Hybrid adventure games: centered around an adventure, but with a developed game world - basically, I want to step into the shoes of a character and both make decisions and have to worry about their skills. A good example would be The Ur-Quan Masters (AKA Star Control II); you made a lot of choices in what you did and how you spoke to the various aliens you encountered, but you also had to be good in combat and to some extent had to develop skill with the planetary lander. The Quest for Glory series did a good job of extending the traditional adventure genre into RPG territory; the result was some fun hybrids. I also thought Deus Ex was very good at extending the traditional shooter/first-person genre into adventure and RPG territory - talk about a game with choices, something I don't normally associate with that type of game.

Since Deus Ex way back when, I can't really think of a game that did this type of hybridized adventure very well. I do have its sequel that I need to play sometime, but I've heard it wasn't as good.

X-COM is also definite candidate for a genre I'd like to see "reborn." I think there are some games out there that are on a par with the original UFO Defense, but I feel like there haven't been any that have really built upon it and surpassed it. Considering it came out well over a decade ago, that's pretty sad.

ok here is a far shot, but any one ever play BEAST or Aldo?

They were on my father's 1984 Leading Edge IBM (PC), which we kept until it physically died, in 1994 (my family has only had 3 computers in the last 25 years - current one is a 1998 PIII, lol). Can't remember much about who made or published them, but they were damn fun games.

The original Deus Ex was bril, sequel not so good. I loved Freespace 2 as well.

Ah but my childhood fav game was the original monkey island! Actually I liked all the Lucasarts adventure games such as Day of the Tentacle. Also liked the Space Quest Series.

Shame you don't see such colourful characters in modern games as much.

*Another Tie Fighter? I'll third or fourth that! =p

*Blizzard is pathetic at sequels. They were bad before WOW, now its utterly sad.
Diablo 3 would be nice, but not holding my breath.

*Wing Commander? I'd like to see a whole new series of game popup like that (with a new storyline) rather than revive an old and played out one.

*Fallout 3. Can't wait. Also like to see more in sci-fi RPGs.

*I dislike a lot of rpgs even though I buy and play a bunch. I'd much prefer ones that were about characters you made rather than always having them named for you and cannot change, same with character bios. D&D is good in that regard (games like NWN I and II) oops Morrowind/Oblivion too.

*Also, For the love of God, I want a RPG where the hero/heroines are over 18. I swear the art for FFXII is borderline soft porn.

*A FFT that is for current gen systems/consoles and doesn't suck cause its made for 4-year olds. Ok I am lashing at the FFT advance one.

*A new edition of Heroes of Might and Magic that doesn't suck. 4 wasn't an great improvement but it was alright. 5 blows, hard.
*Revival of Might and Magic series (the rpg line). With 6 PC slots. Less was not more.

***What I'd like to see from Stardock? A turn based tactics game set in the GalCiv universe, while they were coalescing ideas for GC3.

CRAZYOID!!! You can still find it's demo at file planet, but it doesn't run well on an OS beyond Win 98. It was produced by a Canadian company called: "Magorum Praeda Interactive Inc." who is history. It was a fun, top-down asteroids-like shooter where you fight organic alien ships and blast asteroids to mine resources that allowed you to upgrade your ship. You'd max out your storage and warp back to your starbase to purchase upgrades and repairs.
It featured"
a map screen of the galaxy and showed sectors with qty and type of asteroids and enemies,
multiplayer mode,
several weapons, engines, shielding, armor and ships to choose from,
tractor-beams,
realistic physics,
mother-ships.

You could, if you had a hard time fighting until you've upgraded, lead your enemies on a chase that could result in them (or you) crashing into asteroids.

Crazyoid would be an awesome addition to Stardock's list.

I kinda agree to an extent. I think it depends on teh scope and plot of the game. In NWN and TES you are the "hero" with no real ploat based backstory, so its fun to create your own. Other games that are more character driven would have a back story to teh player as it is more relevent or required for teh plot.

I miss the creativity of RPG's. I mean NWN and TES are great, but in both cases, you are the immaculate good guy (with no past!). Even when given the freedom to misbehave its still for the better good (ala robin hood). I thief in NWN will still battle the plague. The stories, while cool, are still one man shows that lack depth. It seems that with modern computers and graphics, Artistic creativity (ala 3d graphics) seems to have more of a priority over literary creativity (a good deep plot that doesn't feel like a drawn out movie)

I really like rpg's like Planescape: Torment. It wasn't one of those cookie cutter Rpg - but instead really pushed the boundry in terms of story development (What!?, not saving the world, universe, cosmos from destruction?!) and use of characters to further the plot.

We really need the guys who wrote that game to make a few more (obviously not sequels, Anyone who has played it could see why)

come to think of it, when I was reading the posts about teh space sims, I'm surprised no one mentioned Iwar or Iwar2.

I felt they (particularly Iwar2) had a good sense of atmosphere, with a unique yet not overly complex universe. Iwar 2, while not totally freeform, did have a very unique approach to the free form aspects of the game (I'm a pirate?!? - sweet!! - let's raid the space lanes!!) that worked smoothly with the games mechanics. Compare this to say, X3, which, while an ok game (I own the whole series), just feels very clunky (it always has though).

I thnk the one game that was never made or attempted (and should have been) was a freeform space game in the starwars universe. Riding on teh coattails of Xwing and then Tie Fighter (back in the 90's!), it wouldn't have been too huge of a stretch for lucasarts to create a privateer/elite-esque game set in teh Starwars universe. The universe was already there, Lucasarts arts could use the production values from Tie (the engine for example), and Lucasarts was in their heyday of creativity, meaning that a great story and complex plots, missions, etc, would have been all in reach.

Really, a well made game like that could have probably knocked Elite off its pedestal and buried Wing commander (not that there is anything wrong with those games, own them too. I'm just thinking from a business sense, lol).

I've had this Starwars meets privateer idea in my head for almost 10 years now, when I first played Tie fighter and Privateer and just thought, "woa, what if they did that with starwars"

I only had crappy Sega Genesis growing up. So bring back Space Harrier, Altered Beast, and Shinobi. Although, I did see Golden Axe mentioned. That game was fun head butting people on your VelociRaptor mount.

You might check out Dungeon Runners for some Diablo-esque hack and slash action. DR has what most diablo clones lack - randomized dungeons/content. Beyond that, the gameplay is pretty much basic hack 'n' slach/diablo.

I'd like to see the return of squad based tactical games like XCOM. XCOM was an excellent series and few have taken that format and done anything with it. Silent Storm was decent, but had horrible AI. I like the UFO:Afterxxxx series a lot, but the developer is pretty gimp about support and patches. The SAS movement system in the UFO series is pretty awesome though - it's a lot more fluid than pure turn-based.

If I could have Stardock develop any type of game, it's be a squad-based tactical game along the lines of XCOM, JA, SS, UFO-series, using a SAS type of engine, with something actually resembling AI, and the quality support that all of those games usually lacked.

I also don't quite understand why nobody makes good RPGs anymore along the lines of Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale - two very successful series with a nice party-based format that people just don't seem to do the same anymore. I'd even lump in Temple of Elemental Evil, even with all it's flaws, just because I thought it's turn-based combat system captured D&D better than anybody else ever has.

-----

One thing I'm not thrilled about is the mutilation of the Fallout series by Bethesda. Turning Fallout into a 1st person shooter isn't what anyone who loved the first two games want - it's an abomination and a slap in the face. It's just wrong. It'll be wrong even more than the mutilation of Shadowrun was recently wrong. It's hard to believe that Bethesda could "study" Fallout 1 & 2 and think fans would want 1st person instead of the isometric that was a big part of the game. Bethesda putting one of the Oblivion quest designers - some whelp who probably never even played Fallout - is just sick and wrong.

I have to admit I have passing interest in Fallout. I own 1 and 2, but have yet to play them (Time and RL suck sometimes). While I think that TES series is definitely set apart by the fact that it is and always was 1st person, I don't think that means that 1st person perspectives should become the mainstay of rpg's. I hope Bethesda hasn't fallen into a pyschological prison built by thier own sucess with TES series.

Come to think of it Vogar, I haven't really heard of any party based rpg's in a while (or atleast any of great quality or any recieving time in the mainstream). Would Knights of the Old Republic count? I guess that came out just a few years ago. I wonder the disappearance of the party based rpg's a by product of the MMORPG's success, perhaps the people who are most into that type of RPG migrated to online, where the parties were their actual friends/acquaintences instead of AI? It kinda makes sense, I mean for me, when I played tabletop, it wasn't just to play, but to also enjoy time with my friends.

Impossible Creatures,

this game was AWESOME (i still play it todate) the storyline was cool, it was easy to mod, why it is so unknowen is a mysery to me, tho i think its probly from not enough marketing.

IC2 would be SHWEEEEEEEEET!!!

I’d like to see a remake of Daggerfall (TES 2) with the Morrowind or Oblivion engine. Daggerfall has a great story and atmosphere, but suffers from its huge, “modular” and confusing dungeons. And the cities were just too big (most of them anyway) – looked nice, houses, people, animals, etc, but too much eventless walking or riding to get from the gate to your destination or simply from A to B.
It’s still on my hard disk and whenever I play it (occasionally) I can’t help thinking of what Daggerfall could be - and regret that I lack the time and talent to do a total conversion based on Morrowind or Oblivion myself.

I recently came across the article “History of Space Empire Games” at http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/pc/history_spaceempire/p2_01.html. As I know many of the old games mentioned in this article, I couldn’t help but feel nostalgia.
By the way: It seems to be impossible to get the first Pax Imperia from around 1983 and play it on a DOS or Windows PC (?) – Macs are not very popular in Europe. I know and like the “new” version Eminent Domains, but according to reviews I’ve read the original may well be better.