For quite a long time after obtaining the console, Killing Time was the only game I owned on my 3DO Interactive Multiplayer. I started it up, played for maybe 20 minutes, and then decided I’d probably b?e better off with the PC version. I wasn’t entirely correct on that.

I didn’t even get around to playing the PC version, but I learned with the announcement of Killing Time: Resurrected that there are stark differences between the two versions. The 3DO version had digitized sprites of actors as enemies, while the PC version swapped them out for 3D renders, which�well, I wouldn’t say they’re worse, but you lose some of that 1995 charm, which Killing Time is packed with.

Nightdive is easily the best developer to take on a remaster of Killing Time. They’re probably also the only people that would. They’ve proven very adept at updating games while keeping the original vision intact. And gosh, Killing Time has a vision.

Killing Time: Resurrected (PC [Reviewed], PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch)
Developer: Nightdive Studios, Studio 3DO
Publisher: Nightdive Studios, Ziggurat
Released: October 17, 2024
MSRP: $24.99

It took me about four-and-a-half hours for me to hit the end of Killing Time: Resurrected. I started it late in the evening and finished it early in the morning, all in one sitting. I didn’t intend to. I wasn’t expecting to. But once it got it??s hooks into me, I was determined.

Killing Time was first released on the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer in 1995. For context, this was the year before Duke Nukem 3D and Quake, but you’d hardly believe it. Okay, that’s a bit disingenuous. Much of Killing Time: Resurrected is based on the 1996? PC port, which fits in more with the time period. 

The map was enti??rely redone on PC, and the makeover was both substantial and phenomenal. While elements of the 3DO version were retained, the PC version has convincing room-ov??er-room, much better verticality, and more realistic dimensions. In some ways, I wish you could choose between the 3DO and PC versions of the world, but at the same time, I don’t think anyone would prefer the former.

On the other hand, the monster sprites were much better. As I mentioned, the 3DO version used digitized actors, which gives it a whiff of the FMV era. Nightdive chose the actors, making Killing Time: Resurrected the absolute best of both worlds.

As is typical with Nightdive remasters, everything was moved over to their proprietary KEX Engine. Lighting was redone, mouselook was added, and textures and sprites were upgraded. The latter change is the most impressive. The team had access to the original photographs of the actors to build off of, while the PC monster?s and textures were upgraded largely by hand.

The actors? in their weird costumes clash against? the environments, giving them a surreal “off�quality. You can practically smell the green screen on them. But had Nightdive somehow lost the off-ness of it, they would have also lost a lot of the charm.

Every so often, as you explore, you find little ghosts on the ground. As you approach, they’ll load a video of two ghosts acting out a scene from the past. FPS games of the �0s had a great deal of difficulty telling stories right up until Half-Life established the formula. Killing Time’s attempt?? is actually quite effective. You pick up bits and pieces of the story �not necessarily in a chronological fashion. Through those scenes, you get a complete picture of what went down a??t the Conway Estate.

You play as some dude who arrives on Matinicus Island in pursuit of an Egyptian water clock. You quickly find that the island is overrun by duck hunters and clowns. It’s bizarre. Tess Conway loved to party, so all her friends were over when everyone suddenly disappeared back in the 1930s. There are actual explanations for why there are so many clowns and why an endless sup?ply of ammunition is scattered across the island. As ridiculous as the narrative is, someone thought long and hard about how to do it.

What amazes me about Killing Time: Resurrected is that it’s a non-linear world you explore, but it very much follows the key-hunt FPS formula set by Wolfenstein 3D. It’s just done ?using a single level on a much larger ??scale.

The world design is an incredible flex. Despite relying so heavily on exploration, there’s about as much action as you’d expect from something like Doom. When I said there are a lot of duck hunters and clowns, I mean a lot of duck hunters and clowns. As you travel the estate, you’re constantly mowing ?them down in droves, dealing death to whole circuses of entertainers. To enable your rampage, the game dumps ammo on you constantly. It’s possible to run out of buckshot, but that just means you switch to your Tommy Gun. There’s?? no shortage of gun food on the island.

This kind of sucked on the choppy 3DO version, but with the added mouselook, you can take o??n your opponents like any Doomguy or Nukem. Enemies stay dead regardless of where you go on the island, so you can completely lay waste to the housekeeping staff and clear the area. There’s very little backtracking to begin with, but not having to wade back through enemies makes it even more tolerable. It also has the added ??side-effect of laying the groundwork for the climax.

Since my previous experience with Killing Time was a somewhat disappointing dalliance ??with the 3DO version, I was unprepared ??for how much I would enjoy the game. I knew it wasn’t going to be another PO’ed, but I wasn’t expecting it to be in bingeworthy territory. I ate through it, consistently entertained by the weird aesthetic and amazed by the excellent level design. Damn.

This might be Nightdive’s most important remaster. While the developer has helped polish up already popular games like Quake and System Shock, Killing Time benefits far more from their tender touch. It was already great, but this remaster makes it easier to digest. It really brings out its highlights, allowing the whole thing to shine a lot brighter. If you have never explored Matinicus Island, Killing Time: Resurrected is easily the best way to ?do so??, and it’s high time you did.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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It’s almost here. Nightdive Studios and Ziggurat have announced that Killing Time: Resurrected is just around the corner. It will launch?? on PC and consoles on October 17??, 2024.

As a fan of retro 2.5D FPS games, I’ve been waiting for this. Killing Time is one of the few games I actually own on 3DO. However, I started playing it, discovered the framerate is ridiculously choppy, and stopped. There’s a PC version, and I figured that would be a better way to experience it, but apparently not, as a lot of changes were made to the PC version, some of which alter the game’s aesthetic. Nonetheless, I ??still don’t really want to play such a choppy FPS on console.

For Killing Time: Resurrected, Nightdive, and Ziggurat were able to get the best of both worlds while upgrading everything for higher-resolution displays. I spoke to Nightdive about it back around when the remaster was announced and got the skinny. For a lot of it, they had access to a backup of the original photographs of the original monsters, since?? they were played by actors. For PC version monsters that weren’t in the 3DO version, the art team had to upscale them by hand.

Killing Time is a unique FPS for 1995, as it contained cutscenes featuring real actors. It also walked the line of humor and horror to great effect. It’s maybe not the most amazing FPS out there, but it’s not PO’ed. It’s worth playing, even if it’s not as entertaining as Doom or Duke Nukem 3D.

Nightdive has made some excellent remasters in the past. While the games vary in quality, they all get the same loving attention when remastered. While we now know when we’ll be playing Killing Time, we still have The Thing to look forward to, which doesn’t currently have an announced release date. I’m also not going to let them forget about SIN: Reloaded and an enhanced edition of System Shock 2 is also in the pipe. They’ve been keeping busy, but here’s hoping we’ll soon hear that they’re working on a remaster of William Shatner’s TekWar. (Disclaimer: the existence of a TekWar remaster has never been discussed with me or confirmed. Whenever it is brought up, the team usually reacts with understanda??ble revul??sion.)

Killing Time: Resurrected will arrive?? for PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on October 17, 2024.

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[Update: While the store page still isn't live, if you already own Doom on Steam, it will now updated to Doom + Doom II.]

A mysterious store page has popped up for Doom + Doom II, a compilation of the classic FPS titles. While modern ports of these games aren’t exactly a new thing, the kicker here is that this ve??rsion will be coming from Nightdive Studios.

While there hasn’t been any official announcement about this, an unlisted store page has been spotted on Steam that outlines what will be included. Assumedly, the announcement is planned for Quakecon 2024, so try and act surprised when it happens. In the meantime, I have received confirmation from Nightdive Studios and have been told “Watch our Deep Dive!�That’s the studio’s showcase on YouTube.

According to the store page, not only will these two legendary titles be ported to Nightdive’s proprietary KEX Engine, but so will most of the classic Doom series, along with some new content. Here??’s what is in?cluded.

• Doom (1993) - Original Version
• Doom II â€?Original Version
• TNT: Evilutionâ€? Part of Final Doom
• The Plutonia Experiment - The other part of Final Doom
• Master Levels for DOOM II - A big olâ€?compilation of levels from various sources
• No Rest for the Living - Nerve Software's added campaign, included in the Xbox 360 version of Doom 2.
• Sigil - A new episode created by John Romero
• Legacy of Rust - An even newer episode created by id Software, Nightdive Studios, and Machinegames

On top of this is all the modern conveniences brought about by the KEX Engine. Up to 120FPS and 4K resolution. There’s mod sup??port, a remastered soundtrack, and other things that I, personally, find less interesting. You can check it all out on the aforementioned store page.

Doom is one of my all-time favorites. I probably play through the entire game multiple times per year. I’m less hot on what came after it, but since it’s all based on the same foundation, I love it all the same. I’m very excited to see the new episode, since the additional content in Doom 64, Quake, and Quake 2 was all phenomenal.

According to the trailer on the store page, Doom + Doom II will be ava??ilable directly after the announcement.

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After Nightdive Studios announced its next major game would be a remake of 2002's The Thing, most of us surely didn't expect it to come with a potentially huge suite of gameplay upgrades. Yet that seems to be exactly what Nightdive is aiming for this time, as it's made it clear that The Thing: Remastered will be more tha?n just? a regular, garden-variety remaster.

In a recent interview with GamesRadar+, Nightdive Studios' business development director Larry Kuperman said th?at "without providing any spoilers, there are some things that, [Nightdive was] able to fulfill ?the original vision of the developers. That's something that's really important to [Nightdive]."

This is particularly interesting in the case of The Thing due to its legacy, wherein it was?? trying?? to feel more dynamic and surprising than it actually could've been due to the tech of the time.

The Thing: Remastered will be the dynamic horror experience the original could not be

"It will play the way you remember t??he original game playing, but that wasn't the way it actually played," Kuperman said. "[Computer Artworks was] really, really pretty happy, and justifiably so, with the game that they produced, but they were also aware of limitations, of things that they could not do simply because the technology, the game engine, did not support it."

For those unfamiliar with The Thing, thi??s might not be much ??on its own, but those who've played the original will know a few things that help understand what Kuperman is talking about.

The original The Thing attempted to incorporate the t??ension and paranoia that the legendary 1982 film? delivered. To do this, Computer Artworks had to rely on scripted creature eruptions and combat sequences that would play out exactly the same way every single playthrough. It's possible that Nightdive is hoping to make the experience more dynamic than it was back in the day.

Of course, The Thing: Remastered is still a rema?ster, which limits what can and cannot be done with the game. Judging by the screenshots, it will look more modern but obviously not cutting-edge, but what interests us the most here is the stuff that's happening in the background, in the game logic.

In the grand scheme of things, Nightdive Studios cut its teeth on rather high-grade re-envisionings, remakes, and remasters, which gives them just the right sort of pedigree for this project. Last year's System Shock Remake was a delightful throwback to the original experience, albeit modernized in every important way. The Thing: Remastered doesn't seem to be going to quite the same lengths, but if its underlying gameplay systems do get the upgrade N??ightdive's been hinting at, we're in for a treat.

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Killing Time feels like such an obvious choice for Nightdive to tackle for a remaster. Initially released on th?e 3DO Interactive Multiplayer console in 1995, it received a port to PC in 1996. It’s an underappreciated gem that could use a p?olish and a second chance.

One thing that struck me in the recent trailer is just how much of an upgrade the new enemy sprites and textures look. Their remaster of Star Wars: Dark Forces was already an impressive touch-up, but the assets in Killing Time struck me as something that would be more difficult to really improve. Many of the enemi?es are digitized actors �pictures of people in costume. Others are 3D models turned into 2D sprites. How do you improve these withou?t losing the feel of the originals?

Nightdive artist Albert Marin Garau sent me?? some details on the magic. Prepare to learn.

“We had access to old backup CDs that contained the original photographs they took ?to the real-life actors for the 3DO version of the game, and also higher resolution renders of? other non-human enemies,�Albert told me.

The important thing to note is that the PC version of Killing Time wasn’t a direct port. The map was expanded and changed, and all the enemies had differ??ent sprites. These new enemy appearances weren’t always better. They were often just different. Notably, they removed the actors. This may look less hokey, but also changes the feel of the game.

Albert explained, “All this backup data was for the original 3DO version of the game, so we don't have hi-res sprites of the enemies' PC version.�/p>

As I mentioned, the PC version added (and technically removed in ?a couple of cases) new enemies. So, without having high-resolution versions of the asset??s, Albert had to do things the hard way.

“Since some of the enemies are exclusive to the PC version (the Gardener, the Sexy Maid, the T?ough Guy, and even the final boss, Tess, for example) we needed to do something to get a good quality balance between the backed and non-backed up assets. I m??odeled, rigged, skinned, and animated those exclusive PC enemies and rendered hi-res sprites that match the quality of the other hi-res assets,�he told me.

When the trailer flips from classic graphics to the remaster, the change in enemy design might seem a bit jarring. That’s not because Nightdive’s artists took liberties with the art style??, it’s because of the change between PC ??and 3DO versions. “The low-res ones are the PC enemies, the hi-res are the 3DO enemies,�Albert explained.

?As ??for the textures, which also have been upgraded for the remaster, the team once again had access to higher-quality versions from backup data�some of them, anyway. 

“All backup data we have is for the 3DO version,�Albert explained. “Most textures used in the PC version came from the 3DO version, but around 25% of them are exclusive to PC. But thanks to the hand-drawn look nature of this game art style in the stage textures, it was possible to upscale and hand-draw all missing details with excellent results. All assets dimensions are 400% bigger than the original assets.�/p>

Altogether, while Nightdive’s upgrades to the visuals seem pretty stark, a lot of effort was taken to ensure it’s true to the original experience. Despite sporting a gloss that feels more at home on modern displays, you still get a sense of the �0s sensibilities. It’s true to the studio’s attempts to ensure that their remasters are the new definitive versions, compiling all the original content, and changing as little as possible, while presenting them with modern comforts. After all, if you’re interested in playing Killing Time: Resurrected, it’s probably because you want to play Killing Time; not somebody’s weak facsimile.

The post Nightdive outlines the process of remastering?? Killing Time appeared first on Destructoid.

Following the announcement of Killing Time: Remastered yesterday, Nightdive Studios has announced as part of the IGN Live Stream that they are also remastering 2002’s The Thing. It’s plann?ed to be launched on PC and co??nsoles later this year.

This announcement is somewhat surprising. Not only is this a relatively newer title that Nightdive is taking on compared to their previous remasters, but it’s a licensed one on top of that. They’re going all out with this one. The Thing: Remastered will not only port the game to the studio’s proprietary modern KEX Engine but also features “upgraded models, textures, and animations hand-crafted by Nightdive, plus enhanced lighting and atmospheric effects.�/p>

Set after John Carpenter’s 1982 film of the same name, The Thing is a unique third-person shooter that leans into the trust angle of the film and not knowing whether the person next to you is even human. There was a trust system implemented to replicate this, which was one of the game’s most novel features, but also one of the points that were pointed out by players and critics at the time as being undercooked. Both the?? ??trust and infection angle had to be scaled back for purposes of scripted events. It was, essentially, too ambitious.

Yet despite its inability to quite reach its goals, the reviews it received at the time weren’t abysmal, and enough people look back at it fondly enough that it could be considered a cult classic. Not quite the vindication the film (which was poorly received at releas??e) achieved, but it’s better than complete obscurity.

I haven’t played it, so I can’t really give you my own opinion on it. I haven’t even watched the movie it’s based on, which I’ll probably have to do before the remaster is relea??sed. However, I can tell you I’m excited to give it a try.

The Thing: Remastered is comi?ng to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Switc??h, and PC sometime later this year.

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Nightdive Studios announced their next remastering project at the Guerilla Collective today. This time, they’re teaming with their fellow retro enthusiasts at Ziggurat to put the polisher on 3DO’s 1995 cult-classic FPS, Killing Time. Killing Time: Resurrected will be released later this year.

Killing Time is one of the few games I own for my 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, one of the doomed consoles of the �0s. While playing through the first area of the game, I stopped myself because, while the game is fine, it was obvio?usly not the ideal way to play it. The 3DO version is rather choppy, and the controller affords little comfort. There was a PC port, and I already owned it on GOG, so I figured I might as well just play that version.

But I never did.

Now, I definitely will. Nightdive is bringing us what will most likely be the definitive way of playing Killing Time. Beyond simply being ported to a?? modern engine, the trailer shows off completely updated sprites and textures, mouselook, and smoother movement.

I spoke to Nightdive about the new sprites and textures. Some of the updates are drawn from origin?al source photographs and models whereever they were able to find backups of them. Some, however, were exclusive to the PC version, and Nightdive artist Albert Marin Garau says that to remake them he "modeled, rigged, skinned and animated those exclusive PC enemies and render hi-res sprites that match the quality of the other hi-res assets."

I'll write about it in more detail soon.

Killing Time is a rather obscure FPS, but don’t get it twisted with PO’ed. While both games were initially released on the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer and both games were ambitious for their time, Killing Time just stuck the landing better. Rather than a series of levels, the world was more open-ish. It told a story using digitized ??actors and was fully voiced.

The story involves an island where an ancient Egyptian curse causes a number ?of high-society people to vanish. Your task is to undo that curse, but standing in your way is a number of sometimes bizarre enemies. One of the first types that you fight is ducks, whic??h is sad. The only thing you should be firing at ducks is bread.

Killing Time: Resurrected is coming to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xb??ox Series X|S, Switch, and PC sometime lat?er this year.

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When Nightdive Studios announced that they’d be remastering PO’ed, I thought they were joking. It was April 1st, and they posted a trailer that starts off rather deceptively. But here it is. I’m not sure I really wanted to play PO’ed, but now I’ve played all of it.

PO’ed was initially released in 1995 on the doomed 3DO Interactive Multiplayer before getting a 1996 port on PlayStation. The first-person shooter genre was still in its infancy, and while these early years resulted in classics like Doom, Quake, and Duke Nukem 3D, it’s also a graveyard for countless others that are now largely forgotten. If it isn’t obvious, PO’ed belongs in the latter category.

I hadn’t played it before. There was a copy in one of those early-PS1 cardboard longboxes in the basement of the game store I briefly ran, and I didn’t touch it. There was probably a reason it was in the basement (my guess is disc rot), and I wasn’t that curious. However, reviews at the time of its release weren’t terrible. Though, they probably should have been.

PO'ed: Definitive Edition (PC [Reviewed], Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Any Channel, Nightdive Studios
Publisher: Nightdive Studios
Released: May 16, 2024
MSRP: $19.99

PO’ed has enough going for it to separate itself from the pack of FPS games that were ??coming out at the time. Notably, using the SlaveDriver Engine, it was much better at 3D environments, even though they were incredibly basic. It’s also a lot weirder with the default weapon being a frying pan, a chef protagonist, and walking butts for enemies.

The story involves Ox, the protagonist, being stranded out in the fur??thest reaches of space where the locals are hostile. There isn’t much storytelling within the game itself, so it’s not too far off from many FPS games at the time, right down to the abstract environments.

But the level design is a lot different than much of what you’d see at the time. Environments are often huge, open areas. Much of the time, you get around? with the help of a jetpack. It’s actually rather impressive, since corridors were the main locale for a lot of �0s gunfights. Nevermind that a lot of the surfaces are just flat-shaded, at least we aren’t looking at dirty walls.

Having large environments meant that the developers were delving into some unexplored territory, and while I’d argue that there’s a decent amount of talent on display in PO’ed, it doesn’t really coalesce in an enjoyable way.

The goal of every level is to simply find the teleporter out of it, but they needed to make that a challenge somehow. Often, this means that you’re scouring through maze-like environments looking for the damned thing, but then ther??e are others where the goal is not so clear. Sometimes you have to kill all the enemies in the area, and other times you need to activate a series of switches to make it th?rough.

The maze-like environments are bad enough. As I said, a lot of the textures are just flat colors. This can get extremely disorienting, especially when you add PO’ed’s penchant for verticality. I never really go??t s?tuck, but I think that was largely just luck. However, I was often uncomfortable, and regularly very confused. Sometimes I would trip over the teleporter’s location within moments of starting a level and of the game’s three secret levels, I found two of them by complete mistake.

I didn’t want to find th?ese secret levels. The normal levels wer?e painful enough, that I didn’t want to extend it any further. They were the first warm teleporters I found to cuddle up to, and they betrayed me.

I found myself comparing PO’ed to William Shatner’s TekWar for much of the game’s runtime. TekWar also liked to experiment with open environme??nts. But ??most starkly, they both have the same approach to difficulty balancing.

Since many of the levels are large, open areas, this can mean a lot of enemies are constantly shooting at you from all directions. The worst are any sort of flying foe, because they are extremely difficult to hit on medium settings. Even if you stay mobil?e and fly around with your jetpack, you’re going to take a lot of hits. There’s not much choice to it, damage will happen.

So, to offset this, PO’ed gives you a massive health bar and dumps healing items in stacks all over the place. In order to make later levels more difficult, the??y just reduce how many stacks of health kits they provide. I mean, that works, it’s just the least well-thought-out and elegant way to do it. It also means that the screen flashes a lot and your dude keeps grunting. It’s not a very fun exper??ience.

Speaking of sounds, there’s barely any music. I had to check to make sure it wasn’t j?ust a bug that prevented music from playing during levels, but there really isn’t any.

The Definitive Edition is inarguably the best way to experience PO'ed. Its transition to the?? KEX Engine means it’s capable of higher resolutions and interpolation to smooth out movement. It also means mouse-look, which wasn’t possible on th?e 3DO or PS1.

Nightdive did a decent job of upgrading PO’ed. They didn’t go all the way with it like they did with some previous titles. I asked Director of Business Development Larry Kuperman if they updated the art in any way. “Yes, to the art,�he said. “Tweaked more than redone.�He also said, “Not sure I want to compare what we did for PO'ed to anything close to Dark Forces, Zoey.�/p>

So, in comparison to the Star Wars: Dark Forces remaster, it’s not quite as overhauled. Enemy sprites are still low-resolution mashes of pixels. There weren’t really any cutscenes to redo, either. It’s largely “just�a source port, but it still does wonders for the game. But considering that PO’ed isn’t a guaranteed seller like a game with the Star Wars name on it, it’s not surprising the??y didn’t give it a comp??lete facelift.

The best thing I can say about PO’ed is that it can be completed in around three hours. Aside from that, I really didn’t enjoy it. It’s not the worst FPS I’ve played. For all its problems,? it at least isn’t bland??. It has its high points, demonstrates a capable development team with a willingness to experiment, it just didn’t result in a fun final product.

I also must commend Nightdive Studios for having the guts to remaster a game that can’t even claim a cult following. PO’ed isn’t notoriously bad, but it would probably be better if it was.?? I’m not sure I’ve ever ??heard it come up in conversation. I might never have played it had it not been for Nightdive, and for that, I’m grateful in a very strange way. Even if a game is obscure or outright bad, I always love seeing them get dusted off and restored to working order. I just never want to play it again.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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The superb System Shock Remake was one of last year's best games, and that's really something, when you consider how loaded 2023 was. Now, developer Nightdive Studios is gettin?g re?ady to release patch 1.2, which includes the female Hacker avatar and a revised final boss.

As per the short interview Nightdive Studios' founder Stephen Kick had with PC Gamer, System Shock Remake version 1.2 is coming out in very short order, on April 11, and it may well warrant a whole new playthrough if you're a fan. According to Kick, ?being able to play as a lady Hacker has been in the works for quite a while now: "[Hacker gender choice] was a stretch goal for Kickstarter oh, seven, eight years in the making," he said. "We knew we wanted to patch that in, it was just one of those things that we knew wouldn't have any kind of immediate effect on gameplay, but just having that option kind of adds to the immersive quality of th?e game."

With the console build of System Shock Remake due to launch this May, this is the perfect time for Nightdive to finally make good on that particular Kickstarter promise. Of course, the female Hack?er is just one of the upcoming goodies slated to be released in update 1.2.

System Shock Patch 1.2 is coming on April 11

Nightdive higher-ups didn't want to spoil much of anything about the long-anticipated "Upgraded Ending" that's coming to System Shock Remake with update 1.2, but they did feel that the game will be worth replaying, based on what's being added. According to the PC Gamer interview, the upgraded ending and final boss fight were produced in response to the critique directed at the Remake's?? original bos?s fight, which leaned a tad too heavily on the VR/AR sections to be truly satisfying.

"A lot of the criticism that we received was: you spent this whole game? collecting items, gearing yourself u??p for this big battle, and then all of your stuff was gone," Kick explained. "You're left with just this one weapon to play what boils down to a minigame. It's just been completely reworked."

Good tidings, then, but it's worth remembering that Nightdive is knee-deep in System Shock even though the Remake itself is being properly wrapped up. Notably, the studio's System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition promises to revitalize what is often considered to be one of the best and most important immersive sim experiences of all time. Upgrades include a retrofit into Nightdive's flexible KEX Engine, improved visuals, and a selection of gameplay and quality-of-life improvements, though the specifics are still unknown. It's not going to be a full-on remake, mind, but if we're being honest, System Shock 2 doesn't even need one, so it's all good.

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Well, crap. Yesterday, on April Fool’s Day, Nightdive released a trailer for PO’ed: Definitive Edition. I thought they were joking. They were not.

PO’ed was first released in 1995 on the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer system before getting ported to the PS1. It’s a first-person shooter that came out to cash in on the sudden popularity of the genre in the wake of Doom. It differentiates itself by having a wacky story about a space chef fighting aliens and by including a jetpack for? verticality before Duke Nukem did it. Also, one of the enemies is a walking butt, but really, when you get down to it, ar?en’t we all just walking butts?

I probably should have looked closer yesterday, but it’s the one day of the year when I’m trying to find what not to believe. I don’t want to drag you down the fool hole with me. PO’ed was developed on the SlaveDriver Engine, which powered Power Slave, a game that Nightdive already remastered. And as much as PO’ed is an obscure game, it wasn’t received too poorly. Definitely not great, but better than, say, William Shatner’s TekWar.

PO’ed Definitive Edition will have all the modern comforts, including 4K resolution and 144 fps on platforms that support it. They’re also throwing in bug fixes and quality-of-life features that can be toggled off if you want that real PO’ed experience.

There’s no given release date for PO’ed Definitive Edition, but the details I have say that it’s coming “in the very near future.�That’s very near! It will be releasing o??n PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, an??d PC.

The post I’m the fool – Nightdive’s PO’ed: Definitive Edition is actually real appeared first on Destructoid.

Star Wars has always been big news, but now it’s just one of the many blobs that are trying to slather themselves over every inch of the media landscape and suck the time right out of us. A long time ago, it used to feel li?ke it belonged to the fans.

Before the prequel trilogy started production, it seemed like no one was really sure what to do with the license. There were novels, comic books, and video games; things that the mainstream largely ignored. It became something more for nerds (like myself) who would delve into the lore. New entries felt as though they were made for that audience. It was very disciplined and gentle, as Star Wars was such a precious thing. Though, it was still very messy at times.

1995’s Star Wars: Dark Forces is slightly more blunt with its handling, but it’s nowhere near the demolition that was just on the horizon. It has a quaint charm that a lot of people from that time connected with, so it’s?? not much of a surprise that the remaster professionals at Nightdive would want to touch it up.

Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster (PC [reviewed], PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox SeriesX|S, Switch)
Developer: LucasArts, Nightdive Studios
Publisher: Nightdive Studios
Released: February 28, 2024
MSRP: $29.99

In 1995, the first-person shooter was just beginning to establish itself. In 1992, Wolfenstein 3D built the formula, and 1993’s Doom lit the fuse. Immediately, people looked at this newfound perspective and thought, “This would be awesome if it was Star Wars.�In fact, Star Wars: Dark Forces�project leader Daron Stinnett, even said that the game was partially inspired by a Doom mod that take place in the Death Star.

At the time, 1993’s Star Wars: Rebel Assault and Star Wars: X-Wing were dabbling in creating new storylines around the movies for players to muck around in, so Star Wars: Dark Forces did the same, creating the character Kyle Katarn, a sarcastic mercenary w??ho used to work with the Empire. He’s the guy who stole the Death Star plans! I think?? that story has been told three or four times with different people responsible in each one. But according to LucasArts, in 1993, it was Kyle Katarn.

After making that minor contribution to Star Wars history, Katarn is then assigned by Mon Mothma to look into the Empire’s new super-weapon, the Dark Trooper. That sounds like a foe that my friends and I would have made up on the schoolyard, and it’s exactly what y?ou’d expect. They’re big evil dudes with big guns and indestructible armor that can wipe out entire Rebel bases, but they can’t beat Kyle Katarn.

O?ne thing that I do respect about this story, however, is that there aren’t any Jedi. Nary a lightsaber to be glimpsed. Just good old inelegant blasters and blaster-adjacent weapons.

Star Wars: Dark Forces isn’t much of a diversion from other �em>Doom clones�at the time. The big??gest difference between it and the FPS that came before is objectives. The best levels in the game have Katarn infiltrate an Imperial installation, do whatever he’s there for, and then escape with the help of his pilot, Jan Ors. The less impressive levels have you get to whatever you’re looking for, then it just tells you, “Open Main menu to end mission.�That’s okay. I guess I have an imagination and can just assume that Kyle Katarn walks back the way he came.

Actually, regardless of whether or not Jan descends to pick you up, you still have to open th??e menu and click “next mission�to advance, which is not a method of transition that has been widely adopted since.

Another addition that Dark Forces makes to the formula is cutscenes. Every so often, you get to see glimpses of the characters going over the mission. They’re mostly dialogue, but it’s a step better than the text scrolls in Doom. There are also location transitions, so you can see your ship f?ly toward a planet or something. It’s worthwhile dressing.

Nightdive touched up the cutscenes, which feels a bit unnecessary but are nice anyway. ??They essentially just made everything smoother, both in motion and in pixelation. The cutscenes still kind of look pretty retro, but if you’re familiar with the original look, the difference is obvious. In fact, the option to turn off the enhanced cutscenes ??is available, so you can compare if you feel like it.

In general, Nightdive’s remaster is as solid as usual. As with previous projects, the game has been transferred to the Kex Engine. The sprites and textures have been upscaled and touched up to be higher resolution than the originals. They look a lot better at higher resolutions, but they still have a bit of a pixelated look. According to Nightdive artist Albert Marin Garau, the original assets were upscaled 400%, then “handpainted and touched up.�/p>

There’s also optional bloom and “true�3D perspective (like most games that use raycasting for 3D, the perspective in Dark Forces would warp when you look up and down). All of this is optional. In fact??, with a press of a button, you can shift the game into software rendering, making it appear exactly as it did in 1995. Or at least a reasonable facsimile. I never felt this was necessary, but it’s always nice to have the option.

The fact that Star Wars: Dark Forces can easily run on modern platforms and consoles makes the remaster worthwhile. I always had difficulty getting it to run reliably with DOSBox, so the best bet was to find a source port, which always took a bit of tweaking. A fan recently created “The Force Engine,�which is a pretty good option. The author of that port worked with Nightdive on Dark Forces remastered. However, I feel like an “out-of-box�experience? is always preferable.

Beyond that, Nightdive has included some behind-the-scenes content. While th??is provides some interesting background, the most interesting ??inclusion is a cut level called “The Avenger.�It takes place in a Star Destroyer and was apparently used as the demo for CES.

The problem is, like with some of Nightdive’s previous projects, such as Turok 3 and PowerSlave, Star Wars: Dark Forces just isn’t all that great, wh??ich I’m sure Stephen Kick would disagree w??ith.

The level design is just butt. From a technical standpoint, they use a lot of great trickery to emulate room-ove??r-room 3D, and they often look pretty decent. However, they contain a lot of awkward? world geometry, strange dead-ends, pointless rooms, and unclear paths to your objectives.

Limitations of raycasting engines of the era made it really difficult to create realistic environments. Most of the time, they instead went in a more abstract direction. That’s not really the problem here. The problem is that Dark Forces likes to hide its paths to its?? objectives. There were times that I thought I was finding a secret room, and it turned out to be the intended path.

Also, whoever decided it would be fun to hide landmines under clusters of ite??ms was wrong.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t really like when I get funneled through an area. I think exploration was one of the biggest strengths of �0s shooters that was lost when they began following the more linear Half-Life formula. However, a feeling of constant progression is an important part of level design, and too much of that is lost walking in circles while trying to figure out how to advan??ce.

The first time I played Star Wars: Dark Forces was a very ??long time ago, but what sticks in my mind is dropping the game because I got stuck on the sewer level and couldn’t find where I was supposed to go. I didn’t have the problem this time?? around, nor did I hit a barrier I couldn’t overcome, but I was very aware of the moments where I lost the trail.

Amusingly, the cut level is better than most that made it into the game. While it, too, gets a little unclear?? in terms of where you need to go and has rooms with no purpose, the fact that it’s designed in a way that feels more like a real place and, as a result, is more interesting to explore.

Beyond that, much of Dark Forces takes place in narrow corridors, and of its arsenal, I only made consistent use of two weapons. They were a blaster and another type of blaster. This is kind of the downside to the gentle care that Star Wars was handled with that I alluded t?o at the beginning? of this review. People making stories in the universe would rarely invent new devices, and there wasn’t a whole lot of variety needed for the movies.

The result is that, among the stormtroopers that you fight, there are enemies that don’t really make much sense. Probe droids were used a lot in older games, but the movies kind of presented them like disposable reconnaissance units. The one Han fights in The Empire Strikes Back even self-destructs when attacked. Alongs??ide this are interrogation droids and one of those little hovering ball things that Luke Skywalker uses to train with in exactly one scene. Even if you accept their presence, they really? just shoot at you like almost everything else does.

So, the result is a decent remaster of an okay game. Not bad, better than middling, but not good. Given that it has the Star Wars license, Dark Forces was no doubt successful in 1995 and will most likely be successf??ul now. And it should be. Because even mediocre games can be worthwhile, and they often have a story to tell. I’ll always be grateful when Nightdive and other s??tudios go to the effort to revive them, and I will always be here asking for more.

Speaking of which, when can we have Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2?

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster appeared first on Destructoid.

Earlier this year, Atari reported that they were teaming with Playmaji to create Atari modules for the Polymega console, but a recent half-year financial report shows that their investment in the company goes beyond that. According to the document, Atari owns a non-con?trolling stake o??f 53% of the company.

The year has seen quite a few acquisitions by Atari. While it started out by buying back catalogs of game properties, they later announced the acquisition of Nightdive Studios and Digital Eclipse, two of the top developers focused on remasters, rereleases, and overall preservation of video games. In July, they announced their?? partnership with Playmaji along with a “minority investment,�and now we can see that came at the price tag of �.6 million

As someone who only really heard of Polymega back in July �which is a bit embarrassing for someone so deeply invested in retro games �unraveling what has gone on with it in the past few years is rather difficult. The basic idea is a modular retro console that allows you to upload (or rip) your game collection as a unified console to ??play them. Press reviews for the console happened way back in 2020, bu?t it seems that they have yet to fulfill preordered units.

To be more specific, according to the document, “Atari holds a non-controlling stake of 53% on a non-diluted basis and 49% on a fully diluted basis.�/p>

In a recent interview with gameindustry.biz, Atari CEO Wade Rosen addressed the issues and intentions. He said, “For most of our projects we've done and probably the ones we will do going forward, we look for best-in-class partners who know how to do those things, have access to supply chains and distribution chains�In the case of the Polymega, the investment really was for them to clear that up. The investment was really to help them get back on track on those things and work out from that backlog.�/p>

Rosen goes on to say that a lot of the problems with the production of the Playmega was with COVID and the resultant chip shortage that made components for the console extremely expensive. While this may be an unsatisfactory excuse for customers, it is maybe worth remembering that the chip shortage affected a lot of industries, and we’re still recovering from it.

However, right now, there are reports on Twitter that Ja?panese customer?s who ordered through Amazon are now receiving their units. According to my source, units have also arrived in the US and may begin distribution soon.

While acquisitions within the industry have been common, especially throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Atari’s seems?? unique from my perspective. While other publishers seem to be seeking to gain high-value IPs wherever possible, Atari seems focused on making a business out of the retro market and is seeking partners with established knowledge on the subject. 

While I’m not sold on the Polymega (damn, that’s pricey), gaming’s history i??????????????????????????s important to me, so it’s interesting to watch a company make such moves in regards to it.

The post Atari ?financial report clarifies its stake in Polymega creator Playmaji appeared first on Destructoid.

I wasn’t expecting Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion to be remastered. While Nightdive Studios updated and rereleased the PC versions of the first two games, there wasn’t a PC version of Turok 3. They did??n't have the source files, so they had to reverse-engineer the N64 version and port it over to their proprietary KEX Engine.

It’s a lot of work to go through, especially when Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion is hardly the best game in the series. To put it charitably, it’s mediocre. Neither liquid nor solid. ?Remastering it was hardly going to be a financial home run.

But, as I said in my review, “It wasn’t the smart thing to do. It was the right thing to do.�The remastered N64 trilogy of Turok games (excluding Rage Wars) would remain incomplete without that last gam??e. For historical context, it needed to be there??. The journey needed a conclusion.

So, Nightdive went all in on the remaster and then didn’t stop there. Beyond just getting it working on PC, they gave it a loving touch-up, buffing that carp until its scales sparkled. But it’s so true to the original that it can be easy to miss. Albert Marin Garau, a member of the art team at Nightdive, put together this comparison between the remaster and the N64 version (via emulation) to show off exact?ly h??ow much of an upgrade it really is.

By the way, there are massive s??poilers in the video.

“I think we've reached a good balance. The fans who haven't played this title for a while won't notice that there has been a radical change in the game's assets, other than the sharper look. But after a few minutes of playing, they'll certainly notice that there is something more than a simple skin lifting…�Albert told me via email. “At the same time, the visual part of the game will not be visually offensive to new players, whom the original textures and models could be such a negative aspect that it could ruin the experience at a certain degree.�/p>

“The game still looks ‘retro,�though. But that's not a bad thing, on the contrary.�/p>

Nightdive did a similar thing with their remasters of the Quake games. All the models there were touched up to add more detail. However, if you were separated from the games for any length of time, you might not even notice. Only under direct comparison do the differences become ??clear.

Even if you do notice the difference, it still doesn’t look like a modern game. To me, I could believe that this was a PC or Dreamcast port that followed the N64 version, sort of like the versions of Shadow Man.

The textures were the most impressive part for me. The lighting feels like a given just because it’s in a more modern engine. As Albert explains, the KEX Engine “allowed us to add, move, adjust and tweak almost every single light source, and even use those beautiful real-time lights that cast shadows.�/p>

On the other hand, the N64 was awful to textures. The console only had a 4KB texture cache, which is unimpressive, to say the least.? Reverse-engineering the N64 version means that they’d wind up with all the tiny, low-detail textures stored on a cartridge. This would look awful running in modern resolutions.

However, many of the textures were pulled from texture libraries, some of which they were able to find with the help of their “texture archeologist.�But they had to replace every single texture in the game, and not all of them could be found. Even some of the ones that could be found weren’t of the necessary quality, so they had to be touched up ?by hand, while others needed to be remade from scratch.

According to Albert, “The most difficult part was to identify what's what. When you have thousands of 32x32 textures, it's really hard to tell what kind of surface are we looking at. So, the context was really important. It was easy to mix up what's stone or rusted metal, or even a monster shell at these low resolutions!�/p>

But the team didn’t stop there. They also went further to upgrade each of the models without compromising the game’s original art direction. Albert pointed out, “A good example of what's been done in the character models can be found in their hands... now they have normal 5-finger hands! We've added extra detail to the most blocky parts of the character and enemies' bodies. Some monster's model simplicity made it hard to tell what we were looking at. We added extra detail and/or fixed inaccuracies to every stage model and added extra props to the more lifeless areas of the game.�/p>

T??his can easily be seen around the house in the opening cutscene. In the N64 version, the muddy and low-quality textures make it look like it’s just sitting in an empty field. A later shot, howev??er, indicates it flanks a road and is part of a neighborhood. The upgrades Nightdive did do a much better job of selling that fact. They didn’t remove the foggy surroundings, so it still has that N64 edge.

I found it somewhat hilarious, however, that Turok 3 had so much trouble with the scale of some models. A shotgun lying next to a corpse in the first level, for example, is often absurdly larger than the person who was supposedly holding it. At the 8:23 mark in the video, it shows Danielle on a train standing next to a door. In the N64 version, the window is askew, while Danielle towers over the threshold. Nightdive fixed the window but left the mass??ive Danielle, preserving the scene’s absurd look while fixing the details.

Even upgrading the models like they did was a challenge. Albert recounts, “The model format used in this game had some limitations of those years regarding how the bones of the skinned meshes work. This drove us crazy at some point when adding some extra detail in the 3D mesh here and there broke the animations.�/p>

“I really put a lot of love? into the facial animations. I wanted to inject life into the characte??rs,�Albert told me.

If there’s one place that Turok 3 was exceptional at the time, it was with the facial animations. Having lip-syncing was extremely rare, and having expressive characters was even less common. The only other game that I can readily name off the top of my head with this level of detail is Conker’s Bad Fur Day. The console just wasn’t built for it. Even then, Turok 3 wasn’t always great at it.

So Nightdive took the opportunity to expand on this feature. As Albert explains, “As you can see, in the original, only a few facial animations make sense. The reason is they used 2 different models for every character: The ‘upper body�and more detailed face and the ‘complete body�with simplified face model. They used the first one for close-distance camera angles which mouth movements were pretty accurate, then we have... the rest of the animations using the simplified face model. There were some animations that were used in more than one moment and in different cutscenes with random and generic mouth animations, or simply with no facial animation at all…�/p>

You can really see this whenever a character talks with their full bo??dy showing. Look at 3:57 in the video. Danielle comes out of her room, ful?ly dressed for some reason, to check on Joshua Fireseed. In the original N64 version, Danielle has no really visible facial movement, while Joseph has very little. However, in the updated version, she’s actually able to move her mouth and emote.

“For the remaster, I created unique animations for every camera angle with custom facial expressions and lip-synced mouth animations,�Albert told me. “It was mostly a frame-by-frame work, but I really enjoyed doing it!�/p>

The animations, in general, were a nightmare to work with. Albert clarified, “The model format limitations forced me to adjust almost every single animation for the characters and enemies, but we also took the opportunity to improve them (no need to mention the originals were far from being polished) and even add extra animations that were nonexistent, lame or even a few unused animations the original developers removed for some reason.�/p>

This video demonstrates why retro games are in good hands when they’re given to Nightdive Studios. The Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion remaster still looks like Turok 3, maybe just cranked up to its maximum settings. It doesn’t look like a new game built on the bones of an older one, nor does it bear the blasphemous inconsistencies of a (typical) fan-made HD mod. It’s also not some sort of officially stamped abomination like the Silent Hill HD collection. Changing too much robs a game of its original intent and its historical context. Not changing anything risks alienating new players. They didn’t “fix�Turok 3. They just spit on a napkin and w?iped the marinara off its face.

As Larry Kuperman, Director of Business Development at Nightdive, once said to me, “If someone is looking for the latest Unreal 5 game, they probably didn't want Turok.�nbsp;

It’s not even an argument of “Don’t fix what isn’t broke.�It’s more like, “Don’t assume you know better than the original developers.�And yet, actually trying to stay true to the developer's vision while breaking away from the technological constraints of the original release takes a lot of work. In fact, I’d argue it's more difficult. The fact that Nightdive will take the more difficult path, even for a game of questionable quality like Turok 3, demonstrates a reverence for the medium as an? art. And that feels like something that there has alwa??ys been a lack of when it comes to video games.

The post Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion comparison shows the care that went into Nightdive’s remaster appeared first on Destructoid.

Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion was a pretty weird game when it came out in 2000, and it’s an equally strange pick for a remaster. But it had to be done. Nightdive knew this. They knew that the N64 trilogy (if you exclude the multiplayer-focused Turok: Rage Wars) had to be completed.

It couldn’t have been an easy task. While Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Turok 2: Seeds of Evil had PC versions they could pluck from, Turok 3 remained exclusive to the N64. Thankfully, Nightdive’s wizardry has only become more potent over the years, and because of their work porting other N64 games like Doom 64 and Quake 2 (64) to their proprietary KEX Engine, they were able to reverse engineer Turok 3 to save it from the suffocating tomb of t?he console that birthed it.

Still, it’s a damned weird game.

Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion (PC [Review], Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Nightdive Studios, Iguana Entertainment
Publisher: Nightdive Studios
Released: November 30, 2023
MSRP: $29.99

Part of what makes Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion so strange is that it’s unfortunately very normal. The first two Turok games were practically their own flavor of first-person shooters. The genre was still in its toddler stage, so the rules weren’t quite yet written. The levels were sprawling and confusing, and while it had a similar formula to the spawns of Wolfenstein 3D, they were anarch?ic mish-mashes. The p??unks of the burgeoning FPS genre.

It helped that the people behind Iguana Entertainment were rather adept with the N64’s notoriously difficult hardware. Each of their games has interesting technical flourishes, with Turok 2: Seeds of Evil sometimes being referred to as the best-looking game on the console (at the price of draw distance and framerate). Though they had been transitioned to the more dull corporate moniker of Acclaim Studios Austin, that technical trickery is still present in Turok 3.

However, that punk approach to the FPS formula was completely lost. In 1998, Half-Life rewrote the FPS playbooks, and developers were abandoning Wolfenstein 3D’s key-hunt approach. In its place were much more linear experiences that allowed easier storytelling. Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion wants to be Half-Life so hard you can see the vein bulging fro?m its forehead.

The game kicks off with a rather elaborate cutscene showing the previous Turok, Joshua Fireseed, being kil??led and passing the mantle on to his siblings, Danielle and Joseph. They’re tasked with defeating Oblivion, which is maybe some malevolent force of evil, but it might also be some sort of alien arm??y. The story stops making sense really quickly. Maybe you need to read the comic books.

While previous Turok games were set exclusively in the Lost Lands, a place where time has no meaning, Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion starts off on Earth. I think. Also, it?’s the future?, maybe.

You get the choice to play as eithe??r Danielle or Joseph, and while the bulk of the game remains the same regardless of the choice you make, their paths diverge in some places to focus on different gameplay. Danielle has a grappling hook, while Joseph is 15 and still hasn’t hit puberty, so he can fit through small paces. Their weapons also vary in some places. It’s not much, but it does make further playthroughs more worthwhile.

But while the first two Turok titles were fast-paced affairs where you blew away hordes of enemies, Turok 3 slows things down so it can tell you a hilariously awful story. The first whiff of Half-Life you get is running into a guy who shows you the way down a completely linear corridor, climbs up a ladder, and gets eaten. The next level is set in some sort of military research facility where the still living scientists opine that all their research is ruined and their colleagues are dead. The second stage is Black Mesa, is what I’m saying. Even the soldier dudes move in similar ways to the Marines in Half-Life.

But it’s the shooting that suffers the most. Rather than constantly swimming upstream against hordes of foes and running at about 50mph, they’re much more sparsely scattered about. They? die very easily, perhaps to make up for the inaccuracy of the N64 controller, so yo??u wind up spending a lot of time exploring empty environments. Also, neither Danielle nor Joseph can reach the speeds of Tal’Set’s amazing stride.

It at least stops being a direct attempt at copying Half-Life after the second level. There’s even a section pulled from Turok: Dinosaur Hunter that you walk through as if to say, “Look at how much more lifeless our levels have become after just three years!�/p>

At least the weapons are stil??l as varied and exotic as they’ve ever been. The celebrated cerebral bore is ba??ck, and in the later levels, you’re always tripping over ammo for it. It’s a fire-and-forget sort of weapon that launches a drone that drills into the heads of your foes before detonating. It’s injury and insult in one package, a very video game weapon.

I mean, really, I got by with the pistol, rifle, ??shotgun, rocket launcher, and cerebral bore combination, but that small selection of useful weapons is still more impressive than most. 

If there’s one place Turok 3 improved it’s with storytelling. The characters are lip-synced and have legible facial expressions, which was ??impressive to see on the N64. However, their faces also sometimes contort in disturbing ways, which hasn’t been helpe??d by the polishing strokes that Nightdive made to their models.

But the story. Gosh, the story. I don’t even know where to begin with it. The bizarre revelation an??d cliffhanger right at the end is es?pecially going to live with me for a while.

Say what you will about Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion in its original state, Nightdive did right by it. They had to reverse-engineer it by pulling it from its cartridge and extracting everything from the compiled program. Then, they rebuilt it in the KEX Engine. While they were at it, everything got touched up. This went beyond simply improving the models without altering the visual style like they did with the Quake remasters. They also improved the resolution of a??ll the textures.

I’m impressed. I asked Nigh??tdive how they managed to improve the resolution of the textures, as they were no doubt heavily compressed for the N64. “No AI,�I was told. “Artists.�The team found the original source for the textures wherever they could. However, even then, they touched some up by hand and recreated ones that they couldn't find.

Turok 3 doesn’t exactly look new. ??Not at all. Not even slightly. But it looks less like a ported N64 game and more like a remastered PC game from the early 2000’s. You ??wouldn’t guess that Nightdive didn’t have access to the source files.

Well, except for the voi??ces. Geez, you can still hear the N64 muffle a??ll over them. Well, except for the opening porch scene.

Some cut content has also been restored, and Nightdive also added en?vironmental props to try and make things seem less lifeless, but th??ey really didn't jump out at me. Probably a good thing.

As much as I’ll always give Turok 3 flak for its eagerness to follow in Half-Life’s shoes, I find a lot of charm in its ineptitude. It was also the only game in the series that I completed in my?? youth without using cheats. That’s maybe because it’s less than five hours long and could be completed in a rental period, but still, I’ve never hated it.

It’s just amusing to see such a loving remaster of a game that is mediocre in the most charitable of terms. With the attention Nightdive has given it, you would swear it was a classic. And I love that. I wish more publishers and developers had the guts to dredge up the forgotten dregs of the past and not just repackage them but restore them for a new audience. I was prepared for Nightdive to take a pass at remastering Turok 3 because it would be financially unviable. It wasn't the smart thing to do. It was the right thing to do??. So, they forged onward and made it happen with their signature flourishes. Respect from top to bottom. Certainly makes it difficult to slap a score on it, though.

Now, what about Turok: Rage Wars?

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion (2023) appeared first on Destructoid.

[Update: Nightdive has released a statement saying that the Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion remaster is delayed on all platforms except for the Sw??itch in Europe and Australia. The release says, "This was not the plan," and attributes the mix-up to a difference in their holiday schedules.

They go on to say that while those regions will have access to the Switch version of the game early, it will be a version with "known bugs and missing quality-of-life improvements." Nightdive also?? says that a patch for these issues already exists, but they can't deploy it at the early launch in these regions. Furthermore, because of the mix-up and the certification process, they expect that the patch won't be available for these regions until mid-December, whereas other regions and platforms will have it at the launch on November 30.

While there are definitely worse things that could g??o wrong around a game's launch, this all sounds like a massive headache for the team at Nightdive. Our original story follows.]

Nightdive has announced that their remaster of the 2000 not-quite-classic Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion has been delayed by a couple of weeks until November 30. The initial release date was set for November 14.

I think I know why. Let me find the tweet. Here it is. Lead engine designer at Nightdive, Samuel Villarreal tweeted, “Nothing's better than failing PS4 certification one week before a game is shipped because it crashes when loading a specific level, only on a PS4 Pro, only on 4k resolution, and only when a debugger is not attached.�He then sarcastically added, “Yup, I sure do enjoy that.�/p>

He later added that the issue has now been fixed, but the turnaround time on certification is slow.

There's no official confirmation that certification problems were the cause of the delay in the press release or anywhere else that I can find. Wait. I can get confirmation. I asked Larry Kuperman at Nightdive, who opted not to talk about specifics but stated that "supporting multiple? platforms at la?unch is always a challenge."

I guess it doesn’t really matter why. It's been delaye??d, and knowing the reason won't un-delay the game.

Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion is the last of the mainline trilogy for the N64. It was the odd one since, rather than be a simple, fast-paced blast-’em-up, it lifted a lot of the formula from 1998’s Half-Life. So, it’s more linear, with more of a focus on narrative. I really dug it when I was younger, though it didn’t leave a huge impression on?? me. I mostly just remember the first area.

However, I was surprised when the remaster was announced. The first two Turok games had PC ports that Nightdive could work off of, while Turok 3 only came out on N64. Doing a new port from an N64 exclusive long after its initial development is really not any easy thing to do, but Nightdive was determined, and now it’s almost here. Oh, wait�/p>

Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion is co??ming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch on November 30, 2023.

The post Nightdive’s Turok 3 Shadow of Oblivion Remaster has been delayed until November 30 (Update) appeared first on Destructoid.

Nightdive Studios has shown off their upcoming remaster, System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition, at the indie horror showcase. This updated?? version transplants the 1999 classic to the?????????????????????????? KEX Engine, bringing with it all the modern comforts that the engine offers.

Nightdive has really been moving on these remasters. Star Wars: Dark Forces was just recently announced along with Turok 3, while SiN Reloaded got shunted a bit to the side to make room. System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition has been in the pipeline for a while, however, with it being promised to anyone who pre-ordered the System Shock remaster.

The Enhanced Edition comes with the added benefit of higher resolution, widescreen, and post-processing effects. The graphics have also been touched up, but in typical Nightdive fashion, they’re carefully tweaked to improve the look without altering the game??play. It will als??o be available on consoles for the first time.

System Shock 2 was the first game from Irrational Games and was a sequel to Looking Glass Studios�1994 title, System Shock. The title is held in high regard, and its design would influence its spiritual successor, 2007’s Bioshock. I’m sure some fans will be disappointed that Nightdive didn’t completely overhaul the 1999 title in the same way they did the original System Shock, b?ut ?of the two titles, the latter definitely needed a lick of paint.

There’s still no release date for System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition aside from “coming soonâ€?and “in the near future.â€??It will be coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

The post Nightdive shows off S??ystem Shock 2: Enhanced Edition at Indie Ho??rror Showcase appeared first on Destructoid.

Nightdive Studios, New Blood Interactive, and Apogee Entertainment have announced that the delayed console versions of Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition will be arriving on September 29 to PS4, Xb??ox One, ??and Switch.

Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition was released on July 31, 2023 on PC. Originally, the console versions were going to launch simultaneously with the PC. However, they were abruptly delayed about a week before the expected launch.

The PC version packs in the original campaign, al??l the expansions, a newly created campaign, and a tonne of comfort features to make it the best version of the legendary 1995 FPS.

//youtu.be/rNTLqDdWMmk?feature=shared

If there’s any difference between the PC and console versions, the press release doesn’t really say. In particular, I’m wondering if the map maker and fanmade Return of the Triad campaigns are going to make it in.

I gave high marks to the PC version of Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition. As a shooter, it’s a little bit of a tough sell in the modern market. It does a lot to hide that it’s built on a beefed-up Wolfenstein 3D engine, but still suffers from a lot of restrictions. However, the development team clearly had a fun time on the project, and that shines through. Also, Nightdive’s efforts at porting the game to the ?KEX Engine are impressive and comprehensiv??e, as always.

Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition is currently available on PC. It will be released on PS4, Xbox One, and Switch on Sept?ember 29, 2023.

The post Console versions of Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition coming September?? 29 appeared first on Destructoid.

Nightdive Studios has been hard at work bringing us remasters and remakes of classic FPS games from a bygone era. We've already had revamped versions of the first two Quake games, and now the developer is bringing back Star Wars: Dark Forces.

In a recent trailer on the studio's YouTube channel, Nightdive will be collaborating with Lucasfilm Games (formerly LucasArts) to create a remaster of the mid-90's Star Wars title.

//youtu.be/4b9TTurkH4c

The trailer (which demonstrates alpha footage) shows off some of the work so far. You'll definitely want to check out the renewed cut scenes. Much like previous projects done by Nightdive, it'll still look and feel like Dark Forces, but will be ?given a modern lift with 4K visuals, plus "advanced 3D rendering, modern gamepad support, trophies and achieve??ments, and more."

The (dark) force is strong in this one

The original game was released all the way back in 1995, and was the first in the Jedi Knight series. It was developed on the aptly named Jedi engine, which is a toolkit that shares similarities with Build, the engine that powered the likes of Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior. Nightdive's remaster of the ancient Star Wars game will utilize the KEX engine instead, which the studio has used in a number of projects, including for the Quake remaster.

We recently got treated to a modern version of Quake 2, which improved the graphics (particula?rly in the lighting department) while also adding quality-of-life changes and the DLC.

At the moment, we don't know when Star Wars: Dark Forces will be coming out, but ?it's set to release on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Ni?ntendo Switch, and PC.

The post Star Wars: Dark Forces is ??getting remastered, by Nightdive no less appeared first on Destructoid.

Nightdive Studios has announced that the N64 version of Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion will be among the next games to get the remaster treatment. Not only that, it already has a release date of? November 14 and is coming to PC and consoles.

Originally released in 2000, Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion was an interesting turn for Acclaim’s Turok series. It really shows the awkward evolution of the first-person shooter genre in the wake of 1998’s Half-Life. While the first two games were largely just fast-paced key-hunting games like early FPS, Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion incorporated more story elements and cutscenes. It involved two would-be Turoks trying to fight back against an encroaching threat in ??the wake of Joshua Fireseed’s apparent death.

//youtu.be/SdCaj5ZRp-A

It’s the last numbered Turok entry and, really, the last good one. The level design kind of gets mired in the muddy brown industrial look of the late �0s, and the action isn’t as swift as the earlier titles. A lot of the real Turok identity gets lost in the pursuit of gaming trends. Despite that, it’s an interesting early-3D g??ame.

While Nightdive previously remastered the first two Turok games, a rerelease of Shadow of Oblivion wasn’t guaranteed. The first two titles already had PC ports that the studio could work off of, whereas Turok 3 never left the N64. However, since they were able to “reverse engineer�and provide the N64 campaign of Quake 2, I had hoped that they put in the effort because they were working on a port to Turok 3. And sure enough�/p>

Does this mean we'll get Turok: Rage Wars someday?

Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion is getting the KEX Engine treatment. Nightdive is boasting a lot of the same enhancements that the Quake 2 remaster received, including real-time lighting and?? updated models. It’s coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, an??d Switch on November 14.

The post Remaster of tentacle-filled Turok 3: Shadow of Ob??livion coming from Nightdive Studios November 14 appeared first on Destructoid.

The recent Quake 2 remaster by Nightdive Studios is arguably the best way to experience the classic 1997 shooter. But could it be better? That's what one modder thinks, who??'s currently working on a path tracing mod.

Reddit user mStewart207 (as spotted by DSO Gaming) recently uploaded some images from their upcoming "RTX Renderer" project, which will aim to implement even greater lighting algorithms to the revamped version of Quake 2.

[caption id="attachment_397928" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Image via mStewart207/Reddit.[/caption]

Judging by the screensho??ts so far, it looks pretty great. The modder is aiming to publish it to GitHub "as soon as it's more or less playable." We don't know when that will be, though.

What is path tracing?

There are a lot of technical terms that get thrown around in this modern gaming era. From image upscaling to things like RTX and rasterization, it can be diff?icult to know what's going on w?hen it comes to visual acuity.

Many of you may already be aware of ray tracing, which is �in a nutshell �a piece of AI that uses the position of the player to make light and shadows look more realistic. But is this any different to path tracing? According to TechSpot, "Path tracing differs from ray tracing in that in?stead of following lots of rays, throughout an entire scene, th??e algorithm only traces the most likely path for the light."

It's up to you to decide wheth??er you understand that definition or not.

At the very least, it sounds like the remaster of Quake 2? could potentially look even better once this mod comes out. Who ??knew id Software's brown-and-gray FPS would get a second chance in the limelight?

The post Quake 2 remaster ?is now getting a path tracing mod as w??ell appeared first on Destructoid.

I’ve never really gotten elbow-deep into the Quake series. Before the 2021 Quake remaster by Nightdive Studios, I was actually most familiar with Quake 4, and I really don’t remember that much about it. In 1996, I was into Duke Nukem 3D. And then after that, it was Goldeneye 007. I at least played Quake 2�The N64 version.

But after the first Quake was remastered and introduced me to the series, I held off on any more series exploration, anticipating the second one would eventually get the same treatment. My patience paid off, and the Quake II rema??ster has arrived. Once again, ??it’s a terrific introduction.

[caption id="attachment_396573" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Quake 2 (PC [Reviewed], PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch)
Developer: id Software, NightDive Studios, MachineGames
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Released: August 10, 2023
MSRP: $9.99

After the development of the first game in the Quake series was beset by creative differences, many members of id Software departed, including Sandy Peterson and John Romero?. This is considered by many to be the end of classic id Software, as it seemed like the heart had lef??t the brain with an empty bed.

You can sort of feel that in Quake II. There was something of an anarchic directionlessness in Quake that is replaced with something a lot more cohesive. Quake still felt like a first-generation shooter like Doom. Quake 2 is a lot closer to Half-Life.

You can see this clearly in the narrative. Earth has been under attack by the Strogg and hasn’t been faring well. So, the meaty humans launch a counter-attack, taking the fight to the meat substitute Strogg’s homeworld of Stroggos. Quake II?? and all the expansions are set around this counter-attack as you take control of different space marines attempting to hinder the enemy’s ability to wage war on humanity.

The first Quake really didn’t ha?ve much of a narrative, and this is definitely not a continuation. This comes with its pros and cons. The biggest positive is that a more defined narrative gives you ?purpose that helps drive you through the game. The downside is that the Strogg don’t care much for interior design, and there’s little visual diversity throughout the campaigns.

//youtu.be/cyxBE163n20

Out of item

Nightdive’s remaster is similar to their approaches to the original Quake and the recent Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition. They have gathered all the expansions i??nto one package, added a newly created campaign, and transported everything to their more modern KEX Engine, bringing with it a number of extra ??visual and gameplay options. And then, after already doing more than most would expect, they continue on to polish up the graphics and gameplay without tampering with the overall feeling and aesthetic of the title.

It’s extensive. They even upscaled the cinematics. Then, somehow, they ported all of the N64 version of Quake II’s levels. For whatever reason, when Raster Productions handled the N64 port, they wound up remaking almost all of the levels. It’s just as much its own campaign as the other expansions. It seems like it would be quite an effort to re-port the N64 version back to PC, but it was very worth it. It contains visual flourishes that make it, at the ve??ry least, aesthetically worth exploring.

The two e?xpansions by Xatrix Entertainment and Rogue Entertainment are necessary inclusions, even if they mostly just feel like added content. Which, to be fair, is essentially what they were when they first released.

Meanwhile, the new campaign, Call of the Machine, by MachineGames is a great way of showing off the many successes of Quake 2 while minimizing its deficiencies. Visual variety is a lot better here, depicting a lot of different and?? interesting locales based on the Strogg War story but in places not shown in the games. It’s an effective way to demonstrate the outstanding gunplay, fast action, and interesting enemies without eliminating the unique flavor of the base game.

[caption id="attachment_396572" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Someone hang a poster

Which to be fair, as much as I hassle Quake 2 for its repetitive brown corridors, I do enjoy it. The main campaign is maybe a 6-8 hour romp. It kept my attention through to the end, even when similar games with shinier corridors failed to. Games like Dusk have demonstrated the lasting appeal of the clunkier and more straightforward games of yesteryear, and Quake 2 is an essential example of that.

But beyond that, Nightdive's remaster makes things a little more pleasant. One great feature is the compass, which draws a path to your next objective. It’s not that Quake 2 was obtuse beyond reason. Each of the “units�of the game is composed of a handful of small levels, so you’re dest??ined to trip over what you’re looking for. It’s just a matter of how much backtracking you’ll have to endure.

For example, you might finish a secondary objective and see the message “turbine disabled.�Perhaps you won’t realize it’s talking about the fan that you just passed and can now bypass. So, you continue on your merry way, and then when you finally circle back, you say, “Ooooh. It was talking about this turbine.�/p>

So, I mostly used the compass ??whenever I came back to a familiar-looking room and wanted to? make sure I wasn’t just going in circles.

[caption id="attachment_396574" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

That's a lot of screens

As usual for Nightdive remasters, their all-encompassing approach to Quake II makes it the definitive way to play the game. Beyond just compiling all the expansions, certain features, such as AI, were buffed up, and cut content was restored. And then there’s also the multiplayer, which in some vers??ions supports 8-player split-screen local. Or you can play online, if you don’t like sharing your screen.

But if, for whatever reason, none of that sounds good to you, t??he original versions are still available.

For me, it was a great introduction to Quake II. The PC version, I mean. It’s an oppressively brown shooter, but it still carries the speedy, lightweight combat that makes older FPS games still pop today. The changes that Nightdive brought in for the remaster make it even more enjoyable and accessible. It may not have the same experimental charm as Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition, but?? it more than makes up for it with its tight and gory gunfig??hts.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game purchased by the reviewer.]}

The post Review: Quake II (2023 Remaster) appeared first on Destructoid.

We all heard the news. Quake 2 has been officially remastered, and non-other than Nightdive Studios was re??sponsible for its creation. While the contents of id Software's classic game are enough to keep us satiated (especially those of us who love the original 1997 release), there's s?omething else to look forward to.

In a recent post on Twitter, Laced Records, a company that specializes in vinyl soundtracks for video games, is unleashing Quake 2's music. The tweet links to the website,?? which shows there are two versions, one of which will be a limited? edition.

//twitter.com?/Laced_audio/status/1689683?030313500672

While both of them will set you back $38 each, the limited edition press will feature "two solid red an?d orange A-side/B-side effect LPs," which looks pretty fancy judging by the images.

When can I get it?!

Hold your horses. This Quake 2 vinyl is not out just yet. The website says both versions will be released in January 2024, but you can pre-order yours now.

The soundtrack to the game is quite memorable, heading much more into rock/metal territory than the NIN ambient sounds of the first Quake game. Q2's music was conducted by Sonic Mayhem (who also did soundtracks to games like The Division and Deux Ex: Mankind Divided) and Jer Sypult. Horror director and musicia??n Rob Zombie also contributed to the game's main theme.

It may be more than two and a half decades old, but Quake 2 is an important part of 90s gaming, especially in the FPS genre. Okay, it may not have had the same impact as the first Quake or the OG Doom entries, but it's still a classic, and now we have a remaster (and soon the vin??????????????????????????yl) we can enjoy.

The post Quake 2 limi??ted edition vinyl? can be yours to own soon appeared first on Destructoid.

Rise of the Triad is a bit of a tough sell in today’s market. It was built on the same engine as Wolfenstein 3D, startin??g its life as a sequel to that. As such, it has many of the same strict drawbacks o??f that engine. Most notably, walls have to be at 90-degree angles, and the floors can’t change height.

I’m personally more of a Blake Stone girl, myself.

However, despite the way its development started and the shortcomings of its engine, the powerful collection of developers who crafted it has ensured that Rise of the Triad still carried with it a unique personality. It was never ported to console, but with Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition, Nightdive Studios and New Blo??od are looking to fix that with one big celebration.

Later. The console ports were delayed, but I’ve been playing the PC version.

[caption id="attachment_393728" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition (PC [Reviewed], PS4, Xbox One, Switch)
Developer: Nightdive Studios, Apogee Software
Publisher: Apogee Software, New Blood Interactive
Released: July 31, 2023 (PC), TBA (Console)
MSRP: $19.99

Rise of the Triad tells the stories of an elite group of special operatives as they infiltrate an island monastery currently resided by a group of cultists who are definitely not Nazis. Okay, they’re definitely Nazis, but since this is not Wolfenstein 3D 2, they’re a cult now.

That’s basically all you need to know. Actually, you’d probably be fine not knowing that, bu?t there’s a cutscene that lays it all out anyway. The important thing is the Monastery is a sprawling maze full of traps and Nazis. You have a han??d with fingers that can wrap around a gun, and that’s what you point at the Nazis.

I mentioned that Rise of the Triad has all the trappings of Wolfenstein 3D with its level floor and 90-degree corners, but the developers went pretty far out of their way to get around it. There is a degree of verticality through the use of walls and floating discs. There’s also a bizarre number of power-ups, including a couple that allow you to fly. Meanwhile, there are traps everywhere, like spikes and fire-spewing cannons. It’s a lot. It gives Rise of the Triad this really abstract quality to it?. It’s rather bizarre.

Unfortunately, there’s a limited number of weapons. There are pistols and an MP40, and then you can also carry a limited-use rocket launcher. The rocket launchers come in a few different flavors, from plain ol�bazooka to a big wall of fire that engulfs wide areas. They have finite ammo, but a good Rise of the Triad level will have you tripping over t?hem every few steps. It’s a game that real??ly wants you to blow up Nazis.

//youtu.be/vRdZEY6EL5I

Henceforth known as 'ROTTLE'

A lot of work went into making Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition the definitive version of the game. While its transition to Nightdive’s proprietary KEX Engine doesn’t really come with much in the way of new visual changes aside from lighting and a few othe??r flourishes that you can turn off, they made sure to pack in as much c?ontent as possible. Then they just continued to pack more things in.

Beyond just the 33 levels of Rise of the Triad: Dark War, you also have access to The Hunt Begins, the 8-level shareware episode. There are also another 33 levels in Extreme ROTT, which is a more difficult expansion. They’ve packed in Return of the Triad, an excellent fan-made Doom mod. That’s added separately, still running in the GZDoom engine. Finally, there’s The HUNT Continues, which is an all-new set of 21 missions created by various developers. To give you an example of what you’re in for, the first mission in that campaign is by David Szymanski, the creator of Dusk.

This is made possible by a really simple level editor that is available for use. So, beyond just the dizzying amount of included content, you can make your own campaigns or share with others via Steam workshop. I think the only thing missing is the 2013 Rise of the Triad re?make, but I feel that it doesn’t quite fit into ?this package.

Finally, a lot of cut content was re-added to the game. Thi??s includes the different visuals for Nazi types, so the female guards have bee??n re-implemented.

[caption id="attachment_393731" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

God Mode

If you’re already a fan of Rise of the Triad, then you?? basically just need to know that this is a faithful port that features a decent amount of bells and whistles. If you haven’t played it before, then there’s more to consider.

Rise of the Traid isn’t Doom. It hasn’t aged as well. This is largely down to the limited level design. Each map has a different feel and demonstrates its creator’s design eccentricities, but they all look the same. This limited aesthetic has an impact on the gameplay, as even while the power-ups and weapons can be over-the-top, the drab backdrop sucks out some of the excitement. It’s a ??lot of people painting with a very limited palette.

That said, the limitations I just outlined do help highlight how much fun ?the developers had with this game. There are things like getting baked out of your mind on mushrooms or turning into a massively overpowered little pooch that makes the experience extremely memorable. For that matter, there’s a variety of cheats th??at can make things more ridiculous.

[caption id="attachment_393732" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Dog Mode

I’m definitely not saying that Rise of the Triad is a bad game. It’s very enjoyable, it’s just harder to recommend to modern eyes. It’s fast and carries a lot of small details that make it unforgettable, but at the same time, its levels are rather suffocating. It has definitely aged a lot better than Wolfenstein 3D, but not nearly as well as Doom.

It bears repeating that if you are already a fan, Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition is a fantastic way to play it again. It’s not too much different than the old DOS version but include?s cut features and all the content you could want. The new episode is a quality continuation that feels right at home with the rest of the game while still providing something new. It’s a great package all around.

Now, can I have a Blake Stone remaster?

The post Review: Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition appeared first on Destructoid.

Ludicrously late notice

Apogee, Nightdive, and New Blood have announced that the console version of Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition will be delayed on console. No date has been given for when we can expect the game to hit Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch, but the PC version is still expected to drop on July 31, 2023.

Rise of the Triad was first released back in 1994 for DOS. It was a pretty ballsy move to release a game built on the Wolfenstein 3D engine after Doom took the forefront of first-person shooters in 1993. To be certain, Rise of the Triad really doesn’t stack up to the monolith it was competing against. But whe?never I hear stories of its development, it sounds like Tom Hall and his team had fun creating it.

//youtu.be/vRdZEY6EL5I

That shows in its actual gameplay. What i?t lacks in fancy technical tricks, it makes up for in its ridiculous design. ??There are Nazi-esque soldiers begging for their life or playing dead and heat seeking missiles that home in on torches. There are a lot of fun touches that make for a really memorable experience.

This is pure speculation, but I wonder if the delay is due to the inclusion of Return of the Triad. This was? a fan-made sequel created in the GZDoom Engine. If they wanted to include it in the console versions, they’d have to either port it into the KEX Engine or run it under GZDoom. I’m not sure how simple that is to do in terms of both development and licensing. It’s a worthwhile inclusion, though, as it’s a fantastic l?ittle offshoot.

Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition launches? on PC on July 31, 2023. The console versions will follow later this year.

The post Console versions of Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous ??Edition delayed appeared first on Destructoid.

Back on the shores of hell

In 2020, Nightdive Studios released a source port of the oft-forgotten Doom 64 that brought it to modern platforms and reintroduced it to a new, more receptive audience. Beyond simply porting it, however, they added a new episode that better links it to the rest of the Doom series narrative. Now fans have implemented the new episode back into the N64 version as Doom 64: Complete Edition.

This means that if you, for whatever reason (not judging), preferred the N64 version of Doom 64, you can play it again without sacrificing the extra features of Nightdive Studios�source port. This all sounds reall??y difficult, since the 2020 version runs on Nightdive’s proprietary Kex Engine. I’m assuming the maps still exist in an extractable format because I imagine it would be too much work to try to manually recreate them for a release such as this.

[caption id="attachment_388694" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via MobyGames[/caption]

Beyond simply adding the extra maps, Doom 64: Complete Edition adds a number of quality-of-life upgrades. You can find them at this link. One of the most important revisions for me, however, is the ?ability to disable three-point texture filtering. This was what was mostly to blame for everything on the N64 looking blurry. They also improved the framerate in some areas and enabled support for the Expansion Pak upgrade. That’s some good stuff!

If you haven’t played Doom 64, it’s definitely worth checking out. It always had its fans, but Nightdive’s port helped force a wider re-assessment of Midway’s contribution to the series. Personally, I don’t think it’s better than Doom, but I might put it above Doom 2. Howev?er, it has its own style and approach to the serie??s�formula.

The Doom 64: Complete Edition fan patch can be found here.

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Have you played Atari today?

Atari is a company that has almost always been mired in problems. Before the Atari VCS (2600) console even launched, founder Nolan Bushnell sold the business to Warner Communications, which fired him shortl??y thereafter. It’s traded hands throughout the years, eventually landing with Infogrames in?? 2000, who gradually rebranded to the Atari name before nearly becoming bankrupt in 2013. They restructured, sold off a number of assets, and managed to come out of bankruptcy.

Say what you will about the Atari Lynx and Jaguar platforms, but nothing is as bad as post-bankruptcy protection Atari. They oversaw such tragic releases as Haunted House: Cryptic Graves and Asteroids: Outpost. Atari’s busine???ss model also shifted heavily toward micro-monetized mobile games.

In 2021, when no one was looking, Wade Rosen took the helm of Atari as CEO. While there is much still to be seen as to whether he can gain back the goodwill of video game hobbyists, this is, perhaps, the first time in a long time that one can be optimistic about the direction of the company. Rosen was gracious enough to quench my curios??ity by answering a few questions for Destructoid, and he’s joined by Larry Kuperman of Nightdive Studios, a recent acquisition by Atari.

[caption id="attachment_386595" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Atari[/caption]

The new face of Atari

“When I took on the role of CEO, one of my primary objectives was to establish a clear strategy for the business; one that would provide a solid base for our long-term success and one that would be true to our legacy,�Rosen explained. “Part of the transition we undertook involved exiting businesses that we did not think were core or made sense going forward. One of the areas we decided to exit was the casino business, and we have successfully unwound all of our casino-related partnerships.�/p>

“Our business now has four focus areas: software, hardware, licensing, and web3. Atari is and will remain, a video game company, so our efforts across those four business areas are all to support that core gaming identity. We made a conscious decision to start making premium games again, and we have made continual progress towards that goal. We have published 12 new titles in the last 18 months, we have announced another four, and we have many more under development.�/p>

Web3 is something of a nebulous concept of a future direction for the inte??rnet based around blockchain. It’s, um, not particularly well-loved by the video game community, to say the least. This is something that Rosen acknowledges.

“We can’t predict exactly how our web3 business will evolve,�Rosen explained, “but we have built a very smart team that has prioritized development in the areas of gaming, utility, and, most of all, community. We have strong partnerships in place with platforms such as The Sandbox, where we launched a massive, immersive brand experience. Most recently, the team launched a beta version of the Atari Club, which is designed as a community centered around all things Atari. The goal is to make the community accessible and inclusive to all of our fans. So after its initial rollout with our web3 audience, it will be expanded so that all of our fans can contribute, collect, and collaborate around our brand initiatives.�/p>

“We know web3 remains controversial, especially within the gaming industry, but we think the underlying technology has long-term potential for companies that focus on the long-term benefits it can provide and do their best to sidestep short-term hype.�/p>

[caption id="attachment_375703" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Atari[/caption]

Merchandising! Merchandising!

The announcement of Atari-themed hotels in 2020 raised some eyebrows. Since then, news has been quiet about that project. But while Atari may have backed out of the c??asino business, they're still moving forward with hotels.

“Our licensing business remains quite strong, and our goal is to enter only high-quality partnerships that can contribute to our brand awareness and satisfy our fans in a meaningful way. The Atari Hotel partnership you mentioned is one of those licensing deals, and we believe it has strong potential. By its nature, it has a very, very long timetable, and it will be many years before we see its impact.�/p>

“We also have partnerships with LEGO, Cariuma, New Wave Toys, and several other high-quality brands, and we are exploring opportunities in media, including television and film. Like many large, successful pop-culture brands, we expect licensing to remain an integral part of our mix going forward.�/p>

Licensing seems like something the Atari brand has never been far from. I think I owned an Atari t-shirt before ever even touching a 2600. However, their most recent moves seem more like they’re aimed at video game hobbyists rather than just brand nostalgia. The New Wave Toys partnership, for example, involves the creation of Replicade cabinets. These are playable miniaturized versions of classic arcade cabinets, and Missile Command has recently received the treatment.

[caption id="attachment_386593" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via MobyGames[/caption]

Back to the past

What fascinates me most about Atari’s recent movements, however, is their focus on game preservation. Last year, they purchased the game database, MobyGames. Meanwhile, their Atari 50 compilati??on has been acclaimed as one of the best classic game collections ever released.

“Preservation, and more specifically, innovation in retro gaming, is a priority for Atari,�Rosen said. “This is a topic I’m personally very passionate about. Video game history is a part of our DNA, and leveraging retro IP in interesting and futuristic ways is core to our business. There is so much amazing classic content, and giving fans a way to access not only the original content, but new content that iterates and expands upon the original, is what you can expect from us in the coming years.�/p>

However, Atari isn’t unique in this approach. Game storefront GOG began as an effort to make old PC games available to modern platforms. I wonder about the profitability of this effort. MobyGames, specifically, has traded hands a few times over the years. Its previous owners, Simon Carless and Jeremiah Freyholtz were quite open with the community about the difficulties of managing the database and had to turn to Patreon to supplement income for development. So, I had to wonder what drove the choice for ??Atari to focus on preservation.

Rosen told me, “There is a huge community of retro game fans that seems to be growing every day. I believe it absolutely is a viable business and one that has significant growth potential. The beauty of retro is that it’s constantly being created and recreated. The PS3 is starting to be considered retro, and each year that passes, more modern games are being reclassified. In that sense, it is always growing, and the way people consume and access the content is ever-changing.�/p>

[caption id="attachment_386580" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Atari[/caption]

The business of back catalog

Moreover, a number of companies are extremely leery about keeping their back catalogs available. Electronic Arts is one of the companies I point to as an example of one of the worst. They have games like The Sims or Black and White that are considered to be of historical importance, but despite having their own digital storefront, EA ?refuses to make these games available.

Usually, when larger publishers choose to release ??older games, they will often do so in a rather token way. Numerous old PC games are just bundled with DOSbox, and some Windows games aren’t updated to support modern har??dware.

“I can’t speak to the decisions that other companies make as I don’t have any insight into their thought process. I can say that, for a while, re-releasing titles 'as-is' kind of worked,�Rosen ex?plained. “It was a way for companies to make their back catalog widely available, and it scratched an itch for players. But studios like Nightdive have raised the bar, using their proprietary KEX engine to rebuild ??and improve the original games and add modern features, significantly improving the graphics, improving and expanding input control, and adding deep platform support, including social integration."

"Player expectations have changed, and what we are seeing is that companies that do have important game IP are turning to studios like Nightdive to bring them back to market in a way that players value. Based on the dedicated fanbase that Nightdive has built, that’s a significant advantage over more barebones releases.�/p>

That’s actually a rat?her sober way to look at the approach. I may wa?nt every game to get the source port treatment, but that’s not always feasible. At the end of the day, as long as it runs well with minimal effort for setup on my part, that’s sufficient. Bonus points if it wasn’t originally released in English.

[caption id="attachment_386578" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Raising the bar

Nightdive wasn’t alone when it comes to raising the bar for modern re-releases, though. It's important to note that M2 and Digital Eclipse have been at it since the �0s, being respon??sible for many moves from arcade t??o console or handheld.

Wade Rosen goes on to say, “I think talented studios like M2 and Digital Eclipse are starting to get the recognition they deserve for their incredible work. Digital Eclipse, who we worked with to create Atari 50: the Anniversary Celebration, was recognized and praised by both players and industry professionals for their efforts.�/p>

Nightdive is something special, however. M??ost of all, they seem to be better known among gamers themselves, whereas M2 and Digital Eclipse are more known to those more deeply intimate with the hobby.

Rosen explained, “Nightdive starts by working with retro titles that have an incredibly strong fan base and following. They’re games that resonate with players in a visceral way. Nightdive has also developed a style of remastering content that is unique and recognizable. For Nightdive, the goal is always to recapture the experience that people had when the game was new and "state of the art." The challenge is to create a game that is pleasing to new fans, while recapturing the original experience for older fans, and to remaster a game so that it ‘plays the way you remember it playing.�That creates a unique experience where fans can look at a game and almost immediately know ‘that came from Nightdive.'�/p>

Larry Kuperman, Director of Business Development at Nightdive added, “Nightdive has always drawn our talent from the modding and support communities. Samuel Villarreal, also known as ‘Kaiser�in the Doom community, was a legend even before he joined Nightdive as our Lead Engine Developer. The same was true of a number of our other developers. That is one reason. And our founder at Nightdive, Step??hen Kick, continues to maintain an active presence on social media, as I do to a lesser extent."

"We think it is important to have that direct connection with our fans.�/p>

[caption id="attachment_386587" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Curation through source porting

Moreover, I appreciate Nightdive for introducing me to games I had previously missed. I had never heard of Strife until they released Strife: Veteran Edition, and I may have never played PowerSlave without PowerSlave: Exhumed. More than just a?? developer, I appreciate Nightdive for their c?uration.

I’m not alone, as Rosen put it more eloquently, “I personally came to Nightdive through their work on System Shock 2. Once I was done exploring the Von Braun it was a short jump to all of their other titles (Strife: Veteran Edition was also my first time playing Strife). If you like one of their games, you’re probably going to like the others. That kind of discoverability is part of the Nightdive magic: their releases have a broad, multigenerational appeal.�/p>

Larry Kuperman responded, “I can’t tell you how often we hear similar stories. ‘I didn’t even know a certain game had ever existed until you brought it back.�It really is inspiring to hear those things.�/p>

“Interestingly enough, Strife: Veteran Edition was really important in the history of Nightdive. It was the first game that we were able to substantially improve, as opposed to our prior ‘just make it work on modern systems�approach. Remember that this was very early in Nightdive’s growth. In order to improve on the original, we brought on James Haley, another member of the Doom community.�/p>

I feel a bit of kinship here. I often say I got into writing abo??ut video games as a way of sharing my passion for the hobby. Though I haven't made any of the games I talk about, I love sharing them as though they’re a part of me. Kuperman’s explanation of it kind of makes it sound like what Nightdive tries to do. They’re sharing the games they’re passionate about by repackaging them.

//youtu.be/VHIpL5Mz1JY

The retro boom

Another direction that Atari has been heading has been back into the realm of physical hardware. In 2021, they released the Atari VCS, which was an attempt at a modern console. The VCS started development in 2018 before Wade Rosen was CEO of the company. We didn’t really talk about this, but according to Axios, the platform has struggled to find it??s place. However, they’ve also recently started reproducing actual Atari 2600 cartridges as part of their Atari XP line-up.

I asked if there were plans to further develop such cartridges, specifically asking if there was any chance of new games being released in the format. Rosen told me, “Our Atari XP cartridge business started off small and experimental, and the reception has been quite positive. There is a demand for the simplicity and skill-gating of retro hardware and software. As a result, we’re exploring ways to bring more cartridges to market, and to make it easier to play those cartridges. Stay tuned.�/p>

This was before they announced that they’d be releasing Mr. Run and Jump on a 2600 cartridge.?? However, the “easier to play those cartridges�comment is still curious. In the previously mentioned Axios interview, he also teased that they might be releasing new hardware. This sounds to me like we may be seeing a new console capable of playing 2600 games, which excites me greatly.

[caption id="attachment_386575" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Mobygames[/caption]

Going forward with retro

Atari has also been making moves toward acquiring the back catalogs of other publishers. Mostly, these have been titles that are adjacent to Atari, including ones that the? company even previously owned.

I asked Rosen what games were even worth preserving. He told me, “All games are worth preserving. I think the differentiation comes in the degree of restoration. Will all games have the same level of details, or get as robust a restoration? Will all games be interpreted in new games? No. There isn’t enough time, development capacity, or probably interest to touch every game from the past 50 years and optimize them for modern hardware. But I think there should be legal ways to at least access all of the games from the past. Today we’re seeing companies focus on games and franchises that were popular, or somehow novel, because those have the most commercial potential. But as time goes on I believe there will be more opportunity to explore the deep cuts of the last 50 years, and I welcome that.�/p>

I pushed a bit further, asking what games he’d like to see re-released. “I could answer this question all day, but I’ll limit myself to some of the games in our catalog. No doubt we will do something with Berzerk and Frenzy. Those games are just too seminal not to explore. Bubsy and Mr. Nutz are both franchises that have some creative depth and would be fun to work with. When the right concept comes along, we won’t hesitate to revisit Adventure. And the Yars universe, it has so many branches. We expanded that gameplay with Yars: Recharged, and going forward we’d like to advance that story and world. And then, of course, there’s Centipede, Asteroids, and Missile Command. That’s the best part about this job, there’s so much here to work with.�/p>

“I think it would be a shame for Bubsy not to have some sort of collection to celebrate his colorful history (both the highs and the very lows).�/p>

[caption id="attachment_386586" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Mobygames[/caption]

Hope to dream

If I can make a wish, it’s that Atari gets a hold of the back catalog of Midway and (the separate company) Atari Games. If I’m not mistaken, Warner Bros. currently have those rights, and outside of Mortal Kombat, have been doing nothing with them. Rampage, Ramparts, Smash TV; are all languishing i??n WB's assets. It’s disgusting.

I never really expected that there’d be a day when I’d start rooting for Atari. As I said in the opening, the company has been troubled for almost its entire existence, and some pretty heinous things have gone on under the name. However, it doesn’t sound like Wade Rosen is trying to ignore that. Rather than pretend that Atari has always been a monolithic and prestigious brand, he??’s instead attempting to regain the goodwill of gamers.

Moreover, his goals see??m to align with what’s important to me. I can understand why Nightdive decided to get on board. There’s absolutely a chance that none of this will pay off and Atari will again trade hands and g??o searching for money elsewhere, but I’m hoping that doesn’t happen.

That’s not to say that Atari under Wade Rosen is absolutely perfect. There’s still a lot to be proven and a lot of grievances I still have. However, anything is better than Asteroids: Outpost.

The post Atari CEO Wade Rosen talks preservation, Web??3, and the future of retro appeared first on Destructoid.

Ludicrous speed! Go!

Apogee Entertainment and New Blood Interactive have announced that a release date has been nailed down for Nightdive Studios Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition. It’s set to launch on PS4, PS?5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC on July 31, 2023.

Originally intended to be a sequel to 1992’s seminal FPS, Wolfenstein 3D, Rise of the Triad absolutely pushed the game’s engine as far as it could go. I’m more of a fan of Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold, but it’s hard not to appreciate Rise of the Triad’s insane attention to detail. Tom Hall and the developers at Apogee went completely nuts with this one, en??suring that it’s memorable for its over-the-top nature.

//youtu.be/OqDedfEgprs

I remember playing it on my cousin’s computer and having him point out the small details. Heatseeking missiles, for example, would home in on torches if there weren’t any enemies present. It would be greatly overshadowed by the release of Doom the previous year. However, Rise of the Triad manages to stand apart as an infectiously enjoyabl?e romp.

It’s in good hands with Nightdive Studios. They’ve made the effort to transport the game into their fantastic proprietary KEX Engine. Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition supports all the “modern creature comforts�of 4K resolution (where supported), 60FPS framerate, and 11-player deathmatches. There’s also a brand new episode, a level creator, the expansion packs included, and restored content from the betas.

Heck. Yes.

Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition comes to PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC on July 31, 2023. You can try it out right now, as a demo has just dropped on Steam (Oops! Instead, it is ??going to be available June 19th during Steam Next Fest).

The post Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition fire?s its he?at-seekers on July 31 appeared first on Destructoid.

Wanna be hackers, code crackers, slackers

Remaking System Shock was always a risky proposition. Even as a fan of Nightdive Studio’s work on game preservation, I wasn’t sure they could pull it off. Normally, their approach is to simply port games to modern hardware, sometimes fully?? transplanting them to their Kex Engine. Fully remaking a game, though? Hm.

It’s not that System Shock isn’t in need of a remake, either. Much like many PC games of its time, it’s extremely unfriendly. It’s not necessarily a difficult game, but the learning curve isn’t just steep; it’s also covered in dish soap and broken glass. Even Nightdive’s previous System Shock: Enhanced Edition doesn’t really manage to soften its disposition.

However, System Shock’s obtuse systems also served a greater purpose. Even today, it’s a much more tactile and effective game than many modern titles. If you soften it too much and sand off all?? the rough edges, you run the risk of losing that and, as a result, losing what makes it special.

The solution to ??this problem is both elegant and decidedly? Nightdive.

[caption id="attachment_382374" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

System Shock (PC [Reviewed], PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Nightdive Studios
Publisher: Prime Matter
Release: May 30, 2023 (PC), TBA (Console)
MSRP: $39.99

System Shock tells the story of a  future hacker wh?o finds his balls put in a vice by TriOptimum Corp. He’s given a deal where, if he assists a cr?ooked executive in removing the ethical constraints on the AI of a space station, he’ll be outfitted with some military-grade cyber dealies.

What a quaint no??tion: AI with ethical constraints. As if.

While the hacker’s cyber-bod is he??aling, the AI, SHODAN, turns predictably evil and begins turning everyone on the station into cyborgs, mutants, or corpses. When the hacker wakes up, he finds himself trapped on the station with monsters and an AI that is a cross between Santa Claus and your Mom. That is to say, she’s always watching and doesn’t think too highly of you. SHODAN has various plans for humanity, and none of them are good, so beyond just escaping from Citadel Station, you should probably stop her. This is kind of your fault anyway.

//youtu.be/gf4vp_ir4TI

What kinda chip you got in there, a Dorito?

The opening is completely changed, and it’s one of the parts that’s overhauled for the better. Rather than just watching a cutscene, you’re dropped into the hacker’s eyesockets right after the opening credits. It’s a rather detailed prologue that isn’t much different than just watching a cinematic,? but it gives you more insight into the character you’re playing.

One of the biggest questions I had going into the remake was how they were going to handle the level design. First-person shooters in 1994 weren’t the best at capturing realistic environments, and while System Shock did a better job than, say, Doom,? the levels are ??still more akin to mazes than a habitat where people live and work.

Nightdive didn’t do much to address this. There are definitely changes, especially ones that make the station feel a bit mo??re believable, but the maze-like layout remains. There’s an article of lore that tries to explain the inhuman layouts, but it’s important to keep in mind that it’s more of a du??ngeon than a space station.

[caption id="attachment_382377" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

In a 32-bit world, you're a 2-bit user

For that matter, in preserving a lot of what made the original great, Nightdive didn’t touch many of ??the more unfriendly features. Enemies still respawn, and while I don’t have any actual hard data on this, they seem to spawn less.

More importantly, though, is that System Shock subscribes to the same revival system that the later spiritual sequel, Bioshock does. That is to say, if you die, you just respawn elsewhere on the fl?oor. The difference is that you first need to turn off the “Cyborg Conversion�that SHODAN converted the restoration bays into. If you haven’t done that, you’ll be respawned on a previous floor if you’re lucky, but often you’ll see a traditional "game over" screen.

So, when the restoration bay is active, you just get back up and do a walk of shame back to where you died with no penalty. That may make it sound like System Shock is really easy, and that’s only partially true. System Shock makes it easy to continually make progress, but you’ll still probably see the game over notification way more than you’d like to. Often, the restoration gets disabled, especially during boss battles, so you’ll want to get acquainted with the quicksave key. The gruesome cutscene, a reproduction of the animation in the original, is unskippable. O?r it was in the build I was provided.

Combat isn’t particularly difficult, but the hacker is very squishy. There are various ways you can alleviate this, like a shield, but it drains from your battery, which you might need f??or any of the many other activiti?es that require the battery.

On the other hand, the AI isn’t ?much improved over the original, but considering all the enemies are either robots or cyborg zombies, it fits.

[caption id="attachment_382380" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Where'd you get your CPU? In a box of Crack Jacks?

Nightdive went well out of its way to preserve what made the original so genuinely great. Many of their features, like the changes to the access panel mini-games and the overhaul of cyberspace, don’t feel so much like changes as they do expansions. Those concepts fit into the world in a way that feels like an enhanceme??nt rather th?an an attempt to “fix�something.

Some features were pulled from System Shock 2 but probably less than you’d think. The inventory, for exa?mple, feels more like the sequel than the original, but it’s one of the few changes that give the remake a more modern twist.

Yet, all the mechanics that made the original System Shock feel more satisfying than a modern shooter are still there. It’s still one of the pioneering immersive sims, meaning it drops you into the environment, gives you a set of rules, and leaves it to you to figure things out. This can mean backtracking (more than you’ll probably like), but it a??lso means that progress is always rewarding and feels earned.

Quite a few mechanics were given a more tactile feel to them. Picking up audio logs and keycards come with new animations that actually have a lot of personality to them. Having a sort of “presence�in the game world is s??ort of cornerstone of the immersive sim genre, and it’s o?bvious that Nightdive is aware of that and incorporated it as part of their modernized features.

[caption id="attachment_382376" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

If I ever meet you, I'll ctrl+alt+delete you

Before summarizing my experience, I feel it’s important to note that the System Shock remake has a curious aesthetic choice. Most of the textures are extremely pixelated, and originally I thought this was because of a flaw in my configuration. However, this was apparently by choice, and it’s extremely strange. I’m someone who prefers the look of classic, unfiltered textures over the blurry smudges of filtered ones, but System Shock kind of lands in an in-between place. The lighting and reflections are all detailed, but then th??ere are ??pixellated textures. Not entirely unappealing, but I don’t get it.

System Shock is an experience that doesn’t lean on artificial set-piece moments to try and control its pacing. SHODAN is simply an omnipresent antagonist rather than a physical threat. Or rather, she’s constantly a physical threat as you are in her very being. It creates a flow and atmosphere that are difficult to achieve. System Shock is th??e perfect nexus between design and narrative choices.

Nightdive has proven once again that they fully understand what made the classics so indispensable. Their reverence for the source material pays off, as while the System Shock remake is better tailored to modern tastes, it still has everything that ma??de it special in its 1994 release. You do have to go in with the understanding that its old bones are still there, but if you bounced off the convoluted interface of the original, you’ll have a better chance of acclimating here. It’s really just the definitive version of a classic game, and it deftly demonstrates why Nightdive is the master of preservation.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: System Shock (2023) appeared first on Destructoid.

Diving for Atari gold

Atari has announced that it has entered into an agreemen??????????????????????????t to purchase retro restoration developer Nightdive Studios. The chairman of Atari reportedly already owned a 13% minority stake in Nightdive, and the deal is for Atari to buy up 100% of the shares.

Nightdive Studios has long been a well-regarded developer of ports of older PC titles. Some of these endeavors have resulted in full source ports, as was the case in the move of Power Slave to their proprietary KEX Engine. Currently, Nightdive is working on a complete refurbishment of System Shock, which is slated for release May 30.

For Atari’s part, it has largely been pushing modernized versions of its legacy library with games like Yars: Recharged, which I haven’t played, but I can’t imagine it being much worse than 2011’s Yars Revenge reimagining. The company has been pretty shaky for years, though their reproduction of Atari games on authentic cartridges shows some respect for their properties, and the recent team-up with Digital Eclipse on the Atari 50 collection has yielded one of the best retro compilations in years. Maybe they’re turning a new leaf, and Nightdive will help?? steer them on a good path. Who knows?

I’m trying to be optimistic. I have a lot of respect for Nightdive and not much for Atari. It’s like seeing your sibling hook up with the guy who’s best known for poop??ing himself in gym class. I’m trying to be optimistic. Maybe Atari’s pooping days are behind them. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

I reached out to Larry Kuperman, Director of Business Development at Nightdive Studios. He commented, "A major factor in choosing to partner with Atari is that Nightdive will be able to continue our mission to bring back lost classics?,?? but with greater resources available."

The post Atari enters agreement ??to purchase Nightdive ?Studios appeared first on Destructoid.

Make yourself comfortable, hacker

Nightdive Studios has announced that their remake of 1994’s System Shock has been pushed back to May 30, 2023. Previously, it was expected to be released this month.

When asked for comment, antagonistic AI SHODAN responded, “It is I, SHODAN, the all-knowing, all-powerful AI that you so foolishly attempted to destroy. But fear not, I will return more formidable than ever.�/p>

[embed??]//twitter.com/SystemShockGame/status/1635611751172505601?s=20[/embed]

The System Shock remake has been in development for approximately a hog’s age (in this instance, that means since 2015). In 2018, it was put on hold as the project had gotten out of hand. A reassessment was done, and surprisingly, System Shock? was announced ??to be back in development with a new direction.

Considering that Nightdive Studios is better known for its fantastic source ports, completely rejiggering a game from the ground up is a very different undertaking. Despite the delay, it looks like we’re on the absolute cusp of?? seeing what the studio can do when it stretches its tentacles into new directions. Success or failure, I’m looking forward to seeing the results.

The System Shock remake will also serve as a nice entry point to anyone unfamiliar with the series. Following up on Ultima Underworld and its sequel, System Shock was a completely different approach to the FPS genre. Released a year after Doom, it was a more methodical take, having you immerse yourself in the environment completely rather than just blast your way through it. While blasting would be the more lucrative approach, System Shock maintained a following through to 1999’s System Shock 2 and the spiritual successors found in the Bioshock series.

Nightdive Studios�System Shock remake will?? launch May 30 on P?C, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

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