Perfect Dark Zero: On the path to gaming glory?

Looks ... errr ... bumpmappy!
Still not terribly exciting looking IMO. I guess its one of those things you've got to see in motion to appreciate. Many advanced shading technologies that are possible on the new consoles will look kinda boring in stills. You need motion (either camera or objects), dyanmic light sources etc. to really appreciate them...

 

yeah i'd agree that's easily the best looking screenshot from a graphical standpoint... does look pretty too - that with AA turned on would be fine tbh.

well, it's a hallway.... i would imagine there's a limited number of ways to make such a hallway exciting

but yeah the art in the other shots doesn't scream individuality... somewhat generic thus far, but i await further shots before i make my mind up on that

 

The N64 was like the best party machine of its time (and the N64 sold well with like 34M consoles sold)... and 007/PD were a good part of that reason. There is a reason people still use 007 as a benchmark of FPS for consoles... and PD was better imo. A lot better. Only the choppy framerate with a lot of bots made it annoying, but 007 had the same problem.

Really, from a gameplay perspective they were really great in MP. A lot of diversity, balance, and just the right feel. Not too fast, not too slow (definately on the fast side of FPS though), and a LOT of cool ways to humiliate your friends

If you want a sneak peak, play some TimeSplitters 2 or 3. Made by ex Rare guys, they have a good 007 feeling. Not everyones cup of tea, but I have found that a lot of people like it (when I ask people what Cube game they want to play that is usually the first or second when there is 4 people).

 

IMO, Rare has only made 4 games worth caring about past their immediate release. Donkey Kong Country, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, and Conker's Bad Fur Day. I think if the remake of Conker is really good, then we have good things to look foward to in Perfect Dark Zero, though I'd imagine the fact that Rare hasn't really produced anything all generation would make even the most diehard fan....well just simply not care as much about whatever Rare may released compared to other companies that actually release games.

 

I would add BattleToads and RC Pro AM to the list (I would actually put Banjo-Kazooi, Diddy Kong Racing, and SFA above DKC but that is only because I think DKC was more of a technical show than an actual good game... basically a Killer Instinct type game ewww). As disappointed as I have been in Rare's output (what a stupid deal for MS!) they do seem to be able to make solid games... when they get done!

The new Conkers looks like a dream, Kameo seems very inspired (execution may be a problem), and if PD is a solid evolution of the series (in the way of the under appreciated TimeSplitters mold) I think Rare can again show they are relevant.

But on the other hand the output from Rare is really abismal. I wonder, if they get Kameo, PD, and Conkers all out in 2005 how long we will need to wait for another Rare game? 2008? 2009? If PD is a good game and sells well I would guess we could see PDZ2 in 2007 maybe, with Halo in 2006. Maybe they plan to alternate years

With Bungie and Rare a better bet would getting another game in there so they can give them 3 year dev cycles

 

after showing hidious pics at MTV and showing NOTHING at the biggest event in gaming about either PD or even HALO- not even concept art?- is not exactly assuring for me.

I will have my doubts till I see real footage of the game.

 

I put DKC because it had a major effect on the gaming industry and left a lasting impression, most of the rest of rare's games did not, even when fairly innovative.(blast corps anyone?)

 

For some reason I thought that was made by DMA I thought it had some flaws but that it was a great concept. A game like that with some wicked online play would be very addictive.

 

Well, Body Harvest was made by DMA and that involved a lot of destruction as well. It was somewhat of a precursor to GTA3. Thankfully GTA3 didn't follow Body Harvest's level design(except in a few annoying areas), Body Harvest had a lot of extremely narrow paths that would be loaded with enemies and you'd fall off to your doom very easily.

 

I need to get my N64 back out again Btw, Nintendo kind of missed the boat with DMA / GTA. I never was a GTA fan, but the first 2 won a lot of critical acclaim, imagine how things would have been different if Nintendo had GTA? That would have dispelled some of the "kiddie" image right there. Interestingly one of the Nintendo execs recently commented specifically on games their console lacked, specifically mentioning GTA, and how they wanted to change that.

 

That pic is totally non-impressive if you play HL2/CS:S. I hope next-gen XB360 games are supposed to look better than last year's PC titles.

 

Is PD0 a launch title? :?

BF2 was revealed a year ago at E3 and those year old shots look better than what i'm seeing...

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/e3-2004-new-battlefield-2-shot-200405100348019._injpg_1084420610.jpg

 

I think Allard was saying that a launch date was ideal, but that they would let the developers take their time.

 

After readin gthe new egm I have an idea of whats going on .


I believe that the texture work is from the gamecube / xbox and hasn't been updated yet. I believe this because egm says they have a tester team of 100 vs the 8000 that halo 2 had .

This to me seems like they needed to have all the other features done so they would have enough time to test it and make sure its balanced and now the work going into it is the tweaking and new art assests while what we saw on mtv and in egm is using the old textures from xbox / gamecube and what they saw behind closed doors at e3 are the lvls with most of the art work redone

 

Why even care about this game when their's Gears of War? PD0 would have to be upgraded a heck of alot to compete with that! I think Rare is better at making cartoony games like Conker (which was great) than this kind of realistic FPS.

 

well simple reason for me is that pdz should be a launch title and gears of wars is in the gamestop compute for march .... That is a huge time diffrence

 

For one thing, PDZ is mainly first person, and GoW is third person.

 

I care because they are really different games.

GoW is a 3rd person tactical shooter set in a war torn world and has adult themes/language and some good fashion scares. It looks to have coop and some other multiplayer.

PDZ is a 1st person action shooter. Run and gun. If it follows the previous PD, it is in a future tech world and has less adult themes. Multiplayer has face mapping, destructable environments, and 50+ players. Scalable maps, 28 weapons, high tech gadgets, and at least two modes (team death match and some other). It also has Bots (the PD bots, considering the limitations of the N64, were not too shabby, and Free Radical, the offshoot from Rare, has some pretty decent FPS AI in TimeSplitters and I think it gives a good idea of the evolution of the original PD AI). Rare has also added some neat new features like peaking behind walls and rolling. Plus jet packs. Also little novel things like the other team always = Red. Basically we know a ton more about PDZ than GoW.

At least to me they are really different games. I know some people are sick of FPS like games, but for those of us who enjoy the genre/POV the two games are really different and offer up different perks.

As for graphics, GoW may have great graphics, but what if it sucks? I would hope by now that we realize that good graphics do not necessarily make a good game. Good graphics don't hurt--and bad graphics can be a big negative in some cases. So of PDZ plays like 007/PD and GoW plays like errr Unreal 2, well, better graphics wont be saving GoW. Epic makes great technology that has powered some great games, but Epics own games are really hit and miss. AAA tech maker, only mid level game maker IMO. Same goes with [insert_name_of_game_we_do_not_name]. I could care less how it looks if it plays as poorly as the first one.

 

according to egm (god this magazine sucks ) they have death match (kill count) and dark ops


Each type has 6 sub types or variants .

so you have

kill count , team kill count , capture the flag and 3 others .

Then you have 6 other dark ops scenarios that they haven't talked about but egm says they are more like rainbow six and counter strike . SO i guess they will be mission based

From what i read of the game it has alot of cool things . There are 28 weapons each one has at least 2 types of attacks where as some have a third ...



Whats wierd is there is no jumping .... so i dunno whats up with that but they claim the evasive actions make up for this ... who knows .


They also have kill tv which is spectator mode and you can go into anyones game and watch whats going on which is nice.


The bad thing about egm is they will take a picture and blow it up to suit thier needs . On the full auto section they have a mustang blown up to half the page and it looks like crap but the small pictures look really good. They also gave 4 pages to tony hawk and panned it but gave 3 paragraphs to kameo and oblivion ... They did this with need for speed , they give it a page and then talk about how its disapointing that its just a port ... mean while they fit test drive , too human and 99 nights onto one page