10 Sequels We’re (Probably) NEVER Getting
10. Mad Max
2015's Mad Max took the brawling, counter-based combat of the Batman Arkham and Shadow Of Mordor series and mixed it with a compelling depiction of the post-apocalyptic wasteland of Australia, along with fun vehicle combat. It's not the longest, deepest, or best open-world game, but it mixes the elements of the world of Mad Max and the WB Games' open-world formula well. It is also a game that did not do very well at launch either critically or in sales, but over time people have grown to appreciate the game. Despite launching with a Metacritic score of 73 on PC, 72 on Xbox, and 69 on PS4, it now sits at a user rating of 91% recommended all time on Steam. George Miller was allegedly so upset at how the game performed and portrayed his world that it soured him on future games, which is a damn shame given how over its 10-year lifespan the game has become so well regarded.
9. Dead Space
Dead Space is one of the best horror video games of all time and had one of the best remakes ever. The original trilogy sold well, and the remake was critically acclaimed when it came out in 2023. Still, despite over 40,000 positive reviews on Steam bringing it to a 91% positive rating and a Metacritic score of 87 the remake failed to meet financial targets set by EA. Once again Dead Space has been put on the back burner, and this time it may never return. Not only did EA put a 4th entry in the franchise on hold, but they are also rumored to have canned a remake of Dead Space 2. While the Dead Space remake was vastly superior in gameplay and writing, The Callisto Protocol (which was made by some of the original Dead Space team) sold roughly the same number of copies if not more. The two games were so similar that they cannibalized each other's sales, especially as Dead Space had the brand recognition, while Calisto had members of the original Visceral Studios team behind it, which is the studio that originally made the Dead Space trilogy and was summarily executed by EA’s push for multiplayer games. It's too bad that each failed to meet sales targets, ultimately killing both franchises.
8. Star Wars Dark Forces/Jedi Series
The Star Wars Jedi Knight series followed protagonist Kyle Katarn wage war against a series of baddies as he transformed from a lone merc to a Jedi Master training padawans at a new academy. In the early to mid-2000s it was the best way to experience lightsaber battles and still remains one of my favorite franchises. The series died after Lucas Arts wound down production in the late 2000s before closing its doors in 2013 (before eventually returning), and other than a remaster of Dark Forces in 2024 has shown no signs of making a return. It feels inevitable that more remasters are coming, but a new adventure featuring Kyle Katarn seems unlikely, especially after Disney killed most of the Star Wars Expanded Universe canon lore with the Force Awakens and its sequel movie trilogy- it just doesn’t seem likely.
7. Red Faction
Red Faction: Let's face it, sometimes it's fun to destroy things, and the environmental destruction in the Red Faction series was amazing. Volition did two things very well in the late 2000s and early 2010s: Make games that let us destroy everything, and make GTA ripoffs that were surprisingly good. Unfortunately for all of us, any hope of a future entry in the Red Faction series (or a new GOOD Saints Row game) was lost when Volition was closed by Embracer Group following the massive flop that was the Saints Row reboot. It astounds me that despite GTA V being 12 years old and fans craving a successor, Volition managed to stray so far from the path that they killed two classic franchises. Truly a shame.
6. Unreal Tournament
Money talks, and Epic Games makes a lot of money from Unreal Engine and Fortnite, so that’s where their focus is. It's not impossible that a new Unreal Tournament might come eventually, but Epic appears to have, at least for now, left that part of their past behind them. It's a shame because there aren't many arena shooters left, and they were once THE competitive shooters on the market before hero shooters and battle royales were all the rage. As for modern analogs, Quake Champions is the closest there is, and it’s as much a hero shooter as it is an arena shooter (also: dead game). There was an Unreal Tournament free-to-play game on the Epic Games store for a while, but it no longer appears when searched and all the servers have been shut down. Maybe someday Unreal Tournament will return, but today there's not a big market for its genre, and Epic has things to do that actually make them money.
5. Dawn of War
Dawn of War has changed so much from game to game because Relic wanted to make something special and unique. What started as "Starcraft but 40k" became a great small-unit tactical strategy game in Dawn of War II. Unfortunately, Dawn of War III strayed too far from the path when it tried to introduce MOBA elements into the game. It wasn't for a lack of effort, but after releasing to much excitement amongst fans the game died so quickly that it left a sour taste in everyone's mouth. RTSs are becoming a rarity, which makes the challenge of making one so difficult that at this point Relic, Games Workshop, SEGA, or anyone else are unwilling to take it on right now, and given how the last one went the demand for it is just not there.
4. The Evil Within
When Shinji Mikami, a legendary developer behind Resident Evil left Capcom to start his own studio in 2010 everyone had an inkling of what his Tango Gameworks studio would do- make interesting, bespoke, and really spooky games. The Evil Within was the game we thought he'd make, and it did not disappoint. The Evil Within and its sequel, The Evil Within 2, may not have lived up to the commercial success of his previous works, but they achieved a lot and were reviewed well by fans with Steam review scores of 84% positive for the first entry, and 91% for the second. However, they didn’t land as well with critics. The first game achieved a Metacritic score of 68, and The Evil Within 2 scored an 80. They found a niche but unfortunately didn’t do well enough commercially to justify a greenlight on a third game from Zenimax/Bethesda who acquired the studio in 2012. Since then Tango launched another horror title in Ghostwire Tokyo and a smash-hit rhythm action game in Hi-Fi Rush. The Evil Within games and Ghostwire have reviewed well, but not sold well. Even after Hi-Fi became one of Xbox's best first-party games ever the spreadsheet dictated that after Shinji Mikami left the studio in 2023 the studio was, to many's surprise, shuttered only to eventually saved at the last minute buy a buyout from publisher Krafton. However, The rights to Ghostwire and The Evil Within remain with Xbox. Ultimately, the games didn't sell enough to keep Tango afloat and Mikami has formed a new studio in Kamuy Inc., and it doesn’t appear that Xbox will be handing the title out for a third entry any time soon.
3. Shadow Run
Shadowrun is a classic tactical RPG series with roots dating back to the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis, and is based on the fantasy cyberpunk tabletop RPG game by the same name. The recent entries Shadowrun Returns, Shadowrun Dragonfall, and Shadowrun Hong Kong were all developed by Harebrained Schemes, a studio headed by Jordan Weisman- one of the original creators of Shadowrun. Weisman's team created some of the best CRPGs (before the advent of Baldurs Gate 3) with their Shadowrun trilogy. They didn't sell insanely well but are highly regarded by fans of the genre. What lead to it living in limbo is its publishing rights situation. Harebrained doesn't own the rights, and neither does Paradox who published the games- Microsoft does. Microsoft acquired the rights to the IP in 2004 after filing a trademark for them. Frankly, it's not out of the question for Microsoft to buy Harebrained and have them make a Cyberpunk-themed Baldur’s Gate clone (which sounds amazing), but Harebrained is working on its own original IP now, and Microsoft has so many other teams it could hand the title to. Unfortunately for fans it’s unlikely they’ll be asking inXile or Obsidian to do so even though that would be amazing.
2. Middle Earth Shadow of War
Monolith Productions and WB found a formula that worked by combining combat similar to the Batman Arkham series with a huge open world and a serviceable story. It worked so well that WB attempted to replicate that with Mad Max. However, Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War had something no other game has been able to use (since WB patented it): the Nemesis System. The Nemesis system is what turned a pretty good open-world game into a game in which you could truly create your own story. The game features armies of Orcs that, depending on how they kill you, will rank up into captains and even war chiefs gaining new traits, abilities, weaknesses, and resistances which will impact how they will hunt you, run away from you, talk to you, and even how you combat them- especially at higher difficulty levels. It lent itself to a unique gameplay loop of hunting down Orc bosses to kill them (sometimes multiple times), recruiting them to work for you, sending them on missions, and in Shadow of War even leading massive armies of orcs into siege battles to conquer enemy fortresses. Unfortunately for us all, Embracer Group acquired the rights to the Lord of The Rings games, meaning Monolith is using its system in an upcoming Wonder Woman game (which is apparently in development hell) instead of a new LOTR game. So we get the likes of The Lord of The Rings: Gollum instead of getting to hunt down big orc chiefs as an undead wraith ranger.
Dark Souls
Elden Ring exists. Bloodborne is begging for a remaster or sequel, and we should get a Bloodborne sequel before worrying about a fourth Dark Souls game. That said, Dark Souls is a complete story Hidetaka Miyazaki was able to tell. Elden Ring might be FromSoftware's magnum opus of game design, but Dark Souls is their Bible- even if none of us can completely understand its story. From the first game, all the way to the final boss fight in Dark Souls III its interlinked worlds and wibbly wobbly timeline tell a tale so complex there are entire YouTube channels and books that have been created just to speculate on what it all means. Some people have made careers out of translating the original Japanese and comparing that to the English version of the game just to see how much of the lore we lost in translation. That's what we want more of! But that tale is told. Undoubtedly FromSoft will continue to make games in the "git gud" spirit of Dark Souls, and even now are taking characters from Dark Souls and introducing them into Elden Ring thereby muddying the waters of whether or not they are shared universes., We may never get a Dark Souls 4 in name, because FromSoftware doesn’t have to, and I'm not sure they want to.
BONUS ENTRY: Sonic Adventure
While you never know what Team Sonic is going to do these days, we would LOVE to see a third entry in the Sonic Adventure series. Maybe this time they just avoid any Hedgehog-Human relationships.
Is RAZER Making a new handheld PC?
Handheld gaming PCs are becoming a very quickly growing market. It seems the Nintendo Switch and Playstation Vita gave many-a-gamer the dream of true AAA handheld gaming. While Valve did not invent the concept of a handheld gaming pc, the Steam Deck has only seen that dream grow from console gaming to being able to access your Steam library anywhere.
For a long time that market had become overpriced for what it offers while it was dominated by the likes of Ayaneo and GPD, two Chinese tech companies, the introduction of the Steam Deck brought attention to the market which is quickly becoming filled by the likes of ASUS, Zotac, Acer, Lenovo, and many more.
But, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, Razer did it before any of them. See, way back in 2013, before handheld gaming PCs were cool, and Nvidia’s Shield tablet was as good as it got for handheld gaming for PC gamers, Razer made a handheld Windows 8 gaming tablet powered by an intel processor, and a NVIDIA 640m, the Razer Edge.
It never seemed like Razer gave up on the idea of a handheld gaming experience powered by their hardware either. They’ve made several iterations of mobile controllers including the Joy-Con like Junglecat, and the clamp controller Razer Kishi line. Additionally, in January of 2023 they released a new version of the Edge, this time however it was an Android device that looked like a big phone and happened to come with their phone controller, the Kishi V2. And that’s because it effectively WAS just a big phone, with a mobile AMOLED display and powered by the alphabet soup Qualcomm Snapdragon G3X Gen 1 processor. Essentially it is the same processor that powers the S23 Ultra, but “optimized” for gaming. This, in real-world performance, means it’s about on par with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 that powers the Samsung S23 Line. Give or take a few benchmark points, and with less widespread adoption of this processor come more compatibility issues with certain games or emulators.
Fast forward to November of 2024. Razer announced on their website that “handheld mode” was coming for Windows devices running Razer cortex, their built-in software suite that gives you access to their spider web of apps for peripherals, RGB, and also game optimization options. Cortex (and Synapse) usually will auto-install when a Razer peripheral is connected to a pc via USB, such as a mouse or keyboard. This begs the question, who uses a Razer mouse or keyboard with their handheld gaming pc often enough to use cortex? I imagine MOST people with a Legion Go, ROG Ally, MSI Claw, or any other handheld pc are just using the built-in software that comes on their device. Asus ROG has armory crate, Lenovo Legion has Lenovo Vantage, the MSI Claw has MSI Center, and every other manufacturer has their own version of a control center app which all do the same thing as Cortex. So who is this for?
And why did I get the following image when I connected to my PC via the Moonlight game streaming app via my Retroid Pocket mini last night?
So if it’s a Windows-based application, it’s not for the current iteration of the edge. If it’s for a handheld gaming pc, it’s not for the Linux-powered Steam Deck, and I can’t see someone choosing to use Cortex over any of the other software already on their machine that does the same thing, this indicates to me that Razer has something cooking. Hopefully this year we get lots of handheld PCs coming to market, and competitively priced. It’s a growing market, and competition brings with it not only growth but can help keep costs from doing the same thing that kept people away in the pre-Steam Deck era: being prohibitively expensive. Knowing Razer, it will look sleek, with lots of RGB and green accents on the buttons or sticks for no real reason, and it will likely cost more than some of the other machines IF I’m right and they are working on this. More competition would only serve to drive innovation in the space, and the more handheld gaming PCs exist, the more developers will use those machines for performance targets. This could also have a net benefit for lower-powered, and older devices, being able to game for longer, at least in theory. Only time will tell.
Oblivion Remaster/Remake Coming?
According to a now deleted post a remake/remaster (it seems that’s somehow yet to be decided) of what was many peoples first Bethesda Game Studios style of RPG game is coming in the by 2025.
The post was made by a verified ex-employee of the studio alleged to be working on the project - Virtuos Studios and has since been deleted. Internally dubbed as the “Altar” project the game is alleged to be running original physics and gameplay code from the 2005 masterpiece, but all new graphics rendered in Unreal Engine five. The only other example I can really think of with a similar setup was the much-maligned “GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition” which was filled with bugs, as well as examples of the old games looking markedly better than the new “definitive” versions. This is at this stage still just a rumor, but with Bethesda’s QuakeCon only a few days away, and Xbox and Bethesda expected to have a very heavy presence at Gamescom leading up to the release of Starfield this could be a treat for those waiting on any tidbit about The Elder Scrolls VI.
Personally, I’d be interested in Bethesda going this route with other projects such as Morrowind, Fallout 3, New Vegas, or even re-releases of the original Fallout Games. While modders have done a wonderful job touching up many of these older titles, it would be great to see a little more love for the games that serve as the foundations for these beloved franchises.
As a side note, with both “Project Altar” and The Elder Scrolls Renewal Projects “Skyblivion” set to release in 2025 there could be some cannibalization between the projects. Skyblivion is a ground-up remake of Oblivion in Skryims Creation Engine, with new voice acting, fully scripted quest lines, and expansive environments, which has been almost a decade in the works along with its sister project, Skywind, which is a Morrowind remake in Skyrim’s engine. These passion projects are the kind of modding work that has landed some modders jobs at Bethesda Games Studios itself, and it would be a shame for the release of a remaster to take away from any of the well-earned glory the TES Renewal team has been working towards. Especially if “Project Altar” is anywhere near the mess of GTA Trilogy's definitive edition, or Virtuos’s last remaster The Outer Worlds Spacer’s Choice edition, which is still a buggier, more broken release than Obsidian Studios’ fallout-style space RPG from 2019.
When all is said and done it’s possible that Virtuos may release the definitive version of Oblivion, and I’m glad to see one of my favorite games ever getting some much-deserved love. I just hope it’s not a GTA Trilogy “Definitive” situation, and I am unsure how much faith I have in Virtuos. Only time will tell…
Or maybe not, because until we hear something official these are after all just rumors.
Games Worth Getting: Akane
Sometimes I want to review a game, but I just don’t have the time for a video review so I wanted to try something a little different today. A short but sweet written review of a little gem I found on the Nintendo E-shop a few months ago, and have since also picked up during the Steam Winter sale because it was more than worth the $1.29 it costs at that time: Akane.
The Steam store page description of Akane is “Akane is an arena arcade slasher. Take out as many yakuza as possible, slashing and shooting in a one-hit-one-kill fight to the death.” I’d say that sums it up extremely well. Akane is simple but skill-based. Easy to pick up, difficult to master. Its control scheme and combat are addictive, and it’s really easy to pop in, play a round or two, get your new high score or fail miserably, and move on to something else if you don’t feel like sitting there for hours. It’s a really neat time killer at worst, and a great indie pixel art game that you can easily sink dozens of hours into despite its simplicity at worst.
I have sunk more hours than I care to admit into another game with a similar art style and addictive loop, Kung Fury. Kung Fury is a simple two-button game that is again easy to play but hard to master, but this feels much more skillful and varied. There are various moves and combinations of moves that allow for some really interesting combinations. More skills are unlocked by unlocking new items by completing various challenges leading to a variety of play styles.
Akane won’t be your favorite game ever, probably, but what it is a very enjoyable experience that can be had at a very low cost. It plays great on both platforms I own it on, PC and Switch, and with the release of the Steam Deck I very much anticipate this will be one of my go-to games for on-the-go PC gaming shortly. Maybe a video review is something we’ll get around to in the future, but for now, I just wanted you to know about a game that I feel is very much worth the asking price, and is a ton of fun for very little cost. Akane is 100% a game worth getting.
-Tim
DO NOT PAY THIS MUCH FOR THIS GPU
It’s no secret to readers, listeners, and viewers of OLIP that I have wanted to upgrade my graphics card for a little over a year now. I have a Radeon RX 590. It’s not an urgent need that I upgrade, it’s fine. But I am finally in a position in my life to upgrade. Last year I waited. I waited on good deals knowing the 3000 and 6000 series from NVIDIA and Radeon were coming. I waited not knowing that the market was about to explode.
Fast forward to 2021. Anyone who has been in the market for a graphics card knows that insanely high demand (thanks pandemic), people being stuck at home getting into pc gaming, and another cryptocurrency mining boom has caused it not only to be impossible to find mid to high-end gaming cards, but if you do they will cost a pretty penny above MSRP- sometimes even double! Top-end 6900 xt and RTX 3090 cards are going for $2000 and higher.
I have signed up for auto-notifications for several sites in my quest to get my hands on an RX 6800 xt or an RTX 3080- whichever one I can find. Hell, I would settle for the slightly lower tier 6800 or 3070. Just something a bit more modern. So today as I sit at work, just as I start my lunch break, I see an email come through. It’s Newegg recommending some graphics cards to me. Curious if one of the, possibly make-believe, cards I seek has suddenly become available I open it, and I find this:
Newegg recommends that I look into a 1660 SUPER. Not a bad card, but not the upgrade I’m looking for. So I go to close the email, but the pricing of these cards catches my eye. The 1600 series of Nvidia cards were aimed at replacing some 1060s for those who didn’t quite want to spend more to upgrade to 2000 series cards. It’s not a bad card at all, however it’s not what I would refer to as either current or top-of-the-line. At release, it had a manufacturer suggested retail price of $229, some partners models costing closer to $300. Meaning that, at best, Newegg just suggested I spend $280 above the MSRP of a $230 card.
The market is what it is-I don’t blame companies for taking advantage of the market and making money. Graphics cards generally have a low profit margin, so opportunities like this are few and far between for them. What upsets me is that I was minding my own business, not really looking at cards and then Newegg had the audacity to recommend a $230 card priced at $900. That is a 390% mark up. There are people who don’t know much about components that might honestly think that the $654.99 card that is curently “$115 off” is actually on sale, and not almost three times the actual normal cost of that card. Cards will sell for what they sell for, but to have emails getting sent to potential clients encouraging them to spend ungodly amounts of cash on outdated parts is absurd! Maybe it’s all automated. Maybe they aren’t being predatory. Maybe. And if that’s the case they need to fix this immediately because this not only feels wrong, but it puts Newegg in a very bad light. I highly encourage people new to computers to research what these cards are supposed to cost before buying one this year because the road through GPU hell looks like it’s going to be very expensive for gamers.
-Tim