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bltngames · 2 years ago

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I finished Quake 2 last night, and I was thinking of just jumping straight into Quake 2 N64, but the all-new "Call of the Machine" expansion was next on the menu, so I decided to give it a go.

It's pretty impressive how Machine Games stretches these engines. I remember really liking their Quake 1 episode (Call of the Past) from a few years ago, but they made and released that well before the proper Quake 1 remaster had come out, so it was built more for common Quake 1 source ports, so there wasn't a lot of specialization besides "we can do more complex geometry and have bigger mobs."

The above video doesn't show it off, but their Quake 2 expansion directly takes advantage of the new rendering features provided by Nightdive's update. They deliberately and intentionally play with the upgraded lighting engine in some very pretty ways. Feels a lot closer to a modern retro FPS (Amid Evil, Prodeus, and so on).

The whole thing is presented in a format very similar a community map jam. You are dropped in to a hub and get to choose which maps you want to play in any order you like; the idea is that each map puts you in the shoes of a different marine as they attempt to survive the assault on the Strogg army.

"Army" is right. I'd say their Quake 1 episode, "Call of the Past," boosted enemy numbers up to be more in line with where most Doom maps fall.

"Call of the Machine" for Quake 2 laughs in the face of that. One of it's favorite party tricks, at least in the three maps I've experienced, is opening doors with 30+ guys behind it. It's like a more claustrophobic Serious Sam. Thankfully, they do at least adjust things for the larger enemy counts -- monsters that were once bullet sponges now aren't quite so hardy. You'll notice in the above video, in one of the expansion's secret levels, waves of basic dudes get turned to mush pretty easily.

Still, it's tough! I'm playing on Normal here and that's at least my sixth (and first successful) attempt.

To be honest, I'm not sure if I like it. Not the difficulty, I'm fine with that, but like a map jam, the quality of all these maps is... a little uneven? I touted the compass as being my savior in the vanilla Quake 2 campaign, and here, it's an absolute necessity. Some maps are constantly making you loop back around and opening doors to let new monsters out, so I've already gotten deeply lost on what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, or where I'm going. If it wasn't for the compass, I would never be able to even make it halfway through some of these maps, because it feels like they're trying to confuse you on purpose.

Hopefully there aren't too many more maps like that. Which is the other thing: either I did not finish "Call of the Past" or "Call of the Machine" is ten times larger. There's something like 9-12 maps in this thing. It feels nearly as big as Quake 2 did by itself. Absolutely wild that they did this.

Hey that Quake 2 Remaster is nice

I never loved Quake 2. I didn't have a truly gaming-capable PC until 2003 or 2004, and even then, "gaming capable" meant it could run the NOLF demo on the lowest settings. Then again, maybe Lithtech isn't the best measuring stick.

But it was on that old Sony Vaio that I finally started really playing PC games. And my first priority there was Half-Life, which I played absolutely to death and back. It wasn't until three or even four years later that I even remembered there was a Quake 2, and compared to Half-Life, it felt deeply antiquated.

It felt like a game trying to do everything Half-Life was doing, but still clinging to its roots as the progenitor of Doom's instant action. Those two flavors, at least as far as iD Software mixed them together, were more sour than sweet to me. Modern attempts at designing a living world and a robust story were unable to shake traditional first person shooter cobwebs.

A couple years ago, I think after watching Civvie's video on Quake 2, I made an effort to give the game a second shot through Q2Pro. Though my reception was warmer, I still did not come away feeling especially positive on the game. I'm the kind of guy who was already pretty harsh on Quake 1 for just being "More Doom" and Quake 2 is just More More Doom, but now with extra boring "what if Starship Troopers was about cybernetic horror instead of bugs" art direction.

This Quake 2 Remaster they just put out, though? I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying the game. Between the enhanced visuals, gameplay tweaks, and improved enemy AI, the game... doesn't feel brand new. It still feels like Quake 2. But it's like somebody went around and tightened all the loose bolts.

Doom 2016 weapon wheels make managing guns (and inventory power-ups!) a breeze. A brand new (and optional) compass makes sure you don't get lost in levels that could take upwards of 40 minutes to finish. Monsters are significantly more mobile and willing to chase you down. And new cutscenes between levels (and better UI during levels themselves) help fill out the struggling narrative a little bit more, putting greater focus on what it is you're doing.

It is, unquestionably, a better version of this game. I can't imagine ever going back to the original Quake 2 now.

Also, shoutouts to the fact that this is two for two that iD Software has said "If you own these games on Steam, you automatically get the remasters for free."

#quake #id software #remaster #nightdive studios #machine games #Youtube

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quaddmgd · 2 years ago

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The future of Legacy of Kain - a manifesto of sorts

Recently I had a conversation with my girlfriend regarding what would the best possible future for the Legacy of Kain franchise. From a simple annoyance about how the franchise is perceived, even by its fans, it escalated to almost an hour's discussion, after which we came up with a way that could possibly make everyone happy.

I will try to answer some of the most common ideas from around the web and then finally share my opinion on how I perceive the future of Legacy of Kain.

Why starting with a Soul Reaver remake is a bad idea?

The most frequently requested way for reviving the franchise is probably the remake of Soul Reaver. At first glance, this makes a perfect sense. It's the most critically-acclaimed game in the franchise and no title after could replicate its success. Many fans, me included, started with this game and it's the one people probably remember the most. Its narrative does not necessarily require familiarity with Blood Omen and the game is infamously unfinished, though most of its cut content is still in the game files. That begs for a remake with all cut content restored.

The main gripe I have with a remake is a probability of it rebooting the franchise. At the time of writing, Legacy of Kain came to an abrupt end nearly 20 years ago with an open, hopeful ending that heralds at least one more game. The sequel was cancelled for reasons officially unknown, leaving the plot at a cliffhanger.

Now, sequels to Soul Reaver as we know them, exist only because of its unfinished state. Soul Reaver originally had an ending that teased another game, but it was a complete story and most of its plot points were resolved by the end. After a release in 1999, some of those plot points - chronoplast visions - were implemented in their reworked forms in future installments; the difference lies not only in contexts, but sometimes outcomes too.

If a remake was to happen, releasing the story as it ultimately was would not be optimal. It would possibly require a lot of changes on the story-side and that could doom sequels from ever being remade. Even if Crystal Dynamics - or whoever would work on it - somehow pulled it off without changing the story, would you really want to wait over a decade for an eventual continuation to Defiance, because every next game would need to be remade at this point?

Why starting with a Soul Reaver remaster is not the best idea?

To be honest, I think that remastering the entire franchise for a new generation of gamers is a great idea. Embracer Group, that now owns the entire Crystal Dynamics/Eidos portfolio, even expressed an interest in remakes and remasters. Porting the franchise to newer platforms and releasing better PC ports would be great. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I would buy a copy of Legacy of Kain HD Collection for every platform I own. A $40-60 collection of Nightdive-style ports is a dream. My problem is with solely focusing on Soul Reaver.

What caught my attention is an article by gamesradar, where one of the most devoted Soul Reaver fans I know - thank you for work ❤ - voiced his opinion on a feasible director's cut version of Soul Reaver. It would let you play an extended version of Soul Reaver, that includes all cut content - basically the original vision. It's a great idea, but requires a lot of programming and asset creation beyond basic upscaling. That would probably rule out a remaster collection for a singular price tag, which would encourage newcomers to spend that maximum $60 on five games and dive into the franchise. I want to be proven wrong about it and I hope I will be, honestly.

Another small gripe I have with this kind of remaster is advertising it with with the original vision of the game and then locking that content behind playing the release version, which, if everything goes well with restoring cut content, would be then inferior. I'm opposed to locking stuff like difficulty options, good endings etc. behind playthroughs. I'm all for letting a consumer educate themselves to make a smart purchase and choose how they want to use the product.

Why starting with a reboot is possibly an awful idea?

This should be a short one, as most of reasoning towards it was explained above by me. There was a reboot by Climax in works; after a significant development time, it was cancelled. While from what we've seen it didn't seem like the best course of action for the franchise, the thing I didn't like about it the most was that it was a reboot, not a continuation.

It's not like a good reboot couldn't be developed, but its release would possibly doom earlier games to oblivion. I don't really see a corporation thinking that after a reboot it'd be a great idea to release remasters or a sequel to the original plotline. No one will buy a continuation to mostly story-driven abandonware, and unfortunately I know people that won't play remasters of games so old, when a good reboot is there.

It would seem unlikely for an ending to Defiance to emerge if we got a reboot first; and it's possible we wouldn't see old games ported for current platforms.

What's the best course of action to me?

In my opinion, the first thing that should be released is a HD remaster collection of the entire franchise. Unless you are Valve and your games work on newer operating systems out of the box, modern ports are essential for bringing new people to a well established franchise.

The only viable way to enjoy Legacy of Kain today is original hardware and emulation. PC ports are plagued by many issues, deeming them unplayable, even if you are like me and you like fixing your old school PC games. Unfortunately no console offers backwards compatibility options for these five games and it would be a dream to see them not only on PS4/PS5/XONE/XS, but also on the Switch. Sounds like a great way to give fans long-awaited remasters and invite a new generations of gamers to join in on the fun.

A good re-release is also a great way for a publisher to test the waters and see if the interest is there. It costs much less than a new game and can be outsourced much easier, so it doesn't collide with development schedules.

So if the interest is there and remasters sold well enough, what's next? Ideally, a sequel that would serve as an ending to remastered games.

To me, Legacy of Kain has one of the most memorable stories in gaming, defined not only by events in games, but in efforts of storytellers in tying everything up in such a beautiful way, that I could write another blog post solely about it. It's a tale about defying fate and fighting against all odds, told not only by characters, but also developers. It's a legacy, and a story that deserves a conclusion.

Let's assume the continuation is critically-acclaimed. What now? Now the fun part begins. The franchise can go in any way desired by publishers/developers, maybe even transmedia in a form of movie/tv series.

But many people ask for a remake and I might have a solution for that. Why not release a game just called Soul Reaver - a remake that also reboots the entire franchise. Not only it could use all the cut content, but give developers a new start and space for creativity. Ideally, that would please both fans and people that haven't heard about Legacy of Kain before.

To me that's the best course of action. Remind people about Legacy of Kain with a great HD collection, finish the fight with a sequel, start anew with a highly-demanded Soul Reaver remake.

I hope I didn't omit any details in my reasoning during this long blog post, though I'm certain there are some flaws in my thinking. My desperation for a sequel is what sparked the initial conversation with my girlfriend and a need to write all of this. Despite my selfish reasons, I really tried to find a way that satisfies all possible parties.

#legacy of kain #soul reaver #text.qd

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bihet-dragonize · 3 years ago

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Doom anon here, I'm bored so I'm gonna lay out the interesting background of the Doom 64 remaster released on modern consoles & PC. it got longer than I anticipated though...

so Doom 64 originally released in 1997. it was created by the same team as the PlayStation Doom and Final Doom ports. there's more to both of those releases, like PlayStation Doom inheriting things from the Jaguar port, but I'll skip it since it's not terribly relevant here

Doom 64 used a heavily modified Doom engine descended from the modified engine that was behind the PlayStation ports, and its source code was never made public

Doom 64 was never officially ported from the Nintendo 64 until the 2020 remaster, which meant you had to play on N64 or on an N64 emulator. N64 emulation was then and is still now an imperfect thing, but especially back then it was pretty rough

thanks to no port & no source code, people in the community wanting to play it on PC decided to recreate its levels to play in one of the Doom source ports on PC

initially, Samuel Villarreal (also known as Kaiser) released Console Doom in late 2002, a set of maps based on various console versions of Doom (including Doom 64)

in 2003, a team led by Kaiser released Doom 64: Absolution, also known as Doom 64 TC. it was a total conversion mod created to run in a custom Doomsday source port engine. this actually recreated Doom 64 as a whole, though with many obvious differences too. levels were recreated from scratch, and it won a Cacoward as 1 of 2003's 10 best WADs

Doom 64 TC rearranged the level order, as well as adding 6 additional levels by Kaiser, 4 of which were in the campaign and 2 which were like bonus levels (Doom 64's original bonus levels were added to the campaign as secret levels reached from new secret exits)

in 2005, Kaiser released The Outcast Levels for the Doom 64 TC, a mini-episode set of 7 new levels by Kaiser and 3 unfinished levels which would later be completed and released in 2008 as part of Kaiser's next Doom 64 project, Doom64 EX

Doom64 EX was Kaiser's further attempt at accurately recreating Doom 64 for PC. to this end, Kaiser reverse engineered Doom 64 and created a nearly 100% accurate reimplementation of Doom 64 for PC, which you needed to provide the ROM to play it as it used many of the game's assets and its levels directly from the ROM

in 2013, Kaiser won the Cacowards' first Lifetime Achievement Award, or Espi, named in honor of Esa "Espi" Repo. he won largely but not exclusively for all his work around Doom 64. in the article, Kaiser's next project -- Turok EX -- is mentioned

I won't go into all the history of Turok, the decades of Gold Key Comics or Valiant's revival or Acclaim purchasing it. I could write an entire box set of books about Turok, tbh

Kaiser was working on remaking Turok: Dinosaur Hunter using his KEX 2 engine, which was an outgrowth from Doom64 EX. it was pushed to the side for awhile though

in the meantime, Kaiser worked with Nightdive Studios on the Strife re-release. the source code was lost, so Strife: Veteran Edition essentially uses Kaiser and others' pre-existing work on Chocolate Strife for its engine -- Chocolate Strife being an offshoot of Chocolate Doom, a Doom source port with the goal of being strictly accurate to vanilla Doom including its bugs and limitations. because of this, Strife: Veteran Edition had to be open source itself for using that code

KEX 2 was the basis for Strife: Veteran Edition's graphics engine, as well as being the basis for Nightdive Studios' next remaster, Noctropolis, in 2015

also in 2015, Kaiser mentioned in an interview that Nightdive had acquired the license to remaster Turok and that work on it would resume. the remaster released later in 2015, using the next iteration of Kaiser's KEX engine, KEX 3 (or just KEX now). KEX was also what was used in System Shock: Enhanced Edition, also released in 2015

I could go on and on about KEX... but I won't. it's a very cool engine though, used in basically all of Nightdive's remasters -- not always as a way to recreate everything, it's used as an abstraction layer for things too, much like Unity in those Doom remasters from 2019 done by Nerve Software

well, just to bring things full circle, when they were going to remaster Doom 64 for release alongside Doom Eternal, they went to Nightdive Studios, where Kaiser is employed, and they used his KEX engine for it. and the 7 new levels as part of a mini-campaign that acts as a sort of prequel to the 2016 Doom and Doom Eternal, called The Lost Levels? those new levels were made by Kaiser too!

sorry it took so long for me to get there, but I just think that it's a very cool story

it shows how incredibly important it is for game developers to support modding and to release the source code for their games. this wouldn't have been possible otherwise

I think it's insanely cool that someone was so dedicated to playing a specific version of DOOM that they straight up reverse engineered it. That's cool as fuck. Also YES I think modders are so cool and I think they're a necessary part of the video game ecosystem. It's a great example of how if you have a question their is always some person that has the answer lol video game molders remind me of those people in Minecraft who've recreated the entire Library of Congress. It takes such great dedication and patience and love for something and it makes me a lil emotional.

Sorry my reply is so late, but this was nice to read. Mad props to Kaiser and respect to the devs for being like "Ayo, we're trying to remaster Doom64, you reverse engineered it, join us please!" lol

#my answers #Kia's answers

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