|
Post by derboo on Oct 27, 2012 4:00:14 GMT -5
www.hardcoregaming101.net/aitd/aitd.htmThe series that is widely regarded as the originator of the survival horror genre as we know it, and the largest article for this year's Halloween season. We're still trying to get Mac version comparison shots, but that turned out a bit complicated.
|
|
|
Post by Weasel on Oct 27, 2012 10:52:25 GMT -5
Yeah, unfortunately there is not a single working link to the Mac versions of the trilogy, due to certain file sharing sites having been raided by the FBI... =P
|
|
|
Post by nickz on Oct 27, 2012 15:52:03 GMT -5
I remember when the first Alone In The Dark came out. It was a very big deal around where I lived. The graphics may look dated now, but back then concept of 3D graphics were still fairly new and the concept of a horror game was something wild and unique. I wanted to try the game out, but it was 1994. I didn't have a computer and I was way to young to enjoy it. I still haven't gotten around to playing it. Maybe when I have more time.
|
|
|
Post by jorpho on Oct 27, 2012 20:02:12 GMT -5
Ahh, you even included Knight's Chase. Last time I asked someone about that, I was told that some laser puzzle right at the beginning is so brutally finnicky as to practically render the whole game worthless.
I have some old issues of PC Review kicking around that praise AITD2 to the high heavens as one of the most triumphant achievements in PC gaming history.
The "Free in the Dark" engine remake never amounted to anything, did it?
If memory serves, the GBC game used the undocumented, CPU-intensive high-color mode for backgrounds, which probably explains this effect.
|
|
|
Post by Nyarly on Oct 28, 2012 16:46:49 GMT -5
"Carnby" is not a character in a Lovecraft novella, but in a short story by Clark Ashton Smith (The Return of the Sorcerer). Quite an interesting article. Makes me want to play the original trilogy again. Maybe I get it from GOG some time. It's a pity that the second game has such a bad beginning (where I never got through once), since it seems to get better later. Ahh, you even included Knight's Chase. Last time I asked someone about that, I was told that some laser puzzle right at the beginning is so brutally finnicky as to practically render the whole game worthless. I wasn't sure at first, but this makes me certain that Knight's Chase was the AITD-like game I played many years ago. Because I never got through these damn lasers.
|
|
|
Post by derboo on Oct 28, 2012 18:32:43 GMT -5
Holy shit, that is a fuzzy word. I hope all mentions are fixed now...
|
|
|
Post by Narushima on Oct 29, 2012 0:01:45 GMT -5
On page 2, "survivers" should be "survivors". Also, "Moliere" would be better as "Molière".
|
|
|
Post by mrcrispy83 on Oct 30, 2012 13:57:27 GMT -5
Under Alone in the Dark 2's section: "who found himself pressed to assemble a new team and deliver a sequel, all within no more than seen months."
I assume that should be "seven months".
Then in the next paragraph "A few months solving the mystery of Derceto,", the sentence is missing a word, "a few months after solving the mystery of Derceto"
Under AitD3 section on page 2 "Since Franck de Girolami took Raynal's example and quit Infogrames immediately after Alone in the Dark," it's missing a "2" to specify the second game
"Alone in the Dark 3 is also the first game to introduce difficult settings in the original PC version," should be difficulty
On page three under the SD reboot, " but even Carnby comes off as much less than an asshole here.", instead of "less of". Also, "MacGuyver" instead of "MacGyver" in the next paragraph (but it's pretty understandable since I made that mistake too before I looked it up lol.
|
|
|
Post by Gendo Ikari on Dec 18, 2012 5:21:00 GMT -5
From the Time Gate section of the article: This statement makes no sense: while it appears to have been released in spring-summer 1996 in some territories, TG actually came some months before Resident Evil - if anything their development was concurrent. Unless there was industrial espionage involved , it's quite far-fetched to say RE conditioned Infogrames' plans. The 3D models have aged badly but the original AitD is still one of my finest videogame memories of the '90s. It was something really new, the backgrounds, the camera angles and the sound effects contributed to the atmosphere (while the ridicolous animations of the characters' attacks ruined it a bit), and the short duration kept the experience tight. When RE was released a few years later, I knew what was the influence even before reviews mentioned it. The intro of the second episode is fantastic, especially the scene of the rolling glass, then it goes downhill with the thompson zombies assault... further parts of the game were enjoyable but still a disappointment compared to the first. Never got to play 3 and New Nightmare so far. The most recent episode may have been one of the biggest letdown of this hardware generation, since it was quite hyped during production. The article here say more or less the same I've heard when it was released: it has its moments, very interesting ideas, but a mess overall. I may still give a try to the PS3 version sometime in the future.
|
|
|
Post by Gendo Ikari on Dec 14, 2014 8:46:50 GMT -5
Just noticed that the page selection on top of the article's pages has a broken link: www.hardcoregaming101.net/aitd/aitde3htmThere's a dot missing at the end, so it causes a broken link. I re-read the article because I recently played The New Nightmare. It could have been THE Resident Evil clone if the action part wasn't so badly balanced and frustrating, also ruining the atmosphere which is very strong in the more "quiet" parts. Mention should have gone to the horribly designed boss fights: more than once, they can be hit only at precise points of their animation, with no hints at all. Among the bugs I've met: descending the fort from the vines I originally climbed, I met the Nemesis-like, even if I killed him once and for all a few minutes earlier. Near the end, Aline couldn't climb a ladder down no matter where I pressed the interaction key, so I had to resort to a teleport cheat. Baaad. Another thing to mention is that the continuity of the New Nightmare has been abandoned and left hanging: while the heroes succeed, a bigger bad behind all is preparing his next move. We'll never know. Sorry to see the inane sentence about Resident Evil in the Time Gate section is still there. And then there's the upcoming Illumination, a game where you are so alone, it's multiplayer-based, and seems no more than a mid-budget project, even if it's based on UE4. [At the same time Atari announced a Haunted House game, handled by the Italian team behind Anna.] The Hunter is said to be a descendant of the original Carnby (wonder if the 2008 game is taken into consideration or not), and the Witch of Emily Hartwood. At least there seems to be something both of the old Lovecraftian roots and of TNN's importance of light, but it's evident they don't know what to do with this franchise anymore.
|
|
|
Post by Gendo Ikari on Jun 13, 2015 0:30:01 GMT -5
Illumination is out of the beta phase and from the first things I'm reading, it's shaping up to be the final nail in the coffin for the franchise - if it wasn't that unfortunately I wouldn't be surprised if Atari decided to spit on its grave in the future.
|
|