Dead video game series/franchises you refuse to let go

[Syaoran Li]

Not gonna lie, I miss the old-school "tank controls" Survival Horror games, even the cheapo "Resident Evil" clones of the late PS1 era like Evil Dead: Hail To The King or Countdown Vampires.

I've heard rumors that the new emerging trend in indie gaming is stuff inspired by the PS1 era, especially now that indie platformers and adventure games are slowly becoming old hat.

One of the newest trends I'm starting to notice is low-budget survival horror games that deliberately try to emulate the PS1 look and feel. I'd wager that part of this has to do with the success of the Resident Evil 2 remake.

 

[Vault Boy]

Valve is one of the most frustrating things in gaming history, they had all that acclaim and highly devoted fanbase and they just.... walked away from all of it.

They pissed away what other developers would kill for, remember that cult following Gabe Newell used to have? When was the last time you noticed that? That's certainly gone away.

What's really upsetting to me is I can't go back and enjoy their past games, I get a sick feeling when I think about Valve to be honest and try to just kind of forget about them, I know going back to Half-Life and getting invested in the story and characters all over again would be too painful now knowing there will probably never be a continuation.

It really speaks to something very fucked about the video game industry that it was never about anything more to Gabe Newell than money, there was no artistic passion there, it's not like film making, where you have artists that simply want to continue making art and the finances are very secondary and yet they are able to continue and thrive, the video game industry is almost entirely controlled by assholes that care about nothing more than the bottom line.

I always shake my head at the people who justify Half Life 3 never being made as the game being "impossible" to reach people's expectations after so much time has passed. Really, it isn't obvious that it's Valve's fault for making that goddamn cliffhanger and not even being assed enough to finish the story with a novel or something?

Don't blame the community for feeling disappointed, blame Valve for being some of the biggest procrastinators around,

 

[Billy_Sama]

I really enjoy Gladius when I played it on the GameCube. The game could used some improvements but it was a fun and enjoyable turn based tactical rpg that hinted a sequel.
With all the remakes and remasters, I would love to have it on the Switch for the portability.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

Not gonna lie, I miss the old-school "tank controls" Survival Horror games, even the cheapo "Resident Evil" clones of the late PS1 era like Evil Dead: Hail To The King or Countdown Vampires.

I've heard rumors that the new emerging trend in indie gaming is stuff inspired by the PS1 era, especially now that indie platformers and adventure games are slowly becoming old hat.

One of the newest trends I'm starting to notice is low-budget survival horror games that deliberately try to emulate the PS1 look and feel. I'd wager that part of this has to do with the success of the Resident Evil 2 remake.

I've always felt PS1 graphics were way creepier than anything made afterwards. There are two reasons for this; the first is that since the 3D technology was so primitive, that didn't leave a lot of room for detail so your brain is left to fill in the spaces. The second is that early 3D has a rough look to it which adds to the horror. I've always felt that PS2 horror games look too clean, too smooth. The jagged polygons of the PS1 era meanwhile are a lot less pleasing to look at, and I mean that in a good way. Horror is about making the viewer feel uncomfortable, and the rough, jagged aesthetics of PS1 horror games adds to that.

It's for that reason I always felt Silent Hill 1 was infinitely more terrifying than 2 or 3.

There have been attempts from indie devs to make a PS1-style horror game, and I really want them to succeed because that is my favorite era of horror games.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Victoria

 

[Ruin]

If Fromsoft ever stops jerking off Dark Souls the Lost Kingdoms franchise could use a third game.

 

[Love Machine]

To me the series died here, The 2010 rebellion game was a pale comparison. Worst part is that specifically AVP2 was memory holed from all digital platforms, however the reason I brought this up is that I found a group of people that made a pack in with everything you'd need to play this game, so I'm posting it here to get more people to play one of my favorites. To at least keep the memory of what movie license games should be.

Forum post with a pack that includes the Main game, expac, updates, and tool.

 

[Lame Entropy]

System Shock 2. Clunky mechanics aside I love the atmosphere of the game. I've never been able to finish it because something always comes up so I go months without playing it. I always just end up restarting it each time.

 

[Love Machine]

System Shock 2. Clunky mechanics aside I love the atmosphere of the game. I've never been able to finish it because something always comes up so I go months without playing it. I always just end up restarting it each time.

But... system shock 3 is coming out like next year bro.

 

[Lame Entropy]

But... system shock 3 is coming out like next year bro.

Holy shit I had no idea.

 

[Love Machine]

Holy shit I had no idea.

Thanks for flaunting your not dead franchise in this franchise mourning thread.

 

[BrunoMattei]

I totally agree about Dishonored. I certainly love that series (despite me thinking the sequel's story was lacklustre for such an interesting setting) but it is very different playwise to Thief. Although even if you choose to forgo powers (which I've done in a few playthrus) you're still really beefy to kill guards if you get caught. In Thief getting caught is just insta game over which I like tbh. Garret isn't a trained killer, he's just a dude who's really fucking good at stealing and moving around people.

((As an aside, if you're serious about a spiritual successor that truly is purist stealth I'm a game concept artist so feel free to DM me.))

It's funny because I had a rather big argument with my friends who think I'm some sort of stealth snob because I don't consider a lot of modern stealth actually stealth. Like, Alien Isolation has supposed stealth sections in that first half but when I attempted to play it as such, it really isn't. The game is really more of a press forward, duck and hide game and once I realised this I found the game fairly easy and the alien easy to outsmart just by going towards the goal flat out. It makes sense gameplay wise that stopping and hiding is death (cuz the Alien AI narrows down your location when you hide and patrols heavily near you) if you remember the movies had Ripley constantly on the move but it's not stealth.

Did you play Alien Isolation on hard?

 

[Ira the Weatherman]

View attachment 1020194

To me the series died here, The 2010 rebellion game was a pale comparison. Worst part is that specifically AVP2 was memory holed from all digital platforms, however the reason I brought this up is that I found a group of people that made a pack in with everything you'd need to play this game, so I'm posting it here to get more people to play one of my favorites. To at least keep the memory of what movie license games should be.

Forum post with a pack that includes the Main game, expac, updates, and tool.

My nigga. This game is absurdly underrated. The single-player campaigns were amazing, and the multi-player was fun as fuck as well. I distinctly remember playing a game mode in which one player would be an Alien and had to kill everyone else, who would respawn as Aliens as well. Those matches would end in the dwindling human players holing up in the basement, being whittled away by increasingly ferocious, coordinated Alien assaults until they finally broke through.

 

[Love Machine]

My nigga. This game is absurdly underrated. The single-player campaigns were amazing, and the multi-player was fun as fuck as well. I distinctly remember playing a game mode in which one player would be an Alien and had to kill everyone else, who would respawn as Aliens as well. Those matches would end in the dwindling human players holing up in the basement, being whittled away by increasingly ferocious, coordinated Alien assaults until they finally broke through.

I know the people on that forum regularly schedule online matches, go see if you can join!

 

[Tootsie Bear]

Does anyone remember playing the Army Men games in the late 1990's and early 2000's? I recall being lucky enough to purchase an Army Men game box set for the PS1 when the PS2 was launched and the stores were getting rid of the old games to make room for the new ones.

If I remember correctly it came with four or five games: Army Men, Army Men 3D, Sarge's Heroes and Air Attack. Might have came with World War-Land, Sea and Air too. Out of them all Air Attack was the most fun and imaginative.

 

[DNA_JACKED]

The X wing games. There was hope after disney bought star wars, and introduced a X wing Vs Tie fighter online game that showed promise. The game was scrapped for unknown reasons, and since then, well, we have a near 1000 page thread documenting the atrocious decisions Disney has been making.

Sins of a solar empire. Good game, rebellion was a fantastic standalone title with good support, but it is showing its age in its 12 year old game engine. Ironclad has gone independent, and Stardock has just given up on being a decent company, there has been no news on a Sins 2 despite strong fan interest in an expanded sequel. Chances are this series is dead.

War of the monsters. A great underrated PS2 gem, japanese kaiju monsters beating the hell out of each other. What the godzilla game should have been. Would love to see a modern rendition with 4-8 player support and larger maps with more interactivity. With incognito long gone it is highly unlikely.

 

[Feline Supremacist]

Does anyone remember playing the Army Men games in the late 1990's and early 2000's? I recall being lucky enough to purchase an Army Men game box set for the PS1 when the PS2 was launched and the stores were getting rid of the old games to make room for the new ones.

If I remember correctly it came with four or five games: Army Men, Army Men 3D, Sarge's Heroes and Air Attack. Might have came with World War-Land, Sea and Air too. Out of them all Air Attack was the most fun and imaginative.

I loved those games I think I still have one lying around

 

[Overcast]

Wouldn’t mind seeing a Haunting Ground 2 or at least a remake. The game’s story was pretty ambiguous and a second game would be great for expanding on its concepts.

Spoiler

Especially since the lyrics on the credits song revealed that Fiona’s parents wanted her Azoth.

Also seeing an older Hewie would be both awesome and sad.

 

[Syaoran Li]

War of the monsters. A great underrated PS2 gem, japanese kaiju monsters beating the hell out of each other. What the godzilla game should have been. Would love to see a modern rendition with 4-8 player support and larger maps with more interactivity. With incognito long gone it is highly unlikely.

That reminds me, I'd love to have seen a similar modern take on the old Rampage games from the early 90's. Aside from that movie with Dwayne Johnson, we haven't seen much from Rampage since the PS1 era unless you count the first game appearing as part of the Midway Arcade Treasures 2 compilation for the PS2.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

That reminds me, I'd love to have seen a similar modern take on the old Rampage games from the early 90's. Aside from that movie with Dwayne Johnson, we haven't seen much from Rampage since the PS1 era unless you count the first game appearing as part of the Midway Arcade Treasures 2 compilation for the PS2.

There was Rampage: Total Destruction on PS2, which was my introduction to the series. It was okay. It comes with the first game and World Tour and I probably sunk more time into World Tour than the main game.