A few years ago Sid Meier put out a new version of “Pirates!” which was pretty much the same as the 1988-era “Pirates!” except with dancing and much better graphics and sound. I couldn’t have been happier. It was freaking awesome.
Really, though, they should remake more classic games. What games do you want remade? For my money:
1. TIE Fighter. Still a wonderful game today, maybe the best PC game ever. Absolutely perfect in every way - mission design, presentation, storyline, action, even good voice acting. Every mission is one perfectly balanced, white-knuckled furball dogfight festival of pant-shitting terror. If they’d just do the same thing with better graphics and more missions I’d be in heaven.
2. X-Com. Actually, they did remake this as X-Com: Terror From The Deep but that was a long time ago. Lord yes, give me better graphics (and maybe make the game a teeeensy bit fairer) and I’ll buy it.
3. Sword of the Samurai. Hey, Sid; if you can redo Pirates!, can we see this one redone, too?
More seriously, I’d kinda like to see an updated version of Archon or some comparable type of chess-combat game where “capturing” requires a fight to the death.
I don’t know, I find old timey graphics charming. They kind of re-did TIE Fighter with the sequel X-wing vs. TIE Fighter, but I know what you mean, the overall gameplay in TIE Fighter was better. There’s always some feeling lost in a remake.
I’d like to see Planescape:Torment redone. One of THE greatest CRPG’s ever, except it was done in 640x480 scale. I was thinking something along the lines of using the Dark Messiah of Might and Magic engine, that would allow every object to be interactive and make the fighting actually fun. But that would unfortunately mean you wouldn’t get to see the Nameless One. Maybe a hybrid engine. Of course you would absolutely have to keep all the dialog of the first one.
I’d also like to see an update of Deus Ex, maybe with the HalfLife2 engine, more evenly balanced bioupgrades, a Thief-like stealth system and better balanced weapons.
COlonization. Steal the graphics from Civ IV (or even Civ 3, I’m not picky), and add a few mroe options for eocnomic growth and so forth, and it’d be an awesome game. Plus, you could take it off to a much greater level, going into the last 19th century.
Going way back, I’d love to see a massive, open-ended, modern version of Autoduel, the ambitious but flawed Lord British adaptation of Steve Jackson’s Car Wars. With MMO capability the way it is these days, it could be monstrously huge.
I’m with you on TIE Fighter. Can’t really speak to a number of the other items mentioned though.
I’d really like to see Blizzard re-do Warcraft’s 1, 2, and 2-expansion (but particularly 1 because of the retcon that had to be done regarding it’s story later on) using a gameplay style akin to Relic’s RTS system (think Dawn of War, based off Warhammer 40,000, and Company of Heroes, a recent WW2 game) but done on a larger scale.
Of course, I also have my own private fantasy of a brand-new Warcraft-setting RTS using a massively hybridized version of DoW’s engine.
Units would work in squads, that can be reinforced, instead of having to short-cut to a production building and run troops out to the fighting. The map would have designated strategic locations (in two priority levels, and in a more subtle manner than DoW’s mechanized turret/flagpoles preferably). Buildings can only be placed at SP’s, and bases could be built semi-automatically (watch-towers and barracks could be placed at any SP, major bases would be more limited). Supply lines would consist of the player drawing out a pathing map for resource harvesters to take their goods back to base (allowing a more fluid, easy-to-set-up or change system) and connecting the base to the out-of-battle “home edge” for new units to be brought in. Lastly, squads act as a terrain obstacle, blocking other units from passing between them (unless they have a better score, so cavalry would be significant for excelling at this), allowing players to really have effective front lines and for cutting supply lines to be a major strategy component.
Basically the idea is to add some new components (from Supreme Commander & Civilization) to a DoW system to minimize base-building and micromanagement and make gameplay about actually directing troop movements and vying for key terrain in a real-time setting without zooming out to Supreme Commander or Defcon levels. The game would have a more “realistic,” less arbitrary or gamelike feel, without actually sacrificing gameplay components. Because players would be directing forces of 5-10 squads, and the gameplay would often focus on being able to break an enemy line, “hero” units and elite squads would still have a very important place in the gameplay, which has been shown to be an invaluable tool for story-telling purposes (and was the primary drive for Warcraft 3’s heavy RPG flavor).
phew! sorry, didn’t mean to go on a tangent like that.
…Um… you are familiar with Auto Assault, right? The MMO about fighting in modified automobiles in a post-apocalyptic future? I’m assuming you either aren’t, or you are and just don’t like this manifestation of the idea?
Tribes 1
tribes 2 was ok but kinda fell short with the ships and that stupid ass zero point balance system they all flew on.
never even tried Tribes 3, the reviews I saw were all pretty bad.
basicly Tribes was the first first person shooter to incorporate team play as the default, with MANY mission types and a very steep learing curve. one very very fun game.
Chaos Overlords, it was a fun game where you hired gangs to help you take control of a city, would be cool with some serious upgrades.
I’ve just started playing Thief: The Dark Project again so I’d have to go with that. It’s a pain to get it working on Windows XP…
Oh, and I had the epiphany the other day that we are now as far removed from Fallout as Fallout was from Wasteland. So I guess we’re due for another sequel there now too (and we might just get that one).
Ultima 4, done with the Oblivion game engine(gamebryo). I know there are projects out there that update the graphics of Ultima, but combining the storyline and gameplay of the best CRPG ever with Oblivion’s graphics? I’d never stop playing.
X-COM with modern graphics and a slight AI upgrade would be the Holy Grail of PC gaming as far as I’m concerned. Although the original was such a time-sink, I would fear for my marriage and employment.
Wasteland would probably suck up what little time I had left after X-COM.
Buck Rogers Countdown to Doomsday would probably require some kind of feeding tube and a catheter.
I thouht of some games when I saw the subject line but the OP posted the ones I thought of.
I’d like to say that UFO Aftermath & Aftershock are worthy updates to the X-Com series, however another company is making a competing product thats much closer to the original, they say. Am I allowed to post links? Or is that advertising ?
