Games that you wanted to play, but never did, or will.

[PaB]

We may have done this one before ….

 

I was flicking through the tv channels last night, and Demolition Man was on one of the minor channels , “watch” or something like that.
Anyway it got me thinking about the game released on the 3do ( I don’t think it came out on anything else?) . When I first saw it , probably in edge or c&vg , I thought it looked amazing and I always wanted to give it a go. Never did.
With the advent of YouTube it became clear i didn’t really miss out on anything , but it’s just one of those games that I wish I had played, and I probably never will. 

 

what’s your demolition man? 

[Siri]

Probably Rise of The Robots or the Zelda CD-I games?

 

Games that looked cool, couldn't buy them at the time as a kid from a poor family, turned out to be wank and I probably won't even have the time to download them for a laugh.

[Qazimod]

 

Maybe Starblade for me. I have this random memory of playing Namco's rail shooter on a 3DO demo pod for two minutes in a Dixons or something. Growing up, our family skipped the janky era of CD gaming entirely (we went from the Mega Drive to the PS1) and so I never got to find out more about things like the 3DO. I feel like getting to try early CD gaming - but never buying into it - must have made an impression. Looking at it now, the game doesn't look amazing... but it did predate Starwing on the SNES!

 

Wikipedia says that it started out as an arcade game and also got released on Sega CD and PS1, so I could probably dig up a suitable emulation solution if I actually thought it would be worth playing.  

[Kayin Amoh]

Not quite the question, but I'd love to play more of Devil's Third's online. Even against bots.

 

Server shutdowns are absolute suck.

[Darwock]

Ace Combat 6. It was exclusive to the wrong system.

 

And I may as well get ahead of the curve and say Streetfighter 6 as well.

[Ste Pickford]

Tons and tons of JRPGs, that I know I'd love if I got into them, but each one is such a time commitment that I can't play them all.

[James Lyon]

I'd love to play Half-Life: Alyx but probably no chance right now that I'm going to splash out on a VR headset no matter how good it is. 

[Hexx]

Hogwarts Legacy

[crisy]

Steel Battalion with the huge ridiculous controller with a gazillion buttons. When I saw it in a magazine it utterly captured my imagination. However somehow I was under the impression it was never released over here. So I was surprised a few years ago to find out it had been but I just totally missed it, but now it probably goes for silly money on ebay which I'll never be able to justify sadly, and even more sadly maybe big life sized mech controllers just don't thrill me as much now I'm a grown up. No scratch that, they definitely do!

GioGio's Bizarre Adventure on PS2. I didn't know anything about Jojo back then, I just saw this in a magazine and thought it looked really cool. It was supposed to get a Pal release so I looked forward to it with you might say a bizarre feverishness. Only it just never came out. I even phoned up Capcom UK to find out what was going on, but a nice informed me it had been cancelled but he'd send me a parcel of information and artwork for game if I liked. But, much like the game, the package never came alas. There's probably better Jojo games out now, but I still slightly mourn not getting to play this game. 

Snatcher and Policenaughts. I just don't have the tech savvyness to emulate (my bar is seriously low!) and these games will never be released in the west. But I'd love to play them.
 

[Jamie John]

I doubt I'm ever going to go back to any pre-PS1 games games again now, unless they are extensively remastered and given QoL features to make them feel more up-to-date. I don't have any nostalgia for any games pre-PS1 because the PS1 was my first console, so people eulogising about games on the earlier Amstrad, Commodore or Sega consoles, or 80s arcade games, is totally lost on me, as is most retro gaming discourse in general.

 

I think classics from that era are interesting as cultural artefacts, and I can totally understand why they're so seminal, but I'd much rather play a modern game with modern sensibilities that's been influenced strongly by an older one, like Streets of Rage 4 instead of 2, for example, Tetris Effect instead of GameBoy Tetris, or Roadwarden instead of some early 80s text adventure.

 

To be honest, even something from the PS2 generation is a struggle nowadays. I've tried a few of the OG Xbox games that are on Game Pass, but even updated with their Series X versions, I just found them very old-fashioned and stopped playing after a few sessions. Gaming, more than any other medium, moves on so quickly, and is so iterative, that certain gameplay features and design decisions from games originally released not even that long ago can seem entirely baffling to modern players, especially if they've not played them before. See, for example, a lot of people's reactions to the Switch ports of Goldeneye and Mario 64. Even the recent Metroid Prime remaster has certain hangovers from the GameCube era which stick out like sore thumbs because they've been ironed out so much in more recent Prime-influenced games.

 

I think the one exception to this might be some SNES classics that I want to try again, stuff like FF6, Chrono Trigger and A Link to the Past, but I'd much rather play modern ports of all of these games, and it's quite telling that I still haven't got around to setting up an emulator on my Steam Deck.

[ScouserInExile]

Driveclub. Sounded really interesting, but I've never owned a PS4 and the game is long dead.

 

I'd love to play Warhammer 40,000 Darktide, but FPS games give me horrible motion sickness, so there's no chance of that.

[Fry Crayola]

The asymmetric multiplayer from Splinter Cell: Pandorra Tomorrow and Chaos Theory. I never had the means to play it at the time, but liked the idea. Now the servers are all down and while it's probably still playable, somewhere, it'll be a ballache to set up and there's plenty of other things to do instead.

 

No stealthily sneaking past my mates for me. And really, it has to be mates. Multiplayer's all about friends for me.

[jonamok]

37 minutes ago, Hexx said:

Hogwarts Legacy

 

Yep. In a parallel world where she just stayed an author and not a monster I’d have been all over this, but alas, I can’t support that shit.

[chris on the moon]

World of Warcraft. It seemed interesting at the time but I didn't have a pc capable of running it. By the time I did, things seemed to have gotten out of hand.

[Protocol Penguin]

Seiken Densetsu 3, at least the original non-remake version, whether in official or fan translation form. Found Secret of Mana too janky and repetitive and grind-y last time I tried to re-play it, and I’ve heard the reputation of its sequel is much more of the same; and I wouldn’t be able to rope in people willing to play it in multi-player for any amount of time. Wanted to play it since Super Play printed their expansive preview on it, but it’s not to be.

[Jamie John]

Also, pretty much any MMO or Live Service game I can't ever imagine myself playing, or any other game that is predominantly multiplayer. I just don't have the time to commit to just one game - variety is the spice of life - and family and work commitments make it difficult for me to say that I can be online at a specific time consistently. Plus, I don't really have My games-playing mates. COD, Destiny, FFXIV, GTA Online - anything like doesn't interest me one jot, so part of me is pleased that there seems to be a bit of a pushback against these sorts of games recently.

[fat flatulent git]

Elite (original)

Rallisport Challenge 

Forza 1

PGR 1 and 2

Crazy Taxi 3

 

(I’m never going to have an OG XBox)

[MW_Jimmy]

1 hour ago, crisy said:

Snatcher and Policenaughts. I just don't have the tech savvyness to emulate (my bar is seriously low!) and these games will never be released in the west. But I'd love to play them.

 

If you have interest in playing them you should definitely should do because they will not disappoint! Policenauts is a little tricky but Snatcher is really straightforward these days - although not ideal you can definitely play it in a web browser with a quick Google.

 

For me the games that got away never really arrived properly - so Dragon Quest X (not sure if that offline version will ever be translated) and Tempest 300 (how do I even emulate a Nuon?)

 

Im also waiting to play those Model 2/3 games again (Sega Rally, Daytona 2, Scud Race) but I think those days will come again.

[acidbearboy]

Final Fantasy XI

 

I was big into Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast at the time and a mate at work who had played PSO was singing the praises of FFXI. I was a fan of the FF series since FFVII, but I never had chance to play this - I suspect due to not having a gaming PC or online functionality on PS2. 

[Alask]

I was convinced that Pools of Radiance would have been a seminal experience that transformed my life, but despite the best pleading teenage me could manage my parents would never stump up for the C64 Disk drive. I bet it was amazing though wasn't it?

 

[Stoppy2000]

Absolutely loads of c64 games that I saw in Commodore Format. This was back in the day when getting new games was an extreme rarity. I could try them all on emulation now but it'd probably ruin my childhood ideas of what they would be like..

 

[Gabe]

It Came From the Desert on the Amiga. I always looked at this with awe in magas and enjoyed (but never actually got anywhere with) Rocket Ranger, but never had the money for this and then things moved on.

 

Even now that I have an Amiga TOSEC I've scrolled past it and debated giving it a go but I think the interface and mechanics likely haven't aged well. I never played Rise of the Shogun either, but I was less interested in that.

 

Cinemaware really did look the business back then though (even though I had no interest in the sport, TV Sports Football looked spectacular in reviews for the time and with superb presentation to boot.)

[PaB]

14 minutes ago, Gabe said:

It Came From the Desert on the Amiga. I always looked at this with awe in magas and enjoyed (but never actually got anywhere with) Rocket Ranger, but never had the money for this and then things moved on.

 

Even now that I have an Amiga TOSEC I've scrolled past it and debated giving it a go but I think the interface and mechanics likely haven't aged well. I never played Rise of the Shogun either, but I was less interested in that.

 

Cinemaware really did look the business back then though (even though I had no interest in the sport, TV Sports Football looked spectacular in reviews for the time and with superb presentation to boot.)

Cinemaware games were a day one purchase for me back in the day. No waiting for reviews. Straight in. I don’t think I was ever let down 

 

(except that time when I got my Amiga in 87, desperate to play the proper version of defender of the crown only to realise that the c64 version I had was a much better game ) 

[Sureshot]

Of some recent relevance with Blood Bowl 3 just coming out - the 1995 PC version of Blood Bowl. I'd always had a passing interest in BB, randomly looking at the models etc. in Games Workshop stores but never actually buying the TT version. I then randomly saw the PC version in a shop when we were away somewhere, but also didn't purchase that at the time. Went into my local Future Zone (or may have been EB by that stage) some time later to inquire about it and they looked at me like I had ten heads ('Blood... ball?'). Never ended up playing that version, and actually only ended up finally playing when the 2009 version came out.

 

I do enjoy Blood Bowl today, but wonder how much more I'd have been into it (or not?) had I picked up either the TT version or '95 PC version back in the day.

[Stanley]

4 hours ago, Hexx said:

Hogwarts Legacy

Innit, and Half-Life Alyx at this rate. 

[Made of Ghosts]

Perfect Dark. I was all set to buy it when it came out until my mum suddenly changed her mind and decided that a twelve-year-old probably shouldn’t be playing an 18-rated game, a shockingly traitorous volte-face that truthfully I’ve never quite forgiven her for. Now I’m 34 and I guess I COULD play it but ehhh the moment’s kinda gone. 

[Ry]

I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream. 

 

Always wanted to play this as it looked mental but never got round to it. 

 

Could probably get it to run on steamdeck but no idea how to get it to run. 

[cassidy]

5 hours ago, Hexx said:

Hogwarts Legacy

This. 

[Nick R]

5 hours ago, James Lyon said:

I'd love to play Half-Life: Alyx but probably no chance right now that I'm going to splash out on a VR headset no matter how good it is. 

 

It's not just the price of the peripheral that puts me off playing that, but also the prospect of headcrab jump scares on a screen a few inches from my eyes.

 

 

 

Speaking of expensive peripherals: there are a few music games I doubt I'll ever play now. I have a GH2 controller which covers all the Xbox 360 games (I'm dreading the day it dies!), and a RB drum kit (which I haven't been able to use in over a decade as I moved into a flat). But I doubt I'll ever get to play Rock Band 3 with a Pro Controller, or Rock Band 4 at all.

 

I suppose I could still get Guitar Hero Live; last time I checked, second-hand Xbox One controllers for that seemed a bit more reasonably priced. But they shut down the online features so I'd only have its disc songs.

[womblingfree]

I always wanted to play Smurfs on the Colecovision.