Archive 1999 October November December 2000 January February March April May June July August September October November December

April

PD got Incite's Golden Award
April 30 - Updated by Matt @ 8:46 EST

I just picked up a copy of Incite's June 2000 issue with a somewhat informative Perfect Dark review. Incite gave it 5/5 for graphics, 4/5 for sound (they say the music ventures into scary synth-rock territory, which it seems they think is bad), 5/5 for control and 5/5 overall. The only con was that the Dreamcast and PC gamers won't be crazy about the framerate. They stated "...Perfect Dark pretty much lives up to the first half of it's name." and "If you thought Goldeneye was great, this is going to give you some kind of embolism.", pretty good huh?
Here is the "Fact File" they give you:
- 40+ Weapons
- 15 CPU-controlled Simulates
- 9 Missions
- 17 Stages
- 30 Multi-Player Challenges
- 12+ Multiplayer maps (Ken Lobb said 19 so I suppose 7 are hidden)
- 1 Ass-kicking, name-taking special agent
- Co-op mode
I'll scan the 4-page review as soon as I get my scanner working.

PD64.com recently acquired "juicy" info about Perfect Dark's multiplayer from Nintendo Power's latest issue that you have to check out. They also have a table of all the different weapons, scenarios and maps that you can unlock by completing the 30 multiplayer challenges.

Updates, Contests and Layouts Oh My!
April 28 - Updated by Matt @ 8:15 EST

What? Another update on the same day? It's madness I tell ya! Well, I won't be here tomorrow so I'll give you the next bold letter today instead of tomorrow. Another review has been brought to my attention that might show a thing or two about Perfect Dark that Game Fan missed or ignored. Electronic Gaming Monthly - a well-trusted magazine - gave Perfect Dark an average of 9.8 out of 10! Now that's more like it! The three reviewer's scores were 10/10, 10/10 and 9.5/10. In other news, our affiliate Perfectly Dark has created a great, new, bright and colorful layout worth checking out. The layout is total PD eye-candy. Perfectly Dark finally treats you with easy navigation and access to everything on the site. Go check it out.

Check out the Thursday, April 27th update for info on our contest.

TWINE Here, There, Everywhere!
April 28 - Updated by Matt @ 11:42 EST

Just in case you care or you didn't know, two TWINE sites have been exposed to the public eye. TWINE Central was the first and TWINE HQ is the second. They are both fairly good sites with a bit of info. Why am I telling you this? I don't know.

Another thing I wanted to mention is that the bold letters in Tweek's update have nothing to do with the seven letters in our PD contest. Only in my (Matt) updates will you find the seven bold letters. Now I must go admire the stack of 10 copies of Perfect Dark and cry... Oh, *sniff* I'll miss you guys *sniff*. Check out the Thursday, April 27th update for info on our contest.

I'm Back
April 28 - Updated by Tweek @ 8:40 EST

It's been a while, hasn't it? I've been struggling to find the time to even come online for at least a month or two. I'm really sorry if I haven't answered your hundreds of emails, or put up your fan art, or whatever.

The staff has been having a few problems lately. I have no idea what's happened to Ernie, and I haven't heard from Tom in a while. And Matt, who's doing a fantastic job updating news, can't use FTP so unless I'm around he can't update his many new sections and previews.

Nevertheless, the site has managed to survive almost two years through the toughest of times, so we'll surely get over the current hurdle (my slackness and our limited staff).

Anyway, onto the most important news of the week... Matt has organised a huge PD giveaway... We're giving away ten copies of Perfect Dark (check out the details below). On that note, I'd like to especially thank two of the best PD sites ever, PDark and PDHQ, for mentioning our contest on their sites... It's great to see some PD sites put the benefit of their visitors in front of their own popularity.

Seeya soon.

FREE PERFECT DARK!
April 27 - Updated by Matt @ 10:29 EST

I'm back to all those daily updates you love! First off, N64 Shooters has the more "download friendly" version of the 28 second Perfect Dark movie I talked about last update. They also have a feature about a reciprocated opinion on face-mapping in Perfect Dark, of course go check that out. That's about it for PD news today. Oh ya, were giving away 10 copies of Perfect Dark just in case you want one. To be entered you need to find the hidden phase. In each of my updates from now till Wednesday, May 3rd there will be a bold letter, on Wednesday take the seven bold letters and unscramble them to spell out a phrase, e-mail me that seven letter phrase on Wednesday and only on Wednesday, May 3rd. The first 50 e-mails with the right phrase will be entered in a draw. The chances of winning are 1 in 5. You have to enter! Contest rules are as follows:
- Open only to NTSC users, sorry, no PAL copies
- Not open to employees of Rare, dataDyneHQ, Nintendo or IGN
- Send all entries to Matt@dataDyneHQ.com unless otherwise stated
- By sending your entry more then once you will be disqualified
- Entries received no later then Wednesday May 3rd, 2000
- Do not post the answer on any message board or chat for you will be disqualified if you enter

Good luck everyone!

Oh, one more thing. My e-mail has been down for the week I was gone. Hopefully my e-mail will be fixed before Wednesday if not I'll tell you where to e-mail your entries. If you haven't got a reply from an e-mail send it again to cloudvii@turn-here.com. Sorry for any inconvenience this has caused you.

News, News and More News
April 26 - Updated by Matt @ 3:05 EST

I finally managed to hunt down a computer so I can update with five days worth of news. Lots of news happened this past week, Rare is looking for more people to help the Perfect Dark team for maybe say, a sequel? Who knows? Along with Nintendo Power's Perfect Dark review other magazines like UK based 64 Magazine have reviewed Perfect Dark with a 90%+ score, 99% to be exact. With such great scores from the magazine giants you'd expect someone would disagree. Well apparently the Game Fan staff was that someone. With and average score of 88% and quotes like "Though Rare tweaked the snot out of this one, it still routinly hangs in the sub 20 fps zone, making control difficult and makes clean head shots an exercise in futility." and "The expectations for this one are huge- so huge that its doubtful that it'll ever live up to them." it doen't sound like they think it lived up to the hype. Don't fret, 88% is still pretty good. Also, three gaming sites Videogames.com, Daily Radar and Game Fan have some new PD movies worth checking out.

In distantly related Perfect Dark news Rare has released info on the rumored game "Dinosaur Planet" which seems to look like a graphical treat. More Game Shark codes have been released for Goldeneye, some of the more interesting ones are "Create your own character" and the introduction to the Flame-thrower. Thanks to "SomeoneWhoCares" for this info.

Well I guess it's back to venturing though the mountains of Banff, Canada. Oh what a hardship. I'll be back tomorrow for some daily updates.

PD Reviewed by Nintendo Power
April 21 - Updated by Mike @ 2:43 EST

Nintendo Power has now reviewed Perfect Dark, and at N64shooters.com, there is a scanned image of the review. Most of the review is readable in this
scan, if you want to take a peak. Thanks to Nintendo Power Source for allowing N64 Shooters to display the image.

Easter Break
April 21 - Updated by Matt @ 11:11 EST

The updates have been a little cheap this week, I have been very busy packing for my trip. I will be leaving today and I'll be back about Thursday so I can't promise my updates everyday. I will though, try to find a computer to use and maybe do an update here or there. Tweek and Tom will do most of them though.

Here's a recap of this weeks news. IGN64 has a bit of TWINE info. I don't know why you would want to go there though... Rareware.com updated their Scribes section with some Perfect Dark questions. Last but not least, Nintendo/Rare updated their DATADYNE site with some new stuff about perfectdark.com's videos and it seems they are having a contest or something because in one paragraph it says this, "If you are currently working remotely, we have a limited number of CI recruitment packages available for shipping. The first 25 officers to respond to this report will receive a package directly from DATADYNE headquarters. Respond to: intelligence@datadyne.com, code class E7. Please include the desired shipping address in your message. Only Officers whose cerebral implants have been installed for at least 18 years are required to apply for a delivery." hmmm... Interesting.

See ya guys next week!

PD Pamphlet
April 19 - Updated by Matt @ 5:59 EST

Daily Radar just got 16 pictures of a Perfect Dark pamphlet they got, along with all the other videos we talked about in earlier updates and an excellent Perfect Dark screensaver. Go check them out!

More Movies!
April 18 - Updated by Tom @ 12:16 EST

www.incite.com have released an excellent movie, four minutes of pure action, it shows all the great aspects of the game and best of all it's a very high quality movie. This explains it 40mb file size! Luckily they have also made two cut down versions.

Here are the links to the movies:

Large Movie - 40.1mb
Medium Movie - 12.7mb
Small Movie - 4.3mb

Movies Galore!
April 17 - Updated by Matt @ 10:33 EST

IGN64 just got 8 new Perfect Dark movies to drool over! The eight are:
- Kicking Enemy Ass (3.5MB)
- Using the FarSight (3.6MB)
- Say Hello to Cyclone (3.2MB)
- Battle in Chicago (1.4MB)
- Meet the Enemies (4.1MB)
- Multiplayer Action (3.1MB)
- Opening Cinema w/Audio (6.1MB)
and...
- Boot Up Animation, PD Logo (2.1MB)
or if you wanna see it all in a four-minute movie...
- The entire four-minute movie (27.4MB)

Weekend Recap
April 16 - Updated by Matt @ 9:12 EST

IGN64 got some more TWINE pics and 3 new movies to glance at. Perfect Dark will be better though. IGN64 also has an updated letters section where 90% are PD questions. If you don't already know, Joanna Dark is IGN for Men's "Babe of the Day". That's about it for this weekend.

Oh ya, one more thing. I just reserved my copy of Perfect Dark! I can't wait, can you?

The World is Not Enough
April 15 - Updated by Tom @ 10:57 EST

For those who don't know Eurocom secured the rights to The World Is Not Enough and started work on it a while back. Well, IGN managed to get an Alpha Version and have made a preview on it, so far it is looking great. The have based the game on the original, Goldeneye, made by Rare. The game uses the same control system and has a similar feel in the way of graphics. Check out the article for your self. http://ign64.ign.com/previews/14311.html

Dolphin and GBA
April 15 - Updated by Tom @ 10:36 EST

IGN have announced that Nintendo will not be making a Dolphin or GBA apperence at E3, they will be concentrating on there product line for 2000 and 2001. Have a look at the article http://ign64.ign.com/news/18063.html

The Ad
April 15 - Updated by Tom @ 9:50 EST

I believe the green slime Joanna drinks [in the advert on www.perfectdark.com] is possibly spiralina. You know that mixture of fruits and seaweed, it's apparently the "in" drink. Go to your local supermarket and try some if you like.

More and More Wallpaper
April 13 - Updated by Matt @ 9:08 EST

N64Shooters got yet another Perfect Dark wallpaper. Really nice. Go check it out.

Tasty!
April 13 - Updated by Matt @ 8:52 EST

I just looked at that Perfect Dark advertisement and all I have to say is wow! I didn't think Nintendo had the balls to do that. But I'm still wondering, what is that green slime she drinks? Watermelon cocktail? I guess we'll never know...

Perfect Dark Advertising
April 12 - Updated by Matt @ 5:04 EST

Perfectdark.com just released three versions of Perfect Dark's commercial. A small file (2.1MB), a medium file (3.7MB) and a large, high resolution video (19.8MB).

PD64.com made a great, lengthy update about their impressions of Perfect Dark. You MUST check it out.

Incite Screens
April 11 - Updated by Matt @ 7:39 EST

Incite just got 30 more never before seen screenshots from Perfect Dark. There are some goodies like a nice pic of Area 51 and Air Force One. The President Of the United States looks a lot like the President of Mexico though.

PD Conquers E3
April 11 - Updated by Matt @ 9:02 EST

Rare is planning to have a huge number of sections deticated to two of their most wanted games: Perfect Dark for the N64 and Perfect Dark for the GBC. There will be some stuff on Conker's Bad Fur Day, but mostly on Perfect Dark. Perfect Dark for the GBC will be in it's final stages at E3 so we will know much more about it when May rolls around.

Delayed?
April 11 - Updated by Matt @ 8:47 EST

Last night Nintendo was supposed to post a 60 second commercial at 12:00 on perfectdark.com. That didn't happen. Is Nintendo used to delaying everything? Matt Casamassina from IGN64 says, "...it has been delayed to another day in order to build hype." Lets just hope he's right and it's coming out tonight.

Perfect Dark Live!
April 10 - Updated by Matt @ 8:52 EST

The Carrington Institute has just contacted us informing us that the Perfect Dark website will go live tonight, full of surprises that we know nothing about! Check it out at the stroke of midnight or you might miss out! Game Fan got the message too, Look!

If Only I Could...
April 10 - Updated by Matt @ 5:44 EST

Perfect Dark would have been released today if Rare hadn't delayed their masterpiece. We would all be playing it right now, admiring every detail, every character, every weapon... Cut the crap, you and I both know we'd be blowin' $!#% up! At least we can look for Perfect Dark May 22nd and we all know that Rare tweaked it up so much that we'll be shouting for joy that it was delayed.

Playin' PD
April 9 - Updated by Matt @ 8:53 EST

We recently got the pleasure of playing Perfect Dark and I just want to clear a few things up. The frame rate is exceptionally good. I played 4 players with 8 simulats and the frame rate was amazing. I didn't even see it studder. Like Goldeneye though, walking through smoke showed Perfect Dark's only weakness. There are options to turn hi-rez off which cleans up the smoke problem. There were also no problems with the frame rate in both Counter-Op and Co-op. I don't see what sites like IGN are saying about this frame rate problem. But I assure all of you, there are no problems with the frame rate. Perfect Dark will be a top-notch game when it's release. Feel free to ask any questions about Perfect Dark or if you want to be a staff member (read below).

Oh ya, N64Shooters.com now has 4 Perfect Dark wallpapers. Check them out.

Staff Members
April 9 - Updated by Matt @ 6:17 EST

We need some staff members to help with the picture uploading because as you all know loads of new pictures have surfaced and we need help to make a thumbnail for each and so on. So if your interested e-mail me or Tweek.

New screens
April 9 - Updated by Matt @ 2:55 EST

All over the net sites are showing off their Perfect Dark pictures. Some only have the 10 recently released Rare pictures, others like videogames.com have a whole bunch of new pics. The others sites are: incite.com, dailyradar.com, gamefan.com and gamepro.com has some ity, bity info about Perfect Dark.

Another IGN Update!
April 8 - Updated by Matt @ 11:59 EST

IGN recently played a final copy of Perfect Dark and now they have full coverage of all the info you wanna see. The features are: multiplayer options, computer AI, audio options, why PD is 'M' rated, and if that isn't enough they got 60 new screenshots!

Bits & Bytes
April 7 - Updated by Matt @ 7:26 EST

I recently was admiring some of the latest Perfect Dark pics in N64 magazine and the Offical Nintendo magazine, both originated from the UK. The Offical Nintendo magazine had much more info. Here's some stuff you might not know about Perfect Dark:

- In multiplayer teammates have a different color tint according to your chosen team color. Notice the yellow gaurd here.
- You can edit your name in multiplayer. Notice it in this pic.
- When the secondary gun function button is pressed (B) the red box by the gun's name turns yellow. Like in this pic.

On another note Rare got a whole pile of new Perfect Dark pictures that you must see, not to mention the PD wallpaper they created.

Chat With Me
April 6 - Updated by Matt @ 5:44 EST

No Perfect Dark news today. Another reason to check out our forums! Or if you have questions or comments meet me in the chat room. I'll be in the #perfectdark room from 6:00 to 8:00EST so hurry on in there!

More PD Desktop Wallpaper
April 5 - Updated by Matt @ 6:12 EST

N64 Shooters got some more great Perfect Dark wallpapers that you HAVE to check out! Add some life to your desktop.

New Login and Password!
April 4 - Updated by Matt @ 10:25 EST

IGN64 just recived more usernames and passwords for carringtoninstitute.com's 'Agents Only' section. Go here to check it out, or do it the old fasioned way:
Username: solaris
Password: pal32ver21z

IGN Again!?!
April 4 - Updated by Matt @ 5:35 EST

Well IGN64 got a great high-resolution picture of the PD box art. If you look closely you can see that the detail on Joanna's face is incredibly high! Also, IGN64 created a computer generated picture of Joanna with the words 'Perfect Dark' in the background. The picture is used as a wallpaper. Check it out. Very nice.

But of course let's not forget our fantastic wall paper available here.

Weekend Update
April 2 - Updated by Matt @ 10:10 EST

Nothing much happened this weekend. Nintendo will have Perfect Dark advertisements at the beginning of theatrical movies starting in May. Most likely the movies will be 'R' rated. Alot of odd 'News' also surfaced like PDHQ is closing down it's site, or Rare is leaving Nintendo to work for Sony. Of course these are all false because they were stated on April 1st. Too bad hey ;)

PD64.com just put up a great feature about the 'Real Guns in PD'. You have to check it out.