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Syndicate Reboot Coming Next Year
Electronic Arts has announced that the popular 1993 cyberpunk game Syndicate is getting a remake. This time, instead of being a tactical action game, it'll be a first-person shooter, and co-op play is planned. The Guardian's games blog sums up what the new Syndicate will need in order to succeed: "The biggest challenge will to replicate Bullfrog's brilliant story-telling and its keen eye for cyberpunk details. The original titles were also fascinating for their amorality – players were neither rewarded nor penalized for gunning down civilians or destroying vast areas of real estate, reflecting the wider themes of urban nihilism and social breakdown. Fans certainly won't be appeased by a vaguely near-future shoot-'em-up with some hackneyed hacking mini-games tossed in for cyber-credentials."
I probably won't be the first to say this, but seriously, fucking lame.
WWJD -- What Would Jimi Do?
(Smash amp, burn guitar, take home the groupies)
On another note why does EA remake shit like this? They could have just called it Cyberpocolypse or Billy Menumonic or some other title and it would have been exactly the same. This looks about as cyber punk as any other Castel Wolfenstien remake. Where is the sky the color of a TV tuned to a dead channel? Where is the deliverator? Where is the ketamine? Where is Reason? Where are the prostitutes who use roofies until they wake up covered in blood? If you want a non stop shoot em up with a few side games just go ask Iain M. Banks for some rights. If you want a extremely complicated idea about the structure of the human mind and how that can be viewed through the prism of hyper connected data driven world with subtexts of machine programing humans I think FPS is not the muse of choice. How long have we been waiting for a Neuromancer movie? Why can't Chris Cunningham, Danny Bole, and James Cameron just walk into the studio and grab the execs by the balls and yell "GIVE US THE FUCKING RIGHTS ASSHOLES!" Ahhh but I digress.
...if the remake is a different genre than the original? Syndicate was no fps...
In EA's version the city is clean.That is an indication of failure when it comes to atmosphere.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
It's going to be a really really shit version of Deus Ex.
Seriously what the fuck is the aversion to the classic genres nowadays? Where are modern day games like Cannon Fodder, Syndicate, Desert Strike, Magic Carpet. Hell it's hard to even find RTS games like the original Command and Conquer now, they're all just a bit too futuristic. The original C&C was at least set reasonably in near future but the latest in the series are all about fucking UFOs and aliens and mega-robots.
There's so many genres out there that have basically just died off and are begging for modern day remakes done properly. By done properly I mean not turned into some shitty FPS that'll probably flop.
First XCOM, now this. What I don't get is why. It's not like the typical FPS gamer today was playing strategy games in the 90s, so why all the old properties? What's the point in recycling IPs if your target audience has never heard of them?
True, and Fallout turned out pretty well. Warcraft is too is an example of a franchise that successfully shifted to another genre. Syndicate is a game I fondly remember. I hope EA don't end up churning out a Deus Ex knock-off
-- Using the preview button since 2005
What's the point in recycling IPs if your target audience has never heard of them?
Easy, new ideas are hard to come up with. It is far easier to steal someone else's idea and re-implement them. Hollywood makes plenty of re-makes of movies that would have little relevance to modern audiences, but the ideas behind them are still good (and the average studio executive has a hard time deciding what to have for lunch).
FPS is probably my favourite genre, but even I am annoyed that we seem to only have three major genres any more: FPS, RTS, and RPG/"Adventure". I love a good turn based strategy or RPG but they aren't made by major studios any more, and the indie versions don't live up to the late 90's games.
IMO the reason everything is being re-made as an FPS is because they sell so well on console. A bad FPS on console probably out sells any other game genre on PC. Consoles are just not good for the old school complex genres like XCOM and major publishers pretty much don't make PC only games any more.
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CINC, 4th Penguin Legion
Return from the stars by Stanislaw Lem also comes to mind
In EA's version the city is clean.That is an indication of failure when it comes to atmosphere.
It's being published by EA. Trust me, you'll feel dirty enough by the time you've waded through the DRM.
Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
Actually, in the original, the city areas were varied, and some were very tidy and pretty, with neatly trimmed grass, perfect lines of trees and nicely angled hills. To this day I get "Syndicate vibes" from certain gardens, squares, parks that are all too regularly trimmed.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
I doubt the success of Deus Ex: Human Revolution played much of a role in the decision because it will be 3-4 years before this Syndicate game hits the market (DX:HR started development in 2007). The games industry isn't like Hollywood where you can churn out a movie in 6-months to a year to ride the coat tails of a blockbuster.
Rather I think the games industry has entered a nostalgic era where the 20 and 30 somethings are pining for the games of their youth (and instead getting FPS re-makes in the same setting) AND the modern combat FPS is getting really bloody stale. Going to something like Cyberpunk is a better option then Yet-Another-Modern-Combat-Shooter OR even worse a return to Yet-Another-WWII-Shooter (remember when modern day shooters were a refreshing change from repeatedly storming Normandy?).
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CINC, 4th Penguin Legion
First, "brilliant storytelling"? I don't remember much of that in Syndicate at all. The intro consisted of someone getting run over, turned into a cyborg and then shooting the "viewer". The rest of the cutscenes were a guy in a blimp throwing his lamp, and a party underneath the blimp, to my knowledge. The in-game text consisted mostly of "kill this guy for this reason" or similar.
That's part of what made Syndicate great - no junk, nothing getting in your way (every cutscene was skippable with any keypress), just you, a target, and a city to hunt them down in. Syndicate was simplicity and atmosphere - I can remember my brother crowing about the Blade-Runner-ness of it all, from the cutscenes to the pre-game interface to the cities. And who can forget that voice that confirmed your commands - "Ser-lected"?
Syndicate was simple, fun gaming. You didn't need a million keys on your keyboard to play (1, 2, 3, 4 and space if I remember rightly - and everything else on mouse), you weren't forced down any one avenue and the dynamics of "hyping" your agents, controlling four separate agents, loading weapons, the persuadertron, and controllable vehicles were relatively new and interesting (First ever game to feature car-jackings?).
It ran on everything (386 with 2MB if I remember), didn't need a ton of power, worked virtually intuitively, had decent saves, and the only downside was an impossibly unbalanced last mission (which was weird because all the others were pitched just fine).
But it sold because it was simple to play. Start New Game, take the default load-out, click to move, right-click to shoot, both-click (a vastly underused input mechanic) to hype temporarily. To enter car, click. To leave car, click. To change weapon, click. To separate your agents, click between them. It was a grown-up Cannon Fodder, with a bit of resource management thrown in (persuade everyone you can, then sell their weapons for upgrades). Hell, it even had radar so you could never get lost.
Syndicate Wars itself was a bit of blasphemy to the Syndicate fan because it lost a great amount of the simplicity. Full-3D FPS? Why? What's wrong with a 3D-esque layout that players can change if they want? It's C&C:Generals all over again - let's take an estabished isometric Dune-like game franchise and turn it into an FPS. Would you do the same the other way around?
Personally, it can stay in development for ever. But the second the original comes up on GOG.com, (they've already done a few Bullfrog titles this year) I'll be buying it.
Duke Nukem: Mahjong Edition
on the face of the computer industry.
next up 'lets remake kings quest as a first person shooter'
EA represents everything that is soulless and wrong.
every creative, visionary company of the 90s that came within 10 feet of EA corporate has withered and died, like they were infected by some kind of black plague of the soul.