Gaming is cyclical. I remember when 2D platform games were completely dominant. I also remember when people practically stopped making 2D platformers altogether. I remember when 3D fighters were in vogue and now I can’t remember the last time I played one.
So today I’d like to talk about the genres you want to come back.
Because it’s funny, it seems like the genres I grew up loving — platform games, adventures, horror games — they’ve all either undergone a resurgence or are in the process of building steam. The retro-styled 2D platformer in particular has been overdone now to the point where it’s almost played out. Adventure games are fashionable again, and I thought they were stone-cold dead in the water.
It’s got me thinking: are there any genres you’d like to see revived? Personally I’d like to see extreme sports games get a second roll at the dice — Skate, Tony Hawk’s, games like that. How about Flight Sims? Or the rhythm game genre.
I’ve also mentioned that inclusive party games have been gone for a while. Is it finally time for a next-gen Buzz!?
What genres would you like to see revived?
Comments
152 responses to “Tell Us Dammit: What Genres Do You Miss?”
I would pay stupidly large amounts of money for a PS4 version of Buzz
I miss the old city building games like Pharaoh and Caesar.
I LOVED those games! Civ and the like simply don’t scratch that itch with their huge scale – I want focused city building.
I think children of the nile was the last of them that I played and enjoyed.
I guess there is the tropico series as well
who made pha and cae …..sierra right? what happened to them.
They got bought out by activision I believe.
This times infinity. By Zeus’ beard were those amazing.
Speaking of which, did anyone ever play ‘Zeus: Master of Olympus’?
As much as I loved Caesar and Pharoah, Zeus was my all out favourite as the mythological element added a great dose of crazy fun.
I’d love to see a remake. Good call on bringing this style of game up in this.
I sure did, my comment was an attempt to allude to that hehe. The mythological element definitely made that game, gods prancing around your city and all. That and the temples themselves were a glorious sight.
Zeus was my second favourite in the series, after Emperor.
Too bad Caesar 4 sucked.
I did. I even still have it at home.
OH YEAH now we are talking! Caesar and Pharaoh were the business. I spent so many hours on them. Absolute gaming heaven. Upvote for you!
Also, remember Dune 2000 (I think)…kind of like early C&C….but with more worms.
3D action platformers (the ones like Jak, Ratchet and Clank, etc).
Sure, Ratchet and Clank is still alive (and still my favourite series of all time), but there just isn’t enough of these games.
And Jak needs to be revived or something. I understand Naughty Dog has tried working on a sequel (and given up, since it “just didn’t work out”).
Why not reboot it like Ratchet and Clank did with the Future series?
Completely! I so want Naughty Dog to make another Jak.
Just lose the guns and combat. Even if they simply remade The Precursor Legacy in flashy 1080p I’d be happy.
Just happened to update my post with the exact same comment, while you were replying haha!
You, sir (or ma’am), have won the internet. I would love to have a new Jak game, or a remake of the first. They do have an HD collection, but it would be awesome if they remade it completely using new design and graphics.
We’ve seen Naughty Dog do realism, and do it supremely well. But I remember the variety and sheer creativity of the Crash and Jak games fondly, and I want to see what ND can do with a zany context and zero technical limitations.
If they unleash the wacky in a new Jak game and use the Uncharted 4 engine to power it, I feel that the world would be a much better place.
I felt the same, which led to my purchase of the original Jak and Daxter. Played through it and felt NONE of the magic the first time I played it.
I used to love those games but I feel their design hasn’t aged well. I’d love to be proven wrong with a great new 3D platformer though.
Very true. I bought the HD collection for Jak, thinking I’d play through it all with the same level of excitement I had when I first played it as a kid.
And like you said, the magic had literally vanished. Didn’t have anywhere near the same enjoyment.
With regards to what you said about the design of 3D platformers not aging well, I did think the same thing until I bought Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time. It’s now my favourite in the series, alongside the 3rd game.
Subset overdrive is apparently rachet and clankey. Not that I’ve played either.
I really miss split-screen, couch-based FPS matches. A couple of games spring to mind as examples (no, guess!) but on the whole I just miss that genre sliver of gaming. Outside of a couple of niche games looking to scratch that itch, it doesn’t look like there’s much around these days which actively attempts to get people together to play fast, competitive, skill-based twitch multiplayer.
It’s why I’m so looking forward to Splatoon.
Have you had a look at screencheat? I’m keen to check that out at PAX this weekend
Yeah, and it totally sounds intersting. I was going to mention it in my comment but the reality is I probably won’t end up playing it – I think it’s only on Steam and 99% of my gaming happens on consoles. Splatoon is way more likely to find its way into my library.
Timesplitters on the gamecube was great for that action, shame that series seems to be abandoned, it’s all online fps now, very little split screen
Probs because couch-based and competitive/skill-based twitch MP do not actually go hand in hand… Controllers and all…
The touch pad on the PS4 has some potential there I think… though hardly anyone seems to use it as anything but a big button.
I feel that currently there are not enough rogue-lite 2d platformers with retro art.
I miss FMV. I know it’s terrible. I know it’s cheesy. I know it’s b-grade. I want it back in my life.
7th Guest. Megarace. So so good!!!
I dunno, C&C 3 wasn’t that long ago was it? It had some great cheese extract coated all over it 🙂
I want to return to Zork >
Oh my god, such a great era in gaming. From the cut-scenes interspersed in games like C&C, to the full focus of adventure games, like Tex, Return to Zork, Angel Devoid, Hell… And fuckit, I’m including Wing Commander because seriously, the real game was about hitting on the mechanic, not flying those silly spacecraft.
Extreme sports games yes…definitely.
Some really well done modern snowboarding, skating, blading, BMXing, free running would go down well with me.
Also, would love a Mario Partyesque game that could be played online for my Xbone.
It’s been forever since there was a really good snowboarding game.
Was just playing SSX 2012 tonight and was like…… Yeah, this isn’t the same…
Proper point and click/text input adventures. Like Hugo’s House of Horrors.
I miss the text parser.
“Take off clothes.”
AND THEN SONNY BONDS DID IT AND GOT KICKED OFF THE FORCE! Ah, Police Quest!
“Climb down laundry chute.”
AND THEN LAURA BOW DID IT AND DIED. Ah, The Colonel’s Bequest!
That reminds me I bought a Sierra games bundle on GOG awhile back. I have all of Space Quest, Police Quest, King’s Quest and Quest for Glory just sitting there waiting for one exceptionally rainy weekend.
I am very curious about what they’ll do with the King’s Quest remake.
Ruin it, probably.
I think Sierra made a valiant attempt to do that with King’s Quest 7 and that musical opening! 😛
Effing musicals – I have no place in my life for them! (With the exceptions of Bob’s Burgers, and that one episode of Buffy.)
Me too! *shifty eyes as I hide my Lion King tickets from last night* 😛
Oh no, The Lion King doesn’t count! When I say ‘musical’ I guess I mean junk like Les Mis and Miss Saigon and Pirates of Penzance and such. Songs within animated movies are totally fine.
I was actually saying the other night that I thought Whiplash could be nominated in the best musical/comedy category for movie awards, since it was primarily about music and performance. Just no rubbish singing.
“Go home” in the taxi in the original Leisure Suit Larry.
Man, I really need to hunt down some of the classic text-parser games. There was one from the mid-90s that is totally on my bucket list because it was just so… huge and beyond my understanding as a kid.
It featured a couple memorable scenes, like one where an engineer explains that the best way to get out of VR sims is to break their programming by doing something counter to their purpose. Like how he broke a city-block exercise sim by walking into a virtual convenience store inside it and buying a candy bar.
I love those games! I think Hugo 3 in the jungle was my favorite.
Light gun games – I miss Point Blank
Yassssss. God, I loved the hell outta that game!
Ha, took my time ranting 😛
Light guns are a forgotten technology 🙁
They were the best. I played Blue Estate’s on the PS4 and while the control pad’s motion control does a fair job of emulating the light-gun, it really just doesn’t compare.
This is not a genre, but I miss how pretty much every game for a period had “Big Head Mode”…
Forever DK Mode 😛
This world would be such a different place if Monkey Kong had never been mistranslated as Donkey Kong.
Light gun games.
We got a bit of a taste of it last gen thanks to Sega with HotD Overkill and 2&3 Return (and possibly Ghost Squad?), but as far as I’m aware they were the only ones to offer it properly. By which I mean the ability to play it as a light gun game – if you can’t disable the cursor and enable 1:1 tracking, then it doesn’t count in my eyes. All the fun comes from the hand/eye coordination of lining up your gun-shaped controller with the targets on-screen, if you have a honking great cursor over the top of everything you may as well just be at a computer with a mouse, clicking on the things you want to hit.
I despised those games because of the lag with the Wiimote. The G-con45 kicked its arse in terms of responsiveness ten years earlier.
Long live Time Crisis, Point Blank, and all things late-nineties Namco.
Yeah, there is some latency with the IR pointer that you don’t get with the old CRT guns. Also if you were playing the Wii on a digital TV, then you have the analogue-to-digital latency too. Horrible.
But if you played on an analogue TV (and turned off cursor smoothing, I think?), it was extremely playable!
No almost about it.
Turn based JRPGs and plenty of local co-op games
Yep turned based jrpg’s for me too. All the rage these days are for action-rpg it seems…
The thing is, if I want to play a fighting game (down, left, up, around, X and O for special move 4), i’ll play a fighting game.
Here here!
I miss turn based RPG’s. Suikoden 2 till this day is still the best RPG I have ever played.
Ohh and Timesplitters. That game was amazing.
+1 to Timesplitters.
Twin P90s going full auto and running around shooting weirdo bots. Magical.
agree, so fast and fluid and frantic (and many other F words I am sure lol)
The lack of Suikoden 2 on PSN to this day is extremely annoying :\
Argh tell me about it. America at least saw the release of the first Suikoden on PSN. Then Suikoden 2 was re rated through the ESRB so no doubt they will get that too.
Space combat, though with Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen due out, plus that console one I think that genre will be fine.
Would love to see a new Flight sim enter the market
Yeah I was going to post something like this. I don’t see much space combat style games anymore. Rogue Squadron (I guess that counts) was awesome but the genres golden age seemed to have died after.
Tbh I was hoping for a Mass Effect spinoff space combat game but it doesn’t look like they’re going to get that experimental.
Innit. Just like buses, we’ve waited ages and now 3 come along at once…
I backed both SC and E:D.
No Man’s Sky I’m very excited for also.
Fast, arcadey racing games. Lately the simulator with arcadey feel is the “thing” at the moment but what I really want to play is a Burnout 4. Suppose I am lucky that Wreckfest is coming and that other game that is meant to be like F Zero and the other one that is like Wipeout.
Was just about to post this. Can’t believe Criterion aren’t working on a next gen Burnout before this xtreme sports game they’re doing, it’s saddening. 🙁 Oh, and I was absolutely crushed when Studio Liverpool was shuttered as WipEout is still one of my favorite series, period. Only have Beat Zico to go on HD Fury! Formula Fusion should be fairly cool though, if still not quite the same…
Classic Survival Horror (RE 1-3)
Big budget turn based JRPGs
whatever Diddy Kong Racing was, a kart game with an adventure mode.
Actual Metroidvanias, instead of claiming to be & missing the point
Shenmue
Side scrolling Arcade beat-em-ups like Double Dragon, Final Fight, Ninja Turtles, Golden Axe etc
We get the occasional remake but the genre feels largely forgotten.
This.
Also, you forgot Streets of Rage.
Oh, I also miss Guitar Hero.
But proper Guitar Hero. Where it was all about guitar and nobody needs to sing or get stuck playing boring snorefest bass and drums were cool I guess but not overly necessary and co-op was awesome and they totally should’ve done a game built around twin-lead guitar bands so we could have more of that.
That’s half the reason I’ve been burying my time in Rocksmith for the past 11 months – Killers pack dropped yesterday, and stayed up ’til after midnight just rocking out. :3 But it’s still more a tool for learning guitar than just something you can pick up and enjoy. Would love to see the return of the more arcadey GH-style games – one game on current gen consoles (or PC) that they pump with song DLC for the rest of the console’s lifecycle…
Hell, last time I checked, Rock Band 3 was still played every Friday by our Uni’s gamer guild.
Really wish they’d do more genre’s. I know rocks popular, and they did the classical remakes pack recently but I want more funk/soul/blues. Tired of having to map Jamiroquai songs myself to get any new content I actually want to play.
I wouldn’t mind seeing skating and music games come back because I never really jumped on the bandwagon when they were big and now that I’m sort of interested in them no one cares about them anymore.
Decent Snowboarding game. Haven’t touched anything as awesome as Supreme snowboarding which came out in the late 90’s I think.
Huh?
There’s new Tekkens, Virtua Fighters, Soul Caliburs and Dead or Alives every couple of years.
Anyway, I want Action JRPG’s in the same kind of style as the Seiken Densetsu series (the series games like Secret of Mana and Legend of Mana belong to). Most JRPG’s are still either turn based, or use some kind of hybrid system. I want real Action JRPG’s (Western RPG’s don’t appeal to me at all) and we haven’t really seen any since the 16-bit era.
So much this, the amount of times me and my brothers haev played through Seiken Desnestu 3!
Top down racers, specifically like Mashed – the ultimate couch party game. A semi sequel was released a couple years ago but it just wasn’t the same.
That ice track…
Wrecked was pretty good once you got used to it. It didn’t have as many features as Mashed, but the gameplay was intact. You’re right, though, there needs to be more.
A small list of my wants…
A new PROPER Tony Hawk game…
Wacky Wheels (old dos game by apogee. theres a HD remake coming soon apparently)
more 4-8 player coop games. im talking campaign coop. (Damn you destiny, why 3 people???)
LAN Play modes in games… I run lans quite often and hate the fact that most games no longer do LAN Play.
You can get Wacky Wheels as part of the 3dRealms anthology they announced earlier this week.
I think it’s on GOG as well.
I miss LANS everyone these days is a “casual console gamer” i have no hardcore PC friends anymore and it makes me sad 🙁
Agreed 100% my LAN circle is practically non existent, and the 3-4 people that still come feel like it’s a chore. Plus they spend 95% of the time watching TV shows on their pc’s.
Used to do lans every month up until 3-4 months ago. Now every 5/6 if I’m lucky
Haven’t done a lan for atleast 6 years :'( and it makes me sad. i miss the days of staying up playing
-1.6
-WC3
– soldat
– endless random small games
and even sometimes rise of nations etc
🙁 so much fun being able to talk shit over the computer screen.
Warlords.
Turn based games where you go to a castle or ruin and hopefully don’t die and earn some new followers. I played them to death. Then everyone else moves
In fact if anyone knows of a game similar to that around now let me know!!!!
Wasn’t that made by an Aussie studio?
Yep it was made by SSG. Damn I miss that game!
Ha i remember playing many a multiplayer game of that in uni, in between inter-college games of Quake, great funs 🙂
Man, for a minute I thought you were talking about SSI, and I was gonna go on about how legendary they were. Like… War Wind was fucking boss. They took RTS to crazy levels that haven’t been rivalled, with the customizability and levelling of your troops.
…But I guess SSG is cool too, or something.
Age of Wonders is an interesting series, there is a simultaneous turn system as well which is pretty interesting. I played the first one and loved it!
EA, please give us SSX and Skate
I’ll echo the call for more Buzz, although having played the crap out of the PS2/3 music editions, I’d love for the ability to create/share/download user generated questions. The rights holders would never let that happen though.
The re-release of X-Wing/TIE Fighter is sating my space sim desire, but more of those would be awesome.
This. Hopefully Star Citizen and Elite: Dangerous can get some momentum going. Throw in some good Oculus Rift integration and you can sign me up for that sedentary lifestyle people are always talking about.
Oculus Rift would be perfect for space sims….being able to look around the cockpit….oh yes, and flying down the Death Star trench….
No no no. I want to pilot an X-Wing again but I don’t want to blow up that god damn Death Star for the millionth time or tie AT-AT legs with tow cables. Give me a Rogue Squadron game that has nothing to do with the movies please. =P
This is why TIE Fighter was better than X-Wing in every possible way. New and awesome story and setting, plus such better missions. And the secret society of special objectives? Fantastic.
I want more brawler games like Double Dragon, Battletoads and Street Gangs. The only ones I’ve played recently (ie. Last year or two) are Dragon’s Crown and Phantom Breaker: Battlegrounds. I’d also like to see more 3D action platformers of the Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank and Crash Bandicoot style. Definitely want more bullet hell shmups too. I know there are a bunch of indie ones out there, but it would be nice to see what a big name studio could do.
Could try the Scott Pilgrim game for a bit of a River City Ransom type game.
Good quality strat RPG’s. Disgaea, I’m looking at you (very fondly)
Mind you Disgaea 4 for ps3 was pretty good, but that’s about all I can think of for a while. Wheres a new Final Fantasy Tactics or Vandal Hearts etc?
SRPGs are still around.
Disgaea 5 was announced for PS4 at TGS, so there’s that. There were a few at the tail end of the PSP like Growlanser IV and Gungnir. Natural Doctrine is a SRPG that came out just recently, though to be fair it’s a bit odd. IIRC there was a new Luminous Arc game announced for Vita too?
Last year’s Fire Emblem Awakening on 3DS was an excellent game too, though not as hardcore as Disgaea. Devil Survivor 2 is getting a 3DS re-do at some point. I believe that Yasumi Matsuno (Tactics Ogre, FFT) was working on a new SRPG with a western group that got Kickstarted a while back as well?
Also if you’re willing to go outside the SRPG genre a bit into JRPGs with more tactical combat there’s Trails in the Sky (which is excellent, chapter 2 soon!).
Yeah I forgot to mention the Fire Emblems (though how I don’t know!)
I played all the gameboy ones and the gamecube and Wii one, but don’t do handheld gaming any more, and that seems to be the platform that the strat rpgs have moved too, so that must be why I am feeling the lack of them personally.
Thanks for the heads up’s and updates mate 🙂
It’s not just SRPGs, basically all the more niche stuff from Japan has moved to handheld now. Or died and been resurrected as a crap phone game. 🙁 Pretty much all that’s left on consoles is your AAA stuff plus the odd Tales game.
Handheld actually works really nicely for games like Disgaea, I’ve found.
Also Fire Emblem Awakening is excellent, one of the best (maybe even the best) in the series so if you ever find yourself in possession of a 3DS you could do a lot worse than picking that up.
Yeah I certainly plan to, on the off chance I do get a 3ds from somewhere, I heard great things about Awakening.
Your right about the handhelds thing, the same happened with Valkyria Chronicles, which I loved on PS3 (right up my alley, except I do prefer the swords and axes and spears of Fire Emblems over the guns of Valkyria) and then the sequels went to handheld.. grrr.
What happened to Valkyria still makes me sad. At least with the upcoming port of the original game to PC there’s a ray of hope still, maybe a possibility that Sega haven’t forgotten about it and maybe they’ll do localized VC3 PC port. But I doubt it. 🙁
Not the first time Sega’s buried a great SRPG series either. I’m still sad we never got the original Sakura Wars games in English. Shining Force has basically died and turned into an un-localized bog-standard JRPG series now too 🙁
I miss single player…
And couch co-op.
lol, I was gonna say “Theres still Elder scrolls” but then I remembered that even it went MMO…
Hmm my list here would go like this:
1# A decent JRPG – IE A Dragon Warrior, Suikoden or Final Fantasy but not one thats all about graphics and action instead about gameplay, story and tactics. (I havent seen a decent JRPG thats been about gameplay since White Knight Chronicles on PS3)
2# A fun co-op game – So far on the PS4 i’m still feeling that itch, apart from Dynasty Warriors 8 I havent enjoyed co-op anywhere near as much as i had with the PS3 and Dragon Ball Z games come into this section.
3# A party game – I do love Mario Party but I dont have a WiiU, but i think someone can surely do it for the PS4…
4# A Crash Bandicoot Style Game (I never played Knack though) – (this could be tied into #2 and #3) – Crash Bash Sequel or something similar!
5# A solid platformer/Puzzle RPG – One game comes to mind here – Tombi (Tomba for Americans)
This game stretched my imagination and problem solving skills to their absolute limits as a child and something similar would be fantastic.
I would LOVE a new Suikoden. Shame the series seems to be completely abandoned.
baldurs gate 2 top down style RPG. Getting some with pillars and wasteland 2 though.
Check out Divinity: Original Sin – it was awesome and pretty much a love letter to BG2! Complete with “You must gather your party before venturing forth”
thanks for the reminder, i’ve been meaning to check it out on steam but had forgot the name!
More couch co-op/splitscreen games! There is way too much focus on online multiplayer these days. Bring it back!
Proper arcade racers. One’s without the attitude, preferably. SEGA Blue Skies and tracks that feel like you could play them forever and learn something new with each lap. SEGA Rally on the Saturn had only 4 courses, yet it’s the game I’ve played most in my gaming years – and I’ve still yet to master it. It’s brilliant. The 90’s Arcade Racer cannot release fast enough. Drift Stage looks amazing too.
I find I get really bored of the hyperreal arcade racers like Burnout, NFS and those types before long. They all look the same, seem to handle the same and they’ve all got shitty licensed soundtracks with something for everyone – which means there’s only ever a couple of songs I like. I like tracks with personality. Tracks with their own song, look and feel. Give me pretty colours, a quirky soundtrack that I can sing/hum along to and an arcade handling model with depth any day.
Also, as mentioned, 3D fighters and proper 2D platformers. With the exception of Trine & Trine 2, I absolutely cannot STAND physics-based, puzzle platform games. I’d much rather stuff like Shovel Knight (which I still haven’t played yet – holding out for the Wii U version) and Freedom Planet. I’ve never been good at fighting games, but I love them all the same. And I love 3D fighters the most.
Tony Hawk games before they got overly complex. ….actually I think I just miss being 15 years old. god damn, those were the days.
Tony Hawks and Monkey island. They could combine the two and I will just buy it no questions asked.
Skateboarding around telling people there are three-headed monkeys behind them, or that they skate like a cow? lol
Anything that had Shaquille O’Neal or Michael Jordan in it but the game wasnt about Basketball. How good were the 90’s.
Military flight sims
Ace Combat just doesn’t cut it.
Yes. Played F/A 18, Falcon, AH64, A10, Combat Flight Sim. Loved them all. I still enjoy playing MS FSX but do miss being able to dogfight.
Extreme sports need to have a comeback soon, Cool boarders would be great (that was the name wasn’t it?), not sure of the genre but a new team buddies would be great loved that game. Hell even a new Devil Dice game would be sweet (sure you could get an app but it was sweet on the console.), Also what happened to Tennis games a new one would be something fresh?
Something i discussed with my wife just this morning Destruction Derby for the next gen.
Sierra’s Police Quest!!
It’s not so much genres as styles of genres I miss. For example, I miss the days when FPS games were as much about mazes to solve as menaces to shoot. I also miss isometric RPG’s, although Kickstarter has been going a long way to alleviate that.
More like a subgenre, but I miss the late-90s JRPGs with pre-rendered backgrounds and turn-based combat instead of the action game styled stuff that takes a million years to release we currently have.
But more than that, I miss good space combat games. We’re way past due for a TIE Fighter sequel / reboot.
there was a pretty good space combat one.. oh would be probably 5 years ago now… trying to remember the name…. maybe someone can help?
You had a ship that was given to you by your dad or something and as you flew around doing missions for space ports etc like escorting, defending etc, you eventually came across *things* (green cube things as I recall) that you could use to upgrade your ship…
I have the damn game at home, but it’s been a while …
thats it, got it..
Darkstar (edit; actually it’s called Darkstar One http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DarkStar_One)
Good funs, if you can find it
I would pay money for a new version of Bolo to play on work computers. I remember playing that on the macs at school when I was a kid. Even then it was outdated, but fun as hell, and SIMPLE enough that you can alt tab out of it if needed. You know what I mean. You know.
I would pay money for a new version of Bolo, on Mac and/or PC, to play on work computers. I remember playing that on the old Mac boxes at school when I was a kid. Even then it was outdated, but fun as hell, and SIMPLE enough that you can alt tab out of it if needed. You know what I mean. You know.
I’d also love some mystery/detective games. And a new X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter.
Skate 4 please
Not a genre, but an engine: the gameplay engine used for the old N64 wrestling games like WWF No Mercy, and then later for Def Jam: Fight for NY. Some of the best fighting games ever.
I propose a new one where all the characters are actors playing badass versions of themselves, like Omar Epps and Danny Trejo did in Def Jam. That way we can finally see who would win between Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
I’m going with good old RTS games. Late 90s and early 00s were the highlight of the genre, where ensemble was king. I was always excited for an ‘Age of x’ game, but also loved other series like the C&Cs, Total Annihilation, Homeworld.
Understand the RTS genre still lives but the releases are slow and it feels like its a dying genre.
Yeah I’m still half-pie hoping for a Warcraft IV at some point, but I fear they would do the same damn thing they did with SC2, split it into multiple games….
Though I don’t see the reasoning at all as stated by Blizzard (to make great single campaigns…) since they managed perfectly adequate campaigns for all the races for WC 1,2,3 in a single release….
A new TA would be great too, that was mad mayhem that one
I’d argue SC2 was a more massive a fuck up by Blizzard than D3. D3, while had a shoddy end game, its fundamentals are fine which has allowed to transition as nicely as it has with an expac. SC2 was fucked in the beginning. Campaigns split into three separate games (given the changing industry climate), unfinished battle net. But more importantly, the game’s fundamentals were flawed, which it being built and balanced around competitive gaming. Just ugh.
Anyway, I’m hoping for a WC IV as well, one where they don’t fuck it up like they did SC2.
Yes I really didn’t enjoy the kerrigan campaign at all. I found the Terran campaign quite good as there was a lot of good variety in the missions, but the whole zerg campaign to me was basically ‘heres an unlocked unit, please spam it and kill everything’
The Terran campaign at least also had a few Protoss missions to break it up, but yeah overall it’s been disappointing. I will still no doubt get the protoss one, just because they are my favourite of the races.
I was never convinced of the three separate games allow for deeper plot and character development argument. One of the greatest strengths of Blizzard’s RTS campaigns was the fact that they offered different perspectives of what was ultimately one conflict. This is the reason imo why Warcraft lore has become so extensive and joy to delve into (I don’t want any WC = Warhammer rip off here tyvm :P) , and I assume was the case with Starcraft 1 as well (unfortunately didn’t play it). Warcraft 3 and expac was an incredible experience that did plenty of world building and character development for FOUR different factions in just two games, not to mention 2 of the factions were brand new.
By dividing the campaign into 3 separate games, the pacing is killed and each individual story is fattened with useless filler. Case of quantity not equaling quality. Worse still, each campaign feels so disjointed from each other that you almost forget what the overarching plot is (Xel’naga returning ).
Yeah it was the same with the original SC, you got all 3 campaigns in the standard game, and then 3 more with the Brood War exp pack, each campaign being 16-20 mission IIRC, none of this “one campaign for a full price game, and then wait 2 years for another single campaign” rubbish.
Your dead right about having to wait 2 years between campaigns as totally killing the pacing too.
Also while ranting about SC2, what the hell was the point of ‘rescuing’ Kerrigan in the Terran campaign, just for her just to return straight to QoB in the next campaign, within 10 missions or so. Seriously…
There’s a reason why amongst the community why we have HoTS vs D3 regarding who has the worst writing in Blizzard history haha.
Got some good news for you about Homeworld then: Gearbox own the rights to it and are re-releasing HD versions of both at some point. Additionally Blackbird Interactive, a team made up of ex-Homeworld guys, are developing a new Homeworld game.
Additionally several of the people behind Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander made Planetary Annihilation which was Kickstarted a couple of years ago and released just recently. No idea if it’s any good or not though. Same guys also opened a kickstarter this month for a second RTS on the same engine but it wasn’t going to make it to their goal and they pulled out early 🙁
Planetary Annihilation is OK. It’s an uneasy mix of TA and SC, without having taken my favourite parts of SC. The campaign is also pretty awkward. To me, it feels like it was a better idea than implemented.
I backed it the instant I knew it existed, but it caused me to be leery of Human Resources… I’m gonna guess given PA’s lukewarm non-backer sales and reactions of gamers like me, that’s the reason HR’s kickstarter got canned so quick.
Sunset Overdrive should have me wanting Tony Hawk Pro Skater, and it does a little, but mostly it just makes me want a next-gen Skate.
Like @whitepointer up there I want action RPGs. I’m not against them being made in the west but I think he’s right to specify action JRPGs. While I’m having a lot of fun with Kingdoms of Amular right now I’m not a huge fan of fantasy to begin with and western fantasy sort of aims for realism where Japanese RPGs use sci-fi/fantasy as more of an artistic launching point.
Farming simulator… (no not that farmville shit) I want a next gen Harvest-moon esque game. I spent a crapload of house on Harvest Moon back to nature on the PS1. Just imagine a farming/town/wilderness simulator with a bit of an older intended audience. Would snap that up in an instant. I suppose Don’t Starve will do for now. Just needs multiplayer.
I miss Master of Orion style 4X (No, Sins of a Solar Empire counts – too shallow), car combat (ala Twisted Metal) and mech games. Played a tonne of MoO2, Twisted Metal 2/Rock n Roll Racing and Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries back in the day.
Yet another vote here for couch co-op. And I mean PROPER couch co-op, none of this “primary player is the only one who has a personality/gets level ups” garbage.
We want some good old fashioned romps that are just fun. FORCED was a great breath of fresh air, and I’d love to see those guys make a sequel/expansion and other people have more games in a similar vein.
Diablo 3 reaper of souls is good for that very purpose.
LAN, specifically local coop wave modes, Hell, even just online wave modes are so much fun, was only talking about this half an hour ago with my friend, we still try and fit in a couple of hours of Uncharted 2 coop survival in a weekend as it’s so much damn fun! While there’s no lack of FPS’, I really want a BC3 and is just BC2 with new maps. DICE, that’s all you have to do, please, PLEASE GOD, do not fuck it up ala BF4. It really, really should NOT be THAT difficult.
I miss Battlezone style games where FPS and strategy came together. That was fun.
Give us a true aerial combat sim (modern, with jets). There hasn’t been a tough/realistic/worth playing one since Ultimate Air Combat on the NES (it was partially arcade – but is a perfect example of how to combine realism with fun) . I’d nudge Activision about it, but it’s no longer the same company if you know what I mean. I don’t want to play a crappy revival/sequel with 4 months development put into it. In fact I’m not really interested in any console game unless it pushes it to the limit, or is just plain damn good. It would need to be 1080p @ 90fps or don’t bother. UAC is like a fine wine and should not be disgraced with a soft drink sequel.
3D platformers, I don’t see any new age Spyros or Crash Bandicoots. Tombi was a great 2D/3D hybrid and was totally loaded with with areas that were interesting & fun. Tombi 2 looked filled with areas I wasn’t going to care about to be honest (and ‘the wrong kind of inconvenient’ to get through), so I never played it.
Games where consequences stay consequences, not just the illusion of it and then when you finish the game you get told everything ok now. Like in Fallout 2, when the game finished it showed you cutscenes of each place in the wastland that you helped or raided and what they are doing now.
An HD Remake of a Tony Hawks Proskater for PS4/Xbone
A ratchet and clank that was true to the original 3/4 that isnt for Ps Vita
I wish Resistance(Ps3) was still around. I know it wasn’t super popular but I played it a bunch.
Please give us a decent Need For Speed Underground 3(or 1/2 HD remake)
The new era of ‘street racing’ games just don’t cut it.