jawafour wrote:My most desired sequels that probably won't happen are...
> Mad Max 2. I had so much fun with the first game and I'd love to return to the post-apocalyptic zone. It'd be ace to explore a whole new territory with differing tribes and a whole range of new missions.
> Burnout. Racing games seem to have suffered a severe lack of fashionability in the past few years and I miss the classic arcade style of racer. How good would it be too see a decent single-player pick-up-and-play racing game... with the amazing Crash Mode, of course!
Despite loving both of these games, the latter will never happen and i disagree with wanting a sequel to mad max.
Firstly mad max. I loved it, however a sequel would either do more of the same to fit within the framing of the story and characters ro remain authentic or radically change and undermine the same principles. In this case it is better to burn out in a single game and be remembered for it than have its memory soured with a rote or pointless sequel.
As for burnout, this requires more context. There is a reason most of the most fondly-remembered arcade racers are from before or around the mid-2000s; the early burnouts, need for speed underground 2/most wanted, outrun 2006 etc. Call of duty 4 absorbed the typically casual /"normie" market who may have propped them up. This is why there has been no new outrun apart from on 3ds; why need for speed has been passed around almost every year in a vain hope to recapture underground 2's success.
There have been many attempts at revitalising arcade racing such as nfs hot pursuit 2010, burnout paradise, split second, blur. Also more serious racing games went after the wider audience/casual appeal such as grid 2 and dirt showdown. What happened as a result?
As mentioned, NFS is now a parody of itself with no lon-term identity.
Burnout Paradise was great but there has been nothing since.
Blackrock (makers of split second and Pure) are gone.
Bizarre Creations ( makers of blur and project gotham) are gone.
Codemasters released Grid Autosport the year after grid 2 reversing most of the "casualised" design choices. Dirt Rally is a return to uncompromising rally driving and was tentatively launched as a steam early access title because CM couldn't afford to gamble on an expensive launch with PR etc if the audience wasn't there.
Also ridge racer and flatout are either dead or handed off to totally the wrong developers in an attempt to somehow become popular again. The wipeout devs are gone too.
So as much as i don't like it any more than you do, and however much i would play them too, arcade racing as a genre is a graveyard of IPs and studios, whose audience is catered for elsewhere.