Hi.
I was recently working on an article that looks at games from the past that deserve a second chance at finding an audience.
The four i'm writing about at the moment are Oni, Battlezone 2, Urban Chaos and Freespace 2
The first article focuses on ONI (see below trailer I put together to go with the article)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrofD...el_video_title
What games do you think deserve a second shot?
I don't think either of these necessarily failed at finding an audience the first time around, but...
The Tex Murphy games - They had such an interesting setting and I really liked the puzzles and characters.
MDK - For me nothing in the entire game matched the first level, but it was still a very cool game.
Sacrifice - 3rd person RTS done right. It's what Brutal Legend should have been.
Heretic 2. An excellently done 3rd person action game with some great level design and all-around good general design. The staff is one of my favourite melee weapons in gaming. Wasn't much of a huge hit when it came out (IIRC) and it seems to have become somewhat of a lost chapter in Raven Software's tale, being the only one of their major games which hasn't gained a digital re-release. Probably thanks to not being a FPS like everything else they've ever done.
Give me steam and how you feel to make it real.
Last Expres is a gem and the only interactive 'movie' worth it, Freedom Force is spandex done right, Planescape: Torment is one of the best rpg's ever, Terra Nova shows why exactly Looking Glass was so awesome, Beyond Good and Evil can always use some more love, Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat is still the best computer adaptation of Warhammer and defenitely do not pass up on Anachronox.
Wheel of Time.
"Reason is the madness of the strongest"
~Eugène Ionesco
depth dwellers
a grumpy dude with a PHD in videogame debating
Giants: Citizen Kabuto.
One of my favourite games of all time. I'd give anything for a sequel.
Your wish has been granted.Originally Posted by Anthile
Ah, you got in there right before me, first thing that went through my head.
Shortly followed by Hardwar.
KOTOR 2, with a restored content mod. The writing is some of Obsidian's best.
+1 for Last Express, The Longest Journey, and one of the Broken Sword games.
Other good ones:
Caesar 3,
Project: Snowblind,
Giants: Citizen Kabuto,
Murder-Death-Kill 2,
Evolva,
Jade Empire: Special edition
Battlezone 2 was awesome, so was Battlezone before it. My friend and I used to play MP every afternoon after school. Awesome fun.
I love Sacrifice but the command and camera system was pretty bad, it's probably best described as "barely contained chaos" at the best of times. Still it's one of the best attempts at a 3rd person RTS... unless the Battlezone games count.Sacrifice - 3rd person RTS done right. It's what Brutal Legend should have been.
Project: Snowblind!! wow... i just realised that it is Syndicate the FPS.
Last edited by BillButNotBen; 24-10-2011 at 01:08 PM.
Yeah Battlezone 2 holds up suprisingly well, visually and gameplay wise. Of all the games, it was the hardest one to track down a copy of.
There was a "freeware" portable battlezone with some modern fixes going around, though i'm not at all sure of the legality.
Oni - hmm. I played it back when it came out. I remember it having a pretty cool combat system that worked really well with a mouse (very unusual.). Though i suspect it was a little overcomplicated for many people. I also remember that it was famous because they hired actual real architects to design the levels (the first step towards today's "realism" trend?). And I remember that the levels were all horribly boring. (the first step towards today's "realism" trend ;-) )
Jade Empire - I actually DID just finish playing that for the first time. Though I wouldn't really call it an old game. It still looked lovely in places, and didn't play very differently from any more recent games. I wasn't sure about it at the beginning, but i rather enjoyed it by the end. (though it had a few rough spots, mainly in the plot/pacing).
Other recommendations:
Hostile Waters. (particularly for battlezone fans i think). It was on GOG, and it held up really well, but i have a feeling it got pulled for licensing reasons.
Jedi Knight (1), because it's one of the best FPS ever made, but it rarely gets the credit it deserves. I guess the early 3d won't look so great now, but the gameplay should hold up.
Albion - it's Avatar the RPG and it holds up pretty well.
An interesting thing for me has been how "overlooked classics" such as Psychonauts, Grim Fandango, Beyond Good and Evil, Bloodlines, etc.. have been given such a new life by digital downloads (and piracy). These are all games that famously didn't sell well initially - and that famous fact has made them famous enough that these days everyone seems to have played them.
In other words, everyone has played them because no-one played them.
Last edited by BillButNotBen; 24-10-2011 at 01:11 PM.
I just started to play The Last Remnant after ignoring it for 3 years, also didn't have an X-box back then and heard it was filled with bugs etc...
Now I got it for PC and loving every minute of it. Great story with Japanese voice acting, turn based battle system, high lvl of immersion.
It makes me wonder where Squeenix went wrong.
Sub culture.
Incredibly charming Underwater-elite. You're a member of a tiny species living in the deep sea, harvesting natural minerals and human trash (e.g. you can use a grappling hook to carry stumps of zigarettes to the trading hubs and sell them for good money)
Nuclear Strike.
Because rule of cool.
Future Cop LAPD.
Super silly, cartoonish B-movie fun. One of the weapons shoots incredibly powerful robo-dogs.
+1 on Heretic 2 and Albion (but was the latter ever forgotten? I thought it's held in high regard all around)
Last edited by Wolfenswan; 24-10-2011 at 02:25 PM.
Play Arma2:CO with us. (It isn't nearly as difficult as you might think.)
It's okay to not like things.
O-R-B -- Off-world resource base. Its quite similar to homeworld, despite being in development for years. However, I found it to be much easier to control then Homeworld, and a much smoother experience overall, even though the story was meh.
I was like.. 13 - 14 when I last played it though...
Man I've been trying to remember the name of that game for weeks. I really liked it.
Wow, that game! I'd totally forgotten about it.
That blew me away. If you haven't played it - remember that first time you played GTA3, how impossibly exciting and mind-blowing it was, having this 3d playground of a city yours to mess around in? That was Urban Chaos, two years before GTA3 but for some reason a total sales flop.
Plus you could rappel along phone wires to get to different rooftops, brilliant.
Good call with Hostile Waters. I remember picking that up when it was crazy cheap in a sale and instantly regretted not buying it at launch. Might try and get hold of a copy (lost mine years ago).
Jedi Knight definitely needs to get a reboot/sequel. I was really hoping the force unleashed would take it's place but those games (especially the 2nd) were bitter dissapointments.
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