Which Xbox property would you like to see revived?

I wouldn't mind a Viva Pinata style update to Minecraft I think those two games would mesh well.

Amped 4 that's what I want.

Halo

Amped 4 would be great, i'm not sure if the weirdness would be received well in this day and age but i'm not sure I care either.

I'd also like another MechAssault.

I'd take any snowboard games i can get.

@boozak: I was gonna put MechAssault but I don't think it's technically a MS IP. There was a DS game put out by Majesco.

I voted Fable, but I really just want Fable 2 on PC.

Like, sure, 1 and 3 got ported, but not the best one.

Crimson Skies. I know that Microsoft doesn't own the license but they could license it and make a new game. That was an amazing dogfighting game (a genre there aren't many of these days) with an actually good story for the time. Dark Void sort of tried to do something similar (at least in terms of tone and having dogfighting, though mostly it was a third person shooter) and that game was janky as hell but I still enjoyed it, despite being blatantly and obviously unfinished with the most abrupt ending of any full retail game I can remember.

But a new Crimson Skies with next gen graphics and a slick Uncharted style presentation would be incredible. Plus the multiplayer was great in that game so that too!

I'm going to go with Lost Odyssey and Operation Darkness if those can count as an Xbox Properties.

Perfect Dark. PD64 was great and PDZ did some really cool stuff...it just didn’t quite come together as a package.

If they own Rare, does that mean they own all of Rare's properties? Not that I want anything new from that library, I'm just curious, could they just make a new Jet Force Gemini game or something if they wanted to?

Anyway, I don't really have an answer to that question. I had a 360 last generation, but I didn't really get into MS's exclusives aside from Halo, Gears, and Forza, all of which are still getting new entries, and then I moved to PC.

@justin258: I think so except for the Nintendo stuff of course. I swear to god I put Jet Force Gemini in the poll but it's not there.

Are you sure about that? As far as I can tell, they still own it. Pretty sure they retained all IPs formerly owned by FASA. The recent Battletech game, for instance, was licensed from MS by Harebrained Schemes.

In any case Crimson Skies, is the right answer.

With how far technology has come and how much better platformers are overall these days I honestly would like to see a new Blinx The Time Sweeper game. It was a neat idea at the time although 3D platforming was sort of garbage back then, but I can imagine Microsoft being able to come up with a really awesome platforming/puzzle hybrid using the various time rewind mechanics. Also Microsoft could use a fun mascot and Blinx is a cat wearing goggles with a time-vacuum - he’s a pretty cool guy!

I would love to see a new Kameo or Viva Pinata. But I went for Brute Force. Now I don't think it was an amazing game but done right in 2019 I could see some massive enjoyment coming from this kind of game.

Perfect Dark. I also liked Perfect Dark Zero a lot. I liked the atmosphere in the levels, the music was great, and I also liked the shiny visuals. The gunplay was a lot of fun too. It was just the ugly character faces, uninteresting story and lack of stealth that I didn't like. I'd love to see a new Perfect Dark where it has interesting characters and interesting futuristic environments to explore with stealth gameplay added in.

Ooooh.. i like the Jet Force Gemini & Blinx shoutouts here...

I voted for Banjo, but I specifically mean a sequel to Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts aka Rare's Best Game.

I would love to see the timeline where Blinx became an Xbox staple:

A full trilogy on the original Xbox, and then transforming into a 2D puzzle platformer on the 360 as 3D platformers went out of style, followed by the single attempt at making it first-person that leads the series to go on hiatus for several years. Phil Harrison comes out on stage during E3 one year wearing a Blinx shirt, and sure there's no trailer or anything, but you know they're doing something with it; I mean, why else is he wearing the shirt? Clearly something's in development. I mean, Artoon hasn't released anything in years but they're still fully staffed...(and on and on ad nauseam)

I don't quite see anything in that list that hasn't been catered by something else. I thought PGR was great but the Kudos system has been taken to such a different direction and the real street racing aspect has grown into the full open world of Forza Horizon.

Otogi!

Lost Odyssey was really fantastic; it doesn't need a sequel, but another story in that universe would be welcomed by me.

A new Viva Pinata on PC would be mind-blowing. I need to watch fake animals do sex dances in 4K. I could've worded that better, but chose not to.

Give me a PC version of Fable 2 and I'm happy, then make a new Viva Pinata.

@relkin: Phil Spencer would come out and say "there has never been a better time for new beginnings" and some more vacuum oriented puns.

This seems to have become "Which Rare property would you like to see revived?" I cannot complain because I have much more attachment to classic Rare games than I do to any other MS property. Voted Banjo-Kazooie - even with something a minor revival, 3D platformers are still pretty rare, and B-K was one of the best of the bunch. Would love it to come to Switch.

Perfect Dark was amazing in the day, but I wonder if it would be lost among the morass of shooters now. At the time it was pretty unique but it would not stick out too much from the crowd now. I would hope it would keep some seemingly-archaic elements from the original, like the bad guys who just stood there and shot at you like idiots instead of moving around much. I really liked that, actually, because it let me memorize the levels to perfection and get 90% head shots which felt amazing.

Jet Force Gemini... oh my god. That was an amazing game held back by technical limitations, awkward controls, and a frustrating collectathon element. I would kill to see what a modern dev could do with it. And now, I have to listen to the soundtrack again.

It is waaaaaaay past time for another Banjo-Kazooie. I would love another 3D platformer, assuming the developers can hit the right notes with it. You could have cameos from other Rare games like they did back in the day. Maybe even a Viva Pinata minigame in there for those folks.

How does Kameo not have any votes? That game was legit a great launch title.

Its has to be the best game on that first system: Full Spectrum Warrior. And, yeah, when I had my first Xbox I thought Halo was absolute trash compared to FSW. That game had a really nice balance of action and tactical combat. The only thing I would add would be more NPCs and more complex narrative woven into the base gameplay; so more details and maybe upgraded weapon systems so you could have realistic drones and maybe more of teh other squad in the platoon in teh same area. One of the things the first game lacked was the possibility or "Blue on Blue" confusion during every part of the missions.

I really want another FSW game now...I won't get it.

@humanity: Spencer, right; not Harrison. But yeah, that sounds just about right. It would be kind of surreal to see mascot platformers come back in a big way.

Looking forward to the very divisive M-rated reboot of Knack. The media is going to have a field day with the those sex scenes.

Viva pinata, Perfect Dark or mech assault.

I think Perfect Dark would make for a pretty damn good immersive sim rather than a standard shooter

Viva Piñata a hundred times over. TiP is in my top ten easily and maybe even top five favorites. There's no way a new one comes out that isn't microtransacted to hell and back though, is there? Maybe an indie dev clone? A man can dream.

I'd play more Kameo. Ended up being the sleeper hit for me when it came to the launch games I had.

I voted Viva Pinata, but would love to see what a modern PD would look like.

But also, how could you disrespect best boy Blinx in this poll? As mentioned he's the coolest cat, and I'd like to see him go toe to paw with Garfield.

Project Gotham by a mile.

It'd be a hard sell for, like, 99% of the population though. At a glance, I think the question would be "Who is this for?"

Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo are the technical track-based racing games for people interested in hermetic, drop-dead serious driving. Forza Horizon (and, to a lesser extent, games like The Crew) scratches the itch for players less concerned with the craft of driving, but it still emulates a modicum of realism and, as @shindig mentioned, already co-opts elements like the Kudos system.

Project Gotham inhabits this special place right between both of those ideas. It's a tight track-racer that gestures toward realism without totally losing its wild side. It's accessible enough that anyone could pick it up and feel rewarded, but it also offers a skill gap that encourages adept driving.

People forget that the Kudos system wasn't just a reward system for flashy driving, that Project Gotham employed points to gamify the tutorialization of key driving concepts like proper cornering and lane positioning. It's quaint now, in the age of suggested lines and driving assists, but Project Gotham was like Racing Game 101: The Game. It was a perfect entry point for players who wanted to dip their toes into an honest-to-goodness racing game without feeling totally overwhelmed.

In Forza Motorsport, I don't want to micromanage the various parts of my car. I want to get out and race. But even there, I've always found the game's driving model too stiff and too unforgiving.

In Forza Horizon, the driving model feels nearly perfect, but its open world operates in opposition, making the on-track driving experience feel less crafted and more slapped together, less like real racing and more like attrition.

To this day I still find myself playing Project Gotham Racing 2 for its incredible roster of technical, hand-crafted tracks, for the feel of peeling a TVR Cerbera around the Nurburgring and racking up "Good Line" bonuses around each sweeping corner, for the understated synth-hop on its main menu.

If Microsoft were to resurrect Project Gotham Racing, I might actually die. Right here. Right where I sit.

I voted for Fable. I would like to see a new one.

Perfect Dark, if only for the chance that they'd re-release the first two games on PC.
I think PDZ would benefit greatly from improved performance and controls, and the original game had a stellar remaster that should be on PC.

@inevpatoria: The PGR games were awesome. I especially dug the cone challenges. That being said, the Forza Horizon games feel like the ultimate evolution of what made the PGR series great, and I can't honestly say any of the PGR games were better than the past few Forza Horizons. Also, Bizarre was dissolved a long time ago, and even if that or a similar team got back together, the idea of MS potentially making a game to compete against its best franchise obviously has some issues.

Honestly, if they were to bring back an old MS racer, PGR isn't even the one I'd choose. The Rallisport Challenge games were amazing, and perhaps could exist alongside the Forza franchise because it was mostly a different thing. Again, though, Digital Ilusions doesn't exist anymore, and from a business sense standpoint, MS would probably be better suited just adding more rally stuff to Forza.

My answer which could actually happen is partnering with Respawn again to make Titanfall 3 a reality by acting as publisher. OG Titanfall was awesome, but didn't take off like it should have because a whole bunch of people hated all things MS at the time, and EA released Titanfall 2 in the worst possible window to limit its success. Still, Titanfall 2 ultimately gained some acclaim later on to where I think people do actually want a Titanfall 3. I guess the franchise isn't technically an MS property, so I'm cheating a little with this answer, but MS could act as publisher again, and it would make sense for both them and Respawn. Here's hoping.

This is A) where I disagree most fundamentally, and B) where I think the "99%" of the population I mentioned would agree with you.

Ultimately, you're right about the big picture. It simply comes down how fine the hairs are that you're willing to split. Which, again, reaffirms why PGR likely doesn't have a place in the world as we see it today. (For what it's worth, before I get into this, I actually believe the old Project Gotham Racing games share more overlap with Forza Motorsport than with Horizon. That's a discussion for another time.)

To be clear: From PGR, Horizon successfully extricated the Kudos system as a core pillar of the gameplay loop. They made it central to the moment-to-moment experience, which is exactly what PGR accomplished in its heyday, even if they were for different purposes (Horizon's for sheer reward, PGR's to foster growing skill and reward stylish driving). Horizon, like PGR, has a realistic driving model but strives to make that model looser, simpler, more welcoming for casual players. And Horizon has such a wealth of tone and atmosphere that the PGR titles never had, even on their best days.

But the hair I'm trying to split is that the two franchises have two different intentions. And that, therein, Horizon actually doesn't carry the secret sauce that made PGR what it was. PGR tried to democratize traditional racing games, a genre that most players bounced away from because the games themselves were too impenetrable or too punishing or too sterile. "Here," it might say, if it could talk, "here is the gateway through which you can play these kinds of games more competently."

Horizon wants to deconstruct racing games. Sure, the driving feels great and the landscapes are beautiful and occasionally all the parts come together to give you a real sense of accomplishment. But, largely, Horizon doesn't really care about racing all that much and it gives the player the freedom to not really care about racing all that much either. You're there to have a good time and maybe race a hoverboat or a helicopter while you're at it. What Horizon offers is spectacle.

And that's awesome! Clearly, there's a huge audience for that. I'm part of that audience!

But it isn't Project Gotham. And it doesn't take everything that made Project Gotham great.

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I completely agree with you on a lot of points though. It makes zero sense to bring back PGR now at the height of Forza Motorsport/Horizon's success. And I'd love to see a more concerted first-party rally effort from a team like Playground or Turn 10, knowing their respective pedigrees. With DiRT diverging away from what made it so popular, there's a hot iron just sitting exposed, waiting for someone to strike it.

@inevpatoria: Agree on the PGR games being very approachable and a good entry point for people not normally fans of the genre. What I think you're getting at is that the PGR games served as a solid overall "tutorial" of sorts for basic racing principles due to the game being structured in "challenges" and the like. It was like they managed to make a fun version of the license tests of old Gran Turismo games, wherein you were rewarded for doing things right instead of being frustratingly punished for doing things wrong (which GT Sport has since taken to hilarious extremes).

Most of my recollection of PGR tracks were city routes, which I assume is why you mentioned that you think they share more overlap with mainline Forza than Horizon, and I get that. However, the PGR games kinda slot somewhere in the middle to me. Since about Forza 5, the mainline Forzas have become mostly a car/track/motorsport appreciation game, to the point where you almost have to follow enough motorsport to really understand why taking a C5-R-003 around Circuit de la Sarthe is cool. Whereas with the PGR games, you could just hop in a car because it looks cool and have a good time.

As for the Forza Horizon games, the open-world structure sometimes lends itself to too much fucking around. The handling model is rock-solid, but they let you get away with some ridiculous off-road stuff in the name of fun and spectacle. Granted, taking sick jumps is awesome and I adore the Horizon games, but even I have to admit that I find myself just aimlessly driving around doing dumb shit and/or taking in the environments more than I do actually racing. There's plenty of fun to be had in that, and it's worth noting that I could crank the difficulty/realism sliders up and spend more time creating cool racing routes in their terrific sandboxes, but that's not what I come to the Horizon games for.

I'll still buy every Forza Horizon game they make. I think I may be done with the mainline Forzas for a bit unless they can find a compelling reason to sell me on the next one, but I'm with you in wishing there were still a bunch of good racing franchises out there instead of pretty much just one. Sony and EA have really shit the bed here this generation, and as we've discussed, MS has understandably funneled things into the Forza games. So, yeah, I miss the days when a PGR could exist as well.

This is a tangent, but this comment reminds me of a neat Waypoint/Vice Games article from a few years back.

I appreciate the chat. PGR 2 is one of those games that has very, very special sentimental meaning for me. Feels like I've been waiting for years to gush about it.

I wish that Fable was never destroyed with that onrails piece of trash!!

I feel like if they bring it back for the next generation Xbox it could definitely be a HUGE selling point!!

Perfect Dark, I had a lot of good memories playing the original with my brother and our friends and it was my favorite FPS before Halo. Fable is a close second though.

I think a 2nd swing a Brute Force would be cool.

Viva Pinata without question. I'd love to see what they could do with a bigger garden area. I still have fond memories of that game, and it occurs to me while typing this that my kids have never played it. Now I'm sad.

Fable, but a new Nuts and Bolts would be dope.

Yes! As I recall, the Rallisport Challenge games were a little more arcadey than the Colin McCrae/Dirt games. I love the Dirt series, but sometimes I want something a little more arcadey. I remember the RSC games handling so well, especially with a decent wheel. Also, they looked fantastic.

I'd like a new Amped game as well, but I'd settle for the 3 games being joining backwards compatibility (+ One X enhancements).

An online crimson skies with hub cities you could land at and walk around in would be a great destiny style thing with the old timey steampunk vibes.

I'm assuming you're aware of this, but FSW is actually on backwards compatibility for the Xbox One. So while you may not get another one, you can still play the original.

I feel like Fable has always been just shy of amazing, with 2 coming the closest. So maybe with fresh eyes it can be a wonderful game, and finally realize it’s original hype... or at the very least be better than 3.

I voted for Banjo but Perfect Dark could be cool too.

Fable was never good.