What's your opinion on Nightdive Studios?Recently, I downloaded a bunch of games from GOG and I happened to notice that a ton of remasters/updates/etc. were done by Nightdive Studios. And according to their Wikipedia, that's their bread and butter.I played Killing Time: Resurrected and was pretty impressed with it and its extras in the Vault. Seemed like a great remaster and thankfully had mouselook. But I'm curious if that's typical for Nightdive or if they consistently do well.Remasters are such a crapshoot, I'm asking because I want to know generally how things will be when I see Nightdive associated with it.
20 bucks was already pretty steep, but 30 is just lmao
>>12641981generally pretty good. weirdos around here have some kind of spergy hate boner for them though
You can do way worse for re-releases, and people should stop whining. They could just as easily hire some Indians to shit out a jeet-master. They're often turd polishing, and no matter how hard you polish that turd, it's still a turd. Looking at you Turok 3, but there's others.
>>12642026Shadowman is god awful shite (except for the story which genuinely seems cool and well done), but the remaster gets top marks if you can stomach the actual game.
>>12642026>>12642036https://store.steampowered.com/app/1678430/PowerSlave_Exhumed/I also have to give a special shoutout to Powerslave and thank god for Nightdive unburying this, because it brutally mogs Blood and is maybe one of my favorite FPSes (though I still rank Duke 3D and Shadow Warrior higher, but they're hard to beat).
>>12641981Kill everyone who decides that regurgitation of games is good
You didn't beat the game
>But I'm curious if that's typical for Nightdive or if they consistently do well.Maybe more often than not but I haven't played their whole catalog. Some things like Killing Time or Powerslave Exhumed are pretty nice, the 'free for previous owners' of idStuff's not bad, but they've had a real fucking weird time with Blood. Their Bladerunner port is/was apparently a mess and there was some weird things between them and System Shock? Can't dig up much for the latter though.>>12642037>because it brutally mogs Blood and is maybe one of my favorite FPSesIt's fun but I wouldn't say it "mogs" it, and I don't know why you're comparing to it specifically. Maybe it shits on Fresh Supply but I don't play Blood through the ND ports anyway.
>>12642053I skipped out on SW and Blood because they were too creepy as a kid (and Duke 3D was creepy enough)Turns out I missed peak with SW (which I've since rectified) and absolute mid slop with Blood>Maybe it shits on Fresh SupplyBlood is shit in any format
>>12642057What makes you dislike Blood so much?
>>12642060There's just something about it that doesn't work. It's not a difficulty thing because you can just save scum it unlike Powerslave Exhumed or Forgive me Father. Caleb is lame and not cool. I love horror movies but its style puts me to sleep. SW has a literal cloaked/shadow enemy that will one hit kill you and it never gets as obnoxious as Blood can.I may have to go back to it, because I beat chapter 1 and just didn't want to play anymore of it, unlike Shadow Warrior, which I plowed through the main game and expansions and still wanted more.
>>12642038Kill everyone who wants games to die in obscurity.
>>12642065It and SW both have the same 'problem' for me in that the most interesting enemies are the cultists and evil ninjas: They suffer in being a variety of palette swaps of each other, and new enemies beyond the shareware episode just aren't as engaging.Calling Caleb 'lame and not cool' may be contraction-core but ymmv.Purely combat and gameplay-wise I might put SW at the top, "overall package" I'd have to give to Blood.>SW has a literal cloaked/shadow enemy that will one hit kill you and it never gets as obnoxious as Blood can.Only when it comes to the beast cultists imo. That shadow ninja is just a complete oxymoron in terms of enemy design: Fun to fight but an enemy that dangerous and run-ending should not be so subtle.Also: SW has by far, above and beyond, the least amount of custom content for it. Duke's got a good chunk and Blood's gotten loads in the last several years. People just don't seem to like the Wang as much as the other two.
>>12642006I hate anything that's shilled on this websight. Buy an ad.
>>12642071>we have to keep bloating the corpse forever and ever and everLike everything else, let games die with dignity. You have a gigaconsoomer mindset.
>>12642083>"overall package" I'd have to give to Blood.And you know, not the game that made Build popular to begin with aka fucking Duke 3D?This is why I can't stand Blood cultists. Only thing worse are Doomgroids when Duke 3D has a LITERAL FUCKING JETPACK THAT CHANGES ALL THE FUCKING LEVELS IF YOU HAVE IT OR YOU DON'T HAVE IT
>>12642086Doom and Blood have cool enemies. Duke's enemies are kind of gay and that ruins it for me.
>>12641981Nightdive is a festering and growing tumor on retro gaming community.Their business model is to find the source code of an old game and recompile it and release new version for current hardware.That's pathetic. Everyone would be better off without them, if the source code would be made available to public.Piko Interactive is trying to do the same.New Microprose, which has nothing to do with the original one BTW, is trying to do the same.GOG is trying to do the same. CEO talked about it in somewhat recent interviews.Gay-ass Frank Cifaldi from VGHF is trying to do similar thing, only they aren't capable of releasing games themselves so they hoard the shit that they find and resell it to game companies.All of them are fucking parasites that have attached themselves to retro gaming and are sucking blood out of it and world would be a better place without them ;)
>>12642087Pig cops are an amazing enemy doe. They can be both funny and creepy as you hear their snorts and see their red eyes in the dark.
>>12642083>>12642086>And you know, not the game that made Build popular to begin with aka fucking Duke 3D?I just like Blood more, but I do like Duke’s package (heh) more than Shadow Warrior’s: Solid enemy roster, good weapon roster, can’t complain. I even like episode 2, maybe as much if not more than episode 1.
>>12642006>weirdos around here have some kind of spergy hate boner for them thoughThey did a bare minimum and ask 30 dollars for a System Shock 2 "Remaster".Fuck you.
>>12642112SS2 was on Steam for years. Anybody who didn't own it already was a clown and not an SS2 fan anyway.The one thing I wanted was fixed coop, but I don't know if they have based on patch notes (they do mention trying to fix it), and when it's fixed, I will play it with a friend.
>>12642090Nah, microprose isn't reall trying to do the same. Maybe they should though. They seem to have gotten themselves in a trap trying to publish a bunch of early access indie abandonware.
Every fucking time they shit out a new release they make these viral marketing threads on /vr/. One of you fags had better be getting an email soon so he can catch these things that mods who don't really browse /vr/ miss on.
>>12642116Coop System Shock sounds sweet and should be worth it to be fair. IF it works.
>>12642090>Releasing old games on new modern platforms is badWhy? As a console player having these games is amazing. And in their best forms. Blood on console is insane. Dark forces that isn't the 20fps ps1 version
>>12642090>New Microprose, which has nothing to do with the original one BTW, is trying to do the same.That's not the MO of nu Microprose, all they usually do is publish indie games now. The only remaster of an old game they've done so is an old flight sim
>>12642036I actually like Shadowman, but I suffered through the original back on the N64 so I can tolerate the remake a lot more. It's not that bad and it's a damn sight better than the original PC port.The new levels they made to flesh out the cut content aren't anything special, but they didn't really have much to work other than concept art so it's decent.
>>12642026>my vision is augmented>what a shame
>>12642225>>12642036Now I'm curious. What's so bad about the original Shadow Man?
>>12641981I will say this much about Nightdive in that most of their remasters are for games that genuinely benefit from remasters due to either having shitty PC ports, console limitations of the time, or just not being all that good originally.Very few of the ones they pick up are blatant cash-grabs like the REs, Silent Hill 2 and MGS3 where they just picked the most popular iterations and went "fuck it we could use some free money".I'm guessing a lot of that is probably because they picked up all the old Acclaim licenses for pennies, but they've done a pretty good job in fixing those up.Forsaken is another one that I rarely see mentioned, it's a decent little Descent clone with a good soundtrack.
>>12642230It's one of those games that was a bit too ambitious for its time. From what I remember the N64 version was okay (still muddy graphics-wise) but the PSX version was shit and the PC port was practically broken. Other issues plagued it like cut content (out of 5 main bosses, 3 of them share the same stage) and there's differences between ports like only the N64 version having the dual Violators.Acclaim were kind of notable for cutting corners back in the day, so it's no surprise. The remaster fixes a lot of these issues and has new boss stages for the other two characters that were made by Nightdive based off concept art/unfinished models from the original game, and they also toned down the main gun's SFX so it doesn't rape your ears every time you fire it.Game-wise it's a 3D adventure/shooter/sometimes platformer, the whole voodoo aesthetic is peak and the sound design is fantastic (aside from the shadowgun, which was fixed). It's not easy and at times it's downright obtuse, it's one of those games that assumes you're consulting the map that came in the box, but you can find it online easily enough.There's a bunch of in-game files that you get given at the start that help out a lot, but I'm guessing a lot of people just skip over them and don't bother reading it.
>>12642239does it add manual camera control? I feel like half these games would be fixed with just that.
>>12642260It's been a while since I played it but it looks like it's just right stick for camera control, same as usual for third person games. So yeah.
>>12642230For me, even in the remake, it's respawning enemies. It makes the a game a horrible fucking slog.Funny enough, Powerslave Exhumed has you re-exploring levels with respawning enemies, but I don't mind because it's a classic FPS
>>12641981Hate them for what they did to Blade Runner
I really don't understand what all of the complaining in this thread is about. Nightdive remasters are great, you get a classic game that you can now play at 4K widescreen 120fps with tons of bonus content and a bunch of settings to let you fully customize the look and feel of the game. The best part is all you have to do to play them is just open the fucking game, you don't have to install a bunch of mods and fan fixes to get the game to run, or run it in an emulator or have a retro PC, or anything at all, it just works. I think the only criticism I've seen here that I agree with is that they're too expensive but I usually only buy games when they go on sale anyway and these games go on sale all the time.>>12642026>Looking at you Turok 3Turok 3 is awesome fuck you.>>12642090They get their source code from the original developers and publishers, you wouldn't be getting the source code either way unless it leaked so I don't understand what you're complaining about.
>>12641981they started by basically reusing code from fan mods/patches. then "paid" them with free download codes. kind of lame.
>>12642341They did fuck up Blade Runner, and it's kind of bullshit that things like the original Dark Forces were delisted now that the remaster's up, but most of their old Acclaim remasters are good.
>>12642358>They did fuck up Blade RunnerYeah if more of their remasters were like BR, I'd understand the Nightdive hate.
>>12642341>4K widescreen 120fpsnot the way it's meant to be prayed.>mods and fan fixesthey literally install fan mods and fixes... except they used to be free!!! or you can pirate them anyway from the usual GOG download sites. or the steam download sites.
>>12642152iAgreed. buy ads. also bucanneer all their "remasters"!!! download all the cars!
>>12642341>They get their source code from the original developers and publishersSometimes. Other times they rummage through leaks and sales like with Turokhttps://desuarchive.org/vr/thread/5776249/or PSX Doom/Hexen last yearhttps://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/150751-doom-psx-and-hexen-psx-original-source-code-disk-from-1997/Nightdive is 100% hoarding this, they used gfx assets for recent Hexen Steam releaseIf this goes on, those companies will start DMCA-ing open-source projects and then putting them for sale on Steam, because they're the copyright holders and they compete with each other.
>>12641981strongly dislike. they're about to butcher Thief with these out of place TimeSplitters models and fucked lighting, plus they're adding volumetric fog and other effects for no reason also they're re-recording the voice lines from Garrett even though the original is perfection as a Bloodfag, they can eat shit for eternity
>>12642402Blood fanboys deserve AIDS.
>>12641981Saying nightdive made these remasters is a bit of a strech the reason the "remasters" exist is because nightdive is really good at getting licenses for dead games. That's pretty much all they actually do, the actual hardwork is done by generally a community member that Nightdive pays to use their work. Powerslave is the clearest example of this, with Powerslave EX still being on the devs website, for free. Nightdive literally started by straight up stealing the system shock portable release from TTLG, if you download the original pre-kex engine release it has the same files from System Shock portable down to the readme.They literally are nothing but a leech om gaming and no amount of faggot ass fan service will win me over (the quake remasters were actually good and as far as I can tell 100% in house so they get respect for those).About the only real appeal they have is they almost always port games to new consoles if that's your thing but I have watched them sell shit that was or still is free too many times to like or trust them.
>>12642453Same thing with Dark Forces btw, and the guy wasn't even paid.
Friendly reminder to the jannies that by deleting these marketing threads and banning their IPs, you'll be encouraging them to actually buy a fucking ad which will help 4chan.
>>12642112oh wow one bad release, this totally justifies being angry foreverI pity the emptiness of your life
>>12642453the quake remasters nerfed all the movement tricks, you know, the literal point of quake
>they literally install fan mods and fixes... except they used to be free!!! Most of these degens prefer to pay for it so they get achievements on their gay little profiles nobody cares about.
>>12642684I am not angry. Stop projecting your faggotry on others, paypig.
>>12641981As a console player I love being able to play a lot of games that were either PC only (System Shock 2) or had really rough console ports (Quake). The cross platform online multiplayer is amazing and I’ve been addicted to playing Quake 2 online from my couch for months. Bringing mod levels for Doom and Quake to console has also been awesome. Some of the prices are a little high but eventually they go on sale
