Parallel Universe versions of famous games

[pilouuuu]

OK, There's that theory that there are multiple parallel universes and each one may have different slight or big variations.

Let's think about how the games we know could be different in another universe.

I'm going to call my universe CV-43815 (i.e.: the universe in which oranges taste like chocolate, Jim Caviziel will be Batman and Valve, Apple and Google released their new consoles)

- Bioshock Infinite: this game is closer to the E3 demo we were shown. You have multiple paths and you have options about enganging in a fight or not. Elizabeth shows her powers opening tears to very interesting and varied locations and there are multiple endings depending on your gameplay choices.

- Spore: it is still being played, because it is the most entertaining simulation of that universe and gameplay is very deep and varied. It has 20 expansion packs, but all of them add to an amazing game and let you explore the engaging simulation of evolution.

- Dwarf Fortress: The game has photo-realistic graphics and is another complex simulation, although in this universe The Sims is a bit deeper, but not as good looking.

- GTA V: The game about stealing cars from criminals to do good deeds is the newest in the successful franchise. It was released on PC first, but the ultimate version is on Google console. Helping old ladies cross the street and rescuing cats from trees never gets old.

- Team Fortress 2: the hat simulator finally got weapons. Now it's possible to shoot people in multiplayer. It's sad that the game is so expensive, but at least it comes with 5.000 different hats and now with the added weapon update it will be even more entertaining.

- Watch Dogs: the game about dogs who watch over people is one of the most innovative creations in gaming. It is also incredible how much better the game looks since those early E3 demos.

- Assassins Creed - Unity: the soon to be released game is totally different from the previous versions. You get to control a female assassin from Japan. It also lets you play alongside other players online and has a character creation system, so you can make your avatar just like you.

- Call of Duty - Modern Super Advanced Warfare Special Ultra Edition Simulator: this shooting gallery is really a joke. You go around the carnival shooting ducks and earning prizes. It can be fun for a while, but its repetitive nature makes it boring and those graphics are some of the worst ever. At least you have a lot of freedom, since it is an open world and you're free to explore it however you want. Sadly the lack of direction may leave you confused about where to go.

So, I invite you to think about how would your favourite (or most hated) games be in other universes.

 

[Asclepion]

- Watch Dogs: the game about dogs who watch over people is one of the most innovative creations in gaming. It is also incredible how much better the game looks since those early E3 demos.

I would totally play this.

- Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines - A game of stunning atmosphere and scope, wrecked by it's publisher Activision rushing the development time to compete with Half Life 2 and released in a virtually unplayable state as a result. What would have become of this game, and it's studio Troika Games, had it not been for Activision?

 

[Genocidicles]

- Half Life: Is one of the most prolific gaming franchises, with a new entry being released every six months, however each new release is almost universally despised for their poor quality.

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

- Spore: it is still being played, because it is the most entertaining simulation of that universe and gameplay is very deep and varied. It has 20 expansion packs, but all of them add to an amazing game and let you explore the engaging simulation of evolution.

STOP TAUNTING ME!

Dark Souls-The first game every gamer starts with. It's known for it accessibility and uplifting story of a world of darkness and death being turned light and friendly through the powers of friendship and understanding. It is however known for being artificially easy.

 

[waj9876]

The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind. One of the least-liked video games ever, and considered by everyone but hipsters to be the worst in the Elder Scrolls series history.

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. A bland rpg with bland graphics, combat, and a bland story. Entirely luck based. Would have worked better if it were open-world.

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. A game that needed absolutely no patches or mods because it was released as the best game it could be. There were a wide variety in dungeon types, enemy types, and the perk system was so complex not many people even realized the full potential of it. Released as the very first Virtual Reality-brand MMO with a full virtual world that intercepted your intended motions and translated them into the game.

The Dragonborn can join Alduin and the other dragons in their quest to wipe out all other sentient life-forms in Tamriel.

Final Fantasy VII. Bombed because everyone kept comparing it to the first Final Fantasy, but the main character Cloud is still heralded as the most complex and deep character to ever be presented in video game format. His relationship with Jenova is still considered one of the most realistic representations of a romance that succeeds despite both of them being on opposite sides.

Off Topic Idea that has nothing to do with video games: Pokemon anime. The idea for Clefairy being the mascot was never cancelled. Now everyone wants Ash to evolve her into a Clefable. This is the only complaint they have about the series, as Ash is an amazing trainer with a wide variety of teams he obtained in each region that regularly appear as he switches entire teams in for different battles and tournaments. Currently the champion of every region except for Kalos, which he is still working on getting the badges for. Misty and Brock sometimes leave to do their own thing, but regularly join Ash on his journeys whenever they want. His relationship with Misty actually went somewhere, and Brock maintains a long distance relationship with Gym Leader Sabrina.

Ash is also currently 15.

 

[Lilani]

Mario games: Had a great run in the 2D era, but stumbled when making the jump to 3D. Had a bunch of characters added that nobody liked, and the games began to completely suck and miss all the great aspects that drew people to them in the first place. Its owners keep trying to revive the series, but they keep resorting to cheap gimmicks like Mario turning into a werewolf, Mario going after a regular human girl instead of Peach, Mario riding on a hoverboard, etc. They had some success recently with a game where both the current Mario and the classic Mario meet and end up playing in classic-style levels together, but this lead them to pursue yet another reboot with another team that people are at best skeptical about. Yet another new obnoxious character has been added and the style of the games has been completely changed up, and nobody knows how they feel about that yet.

Sonic games: Universally recognized as one of the longest running, most consistently successful, and most timeless game series in existence. Took off in the NES era and has never looked back, there's basically nothing this series can do wrong. The Sonic games pioneered the 3D era and no matter what they did to change the series up it's worked out. Sonic driving Go Carts, Sonic having a party with all his friends, Sonic cleaning up the world with a water gun, Sonic in a battle royale against other classic Sega characters...the gaming community simultaneously orgasmed when news came out the newest SSB (Sonic Smash Brothers) game was going to have Ecco the Dolphin. In his latest installments Sonic has gone to space and has gone online multiplayer, and he has endeared himself to a whole new generation. Preserving the best aspects of the old and successfully integrating all the potential that comes with the new, the Sonic games seem to be the supreme ruler of video games both old and new, and nobody would have it any other way.

 

[Dragonlayer]

Call of Duty: Despite initial misgivings that the series would be unable to top the twenty hour emotional powerhouse of the first game's depiction of two German-American brothers serving on separate sides during World War Two, Infinity Ward wowed the gaming world with the Pacific Theatre focused sequel. A combination of resolute historical accuracy, in-depth and human characterisation, sprawling, excellently designed missions and stunningly cinematic combat has shown audiences that the series is *the* master of military gaming experiences. Critics and gamers alike eagerly await later installments, promised by the developers to touch upon some of the more controversial wars in human history with nuance and respect.

Special Ops: The Line: While few expected much from the obscure Yager Development studio, no-one was prepared for the outrage the game's release would generate. Day one purchase offers promised a drone strike on Arab civilians for every copy bought and the game's campaign saw white supremacist recruiting tools for the US Military waging a needless war of racial extermination against horrific Arab stereotypes. To this day, Special Ops: The Line remains the only game banned across the world and officially apologised for by the US government.

Assassin's Creed: Ubisoft met with considerable backlash from gamers when a statement declared that adding playable assassins to the upcoming Unity was too difficult, provoking complaints that the series unfairly depicted events from the Templar perspective. Arguments that upwards of thirty days of additional work was required to design and animate assassin protagonist models fell on deaf ears, and it remains to be seen if Ubisoft's characteristic lack of DRM will be enough to sell the game.

Resident Evil: The undisputed kings of survival horror, the Resident Evil series is praised for its excellent storylines and heart-pounding terror, even though each entry brings entirely new locations, characters and gameplay mechanics. Resident Evil 6 is currently one of the highest scoring games on Metacritic and is loudly championed by the Escapist's notoriously generous critic, Bethany "Nazi" Scrimshaw of Maximum Punctuation.

 

[templar1138a]

In this parallel universe, Peter Molyneux is a man of few words who rarely had anything to say about the Fable games during their development. The games are critically acclaimed and considered to be among the best hack-and-slash RPGs (and the games themselves are EXACTLY the same as they are in our universe).

 

[pearcinator]

Zelda: Ocarina of Time

The first 3D Zelda game, it is in first-person perspective and extremely dark and violent. It is widely regarded as one of the worst video games ever made with broken controls, lack of adventure as you're constantly railroaded down narrow corridors and excessive use of nonsensical violence and swearing that makes Link into one of the most evil sociopaths in gaming. People still hold Zelda: Wand of Gamelon as one the greatest games ever made.

God of War

Tells the story of Kratos, a whimsical fairy who rescues kittens. He is known as the 'God of War' because he prevents all wars from ever happening with his gentle heart and diplomatic reasoning that makes all the other fairy kings and queens love him.

Mass Effect

This science-fiction game has a story that is so mind-meltingly shallow it is insulting to the audience. However, this all changed at the end of the 3rd game in the series which concluded Shepard's trilogy with a spectacular ending that pleased everyone. Widely regarded as one of the greatest endings to a video game.

Valve also releases games on time. It's just too bad that no-one likes Steam and much prefer UPlay and EA's Origin online services.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

bioshock infinite: you are traveling in a plane that crashes into the sea, you swim until you approach a lighthouse and discover a passage to a dystopian city at the bottom of the sea

 

[RealRT]

In a parallel universe...
Legacy of Kain - one of the most prolific and well-known video game franchise with tons of spinoffs, including beat'em ups, third-person shooters, two fighting games and a karting game (Kain's Kart Karnage got numerous game of the year awards). Remakes and ports are made onto every platform known to man and Kain and Raziel are more popular than Mario. After first five games the director Amy Hennig went to Microsoft and directed some Tomb Raider ripoff that tanked and faded into obscurity.
RAGE - lauded as a pinnacle of first-person shooter and a GOTY 2011, RAGE was well-received for a deep story with a meaningful and long ending, three hub cities with numerous sidequests and the best PC port the world has seen. Has an active deathmatch mode.
BRINK - was RAGE's closest competitor for GOTY and became the most popular multiplayer game around, dethroning Call of Duty. Well-known for great netcode and gunplay and the most bug free release of t he mutliplayer game.
Mass Effect 3 is studied at schools as the greatest RPG in history. The ending is regarded as the best way to end trilogy ever. Sold less than three thousand copies in its first week, but swiftly became a pop culture phenomenon through good word of mouth.
The Darkness - was way ahead of its time in terms of storytelling and gunplay, but got poor review scores. Has a small cult following. There was a failed kickstarter for a sequel.
Medal of Honor 2010 didn't suck. Warfighter still did, though.

 

[GabeZhul]

Psychonauts: The game became an instant hit across the generations, prompting a number of sequels and becoming on of the greatest franchises of our time with edgy remakes, a saturday morning cartoon and even it's own, "brain-flavored" cereal brand with the Milkman on the box.

Minecraft: An ambitious project by a conglomeration of the greatest development studios to create the world's first photo-realistic game, however it never really gained widespread popularity because the gameplay was too shallow and the super-advanced physics engine made building anything not-shaped like a pile of sand incredibly difficult.

Obsidian Games: The studio is well known for their polished RPGs, but everyone agrees that BioWare still has the edge over them when it comes to writing and characters.

 

[Tom_green_day]

Fallout: Exploring the world 200 years after the GECK fell and turned the world from a barren wasteland into woodlands and forests, complete with horrid un-radiated variants of creatures like bears, wolves or bunny rabbits.

 

[FPLOON]

Off Topic Idea that has nothing to do with video games: Pokemon anime. The idea for Clefairy being the mascot was never cancelled. Now everyone wants Ash to evolve her into a Clefable. This is the only complaint they have about the series, as Ash is an amazing trainer with a wide variety of teams he obtained in each region that regularly appear as he switches entire teams in for different battles and tournaments. Currently the champion of every region except for Kalos, which he is still working on getting the badges for. Misty and Brock sometimes leave to do their own thing, but regularly join Ash on his journeys whenever they want. His relationship with Misty actually went somewhere, and Brock maintains a long distance relationship with Gym Leader Sabrina.

Ash is also currently 15.

Whoa, dude... I'm from the Universe Beyond The Pines... and, to me, the Pokemon anime created the trend of following a random trainer (usually named after the game's subtitle, like Yellow, Crystal, or Emerald[footnote]who is my favorite female trainer so far in the series! *squees*[/footnote]) who always starts out with either a Clefairy and/or an Eevee, who later evolve into Clefable and [insert an Eevee evolution here] over the course of their own "little" arc... Each trainer not only gets fully fleshed out, but also look so distinctly different from one another that they act like better incarnations of The Doctor if he were a Pokemon trainer... As far as the series itself is concerned, as a whole, there has never been a character by the name of "Ash" existing and not one episode acts like a "filler"... whatever that means, because that word doesn't exist in said universe...

OT: Virtua Quest - The vastly deep storyline that delves into the acts of cloning/channeling another human being through one's own psyche, living both the virtual and real life, and the bonds between son/father, son/mother, daughter/mother, and daughter/father, in terms of living within a world of virtual equality, as well as the simple, yet deep, fighting customization gameplay where anyone can adapt into any type of fighting styles at once (if one so chooses to) causes this game to be one of the best virtual fighting sims/RPGs on the market to date, with many sequels and spin-offs that delves deeper into both the mythos and the many players/characters that this world called Nexus exhibits... It's basically a poster child to the "more than just a [simple] fighting game" market, which make it both critically and academically praised by any human being with common sense nowadays...

 

[SmallHatLogan]

Kingdom Hearts: Square Enix decides to do a collaboration with Warner Bros. Our hero Sora travels around with his two companions - Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck - exploring various Warner Bros themed worlds including classic Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies, Duck Dodgers, Animaniacs and Freakazoid just to name a few. More bizarreness and less power of friendship nonsense.

Dead or Alive: Speedos and dick physics.

bioshock infinite: you are traveling in a plane that crashes into the sea, you swim until you approach a lighthouse and discover a passage to a dystopian city at the bottom of the sea

It would never sell.

 

[SonofaJohannes]

Me and friend of mine had a similar discussion once, he had this to say about alternate universe RapeLay:

Spoiler

"Women take you on a date and rape you. And the game is an emotional horror of the humiliation one feels from getting raped and you try to combat the depression and feeling of being dirty and worthless"

Mine was: "When you boot up Rapelay and encounter the female your character shouts "Ew cooties!" and runs away!"

 

[Pink Gregory]

Shadow of the Colossus

To save the prince, explore about 10 square metres of land and slay a pantheon of magnificent beasts no larger than your big toe.