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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Star Wars: X-wing vs TIE Fighter
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_X-Wing_vs._TIE_Fighter
I think this one was surpassed by X-Wing Alliance.
The original Unreal. For me it was a perfect combination of beautiful graphics (back in the days of course) and a soundtrack which complemented and elevated the atmosphere of that game. And the gunplay was nice, with a collection of somewhat unconventional weapons. A relic from a time where developers were not afraid to experiment a bit.
@Aganim The original Deus Ex also. Its story was brilliant and prophetic in a lot of ways.
As an example of a game, that actually got its second chance: the original Half-Life. Black Mesa is brilliant. I wish, other old games like Unreal and Deus Ex would have got a remake like that.
Yes, how could I forget Deus Ex. Incredible story and again such a wonderful soundtrack, not surprising as it was also composed Alexander Brandon, Michiel van den Bos, and Dan Gardopee.
As for Half-Life, that game was also something else. But part of me resents that game a bit because it overshadowed Unreal. 😋
The crazy variety of weapons and their interactions was great. Almost everything was dangerous in the right situation.
Blob gun? Charge it up! Blue laser thing? Shoot the ball form and shoot that for a huge boom! Double pistols? Max DPS in the game with no bullet curve!
The best maps too for CTF. Yeah, I loved that game, especially for in person LAN parties.
Unreal only had a single Automag though, so either you are thinking of Unreal Tournament or you played on a modded server. Some servers did have dual automags (I’ve still got a mod and mutator lying around to get them in single player as well) and dual Automags (Enforcer in Unreal Tournament) did indeed dish out major punishment.
My whole family loved these games.
Later, I realized Amy Hennig worked on these at Crystal Dynamics before leaving for Naughty Dog where she worked on the Uncharted Series.
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.
Alley Cat for sure
Cue the tune in my head. Thank you, it’s so lovely. 😍
Alley Cat actually got a second chance! Look up “Alley Cat: ReMeow”
Happy to see some fellow Alley Cat fans around!
Dark cloud 2
Dark cloud 2
Freelancer
omg YES. Nothing I have found since then has quite scratched the same itch of flying around with a friend on some random dude’s server. So much fun!
Everspace 2 is really close in terms of combat and overall gameplay, but it lacks the immersive simulation aspects. Freelancers idle radio chatter did some heavy lifting back in the day.
I’ll have to give that one a try!
Word. The closest I found to the feel of Freelancer was X3 back in 2010, but the differences were glaring.
There this Underspace that seems to be a “Freelancer meets Cthluhu”, I’ve yet to play the demo to get a feel of the space.
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.
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.
Btw btw you can co-op the campaigns with 3 friends
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.
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.
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!
