Franchises That Could Have Awesome Games (But Don't)

[Sabby]

Alternate title, Games Rocksteady Needs to Make.

Some of the franchises on my list actually have one or two good games, but they're so swamped in bad ones they still could use some Triple A releases. What are you franchises that are just so loaded for Arkham City caliber games, but haven't been picked up? My list...

Power Rangers. Come on, look at it >.> Its a video game gold mine. Nothing but wire fu and lasers. It's begging for a bullet time brawler with Euphoria Physics and action cam.

Terminator. Ever wanted a Hitman style stealth game where you play a T-1000 after the fall of Skynet? Too bad, no one seems to wanna touch this franchise.

AvP. Again, this one actually had some good games, but the newest AvP game was utter shit and there ain't much else besides that one trilogy.

Spiderman. Spiderman 3 was the best, but all of them were flawed in major ways.

True Crime. This franchise is actually a game series. But it sucked. Throw in some good A.I. and reactive physics, crowd control and such, make it so every crime could play out differently, and it could be awesome.

X-Men. Besides the top-down brawlers, there isn't much out there worth noticing :/ a Design-Your-Mutant, story based campaign in the middle of Mutants coming out and massive riots would be interesting.

So whats your list?

[Keefie]

I read a pretty good letter in OXM the other day. Someone suggested there be a game based on Sharpe, the tv series.
Personally, i'd love it. Because we all know Sharpe is the coolest guy ever.
Sean Bean would probably voice it too. I mean, he does O2 commercials, it's not like he has standards. ;D

[Craz]

Not so much a franchise, but I would love to see Creative Assembly tackle the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

[Shjade]

But...but there already is an RotTK franchise. ...a few of them, actually.

[Samael]

Star Wars.
Where is my next generation Tie Fighter game, LucasArts?
Oh yeah, hey, while you're at it, also make another Jedi Knight.

[Craz]

But...but there already is an RotTK franchise. ...a few of them, actually.

True, but with the way Creative Assembly is working on their engine, I'd love to see an Ancient China game with their treatment.

[Silverfyre]

There actually was a SNES "Power Rangers" game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mighty_Morphin_Power_Rangers_%28video_game%29

[Sabby]

Nothing recent, though xD if Rocksteady got the rights to a Power Rangers trilogy, I would personally give each member of the team oral sex.

[HairyHeretic]

Exalted, Shadowrun or Battletech as an MMO.

[SheepishRogue]

A Van Helsing (Hugh Jackson) game would be awesome...

A Hellsing (the manga) game would take a lot of work, but if they didn't rush it, oh man...

[Callie Del Noire]

Exalted, Shadowrun or Battletech as an MMO.

You know.. i'd just settle for a decent SR game.. hasn't been one in like.. FOREVER.. the last one was back in the clinton era.

[Xanatos]

Mechwarrior 1, 2, 3, and 4 are all part of the Battletech verse. They did focus mostly on the Clans, though, with the exception of the 4th. In the 3rd you were Inner Sphere, but the main enemy was Clan.

As for the mention of a new gen TIE-Fighter, I heartily agree. Another Jedi Knight would be awesome, though, only if it was done like Academy. That game did things I don't really see in modern games. The combat system was great. If they increase the choices of Force powers, that would be excellent. If they include guns, make the weapons worthwhile. I ignored basically all except the disruptor rifle. Lighrsaber/Force Speed/Force Heal/Force Choke rank 3 was all you needed to own EVERYONE.

As for a franchise which could make for an awesome game, I say Babylon 5. The TV series was excellent and has lots of potential for a game. The starships were great. Fighter combat was excellent. Star Furies were great for how they had maneuvering thrusters and could change forward facing direction while still be drifting in their original direction, firing at targets previously behind them. I don't think I've seen a single game allow that in starfighter combat.

[Kunoichi]

AvP. Again, this one actually had some good games, but the newest AvP game was utter shit and there ain't much else besides that one trilogy.

But I liked the recent AVP game...  Or, well, the Predator and Alien campaigns, anyway.  I agree with you on the Human one, but being a xenomorph was a ridiculous amount of fun.

Edit: Actually, it was fun enough that I'd love to try out an entire game based around that sort of gameplay...

[Sabby]

Number 6 was the most interesting character, and it was over in, like, 4 hours x.x

[Sabby]

Just thought of another one Rocksteady would have fun with. Dresden Files. Now that's a franchise that could only be amazing or terrible.

[Jacqueline]

Jumanji, at least I don't remember any game, mind you not a realistic copy because that would be very dangerous for the customers but... I don't think they ever did a game based on it.

[Shjade]

They made a boardgame of Jumanji, but I don't recall seeing a video game based on it.

[Sel Nar]

I'm gonna catch flack from this but Warcraft and Starcraft both need major shakeups instead of retreading the tired old ground they've been shuffling over for the last 17 and 13 years, respectively. Especially after the canon violation of WoW, which has essentially rendered any future Warcraft RTS unsaleable because none of the races (or bad guys, for that matter) will be recognizable, much less fun.

[Shjade]

Especially after the canon violation of WoW, which has essentially rendered any future Warcraft RTS unsaleable because none of the races (or bad guys, for that matter) will be recognizable, much less fun.

What canon violation?

[Sel Nar]

Name any character established in Warcraft 1, 2, or 3. Examine their characterization, pre-WoW.

Compare to WoW characterization; a particularly notable example is Kael'thas, who, in WC3, just wanted a safe home for what remained of the 'high' elves, while in WoW was pretty much an 'Imma-kill-em-all' Maniac.

(To clarify: Kael'thas was formerly the prince of the Blood Elves. He genuinely cared about his people and traveled to Outland in hopes of finding a new way to sate their magic addiction. Come The Burning Crusade, when the rest of the Blood Elves travel to Outland, they find that Kael has allied with the Burning Legion and is capturing the Blood Elf pilgrims as slaves. As of patch 2.4 he was 'upgraded' to a raid boss who was attempting to summon Kil'Jaeden, last lord of the burning legion, to destroy the world.)

Edit: A convenient bullet-pointed list, additional snark in <> brackets.

    * Previously powerful, important and charismatic characters being reduced into the role of an Evil Overlord without any personality whatsoever. See Character Derailment. <Or see above at the earlier comment regarding Kael'thas>

    * Continuous sloppy changes to the continuity. See Retcon. <Way too many changes; notable ones include Draenei entirely, blood elves left in quel'thalas after the events of WC3, and Arthas allegedly keeping all the undead 'relatively' docile with what remained of his humanity, despite it being pre-established that he had forcibly yanked his humanity OUT and kicked it to the curb.>

    * The formerly story-driven world being changed into a static place with only few permanent changes. See Status Quo is God. <Cataclysm chages this after nearly 7 years of stagnating like a brackish pool of swamp water, but only geographically.>

    * The villains suddenly being incredibly impotent despite the fact that their only true enemies are also feverishly fighting each other in the side of the good-evil conflicts. See Villain Decay. <See: Arthas in Wrath of the Lich King. Any other Major figure in Warcraft that you fought and wasn't murdered by the end of the game, and probably a few that were *Cough*Cho'Gall*Cough*>

    * The Warcraft tabletop RPG and computer games always seem to conflict, causing their fans to dismiss the other as non-canon. <I have nothing to say about the tabletop system, as IIRC, it's a white-wolf system, and therefore 'meh' at best.>

    * Every Warcraft fan (or detractor) ignores great chunks of lore, depending on how he sees the universe. The lore's a mess, to state the obvious. <Mess is an understatement; It's a tangled knot of christmas lights that only gets more tangled every time you pull on one line, until you get fed up, pitch the whole mess, and buy new lights. Which immediately get merged into the tangle via some sort of horrible osmosis.>

    * In many ways, the gameplay of World of Warcraft is completely at odds with the story - for example, in Wrath of the Lich King, the Horde and Alliance are allied against the Lich King, but you can still fight the opposing faction in various PVP modes, as if the Horde and Alliance were still at war. <Can be explained away as 'show-fighting'>

    * Some fans refuse to acknowledge anything written by Richard A Knaak. <Technically good, but you want to throat-punch all his characters. Repeatedly.>

    * Most Horde players hold that Thrall is still Warchief. Garrosh is merely keeping his chair warm while he keeps the world from collapsing. <I have to agree with this one; Thrall is far more awesome than any other Orc, by merit of having more than 10 synapses to rub together.>

    * Some fans also outright refuse to count the comics as Warcraft canon. <Personal note; Considering the comics introduced me'dan, the biggest mary-sue character this side of the original Mary Sue, that's a damn good decision>

[Shjade]

Considering pretty much all of that just demonstrates subjective dislike of the direction the canon is going, rather than evidence of going back on pre-existing canon, I don't see much "violation" going on there.

The whole Draenei thing is of course the exception. Lulz spacegoats.

[Callie Del Noire]

I enjoy the Goblin quest lines till I meet Garrosh.

Can't stand him. He's abosolutely the worse choice for a leader of the Horde. he's killed one of the Horde's strongest supporters, alienated another and let the least trustworthy one run rampant (Looking at you Sylvanus you genocidal bitch!)

[TheGlyphstone]

Considering pretty much all of that just demonstrates subjective dislike of the direction the canon is going, rather than evidence of going back on pre-existing canon, I don't see much "violation" going on there.

The whole Draenei thing is of course the exception. Lulz spacegoats.

A hundred years from now, poor Chris Metzen will never live that screwup down. He may win a hundred Nobel Peace Prizes, and yet his name will forever be bound to the spacegoats. ;D

[Vasili]

I would be the happiest guy on earth if they made a good Necroscope game. It could work as an RPG, or as an adventure, or as an RTS... And it'd be incredibly easy to make it a game where you play the bad guy. Oh God. I am drooling at the thought.

[Martee]

Oh my god, the Necroscope series. I haven't read those in forever. That would be an insanely cool world to explore as an RPG.

*drools with Vasili*

;)