Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion is being remastered!

[66455fd4b7710JDoran]

Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion, the fourth* and final Turok game that was released on the Nintendo 64, is being remastered by Nightdive Studios. For those who have never played it, it's a pretty good first person shooter that was exclusive to the N64, but sadly received little recognition because it was released at a time when N64 owners were abandoning the console in favour of the Sega Dreamcast or the Sony Playstation 2. Plus the game came out after the monumentally superb Perfect Dark, and just couldn't compete with that.

Also, the fact that most of Turok 3 was free of dinosaurs, in a game series that was know  as "Those first person shooter games where you shoot dinosaurs" didn't help it's popularity either.

Unlike the first two Turok games, which were more traditional first person shooters, where you went through various levels, finding keys to open new areas, finding ever more powerful weapons so you could defeat ever more powerful enemies, Turok 3 tried to be more like Half-Life. Each new chapter gives you an onscreen name or warning or whatever, the game feels more like a journey than a set of disconnected levels, you have (very simplistic) objectives to complete, friendly NPS as well as enemies, and so on. Sadly it's mostly not nearly as good as Half-Life, though on the plus side it doesn't have anything as boring as Half-Life's mid-game conveyer belt boredom level, or Half-Life's utterly tedious Xen levels, (and it shows how great Half-Life is, that those two areas don't stop Half-Life from being overall really good).

In Turok 3, you play as either Joseph or Danielle, and whichever you choose allows you to progress though some levels differently; Danielle, has a grappling hook, whereas Joseph, being younger and smaller, can fit through confined spaces. You can upgrade your weapons, and, again, some of the upgrades vary on who you are playing as. Gameplay takes place over five worlds (the fourth of which is where you play in the first Turok game, meaning that this level is the only one in Turok 3 where dinosaurs are common).

I am glad that NDS are bringing this game to the masses, but I doubt it will be too popular. It's a fun game, and does feel Half-LIfe-ish, which made it unique on the N64, but users of the PC or modern consoles already have many similar games to play. This is more for Turok  fans than most gamers, I think.

Useless fact: Turok 3 is one of only two N64 games (that I can recall, offhand) where the characters in the cut-scenes actually had lip-synch when they spoke). The other is Conker's Bad Fur Day.



https://store.steampowered.com/app/1996770/Turok_3_Shadow_of_Oblivion_Remastered/






* Turok 3 is actually the third single player Turok game on the N64, but the fourth overall, because between the release of Turok 2 and Turok 3, another Turok game, called Turok: Rage Wars, was released on the N64. Turok: Rage Wars is a multiplayer-only game, very like Unreal Tournament, or Quake II, though it came out before  either of those games.  And like UT and Q3, Turok Rage Wars does have a single player mode, but it's just a series of matches, like when you're playing it against other humans, but you play against bots.

I don't like Turok: Rage Wars much, myself. It's very inferior to both Quake 3, and the fantastic Unreal Tournament, and it's the only N64 Turok game I don't much care for. I think it's levels are too simplistic, the game modes are far too few, the bots are too stupid, and to me it feels like not nearly enough time or effort was spent on it, as though (and I am just speculating here) someone at Acclaim saw the early details about the upcoming Quake 3 or Unreal Tournament, and thought "We can quickly put out a game like that, we won't need a story, voice acting, a single player campaign, etc, just take the deathmatch code we already have in Turok 2, creates some new levels, add some stuff, take away or change other stuff, send it to the publisher, then get back to working on the real game, Turok 3".

Still, some people really like/liked Turok: Rage Wars, I've seen it praised often on forums, so maybe I'm being too critical of it.

[66455fd4b78c5JDoran]

I was just reading on Turok 3's Steam page that apparently the game is due out on November 14th. I don't mean to knock Nightdive Studios, but I wish they would concentrate on fixing the bugs in the PC version of System Shock Remastered, then releasing SSR on consoles, and then maybe working on Turok 3 or any other new game.

And whatever happened to their remaster of the game 'Sin'? That has been promised for a long time, now.

[66455fd4b7a93voodoo47]

yeah, sure, why not, you can have my 10 bucks, NDS.

Quake II

Q3

[66455fd4b7c2eZylonBane]

Unless they're upgrading the resolution of all the textures, it's not a remaster.

[66455fd4b7d93JDoran]

Nightdive Studios have announced that they will be remaking Star Wars: Dark Forces.

Source: https://www.eurogamer.net/cult-hit-shooter-star-wars-dark-forces-remaster-in-works-from-system-shock-remake-team

[66455fd4b7ea5voodoo47]

never cared too much for movie-based computer games for some reason. Star Wars not being an exception.