"Dead" genres - What ones do you consider 6 feet under?

[Uthred]

While indie and small studio development keeps some genre's on "life support" I think its fair enough to say that certain genres do seem to have largely disappeared or being relegated to lurching around the gaming world like pandas that refuse to copulate. What particular genres would you consider to be "dead"?

Off the top of my head I'd go with point and click adventures and squad based strategy. I suppose a good argument could also be made that grand strategy games arent seen much these days. And while its not a genre the isometric perspective seems to have fallen out of favour.

[Item!]

Infocom/Level 9/Magnetic Scrolls -style text adventures...

[coldvvvave]

Off the top of my head I'd go with point and click adventures and squad based strategy.
Squad Based Strategy is dead? What about Dawn of War 2?

[Vexing Vision]

Squad-based turn-based strategy is dead. Sadly. I miss my Final Liberation (no, really!), Demon World 1 (and to a way lesser extent, 2). I do need to get a PS Vitae solely for Ogre Tactics.

[mrpier]

I want a million Freespace 2 clones and I want them yesterday.

[Antares]

Good old space combat simulators.
AFAIK, the closest we ever got to the likes of Tachyon, Wing Commander, Freespace and X-Wing/TIE fighter are these weird hybrid sandbox-y games with varying emphasis on trading (Freelancer, the X series), which I could never get into, much to my dismay.


I want a million Freespace 2 clones and I want them yesterday.
This man has the right idea.

[Nalano]

Adventure games got a bit of an afterlife what with S&M and Machinarium, but that doesn't seem to have turned into a resurgence of the genre.

[Jams O'Donnell]

Flight simulators used to be all over the place, and are now pretty much either very arcadey (Ace Combat, HAWX), or overly hardcore. Where's the middle ground?

As already mentioned, space combat games like Wing Commander, X-Wing, etc, are no more.

[c-Row]

Hex-tile, turn based strategy games. Though I don't know if what I truly want is a Battle Isle sequel, or simply want the good times back I had when I played the original at a friend's house.

[Axyl]

Isometric RPGs. Such as the Original Fallout Games, Arcanum (<3), etc etc.

*edit* Thinking about it, the campaigns from Dawn of War 2 (Vanilla and CR mostly, but Retri to a lesser extent) basically played like this. Wow..i think I've just worked out why I've loved those games so much for 2 years..

Also, co-op Side scrolling platformer/shooters, like Metal Slug.

and, ofc..

QFE

I want a million Freespace 2 clones and I want them yesterday.

[Giaddon]

No genre truly dies.

[Vexing Vision]

Adventure games got a bit of an afterlife what with S&M and Machinarium, but that doesn't seem to have turned into a resurgence of the genre.

We also have Daedalic Entertainment with Edna, Whispered World and Harvey. It sold extremely well in Europe for such niche-games, and you don't get more point-and-click than this.

[Jams O'Donnell]

On the "isometric games are dead" front I heartily disagree -- they've just grown up and are now full-3D overhead games.

Also they're alive and well on consoles, particularly handhelds. Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea, and Tactics Ogre being the most well-known, but there are countless others.

[TillEulenspiegel]

It's silly to talk about genres being dead. They're not dead; they're merely out of style at the moment.

Good space sims are a bit difficult because most people don't have joysticks anymore, but for the rest, if someone released a great game in that genre tomorrow, it would be successful. There are enough open-minded gamers for that. The publishers are the problem.

[vinraith]

I suppose it all depends on where you draw the line, but I'm not aware of any genre that's completely dead. If many of the genres declared dead in this thread actually were, I'd be spending a lot less money on games.

[Drake Sigar]

Indeed, there's a big difference between mostly dead, and all dead. Though I think Uthred's OP is clear enough to avoid the latter definition. So what’s ‘dead’? Well pure RPGs seem to have been absorbed by other genres, but then we were never exactly swimming in them way back when thanks to the sheer effort and production costs involved. Anything less than 20 hours gameplay is considered robbery.

[Wizardry]

CRPGs are dead outside of a very few independently developed games. They just don't exist any more.

[archonsod]

On the "isometric games are dead" front I heartily disagree -- they've just grown up and are now full-3D overhead games.


Yup. Isometric is an attempt to make a 2D image appear 3D. When you can make it 3D anyway it kinda removes the need to fake it. In fact you could even go as far as to say several 3rd person games are a continuation of a certain isometric genre - the old Head Over Heels style isometric adventures aren't that far removed from Tomb Raider and the like.

[nimzy]

First person shooters and RTS games are dead to me.

Neither genre has changed appreciably in the entire time the genre has existed. You still shoot people and pull levers and collect keys, you still build bases, you still harvest resources.

[Patrick Swayze]

<b>SPACE GAMES </b>

Most of what comes out in this genre are shitty Freespace clones. Each one that comes out seems to be more and more simple with with worse and worse AI.

Flying round in circles gets boring fast. (Flight sims are guilty of this too, Ace Combat, I'm looking at you.)

I've never gotten into the X series but I'm going to buy the new one straight away me thinks, I like the idea of piloting a bigger ship and nothing else has really done that since I-War.

Oh well, back to Freespace and its many mods...

[Megagun]

Good space sims are a bit difficult because most people don't have joysticks anymore
I never needed a joystick for Freespace 1 or 2. They also controlled surprisingly well with my Xbox 360 controller, provided that I still kept a keyboard around for those few uncommon-yet-common-enough tasks like configuring the ship's energy management (full power to shields, etc).

But yes, we need Freespace 3 and we needed it a few years ago. I wouldn't mind a new Descent, either, which would be one of those games that actually control far better with an Xbox 360 controller than mouse/keyboard.

[Heliocentric]

Physics jigsaw games like impossible machine? But I know a toybox themed one came out recently. What about first person/third person/avatar based strategy/action games, like battlezone, sacrifice or hostile waters.

Edit: Even dungeon keeper counts with the possession spell.

Edit 2: Ooh ooh! I got one, a multiplayer action game where you don't need to unlock critical things. Not seen a new one them for ages.

[deano2099]

Adventure games got a bit of an afterlife what with S&M and Machinarium, but that doesn't seem to have turned into a resurgence of the genre.

Yeah it's weird isn't it? Telltale must have done okay from Sam and Max, Wallace and Gromit and Monkey Island given that they've licensed Jurassic Park and Back To The Future, which can't have been cheap (not to mention Fables and Walking Dead). Plus they release on consoles and iOS too. There must be some fairly big mass market for these things, but within 'core gaming' they're a niche...

And then stuff like Phoenix Wright has a decent following and Professor Layton does crazy numbers.

[TillEulenspiegel]

I never needed a joystick for Freespace 1 or 2.
Mouse control was crap on X-Wing / TIE Fighter, Privateer, etc. And even if it's decent, it's just not the same experience. A space sim with a joystick is one of the few genuinely immersive experiences in gaming, IMO.

[Althea]

We also have Daedalic Entertainment with Edna, Whispered World and Harvey. It sold extremely well in Europe for such niche-games, and you don't get more point-and-click than this.
Don't forget there was WizarBox with Gray Matter earlier this year, Telltale with their various series (Sam & Max and a few upcoming ones), the recent retail packaging of the various Monkey Island games... Oh, and there's a few kicking around on iOS, too.

Point & Click/Adventure is far from dead. It's less prominent than it was, and has largely moved into some sort of incestuous symbiotic relationship with the Hidden Object genre, but it's still around and still kicking.

[Uthred]

Yup. Isometric is an attempt to make a 2D image appear 3D. When you can make it 3D anyway it kinda removes the need to fake it. In fact you could even go as far as to say several 3rd person games are a continuation of a certain isometric genre - the old Head Over Heels style isometric adventures aren't that far removed from Tomb Raider and the like.

Thats a pretty interesting point, that certain technologies have not so much died but being replaced by the things they were stopgaps for. That being said I wonder is the isometric perspective enough its own thing that using it is a useful design choice and if so why dont we see it any more?

Actually, to extend this thinking have certain genres fallen out of favour because they came into being to bridge the technological gap between the designers intention and what the hardware could do? If so could we reverse this, could emergent technologies and games platform provide a better medium for "dead" genres? Though I suppose we are seeing this a bit with facebook games and some mobile games

[Berzee]

What seems to be largely dead these days is the "undirected MMORPG"...I think it only saw the light of day for a few short years, though I suspect there were precursors (and postcursors) in some of the smaller MUDs.

What I mean is the kind of mmorpg that doesn't have you chasing question marks or exclamation points on the minimap (or chasing some invisible equivalent via a wiki list of quests). Back in the days of UO and AC (not sure about EQ, I think that one was slightly more directed) they simply gave you a framework for lots of people to exist and kill stuff in the same world. None of this worry about a consistent framework of level-appropriate "zones"...those things existed but you discovered them almost exclusively through word of mouth or blind luck.

It was very freeing to be given the ability to do anything, and not be told what to do -- even by NPCs. =) As far as I know, most new MMOs these days are just too <i>regulated</i>. But maybe someone can prove me wrong =)

[sabrage]

Berzee, are you familiar with Mortal Online? From what I've read about it, I don't think it fits into your take on "mordern" MMOs, might be worth looking into. If I'm not mistaken, there are no quests whatsoever in the game.

[burningpet]

First person shooters and RTS games are dead to me.

Neither genre has changed appreciably in the entire time the genre has existed. You still shoot people and pull levers and collect keys, you still build bases, you still harvest resources.

hello. men of war, dawn of war 2, world in conflict, ruse, company of heroes to some extent and few others i probably forgot.

[icupnimpn2]

I'll say the action platformer has fallen out of style, at least on PC. We have a number of puzzle platformers -- gimmicky things like Braid. We also have score or challenge-based platformers like N or Super Meat Boy. What I'm talking 'bout are the platformers anywhere between Alien Carnage, the original Duke Nukem games, Commander Keen, or even Jazz Jackrabbit. On the 3D side we haven't had much like Psychonauts or Rayman 2. As with any of these there are some exceptions.

[TillEulenspiegel]

It's easier to do animation in proper 3D rather than 2D isometric. That's why even the few new isometric games that are being made usually do their characters in 3D tools, then render to 2D from the necessary angles.

[Wizardry]

It's easier to do animation in proper 3D rather than 2D isometric. That's why even the few new isometric games that are being made usually do their characters in 3D tools, then render to 2D from the necessary angles.
The advantage of doing straight up 2D animation is that you can pull off stuff that would be pretty hard to accomplish in 3D such as Fallout's death animations. For the general movement of characters, though, it is indeed far easier to do skeletal animation in 3D and render at periodic angles.

[Mistabashi]

The advantage of doing straight up 2D animation is that you can pull off stuff that would be pretty hard to accomplish in 3D such as Fallout's death animations. For the general movement of characters, though, it is indeed far easier to do skeletal animation in 3D and render at periodic angles.

A good point, for all their slow-mo physics simulating dismemberment the death animations in Bethesda's take on Fallout were never as grim and brutal as those in the first games. But yes, for general animation 3D models are much better (last I heard FOnline was moving towards 3D character models for this reason).

[Wizardry]

A good point, for all their slow-mo physics simulating dismemberment the death animations in Bethesda's take on Fallout were never as grim and brutal as those in the first games. But yes, for general animation 3D models are much better (last I heard FOnline was moving towards 3D character models for this reason).
Yeah. There's also far more people out there that can do 3D animation but wouldn't know where to start when tasked with churning out high quality 2D animation. That's another advantage of switching to 3D.

[archonsod]

Thats a pretty interesting point, that certain technologies have not so much died but being replaced by the things they were stopgaps for. That being said I wonder is the isometric perspective enough its own thing that using it is a useful design choice and if so why dont we see it any more?


About the only thing isometric has going for it is it's 2D rendering, so is easier on the system than 3D in most cases (but then that's why we have expensive graphics cards, right?). On the other hand it makes things like physics or anything relying on sophisticated positioning either impossible or ridiculously difficult to handle.
The thing is, isometric perspective is used almost exclusively by engineers, architects et al to display 3D shapes on a 2D piece of paper. There's no real use for it outside of that, if you want 2D you can use 2D, if you want 3D you can use 3D. Trying to use isometric would basically be saying "we wanted this in 3D but couldn't do it".


A good point, for all their slow-mo physics simulating dismemberment the death animations in Bethesda's take on Fallout were never as grim and brutal as those in the first games.

It's easy enough to do it in 3D, particularly with a decent physics engine. It is a lot harder to get it past the censor though.

[MD!]

The hardcore deathmatch shooter isn't dead (see: Quake Live), but it's certainly endangered. The industry seems to have gone backwards regarding so many of the elements that are important to a Quakelike, and made advances in a completely different direction. I reckon some form or derivative of Quake will live on, but I can see it slipping well and truly off most people's radar.

[Wizardry]

About the only thing isometric has going for it is it's 2D rendering, so is easier on the system than 3D in most cases (but then that's why we have expensive graphics cards, right?). On the other hand it makes things like physics or anything relying on sophisticated positioning either impossible or ridiculously difficult to handle.
The thing is, isometric perspective is used almost exclusively by engineers, architects et al to display 3D shapes on a 2D piece of paper. There's no real use for it outside of that, if you want 2D you can use 2D, if you want 3D you can use 3D. Trying to use isometric would basically be saying "we wanted this in 3D but couldn't do it".
What the hell? Isometric isn't necessarily 2D. It's just a slightly different projection matrix. It doesn't stop you from using 3D geometry at all. In fact, 3D graphics APIs like OpenGL don't even make a distinction between orthographic projection and perspective projection. It's up to the programmer to set up the projection matrix. There is no clear performance benefit/drawback to using orthographic projection over perspective projection. With an orthographic projection you don't have to bother with mipmaps and LOD geometry (unless you have zooming), but at the same time that can be considered a negative.

You are right that it's mainly used by engineers, though. However, it's extremely useful to use in games even today. The whole point of perspective projection is to see a scene through our eyes. It's more realistic that way. However, I've always preferred orthographic projection for most top down games including management games. Basically games that you spend most of your time point and clicking from above. The reason for this is that it makes the distance between the mouse cursor and the centre of the screen (view frustum) irrelevant in terms of the effect of clicking. You don't have to move the camera just to select something that is on the screen due to the perspective causing occlusion.

[Malawi Frontier Guard]

The advantage of doing straight up 2D animation is that you can pull off stuff that would be pretty hard to accomplish in 3D such as Fallout's death animations. For the general movement of characters, though, it is indeed far easier to do skeletal animation in 3D and render at periodic angles.

I agree with your point, but this is the weirdest example. Fallout's death animations were made entirely in whatever 3D package they were using, and very obviously so. It's just as much pre-rendered as every other animation.


There's no real use for it outside of that, if you want 2D you can use 2D, if you want 3D you can use 3D. Trying to use isometric would basically be saying "we wanted this in 3D but couldn't do it".

Do you assume pre-rendered 3D art when you say isometric? Otherwise this argument doesn't make any sense when you consider that handpainted artwork can just as well be made to conform with isometric perspective.

[Wizardry]

I agree with your point, but this is the weirdest example. Fallout's death animations were made entirely in whatever 3D package they were using, and very obviously so. It's just as much pre-rendered as every other animation.
Really? Including the deepening wounds, gradual exposure of bone, organs plopping out and blood squirting? I assumed that stuff was done directly in 2D. It makes no sense now why the Infinity Engine character sprites look far worse than the Fallout ones when they were both pre-rendered in 3D.

[Berzee]

Berzee, are you familiar with Mortal Online? From what I've read about it, I don't think it fits into your take on "mordern" MMOs, might be worth looking into. If I'm not mistaken, there are no quests whatsoever in the game.

Yeah! That's kind of exactly what I was looking for (although AC did have lots of really nice quests, they just weren't shoved into your face. You'd either pick up a random scrap of paper or hear a rumor from the town crier but only if you were paying attention and it didn't feel like you being "funneled into it".

So I went and looked at mortal online and even downloaded it a few months ago, and then while I was watching the intro video or a trailer or something, they showed a reckless disregard for modesty even far beyond fantasy mmorpg norms, which is saying a lot. So I uninstalled it and went back to wishing for something that was open-ended AND classy.

(I could just play AC again, I suppose, but when an MMO passes the point of having any noobs left over, I get wistful).

[Malawi Frontier Guard]

Yes. I've been looking through some of the death animations on Youtube, and the only ones that are ambiguous in this regard are burning and electrocution/disintegration. They really aren't as detailed as you seem to remember.

[The JG Man]

The hardcore deathmatch shooter isn't dead (see: Quake Live), but it's certainly endangered.

I echo this and regards to space sims. But regarding this, where the hell are my hold 10 weapons, double jumping frantic-y goodness? Hell, I could re-install UT04 and get into a game fairly confidently, but it's pretty depressing that there hasn't, from what I can tell, been a major MP FPS where it's balls-to-the-wall ridiculous weapons and ludicrous gibs. No perks, no dog tags, just my triple firing rocket launcher against your rail gun. I mean I totally sucked at them, but they were great fun! Anyhow, I'm sure someone will come along now and tell me how wrong I am...and I'd be happy for that.

[Spacewalk]

Mech combat games. The only two new ones I'm aware of are Hawken, that MechWarrior reboot and that mod for Crysis but other than that the only place you're getting them these days is on consoles. I'd say vehicular combat games too, like Interstate 76, but there could've been a few that I missed so I'm not too sure on that one.

[archonsod]

What the hell? Isometric isn't necessarily 2D. It's just a slightly different projection matrix. It doesn't stop you from using 3D geometry at all.

In which case you're using 3D and simply sticking the camera at a fixed and rather odd angle. Graphics these days tend to be a visual representation of the engines in the game, not simply a means of displaying the game.



Otherwise this argument doesn't make any sense when you consider that handpainted artwork can just as well be made to conform with isometric perspective.

It could, the question is why you'd bother? If you wanted to give the player a 3D representation then you can do a 3D representation; there's no need to use faux 3D, in fact it's generally less useful (since you have a whole bunch of issues like objects moving behind one another you now have to deal with purely because of the perspective chosen).

[Berzee]

why you'd bother?

sometimes it's just that a painting is prettier than a render, depending on what you're aiming for =)

[Malawi Frontier Guard]

Graphics these days tend to be a visual representation of the engines in the game, not simply a means of displaying the game.

Don't use words just because they sound pretty. I just can't argue with you like that.

[Insanity]

Berzee, have you tried Wurm online?

It's a sandbox MMORPG with little direction, seems to be what you're harking to.

http://www.wurmonline.com/

[Bilbo1981]

Arena shooters like quake and unreal, I know theres lots of comedy cartoon crap like TF2 and stuff out there but they arn't really hardcore arena shooters are they?

[Berzee]

Berzee, have you tried Wurm online?

It's a sandbox MMORPG with little direction, seems to be what you're harking to.

http://www.wurmonline.com/

I do need to try wurm! Every mention of it brings me one step closer to trying it. =) But I did install it once and I bounced off the crafting system...

is it possible to play Wurm as a mostly combat-oriented person, or is crafting basically the main show?

[Wizardry]

In which case you're using 3D and simply sticking the camera at a fixed and rather odd angle. Graphics these days tend to be a visual representation of the engines in the game, not simply a means of displaying the game.
What does this even mean?

[sabrage]

they showed a reckless disregard for modesty even far beyond fantasy mmorpg norms, which is saying a lot. So I uninstalled it and went back to wishing for something that was open-ended AND classy.

Oh yeah, I can see the basis for the full nudity from the standpoint of trying to create a coherent and primitive society, but in practice it just means the trolls take teabagging to a whole new level :/ That said, tales of people getting their asses handed to them by a man literally wearing nothing but a wooden stick are always funny.


Arena shooters like quake and unreal, I know theres lots of comedy cartoon crap like TF2 and stuff out there but they arn't really hardcore arena shooters are they?

TF2 isn't an arena shooter at all... Every mode is mission-based, and there's 9 classes with unlockable weapons, and there's no free-for-all.

[Insanity]

I do need to try wurm! Every mention of it brings me one step closer to trying it. =) But I did install it once and I bounced off the crafting system...

is it possible to play Wurm as a mostly combat-oriented person, or is crafting basically the main show?

It is pretty much impossible to avoid the crafting system completely. I haven't done much combat myself but I don't think it is hugely deep.

[metalangel]

While you can avoid crafting in Wurm, you need to make yourself a home unless you have a very generous friend willing to put you up in their deed. You also need to get all your posh weapons and armour from somewhere, and keep them maintained while you grind (GRIND!) your fighting skill up.

Getting yourself that house and the materials/skill is part of the crafting, unfortunately. There's no military you can join to be issued with equipment, all the guards are NPCs, so you have to do it for yourself.

[Zetetic]

What does this even mean?
He's trying to say that "isometric", in contemporary usage in the context of games, connotes fairly strong the use of sprites. Which is a fairly accurate thing to say.

Furthermore, I'd add that it doesn't (and possibly never did) denote the usage of isomorphic projection in the more formal sense, in the context of games, as it's applied to all manner of dimetric (and even simply parallel) projections.

(Oh, and yes, of course I had to look the last few terms up!)

[Citruspunch]

MW2 has free for all. it's insane. rocket launchers and shotguns all over the place. I can't stand it. Weird given the years of FFA I've played since quake test 1.


I'd have to say that the GOD game genre is mostly dead. Not enough return on it without it being Freemium (facebook et all) I suppose. From Dust was a nice try.

[Kevin]

I sort of like to think that the pixel-hunting point-and-click adventure games of yore are dying a slow and ignoble death on the PC before resurrecting on the Nintendo DS. Part of it is out of spite (How the fuck was I supposed to know that I had to give an undercover officer a mint dipped in toxic waste so that he'd gag and spit it onto the proprietor of a movie theater so that he'd chase said officer away with the broom he had so I can go into the alleyway behind the theater, The Longest Journey?), but also because in essence a point-and-click adventure game is a video game in its most stripped down form.

[Olero]

While you can avoid crafting in Wurm, you need to make yourself a home unless you have a very generous friend willing to put you up in their deed. You also need to get all your posh weapons and armour from somewhere, and keep them maintained while you grind (GRIND!) your fighting skill up.

Getting yourself that house and the materials/skill is part of the crafting, unfortunately. There's no military you can join to be issued with equipment, all the guards are NPCs, so you have to do it for yourself.


I've played Wurm for a few weeks earlier this year and I can confirm metalangel on this. The game basically is one big grind (you even get to see progress bars for each action you do, whether succesful or not), though it certainly has it's charm. Especially as you realize most landscape has been terraformed by people, all houses have been hand built and all roads are thought up by people.

When I played Wurm, I had the luck of meeting 2 very nice people early on, who supplied me with tons of free stuff, helped me build my house in their "village" (4 houses = village, right?) and helped passing the grindy hours with their chatter. The bad part of this was that I played late night, since they were American and I'm Dutch. After a few weeks playing, I realized the enormous time sink the game is, and stopped cold turkey style (always the best method).

All in all it's a really nice, original game, but the grindfest and annoying interface made it a whole lot less desireable. But I'd have to admit, if there will be a RPS village/town anytime in the future, I'll be very tempted to jump right in again!

[magnolia_fan]

I miss first person puzzle games like Zork or Myst. Those were cool.

[Smashbox]

What is this, Necro Day?

[Wizardry]

What is this, Necro Day?
Looks like he did a forum search for "indie" and bumped them all up.

[Aspongeinmauve]

3D platformers like Spyro, Crash Bandicoot and Croc. They were somewhat childish, but enjoyable nontheless. I think the reason is that they were primarily console games, and modern consoles are trying too hard to emulate PC genres like FPS and RPG. So there's no room for colourful jumping games outside of Nintendo rehashes (though there have been some decent Nintendo titles to be fair, they just weren't very original).

[Althea]

I'm not sure how true that is. It's true they're certainly not as popular as they once were, but surely they're still kicking around? I know there was the not-quite-well-received Epic Mickey not long ago, for example.

[Nalano]

3D Platformers are dead?

http://www.ea.com/alice

[perafilozof]

space combat simulators... AAAAAAAAAAAAAA why did you have to reopen my old wounds! BEST PC genre EVER for me.

My first love was Freespace, then Freespace 2, I think I played the two something like 20 times over together. Even made my own missions using the tools. Even today there is a fine moders community alive for Freespace games.

After that only one is worth mentioning Freelancer, funny how the first part of the name is the same. Played it 4 or 5 times over.

Tried out Dark Star One, liked it, but only played it once start to finish.

Last 5 or so years, maybe longer there where maybe 5 games at max but most are NOT EVEN close to the quality of Freespace or Freelancer.

If I ever become rich first order of business is going to be to make my own game studio and have them make me Freespace 3 and 100000000000000 missions for it!
And I would give the game for free to every one how played the original and the second game.

[Net_Bastard]

I want another TH Pro Skater-style skateboarding game. Those games were amazing and a spiritual successor of sorts would definitely be what I need right now.

[Althea]

I want another TH Pro Skater-style skateboarding game. Those games were amazing and a spiritual successor of sorts would definitely be what I need right now.
There is/was the Skate series on consoles. Skate 3 looks pretty funny, actually.

[DaftPunk]

Stealth Genre is nearly dead.

[Flint]

I'm not sure how true that is. It's true they're certainly not as popular as they once were, but surely they're still kicking around? I know there was the not-quite-well-received Epic Mickey not long ago, for example.
They're kicking around but far from the amount they used to inhabit the gaming world, and mainly only under the select long-lasting series: Mario, Sonic and Ratchet & Clank being the prominent ones. Other series that were strong in the last console generation or two have mostly vanished and there's pretty much no new candidates around at all.

Which is a grand shame. I always loved the 3D mascot platformers and found them to be one of those genres where even the lesser games that rode on others' coattails were still enjoyable to play in all their colourful fun.

[Althea]

Which is a grand shame. I always loved the 3D mascot platformers and found them to be one of those genres where even the lesser games that rode on others' coattails were still enjoyable to play in all their colourful fun.
Oh, I did too. I miss those days of playing Spyro all day at like the age of 8 or 9, then going into the kitchen to get a carrot and nearly lopping a finger off in the process.

Wait... What do you mean that wasn't everyone?

[Voon]

Stealth Genre is nearly dead.

too much action focused in those games, nowadays?

[sabrage]

I want another TH Pro Skater-style skateboarding game. Those games were amazing and a spiritual successor of sorts would definitely be what I need right now.

What about the new SSX? Sure, it's not getting a PC release, but the Tony Hawk games never really did either.

[Fumarole]

Tactical shooters have gone the way of the dodo.

[DaftPunk]

Yes,something like that.

[Net_Bastard]

There is/was the Skate series on consoles. Skate 3 looks pretty funny, actually.


The Skate series is different.



What about the new SSX? Sure, it's not getting a PC release, but the Tony Hawk games never really did either.


Every TH game starting with 2 and ending with AW had a PC version. And while SSX is one of my most highly anticipated games for 2012 so far, it's a snowboarding game. I want a straight-up clone of the series.

[LGM]

Someone else probably said it already, but side scrolling beat em ups is pretty much non existent, with the exception of Shank and a few others. We need a new Streets of Rage with insane graphics!

[sabrage]

Every TH game starting with 2 and ending with AW had a PC version. And while SSX is one of my most highly anticipated games for 2012 so far, it's a snowboarding game. I want a straight-up clone of the series.

Sorry, I was going off of this chart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Hawk_(series)#List_of_games_in_the_series) and memory and they're both clearly incomplete. As far as I'm concerned, if you took the textures off of SSX and Tony Hawk they'd be almost indistinguishable, downhill focus in SSX aside. (and there's even an entire entry in the TH series that renders that difference moot)