Games You'd Like to See

Games
1

I’d like to see an empire-builder (i.e., Civ-like) in which the main point of the game was exploration and finding neat stuff rather than warfare (which increasingly I find boring). I still play a lot of Alpha Centauri and I’ve noticed that when the warfare gets hot and heavy I lose interest. Instead, I’d like more neat stuff to find, more ways to combine it, a more interesting research tree…

I could make the same comment regarding MMORPGs. I don’t mind killing things but after a while it gets old, and contributes to the perception of a “treadmill” (which is just another way of saying “I’m tired of this!”). Crafting doesn’t appeal to me much. I love exploring, but the games tend to limit this feature and try to make you level to see and experience new content…

I’d like a squad-based game with some of the better elements of an RPG – interactions between squad members, side-quests, the sense that history matters. If squad member A dies it should take me down a different path than if squad member B dies.

Make fun or join in, whatever.

2

Master of Orion 3. 5X, the 5th X standing for eXplore!

3

Didn’t try it after it got panned in general reviews. The original is one of my favorite games ever, despite the warfare getting old.

Side note – some guy is rewriting the original in Java: http://www.raykerby.com/jmoo/

4

I’ve said this since buying my first 3D accelerator, a Voodoo 1, back in Oct. of '96: Magic Carpet 3. But I could also rattle off stuff like Longbow 3, Wing Commander 6, Terra Nova 2, System Shock 3, etc.

More than anything else I’d like to reincarnate Looking Glass, Origin, and Bullfrog.

5

A flight sim that has convincing (not necessarily 100% realistic) instruments and flight dynamics, but fun missions, like those in F-14 Fleet Defender.

C’mon, somebody hire me to do the Baa Baa Black Sheep license game. We’ll show LucasArts how to do a great sim that also appeals to casual gamers.

6

I agree with all of Quenan’s 3 suggestions :).

In addition I’d love to see a sim/building game that had more game to it. One example I’ve thought of is a fantasy game with city building as in the Impressions Caesar/Zeus games (although streamlined and not so puzzle-like), married to a strategic engine as in Master of Magic - it would be a combo city building/4X game where the city you build is the source of your economy and as you conquer more provinces you get more stuff to supply and build in your city which lets you research spells, recruit better units, etc. Oh, and to top it off, the tactical battles would use a very simplified engine similar in concept to Kohan/Total War. (Actually the next Lords of Realm game has some potential to fulfill this desire of mine, we’ll see how it develops).

I’d also LOVE to see a console version of Diablo - not the thin gameplay twitchy gauntlet clones like Dark Alliance but a full on Diablo type game done well but using the console controller and hooked up to XBox Live.

More games with minimal multiplayer - ie small scale online play on private servers like Freelancer had - that was some of the best play i had last year, playing with the Qt3 guys - I can see that type of semi-persistent world gameplay with small self contained servers working for many game types.

Dan

7

Freespace 3.

8

A really good Star Control game, like Star Control 2, only better.

A really good Archon sequel/remake.

The Langrisser games to get ported to the US.

9

Warren Spector’s mythical ‘city block game’.

The ultimate Sim game, with SimUniverse ceding control to SimEarth ceding control to SimLife ceding control to SimCity ceding control to The Sims ceding control to SimAnt.

10

A real sci fi rpg, with Morrowind’s openness. You can build a ship and expand on it, land on planets… Basically I’d like to see a really huge Traveller 2300 computer game.

11

A sequel to Master of Magic would be my top desire. It could happen, too.

12

An RPG and/or Strategy game based on the Wild West with Cowboys and Indians, Outlaws, Gunfighters, saloons, buffalo, Calvary, the Gold Rush, Railroads, etc.
The game would involve exploration, discovery, and settling the new Frontier. The premise could be a story similar to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, a Lonesome Dove type adventure of a cattle drive from Texas to Montana, or the laying of the Railroad tracks to connect the East to the West.

13

Bubble Bath Boys

14

Total Annihilation 2. Without any fresh or innovative ideas, please.

15

Hehe, so I take it this thread is kind of an “anti-peeve” thread. May as well run with it…

I really liked the idea behind Majesty, that you could influence but not actually control. I’ve toyed with the concept for trying to make a 4X game like that. I guess MoO3 was intended to be something along those lines, but for whatever reason it cough didn’t work out.

In fact, I’m just getting tired of these “save the world by yourself” games. I’m hoping for more squad-based shooters. Ghost Recon and Flashpoint were pretty good in that respect. I also thought the portions of Halo with backup Marines were the best parts of the game, despite what Cathcart may say about the merits of space-zombies + shotguns.

How about a MMOG with a large world, like one that you can’t cross in two hours? Heck, it takes longer than that to walk the length of Disneyland. At least when you go there, you don’t have to beat up on the resident fauna for six hours to level up.

Speaking of MMOGs, I imagine it’s only a matter of time before they figure out how to get all subscribers into the same world. None of this “worldpass” garbage if you want to – get this – play with your friends.

As far as multiplayer concepts go, what ever happened to that “electronic battlefield” concept? Games like BF1942 have popularized vehicles, but they still feel so arcade-y, and people bicker over who gets to fly the planes, etc. Box the “plane” part separately, and then the sim. guys can have a field day, and you FPS guys can finally get proper air support.

Of course when it comes to wargames, there’s the wargamer’s pipedream: the dynamic campaign. Slippery slope is still a problem, of course.

DaveM - I thought “AoW:Shadow Magic” did a fairly good job of recreating that MoM feel. The map generator helped a lot in that respect.

Sharpe - Did you ever play the multiplayer mode of the “Emperor:RotMK” city-builder? The “combat” part was a bit, er, game-y since you could only control your military during city-defense, but it was kind of like a city-builder RTS in many ways.

Balut - There was an “Archon Ultra” version that was released circa 1994. It’s no Archon II, but still worth a look. It has VGA graphics and modem-multiplayer – cutting-edge technology for ten years ago. Geez, has it really been that long?

  • Alan
16

Morrowind + voice acting + doesn’t crash-to-desktop ever.

17

Alan, I liked the AOW series a lot. It’s solid, it’s enjoyable, and it’s certainly similar to MoM, especially the last iteration. Still, it never grabbed me the way MoM did. It’s hard for me to quantify exactly why that’s the case, but I just found MoM to be more fun. I think a true sequel that retained most of the design elements from the original would have a good chance of capturing the missing factor that I can’t articulate.

18

Balut - There was an “Archon Ultra” version that was released circa 1994. It’s no Archon II, but still worth a look. It has VGA graphics and modem-multiplayer – cutting-edge technology for ten years ago. Geez, has it really been that long?

There was also Dark Legions, which, for all intents and purposes, was Archon III, and damn good too. I think Balut mentioned these games in another thread.

I want:

The REAL Privateer 2. Hell, take the old Wing Commander:Prophecy code, give it DirectX support, and use that for the basis. X2, while the strongest space sim we’ve seen in a long, long time, doesn’t have the accessibility and sheer fun of Privateer.

Strike Commander 2.

Tie Fighter 2.

Hardwar 2.

Aces of the Deep 2.

Somebody mentioned this, but, a new Star Control done by Reiche and the Ford brothers. SC3 was when I began to actively hate Legend.

Also mentioned: System Shock 3. Oh god, yes. YES. YEEEESSSS. I get moist thinking about it, excuse me. But not done by Ion Storm. Oh please no.

–scharmers

19

I’d like to see a third Crusader game or at least one that was similar. Magic Carpet 3 would be nifty, too.

I’d like to see an RTS that stripped away the more “realistic” parts of the game and just had a fun, goofy world to romp around in, wreaking havoc with your god powers – like the original Populous games.

A first person shooter with a full-fledged co-op campaign would be oodles of fun but seems unlikely.

I think what I’d like to see most are the games I can’t imagine, the ones that break out of the neatly-defined genres we have and engages me with new twists on familiar themes.

20

I second this. I’d also like to see a expansion or sequel to XwingAlliance, a freelancer game that isn’t boring after the storyline ends, a decent 4x game based in the star wars universe, and it would be nice if Blizzard released starcraft2 this decade too.