these are some of the games I’m lamenting and want more like: Wing commander 1-4, Xwing, mechwarrior 1-2, Xcom, Heavy gear 1-2, Independance War 1-2, Star Control 2, Fallout 1-2, Syndicate, Systemshock2.
There’s some hope in the future in the form of Fallout 3 (although I’m leery after Oblivion) and Bioshock (sweet!). Spore looks cool.
But cool mech and space sims? zero. chrome-hounds looks action oriented a la mechassault, not sim-like. Recent flight games light Blazing Angels are ridiculously arcade-like. Conan looks like a lot of running around in a forest getting attacked by everything a la Oblivion.
Anyway, you 1990’s PC people know what I’m talking about.
I don’t miss any of those games. It’s kind of hard to, because every five seconds someone who’s still living in 1990 has to remind you of them and why isn’t anyone making them anymore. They already fucking made them, that’s why. If you want to play XCom, go play XCom. It’s exactly like XCom, you’ll love it!
PS the best mech sim game ever was made for a console. LOL!
The 90s were the golden age of PC games and all of the cool kids know it. It doesn’t matter that I had to spend approximately 20 hours preparing my PC to get the 624k of available free conventional memory required by Darklands…it was worth it dammit!
And they had already made Civilization, Pirates and Doom - and yet they made them again anyway. Why? Because those games were great, loved and people wanted them made again.
Frankly, I’m in newbie’s camp. I don’t understand why X-Com hasn’t been re-made or why there hasn’t been a new space or mech sim in ages.
From the cruising altitude of 35,000 feet, there are certain game formulas that started in the 90s that are used over and over again. For example, there’s:
The first person shooter formula: You start with a gun and as you progress you get better weapons and face tougher enemies.
The Tycoon/Civ formula: You start with a unit that lets you build other units which in turn lets you build other stuff.
Real Time Strategy formula: Warcraft with a better interface each and every round
The Diablo formula: Diablo with better interface each round.
These game formulas are used ad naseum. And that makes sense. They sell.
But completely absent from that mix are some great 90s genres, such as space-sims (X-Wing, Tie-Fighter, Freespace2), mech-Sims (Mechwarrior 2) and X-Com.
I’m just baffled why these beloved titles didn’t spawn others.
Fair enough viewpoint. What’s not fair is people who enjoyed Diablo in the 90’s can find about 800 titles now which allow you to run around and kill things indiscriminantly. For me, no robot-tank-squad set in a gritty-political-postapocalyptic-universe to be found.
btw, what console sim are you referring to? Steel battalion? That was pretty badass.
Spiff, as you may have noticed, half the board misses all those games and half the board wishes the other half would shut the fuck up about them.
So, just to get the party started, I would love a faithful Pirates! style remake of any of the games you listed, plus MoM and MoO, and I’ll shut the fuck up when I feel like it console playing scum.
Silent Storm is half of one of the best squad based combat games ever created. The first half is brilliant but the second half is a totally different game as far as I’m concerned and I never finished it.
Yep, a buddy of mine gave up drinking for two weeks to afford it. No-nonsense military theme, controls were dead on, tactile feel of powering up by flipping switches was unmatched! Cool mech squad battling and gritty world – for Xbox!!
Another reason this doesn’t have to be a console vs/PC debate, I WISH consoles would get more of these games, it might make them more profitable to develop in general, cross-platform.
ps… any reason the wii remote couldn’t be held vertically like a joystick for flight games? hmm…
I really could go for a modern mech sim that pushes the same buttons for me as Mechwarrior 2 did. Something with a real sense of mass and inertia, and the constant groan of stressed metal. Something slow and ponderous, where the tactics of battle (position, ammo management, heat management) are more important than pointing a target reticule.
The first one was a flimsy overworld/research mini-game, with a half-baked real-time tactical component that was really quite fun for a while. It was also extremely easy. There wasn’t a whole in the way of tactics needed to win battles, partially due to the lack of movement and positioning options.
The second game added a worthwhile geoscape/base management/research game, with Risk-style territory conquest and some resource management. A very intuitive, streamlined X-Com, as it were. The real-time tactical component had some tactical flexibility added, as well as 3 different ‘races’ of enemies, all with a different strategy required for success. It was also a lot harder. A lot. Very challenging and very rewarding gameplay. The fact that you can actually take cover and go prone this time around greatly increased the fun factor and made for some pretty awesome battles. The improved character management system requires a real investment of time and effort, so when you lose a team member, you really feel the loss. That was something you didn’t feel in the first one, with the faceless grunts who you could just replace at a moment’s notice and not really get involved with.
I’m sure there are more reasons, but whoever says the second one sucks either has an axe to grind, or didn’t actually play the game through.
