I was thinking about how I remember Maxis fondly, and I got to wondering what other people’s experiences were like!
Is your favorite still around? Are they still the same, or did they “change directions under new management?”
Westwood studios. Command and conquer tiberian sun was my very first computer game, which I loved dearly (and still have on my computer since it’s freeware now and has been fan patched for modern systems)
Well and then came EA.
Sierra On-Line
King’s Quest is still one of my favorite series ever and the one they put out a few years ago was a great retelling. I cried at the end.
sierra ❤️
also bill pogue
Sierra entertainment! I was a big fan of the kings quest games, and Sierra online was my first experience with online gaming.
I was super into Sierra as a publisher. They seemed to back some of the highest quality games no one knew about. Ground Control, Gunman Chronicles, Homeworld, Aliens vs Predators 2, Empire Earth, Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza, and of course Half-Life. They published some quality games.
Don’t forget the SWAT series. Really loved the third game and always played the ‘Children of Terrone’ map on lan parties
The SWAT series was amazing but now I just look back at it as copaganda.
Maxis was the one that came to mind for me, too! I played everything of theirs that I could get my hands on. Still playing The Sims after all these years!
Valve.
Not new management, but they definitely changed direction. From Portal 2 to Half-Life Alyx was a dark age of live service titles and hardware. Fortunately, it seems like they’re finally getting back to their old selves?
Alyx was supposedly their re-entry into releasing games (hopeful that HLX is good), the Steam Deck caused them to go back and fix several of their titles (plus do the huge Half-Life update we just got), and while they’re not exactly making their games as open as they used to, they’re letting the community handle things like TF2 events and L4D2 patches.
So, I dunno, cautiously optimistic for their future. At least as long as Gabe is running the company.
PopTop. Railroad Tycoon 2&3 and Tropico 1&2. They got bought by 2K, which eventually killed the studio. The Railroad Tycoon series is dead. Tropico is still around, but I’m not excited about the latest interation. Some of the guys tried to kickstart a new Railroad Tycoon but it didn’t fund. Phil Steinmeyer was an underrated developer, though I believe he’s retired today.
It’s too bad it worked out that way. I think they could have been on the level with Paradox as far as strategy games are concerned, but focusing more on economic games, city builders, and the like. On Steinmeyer’s blog he said he didn’t think there was demand for heavier games anymore about mid 00s. That might have been true then, but so many games out now prove that wrong.
I just looked at my Steam stats today and 52% is RT3. There may be plenty of games that surpass it in visuals, but game mechanics are a different story, and without a stock market I don’t see much of a point.
I played Tropico 3-5, but gave up after they refused to give us highways and overpasses.
Interplay, Microprobe, Sierra On-Line, Bullfrog, Dynamix, Origin, all long gone.
Activision is still around, but it’s something completely different. Same with Atari (although theres a nostalgia brand now, so maybe back).
Of them all, I think is have to say I’m most nostalgic for Sierra On-Line, although Origin gives them a run for most nostalgic.
Dynamix’ Earthsiege was such a magical thing back then. So were Bullfrog’s Syndicate, Theme Hospital and Dungeon Keeper. Many, many years ago when Peter Molyneux was not a dumbass but gave us gems like Populous and Black&White.
The list of games that EA has destroyed is long.
Westwood fits into that list.
