trigger

[PhosterPharms]

While that sounds nice, remember ChronoCross for PlayStation? It was certainly an okay game, but it was no where near as good as ChronoTrigger. I peronally think that they should leave CT alone and let it bask in the limelight as the greatest RPG ever made, rather than cheapen its legacy by pushing out shoddy sequals.

Re:Chrono Trigger

[Flendon]

ChronoTrigger had to be one of the greatest games ever. Talk about replayability. I went through almost all the different endings and was still craving more. If only modern games were that good.

Re:Chrono Trigger

[PhoenixFlare]

While that sounds nice, remember ChronoCross for PlayStation? It was certainly an okay game, but it was no where near as good as ChronoTrigger.

If you think of Chrono Cross as a sort of side story, rather than a direct sequel, I find that it's really a pretty good game. If you're expecting "Chrono Trigger 2", then you need to modify your expectations a bit.

I peronally think that they should leave CT alone and let it bask in the limelight as the greatest RPG ever made, rather than cheapen its legacy by pushing out shoddy sequals.

Considering what was left open regarding all the original characters besides Robo, i'd say there's plenty of room for one more game.

It's clear

[Saiyine]

Tomb Raider! God knows world needs another one!
Would it be the seventh?

Or another Mario. Mario 128!

--
Dreamhost superb hosting.
Kunowalls!!! Random sexy wallpapers (NSFW!).

Re:It's clear

[dbhankins]

Yes, Tomb Raider 7, and it's coming: Tomb Raider Legends.

Re:It's clear

[Poltras]

I actually put some hope in this one, since IIRC the original creator went back to work for eidos...

Re:It's clear

[Anonymous Coward]

If there's going to be a Tomb Raider style game, I'd much rather it be a new Prince of Persia
(although hopefully with a better overall design than the last one).

Re:It's clear

[koi88]

Yes, Tomb Raider 7, and it's coming: Tomb Raider Legends.

No. Of course it will be: Tomb Raider begins.

Re:It's clear

[Meagermanx]

If they would just redo the control and combat portions of the game, it would be fine. I mean, really, you have dual analog sticks for a reason.

Re:It's clear

[Meagermanx]

That's pretty much what Tomb Raider is.
Crappy controls? Check.
Lots of cave-like environments? Check.
Dumb as hell combat? Check.
Anything we left out? Oh, yeah, throw some dinosaurs, guns, and a chick with big tits in there.
Gentlemen, I think our design is complete.

fallout!

[hammeredpeon]

i want fallout 3. plus, unlike probably everyone else, i want it to be a single player game because i can't have a mmorpg ruining my life :)

Re:fallout!

[goodenoughnickname]

Oh, it'll be single player. But you don't mind first person shooters, right?

Re:fallout!

[Anonymous Coward]

i want fallout 3. plus, unlike probably everyone else, i want it to be a single player game because i can't have a mmorpg ruining my life

Hadn't you heard? Bethesda's doing it. And what do they specialise in? Why, I do believe it's massive single-player RPGs!

Re:fallout!

[Meagermanx]

I want a Pen-&-Paper Fallout. They could include the rules in the box of Fallout 3. They could steal the simple rules of the Unisystem, and it would get lots of non-gamers gaming.

Final Fantasy Tactics?

[metroid composite]

Hmm...lots of PC and Sega games on that list....

The one game I can think of which really needs a sequel is FFT. And no: FFTA doesn't count.

Re:Final Fantasy Tactics?

[skreeech]

Yes this would be great. They could just set it before or after the lion war a few hundred years.

KOTOR3

[iced_773]

Give it MMO. I know LucasArts didn't want it to compete with Star Wars Galaxies, but from what I hear, SWG sucked (Disclaimer: I have never played SWG myself).

Re:KOTOR3

[nocomment]

If you're talking about classic games you'd like to see again, AND lucasarts in the same paragraph, you MUST always talk of Monkey Island and nothing else. :-D

Re:KOTOR3

[tepp]

If you're talking about classic games you'd like to see again, AND lucasarts in the same paragraph, you MUST always talk of Monkey Island and nothing else. :-D

Loom, Loom, Loom, Loom, Loom, Loom, and LOOM!

Re:KOTOR3

[Gothic_Walrus]

1. Knights of the Old Republic isn't a classic game. It's two years old. You can't make a "comeback" when the franchise hasn't vanished.
2. The game was praised for its storyline. Taking it MMO would rob the game of that, causing it to lose what might have been its strongest point.
3. Star Wars Galaxies is still active, with another expansion pack on the way. Lucasarts won't compete with that, as there's no need to.

And finally, saying that something "sucks" when you haven't experienced it is a sign of stupidity. Your opinion isn't valid because you don't know what you're talking about, so please don't share it.

Re:KOTOR3

[Gothic_Walrus]

You forgot Grim Fandango.

And Maniac Mansion.

And Sam and Max.

And...hell, let's just give them ALL sequels! :)

Re:KOTOR3

[tulak_horde]

Ah, but there are an awful lot of us waiting for KOTOR 3. They'd better come up with it.

Re:KOTOR3

[Leiterfluid]

He didn't say it was his opinion. He clearly stated he was parroting what he had heard from others. I don't think you leave yourself a lot of room to be talking about signs of stupdity. Therefore, the last statement in your comment can be clearly reflected back on you.

Re:KOTOR3

[Gothic_Walrus]

And that makes it any better?

Thinking for yourself won't kill you, you know. If you believe everything that you're told, then you're a fool.

Whether or not the opinion is actually his, there still isn't much grounds to talk about it when you haven't played the game yourself.

Re:KOTOR3

[2008]

And how do you decided what games to spend your limited time evaluating without taking other people's opinions into account*?
It's that or the box art.

*Attempting to compensate for their biases and your tastes, naturally...

Re:KOTOR3

[Pxtl]

Not to mention Lucas Arts' short list of non-Star-Wars action games.

Metal Warriors. Good god, we need a new Metal Warriors. Best. Patformer. EVAR!.

And ball blazer. Ball Blazer Champions was a fantastic PS1 game marred by laggy controls.

More SS2

[grub]

System Shock 2 was amazing (as was the original) but we need MORE THIEF!

Re:More SS2

[thirty2bit]

I'll second the Thief series. And I'll argue until blue in the face that Deadly Shadows sucked. Of all the games I own, Thief I and II, System Shock and Shadowman (Acclaim) are the only ones getting replays.

Looking Glass Studios were true artists. I'd like to see them recognized and reborn some day.

Re:More SS2

[grub]

I didn't dislike Deadly Shadows but it sure felt like "Thief in a Cheap Suit" The graphics were beautiful but the gameplay with 'zones' and claustrophobic settings really hurt it ie.: compare the size of any DS level with Life of the Party from T2. The real gem of DS was The Shalebridge Cradle. That level scared the crap out of me.

Thanks for mentioning Shadowman, I'll check that out.

Re:More SS2

[thirty2bit]

I didn't dislike Deadly Shadows but it sure felt like "Thief in a Cheap Suit"

Aye, that's a much better way to term it than "sucked", which I agree was too harshly put.

"The Cradle" mission was scary as all get-up, but the rest of it felt sophmore-ish. There wasn't much emphasis put on looting as in the other Thief games, but more as a necessity to find goods in order to trade and get supplies. The constant tension of the growing plot detracted from the feel of 'Thief', which in the other games progressed more slowly. And I didn't care for politics between factions- it doesn't seem in Garrett's nature to kiss any faction's ass in order to pass freely through territories. Maybe the purist "sneaks" enjoyed the challenge of trying to make it through levels without getting immediately spotted and trod upon, but with the narrow alleys and minimal hiding spots, it was more of a race to get by. I was highly disappointed in DS.

Shadowman has underrated audio that will cause you a nightmare or two- gruesome sounds, especially the dentist drills in the nursery. The plot is surreal, deep, and very unique. Graphics are good, and the scenery alien and disturbing in a bizarre way- such that typical gameplay elements (keys, doors, mechanisms etc) don't feel rehashed.

Acclaim promised a Shadowman 2 that didn't see light on the PC, and I've been waiting to enjoy that nightmare for years.

"Do you know where I can find sailors?" "Sailors?"

[Otter]

Is there really someone out there eager for Shenmue 3 on the XBox 360?!?!?

SS2 where cryokenetic monkeys freeze your @ss

[doorbender]

SS2 should just be re-released with new models and higher bit count textures.

thats my 2 cents.

My favorite mod of travel was invisible with a pyro sphere around me. The thing I would forget to look out for was falling debris from stuff getting burnt.

Re:SS2 where cryokenetic monkeys freeze your @ss

[Datamonstar]

Damn, I thought you were talking about Samurai Showdown 2. We need more arcade-perfect ports of old-school fighting games.

Re:SS2 where cryokenetic monkeys freeze your @ss

[Luigi30]

SS2 upgraded models

Re:SS2 where cryokenetic monkeys freeze your @ss

[radicalskeptic]

Hells yes. And of the ones that *are* released, many don't even make it to the US market (Darkstalkers Collection, Guilty Gear X2 #Reload for the PS2... I'm looking at you!)

Re:SS2 where cryokenetic monkeys freeze your @ss

[Lisandro]

I said it before and i'll say it again:

    1) Remake SS2 using the Doom 3 engine. Just port the levels and peep up the graphics a bit.
    2) Pick a price and sell it.
    3) Profit! I'd pay anything. A lot of us would.

Re:SS2 where cryokenetic monkeys freeze your @ss

[doorbender]

I'd trade my truck for a level editor. (since I'd never leave the house again I wouldn't need it)

I DLed the thief level editor after seeing they used the same engine but it was too much work and took me away from the game so I don't know if it actually worked.

Re:SS2 where cryokenetic monkeys freeze your @ss

[doorbender]

Thanks for the link Luigi

Old franchises

[RogueyWon]

That's not a particularly bad list; System Shock, Magic Carpet, X-Com and maybe Syndicate are all ripe for a return. The others don't strike me as great choices, though. The series I'd really like to see return would be:

X-Wing and Wing Commander series: Freespace was nothing more than an inferior knock-off of these. I'd particularly like to see the old X-Wing games resurrected. The Rogue Squadron games we have now are ok... they're among the few Cube games really worth playing... but they're far too arcadey for my tastes. A decent, tactical space-flight sim would make me very happy. On the Wing Commander front, I'd love to see a new Privateer.

Aliens vs. Predator: The PS2/X-Box RTS was, quite frankly, shite. However, this is still a franchise that has a lot of potential. Imagine a version of this done on the Doom 3 engine. Hell, cut the Predator out if you want and just make it an Aliens game. With the technological capabilities of the next gen, this should be scary as hell.

Star Control: Star Control 2 remains one of my favorite Sci-Fi RPGs of all time, not least because of the fantastic arcade-style combat. The third installment sucked, but that's no reason why we couldn't have a remake or another sequel on decent hardware.

Streets of Rage: Don't get me wrong, the current generation of consoles has had some great action beat-em-ups, with God of War standing out as perhaps the best example, but I do miss the old side-scrollers. Feel free to substitute Final Fight instead if that was more your thing.

Ultima: PLEASE can we have a new Ultima game (that isn't a MMORPG). We'll forgive you Ultima 9. Just bring back the vast game-worlds and complex ethical systems. Do this right, with a decent interface and combat system, and you could easily get something to rival the Final Fantasy series. Also, while we're at it, can we have a new Ultima Underworld please?

Gunship: What ever happened to all the helicopter games? Gunship 2000 was one of my favorite fight-sims ever, but the genre just seems to have vanished. I wouldn't even mind seeing a more arcadey version of this.

Re:Old franchises

[syrinx]

Was going to post for more Star Control. I say just ignore SC3, it never happened. A real sequel to SC2 would be amazing.

Re:Old franchises

[Prophet of Nixon]

If you liked Streets of Rage, go search for Zombie Smashers X2. Its an absolutely awesome game of the same sort, except you get to maul zombies, vampires, ninjas, pirates, nazis, vampire nazis, robots, etc. Incredible game. Needs a gamepad to really play right though. I think the game is at www.totallyscrewed.net, but I'm not certain at the moment.

Re:Old franchises

[RogueyWon]

Of course, if we can't have a new Star Control game, we could always hope for the next best thing. A sports-spinoff:

Frungy-Bowl 2006!

Man, the ZoqFotPik were cool :)

Re:Old franchises

[Anonymous Coward]

Freespace was a superior knockoff, you mean. The game had better controls, better graphics, better physics, better multiplayer and better missions than either Wing Commander or X-wing. The capital ships were larger and far more menacing, the action didn't degenerate into "your fighter vs. their army" and for all the complaints of the story being derivative of Wing Commander: Prophecy, Freespace 2 had a very involving and atmospheric story, and didn't rely on the horribly acted video scenes that plagued the fifth Wing Commander game.

Re:Old franchises

[martone66]

If you loved Star Control 2, check out The Ur-Quan Masters.

Re:Old franchises

[RogueyWon]

Hmm... I disagree completely here.

In terms of gameplay mechanics, Freespace was closer to the Wing Commander school than the X-Wing. I always preferred the X-Wing style of combat. It was slower, needed more tactical thinking and more careful use of your wingmen and simulated large battles involving multiple capital ships better. After the original X-Wing game, it was very rarely a case of "your ship against the entire enemy fleet". In TIE Fighter and XW:Aliance, you're usualy going into battle with friendly capital ship support. You needed to use every system on your fighter well to beat the harder missions and power allocation was something that needed to be tweaked constantly. The battles felt far more organic than any other space-flight sim's and there was a much greater degree of background detail in the missions, when they occur in a busy area of space. Having unrelated freighter convoys passing through the area, docking and even fighting each other while you're involved in another fight adds a real level of immersion.

Wing Commander combat had always been faster and shallower, from the original game through to Prophecy. The afterburner feature, along with the very high rate of fire on the guns, contributed to a style of dogfighting that was much more spray and pray than X-Wing's more considered dogfighting. In terms of gameplay, there isn't much to set Wing Commander Prophecy and Freespace 2 apart. Both of them feel and look almost identical. Power allocation etc only need to be tweaked from the default settings on a very few missions. The only real differences between the games were that Prophecy had better cutscenes/plot (and yes, I actually quite like the whole FMV-cutscene thing), while Freespace's capital ships fired big lasers at each other (with little real effect on gameplay). On balance, I'd take the cutscenes.

Re:Old franchises

[blincoln]

X-Wing and Wing Commander series: Freespace was nothing more than an inferior knock-off of these.

Wing Commander was before I got into PC gaming (Apple IIe/Amiga Forever). I did play X-Wing/TIE Fighter though, and I thought exactly the opposite. Freespace was superior to them both. It had a better story (because it didn't have to fit in-between SW movies), it had better design (the ships designed specifically for the XW/TF games are AWFUL, and lack all of the artistry of the film designs), and it was more fun to play.

Re:Old franchises

[thebroken]

Freespace was much more than an "inferior knockoff" as you would put it. By saying that, you are taking a lot away from two truly great games. Freespace: The Great War did things never done before. Huge capital ships combined with very polished graphics and plot. It had a great interface, great plot buildup, and the whole thing was the right sort of "experience" that you can only get from a very select few games. Freespace 2 was one of the best sequels ever created. Not only did it remain true to its fans, it added so much stuff that people wanted. Beam weapons, GREAT nebula effects, and GIANT capital ships. People would say graphics isnt everything but combined with the great plot and true 360 degrees of freedom in endless space, it was again, another great experience. While hardcore X-Wing fans may call it "inferior", in the minds of many it is easily the equal, and even superior. It does belong on that list, simply because after Descent3, it was the only thing left carrying the Descent name, and some of its gameplay.

Re:Old franchises

[dsparil]

The situation with Star Control is really weird. Accolade, now part of Infogrames, owned the name Star Control but nothing else. Toys for Bob, the developer and just recently bought by Activision, owned everything else.

There are two possible things that could happen. The first is that a Star Control 4 from Infogrames is made but won't feature anything from the other games except the new stuff from SC3. Odds are that it'll be terrible. The second possibility is that Activision publishes a sequel to SC2, but with a completely different name and never mentioning the others by name. The non-SC fan will be completely confused causing the game to sell terribly.

There was a Star Control 4 in developement under the name StarCon. It was supposed to be released on the PC and PSX, but not much was shown before it was canceled. Link

Re:Old franchises

[Anonymous Coward]

If you want to continue the Descent series, then say as much. That's what this thread is all about. Personally, I'd see Descent as a much worthier candidate for resurrection than Freespace, not least because Descent (in the first two games) was indisputably at the top of its genre. With Freespace, as the debate here shows, the pecking order was much more blurred.

In fact, the Descent series (or at least, gameplay style) is absolutely ripe for a resurrection. I played Descent 2 again recently on a dualshock-ripoff controller for my PC and I can honestly say that it was far superior to any control system I tried back when the game was still new. The left stick controls yaw and pitch, the right stick strafes, shoulder buttons roll, X and Square acclerate and reverse, Circle and Triangle fire guns and missiles respectively and the D-pad changes weapons. When I think back to how I used to struggle with dual-joystick, joystick-and-keyboard, mouse-and-keyboard and all the other control options, I could weep. Now that I've actually figured out how to play the genre, it'd be nice to have some new examples to play.

Re:Old franchises

[xtieburn]

I have completed both Freespace and Prophecy and on reflection I think Prophecy was a better game it had everything freespace had only faster and more interesting weapondary. The story line of both games was similar and pretty much besides the point of flying around killing stuff. However, Freespace 2 is a different matter. The big lasers those ships fire are for a reason. The whole world around you was revealing a story. At its core its gameplay is no different to the others its the fact that you are now part of a bigger story that makes the game. I wasnt just clocking up kills (While often getting hugely annoyed by my incompetant wingmen.) I am now part of epic events that you can only hope to sway with your part of them. In short the immersion in the Freespace world defies any space sim made. With the gameplay in this genre secured since X-Wing its this that makes it the greatest space shooter so far made. As for X-Wing thats an all time classic I wouldnt dare compare it to anything else.

Re:Old franchises

[murky_lurker]

Space Rangers 2 feels really close to SC in spirit. I've been playing a lot of the first Space Rangers game and it's a mishmash of Elite, Star Control, with an arcade shooter and text adventures thrown in. It's pretty splendid, though not strictly speaking a real sequel.
The problem is its quite a pain to order.. I hope my SR2 ships soon :P

Re:Old franchises

[Pxtl]

Amen. Descent could kick ass, especially now that vehicular PC games have cought on. Descent 3 was a disappointment - I found I preferred Acclaim's tacky Forsaken as a sequel.

Personally, I'd like to see them do with Descent what was done with the Quake/Unreal series - make a multiplayer-oriented title. Descent Gladiators, or something. Do the usual DM, replace CTF with Destroy Enemy Reactor, and do an Assault-style gametype based on the classic single-player maps. Maybe do a team-fortress style thing where you play as robots.

MUDs?

[Thunderstruck]

Console systems can now be connected to the internet. How long before I can get a good MUD client for my X-box? I'd even settle for raw telnet if I could program the controller buttons. If anything needs to be "resurrected" its MUDs.

(Proudly NOT playing graphical MMORPGs since 1975)

Re:MUDs?

[williecdog]

You already can--if you have a modded xbox. The Avalaunch dashboard has a telnet client built in. It would be hell to enter in characters using the controller, however.

Re:MUDs?

[Qzukk]

> N
You go north.
You are in a dark alleyway in Lag Central. Trash litters the ground. There is a trashcan here.
There is a small lag beast here.
There is a small lag beast here.
The King of Lag is here.Oh Shit

ABCD

The King of Lag attacks!
The King of Lag's bite hurts you!
EFGcome on, come on

The King of Lag's bite wounds you!
The small lag beast attacks!
The small lag beast's bite taps you!
HIJKhurry!

The King of Lag's bite wounds you!
The small lag beast attacks!
The small lag beast's bite taps you!
The small lag beast's bite scratches you!
LMNOno! Arrr faster!
The small lag beast's bite bounces off your armor!
The small lag beast's bite scratches you!
The King of Lag's bite CREAMS you!
PQRalmost!
The small lag beast's bite scratches you!
S! made it! Barely...
> S
You go south. You leave a trail of blood behind you.
A small lag beast arrives from the North.
A small lag beast attacks!
The small lag beast's bite scratches you!
You have been killed by the small lag beast.
Nooooooo!

Jagged Alliance 3

[The_Dougster]

Jagged Alliance 3 and 3D are supposedly in the works.

Shenmue III

[MBCook]

I can't WAIT for Shenmue III. If you haven't played the first 2, you've missed great games. They give it a 60% chance of happening. But I saw a link from Penny-Arcade saying that they've had it ready for this generation, but they are holding it for the next gen consoles and may even release the thing as one big game with all 12 chapters (which would include the first and second games).

Other than that, it's been a while, so how 'bout a new Adventures of LoLo game.

Re:Shenmue III

[superpulpsicle]

That game put sega over the budget single handedly. It costed them millions to make Shenmue.

Yet only a small handful or people even played it. The shenmue mp3 available on overclock remix is great. If they released a 12 chapter, I'll be interested even for the actual game music alone.

Yes! Shenmue gets a mention

[PhotoBoy]

I was beginning to think everyone had forgotten about Shenmue, Pro-G's prediction that it has a 60% chance of returning is encouraging too. I know there's Shenmue Online but that sounds like it's China only and it's not really a "proper" Shenmue game. I've stopped replaying Shenmue I + II as it's so sad to get to the end of II and know there's every chance I won't find out how the story ends...

I'd also add that NiGHTS is begging for a sequel too, personally I think a DS version could work really well using a tilt sensor cart like the one Nintendo used with Wario Ware Twisted.

It's a somewhat depressing sign how many great Sega titles are in that list. Sega haven't been releasing the same quantity of excellent games like that since the Dreamcast. :(

Re:Yes! Shenmue gets a mention

[radish]

Do you know where Sailors hang out? Where can i find Sailors?

Shenmue III

[zenintrude]

As far as Shenmue III is concerned, look no further.

It's complete and ready for a system.

with every generation, our pleas get weaker

[Alzheimers]

...but we still ask...

Please, Nintendo, give us a Kid Icarus sequel! Look what it's sister silver label game, Metroid, has become

Give Pit a chance! Let us wage war against the evil Medusa and her army of Eggplant Wizards and Grim Reapers again! Let us seek treasure and avoid the God of Poverty in our quest for mallets, hearts, feathers, wallets and bottles barrels!

You can do it!

Re:with every generation, our pleas get weaker

[kaptron]

and while they're at it... Ice Climbers and Wrecking Crew! They did bring Ice Climbers back in Super Smash Bros Melee, that was pretty funny.

I would definitely buy the Revolution if they starting whipping up old NES remakes like nobody's business... I think that's been said by everyone on /. at least once.

Re:with every generation, our pleas get weaker

[Anonymous Coward]

I WANT PUNCH OUT DAMNIT!!

That and a New Star Fox game that doesn't suck.

Re:with every generation, our pleas get weaker

[Guppy06]

They did. Kid Icarus II was for the old four-color Game Boy, and it came out maybe a few months after Metroid II.

Not a bad list...

[sesshomaru]

Well, the people who made Ecco the Dolphin are making a Jaws game that I think will play sort of similar to what an Ecco game would, except of course you are Jaws the shark rather than a dolphin.

As to Syndicate, I'd like to see a next gen successor to Shadowrun which I really liked on the Genesis, they sound sort of similar in concept.

I'm taking a wait and see attitude toward Bio-Shock, maybe Call of Cthuhlu:Dark Corners of the Earth will be better. Either way it won't fill the void left by the absence of my love, SHODAN.

Actually, this is a very good list, all games that look like good choices.

Re:Not a bad list...

[smbarbour]

Actually, there is supposedly going to be a FPS Shadowrun on XBox 360. If you look up Shadowrun in Wikipedia, it says it was announced in July.

It's actually kinda funny. FASA sold the Shadowrun properties in the early 90's and Microsoft bought FASA after that. (That's why all the recent Battletech games are on the XBox or for Windows)

Re:Not a bad list...

[Shadarr]

FPS huh? What a complete waste of the franchise.

Re:Not a bad list...

[mink]

Humm, my favorite thing about Ecco games was the music and "exploration" feel. I wonder if they can create just as an enjoyable game from the perspective of a shark.

It's you SHODAN lovers that sold humanity down the pike.

One thing I always did was talk back to her in both games. The reason I did was because she reminds me a Dalek. Sure her and her monsters are technologically advanced but, either can't defend against a "pathetic creature of meat and bone" or needs the services of the above. If you are so technologically advanced why don't you come down here and stop me or do whatever inane tasks yourself.

I think SHODAN is one of the most memorable, well written, and well voice acted villains from a video game.

I missed the elevator music from SS1, getting in an elevator in that game was like stepping into another world, where you were safe and free from the hell of the station.

Funny thing about SS2 is that early on I had a feeling the person helping me was not a live human or was SHODAN. Mostly because I didn't believe someone else could be accessing systems and hiding out effectively considering what my character as well armed as it was had to go through.

I still freaked out when upon discovering the body of my "helper" and the walls turning into displays showing SHODAN. I wasted a clip from whatever automatic rifle I had at the time. The only other time I got that jumpy in a game was when I played AVP2 the first time and was in the level as a marine, before you actually encounter/fight aliens. I wish more games could do as well as these have.

Full Throttle

[VersatilePrimate]

I wonder if Lucas Arts will ever revive the Full Throttle franchise. They were planning a sequel and then squashed it. It was a sad day for gamer-kind

Re:Full Throttle

[kaptron]

yeah, and they squashed the Sam and Max sequel too! Such teases!

At least Tim Schafer (Full Throttle creator) is running his own studio now (Double Fine), Psychonauts was a fun game with an interesting, quirky story and the dialogue actually made me laugh a few times (so rare in games these days).

Re:Full Throttle

[Lisandro]

I still cry because of LucasArts cancelling the S&M sequel...

Star Flight

[Shivetya]

I haven't seen its equal since the day it came out.

Three others that I remember fondly..

Wing Commander

Privateer (subsequent versions weren't)

XCOM : TFTD

Re:Star Flight

[Thrymm]

I agree, I never had a chance to play Star Flight on the PC, but did have the Sega Genesis version and loved it! Mining planets, selling your goods to upgrade ship, break out past your solar system to explore and solve the Ancient's riddle!

Pure genius!

Also Privateer was a great space pirate/merchant game as well, allowing you to experience what is going on during the Kilrathi War without being in the military!

Also a new Grim Fandango would be awesome... more Manny please, although I have heard LucasArts/Games doesnt make much money off these very creative games...

NiGHTS: into dreams

[Stormwatch]

Best. Game. EVER.

Re:NiGHTS: into dreams

[kaptron]

wowwww..... I totally forgot about NiGHTS. Believe it or not, I actually played it on Sega Channel (along with VectorMan), the old subscription service where you could download Genesis games over cable. I think it lasted for like 3 days.

Re:NiGHTS: into dreams

[Anonymous Coward]

That's pretty cool, considering it was a sega Saturn release.

Re:NiGHTS: into dreams

[kaptron]

ah lol... I must have been thinking of a different game on Sega Channel. I did play Nights though. The problem is, I had 32X and Saturn and I like to pretend that neither ever existed. I apologize for the confusion.

Re:NiGHTS: into dreams

[aderack]

That's pretty impressive, considering it was a Saturn game.

XCOM

[Thalin]

A true XCOM, in the style of UFO and TFTD. None of that shooter stuff, turn/squad based strategy FTW.

Nintendo

[MajikMan]

Maybe it's just me, but several of the games they listed aren't really in comeback position, as they've already done so. I'd love to see a new Punhcout game made...I loved the first two.

Also - I want another Earthbound! I'm not an RPG player generally, but I spent hours playing Earthbound.

Re:Nintendo

[tratch]

When the GameCube got the bongos it was practically begging for Punch-Out!! I never understood why they didn't capitalize on the nostalgia factor there.

Re:Nintendo

[porcupine8]

I'd love to get a chance to play earthbound - I didn't hear about it til the past couple of years, and I just can't bring myself to shell out $30-50 for a SNES game. And of course, the one place I've found that still rents out SNES games didn't have it.

I'm hoping they include the original in the download options for Revolution, but a sequel would rock too! (Well, I assume it would, having never actually played the original...)

Re:Nintendo

[kaens]

What, you've never heard of an emulator? Go get yourself ZSNES and FCEUltra, then you can play all the Earthbound (and Earthbound Zero) that you want.

Re:Nintendo

[miyako]

I've seen copies of Earthbound selling for around $25-$30, but never as high as $50. It's definitely worth the money though. If you can find it, pick up a copy of the original guide book that shipped with the game, it's invaluable the first time you play through for a couple of the areas.
For anyone who's never had the chance to play Earthbound, it's really one of the most clever RPGs to have ever been released. It takes place in a modern setting, like the 1990's. It's sort of a sci-fi spoof, it's humor is largely based on parodies and breaking the Fourth Wall. While it does a good job of making fun of itself, it still manages to be a fairly fun game. It's not the most challenging RPG available, though some areas can be a real pain if you don't have a guide.
You can get more information on Earthbound at Starmen.net.
And if you haven't figgured it out, Earthbound is one of my favorite games of all time :)

Re:Nintendo

[porcupine8]

I have a policy of no games on my computer (aside from the occasional Yahoo game or text-based) - if I installed an emulator on this thing, I'd never do anything else. I'm bad enough about websurfing when I should be working as it is. Consoles are for gaming, computers are for... reading slashdot.

Re:Nintendo

[kaens]

That's a good point. Well...if you have a dreamcast, you could download the emulator and roms and burn them to a cd, delete them from your comp and play them on the dreamcast. If you don't have a dreamcast, buying one to do this would probably be easier than buying an snes/nes and trying to get all the games on cartridge.

Re:Nintendo

[davidsmind]

I want to throw in my support for the resurrection of earthbound. It's simply a great and hugely underrated game.

DuckHunt

[tenderrage]

DuckHunt with a shotgun and have more types of animals to hunt. Mabe team up with the makers of Big Buck Hunter?

Parasite Eve

[techstar25]

Parasite Eve.

My List...

[dbhankins]

...of wanted but unlikely next-gen franchises:

- Aliens vs. Predator - but with Rebellion's wandering/patrolling enemies instead of AvP2's more standard room-entry-triggered ones.
- Bushido Blade - only fighting game I ever liked.
- Colony Wars
- Crimson Skies
- Descent
- Deus Ex
- Duke Nukem 3D
- Freelancer
- Frontier (Elite II)
- Fear Effect
- Freespace
- Jet Set Radio
- Marble Madness
- Mercury
- No One Lives Forever
- Privateer
- Spider-Man (the corny one with Stan Lee narration, not the new movie-based ones)
- Star Trek DS9: The Fallen
- Star Wars X-Wing (simulators not Rogue Squadron or Starfighter)
- Starlancer
- Tron (sequel to Killer App)
- Unreal (SP, not the Tournament stuff)
- Wing Commander

If next-gen systems came with decent pointing devices (eraser-mouse (like on laptops between g and h on keyboard) would do fine), I'd add the following game franchises:

- Black and White
- Command and Conquer (Tiberian world, not Generals)
- Earth 21x0
- Freedom Force
- Ground Control
- Homeworld
- Star Trek Starfleet Command
- Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds
- Starcraft
- Total Annihilation

Re:My List...

[Anonymous Coward]

...eraser-mouse (like on laptops between g and h on keyboard) would do fine...

Analog sticks? Standard since the dreamcast, and around before that. Gamecube's "c-stick" in particular is basically identical. And I wouldn't really want to play an RTS with one.

Re:My List...

[dbhankins]

No, not analog sticks.

There's a big difference between the pressure-sensitive stickmouse and a position-sensitive analog stick.

I've used both, and the stickmouse offers two significant benefits over the analog stick:

- finer control without having to move anything. It's not the position of the stickmouse (it doesn't move), but rather how hard you push it. And you can tap the stickmouse for click/drag, you don't have to move a button.

- stickmouse is placed under index finger rather than thumb. The index finger can provide finer control than the thumb.

Elite

[Asprin]

<BR>Elite/Elite Plus -- The greatest game(s) ever written.<BR><BR>

P.S. This should be a poll.<BR>

Re:Elite

[Anonymous Coward]

You know, they said the original Elite was pretty fronty. But Elite 2 is ... Frontier!

Re:Elite

[andyh1978]

Elite 4 is alledgedly in progress. Then again that page hasn't changed in quite a while...

Re:Elite

[asretfroodle]

I missed Elite, started with Frontier on the Amiga. Didn't experience the crashing though (not that I recall anyway).

Hardwar was a reasonably interesting game that reminded me of the gameplay in Frontier.

The X series of games could also be worth a look, there's a new one - X3:Reunion - due for release later in the year.

Re:Elite

[xTown]

Have you tried Escape Velocity: Nova from Ambrosia Software? It's a pretty worthy successor, and moddable to boot.

Oh, two more: Dungeon Master and Ultima Underworld

[Asprin]

Dungeon Master and Ultima Underworld.

I think DM had the greatest spellcasting system ever, and Underworld (except for the typically Ultima-an "run an errand for the lackey" storyline) was a blast, too.

Just keep 'em rolling....

[kaptron]

Here's a few more:
-Elevator Action
-Bionic Commando
-Ikari Warriors
-Baseball Stars (baseball video games used to be fun!)
For some reason I'm only thinking of NES games right now.

On a related note, Capcom is remaking Final Fight, that rocks! From the looks of it, Haggar is not going to be in it, which sucks. He was the best/most ridiculous looking main character. HIS SHIRT WAS A BELT! And he was the mayor, so you knew he meant business when he took up the streets to kick some ass.

Re:Just keep 'em rolling....

[vandelais]

Gotta second Bionic Commando.
That game was fun.

An old arcade game called Frontline was pretty good too.

Atomic Bomberman

Atari--Maze Craze. That game for Atari was really fun.

Double Dragon

[Jaguar777]

And why does everything have to be 3D now? Why can't we just have a good side scroller?

Re:Double Dragon

[Marc_Hawke]

Watch this movie about the new Motral Kombat

http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=7013

To me that seems exactly like the 'next generation' of the side-scrollers like Double Dragon and Bad Dudes.

Yes! A Kid Icarus Sequel Would Be Teh R0xx0rz!

[Anonymous Coward]

I loved that game, and I can't believe they have never even attempted turning it into a full-fledged franchise.

Loom.

[tepp]

Loom.

I really want a sequel to Loom. I'm not kidding.

After you turn into a swan and fly past the remains of the shattered world into the constellation, WHAT HAPPENS TO THE WORLD??? WHAT HAPPENS TO THE GHOST OF YOUR DEAD FRIEND!!!!

LucasArts, you let me down.

A battlecry for obscurity

[Iriel]

I want to see Septera Core 2. I doubt too many people here have even played it, much less beat the game, but the ending leaves the entire thing wide open for a sequel and the story was extremely intesting.

I loved the fact that it had a semi-fantasy element, but a slight future punk side to it as well. It's almost like Gotham City in Batman, where you can never really tell (unless you're watching the later series') whether the whole timeline is supposed to be in the past or the future. Sure, some of the voice acting could use some work, but what game couldn't? And as far as that's concerned, the voices in SC were better than those in most of the games I played at that time.

Perhaps the two things that intrigued me the most about the technical aspects went like this:

At a time when everyone was getting on the 3D bandwaggon, trying to make polygons look less like polygons, SC instead went for detailed 2D simulated in a 3D sort of plane (kind of like Fallout). Instead of working on getting more polygons, they improved the look of their 2D graphics and worked around that.

And the sound, while the overworld music was great, and the battle music (as with almost any game still) could get annoying, many of the normal 'stages' didn't have music at all. But they did have the appropriate sound effects. When your entire house is dark and nobody else is home, those sounds can begin to creep you out after a few hours of play. I loved the ambience in the game.

Overall, we need Septera Core 2

Gunstar Heroes

[arson1]

Gunstar Heroes. Greatest game ever.

Re:Gunstar Heroes

[jclast]

There is a sequel to Gunstar Heroes coming out...just not for the next generation of consoles.

Gunstar Super Heroes

Re:Gunstar Heroes

[apoc06]

i agree, gunstar heroes [as do most games released by treasure] had more "soul" than most games in its genre. the only other company that comes close is i guess... working designs? both formerly sega only companies.

the sad thing about working designs is that they have been caught up in re-releasing lunar games for almost every platform since the segaCD.

unfortunately, treasure only releases its excellent side scrollers on GBA. how about a fullscale next gen game from treasure? thats what i want!!!! a rebirth of 2d? i can see it now: god of war with only guns! and all bosses!!!!

Re:Gunstar Heroes

[dsyu]

Well, Treasure did do the recent Gradius V for the PS2, which was pretty sweet for all old-school Gradius fans.

EVO

[i64X]

I was a huge fan of EVO from ENIX for the SNES. A lot of people I know loved this game. A graphically intense 3D sequel with thousands of possibilities as to what you could do to your characters would be pretty sweet. I stll go back and play through this game sometimes... the gameplay isn't very deep, but it's something fun that you can pick up and put down.

MDK

[Eil]

One of my favorite PC games of all time was MDK. It's one of those games that wasn't really revolutionary in any one particular way. The graphics weren't the prettiest even by the standards of the time, but they were still rather slick.

After you play through the first few levels, you sit back and think to youself, "Wow, that was fun. Gimme more." I downloaded the demo one morning before going to school and played about 30 minutes of it. The rest of the day was spent reliving those excellent 30 minutes over and over again.

There was an MDK 2, but IIRC, it wasn't done by Shiny and far less memorable. The original was a twisted, bizarre world with amusing enemies that could crush you dead if you took a wrong step.

David Perry, if you're out there, we want another MDK!

Re:MDK

[Soul-Burn666]

Too bad it was EXTREMELY short. Only 6 levels?
I finished it the day I bought it, twice.

Great game tho, except for being far too short.

Fallout 3

[PIPBoy3000]

Fortunately, they've already begun pre-production on it. I'm guessing that Bethesda will start seriously working on it after Oblivion.

And yes, this is the reason my nick is PIPBoy3000.

AvP idea...

[antdude]

I would like to see a MMORPG version for this. Something like Natural Selection mod meets Alien Online (failed miserably). There would be classes, etc. who must keep win the battles from the other species.

The games I want...

[Blaaguuu]

I would love to see a new Bubble Bobble and Poy Poy game. Two of my favorite games of all time.

Re:The games I want...

[Anonymous Coward]

Bubble bobble revolution has been announced for the DS.

Elite

[spudgun]

I miss Elite , havn't played a good game of elite since I had to sell the C64
Frontier sucked - crashed to much

every other space game is missing somthing, freedom , insect aliens , etc

every elite style game seems to fold ..... or suck
and for some reasion Elite Plus runs a little fast on my P4 , or even on my Celeron 600. ... launch ... oops hit the planet..... *sigh*

an era of nonexistant creativity

[namelessnone]

yeah, lets continue this remake craze forever and ever, lets have Final Fantasy XXVIII, Super Mario Rollecoaster Bubblegum, Splinter Cell Terrorists Forever, Unreal Championship Tour CVII. lets just keep building in the same old IP (intelectual property), never creating something really new and unique again. after all its what the masses want, the same old formula, the same old story, ever and ever afraid to try something new and unique. lets perpetuate this era of nonexistant creativity.

Re:an era of nonexistant creativity

[Dark_Lord_Prime]

Or, even better, let's make this the era of perpetual whiney, overreactive hyperbole and narrow fields of perception!

Really, dude.. get a grip. There are plenty of "new and unique" games out there, and waiting in the wings.

Yes, there is a lot of re-re-rehashed stuff, and it really needs to stop. Too bad it won't, as long as "creativity" is dictated by the quest for cash.

The newer iterations of old franchises are not (usually) "the same old formula" and "the same old story".

Every Final Fantasy game has been different from the previous ones, and only one (that I know of) has actually been a direct sequel to one before it.

Super Mario has always changed and evolved from game to game, adding new and different powers, goals, stories.. Heck, Mario Sunshine was a hell of a leap from Mario 64!

I've only played Splinter Cell 1, so I can't speak to that, but I do know the three of them are by no means "the same game."

The Unreal Tournament/Championship games... what do you expect from an FPS geared specifically toward deathmatching? Shakespearean plots?

Unreal 2 was most definitely not a straight rehash of Unreal.

In short, the fact that they use the same old popular characters in new adventures does not make the games any less "new and unique."

Re:an era of nonexistant creativity

[namelessnone]

Really, dude.. get a grip. There are plenty of "new and unique" games out there, and waiting in the wings.

i wouldnt call a handfull of innovative games made by mostly independent developers "plenty". fortunately we are allowed to have different opinions.

BTW, a quote from a recently posted article from the:

By year's end, Electronic Arts plans to release 26 new games, all but one of them a sequel, including the 16th version of N.H.L. Hockey, the 11th of the racing game Need for Speed and the 13th of the P.G.A. Tour golf game. The company also relies heavily on creating games based on movies like the James Bond and Lord of the Rings series, rather than developing original brands.

another article here, and a couple weeks old /. post here.

My picks

[robson]

1.Ultima. Beloved world and franchise.
2.Freespace. I agree with TFA on all counts.
3.Deus Ex. Let's just forget about Invisible War, okay?
4.Crimson Skies. Get the original (PC) team back. The sequel had none of the character and charm of the original.
5.Disciples. Great turn-based strategy franchise with some beautiful 2d art.

MDK

[tcd004]

Gaming nirvana. Everything just fits together perfectly.

MDK2 wasn't bad either.

Icarus

[Ian_Bailey]

Well, you're not the only one waiting for it...

Wow. What a Paradox.

[GMFTatsujin]

The frosting side of my brain wants a Dungeon Keeper sequel that makes DK2 forgivable. But the shredded wheat side wants to rant about how there's no creativity in the games market anymore!

Then both sides agree to play Evil Genius. Everybody's happy.

Grim Fandango

[Tanmi-Daiow]

Grim Fandango is a great game. I wish they would make a sequel. I would like to see Manny Calavera return.

Re:Grim Fandango

[Hobbitgh0d42]

While I would love to see Manny return, WHY THE HELL IS EVERYONE SUGGESTING SEQUELS? Jesus H. Christ people the original games were good, great even. Why ruin them with sequels...

Re:Grim Fandango

[Tanmi-Daiow]

Yeah, i guess I would prefer a graphical upgrade to the original version than a sequel. As it is, i have seen many media outlets put it on their list of top 50 or 100 games of all time.

Speaking of Looking Glass

[Xian97]

I would also love to see another System Shock, as well as a new Ultima Underworld. I guess Arx Fatalis could be considered a spiritual successor to UU, but I still would like to see a new Ultima Underworld along with a successor. I would also like to see the originals, both of the System Shocks and Ultima Underworlds updated to play on modern PCs with improved graphics and controls. Currently you have to jump through some hoops or use DosBox to get them working.

Magic Carpet in TFA list would also be high on my list for a remake as well as a facelift for the original.

Syndicate!

[Leiterfluid]

Glad to see this game on the top of this list. I used to play the original on my 486sx/25 (with a whopping 4 MB of RAM) about twelve years ago. Some of the guys in my dorm would hang out in my room until 3 o'clock in the morning just watching me play.

This is a franchise someone definitely needs to revive.

Re:Syndicate!

[BlackCobra43]

God yes. Syndicate : wars just didn't do the original justice. A full 3d - BUT STILL ISOMETRIC VIEW - sequel would rock my socks.

Sierra

[uberjoe]

I would like to see a gta (meaning free exploring, not violence and rape) style space quest game.

We need a new Wizards & Warriors.

[FifthDream]

I've been waiting for a current-gen Wizards & Warriors game for years. The NES games were great. I want another.

Re:We need a new Wizards & Warriors.

[FifthDream]

Oh, and i also want a new "Uncharted Waters" game.

Na na, na na na na na na na na katamari damacy

[tepples]

After you turn into a swan and fly past the remains of the shattered world into the constellation

OK, so the prince has just made Cygnus.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE WORLD???

The prince rolls up the planets into a katamari and shoots it into the sun.

Balloon Fever

[tepples]

I want to see a 3D Joust or Balloon Fight game.

Ohh yeah baby

[834r9394557r011]

Chopplifter X-Treme!!1!11!

Duke Nuke 'Em

[mopslik]

I hear a sequel is already in the works, and is due anytime now...

Re:Duke Nuke 'Em

[Anonymous Coward]

It's Duke Nukem, not Duke Nuke 'Em

Re:Duke Nuke 'Em

[mopslik]

It's been so long, my memory has gone with it.

Re:Duke Nuke 'Em

[Patrik_AKA_RedX]

If duke4ever is going to be as good as duke3D is, then it is worth the wait. I'm only worried that I might have died of old age before it's released. I mean I'm 23 now, I've got at most 80 years left so it's going to be tight.

StarTropics and other classics

[Anonymous Coward]

StarTropics - We haven't seen a sequel since the NES. I'm really surprised Nintendo hasn't released sequels on the GBA or DS. Mmmm, 2-D goodness!

Maniac Mansion - Day of the tentacle was fun but didn't live up to the original. We need another adventure game with the same humor and multiple pathways that Maniac Mansion delivered.

Crystalis - The original Nes game was awesome (The GBA re-make blew chunks).

Joe & Mac - One of the most fun two player games I've played.

Herzog Zwei

[Xistic]

This game could benifit soooo much from things like team play and a keyboard and mouse interface. A better radar and new units wouldn't hurt either.

And if they don't do it... I will.

More "Thief" to hold you over for now.

[WidescreenFreak]

I fully agree that we need more "Thief". Without question one of the most immersive game series ever created. And -- horrors! -- rich with story! Imagine that!

But let's not get TOO hasty! "Thief: Deadly Shadows" was only released less than a year ago! (Contrary to what another poster says, I thought that "Thief: DS" was phenomenal! If someone was not totally freaked out out by the sanitarium level, then that person must be bereft of the ability to have an emotional reaction.)

For the time being, I strongly recommend "T2X: Shadows of the Metal Age" at http://www.thief2x.com/default2.asp. This "Thief 2" add-on is just as good as the full game. I was very impressed by it.

Re:More "Thief" to hold you over for now.

[grub]

T2X was really well done, good call. And there's no blue-zone-warp-lameness as in DS :)

Re:More "Thief" to hold you over for now.

[WidescreenFreak]

Okay, I'll grant you that one. That was kind of lame now that you mention it. But the game as a whole was no less impressive than the others. I just hope that they do a fourth game because I really want to see what turn the storyline takes now that the Keepers are no longer hidden.

(It's been a year since the game came out, so if I spoiled the game ending for anyone, you should have played the damned game by now!)

Starcraft

[Krakhan]

The ending of Brood War is just begging to have a sequel done to wrap up all of the loose ends.

Though, since most of the developers that made Starcraft have left Blizzard, I wonder if it would actually end up being decent, or just another shoddy sequel. Hopefully not.

Magic Carpet, Freespace, and my additions

[WidescreenFreak]

"Magic Carpet" is still one of the best games around. Fully-deformable terrain with terrain morphing, topology that was actually made of rolling hills and valleys, instead of boring polygonal plains with suddenly-jutting mountains, full 640x480 resolution (which was astounding for its time since there was no 3D acceleration), almost totally dynamic gameplay, difficult puzzles, reasonable AI particularly when your opponents decide to gang up on you ... even the fun of the hokey "Magic Eye" 3D stereo effects and the red/blue anaglyph 3D effects. My God, that game was just incredible. And sadly, there really has not been any game like it. I specifically built a 350 MHz system running PC-DOS 7.0 and SloMo earlier this year in order to play the game again. (Windows 3.1 with Netscape 4.07 and full TCP/IP connectivity with DHCP just for the hell of it, too. Laugh all you want, but it's f**king FAST!!)

I don't understand why the Bullfrog team, who went to other projects after EA dissolved the company, didn't try to continue their game series, even if they were under different names to avoid copyright issues. Bullfrog was to the 486/Pentium gaming world what Epyx and Activision were to the C64 world - almost every game could be considered an instant classic.

I also have to agree with "Freespace". "Freespace 2" did have its weaknesses, but when it came to graphics and gameplay, it was a great game to play, especially over a LAN.

A few that were left off the list:

• "Sam and Max". Okay, game companies. Lucas doesn't own the rights to it any more. Will someone PLEASE talk to Steve Purcell about getting a "Sam and Max" sequel out?!
• "Max Payne". I confess -- "Max Payne 2" isn't all that old, but I loved both games. Even of there are no extra functionalities to a third release, I'll still buy it in a heartbeat.
• "No One Lives Forever". Fun to play. Great level design. Babe who has no problems kicking ass. A hell of a lot of funny lines. What more needs to be said?

Re:Magic Carpet, Freespace, and my additions

[Anonymous Coward]

The Max Payne series is so over the top (story-wise, acting-wise, etc.), that I couldn't stop grinning from ear to ear while playing it. I especially loved all the fake TV programming.

Dick Justice!

Consider yourself flamed.

[DoctaWatson]

1. The AvP predator had a FPS released as recently as two years ago... hardly a forgotten franchise. And frankly, considering how terrible the movie was you'd have a hard time trying to convince a marketing department that this is a good idea.

2. Freespace was easily the best space combat sim of its time. The latter X-Wing games couldn't compare and by that time Wing Commander had bit the dust. It was Freespace that continued to innovate the genre when the other two lost their way.

3. Let Ultima be continue to be officially dead, because I shudder to think what a company like EA would do to it these days. Meanwhile, the Ultima fan community can continue to fly under the official radar and continue to maintain what was good about the original games.

Pfft!

[Bega]

Mario 128 is sooooo last-gen. Mario 131072 will be awesome! Or 262144! And think about Mario 1048576!

my list of games that should have a new sequal

[jonwil]

Space Quest
Transport Tycoon
Afterburner (the sega flight sim)
Sentinel Worlds Future Magic
Kid Icarus

My Picks

[Araxen]

Road Rash
Kid Icarus
Pro Wrestling

good games

[compunat]

ff7 the real ff3 lunar 1 and 2 chrono trigger

From the GP poster -

[Anonymous Coward]

You know, you raise some good points there. I'd still say go back and play freespace (try it on hard, you sound like a veteran) and you might appreciate some of the play mechanics more (hunting bombers with long range missiles, using bomber squadrons to neutralize enemy beam weapons). However, fair play considered, I think I'll also give X-wing another try after all these years. Modded up, +1 for you.

Deus Ex = SS spiritual successor

[caitsith01]

Deus Ex (ONE, dear god not two) is as close as you'll ever get to a successor to System Shock 1 or 2. Similar themes, though perhaps more cyberpunk, less scifi-horror, and very similar immersive FPS/adventure gameplay. In my opinion nothing has yet bettered DX1 as an all-round great fps adventure, even Half Life 2.

Re:Deus Ex = SS spiritual successor

[servognome]

Deus Ex (ONE, dear god not two) is as close as you'll ever get to a successor to System Shock 1 or 2.

After playing the FEAR demo, I had flashbacks to System Shock 2. Maybe it will have less adventure type gameplay, but I found the mood of the game to be very similar

XCOM truly is the king of kings

[caitsith01]

Anyone who has never played X-Com will really not see the attraction - weird low-res graphics, turn based gameplay... but it truly is one of the best games ever written. It combines the addictiveness of a management/strategy game like Civilisation with freakishly atmospheric sci-fi combat sequences. This game running at 320x240 has scared me silly more times than Doom III ever could cranking along in glorious hi-res 3D. I also marvel constantly at how such a phenominal game could weigh in at around 2MB when game companies today routinely crank out 3-4 disc turds of games.

And they've been screwing up X-Com sequels ever since Apocalypse - we don't WANT real time combat, we don't WANT to fly an interceptor or run around in the first person. We want a new, bigger, higher-res, polygon-driven version of X-Com 1 with more alien and UFO types, bigger, more varied levels, and an even more intricately linked and immersive gameworld. Oh, and soldiers with more individual variation.

Re:XCOM truly is the king of kings

[DiscoBoy]

You should have a look at "Rebelstar Tactical Command"
http://gameboy.ign.com/objects/738/738202.html

It's a Gameboy Advance version in the works, by the actual authors of the original XCOM 1.

I just can't wait for it to be released.

Re:XCOM truly is the king of kings

[mink]

I found UFO: Aftermath to be a fun X-com like game. Not perfect, but much better then that horrible broken X-com:apocalypse.
Looks like they are putting out another UFO themed game called Aftershock.

Megaman Legends, anyone?

[TANK Ex Mortis]

If someone could explain to me why we keep getting the same card battling and pseudo-3D shoot-em-up games over and over again instead of the most radically different game of the Megaman series (and most beloved next to the original), I'd be grateful.

ChronoCross not for Europe

[Master Of Ninja]

The sequel to Chrono Trigger (amazing game) was never released in Europe to the sadness of many. Even then I don't think the playstation remake of chrono trigger was released either, despite all the please to Square at the time. They need to get this sorted first before any further sequels.

Freespace

[BenjyD]

I definitely agree on the Freespaces. I got review copies (university paper) of both and they both passed the "dressing gown" test - I would play review games saturday morning, and if it got to late afternoon and I was still in my dressing gown and playing the game, then it was a good game.

Unfortunately, both copies were pre-release code and I can't even get them to install any more. Anyone know of good PS2/GC alternatives?

Whoa... cool it off a bit

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you're misunderstanding and running off on irrelevant tangents a bit here.

The last AvP fps was released in 2001, making it 4 years old now. There aren't, so far as I know, any plans in the pipeline to make another. The "Extinction" RTS, as the original post rightly states, was an absolute disaster and can pretty much be ignored. I'd agree with the original poster's point that we need a new AvP or Aliens fps on modern technology. Doom 3 felt very close to the atmosphere of Aliens at times, so bridging the gap would make sense. Personally, I really would prefer that they just dumped the whole predator aspect, and perhaps even the ability to play as the Aliens, and just made a decent Aliens-universe fps. There's a lot of wider-universe stuff hinted at in the first 3 movies that could make for a fun game, if you fixed it more around the colonial marines than the xenomorphs.

The original poster has already outlined his reasons for prefering the X-Wing series' combat above. I agree with this and want to add a few things to it. I will agree that X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter was a pretty poor game, but I felt that the expansion pack rescued it somewhat and that X-Wing Alliance was a pretty great return to form that actually added a lot to the genre. X-Wing Alliance isn't perfect; I still have a few complaints about it, particularly scripting bugs in a few of the missions and the way that capital ships become so incredibly effective at shooting down warheads locked onto them. However, the changes made to the behaviour of capital ships (which move at a decent speed and actually interact with the battlefield) and the improvement in the AI for enemy fighters made the space combat more immersive than any I've seen elsewhere. In fact, I'd say that XWA's capital ships are far more impressive than those in Freespace; Freespace's essentially follow the same routines as those in the older games and the Wing Commander series, with the sole exception of the fact that they fire big, pretty lasers at each other. Once the novelty wears off the big pretty lasers, you're left with them doing nothing you haven't seen before. Overall, I'd say that Freespace 2 has marginally more polish than Wing Commander Prophecy in some respects, but that overall it feels like a large-ish expansion pack for Prophecy - not a significant advance for the genre.

Your argument about Ultima just shows that you're completely missing the point of the whole article. This isn't about how much the modern games industry, or developers X, Y and Z suck, but rather about which old franchises we'd like to see get a new lease of life on modern technology. For all of the titles in the original article and in the post you replied to, you have to make a working assumption that the new games would be respectable successors, not stripped down cash-ins.

In order for a new Ultima game to qualify as worth, in my opinion it would need to have the following:

A large, detailed game-world, preferably, but not necessarily, Britannia. Ultimas 8 and 9 both suffered from having game worlds that were far too small to achieve the necessary scale for an Ultima game. Since then, Morrowind and World of Warcraft have both created decent looking 3d worlds on the kind of scale I'm talking about, so this is not a technological impossibility.

Some reflection of the old "Virtues" system: this doesn't necessarily have to be used in character generation, but ever since Ultima IV, the Virtues have been a defining aspect of the series.

A gameplay mechanic that includes combat, but where dialogue and exploration remain the key aspects of the game: the combat system in the Ultima games (particularly in 7) often felt a bit under-developed, but this didn't matter because there was so much else to do in terms of exploring the game world and following through sublots initiated via dialogue.

I see no reason why a modern RPG, even one using a Final Fantasy-style console interface, could not include these elements and still be successful. As for "leaving it fo

UFO - Enemy Unknown

[jurgenaut]

Or X-com, or what it got renamed to. That was the greatest game of all time. You had your bases to tend to, to micromanage down to the amount of clips loaded on your assault carriers, some soldiers defending your primary research stations in case of attacks. Then you had to have radar coverage over the most important investers, since you wanted them to be happy. You had to fly out there and down the ufos over their territories. Not to mention you actually had to help them when their cities were attacked. Your crew was a mixed bunch, Michiko was the greatest marksman of the team, but had low psi-skills, so you had better pray she wouldn't get mindcontrolled. You could steer your missiles to blow holes in the enemy UFO roof, and use people in Flight suits to assault the ufo from above. You sat biting your nails because you'd lost track of that last lone Chrysalis, who could oneshot your best trooper and turn him against you. Laser guns were great for killing floaters and snakemen, but sucked against Mutons. Heavy plasma was awesome. You reserched alien technology to learn to use their weapons against them. You had to capture live aliens for interrogation. God I miss X-com and Terror from the deep. Haven't gotten them to run on my new machine.

Give it a rest already

[Moraelin]

"I've heard X sucks" is actually a very valid comment, and doesn't imply one stopped thinking for oneself.

At one point, you just have to acknowledge that stuff exists that you haven't personally measured. (E.g., I'm willing to bet you haven't measured the speed of life yourself, but were told what it is.) Saying "I've heard that" already says that he's making that distinction. So I don't know what else do you want from him.

You want someone to personally try everything before ever even mentioning it? Well, I hope you'll remember trying it first if you ever post in a thread about suicide, then.

You want some independent thinking? How about the fact it's

A) based on the biggest SF franchise in history (and I mean both movie franchise and games franchise. Don't think only KOTOR, think about 80 SW games released since the 70's. It's a bigger franchise not only than Warcraft, but than all Blizzard's titles put together), and

B) available for half the price of any other MMO to someone who already had an Everquest _or_ Planetside account (or for free to anyone who already subscribed to two Sony games),

and... yet it ended up in which place as number of subscribers goes? Every single SW geek waited for it like it was the second coming of Christ, and then ended up playing WoW instead.

So very independently thinking, while I won't say "it sucks", I'd say it obviously appeals to a lot less people than WoW does. In fact, it appeals to a lot less SW fans than WoW does, and WoW isn't even a SW title.

So, yes, it's entirely reasonable to expect Lucas and Sony to try to grab more of that market. Not necessarily as a KOTOR MMO, and not necessarily as a different game that competes head-on with SWG for the same players (it can just as well be an expansion pack instead), but there _is_ plenty of room for them to try to grab more players.

Grand Theft + Paper Boy

[Tachikoma]

Seriously, how cool would that be. everyone, i mean EVERYONE loved paper boy. imagine a 3rd person paperboy who, of all things, delivered papers! and when you aren't doing that, you're organizing the local neighborhood kids into a gang! and when your gang takes over new 'hoods, you have more papers to deliver!

Instead of guns, you have papers, and you have to manage delivering papers and throwing papers as weopons. plus you earn money, and you can upgrade your bike, maybe even to include pegs, which you could have other paperboys/gang-members ride on. then you can upgrade that to have razor pegs like you see on chariots races, that cut rival paperboys/gangmembers legs off as you roll by them! that would be sweet

Off the top of my head

[murky_lurker]

Circuit's Edge - classic cyberpunk - in fact, while I'm being greedy, all the Infocom games should be revamped :)
Covert Action - Sid Meier. Nuff said.
Dreamweb - Atmospheric. Was too short, but had potential.
Elite/Frontier - Freedom unsurpassed.
Floor 13 - Oozed atmosphere at the time.
Hardwar - Fun spaceflight, but too short.
Killed Until Dead - C64 sleuth game involving CCTV cameras. Pretty nifty.
North and South - Cartoon civil wargame, pretty silly with 2 players.
A proper Speedball 2 - Don't mention Speedball 2100..
Stunt Car Racer - Classic vertigo-inducer.
Supercars 2 - An Amiga legend.
Utopia - Strangely hypnotic Amiga strategy game.
Tie Fighter - Because villains always get the best kit :)
Wizball - though maybe not as an fps ;)

Bring Back The Light Gun!

[rubberbando]

I miss light gun games. The only place you can find them is arcades/movie theatres/etc, if you are lucky.

However, they are so expensive to play at those places. I really would like to see some home games again.

I hope with the Nintendo Revolution, they will bring back the Zapper to play with some of those classic games like Gumshoe, Hogan's Alley, Wild Gunman, and Duckhunt. :-)

Adventure games

[nine-times]

I'm not sure if this is off-topic (since it doesn't necessarily relate to console games) but...

Speaking of Monkey Island, what ever happened to the "adventure" genre? You know, the whole story/puzzle driven walk-over-here, pick-this-up, talk-to-this-guy thing? I'm sure somebody remembers these games, where you had an inventory, and it was neither a FPS or a RPG?

Recently, I've really been wishing I could get a copy of Kings Quest 3 or Quest for Glory 2 that would play on OSX.

Re:Adventure games

[Drooling Iguana]

Well, The Longest Journey is getting a http://dreamfall.com/sequel in a few months, although it looks to be more of an action/adventure hybrid than a true adventure game.

Re:Adventure games

[nocomment]

Go download scummvm for mac os x, and then you can run those older lucasarts games. :-D I played Monkey Island 3 on my mac. :-p as for the newer ones, I dunno. I mostly use my gamecube, and the only ones that I have that are similar is my collection of zelda games.

Re:Adventure games

[koi88]

Recently, I've really been wishing I could get a copy of Kings Quest 3 or Quest for Glory 2 that would play on OSX.

I don't know the name now, but on my mac at home I have a DOS-Emulator for Mac OS X which plays a lot of the old DOS games (even with sound). Forgot the name but I think it's freeware (no, it's not SoftWindows or Virtual PC).
I used it to play DUNE 2. But this game is not as nice as I remembered it to be (if you're used to today's RTS games, everything seems very complicated).

Re:Adventure games

[nine-times]

The DOS emulator isn't too complicated I guess, but there are all sorts of issues that come first. Where do I get the games? I don't have them anymore. It might not be too hard to find someone selling them, but then I have to figure out how to install them, given that I don't own a floppy drive. After all that, I still have to worry about whether they'll work in the DOS emulator.

I mean, it's a good suggestion, but I'm not sure I'm willing to buy the game and USB 3.5" and 5.25" drives for old games with old graphics and stories I already know on the off-chance that they *might* work. Maybe, but not for the mood I'm in today.

However, if you could give me QfG in a download that would work without hassle on OSX, I'd be willing to pay something for that. If you made a new QfG or KQ with a new story, even with the same crappy graphics (and especially if it still used the CLI) I'm sure I'd want that puppy.

My overall question, anyway, wasn't "How can I spend hours and lots of money trying to play old games?" but "What happened to the adventure genre?" It just doesn't exist anymore. NO ONE is making them. Why not?

Oh, and with all the time/effort spend to newer/cooler graphics, couldn't someone innovate the CLI interface a bit? I'd love for someone to put that style of gaming back into development.

Re:Adventure games

[KDR_11k]

Speaking of Monkey Island, what ever happened to the "adventure" genre?

Lucas Arts proclaimed that adventure games don't sell, cancelled Sam & Max 2 and left the playing field. There are still adventure games being made, for example Runaway, Tony Tough and Wanted: A Western Adventure. Plus there are a lot of companies trying to make first person adventures like Myst. Now Ron Gilbert is entering the arena again with his new company, Telltale Games and a new game (after negotiations with LA to resume Sam & Max 2 instead failed): Bone. It'll be a good old point&click adventure.

Re:Adventure games

[Meagermanx]

Just because nobody's selling them, doesn't mean nobody's making them. Actually, its easy to make adventure games with AGS. Anybody can do it. So go make one, sell it, and make money. Revitalize the genre instead of complaining about it.

Re:Adventure games

[koi88]

The DOS emulator's name is Radnor.
Check it out.
Where to get old games? Well, search google for "abandon ware" These are very old games you can download for free. It might not be 100% legal in all cases. But I don't think that Westwood will sue you for downloading Dune 2 or Lands of Lore.
On many of these abandon ware sites you will find emulators and stuff that can help you.
HTH and happy gaming!

Re:Adventure games

[mink]

Check out titles released by Dreamcatcher/The Adventure Company

Try Post Mortem followed by Still Life.

Kid Icarus

[rayde]

I'd actually be a little surprised if nintendo allows another generation go by without bringing back Kid Icarus.

Day late and a dollar short... My top 10

[UncleRage]

Damnit! I hate days out of the shop, I always miss the fun stuff!

Okay, here's my list (yeah, I know, I'm talking to myself in here. Nothing new there.). ;)

1. Below the Root
2. Castle Wolfenstein/Beyond Castle Wolfenstein (non first person, adventure/stealth based -- thank you very much).
3. Starflight (as mentioned below)
4. Shenmue III (as mentioned below)
5. Gemstone Warrior
6. Moebius
7. SunDog
8. Karateka
9. Alternate Reality
10. Rescue Raiders

Most of these are games from my childhood (Apple ][ and C64) that I would love to see recreated w/ modern technology. Think of Wolfenstein played a bit like Splinter Cell, or Below the Root having a similar visual approach as D&D Heroes (specifically thinking of the snake/tree levels in D&D).

A few mentioned that what we need are not more past delving, but new concepts. I mostly agree. However, there are some great products from the past that continue to stand the test of time (content wise). As long as we're forced to relive old content... why not at least seriously dig into the way back bag?

Aw jesus... I'm taking the rest of the day off to play w/ my old //c. :D

Colony Wars for PS1

[Anonymous Coward]

There was a sequel to colony wars for the PS1 also, and it had it's moments, but that's about it for nice, objective based space "simulators".

MoM

[servognome]

Master of Magic was a great game, and I know many people have longed for a sequel. It was a cross between Magic the Gathering and Civilization.

psx classics and more

[skreeech]

Jet Moto - futuristic bike racing with realistic physics for it's time, cool characters, interesting races like the suicide tracks. Would be great to see a remake that also had free ranging point A to point B races.

Return Fire - capture the flag with different army vehicles. Decimate your enemies defences with your tanks and helicopters then rush in with the jeep for the capture.

Carmagedon - carmagedon 2 was really good and had a great mod community with lots of realistic cars available. It had great damage models.

Any fighting game with the bushido blade damage system.

Alone in the Dark & Out of this World

[Fastball]

Both of these were trailblazers in polygon-based graphics. Very immersive and well thought out for their time. I wonder if their essence would be ruined by today's 3D madness.

Monkey Island

[H0D_G]

I'm Guybrush threepwood, Mighty Pirate! funny, and in Limbo. Gex would be nice too

Zombies ate my Neighbors

[Anonymous Coward]

Really fun, but really hard too.

Thexder

[Finkbug]

Thexder and Ultima Underworld.

I'd ask for a Nox sequel but of the ten people who bought the game only five saw the amazing competitive multiplayer.

Straight from KND

[hackwrench]

"Where do you get your facts from?"

"I make them up myself. That way I know they're true."