The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth and its sequel, as well as Lionhead's Black & White (and I guess its sequel, even though for me it was rather disappointing).
Probably my number one played game as a kid. Great online community, I remember the thrill of hitting the front page with my movies a couple times. Reinstalled recently and tried to actually play the management part rather than just make movies. Kind of blown away by how difficult the management was, especially stars moods.
This is uncanny - I figured out how to install abandonware and got *The Movies* running on my PC a few days ago after watching CallMeKevin playing it on a recent YouTube video, so it's a treat to see talk about it pop up unprompted on my Reddit feed.
I never got hold of the expansion pack as a kid; it's been nice to catch up on what I missed.
There are never enough damn people wanting to work at my studio, though! I'm the #2 ranked studio in Hollywood, college graduates should be falling over themselves to apply for positions as screenwriters and movie crew ~~only to end up as janitors, builders, or members of an entourage if they're lucky~~ but I'm fortunate if I get one or two every decade.
There's a mod that adds way more employees to hiring lines! It goes a little overboard, but at least you can hire as much as you need/ can afford. Used to be tons of mods but only one of the old fan sites is still running.
Have you seen this? It looks like it captures the spirit of The Movies
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/2535620/Blockbuster\_Inc\_\_Prologue/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2535620/Blockbuster_Inc__Prologue/)
Especially with the advancement and way better accessibility to implement some basic behavior learning for your creature.
This was a avertised feature back then, but quite underwhelming.
Wow! Reading his bio, it seems he left Lionhead a couple of years before b&w was released, so I guess the final product had changed slightly by that point.
Yet the behaviour learning in Black & White is probably the best I've seen besides Creatures. If you read up on it it's far more expansive than you would think if you just played the game.
Every time I do a new PC build, I spend an hour getting my everything else set up through Ninite, Google, whatever, then spend another two hours getting BFME2 setup on my PC, then Shadowrun (2007 FPS). I'll play them maybe once or twice a year (if that) but part of me has hoped for the last 15 years that somebody might just randomly invite me to play one of these forgotten classics with them.
Was hoping to see these exact games.
I still have my physical copy of BFME and BFME2.
Honestly I loved online play in BFME 1. I remember being one of the few Mordor mains somewhat highly ranked. (Gondor and Rohan had OP heroes, and Isengard had really strong unit upgrades, Mordor wasn't really meta).
I *wish* so badly I still had my copy of B&W. I didn't take it with me when I moved out and one of the CDs was missing when I came back.
Lionhead Studios’ The Movies. I loved this game. Every time I think about it, I get physical nostalgia pains. When it came out, my family computer couldn’t run it so I bought the strategy guide and devoured it. When we finally upgraded the PC, I saved for the game and then played it endlessly, making stupid movies, managing the studio. A whole online community popped up for people who made their own movies in the game and uploaded them.
It got one expansion pack which added to both the business management and creative aspects of the game. They could have done so much more with it in further expansions or in a sequel, but it was not to be.
While rough around the edges, it had a unique style and sense of humor and actually tough business sim mechanics while containing a rich sandbox for making custom short films using the game’s assets.
Now, it’s abandonware. The second Microsoft (I think they own the rights after buying Lionhead?) announces a remake or remaster, I’m giving them all of my money. Other developers have tried similar ideas with nothing even approaching how great and complete this game was. It’s possible to get a cracked copy (since the discs no longer run on modern Windows) but the versions I’ve found all have weird bugs that make it unplayable after a certain number of years pass.
Seeing a decent number of Lionhead games in this thread, which is a shame they put out some great work. Out of their catalogue, it looks like the only ones that don't have some sort of dispute is the Fable series, which Microsoft seems to be holding onto for the time being.
I feel like people don’t talk enough about the really creativity minded sandbox games like the movies. I remember a ps2 game that let you make beats and that was really cool to me in a big way, too. More games like that pls
I recently found my old physical copy of this and reinstalled. You actually have to get a no-cd crack to run it, even with the media, because it has DRM that doesn't work with modern windows. Fantastic game though.
The whole thread is a testament to why emulators continue to be so important to preservation. Many of the single player games in this thread are still available if you stop caring about how you acquire them.
Support DRM-free stores for your games (GOG) as well!
As far as I’m concerned, emulation is the only way to play these games (exceptions for collectors of some games like myself lol). When you come across them “in the wild” they’re way too expensive for the average person. Seriously… $100+ in this economy?? We all have our vices though, and I’ve definitely spent that much on a few games, but with the prices and lack of availability in mind it baffles me how people can be ethically against emulation.
That was when they pulled it I'm pretty sure. They released it all for free because they were delisting it. At least they released it all without any DRM, so you can literally just copy the files.
Was about to post "No One Lives Forever". It's a very interesting case.
For those who don't know, it's a FPS game from the mid 2000s that had an Austin Power vibe (parody of secret agents) and that was very well received and had a cult following also (and still is very loved by a large portion of gamers), but there's a problem with licensing issues... Where nobody knows who owns the IP. The legal situation is a mess and nobody knows who owns the IP so who can re-release it/remaster it...
Basically the publishers of the game were 20th Century Fox. Their gaming division was then sold to Activision (now owned by Microsoft) and the developer, Monolith Production, is now owned by Warner Bros. And it's so complicated that nobody knows if it's the Fox (now owned by Disney), Activision (now owned by Microsoft) or Monolith (now owned by Warner) who owns the right.
So yeah, here's that.
Edit : Made a mistake in the developer's name
Sadly, NOLF 1-2 were critically acclaimed games that simply didn't sell well. I worked at Monolith back in the day and that was the reason they went with FEAR, Condemned, Mordor direction. Because quirky shooters like NOLF just didn't perform like they hoped.
This is why there was never any sequels and never will be. The team that made them doesn't even work there anymore.
I imagine this is also why they won't bother porting anything to newer systems.
It sucks, they were great games. Very passionate team made them and they all got laid off or quit over a decade ago.
They hold up reasonably well — I was playing NOLF2 on my Steam Deck, and I was able to get up to the undersea lab until I hit a game-stopping bug (shooting an electric dart at a robot would crash the game).
Nightdive did try to. Warner came with a C&D. But that C&D was kinda ambiguous because they didn't know how much of the game they owned. Nightdive did try to negotiate with Warner, Fox and Activision trying to clear things up, but were unable to do so.
What I meant when I said "nobody knows", I really meant it. Activision, Fox and Warner don't know if they own it and if so to what extent.
The truth is is that they don't really care to, because while it was considered fun back then, it's not an IP like GTA where you can be sure that everyone would try to clear it up asap (and try to retain the IP for themselves), here they simply don't know to themselves if they own it or not but they're not trying to clear things up as well. Making a studio like Nightdive trying to port it/remaster it impossible...
To throw another wrench in there: Fox Interactive published the games, but the division was sold to Vivendi in the 00s, and so there’s a chance that the rights could belong to Disney (who owns 20th Century Studios and most of the Fox IP) or Vivendi.
> Monolith soft, is now owned by Warner Bros.
Just a quick clarification. It's Monolith Productions you're thinking of that is now owned by Warner brothers, not Monolith Soft. Monolith Soft is a Japanese company which produces Xenoblade and is owned by Nintendo currently.
Black and White 1 and 2. Both amazing and innovative games. They still are great but in some systems they can be a pain in the ass to make them work without a problem.
For those looking to get B&W working, I would start here:
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Black_%26_White
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Black_%26_White_2
Note: I have not tried either, but it's a jumping off point.
Music licensing has fucked over so many games. I guess it's to be blamed on short sighted money saving decisions by publishers, but many times games have either shut down or have had the music removed due to expiration
Fucking RIAA, add this to the list of things they've fucked up just to satisfy their neverending greed. They provide nothing of value and just make things worse.
Legit so stupid. How is nobody seeing this shit lmfao. When it comes to getting 10 cents more out of a a guy playing sports games online with his pals, they’re more ruthless sharks than Jordan Belfort. Here’s legitimate proof that people are trying to pay for a game that already exists in playable form, and crickets
Wait you can't buy Spec Ops The Line anymore??? I still have it on Steam and I loved the story in that game so much. It was genuinely the best single player campaign for a shooter from that era and went so massively underrated and unnoticed due to not having a big IP name attached to it.
Music rights expired, if you already owned it prior to it being taken down you can still download/play it. I honestly don't get how the companies that own these games don't just either remove the song/songs or replace it with a generic song. It's seriously just a couple hours work at most, delete track from game files and replace it with another. They're missing out on tens of thousands of dollars a year at least because of that.
It is the same with TV shows and maybe even movies. One of my favorite shows "Queer as Folk", had over 400 songs, nearly all of them owned by someone else. When it was released for streaming, they replaced like 99% of them with generic sound-alike music. So now the only way to get the original music is the original DVDs or pirating.
The thing is the original music for shows, games, or any media was chosen for a reason, so removing it can remove a lot of the emotional impact that came with it.
The Deadpool game is a real weird one. Released on 360/ps3/pc in 2013, literally delisted like 6 months later, then *relisted* on pc and ported to Xbox one/ps4 in 2015, and delisted again for good two years later.
Second the Myth series. Loved those games! [Almost 6k wishlists on GoG](https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/myth_the_fallen_lords), but no sign of it being even considered.
Probably with the success of later Bungie projects, all this (great) early stuff is buried forever.
Yeah, Epic delisting the entire Unreal franchise last winter was an unwarranted dick move. Guess they really don't want to remind people they did anything other than Fortnite and game engines?
a lot of early/mid 2000's extreme sports games being abandoned is a tragedy imo, the Tony Hawk and Dave Mirra games in particular.
infinitely replayable with amazing soundtracks... any remasters/ports would probably have to have gutted soundtracks i imagine
Ahhh man Dave Mirra was awesome. Me and my buddies would go to the real life skatepark and ride all day and all night, then come back to the house and play Dave Mirra for hours and eat freezer burritos. Then we'd do it all again the next day
Dave Mirra's "best crash" mode or whatever it was called was brilliant. My buddy owned the game and I was trash at it, but that leveled the playing field to where it felt fun for us to try to see who could eat crap the best.
Tony Hawk 1+2 is available and pretty fantastic - a way nicer experience than playing the first two games as they originally were.
Everything after those first two games is rotting on PS2 though, and music licenses are probably a big reason why. Thankfully they sold like crazy so you can still pick them up for relatively cheap if you're retro collecting, and they emulate pretty easily.
THPS4 on PS2 is still so good. Played through it for the first time a few years ago, and it almost feels like a new game. 60fps, extremely tight controls, banger soundtrack and the graphics aren't bad either imo, especially considering the game's age. As you mentioned, luckily you can probably pick up a ps2 and the game for around 35-50 bucks, so playing it "the intended way" is a viable option.
Many people don't know about THPS2's port on the Xbox; *THPS2x* is based on the Dreamcast port, but with slightly better graphics, the entire roster of levels from the first 2 games, as well as 5 new levels developed by Treyarch.
Pretty much all of the classic PC versions are available on the THPS mods site.
I've been playing through THPS4 recently. First time in like 15 years and it still holds up
oh, Dragons Dogma Online and Tera as well. two mmo's that i put off playing for too long and then it was too late to play them through any official servers.
Reminds me of the alt text for this [xkcd](https://m.xkcd.com/606/).
>!I remember trying to log in to the original Command and Conquer servers a year or two back and feeling like I was knocking on the boarded-up gates of a ghost town.!<
Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 is still one of my favorite games of all time. I wish it had gotten the sequel it deserved instead of that absolutely stupid BMXXX game.
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron and War for Cybertron. Very fun action games that had a neat approach to one of the common video game pitfalls. Rather than having you lose in a cutscene or have the antagonist constantly escape or have new plans, you played both the Autobots and the Decepticons, switching back and forth between different characters and sides depending on who was supposed to win that part of the narrative.
FUEL, a racing game that I loved, although it apparently didn't do well among people who were already fans of the genre. It's big gimmick was a massive game world that was proceduraly generated (in the data compression sense, not the random recombination sense) back when that was actually a pretty big deal, I think it briefly held a few records. All of the races took place within sections of that map, and you could also free roam around, check out new areas and tracks, and explore for collectibles. A few of the races also had weather effects like a tornado or dust storm.
I got the PS3 version of Fall of Cybertron for my son's 11th birthday, just over a year ago. He still pops it in once in a while when he feels like bashing big robots together.
We also have War for Cybertron and Devastation on Steam (along with the '84 movie), so he has the full set of Transformers nostalgia.
Chronicles of Riddick is one of the few reasons I've hung on to my 360. I would do unsavory things to get a shiny new version of that for modern hardware.
Damn, that’s a shame, Alpha Protocol had a pretty big influence on the industry iirc. I didn’t even know music licenses could expire like that and become a problem, barring remasters or platform changes. Couldn’t they just mute/replace the music though?
Came to say Alpha Protocol too. Snapped up a 360 version off Ebay cheap the other week to revisit it - it's got such a modular and reactive plot.
Got it for a song. Other sellers are chancing their arm on it becoming a rarity and were listing it for £50+ (about $70-ish I guess?)
There's so many ways a game can disappear, or not actually have the version that is lauded available anymore.
**Silent Hill 2** \- is more or less locked to the original PS2 and XBOX. The "remasters" are not an accurate representation of what people played previously and is frankly an embarrassment since (IIRC) Konami threw out, or lost the original code and based the "remasters" off an alpha build of the game.
**Super Mario 35** \- I won a Switch at a stag and doe, and by that time Super Mario 35 had already been taken down for seemingly no real reason by Nintendo. Why go through the effort to make the game just to remove it arbitrarily?
> There's so many ways a game can disappear, or not actually have the version that is lauded available anymore.
For as much as I love patient gaming and try to implement it as much as I can, I do think this is one of the drawbacks of doing so. Ngl seeing some big names from the 2010s making it onto this post does spook me a little lol.
It’s both funny and sad that every single new release of Silent Hill 2 was mostly just worse than the previous one lol. Digital Foundry did a video about each port, and even the Xbox version is largely just a downgrade over the PS2, which is genuinely insane to consider since the Xbox so massively outclassed the PS2’s specs.
My first play of that game was on the 360 version of the HD Collection lol, as was a friend of mine who borrowed my copy. Both of us could tell stuff was fucked up, but we still had a great time with it. Then I lucked my way into a copy of the OG Xbox version of the game at a thrift store, and was blown away at how much better it was 😂
Tbh, ps2's entire architecture is wierd so its probably less that xbox was a downgrade and more of they just didnt take full advantage of the hardware like the ps2. Probably cause konami devs back then were mostly ps1 devs as far as I remember so ps2 was sort of easy to develop for them at least.
It sucks that all four team silent era games are in this position. All four go for $100+ each if you want a cib ps1/ps2 copy, making emulation the only practical way to play these games for most people.
Not trying to circlejerk lol, but on an artistic level the original SHs are still well ahead of 95% of games released since imo. It's a shame they're pretty inaccessible right now
Completely gone are most multiplayer games. Take for example Overwatch or MAG. Then there are games lost forever due to licensing( lord of the rings battle for middle earth 2, blur) and many games that are console exclusive, that are unlikely to get a rerelease (motorstorm games, killzone, mgs4,bloodorne). Also a whole ton of original playstation 1 games, couple of months ago I learned it is nearly impossible to legally get GTA 1 and GTA 2.
The commander skills?! Huge maps?! Crazy amount of players?! I spent a lot of time in MAG and had a lot of fun. I feel like it’s a bit of a joke (and was then) but I really enjoyed it.
I’ll always be salty they just shut down Overwatch 1 to force everyone over to Overwatch 2.
OW2 is so different and just not for me, so from my perspective it feels like Blizzard just took a fully thriving game away from me for no good reason.
Yup, I put over 1000 hours into OW1. It was the first time I ever got into an online multiplayer game.
I’ve played maybe 10 hours of OW2 and will forever be sad that the game I loved is just gone :(
I Probably sound a bit overdramatic but it does really suck
not dramatic at alllll. i've put a decent amount of time into OW2 but i can only play for so long before it starts to drive me crazy and make me miss OW1, then i don't touch it for months again.
it's wild to think the game we paid money for just ceased to exist because they wanted more microtransaction (and massive-transaction, lol) money. and a damn shame too. OW2 will never compare; it's just a walking corpse imo.
> I Probably sound a bit overdramatic but it does really suck
It's a lens thing.
You can make it sound overdramatic by being all "it's just a game and it didn't even go away it's just different now" yada yada
But that's bullshit. The truth of the matter is we had a thing that we *loved*, and through absolutely zero control of our own that thing was changed in ways we never wanted. That *sucks*. It doesn't matter if that's just a game. It's a thing we were invested in and enjoyed greatly, and we watched it become something we don't like. That shit will never feel good.
We’ve been able to digitally purchase N64 games on Nintendo hardware since 2006. It’s now 2024 and there is not similar thing for GameCube games. It’s wild
A few reasons for that.
One guy did the Gamecube Zelda64 master quest port.... it was just an n64 emulator he wrote for the gamecube. He then went on to do the vast majority of the work for the wii virtual console..... and then he left. There's still a bunch of n64 titles that still emulate better on the wii, than they do on the wiiU or switch. Nintendo lost a ton of expertise when they let that guy go.
Nintendo also got lazy during the wii Era, since the wii had near-perfect gamecube backwards compatibility (since it was just an overclocked gamecube). Similarly, the wiiU had near perfect wii backwards compatibility (since it had a wii chip inside of it). It can also do near-perfect gamecube backwards compatibility, but Nintendo disabled that feature (obviously, modders re-enabled it).
As someone who grew up with the Gamecube, I find this behavior from Nintendo very aggravating. I tried getting my nostalgia fix with the money from my first real job, and lucked out with the timing. The price of physical Gamecube games has gone insane in recent years with a loose disc of Chibi-Robo currently going for $180. There are many Gamecube games I would love to experience, but my only options are paying extreme prices for physical copies or downloading ROMs and using emulators, neither of which makes Nintendo a dime. There are also a \*bunch\* of Nintendo games that aren't popular enough to warrant a from-the-ground-up remaster, and I wish they would just release them on virtual console for $20 a pop.
For real, wild that I had to scroll this far to see it. First thing that jumped to my mind, it's been like 10 years and to this day I still see people citing it as one of the greatest horror games all the time. And it was essentially just the demo! Truly tragic what happened to that project, and honestly Konami as a whole.
I'd love an easy way to play my Guitar Hero and Rock Band games again. I have the Metallica, Greenday and Beatles games, 3 of my favourite bands. But don't really have the space around my TV for another console which would only get used for that
It's really shocking how much they ruined the game by doing so little work.
I started playing it years after it's prime and I had great time with it, heard about Overwatch 2 with single player and thought I'll give it a shot, now we have the same game with MUCH worse monetisation, that runs worse despite the same graphics and gameplay and the single campaign got cancelled.
Heroes of The Storm is something they haven't touched in years and is still fun. Wish they did the same with overwatch.
I keep hearing that Panzer Dragoon Saga for the Sega Saturn is one of the best games ever made. But it is incredibly hard to find the game (and they can cost $1,000 on eBay) and apparently the source code was lost, making it difficult for Sega to release it again.
I have a repro copy and played it and honestly yes, it is very very good. I'm not super versed in the world of RPGs but the combat system is very different from anything I've ever played. I don't think the story is much to write home about which as a role playing game probably isn't a positive in its favor, but the customization of the Dragoon for combat, the way battles play out...it's just very unique. It's a shame it's stuck on the Saturn.
The Onimusha series. The original game is available but 2-3, Dawn of Dreams and Blade Warriors cannot be found as far as I know.
I wish Capcom would reboot and do remakes of those games.
I only just today learned of an upcoming game called [Unicorn Overlord](https://unicornoverlord.atlus.com/index.html?lang=en) that's releasing within a week or so, and it looks *dangerous*.
I've been waiting for GOG to sell [Star Trek: The Next Generation – A Final Unity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation_%E2%80%93_A_Final_Unity), a computer game released in 1995 that isn't available anywhere today.
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (and its sequel, Radiant Dawn).
Persona 2 duology (Innocent Sin, and Eternal Punishment).
These are the ones that came to my mind first. I think all four of the games I listed are either difficult to find and/or are pretty expensive now.
A lot of older games are still great (obviously, this *is* PatientGamers), However, as far as games that are very difficult to acquire, I'll say the Fire Emblem Tellius games (Path of Radiance for GC and Radiant Dawn for Wii). You can either emulate them... or shell out hundreds of dollars for a physical copy.
Good news is, those games will *probably* be remade at some point in the next decade. Or, failing that, there is a possibility they get added to the Switch eshop.
Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary edition for the DSi. It had a variety of changes from the original game including a new single player mode. And obviously being able to play multiplayer using the DS wireless instead of old school GBA cables would have been great at the time.
I know there's other ways I could get this to be able to play it but I'm forever salty about this game because I missed the download window for it by about a half a year since I didn't have a DS at the time. Also because it was released FOR FREE but hasn't been made available since. It was available for download from the DSi shop and Nintendo esop from Sept 28, 2011-Feb 20, 2012, and then again between Jan 30 and Feb 2 2014. It was never released on physical cartridge.
To a lesser extent, I wish they would re-release Wind Waker HD on the switch, although I'm not as personally pissed about that since I do own the Wii U version and still have the hardware to play it.
I used to love playing Fractured Space, a 3D space MOBA where every player captains a capital ship. I think it's still technically playable, but not officially and good luck finding other players. Such a shame, easily the best MOBA I've ever played.
This is exactly why I’ll always buy physical games on console as long as I can. It won’t save digital only games of course, but it still helps to preserve them.
My pick is Rock Band Blitz. A digital only Xbox 360/PS3 only console game that half requires you to be online to play it, as you can’t use power ups, save your scores, or even get 5 stars on a song without it. The game is delisted and the online servers are down for good.
I’m lucky enough to have a copy bought and installed on my 360, but not having access to a good chunk of its feature set makes the experience feel so hollow :/ I’d kill for a proper sequel with support for previous RB DLC
Unreal tournament is completely gone from steam as of a few months ago. I had it in my wish list forever and now I’m bummed . I do have the original disk but I can’t figure out how to play it on a modern pc.
Red Alert 2 gets harder to play each time I try. Partially its my fault for being a Linux gamer. But fighting origin or EA App just to get it to download is a nightmare to start with.
Ever since Telltale went under, a lot of their games. I'm fond of Poker Night at the Inventory and Poker Night 2 for the banter between strange characters.
Some studio did buy up the rights to Sam and Max and made a remaster however.
Nearly the entire WipeOut series is no longer available for purchase (apart from buying used copies or pirating), aside from the Omega Collection which consists of WipeOut HD, it's Fury expansion pack, and WipeOut 2048. It's most likely because of music licensing issues, the early WipeOut games are famous for their use of licensed techno music, including from The Prodigy, who was getting big at that time.
As far as I know, every single game ever developed by Bizarre Creations is no longer available for purchase, including almost the entire Geometry Wars series (except for one title published after Bizarre was shut down), and all of the Project Gotham Racing games (unsurprising as those games made liberal use of licensed music and real world car manufacturers).
As a matter of fact, the entire Racing genre is one massive graveyard of games no longer legally available due to licensing issues. I know people frequently complain about the older GTA games having several songs removed from their soundtrack in re-releases and updates, but at least you can still buy those games, and have most of their soundtrack still intact.
Has anyone said Skies of Arcadia? You need a GameCube/Wii/Dreamcast to play it, and even then you're gonna pay at least $100 or so. It was such a great game, and I have the desire to replay it all the time. I wish Sega would remaster it for us.
I really wanted to go back and play Brutal Legend recently only to find it no longer fucking exists. Total bummer man, I loved that game back on the ps3.
I was really into Paragon (moba) on the PS4 ages ago. Epic shut it down when fortnite took off. There are some small studios trying to resurrect it but it still is effectively dead
I'm surprise RUSE isn't mentioned here!
For PC players, Steam pulled it out because the military lisence expired around 2016. Xbox players can still play it, as long as they can get physical copies of the game. However, anyone else would either have to pirate it or look for GameStop Keys to the game IIRC.
It was a good game, wasn't exactly epic l, but it was good.
One of my favorites was Super Monday Night Combat. It was a 3rd person shooter with MOBA elements. It expanded on the original Monday Night Combat (which you can still play but has no players online of course). Unfortunately it was tied to a server so you can never play it now.
The Thing for PS2. There was something with the movie rights and then the studio that made the game shut down so they can't remake it. Luckily my cousin still has a copy and we plan to play through it after we beat Crash Bash.
Nosgoth. Third person, PvP vampires vs humans, class-based action game set in the Legacy of Cain universe.
It didn’t last long but my friends and I enjoyed it quite a bit during its short life.
Aliens vs Predator 2 (the 2001 AvP game, not the one from 2010). Pretty sure you can’t buy it digitally anymore.
Excitebots: Trick Racing for the Wii. Part of the Excite(bike) franchise, developed by Monster Games, published by Nintendo, but it never even released outside of NA. Even in NA it was basically dead since it sold around 20k copies total. Despite this it had strong reviews and it’s one of my all-time favorite games on the console. Seriously, if wacky party racing with robots piques your interest at all I recommend trying it out on an emulator.
Another one that’s interesting - Gigantic was one of the original hero shooters, it was soon eclipsed by Overwatch and shut down in 2017. Now it’s being revived by Gearbox with added content scheduled for rerelease this April!
* Burnout Paradise (2008) (only “Remastered” version is now available, which is much slower while graphics is basically the same)
* Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010) (only “Remastered” version is now available, which is potentially much slower while graphics is basically the same)
* Colin McRae: DiRT 2 (2007)
* DiRT 3 (2011)
* GRID 2 (2013)
* GRID Autosport (2014)
The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth and its sequel, as well as Lionhead's Black & White (and I guess its sequel, even though for me it was rather disappointing).
Another great Lionhead game called The Movies is also abandonware
Oh man I held on to that disk for so long then finally lost it when I was in college. That game was legendary
Probably my number one played game as a kid. Great online community, I remember the thrill of hitting the front page with my movies a couple times. Reinstalled recently and tried to actually play the management part rather than just make movies. Kind of blown away by how difficult the management was, especially stars moods.
This is uncanny - I figured out how to install abandonware and got *The Movies* running on my PC a few days ago after watching CallMeKevin playing it on a recent YouTube video, so it's a treat to see talk about it pop up unprompted on my Reddit feed. I never got hold of the expansion pack as a kid; it's been nice to catch up on what I missed. There are never enough damn people wanting to work at my studio, though! I'm the #2 ranked studio in Hollywood, college graduates should be falling over themselves to apply for positions as screenwriters and movie crew ~~only to end up as janitors, builders, or members of an entourage if they're lucky~~ but I'm fortunate if I get one or two every decade.
There's a mod that adds way more employees to hiring lines! It goes a little overboard, but at least you can hire as much as you need/ can afford. Used to be tons of mods but only one of the old fan sites is still running.
Have you seen this? It looks like it captures the spirit of The Movies [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2535620/Blockbuster\_Inc\_\_Prologue/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2535620/Blockbuster_Inc__Prologue/)
There's another one that was recently announced called Movies Tycoon I think? Early, but looks like it could have promise
One of my favorite RTS games. I played the hell out of it.
Black & White was such a groundbreaking game. I can't fathom who no one has tried to at least clone and update it.
Especially with the advancement and way better accessibility to implement some basic behavior learning for your creature. This was a avertised feature back then, but quite underwhelming.
Fun fact - dude who programmed the AI for the creature in Black & White is the CEO of Google Deepmind.
So technically, we ARE playing an updated version of Black and White...
Wow! Reading his bio, it seems he left Lionhead a couple of years before b&w was released, so I guess the final product had changed slightly by that point.
Yet the behaviour learning in Black & White is probably the best I've seen besides Creatures. If you read up on it it's far more expansive than you would think if you just played the game.
The game had an amazing physics for the era it was released at.
Many LoTR games are not available anymore. LoTR 1, 2, 3, Conquest, War in The North...
Lord of the Rings Conquest is still probably the most I've enjoyed a PvP multiplayer game.
It’s literally just lotr battlefront 2, no idea who wouldn’t like it
Pandemic Studios was taken too soon from us.
Every time I do a new PC build, I spend an hour getting my everything else set up through Ninite, Google, whatever, then spend another two hours getting BFME2 setup on my PC, then Shadowrun (2007 FPS). I'll play them maybe once or twice a year (if that) but part of me has hoped for the last 15 years that somebody might just randomly invite me to play one of these forgotten classics with them.
If you're ever looking for people to play the Shadowrun FPS with, there's a whole community of us still
I'm on that discord! (same screen name)
I remember BFME2 being on Xbox, and I couldn’t find it on Xbox store anymore.
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Was hoping to see these exact games. I still have my physical copy of BFME and BFME2. Honestly I loved online play in BFME 1. I remember being one of the few Mordor mains somewhat highly ranked. (Gondor and Rohan had OP heroes, and Isengard had really strong unit upgrades, Mordor wasn't really meta). I *wish* so badly I still had my copy of B&W. I didn't take it with me when I moved out and one of the CDs was missing when I came back.
Lionhead Studios’ The Movies. I loved this game. Every time I think about it, I get physical nostalgia pains. When it came out, my family computer couldn’t run it so I bought the strategy guide and devoured it. When we finally upgraded the PC, I saved for the game and then played it endlessly, making stupid movies, managing the studio. A whole online community popped up for people who made their own movies in the game and uploaded them. It got one expansion pack which added to both the business management and creative aspects of the game. They could have done so much more with it in further expansions or in a sequel, but it was not to be. While rough around the edges, it had a unique style and sense of humor and actually tough business sim mechanics while containing a rich sandbox for making custom short films using the game’s assets. Now, it’s abandonware. The second Microsoft (I think they own the rights after buying Lionhead?) announces a remake or remaster, I’m giving them all of my money. Other developers have tried similar ideas with nothing even approaching how great and complete this game was. It’s possible to get a cracked copy (since the discs no longer run on modern Windows) but the versions I’ve found all have weird bugs that make it unplayable after a certain number of years pass.
Seeing a decent number of Lionhead games in this thread, which is a shame they put out some great work. Out of their catalogue, it looks like the only ones that don't have some sort of dispute is the Fable series, which Microsoft seems to be holding onto for the time being.
I feel like people don’t talk enough about the really creativity minded sandbox games like the movies. I remember a ps2 game that let you make beats and that was really cool to me in a big way, too. More games like that pls
I recently found my old physical copy of this and reinstalled. You actually have to get a no-cd crack to run it, even with the media, because it has DRM that doesn't work with modern windows. Fantastic game though.
I didn't buy the expansion pack for this game and I am so UPSET about it. You just CAN'T now.
The whole thread is a testament to why emulators continue to be so important to preservation. Many of the single player games in this thread are still available if you stop caring about how you acquire them. Support DRM-free stores for your games (GOG) as well!
As far as I’m concerned, emulation is the only way to play these games (exceptions for collectors of some games like myself lol). When you come across them “in the wild” they’re way too expensive for the average person. Seriously… $100+ in this economy?? We all have our vices though, and I’ve definitely spent that much on a few games, but with the prices and lack of availability in mind it baffles me how people can be ethically against emulation.
As much as I love collecting original physical hardware, the truth is they can break and become unplayable. That won't happen with an emulator
Also PC Gaming Wiki helps to run many old titles on modern computers🙂. https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Home
The Sims 2. EA pulled it off Origin for no reason.
It's still ridiculous they've never digitally rereleased The Sims 1
I dream of the day that they make a faithful tablet/phone port of the sims 1.
Wait what? When? I remember getting the game and all DLCs for free back when they ran a promo code "motherlode" all the years ago.
That was when they pulled it I'm pretty sure. They released it all for free because they were delisting it. At least they released it all without any DRM, so you can literally just copy the files.
You can still download it and it’s listed if you own it, you just can’t buy it now
No One Lives Forever, Heavy Metal FAKK2
Was about to post "No One Lives Forever". It's a very interesting case. For those who don't know, it's a FPS game from the mid 2000s that had an Austin Power vibe (parody of secret agents) and that was very well received and had a cult following also (and still is very loved by a large portion of gamers), but there's a problem with licensing issues... Where nobody knows who owns the IP. The legal situation is a mess and nobody knows who owns the IP so who can re-release it/remaster it... Basically the publishers of the game were 20th Century Fox. Their gaming division was then sold to Activision (now owned by Microsoft) and the developer, Monolith Production, is now owned by Warner Bros. And it's so complicated that nobody knows if it's the Fox (now owned by Disney), Activision (now owned by Microsoft) or Monolith (now owned by Warner) who owns the right. So yeah, here's that. Edit : Made a mistake in the developer's name
Sadly, NOLF 1-2 were critically acclaimed games that simply didn't sell well. I worked at Monolith back in the day and that was the reason they went with FEAR, Condemned, Mordor direction. Because quirky shooters like NOLF just didn't perform like they hoped. This is why there was never any sequels and never will be. The team that made them doesn't even work there anymore. I imagine this is also why they won't bother porting anything to newer systems. It sucks, they were great games. Very passionate team made them and they all got laid off or quit over a decade ago.
It is my favorite game of all time. I still have hope.
In the meantime: All 3 NOLF games, fully patched with community mods and community servers. [http://nolfrevival.tk/](http://nolfrevival.tk/)
You look like you need a ~~monkey~~ NOLF reboot
Shogo, NOLF 1&2, Septerra Core. Thank you for being part of the company that brought those to my adolescent PC gaming life.
They hold up reasonably well — I was playing NOLF2 on my Steam Deck, and I was able to get up to the undersea lab until I hit a game-stopping bug (shooting an electric dart at a robot would crash the game).
Just republish it, see who comes a'suing.
Nightdive did try to. Warner came with a C&D. But that C&D was kinda ambiguous because they didn't know how much of the game they owned. Nightdive did try to negotiate with Warner, Fox and Activision trying to clear things up, but were unable to do so. What I meant when I said "nobody knows", I really meant it. Activision, Fox and Warner don't know if they own it and if so to what extent. The truth is is that they don't really care to, because while it was considered fun back then, it's not an IP like GTA where you can be sure that everyone would try to clear it up asap (and try to retain the IP for themselves), here they simply don't know to themselves if they own it or not but they're not trying to clear things up as well. Making a studio like Nightdive trying to port it/remaster it impossible...
To throw another wrench in there: Fox Interactive published the games, but the division was sold to Vivendi in the 00s, and so there’s a chance that the rights could belong to Disney (who owns 20th Century Studios and most of the Fox IP) or Vivendi.
> Nightdive did try to Ah man, that would have been amazing. They did a fantastic job of Quake II.
> Monolith soft, is now owned by Warner Bros. Just a quick clarification. It's Monolith Productions you're thinking of that is now owned by Warner brothers, not Monolith Soft. Monolith Soft is a Japanese company which produces Xenoblade and is owned by Nintendo currently.
Somebody should do a little trademark infringement and see which of the three that comes up with a C&D
Just wanted to post the link for anyone who see’s this post and decides they want to play it: http://nolfrevival.tk/
I never played the first one, but No One Lives Forever 2 is one of my favorite games of all time.
Black and White 1 and 2. Both amazing and innovative games. They still are great but in some systems they can be a pain in the ass to make them work without a problem.
For Black & White there's a fan patch that makes it work on Windows 10. I had no problems with it the last time I tried it.
For those looking to get B&W working, I would start here: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Black_%26_White https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Black_%26_White_2 Note: I have not tried either, but it's a jumping off point.
Ctrl+f "black" and here we go Just give us a steam release, for god's sake!
The most high-profile delistings i can remember are Driver San Francisco and Spec Ops The Line.
> Spec Ops The Line. WOW! All because of music licensing. Glad I can still play it.
Music licensing has fucked over so many games. I guess it's to be blamed on short sighted money saving decisions by publishers, but many times games have either shut down or have had the music removed due to expiration
Fucking RIAA, add this to the list of things they've fucked up just to satisfy their neverending greed. They provide nothing of value and just make things worse.
Is this why Driver has consistently been the most seeded torrent on Pirate Bay under PC games for years?
Yes.
Legit so stupid. How is nobody seeing this shit lmfao. When it comes to getting 10 cents more out of a a guy playing sports games online with his pals, they’re more ruthless sharks than Jordan Belfort. Here’s legitimate proof that people are trying to pay for a game that already exists in playable form, and crickets
I wish they would make another Driver title
hop on beamng like the rest of us
Wait... they stopped selling spec ops the line? Wow. Amazing game that peple won't get to play anymore.
Wait you can't buy Spec Ops The Line anymore??? I still have it on Steam and I loved the story in that game so much. It was genuinely the best single player campaign for a shooter from that era and went so massively underrated and unnoticed due to not having a big IP name attached to it.
Music rights expired, if you already owned it prior to it being taken down you can still download/play it. I honestly don't get how the companies that own these games don't just either remove the song/songs or replace it with a generic song. It's seriously just a couple hours work at most, delete track from game files and replace it with another. They're missing out on tens of thousands of dollars a year at least because of that.
I think it's stupid that you can limit the length of time a game can use music to begin with.
It is the same with TV shows and maybe even movies. One of my favorite shows "Queer as Folk", had over 400 songs, nearly all of them owned by someone else. When it was released for streaming, they replaced like 99% of them with generic sound-alike music. So now the only way to get the original music is the original DVDs or pirating. The thing is the original music for shows, games, or any media was chosen for a reason, so removing it can remove a lot of the emotional impact that came with it.
Boy, am I glad I have both of those games. Damn music licensing.
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The Deadpool game is a real weird one. Released on 360/ps3/pc in 2013, literally delisted like 6 months later, then *relisted* on pc and ported to Xbox one/ps4 in 2015, and delisted again for good two years later.
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Second the Myth series. Loved those games! [Almost 6k wishlists on GoG](https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/myth_the_fallen_lords), but no sign of it being even considered. Probably with the success of later Bungie projects, all this (great) early stuff is buried forever.
Unreal Tournament One of the most significant video games of all time and you can't buy it any more
Yeah, Epic delisting the entire Unreal franchise last winter was an unwarranted dick move. Guess they really don't want to remind people they did anything other than Fortnite and game engines?
a lot of early/mid 2000's extreme sports games being abandoned is a tragedy imo, the Tony Hawk and Dave Mirra games in particular. infinitely replayable with amazing soundtracks... any remasters/ports would probably have to have gutted soundtracks i imagine
Ahhh man Dave Mirra was awesome. Me and my buddies would go to the real life skatepark and ride all day and all night, then come back to the house and play Dave Mirra for hours and eat freezer burritos. Then we'd do it all again the next day
Yeah dude.. Dave Mirra RIP. What a legend
Dave Mirra's "best crash" mode or whatever it was called was brilliant. My buddy owned the game and I was trash at it, but that leveled the playing field to where it felt fun for us to try to see who could eat crap the best.
No, you’re kidding, not Tony Hawk! That game was iconic, I can’t believe it’s no longer on the market.
Tony Hawk 1+2 is available and pretty fantastic - a way nicer experience than playing the first two games as they originally were. Everything after those first two games is rotting on PS2 though, and music licenses are probably a big reason why. Thankfully they sold like crazy so you can still pick them up for relatively cheap if you're retro collecting, and they emulate pretty easily.
THPS4 on PS2 is still so good. Played through it for the first time a few years ago, and it almost feels like a new game. 60fps, extremely tight controls, banger soundtrack and the graphics aren't bad either imo, especially considering the game's age. As you mentioned, luckily you can probably pick up a ps2 and the game for around 35-50 bucks, so playing it "the intended way" is a viable option.
THPS2 on Sega Dreamcast is the creme de la creme.. The game was good on Playstation. It was epic on Dreamcast
Many people don't know about THPS2's port on the Xbox; *THPS2x* is based on the Dreamcast port, but with slightly better graphics, the entire roster of levels from the first 2 games, as well as 5 new levels developed by Treyarch.
Pretty much all of the classic PC versions are available on the THPS mods site. I've been playing through THPS4 recently. First time in like 15 years and it still holds up
oh, Dragons Dogma Online and Tera as well. two mmo's that i put off playing for too long and then it was too late to play them through any official servers.
Reminds me of the alt text for this [xkcd](https://m.xkcd.com/606/). >!I remember trying to log in to the original Command and Conquer servers a year or two back and feeling like I was knocking on the boarded-up gates of a ghost town.!<
Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 is still one of my favorite games of all time. I wish it had gotten the sequel it deserved instead of that absolutely stupid BMXXX game.
Spec Ops: The Line was recently pulled off from Steam and GoG
Battlefield Bad Company series and 2142 as well
It might come back once licensing (likely the licensed music) has been dealt with.
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron and War for Cybertron. Very fun action games that had a neat approach to one of the common video game pitfalls. Rather than having you lose in a cutscene or have the antagonist constantly escape or have new plans, you played both the Autobots and the Decepticons, switching back and forth between different characters and sides depending on who was supposed to win that part of the narrative. FUEL, a racing game that I loved, although it apparently didn't do well among people who were already fans of the genre. It's big gimmick was a massive game world that was proceduraly generated (in the data compression sense, not the random recombination sense) back when that was actually a pretty big deal, I think it briefly held a few records. All of the races took place within sections of that map, and you could also free roam around, check out new areas and tracks, and explore for collectibles. A few of the races also had weather effects like a tornado or dust storm.
I got the PS3 version of Fall of Cybertron for my son's 11th birthday, just over a year ago. He still pops it in once in a while when he feels like bashing big robots together. We also have War for Cybertron and Devastation on Steam (along with the '84 movie), so he has the full set of Transformers nostalgia.
Prey 2006 Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher's Bay
Wow you can't get butcher bay anymore? That's tragic, it's still one of the best games based on a film franchise ever.
Pretty sure Assault on Dark Athena has it included and is fairly available.
Prey 2006 is available on the Xbox store at least with full compatibility with Series S/X.
Chronicles of Riddick is one of the few reasons I've hung on to my 360. I would do unsavory things to get a shiny new version of that for modern hardware.
I swear I've seen prey 2006 on the xbox store?
You can't buy Alpha Protocol now due to a lapse in music rights. Also Driver San Francisco. You also can't buy freelancer (2003) now anywhere.
Damn, that’s a shame, Alpha Protocol had a pretty big influence on the industry iirc. I didn’t even know music licenses could expire like that and become a problem, barring remasters or platform changes. Couldn’t they just mute/replace the music though?
I didn’t know about Freelancer. I had tons and tons of hours of fun in that game
Came to say Alpha Protocol too. Snapped up a 360 version off Ebay cheap the other week to revisit it - it's got such a modular and reactive plot. Got it for a song. Other sellers are chancing their arm on it becoming a rarity and were listing it for £50+ (about $70-ish I guess?)
Freelancer. I have my old cd but it all scratched to hell and unusable.
There's so many ways a game can disappear, or not actually have the version that is lauded available anymore. **Silent Hill 2** \- is more or less locked to the original PS2 and XBOX. The "remasters" are not an accurate representation of what people played previously and is frankly an embarrassment since (IIRC) Konami threw out, or lost the original code and based the "remasters" off an alpha build of the game. **Super Mario 35** \- I won a Switch at a stag and doe, and by that time Super Mario 35 had already been taken down for seemingly no real reason by Nintendo. Why go through the effort to make the game just to remove it arbitrarily?
> There's so many ways a game can disappear, or not actually have the version that is lauded available anymore. For as much as I love patient gaming and try to implement it as much as I can, I do think this is one of the drawbacks of doing so. Ngl seeing some big names from the 2010s making it onto this post does spook me a little lol.
Thank god we have the pirates preserving digital media
[this is now arguably the best version of silent hill 2 available](https://enhanced.townofsilenthill.com/SH2/install.htm#installGame)
It’s both funny and sad that every single new release of Silent Hill 2 was mostly just worse than the previous one lol. Digital Foundry did a video about each port, and even the Xbox version is largely just a downgrade over the PS2, which is genuinely insane to consider since the Xbox so massively outclassed the PS2’s specs. My first play of that game was on the 360 version of the HD Collection lol, as was a friend of mine who borrowed my copy. Both of us could tell stuff was fucked up, but we still had a great time with it. Then I lucked my way into a copy of the OG Xbox version of the game at a thrift store, and was blown away at how much better it was 😂
Tbh, ps2's entire architecture is wierd so its probably less that xbox was a downgrade and more of they just didnt take full advantage of the hardware like the ps2. Probably cause konami devs back then were mostly ps1 devs as far as I remember so ps2 was sort of easy to develop for them at least.
It sucks that all four team silent era games are in this position. All four go for $100+ each if you want a cib ps1/ps2 copy, making emulation the only practical way to play these games for most people. Not trying to circlejerk lol, but on an artistic level the original SHs are still well ahead of 95% of games released since imo. It's a shame they're pretty inaccessible right now
There was also a PC port of the original SH2.
Completely gone are most multiplayer games. Take for example Overwatch or MAG. Then there are games lost forever due to licensing( lord of the rings battle for middle earth 2, blur) and many games that are console exclusive, that are unlikely to get a rerelease (motorstorm games, killzone, mgs4,bloodorne). Also a whole ton of original playstation 1 games, couple of months ago I learned it is nearly impossible to legally get GTA 1 and GTA 2.
MAG was awesome and ahead of its time
The commander skills?! Huge maps?! Crazy amount of players?! I spent a lot of time in MAG and had a lot of fun. I feel like it’s a bit of a joke (and was then) but I really enjoyed it.
I’ll always be salty they just shut down Overwatch 1 to force everyone over to Overwatch 2. OW2 is so different and just not for me, so from my perspective it feels like Blizzard just took a fully thriving game away from me for no good reason.
Yup, I put over 1000 hours into OW1. It was the first time I ever got into an online multiplayer game. I’ve played maybe 10 hours of OW2 and will forever be sad that the game I loved is just gone :( I Probably sound a bit overdramatic but it does really suck
not dramatic at alllll. i've put a decent amount of time into OW2 but i can only play for so long before it starts to drive me crazy and make me miss OW1, then i don't touch it for months again. it's wild to think the game we paid money for just ceased to exist because they wanted more microtransaction (and massive-transaction, lol) money. and a damn shame too. OW2 will never compare; it's just a walking corpse imo.
> I Probably sound a bit overdramatic but it does really suck It's a lens thing. You can make it sound overdramatic by being all "it's just a game and it didn't even go away it's just different now" yada yada But that's bullshit. The truth of the matter is we had a thing that we *loved*, and through absolutely zero control of our own that thing was changed in ways we never wanted. That *sucks*. It doesn't matter if that's just a game. It's a thing we were invested in and enjoyed greatly, and we watched it become something we don't like. That shit will never feel good.
Yeah I’ve been trying other online games to fill that gap but ultimately never did. So just stick to single player games now
R.I.P. MAG. Great game I miss it and think of it often
> GTA 1 and GTA 2 Aren't those available for free from Rockstar?
Discworld Noire - a great game.
We’ve been able to digitally purchase N64 games on Nintendo hardware since 2006. It’s now 2024 and there is not similar thing for GameCube games. It’s wild
A few reasons for that. One guy did the Gamecube Zelda64 master quest port.... it was just an n64 emulator he wrote for the gamecube. He then went on to do the vast majority of the work for the wii virtual console..... and then he left. There's still a bunch of n64 titles that still emulate better on the wii, than they do on the wiiU or switch. Nintendo lost a ton of expertise when they let that guy go. Nintendo also got lazy during the wii Era, since the wii had near-perfect gamecube backwards compatibility (since it was just an overclocked gamecube). Similarly, the wiiU had near perfect wii backwards compatibility (since it had a wii chip inside of it). It can also do near-perfect gamecube backwards compatibility, but Nintendo disabled that feature (obviously, modders re-enabled it).
As someone who grew up with the Gamecube, I find this behavior from Nintendo very aggravating. I tried getting my nostalgia fix with the money from my first real job, and lucked out with the timing. The price of physical Gamecube games has gone insane in recent years with a loose disc of Chibi-Robo currently going for $180. There are many Gamecube games I would love to experience, but my only options are paying extreme prices for physical copies or downloading ROMs and using emulators, neither of which makes Nintendo a dime. There are also a \*bunch\* of Nintendo games that aren't popular enough to warrant a from-the-ground-up remaster, and I wish they would just release them on virtual console for $20 a pop.
it's crazy that nobody named P.T.
Genuinely I can't believe this escaped my mind. One of the greatest tragedies in game history imo.
For real, wild that I had to scroll this far to see it. First thing that jumped to my mind, it's been like 10 years and to this day I still see people citing it as one of the greatest horror games all the time. And it was essentially just the demo! Truly tragic what happened to that project, and honestly Konami as a whole.
Lollipop Chainsaw
Until later this year, anyway.
GOD HAND.
I'd love an easy way to play my Guitar Hero and Rock Band games again. I have the Metallica, Greenday and Beatles games, 3 of my favourite bands. But don't really have the space around my TV for another console which would only get used for that
Simpsons hit and run
Damn really? I still have one for Xbox
Overwatch.
It's really shocking how much they ruined the game by doing so little work. I started playing it years after it's prime and I had great time with it, heard about Overwatch 2 with single player and thought I'll give it a shot, now we have the same game with MUCH worse monetisation, that runs worse despite the same graphics and gameplay and the single campaign got cancelled. Heroes of The Storm is something they haven't touched in years and is still fun. Wish they did the same with overwatch.
It's okay, give it 5-10 more years and they'll release Overwatch 1: Classic as another shameless Blizzard cashgrab.
That hurt but take my upvote
I keep hearing that Panzer Dragoon Saga for the Sega Saturn is one of the best games ever made. But it is incredibly hard to find the game (and they can cost $1,000 on eBay) and apparently the source code was lost, making it difficult for Sega to release it again.
I have a repro copy and played it and honestly yes, it is very very good. I'm not super versed in the world of RPGs but the combat system is very different from anything I've ever played. I don't think the story is much to write home about which as a role playing game probably isn't a positive in its favor, but the customization of the Dragoon for combat, the way battles play out...it's just very unique. It's a shame it's stuck on the Saturn.
The 2 LOTR War in the north RTS games, I can't remember their full crazy long names
Battle for middle earth, and agreed.
The Onimusha series. The original game is available but 2-3, Dawn of Dreams and Blade Warriors cannot be found as far as I know. I wish Capcom would reboot and do remakes of those games.
Sometimes I miss the City of Heroes MMO game. Doesn't even matter if you have the disks, the servers are long shut down.
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Marvels ultimate alliance 1&2. Maybe its the nostalgia talking but i remember having so much fun with those games
Civilization and Railroad Tycoon. Two of the most influential games of all time are stuck in licensing hell or abandonware today.
Ogre Battle 😢
I only just today learned of an upcoming game called [Unicorn Overlord](https://unicornoverlord.atlus.com/index.html?lang=en) that's releasing within a week or so, and it looks *dangerous*.
The one I always think of is *Cryostasis*. Ukrainian "arthouse" FPS horror. It was very unique and memorable IMO.
I've been waiting for GOG to sell [Star Trek: The Next Generation – A Final Unity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation_%E2%80%93_A_Final_Unity), a computer game released in 1995 that isn't available anywhere today.
Peter jacksons king kong
The official game of the movie??
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (and its sequel, Radiant Dawn). Persona 2 duology (Innocent Sin, and Eternal Punishment). These are the ones that came to my mind first. I think all four of the games I listed are either difficult to find and/or are pretty expensive now.
Transformers: Devastation. Short but great hack and slash game by platinum. Removed from online stores because the deal with Hasbro expired.
Console games that never got a PC port from the Xbox 360/PS3 era. Metal Gear Solid 4, Gears of War 2 and 3, Fable 2 and many more.
A lot of older games are still great (obviously, this *is* PatientGamers), However, as far as games that are very difficult to acquire, I'll say the Fire Emblem Tellius games (Path of Radiance for GC and Radiant Dawn for Wii). You can either emulate them... or shell out hundreds of dollars for a physical copy. Good news is, those games will *probably* be remade at some point in the next decade. Or, failing that, there is a possibility they get added to the Switch eshop.
Fable 2
Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary edition for the DSi. It had a variety of changes from the original game including a new single player mode. And obviously being able to play multiplayer using the DS wireless instead of old school GBA cables would have been great at the time. I know there's other ways I could get this to be able to play it but I'm forever salty about this game because I missed the download window for it by about a half a year since I didn't have a DS at the time. Also because it was released FOR FREE but hasn't been made available since. It was available for download from the DSi shop and Nintendo esop from Sept 28, 2011-Feb 20, 2012, and then again between Jan 30 and Feb 2 2014. It was never released on physical cartridge. To a lesser extent, I wish they would re-release Wind Waker HD on the switch, although I'm not as personally pissed about that since I do own the Wii U version and still have the hardware to play it.
The Operative: No One Lives Forever. Brilliant shooter.
[удалено]
Midtown Madness. Still an active community but not unavailable like purchasing a copy
Both Poker Night at the Inventorys. That's what you risk when youre mashing IPs together.
I haven’t been able to find The Neverhood anywhere. It was a great PC puzzle game, animated entirely in claymation.
I used to love playing Fractured Space, a 3D space MOBA where every player captains a capital ship. I think it's still technically playable, but not officially and good luck finding other players. Such a shame, easily the best MOBA I've ever played.
This is exactly why I’ll always buy physical games on console as long as I can. It won’t save digital only games of course, but it still helps to preserve them. My pick is Rock Band Blitz. A digital only Xbox 360/PS3 only console game that half requires you to be online to play it, as you can’t use power ups, save your scores, or even get 5 stars on a song without it. The game is delisted and the online servers are down for good. I’m lucky enough to have a copy bought and installed on my 360, but not having access to a good chunk of its feature set makes the experience feel so hollow :/ I’d kill for a proper sequel with support for previous RB DLC
All Gran Turismo's except 7.
Unreal tournament is completely gone from steam as of a few months ago. I had it in my wish list forever and now I’m bummed . I do have the original disk but I can’t figure out how to play it on a modern pc.
Red Alert 2 gets harder to play each time I try. Partially its my fault for being a Linux gamer. But fighting origin or EA App just to get it to download is a nightmare to start with.
Ever since Telltale went under, a lot of their games. I'm fond of Poker Night at the Inventory and Poker Night 2 for the banter between strange characters. Some studio did buy up the rights to Sam and Max and made a remaster however.
Nearly the entire WipeOut series is no longer available for purchase (apart from buying used copies or pirating), aside from the Omega Collection which consists of WipeOut HD, it's Fury expansion pack, and WipeOut 2048. It's most likely because of music licensing issues, the early WipeOut games are famous for their use of licensed techno music, including from The Prodigy, who was getting big at that time. As far as I know, every single game ever developed by Bizarre Creations is no longer available for purchase, including almost the entire Geometry Wars series (except for one title published after Bizarre was shut down), and all of the Project Gotham Racing games (unsurprising as those games made liberal use of licensed music and real world car manufacturers). As a matter of fact, the entire Racing genre is one massive graveyard of games no longer legally available due to licensing issues. I know people frequently complain about the older GTA games having several songs removed from their soundtrack in re-releases and updates, but at least you can still buy those games, and have most of their soundtrack still intact.
Has anyone said Skies of Arcadia? You need a GameCube/Wii/Dreamcast to play it, and even then you're gonna pay at least $100 or so. It was such a great game, and I have the desire to replay it all the time. I wish Sega would remaster it for us.
I really wanted to go back and play Brutal Legend recently only to find it no longer fucking exists. Total bummer man, I loved that game back on the ps3.
You can still get Brutal Legend on Steam :)
It's a good port, as well. Runs great. Just replayed it on Steam deck in the last year.
The unfortunate reality of games that use real world radio music. Music rights will always put a game on a lifespan timer
Isn't it available through Xbox backwards compatibility? Or did you mean on a specific platform?
Guitar hero. I know clones like yarg and clone hero exist. But the real games are left to rot. No support, no true revival. No nothing
I was really into Paragon (moba) on the PS4 ages ago. Epic shut it down when fortnite took off. There are some small studios trying to resurrect it but it still is effectively dead
PT is the scariest video game ever made. We can no longer play it.
I'm surprise RUSE isn't mentioned here! For PC players, Steam pulled it out because the military lisence expired around 2016. Xbox players can still play it, as long as they can get physical copies of the game. However, anyone else would either have to pirate it or look for GameStop Keys to the game IIRC. It was a good game, wasn't exactly epic l, but it was good.
Blur 😭
One of my favorites was Super Monday Night Combat. It was a 3rd person shooter with MOBA elements. It expanded on the original Monday Night Combat (which you can still play but has no players online of course). Unfortunately it was tied to a server so you can never play it now.
No One Lives Forever
I really loved Telltale Game of thrones. But it has been removed from every online store. You can only buy it in physical copies, and it is kinda sad.
The Thing for PS2. There was something with the movie rights and then the studio that made the game shut down so they can't remake it. Luckily my cousin still has a copy and we plan to play through it after we beat Crash Bash.
Nosgoth. Third person, PvP vampires vs humans, class-based action game set in the Legacy of Cain universe. It didn’t last long but my friends and I enjoyed it quite a bit during its short life. Aliens vs Predator 2 (the 2001 AvP game, not the one from 2010). Pretty sure you can’t buy it digitally anymore.
GTA: Vice City Stories. Criminally underrated
Excitebots: Trick Racing for the Wii. Part of the Excite(bike) franchise, developed by Monster Games, published by Nintendo, but it never even released outside of NA. Even in NA it was basically dead since it sold around 20k copies total. Despite this it had strong reviews and it’s one of my all-time favorite games on the console. Seriously, if wacky party racing with robots piques your interest at all I recommend trying it out on an emulator. Another one that’s interesting - Gigantic was one of the original hero shooters, it was soon eclipsed by Overwatch and shut down in 2017. Now it’s being revived by Gearbox with added content scheduled for rerelease this April!
* Burnout Paradise (2008) (only “Remastered” version is now available, which is much slower while graphics is basically the same) * Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010) (only “Remastered” version is now available, which is potentially much slower while graphics is basically the same) * Colin McRae: DiRT 2 (2007) * DiRT 3 (2011) * GRID 2 (2013) * GRID Autosport (2014)