I'm feeling nostalgic and wanted to talk about an overlooked classic.
As some of you may have seen on the facetubes, I plugged in my old n64 for some nostalgia. I tried out Zelda to start with then Goldeneye then came across THE n64 game of all games: Turok 2 Seeds of Motherfucking Evil. Holy shit I haven't played this game in around 15 years. This was >the< game for me back in my n64 loving days along with Goldeneye, Banjo Kazooie, Zelda64 and F-Zero X. I had never played anything like it. Even the first Turok which I loved couldn't have prepared me for how awesome this game was. When I learned of it's development and saw the first screenshots of it back in the good old magazine days I became obsessed with it. I'd stare at screenshots of it in N64 Magazine and Nintendo Magazine like Golum stares at his precious. It topped my obsession over even Goldenye! and that's saying something. It's graphics, style and design captures my little 10 year old mind like nothing before. Because fucking genetically engineered dinosaur hybrids, man!
Playing it on the console was great, but my modern TV doesn't really agree with my n64 too much so I was forced to look at alternative means of playing it. I remembered that this got ported to the PC all those years ago and I went in search of it. And lucky me! It's alive and fully available thanks to fans. I installed it and I've been jizzing my pants for the past hour. Seeing this old gem in 1680 res with full mouse support is really something.
So what made this game so special for me?
The box art for a start. Just fucking look at that shit. It's got dinosaur fucking scales on it! Only badass games have dinosaur scales. It was even textured and shiny! When I was younger I didn't have the internet until I was 13/14 so I had no real idea when a game was coming out so I had to rely on the flaky release dates provided by the mgazines. The game kept slipping and I had no idea when it was really coming out. I remember I was walking around Woolworths (heyoo we're old) with my mum one day and saw it on the shelves. I. fucking. SHIT.
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The music was god damn icnrediballs. I thought Goldeneye, Zelda, F-Zero and Banjo Kazooie had good music but damn this was something else for me. It was really different and caught my imagination. Music in games hadn't really managed to do before.
The GRAPPPHICIICICICSICSICISICSICSSSSOGGMGMMGMGGGGG
By far the best looking game for the n64 and even now while I was playing made me go "holy shit!" the stuff they had going on in this for a 32mb cartridge was INSANE. For example some of the shit they had going on:
Dismemberment. You could blast the fucking limbs and heads off of anything!
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Alignment to angled surfaces. Killed a guy on a slope? No problem, he fucking aligned perfectly. No dumb angle clipping here!
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The animations were, and still are even by today's standards amazing. I was really surprised at how well they stand up to today. Blew my mind back in 1998
The weapons were so imaginative and satisfying to shoot. I would go as far to say that Turok 2's shotugun is more enjoyable than Doom's for me. You get explosive shells! Anyone remember the Cerebral Bore? Fuck me that was awesomeeeeeee.
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The levels were huge and sprawling (for the time) with lots of variety and use of colour.
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Bad guys would react if you shot them. For example if you shot them in the arm they would clutch it and cry out in pain. Not even the glorious Half-Life had this!
Arrows fucking stuck into the bad guys and the environment. Holy shit.
You had full 3d movement. There weren't a great many 3d FPS games like this on the n64. If any from what I can remember. You couldn't jump in Goldeneye.
Fucking awesome looking bosses. Does this one look familiar? Quake 4 had a fatty like this. Turok 2 did it first, yo.
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Hot alien bitches
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You could ride a fucking Triceratops with huge fucking guns on it. Come onnnnnnn! You could even blow up buildings. 32mb cartridge GOTY.
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