Pure Evil - Conker: Live & Reloaded

[Evil Avatar]

Good Morning! (And if I don't see you: Good Afternoon, Good Evening and Goodnight!)

After a jaunt to the theater to see George A. Romero's Land of the Dead (Bonus Points to anyone who knows where he is credited as George R. Romero) I started playing Rare's new N64 port, Conker: Live & Reloaded.

Anyone thinking this is a straight port of the N64 game is in for a treat. This title hasn't been "ported" to the Xbox, it has been redesigned from the ground up to take advantage of the Xbox hardware. Conker and other characters have an excellent "fur" effect and the rest of the levels are using higher resolution textures, higher polygon counts and other cool modern special effects like bump mapping and environmental lighting.

From what little I played of the N64 title, it does seem like they did "port" the story and the levels, just adding enough new stuff to make it fresh for fans of the older title.

They have also added an entire Xbox Live multiplayer game, which I haven't tried yet, but which has some excellent artwork and options.

If you haven't picked up Battlefield 2 and you are looking for a fun Xbox platformer, give this one a try.

[Commissar Rob]

http://www.reallyscary.com/contestlotd.asp

w00t! What do I win? :D

[Blade]

I always did love that Truman Show quote, but don't overuse it!

[Evil Avatar]

http://www.reallyscary.com/contestlotd.asp

w00t! What do I win? :D

Second place, since a mis-spelling on a website wasn't what I had in mind.

[KarmaGhost]

Do you still get to pee on stuff?

[kizke]

Sounds exciting! I'd love to play some more Conker. I've heard the Live portion is pretty weak but I'll wait to try it myself before passing any judgment.

[Evil Avatar]

Do you still get to pee on stuff?

I haven't gotten that far yet. I did puke on someone at the beginning of the game.

[automaton]

It would be really interesting to see what Evil would say in a universe where Rare was still under Nintendo's banner and was releasing this exact same game on Gamecube. I'm sure the word "rehash" would be used several time.

I, for one, hope that many more people get to finally enjoy this fantastic game. I will definitely pick it up once it is in the bargain bin. I don't do Live and I can't see paying full price for a port (which is exactly what this is no matter what you want to call it).

[Kish]

hmm I'll bet it's either something like City of the Dead or The Crazies.

[Evil Avatar]

It would be really interesting to see what Evil would say in a universe where Rare was still under Nintendo's banner and was releasing this exact same game on Gamecube. I'm sure the word "rehash" would be used several time.

Since I never got to play this one on the N64 and it had a reputation for being a good game, I would have snapped up a Gamecube port in a second.

I do own all three systems and I don't think I've ever used the word "rehash" to describe any title.

[Kamalot]

So, graphical enhancements make a game 'redesigned' instead of a port?

What I want to know is, why the freak did it take so long? The engine, story, level design, character concepts, soundtrack, dialogue and everything else was DONE! Even the fur-effect was used before by Rare in their Starfox title, which looks better than this version.

All you need are some new 3D models and, bam, instant cash-in.

In the amount of time it took Rare to rehash this title, any normal developer could have turned out 3 games.

When Microsoft bought Rare, it bought a turd.

[Evil Avatar]

What I want to know is, why the freak did it take so long? The engine, story, level design, character concepts, soundtrack, dialogue and everything else was DONE!

That was the point that I was trying to make in my post... it doesn't look like the engine, story, level design, character concepts, soundtrack and dialogue were DONE at all. They seem to have done everything over again from scratch.

[gzsfrk]

That was the point that I was trying to make in my post... it doesn't look like the engine, story, level design, character concepts, soundtrack and dialogue were DONE at all. They seem to have done everything over again from scratch.

Actually, Evil, the dialog and soundtrack (remastered, of course) sound pretty much identical to the original version on the N64 (which I loved, btw). I very much doubt they had actors come in and re-do the voice acting, since I'm sure they still had the mastered originals around somewhere. Plus, there are a few places where you can tell new dialog that makes a platform-specific comment was recorded (and it's painfully obvious--the Conker voice doesn't even sound close).

Don't get me wrong, I loved the game the first time, and I'm enjoying it even more this time through (pre-ordered, no less). My only real gripe is that the camera seems to work even less well than it did on the N64 using the friggin C-buttons. They had 5 years to tweak and fix that, and only managed to make it worse? So I have to echo a previous comment--what on earth took them so long to release this? Class balancing the Live game? Sheesh... it's like the entire Rare staff (or what's left of it) was taking off early every day for two years.

The online component is great fun, although it is nothing groundbreaking or innovative, other than the occasional nugget of humor which is generally lacking (Serious Sam aside) in the majority of first/third person shooters. Controls are spot on, although the view is sometimes a little too close to the ground for my taste.

Overall, I'd say definitely buy this game if you never played the original; if you did play the original, rent it and relive the fun. No gamer should go through life having never faced the Great and Mighty Poo. =)

Cheers...

[PacerDawn]

EDIT: NM, I'll post a guess when I can verify it. =)

[MasterEvilAce]

This game is downright weird. So many cutscenes and text that you can't skip... I was playing it over a friend's house and we bashed the game constantly. It was interesting, but there's so much in the game that is just unusual. It helps that i'm a funny guy, though..

The added stuff is terrible.. Never played the original.. but when I played this version and heard stuff talking about how the developers should stop adding new things and how the game isn't a direct port (CONKER SAYS THIS IN-GAME!) I was cringing. Way to kill the atmosphere, I think.

[bapenguin]

I love how people just assume Rare has been working on this game non stop for 5 years.

[Switcher]

Yes Evil, you have never called a game a "rehash" but you also deligated The Wind Waker as being a pot-breaking simulator when you had played it at a kiosk for 5 minutes. If that doesn't cancel out your opinion on what makes a good platformer, I don't know what does.

Funny how we never saw a news post like this for Resident Evil 4, the highest rated title this year...but a tired port of a 5 year old game with a weak online compotent for Xbox? Yeah, front page news that.

[KDups]

I love how people just assume Rare has been working on this game non stop for 5 years.

Well you showcase a game at enough E3s and people are bound to think you're putting some effort into it.

[Evil Avatar]

Funny how we never saw a news post like this for Resident Evil 4, the highest rated title this year...

I never played it. I purchased it the first day it was available, but I haven't played it yet.

You are all butt hurt because I failed to comment on a title that I didn't play?

Nothing unusual about that, unless you live in some fantasy world where everyone is out to "get" Nintendo.

[Twigz'N'Berries]

I picked up Conker a few days ago. I'm not overly impressed, but I'm not too disappointed. I too thought that graphically it would be better. The online component is competent...but lackluster. It's harder than hell to actually shoot somebody on it!!

On the other hand, I"m not that far into the game yet. But, as much hype as was surrounded this game by MS (they ruin games by overhyping them; a la Fable, Jade Empire, Kotor 2, Brute Force, etc) I was expecting a lot more than what I have seen. I like my Xbox, but when they start hyping games 1 1/2 years before they come out, promising that they will be great, you are darn near let down every time.

I like MS, but they need to tone down the hype on their games a bit. I'm glad that the hypefest surrounding Gears of War has been quieted down a bit. Plus, I'm not going to expect too much out of it...then I won't be disappointed.

[TrackZero]

It would be really interesting to see what Evil would say in a universe where Rare was still under Nintendo's banner and was releasing this exact same game on Gamecube. I'm sure the word "rehash" would be used several time.

I, for one, hope that many more people get to finally enjoy this fantastic game. I will definitely pick it up once it is in the bargain bin. I don't do Live and I can't see paying full price for a port (which is exactly what this is no matter what you want to call it).

I've played the original and while I do support this remake, I'll wait for it go bargin bin as well. I'm simply not shelling out $70 (canadian) for a new game anymore unless it's "the shit".

[Twigz'N'Berries]

I'm simply not shelling out $70 (canadian) for a new game anymore unless it's "the shit".

It's got talking, singing shit in it...does that count? :D

[Kamalot]

That was the point that I was trying to make in my post... it doesn't look like the engine, story, level design, character concepts, soundtrack and dialogue were DONE at all. They seem to have done everything over again from scratch.

I coulda' sworn what you said in your post was:

...it does seem like they did "port" the story and the levels, just adding enough new stuff to make it fresh for fans of the older title.

Personally, I couldn't stand this title the first time around. I simply don't understand why it took them so long to release it again.

Do you REALLY think they re-wrote and re-recorded the script? Do you really think they went back to the drawing board for even 1/3 of this title? More like they added some higher poly count models and high-res textures.

This brings up a good point though.

You hear about how development costs and timelines are going to skyrocket with the additional power of the next-gen machines. Even with this generation, how long does it to make an enhanced port of a pre-existing title? How much longer would it have taken Rare to make an Xbox 360 version of this title?

Now, having spent all that time on it, is it really THAT much better than the original? Sure, it looks pretty, but if you think about the tremendous effort to bring this enhanced port to the Xbox, is it really THAT much more fun?

[MasterEvilAce]

Kamalot, you also have to consider some companies make SUPERCRAZYPOLYCOUNTASTIC models, then simply downsize them, anyways.. It really wouldn't decrease production time, since they usually over-do everything, anyways. The only problems I see is that people are going to WANT as much 'crap' as possible on their CDs they buy--with good reason... and so developers are really going to have to just make things bigger and better, as far as environments and interactivity goes. But if no developer takes the plunge then the others won't either, thus nobody will take advantage of the crazyfantastichardware.

There will be a learning curve there.. but it probably won't be too bad. If anything the next gen consoles really just give developers a lot more leeway.. no more trying to cram stuff, and downsize crap so it runs efficiently.... Atleast not as much.

[manu_pkp]

The added stuff is terrible.. Never played the original.. but when I played this version and heard stuff talking about how the developers should stop adding new things and how the game isn't a direct port (CONKER SAYS THIS IN-GAME!) I was cringing. Way to kill the atmosphere, I think.

I haven't played the original either, but I thought those genre/development -jokes were the funniest stuff in this new one. The rest is swear/pee/poop stuff that is funny to 10 year olds that can't play the game because of the age limit.

[PacerDawn]

Ok, I went home and checked and, sure enough, it's there. "Book of the Dead" lists him as "George R Romero" right there on the cover. I love that book, it's very dog-eared. I missed the second book however.. =(

Last week I picked up "City of the Dead" at a grocery store. You know, it would be nice if publishers would actually say on the book "This is a direct continuation of an earlier book" when it's not a stand-alone book. Nowhere on the book's cover does it even indicate it's a sequel (but, the way it starts, it is more like the next chapter).

[Kamalot]

Kamalot, you also have to consider some companies make SUPERCRAZYPOLYCOUNTASTIC models, then simply downsize them, anyways.. It really wouldn't decrease production time, since they usually over-do everything, anyways.
If that's the case, then why did it take Rare so long to port an older game? If we consider your statement that most companies have all these high-quality assets as part of the creation process, then why such a huge delay?

[MasterEvilAce]

They were stupid and forgot to keep the high quality versions, not thinking anybody would ever care about conker ever again.

So they had to recreate.. That, and the timeline they made for themselves gave Project Q-burrito most of that time frame... Conker port was only worked on for a short time, with two people on the project.

[Kamalot]

They were stupid and forgot to keep the high quality versions, not thinking anybody would ever care about conker ever again.

So they had to recreate.. That, and the timeline they made for themselves gave Project Q-burrito most of that time frame... Conker port was only worked on for a short time, with two people on the project.

Wow, throw away hundreds of man-hours of high-quality 3D models due to short-sightedness, yet they managed to keep the original high-quality audio recordings?

You work for Rare? Your statements are presented as fact.

You really think any game development studio throws out their original high-poly work instead of archiving it? Seems totally backwards to me.

[MasterEvilAce]

lol, man.. I thought it was obvious I was joking..

[Kamalot]

lol, man.. I thought it was obvious I was joking..
LMAO! I can't tell. I've seen so many people come around with even more outrageous speculations and state them as fact.

Maybe, add one-a' these doohickies to let us know... :D

[danceswithzombies]

i fell in love with conker the 1st day i played bad fur day. i cant wait till the new one comes out. i think its based more on combat than just a funny adult story though.
p.s. i hate how its tell how many times uve posted.. makes me luk stoopid....

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