Car games

Interstate 76: In 1997, Activision released one of the more unique titles of that decade with Interstate 76, a car combat game that took place in an alternate 1976, where bell bottoms and afros are still around but gasoline was much more scarce. The game itself wasn’t just a shoot-em-up, however, as players had to think about buying different cars, armor and weapon load-outs for their rides. A sequel, Interstate 82, was released in 1999 but didn’t fare as well with critics or sales.

However, since we love games with alternate timelines, perhaps its time to look into an Interstate 95 game. Combining 90’s fashions and trends with an improved graphics engine and real destructible environments could be the ticket, especially since games like Burnout and Full Auto have made the car combat genre cool again, you dig?

Odds for Revival: Unlikely. Activision has seemingly put this franchise to pasture much like they did with their True Crime series when the second game failed to impress. We still like the idea of a third game in this series set in the 1990’s though. Maybe someday the publisher will look back at its catalog and decide that cool car combat is the way to go.

Carmaggedon: UK publisher SCi released the first game in this decidedly “M” rated series back in late 1997 (Interplay was the US publisher). On the surface the Stainless Games developed title it was a simple urban driving game but the big attraction of this series was the ability to run over pedestrians and see them break up all over your windshield. Needless to say, this made Carmaggedon a sales success and a target for critics of games with violent content, with several countries censoring or outright banning the sale of the game. A second title in the series was released in 1998 and a third game shipped to stores in 2000.

With games like the Grand Theft Auto series going even further than Carmaggeddon did in portraying violence, it would seem like the best time to start the engine on a new game in this franchise. However, you can bet that there would be some very loud (Jack Thompson, Hillary Clinton) people who would let others know of their disapproval.


Odds for Revival: Unlikely. In fact, SCi announced a few years ago a plan to bring back Carmaggeddon but nothing ever came of those announcements and with the merger of SCi with Eidos in 2005 there has not been a mention of any new Carmaggedon game for some time. With the new SCi/Eidos now concentrating its efforts in other areas it seems like this car has been put back in the garage.

Clive Barker’s Undying: When we did our first article looking at first person shooters that we though we needed sequels, we missed one pretty obvious one that we are rectifying now. Clive Barker’s Undying was an excellent Unreal engine based action title from Dreamworks Interactive (later bought and renamed EALA) that used the horror writer’s ideas as a basis for a truly frightening game that had some great gameplay elements (including combining weapons and spells), impressive level design and a solid story.

Unfortunately, despite tons of critical praise, Clive Barker’s Undying failed to reach a mass audience when it was released for the PC back in 2001. A planned PS2 port was cancelled and EA decided to not release an “M’ rated game for several years in part because of the poor sales of Undying (that string was broken in 2004 with the release of Def Jam: Fight For New York).


Odds for Revival: Unlikely. Despite being a critical darling, EALA has moved on and has concentrated on making Medal of Honor and RTS titles. While we may not get a direct sequel, Clive Barker has continued his interest in helping to make video games. A planned title, Demonik, was cancelled by Majesco, but just this week Codemasters announced plans for a new action game called Clive Barker’s Jericho. It will have a long way to go to meet the quality of Undying.