#this one’s a funky one where it’s a continuation / reboot of a game that we did for like 3+ years in college. so there’s LORE

[gristlegrinder]

i feel like i need some kind of tag for my demon game. tentatively considering #/spidersposting. i will force everybody to see my little criminals

[shysheeperz]

love ur blog!! I check it out before starting an anime/manga 💞

just wondering do u have any recommendations for complete anime/mangas?

thank u either way!!!

Completed??????

Manga:

Fullmetal Alchemist- the gold standard

Silver Spoon- by the same person who did FMA. Agricultural school stuff. Cute.

Agravity Boys- space sci-fi gag comedy, a wild ride to say the least, I miss my stupid boys

Magu-chan: God of Destruction- cute digimon/pokemon-shaped gods get woken up and mingle with a bunch of middle schoolers. Cute fluff mostly, will occasionally pull at your heartstrings (including the ending)

High School Family: Kokosei Kazoku- comedy/ slice of life, about an entire family attending high school. Has a volleyball arc that rivals the likes in haikyuu!!

Haikyuu!!-sports manga, if you want to cry over boys and their love for the game then this is for you, Boys x Volleyball is the tru otp of the show

Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku- dark historical fantasy, so very, very good. Don't get attached.

Dr. STONE- sci fi, technically the main story is complete. We still have been getting the occasional side chapter or three that continue where the main story left off tho. A very solid shonen jump series. includes one of the best shonen jump dads in the history of ever. Will make u emotional over lightbulbs and stuff. hard not to root for the main cast.

Dr. STONE Reboot: Byakuya- a non-canon little one volume spin-off about byakuya and mainly about a funky lil robot that will make you sob uncontrollably I'd personally say to read up to the end of the Treasure Island arc in the main story first before tackling this one (about ch 140ish)

Dr. STONE 4D Science- a continuation of the main story, only a couple chapters, the ending is a really cruel tease imo and if Inagaki/Boichi don't give us more may they be cursed to lose all their left shoes forever

Food Wars! Shokugeki no Sanji- spin-off of sanji side stories by the duo who did food Wars. ONE PIECE related ofc. Tasty looking food. Sanji too cool for school. One volume.

Astra Lost in Space- space sci fi survival, solid story that deserves more appreciation, the ending is just a tad lackluster in actually showing what a lot of readers would have liked to physically see. By no means ruins the story tho.

Blue Flag (Ao no Flag)- high school, romance, slice of life, boys and gals just trying to figure out life and relationships. Solid.

Mashle: Magic and Muscles- gag comedy that leans a little too much into the shonen battle-esque stuff towards the end imo, but a decently enjoyable time. A mash up of Harry Potter and other various manga like mob, opm, etc.

Mitama Security: Spirit Busters- comedy, axed but I enjoyed it. Goofy fun. nothing spectacular but reading it won't hurt anyone.

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes- spin-off of mha obviously, average joe Koichi >>> deku FIGHT ME, the goodest of boys, world building u don't get in the main series, Aizawa's backstory, Knuckleduster is the man the myth the legend.

Chihayafuru- screaming crying throwing up, it's niche it's technically a sports manga, romance, female MC, growth™, love triangle but at the end of the day that's not what's important

My Love Mix-Up!- comedy romance, big big mix-up on who loves who and lots of shenanigans ensue.

Noragami- TECHNICALLY not complete until like 2 days from now when the final chapter releases. my emotions! MY EMOTIONS!!!! 😭

Gintama- comedy/gag with dashes of really good drama

I have no idea what your tastes are, anon, so here's a mix that I've personally enjoyed. Some of them were axed, but technically that makes them complete so I included them :P yes I cheated.

Anime:

There's a lot less of them bc I haven't actually watched a lot of completed series.

Run with the Wind- more boys x sports but this time it's about running. Also the boys are in college. Will trick u into wanting to run.

91 days- ol timey story about VENGEANCE. Set during the prohibition.

Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagann- makes you emotional and feel all fuzzy inside, sci fi, mecha

Cowboy Bebop- a classic

Samurai Champloo- also a classic and I actually prefer this one over cowboy bebop tbh, god tier baseball episode

Astra Lost in Space-the anime version, if you'd prefer watching over reading, but I always prefer manga > anime just cause.

FMA 03/FMA BROTHERHOOD- the gold standard. I appreciate both versions. 03 goes the anime original ending root bc obviously the manga wasn't completed yet no biggie.

Mob Psycho 100- MOB!MOB!MOB! and tumblr sexy man reigen arataka

Gintama- animated version alternative lol. The voice actors bring the characters to life.

Obv there are the old school classics like Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Gundam and all that jazz if you haven't already checked out some of those. Oldies but goodies.

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #375

Top Ten Games That Could be Films

Well. Sonic. That’s a thing, yeah? The last couple of weeks, when not consumed with Avengers-related news and emotions, have seen people on t’net talking about Sonic, and his weird human legs and nice set of teeth. It’s certainly an odd design, although I sympathise with the creatives involved, even the executives who (I’m presuming) were the driving force behind Sonic’s movie look, okaying what the artists and animators were producing and steering them towards something that, I’m sure, they thought would sell. It’s a tough business and, to paraphrase William Goldman, nobody really knows that much when you think about it.

Among the many think-pieces that have sprung up, however, there is one point I disagree with: that it’s pointless to adapt a game into a movie at all. Certainly there should be no attempt to “legitimise” a gaming property with a film adaptation; games are great and will always be great, as games. But there are games with an iconography, storyline, or set of characters that could translate into movies. As it happens, Sonic the Hedgehog is one such game. He’s instantly familiar both to old farts like myself who remember the nineties, and also to the young folk who will be the film’s target audience. As it happens, I think the rough plot of the film – Sonic and Robotnik enter the “real world” – is probably the best storyline to tell, rather than adapting the game’s plot; it gives us a recognisable world, allows for some A-list casting (Jim Carrey as Robotnik, James Marsden as Sonic’s human pal), and following on from the likes of Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Smurfs, Christopher Robin, et al, the notion of CGI characters interacting with humans is a familiar movie trope, so much so that it’s practically a sub-genre of kids’ films (and can end up getting lampooned in adult-oriented films such as Paul or Ted).

No, I think a much worse decision is to try to adapt a game’s plot; to straight-up cart it across from console to movie screen (or, if you’re watching it on DVD, from, er, Xbox to Xbox, I guess). The first generation of game adaptations were especially guilty of this, often trying to graft a more realistic plotline, with character motivations and whatnot, onto games where “story” should really be read as “objective”: Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Super Mario Bros, Doom, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Whilst some of those films still retain a goofy charm (I will go to bat for Street Fighter being an absolute camp delight), they’re not good, not really. Far better, in my opinion, to take an existing world, one with deep and familiar iconography, and tell stories within it: sort of what the Sonic movie is doing, which we can almost assume is in continuity with the previous games. The best example of this, I think, is Halo; there have been a number of shorts and TV series based on the Halo games, set in the same world, often serving as prequels to the games themselves. And whilst they rarely go beyond a spot of pulpy fun, they do feel of a part with the games themselves. What they don’t do is re-tell the story of the games, and in that, they succeed where other game adaptations have fallen down.

There are examples of games with strong storylines that could be adapted, I think, but they would need care and attention, and should avoid being straight-up ports of the games. Use the storylines, if strong enough, but feel free to chop and change to make it work on film.

Another thing that some games have going for them, that makes them difficult to translate into movies, is that they’re really just film adaptations anyway. I think this is why the Doom and Tomb Raider movies have been less successful than perhaps you’d think; Doom is a sci-fi horror film, not too far away from Aliens (and especially quite close, even though it pre-dated it, to Event Horizon); Tomb Raider is basically Indiana Jones with a woman. The same is true for Red Dead Redemption, which I’m sure has Hollywood types arranging meetings as we speak; it’s a blockbuster, a game with instant name-recognition, a built-in audience, and strong iconography. The problem is that iconography is adapted from dozens of Westerns from The Searchers to Unforgiven to Deadwood to Bone Tomahawk. Quite frankly, we’ve seen that before.

Anyway: here are ten games (or game franchises, I suppose) that I think could stand to be adapted. Some of them are strong stories, some of them are great worlds. Hollywood, feel free to get in touch.

The Secret of Monkey Island (1990): despite banging on about adapting worlds not stories, Monkey Island has a story worth adapting. Sure, it needs adapting, but it has characters, a beginning, middle, and end, and a world that could be seen on the big screen. Pirates of the Caribbean probably stole a bit of its thunder, but that franchise looks like it’s sinking at the moment (no pun intended), so doing a much wackier, almost ZAZ-style take on the pirate movie could be really good fun. My advice would be to put Guybrush and Elaine together for much of the narrative and give them some screwball dialogue.

Command and Conquer (1995): hear me out… the C&C games have a seam of mythology richer than a source of Tiberium, and could lend themselves to a sci-fi war epic. There are characters in there worth adapting – well, Kane, at least – and whilst the risk of it turning into a GI JOE movie is great, if they keep their tongue slightly in their cheek it could be a really good, fun action movie that harks back to ‘80s genre classics. I mean, the C&C cut-scenes are famously hammy, and whilst I don’t think they should quite dial it up to eleven, maybe keeping it a good seven or eight would be good fun. Also: Red Alert, which arguably is funnier (and funner, if that’s a word), but at the moment “comedy Russian bad guys” isn’t quite so benign a concept.

The Legend of Zelda (1986): either as an animation or live-action, I could definitely see a Zelda movie working. For a start, every game is sort of a reboot, a brand new story but still set in the same world as tropes, characters, and events repeat themselves. That means you could tell a story right from the start, drawing on the best plot elements and pieces of iconography from across multiple Zelda games, but it could still be in-continuity with the game series itself. A sprawling fantasy epic but skewing younger than the likes of Lord of the Rings, it could be an absolute winner. Like Monkey Island, I’d keep Link and Zelda together for much of the narrative, however.

Mass Effect (2007): this one might be cheating a bit, because I think there actually is a film in the works (I mean, there’s probably a film in the works for half of these games…). Also it might be cheating a bit because in this case, I don’t think you’d adapt it into a film, but rather a TV series. I’d adapt the story, roughly, but give it a direct narrative thrust. I think if it was a film you’d have to cut too much; it’d feel too propulsive, and risk becoming just another sci-fi action movie. But a series – maybe a 12-episode Netflix affair or something, with a big budget – could allow room to linger, to have the odd episode go off on a tangent to explore the Geth or Rachni or whatever. I’d also look at both men and women for the lead, and cast whoever was best, in a nod to the gender choices of the game itself.

Fable (2004): this is one where I think it’s the world rather than the plot that’s worth adapting: a fun, almost Python-esque version of a fictional fairy-tale Britain. A new recruit to the Hero Academy who is trying to prove themselves whilst also battling Jack of Blades. I’d keep the humour and the bawdy tone, and add in characters from across the Fable series, making it much more of an ensemble. Arguably it’s the gameplay and the emergent storytelling that’s part of Fable’s charm, but I do really think there’s enough there to hang an adult comedy fantasy film on.

Duke Nukem 3D (1996): this is one that could go very badly, but I still think there’s potential. Duke Nukem as a character is a boor, an oaf, a misogynistic pig, a relic of a bygone age worth forgetting. Whilst I think exploring this character in a contemporary setting would be more interesting in a game (especially as you could explore the twenty-year-old gameplay differences, too), you could use Duke as an avatar of the ‘80s, almost, to critique action cinema of years gone by. A washed-up sexist dinosaur who has to be pulled out of retirement, I’d cast an older actor with some comedy chops but also a solid physical pedigree: maybe even Arnie?! You’d have to be careful that if you had a redemption arc for him you didn’t end up justifying the crassness of the original game, however.

Another World (1991): this is one where it’s the world and the style that’s the key, although there’s a vague enough story there to adapt. A scientist is transported to, literally, another world, and has to survive, ending up joining a slave rebellion. The game is all funky graphics and cool gameplay (by 1991 standards, at least), but with the right director you could transfer that brilliantly to the screen, and it allows enough room to explore the psychological effects on Lester Chaykin. One of the things I really like about the game, is that unlike other human-transported-to-alien-world storylines, Lester is way out of his depth; he’s not a superhero, not a revolutionary. He is battered by the elements, hunted by animals, imprisoned, beaten, and ultimately (spoiler alert) saved by one of the aliens. You’d have to keep this element of the game to avoid it feeling like too much of a cliché.

BioShock (2007): this one might be a bit more conventional, and risk being another Doom-style adaptation of a game, trying to follow a story that’s more about gameplay than literary flourish. But there is something there, I think; for one, there’s the steampunk aesthetic of a decaying underwater 1940s utopia, all art-deco and brass, the outside world rushing in and laying waste to such finery. There’s the philosophical discussion at the heart of BioShock, giving filmmakers something interesting to hang it all on. There’s the horror element: the creepy Little Sisters, the shock-horror Splicers, the terrifying Big Daddies. Finally, there’s the twist, which – I’m gonna be honest here – would not work anywhere near as well in a film, but all the same, it’s a twist. It is, perhaps, the most vanilla of the options I’ve laid out here, but I’d still like to see it.

Jet Set Willy (1984): there are quite a few relatively obscure (compared to, say, God of War) 1980s games that could make good films. The first Maniac Miner; Skool Daze; Dizzy. But I’ve plumped for the surrealism of Jet Set Willy. Picture it: cast someone who broke through in the ‘80s – Pierce Brosnan, Richard E. Grant, Adrian Edmondson – and get someone like Danny Boyle or Edgar Wright to direct. The tale of a drunken gone-to-seed former celebrity who starts out trying to clean himself up after one party too many – possibly in some vain attempt at a comeback – only for the film to just get crazier and crazier as he ventures deeper into his bizarre stately home, discovering hidden treasures, secret rooms, occult shenanigans, and much more. Is it “real”? Is he losing his mind? A freakish, twisty, deeply surreal black comedy ensues. It’d probably make no money but be a cult classic!

Worms (1995): most of these I’ve imagined as being live-action, often big-budget affairs; Hollywood blockbusters. But who’s to say we can’t adapt a game into a cartoon? Certainly, it’s been done before, and with degrees of success: obviously on TV, but there’s also the Angry Birds movie, which I’ve not seen and which doesn’t strike me as being overly impressive, but which was clearly a big enough deal to warrant a sequel. There’s an animated Mario movie in the works, animated Pokémon has been a staple for twenty years, and there are those who’d argue that animation was a better route for Sonic, too. So why not apply that logic to Worms, a great British success story? There could be different clans of Worms warring over a piece of land (perhaps a garden that, from their view, is an epic battlefield); that would allow the different Worm voices to come into play. But something means they have to unite for a common cause. Inject it with a dose of British humour, a splash of surrealism, and a some satirical social commentary, and you’re onto a winner.

There you are. Seemingly-obvious suggestions like Metal Gear, Gears of War, or Half-Life I have quietly shifted to one side, and other adventure games with good stories (Grim Fandango, Thimbleweed Park, Life is Strange) I sort of feel had their box ticked by Monkey Island. But somewhere in this list I’m convinced there’s at least one great, great film. In the meantime, I’m off to see Detective Pikachu. Who knows? Perhaps that will be the film that breaks videogaming’s cinematic duck (or at least Psyduck).

[saftasming]

My thoughts on Ben 10 or “Why Abi didn’t go to bed at her usual time last night because she was consumed by Ben Tennyson feels.”

Ben 10: I seem to remember HATING this show when it first came on air and the reason why was because my precious Teen Titans was now over and was being replaced by some annoying 10 year old kid who I wanted slap every time he came on screen. I caught one or two episodes when they were on and I guess they were okay??? But Ben and his Grandpa were very urrrgh. Gwen and Charmcaster were probably the only reason I was interested in the show at the time because I love female sidekick characters (and redheads) and I thought Charmcaster was pretty interesting because at the time all we knew was that she and her uncle were funky magic users which pulled me in.

There are a few episodes that weird me the hell out though...Like IDEK. - THE CHRISTMAS ELF EPISODE. WHAT THE SHIT. KIDS WERE BEING TURNED INTO XMAS ELVES?! - The one where Ben gets stuck in his own nightmares or some shit and there are some pretty weird scenes like...WEDGIES AND SNAILS OR SOME SHIT, IT WAS DISTURBING AND KIND OF GROSS BUT IT WORKED BECAUSE I’M PRETTY SURE AS A 10 YEAR OLD I HAD SOME WEIRD ASS DREAMS LIKE THIS AT SOME POINT SO THESE ARE ALL VALID TERRIFYING FEARS. - The Sumo Slammers ep...I guess it was an okay premise but it wasn’t something I was interested in seeing Ben and Gwen getting themselves into. I remember doing a rewatch some years later mostly because it aired stupidly early when I was getting for work and I started to appreciate it a little more. Ben was still an insufferable little asshole though. “My big fat alien wedding” is probably my favorite episode though. It’s alot of fun, okay? Until I do another rewatch and find another episode that fills me with fun fuzzy glee as that one did it’s at the top of my favorites. ALSO WTF I SUDDENLY REMEMBERED THE EPISODE WHERE MAX WAS A FULL ON DOUCHE BAG BUT WHEN ISN’T HE ONE, TBH? ...Wait so how many alien GF’s did Max have because youtube keeps sending me B10 recs and I had honestly forgot about that one alien chick who turned up and Ben was super jealous and rude to her for whatever goddamned reason other than being a brat. Ben 10 : Alien Force YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. So I honestly forgot what pulled me into watching this other than “Oh fucking finally teenagers fighting space crime and super villains.” It was honestly the kind of shit I really missed watching. And I think overall it really did remind me of The Roswell Chronicles or whatever that show was called that I used to be all over because there was the same kind of vibe. Darker storylines and interesting plot twist/reveals were definitely more my thing so I was more into this. Also Beastboy and Terra were back in my life...sort of? So it was nice having familiar voices back on my TV set.

And my gosh we got ALOT of stuff that I was totally into. (SPACE DRAGONS YOU GUYS. WE HAD AN EPISODE ABOUT COOL MAP MAKING DRAGONS IN SPACE AND I’M SO SALTY WE NEVER GOT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THEM IN LATER EPISODES.) Also we had the introduction of one of my best girls from B10 and I’m still kind of sad Julie and Ben later split up because out of all the girls Ben was with Julie was one of my faves. (Esther and Eunice are my other two and good lord.) Ben 10: Ultimate Alien: Okay so it’s a continuation of Alien Force but with more alien forms I guess? Also I feel like I missed ALOT of UA somehow. Like we had some weird Cthululu BS going on with Vilgax which I barely remember other than Julie ended up joining some weird cult. Then didn’t Kevin go evil again at some point?

ALSO APPARENTLY THERE WAS AN EP ABOUT THAT FILM STAR IN A CREEPY RELATIONSHIP WITH A VILLAIN AND THERE WAS SOME KIND OF STOCKHELM SYNDROME BS GOING ON? I don’t think that episode aired over here in the UK though I never caught it if it did air. (Then again CN went through a phase of airing Ben 10 stuff whilst I was at work at this point so I think I missed out on alot.)

Ben 10 Omniverse: I can’t remember my initial thoughts on this show at first.. It was kind of a mess because I was confused as to why we had a teen Ben and a younger Ben in the same show and didn’t really want to try and understand what was going on. ALSO THERE’S A LEGO ALIEN WTF. Obviously later I learned that  most of the times we saw younger Ben were through flashbacks or weird crack happening BUUUUUT After all these years we got Ben 10 doing Teen Titans esque shit and it’s probably my favorite series out of all of them because of how light-hearted and fun it was and at the same time exciting and thrilling all at once! And my gosh, so many new characters to love too. (NGL Blukic and Driba cracked me up so so so much.)

Highlights included more well rounded female characters joining the cast. ROOK BLONKO IS A BLESSING AND IS THE BEST ALIEN CINNAMON ROLL EVER. Hey guys, Remember Secret Saturdays? No? WELL YOU FUCKING SHOULD CAUSE THERE WAS A CROSSOVER EPISODE THAT WAS GREAT. (Though Ben’s crush on Zack’s mom was weird.) TBF Omniverse had ALOT of weird episodes but it worked in the show’s setting and I honestly didn’t mind. (Though the one that makes me cringe the most was the frigging game show one and that one was written by Yuri Lowenthal himself so IDK. It might have been nice to see him write one or two other episdes to see if he had any other interesting ideas he wanted to inplement in the show but it never happened or at least I don’t think it did.

Ben 10 (2017 reboot): I can’t decide if I like this show or not because on one hand we get annoying 10 year old Ben again. But on the other there’s alot of humor I’ve sniggered at on the episodes I have managed to watch on TV.

Not sure why they needed to do the whole Ben/Gwen bodyswap episode again but eh. (ALSO MORE DRAGONS. Okay just the one dragon but that was a fun episode.) Ben 10/Generator Rex crossover WE SHOULD HAVE HAD MORE. I wanted Rex to come to Bellwood. I wanted Six drinking smoothies with Doc Holiday and more stuff. This was one of those crossovers that needed to happen and it did like aaagh it was SooOooOoooOOOo great. Also Gen Rex was a good show and even though I didn’t see much of it I can appreciate kickbutt plotlines and stuff when they happened. (I think if I remember rightly I was pretty miffed B10 was taken off air for a little while and Gen Rex replaced it. BUT LOOK WHERE WE ARE NOW.)

I think there’s some other canon I’ve missed off this list such as the live action movies and some of the longer animated specials/movies. Secret of the Omnitrix I’d quite like to sit through because we get more Azmuth backstory apparently and @cybra-sensei has opened my eyes to the awesomeness that is this grumpy little space frog.

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #283

Top Ten First-Person-Shooters to Reboot

So I’ve been playing Doom (2016) a fair bit recently. I picked it up during a recent Xbox Live sale, having been in the market for a fun, relentless single-player blast-a-thon, and it does not disappoint. In fact, its combination of chunky gore, slick pace, and subtly tactical gameplay (where performing melee executions earns you ammo or health, thus encouraging close-quarters combat in hostile situations) has lead to the game surpassing all my expectations. It’s my game of the year, even though it came out last year, and it’s the most fun I’ve had with a first-person-shooter since I originally played Halo: Combat Evolved in about 1866 or whenever that was.

And it got me thinking: despite my initial misgivings about them rebooting a timeless classic such as Doom (which still holds up, gameplay-wise, if you play it today), new Doom is an unqualified success; therefore, which other classic gaming FPS titles could benefit from a reboot? What old favourites of mine would I like to see given a 4K lick of paint, to charm the pants and scratch the itchy trigger fingers of a new generation?

Well, this lot, basically. And for what it’s worth – I’m talking full-on reboot here. I know that Doom ’16 has some kind of mutliversal tangential link to the original Doom – with the implication that you’re somehow the same Doomguy – it is, to all intents and purposes, a Brand New Game. And that’s what I’m angling for here: new games, not sequels; full-on reboots. That’s why there’s no Halo or Perfect Dark; those are stories I’d rather see continued (even if my ideal Perfect Dark sequel would be something along the lines of you playing Joanna Dark’s niece, with Jo in the role of NPC mentor).

Anyway, let’s get on with it, shall we?

Quake (1996): I know that they're keeping the brand alive with the likes of Quake Champions, but a full-blown remake of the first Quake – with all its Lovecraftian craziness and architectural adventurism – would be brilliant in the modern era. Not sure what the modern equivalent of firing a rocket down a dark corridor and watching it light up the walls dynamically would be, mind.

Unreal (1998): at the risk of reigniting the great 3D Engine War of the late-90s, a revamped Unreal would be, well, unreal. The scale of the first game, and its interesting world of multiple alien races, would be great to explore nowadays.

Duke Nukem 3D (1996): a franchise soured by the delayed and disappointing Duke Nukem Forever, a wholescale revamp of the Duke brand is well overdue. Presented with a world simultaneously grittily real but also cartoonishly overblown, the first Duke 3D was a masterpiece; getting back to its interactive destruction, but with more enjoyable gameplay and a less irritating interpretation of its star character, would be a blast.

No One Lives Forever (2000): also known, far more prosaically, as "The Operative", the NOLF games were fun campy spy romps. Cult favourites but not widely remembered, a reboot that played like a funky, breezier version of Call of Duty would be cool, daddio.

Hexen (1995): AKA Doom's twisted medieval sister, the twin terrors of Heretic and Hexen were the "alt" games for mid-90s FPS fans. Bringing back that sense of sinister witchiness would work a treat, and the magic-based arsenal makes for a refreshing change. Oh, and why Hexen over Heretic? It's just got a cooler name. It's got an X right in the middle.

Blood (1997): a really fun, if rather thin, FPS based on the Build engine (like Duke), I remember this one for revelling in its OTT violence. One of the most basic weapons is a flare gun that sets enemies on fire. Amping up the horror elements but keeping the sense of gory fun would make it a nice accompaniment to the new Doom.

Outlaws (1997): a somewhat overlooked FPS (technologically overshadowed by the likes of Quake, I seem to remember), it was cool because – even nowadays – you don't see many Wild West FPS games. Making it less Unforgiven and more Shane would also help mark it out against Red Dead Redemption 2.

SiN (1998): I'm gonna be honest: I don't remember the first game as much as the failed episodic sequel. But the concept of a "freelance police force" undertaking missions in a near-future city, with an over-arching conspiracy plot, has a lot of potential.

F.E.A.R. (2005): a combination of tactical shooter and trippy horror game, there's always room for something like F.E.A.R. I'd lose the irritating acronym (and just call it "Fear"), and try to make it play like a totally serious combat game that makes a sudden left turn into full-on demonic terror (the way From Dusk Till Dawn shifts from crime drama into blood-soaked vampire movie).

Starsiege: Tribes (1998): okay, confession time: I've never played this. Well, maybe I played the demo. But I do remember reading a lot of Penny Arcade strips about it. And, to be honest, a fun open-world sci-fi combat game with loads of vehicles and jetpacks sounds like it would be fun. And I'd just call it either "Starsiege" or "Tribes". As this list should have indicated, one-word FPS titles are full of win.