So 2 of my most beloved franchises seem to be dead, or at least under deep cover. There hasn't been a PROPER Simcity game released in over 8 YEARS! and at this point it's becoming the same with Roller Coaster tycoon. These 2 franchises were some of the first games i played, and not seeing any new games deeply saddens me. I know there have been rumblings of Roller Coaster Tycoon 4 being in the works, but I've heard absolutely nothing about Simcity. All Maxis is working on currently is Darkspore, which ships in about a month... so maybe a Simcity successor will finally be on its way?
Are there any other franchises that have also gone deep undercover that you miss greatly? (Besides Half-Life)
PC franchises that have gone missing?
yeah i remember playing Rollercoaster Tycoon with my cousin like ages ago... good fun. hopefully the new one will be as good
I'd say.. Max Payne has been teased for two-three years and its still getting pushed back year after year by games like RDR, LA Noire and next year's Agent... so thats a PC franchise i LOVED for years and has been dead and/or delayed for years.
Looking through my many shelves of pc games, man there so many that have gone AWOL for one reason or another
The No One Lives Forever series, the Hidden and Dangerous series, the Freedom Force series, Project IGI, the Z series of rts games, ground control, the Vampire series and as mentioned the Elite Force series (star trek games in general, bridge commander and starfleet command)
It wouldn't hurt to see another return for the Commandos series and the Homeworld series as well.
Myst.
It branched out to a bunch of consoles and then had that online game. It just totally lost direction. Myst and Riven were really solid and intense games but then it's like they just lost it.
I dunno if that counts as 'missing'. They were still PC based, even if they were ported to consoles, and the series still continued. I haven't played it, but I was under the impression that Myst V was a conclusion to the story, not just the last one they made. I don't think they 'lost it', either. Uru was pretty cool." Myst. It branched out to a bunch of consoles and then had that online game. It just totally lost direction. Myst and Riven were really solid and intense games but then it's like they just lost it. "
- Wing Commander (space combat sim - last 'real' release was Wing Commander Prophecy back in 1997, there was also a poorly recieved 1999 movie and a very poorly recieved Xbox Arcade game - using none of the gameplay mechanics from the main games - in 2005 or so)
- Descent (360DOF FPS/space combat sim - the last official Descent game, Descent 3, was released in 1999. The Freespace series was a loosely related spinoff, last visited in 2001. The original Red Faction, also 2001, was originally planned to be a Descent game)
- Krush Kill And Destroy/KKND (RTS - KKnD 2 was released in 1998, the developers were Beam Software and Krome, the latter which closed down last year, but whose rights should still be with Atari)
- Unreal (FPS - that is, the singleplayer focused games that predated Unreal Tournament. Unreal II: Awakening was released in 2004, since then I've heard nothing)
- Elite/Frontier (space trading sim - pretty much the original trading/privateer sim, that laid the basic foundation for games like Freelancer, EVE Online and Darkstar One. The last official game was released in 1993, but the creator, David Braben of Frontier productions has claimed to have been working on a new game in the series for the last decade or so)
- Hexen/Heretic (fantasy FPS/action RPG, the games that started Raven software's reign as one of the major FPS developers, it's unclear if they are separate franchises or not, as Hexen seemed to be a sequel to Heretic, but both of them got numbered sequels later on - Hexen II, based on the Quake engine and simple Diablo style RPG mechanics, was released in 1996, and Heretic II, based on the Quake II engine using third person shooter/"character action" mechanics was released in 1998).
- Commander Keen (side scrolling platformer, Id Software's first successful franchise. New games have been rumored for mobile platforms and such for years, but as far as I know nothing has materialized except a remake for the first couple of games for the GBA back in 2001)
- Wizardry (first person turn based RPG/dungeon crawler - some of the first computer RPG's, and in first person perspective no less, became incredibly popular in Japan and inspired the active time battle system in Final Fantasy. The last western release was Wizardry 8 in 2001, the franchise still lives on in Japan were spin-off titles are made every year, the only one which has been brought over to the west was Wizardry: Tale of the forsaken land, also in 2001)
There are lots more, but I should probably stop before this post becomes too much of a wall of text for the kids of today.
" @skyline7284: Because so many other games have come out in the simulation genre as to make both franchises null and void. See Cities XL and Thrillville. As for franchises that I miss, I really miss Elite Force. "
Elite Force, do you mean the Star Trek license FPS games by Raven and Ritual Software? I loved the first, but never managed to find Elite Force II legally anywhere.
I'll order a System Shock and a side of NOLF.
You can hold the Commander Keen though; I've already had 6, uh, maybe 7.
"I'll order a System Shock and a side of NOLF. You can hold the Commander Keen though; I've already had 6, uh, maybe 7. "
While I wouldn't say no to more System Shock games, I'm not in that dire need of them anymore, since I think both Bioshock and Dead Space do a fairly good job at scratching those itches.
Space shooters, traditional 2D RTSes and fantasy FPSes on the other hand ..
" @BeachThunder said:Well, as much as I like Dead Space, it still comes off as a cheap knock off of SS2 (*flameshield* D:) and Bioshock was amazing, but the gameplay wasn't exactly the same; it would be cool to have another horror FPSRPG. Also, SS2 was very much left open for a sequel."I'll order a System Shock and a side of NOLF. You can hold the Commander Keen though; I've already had 6, uh, maybe 7. "While I wouldn't say no to more System Shock games, I'm not in that dire need of them anymore, since I think both Bioshock and Dead Space do a fairly good job at scratching those itches. "
" @fisk0 said:" @BeachThunder said:Well, as much as I like Dead Space, it still comes off as a cheap knock off of SS2 (*flameshield* D:) and Bioshock was amazing, but the gameplay wasn't exactly the same; it would be cool to have another horror FPSRPG. Also, SS2 was very much left open for a sequel. ""I'll order a System Shock and a side of NOLF. You can hold the Commander Keen though; I've already had 6, uh, maybe 7. "While I wouldn't say no to more System Shock games, I'm not in that dire need of them anymore, since I think both Bioshock and Dead Space do a fairly good job at scratching those itches. "
As I've understood it, Dead Space was originally planned to be System Shock 3, but somewhere in the development process that idea was scrapped and it became a new IP instead, but a lot of similarities still remain.
I was a big fan of Myth: The Fallen Lords and the subsequent games before Bungie went all spartan.
I came on here to say Roller Coaster and Zoo Tycoon, but you already did...What about Jazz Jackrabbit and Commander Keen?
I'm really starting to wonder if Hitman will ever return under Square Enix's idiocy.
Another few PC franchises I would like to see the likes of again are; 2D Broken Sword games, Star Trek Armada (believe it or not, I liked the first two), Star Wars Rebel Assault, LINKS Golf, Sim City, Theme Hospital and Z!!!
When I first read the thread, title I immediately thought of Roller Coaster Tycoon and SimCity.
Great minds think alike.
Age of Empires Online
It isn't made by Ensemble in name, yet the people who made AOE online worked at Ensemble back in the day.
"@BeachThunder said:" @fisk0 said:As I've understood it, Dead Space was originally planned to be System Shock 3, but somewhere in the development process that idea was scrapped and it became a new IP instead, but a lot of similarities still remain. "" @BeachThunder said:Well, as much as I like Dead Space, it still comes off as a cheap knock off of SS2 (*flameshield* D:) and Bioshock was amazing, but the gameplay wasn't exactly the same; it would be cool to have another horror FPSRPG. Also, SS2 was very much left open for a sequel. ""I'll order a System Shock and a side of NOLF. You can hold the Commander Keen though; I've already had 6, uh, maybe 7. "While I wouldn't say no to more System Shock games, I'm not in that dire need of them anymore, since I think both Bioshock and Dead Space do a fairly good job at scratching those itches. "
wow. I saw the SS 2 influences, but of course no shodan and such. But it was this much, that DS1 was suppossed to be a near sequel.
Well I'll be damned....doesn't have to be true, but it kind of fits.
I'm surprised no one mentioned Black & White. Now that was a fantastic game from Lionhead. It's a shame that were bought up by Microsoft and now only make games for the Xbox 360. Well, I guess I should look for Black & White 2 somewhere on the internet. Anyone know of any download services that is currently selling it?
"- Descent (360DOF FPS/space combat sim - the last official Descent game, Descent 3, was released in 1999. The Freespace series was a loosely related spinoff, last visited in 2001. The original Red Faction, also 2001, was originally planned to be a Descent game) "I was lucky to find all the Descent's in a Salvation Army about a month ago. They all came with strategy guides and they're in perfect condition.
" @Gargantuan said:I've see a trailer a couple of months ago, looked very cool. I just have the feeling that it'll be cancelled. It has no official release date and there's very little info about it. :("Mechwarrior and Alpha Centauri "They're making a Mechwarrior 5, go youtube the trailers, it looks pretty damn awesome. I think it's 5... "
" I'm surprised no one mentioned Black & White. Now that was a fantastic game from Lionhead. It's a shame that were bought up by Microsoft and now only make games for the Xbox 360. Well, I guess I should look for Black & White 2 somewhere on the internet. Anyone know of any download services that is currently selling it? "This is a game I'd really like to see made for Kinect. A sequel could be amazing and it's a game that could really benefit from the Kinect control method, rather than simply have it as a gimmicky add on. (Since all of the controls in B&W were gesture based). I also think it would help give the feeling that you really are a god above your little cities.. That and Viva Pinata would sell Kinect for me.
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