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Classic Games (Games) Entertainment Games

EA Returns To Desert Strike Series, Not Syndicate? 41

Posted by simoniker from the isometric-fun-for-everyone dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Plenty of Brit sites have been reporting on new games which Electronic Arts is working on, some resurrecting some of the old legacy franchises. In particular, Spong.com is claiming that a Syndicate remake and a Desert Strike follow-up are in the works. Well, the other sites seem to be steering clear of the Syndicate story, with one claiming Spong 'got their wires crossed'. However, GamesIndustry.biz has a very good article clarifying the Strike game, mentioning that EA Northwest are developing it, as well as revealing that Scot team Visual Science is working on the recently discussed GoldenEye, so both of those games now seem to be a definite. What do Slashdot readers think of returning to old titles like these - especially from a company like EA, whose quality of output is sometimes a bit questionable?"
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EA Returns To Desert Strike Series, Not Syndicate? More

EA Returns To Desert Strike Series, Not Syndicate?

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  • I don't think EA are really capable of doing anything original anymore, but a remake of Syndicate would be the next best thing.
    • EA haven't put out an original game since "No World Order" back before Win95. (It wouldn't even work on Win95, but they didn't mention that on the box when I bought it in 1997... Wankers.)

      Desert Srike was a great game. Highly original, and the Amiga version looked fantastic for the time! Syndicate is an absolute classic too. (My Dad completed it but I never did. BAH!) Both should either be remade? NO THEY SHOULD NOT!

      It took Hollywood 40 or so years to go "screw originals, let's remake old shit and not put
    • the syndicate series was one of the most forward-looking series of the last decade.

      The gameplay included absolutely everything available that made GTA such a huge hit - plus destructable environments, more RPG-style gameplay, and full 3d out of the gate.

      I never understood why someone didn't buy the rights to that sucker - or at least buy the rights to rerelease it so I don't have to fight with DosBox just to get it to run.
  • If they can improve upon the original game and not taint the memories of it in a bad way, then I'd say it's a good thing. I do remember spending many hours on Jungle & Urban strike (Desert strike got me started but I never bought that)... ahh the Mega Drive ruled.
    • What will they call this one? Ira... errr... Desert Str... no, that's been taken... Terrorist Strike? WMD Strike?

      Nuclear Strike was the last one I can remember, and it wasn't that great. (really, really crappy FMV sequences between the missions, as I recall) All they do is swap the color scheme, add a few new sprites, and change the missions to something plausably newsworthy.

      If they don't just recycle the old games, they'll probably change them so much that it won't be anything like the original, a

  • Syndicate (Score:4, Insightful)

    by {8_8} ( 31689 ) on Saturday February 21, 2004 @05:51AM (#8348234) Journal
    A revamp of Syndicate or Syndicate Wars selling for $20-$30 would be nice. Nostalgia alone would be reason enough for me to buy it, although new graphics and some new missions couldn't hurt.

    My favorite tactic in Syndicate was to use the Persuadertron to minionize everyone I saw until I could persuade agents, then redline adrenaline and rush the enemy. You could get loads of new agents that way, but if there weren't many people around it could take forever. Another fun thing to do was persuade mass amounts of civilans, then arm them with leftover weapons and go around shooting things. Nothing like giving 50+ people miniguns/gauss and shooting everything you came across ;)
    • a revamp would be very nice. The only problem is how they are going to handle it on a console. There were many times where you split up your 4 guys to do various things. It required a lot of fast mouse scrolling around to make sure everyone was ok or to to work together on accomplishing something. It would be fine if they squad just stayed together, but thats no fun.

      I think it would really help them out if they released these 2 games for free to get newer gamers into these games.

      • Re:Syndicate (Score:2, Insightful)

        by socode ( 703891 )
        One button cycles which squad member is currently centred on screen. There, that wasn't so hard.

      • Re:Syndicate (Score:3, Funny)

        by wheany ( 460585 )
        I only remember that the mission briefings said something to the effect of "You might want to use a single agent armed with a sniper rifle", then I would use 4 agents armed to the teeth with miniguns and gauss guns, start the mission by minimizing all the drugs and waiting for the bars to drop to minimum. Then I would go around the city until I saw a hostile, maximize the drugs and go on a rampage.

        It was fun, though...
        • The sniper rifle in Syndicate absolutely sucked. It couldn't kill anything, so you were better off just using your standard weapon loadout for the job. If memory serves, the Syndicate Wars sniper rifle was worthy. In fact, I think it was the fastest way to kill just about anything until you got gauss or the high-tech laser weapons.
        • is there a way to play syndicate in XP? I have it somewhere, but its a dos game if I remember correctly.... hmmmm, need to figure something out.
      • a revamp would be very nice. The only problem is how they are going to handle it on a console. There were many times where you split up your 4 guys to do various things. It required a lot of fast mouse scrolling around to make sure everyone was ok or to to work together on accomplishing something. It would be fine if they squad just stayed together, but thats no fun.

        I actually have a copy of the PSX version of Syndicate Wars, and even with the PSX mouse it's impossible to control. You really do need a m
  • This kind of seems like a dumb move after they've already enlisted the Desert Combat team. [gamespot.com]But maybe they would use them to work on this remake. That would really suck if the DC mod got stopped because the team sold out and is making a game that'll cost money.

  • Specialization (Score:2, Flamebait)

    by Mork29 ( 682855 )
    whose quality of output is sometimes a bit questionable

    I actually couldn't agree more with that part of this post. EA makes the finest sports games around. I don't understand why they would try and undertake difficult sequals when the only games that they really do well are sports oriented. Lets face it, EA makes some kick ass sports games, but can jack up almost anything else. That's capitalism, find what your good at, and do it.... now if Microsoft would figure that out and stick to making hardware and
    • (because they actually do a damn fine job with hardware, and their games are pretty good)

      I don't know about the hardware, but the reason Microsoft games tend to be better than Microsoft operating systems is, I think, because Microsoft are better at looking for talent than developing it. I can't fault them for being able to identify and buy concepts and teams that further their plans.

      Now if only SCO could find something it could do well.....

      Destruct testing of lie detectors?

  • Populous! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by samael ( 12612 ) <Andrew@Ducker.org.uk> on Saturday February 21, 2004 @07:36AM (#8348468) Homepage
    I'd buy a gameboy if I could get populous for it!

  • Bah. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Wanj00n ( 738361 ) on Saturday February 21, 2004 @09:15AM (#8348682)
    EA's creative direction is permanently stuck on a scale from mediocre to abominable. An analogy with the Borg would be apt: they assimilate gaming's most creative forces in order to gain control of their valuable assets, after which the identity /and/ creativity of those forces are wholly subsumed, dispersed, dispensed with.

    Desert Strike was originally made by EA, and its generic nature is completely typical of their product. That it's getting a remake comes as no surprise. Syndicate, on the other hand, was essential Bullfrog, whose distinctive charms and talents as a game company are no longer with us thanks to EA. I would neither count on EA to make anything that could actually live up to the series' good name (in fact, I'd sooner count on them willfully desecrating it in their $$$ hopes of appealing to the everyman), nor would I count on them tackling the richness of content that is Syndicate: they'd be too damn intimidated.
    • "Desert Strike was originally made by EA, and its generic nature is completely typical of their product."

      That's interesting. I can't think of a game remotely like DS in setting or mechanics appearing before it. Choplifter maybe, at a stretch.

      You do realise of course that the majority of Bullfrog's games (including Syndicate) were funded and published by EA, yes?
      • That's interesting. I can't think of a game remotely like DS in setting or mechanics appearing before it. Choplifter maybe, at a stretch.

        Raid on Bungling Bay comes to mind. I'm sure there are more (and better matches) besides that, though.

        You do realise of course that the majority of Bullfrog's games (including Syndicate) were funded and published by EA, yes?

        Yes, and EA funded some good stuff on the Origin front, too. Doesn't change the fact that they eventually killed them.
  • There's only one thing to say:
    Long lilve UAE :)
  • EA ruined the Command & Conquer series for me, which used to be a pretty cool strategy game w/o any of that US/Chinese army VS. the terrorists-*crap*. Not only did the game feel bloated, but also the storyline was untimely (released during or shortly after Afghanistan), so that it wasn't fun playing it for long.

    I only mention this because the story of Desert Strike already deals with similar themes, so I don't see how EA can *improve* it. Personally, I play games to escape the news, _not_ to relive it
    • Pfft, you didn't even touch the craziest part about the C&C:Generals so-called "storyline". In some mission for some godknowswhat reason, the Chinese and the U.S. fight it out. Something about renegade generals and invading sides or something.

      EA should've completely rewritten the non-existant storyline or at least change the sides considering the time of release. (Its post-9/11 and all of the sudden I'm playing a game which lets me get money for killing civilians with anthrax and car bombs? How about n

  • Syndicate highly unlikely (Score:4, Insightful)

    by shoptroll ( 544006 ) on Saturday February 21, 2004 @12:04PM (#8349330)
    Makes sense...

    Bullfrog closed up shop years ago I think. A new syndicate would be awesome, but the Strike series was done by EA on their own back in the day.

    Besides, Moleyneux is at Lionhead right now, and I highly doubt they'd have the IP rights to use the Syndicate franchise. I could be wrong though.

  • Syndicate aversion not surprising (Score:3, Insightful)

    by martone66 ( 643104 ) on Saturday February 21, 2004 @12:50PM (#8349532) Journal
    Considering all the hulabaloo over GTA3 in our over-litigious socieity, I'm not surprised that EA is steering away from making a new version of Syndicate. I haven't played the game in 10 years, but I remember lighting civilians and enemy agents up with flamethrowers and miniguns.

    Even an M rating doesn't prevent kids from getting their hands on violent games, and once people start making noise about them, it's a PR nightmare for the company.
    • If doing a violent game was really such a nightmare, then why is Rockstar selling so many copies of GTA3?

      Granted, it's a little bit violent, considering whenever I played I inevitably got my crowd of doped-up cyborg murderers into a car and ran over people before getting out and lighting people on fire (their screams are the best in any videogame, ever). But hey, it's no worse than anything else on the market.
      • If doing a violent game was really such a nightmare, then why is Rockstar selling so many copies of GTA3?

        Because they aren't worried about metaphorically saying "fuck off" to everyone who complains-it helps sell their games, as their entire catalogue is shock based. If EA got embroiled in a similar controversy, it might hurt the sales of their various high quality franchises like FIFA 200x, Generic Sports Sequel 7, Hack n' Slash RPG 12 and Barbie Goes Shopping
  • EA made some pretty good games (and some turds) back in the 16-bit days. The ROAD RASH series truly kicked ass, they were certainly among EA's finest games. But when was it last updated... the Nintendo64? Come on, EA, bring this classic back!

  • I'm really not surprised. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mrseigen ( 518390 ) on Saturday February 21, 2004 @04:18PM (#8350979) Homepage Journal
    It makes more sense for a mainstream-serving company like EA to wedge in a shooting game between their weekly releases of Sims expansion packs than it does to release a remake of a beloved game where you had to have a fair bit of strategy to survive.

    Here's hoping an independent group somewhere picks up on the Syndicate story and makes their own re-release, because none of the console-friendly publishers in recent memory are going to touch it.
  • AFAIK, everyone who was involved with the 2 Syndicate games went to either Lost Toys(RIP), Muckyfoot(RIP) or Lionhead
  • Not at first anyway. They'll rush out a bugged version to make the marketing schedule, then a stream of patches to fix the worst bugs. After a bit, they'll collect the bug fixes together and release an 'expansion' that costs nearly as much as the original game, along with a couple of graphical and gameplay addons they should have released in the first place. After another while, they'll release a second expansion, and then release an OldGame IV Deluxe, which is finally the debugged, playtested version that

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