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Posted

Ok, as part of our appreciation week, we are playing FPS and shooters today.

 

There is already a thread for Goldeneye, and now there is a thread for Rare's Perfect Dark, as well as other shooters on the console.

 

Post your thoughts about these games in this thread. Remember: the best ones will be going on the main-site tonight.

Posted

Quake II

 

I don't remember ever playing this before, and now the framerate just makes me want to puke.

 

Turok Rage Wars

 

I got it when I was a kid. I don't really know why I still have the game. Rage Wars is a multiplayer-only take on the Turok games, which were better off as single player games. Even with Turok elements like the bow and dinosaurs (playing as a Raptor could have been so much fun) the game feels like a generic Unreal Tournament clone. Turok was all about getting completely lost - which is impossible when you are confined to tiny arenas.

 

Perfect Dark

 

It was so fun to play when it was released, and it's just as fun to play now. The item wheel made accessing weapons so much easier, and the addition of cut-scenes and voice acting made the singleplayer so much more involving.

 

The locations, characters and weapons of Perfect Dark are pretty much Perfect. A great range of memorable locations, and loads of memorable and innovative weapons. The secondary features of some weapons were fantastic, and the distinct designs of the alien weapons (the clunkiness of the Skadar weapons and the sexily smooth reloading orbs of the Maian weapons) are second to none.

 

And then there's the multiplater. It had both Co-op that let you take on levels with a friend and the counter-op mode which had player 2 controlling the enemies was amazingly fun. And the proper multiplayer mode had a stupid amount features and is still a massive amount of fun. Plus sticky remote mines are absolutely fantastic.

 

The World is Not Enough

 

Even though The World is Not Enough (film) was nothing compared to GoldenEye, the game was (and still is) surprisingly good. There was a bit more focus on Bond's gadgets and a good mixture of stealth and action levels (once you get used to it, the Night Watch is pretty awesome) as well as levels where either one is an option. A lot of fun to play, but not amazing.

Posted

So, after playing Goldeneye this afternoon, I thought I'd give Perfect Dark a shot, too.

 

Perfect Dark is really a game of two halves. There's the singleplayer and the multiplayer. First off, I gave the single player a go and you're treated to a cut-scene before the mission actually starts. As Mark (tapedeck) mentioned earlier, this was missing from Goldeneye, and this does help in the story element of the game.

 

However, there is some truely horrendous voice acting in this game (Joanna isn't too great, but listen to Elvis! - eurgh), and this is one of the downsides of having cut-scenes such as these.

 

The sections that I've always particularly enjoyed are the Area 51 levels, specifically "escape." It's wonderful how much Rare have managed to cram into this game, and it's a breath of fresh air to spend half of this level with a companion, which is a far-cry from the majority of this and Goldeneye, where our hero/heroine spend their time in solitude. It truely is a wonderful section of the game, mixing stealth with all out attack.

 

But, as far as the plot goes for this game, perhaps it tries to do a bit too much. Comparing the first and last level of the game, it does seem that this game really does take you light years away from your original starting point, but it's up to the individual gamer to decide whether that is a good or bad thing. To me, I much prefer the story-telling elements in the first half to the later, particularly before the introduction of the Skedar.

 

A lot of effort has clearly gone into this game, particularly the multiplayer mode. This time, there's the addition of up to 8 bots, along with a maximum of 4 human players. It's in this area that Perfect Dark really shines. There's a great variety of maps to choose from, and even brilliantly, you can play in sections taken from Goldeneye - the popular choice being Facility (renamed Felicity). The selection of weapons on offer is bewildering - from the Farsight to the Superdragon, and from proximity mines to the MagSec. Players even have the opportunity to mix and match which weapons appear where and this makes each multiplayer bout as fresh as the last. You truely haven't lived until you and your mates have done battle against a hoard of dark-sims.

 

I love this game, I always have and always will. Rare really went to town creating this, and even if some elements are not to your liking, they are small niggles to an otherwise superb game. A classic, and would still impress and involve gamers, both old and new.

Posted

Played through around 1/2 of PD's single player yesterday. Impressions:

- Started up. N64 spinning N morphs into Datadyne logo. Title screen. Ace music. Walked around Carrington Institute a bit.

- Datadyne infiltration: Exciting music. Nice realistic exploration - the odd empty room, etc. Building still looks impressive. Blinding light glares everywhere.

- Datadyne investigation: Grant Kirkhope's atmospheric music rules. Bit of backtracking finding all the experiments to shut down.

- Datadyne extraction: Lights out! Retried 3 times - got wasted by the helicopter, then by the boss.

- Carrington Villa: Easier than i remember. Graphics still hold up today.

- Chicago: Still a nasty one - 1 step out of line and if the zillions of backup troops don't kill you, the framerate will.

- GS Building: Unforgiving. Multiple retries. No checkpoints! Noticed how good the animations are & reactions to where about they get hit.

- ASI Infiltration: Hey it's Goldeneye in mirror mode! Died too many times. Got too frustrated & called it a day.

 

Overall impression: Still very playable, frustrating moments but still has 1-more-go-ness. Graphics are still pretty impressive, sound is great, playability's fine but framerate sucks (and i remember it getting even worse on the later Skedar-related missions).

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