Randomly Mine: August 22nd, 2019

Humbling, Not Nostalgia

Today, I dusted off the PlayStation 2, hooked up a red translucent 8mb memory card, and inserted a Disc I haven’t played since hitting double digits. F1 Career Challenge. This game is the reason why the band Hybrid's still in my record collection. It’s why I coerced my Dad into getting the Williams Licensed F1 Wheel. Its circuits, vehicles, and effects were something I endured not, once, not twice, but nearly four times back to back. It’s truly a surreal experience to witness everything from my childhood as an adult, especially when I now believe that this game… kinda sucks.

Vague controls, horrendous framerate, laughable crashes; it’s aged mechanically as much as these crew-members visually. And that’s not elitism speaking, starting one of its competitors Grand Prix Challenge was the opposite experience, blowing me away with its constant 60FPS, robust visuals, and charming SEGA style presentation. Why I barely played it at the time? Beyond me. 

Yet its music, menus, and challenges struck my emotional-core like a bolt of lightning. I remember grinding through the training, mid-field teams, and top-tier drivers before landing a ride next to Michael Schumacher himself, and how satisfying that journey was.

In an age where multiple creators and companies have employed nostalgia – for better and for worse – I’d highly recommend plugging in your 6th gen or earlier system if you can, especially with an old memory card/hard drive, because seeing something you spent so much time with through a brand new lens, isn’t nostalgic. 

It’s humbling.

Perfect Dark

It’s strange to think Perfect Dark Zero came out over a decade ago. Maybe it’s just me, but I still remember watching Gamespot’s review, marveling at the HD graphics that today look like a concoction of plastic and playdough. Its soundtrack will always be phenomenal and it’s popularization of gun toting woman in catsuits is noted, but I don’t think it’s controversial to say that it’s not one of Rare’s finest hours.

But as those who’ve read my work before now, I believe that just gives more reason to renew the franchise, and one conversation made me realize how it should go about it.

Perfect Dark’s known as a science-fiction shooter, but its original roots were as an expanded take on Goldeneye 007, an FPS, but ostensibly, a spy-game. This is actually where I think EA did a better job than Rare, with Nightfire of course holding the most childhood nostalgia for me, but also seen through Agent Under Fire, and Everything or Nothing. These games captured the atmosphere of being a spy like no other has, mostly because it’s a genre that publishers don’t seem interested in.

Alpha Protocol, and that old Sid Meier’s game are the only things that come to my mind. So here’s my simple idea.

A Successor to Nightfire; a Perfect Dark game that puts more emphasis on the Spy that Sci-Fi.

The biggest thing that’s been missing in shooters are the variety of options available in a linear shooter. Most seem to take two extreme stances, open-world where gameplay supports Stealth & Rambo, or heavily directed experiences with little regard to the player’s agency.

As I described, what’s aged so beautifully about that game is how much it supported the player while pacing the experience effectively with driving-sections, alternative playstyles, and set-pieces. It used everything available in its sandbox of weapons, enemies, and environments. And Perfect Dark is one of the most suitable franchises to reinvigorate that style of gameplay.

And if not, there’s No One Lives Forever…

Oh Siege…

That’s honestly all I really got at the moment. Once again, Ubisoft’s opportunity to lead by example with innovative means of supporting the game’s production and community is wasted on following the pack of Fortnite & PUBG. Then again, the game’s making more money annually than Overwatch, so who knows at this point?