Classic games overdue for a remake

There’s no shortage of new computer games in the works, but there’s still plenty of classics that are overdue for a modern revamp.

So many classics, so many opportunities for a sequel.

One of the many good things about the summer holiday break is the chance to catch up on

all the games I didn’t get a chance to finish throughout the year.

It’s also a great opportunity to revisit some of the classics from earlier years.

In doing so, you might find yourself — as I did — wondering how some of these classics haven’t been updated into a remake or a sequel.

Here’s just a few of the classics, ripe for a modern update and revisit.

So many classics, so many opportunities for a sequel!

THE MOVIES

Released in 2005 by the now defunct Lionhead studios, this game put you in charge of a movie studio, beginning in the silent film era.

It gave you the opportunity to not only run a successful business (from hiring staff to managing temperamental stars) but it also allowed you to create your own movies via a groundbreaking in-game machine-animation element.

The movie-making engine was surprisingly powerful for the time, allowing you to control pretty much every aspect of creating a film.

Alternatively, you could let the computer auto-create the movie, resulting in some absurdist masterpieces as well.

The Movies, a game that let you be the director, producer and writer.

There hasn’t been another game like The Movies since.

It was such an innovative, fun and engaging gaming model, that it has long been at the top of my list of titles that is well overdue for a modern update.

Microsoft own the IP now, so it’s not out of the realms of possibility that a new version will

see the lights, camera and action again.

Please?

CRUSADER: NO REMORSE

One of the earlier PC 3D isometric action games, this was released by Origin in 1995 and cast

the player as a super-soldier known as a Silencer.

The Silencer was formerly employed by the totalitarian world government and turned rebel after a botched mission.

Working with the resistance, your character infiltrates a range of super secret government

facilities to sabotage them.

You can also shoot anyone silly enough to think they can stop the heavily armed commando in red Stormtrooper armour.

The Silencer, from Crusader: No Remorse was a total rebel. Picture: Origin

Destructible objects in the world were an innovative feature of the game at the time, and it was even possible to blow open doors, if you couldn’t find the access codes.

The game, and its sequel the following year, proved a major source of inspiration for the developers of the original Fallout games.

Even today it’s a playable action shooter that’s well overdue for a revisit.

POPULOUS

People who think they are God tend to end up in mental health facilities or running cults, but

back in the 1990s, they could also be playing the hugely popular Populous series.

The game was first published by the much-missed Bullfrog Entertainment in 1989.

Populous’ focus was a megalomaniac’s dream — you played a deity in charge of looking after

your followers, attracting more of them, and leading them into battle against the followers of

other deities.

From changing the landscape to causing natural disasters and plagues throughout the world, the series created a totally new genre of gaming (the God game), and was generally excellent all around.

Fiat redux Populous!

Populous, the game that let you play God by starting a plague or changing the landscape of your world.

ARCANUM: OF STEAMWORKS AND MAGICK OBSCURA

In the late 1990s, computer role playing games generally came with two settings: A Dungeons & Dragons-inspired fantasy world, or the post-nuclear wasteland of the Fallout games.

Troika Games took a third option with their 2001 title Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura.

The game combined steampunk with fantasy to create a unique setting about a world with elves, dwarfs and magic undergoing a Victorian-era style industrial revolution, complete with steam trains and airships and firearms.

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura was so good, it deserves a revamp or a sequel.

While the graphics and interface were slightly dated when the game released, the setting and story were innovative and engaging, so it would be fantastic to see what someone like Obsidian (developers of the excellent Pillars of Eternity and Tyranny) could do with the premise.

SLEEPING DOGS

Combining Grand Theft Auto with a really good Hong Kong action movie sounds like a winning combination — and it certainly was, in this 2012 game from United Front Games.

Set in Hong Kong, Sleeping Dogs was possibly the only major open-world sandbox game where you drive on the correct (left) side of the road.

Game developers have combined their great story with an impressive array of combat mechanics, complimented later in the game by the appearance of firearms.

Hong Kong legend, Donnie Yen, will star in a film adaptation of the game, Sleeping Dogs.

Managing to combine a great open world setting with all the tropes one expects from Hong Kong cinema, it was a lot of fun and something that’s been on my “I wish there was another one” list ever since.

In late 2017 it was announced a movie of the game was being made starring Hong Kong actor

Donnie Yen, known for the popular Ip Man films.

No word on a release date, but hopefully it might encourage someone to make a sequel to the game or at least something else in the Grand Theft Auto/Kung Fu Movie crossover genre.

Related: Australia’s growing popularity could see BlizzCone hosted down under

INTERSTATE 76

They say this game is a mean mother … shut your mouth!

What? I’m talking about Interstate 76!

Released in 1997 by Activision the game was set in the mid-1970s, in a US were the Oil Crisis has continued and the country has started collapsing into Mad Max-style anarchy outside the cities.

Interstate 76 featured a groove-tastic funk soundtrack, striking visuals, and great car combat.

Players could drive a whole bunch of 1970s muscle cars and vehicles with guns and rocket

launchers — the driving physics of these were excellent.

Retro video games that are due for a comeback. Picture: Crusader no remorse

Now, imagine a modern game, set in the 1970s, with the vehicle mechanics of Grand Turismo or Forza Motorsport, but everything has a bunch of Browning M2 machine guns, Sidewinder missiles and assorted other weapons hardpoints welded on somewhere.

Can you dig it? Yes, I believe we can.

HIND

Back in the 1990s there were a lot of seriously detailed helicopter simulators available for PC,

with a focus on military attack helicopters such as the AH-64 Apache.

In 1996, however, developers Digital Integration released Hind, which put the player in the cockpit of a Russian Mi-24D ‘Hind’ helicopter gunship and let them undertake missions in a variety of locations including Afghanistan, Korea and Kazakhstan.

Hind, the helicopter game that took you all around the world.

The flight model was very realistic and innovatively, the conflict carried on around the player,

and it was an unusual helicopter as well.

It’s been something like a decade since anyone did a super realistic military helicopter simulator so the time is right for Hind — or any of the comparable super-realistic chopper games like Jane’s AH-64D Longbow, for that matter — to return to the digital skies.

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Originally published as Classic games overdue for a remake