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Blood: Fresh Supply - remaster by Nightdive Studios, published by Atari

Goi~Yaas~Dinn

Savant
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Nov 25, 2018
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A derelict.
Is there actually any point waiting for this since NBlood has been released? I'm playing this now and it's great.
Just in case NBlood development abruptly stalls. Anything not named EDUKE has a nasty habit of doing that, with BUILD3D sourceports. This would be a nice backup option for most people.
 

Ivan

Arcane
Joined
Jun 22, 2013
Messages
7,474
Location
California
200.webp
 

Astral Rag

Arcane
Joined
Feb 1, 2012
Messages
7,771
full online such as co-op and deathmatch

d1p

The fanmade Java source port is amazing but the online part didn't work great when we tried it (it was and still is in beta). Playing online is possible using the original and dosbox but that's also far from perfect.

I do hope that it will play nice with custom content and that there will be an option to disable friendly fire in co-op games (+M)..

CyberModuled that first link doesn't work
 
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Astral Rag

Arcane
Joined
Feb 1, 2012
Messages
7,771
Nice surprise that it already gets released today. Will buy on Steam unless they managed to fuck it up somehow.

That filter and vignette they use in the trailer is p awful though, but it's probably only for the trailer or optional so I will leave my pitchfork and torch in the closet for now.



Features are looking good:

Blood: Fresh Supply Enhancements:
  • Updated using Nightdive Studio’s KEX Engine
  • Vulkan, DirectX 11 and OpenGL 3.2 support, play with unlocked framerates!
  • Antialiasing, Ambient Occlusion, V-sync and Interpolation support
  • Support for high resolutions including 4K monitors
  • Fully customizable keyboard and controller pad support
  • Extended modding support, including support for already existing mods
  • Completely rewritten netcode supports up to 8 players:
  • Play online in co-operative mode, kill each other in “Bloodbath” or split the difference in classic 4v4 team-based “Capture The Flag” mayhem
  • Battle it out in local split-screen action
  • Roll your own soundtrack with full CD and MIDI music support
  • Look fully up and down with a new 3D view, or stick with the classic BUILD-engine style!
 
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Astral Rag

Arcane
Joined
Feb 1, 2012
Messages
7,771
Blood: Fresh Supply is the second coming of a classic FPS, and it's out today

Nightdive Studios’ remaster of the 1997 FPS classic feels more new than old.

Blood is the beloved B-horror movie of '90s FPSes. If Doom is Aliens, Blood is The Evil Dead. Blood’s edgy slasher aesthetic spoke to a generation of teens in the midst of Satanic Panic who were hungry for more of this bloody new genre. The basic blueprint was near-identical to Doom and its legion of clones, but Blood stood out with attitude and execution.

Blood's basic elements hold up tremendously well in 2019. It didn’t take long for me to find a groove in Blood: Fresh Supply (out today on Steam, GOG, the Humble Store, and Discord for $9.99), thanks in no small part to the remaster’s 2019 conveniences. Produced by Nightdive, the same folks behind the System Shock remake, Fresh Supply supports modern resolutions and adds a proper 3D camera, gamepad support, and rebuilt multiplayer netcode. The repackaging eased me into an era of gaming I wasn't super familiar with, and allowed me to better appreciate what was great in 1997 is still mostly great now.

Forget pistols
Blood’s arsenal was designed to stand out from Duke Nukem 3D and Doom 2, but it’s even more ostentatious today. In place of a boring old pistol is a flare gun that sets baddies ablaze. Who needs a flamethrower when an aerosol can and lighter does the job? Grenades are fine, but TNT makes a bigger boom. A knife is reliable, but a pitchfork is the right kind of demented? Then there are weapons that challenge the idea of “weapons,” like the voodoo doll that I repeatedly stab to mirror that pain on my enemies.

The depth of Blood’s combat shines through its weapons. It was one of the first shooters to have alternate fire modes for everything: Some are simple, like single vs. double fire on the shotgun, but others essentially turn one weapon into two. Left click with the voodoo doll pokes the doll with a needle, but right click sacrifices the doll to melt every enemy on screen into mush!

My personal favorite is the TNT. Its alternate fire cooks the boom sticks before throwing to act like a traditional frag grenade, but its primary fire makes it a glorious impact bomb that absolutely annihilates anything in its path. It’s like charging up a drive in golf games, except zombies explode when the ball touches grass. It’s not surprising that Ion Maiden, a modern take on a '90s FPS also made in the Build Engine, lifts the feel of Blood’s TNT for its Bowling Bomb.

Skeletons in the closet
Fresh Supply comes packed with all of Blood’s original levels and expansion packs. It’s dozens of levels in all, each one a labyrinth of interconnecting hallways, wide-open battlegrounds, and hidden rooms. I got lost on almost every map I played. I appreciate the complexity and planning applied to Blood’s grand mansions, but it becomes a lot. The real-time map, in the style of Diablo or Duke Nukem, doesn’t mark any points of interest—it’s just a pure 2D layout. At least a third of my total playtime was backtracking through hallways to rediscover the locked door I passed minutes ago.

And that’s a bummer, because thoroughly exploring Blood’s dense levels is otherwise a delight. Secrets are around every corner and come in many forms—revolving bookshelves, fake paintings, hidden pressure switches, cracked walls. Quick, brutal fights with crowds are balanced by my need to take it slow and examine a room to uncover its mysteries. Once I learned the language of how Blood hides things, secret hunting became a basic part of the gameplay loop. Kills net me some ammo and health, but secrets are the only way to ever feel well-equipped.

For how open its levels are, Blood’s objectives stay unabashedly simple—shoot through zombies and grab keys that unlock doors that lead to more keys. Blood never tries to hide that you're doing the same thing over and over, the way some modern shooters do. I don’t always need gamey goals to be masked as unique missions, but some of the samey-ness, particularly in re-used graphics, betrays Blood’s impressive environmental storytelling. Levels are packed with so much cool detail that it’s then distracting to be unlocking the exact same doors as I did in the last 10 missions.

Where Blood most clearly dates itself is its inconsistent tone. After a self-serious intro cutscene, Blood swings wildly into farce territory, constantly referencing classic horror movies. And the references aren’t exactly subtle—while traversing a hedge maze, I stumbled upon a bloodied axe-wielding man on his knees that did his best Jack Nicholson impression with “Heeeeeere’s Johnny!” Another time, I was coasting down a river in a rowboat as protagonist Caleb remarked that he’s “gonna need a bigger boat." The moments are playful and harmless, but feel trite 22 years later.

A fresh coat of blood
Nightdive’s remaster drags Blood into 2019 with new video options and rebuilt netcode for multiplayer. There are also some nice quality of life features you'd find in a modern shooter: Fresh Supply natively supports monitor resolutions up to 4K and adds the Build Engine version of antialiasing, ambient occlusion, and interpolation. Everything looks crisp on my 1080p 144hz monitor, but switching on ambient occlusion and interpolation don’t add much beyond some extra shadows painted on the walls. There’s only so much that can be done on the technical side of a game this old, but it’s great to have a bunch of small improvements supported out of the box.

Native gamepad support is a big plus for those who usually have to fiddle with JoyToKey for their classic games. The default layout is a bit strange by modern standards, but decisions like mapping “interact” to clicking the left stick make sense after a while.

The best addition is a "true" 3D view for aiming up and down. The original camera seemingly wasn’t meant to support vertical scrolling and gets around the limitation by bending the world in some truly nauseating ways (the gif above shows what I mean). After 20 minutes, I had to take off my headphones and hold my head in my hands. Then I turned on the “true” 3D view and it suddenly worked exactly how I’d hoped. I could look up without wanting to faint.

I didn’t get a chance to test out Fresh Supply’s rebuilt multiplayer, but it supports deathmatch and capture the flag both online and split-screen. Mod support is built in—Fresh Supply will even support mods created for the original Blood.

Fresh Supply is a fantastic way to dive into a game that exemplifies what made the classic FPS era so fun. Some of its dated qualities, like the nauseating camera, are buffed out in Nightdive’s remaster. Its graphics, archaic as they are, almost feel back in style now. Blood’s fluid, kinetic combat doesn’t skip a beat, and more of today's developers should probably be looking in its direction to find an interesting hook for their modern FPS.


 
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Astral Rag

Arcane
Joined
Feb 1, 2012
Messages
7,771
Despite owning the original I didn't get a discount on Steam. I read that people who own the original are now finding coupons in their inventory so if you care about a small discount and already own the original you might want to wait a little while before buying.
 

Bad Sector

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 25, 2012
Messages
2,223
Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
And i wanted to avoid buying stuff this month...

It looks good, although i think the movies are much lower quality than in the original (which btw, is included as a "goodie"). Not that the original movies were the apex of quality.

There seems to be some input lag going on. It mostly goes away if you disable the frame capping from the options, but it is still there a bit, which makes me think that there is some bug in input processing. Build engine had wonky mouse support, but other Build ports have fixed mouse support.

For some reason disabling toggle crouch crashes the game :-P. And the settings are not saved after that.

But beyond that it was an obvious purchase for me, now i hope these small issues will be fixed.
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2018
Messages
2,323
Location
Illinois
Despite owning the original I didn't get a discount on Steam. I read that people who own the original are now finding coupons in their inventory so if you care about a small discount and already own the original you might want to wait a little while before buying.
Restart the Steam client. That pushes coupons coming your way.
 
Joined
Mar 30, 2012
Messages
7,045
Location
Elevator Of Love
Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
:d1p:




anuket_x642019-05-0915ujqp.png


Looks like they've customized the difficulty settings even better compared to GDX port.

anuket_x642019-05-092xokoo.png


Video settings. Everything works fine, except the custom mods sadly that have some problems.
Death Wish is running fine with the first and third episode, but the second crashes the whole thing.
Legends of Iconoclast 2: Unfinished Business doesn't load new audio, and there is no list of episodes like in Gdx. So you need to select the specific map to play each episode, and it crashes on some of them. I don't know about the scripts for now. So far GdX wins, when it comes to custom content compatibility.

Saving the game freezes the whole thing for a couple of seconds as well. I don't know why it takes so long.
The multiplayer in GOG version also has a huge latency problems. And it crashes from time to time.
 

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