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Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine NA release: 15th December 2000 JP release: N/A EU release: N/A Developer: LucasArts, Factor 5 Publisher: LucasArts N64 Magazine Score: 81% Looking back at N64 Magazine regarding this game is a bit confusing. In Europe, this was due to come out in September 2001. THQ then informed N64 magazine that the release date was pushed forward to June 2001, which is what issue their review was posted in. Yet, despite the PAL version being finished, it never came. I quickly checked the following few issues for a mention of the game not appearing on shelves, but there’s no mention of a delay or cancellation – there was even a guide in their August 2001 issue. It was a game I was interested in, but in, but wasn’t on my list to buy – although it turns out that I wouldn’t have been able to buy it anyway. Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine was a mixture of a Tomb Raider style platformer and a point and click adventure. It’s a nice idea, but the flaws of each part of the game really work against each other. The original PC version of Infernal Machine used tank controls, but Indy is given proper analogue control for the N64 port, while the “place camera behind Indy” button also allows for strafing to line up shots, which does feel a bit awkward. While generally moving around feels much nicer on the N64, you still need to be immensely precise, which can lead to a lot of frustrations – Indy really needed to be able to grab ledges even when he’s slightly to the side. Incidentally, the modern control options in the Tomb Raider remasters also faced the same criticisms, as those games were designed around tank controls. What makes the platforming even worse is the camera. It’s very, very close to Indy and points straight forward. In a great many rooms and areas, platforms you need to jump up to are just out of view. You can stop moving and use a slow first person camera, but even then, ledges can blend in with the ceiling. I had to keep looking up videos, as I was constantly missing things that really shouldn’t be part of the challenge. Infernal Machine also employs point & click puzzle elements, where you have to find objects and work out what to use them on. One reason this mechanic works really well in puzzle games, is that it’s easy to identify what objects you can interact with, and it’s easy to test out objects on other objects. But not in Infernal Machine. The “take” button is often a pain to make appear – interacting with objects as a whole requires you to be standing on the exact pixel the game wants you to be on. This isn’t just a faff in picking things up, but using items to interact with objects. You can use the right thing, but because you’re slightly at the wrong angle, it just seems like you used the wrong item. Take the lagoon level. It’s set in a place that had some WWII conflict, with some boats and planes crashed. After a few lengthy puzzles and an underwater maze, you unlock a secret tunnel to some kind of underwater temple. When you get there, the door is shut. However, there’s no switch. Hopefully you found a rusty hammer in the underwater maze, as you’ll need to use it on a sunken plane to break off a part of the propeller, and then use the propeller on the door. While doing this, I also found another annoyance with items: on top of needing to be in a very precise location, you also need to remember to holster your weapon, as if you use an item while you’re holding something, the game will act in the same way as using an item in the wrong place. Incidentally, I was holding a machete, which seems like a much better instrument to use to pry open doors than a propeller you smashed off a wet, rusty plane with a rusty hammer. These obscure puzzle things work fine in 2D point & click adventures, because you can easily highlight objects that can be interacted with, you’ll be given hints as you interact with the various items, and if all else fails, it’s easy to test every object with other objects. In a 3D world like this, it’s just frustrating. Combat comes across fine, with Indy automatically targeting enemies. Your revolver is your main weapon due to infinite ammo, but you can also find other weapons to use. Your biggest threat isn’t other humans, but small wildlife – particularly spiders. They’re small, hard to see, come out of nowhere, and will poison Indy, so make sure you get loads of anti-venom kits. I also found it amusing that the water sections don’t just have mines and sharks, but they had to add piranhas as well. All of this is a great shame, as buried beneath this frustration is a great Indiana Jones adventure. The story is intriguing and fully voice acted (although, due to the compression, the lack of subtitles is a hindrance), and you can tell that, if some parts were smoothed out, it could be a ton of fun. A few of the later levels add vehicles to the mix, such as using a jeep for a chase, or having to hop in and out of a minecart to adjust its route through the level, and it would be nice to see this in a tidied up package. Fine Remake or remaster? This would benefit massively from a remaster. Camera control would help massively along with widening the area for grabs and interacting with items – and perhaps add something to highlight what can be interacted with. Perhaps an “intuition” button that highlights objects that can be used. Official Ways to get the game The original PC version is on GoG, with some support for higher resolutions, but has no proper upgrades. It also includes the latest official patch, which breaks the game on level 7, so you still need to track down an unofficial patch. -
My crazy wild card theory about what else the Switch 2 can do is that we'll have the option to use a Switch 1 as a controller for it, much like the Wii U gamepad, when the Switch 2 is in docked mode. -
I had Pokémon Stadium 2 back in the day. Really cool minigames (Mr.Mime's is absolutely fantastic), incredibly challenging Gym Leaders (PS1 had some bullshit difficulty, but PS2 had some brutal, calculated difficulty, with well-thought teams), the fun Challenge Cup (where rental Pokémon were randomly assigned to you), and it even allowed me to use Mystery Gift on the N64 itself! For a kid like me without Game Boy Colour (the device's infrared reader was required to activate Mystery Gift), that was a heck of a cool feature. But now, the only reason I ever booted it up on the NSO was to play some minigames. Who knows, maybe some day I'll get the itch to re-engage with the battle system, but it's hard to tell. -
Alright then, to weigh in on this, my expectations are pretty low going into this. To quickly revisit what I was thinking about back when this started to be rumoured to be coming around Valentine's Day back at the start of the month... So, yeah, my thoughts haven't changed too drastically since that post, but just to revisit these: I'd love to see Ghost of Yōtei here and for it to get a release date, but seeing as I feel like it's being set up to come in Fall 2025, it'll be interesting to see how PlayStation position it if it is here just because we know so little about GTA VI's release plans in that same window. If it's here I feel like simply giving it the window of Fall 2025 will be enough, a specific date right now in Q3 seems like you're asking for trouble, but I think the smarter move would honestly be to wait until the potential May/June State of Play, by which time we've hopefully had GTA VI's release clarified (or delayed?), and just show us the game and a release date then. As for the three games I was waiting for release dates on, Snake Eater had its release date and its release date trailer leaked with the PS Store mishaps, so, uh, that's got a 99% chance of turning up here with that release date of 28th August. Whoops. I'd still love release dates for Forza Horizon 5 and Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, some teases by supposed insiders are saying April will be a big month so maybe then? Honestly, Forza Horizon 5 and Indiana Jones are in such different wheelhouses that I genuinely feel like you could launch them two weeks apart in April and see very little risk of them cannibalising each other, so if it's a quiet month -- why not? As for the PlayStation GAAS, I do think there's a strong chance we see one here so that it can launch over the summer, and I'll just say that I hope it's Marathon and not Fairgame$. I don't particularly care for either in all honesty, but Marathon doesn't seem to be doing weird stuff like Fairgame$ is, so yeah... Death Stranding 2 was rated in South Korea last Thursday, and so I feel like it could pretty reasonably be PlayStation's summer game. I don't know, maybe I've got Yōtei and DS2 the wrong way around and the former is coming this summer and DS2 is their Q3 title, but Yōtei is just giving me undeniable autumn vibes with its brown and golden hues that I think it'd be a bit confusing for it to come out in the summer. Then again, Tsushima's 5th anniversary is in July, so what better way to mark it than with its sequel? And DS2 seems like perfect counter-programming to GTA VI in Q3. Outside of these, yeah, I'm not going to go too crazy with hype and expectations, in all honesty. From Naughty Dog, I'd love the announcement of a co-op mode for The Last of Us Part II's No Return, seems a total no-brainer to me after Factions was canned and with the show's second season and the game's PC release lining up for April. I don't think we see Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet (man I love that title!) here, that feels like a Q3 State of Play update to prop up a release next year. I'm not expecting anything from Insomniac, assuming Wolverine is 2026 then I feel like maybe we see it in the summer/a Q3 State of Play, and there was of course the existence of Venom leaked in their 2023 hack, which was scheduled for 2025. I could see Venom being a Holiday 2025 title, but if it's shorter like Miles was, then I imagine a shorter marketing schedule might work better, and thus a reveal in the summer makes more sense. Santa Monica Studio are in an odd place now where unless they announce and launch a game this year - which seems incredibly unlikely - I don't think we see a game from them until...2027? I can't see PlayStation putting ND and SMS against each other for GOTYs next year, unlike Xbox they care for their catalogue curation and accolades. Shots fired, maybe, but hey, Xbox release two GOTY candidates after the TGAs cut-off in the last 5 years, so I know I'm right Asobi might have a DLC update for Astro Bot, maybe? Bluepoint I honestly don't know, there was that whole bit of news about them working on a God of War GAAS which has been cancelled, and of course Bend supposedly had a title cancelled too, so...both MIA, I guess? Unless Bluepoint had that cancelled GoW GAAS in the works alongside a remake, but I want them remaking Ico (purely just so that it's available on modern systems) and that game's 25th anniversary is next year, so uh yeah, look forward to hoping for that at some point? It would mean all three of Ueda's titles would be playable on PS5, which would be awesome. Apparently an XDev member of staff seems to be teasing something so maybe we see that Ooze game? Or maybe they picked up that Rayspace after Japan Studio closed? There was also that Gravity Rush 2 remaster weirdness that came and went as a rumour, as well as the Days Gone remaster. Bloodborne – ha, no. Love that game to pieces but I'm firmly in the Bluepoint Remake for PS6 launch camp. Again, another shame, because Demon's Souls is still technically one of the greatest games of this current generation, and is now over 4 years old and Bluepoint's only release designed from the ground up for the system. Third parties...Lost Soul Aside have obviously strongly hinted at their presence during this thing with their tweet, so that seems like a lock-in, and seems well positioned - purely on paper, looks and vibes - to be this year's Lies of P/Black Myth: Wukong (I mean, so could Phantom Blade Zero if it turns out to be a 2025 release). Resident Evil IX or Code Veronica Remake, maybe? Capcom love to show off new RE titles at PlayStation events, and yeah, there'll probably be yet another trailer from them for Monster Hunter Wilds. Expecting nothing from Square Enix, as honestly, the Switch 2 event is just around the corner (well, a couple of corners) and their big hitters seem better suited for their Japanese audience, though in the West, rather than Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, maybe it's Kingdom Hearts IV's time to turn back up here, given its shared history with the PlayStation brand? Could see more Xbox announcements, would be a bit odd to me to announce new titles here rather than just give dates to Indy and Forza Horizon 5 but Xbox are right weirdos, so they could do anything! Seen the rumours about an original God of War remake/remaster and what people think could be Parasite Eve, not really biting for either of these. Both seem like they'd be better served with ports (of the original games or remasters) and remaking OG GoW in particular would be such a weird move to me having played it just a few years ago – it is so WILDLY different to GoW 2018 that I don't see how an audience who got into the series with that game would be chomping at the bit for this without some drastic changes to how it plays, the story, etc., and I just don't see it being that. Seems like a boneheaded decision to me if it really is in the works. I just want some surprise announcements for games releasing this year that look good enough that I want to pick them up Day 1, or in the case of potential remasters, have the cache to win me over. A big ask, I know, but yeah, basically: -
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