Psygnosis simply for Drakan. I recently replayed it and it holds up pretty well, even if the melee combat as Rynn is a little clunky.
Another one, who is still around and very successful in their niche, is Egosoft. X4 at release was a little so-so, but mostly due to performance issues and me being spoiled from years and years worth of mods for the previous games (but also, without any of the really good DLCs, only three of the six or so factions are in the game).
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.
Treasure! Dynamite Headdy, Gunstar Heroes. Bangai O. Not to mention the shmups. Damn they made some amazing games with super cool mechanics. Last I checked, they made a few anime tie-in games or something in the 2010s, but nothing since then.
Westwood, but not for Command & Conquer or Dune 2. I still remember them fondly for their Kyrandia games. I loved the art design, the music and the jokes.
Kyrandia 2 being one of my all time favorite adventure games, Zanthia was an awesome protagonist. Especially for her time.
It’s nice that their strategy games picked up the way they did, but part of me wishes they stuck with their fantasy games.
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