E3 Impressions dataDyne HQ brings you the first impressions of those lucky enough to play Perfect Dark at E3. Brandon of www.nintendorks.com - Out of all the games at E3, PD and DK64 are the two games I keep coming back to. These two games are probably the hottest on the show floor in the Nintendo section. What makes PD so awesome is that it is so much Goldeneye in almost everyway. It's basically Goldeneye with updated graphics, sound, levels and weapons. This is more good then bad. Some of the best features in the game are the night vision and heat vision modes . If you get the right weapon you can see through several layers of floor/wall and see the character walking around. Heat sensing works basically the same way. I assume that at some point in the game there will be enemies with some type of clothing/armor that will make them appear invisible in these viewing modes. This is what Goldeneye would have been if it had more development time, basically.

E3 Impressions dataDyne HQ brings you the first impressions of those lucky enough to play Perfect Dark at E3. Related Links: Interview with Ducan Botwood Back to Features

Here's how it works. You plug the GB pak into your controller, and plug the Game Boy Camera into that. Begin a multiplayer game, and on the screen where you choose your head and body, there's a gameboy option where you cycle through the pics taken with the camera. Find your face, select it, and it downloads to the game. At first we weren't too impressed because the head then looked more like a Perfect Dark character wearing a cheap Halloween mask of your face. But, there's more. Like we were reporting earlier, you can stretch the face to match the head, and it's very easy to do. In about a minute of "clicking and dragging", John Cordell had the downloaded face perfectly matching the head--and it was still noticable instead of looking like a silly-putty mutant. While GoldenEye's multiplayer was a last minute decision, Perfect Dark's multiplayer is getting as much attention as its single player game, and as you can see, every little option and feature is being included.

We asked John a couple of other questions about the game of E3, such as the memory pak. Will there be a high resolution mode? If you read IGN Matt's interview with Duncan, the answer would be that it's still up in the air--that if they were to utilize the ram pak, it would be for features other than the high-res mode. John was telling us that the 4 player deathmatch we were playing (which, by the way was still running off the Flash ROM and the ram pak like last year's demo) was running in normal mode, but that there would be a high res mode. What does this mean? It means that the issue is still up in the air.

We also asked how it was possible that Perfect Dark and Donkey Kong 64 were being released at basically the same time (because if PD gets delayed because of DK64, we will officially go ballistic). According to him, "they" consider the two games completely different genres, developed by completely different teams. Let's hope that "they" are right, because we want this game now.

Jason of www.nintendorks.com -

I've walked into the Perfect Dark cave multiple times the last few days collecting Perfect Dark pins and trying to decide what I think about one of the most anticipated games of the year. The thing is... the game is Goldeneye. It's better, and it's cooler, but it's still Goldeneye. For one, the game we were playing was not in Hi-res. For two, the Rare guy that Brandon Dehart talked with said that the monitors it was being displayed on were not all that great (even though they look very expensive.) Playing any game at E3 is no less than a high-pressue experience. 1) Noise. You can't hear the game like it was intended to be heard. 2) Crowds. There's usually someone at every monitor, and often lines leading to the monitors. 3) Cameras. Often someone has a camera behind you taking screenshots or movies of what your doing. This makes the experience very un-personal. 4) Chaos. Their is SOO much to do and SOO much to play. It's very hard to concentrate on one title long enough to get a valid opinion of it, unless it's either amazing or pure cow dung. Perfect Dark is too much Goldeneye to be amazing, but an awesome title none-the-less.

Scott of www.nintendorks.com -

After about a half an hour of nothing but sitting in front of Perfect Dark, I've seen some very big things. Very big. First of all, you'll be happy to hear the game has full voice. All the cut scenes have a dialogue between the characters, and in the game the guards yell for help. You even have conversations. Wow. You aren't going to believe the depth of this game. This stuff is way beyond Goldeneye. I took aim at a minor character's leg. Instead of stopping for a sec and running away, the character held his leg and LIMPED the whole trip. He even grabbed the right spot I shot him in. Other cool effects I've notice is the night vision goggles, which are more realistic in this than any other game. The cut scenes, as I mentioned, are packed with voice. But the real shining point is how movie-like it really is. In the opening flying scene, I could have sworn I was watching Blade Runner. Picture Metal Gear Solid in the future, with much better graphics and some real gameplay. The game's action has been revamped from Goldeneye. The weapons are much more powerful, and the enemies are a lot smarter. I went into a room and mowed down a whole crapload of enemies, only to find I missed one who hid behind a desk. Finally, the game is much darker than Goldeneye. Blood realistically flows, sticks to the floor, the wall...and it stays there. Bodies STAY there. This could be one of the most realistically violent games ever. You can even shoot innocents who are begging for mercy, and have no consequences. Trust me, this is a lot heavier than GE.

Dan of www.rarenet.com -

The level I played in Perfect Dark was the same level they showed on video last year and the one that many of you saw in that long video a while back. The first two things that struck me and that I want to make a big deal about are the fact that dead enemies stay on the ground and don't disappear and that there is a lot more blood this time around! I'm not a sick guy really, but when you shoot a character with a powerful weapon blood hits the wall and stays there. Although this can perhaps be a little off-putting to some, it is realistic and it seems PD is aiming for an older audience now. Whatever you may think of gore, I think it is a welcome addition. As for the bodies staying there, not only is that even more realistic but it helps you remember where you have been. This feature, although it does slow the framerates, is very, very cool. Don't worry aboiut frame rates either as they run just as smooth as in Goldeneye's one player. Also, I haven't noticed any slowdown. The graphics didn't blow me away although they look sharp enough - overall good stuff. Control is great as it copies Goldeneye. This blonde model kept taking our controllers and telling us "the stick moves you". It was really funny because I had the biggest urge to yell "I've played Goldeneye damnit!!", but like I said before, she was a blonde model…ahem. The one player game only lets you get 3 guns I think but I played multiplayer against Trevor. More on that later. The pistol, your primary beginning weapon (like the PP7), is so cool! It has a laser sight on it all the time and shines red dots on your targets! The other gun is an awesome automatic with a great fire rate. The last gun is also an automatic but very powerful. Other guns I saw in multiplayer included a rocket launcher, grenade launcher, x-ray sniper rifle (!!!), crossbow, and remote mines. I'll get more info for you Friday. Sound was very hard to hear but the music I heard sounded good with lovely bass. Oh, and did I mention everyone speaks? Hell yeah! Ok, sorry this is so short but I will have more after I play for hours on Friday. There is so much more. One last thing. Did you hear you can put your face on characters using a Gameboy Camera?! Once again, hell yeah!

JL of www.nintendojo.com -

Rarely does a game live up to its hype, and even more rarely does a game surpass it.  Rare's Perfect Dark is simply amazing, taking the magnificence that already existed in Goldeneye and tweaking it to near perfection. I played both the single and multi-player modes and they are both excellent. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this will definitely be one of the best games ever made, Nintendo 64 or otherwise. 

While PD's graphics are not that huge a jump over Goldeneye's, the difference between the two is noticeable in many different ways.  Right off the bat players will realize that once they kill an enemy their body stays in the room. Leave the room and upon returning you'll see their prone carcass still lying on the floor stained with blood.  There's a limit to this effect (e.g. if you kill three people in a room, the first time you come back there will only be two bodies, the next time only one, etc.) but it's amazing nonetheless.  Backgrounds are also incredible as well.  Joanna Dark starts the game by jettisoning down onto the top of a skyscraper from a helicopter (preceded by an amazing real-time cut scene of the helicopter flying in between skyscrapers), with the city skyline visible in the background. If you take the time to look out over the city, you'll see little jet cars randomly flying through the night sky -- a very nice touch. 

Another excellent graphic addition is the use of Night Vision goggles. The end of one level sees Joanna trapped in a room by an adversary and her bodyguards, when suddenly the lights go out.  Players must then put on their goggles, giving them a view of the action similar to the Night Vision in Metal Gear Solid. Spot the bright green enemies and start shooting. 

Also impressive is the amount of speech in the game.  Whereas Goldeneye's non-playable characters only spoke through text boxes, all the characters in PD actually talk to you with digitized speech.  This adds so much to the game.  An excellent example of this is when a helicopter hovering outside the skyscraper spots you running around inside and screams "There's the suspect! Get him at once!" over a loudspeaker. They then open fire, blowing away the glass in front of you and sending you running for your life.  This really heightens the suspense and gets your blood pumping. 

But perhaps the most important aural improvement is the music. Goldeneye's music was a mixed bag, with some incredible themes mixed in with some that seemed strangely out of place (particularly in multiplayer mode).  Perfect Dark's music is dark and epic, excellently complementing the game's tense and dangerous atmosphere.  It is also much more suitable for multiplayer. 

And the multiplayer is excellent.  A few improvements have been added, namely the ability to fall through holes in the floor and fall off platforms (so in Goldeneye's Temple level, included in the E3 demo, you can now evade enemies by falling through the big hole in the floor).   It adds a whole new element of strategy, making PD's deathmatches more similar to those found in PC first-person shooters like Quake.  Sometimes being on a platform can help you if you're getting blasted, because you can get pushed back off the platform by your opponent's bullets and out of their line of fire.  A very cool addition.  There's tons of levels and weapons, and games can now go well past 10 kills (from what I saw it was at least 30 or more). Add all this to fact that you can map your own face on your deathmatch character using the GameBoy camera, and you have a game that's at the top of my 1999 wish list.  A classic in the making.