Compound Fracture - PS1-style dino survival FPS

[Morenatsu.]

Yup I mentioned it is on DOS, but it is a PSX game first. One should probably play the DOS version if looking to play it. Same with anything in this situation, PC version is usually go-to (but not always).

Disagree. I don't know about Alien Trilogy, but old PC ports are too often inferior to emulation. Minor details are always broken and various console-specific features get discarded. Don't even bother.

AFAIK there isn't much of a difference between the versions, but the DOS version can be configured to be played with modern WASD+mouse aim. I'd also recommend using this custom DOSBox build i made some time ago and configure it to run at maximum speed - the game's speed is tied to its framerate so it'll run very fast if you run it in normal DOSBox. However this build tries to limit the refresh rate to something that is close to what the game was originally meant to run at. Note that you need a fast PC for this. Also i recommend using the novert TSR to disable vertical motion since it uses the Doom-like move forward/backward when you move the mouse vertically.

lol im just going to use xebra you nerd

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Why would you say this if you've not played DC? It's pretty bland. Not terrible, but not remarkable either. Dino Crisis 2 is indeed (slightly) better...but it's an action game, of which there are many superior on the system.

Because I was curious if you were going to throw out something I hadn't heard of before. I haven't played that many horror games on the system, and most of the ones I did were on the lower end of the quality scale. Bland at that point is non-offensive and not really an issue.

Disagree. I don't know about Alien Trilogy, but old PC ports are too often inferior to emulation. Minor details are always broken and various console-specific features get discarded. Don't even bother.

In this case, the Alien:Trilogy PC port uses passwords for level select, so unless you're going to use Bad Sector's custom DOSbox build the PC version isn't that good.

 

[Bad Sector]

lol im just going to use xebra you nerd

Why Xebra and not Mednafen?

In this case, the Alien:Trilogy PC port uses passwords for level select

There are no passwords in the PC version, you can save your game however it only loads between levels.

Here is a video i made with my modified DOSBox some time ago:



It is IMO the best way to play the DOS version but the PS1 version is much smoother (compare my video with this video - it starts at the same place). On the other hand AFAIK the PS1 version doesn't even support analog sticks so you're stuck with using the dpad to move. So at the end is a question between choosing smooth(ish) framerate but awkward controls or WASD+mouse controls but choppy framerate. Personally i go for the latter but i'm a bit biased because this is the only way i've ever played the game anyway and didn't knew the PS1 version was smoother until recently :-P (actually i didn't even knew other versions aside from the DOS one even existed until some years ago...)

 

[Morenatsu.]

lol im just going to use xebra you nerd

Why Xebra and not Mednafen?

Because I prefer programs made by people who can be bothered to add necessary features like GUIs.

 

[Bad Sector]

Because I prefer programs made by people who can be bothered to add necessary features like GUIs.

Ah yeah i forgot it doesn't have a GUI by itself, though there is Mednaffe which provides a front end and i think is what i used some time ago when i wanted to try it out.

Though nowadays i use a small tool i wrote some time ago that allows me to perform folder-specific actions/commands from the file manager without having to launch an emulator (or game or whatever) specific GUI.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1460210/discussions/0/3117024613283287823/

Frequently Asked Questions

Graphics Options
Our intention is that the game looks and feels as close to a late PS1 game as possible, but we understand that certain effects can make people uncomfortable, especially on a monitor. Right now, you will be able to change aspect ratio, resolution, and camera FOV.
We are looking into making other graphics features like texture warping and polygon jitter optional as well.

Gameplay
The game will be a focused linear singleplayer narrative driven shooter. It is still an action game at heart, but a more deliberate, slower paced one.
There will be an inventory system, but we’re still iterating on the exact functionality and style.

There are no plans for multiplayer at this time.

Dinosaur and Gun Variety
The game will feature a variety of dinosaurs of different size and difficulty levels, in addition to a variety of weapons and weapon upgrades.

Difficulty
It’ll be a challenging game that rewards fast reflexes, but you won’t always die in a single hit. The deadliness of raptors especially is subject to change as we develop their behaviour and animation sets.

In addition, we’ll have extra-difficult modes for expert players.

Saves
We’ll have checkpoints as well as manual saving at any time.

Languages
We can’t commit to any additional languages yet, as we don’t have the resources to fund translations ourselves. We’d love to make Compound Fracture playable in as many languages as possible, and we’ll investigate our options closer to launch.

Controller Support
The game will have full controller support and rebindable buttons.

Accessibility Options
In addition to subtitles, we’ll be exploring a variety of additional accessibility features. If there’s anything that’d be particularly helpful to you, please let us know!

Mac/Linux version
We’re exploring both, but because of our limited ability to test these platforms we can’t make any promises just yet.

Demo
We will know whether or not we will have a demo closer to launch.

 

[Ash]

Gameplay
The game will be a focused linear singleplayer narrative driven shooter.

Between this and the level of linearity and general blandness that the demonstration video shows, I think I'll pass on this one unless it blossoms into something seemingly great in time. No notable old school first person game was truly linear nor particularly narrative driven, not even Half-Life (and even that was very gameplay-oriented despite the linearity).

 

[Morenatsu.]

It's not a truly prestigious FPS unless it has at least one hub.

 

[LESS T_T]

 

[Nathaniel3W]

all AAA games look the same these days as a result of the gay rush to achieve hyper realism. they're only set apart by their settings and minor subtleties now. Not a big deal really and there is much merit in a photorealism sometimes, there are far worse issues with modern gaming/this is the least of my concerns, but a true statement nonetheless and I miss that old variety, even if it was at times not so pleasing to the eye. Imagination filled in the gaps to some extent anyway.

AAA games tend to use the same one-size-fits-all color mapping with too much contrast. You should check out https://ventspace.wordpress.com/2017/10/20/games-look-bad-part-1-hdr-and-tone-mapping/. In the discussion at the end of the article, you can see the author got some technical details wrong, but overall it's still a good explanation for why hyper-realistic games can still look like butts and ass.

 

[The Decline]

Very interested in this because for some fucking reason dinosaurs only get park sims and cartoony kids games these days.

 

[LudensCogitet]

Ok, the screenshots in this tweet really make me doubt this "retro" aesthetic. The options presented here appear to be "stylish low res textures" vs. "Unseeable grainy eye bleed".

 

[Bad Sector]

The textures are retro styled indeed, but what breaks the "retroness" is the lighting, it is too smooth and looks as if it is done per-pixel instead of per-vertex. Also the polycount is a bit too high. And lack of dithering.

But at the end of the day it is all about how it feels rather than adhering to strict limitations - Shovel Knight might look like a NES game at a first glance but in closer inspection it relaxes a lot of the hardware's limitations.

FWIW personally i'd also add a bilinear filtering toggle as a "PS2-style" option - the game does look closer to some earlier and/or lower budget PS2 releases than PS1 games IMO.

EDIT: to clarify the comments are for the screenshots above, the game can look closer to a PS1 with the additional filters it has (which add dithering, etc)

 

[polo]

So dino crisis 2021? but not really 2021?

 

[fork]

More like not really Dino Crisis.

 

[catfood]

Looks cute, but I hope there will be more outdoors gameplay.

 

[Spacer's Nugget]

Trespasser without the rubber arms and wonky physics. I'd LOVE a proper Deus Ex-styled Dino Crisis/Jurassic Park game.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Did they simulate the terrible PS1 wobble too? Lmao, imagine wanting to make your game look like shit on purpose.

 

[Bad Sector]

The wobble is a little overdone, it exists because the PS1 hardware has no subpixel accuracy so all vertices are sent at integer coordinates, but in the video it looks as if they snap the vertices at a grid that is larger than the output resolution. To do it "properly" they should have calculated the pixel size with the low res filter enabled and did the snapping there.

 

[LESS T_T]

Dino dino.

 

[Ash]

Currently some 50% of the threads in general gaming are dedicated to what objectively falls under the codex definition of decline, it's a weird paradox how casual General Gaming is.

Lol now as of time of posting general gaming is like 70% old school FPS and old school FPS throwback shooters...it may not be ideal but I'll take it over the casual shitfest it usually is.

 

[karoliner]

Kinda looks like crap.

 

[Bad Sector]

Kinda looks like crap.

Well, it is PS1-styled, that's the point :-P

 

[Ash]

I think he means the game in general. The look is the best thing about it it you ask me, e.g love the PDA-stylized inventory, but the gameplay doesn't look very promising.

 

[schru]

Indeed. The retro 3-D shows much more effort and understanding than what most other retro shooters have, but just before the trailer shied away from showing combat, those dinosaurs looked pretty anæmic.