Hello everyone, and welcome to The Monthly Question. Every month the PS Nation writers will answer a question giving you a chance to get to know them a bit better. More importantly, this is a great chance to discuss video games and other related topics, as well as to discover great new games. The majority of questions will be focused on PlayStation and video games but not all of them.

The first two Monthly Questions were fairly straightforward, by-the-numbers questions. So, it is time for a little outside of the box thinking.

I read on the internet that all of the remasters this generation are ruining video games and taking away resources that would otherwise be dedicated to new IPs. And we all know if it is on the internet it must be true. In light of these troubling facts, I wanted to think about what made video games so great in the first place… prequels and spin-offs.

You read that right, prequels. Do you dream of playing as Kratos before he was angry all the time? Back before he was fighting gods and he was yelling only part of the time. Who among us has not dreamt of a spin off where the cast from PlayStation All-Stars boogies the night away in a disco rhythm dance game. Better yet, they form a band.

To shine a light on the games gamers really want, I asked the PS Nation writers:

Honestly my idea for a perfect spin-off was touched on a few years ago… touched on being the operative words here. I would love an adventure game with Sly, Ratchet, and Jak all working together, but not a collection of minigames. More like some strange meta game where they acknowledge their existence as characters in a game and possibly visit other PlayStation games and recruit characters from them.

The three main characters can easily cross-pollinate because their gameplay styles are so similar. So writing an awesome universe spanning adventure for them would be seriously awesome.

This is partly a joke, but I want a game I call Young Sullivan’s Misadventures. This would be about the humble beginnings of everyone’s favorite cigar smoking old man from the Uncharted series, Victor “Goddamn” Sullivan. It would be in the style of Uncharted, but explore Sully’s past.

Like how did Sully get involved in treasure hunting? What scores made him a well known entity in the world of treasure hunters? And, more importantly, why the hell did he take a hooker to church?

The game could be a fun one-off or turned into its own franchise. Naughty Dog could do it or it can be passed to another developer as long as they keep the core mechanics of Uncharted with more humor and shenanigans thrown in.

I would do a strategy game featuring GI Joe. The franchise is terribly unrepresented in video games and with the resurgence of Transformers, now is the time for GI Joe.

Whether it is a turn based game like Civilization Revolution or a real time game like Halo Wars, there is a lot of potential there. You could have multiple factions based on each side. For Cobra you’d have Cobra, Crimson Guard, Python Patrol, and so on. For the Joes, you could have sections built around the main characters like Duke, Gung-Ho, Snake-Eyes, Hawk, Flint, Cover Girl, and more. For miscellaneous factions you could have Cobra-La, Iron Grenadiers, Dreadnoks, Oktober Guard, etc.

Either version of the game would work with its cartoonish graphics. Imagine a spark of Rattlers attacking the Joe’s base in real-time or a M.O.B.A.T. taking over a square in a Civ Rev type look. While there are a lot of different options you could go with I think that a strategy game is the best way to enter into the market. By keeping it simple you can keep the cost down and hit a lower price point.

Facetiously I want to say a prequel for Destiny? It might explain the story, circumstances, and current “world” more than some grimoire cards. More seriously, perhaps a Bioshock prequel would be nice.

With the last rumor/speculation about the Bioshock Collection, it would be nice to see what Rapture looked like before the fall, before ADAM was discovered and then how that discovery created that collapse of the “ideal Utopia”. We could always wish for a prequel to The Walking Dead series to really understand what caused/created the zombie outbreak, but let’s all just admit that will never happen and continue on in our blissful ignorance.

A prequel to Max Payne, with dirty cops, a new love, and a trunk load of guns in the same visual style and feel of Max Payne 3, just without the unnecessary multiplayer modes.

My mind begins to race with the ideas of a GTA V-sized open world with new cases each week and loads of random encounters. But really I’d just be happy with another linear Max Payne game at the end of the day.

I am not a big sim racing fan but I do enjoy some of the Need For Speed and kart racing games. I would love to see a Mario Kart-style game with the cast of PlayStation All-Stars and the ability to create your own tracks like in LittleBigPlanet Karting.

These are the prequels and spin-offs we would love to see. Do you agree or disagree with our answers? What would you like to see? Let us know in The Monthly Question thread in the PS Nation forums.