Perfect Dark

Blog Post: Hooray for an old favorite

HaggerdFellow — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 01:16:00 GMT

I figured I'd rate a 10 since this tart complaining about PSN skued the average.

I too have PSN and sold my 360...This game makes me wish I didn't. This game, on the N64, had something that I've been wishing to see in another game since...an offline AI system. I don't know how many hours I played this game against 'bots' only. It amde me that much better for when my friends came over to play...and now apparently when you play online.

Blog Post: Perfect Dark

Matt — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 01:19:00 GMT

Back when this title originally released in 2000 I was majorly stoked for it. You couldn’t find a more rabid fan of the then-uber popular GoldenEye 007 and hearing that this was to be its spiritual follow-up really had me going with a teenage erection. I was so into the James Bond title that my friends would lend me their cartridge and pay me five bucks to get them the cheat codes, and I got them AUTHENTICALLY. I’d go through the missions and beat the required times to unlock the codes, and I did it EASILY. Of course, unlocking the Invincibility code was one of the hardest codes to do but it was completely possible (you just had to have the right random enemy placements loaded in so that Dr. Doak was located right near the end of the level) but I digress as I’ve strayed far from my original topic…

I was ecstatic when I got Perfect Dark. Never mind that my Nintendo 64 analog stick was all shot to hell, this game was worth owning and wrestling with the inane controller just because IT WAS THAT AWESOME. Screw the crappy framerate and wonky story; this was the epitome of First Person Shooters god ***! At the time, anyway. You could do so many things that I had never witnessed in a FPS before. Instead of simply choosing if you’d like to play multiplayer or campaign you could actually walk around the Carrington Institute (the central hub of your base of operations) and chat with your teammates, as static as they were. There was a shooting range for you to practice with your weapons and acquire bronze, silver and gold medals depending on your level of expertise with the weapons, and each different area of the Institute was there to educate you on any number of in-game subjects, from character biographies to device explanations. Not only that, but it was a great way to foreshadow later events in the game where you’d be called upon to expertly navigate the Institute with the objectives of rescuing hostages and disabling a bomb. From stealth to all out action stages, this game incorporated a healthy dose of variety. Its sole sore point was the trial and error gameplay concerning objectives, which were more often than not quite poorly explained.

Oh, and you don’t need an Expansion Pak this time around.

The graphics are Nintendo 64 quality, except the textures have been completely cleaned up so they don’t include that muddy washed-out Nintendo 64 blur effect, and the resolution has been upped. No more ridiculous slowdown or freezing when things get way too-hectic, putting an end to gamer frustration when trying to get the one player or challenge mode. Character models actually look nice this time around, with Joanna having cute baby blues and enemies not looking like unborn fetuses anymore.

The weapons were all imaginative and not one felt tacked on. All weapons came packaged with a-then revolutionary second-function setting, which more often than not made your useless weapon extremely lethal in the hands of capable users. Who can forget the Mega-Man inspired Mauler that when charged delivered a one-hit kill? The laptop gun whose second function served as a turret that can be placed on nearly any surface? The CMP150’s essential Lock-On for those who want to plow through the game on Perfect Agent. Or how about deploying an entire round of tranquilizer darts into an enemy messing up their vision and then nailing them with a lethal injection? All my friends were hooked on the FarSight XR-20 back in 2000, a one-hit sniper rifle that could track targets through walls. The Xbox 360 version takes things a step farther and includes weapons from GoldenEye 007 in the multiplayer, which is a nice touch. They do feel a tad overpowered when compared to their respective firepower in their own game, however. One more issue I had playing the game on my 360 is that the aiming is MUCH too sensitive even with tweaking the X and Y axis’ sensitivity… so much so that I relied on shooting from the hip. Just a small little observation for the control freaks out there.

The multiplayer was the main reason to come back and replay this game back then and not much has changed now. There is so much to customize that many current generation FPS games lack this much flexibility. You can incorporate up to eight bots to play on your team or against and there are six different kinds of scenarios, ranging from Killcount to your standard Juggernaut and Capture the Flag sets, and there’s an interesting one called Hacker Central (or something like that) in which one party member must hack a computer terminal to get a point while his team mates cover him. One of the multiplayer’s best features is the fact that your character actually has a stat sheet, and by upping your medals (Accuracy, Headshot, Survivor and KillMaster) you ‘gain levels’ in ranks, establishing your superiority over the rest of your friends if you’re willing to put in enough time and effort. You could struggle against a team of HardSims and bite, scratch and tear for your victories or you could go against a team of eight MeatSims and wipe the floor with their autistic carcasses, laughing as they drool while shooting at the wall to your adjacent right as you tear them a new orifice through your choice of limb.

A nice touch with Perfect Dark is the fact that it allows you to assign personalities to these Simulants. From the revenge seeking VengeSim to the ‘kick-the-crap-out-of-you’ PeaceSim (who disarms you from your weapon and screws up your vision in the process) there isn’t a shortage of A.I. personalities that will extend your gaming time with the game’s multiplayer mode.

There are three extra modes incorporated in the game. The first is Challenge Mode, where you and three of your friends can play multiplayer matches with a set amount of handicaps or parameters. These start out easy enough, but soon ramp up in difficulty to the point of expletive proclamation and controller chucking. My advice is to take them slow and if frustration sets in do something else, or you WILL end up breaking some household appliance. In the Nintendo 64 version, completing challenges unlocked new levels and weapons, but in the 360 version all the levels seem to be unlocked from the get-go. A small but noticeable boo from me right here.

Then there are the Co-Op and Counter Op scenarios, in which you and a friend play through the Campaign mode in cooperation or opposition. Co-op is nothing new, we’ve seen it included with many a game in our current console generation, but back then this was a revolutionary incorporation that was actually a selling point for the game… if it didn’t freeze all the freaking time. Counter Op, which a friend actually plays as an enemy and tries to hinder your progress, suffered from the same problem. Both these modes have been fixed with their framerate and freezing problems, so enjoy yourselves!

Lastly, anybody notice how all the characters all seem to always have their hands curled up into fists? Even when they’re shooting their guns. Must make wiping their posteriors an interesting ordeal. This game was worth forking over sixty-five bucks in 2000 on the Nintendo 64 with crap graphics and frequent slowdown. Now it’s selling on Arcade for a ridiculously low-price with all the game’s subtle nuances tweaked and fixed. What the heck are you waiting for? Even if you don’t enjoy First Person Shooters you owe it to yourself to purchase this classic and have it as a part of your collection. Buy it now. Or else you’ll make Elvis cry.

Blog Post: I miss my N64

Zenger8 — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:06:00 GMT

I loved my 64 (like anyone who had one) and Perfect Dark was top of my list of games I played.... way to much. so its good to have it back I just cant remember half the levels and what to do... oh well its still fun.

Forum Post: Re: why Perfect Dark XBLA suck balls!!! im ****ing piss!!!

mbp — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:41:00 GMT

Has Rare even made anything decent since Conkers Bad Fur Day ?

Blog Post: Perfect Dark XBLA

CRAZ!MAX — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:13:00 GMT

Other than the controls, everything else is remade to perfection. I don't know why the developers did not include the function to customize the controls. Instead, they only gave us 3 choices! I was hoping to map the aim button to the RB and aim with the left joystick instead of the right. Is that so *** hard for those retarded developers to do? ****ing IDIOTS!!!

Blog Post: Sux

Dakota Madden-Fong — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 04:14:00 GMT

It sux bcuz i dont have a 360, and its not on psn.

Blog Post: Past Annoyances Disappear In Joanna's Faithful Return

Dan Ryckert — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

When Rare unleashed Perfect Dark back in 2000, many gamers were hoping for a true spiritual successor to GoldenEye 007. What could have been "GoldenEye minus Bond plus aliens" evolved into something else entirely, with an arsenal of multi-use weapons, an array of multiplayer options, bots with selectable personalities, tons of firing range challenges, and more. In fact, the only real complaints thrown its way could be blamed on the Nintendo 64 hardware. Even with the Expansion Pak, the framerate would drop significantly whenever the activity onscreen ramped up. In this XBLA remake, all of the technical annoyances are swept away, making this the ultimate version of Perfect Dark.[Excerpt]

Some remakes toss in new features or weapons as an incentive to re-purchase the game. Not Perfect Dark. This is the console FPS exactly as you remember it, except a whole lot prettier. The framerate cruises along flawlessly, and the character models and environments have a brand new high-res coat of paint. Modern FPS titles clearly feature more technical prowess, but it’s still an obvious improvement on the source material. It's great to be able to play four-player splitscreen without a hint of slowdown, regardless of how many rockets and bots are in the fray.

Many of the features introduced in the original still hold up. Joanna has a vast arsenal of weapons at her disposal, and the secondary fire modes effectively double your options. Counter-Ops mode was an intriguing (and rarely seen) feature that allowed a second player to control story mode villains; it's even better this time around thanks to the framerate improvement.

While Counter-Ops works well, cooperative play is flawed. It may have been an exciting and new feature back in the day, but its age shows in this remake. Mission objectives don't lend themselves well to two people, and it's often hard to tell exactly what the second player should be doing. One mission involves sneaking into a facility while wearing a disguise, but only one is available. This led to me donning the disguise and having all the fun while my partner waited outside the building. If there was some method of getting both players into the facility without sounding the alarms and ending the mission, it certainly wasn’t made clear.

Objectives are often ambiguous even in single-player, with no real method of ascertaining where you're supposed to go next or who you should kill and not kill. Trial-and-error gameplay was expected back then, but the current state of games has spoiled us with better overall game design. Restarting an entire mission because of poorly-explained objectives is more aggravating than ever.

Frustrations aside, Perfect Dark is a great example of how a remake should be done. In the original, it almost felt like you were punished for making the gameplay exciting: More action resulted in more slowdown. Now, it runs smooth as silk whether you're sneaking around with a tranquilizer gun or diving into a multiplayer match with rockets blazing. Fans of the original shouldn't hesitate to pick this one up and relive their Nintendo 64 memories.

Wiki: Perfect Dark Guides

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 01:40:00 GMT

Guides for Perfect Dark

File: Perfect Dark XBLA

Jeff Marchiafava — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:28:00 GMT