Sequels We'd All Like To See

Voodoo Extreme has a feature up that's a wishlist for future sequels. They run down some great game franchises that have been off the board for a little while, and wonder out loud about the possibility of new installments. Besides the usual suspects for lists like this (StarCraft, TIE Fighter, Descent, Ultima), they touch on some cult favorites that are ... less likely to show up in modern gaming. From the article: "Planescape Torment 2: The Poop -- Loved by many a forumgoer is Planescape Torment, a Dungeons & Dragons-themed RPG set in the other planes of existence. It was a dark game with evil undertones, but also lighthearted and funny at times. Just think Baldur's Gate with an M rating. The Scoop -- Odds of a sequel are equal to or greater than Elvis coming home on the mothership." Any oldies you'd like to see back on modern systems? While I really like many of the ideas listed here, the LucasArts classics Grim Fandango and Maniac Mansion are the ones I'd most like to see rehashed.

A *real* Star Control III

[Junta (36770)]

An SCIII from Toys for Bob (or whatever they would name it) is high on my list, even after all these years...

Re:

[LSD-OBS (183415)]

Yessir. I've just spent the last few days making stupid geeky Star Control icons and trying to remember the locations of all the rainbow worlds. Thank $deity for UQM [sourceforge.net]. Anyway, go sign the petition [gamespy.com] for a real SCIII if you haven't already.

Another greatly desired sequel would be Full Throttle II. It keeps getting brought back to life, then canned again. LucasArts made some awesome, fantastic games. Great to see a Sam & Max comeback, but there's plenty more juice to milk out of their old titles.

Re:

[j-turkey (187775)]

Wow, that was the first thing that came to mind. Good FP. The next thing that I'd like to see is another Elite game. Elite IV - MMO :)

the problem with sequels...

[east coast (590680)]

My problem with sequels is that it's just way too easy to botch a good thing.

There's a ton of games I'd like to see either updated editions of or new maps/missions for but at the same time my initial reaction would be somewhere between fear and anxiety.

And as for updating older games... sometimes it's the nostalgic effect of playing it on the old systems that make it better than what the game really is.

Re:

[Gulthek (12570)]

Bionic Commando 2.

Dungeon Keeper

[loftwyr (36717)]

Dungeon Keeper III: The Apology.

Dungeon Keeper was a great game with a simple premise. Dungeon Keeper II forgot that adding Mega-3D graphics and a storyline that nobody would care about doesn't make the game better.

Adding new monsters and more flexibility was needed.

I wanna explode more chickens!

System Shock 3?

[Clazzy (958719)]

Enough said? Really, I could think of a few games which would be lovely to have sequels to (DX, KOTOR to name a couple) but sometimes it's better to have an original story than churning out the same thing over and over which is what seems to happen nowadays. Perhaps I'm just too cynical.

Re:

[Jesterboy (106813)]

I concur wholeheartedly; a true System Shock sequel would be wonderful. Bioshock looks good, but it seems to be quite a different experience. I would even settle for a re-hash of the first two; my current system doesn't play nice with either of them, despite trying several emulation solutions like VDMSound and DosBox. -_-

In the same vein, I would love to see a GOOD Deus Ex sequel/update. Invisible War just seemed to be lacking what made the original so great; the customization, the many approaches to the

StarCraft, TIE Fighter, Descent

[Cyno01 (573917)]

Hell, re-release those with modern graphics and upgraded online play (ala Half Life:Source) and they would sell all over again. I still play all three of those games and i cant remember a LAN party i've been to where we didnt get a game of starcraft going. Show me a gamer that doesnt have starcraft tucked away on their system somewhere.

Re:

[Macthorpe (960048)]

Forget virtualisation!

If you want TA updated, try TA Spring [clan-sy.com], now just Spring. It also has a Linux version for those of you who want it.

Also, Supreme Commander [supremecommander.com]. Same game, different name, more units, better graphics, bigger maps :D

Bard's Tale IV

[owlman17 (871857)]

And not just a remake. No, the new Bard's Tale isn't enough. Neither is Dragon Wars. We'd like a real Bard's Tale IV after Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate.

Re:

[elrous0 (869638)]

The new "Bard's Tale" really has absolutely nothing to do with the original (aside from the title and the fact that it's an CRPG). It's a funny game, with a lot of satire, but it's a shame they had to stick it with that name.

A real Bard's Tale sequel is indeed well overdue.

-Eric

X-Com!

[bakreule (95098)]

Xcom doesn't make the list?! Gripe! Complain! And none of that silly water stuff from the sequel. Give me aliens!

Ob

[Bastard of Subhumani (827601)]

I liked Duke Nukem, any chance of a follow-up?

Skies of Arcadia

[RyoShin (610051)]

Skies of Arcadia (and Legends) is one of the best RPGs I've ever played, as well as one of the best games. While it had its faults (blocky graphics, even on the 'Cube, bad voice acting, high encounter rate), it was a very fun RPG with a pretty good story that focused mainly on pirates. One of the best things, though, was the Airship battles.

I'd love to see a sequel to this game; however, it should be set in the same world but involve different characters (referencing the past characters or having them show up once or twice is alright). It might also be a good basis for an MMO.

Fallout

[Chemisor (97276)]

Fallout was unquestionably the best PC game ever made.

Re:

[Faw (33935)]

Yes, coolest ending for a game ever.

Those ungrateful Vault 13 bastards...

Re:Fallout

[Trails (629752)]

Then by the same token, neither Descent, TIE Fighter, Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island, etc... belong on that list.

I would like to see a Fallout sequel. Bethesda has the ip rights, but there hasn't been much movement yet that's visible to consumers. They might do a good job, they certainly did well with elder scrolls.

Re:

[drinkypoo (153816)]

What bothered me about it is that when you got towards the end the difficulty jumped to about three times what it had been before all of a sudden. One moment I was the undisputed king of all I ran into and the next I was getting spread thinly across the walls. It felt to me like they made the beginning and end of the game, then started filling it in from the point right after the opening, and never quite joined up to the ending.

Re:

[Itchyeyes (908311)]

Yeah, cause they did such a shitty job with Oblivion huh? And spare me that "it won't really be a true sequel" crap. If nothing else it'll be better than those half-ass spin-offs. I'll take a sequel from Bethesda over nothing any day, because that's exactly what we were getting before Bethesda bought the license.

This Time, He's Really Really Immortal + Anguished

[FhnuZoag (875558)]

Pleeeease don't make a Planescape Torment sequel. Sure, make another game set in the Planescape multiverse. But a sequel to Torment can only be a rape of a fine game's memory. The game had a fine ending, a great ending. Don't ruin it by tacking something on.

Vengeance

[Neovanglist (566939)]

There WAS the now-defunct Planescape: Vengeance, a fine example of the modding community coming to the rescue (see http://addoncz.jinak.cz/web/?page=inthum_e [jinak.cz] and http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/07/ 1351216 [slashdot.org]). I've been playing with IE modding myself, and an abundance of tools makes it not TOO difficult - perhaps if enough people got together a sequel wouldn't be so crazy?

The Poop?

[devnullkac (223246)]

I've never heard of the original, but Planescape Torment 2: The Poop sounds like a winner to me.

Master of Magic II

[Usekh (557680)]

Anyone else remember that game? man Master of Orion got 3 sequels. It deserves at least one.

A new Wing Commander game

[taxman_10m (41083)]

I loved the Wing Commander series and was very disappointed when they decided to go lite on the movie parts with the last game. The world needs more Kilrathi.

No way: Wing Commander Privateer

[halivar (535827)]

And I don't mean "Privateer 2: The Random Game We Grafted Onto The Franchise."

I mean a real, honest-to-God Wing Commander Privateer sequel.

Tyrian

[Xentor (600436)]

How about a version of Tyrian that'll work on a modern machine? Such a simple game, but so well-made...

There was a version, Tyrian 2000, that'd work on a Win9x box, but not on 2k/XP/EvilVista.

Am I the only one that remembers this little classic? Am I the only one who yearns to play with Zica Lasers and Banana Bombs!?!?

Some of us old-schoolers are still waiting for...

[Kalendraf (830012)]

Pong 2

No bullfrog games? No X-com? Crappy list.

[*weasel (174362)]

What, are these guys new to gaming?

How about Syndicate, or Magic Carpet, or Dungeon Keeper, or Theme hospital?
How about xcom? (a real sequel, thanks.)

How about Alternate Reality the Wilderness, or the Arena, or the Palace?

Re:No bullfrog games? No X-com? Crappy list.

[Hoplite3 (671379)]

An excellent list. I'm a big fan of X-Com (UFO: Enemy Unknown in Europe), but the publisher never understood what made it a great game. They said, "Oh, people like killing aliens!" so they made shooters, fliers, etc all themed around the same thing.

What X-Com had going for it was a great tactical combat system. It was fire-tested in the team's previous Laser Squad Nemesis game, and worked great here. Plus, the marriage of the tactical battle game to the strategic research game kept the whole thing fresh. Throw in a little stat-building (what the kids these days call "RPG elements"), and you had a fun and varied game. The fact that you shot sectoids wasn't really important.

I think the other thing that hurt X-Com (and lots of other games from this era) was the craze to have 3D, real-time, and realism. You can find old reviews still online. It's amazing to see these great games slighted for not including the buzzwords of the time. When the publishers commissioned sequels, they had to implement buzzwords even if they didn't fit with the game.

Also, the notion of having a "hot property" blinds producers. They'll just recombine window-dressings from games, discarding the mechanics that made the games fun. It's a poisonous idea, and it's everywhere.

Re:No bullfrog games? No X-com? Crappy list.

[rafg (586519)]

It might not be an official X-Com sequel, but Laser Squad Nemesis [lasersquadnemesis.com] is a really good spiritual successor by the same designers, with more of a multiplayer focus.

Deus Ex?

[crossmr (957846)]

You know, one that doesn't suck so goddam much.

Shenmue 3.

[Ant P. (974313)]

Might as well finish the series given that they've spent more than $20 million to make the first two.

Okay, I'll bite.

[UncleRage (515550)]

How about a sequal/remake of Below the Root?
Maybe a true sequel (read, not FPS) for the Castle Wolfenstein's? Good stealth game here.

For that matter, there's a slew of older 8/16 bit games from the 80's & early 90's that are dying for a facelift. Might give us a break from yet another FPS,RTS,RPG.

Zork Grand Inquisitor sequels

[brian0918 (638904)]

Activision holds the license to one of the greatest franchises of all time: Zork. Back when Zork Grand Inquisitor came out (1996?), they had planned it to be the first in a trilogy (much to the excitement of fans). Since then, they've done nothing. You can't even find any results for the work "zork" on their site anymore (they used to have a nice interactive site to promote ZGI). They're just sitting on the license and doing nothing with it.

Bastards.

Sequels and updates I'd like to see

[Russ Steffen (263)]

• A proper update to Elite and/or Frontier
• A better sequel to 1998's Battlezone. Heck, just update the graphics and let it run on a modern PC and I'd be happy
• Baldur's Gate III, Icewind Dale III
• Another Max Payne installment
• An updated Alpha Centauri: Alien Crossfire that will run stably on a modern PC

Oh, yeah, and I want a pony too....

Bring back Crush Crumble and Chomp!

[maynard (3337)]

Ahhh, so many fine memories. Crush Crumble and Chomp [wikipedia.org] let you - the gamer - become a movie monster like Godzilla, run around a city destroying stuff, and eat people to sate hunger. As a kid, I loved that game. Funny story, back in 1981 or so I was caught playing CCC on a school Apple II. The teacher, and then the principal, were mortified by the premise of the game. They contacted my parents and demanded that I never bring it back to school again.

I wonder how they would feel about Gears of War today?

Planescape Torment deserves a better description.

[ghastlygray (968662)]

For those who aren't familiar with it, Planescape Torment deserves a better description that "The Poop" of TFA. I got to know this wonderful game because of Ernst Adams, who devoted an entire column to ruminations about it (and its connection with the philosophical theme of Death). Adams' column is still the best introduction to Planescape Torment. Here is a link and a quote.
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/designers_notebo ok/20000519/index.htm [gamasutra.com]

But what's most interesting about Planescape: Torment, and what most deserves our attention as designers, is its setting, its characters and its plot. The phrase "fantasy role-playing game," of course, immediately conjures up images of a group of Tolkienesque characters marching through the forest in search of dragons. Planescape is blessedly free of these stereotypes - I've played for several hours now and there's not an elf or dwarf in sight, nor, for that matter, a forest. The designers of the Planescape universe have at long last abandoned Northern European mythology and devised something perhaps richer, definitely darker, and altogether fresher. If Baldur's Gate is a lager, Planescape is a homemade stout.

The story centers around a nameless, immortal character who is searching for his forgotten past. It uses the hackneyed "amnesia" device to explain why he doesn't seem to know anything about the world he lives in, but I have to say that it's handled at least as well in Planescape: Torment as in any book or game I've seen it in. Our hero is seeking the information that will explain, and then end, his immortality and allow him at last to die permanently. At least that's what I think he's looking for; motives and morals in Planescape are nothing if not ambiguous.

Marble Madness 2

[_Pablo (126574)]

Marble Madness 2 - perhaps not the existing Marble Man version but a nice genuine update to it on the Wii would be nice.

Populous: The Beginning

[joeflies (529536)]

Yes, I know that it's not a true blue Populous game, and it plays like warcraft-lite. But I still find this game incredibly fun because the god powers are integrated into the game play with your shaman, not set outside of the field of play that acts upon the people. The strategies that involve sculpting the geography are a great deal of fun.

For a game that came out in 1998 with online play, it still lives on today with homebrew folks working on it. Too bad it hasn't had a true blue sequel though

half of Microprose's catalog II

[hurfy (735314)]

How about a new stealth fighter or tank platoon with all the depth of the originals? Just incredible what they got that old 286 to do :)

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

[ckotchey (184135)]

Enough with the Civ follow-ons! Time for Alpha Centauri 2!

Re:They already did that...

[Monkelectric (546685)]

I pine for the LucasArts games of old. The Monkey Islands, the Day of the Tentacles, and Grim Fandango which was more art than a videogame.

Why is it that everything good and full of art, thought and wit must make way for what is base and stupid and vulgar? I pine for charm and subtle humor, for fully developed characters, for well developed plots for the denouement... for story telling and all the other things forgotten.

Fuck it, I'm going to write a video game and show 'em how it's done.

Re:They already did that...

[Blondie-Wan (559212)]

LucasArts made those wonderful graphic adventures for years, and apparently they did well for a while in the '80s and '90s, but I guess they fell by the wayside as gamers became obsessed with first-person shooters. Grim Fandango won all kinds of acclaim, but sold poorly (under 75k units, IIRC). I was really disappointed; I was hoping for a Mac version, but they don't generally bother with Mac ports of games that sold so few copies on the PC to begin with. :(

I always wondered why, when LucasArts was seemingly determined to make Star Wars games in just about every other genre imaginable (combat flightsims, first-person, racing games, RTS, platform action, fighting games, etc.), with varying results, they never tried to do one in the one game genre at which the company historically excelled and was well-known for. If they'd done a graphic adventure in the Star Wars universe and had it turn out as well as just about all their other graphic adventures, it could have given a shot in the arm to the whole field of graphic adventures. I always thought it would be cool to have, say, an adventure where you played Han and Chewie shortly before the original trilogy, around the timeframe and in a storyline along the lines of the old Brian Daley novels, or perhaps a semi-comic Droids game where you played Artoo and Threepio; in either of these ideas you could switch from one of the two leads to the other, to use whichever character is more appropriate for a given situation. Seriously, it could've been really cool, but they totally, utterly ignored the SCUMM-style adventures when it came to Star Wars, even though they did all sorts of other things as graphic adventures (everything from licensed games with the other major Lucasfilm property, Indiana Jones, to crazy, inspired stuff like Grim Fandango) at the same time they were doing Star Wars in every other genre. Why?

Re:They already did that...

[LarsWestergren (9033)]

I pine for the LucasArts games of old. The Monkey Islands, the Day of the Tentacles, and Grim Fandango which was more art than a videogame.
[...]
I pine for charm and subtle humor, for fully developed characters, for well developed plots for the denouement... for story telling and all the other things forgotten.

Get Psychonauts. Make all your friends get Psychonauts. Seriously. It's available from Steam if you can't find it in the bargain bins. DON'T just write it off as a platformer. It has all you want of that, and more. FFS, it even has the same creators as the games you mention.

Re:E.T. 2

[hamburger lady (218108)]

Custer's Revenge II: The Revenge of Custer's Revenge

Re:

[elrous0 (869638)]

I'm sorry, I live in Hollywood and work in the game industry. I am unfamiliar with this word "original." Is it a type of food like "oriental?"

-Eric

Re:

[Matchstick (94940)]

> made by lucas arts and not tell tale

You did know that Telltale was formed by people who were working on Sam and Max at LucasArts, right?

Re:Chrono Trigger?

[ProppaT (557551)]

Square has a tendancy to do that and polarize fans.

Personally, I thought Chrono Cross was brilliant and like it better than Chrono Trigger. Then again, I also loved Legend of Mana which remains to be one of my top 5 favorite Playstation games of all time. I like it much better than the SD2 and 3, but it's also a completely different game. Then again, FFVII totally changed the FF series around and many people (not me) declare it the best of the series.

People get really upset when you change up something they love. I think Square's problem is that they try to sell games based solely on IP instead of creating new IP when they have new ideas.

Re:

[M0b1u5 (569472)]

Descent 3: Yeah, this would be decent. I don't see why it needs to be so unlikely, as well.

Well, just go and spend $4.99 and buy the thing then. It was released in April of 1999. :P

You weren't much of a fan really were you? It is Descent 4 which has tried three times to get off the ground, but they have been cancelled each time. Volition's Descent 4 turned into the useless and annoying "Red Faction" and the fan-written Descent 4 stumbled over legal issues and team stupidity... Currently the rights belon