Rebellion is a Video Game Company, isn't it?

[McNulty]

I ask because I believed that when Rebellion bought over 2000AD, there would be a plethera of 2000AD-based games to come from this. To date, there has been only one - a better than average Judge Dredd game.
But why stop there? With all the many different 2000AD stories, why have the programmers at Rebellion not produced more inventive games for us?
I know that there is a Rogue Trooper game in the offing, but this is taking a long time to be made, and it won't be for the P.C. anyway. And what happened to the films that were to be made? These were promised, but never made either. It really is a great disappointment.
Saying this, I must also add that since Rebellion took over, there has been a Renaissance in the quality of stories in both 2000AD and the Megazine.
Am I asking for too much?

[Pyroxian]

I imagine it's all to do with the fact that they can't afford to make all these things simultaneuously. Games can cost upwards of a million squid to make nowadays.

  Steve

[The Amstor Computer]

IIRC Rebellion were recently involved in World War Zero and some other title, and they're currently working on both Rogue Trooper and Sniper Elite. They aren't a particularly large company so it's not surprising we haven't seen many games - or 2000AD tie-in games - from them.

[Funt Solo]

There's also the point that a 3-D shooter is only as good at the engine driving it.

Sure, Aliens vs. Predator was cutting edge when it came out, but by the time they'd got the Judge Dredd engine ready to go, they'd been utterly surpassed by Half-Life, HALO and a plethora of other games.

IMO, Rebellion simply can't keep up.  Unless they completely surprise me, I expect that any game that they'll produce in the near future will look old hat next to it's contemporaries on the shelf.

In fact, I see them as a comic production company now.

[paulvonscott]

The standard seems to be serious 3D shooting games, but I'd be happy with some compilations of fun, silly 2000AD games, like Eye toy or Bomberman on battle mode, but then I'm a bit of a simpleton when it comes to these things.

I'd love a game where I was the judges and there were two blocks, either side of the screen, and the buggers were starting a block war and I had to stop it.  Block shields, riot foam, sonic cannons, judges, all sorts of fun.

If they could team up with Julian Gollop and make some Rebelstar/Laser Squad/UFO style games I'd be in seventh heaven.  Imagine having a game like that, turn based stuff, with a whole block to patrol against crime.

And for me, the fun aspect is something I'd quite like.  Entertaining and funny, with some imaginatuion in there.  Just like 2000AD.

Anyway, I hope Rogue's good (I hope I can play it!), but presumably it takes a LOT of man hours to get these games going, and they aren't the biggest company in the world, so they are probably doing quite well.  A shame I heard it won't be out soon, I was looking forward to it, and I've got the playstation for the moment, so I'd buy the game like a shot!

[Woolly]

'I know that there is a Rogue Trooper game in the offing, but this is taking a long time to be made, and it won't be for the P.C. anyway'


Word on the streets is that Rogue Trooper may make it to the PC yet...(but dont hold your breath!)

[Funt Solo]

PVS:  I heartily agree with you.  If you see the amount of relatively easy to produce games on the mobile phone, hand-held and Flash markets, it'd be great if Rebellion did exactly as you suggest, and start making low budget retro games with 2K characters.

Even space invaders with 2K characters descending instead of aliens would be a bit of a giggle, and I could code that in my sleep.

How about a version of Spy Hunter, but instead of a car/boat combo you could have a Helltrekker wagon or a Lawmaster?

Pac-man with a judge helmet for Pac and the 4 dark judges instead of ghosts.

A turn-based block war game would be cool as well, but how about an Apocalypse War game, where you can play Meg or Sov.  Send in the Sentenoids!  Activate the Radsweepers!  Distribute hypno-pamphlets!  Bring down Dan Tanna junction!

[McNulty]

2000AD lends itself to so many potential genres when it comes to computer games...

Slaine as a hack and slash fantasy game (along the lines of The Bard's Tale,
Ace Trucking/Moonrunners in a trading game simulation
Strontium Dog in a seek and capture bounty hunter game, where you can choose which bounty to follow.
V.C.s in a Space vessel/space marines type of game (a cross between commandos and flight simulator)

etc, etc...

[Rex Banner]

What about some more Judge Dredd fps?

The character graphics & engine is there already. Just change the storyline & backgrounds & sell it as an add-on.

I always thought Strontium Dog would be great in the style of Knights of The Old Republice kind of way.

Anychance of a comment from Rebellion as to their plans?

[Funt Solo]

If you look closely at the JD FPS you realise it's a bag of missed opportunities.

Firstly, there is a distinct lack of logical gameplay.  I'll give two stand-out examples:

- In one level, there's a gang waiting in an underground warehouse.  You can either walk down the stairs into the warehouse, and they all see you and shoot at you, or you can jump down through a hole in a roof grating, at which point they all see you and shoot at you.  Your stumm grenades are useless because the perps are all situated too far away from the hole for such an attack to work.  If you have the element of surprise, you should be able to use it to your advantage in some way.  All this gave us was two avenues of approach, with no tactical advantage to either.

- The sniper scope.  IIRC this is on the lawrod, which you first get in the prison complex.  A complex which has a very tight layout and contains vampires:  very fast moving H-t-H combat monsters.  The sniper scope is no use whatsoever, practically anywhere in the game.  Why have a specialised weapon that has no tactical use?

It is an okay game, but alongside the likes of HALO and Half-Life, it's a poor cousin.

As for the supposed gameplay of arresting people, that was handled very badly.  There was a sort of token nod to arrest on the first level (smoking in public, creep!) but after that it was all hostages, allies or armed baddies.  Of course, there was nothing to stop you arresting every single cit on the first level.  If they weren't doing anything wrong it reverted to "loitering" or something.  I should have been arrested by other judges for wrongly arresting innocent cits.  It was pointless.

But then, it should be simple:  in HALO you just kill the enemy (usually getting from A to B).  Same thing in AvP and Half-Life.  Arresting people for smoking in public simply isn't much fun in a FPS.  

Hopefully Rogue Trooper with dispense with all the nonsense and just kick ass.

[Artificial Idiot]

I actually arrested quite a few cits for smoking... Nailed one creep in the middle of a vampire attack!

I liked Dredd vs. Death, but find it nerve-rackingly hard at points. I prefer it to HALO for the sheer amount of humour there's potental for... I remember setting myself alight the first time I used Incendary... Or accidentally punching a Judge when I pressed the wrong button... Ah, happy times!

[Max Kon]

Judge Pac would be a cool game, and you have to eat a psi badge so you can chase and eat the Dark Judges.

[Mike Carroll]

I still enjoy Dredd vs Death, but there are some problems with it...

While the level designs and backdrops are - for the most part - excellent, some of the character design isn't as good as it could be. I'd like to see a version with higher-polygon models, and much greater diversity with the citizens - there's really only a small handful of different types. Plus there should be a hell of a lot more of them! Mega-City One looks rather empty, with never more than a dozen or so citizens in any one place, all standing there waiting to be arrested for illegally owning goldfish...

-- Mike C

[Quirkafleeg]

Where's the zen master...? your time has come!

[McNulty]

BTW, I've stumbled on the Trump game on 2000ADonline, and am now addicted! It's great!