Post by: grkfire on November 18, 2005, 03:52:00 PM
Post by: atomheartmother on November 18, 2005, 04:11:00 PM
News:
Perfect Dark Zero is Here!
Hands-on impressions -- by the hour -- all day long.
by Che Chou, 11/18/2005
7 of 8 users recommend this story.
It's been a long wait and uncomfortable wait, but Perfect Dark Zero, MS's flagship launch title for their Xbox 360 console, is finally doing its thang in our 360 debugs. We're grabbing direct feed, screenshots, and jotting down our thoughts on this important game every hour (or every level we beat) all day long. So check back at this space for updates soon.
Updates:
Total playtime: 20 minutes
Maybe it's been all the hype surrounding this game. Maybe the delays, the editor tantrums -- maybe all of that was just a ploy by MS to elevate the hysteria when the game finally lands in the laps of gamers nationwide. But one thing is certain: Perfect Dark Zero is electrifying. Everything from the production values of the opening trailer, which is probably both homage and aping of the James Bond tradition, to the ultra-sheen interiors and hectic, Hollywood-paced final moments of the first level tutorial, screams quality. This isn't hyperbole and it isn't based on hype: PDZ looks fantastic and moves even better.
A couple of things I want to note:
Controls: They're perfect for the type of shooter it is. And what kind of shooter is PDZ? The controls feel more like Perfect Dark, than say, Halo, which is what everybody wants to compare it to. Holding down the left trigger zooms your current weapon (and is excellent for picking off fools at long range, from a crouch). A very special and intuitive roll button sits on the left shoulder button (that's the one that sits right above the analog trigger) while Y is to change weapons and X is to reload. B gives you a nice solid melee attack. Which is the other thing with the whole feel of PDZ -- it moves extremely well. So far, in terms of physics, the game feels nothing if not polished. Smashing a crate with the butt of your rifle has that "oomph" you'd associate more with games like Condemned: Criminal Origins or The Chronicles of Riddick. Bummer that you can't jump, but with the roll move at your disposal, I'm not really missing it.
Graphics:First impressions being what they are, I also want to talk a little about how good it looks. Aesthetics aside (because that's a whole 'nother can of worms), and from what I've seen so far (which is really what we've already played at X05), the game is a strong technical accomplishment. Lots of screen rocking explosions, thick layers of particles waffling through the air with every shot fired... PDZ really thunders with the action. The character models definitely have that uncanny valley feel about them where they're all soulless automatons who move more like action figures than people. But it does make you pause to think -- "Hey wait a sec, maybe we will see Toy Story-like real-time graphics in the coming generation." Of course, I don't expect the slick visuals to hold up... mostly because I don't want to jinx myself.
Well, back to the game.
Post by: Joergen on November 18, 2005, 04:13:00 PM
Post by: atomheartmother on November 18, 2005, 07:21:00 PM
Updates:
Total playtime: 1.5 hours
The sci-fi urgency of the first level, where rockets and jetpacks ruled the day, is replaced by the bouncy purple glow of a Hong Kong disco. The shift is a little jarring, and the music... well, it's bad Euro-diva-trance. And it loops over and over again. I think Jane will kill me soon if I keep it up at this volume. And whereas the first level was all-out action, the game sees its first stealth bits, where Joanna is supposed to sneak around spying on these "enforcers." The game still feels incredibly solid. Out of playfulness, I went around the dock area smacking various objects with the butt of my gun. I love how everything moves when the collision detection kicks in. Knocking a crate tipped the bottle that was sitting on top of it, causing it to roll and shatter on the pavement. Sure, the game looks a little too shiney at times -- plasticy, for lack of a better word -- but the world in which it resides makes a lot of physical sense.
I will so say though, this Hong Kong level is kind of a level design disaster. Lots of similar looking areas will cause you to scratch your head as you look for your next checkpoint, possibly, even trick you into backtracking to look for that next cutscene "trigger." The fact that there are literally arrows on the ground pointing you to your next destination, shows just how much confidence Rare had in their own level designs. But every firefight so far has been a good blend of straight Rambo and some hard-ass battles with an overwhelming force. Oh, and the shotgun rocks.
The comments about PDZ's terrible voice-acting hold true, I'm afraid. It appears Joanna's lost that womanly confidence she had in the N64 version. But then again, she's supposed to be younger in this game, right? I guess it makes some sort of sense.
MS wants to play multi-player in 40 minutes. Gotta get some more single-player in there before I face ruthless MS testers!
Total playtime: 20 minutes
Maybe it's been all the hype surrounding this game. Maybe the delays, the editor tantrums -- maybe all of that was just a ploy by MS to elevate the hysteria when the game finally lands in the laps of gamers nationwide. But one thing is certain: Perfect Dark Zero is electrifying. Everything from the production values of the opening trailer, which is probably both homage and aping of the James Bond tradition, to the ultra-sheen interiors and hectic, Hollywood-paced final moments of the first level tutorial, screams quality. This isn't hyperbole and it isn't based on hype: PDZ looks fantastic and moves even better.
A couple of things I want to note:
Controls: They're perfect for the type of shooter it is. And what kind of shooter is PDZ? The controls feel more like Perfect Dark, than say, Halo, which is what everybody wants to compare it to. Holding down the left trigger zooms your current weapon (and is excellent for picking off fools at long range, from a crouch). A very special and intuitive roll button sits on the left shoulder button (that's the one that sits right above the analog trigger) while Y is to change weapons and X is to reload. B gives you a nice solid melee attack. Which is the other thing with the whole feel of PDZ -- it moves extremely well. So far, in terms of physics, the game feels nothing if not polished. Smashing a crate with the butt of your rifle has that "oomph" you'd associate more with games like Condemned: Criminal Origins or The Chronicles of Riddick. Bummer that you can't jump, but with the roll move at your disposal, I'm not really missing it.
Graphics: First impressions being what they are, I also want to talk a little about how good it looks. Aesthetics aside (because that's a whole 'nother can of worms), and from what I've seen so far (which is really what we've already played at X05), the game is a strong technical accomplishment. Lots of screen rocking explosions, thick layers of particles waffling through the air with every shot fired... PDZ really thunders with the action. The character models definitely have that uncanny valley feel about them where they're all soulless automatons who move more like action figures than people. But it does make you pause to think -- "Hey wait a sec, maybe we will see Toy Story-like real-time graphics in the coming generation." Of course, I don't expect the slick visuals to hold up... mostly because I don't want to jinx myself.
Well, back to the game.
Post by: atomheartmother on November 18, 2005, 08:48:00 PM
Where did the day go? I stepped away from PDZ's singleplayer missions to hop online against MS on Xbox Live an hour ago. Now I look out my window and it's dark as night outside. In short, PDZ is a blast online. We only played free-for-all and team deathmatch, as well as capture-the-flag with a bunch of editors, testers, and bots.
What's immediately impressive about the multiplayer mode (and I imagine this stands for the game in offline, splitscreen as well) is that the bots behave mostly realistically. They hang back in groups at choke points on maps and take shots from behind cover, as well as take plenty of aggressive opportunity to rush objectives, especially if they see little in the way of defense. I've even had a bot creep up behind me while sniping and whack me on the back of the head. Since there aren't a whole lot of "real" PDZ players online at the moment, we mostly had to resort to creating large 16 player games with a mix of bots and humans. At one time, we put all player characters on the Dark team against all bots as Datadyne on the hardest difficulty, and we got a royal spanking from the A.I. From my hands-on time so far, the bots don't appear to be too cheap with their tactics or shoot with amazing accuracy.
What also surfaces during these multiplayer sessions is the desire to jump over small obstacles (y'know, so you can get down to a platform faster). Since you can't jump, you find yourself taking the long way around to get to places. It all feels a little restrictive for my liking. Also, by the way these bots move in multiplayer, it's clear that Rare knows how to program A.I. suited for combat. It's strange then, that they couldn't use any of that code in PDZ's single-player levels, which feature decent, but not stellar enemy A.I. Unlike their multiplayer counterparts, these enemies are true to their fodder roots and would rather charge you (and get shot at) than pick you off from afar. But recognizing that single-player and multiplayer modes serve different purposes, I think the move to make the A.I. more simplistic during missions does make hte game more fun and accessible.
Other stuff I've noticed are the graphics. While they can be hit or miss during cutscenes in single-player, they're mostly awesome when playing deathmatch over Xbox Live. There was worry from fans that Rare would downscale the graphics when it came to multiplayer. Well, they'll be happy to know the game looks just as good to the naked eye in multiplayer as it does single. Combat effects during deathmatch retain the same over-the-top particle-filled explosions, dust clouds and debris. And some of the levels we've been playing in (the desert stage seen in EGM's PDZ debut article, for instance, or the subway level where we first met Wallace Guyford) are downright huge (as they should support 32 players). In one CTF game, it took literally several minutes just to trudge back to base. I think the secret behind PDZ's good looks actually has a lot to do with artistry and textures (character designs notwithstanding). Like the Halo games, the maps and objects in PDZ take on a sort of hyperrealism that's neither photographic nor cartoony. It's a stylized reality all its own and it makes a lot of visual sense.
So does it feel like Halo 2 multiplayer? Not really. It feels more like a faster, crazier version of Perfect Dark on N64, this time with near-perfect framerates and not a slowdown hiccup in sight.
But enough talk! I'm going back to single-player
Total playtime: 1.5 hours
The sci-fi urgency of the first level, where rockets and jetpacks ruled the day, is replaced by the bouncy purple glow of a Hong Kong disco. The shift is a little jarring, and the music... well, it's bad Euro-diva-trance. And it loops over and over again. I think Jane will kill me soon if I keep it up at this volume. And whereas the first level was all-out action, the game sees its first stealth bits, where Joanna is supposed to sneak around spying on these "enforcers." The game still feels incredibly solid. Out of playfulness, I went around the dock area smacking various objects with the butt of my gun. I love how everything moves when the collision detection kicks in. Knocking a crate tipped the bottle that was sitting on top of it, causing it to roll and shatter on the pavement. Sure, the game looks a little too shiney at times -- plasticy, for lack of a better word -- but the world in which it resides makes a lot of physical sense.
I will so say though, this Hong Kong level is kind of a level design disaster. Lots of similar looking areas will cause you to scratch your head as you look for your next checkpoint, possibly, even trick you into backtracking to look for that next cutscene "trigger." The fact that there are literally arrows on the ground pointing you to your next destination, shows just how much confidence Rare had in their own level designs. But every firefight so far has been a good blend of straight Rambo and some hard-ass battles with an overwhelming force. Oh, and the shotgun rocks.
The comments about PDZ's terrible voice-acting hold true, I'm afraid. It appears Joanna's lost that womanly confidence she had in the N64 version. But then again, she's supposed to be younger in this game, right? I guess it makes some sort of sense.
MS wants to play multi-player in 40 minutes. Gotta get some more single-player in there before I face ruthless MS testers!
Total playtime: 20 minutes
Maybe it's been all the hype surrounding this game. Maybe the delays, the editor tantrums -- maybe all of that was just a ploy by MS to elevate the hysteria when the game finally lands in the laps of gamers nationwide. But one thing is certain: Perfect Dark Zero is electrifying. Everything from the production values of the opening trailer, which is probably both homage and aping of the James Bond tradition, to the ultra-sheen interiors and hectic, Hollywood-paced final moments of the first level tutorial, screams quality. This isn't hyperbole and it isn't based on hype: PDZ looks fantastic and moves even better.
A couple of things I want to note:
Controls: They're perfect for the type of shooter it is. And what kind of shooter is PDZ? The controls feel more like Perfect Dark, than say, Halo, which is what everybody wants to compare it to. Holding down the left trigger zooms your current weapon (and is excellent for picking off fools at long range, from a crouch). A very special and intuitive roll button sits on the left shoulder button (that's the one that sits right above the analog trigger) while Y is to change weapons and X is to reload. B gives you a nice solid melee attack. Which is the other thing with the whole feel of PDZ -- it moves extremely well. So far, in terms of physics, the game feels nothing if not polished. Smashing a crate with the butt of your rifle has that "oomph" you'd associate more with games like Condemned: Criminal Origins or The Chronicles of Riddick. Bummer that you can't jump, but with the roll move at your disposal, I'm not really missing it.
Graphics: First impressions being what they are, I also want to talk a little about how good it looks. Aesthetics aside (because that's a whole 'nother can of worms), and from what I've seen so far (which is really what we've already played at X05), the game is a strong technical accomplishment. Lots of screen rocking explosions, thick layers of particles waffling through the air with every shot fired... PDZ really thunders with the action. The character models definitely have that uncanny valley feel about them where they're all soulless automatons who move more like action figures than people. But it does make you pause to think -- "Hey wait a sec, maybe we will see Toy Story-like real-time graphics in the coming generation." Of course, I don't expect the slick visuals to hold up... mostly because I don't want to jinx myself.
Post by: Carlo210 on November 18, 2005, 08:51:00 PM
Post by: atomheartmother on November 18, 2005, 08:55:00 PM
Iwill report it myself as to see what there decision is but seriously kiss my rear end.
Post by: Carlo210 on November 18, 2005, 08:58:00 PM
QUOTE(atomheartmother @ Nov 19 2005, 05:02 AM)
who is we? You okay WTF. If mods see fit they can delete it I just post it to help so kiss my ass....
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Title: 1up.com Has Pd0
Post by: atomheartmother on November 18, 2005, 09:04:00 PM
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I am only stating that if you check this very link :
http://pictures.xbox...rules/Rules.htm
and show me where this is an issue I will be happy to apologize. I also sent a message to the mods that be to look into this, so I have done my part.
As for you telling me not to do anything well thats whereI get pissy, what gives you the right, nay the authority to tell me to do anything. As a simple fact I had yet to realize that anyone was saying anything I was only trying to make it more convient to say the least.
So if there is an issue feel confident that those that are in charge of making sure that it is addressed will be but dont address me as if you can tell me or any other member of these forums what they can or cannot do. Thanks in advance.
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Title: 1up.com Has Pd0
Post by: Xombe on November 18, 2005, 09:07:00 PM
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Let's treat this like the News forum:
Okay?
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Title: 1up.com Has Pd0
Post by: Carlo210 on November 18, 2005, 09:08:00 PM
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I never said it was a forum rule (someone above me did, but I never reffered to the forum rules), just that after some of us already said that you should respect the work which you are essentially 'pasting' as a post (3 of them, as they are very large and repetitive too) and try to avoid bulky "quotes" (by posting the 'gist' of what the review stated, leaving us to read the rest). If it was a short review, then I'd have no problem, but all I'm saying is to at least take into account what the posters in this thread have kindly considered.
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Title: 1up.com Has Pd0
Post by: Carlo210 on November 18, 2005, 09:09:00 PM
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Post by: atomheartmother on November 18, 2005, 09:04:00 PM
http://pictures.xbox...rules/Rules.htm
and show me where this is an issue I will be happy to apologize. I also sent a message to the mods that be to look into this, so I have done my part.
As for you telling me not to do anything well thats whereI get pissy, what gives you the right, nay the authority to tell me to do anything. As a simple fact I had yet to realize that anyone was saying anything I was only trying to make it more convient to say the least.
So if there is an issue feel confident that those that are in charge of making sure that it is addressed will be but dont address me as if you can tell me or any other member of these forums what they can or cannot do. Thanks in advance.
Post by: Xombe on November 18, 2005, 09:07:00 PM
QUOTE
This is a discussion forum not a news source.
Please do not post articles or editorials in full. A quote and/or link will suffice if you want to reference a news topic for discussion.
Technically unless you have permission from the original author, you shouldn't be doing this in the first place. Posting an editorial with no topic for discussion is spamming or advertising.
Threads like this will have to be removed.
Sorry, but it being absolutely abused. This forum is not about enlightening people through media, it is a discussion forum where you can voice your opinions.
Please do not post articles or editorials in full. A quote and/or link will suffice if you want to reference a news topic for discussion.
Technically unless you have permission from the original author, you shouldn't be doing this in the first place. Posting an editorial with no topic for discussion is spamming or advertising.
Threads like this will have to be removed.
Sorry, but it being absolutely abused. This forum is not about enlightening people through media, it is a discussion forum where you can voice your opinions.
Okay?
Post by: Carlo210 on November 18, 2005, 09:08:00 PM
Post by: Carlo210 on November 18, 2005, 09:09:00 PM
QUOTE(Xombe @ Nov 19 2005, 05:14 AM)
Let's treat this like the News forum:
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Title: 1up.com Has Pd0
Post by: atomheartmother on November 18, 2005, 09:11:00 PM
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Very cool now I know I apologize as a whole and will no longer do such. I never intended to harm or disturb anyone only thought it to be helpful but thats okay by me as it saves time. And this is why once I was addressed I PM a mod to decide if alls good or not as the forum instructs us to do.
Not ahard felling at all, the honest result is I never took the time tc see any responces so when you instructed as "we" I really did not know what "we" consisted of. Alls groovy here again just been sitting back having a few beers trying to spread the info as best I can, and links make it easier. I just read the rules thoroghly every now and then and figured I understood, well we all learn now and then..
Again I apologize for any disruption.Thanks xombe and sorry to disrupt your time.
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Title: 1up.com Has Pd0
Post by: Carlo210 on November 18, 2005, 09:23:00 PM
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Post by: atomheartmother on November 18, 2005, 09:11:00 PM
Not ahard felling at all, the honest result is I never took the time tc see any responces so when you instructed as "we" I really did not know what "we" consisted of. Alls groovy here again just been sitting back having a few beers trying to spread the info as best I can, and links make it easier. I just read the rules thoroghly every now and then and figured I understood, well we all learn now and then..
Again I apologize for any disruption.Thanks xombe and sorry to disrupt your time.
Post by: Carlo210 on November 18, 2005, 09:23:00 PM
QUOTE(atomheartmother @ Nov 19 2005, 05:18 AM)
Very cool now I know I apologize as a whole and will no longer do such. I never intended to harm or disturb anyone only thought it to be helpful but thats okay by me as it saves time. And this is why once I was addressed I PM a mod to decide if alls good or not as the forum instructs us to do.
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Title: 1up.com Has Pd0
Post by: atomheartmother on November 18, 2005, 09:38:00 PM
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and no spooning or grinding... 
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Title: 1up.com Has Pd0
Post by: Xombe on November 19, 2005, 05:22:00 AM
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Post by: atomheartmother on November 18, 2005, 09:38:00 PM
and no spooning or grinding...
Post by: Xombe on November 19, 2005, 05:22:00 AM
QUOTE(atomheartmother @ Nov 19 2005, 12:18 PM)
Thanks xombe and sorry to disrupt your time.