If Beamdog Could Enhance Any Game Ever Made...
gugulug5000
Member Posts: 248
I'm curious to see what games people would like to see enhanced in the future, so let's play a game. Assuming Beamdog has access to all of the assets and could enhance any game ever made (cost not an issue either), make a case for a game you would like to see enhanced. I know some people would prefer original games, but that's not the point of this thread. Let's follow this formula:
Name of Game
Screenshot (if you want)
Tell us about the game!
Why you want it enhanced or why it should be enhanced
What enhancements/new content you would like
Let's see what games people want!
Name of Game
Screenshot (if you want)
Tell us about the game!
Why you want it enhanced or why it should be enhanced
What enhancements/new content you would like
Let's see what games people want!
Post edited by gugulug5000 on
2
Comments
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain (1996)
About: In Blood Omen you play as the eponymous nobleman-turned-vampire Kain in a quest of revenge against those who betrayed and murdered you. It is a very story driven RPG.
Why: Blood Omen is part of the Legacy of Kain series and is the only game not available on PC (it's basically abandonware on PC). It also had some issues with the publishing rights on PC and an Enhanced Edition may be able to circumvent those issues. A Playstation version of the game exists on PSN and could be ported over to potentially bypass the PC rights issues. SquareEnix has expressed interest in reviving the franchise and enhancing the old titles, and reviving one would open the door for the other 4 games in the series.
Blood Omen is similar in style to the other games Beamdog has enhanced, and is a top down RPG. It sold very well when it was released initially and was well received (around 8/10 on most reviews).
What Enhancements: This game is in dire need of an enhancement as it is clunky and has obscene load times on small things such as opening menus. The audio quality could be improved, Steam additions (such as achievements and trading cards could be added), translations/subtitles for all the dialogue, proper controller support (the other games in the series have notoriously bad PC controller support) and overall graphical improvements (UI comes to mind). Any cut content could be restored, though I don't think there's much. The game could be put on PC, Playstation, Xbox, and even has potential to be mobile friendly.
I've got a bunch of other games I'd love to add too but I'll wait and see what other people post. I can't recommend this game/series enough though.
This game made me. This game, and Sid Meier's Pirates. When I eventually picked up Baldur's Gate in 1998, I instinctually knew what to do, and that BG would be with me for a long time (and look where I am posting this!). It was like I had already played BG for the majority of my life up to that point, as indeed I had after, a fashion: Pool of Radiance had much the same vibe as BG, the vulnerability yet foolhardiness of early levels, the desperate retreats from Hobgoblins, the sheer power of the Sleep spell, the sense of boundless adventure out in the wilderness, just beyond that stand of trees or down the rabbit hole.
For Beamdog to refurbish this game, It would have to be a complete refit into the Infinity Engine, of course, but ohhhh what an amazing game it would be.
Oh @JuliusBorisov , I know this is but a fevered dream, a phantasm, a flight of fancy, but oh, if I could have my Pool of Radiance restored! (Rosebud! - there, I said it.)
Just adding a Full Party Control and bug fixing would be awesome.
Though I'm starting to dislike the idea of enhancing every game under the sun.
Arcanum is awesome, but I would be more excited if someone dug up the blueprints for the sequel and started working on that instead.
Personally I don't really want Beamdog to branch out to start enhancing other games outside the old IE and aurora engine games. The workload in maintaining their current lineup is almost more than they can handle already(yes long wait between patches have started gnawing on me as well=P)
If NwN:EE is a success, that will keep them busy for years to come as well..
I was especially surprised when Trent mentioned that they had looked into doing Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and that the only real issue was money. I would have thought it would be more complicated than that with Interplay currently selling the rights to Dark Alliance. Those games were quite successful on console and could definitely use an enhancement too (they could even add new playable characters), so if this happened in the future I'd definitely buy it.
What I'm curious about too is NWN2:EE. Anyone think that'll happen, or think Trent will be content with the original?
Name of Game: Lionheart
Tell us about the game!
In an alternative history of Earth, magic is unleashed in the world creating a really amazing world combining actual historical characters with fantasy elements. The game is based on SPECIAL (Fallout rules), which I like a lot. It was the first and only usage if SPECIAL in a fantasy setting AFAIK. It works quite well.
Why you want it enhanced or why it should be enhanced
Graphic settings. The game is unplayable today with it's limited visuals and non-existing high-def resolutions. Enemies attack you from out of sight with arrows and you have to run around and search for them. It's also ridiculously fast on modern PCs so the speed of the game need to be scaled to adapt to modern processors.
What enhancements/new content you would like
More fleshed out NPCs.
Re-written ending. Fleshed out post-Barcelone overall.
DK2
Diablo
About the games(s): DK2 is a wickedly clever, well-written (and imho, best-voiced, ever) strategy game about evil overtaking good. You play as 'the Keeper', working for 'Horny' (love this; aka the Horned Reaper), to take over multiple dungeons via stealing portal gems from the righteous heroic knights (all the while protecting your 'dungeon heart' from them), within the realm of Harmonia. You recruit various demonic units via attraction, by having your minions build certain rooms within these dungeons. For example: building a library attracts warlocks who research spells; building a foundry/forge attracts trolls who build traps, etc; building a torture chamber attracts mistresses, who torture captured heroes until they either die or come to the darkside for you; graveyards will attract vampires (whom also sleep in the coffins), etc. You can also raise the dead as cheap skeleton units that don't really require anything. You have to pay (build a treasury), feed (by building chicken coops), entertain (casinos), train (gyms) and have beds, etc. for your combatants, lest they fight and kill each other, then leave you and your dungeon permanently for darker pastures. It can be really difficult to keep all of this up, especially in the levels with very little gold to be mined and rival keepers vying for that portal gem. Plus, you get to slap around your imps.
Diablo is a hack n' slash/RPG, where you as a lone hero try to rid the tiny hamlet of Tristram of Diablo via, again, a dungeon below the town church.
Why?: DK2 is nearly 20 years old, Diablo is beyond that. Both are unenjoyable currently. Though the GOG version of DK2 is certainly playable, Diablo is most *definitely* not. Both deserve a re-boot. Planescape: Torment was unplayable for me, for a long time. The G3 mods helped a tonne, but took me like three days of trial and error to get them installed to a playable state. So yeah....not doing *that* again. If PS:T can be cleaned up, I know these can be, as well.
Enhancements: Diablo is very simplistic, so not too fussed about anything other than aesthetics. However, I'd love to see more content in DK2, since EA killed the in-progress DK3 the minute they overtook Bullfrog. Yes, there have been some (thinly veiled) clones/attempts to continue the series, and an unofficial DK3 (with Richard Riding voicing again) in the form of 'War for the Overworld'.....I just really love DK2. It's one of *those* games, that I revisit time and again, every so often. Though honestly, I'd be ecstatic with merely HD/widescreen support and substantially cleaned-up graphics. A much prettier, playable version as it is would be grand. It's great fun, this one.
The setting, “music” and graphics held me in awe when it came out. The story and the lore got me into AD&D in the first place.
Played it on a dos box 7 years ago and had to admit it didnt age well - hence the need for an ee.
The graphic and sound would (off course) get a make-over. The combat system also needs a revamp, but the rune magic and skill system where great... the story and the lore still holds.
BTW: Read an interview with Ray Mizyka from (then) Bioware. The had Ultima Underworld as an inspiration when they made BG...
EDIT! WHAT THE F'ING F!!! XCOM 2!! RELEASED IN 2016 BY FIRAXIS! NEVER HEARD OF IT!!!!!1111ONEONEONE! WANT WANT WANT WANT!
Edit 2: What can I say, Beamdog games tend to occupy my attention.
Also, I have come to the conclusion that what I actually played all those years ago was X-Com 2: Terror From the Deep. A great game in any case.
Likewise, you may want to play XCOM2 Vanilla before playing XCOM2:War of the Chosen for similar reasons. The smaller DLCs don't have nearly as much impact and don't need to be reserved for a second playthrough.
If you really like the game, also give the free Long War mods a try. There's one for XCOM:EW and one for XCOM2 Vanilla. Note, the 'Long' in Long War is no joke. These campaigns can easily be four times the length of a regular campaign.
And if that's not enough, Julian Gollop, the mind behind the original XCOM, is working on Phoenix Point, which is a successor in all but name: https://phoenixpoint.info/
At the start of each Firaxis game, you can only bring 4 soldiers on a mission, and while you can quickly upgrade this to 6, you can never bring more than 6. It makes the game focused around a smaller team of elite soldiers, but each soldier death has a major impact on your campaign.
The Long War mods modify this by allowing 6-8 soldiers on most missions, and as much as 12 soldiers on certain critical missions. The Long War mods also force you to work with multiple squads at the same time, whereas XCOM:EU/EW and XCOM2 Vanilla only require backup troops for when your soldiers get wounded/killed. XCOM2:WotC also forces you to use a wider roster.
While Phoenix Point is created by the guy that created the original UFO game, it will lean on some of the Firaxis Reboot features.
Arguably the best in the series and it did not even get published on the NES which was the main platform for the series.
Enhancements would be improved graphics, a third player character, a few extra levels in a world location and a few levels in the end castle.
This game is truely epic.
'EE'
It was made in about 1998 by Spiderweb softwares (I don't remember the exact name of the company, but it's something like that). It was the first RPG that I'd ever played and I liked it. It's got a lot of depth in the mechanics and gameplay. The character customisation options are excellent. And the story too is great.
(I'm afraid I cannot provide a screenshot at the moment as I'm far away from my PC.)
The original interface is somewhat chunky and several things can be improved and enhanced. Graphics, Interaction with NPCs and a little of the gameplay mechanics are the main things that need improvement. Even then, it's a very enjoyable game!
And oh yes, if an Android version could be made as well, it would be just great!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_II
The first RTS game I ever played, and a really good one. I played the game before seeing the classic movie, and since then I've replayed the game a lot of times on my old AMIGA 500 and seen the movie 10 times (though it was many years since now).
The game is an epic tale of several great Houses battling for control of one single planet which has the extremely profitable and needed resource "spice" used for space travel. It also hosts sandworms, large enough to eat entire trucks, the same creature which has then been copied numerous times in other settings, like in Star wars (zil worm IIRC?) and Mass effect.
In all aspects it set the standards in RTS games for many, many years ahead. It was undoubtedly the inspiration for the best RTS game ever made, Command & Conquer 1, which is very similar in every aspect, only better.
I doubt younger players would get into this game, but it would have been pretty cool to see multiplayer leagues form around this game, maybe even with a consistant world of Arrakis where you would fight it out in pure real time. That would have been epic (and probably undoable, but one can dream).
It had a remake in Dune2000, and then later had another version, one in 3D.
I was personally pulled more by the Warcraft and Starcraft series than by the Command & Conquer and Tiberian Sun series, but the original Dune2 will always be remembered!
Though I think a consistent multiplayer would be something entirely different.
Either way, it's way too old to be enhanced. It would have to be remade, which is an entirely different beast.
https://www.gog.com/game/avernum_2_crystal_souls
Though, I am not quite sure if the graphics actually are any better, and the game still suffers from that you very rapidly get overpowered as you level. In fact, as I remember, you needed more levels to be basically untouchable in Exile 2 than you do in Avernum 2.
Edit: Also, it used to exist for Android, but then they pulled the plug... just like you can't get Shadowrun Hong Kong for android and SoD still isn't on android despite BD claiming they have every intention of getting round to it. Problem is, android isn't a very profitable platform, it seems.