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Sequels We'd All Like To See
Voodoo Extreme has a feature up that's a wishlist for future sequels. They run down some great game franchises that have been off the board for a little while, and wonder out loud about the possibility of new installments. Besides the usual suspects for lists like this (StarCraft, TIE Fighter, Descent, Ultima), they touch on some cult favorites that are ... less likely to show up in modern gaming. From the article: "Planescape Torment 2: The Poop -- Loved by many a forumgoer is Planescape Torment, a Dungeons & Dragons-themed RPG set in the other planes of existence. It was a dark game with evil undertones, but also lighthearted and funny at times. Just think Baldur's Gate with an M rating. The Scoop -- Odds of a sequel are equal to or greater than Elvis coming home on the mothership." Any oldies you'd like to see back on modern systems? While I really like many of the ideas listed here, the LucasArts classics Grim Fandango and Maniac Mansion are the ones I'd most like to see rehashed.
An SCIII from Toys for Bob (or whatever they would name it) is high on my list, even after all these years...
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
My problem with sequels is that it's just way too easy to botch a good thing.
There's a ton of games I'd like to see either updated editions of or new maps/missions for but at the same time my initial reaction would be somewhere between fear and anxiety.
And as for updating older games... sometimes it's the nostalgic effect of playing it on the old systems that make it better than what the game really is.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Dungeon Keeper III: The Apology.
Dungeon Keeper was a great game with a simple premise. Dungeon Keeper II forgot that adding Mega-3D graphics and a storyline that nobody would care about doesn't make the game better.
Adding new monsters and more flexibility was needed.
I wanna explode more chickens!
Enough said? Really, I could think of a few games which would be lovely to have sequels to (DX, KOTOR to name a couple) but sometimes it's better to have an original story than churning out the same thing over and over which is what seems to happen nowadays. Perhaps I'm just too cynical.
If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards... Checkmate.
Hell, re-release those with modern graphics and upgraded online play (ala Half Life:Source) and they would sell all over again. I still play all three of those games and i cant remember a LAN party i've been to where we didnt get a game of starcraft going. Show me a gamer that doesnt have starcraft tucked away on their system somewhere.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
I liked Duke Nukem, any chance of a follow-up?
Only three things are certain; death, taxes, and apocryphal quotations - Ben Franklin.
Skies of Arcadia (and Legends) is one of the best RPGs I've ever played, as well as one of the best games. While it had its faults (blocky graphics, even on the 'Cube, bad voice acting, high encounter rate), it was a very fun RPG with a pretty good story that focused mainly on pirates. One of the best things, though, was the Airship battles.
I'd love to see a sequel to this game; however, it should be set in the same world but involve different characters (referencing the past characters or having them show up once or twice is alright). It might also be a good basis for an MMO.
Fallout was unquestionably the best PC game ever made.
Pleeeease don't make a Planescape Torment sequel. Sure, make another game set in the Planescape multiverse. But a sequel to Torment can only be a rape of a fine game's memory. The game had a fine ending, a great ending. Don't ruin it by tacking something on.
Anyone else remember that game? man Master of Orion got 3 sequels. It deserves at least one.
I loved the Wing Commander series and was very disappointed when they decided to go lite on the movie parts with the last game. The world needs more Kilrathi.
Why is it that everything good and full of art, thought and wit must make way for what is base and stupid and vulgar? I pine for charm and subtle humor, for fully developed characters, for well developed plots for the denouement... for story telling and all the other things forgotten.
Fuck it, I'm going to write a video game and show 'em how it's done.
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
Custer's Revenge II: The Revenge of Custer's Revenge
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Is this the MPAA? Is this the RIAA? Is this the DMCA? I thought it was the USA!
Pong 2
I always wondered why, when LucasArts was seemingly determined to make Star Wars games in just about every other genre imaginable (combat flightsims, first-person, racing games, RTS, platform action, fighting games, etc.), with varying results, they never tried to do one in the one game genre at which the company historically excelled and was well-known for. If they'd done a graphic adventure in the Star Wars universe and had it turn out as well as just about all their other graphic adventures, it could have given a shot in the arm to the whole field of graphic adventures. I always thought it would be cool to have, say, an adventure where you played Han and Chewie shortly before the original trilogy, around the timeframe and in a storyline along the lines of the old Brian Daley novels, or perhaps a semi-comic Droids game where you played Artoo and Threepio; in either of these ideas you could switch from one of the two leads to the other, to use whichever character is more appropriate for a given situation. Seriously, it could've been really cool, but they totally, utterly ignored the SCUMM-style adventures when it came to Star Wars, even though they did all sorts of other things as graphic adventures (everything from licensed games with the other major Lucasfilm property, Indiana Jones, to crazy, inspired stuff like Grim Fandango) at the same time they were doing Star Wars in every other genre. Why?
What, are these guys new to gaming?
How about Syndicate, or Magic Carpet, or Dungeon Keeper, or Theme hospital?
How about xcom? (a real sequel, thanks.)
How about Alternate Reality the Wilderness, or the Arena, or the Palace?
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
You know, one that doesn't suck so goddam much.
Might as well finish the series given that they've spent more than $20 million to make the first two.
There WAS the now-defunct Planescape: Vengeance, a fine example of the modding community coming to the rescue (see http://addoncz.jinak.cz/web/?page=inthum_e and http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/07/ 1351216). I've been playing with IE modding myself, and an abundance of tools makes it not TOO difficult - perhaps if enough people got together a sequel wouldn't be so crazy?
I pine for the LucasArts games of old. The Monkey Islands, the Day of the Tentacles, and Grim Fandango which was more art than a videogame.
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I pine for charm and subtle humor, for fully developed characters, for well developed plots for the denouement... for story telling and all the other things forgotten.
Get Psychonauts. Make all your friends get Psychonauts. Seriously. It's available from Steam if you can't find it in the bargain bins. DON'T just write it off as a platformer. It has all you want of that, and more. FFS, it even has the same creators as the games you mention.
Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die
Activision holds the license to one of the greatest franchises of all time: Zork. Back when Zork Grand Inquisitor came out (1996?), they had planned it to be the first in a trilogy (much to the excitement of fans). Since then, they've done nothing. You can't even find any results for the work "zork" on their site anymore (they used to have a nice interactive site to promote ZGI). They're just sitting on the license and doing nothing with it.
Bastards.
- A proper update to Elite and/or Frontier
- A better sequel to 1998's Battlezone. Heck, just update the graphics and let it run on a modern PC and I'd be happy
- Baldur's Gate III, Icewind Dale III
- Another Max Payne installment
- An updated Alpha Centauri: Alien Crossfire that will run stably on a modern PC
Oh, yeah, and I want a pony too....http://www.gamasutra.com/features/designers_noteb
But what's most interesting about Planescape: Torment, and what most deserves our attention as designers, is its setting, its characters and its plot. The phrase "fantasy role-playing game," of course, immediately conjures up images of a group of Tolkienesque characters marching through the forest in search of dragons. Planescape is blessedly free of these stereotypes - I've played for several hours now and there's not an elf or dwarf in sight, nor, for that matter, a forest. The designers of the Planescape universe have at long last abandoned Northern European mythology and devised something perhaps richer, definitely darker, and altogether fresher. If Baldur's Gate is a lager, Planescape is a homemade stout.
The story centers around a nameless, immortal character who is searching for his forgotten past. It uses the hackneyed "amnesia" device to explain why he doesn't seem to know anything about the world he lives in, but I have to say that it's handled at least as well in Planescape: Torment as in any book or game I've seen it in. Our hero is seeking the information that will explain, and then end, his immortality and allow him at last to die permanently. At least that's what I think he's looking for; motives and morals in Planescape are nothing if not ambiguous.
Square has a tendancy to do that and polarize fans.
Personally, I thought Chrono Cross was brilliant and like it better than Chrono Trigger. Then again, I also loved Legend of Mana which remains to be one of my top 5 favorite Playstation games of all time. I like it much better than the SD2 and 3, but it's also a completely different game. Then again, FFVII totally changed the FF series around and many people (not me) declare it the best of the series.
People get really upset when you change up something they love. I think Square's problem is that they try to sell games based solely on IP instead of creating new IP when they have new ideas.
Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
An excellent list. I'm a big fan of X-Com (UFO: Enemy Unknown in Europe), but the publisher never understood what made it a great game. They said, "Oh, people like killing aliens!" so they made shooters, fliers, etc all themed around the same thing.
What X-Com had going for it was a great tactical combat system. It was fire-tested in the team's previous Laser Squad Nemesis game, and worked great here. Plus, the marriage of the tactical battle game to the strategic research game kept the whole thing fresh. Throw in a little stat-building (what the kids these days call "RPG elements"), and you had a fun and varied game. The fact that you shot sectoids wasn't really important.
I think the other thing that hurt X-Com (and lots of other games from this era) was the craze to have 3D, real-time, and realism. You can find old reviews still online. It's amazing to see these great games slighted for not including the buzzwords of the time. When the publishers commissioned sequels, they had to implement buzzwords even if they didn't fit with the game.
Also, the notion of having a "hot property" blinds producers. They'll just recombine window-dressings from games, discarding the mechanics that made the games fun. It's a poisonous idea, and it's everywhere.
Use the Firehose to mod down Second Life stories!
It might not be an official X-Com sequel, but Laser Squad Nemesis is a really good spiritual successor by the same designers, with more of a multiplayer focus.