MicroProse revived as military simulator publisher

[LESS T_T]

Sounds like the founder is really hardcore military game grognard, they don't seem to that interested in non-mil-sim side of Microprose, for example Darklands: https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/06/how-microprose-returned-to-making-military-sim-games/view-all/

Stealey: What happened to MicroProse in the end, when I was running it, is my guys got tired of doing military simulations. They still sold. But we did Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender. We did Darklands. They turned out to be OK games, but that’s not what the MicroProse customer was looking for. We spent millions of dollars trying to be Sierra On-Line or somebody else like that.

Lagettie: I think Bill nailed it. We have to try and stay in our lane. As you can see with the games we initially announced, in that war genr e– you’ll find that we probably stick very close to that. Initially, and even for the next couple of years. I don’t think you’ll see a Rex Nebular remake any time soon, but never say never. The funny thing, I get emails from a lot of people asking about it. Bill and I have a laugh about it. Darklands turned out to be a classic. The amount of people asking about Darklands — but again, I think for me personally, my proposal for at least the next couple of years is to concentrate on what we do best and what we’re known for.

Also mention of Arnold Hendrik:

I do have a bit of bad news. I don’t know if you ever met Arnold Hendrick, who did game design for most of the early MicroProse games, just passed away yesterday. If you don’t know the name, you can look him up. He came from the role-playing world, but he probably did five of the very best early MicroProse games. I was sorry to hear it, because I was going to call him and have him come help me playtest David’s games. He was quite a leader in the industry.

 

[Tweed]

New game looks neat, but their stance precludes most of my interest in this new company. I guess I'm one of the Microprose weirdos who was there for titles like MOO, MOM, Darklands, X-Com, Civ, etc.

Oh, and The Legacy, can't forget about that.

 

[anvi]

Gaming moves so slowly and life is so short

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

I'm not going to be upset if they stick to military sims. Their non-straight milsims were all nice and very good, but today, most of those are at least partially succeeded by other developers efforts. Today milsims are only touched by that one bloated beast of a game I forgot the name of, and the Ace Combat series. Milsims need a come back. I want to another game set in an A-10 Warthog.

 

[urmom]

Good luck to them. I have fond memories of F19/F117 and F15 Strike Eagle. Not sure I want to get into a super "deep" mil-sim in 2020 though. Not a big fan of mil-sim FPS shooters either. I need dwarves, jedi or cyborgs in my games because "real" people suck.

 

[anvi]

I think DCS already has the super deep milsim sewn up, and Arma3. What I want is a flight game which is fun and actiony.

 

[LESS T_T]

They announced two more games, and both are free-to-play multiplayer FPS:

 

[anvi]

Wtf why make something that looks like a 30 year old out of date Call of Duty.... If it is going to be budget and fugly then it needs to justify it with much better gameplay and they showed nothing that you couldn't get in 100 AAA games.

And that other game, it looks like Arma1 maybe Arma2. Again, when Arma3 already exists and has 100 other important features like choppers, planes, tanks, RTS aspects, zeus, etc... why would you make a video that offers nothing of value? I wish them the best but... that just seems like they cryogenically unfroze some game dev from 1991.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

So, reviving Microprose, a company well-known for putting out quality single-player games...to release a freemium MP game that probably plays like every other freemium MP game. Why would you do that?

 

[Väderhatt]

Ahh, Microprose... long time no see. I guess i can hope for Kalisto Entertainement to be resurrected as well.
I mean, it did fare well for Black Isle Studios in 2012, right ?

 

[Shinji]

MicroProse and UNIGINE Announce a Strategic Partnership

MicroProse, a video game publisher and developer founded by Bill Stealey and Sid Meier in 1982, teams up with UNIGINE to use its new UNIGINE 2 real-time 3D engine. MicroProse line-up of games is being announced bit by bit and the team is hard at work to give its developers the best tools to achieve the quality standard that the MicroProse brand is well known for. Teaming up with UNIGINE to use the new UNIGINE 2 Sim SDK is one of the steps the company is taking to ensure its simulation and open-world games are based on the best technology and deliver the best performance possible.

UNIGINE 2 is a real-time 3D engine packed together with C++/C# API, and visual tools for the creation of high-end games and interactive applications. The distinguishing features of UNIGINE are handling of the very large virtual worlds, outstanding performance on complex 3D scenes, and a rich set of modules available right out of the box. UNIGINE Engine is a universal framework for aerospace / land / maritime scenarios. It is used in both enterprise (professional simulators, GIS and smart city apps, digital twins in 3D), and entertainment areas (games, video production). More than 250 companies around the world are the customers of UNIGINE. The recently released free Community edition of the SDK is already in use by tens of thousands of technology enthusiasts. UNIGINE engine also is a core of popular GPU benchmarks series (including Heaven and Superposition).

“I see that the UNIGINE 2 engine is the perfect development platform for wargames by MicroProse. The level of visual fidelity, the scale of the virtual world - everything matches their high ambitions. Since UNIGINE is designed for the creation of projects in all domains - be it air, land, sea, or space - I believe that this partnership will allow the creation of the full spectrum of games by MicroProse. Personally, I am eager to play new games by this legendary studio.” - Denis Shergin, CEO and founder of UNIGINE

https://unigine.com/news/2020/microprose-and-unigine-strategic-partnership

 

[Nutria]

I can't remember who wrote this first, somebody smarter than me, but they explained that the reason why we stopped liking these kinds of flight sims in the 1990s is that computers finally got good enough to have a realistic flight model and then we all realized we don't actually know how to fly a plane and it's a lot of work to learn.

My interest in Microprose games was mostly about the ones that tied into history in some way. Also they were publishing really good strategy games made elsewhere (Master of Orion, X-Com) and had a pretty reliable brand.

So anyway my hopes aren't sky high but at least they're not making walking simulators about people's emotions during a zombie apocalypse or whatever zoomers care about now.

 

[LESS T_T]

Even more game. Sequel to 1988 game Carrier Command

 

[Magitex]

Wasn't all that interested in the new Microprose titles, but Carrier Command 2 does tick a lot of boxes for me; hopefully it will have a fair bit of depth to it.
Can't help but notice that all of their titles are not looking too good in the art/materials department.. but at least Carrier command has lots of neat low-res displays (I'm a sucker for these).

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

I can't remember who wrote this first, somebody smarter than me, but they explained that the reason why we stopped liking these kinds of flight sims in the 1990s is that computers finally got good enough to have a realistic flight model and then we all realized we don't actually know how to fly a plane and it's a lot of work to learn.

Maybe I'm full of it, but it seems to me like that's not so much a problem with planes as it is with helicopters. Relatively speaking, its not that hard to stabilize a plane after a crazy escape manouvre than a helicopter. I haven't touched a truly hardcore flight sim in a long time though.

 

[J_C]

I can't remember who wrote this first, somebody smarter than me, but they explained that the reason why we stopped liking these kinds of flight sims in the 1990s is that computers finally got good enough to have a realistic flight model and then we all realized we don't actually know how to fly a plane and it's a lot of work to learn.

It is definitely not the case. Flying the plane, even with realistic flight modell (look at DCS or Falcon BMS) is not the hard part, it is actually fairly easy to pick up and learn the flying part. The hard part is to learn the subsystems and weaponry of these planes. And even more importantly, people are more hooked on games which provide quick action, while in a sim, sometimes you fly 30 minutes, followed by 30 seconds of action. People just changed.

 

[anvi]

How are they gonna make it better than the recent Carrier Command Gaea's Mission or whatever? I played that and it was pretty cool, but got repetitive and went nowhere long term. I can imagine them redoing that but better, but... I'm not sure anyone would give a shit.

 

[Hace El Oso]

It is definitely not the case. Flying the plane, even with realistic flight modell (look at DCS or Falcon BMS) is not the hard part, it is actually fairly easy to pick up and learn the flying part. The hard part is to learn the subsystems and weaponry of these planes. And even more importantly, people are more hooked on games which provide quick action, while in a sim, sometimes you fly 30 minutes, followed by 30 seconds of action. People just changed.

Generally younger, dumber, lazier, without the underlying interest in the reality being simulated.
But there are still enough people who want sims, there just have to be people who are willing to forgo the ‘big bucks’ to make them.

 

[Nutria]

(look at DCS or Falcon BMS) is not the hard part, it is actually fairly easy to pick up and learn the flying part. The hard part is to learn the subsystems and weaponry of these planes.

I found it pretty easy to learn stuff like how the different radar modes work in Falcon 4 and that's the last one I liked. I guess my two big problems were when I tried Il-2 and I figured I'd fly a P-40 and every time I touch the stick I go into a spin. I guess the prop planes were harder to fly than jets? And then when I tried DCS, I'd go in there with my Su-25 and strafe and miss everything, and then it would take me like 2 minutes just to go out for a while and then turn around and come in for a second pass. I think the earlier games that were less realistic glossed over some of that stuff like how long you spend doing nothing during combat.

 

[J_C]

(look at DCS or Falcon BMS) is not the hard part, it is actually fairly easy to pick up and learn the flying part. The hard part is to learn the subsystems and weaponry of these planes.

I found it pretty easy to learn stuff like how the different radar modes work in Falcon 4 and that's the last one I liked. I guess my two big problems were when I tried Il-2 and I figured I'd fly a P-40 and every time I touch the stick I go into a spin. I guess the prop planes were harder to fly than jets? And then when I tried DCS, I'd go in there with my Su-25 and strafe and miss everything, and then it would take me like 2 minutes just to go out for a while and then turn around and come in for a second pass. I think the earlier games that were less realistic glossed over some of that stuff like how long you spend doing nothing during combat.

Propeller planes are definitely harder to fly, since they are slower and can easily stall if you make sudden hard turns.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

Don't get me wrong, all the games they are making look good and I would be happy to play them, but it just seems odd that they were gone for so long and then suddenly they have all these complicated war games set to release at the same time. I will be happy if one of them gets released. In fact there are a bunch of good looking war games set to be released this yer or soon. I hope it happens, but it seems a little aggressive or 'too good to be true'..here they are..











cont..

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

Those are all the Micropose games. The non-micropose games with similar themes:









There are a number of others I did not list for various reasons, such as they have been in early access forever (UBOAT for example).
It is interesting to me that suddenly there seems to be a ton of this type of game being made, and yet one has not been released yet really, so its a bit odd to me they began work on so many of them at the same time without waiting to see how they sold. MAybe they already know somehow. I hope even a few of them turn out.

 

[TemplarGR]

Seems like shovelware to me. Don't get me wrong, i would love an Xcom Apocalypse successor, but i find it highly unlikely it will come from them.

 

[agris]

Urban strife looks like a fucking gem, your hot take is garbo.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

we had a thread about this long ago. a year? two years? no idea. anyway, 100% sure not a single one of their modern titles can be even only comparable to the quality and innovation they gave us the previous millennium. and it's tragic.