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[sambojin]

We have jet planes. I want a jet. Jets are pretty common.

For some reason, I don't own a jet.

Some people have them though.

I also want another railgun. For dual-wielding purposes. Two actually. I forget where I dropped the last one.

(I'm not sure of the rise/fall of technology/society in the Crusader universe, or if it's just a local thing where the game is set. Perhaps the distopian future semi-fell, making things like SHODAN absolutely necessary for the survivors).

[puke]

sure, you can make this stuff up to explain it away in fairly plausible ways.

But as more crossovers and sequels happen, you've got more stuff to explain away and keep track of.  Your continuity starts to fall apart. 

I'm not just making this up, or espousing a radical opinion here, this is a pretty classic problem -- especially with scifi.  It is probably best typified by StarTrek.  There is probably a TVTropes page on it.

This is *among* the reasons series get rebooted once they grow a little long in the tooth.

Also, Crusader and SS were probably never designed with continuity in mind.  Their dates are all wrong, among other things.  More likely, two studios inside the same publishing house said "hey, lets throw in a homage to the other game, just for fun" and 20 years later we're all loading the head cannons with all kinds of crazy quasi-canonical fluff.

But hey, it's fun. 

And MAN, I'd love another crusader game.  Except, with like WASD movement and mouse aim.  FFS, the controls were arcane.

[Retropunch]

I'm pretty excited about this actually. While there have been a lot of pretty rubbish reboots recently, I feel that they're finally taking heed that no one wants watered down versions of the games they loved. More importantly, SS is a pretty unique and strict formula - it'd be really hard for them to completely mess it up as long as they follow that.

Obviously, they could just be absolutely ridiculous and not realise why people loved the first two games, but I think it's unlikely given the credentials of the staff involved and that in every review/when anyone talks about System Shock its immediately clear what they love about it.

[Damiac]

I really loved the concept of SS2, and the first half of the game.  I thought it got worse and worse as the game went on, but eh...
The game definitely had a spooky vibe going on, and hiding from the enemies did have its scary moments.

However, no game could ever compete with the nostalgia version of an old game.  The version where your mind conveniently forgets that with the game's supposed myriad ways of completing various objectives, and different character types, there was one obviously best way to play, one obviously best weapon, etc.  So there is much that could be improved.  Maybe the psi character could be an actual working way to play the game (And not wrench simulator, as it was in SS2, at least on hard mode). Maybe there won't be a bug where if you played on hard mode, and spent too many skill points(or whatever they were called) you'd literally be stuck and unable to progress.

Now, I was very disappointed in Bioshock after being told it was a spiritual successor to SS2, so I hope they don't go in that kind of direction, and I hope they don't dumb it down too much, but at the same time, I don't want to have to go through the entire game recycling every potted plant just to have a chance to buy enough psi injectors that I can maybe use the powers I built my character around to fight my enemies, rather than whacking everyone with a wrench all the time.

So I remain hopeful, but I also want to throw a little cold splash of reality over the nostalgia filter.

[puke]

Does anyone remember a sci-fi game the Looking Glass Studios guys were working on after System Shock 1?

It was a "social" type game, where you were on a ship falling into the sun, and had to talk to the other passengers on the ship to find out what was going on and what to do about it.  I think reading their facial expressions to know how to interact with them was supposed to be a big part of the game.

Dont know if it ever got published, but they released a demo on one of the demo CDs that got distributed with game magazines back then...

[Krevsin]

I adore System Shock 2, but the only time I managed to complete it successfully is when I strictly adhered to the recommended upgrade path in a walkthrough. Otherwise, I'd usually just misspend my upgrades on frivolous, heat-of-the-moment things.

[Rince Wind]

Just get that Psi-wall and the final fight is a lot less stressful. And save the super hack thingies. Other than that, the pistol will see you through almost anything. I usually skill shotguns and grenade throwers as well. And hacking, the game is only half as good of you can't hack all the stuff.
This all goes for the normal difficulty,  I never played it on the higher ones.

[puke]

I'm actually hoping they leave Psi out of the third one.  Leave that stuff for the fantasy games.

[Retropunch]

It definitely had it's flaws and you pretty much needed to be spoiled/follow the 'correct' path to get through hard, but what the game was trying to attempt was amazing.

If they keep that, but manage to actually achieve it then it'd be incredible.

[GiglameshDespair]

Tentatively watching.

[Damiac]

It definitely had it's flaws and you pretty much needed to be spoiled/follow the 'correct' path to get through hard, but what the game was trying to attempt was amazing.

If they keep that, but manage to actually achieve it then it'd be incredible.

Yeah, exactly.  Early in the game, you saw all the cool options you had to build a character. It was so much cool potential, it made you want to play in all different ways and try out all these different ways to do things.  You'd play a psi guy, and it was kinda cool, but a little weak, and what? My MP(Or psi) doesn't regen? That's annoying.
Oh well, let me try a hacker.  Well this is kind of cool, at least when I can actually hack things.  But eventually splitting your points between combat and hacking abilities resulted in a watered down character, and you just felt kind of weak.

Then you'd make a straight up soldier dude.  Not only were you a great heads up fighter, you could easily sprinkle in the best tricks of the other classes. Not that you needed them, 6 points in conventional firearms, an assault rifle, and specialized ammo to kill whatever type of enemy you were going up against was better than all the tricks of the other classes put together.

My point isn't that SS2 wasn't a good game, it was really cool, it was still fun to make those different characters.  My point is that there was a lot of room for improvement, and hopefully we'll get that, rather than some regenerating health covershooter with the occasional jump scare...

[GiglameshDespair]

I'm actually hoping they leave Psi out of the third one.  Leave that stuff for the fantasy games.

Psionics have been in SS1 and SS2. There is no reason why they'd remove it for SS3, and I hope they wouldn't.

It definitely had it's flaws and you pretty much needed to be spoiled/follow the 'correct' path to get through hard, but what the game was trying to attempt was amazing.

If they keep that, but manage to actually achieve it then it'd be incredible.

Yeah, exactly.  Early in the game, you saw all the cool options you had to build a character. It was so much cool potential, it made you want to play in all different ways and try out all these different ways to do things.  You'd play a psi guy, and it was kinda cool, but a little weak, and what? My MP(Or psi) doesn't regen? That's annoying.
Oh well, let me try a hacker.  Well this is kind of cool, at least when I can actually hack things.  But eventually splitting your points between combat and hacking abilities resulted in a watered down character, and you just felt kind of weak.

Then you'd make a straight up soldier dude.  Not only were you a great heads up fighter, you could easily sprinkle in the best tricks of the other classes. Not that you needed them, 6 points in conventional firearms, an assault rifle, and specialized ammo to kill whatever type of enemy you were going up against was better than all the tricks of the other classes put together.

My point isn't that SS2 wasn't a good game, it was really cool, it was still fun to make those different characters.  My point is that there was a lot of room for improvement, and hopefully we'll get that, rather than some regenerating health covershooter with the occasional jump scare...

Psi guys could be absolute beasts if you built them right, especially melee. One shotting almost everything while invisible and doing aoe damage to everything near you was perfectly doable. Psi points didn't regen, so instead of buying ammo you bought psi hypos.

And yeah, gish characters wouldn't be as straight up powerful as pure fighters? That's... kind of expected, really.

Nothing stopped any of the other classes from using the assault rifle (which was admittedly very powerful.) The issue there was that the energy and heavy weapons (bar the grenade launcher) weren't worth the hassle, and the only reason anyone would put points into exotic would be for the crystal shard.

[Beggars` Sect]

I'm pretty excited about this actually. While there have been a lot of pretty rubbish reboots recently, I feel that they're finally taking heed that no one wants watered down versions of the games they loved.

I backed Underworld purely on a "thanks for the memories" trip, with not much hope for the actual game, but after reading a slew of their update emails thought that maybe these guys won`t mess it all up after all. Still early days, but...hmmm.

If they used their resources wisely - their work on UU sounds like it could fit right in SS model - there`s no reason why it couldn`t be a very good game. Especially now with Mr Spector onboard. I don`t need DX:HR level production values, in fact playing SS2 recently thought "wouldn`t it be great if somebody kept the engine and just made another one".

My next-level wish would be for them not just to make another SS clone though - even if it was up to the predecessors standards - but to push the envelope further, just like they used to do with every LGS release. Meaning more freedom, superior AI, emergent everything - lil` details like that, details nobody cares about anymore in AAA gaming world. In other words precisely what the new Deux Ex games should be - not just more of the (simplified) same stuff, only decade later.

Does anyone remember a sci-fi game the Looking Glass Studios guys were working on after System Shock 1?

It was a "social" type game, where you were on a ship falling into the sun, and had to talk to the other passengers on the ship to find out what was going on and what to do about it.  I think reading their facial expressions to know how to interact with them was supposed to be a big part of the game.

This sounds like Sentient, a long forgotten gem that stunned me on the first Playstation - home mostly to Bandicoots and such;) However I don`t think LGS was involved in that at all (though it sounds like "their" game a bit) - it was a Psygnosis project (another very original codeshop)

[puke]

Psionics have been in SS1

There was? 

Do you have an example?  I just reviewed a 'creature list' and didnt see anything psionic on there, and don't remember anything from the game. 

I'm super curious now, I can almost remember something in the game with mental projection powers with some sort of blueish attack, but that might just be the power of suggestion at work.

I backed Underworld purely on a "thanks for the memories" trip, with not much hope for the actual game

I like the cut of your jib.  I'm totally behind a Spector SS sequel, sight unseen, for similar reasons.

push the envelope further, just like they used to do with every LGS release

They really did.  Underworld broke the mold.  I had already played too much Dune 2 and Warcraft to enjoy C&C, but I appreciate that it took the formula in a fresh direction with much cleaner technology.  Thief, amazing.  Tera Nova:SFC was one of the most awesome little under appreciated gems.

Everything they made, really did push the envelope further.

I almost hope they decide to do something totally fresh, not resembling the previous games at all.  Flip it on its head, and do something like Endgame:Singularity where you play from the machine's point of view. 

They could pull whatever crazy stunt they wanted, and I'd buy the game because they've got the credibility and have earned the right to take a moonshot.

This sounds like Sentient

So it was!  wow, I might have to find a way to try to play the finished game.  Psygnosis was one of my favorite studios.  I just found a manual with a credits page, and nope -- no relation to the LGS guys at all.

Gosh, makes me want to play Brataccas or something...

[GiglameshDespair]

Psionics have been in SS1

There was? 

Do you have an example?  I just reviewed a 'creature list' and didnt see anything psionic on there, and don't remember anything from the game. 

I'm super curious now, I can almost remember something in the game with mental projection powers with some sort of blueish attack, but that might just be the power of suggestion at work.

Zero-G mutants were floating flesh balls that shot energy at you, and invisible mutants were, well, invisible pancakes that also shot energy at you, and turned visible when they died. Since they aren't using guns (on account of having no limbs), it would suggest psionics to me.