Games that should be remastered

Flight sims come and flight sims go, but a good space combat simulator is pretty hard to come by. Oh, there are quite a few who have tried, but most of these have ended up being burned-out hulls, drifting in the zero-G vacuum of nothingness that they had hoped to create. However, a rare couple ended up being instant classics - one with a multi-billion dollar franchise backing it, and one with nothing but some fascinating (and dizzying) gameplay that had never been seen before.

Descent

Motion sickness, here we come. I am going to go out on a limb here - no game has ever been quite like Descent, and I'm starting to think none ever will. There are few games that capture the raw, dizzying feeling of zero-G well at all, but none other that captures it quite like the masterpiece developed by Parallax and published by Interplay in 1995.

The story actually isn't a bad one, and is a depressing and frightening picture of the future. You are a mercenary pilot trained in close quarters flying, and are contracted by a corporation that's having a bit of a problem. You see, they have some mines on these other planets, which are worked largely by robots but overseen by humans. Well, the robots got a bit of a virus, and now they seem to think they're in charge. So, the corporation needs you to go in and blow up the mines by triggering their reactor cores.

Oh, by the way, there are a few survivors, maybe. If you rescue them, the company will throw a little extra money at you... it's cheaper than survivorship benefits. If not, oh well. That's just cold, man, cold. But if you think that is bad, you should see how it ends.

If the premise of raw corporate greed that unravels an even more diabolical plot doesn't put you in the pilot seat, the fully-3D environment might. Unlike regular action games where you are limited to where you can put your feet, Descent puts you and your ship in a zero-G mine. Paths, enemies, and items head in all directions, and the robots have dug some new tunnels and closed some others (and the company didn't want to detail its mining secrets to some merc), so you have no map of areas you haven't explored.

Once in game, it was easy to get motion sick. In fact, it's still easy to get motion sick playing it. It was also the first game to feature truly 3D rendered enemies and rooms, rather than using sprite-based solutions (many people falsely attribute this to Quake, which was released almost 16 months later). Though there were two sequels to the game, each one took steps further away from the core concept, and a fourth was cancelled after the new developer received little return for Descent³. Those who have played it, however, will probably understand why - the entire balance of the game was wrecked by the third version.

There have been some ports done and some huge efforts to get the source code since Interplay went under in 2004, and a couple of these (like D2X-XL aren't too bad, but there has yet to be a true update). Of every game on this list, this would be the one I most want to see - whoever could recreate it faithfully with graphics like Quake 4 (or something similar) would have a huge hit on his or her hands...

Star Wars: Tie Fighter

Let's face it - sometimes it's just fun to play the bad guy. Nowhere is this more true-to-form than our love of the dark side in the Star Wars franchise. Use the force? Oh, I'll use the force, Obi-Wan... to choke the life out of that insolent admiral who dared insult me in the.... oh wait, sorry, moving on.

Anyhow, George Lucas has never been one to miss a trick, particularly where large amounts of a piece of quality entertainment can be sold for a gold mine. The Star Wars: X-Wing franchise was created for those of us who couldn't get enough of that pilot action, but we all always wondered what it would be like to work for that other side. So, to satiate our darkest desires of flying the Tie, Lucas Arts released Star Wars: Tie Fighter in 1995 as the sequel. And it was gooooooooood...

The game does a great job of making the work of the Empire be a little more than just blowing up cute little Ewoks and stealing princesses. Instead, there are many missions illustrating the good that the Empire really did in the galaxy - there are times you break up pirate runs, help end civil wars, and even root out traitorous Imperial commanders. You are witness to some pretty neat motivational strategies, from promotions to the threat of Vader popping your head like a pimple.

Gameplay is straight-forward but diverse, with each craft that you pilot or each mission you choose greatly altering the approaches you have to take. Between the original game and its expansions, some pretty neat (and even totally new) craft are put in your control - not only will you fly your basic Tie Fighter, Interceptor, and Bomber, but also other Imperial craft. An updated Collector's Edition was introduced shortly after the original, including updated ship textures and a few new missions.

Tie Fighter is probably one of the most well-known and loved space sims in existence, but even the updated version is graphically well past showing its age. There has been some effort getting the Collector's Edition to run on Windows XP, but Lucas Arts holds its grip over the franchise with an iron fist. If only they'd give us an updated, re-released 13th anniversary...