Multiple nerdgasm's

If there's one thing the contemporary video game industry loves, it's sequels. Franchises are a big deal these days. Publishers love 'em. That's why we look set to see a new Call of Duty game every year why Bobby Kotik still has blood pumping through his veins. That's why the most hotly anticipated PC game is Diablo III. This is why Mario is a cultural icon of our generation. We all watched the sweet, fat, stupid little Italian grow from a hand full of barely animated pixels to a fully realized polygonal character.

But there are some franchises out there that are ripe for a sequel. When you can't take another CoD campaign, what games would you like to see receive the next gen sequel treatment. There are some games that are aching for a follow up. Here are the top five that would give me multiple nerdgasms.


5. X-Wing Vs. Tie Fighter - The original X-wing vs Tie was an amazing game. It was basically a fighter sim Star Wars style. It controlled amazingly and the shield/weapons/engine power triage was really fun to manage. Throw a next gen sequel on 360, live multiplayer with a top gun leader board, maybe the ability to form persistent squadrons with your friends; how could it be anything but awesome.


4. Full Throttle - Take the classic Lucasarts dystopian future biker adventure game, pretty up the graphics (retaining the awesome cartoonish artstyle), make it an action/adventure hybrid, maybe even make it open world if you want to get really crazy. Explore the highways and byways of the Full Throttle world, upgrading your bike, fighting biker scum on the backroads, but keep a strong story component. Now that's a sequel.


3. California Games - With the current popularity of sports compilation games, on all manner of motion controlly, remote jibby jabby systems, this one is a no brainer. A cool gen-x styling, with the more extreme, totally rad sports on offer. Kinect hang gliding. Wiimote hackey-sack. Tell me this wouldn't work.


2. Thief - I loved the original Thief games. The dripping atmosphere, the dark, mysterious setting, the excellent stealth gameplay, taking out guards with the good 'ol blackjack. These games need a sequel. Make Garret a little more mobile, ala Assasins Creed, give it a dark, gripping story, and make the stealth interplay with the surrounding world and it's inhabitants complex and challenging, maybe through in a Splinter Cell Conviction style co-op campaign. What is the sum of these parts? Total gaming gold.

1. Syndicate Wars - Syndicate Wars is a special game. Take a dark, futuristic cityscape, some cybernetic hatchet-men, a truckload of ultra cool weapons (pursaudertron anyone) and throw them into a complex, squad based strategy game and you have Syndicate Wars. This game had destructible buildings ( I mean every building on the map), a totally cool Blade Runner esqe setting and some really fun missions. I think a new Syndicate game would be kind of cool in the form of a Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter style tactical squad based shooter. I think I'm about to nerdgasm.