Some Steam reviews (not that I read them, ahem) said Blood has inverse learning curve, it's easier towards the end (as you have more weapons, ammo, armor, items...).
Yeah, it can be. Specially by then as you've gotten used to which weapons work best, got used to throwing dynamite. When I first played it I remember it kicking my ass. Now, I can play it and blast through it with little trouble.
Well steep learning curve and some quirkiness is essential to old-school experience. Imagine if we had something like "tutorial missions" back then... lol, no. Though not sure if inherent to game or glitch of GDX but dynamite seems to work best when thrown on the ground? "Headshot" a zombie with TNT and they may get back up. Which scared the bejeebus out of me the first time... thought I killed it, walked past, turned around and there it was ready to slash my face off. #panic-shotgun-double-shot-FTW
Dynamite throwing is just slightly off due to BloodGDX is not a true source port. Since it's reverse engineered to replicate Blood... it's doing it's absolute best to be the original game. But, it's very, very, very close to the original games feel. But yeah, throwing it to the ground in front of enemies is normally the best trick. You can get a larger splash damage that way.
My memories tend to blur Blood and Hexen together, unfortunately. Looks like a good enough excuse to replay them both it seems. I'm currently playing through Quake 4 again which is currently feeding my 90s shooter needs (Yes I know Quake 4 is from early 2000s, but it still feels like a 90s shooter)
Just remembered that I used to think, not too long ago even, that Duke3D / Build was the first true 3D shooter. Build engine was just 2.5D though like Doom. They used very clever tricks to mimic true 3D like underwater sections -> you actually teleported to another area of the map when going underwater. The other area had ofc. identical layout so it seemed like you went underwater in the place you did. So instead of having 2 "rooms" on top of each other they were separate. Quake, then, would be the first truly 3D shooter (used 3D map topology). Had polygons too! (I guess Descent was true 3D too but I don't count it as a shooter)
Yeah Prey (1995) was what would have been the full 3D Engine for 3D Realms though it ultimately never saw completion and Quake Engine or idTech was licensed instead when Duke Nukem Forever was going through it's multiple design phases. (Ultimately ending on a heavily modified version of Unreal Engine 1 when it was finally released though in a pretty rough state from all the cuts to finalize the content they had for it.) EDIT: This. https://www.resetera.com/posts/5265708/ (Early reveal of Prey from 1995 or 1996 maybe, think it was ultimately cancelled in the early 2000's and then Human Head made their Prey in 2005 with similar concepts.) Thread itself is about the Duke Nukem Forever 2001 beta build (from a version in 2002 adding some tweaks.) would have been fun to see it released but it doesn't sound like it will happen from that threads information.
There should be an update releasing for Ion Maiden Preview Campaign later today. Should fix some performance issues for some.
Well, that's the joke. In the first game Bombshell, Shelly had a weapon called the "Ion Maiden". And, after the lackluster response to Bombshell, the decision was made to rename the prequel FPS to put a little distance between the two. So, they opted to the name of Shelly's weapon.
Been playing more Blood lately, don't know why I didn't get into it before, it's bloody (pun intentional) good! *kaboom!* "da-da-da... dat's all folks!" Hope Monolith would make Blood 2 one day.
Oh, I see. Seems it wasn't quite on-par with the original though. So Blood 3 then, or a reimagination of original Blood maybe.
I liked Blood 2. Yeah, it's not as good as the original, but it's still fun. The problem was Blood came out in 1997, Blood 2 came out in 1998. They had one year to develop and release it. And, at the same time they were building their in house engine, LithTech. And also developing Shogo: MAD. The game just needed more time. But, it's still fun.
I wish someone would do true remakes for both titles. I've seen some fan projects but nothing that stands out.
All right, might give that too a spin later. Plus not even Monolith can make only masterpieces considering Blood and FEAR and SoM to name a few one half-decent game in between is fine (especially given the short time) Yes, definitely. Just keep the feeling intact.
Monolith have a pretty damn solid track record IMO. From Blood, to NOLF and AvP2, Tron 2.0, FEAR and Condemned. All great titles. If I had to pick a weak entry, it would be the stand alone expansion for NOLF 2, Contract JACK. Never got into that one. It's... okay, but it lacks everything that made NOLF 1 and 2 great.
Wasn't Contract J.A.C.K (Just Another Contract Killer.) outsourced? I think the expansion for AvP 2 also had a different dev team. Unsure about Blood 2, I'm guessing executive meddling caused that mess and then it's expansion and the expansion for SHOGO was ultimately cancelled by the publisher due to lackluster sales. (Good game, bad launch window from how I remember that.) Lith-Tech engine got a bit old and then JUPITER replaced it for FEAR and FEAR2 and now some variant of the engine is driving Shadows of Mordor and Shadows of War which I guess Warner will milk for all they can so Monolith is probably stuck with that for now. EDIT: There never was a PC port of Condemned 2 either as I recall, unfortunate as the first game was pretty solid.
Contract JACK was developed by Monolith. They used to have two different development teams in house, one made FEAR while the other made Condemned. That sort of cycle, but I'm unsure when they formed this in house setup. But, the expansion to AvP2 was also developed in house. Blood 2's biggest issue was that it was forced out so quickly. The publisher wanted it released by Halloween, with gave Monolith one year to fully create LithTech, and develop a full game on the new engine. But, once they had time to really fine tune and polish LithTech, the engine really shined. NOLF and AvP2 show that. Then, LithTech Jupiter was used for NOLF 2 and TRON 2.0 and Contract JACK. And MoH: Pacific Assault... most people tend to forget the engine was licensed and used on other titles. But, yes, then JupiterEX was used for the FEAR series and Condemned series, and the first Shadow of Mordor ran on JupiterEX. While Shadow of War runs on LithTech Firebird.
NOLF/NOLF2 are true gems. Has anyone checked out http://nolfrevival.tk/ ? I have both free versions downloaded but have yet to test them. I wish Monolith would go back to the shooters they were best known for. A No One Lives Forever reboot would be so awesome.
