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What old / classic / crap games with potential would you remake if you were given a studio and free reign?

A few that sprung to mind for me;
System Shock 2. Loved it back in the day but its a bit clunky now and had some bad quirks to it. A GFX overhaul, new talent systems, and some expanded levels and wooha.
Age of Empires 1/2. Again loved this back in the day and I know its had some remakes and updates but I'd love to give it a real 2018 overhaul - new AI coding, gfx updates and some new races.
Aliens VS Predator 1. Something about it just frigging worked well. But definitely would need an update in sounds and gfx and engine.
A noteable mention to Daytona racing 2. Quite good engine back int he day and a remake would be fun to do.

Kingdoms Under Fire 1 - the first game that was a true RTS! For its time it had some amazing ideas, from unit experience across all regular and hero units; to having missions where you controlled only one or two heros through a map (which really really really could have done with a minimap). The story was also well crafted and wasn't just your Good VS Evil - it had twists and turns as you saw the orks struggling under the joke, the rise of dark undead and the power of a mighty ancient dragon.

Overall it was a really neat game for having 2 factions and its a huge shame that they sort of shifted away from PC RTS and went for console hybrids and action games. First game would be fantastic as a remake; though honestly (as many games of that era) I'd kind of hope they'd keep to the artistic style rather than go full 3D (then again full 3D now can get quite arty looking)

Funny thing is, most of the games I'd ask for a remake aren't any of the ones I played the most.

The Aces series; over Europe and Pacific. Great flight sims that if made today would probably involve flying through a train tunnel and 360 tail-spinning to headshot other pilots or something. But man, as a kid these games meant everything to me.

In the same vein, Their Finest Hour, a game that put you in either a German or British pilot's outfit and had you play through a campaign of missions before you could retire (think it was 50). Great game - I still remember getting all excited when I finally got past the fighter escorts to take out the HE-111's - or, as the game would show me, grey and black polygons.

Great Naval Battles of the North Atlantic, easily one of the best if not THE best naval sim I've ever seen or played. With today's graphics and expanded experience possibility, this game would blow my socks off.

Darklands. Medieval RPG with knights and Satanic nonsense.

The Gold box AD&D games, Pool of Radiance and its assorted sequels.

Wizards Crown. Murderously difficult fantasy RPG.

I really wish they hadn’t lost the source code to Gladius. One of the best RPG’s of all time imo.

I’d shell out for a remake of the original Star Wars Rogue Squadron too and Pod Racing.

Mechwarrior 4 Mercs too. I loved that game.

Lots of other games I’d like to see remade otherwise already have been or have spiritual successors that satisfy me.

Star Wars: Republic Commando. The game was brilliant, arguably did Halo better than several Halo titles, and was a much gritter take on Star Wars that's kind of come back into fashion a bit recently. It's technically backwards compatible on the Xbox One but it's aged far worse than the other big SW games of that era, Battlefront and KotOR, so I could very happily go for a redux.

Throw some money, time and effort at a modernised remake of that and you have the single player Star Wars story everyone wanted and didn't really get from the Battlefront revival.

No One Lives Forever. The core game is good, but we could do with a more stable build. Though seeing as nobody knows who owns the rights to the game these days, it will never happen.

Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines, another game that would greatly benefit from a more stable rebuild. Lot of potential, but due to dickery from Valve the company went under even before the game got released IIRC.

Star Wars Dark Forces all the way up to Mysteries of the Sith.

Most recent game I'd remake would have to be Eisenhorn. Breaks my heart to see such a great novel and the voice of Mark STRONG wasted on such a horrible game. Keep Mark as the voice of Gregor and turn it into a better action RPG or just a flatout 3rd person action game.

That old American McGee’s Alice game would be nice to see again. Great story, music, and art direction, but it’s really showing its age in the controls and graphics. Chances are likely minimal since it’s now owned by EA, but one can hope.

Seeing Quake and the Build Engine games get the Doom’16 treatment might be pretty cool too. They seem to use the same sort of formula as Doom, but in different ways.

The Ultima series might not quite fit in as well considering some of the changes made between games (such as why humanoid PC races were removed in the fourth game), but it would be cool to see how that works out. If they at least covered 4-8 and made heavy edits to 9, it might work out.

Sweet god, Gothic as well. At least if they could edit the controls to be less awkward.

I’d mention System Shock, but that’s actually already getting a remake.

Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, and Soul Reaver. Both in modern 3D and Panzer Front (or Bis) with improved graphics.

Xenogears.

Siege - it was an old DOS game based on the ultima series. One player had the traditional human, dwarves, elves, etc and the other had the traditional 'forces of evil' It was an RTS with some unique ideas:

1) There was always a castle. The defender would have to rush troops to where they were needed most while the attacker would advance siege towers, ladders, and other devices in an effort to gain a breach in the walls.

2) Unlike modern RTS games you had preset armies that you purchased on a per 'model' instance like a tabletop game. There were no reinforcments other than those units, so barely fending off an assault could leave you in a bad position for the next one

3) It was possible for the defenders to concentrate fire on those carrying the siege weapons unless you escorted them heavily. Having plenty of extra goblins to carry a siege ladder mattered.

Fortunately it's Resident Evil 2, which is coming out soon. On the other hand I'd prefer a remake done exactly the way they remade the original; keeping the static camera angles, making everything look better, a bit more difficult and more content. It's being done from a third person perspective though. I'm still very hopeful

Warhawk, it's one of the best multiplayer games I've played on the PS3 and to have it remade with a larger install base on the PS4 (or PS5 in the future) would be great. Doubly so if they manage to put in the campaign they originally wanted to do.

WC3, which honestly shouldn't be too hard with how HoTS basically gives them the assets they need for heroes and lot of the basic units.

 SkavenLord wrote:

The Ultima series might not quite fit in as well considering some of the changes made between games (such as why humanoid PC races were removed in the fourth game), but it would be cool to see how that works out. If they at least covered 4-8 and made heavy edits to 9, it might work out.

Ooo. I'd just like to see 7. And sort of 4.

One and two are definitely problematic, since they've got none of the moral themes and a lot of IP problems. They totally couldn't get away with having tie fighters and y-wings these days. Or the lack of explanation as to why suddenly starfighters are happening to kill the evil wizard (or was that killing Minax, his lover/apprentice in Ultima 2? I forget).
Or why Three involves short-circuiting a computer with Tarot cards.

Morrowind
Pokémon Snap
Viewpoint for Neo Geo

KOTOR and KOTOR 2

Colony Wars

Tomb Raider

Command and Conquer

Dino Crisis

Legacy of Kain
Soul Reaver
Eternal Darkness

Colony wars

G police

Syphon filter

 ProtoClone wrote:
Legacy of Kain
Soul Reaver
Eternal Darkness

Man, if they managed to get some of those old Gamecube games like Eternal Darkness remade, that would be amazing. I do recall hearing Killer 7 is getting a PC release at some point though.

 BrookM wrote:

Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines, another game that would greatly benefit from a more stable rebuild. Lot of potential, but due to dickery from Valve the company went under even before the game got released IIRC.

Really hope you know about the unofficial patch for it... Has been significantly improved beyond the release version.

Syndicate - a true classic, but really dated now.

"Minigun"... "Minigun"... "Minigun"...

That's what I like to hear at the start of a mission!

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Syndicate - a true classic, but really dated now.

"Minigun"... "Minigun"... "Minigun"...

That's what I like to hear at the start of a mission!

Have you tried Satellite Reign? Supposed to be a 'spiritual successor' to Syndicate. Generally well-reviewed, but I've not played enough of it yet to confirm.

Thanks for the pointer!

 Formosa wrote:
Colony wars

G police

Syphon filter

ohh Syphon filter - I still have that- it was ace

and Colony Wars - loved the space ship explosions in that

One that comes to mind to me is Total Annihilation. I have the original game on Steam, and it hasn't aged that badly, but I just imagine what a remake, with a modern game engine and graphics and stuff could do with the huge variety of units seen in that game.

Edit: Also, the Descent series. I used to play Descent all the time growing up, especially Descent 2. While the core game mechanics and stuff are still just fine, the graphics are quite dated, so a graphical overhaul would be amazing! I think I heard something about someone doing just that, but I'm not sure.

Mass Effect: Andromeda. The game that buried the Mass Effect as a viable series... They got some of the stuff right, but lots of stuff were copy pasted, planet after planet. It just didn't feel like finished game.

Mass Effect was my favourite game series (I even didn't mind how ME3 was ended) and seeing ME4 given the half-assed treatment was sad finish to the series. They even cancelled the DLC that was supposed to continue the story.

Feels like there won't be a scifi game RPG/shooter/adventure series like Mass Effect ever again.

Ultima V, Ultima Online.

 Col Hammer wrote:
Mass Effect: Andromeda. The game that buried the Mass Effect as a viable series... They got some of the stuff right, but lots of stuff were copy pasted, planet after planet. It just didn't feel like finished game.

Mass Effect was my favourite game series (I even didn't mind how ME3 was ended) and seeing ME4 given the half-assed treatment was sad finish to the series. They even cancelled the DLC that was supposed to continue the story.

Feels like there won't be a scifi game RPG/shooter/adventure series like Mass Effect ever again.

Obligatory comment about how EA ruins everything it touches from football careers to sci-fi classics

 LordofHats wrote:

 Col Hammer wrote:
Mass Effect: Andromeda. The game that buried the Mass Effect as a viable series... They got some of the stuff right, but lots of stuff were copy pasted, planet after planet. It just didn't feel like finished game.

Mass Effect was my favourite game series (I even didn't mind how ME3 was ended) and seeing ME4 given the half-assed treatment was sad finish to the series. They even cancelled the DLC that was supposed to continue the story.

Feels like there won't be a scifi game RPG/shooter/adventure series like Mass Effect ever again.

Obligatory comment about how EA Fans ruins everything it touches from football careers to sci-fi classics

Fixed