The part about Goldeneye's combat, how you have to stop to aim accurately, and how body shots could cause stun animations that would make it easier to handle groups of enemies and land headshots, made me think: You're just describing Resident Evil 4. And the series since then has kept that style of gameplay in one way or another, even as it swayed more towards the action, then back towards the horror, then back towards the action again with Village. So it's cool that it lives on in some form, even if it's not in more traditional shooters. I will say, I'm surprised that the topic of headshots kept coming up, but you never used that to segue into the fact that Goldeneye was the first FPS with headshots. I'd argue that's one of the ways Goldeneye was the most innovative and forward-thinking. Like it's hard to imagine an FPS released today not having headshots, unless it's intentionally a retro throwback.
Rare sort of cheated on the headshot = instant death part. The head simply took amplified damage compared to the other parts of the body. As such if you program an enemy with 1000 health, it would still take multiple bullets to the head to kill them. They got it right on Perfect Dark where headshots were one shot kills.
While it might have been the first FPS it was common enough in other video games that is not really remarkable and likely would have been added to FPSs soon enough even if Goldeneye never existed.
It's genuinely astonishing how much more sense Goldeneye makes when you think of it as a light gun game where you control what angle you're shooting from. So many areas and lines of sight have every element a light gun game's screen needs, with cover, multiple places for enemies to come from, and sometimes important targets.
This. I really enjoyed this analysis, it gave me a lot of epiphany moments thinking back on it like ohhh... now it all makes sense that it played like this.
It explains why Rare continued that sort of trend when they got to Timesplitters. Even with the second analogue stick, it feels like a Goldeneye but with better movement.
Re: autoaim, I think most people forget how heavily the original Doom also leaned on autoaim. Most modern ports leave it on, but you can turn it off in ports like GZDoom and when you do it's immediately clear how massive an impact it has on perceived player skill. So if 1997 in console FPS design is analogous to 1993 in PC FPS design, it makes sense that GoldenEye would do as it does.
@@jacktgh doom2 on release is absolute damn cancer that leagues worse than doom 1 kids these days just plop some sourceport with walkthrough and don't see the problem. doom has no mouse aim it is played entirely on keyboard and is designed around that. in source ports icon of sin is like 10 seconds in the original it's the most infuriating garbage boss that is extremely difficult and boring. it was easier to gank icon of sin in brutal doom than to deal with vanilla icon of sin
@@jacktgh modding is not the same game i do not engage with the mods usually, i only ever played some hl1 like poke646 +2, brutal doom, dystopia, synergy, chivalry, insurgency if people have fun it's their fun. i just strictly dislike when people think that source ports are the same as original doom and try to defend doom2 terribleness or don't even disclose in their reviews that they are using modifications. there are a lot of extremely drastic changes in ports\mods. like campster highlights in this video difference with playing this thing with mouse
One of my favorite things about this series is getting the one bit of context for a classic videogame that makes me go "oh wait, suddenly I can see _exactly_ why this thing is the way it is". Like, with Catacomb 3D, it was Gauntlet-style top-down action games; with this, it was lightgun games.
Something else interesting about Doom 64 is that it is absolutely canon to Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal. Id Software liked that game enough to use it as the starting point for their reintroduction of Doom.
@@ATOMarchive Doom 1, 2, and 64 are all canon to Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal. The only thing I think isn't canon is Doom 3 but I've been told it could be too.
Oh, I remember people being nuts over Deer Hunter. I never understood, possibly because I grew up in the US South where hunting is so common, but I think at the time I was just glad more people were playing video games.
My brother and I used to play a cracked version of Quake II, and the absence of the CD meant we got the sound effects but not the music. We compensated by playing it while listening to Pink Floyd's "The Wall" and let me say that that is a very specific and kind of on the nose pairing.
On one hand, playing a shooter while listening to Waiting For The Worms seems rad. on the other, Goodbye Blue Sky just seems depressing to be shooting something to lol
I can, it was a mess, fun but still definitely slapped together. That is why as soon as Perfect Dark came out everyone I knew switched to playing it and never looked back.
Diablo 1 also got networking done last moment. Blizzard wanted it in since it was a big hit with warcraft 2, but blizzard north didnt feel like it (neither were they hot on it being real time until they were told to try it). So they ignored it until last moment, were like "yeah we dont have that yet" and blizzard sent some guys over to implement it. Battlenet was just one computer in a basement connecting people together.
Great video, and thanks for the shout-out during the controls chapter! Which sadly that's the part that was harder for me to watch, hah Just a few things I'd like to clear up, I'm not a GoldenEye speedrunner, I just have the experience from playing the game basically all my life, and that Facility footage you picked is from my old N64 playthrough where I played much slower than I would nowadays. I have an updated one which is damageless and also played without autoaim, which is my go-to configuration now since a few years. You totally don't need to stop and cover to aim at all, specially in harder difficulties. It's in fact not encouraged unless you know the position and can peek corners as enemies react faster, which brings another issue with the video - it is definitely possible to position yourself accurately in corners to peek with the C-Buttons. The game offers a wide variety of control schemes, one being 1.2 which is what most seasoned players use as it gives you complete free movement of the crosshair on the stick and character movement on the C-Buttons, basically being the perfect mix of WASD gaming and a joystick to aim. It seems that the footage recorded for the video is being played with a controller that isn't the original N64 controller, which is why it may seem over sensitive and not very accurate. Brawler64 perhaps? I feel this played a huge part on that part of the essay, giving a wrong idea. Much like DOOM mentioned in the video, you can run and gun to your heart's content, disabling auto-aim helps as you can manually align your aim to headshots as well. Compared to modern sticks, even if they're twin-stick, they're far less accurate than the OEM N64 controller. The original N64 controller had flaws and could break easily, but thankfully there are solutions to that nowadays while maintaining the OEM accuracy. It allows for micro-adjustments to the aim that are simply impossible on modern sticks due to the nature of digital inputs, which is why it's very painful to play GoldenEye and Perfect Dark on anything that isn't the original N64 controller or mouse/keyboard on PC - you can compare the part where I defend Natalya on Control from the XBLA longplay you showed as well, it's almost impossible to track the enemies as they run past, but on N64 it's a very smooth experience where you can easily track them with and without aiming down sights. Multiplayer on XBLA also becomes a painful experience due to this - autoaim is usually understandably disabled, and the mix of fast opponents with imprecise modern sticks isn't very pleasing. I really enjoyed the video! Just that small gripe I have when I listen to reviewers calling out the controls. I can assure you there's no replacement to the OEM controller. :)
Thank you so much, I'm very happy to see another person who really played it well back in the day and knows all about 1.2 without autoaim (because it takes headshots from you once you get good), and the beauty of c-button movement, with getting extra velocity by holding down two of them and moving more with your aiming to go fast... remembering playing that way definitely made it disappointing to know he didn't have what I would consider the normal, functional, enjoyable, and, real, way of playing the game. God knows why they didn't make that the "default" control scheme.
@@jedgrahek1426 It was probably set as default because in reality it's way more accessible for the general public - "Turok controls" while being basically 1.2, tend to be less accessible to most, although Turok forces some settings like look ahead always. But yes the controls still hold up amazingly, compare them to the Xbox remaster and it's borderline unplayable with the Xbox controller. Same goes for Perfect Dark on Xbox.
I still think about a piece of troll level design in Blood. There was an area where you were fighting a lot of big monsters so you had the rocket launcher out. Then you rounded a corner to a mirror. First mirror in the game. Where you see your character pointing weapons at you. And you're holding a rocket launcher
I only just realized the helicopter in the game says Euro Chopper Pirate on it instead of the name of real world helicopter in the movie, the Eurocopter Tiger. Fun licensing things.
Tons of interesting stuff about Goldeneye. Neat. If you are curious about a deeper dive on the Star Wars game, Noah Caldwell Gervais did a retrospective on the whole series, which, as is usual for him, was of excellent quality.
I started blanking Star Wars after it was bought by Disney. I didn't have any faith they'd take it anywhere I wanted to follow. Never saw the new movies, know nothing about them or the new games or shows. I truly don't care anymore.
You seem somewhat eager to make the Goldeneye film out to be a deliberate move away from the more serious, more grounded tone of the Timothy Dalton films but in reality, Goldeneye was (according to EON Productions themselves) written with the idea that Dalton would return to the Bond role. His specific approach to the character is all over the script, general tone, and even the overall plot. The only reason Dalton wasn't in the film was because he was unwilling to commit to the amount of follow-up films he would be required to take part in as a result. In all reality, Brosnan didn't really get his own purpose-built Bond film until Tomorrow Never Dies and considering the rather sharp decline in overall quality from that point on, it isn't surprising that Goldeneye ends up being his most well regarded film.
I've only watched goldeneye once after playing the game and watching his other movies and i somehow didn't feel as excited about Pierce even though he's my fave Bond. This explains so much!
"Goldeneye ends up being his most well regarded film." you just mean bond films, because Goldeneye is not even close to being Brosnans most well regarded film.
@@xBINARYGODx Considering that we are talking pretty much exclusively about Bond films and Brosnan's place in them, yeah, I think it stands to reason that we are talking about Bond films.
4:05: _glances at video timeline_ I see there were a lot of other 1997 shooters you wanted to mention. 37:20: And this will be the last time. I understand _why,_ but I'm still sad that there won't be as many highlights in future episodes.
Actually, no, not 14%. 42.1% of the Goldeneye episode was about games other than Goldeneye. 69.4% of the Half-Life episode is about games other than Half-Life. 1998 was about 65% more plea-ing. Maybe I'll change my mind about whether that's a good metric for plea-for-help-iness. Hopefully I won't recalculate that factor again.
Wait... So Turok had: 1) key hunts 2) a hub level 2a) the ability to go back to levels as much as you want 3) infinite enemies 4) finite pickups 5) a lives system 6) platforming with instant death pits What a bizarre combination of contrary mechanics. It almost sounds like Nintendo were insisting on including classic arcade-style mechanics behind the scenes, whether or not that made sense in a first person action & exploration game.
Don't forget points systems; alongside lives and continues, the basest of arcade meta-progression mechanics! It seems so bizarre that they put "points" into Descent 1-2; like, at least tie it into the story by being like a bounty reward or something (as some (most?) shmups did)?
Also throw in "Restricted save points," as you could only save your game in the hub area or one of a few Saving Stones scattered around the maps. That mechanic, combined with the utterly massive levels, made playing the game in short sessions punishing because you could wind up losing a lot of progress if you have to turn the thing off. This is also why the Nightdive PC port is actually still really playable.
Not sure why you think Nintendo was responsible for the mess the game ended up as. They were neither the developers nor the publishers, unlike with _GoldenEye_ where they were both the publisher and part-owners of the dev studio.
What you don't understand is that in the context of the year this was released in, 1997, paired with the intent from the design document and the fact the game nearly wasn't made at all, this was a stroke of genius on the part of of the development team LOL just kidding.
One thing this series highlights is how quickly things were ever evolving and being attempted. The most forgettable games were the ones that were a new aesthetic while adding very little. Thanks for the video!
I've exclusively experienced bond movies through the podcast Kill James Bond and I kinda forgot there were actual movies tied into the audio clips, so seeing Judy Dench do the "sexist misogynist dinosaur" bit shook me up for a sec
The lightshooter connection was very enlightening, as is the description of the pseudo-stealth gameplay loop (which is exactly how I play Dishonored). The "elsewhere" segment was also super interesting, even if I know why you're going to have to cut it down to make these videos doable (the FPS genre is now an established genre, making an exhaustive approach impossible). Also, when you were describing the next video, I thought "I have literally no idea what you're talking about" before the first second of audio slammed me back into that train
The sheer evolution of the FPS genre during the 90’s is astounding. A mere 6 years meant the jump between Wolfenstien 3D and Half-Life. Nowadays FPS games have played more or less the same for the last 15 years. Side note, that opening makes me want to see you do a retrospective of all the Bond movies now. Great work as always.
Goldeneye Source is not only a fantastically made mod, but also an example of how Goldeneye's mechanics can still work in modern day. If you decide to cover mods in this series, it's something to highlight for sure even if it is only multiplayer.
@@stevethepocket shhh let the babies who need to overvalue Goldeneye well beyond its meager worth have their fun - they desperately need it, apparently.
For anyone who hasn't heard, it's back! It's on Nintendo Switch (through NS Online's N64 emulator with online multiplayer.) and Xbox One/Series S|X (with a steady 60FPS but no online MP. It IS on Game Pass and is now included with Rare Replay, if you have those).
Yanno, I've been enjoying this series for literal years and *just now* realized its title is a pun on Children of Dune. This is to say, thank you for the work you do and its richness therein.
I remember switching the controls to fully looking with the stick and moving with the c buttons being the superior method. I barely had to R button aim in multiplayer. I took to using a dry erase marker to make an aiming dot in the middle of my screen. Good times.
You know, the fact that the original pitch for GoldenEye 007 called for a total of 5 people (including just a single programmer!) is really damn impressive. I almost wonder if the modern tendency towards maximalism in videogames is a good thing...
This is such a great series. Doom was the seed from which a lot of modern gaming crystalised and I love seeing you take the history in the genre in chunks and examine them. Really happy to see the Build stuff (for good or ill) and looking forward to the Lithtech stuff. Especially Cate Archer.
For other games with difficulty based objectives, Time Splitters 2 in true Golden Eye fashion cut out nearly half the level if you played them on easy.
I recently played the XBLA version of Goldeneye and it made me realize I really love how the aim mode works with dual sticks. It just makes more sense in my head for hitting what I want rather than moving the entire view for everything. But I also realize that experience I had doesn't ocvor on N64 unless someone is using one of the two-controller configurations.
When you actually reach No One Lives Forever 2 you should put up a black screen for a few seconds as a gag, as if saying "ok, I've reached it, now I can drop dead".
It's insane how much of a leap forwards Half Life was. Great video as always! A few questions: - Do you have any opinions on the Shadow Warrior reboot series? - Would you consider doing a similar series on another genre after this? Maybe one on Point & Clicks, Immersive Sims or that strange and loose kind of "Arthouse" genre you often write about? - Have you thought about doing a recommendations list at the end of this series for the games that you truly think are still worth playing for new players today?
This game actually plays very similarly to HL... of course there were some advances especially ai, but what he says here about needing to either aim/shoot or move one at a time is unfortunately utter nonsense born of him not knowing what control scheme to use. Which... well draw your own conclusions.
@@jonnil1997 many older shooters do - but I dont know if that really is those older game being so good over the newer games not doing much with the genre The fact that Halo 1 can still be seen to have amazing AI today, shows how much new ground has not be broken and how often many games do less that that game did.
I love this series so much because every time it hits i fall back into all these old great fun shooters and learn about some new ones I hadn’t considered. Can’t wait for half life!
Half-Life cliffhanger is killing me bro. This is one of the best video series on TH-cam, period, I know these videos take a ton of work but I hope Children of Doom isn't totally dead.
A few corrections. Just because the higher skill modes don't have generous auto-aim, doesn't mean you have to move + stop to aim all the time. You can easily aim without the sights and do headshots more often because of the lack of auto aim. Goldeneye also has dual analog control options and/or D-pad movement /Stick aiming, which makes the game play almost like a modern shooter. All the stuff mentioned in the video only apply for the default controls.
The unlockable cheat menu is what made this game so cool for me. It added replayability that was largely absent from the N64 in general unless you liked binging OOT
Man, the elsewhere section is extremely interesting to understand the context of so many classic games. Its sad that its so demanding to research this many games.
I said something along the lines of this on Patreon but I just want to express how excellent I think this video was. I love the balance of in depth goldeneye coverage with skimming through other notable releases. I think this is one of my favorite videos you’ve ever done. I say take as long as you need between videos. The time you put in really shows. And I appreciate your videos and your unique voice which I think is helping to elevate writing about games in general.
The interesting thing about the game's weird move-or-aim control scheme is that it would kind of get revived when the Wii came around. The _Call of Duty_ ports used a scheme where the remote free-aims on the screen but also turns the camera (and by extension, you, just like any modern FPS) if you get close to the edges. And you could customize how close, and how quickly the camera's turning speed ramps up, and everything, so you could set it up to mostly behave like a weird sort of mouselook. And then if you hold A, it locks the screen so you can free-aim all the way out to the edges. And to anyone wondering, yes I know that the _GoldenEye_ remake was originally on the Wii, and yes I know it'd be more relevant to discuss that instead... but I haven't gotten around to playing it yet. I'd kind of intended to wait until I had a capture card and could make a blind LP of it.
Redneck Rampage was actually the first FPS I ever experienced. My uncle had a copy when I was about six years old and somehow neither him nor my parents had any problem with me playing it. I thought it was just about the greatest game ever at the time, but I picked it up on sale a few years back and it really didn't hold up.
Yeah, me and my friends, growing up in a hick town in its 5th decade of consistent decline, loved this game, but I'm sure that if I played it now it would be pure garbage.
Great video as always! I think there are actually two significant things about Quake 2 though: First, Quake 2 was id's first attempt at really telling a complete story; It has an opening pre-rendered cinematic (their first) and a cohesive progression in its levels, with some clear environmental storytelling. (What's MOST significant about this is perhaps not that they did it, but that even though they made an effort, Half-Life would be the first FPS *known* for pulling off a cohesive story, from a brand new studio that theoretically should have had no idea what they were doing!) Second, Quake 2 was (if I remember correctly) far more moddable than Quake 1 was, though it required modders to compile DLL's - a feature that made cross-platform mods an impossibility. I'd also mention that Quake 2's rail gun was the first FPS hitscan weapon that wasn't a regular gun or bow and arrow, and it created a clever 'one hit kill with a long reload' tradeoff for players. (I had a friend who could consistently nail people with it in multiplayer, even over a modem, because he was just that practiced at compensating for lag.)
The bit about context is so crucial when we talk about why games are so well remembered. Everyone has rose coloured glasses for their favourite games as a kid, but there's also such a big contextual understanding that goes in to what makes a game great. The one I always come back to, because I lived it, is (sorry to have to do this) Dark Souls. It came out in a time where there was nothing like it on the market, really, and games weren't doing as much to tie together narrative and thematic elements into gameplay. The context of the video games media space being what it was WHEN DS came out, is just as much a part of it's success as the story, the gameplay, and the world and level design. Going back and playing it now is nostalgic, but is also kind of a chore for a lot of reasons, and I don't see future generations (basically zoomers and onward) revisiting it unless some Millennial grandpa tells them it is one of the games of all time. It's also genre defining. I think it will end up being a lot like Rogue, in that way. Anyways, great vid, love your stuff!
I love this video. I've seen a lot of dismissive talk about Goldeneye, saying it was all about the multiplayer, but you did a fantastic job in particular of identifying the unique traits that made its single player great.
I'll be sad to see the Elsewhere sections get shorter. I love detailed information about very specific parts of video game history, and I could watch breakdowns like those all day.
Shadow Warrior, Duke Nukem 3D and Redneck Rampage remind us that while we're painting the walls with blood and guts, blasting brains out and eviscerating, what's really offensive are jokes.
The most bewildering part about Redneck Rampage, was that it contained an early form of DLC sorta. The Cuss Pack, which you could only purchase from Interplay's website for $1 with a credit card, basically let you replace all of the voiced lines with more profane counterparts, which means you can experience the same annoying, unfunny game, but with more profusive swearing that sounds like a 5 year old that learned the F-word for the first time and tries to use it everywhere. Which means your enemies are screaming "I'm gonna fuck ya!", "Ow fucker!", "I'll kick your fuckin ass you fuck", "Hey motherfucker" and "Jesus christ you god fucknut" and other lines ad nauseum. Does that even *sound* like a good time?
It's interesting how you described Hexin (Hexane?) 2 as a bunch of wandering around, searching for a key or the place to put it, because that was very much my experience with the original DOOM, especially in the larger, later levels. They're fast-paced, sure, but something about their maze-like, branching and looping design made it really easy for me to get lost in them for long periods of time, especially if I was going for completion over speed. Of course, part of this was that it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that the game had a map.
Hexen. It was far worse in hexen 2 as you had multiple, larger than doom, more complex levels deliberately hiding things from you. The set of levels shown in the video footage probably took me about 8 hours to get through, from memory? And it's the first part of like, 5? It really kills any sense of progression.
I remember when I was a kid my older cousin had an old N64 with this game. He let me and my step-bro play. Some of the most fun we had with multiplayer was setting health to the highest it had, cramming together into one of the bathroom stalls, and just meleeing each other until one of us died. This sort of prolonged slapfight with each one of our models getting bloodier and bloodier was just so funny to us.
When you were talking about the innovations GoldenEye brought to 1997 aiming in video games, it really made me think about Nerrel's latest video on gyro-aiming with Snap-Stick 90-degree Turns replacing the camera controls on the right-stick.
Goldeneye-style extended pain animations are included in the single-player campaign mode of 2002's Command & Conquer: Renegade, with especially long ones when using fire, laser, and tiberium weapons. Even in a mouse and keyboard environment, they can still make sense in games like that with tankier enemies.
You know when you're refreshing your subscription feed about 10 times per minuet desperately looking for something to watch, then you see a video but -oh wait- it's an hour long.... hmmm, but it's about a videogame... oh wait, this is an Errant Signal video? FUCK YEAH, LET'S GO! Edit: that comment got away from me didn't it
Those Dark Forces II cutscenes are giving me such nostalgic throwback vibes, which is funny because I never played much of the Dark Forces series before Jedi Academy. But having them both come out from Lucasarts around the same time, I played the hell out of Rebel Assault 2 which had the same style of cutscene FMV. So good.
That kind of mix of stealth tactics and run-and-gun action is one of the things I really like about Turok 2. There are enemies that just don't notice you at first. Sniping is obvious, but one thing I found useful, even with a controller, is sneaking up on an enemy with the Warblades. Get close enough, and they will notice and turn around. But that is the best way to get a quick insta-kill, because the bodies of the monsters are a little hunched over. The headshots are difficult from behind. But walking up to them, letting them turn around and taking their head off with the warblades is a viable tactic for the first half or so of the game. Like Goldeneye, it isn't quite a "stealth game", but the little stealth options give the combat a little more depth.
tbh I thought ight because you hadn't mentioned PD the whole first half I was expecting you to do that mid movie switch into "and that's because Perfect Dark perfected all of GoldenEye's shortcomings" and it was going to become a PD video but alas thus. Amazing job.
"Speaking of the build engine *dejected sigh*"- Yeah I knew exactly which games were coming up. I grew up as a kid going to a friend's house whose Dad was working in the computer industry in the 90's. He had SEVERAL computers in his basement (which blew my fucking mind as a kid) and I remember playing Duke Nukem 3D, Redneck Rampage and Shadow Warrior. Wow Redneck Rampage and Shadow Warrior were somehow even worse then I thought. I'm not entirely sure how I got away with playing those games as like a 9-10 year old, but I somehow turned out alright.....I think. Excellently made video! Even if it was painful to revisit some of these games, the effort you put into the video is clear.
Viewing that vulgar and immature content at a young age gets all that dumb out of your system early, or at least desensitizea you to the more basic stuff.
I so love long form content on YT that dives deep into its specific subject matter that would never find an audience in other media. I highly enjoy and appreciate all the effort you put into these vids.
32:30 Not sure how, but my school in leafy Surrey, England, set up giant Doom (and Worms) LAN parties every lunch break in ~1995/6, which was the first time I ever experienced deathmatch. Goldeneye, though, was definitely the first time I had access to a similar experience at home - and was basically all anyone I knew played. Even the Playstation kids would ask for sleepovers around N64 kids houses just so they could get in on the action.
44:25 "struggle to find much in it that isn't done better elsewhere" I understand if ppl didn't really see much new in Q2, but I would argue no fps at the time had as good level design. actually interesting fun geometry to explore.
I am REALLY looking forward to when "Children of DOOM" reaches current times. It's super interesting to see developers taking a few steps back. Games like DUSK and Prodeus ironically feel like a fresh breeze in the modern games market, despite them being mostly build on old bones.
The only reason I'm aware of _Deer Hunter_ is that it inspired the _Deer Avenger_ parody series. Also I'm pretty sure one of those knockoffs you mentioned got an arcade cabinet at some point because I've definitely seen one in person.
yay a new errant signal! I was checking the channel the other day and rewatching old videos and here we are. perfect timing. And it's an hour long jfc i love it
I can't tell you how amazing this series is. I understand that priorities and perspectives change during Earth-shattering events like COVID, but even if it takes you another decade, I'll watch every second of Children of Doom. Spectacular job so far.
I am so glad I got to experience the "cultural experience", known as Goldeneye 64 with my brothers and some friends. During a deployment to Iraq, I put a N64 emulator on my laptop. Having a few USB dual analog stick controllers, we played a lot of Goldeneye deathmatch this way on my laptop. Some of us were definitely going 10 years back in a time machine, every time we played it. This was in 2007/2008 btw.
i was born in 2000 so alot of the people ik had xboxs and ps2s, we didnt have much n my ma worked alot so when i was younger i went to a childminders, her kids were around 15 or so when i went but they still had a n64, halo at my cousins and goldeneye at theirs were the introduction to gaming. your comments on multiplayer brought back memories i forgot, big head slappers you only live twice, paintball lasers, rockets in facility, genuinely i will always say no matter what goldeneye is always in my top 10 (also jus a comment, thought it was interesting when talking about multistage objectives upon which you get more elaborate ones as you go higher in difficulty, that you didnt talk about perfect dark, esp as it was rares quite self admitted spiritual sequel to goldeneye. anyway jus wanted to say thank you for bring back some hidden memories, your analysises and comments have been hugely forming to my view of not only my chosen medium (film) but also how i view video games as almost the evolution of film just as film is an evolution of photography and that of painting. sorry for the rant, thank you)
An HOUR LONG errant signal video? I couldn't be happier. I've had a real shitty week and this helped make up for some of the bullshit. I love your longform videos, thank you for this.
Brit here, actually born in Norwich: It's pronounced 'Norritch'. Flawless on 'Hertfordshire', though. Love the content Chris! Always make time on the day your videos come out instead of dumping them in a playlist somewhere.
Gets to end of video: "Man ES must have gotten really excited for Half-Life after all that garbage." Video Ends: "Huh? Oh. I guess ES already did a Half-Life episode." Check ES videos: "HOLY SHIT! YOUR HALF LIFE VIDEO WAS MADE A DECADE AGO! WHY ARE WE SO OLD!? I'm 31, but still"
It is old enough that it is full of cringe-ass jokes. I'm actually looking forward to tackling the game with fresh eyes. I haven't really looked at it critically since... I can't even remember when.
@@ErrantSignal And you can blame HL for SO many games following it giving the player NOTHING to do for the first 10 minutes or so apart from wander around, because "It worked when Valve did it". :)
I can't wait until Children of Doom 2000 to hear your thoughts on Daikatana. That game is such a fascinating mess that I wish more people talked about.
Sometimes it's good to make something as short and consise as possible to deliver your point, but with longer stuff like this I feel like I just peeked into someone's thought process much deeper. It may be tough to get through, but it keeps my own brain working and thinking about stuff I might never guessed otherwise. In the end, I enjoy this longer stuff much, much more and I think you executed this format very well.
Goldeneye is probably the entire reason I play FPS games at all today. I've never been good at aiming with a mouse, but the auto aim feature in Goldeneye provided the perfect onramp for me. 007 and its successor Perfect Dark were huge parts of my teenage years precisely because of the compromises they made to make the game work (so, I suppose, thanks to Nintendo pushing for auto aim, haha). These days I'm too old to do most FPS games but I still eat up the RPG-leaning ones like Fallout, and I'm not going to be able to resist picking up the Perfect Dark remake/reboot. I do wonder where my enthusiasm for deathmatch modes in 007/PD went, though. I loved the multiplayer in both, but FPS multiplayer these days is utterly hostile to me. I think it'll be interesting to trace the genre forward (however far you go!), to see if I can pinpoint some of the shift.
It took me awhile to find the time to watch you video, but I just wanted to restate how much I appreciate your content. I look forward to it and it brings me an immense amount of entertainment. Thanks for all you do.
I hope the effort wasn't too crushing -- the result was fantastic. This feels like the kind of reference people could come back to for years.
Agreed. I'm really enjoying these. Editor not required.
The part about Goldeneye's combat, how you have to stop to aim accurately, and how body shots could cause stun animations that would make it easier to handle groups of enemies and land headshots, made me think: You're just describing Resident Evil 4. And the series since then has kept that style of gameplay in one way or another, even as it swayed more towards the action, then back towards the horror, then back towards the action again with Village. So it's cool that it lives on in some form, even if it's not in more traditional shooters.
I will say, I'm surprised that the topic of headshots kept coming up, but you never used that to segue into the fact that Goldeneye was the first FPS with headshots. I'd argue that's one of the ways Goldeneye was the most innovative and forward-thinking. Like it's hard to imagine an FPS released today not having headshots, unless it's intentionally a retro throwback.
so did virtual cop, so makes sense.
Rare sort of cheated on the headshot = instant death part. The head simply took amplified damage compared to the other parts of the body. As such if you program an enemy with 1000 health, it would still take multiple bullets to the head to kill them. They got it right on Perfect Dark where headshots were one shot kills.
Also you can't headshot enemies wearing helmets. Just leaves a bullet hole on their helmet. Awesome detail for 1997
While it might have been the first FPS it was common enough in other video games that is not really remarkable and likely would have been added to FPSs soon enough even if Goldeneye never existed.
@@dstarr3 Hit them the right way, the guard can look like T1000 after getting shot.
It's genuinely astonishing how much more sense Goldeneye makes when you think of it as a light gun game where you control what angle you're shooting from. So many areas and lines of sight have every element a light gun game's screen needs, with cover, multiple places for enemies to come from, and sometimes important targets.
This. I really enjoyed this analysis, it gave me a lot of epiphany moments thinking back on it like ohhh... now it all makes sense that it played like this.
It explains why Rare continued that sort of trend when they got to Timesplitters. Even with the second analogue stick, it feels like a Goldeneye but with better movement.
Re: autoaim, I think most people forget how heavily the original Doom also leaned on autoaim. Most modern ports leave it on, but you can turn it off in ports like GZDoom and when you do it's immediately clear how massive an impact it has on perceived player skill. So if 1997 in console FPS design is analogous to 1993 in PC FPS design, it makes sense that GoldenEye would do as it does.
you don't need autoaim in ports
don't forget that doom is a keyboard game with no mouse or verticality
and all these ports ruin it
@@tsartomato well can you establish on that?
@@jacktgh doom2 on release is absolute damn cancer that leagues worse than doom 1
kids these days just plop some sourceport with walkthrough and don't see the problem.
doom has no mouse aim it is played entirely on keyboard and is designed around that. in source ports icon of sin is like 10 seconds
in the original it's the most infuriating garbage boss that is extremely difficult and boring. it was easier to gank icon of sin in brutal doom than to deal with vanilla icon of sin
@@tsartomato but doom sourceport strength is the modding. What is your view on that?
@@jacktgh modding is not the same game
i do not engage with the mods usually, i only ever played some hl1 like poke646 +2, brutal doom, dystopia, synergy, chivalry, insurgency
if people have fun it's their fun. i just strictly dislike when people think that source ports are the same as original doom and try to defend doom2 terribleness or don't even disclose in their reviews that they are using modifications. there are a lot of extremely drastic changes in ports\mods. like campster highlights in this video difference with playing this thing with mouse
One of my favorite things about this series is getting the one bit of context for a classic videogame that makes me go "oh wait, suddenly I can see _exactly_ why this thing is the way it is". Like, with Catacomb 3D, it was Gauntlet-style top-down action games; with this, it was lightgun games.
Something else interesting about Doom 64 is that it is absolutely canon to Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal. Id Software liked that game enough to use it as the starting point for their reintroduction of Doom.
aren't like all mainline doom games canon?
@@ATOMarchive Doom 1, 2, and 64 are all canon to Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal. The only thing I think isn't canon is Doom 3 but I've been told it could be too.
😅q
Oh, I remember people being nuts over Deer Hunter. I never understood, possibly because I grew up in the US South where hunting is so common, but I think at the time I was just glad more people were playing video games.
My brother and I used to play a cracked version of Quake II, and the absence of the CD meant we got the sound effects but not the music. We compensated by playing it while listening to Pink Floyd's "The Wall" and let me say that that is a very specific and kind of on the nose pairing.
On one hand, playing a shooter while listening to Waiting For The Worms seems rad. on the other, Goodbye Blue Sky just seems depressing to be shooting something to lol
Still can't believe that the multiplayer for this game was thrown in essentially as an afterthought
I can, it was a mess, fun but still definitely slapped together. That is why as soon as Perfect Dark came out everyone I knew switched to playing it and never looked back.
Diablo 1 also got networking done last moment. Blizzard wanted it in since it was a big hit with warcraft 2, but blizzard north didnt feel like it (neither were they hot on it being real time until they were told to try it). So they ignored it until last moment, were like "yeah we dont have that yet" and blizzard sent some guys over to implement it. Battlenet was just one computer in a basement connecting people together.
Great video, and thanks for the shout-out during the controls chapter! Which sadly that's the part that was harder for me to watch, hah
Just a few things I'd like to clear up, I'm not a GoldenEye speedrunner, I just have the experience from playing the game basically all my life, and that Facility footage you picked is from my old N64 playthrough where I played much slower than I would nowadays. I have an updated one which is damageless and also played without autoaim, which is my go-to configuration now since a few years.
You totally don't need to stop and cover to aim at all, specially in harder difficulties. It's in fact not encouraged unless you know the position and can peek corners as enemies react faster, which brings another issue with the video - it is definitely possible to position yourself accurately in corners to peek with the C-Buttons. The game offers a wide variety of control schemes, one being 1.2 which is what most seasoned players use as it gives you complete free movement of the crosshair on the stick and character movement on the C-Buttons, basically being the perfect mix of WASD gaming and a joystick to aim. It seems that the footage recorded for the video is being played with a controller that isn't the original N64 controller, which is why it may seem over sensitive and not very accurate. Brawler64 perhaps? I feel this played a huge part on that part of the essay, giving a wrong idea. Much like DOOM mentioned in the video, you can run and gun to your heart's content, disabling auto-aim helps as you can manually align your aim to headshots as well.
Compared to modern sticks, even if they're twin-stick, they're far less accurate than the OEM N64 controller. The original N64 controller had flaws and could break easily, but thankfully there are solutions to that nowadays while maintaining the OEM accuracy. It allows for micro-adjustments to the aim that are simply impossible on modern sticks due to the nature of digital inputs, which is why it's very painful to play GoldenEye and Perfect Dark on anything that isn't the original N64 controller or mouse/keyboard on PC - you can compare the part where I defend Natalya on Control from the XBLA longplay you showed as well, it's almost impossible to track the enemies as they run past, but on N64 it's a very smooth experience where you can easily track them with and without aiming down sights. Multiplayer on XBLA also becomes a painful experience due to this - autoaim is usually understandably disabled, and the mix of fast opponents with imprecise modern sticks isn't very pleasing.
I really enjoyed the video! Just that small gripe I have when I listen to reviewers calling out the controls. I can assure you there's no replacement to the OEM controller. :)
Thank you so much, I'm very happy to see another person who really played it well back in the day and knows all about 1.2 without autoaim (because it takes headshots from you once you get good), and the beauty of c-button movement, with getting extra velocity by holding down two of them and moving more with your aiming to go fast... remembering playing that way definitely made it disappointing to know he didn't have what I would consider the normal, functional, enjoyable, and, real, way of playing the game. God knows why they didn't make that the "default" control scheme.
@@jedgrahek1426 It was probably set as default because in reality it's way more accessible for the general public - "Turok controls" while being basically 1.2, tend to be less accessible to most, although Turok forces some settings like look ahead always. But yes the controls still hold up amazingly, compare them to the Xbox remaster and it's borderline unplayable with the Xbox controller. Same goes for Perfect Dark on Xbox.
Late to the party, but is it more or less viable to use the d-pad for movement instead of the C-Buttons?
I still think about a piece of troll level design in Blood. There was an area where you were fighting a lot of big monsters so you had the rocket launcher out. Then you rounded a corner to a mirror. First mirror in the game.
Where you see your character pointing weapons at you. And you're holding a rocket launcher
Having never played Blood, I assume you immediately fire and blow yourself up? :)
@@Gledster Yeah, Caleb (your character) is pretty intimidating as dead guys go. It made sense to shoot him immediately.
I only just realized the helicopter in the game says Euro Chopper Pirate on it instead of the name of real world helicopter in the movie, the Eurocopter Tiger. Fun licensing things.
Tons of interesting stuff about Goldeneye. Neat.
If you are curious about a deeper dive on the Star Wars game, Noah Caldwell Gervais did a retrospective on the whole series, which, as is usual for him, was of excellent quality.
I started blanking Star Wars after it was bought by Disney. I didn't have any faith they'd take it anywhere I wanted to follow.
Never saw the new movies, know nothing about them or the new games or shows. I truly don't care anymore.
Perfect Dark also added more objectives for higher difficulties. Loved that game.
Well Chris probably didn't count it because it was in essence the sequel of Goldeneye 64.
PD64 was my favourite N64 game. Closely followed by The World is Not Enough and Goldeneye.
I was JUST watching some of the older videos the other day. Great to see a new episode!
You seem somewhat eager to make the Goldeneye film out to be a deliberate move away from the more serious, more grounded tone of the Timothy Dalton films but in reality, Goldeneye was (according to EON Productions themselves) written with the idea that Dalton would return to the Bond role. His specific approach to the character is all over the script, general tone, and even the overall plot. The only reason Dalton wasn't in the film was because he was unwilling to commit to the amount of follow-up films he would be required to take part in as a result.
In all reality, Brosnan didn't really get his own purpose-built Bond film until Tomorrow Never Dies and considering the rather sharp decline in overall quality from that point on, it isn't surprising that Goldeneye ends up being his most well regarded film.
I've only watched goldeneye once after playing the game and watching his other movies and i somehow didn't feel as excited about Pierce even though he's my fave Bond. This explains so much!
Also pierce was intended to be bond earlier, but he was in a contract doing a TV show and he was tied with that for a few seasons.
"Goldeneye ends up being his most well regarded film." you just mean bond films, because Goldeneye is not even close to being Brosnans most well regarded film.
@@xBINARYGODx Considering that we are talking pretty much exclusively about Bond films and Brosnan's place in them, yeah, I think it stands to reason that we are talking about Bond films.
4:05: _glances at video timeline_ I see there were a lot of other 1997 shooters you wanted to mention.
37:20: And this will be the last time. I understand _why,_ but I'm still sad that there won't be as many highlights in future episodes.
I'm going to miss this level of research, but I can't fault his reasoning. The proliferation is really going to hit hard in the next few years.
It's unfortunate as this is a huge reason why I've enjoyed these videos as much as I have.
How did you like the video for 1998?
@@gordongraham2064 Good, but...if 1997 was "less of a video essay and more of a plea for an editor," then 1998 was about 14% more plea-ing.
Actually, no, not 14%.
42.1% of the Goldeneye episode was about games other than Goldeneye. 69.4% of the Half-Life episode is about games other than Half-Life. 1998 was about 65% more plea-ing.
Maybe I'll change my mind about whether that's a good metric for plea-for-help-iness. Hopefully I won't recalculate that factor again.
Wait... So Turok had:
1) key hunts
2) a hub level
2a) the ability to go back to levels as much as you want
3) infinite enemies
4) finite pickups
5) a lives system
6) platforming with instant death pits
What a bizarre combination of contrary mechanics. It almost sounds like Nintendo were insisting on including classic arcade-style mechanics behind the scenes, whether or not that made sense in a first person action & exploration game.
Don't forget points systems; alongside lives and continues, the basest of arcade meta-progression mechanics! It seems so bizarre that they put "points" into Descent 1-2; like, at least tie it into the story by being like a bounty reward or something (as some (most?) shmups did)?
Wait was turok actually just dark souls
Turok was still a fantastic game
Also throw in "Restricted save points," as you could only save your game in the hub area or one of a few Saving Stones scattered around the maps. That mechanic, combined with the utterly massive levels, made playing the game in short sessions punishing because you could wind up losing a lot of progress if you have to turn the thing off.
This is also why the Nightdive PC port is actually still really playable.
Not sure why you think Nintendo was responsible for the mess the game ended up as. They were neither the developers nor the publishers, unlike with _GoldenEye_ where they were both the publisher and part-owners of the dev studio.
My abiding memory of Goldeneye is watching soldiers grab their necks as they apparently choke to death. After you shoot them in the foot.
I prefer to imagine that the shock of having a toe shot off causes them to choke on the gum the were chewing. :)
They didn't want you to shoot them anywhere else so they were merely pretending
Imagine getting choked by yourself at 17FPS. Yeah, it's not a nice thing to experience the last seconds of your life. RIP bloody foot soldiers.
What you don't understand is that in the context of the year this was released in, 1997, paired with the intent from the design document and the fact the game nearly wasn't made at all, this was a stroke of genius on the part of of the development team LOL just kidding.
Duke Nukem 3D did it first, I wonder if they got inspiration from that
One thing this series highlights is how quickly things were ever evolving and being attempted. The most forgettable games were the ones that were a new aesthetic while adding very little. Thanks for the video!
I've exclusively experienced bond movies through the podcast Kill James Bond and I kinda forgot there were actual movies tied into the audio clips, so seeing Judy Dench do the "sexist misogynist dinosaur" bit shook me up for a sec
As someone who grew up with Bond, It's rapidly becoming my favourite podcast.
The lightshooter connection was very enlightening, as is the description of the pseudo-stealth gameplay loop (which is exactly how I play Dishonored). The "elsewhere" segment was also super interesting, even if I know why you're going to have to cut it down to make these videos doable (the FPS genre is now an established genre, making an exhaustive approach impossible). Also, when you were describing the next video, I thought "I have literally no idea what you're talking about" before the first second of audio slammed me back into that train
The sheer evolution of the FPS genre during the 90’s is astounding. A mere 6 years meant the jump between Wolfenstien 3D and Half-Life. Nowadays FPS games have played more or less the same for the last 15 years.
Side note, that opening makes me want to see you do a retrospective of all the Bond movies now. Great work as always.
The biggest jump since 2007 is PROBABLY The Darkness 2, which got refined by id with Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal.
Goldeneye Source is not only a fantastically made mod, but also an example of how Goldeneye's mechanics can still work in modern day. If you decide to cover mods in this series, it's something to highlight for sure even if it is only multiplayer.
I'm curious what "mechanics" it actually lifts from Goldeneye. From what I've seen, it's just Half-Life 2 Deathmatch with Goldeneye weapons and maps.
@@stevethepocket shhh let the babies who need to overvalue Goldeneye well beyond its meager worth have their fun - they desperately need it, apparently.
For anyone who hasn't heard, it's back! It's on Nintendo Switch (through NS Online's N64 emulator with online multiplayer.) and Xbox One/Series S|X (with a steady 60FPS but no online MP. It IS on Game Pass and is now included with Rare Replay, if you have those).
I'd love, love, LOVE to see this series come back for 2023. It's just fantastic!
I randomly decided to rewatch a “children of doom” yesterday, ended up watching all episodes, and just in time for the new one! Sweet!!
same
sadly i can't rewatch a video/show/movie after a short time i remember what the video is about and it gets boring
Yanno, I've been enjoying this series for literal years and *just now* realized its title is a pun on Children of Dune. This is to say, thank you for the work you do and its richness therein.
Waiting for his follow-up series on the history of RTS games, Children of Dune 2.
@@SimonBuchanNz took me a hot moment to get that one.
I remember switching the controls to fully looking with the stick and moving with the c buttons being the superior method. I barely had to R button aim in multiplayer. I took to using a dry erase marker to make an aiming dot in the middle of my screen. Good times.
I know this or Perfect Dark had an option to use two controllers, to emulate modern twin analog stick controls.
You know, the fact that the original pitch for GoldenEye 007 called for a total of 5 people (including just a single programmer!) is really damn impressive. I almost wonder if the modern tendency towards maximalism in videogames is a good thing...
It's not. The industry is dependent on whales and mxt to keep it alive now. The bubble is about to burst imho.
This is such a great series. Doom was the seed from which a lot of modern gaming crystalised and I love seeing you take the history in the genre in chunks and examine them.
Really happy to see the Build stuff (for good or ill) and looking forward to the Lithtech stuff. Especially Cate Archer.
For other games with difficulty based objectives, Time Splitters 2 in true Golden Eye fashion cut out nearly half the level if you played them on easy.
Yeah the new Hitman games are ones that are crying out for difficulty based objectives.
What an absolute treat. Children of Doom is my favorite of all your content, and I'm delighted for the newest entry!
Been watching you for over a decade now, and damn, you're good at this! 👍
I recently played the XBLA version of Goldeneye and it made me realize I really love how the aim mode works with dual sticks. It just makes more sense in my head for hitting what I want rather than moving the entire view for everything. But I also realize that experience I had doesn't ocvor on N64 unless someone is using one of the two-controller configurations.
Holy crap an hour long Errant Signal episode.... a gift!
Love your works.
When you actually reach No One Lives Forever 2 you should put up a black screen for a few seconds as a gag, as if saying "ok, I've reached it, now I can drop dead".
It's insane how much of a leap forwards Half Life was. Great video as always! A few questions:
- Do you have any opinions on the Shadow Warrior reboot series?
- Would you consider doing a similar series on another genre after this? Maybe one on Point & Clicks, Immersive Sims or that strange and loose kind of "Arthouse" genre you often write about?
- Have you thought about doing a recommendations list at the end of this series for the games that you truly think are still worth playing for new players today?
This game actually plays very similarly to HL... of course there were some advances especially ai, but what he says here about needing to either aim/shoot or move one at a time is unfortunately utter nonsense born of him not knowing what control scheme to use. Which... well draw your own conclusions.
Actually crazy, Half Life feels so modern when you play it today, not dated at all.
@@jonnil1997 many older shooters do - but I dont know if that really is those older game being so good over the newer games not doing much with the genre
The fact that Halo 1 can still be seen to have amazing AI today, shows how much new ground has not be broken and how often many games do less that that game did.
I'd completely forgotten this series existed! Time to binge all of it!
Didn't realize this was an hour long till I glanced down halfway through, and it didn't feel like it was. Wonderful video essay as always!
I love this series so much because every time it hits i fall back into all these old great fun shooters and learn about some new ones I hadn’t considered. Can’t wait for half life!
Half-Life cliffhanger is killing me bro. This is one of the best video series on TH-cam, period, I know these videos take a ton of work but I hope Children of Doom isn't totally dead.
Wow... Reading the comment section. Didn't realised how seriously people took Shadow Warrior.
A few corrections. Just because the higher skill modes don't have generous auto-aim, doesn't mean you have to move + stop to aim all the time. You can easily aim without the sights and do headshots more often because of the lack of auto aim. Goldeneye also has dual analog control options and/or D-pad movement /Stick aiming, which makes the game play almost like a modern shooter. All the stuff mentioned in the video only apply for the default controls.
The unlockable cheat menu is what made this game so cool for me. It added replayability that was largely absent from the N64 in general unless you liked binging OOT
Man, the elsewhere section is extremely interesting to understand the context of so many classic games. Its sad that its so demanding to research this many games.
If youtube keeps not recommending me these videos I'm going to
Finally, Chris joins the 1+ hour club
I said something along the lines of this on Patreon but I just want to express how excellent I think this video was. I love the balance of in depth goldeneye coverage with skimming through other notable releases. I think this is one of my favorite videos you’ve ever done. I say take as long as you need between videos. The time you put in really shows. And I appreciate your videos and your unique voice which I think is helping to elevate writing about games in general.
The interesting thing about the game's weird move-or-aim control scheme is that it would kind of get revived when the Wii came around. The _Call of Duty_ ports used a scheme where the remote free-aims on the screen but also turns the camera (and by extension, you, just like any modern FPS) if you get close to the edges. And you could customize how close, and how quickly the camera's turning speed ramps up, and everything, so you could set it up to mostly behave like a weird sort of mouselook. And then if you hold A, it locks the screen so you can free-aim all the way out to the edges.
And to anyone wondering, yes I know that the _GoldenEye_ remake was originally on the Wii, and yes I know it'd be more relevant to discuss that instead... but I haven't gotten around to playing it yet. I'd kind of intended to wait until I had a capture card and could make a blind LP of it.
Redneck Rampage was actually the first FPS I ever experienced. My uncle had a copy when I was about six years old and somehow neither him nor my parents had any problem with me playing it. I thought it was just about the greatest game ever at the time, but I picked it up on sale a few years back and it really didn't hold up.
Yeah, me and my friends, growing up in a hick town in its 5th decade of consistent decline, loved this game, but I'm sure that if I played it now it would be pure garbage.
Great video as always! I think there are actually two significant things about Quake 2 though:
First, Quake 2 was id's first attempt at really telling a complete story; It has an opening pre-rendered cinematic (their first) and a cohesive progression in its levels, with some clear environmental storytelling. (What's MOST significant about this is perhaps not that they did it, but that even though they made an effort, Half-Life would be the first FPS *known* for pulling off a cohesive story, from a brand new studio that theoretically should have had no idea what they were doing!)
Second, Quake 2 was (if I remember correctly) far more moddable than Quake 1 was, though it required modders to compile DLL's - a feature that made cross-platform mods an impossibility.
I'd also mention that Quake 2's rail gun was the first FPS hitscan weapon that wasn't a regular gun or bow and arrow, and it created a clever 'one hit kill with a long reload' tradeoff for players. (I had a friend who could consistently nail people with it in multiplayer, even over a modem, because he was just that practiced at compensating for lag.)
The bit about context is so crucial when we talk about why games are so well remembered. Everyone has rose coloured glasses for their favourite games as a kid, but there's also such a big contextual understanding that goes in to what makes a game great.
The one I always come back to, because I lived it, is (sorry to have to do this) Dark Souls. It came out in a time where there was nothing like it on the market, really, and games weren't doing as much to tie together narrative and thematic elements into gameplay. The context of the video games media space being what it was WHEN DS came out, is just as much a part of it's success as the story, the gameplay, and the world and level design. Going back and playing it now is nostalgic, but is also kind of a chore for a lot of reasons, and I don't see future generations (basically zoomers and onward) revisiting it unless some Millennial grandpa tells them it is one of the games of all time. It's also genre defining. I think it will end up being a lot like Rogue, in that way. Anyways, great vid, love your stuff!
I love this video. I've seen a lot of dismissive talk about Goldeneye, saying it was all about the multiplayer, but you did a fantastic job in particular of identifying the unique traits that made its single player great.
I'll be sad to see the Elsewhere sections get shorter. I love detailed information about very specific parts of video game history, and I could watch breakdowns like those all day.
Shadow Warrior, Duke Nukem 3D and Redneck Rampage remind us that while we're painting the walls with blood and guts, blasting brains out and eviscerating, what's really offensive are jokes.
The most bewildering part about Redneck Rampage, was that it contained an early form of DLC sorta. The Cuss Pack, which you could only purchase from Interplay's website for $1 with a credit card, basically let you replace all of the voiced lines with more profane counterparts, which means you can experience the same annoying, unfunny game, but with more profusive swearing that sounds like a 5 year old that learned the F-word for the first time and tries to use it everywhere. Which means your enemies are screaming "I'm gonna fuck ya!", "Ow fucker!", "I'll kick your fuckin ass you fuck", "Hey motherfucker" and "Jesus christ you god fucknut" and other lines ad nauseum. Does that even *sound* like a good time?
It's interesting how you described Hexin (Hexane?) 2 as a bunch of wandering around, searching for a key or the place to put it, because that was very much my experience with the original DOOM, especially in the larger, later levels. They're fast-paced, sure, but something about their maze-like, branching and looping design made it really easy for me to get lost in them for long periods of time, especially if I was going for completion over speed.
Of course, part of this was that it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that the game had a map.
Hexen. It was far worse in hexen 2 as you had multiple, larger than doom, more complex levels deliberately hiding things from you. The set of levels shown in the video footage probably took me about 8 hours to get through, from memory? And it's the first part of like, 5? It really kills any sense of progression.
I remember when I was a kid my older cousin had an old N64 with this game. He let me and my step-bro play. Some of the most fun we had with multiplayer was setting health to the highest it had, cramming together into one of the bathroom stalls, and just meleeing each other until one of us died. This sort of prolonged slapfight with each one of our models getting bloodier and bloodier was just so funny to us.
When you were talking about the innovations GoldenEye brought to 1997 aiming in video games, it really made me think about Nerrel's latest video on gyro-aiming with Snap-Stick 90-degree Turns replacing the camera controls on the right-stick.
Goldeneye-style extended pain animations are included in the single-player campaign mode of 2002's Command & Conquer: Renegade, with especially long ones when using fire, laser, and tiberium weapons. Even in a mouse and keyboard environment, they can still make sense in games like that with tankier enemies.
What I'm drawing from all this is that the quality of James Bond movies should pick up soon.
You know when you're refreshing your subscription feed about 10 times per minuet desperately looking for something to watch, then you see a video but -oh wait- it's an hour long.... hmmm, but it's about a videogame... oh wait, this is an Errant Signal video? FUCK YEAH, LET'S GO!
Edit: that comment got away from me didn't it
Those Dark Forces II cutscenes are giving me such nostalgic throwback vibes, which is funny because I never played much of the Dark Forces series before Jedi Academy.
But having them both come out from Lucasarts around the same time, I played the hell out of Rebel Assault 2 which had the same style of cutscene FMV. So good.
one of my favorite shows on youtube. Love the work. Here's to another ten years and a deus ex 5 at some point.
That kind of mix of stealth tactics and run-and-gun action is one of the things I really like about Turok 2. There are enemies that just don't notice you at first. Sniping is obvious, but one thing I found useful, even with a controller, is sneaking up on an enemy with the Warblades. Get close enough, and they will notice and turn around. But that is the best way to get a quick insta-kill, because the bodies of the monsters are a little hunched over. The headshots are difficult from behind. But walking up to them, letting them turn around and taking their head off with the warblades is a viable tactic for the first half or so of the game. Like Goldeneye, it isn't quite a "stealth game", but the little stealth options give the combat a little more depth.
Really hope this series gets another installment :)
Just found this channel and series from a buddy of mine. You earned yourself a sub for that great video and the half life one on the horizon!
This is only a little thing, but what a great concept for the thumbnail.
Always a good day when Errant Signal releases a video. Upgraded to a great day when you realise said episode is over an hour long.
This came out and I didn't see it for 8 days?
Amazing effort, an hour long. You must have unlocked some kind of TH-cam video essayist achievement.
tbh I thought ight because you hadn't mentioned PD the whole first half I was expecting you to do that mid movie switch into "and that's because Perfect Dark perfected all of GoldenEye's shortcomings" and it was going to become a PD video but alas thus. Amazing job.
"Speaking of the build engine *dejected sigh*"- Yeah I knew exactly which games were coming up. I grew up as a kid going to a friend's house whose Dad was working in the computer industry in the 90's. He had SEVERAL computers in his basement (which blew my fucking mind as a kid) and I remember playing Duke Nukem 3D, Redneck Rampage and Shadow Warrior. Wow Redneck Rampage and Shadow Warrior were somehow even worse then I thought. I'm not entirely sure how I got away with playing those games as like a 9-10 year old, but I somehow turned out alright.....I think.
Excellently made video! Even if it was painful to revisit some of these games, the effort you put into the video is clear.
Viewing that vulgar and immature content at a young age gets all that dumb out of your system early, or at least desensitizea you to the more basic stuff.
I so love long form content on YT that dives deep into its specific subject matter that would never find an audience in other media. I highly enjoy and appreciate all the effort you put into these vids.
wow blood and doom made most of my childhood memorable ....and really nice series keep the good work....
32:30 Not sure how, but my school in leafy Surrey, England, set up giant Doom (and Worms) LAN parties every lunch break in ~1995/6, which was the first time I ever experienced deathmatch. Goldeneye, though, was definitely the first time I had access to a similar experience at home - and was basically all anyone I knew played. Even the Playstation kids would ask for sleepovers around N64 kids houses just so they could get in on the action.
44:25 "struggle to find much in it that isn't done better elsewhere" I understand if ppl didn't really see much new in Q2, but I would argue no fps at the time had as good level design. actually interesting fun geometry to explore.
I'm both surprised and not at all surprised you danced around mentioning the actual Goldeneye remake
With the segment of deer hunter being covered, i feel like its only fitting that 1998 get a small blurb on a classic response: Deer Avenger
Damn, was really loving the hard pivot to final analysis.
I am REALLY looking forward to when "Children of DOOM" reaches current times.
It's super interesting to see developers taking a few steps back. Games like DUSK and Prodeus ironically feel like a fresh breeze in the modern games market, despite them being mostly build on old bones.
The only reason I'm aware of _Deer Hunter_ is that it inspired the _Deer Avenger_ parody series. Also I'm pretty sure one of those knockoffs you mentioned got an arcade cabinet at some point because I've definitely seen one in person.
yay a new errant signal! I was checking the channel the other day and rewatching old videos and here we are. perfect timing. And it's an hour long jfc i love it
I can't tell you how amazing this series is. I understand that priorities and perspectives change during Earth-shattering events like COVID, but even if it takes you another decade, I'll watch every second of Children of Doom. Spectacular job so far.
I have to be honest. The elsewhere sections are my absolute favorite. Please keep them coming!
I am so glad I got to experience the "cultural experience", known as Goldeneye 64 with my brothers and some friends. During a deployment to Iraq, I put a N64 emulator on my laptop. Having a few USB dual analog stick controllers, we played a lot of Goldeneye deathmatch this way on my laptop. Some of us were definitely going 10 years back in a time machine, every time we played it. This was in 2007/2008 btw.
I love your content so much, and it's cool to see you do something long-form like this! hoping it gets the attention it deserves
Golden Eye on mouse and keyboard plays more like a John Wick game than a James Bond one.
i was born in 2000 so alot of the people ik had xboxs and ps2s, we didnt have much n my ma worked alot so when i was younger i went to a childminders, her kids were around 15 or so when i went but they still had a n64, halo at my cousins and goldeneye at theirs were the introduction to gaming. your comments on multiplayer brought back memories i forgot, big head slappers you only live twice, paintball lasers, rockets in facility, genuinely i will always say no matter what goldeneye is always in my top 10
(also jus a comment, thought it was interesting when talking about multistage objectives upon which you get more elaborate ones as you go higher in difficulty, that you didnt talk about perfect dark, esp as it was rares quite self admitted spiritual sequel to goldeneye. anyway jus wanted to say thank you for bring back some hidden memories, your analysises and comments have been hugely forming to my view of not only my chosen medium (film) but also how i view video games as almost the evolution of film just as film is an evolution of photography and that of painting. sorry for the rant, thank you)
An HOUR LONG errant signal video? I couldn't be happier. I've had a real shitty week and this helped make up for some of the bullshit. I love your longform videos, thank you for this.
Brit here, actually born in Norwich: It's pronounced 'Norritch'. Flawless on 'Hertfordshire', though.
Love the content Chris! Always make time on the day your videos come out instead of dumping them in a playlist somewhere.
Haha I was just checking to see if anyone else had pointed the pronunciation of Norwich 😁
Gets to end of video: "Man ES must have gotten really excited for Half-Life after all that garbage."
Video Ends: "Huh? Oh. I guess ES already did a Half-Life episode."
Check ES videos: "HOLY SHIT! YOUR HALF LIFE VIDEO WAS MADE A DECADE AGO! WHY ARE WE SO OLD!? I'm 31, but still"
It is old enough that it is full of cringe-ass jokes.
I'm actually looking forward to tackling the game with fresh eyes. I haven't really looked at it critically since... I can't even remember when.
@@ErrantSignal And you can blame HL for SO many games following it giving the player NOTHING to do for the first 10 minutes or so apart from wander around, because "It worked when Valve did it". :)
Goldeneye’s control scheme might not hold up by today’s standards, but we’re certainly living in the console FPS world Goldeneye created.
I can't wait until Children of Doom 2000 to hear your thoughts on Daikatana. That game is such a fascinating mess that I wish more people talked about.
Sometimes it's good to make something as short and consise as possible to deliver your point, but with longer stuff like this I feel like I just peeked into someone's thought process much deeper. It may be tough to get through, but it keeps my own brain working and thinking about stuff I might never guessed otherwise. In the end, I enjoy this longer stuff much, much more and I think you executed this format very well.
I am absolutely LOVING this series. Good work man.
Goldeneye is probably the entire reason I play FPS games at all today. I've never been good at aiming with a mouse, but the auto aim feature in Goldeneye provided the perfect onramp for me. 007 and its successor Perfect Dark were huge parts of my teenage years precisely because of the compromises they made to make the game work (so, I suppose, thanks to Nintendo pushing for auto aim, haha). These days I'm too old to do most FPS games but I still eat up the RPG-leaning ones like Fallout, and I'm not going to be able to resist picking up the Perfect Dark remake/reboot.
I do wonder where my enthusiasm for deathmatch modes in 007/PD went, though. I loved the multiplayer in both, but FPS multiplayer these days is utterly hostile to me. I think it'll be interesting to trace the genre forward (however far you go!), to see if I can pinpoint some of the shift.
A big thing for me is the difference between playing multiplayer with friends in the same room, and playing with strangers online.
It took me awhile to find the time to watch you video, but I just wanted to restate how much I appreciate your content. I look forward to it and it brings me an immense amount of entertainment. Thanks for all you do.
I love this series so dang much and I wanted you to know that cuz I can tell it takes an incredible amount of work.
Goddamn I love the depth and detail of these videos. Pure quality.
Wow, I can see why this episode took so long to make now! Effort well spent though, excellent video!