Unreal Tournament, the one that was abandoned in favor of Fortnite (eugh). Like sure it would never be a big hit like Fortnite, Arena Shooters are out of fashion after all, but Epic didn’t even give it a chance for starters, they basically just rushed it out the door with a skeleton crew, no budget whatsoever and were begging for community members to do free work on the game for them. In retrospect the game was doomed to fail from day one.
It STARTED from the work of community members. Then Epic jumped in and took over with the promise of their backing of the community team. Then once they had control over it they scuttled the ship.
Desert Strike was so cool.
I had forgotten about this game. It was a fun time. I think there was a Jungle Strike also
The last memory I have of Desert Strike going to a local video game and card game place (Heebeegeebees in Ogden, Utah before they expanded) with some of my siblings and buying this for some portable system (GBA?) and starting to play.
I then heard the owner (who was still in the shop back then) say “We can do this the easy way or the hard way”. It had transpired that one of my siblings had tried to steal something. Cops got called, fun times.
For those curious, the rumor was that the easy way was police and the hard way was him chasing you with a bat
Urban strike as well! I think it was urban strike that turned into a kind of top down shooter when you assaulted an enemy base about halfway into the game. 10 year old me could never get past that part.
Super Thunder Blade did this, same era too.
Someone is making a new one. I have it wishlisted on Steam. It is called Cleared Hot. Granted, I heard about it a LONG time ago and it still isn’t out.
OMFSM YES! I’d forgotten all about that great game!
Soviet Strike was really good. One of the first PlayStation games I played (rented from Blockbuster!)
I remember being blown away by the video cutscenes in a game.
Woah, I didn’t even know about this one.
I could never figure out how to not get blown to smithereens by the SAM sites.
Kill the radars. If you haven’t killed the radar sites, the Rapier SAM sites are faster to detect, track and fire on you.
Holy shit thank you. I’m gonna go give it a try. Haha
Let me know how it turns out.
Game strategy advice for a 30+ year old game? I love this so much, you guys are awesome.
Battle for Middle Earth. With the resurgence of RTS games lately, including many older ones getting remastered, I would absolutely love to see a proper remaster and release of BFME2. Unfortunately rights issues mean it’s very unlikely to happen.
Total War: LOTR would be pretty neat
Just a way to legally obtain a copy without paying hundreds of € for an old scratched CD would be nice
FreeSpace 1 and 2!
Time to install FreeSpace Open again. 😄 For those who have managed to miss that project: it’s a completely rebuilt engine for FS2. Together with the MediaVPs from The FreeSpace Upgrade Project it makes the game look pretty modern again. Take a look at https://wiki.hard-light.net/index.php/Getting_started if you need instructions.
I believe even there is even a mod available which allows playing the first FreeSpace in FSO.
These were godly at the time, but due to storytelling, modding community and mission editors. Flight model and combat mechanics were little too “Wing Commnder” even back then. Todays space pilots would need something more in line with Elite Dangerous, Helium Rain and Star Citizen.
I’d definitely play an updated Freespace game.
Btw btw you can co-op the campaigns with 3 friends
It’s not really forgotten, but Wing Commander has been abandoned, and a proper modern rebuild of it would be fantastic.
Also, I want a new Deer Avenger.
If you like Privateer, check out Double Damage Games “Rebel Galaxy: Outlaw”. Excellent game with a lot of sadly lost potential due to the dev being run out of game development by hostile and entitled “gamers”.
Isn’t Star Citizen a sort-of spiritual successor?
It was supposed to be. I have to admit I haven’t paid any attention to it in many years so maybe things have changed, but it had turned into more of a vortex of ego, fleecing a fanbase, and sunk-cost fallacy, than a spiritual successor to anything.
My whole family loved these games.
Soul Reaver seriously needs a reboot. Soul Reaver kept getting mentioned a while back when Square Enix sold off Cristal Dynamics to pay for NFT scams, but no mutterings of a reboot/remake.
This halogened a while ago: https://www.ign.com/articles/new-legacy-of-kain-looks-likely-as-embracer-receives-strong-fan-response
I remember some years ago receiving an email with a form asking many questions about Legacy of Kain/Soul Reaver, seemingly a market research thing.
Embracer
Welp, there goes all my hope
I remember that, and participated as well. IIRC, the response they got was significantly larger than their most optimistic predictions, so they are aware that there is big interest. Hopefully it lands somewhere that will actually complete the project.
Battleborne - I found it enjoyable but because it was superficially similar to Overwatch it absolutely bombed.
Good lord yes. Overwatch is just a corporatized TF2 ripoff, but Battleborn was a creative, unique game with a soul.
Anyone who hasn’t seen it should watch the game’s intro cinematic, which gives a great sense of just how much character the game had.
I just clicked into this post to say this. I was an ISIC main.
Overwatch
Curiously both titles are dead nowadays, like literally dead.
because it was superficially similar to Overwatch it absolutely bombed.
Sort of, the real issue was it had no advertising of its own, just Randy Pitchford synergising buzzwordsalad on twitter and trying to create a rivalry with Overwatch. Nobody really knew what it was supposed to be from advertising, because nobody thought to just say “FPS MOBA”.
I remember seeing plenty of advertising for it and always saw it as a fundamentally different game with much more of a PvE focus. I didn’t buy it until quite a while later but I remember being annoyed at the comparisons being made between them as they seemed so fundamentall different to me.
Oh I agree, what I mean is that the similarities were barely even superficial. They were both hero shooters, but so are Apex Legends and Rainbow Six Seige, and you’d never compare them to Overwatch.
I don’t know if it’s forgotten, but it’s forgotten to me. There was this ant game where you had a colony of ants that would go collect food, or attack other colonies. There was this very pixelated top-down map view where you could see the brightly colored food disappear pixel by pixel as they ate.
I can’t figure out what the game was but I loved it.
Thank you for reminding me of this game. I think it is Microsoft ants
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Ants
Oh my God! Finally! I genuinely couldn’t track down what the game was for years. Thank you!
Sim Ant ?
Nope, the other commenter got it. It was Microsoft Ants. Sim Ant is what most people guess when I have brought this one up before though. I’ll have to try it sometime.
This is what it sounds like to me, and Sim Ant is the game I had in mind opening this post. It was a good one.
Definitely Icy Tower
Also, not really a video game, but those desktop destroyer type games. I’m not sure what any of them were called but it was a fun waste of time in my computer class.
I can still hear the jumping sounds in my head! Thanks for the memory!
You’re welcome!
Mass Effect Andromeda, the middle of that game dragged, but the first third was pretty good and the last third was amazing, but most people didn’t stick through the boring middle to get there. I really wish it got dlc and sequels, I wanted to see where that story went.
Most people saw the facial animations and swore it off before even playing the game. Looking past it’s flaws, I always felt it was a fine sequel, though the first game is definitely still the special one.
I’m one of those people that couldn’t get past the middle part. Plus, something about that engine gives me terrible motion sickness after 30 minutes of playing.
Spore and Impossible Creatures
Kind of similar but these games are conceptually genius. How tightly Creativity and Strategic Interest are packed together is hardly seen ever again.
And animals are always a good idea. Even horrible games like Pokémon survive just because we like funny little friends.
If there is one game out there that I think deserves a second chance, it is definitely Alpha Protocol. This game came out in 2010 and was created by Obsidian Entertainment, the makers behind Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. This was the first-of-its-kind ‘espionage RPG’ with a truly, wholly unique dialogue system that has truly never been replicated since. Unlike mainstream RPGs of the time, you pick from several different ‘tones’ to speak in, in which gives the game hundreds of outcomes and dozens of endings. For example, according to Raycevick in a recent video, love interest can snipe you after a boss fight, poorly-treated damzels can attack you in the dead of night, contracts you’re hired to kill can be baited into their demise through dialogue, and a whole host of other things.
The problem is that Alpha Protocol was lambasted by critics due to its incredibly buggy launch state and unpolished graphics. It never met the sales requirements that SEGA was expecting from it, and so, a few years ago, the game was pulled from all storefronts, never to be played again - until now. That’s right. Thanks to the legends over at GOG for their incredible work, Alpha Protocol is back on sale, complete with achievements, localization, modern compatibility, and cloud saves. All without any form of DRM. But, the bugs in the game are still present to this day even in the GOG version, and so you might end up finding some humorous bugs and glitches.
Source: Making a Game Last Forever
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
An awesome RPG by Sierra (Fallout1+2). It was a bit unfinished, but you had such a great roleplay-experience. A second part was planned using Source-Engine.
Also:
FCK GNMFor isometric RPGs Arcanum truly was unique. The dialogue and story was polished to a brilliant shine in a fantasy world going through the industrial revolution. The soundtrack composed entirely of a somber string ensemble added so much to the narrative and feel of the world, as if its magic was slowly dying out to make way for industrial expansion and exploitation. It stands up there along with the original Fallouts and Planescape: Torment. It’s a tragedy a sequel was never made. The only modern game that comes close to the aesthetics is the Pillars of Eternity franchise.
Operation Wolf.
Defender of the crown.
Gauntlet (and sequels).
The Settlers.
Syndicate.
Fury of the Furies.
Cooking Mama.
Tongue of the Fatman.
Turrican 1 and 2.
Zool.
Snow Bros. Nick and Tom.
Double Dragon.
Golden Axe.
Rick Dangerous.
Blake Stone.
Antix.
Screamer.
Soldat.
Speedball 2. Brutale Delux.
Lemmings.
Sid Myers Pirates!
Battle chess.
Shadow of the Beast.
Altered Beast.
Agony.
Strider (arcade)
Death Rally.
Stunt Car Racer (msdos)
Can add more soon
I agree with so many on this list and those I don’t, I simply don’t recognize. If add 7th Guest Rune Giants: Citizen Kabuto
Operation Wolf
I loved that game! Think there was a sequel too, Operation Thunderbolt maybe?
Lemmings
Another classic. You might like the recent game Humanity, similar vibes, although quite different too.
Blake Stone. Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in awhile
Sid Myers Pirates! is one of my all time favorites!
I feel like many of these got at least a spiritual successor if not an actual successor. That counts as a second chance right and means they aren’t forgotten?
Like Gauntlet has like 9 sequels and the last one released just 10 years ago. There’s also many games that are heavily inspired by Gauntlet. Same for The Settlers, which had a new game just last year.
F-ZERO. Truly a devastating loss. 99 is cool, but there’s no guarantee we’ll ever see a completely new title ever again. There was no other series with the same level of snappy controls, character design, music and challenge. It really is in a league of its own.
