Weekend Rant is a non-regularly occurring weekend mini-editorial. In layman’s terms that basically means that if a staff member has something they want to rant about they can do so on any given weekend.

I have a confession: I’m a dreamer. Amidst having a career, being a husband and a dad, and life in general I constantly have daydreams in my head. One of those has always been to help develop or fund a game. Last night I was up until the wee hours with friends playing Hydro Thunder Hurricane, and as I dozed off my dreams were that of being a rich man. Since I can’t indulge my fantasy in real life, I thought it might be fun to throw out some of my XBLA dreams and hear some of yours.

Hydro Thunder Ultimate DLC

Oh dream of dreams! It’s no secret that my all time favorite XBLA game is Hydro Thunder Hurricane. It’s just got such polish, such vibrance, and most importantly, speed. The guys at Vector Unit truly give a textbook definition of a labor of love. It shows in every subtle nuance of the game. But as packed as the game is between the core title and the DLC I’ve always wanted more. It’s like having a great meal and forcing yourself to eat more just because it’s soooooo good. So I’d totally take my money and fund a new DLC pack. I’d push for another design-a-skin contest for the boats, along with classic skins from the original Hydro Thunder. I’d have more skins for the rubber ducky, including one with a biker bandana and a leather jacket. I’d pay for all the tracks from Hydro Thunder GO and the original game. To entice players I’d pay for the whole thing up front and a bit more to have this action packed DLC be reasonably priced.

Star Wars Battlefront Arcade

Oh my other dream of dreams! My absolute, undisputed, platinum trophy, favorite game of all time is Star Wars Battlefront II. I still mod the game to this day, and I’m not alone. The community is still going strong. Fans have been clamoring for another Battlefront for years now. Take a look at any news post that relates to LucasArts. You’ll always see lots of comments saying “Just give us Battlefront 3“. To that I add my voice, but at the same time I’d like an arcade version too. Hey, it works for the Battlefield series, and the whole game is complete, meaning it just needs a code port.

Vigilante 8 Arcade: High-Octane patch

I’ve never really been a Twisted Metal guy. The gameplay is great, but the borderline horror story behind it never appealed to me. When Vigilante 8, the series’ first competitor, appeared in the late 90’s I had finally found my perfect vehicle combat game. It had a much more enjoyable 1970’s oil crisis theme, funky disco music, and frankly much more enjoyable gameplay. It comes as no surprise that I was first in line on that fateful November 5, 2008 to pick the game up. I’m not sure if it was just that my memories were a bit inflated or if the controls just weren’t the same, but it was missing that certain… something. It’s still a great little game (and a bargain and it’s newly reduced price of 400 MSP), but I would totally drop some of my rich-man-cash to have Activision let the devs go in an hone the gameplay more. I’d want them to couple that with some free DLC that brings in more V8 characters along with a few favorites from Interstate ’76, which is part of the same universe.

*sigh*

. . . but I’m not a rich man. When I come back to reality I’m just your average middle class man with a mortgage, a family, and a simple-yet-happy life. Still, I can’t help but dream–it’s just ingrained in me. Anyone else a victim of the same bug? Share your development dreams with us.