17th March 2010, 8:42 PM
There you are little fella!
So get this, they have remastered PD on the 360. It's basically the same game, right down to the glitches, but with a few things added. Character models are improved a bit (though they still talk Power Ranger style), but otherwise the models haven't been touched. The resolution is upped, and the whole thing is in constant smooth 60 FPS, no matter how many rockets you launch. All the gameplay modes are there, challenges, everything. Even da hidden cheeeese. Multiplayer is the same, with some nice added bonuses. Online play is fully supported, and to that end maps can be played with up to 8 people instead of 4 now. (I kinda wish they'd upped it even more, but 8 is a great improvement). As with all XBox games, you have to go through the awkward process of "signing in" to your own profile and all that fun stuff, and that means that your nickname can't be customized, it's whatever your profile name is. Team names, for some reason, have a lower character limit than before. Also, in spite of what I had thought, the d-pad can't be used to control either movement or aiming. Annoying for one like lazy, though I'm doing fine with two analog sticks. In fact, what with the auto-aiming and the smoother XBox control stick, killing enemies is just stupid easy. I mean, wow, it's insane how easy it is to kill things now, even though in terms of gameplay nothing's changed. As a result, if you want something closer to the original challenge, shut off auto aiming. Don't count on others in XBox Live to do the same though. Oh yes, Co-op and Counter-op (why hasn't any game since PD ever tried counter-op?) work online too. Yes, Split Screen is still here, much easier to use with the higher resomolutions and all.
Oh! One awesome addition, they have everything in multiplayer mode unlocked from the very start. While there's a bit of a disappointment in terms of the fun of unlocking things, in the end this is what's expected of modern multiplayer and so if you basically just wanted to kill your friends, the sky's the limit. Oh yes, all the cheats are there, with one major change. The "classic weapons" can now be directly and individually selected in multiplayer without resorting to the cheat. Much nicer!
Here's hoping a later dungeon pack will add in the rest of the Goldeneye levels. Heck a few "downgraded" Halo levels would be fun for that matter. If there's one thing neither Goldeneye or Perfect Dark ever really mastered, it was good "sniping" levels. Oh sure you can make the argument that there's certain places to snipe in levels, and I'm sure you've made them work well, but it's nothing compared to certain levels in various modern FPS games.
Everyone keeps talking about how much of a classic this is and what it doesn't have in the reviews (like waypoints to objectives). However, they all seem to miss pointing out that at it's heart this is a stealthier FPS than modern ones, and it has far more to it than just kill, travel, kill, in the form of objectives like putting a bug on a limo or "escorting" someone to a computer to get them to unlock something. Halo may be all epic, but at it's core, it has none of those qualities. It's a straight run and gun.
So get this, they have remastered PD on the 360. It's basically the same game, right down to the glitches, but with a few things added. Character models are improved a bit (though they still talk Power Ranger style), but otherwise the models haven't been touched. The resolution is upped, and the whole thing is in constant smooth 60 FPS, no matter how many rockets you launch. All the gameplay modes are there, challenges, everything. Even da hidden cheeeese. Multiplayer is the same, with some nice added bonuses. Online play is fully supported, and to that end maps can be played with up to 8 people instead of 4 now. (I kinda wish they'd upped it even more, but 8 is a great improvement). As with all XBox games, you have to go through the awkward process of "signing in" to your own profile and all that fun stuff, and that means that your nickname can't be customized, it's whatever your profile name is. Team names, for some reason, have a lower character limit than before. Also, in spite of what I had thought, the d-pad can't be used to control either movement or aiming. Annoying for one like lazy, though I'm doing fine with two analog sticks. In fact, what with the auto-aiming and the smoother XBox control stick, killing enemies is just stupid easy. I mean, wow, it's insane how easy it is to kill things now, even though in terms of gameplay nothing's changed. As a result, if you want something closer to the original challenge, shut off auto aiming. Don't count on others in XBox Live to do the same though. Oh yes, Co-op and Counter-op (why hasn't any game since PD ever tried counter-op?) work online too. Yes, Split Screen is still here, much easier to use with the higher resomolutions and all.
Oh! One awesome addition, they have everything in multiplayer mode unlocked from the very start. While there's a bit of a disappointment in terms of the fun of unlocking things, in the end this is what's expected of modern multiplayer and so if you basically just wanted to kill your friends, the sky's the limit. Oh yes, all the cheats are there, with one major change. The "classic weapons" can now be directly and individually selected in multiplayer without resorting to the cheat. Much nicer!
Here's hoping a later dungeon pack will add in the rest of the Goldeneye levels. Heck a few "downgraded" Halo levels would be fun for that matter. If there's one thing neither Goldeneye or Perfect Dark ever really mastered, it was good "sniping" levels. Oh sure you can make the argument that there's certain places to snipe in levels, and I'm sure you've made them work well, but it's nothing compared to certain levels in various modern FPS games.
Everyone keeps talking about how much of a classic this is and what it doesn't have in the reviews (like waypoints to objectives). However, they all seem to miss pointing out that at it's heart this is a stealthier FPS than modern ones, and it has far more to it than just kill, travel, kill, in the form of objectives like putting a bug on a limo or "escorting" someone to a computer to get them to unlock something. Halo may be all epic, but at it's core, it has none of those qualities. It's a straight run and gun.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)