Perfect Dark (Xbox, PC, Game Pass)

MS have said their Xbox exclusives will come to PC right? So this will also be on PC eh?

aayl1 wrote:MS have said their Xbox exclusives will come to PC right? So this will also be on PC eh?

Yep all exclusives launch on same day on Xbox and PC and into Gamepass on both.

Photek wrote:
Zero is absolute dogsh*t compared to the N64 original and luckily for my wallet, this is releasing into Gamepass.

About the gamepass thing. I took advantage of the £1 for 3yrs of gold + ultimate gamepass back when that was on. But my gamepass is due to expire in Feb. Looking at it it appears to be £11 per month.

What is my cheapest / best option to get back on this (gold + ultimate gamepass)?

mcjihge2 wrote:

Photek wrote:
Zero is absolute dogsh*t compared to the N64 original and luckily for my wallet, this is releasing into Gamepass.

About the gamepass thing. I took advantage of the £1 for 3yrs of gold + ultimate gamepass back when that was on. But my gamepass is due to expire in Feb. Looking at it it appears to be £11 per month.

What is my cheapest / best option to get back on this (gold + ultimate gamepass)?

The £1 offer hasn't been running anywhere near 3 years yet. Are you sure it's not Feb 2022?

Not excited by the trailer. It looks a bit call of duty in terms of the art style. It's a tough one, the days of an FPS having the effect of a Half Life or Goldeneye are long behind us.

more heat than light wrote:
The £1 offer hasn't been running anywhere near 3 years yet. Are you sure it's not Feb 2022?

Yes 2021. I took 2years because i still had about 8months of gold, and iirc it was to the max of 3years. so for me it was 2yrs8months rather than the full 3yrs.

There's a few posts here and there on reddit that seem to suggest that if you let your gamepass *and* gold lapse that you can then re-sign up for the £1 offer but I haven't got a clue how true any of it is. Could always give that a go and then we can see if it actually *does* work

Perfect Dark > Golden Eye. Easily.

Just so long as they have all the multiplayer options from the N64 version I'll be happy.

It's amazing the lack of customisation from modern shooters.

Parksey wrote:Nuts and Bolts was fine. It was made in, what 2008, when the desire for N64-style platformers wasn't in the middle of a nostalgic boom. Remember, games like Banjo-Tooie got ridiculed for their overly large worlds, masses of collectibles and backtracking.

Nuts and Bolts was a great idea. Game franchises don't need to be wedded to the idea of only being one thing, and they managed to mesh the vehicle creation and wacky inventiveness fairly well with the Banjo franchise.

It garnered critical acclaim at the time too. Should a game some how get criticised for what it isn't? It wasn't an old-school 3D platformer, does that hold Nuts and Bolts back in any way? Do we need to look at Mario Kart and judge it for not being a side scroller?

Yooka-Laylee also proves that sometimes nostalgia is a bit of a mask too, as that was released and got the same sort of criticisms the traditional Banjo games got years ago.

And yeah, Viva Pinata was ace. I'd be up for another entry in that franchise.

Anyway, talking about Rare giving fans what they want is misplaced, as this isn't Rare.

Of course, I'll be giving it a go anyway, due to the wonders of Gamepass. Just I wonder how they are going to make PD relevant and stand out in the modern FPS genre.

Well, I'm wrong on multiple points, as always haha.

Especially re Rare and probably on Viva Pinata, since I must have played Pinata for all of 10 minutes the first time round before binning it off.

I guess the point I was trying to make was, whether it was good or not, it wasn't what anyone wanted. Anyway, I've downloaded it from GP and plan to give it more of a go this time.

But as for Nuts N Bolts... fine it's 2008, but I played a few hours the other day and I still think it's a duffer. For one thing, they tried to replicate the humour of the first one, and it didn't work. Loads of unfunny cut-scenes breaking everything up all the time. I played Banjo and then this back to back and it's clear the magic had gone.

Plus, fine the self referential in-jokes, but why then also criticise collectathons and then make it a collectathon too?

And why make you drive about in vehicles which handle like a pig? Unless that was another in joke about moving characters around 3d levels with awkward tank controls.

But I'm intrigued re Perfect Dark. Fine the FPS market is pretty crammed, but there's always room for innovation and even that spooky theme music still sends chills down the spine.

I do think the weapons are key here - I'd love for just a few new properly thought through ones to be added with secondary modes, and for them to be explored properly. The temptation must be to chuck everything at it with LOADS of new gadgets and too many ideas, but not do any of them right.

Winckle wrote:

Photek wrote:

The Alchemist Penguin wrote:Give me different objectives on different difficulties or give me death.

This.

Forgot about the fact it had that (as did Goldeneye). They HAVE to bring that back.

To me that is more than anything else what defines Goldeneye/PD64. I think the best example of that might be Villa on PD, and how the first objective differed on each difficulty.
Agent: Snipe the guard to save the hostage
Special Agent: As above, but now there's multiple guards
Perfect Agent: You are the hostage!

Plus from what I remember, the Perfect Agent version still had your partner in the role of the sniper when playing in co-op - so there was even an extra layer of awesomeness to the entire thing!

Sadly I don't think we'll get this (mission / difficulty select doesn't feel very "modern", although I'd be delighted to be wrong), but I do think there are almost infinite ways to update the idea for a modern audience (multiple different ways to approach a mission, multiple optional objectives that can impact future levels / the plot, etc.) and so I would love to see them take the essence of the idea and run with it.

Clarence Beeks wrote:

Rax wrote:And guns with 2 modes, that for me IS Perfect Dark, secondary fire is where the game got weird and interesting. Yeah some of the secondary modes were gooseberry fool but sometimes you had a gun that could be a sentry or a proximity mine or other cool gooseberry fool.

God, getting ever so slightly hyped and nostalgic.

There is what looks like a laptop gun attached to a wall in the teaser which is a good sign. Loved the weapons and gadgets in the original.

The Alchemist Penguin wrote:

Winckle wrote:

Photek wrote:

The Alchemist Penguin wrote:Give me different objectives on different difficulties or give me death.

This.

Forgot about the fact it had that (as did Goldeneye). They HAVE to bring that back.

To me that is more than anything else what defines Goldeneye/PD64. I think the best example of that might be Villa on PD, and how the first objective differed on each difficulty.
Agent: Snipe the guard to save the hostage
Special Agent: As above, but now there's multiple guards
Perfect Agent: You are the hostage!

Plus from what I remember, the Perfect Agent version still had your partner in the role of the sniper when playing in co-op - so there was even an extra layer of awesomeness to the entire thing!

Sadly I don't think we'll get this (mission / difficulty select doesn't feel very "modern", although I'd be delighted to be wrong), but I do think there are almost infinite ways to update the idea for a modern audience (multiple different ways to approach a mission, multiple optional objectives that can impact future levels / the plot, etc.) and so I would love to see them take the essence of the idea and run with it.

The way to do it could be to have it as an adaptive difficulty. Depending on how well the player is playing, increase or decrease the number of objectives available to them. So the more successful you are the more you will be asked to do.

Perfect Dark reboot lead Drew Murray leaves for personal reasons. He says: "It's been extraordinary working shoulder-to-shoulder with such a talented and experienced team, many of whom are great friends now, but my life outside of work needs more attention and headspace than I have been able to give it lately, so I'm stepping down from my role."

Phil Spencer thanks him: "Thanks for your work that helped build the foundation of @TheInitiative and Perfect Dark. All the best in your future Drew."

twitter.com/XboxP3/status/1356401297876946945

twitter.com/theinitiative/status/1441190675358183425

twitter.com/JeffGrubb/status/1443271530419417095

I did wonder if this meant Microsoft were eyeing up Crystal Dynamics? SE are notoriously fickle and Avengers hardly set the world alight. Getting a few quid from Microsoft in exchange for CD might be a good bet for them.

With any luck Microsoft might ask for a few dormant franchises to be thrown in to and get them to make a new Legacy of Kain as a first party title.

[RUMOR] Miller Ross (Crystal Dynamics leaker): Perfect Dark hit road bumps, now expected to release at least a year after Tomb Raider

Miller has leaked Crystal Dynamics info in the past, this tidbit comes from him revealing yesterday Marvel’s Avengers will be ending service in March (which has been confirmed)

Tomb Raider is further along than expected and will launch before PD due to PD having issues in dev. Makes you wonder what on earth is going on with MS devs recently

The wait for MS to release a game from their mass of acquisitions and new studios goes on.

Captain Kinopio wrote:The wait for MS to release a game from their mass of acquisitions and new studios goes on.

I'm wondering if all these MS studios are using Retro Studies approach to development as their template.

Joke! I am not hating on MS.

I mean MS have been pretty useless but they're a way off Nintendo's decade long mismanagement of Retro.