What games don't exist but should...

[ZedClampet]

(again, there may be an older thread on this, but I word things differently than everyone else on the planet, which makes searching for old threads difficult)

A good NASCAR game: I miss having a decent NASCAR game. The last good one, by my estimate, was NASCAR 2003 by Papyrus. Electronic Arts then took over and drove it into the ground to the point that they canceled it and no one wanted to make a new one. It was like playing Mario Kart, which is not what people wanted at all. The NASCAR Heat games were miserable at first (they were made by a new company from someone who had left EA), but improved over time. The problem for me was that, when they went towards sim racing, the games weren't really properly drivable with a controller. You needed a wheel. The latest NASCAR game, Ignition, is apparently horrible and has mostly negative Steam reviews.

All I want is a NASCAR game that controls like Forza Motorsport.

An NFL management sim game like Football Manager: There used to be one. It was called something like NFL Head Coach. You managed all aspects of the team, including practices. I loved that game. Now the only NFL game we have is Madden, which is an abomination. a game that seemingly has kept nearly every feature ever put in the game since the first one in 1988 and added things like buying players for real money.

A PvE space MMO kind of like Star Citizen without all the shoot on site nonsense: I get it. All the average gamer really wants to do is shoot another gamer. Fine. But I think there's a big enough interest in PvE that you could create a PvE space MMO and have success. You could have massive battles against aliens. Form teams to protect convoys, etc. It's not that I'm completely against PvP, but when you allow it, that's all anyone ever does. Plus, as I've mentioned before, my brain doesn't multitask. So if I'm on a mission, and someone pulls me out of that mission for a fight, I get really irritated. No Man's Sky, up to this point, doesn't have any large-scale cooperative missions that I'm aware of. Of course, they add a ton of content every few months, so maybe it's there, and I just haven't noticed it. Warframe is basically a melee game. You fly ships rarely.

A Single-player Paranormal Investigation game: I love Phasmophobia and Ghost Exile, but I want something with a lot more depth, the kind of depth you can only get in a single-player game. I want to build out my headquarters, research new equipment, hire NPC's to be a part of my crew, etc. I want a bunch of places to investigate with a story that progresses throughout the game.

 

[ZedClampet]

unnecessary post that is gone now.

You might want to elaborate a little on that response before you get banned.

 

[Colif]

Sacred 3 made by Ascaron... not the game with that name that exists. But made by the original makers who had the name stolen from them by circumstance. Who would have had a fully hand drawn map and continued on the story (what ever it was).

Instead the series ended at Part 2. Sacred 3 doesn't exist...

A New F Zero... you didn't say it had to be PC... bends rules a little. I would almost buy a new console just to play it again.

 

[Zloth]

Non-violent RPGs. I'm not totally against violence in games (obviously), but the RPG genre seems dead set on using violence whenever possible. That's hardly the only way to have conflict in a story! Exploration can work very well. Political intrigue can work, too. There are plenty of spells in mythology that aren't about killing monsters!

A Single-player Paranormal Investigation game:

View: https://youtu.be/QSN5TPKMJ24?t=3

OK, Control isn't really like you describe, but it is a single player game about paranormal events set in modern times. It just does it in a much more shooty way.

P.S. Isn't it getting to be about time for Control 2??

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I would love some really good 3D remakes of some of the older 2D Zelda games. Playing A Link Between Worlds or The Minish Cap in modern 3D graphics would be amazing.

Speaking of stuff like that, I'd like to have HD remakes of some old adventure games I played on the C64: the Questron games, Legacy of the Ancients, and The Legend of Blacksilver.

Non-violent RPGs. I'm not totally against violence in games (obviously), but the RPG genre seems dead set on using violence whenever possible. That's hardly the only way to have conflict in a story! Exploration can work very well. Political intrigue can work, too. There are plenty of spells in mythology that aren't about killing monsters!

It's not an RPG game, but did you ever play RiME? It's an awesome, non-violent adventure game.

 

[Zloth]

It's not an RPG game, but did you ever play RiME? It's an awesome, non-violent adventure game.

It better be! $30 for a game that looks like it rarely takes even 15 hours?

But yeah, puzzle games are often non-violent. Outer Wilds, Talos Principle, Portal 1 and 2... plenty of good ones over there.

 

[Brian Boru]

I word things differently than everyone else on the planet, which makes searching for old threads difficult

Aw, you should've said… Here's what the rest of us use:

Dictionary.com | Meanings & Definitions of English Words

The world's leading online dictionary: English definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more. A trusted authority for 25+ years!

dictionary.com

there may be an older thread on this

Only ones I can find quickly—using dictionary words, of course—are both over 2 years old:

Question - What kind of game do you wish existed, but doesn't?

The other day, I was sat in the pub with friends and we came up with an amazing idea for a game. All we want is a game a bit like "Untitled Goose Game" where you play as a dog trying to get food from his kitchen. I think it would work best as first person, and it could be called "Dog Day...

forums.pcgamer.com

What kind of sandbox game doesn't exist but should?

:) Personally I'd love to see more of these "you play the animal running around the wild" type sandbox games. I also think something cool and gothic set in the Penny Dreadful Universe would be really cool.

forums.pcgamer.com

a game that looks like it rarely takes even 15 hours?

6 hours, 10 for Completionists.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

It better be! $30 for a game that looks like it rarely takes even 15 hours?

But yeah, puzzle games are often non-violent. Outer Wilds, Talos Principle, Portal 1 and 2... plenty of good ones over there.

RiME is a puzzle game, but I think it's more than just that. It's a good adventure with a great story, too.

 

[ZedClampet]

It better be! $30 for a game that looks like it rarely takes even 15 hours?

Cheapo. That's a lot better than $7/hour for a movie, and you don't have permission to go back to that movie and watch it again later. It's also cheaper than the difference between one meal at home versus one meal out (non fast food).

RiME is a puzzle game, but I think it's more than just that. It's a good adventure with a great story, too.

I loved Rime. I was a little disappointed when it introduced enemies because it really didn't need them, but it was all good fun. I may actually replay it now that I'm thinking about it again.

 

[Colif]

Game my avatar based on lasts 90 minutes, I bought it twice. I can't remember price but I got value for money since the end wasn't really the end... i played it for months.

Length of time it takes to end game isn't an indication of quality.

There are plenty of games that drag on way longer than they need to.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I loved Rime. I was a little disappointed when it introduced enemies because it really didn't need them, but it was all good fun. I may actually replay it now that I'm thinking about it again.

Yeah, I forgot about that. I guess it wasn't completely non-violent. It kind of sucked that there were enemies, but you didn't have any way to fight them back. But that just added to figuring out how to progress. RiME was a great game. That was one big reason I considered buying a PS4 when it was coming out, and I was really excited that it came to PC. I had a PS2 back in the day, but I don't intend to ever buy a PlayStation again.

 

[Zloth]

Cheapo. That's a lot better than $7/hour for a movie, and you don't have permission to go back to that movie and watch it again later. It's also cheaper than the difference between one meal at home versus one meal out (non fast food).

I art FRUGAL! Temple of Apshai told me so, long ago!

 

[Pifanjr]

I'm still waiting for a good god game. Nothing has ever come close to Black & White for me. Even Black & White itself isn't as great now as when I was a kid, as I notice the flaws way more now. But the game combined a few different things I all happen to love:

- Having a pet that actually learns new stuff by observing you and the world around it. It was great seeing the different personalities the creatures could develop and the engine supported some fairly advanced stuff considering how old the game is.

- Having a somewhat independent civilization that you can help, but that doesn't need you all the time. Though it would have been nice if they could have build their own farms and houses, because if you set one too many men as a breeder you wouldn't be able to build houses faster than babies were being born and farms cost way too much wood to build enough of them to support everyone, so you'd just sacrifice people at your altar to cast a food miracle every 2 minutes to avoid everyone starving... And the more food miracles you used, the lazier the people got as they started to expect being fed.

I had hoped you could do something similar in the Spore space stage with primitive civilizations, but alas...

- A lot of options to interact with the environment. I liked the amount of spells available and being able to get improved and extreme versions. Even if they weren't all equally useful, it's just fun to play around with. I was very disappointed when the sequel had less miracles.

- Throwing stuff. Physics engines and destructible environments are always fun.

- Humour.

I'd love for another game that combines all of these elements and does them better.

 

[Pifanjr]

I'd also love to see a strategy game where the discovery gameplay loop persists into the late game. I love the early game of Civilization, where you're still exploring the world around you, searching for resources. I basically want something that has the vibe of No Man's Sky or Minecraft, where you can just go off and explore for a while before going back to base with the stuff you've found, but then as a strategy game.

 

[Colif]

Spore, but it lived up to hype
Cyberpunk (see above)
Star Citizen (lol)

Games with no bugs.

Okay, I will wake up soon.

 

[Brian Boru]

a strategy game where the discovery gameplay loop persists into the late game. I love the early game of Civilization

Yes! This!!

I've always thought the way to do it was to only open up sections of the map when you reached a certain stage—using Civ as an example, when you get a Seafaring tech, then the map expands to reveal (an)other continent(s)… and when you get say Satellites, either the rest of the world or a new planet or the moon

An RTS I played in 00s—maybe a C&C—had this mechanic. When you captured some base or resource node, the map expanded—I don't recall if it did same one more time before allowing access to the final main enemy base area.

Edit: I just remembered, one of the originals had it, it was in the C&C Remaster collection I played a year ago.

This could be difficult with procedural maps tho. Maybe it could be done with a distance-from-capital limit which got increased a couple of times in the game. Or impassible mountain ranges until you got balloons and later tunneling

 

[Pifanjr]

Spore, but it lived up to hype

That's the dream. I actually posted about Spore in one of the thread Brian Boru linked above, though that was specifically about the creature phase, as I've given up hope of a game actually doing all phases well in a single game.

Yes! This!!

I've always thought the way to do it was to only open up sections of the map when you reached a certain stage—using Civ as an example, when you get a Seafaring tech, then the map expands to reveal (an)other continent(s)… and when you get say Satellites, either the rest of the world or a new planet or the moon

An RTS I played in 00s—maybe a C&C—had this mechanic. When you captured some base or resource node, the map expanded—I don't recall if it did same one more time before allowing access to the final main enemy base area.

Edit: I just remembered, one of the originals had it, it was in the C&C Remaster collection I played a year ago.

This could be difficult with procedural maps tho. Maybe it could be done with a distance-from-capital limit which got increased a couple of times in the game. Or impassible mountain ranges until you got balloons and later tunneling

The main problem I have with just adding more exploration to Civ is that you're still going to have an ever increasing empire to manage. Though perhaps a mechanic like in Stellaris where you can just let the AI take over management could work, but then it wouldn't really be Civilization any more.

The C&C thing does sound interesting, I don't think I've played an RTS with such a mechanic.

Procedural maps are indeed difficult, as you need enough content for it to not feel generic. And having roadblocks on exploration until you've interacted with the other game mechanics kinda goes against the idea of having the game be about exploration.

In Minecraft, you can build a boat in like two minutes and just go off to explore. And though it's procedurally generated, by now there's so much content you can explore for days and still find new stuff. And while interacting with the other mechanics will help you survive, it's hardly necessary. I suppose the biggest roadblock it has to exploration is that you need to build a nether portal in order to explore the nether world and having some good gear is recommended to go exploring there. But building the nether portal itself is fairly easy as well (you just need one bucket and access to lava and water) and it's not like you can't survive in the nether for quite a while without gear if you're careful.

I find a lot of other survival games really limit on how much you can explore until you've spend a bunch of time getting some gear, which makes the start of the game the boring part as you're just going through the motions each time you start a new game to get to the good part.

 

[Brian Boru]

you're still going to have an ever increasing empire to manage

I remember asking in CivFanatics re Civ4 for a Province facility, where you could combine selected cities into one admin unit from mid-game.

A decent UI can make a huge diff tho—it was fairly simple in Civ4 to just pull up a chart of all your cities on one screen, and change the production queues if you wanted to. That may have been the BAT/BUG mod, I don't recall, but probably.

Devs seem to be more anxious to make UI look pretty than to have it be an UI—Civ6's is pretty dire so far, even so far as to cut off info if it overflows the very pretty box for it.

Towards the end of Civ4, I'd just set a bunch of cities to building Science or Gold—so I didn't have to deal with 'em for a while. Simple thing to add in a build in front of their Science/Gold when necessary, with just one Shift-click doing them all in the all-cities screen.

That said, I'd suffer a bad UI if I could get an interesting endgame—a UI can be dealt with, a bad game section can't.

 

[Colif]

You want an open world rts with no boundaries. A game that uses fractals or something to generate new maps so you never reach the end... reminds me of No Mans Sky (I should buy that on PC. suspect I need a controller too (I will have forgotten this idea in a week))

Opening up maps as you reach certain stages... reminds me of Sacred 2. Everything does though

 

[Pifanjr]

That said, I'd suffer a bad UI if I could get an interesting endgame—a UI can be dealt with, a bad game section can't.

This is why I spend a considerable amount of time on Dwarf Fortress. Terrible UI, but there's so many mechanics to explore I still feel like I've only really scratched the surface. Though I do often quit in the midgame still because there's too much stuff to manage, especially if my population suddenly triples with a single migration wave. Third party apps help with some of the tedium there, but I still usually get overwhelmed. And if I don't, the game eventually slows to a crawl as there are too many creatures on the map at once.

So I agree, I wouldn't mind the game consisting of a bunch of ASCII art with a convoluted UI, as long as the gameplay is interesting.

 

[ZedClampet]

I'd also love to see a strategy game where the discovery gameplay loop persists into the late game. I love the early game of Civilization, where you're still exploring the world around you, searching for resources.

Yes! This!!

You all would be disappointed in me. I always set my scouts to auto-explore. Same with ships, although that comes back to bite me when I need them and have no idea where they are.

But I was playing Civ5 and never had many cities, and I never went for a domination victory, so exploration wasn't that important except for finding oil and uranium in the late game. If I couldn't get to them, I just traded for them.

I love exploration in other games. The map in Satisfactory is flat out a masterpiece. Conan Exiles was great, too. No Man's Sky has gotten better, though I usually don't like procedural generation. I remember when 7 Days to Die first went to procedural maps and I ran along a road for 40 real life minutes without finding anything. But the absolute worst was Empyrion: Galactic Survival, which was nothing but but fields and a few trees.

 

[Colif]

Sacred 2 rewarded you for exploring too. its basically what you did for most of the later difficulties, the main quest only really existed to open up new areas to explore... Its only game I have played which had a stat for how much you have seen of the map, and you could get gear that extended your line of sight to point your explored percentage could be higher than your actual travelled distance, as you can't get everywhere, some parts were just scenery
Map revealed stat is 2nd last one on the pop out menu here, just above total amount played.

The map was hand written. It had so many little touches in it... entire villages just created for one quest. The ghosts that you save by killing a demon and turning them back to life is one such quest you don't even have to do. It had an entire swamp area with a hidden path just to get a hidden quest that asked you to go around entire world map and talk to random characters. I think I only did that quest a few times.

Its why I want Sacred 3

 

[Frindis]

A new MMO that got this and more:

• Completely player-driven economy.
• Stands and auction houses for selling your items. Some items will be more sought after depending on the area and auction houses will only have items available for that zone. This means a person can travel far away, put up a stand and sell his or her loot that the zone does not have.
• Underwater exploration more in-depth than you have in GW2, with cities & Raid instances.
• World bosses that only spawns once or twice a year, meaning there will be large guild battles to control the boss. Max dmg based, so you can't snag the boss by getting a lucky kill shot. This means fights will be more frenetic since you can't just stay put and wait for the other team to almost finish the boss.
• Being able to make your own dyes down to the minute details by mixing different colors.
• Community-designed skins on housing, weapons, and armor similar to Rust. Monthly updated skins that will be purchasable with in-game currency.
• Bounty system. If a person is for example griefing you, you can put up a bounty on his head.
• Hidden loot that makes you want to explore thoroughly. First comes first, but when some of the hidden loot is found there will be a monthly rotation with new loot spawn points. This means you will not be able to camp out in hidden places for a chance of grabbing respawns.
• A customizable world map that has absolutely nothing on it from the get-go. You and your friends have to map out the world map as you go on.
• PermaDeath in high lvl PvP zones and you will lose some of what you are carrying, kind of like what you have in Runescape. You'll have the ability to transfer some of your knowledge down your own ancestry tree. For example, you'll lose your levels, but keep stored money/traits/talent points meaning it will be much easier for you to lvl up your next character.
• Guild controlled areas in high lvl PvP zones, which means more control over special recourses and also higher risk/reward. You'll be able to caravan loot to a housing area in safe zones, but if you get raided you run the risk of losing valuable resources.
• You can enter raid instances solo if you think you stand a chance. This is nice for finding exotic materials, kiting special mobs/bosses, etc.
• No class system, instead you mix and match through an insane amount of skills. Balancing will obviously be much harder, so the devs will have to have weekly updates and community discord servers for discussing balancing with the players. This means more player interaction which I think is very important for an MMO and something we don't see that much of, unfortunately.
• Jumping puzzles is of course a must, so be ready for those scattered around the world. The housing system will also have the option for players to make their own inside housing area that other players can enjoy if invited/open for it.
• Special mobs like the silver nameplate mobs in WoW. These are random mobs that could spawn while you are grinding and they'll give you something very good.
• You can tame animals or breed them for a more customized pet with its own storage, skills, color scheme, etc. You can't go bananas with crossbreeding, but different types of wolves for example would give new customization options.

 

[Brian Boru]

A new MMO that got this

You really should've put a bit more thought into this.

 

[Zloth]

Games with no bugs.

If one did have no bugs, how long would you have to play the game to prove there were no bugs?

The main problem I have with just adding more exploration to Civ is that you're still going to have an ever increasing empire to manage.

I thought that was the reward!?

What if there was a space 4X where there were no other space empires out there? (I guess that would make it a 3X game.) You expand away, but there's no need to worry about a military at all. You'll find life out there, but nothing that's interested in space travel. Just plants, not-very-sentient critters, and weird life forms (think Lem's Solaris).

Making new space colonies won't be easy. You'll need to make decisions about whether to colonize that so-so system that's close by, or spend more time reaching for that distant system with high specs.

I would give it a series of tech trees, along the lines of Sword of the Stars. You'll have the bottom tech for a few of them, but there will also be a bunch that can only get started via finding weird stuff out in space. Once you get up into the "canopy" of the tech trees, they can start boosting each other - so maybe learning how to make your own wormholes will make research into logistics go much faster.

Goals... let's see... how about keeping personal records? Track how many turns it takes before every solar system in the galaxy is scanned, how many turns until any tech tree gets to level 10 (or whatever), biggest percent population growth over the course of any 10 turns, largest population on a single planet, and so on. The more, the better, but I would stay away from any that you can improve simply be playing the game long past the point of populating the whole galaxy. When you play a second time, you'll beat a lot of your previous records, but not all of them. Give the ability to see your Steam (?) friends' records, too, if you want some hopefully-friendly competition.