Enemy Down

Return to the Cafe '80's

A look ahead at the games spewing forth from a 1980's inspiration valve, you lucky kiddies!

Posted by Dekko on Apr 12th 2009 14:12

Games developers seem to be looking back to look ahead with that decade of spandex, hair spray & greed being good appearing as a milestone in their inspiration, or to be more specific it is the iconic movies of the period that are giving them (and in turn us) that ol' tingling feeling.

We take a tour of the Cafe '80's to have a peek at what lies ahead for us in the next gaming year and have a butchers into the soul of our own gaming Satan; actually wanting the 1980's recreated in video game form! Be gone Satan!

The first game I remember that looked back to the 1980's was Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and a great pastiche it was, geling some Hollywood '80's imagery straight out of Scarface (also made into a game, folks) and number one new TV show Miami Vice and mixing it with a healthy dose of satire and that all important violence to create a classic and many peoples favourite of the GTA series.

The 1980's are the decade a lot of games developing people types would of grown up in, they would of been schooled in the ways of kung fu, Uzi 9mm's and Proton Packs and the physics there of and the movies, TV shows and styles of the day will be burned on to their psyches, just as they are on mine.

TV shows such as Airwolf, The A Team, Street Hawk, Blue Thunder & Knight Rider are corner stones in my generation's way of thinking (God, I'm getting old!) and the thought of a bunch of games based on the movies of our childhood is very appealing (if they're good, naturally).

Wow, I'd love a fully realised next gen Street Hawk game that didn't suck. Maybe Airwolf too?

Anyway, on with our main topic of discussion; those movies which are being made into games. Well to begin you have to ask which one are you more excited about?

1) Highlander

2) Terminator

3) Ghostbusters

4) Aliens

Firstly there is Highlander, from Eidos. The game is an action role player in which you take control of a 'new' Immortal, another angry Scot who loves nowt more than growling at the badger; Owen MacLeod, ancestor to both Conor & Duncan. Another MacLeod. Hmm.

Now the Highlander franchise hasn't had the best of luck game wise. I remember the game released around the time of the first movie and the general reaction was to flee in fear in the opposite direction as it approached.

The attrocity was released in 1986 by Ocean Software (what ever happened to them, they were huge?) and recieved a full round of poor scroes, scorn and vomit.

As for the new incarnation well it looks alright, dare I venture even 'good'? Yep I will stick my neck out and say it looks good (I remeber what happened to people who said that about the first; now they sleep with the fishes).

It sounds pretty groovy with a story spanning two thousand years from Owen getting captured by the Romans where he is forced to fight as a Gladiator in Rome. Sounds pretty cool.

The story spans ancient Gaul, Pompeii and modern day New York and your epic fight against your arch foe who, just like in the movies, you can't defeat until the final battle, in the game your quest to find an ancient magical stone is the key to your ultimate victory.

OK, so that's the basic plot, game wise Eidos are handing out the dev duties to Widescreen Games (who did Dead to Rights II on the PS2 I think) and they are opting for using the Unreal Engine 3. The game takes a third person view point and focuses on the action, sword play element of the Highlander series rather than the melancholy of the long of living.

As Owen is an Immortal and immune to all but his noggin being lopped off, his body will be used in a myraid of ingenius ways, such as a conductor to pass electricity through. He can fall from great heights and survie but he can still become badly injured which will obviously slow him down.

You wield different types of sword and can choose from different fighting styles in which to take down the other Immortals within the game so you can strive to become 'The One', this is where the RPG elements of the game will kick in.

Yep, it sounds interesting but it's not the one I'm most excied about, so how about Terminator?

Well to be honest it's a movie tie-in game to be released alongside Terminator: Salvation rather than a re-imagining of the old Sega Megadrive game, which had four whole levels and could be completed in the time it takes to clip your toe nails....on one foot....if you only have one toe.

Ah that old Megadrive game, I remember wanting it even though it lacked substance just because it looked good graphically with digitised scenes from the movie in the game. I'm glad I didn't as it sucks donkey ball (just the one, it's not good enough to suck both).

A next gen game based on the first movie would be cool, if it were made with time & care.

Anyway, the new release is indeed full of sexy close ups of Christian Bale (who isn't lending his voice or likeness to the game, apparently. Maybe he's too busy slapping his Mum about why she grovels for some spare change?) so that might be a bit odd, but he's an art-eest darling, games are beneath him. Either that or he's read the script and it's dire :s

Either way the game is looking average at best.

So, next up is Ghostbusters: The Video Game and now we're cooking with gas!

OK so again this game isn't a carbon copy of the original movie but is in effect Ghostbusters 3 as it takes place not in the present but two years after the events of Ghostbusters 2 with the storyline written by Dan Aykroyd & Harold Ramis it really will be a sequel and a continuation of the franchise, hopefully to a level which befits the original movies.

With Aykroyd & Ramis on board it really does bode well and all the other original cast members (apart from Rick Moranis and Sigourney Weaver) including Peter Venkman himself, aka Bill Murray, lending their voices it should feel like a homecoming for fans to the series.

In the game you take on the role of a new recruit, an 'everyman' for you to fill. Whether this character will be customisable I don't know, hopefully some level of detail will give you free reign to let your freak flag fly.

This raw recruit will basically be a guinea pig for Ray & Egon's newest inventions and ghost trapping gear, all of which you will hump about the city and try out under the tutorage of your fellow Ghostbusters.

The game had an interesting birth with the developer Zootfly, back in 2006, producing a demonstration video of what they would do if they had the rights to make a Busters game and the reaction was huge with over a million signatures (including mine) on the petition to Sony (holders of the rights) to get the game made.

Sadly this never came about and Zootfly turned their Busters concept into TimeO, which is apparently a true story about two New Yorkers who disappeared in a basement in Harlem which supposedly houses a portal to a parallel dimension (I wonder how high the rent is in that place?!).

Anyway, around the same time Sierra Entertainment and devs Terminal Reality had a chin wag with Sony about a Busters game and thanks to the positive feedback from the Zootfly affair they got an OK, putting us where we are today anticipating a cracking Ghostbusters game that is heir apparent to the franchise, featuring the cast (well, all those we care about!) and an Aykroyd & Ramis script, oh my, it makes one come over all unnecessary doesn't it?

There will also be a Wii & a PS2 version which has been farmed out to Red Fly Studio while the DS version is being helmed by Zen Studios. All versions will be published by the mighty Atari whose star is on the rise again, bless 'em.

The game looks better and better with each video that is realeased and those who have had some hands on time come away all smiles.

It uses the Infenal engine and word is the game play has taken a leaf out of Gears of War's play folder with your Buster being able to 'Roadie Run' and the camera angle being a similar over the shoulder number. It looks sweet.

All looks good there but it isn't the game I'm most looking forward too, oh no. Instead that honour will have to go to number four; Aliens.

To be more precise; Aliens: Colonial Marines.

Oh God, I'm loving the thought of this game long time, ten dollar gamer boy and the delay to early next year will hopefully do the game the world of good.

In fact 2010 will host not one but three Aliens games, the first is the one we'll be discussing here, the one already mentioned, the other two are the as yet unnamed (and quite possibly scraped) Aliens RPG by Obsidian (devs behind Neverwinter Nights 2 and Star Wars: KOTOR II) which could be great if the rumours of its demise were untimely, think of a Knight of the Old Republic but Aliens and next-gen, sounds pretty sweet, right?

Well let's hope Sega think so, they hold the licence to all of the Aliens games being produced and maybe they think Colonial Marines will be enough? Time will tell.

The third game is a brand new Alien Versus Predator game (which will be the fifteenth AvP game made, wow, 'tis a lot squire, especially as most of them were dump) that is being developed by Rebellion who made the best AvP game ever made back on the Jaguar (later re-made for the PC).

But we're concerned with Aliens: Colonial Marines my boy, a beaut of a peach of a holy macarel of a game with the very sexual Gearbox Software doing the DJ duties (DJ = dev jockey's).

Right, strap on your eyes as this game sounds (and looks from all the screenshots) like a blinder.

I'm sure that most of you know the Alien franchise well (and no, the AvP movies don't count!) and have seen Aliens and dreamed of being a Colonial Marine and stomping around shooting 'xenomorph's', well Sega has too & have handed the duty to Gearbox who seem to be relishing the opportunity.

They are making sure that the small details are being honed down to the finest speck of Weyland-Yutani paperwwork laying all spookily forlorn on a desk in an empty lab down on LV-426 and the sound effects are going to be brilliant with Gearbox obtaining the original sound tapes from Aliens to better enable them to bring the universe alive, the main benefit of this being the proper distinctive sound when firing the M41-A Pulse Rifle!

The game is naturally a FPS with you taking the role of a bad ass Colonial Marine ready to shift assholes and elbows as soon as you surly Sarge orders it.

Things will be a squad based slice of cake, you'll control four different Marines who each lug a different primary weapon and have a character of their own, the best part of this is four player co-op online! Oh the sweet, oozing joy!

In addition to your main bang bang stick you'll be able to carry extra weaponry including some classics from the movie such as the Pulse Rifle, flamethrower and plenty of different grenades.

You'll only control one marine at a time but will be able to issue commands and 'hot swap' between characters as you wish. I'm sure some sections will require your squad to split up though, probably on a dark, scary bit where you'd rather have some company.

The game is set about (or just after) the time of Alien 3 with a marine search & rescue squad sent out to see what the heck fire has happened onboard the U.S.S. Sulaco and its crew, the script is being penned by David Weddle & Bradley Thompson who previously worked on the rather sterling remake of Battlestar Galactica, so the hope for a good story seems solid.

The Sulaco, LV-426 (including the derelict Alien space ship which crashed there) and the Fiorina 'Fury' 161 prison complex are all areas you'll explore in game, many a night will be whiled away with three mates as you try and hold a strong point with sentry guns and the last few rounds in your rifle while screaming "They're coming out of the walls, man!" and after a whupping "Game over man, game over!".

The movie Aliens has so many great one liners that you'll be quoting the movie constantly while playing the game, especially with mates by your side.

The 'holding a strong point' bit will actually appear in game at times where you'll have to defend an area against a concentrated Alien attack, they are sneaky blighters and they'll try to outflank you thus forcing your brain to kick in and use tactical combat rather than just run blindly in holding down the trigger while avoiding those French kissing Facehuggers (who will appear & try to snog you).

As for some competitive online game modes, well there has been talk of Quake II type battles based on the Gloom mod which would mean frantic action blended with strategy, Gloom is still played today, still popular, so hopefully something along these lines (but in the Aliens universe, obviously) could be the target.

Every screenshot fills me up with a love that dares not speak its name and I cannot wait until this game is released, I've even sat and watched Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection back to back after reading a preview the other day.

I'm hooked on the idea of the game so let's hope the final product does not lick the anus of Lucifer.

And that leaves us at the end of our trip through the Cafe '80's, we hope you enjoyed the soup of the day and all that's left is for me to ask you two question;

a) out of those four mentioned what game are you most looking forward too?

and

b) if there could be a game made of any movie from the 1980's which film would you choose?

Have a think and I'll see you in space where no-one can hear you scream.