Media Consumes Me

Year of the Living Dead

Do you have an old game you wish you could play again? Is there a specific title you want to see live again, with today’s High Definition graphics and audio? What if The Dig or Quest For Glory was redone with motion capture animations and a 1440×900 resolution? Imagine if X-Com UFO Defense had Mass Effect graphics. The wind blows gently at the crop of the farm, smoke billowing over the battlefield from the downed alien UFO.  A dream, right?

Some of us will get that dream. In the next year or two, certain series we thought died with the ashes of successful developers will live again. Some of these series have already been revived through High Definition graphics and digital distribution. Publishers are starting to notice that reviving an old franchise is an act their budget can handle. Veterans return to the IP and new generation gamers are introduced to it. Here are my top revivals, the ones I heard about that made my nerd glands salivate.

Homeworld

I remember playing Homeworld on my family PC when I was 14. That was 10 years ago. If you head over to the Relic website, you can catch a piece of this action. Last month was the original Homeworld’s 10^th anniversary and Relic released a history and free multiplayer demo experience.  Their website is completely decked out with Homeworld information and announcements – but all for Homeworld 1. The original. I thought this was about revivals?

Let’s go back to September 2007. That’s 2 years ago. Relic and THQ acquire the rights from Sierra for the Homeworld IP. The universe is back at home. Relic/THQ spent money on that. THQ, despite their greatness, publish video games. They want returns on their investments.

We come 2 years forward to present day and two out four of Relic development teams are working on unannounced titles. Two years is about how long it takes to get a solid game concept to the table and start production. Homeworld is plastered all over the Relic website. New wallpapers, a multiplayer revival, a history and interview from one of Relic’s top developers. What’s the point, what am I getting at?!

They’re preparing everyone. Relic and THQ have made a brilliant marketing move for the upcoming Homeworld 3 (No, it has not been announced yet, it is still unofficial). They’re planting the seeds of excitement by showing everyone how amazing Homeworld was. They’re pulling people back in so the veteran gamer turns to the young gamer and says, “Get this free demo, we’re playing, trust me – you’ll love this”.

When they’re ready, they’ll plaster Homeworld 3 announcements on their website. Instead of reactions saying, “Homeworld 3? I never heard of Homeworld!”, they’ll likely be hearing, “Oh, that’s that awesome demo I just played! Sweet!”

Be ready. It’s coming.

Master of Magic

Magic: The Gathering mixed with Civilization. Sound too good to be true? Well, once the DOS 2X game Master of Magic stopped working on modern machines, it was.

Master of Magic, the classic.

Master of Magic allowed you to create and customize a unique Wizard that led a unique (and again, customizable) fantasy race. You were placed in a world that was filled with dungeons, towers, treasure, caves, lairs, resources and a parallel magical clone called Myrror, accessible only through magical ruins. Combat was similar to a game I’ll be mentioning shortly – tactical, isometric view. You didn’t build one unit; you typically built whole regiments at a time. You had heroes who leveled, channeled spells and could be equipped (did I mention you could create custom magic items?).

It was from a time where “bold” was a good quality for a game, not a risky one. Does it sound great? Do you want to play it? Too good to be true? Enter Elemental.

Elemental: War of Magic is the spiritual successor to Master of Magic. Everything I said, Elemental has. Elemental takes it to the next level. With a Galactic Civilizations 2 level of unit customization and a Spore-like network, Elemental will bring all 2X games to another level. With AI coded by the formidable evil genius, Brad Wardell, expect an AI experience even more incredible than Galactic Civilizations 2.

Elemental starts you off with a custom made sovereign. That’s you, an all powerful channeler who can harvest and utilize magical essence to create cities and cast powerful spells. This channeler is your leader – should he be lost, you lose the game. To give you an idea of what a channeler is, imagine Sauron sweeping whole divisions of an army out of his way like a French maid with a feather duster. According to reports, the tactical combat portion is being worked to give us that feel – it’s possible you might relive that very image.

The art style of this game is noteworthy as well. I always praised how zooming out of Galactic Civilizations 2 gave me an awesome Galactic Map. It made me feel like I was in a ship, staring down at a flat screen view of my empire. Elemental gets a cloth map. Zoom in; you can see people moving around your city in a cel-shaded fantasy painting inspired graphical entrée. Zoom out; you get a cloth map with dotted lines and sketches representing cities. Small chess pieces symbolize units. It’s clever. It also looks freaking cool.

The final aspect of this game I have to mention is development. Stardock’s smarter than the average developer and they’ve shown this by the Closed Beta phase of Elemental. The game has no graphics, essentially. No polygons. No texture filtering or dynamic lighting. It’s a game with no exciting visuals. Why?

They want it to be fun, rather than pretty. Until testers report that the game is amazing without graphics, Brad Wardell and his team won’t be activating their potent graphical engine. That’s damn awesome. Props to these guys and their dedication to providing a real gaming experience for their fans.

Keep your eyes on it. Elemental: War of Magic.

X-COM

Let’s create a unique base management experience. Please countries for funding, train soldiers for specific roles in squads, research new and salvaged technology, arm fighters for interception alien spaceships. Now, add in a chess-like turn based squad combat system with fog of war and destroyable terrain and objects. Throw in the fear of the alien in the darkness and the anger when psionic weapons mind control your heavy weapons guy and he launches a rocket at your squad. Add in the thing of nightmares – Hidden Movement.

We're here to kick alien ass and chew bubble gum. But we're all out of aliens...

X-COM: Enemy Unknown. X-COM: Terror From The Deep. X-COM… is getting another sequel?

X-COM was an amazing series. After the second game, the apple started to fall farther from the tree. X-COM Apocalypse had a real time combat system, more like the UFO series (UFO:Aftermath, Aftershock, and Afterlight). X-COM rights become sketchy here as companies release failed designs such as X-COM Interceptor and Enforcer. Take-Two acquired the rights a couple of years ago.

Although a rumor, the lead designer of Bioshock is said to be on the project. While the project itself was confirmed by a series of reports, whether or not Ken Levine has a hand in it remains as unknown as what type of game will this be. Will it follow the first 2 and their unique experience, or will it embrace the new age of real time squad combat? Will it have no squads at all and be a first person shooter? Maybe they’ll try the first person squad shooter that Microprose began developing and never actually released (this game somehow evolved into Enforcer).

Time will tell. This is a revival with little to no info, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less exciting. Keep your eyes, peeled, fellow gamers!

End turn.

Take-Two’s turn.

Hidden Movement.