Games That Don’t Exist Yet, But Should!

Welcome to 2014, everyone! I'm not too good at making New Year's resolutions. I'm even worse at sticking to them. But here are a couple of ideas that I can only hope find their way into some developer's list of utterly amazing things to do this year. These haven't been made yet, but their arrival would make the world a much better place to game in.

Marvel vs. DC Arena

Art by bennyfuentes

Try to picture a MOBA game where, instead of the Scourge versus the Sentinels, you have The Avengers duking it out with the Justice League. Or the Guardians of the Galaxy against the Lantern Corps. Or the X-Men versus the Doom Patrol. In lieu of a forest split down the middle by a river, you have downtown Manhattan and its wide avenues as a battleground.

Sounds downright glorious, doesn't it?

Unfortunately, it's likely that nobody is making this game for the same reason a crossover movie hasn't: there'd simply be too much red tape to claw through to make an official video game. As for an unofficial version, I find it utterly unbelievable that the modding community hasn't produced anything yet! What gives, guys?? (If there is a mod like this out there that I missed, please don't hesitate to point me in the right direction!) At least DC has taken a step with Infinite Crisis. No news on the Marvel side of things, however.

X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter 2

Art by Dave Seeley

… or whatever you'd call the next installment of the critically acclaimed Star Wars space combat simulator.

World of Tanks and War Thunder have shown that making games piloting machines of war easy-to-play shouldn't have to come at the expense of complexity.The slick control scheme of both games makes the barrier of entry considerably lower. However, there's still a lot of depth to be found by those who want to dig deeper in order to really excel. It actually helps to read up on proper tank warfare or practice dogfighting maneuvers because the design and physics of the games reward playing smart.

With the licenses in Disney's hands, it'd be great to see them put those nearly unlimited resources to good use by making a true successor to the title. They recently announced Star Wars: Attack Squadron, so let's hope whoever's in charge has combed through the old catalog!

MechCommander Touch

Screenshot thanks to PC Gamer

MechCommander and its sequel: two games from my younger years that still hold a special place in my heart. The Baldur's Gate games got a reboot for mobile devices; why not this title too? The intro cinematic of the first MechCommander even shows us how it can be done! Hammy acting aside, I've always found it really cool how the commander issued orders using a stylus.

When I first heard that NVIDIA was going to release the Tegra Note, this was the first thing I imagined when I thought of playing games with it. I've always been interested in how developers might explore the full potential of touch controls, so let it be the MechCommander reboot that ushers in a new age of strategy gaming via stylus.

While waiting for it, you can enjoy the old games for free by downloading them here and here.

Half-Life 3

From Steamppowered

I don't think this one needs to be explained. JP once told me that every time someone mentions HL3, Gabe Newell pushes the game back a year. I laughed at first, but then felt really sad immediately after. Because I don't want to depend on cryogenics to have to play this game.

What game do you wish game devs would start making? Exercise your optimism in the comments below.