Dead video game series/franchises you refuse to let go

The game series “Shutokou Battle” localised as “Tokyo Xtreme Racer” is possibly the best racing series of its time. The series has a great selection of cars and customisation options but the real selling point is the rival system.

Each game has a few hundred rivals, each with their own driving style, car/customisation style, occupation and backstory/blurb.
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This system really helps the feeling of progression in the game as the people you’re racing against go from convenience store workers who drive unmodified hatchbacks to wealthy businessmen in supercars or professional racing drivers.

There are also a subset of racers called wanderers (see above) that only appear under certain conditions. This adds a lot of spice to the game as these conditions vary massively from you needing to drive a specific car model to race a guy who hates a driver who uses that car to having to blast your horn down a certain stretch of road because the racer who lives there hates loud noises.

The rival system is done especially well in Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift 2, typically in these games even though the rivals are the best part you need to go out of your way to read up on who you’re racing. With this game instead of the free roaming highway racing system where you drive a highway loop in search of people to race you actually come face to face with them in the parking lots of the mountain passes you race on.
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There’s also a messaging board in Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift 2 which pretty accurately emulates early forum culture with racers talking over random topics including things like car tuning, arguments over what cars are better on what tracks and of course, people you beat being salty.
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Manul Otocolobus said:
Crystalis. I'd settle for a really high quality remake at this point. The lore for the world they created was excellent. It had significant potential.
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The GBC remake is not very good. I played through both and it's inferior. I don't know why they even bothered. It was handled by a different studio and the music in the opening cutscene will make you want to tear your eardrums out with a broken pencil just to stop the noise. The music in general isn't very good. I liked a few things about it but I can't even remember what they were.

They changed the swords so they are elemental in name only. So there's no strategy involved in battle. Every sword can damage every monster. Some areas are pared down or changed due to GBC limitations. But the cutscenes are hideous. The wizards or whatever they are in the beginning look like cousins of the Seven Dwarfs. I think the story was slightly changed. But not by a whole lot.

This is a pretty good review: http://www.exfanding.com/2010/10/exfanding-review-crystalis-gbc.html

I can see the whole "Turning into a woman" thing being seen as REEEEEEE fuel. Because MC isn't trans.
 
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Started replaying Dragon Age Origins recently, somehow it's every bit as good as when I first played it, although I felt a bit melancholy knowing that, despite having so much promise, this is where the series peaked and, honestly, probably should have ended.

Dragon Age 2 was obviously rushed and under budget, but I'll give it this much; it still felt like a Dragon Age game, which is more then I can say for Inquisition. And God damn, Inquisition, that game felt more like an offline MMO rather then a Dragon Age game. I'm not sure what Dragon Age 4 has in store, provided Bioware isn't canned, but I know it's not going to be a "Dragon Age" game in the same spirit was Origins was.

At least Origins is still a really freaking good game...at least until it gets a remake and the people screw with it like the did with KOTOR.
 
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OpenArena 0.8.8, release Feb 2012.

Started playing it because it was free with my Linux distro and never graduated onto the real Quake III or anything else. Such a comfy game.
 
Syaoran Li said:
Not gonna lie, I kinda wish they'd bring back Gex but only if they play the trademark campy 90's attitude completely straight and without any irony, snark, or pretentiousness.
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Trilby said:
I wouldn't mind that back. It's more wholesome!
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Last Christmas streamer Dfactor played and completed Gex 3. I remember purchasing a used copy of that same game after playing Gex at my friends. I miss how popular platformers were in the 90's and 2000's.
 
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Sly Cooper. I know the 4th one sucked, but I'd love to have another one made by the guys that did the first 3. Or at the very least, an N-Sane Trilogy style remaster of the original trilogy.

I'd also love to have another F-Zero.
 
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Pillar of Autism said:
Sly Cooper. I know the 4th one sucked, but I'd love to have another one made by the guys that did the first 3. Or at the very least, an N-Sane Trilogy style remaster of the original trilogy.

I'd also love to have another F-Zero.
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I liked the 4th Sly myself overall but has been rumours from leakers of a new Sly and then was hints of Sly in a new Playstation AD much like how Crash was during the PS4 era.
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Back me up! said:
F-Zero. I legit beat all of F-Zero GX story, unlocked all the extra tracks, and just had a flat out blast playing GX. I truly loved ever single part of the game, including that it never rubber banding any of the AI racers.

I would kill to get a new, HD F-Zero GX with even craizer tracks and a heat pumping techno sound track.
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That game was fucking awesome. I'm annoyed that F-Zero disappeared after that one, it was hella fun.
 
The .//hack games by Cyberconnect. They could get tedious but had some of the coolest mechanics. Before I had access to the Internet it was kinda cool to plug in keywords for dungeons and see where I'd end up.
 
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Silent Hill - Yeah everyone knows about that one, still a shame though.

Parasite Eve - First one was good, but I really enjoyed the second one more. It was aping Resident Evil for sure, but it had so much going for it. The story really went insane as well, which I always enjoy when a game decides to stop trying to be like a movie, and embrace utterly insane ideas and just let it run.

Armored Core - Annoying it stuck to playstation so fucking much, and very few games even come close to that style of mech combat rpg. Its such a small genre and it gets almost no love at all. I have heard FromSoft are talking about it, just hope its not another fucking playstation exclusive as I dont think the genre is big enough to shift units in a large number, so multiplatform would help give the series and style in general a boost.
 
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