Perfect Darkdom

[contention]

Perfect Dark Zero Opening:

Aw, how the past moves by so quickly and leaves everyone in the dust. Everyone remembers a certain few titles from their older systems, and the days continue to fly by. One company leaves its mark, and they seem to dissapear into the mist as we age. Rare is no exception to this pattern and change; even if they still do exist it is not the same as it was. They left us with titles that we could never forget; from Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, all the way to Banjo-Kazooie and Diddy Kong Racing. These were the gems of the younger eras; when our days were filled with gameplay not graphics. Rareware always expanded into your minds, giving us amusing genres to explore. Everyone always awaited their next release in passion, wondering and hoping for a new format to be released. Perfect Dark definetly broke the barrier of our dreams and our needs; it was one of the few last releases from the company for Nintendo. It broke the mold unlike any other, taking us away from the sights of a Male FPS perspective, and using that of a Female to open up new doors. One amazing feature was the guns and their use of first and secondary fires. There were multiplitudes of weapons, each with their own personality; nothing could strap us away from that. We ran right in, and took what we could from things. Enjoying every second and each moment that Joanna Dark could give us. Sadly though, those days would end and we would be left sitting in the.. well, dark. Wondering what was going to happen next, if they would ever make another.

It was this that they did, with their information giving on Perfect Dark Zero. At first, before the buy by Microsoft; the game was aimed at the Gamecube. If any look through the internet, you might even still be capable of finding old Beta pictures from the system. However, to stick to legal documents; Rare changed it's "work in progress" over to the Xbox. At the time, it wasn't going to be aimed at those current-gen systems. It had higher hopes, looking into the eyes of a later release in the world of the 360. Its dreams would be answered, but sooner than Rareware had thought. Unfortantly, since the Xbox 360 pushed it's release date, much of the game was left undone. The title had the ability to be shipped; Rareware wanted to keep it indoors though and work through it. Microsoft was desperate to get it out to the public, they hoped that a famous Rareware title would draw in a larger crowd. Well, they got what they wanted but with a price to pay. The push of the Perfect Dark Zero title really dampered it's effects. Each piece of Graphical-Made material was breathtaking, but it was missing something. A good-old-fashioned Perfect Dark storyline; sure it had it's DataDyne Coverups, but it wasn't the same as it used to be. It seemed corny, like one of those Cheap Sci-Fi movies; the gameplay was great, and the guns were all back. Something about the "plotline" just really brought the game down, which goes to prove that to make a good game you need many things. Gameplay, Storyline, Creativity, and last and especially the least: Graphics. This game has potiental, and it will perhaps eventually release it. With the patch updates and content releases over Xbox-Live, who knows what the future holds. If Microsoft had been patient, this game could have reached a lot; now they have to wait even longer for it to catch up.


Looks definetly don't mean everything.

However, even with the apoctolyptic release; everyone still had the memories of their old favorite game. Where this thread gains its purpose, many people have stories of the old classic Perfect Dark. Even if you only played it once or twice, or maybe you might just own it. Either way, while playing it; what made you enjoy the game. Was there anything in particular that dragged you out and made it feel like a good experience. If so, what were your favorite guns and why? Was there any level that you liked in essence, any part of the storyline that really intrigued you? With the first Perfect Dark, no one could go wrong. (Only aimed at the first PD; majority of Nintendo fans haven't seen or tried PDZ) Everyone remembers Velvet, and he strange and very odd anticts in never really helping you but making the game harder. But, what the hey; that's how the AI worked back in those ol' Nintendo days. From the "what was" to the "here and now". Perfect Dark has never really died, not even with the new release in its name. It still has everything from the past, to wonderful play and grand multiplayer. That was something which really gave off it's name in those years; the bots and their difficulties. From Agent all the way to the Perfect; finding your taste was up to you, and it would make things even harder as you spent time fighting again and again. Yet, it was hard to leave such a platform, near impossible to let it slip from your hungry passionate, needy Joanna fingers. All of these things are still around, even with a new "kicky" difficulty known as Dark; unless that existed in the last. However, with such, you'll find your journies being much tougher than you ever could have come to expected.

There are always going to be questions for Rare now, on what they did to Joanna. Totally changing her outlook to make her have nothing in common with the Nintendo Counterpart. Unless she got in a car-accident; it makes no sense how she went from beautiful Dame to who she was on the N64. Keep in mind that Perfect Dark Zero takes place a couple years before Perfect Dark. Therefore, for her to change so much, she must have had some sort of life threatening experience. As well, everything about her has an alteration as well; her voice especially. She was supposed to be European, yet in Perfect Dark Zero she has this odd sense of flair, that type of "Valley Girl" accent. So, to wind up connection with the Nintendo versions story; Joanna is either going to have to get in a horrible car accident and grab some womanhood, or none of this would ever make any sense. It would be amusing to see this title released to the DS; at least the original, that way there could be some rememberance of what once existed for all the Nintendo fans. Hey who knows what the future could bring, there is so much left unsaid. Everyone could never forget this game though, that and Goldeneye; the Rare perfected shooters. Even for such an old console, they really broke through and made our childhood interesting.

[Sirghe]

I cried when I found out that the second Perfect Dark game was being released on the 360... and was curious as to why it was coming out on the 360..... then I found out Rare had changed, and was reduced to a sobbing mass of human emotion..... Perfect Dark is one of my faves, my sister and I play it all the time! TT_______TT

Same here Sirghe. When I first heard about PDZ, I was very excited, kind of hoping it would be out for the Wii, since I don't own a 360. A chance to test out this game would be nice, since Perfect Dark 64 is in my top 10 game list. I've been playing it so much lately, but still stuck on level 12, I just can't seem to get a level up/down. LEVEL UP ! !

[contention]

Perfect Dark was really a god of it's time as you two said; everyone seemed to play at least once. Then there were those certain few who never had the chance to get their hands on it. However, there was much within it that made it diffrent from all the others. Back then Rare was a fresh name, well not totally new, but we really didn't give it attention until the N64 itself had come out. On it's arrival, we all turned our heads; in such, we were granted with two of the best FPSs of all time. That of Goldeneye, and the other of Perfect Dark; both of which had smooth controls, great story lines, awesome gameplay; for their time, they also had some of the best graphics for the system. The music would keep you going, and the action itself was something that hardly any could pull themselves away from. Even if Goldeneye was produced from a movie, and PD used the essence of a woman; the two were uncommon for those years. We were all pulled in, it was near to impossible to leave the warm grasp that they gave. Rare in those days was the Coup De Gras of Nintendo. If they released any titles, customers would have their hands all over it: from Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, Banjo-Tooie, Jet Force Gemini, and so on through so forth. Genres such as this could nearly be found in all collections of those with the system, they were the gems of those years. Or at least, for the times at hands; then, unfortuantly, the company was bought up by Microsoft in a very public bid it seemed. Now, however, Nintendo has not lost full rights to the industry itself; they still get the handheld portions of what Rare creates. As the Xbox 360 gets the main platforms for themselves and to keep.

Other than that, you two are right that Perfect Dark was one of the treasures for it's day. It had some of the best levels around, and the story line was interesting to follow. The Alien of Elvis shall forever be embedded into our minds, just as much as those villian faces that seem to be everywhere and plastered on anything. Back then, for what those graphics were; the faces were very scary since they showed no emotion. They were just blank copies of real human features pasted onto this polygon form. They never seemed angry, only monotone as they died and curled up in their little balls. Joanna was diffrent though, her face seemed actually formed by the polygons, instead of a full copy on image. The guns were also one of a kind, half the reason why many got into the game; Perfect Dark always offered more than a plethora of weaponry. Everything you would see and spot out seemed to be usable, and the fact they all had secondary fire made it more than grand. It would help any out of tough spots, and make gameplay more than exilirating. The landscapes could also keep you involved, while they might have seemed blocky; they were more than what large could ever come to show about itself. They seemed to go on forever, without to many loading zones; so going through them was more than difficult. You could even make multiple routes if you really felt like it, so you were always guaranteed something new every time around.

Now, now Sirghe, XD; Rare hasn't totally lost itself. Sure PDZ isn't everything that PD used to be, but it still does have it's body to it. Microsoft can't ruin everything it touches, and it rarely does; the only trouble was that the two companies wanted a press on the game. So it's sort of like having a pre-birth if you would want to say it that way. However, this premature birth is about six months to soon. Regardless, the game was full of things to keep you going through it. The graphics would make your jaw drop, and while the gameplay (which is what really matters) could at times be corny; it was nice enough to go through it four times over. Beating it on every difficulty is really what the whole Perfect Dark world is about. You know how it is, the higher the hardships the more objectives to complete. Multiplayer still exists to, as you were stating Ruru; and the "levels" are still around for you to transverse through and get higher in. So not to much was taken away, it's just always hard to live up to a name like Perfect Dark. Sequels can never master their older brethren.

Hehe, you are right, sequels pretty much never live up to the original. The only sequels that I've played which were better than the original were Pokemon Stadium 2 and Super Smash Bros. Melee.