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EA Looking Into Reviving Classic Games?
Gamasutra reports that Electronic Arts has filed for trademarks on several popular old franchises: Populous, Wing Commander, Theme Park, and Road Rash. This, along with comments from Harvey Elliot of EA's Bright Light Studio, have led many to suspect that we may see new titles for those IPs in the near future. Elliot said, "If you remember all the old classics you played, if you go back and play them now, they're not the same. They were right for their time, and the trick with those games is coming up with what's right for the time now. I'm going to look at them at some point; I think there's an opportunity to bring those back in the future, but only if it's right for the time and not just a 'remake' or something. We'd need to do it in a way that's true to the original values, but would still make a great game today."
pretty please....
"We'd need to do it in a way that's true to the original values, but would still make a great game today"
And you expect that from EA? They've been losing a lot of popularity for a reason.....
Or, they are just renewing their trademarks? Or they are planning to pump some old stuff out through Steam, etc.?
Why does "trademark application" have to equal "writing a sequel"?
Just what we need, more sequels... They'd better just rerelease the old classics or give them new graphics and rerelease them like Lucasarts did. Nothing wrong with a good remake, lots of people never played the originals.
"People are equating us buying a franchise as Murder, and many companies are now blocking our attempts to take them over. So, we're going to dig up some classics that we've shat on over the years, and utterly destroy them with our ineptitude!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starflight
Oh please, I haven't found a game that lived up to it or its sequel since. Hell some of what they did still doesn't appear in games today. What they managed in 2 360k diskette drives seems beyond many DVD filling titles.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
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I personally loved Road Rash and think along with Twisted Metal, that with the newer platforms available these games would kick ass.
https://www.speakservers.com/
Let's assume that in each case, we're talking about a bona-fide sequel or franchise reboot, rather than just a port of the original to Steam/Xbox Live/PSN. Just how much of a gap in the market is there for the games named in the summary?
Populous: This might work. However, the god-game genre has been through quite a few evolutionary steps since Populous kicked things off. I think a game that stuck too closely to the formula of the original (or Populous 2) would feel a bit dated and lacklustre now. A new installment in the series would need to either reflect the advances we've seen over the last couple of decades, or else have enough brand new ideas of its own that it could stand out from the crowd. If you're looking at old Bulldog franchises, I'd much rather they try to resurrect Syndicate.
Wing Commander: Yes please. The space-combat-sim genre has been sadly dormant for many years now and this is one franchise where a full reboot would be highly desirable. Take it back to the Kilrathi war, spend a fortune on the FMV cutscenes and recreate the sinking "I'm going to need a new PC" series that the old games were known and loved for.
Theme Park: This one I'm really not convinced by. There's been an absolute flood of Theme-Sim-Tycoon games in recent years, many of which have focussed around Theme Parks. The quality has varied wildly, and I'm not sure the genre's standing is particularly high. I'm really not sure that there's much room to reawaken this franchise without a distinct feeling that you're flogging a dead horse.
Road Rash: Fun enough games in their day, but I'm not really sure the old Road Rash titles really stand comparison to the other 3 franchises named above. Still, if they want to make a fun, arcadey motorcycle combat game and stick the Road Rash name on it, it certainly wouldn't do any harm.
I for one am looking forward to EA Populous 2010, which should be quite an improvement over EA Populous 1998, especially since that one didn't quite live up to the standard set by EA Populous 1991 and EA Populous 1989. In addition to the new graphics and new teams, they could include a running commentary by the Archbishhop of San Francisco.
Said this a million times, and have wasted 100's of millions of dollars trying to bring back the Strike and Rash franchises. They lost all the people that made those games, and just utterly suck at designing anything these days, its amazing to me they still have share holders.
I have to say that's a refreshingly astute observation coming from a large entertainment corp, one that like so many entertainment companies so often takes the safe option of flogging a concept, genre or property to death.
In my experience he's right about revisiting old games. I've fired up a few of my old favourites, and still play some arcade games with MAME, but the memories and feelings of nostalgia almost always are far better than playing the actual game. Among other things, taste changes with age.
If they were to do this right, you could mix the nostalgia of your experience playing the old version with some of the best things of today's consoles or PCs, like new inputdev (wii anyone). Throw in some astute in jokes and tributes to elements of the original (remember how Day of the Tentacle had the full version of Maniac Mansion as an in game surprise) and you could have a winner.
Of course, we're all a bit jaded by bad experiences with remakes and sequels (and those god-awful prequels- you know the ones...)
I'd love to see a sequel to System Shock 2, a third installment would not only complete the Shock series, it would also complete the great "Looking Glass Trinity" as one could call it: Thief, Shock, Deus Ex. Two of these have "lived" to see a third, as DX3 is currently in the works. Thief will even have a #4...
;)
:(
(I'm aware that DX isn't technically an LG game, but its development was heavily influenced by Shock and Thief to say the least.)
Plus Shock 2 just turned 10 this week
Sadly it will probably never be done. EA may have some trademark but the whole Shock licence is scattered among people who probably don't know or care that they have it. Even Levine back in the day couldn't trace it back.
Sucks.
Wing Commander pls and with full joystick support (Not Gamepad) pretty pls :)
Ultima died years ago. If brought back with the panache found at its pinnacle (IV-VII), it would far surpass any current-day RPG.
I was a kid when I played them, and the storylines were pretty linear, but I loved "It came from the desert", and "wings". It would be nice if they could be given an updated retelling...
Wing Commander was and his a great game. The story line did got a bit cheesy, it looked like a Sopa Opera towards the end, but it was fun, it was great and it even had Mark Hamil. I believe it was on Wing Commander II that your carrier got destroyed right at the start. Great storyline. Epic I would say http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_Commander_(video_game)
I want a modern version of Donkey Kong !! With LINUX version plizzz ...
...I'll miss you abandonware websites!
I really miss the old Infocom games. I remember playing them the first round through in elementary school, HHGTtG gave my brain a real hardcore tease for the longest time. IF (Interactive Fiction) is just so much fun, for both authors as well as players.
Anybody else read the Choose Your Own Adventure series? I used to have the whole collection, I just wish they were longer. Would love to see something more along these lines for adults. (My gutter-fabulous mind can only start to envision some of the more 'adult' "tails" that could be chosen. *starts chortling to self*
I think also would be great to see a revival of the old games we used to play on BBS'. Still to this day trying to remember the title of this one, it simulated hacking, sort of like GIbson's Johnny Mnemonic, pre-Shadowrun sort of era. Turn based, only got so many a day, and I believe it was interactive with the other players as well, as you rose up in levels.
Well, probably enough nostalgia for now... Should get back to social-notworking....
You don't even need to correct the English for kids today to recognize it. You know what you doing!
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
A new Wing Commander would be nice, that entire genre doesn't seem to exist anymore. I'm not sure what happened to cause that.
I could go for a new Populous too, depending on how it's done.
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
Skitchin' its a rollerblade game that is fun, launch off cars to go faster do jumps, outrun the police, you better not slow down or you get busted by the cops...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Dungeon Keeper? That game ruled - 3rd person RTS that could turn into a first person game whenever you wanted. Imagine if that concept had been added to other RTS games that came out later - Warcraft 3, Age of Empires, etc. Hell, port the original games on Steam, WiiWare and the new download service on the DSi. It's a NO BRAINER EA! Both the Wii and DS have great interfaces for playing RTS/FPS games.
Born to Play
Nothing good can come of this. If they do start churning out sequels it'll only be to cash in on old names.
mmmm...forbidden donut
Just like remaking old movies, there's no point in remaking old classic games. Just go back and play the old games. If you're such a "modern" gamer that you can't overlook the old graphics to see the great game underneath and enjoy it, you're not much of a gamer -- which is sadly true for most of the kids raised on late 90s/early 2000s games, and even some of the people who do remember early games.
It's pathetic.
I'm all for it. Because if Wing Commander gets remade, and then sells well, possibly LucasArts will be inspired to do the same with the X-Wing/TIE Fighter series.
That's not Picasso, that's Kandinsky!
The original was awesome. They don't even need to redo it as the graphics and sound were just fine the way it was (though I think it completely missed out on bug testing). Internet multiplayer too would be nice. Release it on Steam asap...
I have a great puzzle game called Think Cross that's simple and fun. It's a decently done application, fits on a 3.5" floppy, yes I still have those and the machines, and I just enjoy the game.
Life takes interesting turns, but the most interest is when you're off the beaten path.
I'd think that the Road Rash franchise would be crying out for a mission based driving title. However I know that it'd just come off as another sub-standard GTA clone, and Road Rash 2010, Road Rash 2011, Road Rash 2012 etc. would make insignificant changes to the gameplay in an attempt to dupe us out of more money on a regular basis.
Long ago I owned some awesome games. Populous, LotR 2 (Lords of the Realm 2 in this context), Beasts and Pumpkins... They were some of the first games I remember having played so I feel nostalgic when I think about them.
A while ago I decided "Damn! I want to play LotR 2 again!". Of course, it was over a decade old so I had lost the CD somewhere. But hey, it was published in 1996 and was very popular then. Big title by Sierra. Even had another sequel. Wikipedia calls it a loved classic. It can be found, right?
No. I googled and googled but didn't find any way to buy it legally. Not a single shop sells it. (Not even gog.com) There are some abandonware sites that claim to let you download it but then you need to register, add some shady internet explorer toolbars, etc. before that... And I didn't trust them enough to do that.
Amazon.com has some used ones but... Behold! You can't buy pc games from amazon.com to Europe. Amazon.co.uk does currently have 2 used ones. Other costs over 30 euros (shipping included) and is apparently in "Very good" condition, other one is "Like new" but costs over 60 euros.
I am not sure if I am willing to pay that much for used discs of over a decade old PC game without being able to verify their condition before purchase (and don't know how badly they would be damaged with postal service. Especially when I can't be sure if I could get it working on a modern computer. (Google tells me there might be some sort of patches for that, which I could download from third party sites...)
There are great reasons to make new games in 'old' franchises, or to re-do earlier games. Graphics is only one of those. There's also issues of the ability to do much more with sound now than some of the early games were able to do with the PC speakers, but even more importantly. . .
* Network/Internet multiplayer (ok, for some games multiplayer would make no sense, but for others, there's great potential
* More memory and faster CPUs means that not only can you update graphics, but you can create universes/worlds populated by more planets, stations, NPCs, ships, etc (how many of those really old games which were supposed to have 'epic' scope, ended up feeling a bit small or empty because of the memory and processing constraints of having 4M or less of memory? There's great opportunity to go back and have much 'bigger' worlds now that most 'gaming' machines have >= 1G of RAM.
Now this is one series of games I would much rather see a fresh re-imagining of beyond all others. Just so long as its not like what they did with the Bionic Commando (that is to say a very generic platform 3rd person shooter).
Not that I want EA screwing w/this title but if we are remaking old games can someone PLEASE do a bad ass version of X-Com??? With today's processing power you could have a huge variety of options to research and we could have sweet graphics.
I would love to have the Starflight series updated.
I still find it incredibly fun to play, and can waste hours with them both.
It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.
I'm sure they see a cash cow here by going with established material. Older gamers will buy on name alone, and the game will be sufficiently flashy and dumbed down to appeal to younger gamers. I even find myself conflicted, seeing the appeal on some of these remakes while at the same time wanting to make a stand against never-ending, often subpar remakes.
Perhaps it's time the game industry moved out of California because it seems they're being infected by the same lack of imagination that has afflicted Hollywood for so long. I definitely am not pleased with the way these two industries seem to be converging. At least with movies, there's a greater chance of someone doing something creative. But with games, they're already often bad enough, we don't need a never-ending stream of amateurish, Michael Bay-style epics.
I'm actually playing through WC on Dosbox right now. It's fucking hard!
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
or when those fail to take off...
Can you make a new version of Civ 2 with updated graphics? All the ones since then are only about half as much fun, at best.
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
We just saw the launch of the original Civilization for the iPhone... I'm imagining that EA is looking to do similar things with these other old, but fondly remembered titles. Spruce up the graphics, modify the gameplay to work on the iPhone, and then sell them for $9.99.
It was really fun and could be awesome with today's tech.
(Maybe I'm sick ... :) )
In other words, "We're reviving franchises so we can milk older, nostalgic players that stopped paying attention to us years ago with casualized shovelware. Investment in new IP is for losers."
Thanks but no thanks, EA. While you're all committing franchise grave robbery, maybe you can choke yourselves on a big barrel of dicks, too.
Populous, Wing Commander, Theme Park, and Road Rash.
If you remember all the old classics you played, if you go back and play them now, they're not the same. They were right for their time, and the trick with those games is coming up with what's right for the time now. ... there's an opportunity to bring those back in the future, but only if it's right for the time and not just a 'remake' or something. We'd need to do it in a way that's true to the original values, but would still make a great game today.
What was the last Real Time Simulator, Space flight Simulator, or Motorcycle "quote" racing "unquote" game? Personally I haven't played Theme park myself.
I mean, yeah, they do keep remaking games to death and I would hate to see that happen. Resident Evil was once a good series. But the real issue is the games that get Remade that don't NEED to be. Like any sports title. Or they redid a Monkey Island special edition - which was a great game and still is, but to be honest I enjoyed it more in its classic graphics and sound over the new ones. The episodic launch of the new Monkey Island series does have me bouncing a bit.
But back to the games at hand. Populus would be an interesting remake because there are so many angles they could approach it at, even if they didn't bring any new game concepts the graphics of what is taking place could be awesome and breathtaking enough as it is.
Wing Commander, along with its brother the X-wing series could also do with a new release. I mean space flight sims aren't generally all that new or different from one to another, but the next Gen consoles have been out for a while now and I haven't seen any.
And Road Rash... I... I honestly don't know how this could turn out... I actually pulled it out a month ago and played it for like 10 minutes. I don't remember how this appealed to me when I was younger.
It seems LucasArts was on to something...people do like the old stuff they just need them updated graphically (though im still waiting for my Xwing vs Tie Fighter), its good to see EA come around. Now that Activision is trying to replace EA as the most evil game company EA seems content to try and make amends, bringing back the classics will only help.
Privateer with modern internet multiplayer would be amazing, ditto for Syndicate and Dune. Now if we could only get Infogrames/Atari to update Star Control.
Privateer with modern internet multiplayer would be amazing
See Eve Online
The big difference between EVE and Privateer is that you can actually fly your ship dynamically in Privateer. In Eve you can maneuver but it's very much like a capital ship battle, point and click and wait. Excepting a few classes (like the interceptor) there's almost no need to try and manually fly your ship. Privateer featured real dogfighting and the market based economy which is something I'd love to see in a new game (or even MMO).
Honestly...WC was great for mind blowing graphics. I remember installing all 13+ disks taking over an hour and waiting patiently to get the thing going. The story was pretty cool, but what sucked me in were the incredible graphics. The story was pretty cool, but it always came down to how cool it looked to be flying around capitol ships and dog fighting such nice looking things. That is what WC sold me on.
But then I started playing tie fighter much later, then freespace 2. Sorry guys, the space combat in those games is MUCH MUCH better. The variety of capitol ships and the ability to take them out with small ships (needed torps in WC if i recall correctly) and the way the missions played out were much much more dynamic then anything I recall in WC.
If the space flight sim genera needs a reboot, it should be from freespace or the xwing/tie fighter games, not wing commander, unless of coarse they are going to blow my skirt up with disgustingly awesome graphics again.
Maybe that Low Blow sequel I've been waiting for will become a reality. I mean a boxing game where the easiest way to win is kick the other guy in the crotch whenever the refs aren't looking. Can you think of a more realistic boxing experience?
Please see Jumpgate Evolution instead then.
Hmm, how about M.U.L.E. and Worms, Archon and maybe even Seven Cities of Gold -- not to mention Pinball Construction Set.
Remake M.U.L.E. with no changes to gameplay, but cuter graphics and a little easier menu. Put it on WiiWare for $10.
This is such a no-brainer. It's the perfect family game. It would be huge.
I would love to see the following remade i had some much fun playing:
Kronus Rift (Lucas Arts) i think thats how it was spelt
Neuromancer (based on the William Gibson Novel
And release Powerstone 2 on XBox Live Arcade
:)
Or make Powerstone 3
Join the cause:
www.petitiononline.com/pwrstn3/petition.html
www.petitionspot.com/petitions/PowerStone3/
That's what we really need. With FMV sequences. And no, Privateer 2 was not good. At all.
...@...D
What the hell? People actually hate Syndicate Wars? What is it that people don't like about it? Personally it's one of my all time favourite games, and I like it much more than Syndicate. True 3D, destroyable buildings, a much more convincing cyberpunk atmosphere, what's not to like? Even more, what's to hate?
Yeah I've been interested in checking that one out!
I still play this game occasionally on my old Sega.
Also, how 'bout a new BattleToads?
If someone managed to create a truly timeless and, excuse the use of an overused term, epic tale and forge that into a game, you can _always_ enjoy playing it.
In related news, Chrono Trigger is available for the DS. Waiting for Secret of Mana (and Seiken Denetsu 3), now.
I really miss the days of true and realistic strategy games like Harpoon and pure turn based strategic games like V for Victory. Perhaps with the exception of Hearts of Iron, I don't think these games have been mimicked since. Real time tactical and FPS games basically dominate everything.
Theme Park was my first PC games (and at the time was a blast) but was quickly overshadowed by RollerCoaster Tycoon.
I hope they don't waste time trying to resurrect this old title.
Now re-make B.C. Racers and I am in!