# PC Game Genres overdure for a resurgence **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 5, 2010, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009 "2010-04-05T13:01:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009/21 "2010-04-08T04:45:34Z")
I’ve been out of the loop for a while: how are turned-based going? I always thought they much better modeled the idea of a roleplaying game: it is the speed of my character and not my speed that counts. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009/22 "2010-04-08T06:55:40Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I’ve been out of the loop for a while: how are turned-based going? I always thought they much better modeled the idea of a roleplaying game: it is the speed of my character and not my speed that counts. These days, RPGs (and some of the better RTSs) often use a mixture of real time and turn by turn. That is to say : the game plays entirely in real time (although “under the hood” they still often use rounds and turns and delays between actions), but you can pause the game whenever you want and give your orders during the freezed time. It’s still a bit twitchy at times, but nowhere near Starcraft or Diablo levels. ---
**Author:** ![yendis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ed8c4c/32.png) [@yendis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yendis)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009/23 "2010-04-08T06:57:22Z")
> [@Airk](#): > > X-wing would need more than a graphical overhaul, IMHO. I felt the overall gameplay was completely inferior to Freespace (Though it did have the advantage of having fewer controls, but then, you didn’t -have- to use any more controls in Freespace in than X-wing had, but you had the option to if you wanted.) with the lack of any sort of ‘afterburner’ speed boost, the goofy energy management system (The most effective way to charge your shields was to send your charge to your weapons and then manually ‘shunt’ energy to your shields, rather than just…sending energy to the shields.) the ridiculous TIE fighters with shields and tractor beams (That were best used by turning them off to send the sudden excess of energy to your other systems) and so on. > > Not saying it can’t be good, but I am saying that the best thing it had going for it when it came out was being Star Wars and not terrible, so it should get more than a graphical update. (Don’t believe me? Grab DOSBOX and go back and play it.) You can’t compare the orignal x-wing to freespace, a better comparison is x-wing: alliance which is from the same era. X-wing: Alliance is one of the few space sims where your wingmen are actually competent and succesfully commanding your squadron was important if you wanted to complete some missions. Unlike most space sims you didn’t have to do most of the work yourself because your wingmen could actually get kills and would follow orders. Oh and X-wings don’t need afterburners, you want to go fast fly an A-Wing. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009/24 "2010-04-08T13:41:55Z")
> [@yendis](#): > > You can’t compare the orignal x-wing to freespace, a better comparison is x-wing: alliance which is from the same era. X-wing: Alliance is one of the few space sims where your wingmen are actually competent and succesfully commanding your squadron was important if you wanted to complete some missions. Unlike most space sims you didn’t have to do most of the work yourself because your wingmen could actually get kills and would follow orders. Didn’t ever get a chance to play it. Had lost interest in the series long before that. (TIE fighter was pushing it for me). But I’d submit that wingman commands were critical to a number of Freespace 2 missions. > [@](#): > > Oh and X-wings don’t need afterburners, you want to go fast fly an A-Wing. My point is that you don’t really have any meaningful control over your speed. Sure, you can strip down your weapon and shield recharges, but the lack of any sort of restriction on ‘max thrust’ meant you were always going as fast as you could, all the time. It has always felt like a missing gameplay element to me because it removed one of my options/decision paths. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009/25 "2010-04-08T14:53:08Z")
Point-and-click exploration/adventure games! Brace yourself for **Myst 2010: The Mystening**! ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009/26 "2010-04-08T14:57:20Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Finally, bring on the _Planescape_. I’m sick to death of the formulaic Bioware RPG, with the karma meters, the dur dur Angel/Puppy-eating Daemon options and all the saving the Kingdom/world/Universe crap. I just want to get by and do my own thing amidst the surrounding chaos. > And bring some totally whacked out, alien, off-the-beaten-path universe to life while you’re at it. Try _Deadlands_. Or _Earthdawn_. Or _Legends of the Five Rings_. Hell, even a decent cyberpunk, _Shadowrun_-style RPG would be nice. Keep the morality grey-on-grey and the action movie clichés to a minimum, that’s all I ask. EXACTLY! I’m sick of my two possible responses being either a whinny bitch or psychotic asshole. I’d like the RPG combat to be on some kind of battle map and turn based ala The Gold Box series. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009/27 "2010-04-08T15:34:37Z")
City builders like Caesar or Zeus or the SimCity could do with a decent modern take. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009/28 "2010-04-08T15:50:55Z")
> [@Grey](#): > > City builders like Caesar or Zeus or the SimCity could do with a decent modern take. Have you tried _Tropico 3_? ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009/29 "2010-04-08T16:48:54Z")
Nope, though I may try the demo now. ---
**Author:** ![MJinks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@MJinks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MJinks)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009/30 "2010-04-08T17:09:54Z")
I want to see some more strategy games that don’t rely on killing things. I have no moral issues towards violent games (I love them!) but I want to return to the awesomeness that was Theme Hospital or Theme Park. Or Sim Tower, Sim Farm. I also really enjoyed Sim Copter. For those that don’t remember it was a game where you flew a helicopter in a city and responded to various emergencies. Rescue people from rooftops, put out fires, catch criminals, sort out traffic, transfer medical patients, etc. You could also upgrade your equipment/'copter. You were able to import your SimCity 2000 maps to play in. Imagine if you could play an updated Sim Copter using maps from SimCity4. And I want a new X-Com game dammit. Don’t add anything. The new X-Com clones all try and add things to make it better. Just give me X-Com: UFO Defence with updated graphics and I’ll be a happy man. ---
**Author:** ![yendis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ed8c4c/32.png) [@yendis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yendis)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009/31 "2010-04-08T21:30:08Z")
> [@Airk](#): > > Didn’t ever get a chance to play it. Had lost interest in the series long before that. (TIE fighter was pushing it for me). But I’d submit that wingman commands were critical to a number of Freespace 2 missions. > > My point is that you don’t really have any meaningful control over your speed. Sure, you can strip down your weapon and shield recharges, but the lack of any sort of restriction on ‘max thrust’ meant you were always going as fast as you could, all the time. It has always felt like a missing gameplay element to me because it removed one of my options/decision paths. X-wing alliance did manage to make speed control a little more important than in previous games. For example you had maximum maneuverability at 30% throttle and hyperspace could only be entered at specific beacons so some missions had you going hell for leather trying to get to a beacon before being destroyed. But all this talk about space sims that were just about combat without the trading nonsense just makes me want Freespace 3, Wing Commander 6 or X-wing 5 but those aren’t going to happen and now I’m depressed. As an aside one particularily stupid reason I’ve heard why there are no new major space games is because no one buys joysticks anymore. But both the Playstation and X-Box have two bloody analog sticks and the PSOne had one of the best space series ever in Colony Wars so we know the things work on console. All that is nedded is decent marketing, stick Halo or Call of Duty on the box and the game will sell millions. ---
**Author:** ![Ihatepants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@Ihatepants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ihatepants)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009/32 "2010-04-08T21:58:52Z")
don’t know if it will happen, consles seem to have a firm grasp onthe market ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009/33 "2010-04-08T22:23:08Z")
Back in the days when 3D was still new, Descent was a spectacular game. It’s basically a modern day FPS, but instead of controlling a person, you control a little craft. Even today I think it would work, as the 3D corridors of free-flying spacecraft, as opposed to a man walking on the ground, would disorient you like Descent did back then. I don’t know how many times I got lost but the completely free flying spaces with no real up or down made the place seem bigger than it was ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009/34 "2010-04-08T22:34:23Z")
> [@MJinks](#): > > And I want a new X-Com game dammit. Don’t add anything. The new X-Com clones all try and add things to make it better. Just give me X-Com: UFO Defence with updated graphics and I’ll be a happy man. Amen. Fans trumpet _Jagged Alliance_ but for me it just isn’t the same. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009/35 "2010-04-09T07:06:02Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Amen. Fans trumpet _Jagged Alliance_ but for me it just isn’t the same. Speaking of which, I do believe we’re long overdue for _Jagged Alliance 3_. A proper one, not a fan-mod. ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009/36 "2010-04-09T07:13:56Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > I used to love the heck out of Heroes of Might and Magic II a few years back and I wouldn’t mind seeing something like that come back either. > > It also looks like sports games on the PC are dying. EA Sports doesn’t seem very interested in putting their games there any more. One of the HoMM:V employees showed up in a Heroes of Might & Magic 6 t-shirt for an interview a few months ago. [http://i32.tinypic.com/j5ko7d.jpg](http://i32.tinypic.com/j5ko7d.jpg) Also, the story writer from HoMM:5 is currently listed as “involved in a future, upcoming strategy game” set for release in 2011. Yes, I’m a huge fan, why do you ask? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009/37 "2010-04-09T14:17:19Z")
> [@MJinks](#): > > I want to see some more strategy games that don’t rely on killing things. I have no moral issues towards violent games (I love them!) but I want to return to the awesomeness that was Theme Hospital or Theme Park. Or Sim Tower, Sim Farm. Theme Hospital was a **great** game! A few piddling issues but alltogether fun to play. In what other game do you have to deal with designing things so that sick people don’t repeatedly soil themselves. 😉 I could have done without the earthquakes and unmovable exterior walls, but other than that it was a jolly good romp. I gotta go install that again. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009/38 "2010-04-09T16:13:50Z")
> [@yendis](#): > > X-wing alliance did manage to make speed control a little more important than in previous games. For example you had maximum maneuverability at 30% throttle and hyperspace could only be entered at specific beacons so some missions had you going hell for leather trying to get to a beacon before being destroyed. That’s pretty neat. I approve. 🙂 > [@](#): > > But all this talk about space sims that were just about combat without the trading nonsense just makes me want Freespace 3, Wing Commander 6 or X-wing 5 but those aren’t going to happen and now I’m depressed. Been there. =/ > [@](#): > > As an aside one particularily stupid reason I’ve heard why there are no new major space games is because no one buys joysticks anymore. That -is- really stupid. Joysticks were something I bought because there were space sims, space sims were NOT something I bought because I’d purchased a joystick for some inexplicable reason and was now looking for games to play with it. > [@](#): > > But both the Playstation and X-Box have two bloody analog sticks and the PSOne had one of the best space series ever in Colony Wars so we know the things work on console. All that is nedded is decent marketing, stick Halo or Call of Duty on the box and the game will sell millions. The trouble with trying to do something like this on a console is that a lot of the ‘classic’ space sims had a LOT of controls. Freespace 2 had a bazillion. The keyboard overlay for that game was absurd. Sure, you could trim down a lot (a lot of the targetting controls weren’t really -that- important.) but it’s still going to be quite a stunt getting this stuff onto an 8 button gamepad. At least, if you wanted to do any sort of power management, which I always felt was a cool aspect of those games. Ah well. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009/39 "2010-04-09T23:02:21Z")
> [@Airk](#): > > The trouble with trying to do something like this on a console is that a lot of the ‘classic’ space sims had a LOT of controls. Freespace 2 had a bazillion. The keyboard overlay for that game was absurd. Sure, you could trim down a lot (a lot of the targetting controls weren’t really -that- important.) but it’s still going to be quite a stunt getting this stuff onto an 8 button gamepad. At least, if you wanted to do any sort of power management, which I always felt was a cool aspect of those games. Ah well. Freelancer (I think?) had a neat setup for that, which could totally work on the second thumbstick of a modern console pad : the power management interface was a sort of sphere contained within a triangle (or maybe the other way round, I don’t remember that well). One end of the triangle symbolizes shields, another guns, the last is engines. So if you turn the sphere up and left, that powers say shields and engines. Full down is shields and lasers. Full up is full engines, etc… It’s difficult to explain, but it was very intuitive and practical in game, if a bit difficult to control _precisely_. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009/40 "2010-04-09T23:15:56Z")
Yeah, a buddy of mine tried to turn me on to Freelancer but I still use Free Space 2. That is Descent version … uh… 5? Descent 3 became Free Space became Free Space 2. You can play very well with keyboard and mouse (or more properly, pointing device since I use a trackball). For the record: I don’t play much now because I have precious free time and mostly spend it here (SMDB). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pc-game-genres-overdure-for-a-resurgence/535009.md?page=3)