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Mailbag Edition Three
28 January 2000

Tweek: Due to various technical difficulties, the loss of a staff member, and a bit of negligence on my part, the mailbag has been dead for several months. But we're back now and better than ever. Here's about twenty of the mailbag submissions we recieved during the last six days, along with my answers and comments. Enjoy.

By the way, if you'd like to answer questions like I do in future mailbag editions, please email tweek@datadynehq.com!

I'm getting conflicting info from different sources. Will I be able to play against 7 bots? Some sites say 4, some say 4 bots with 4 other human players. What's the scoop? I want to show 7 bots what hot lead feels like.

Thanks -- Ian

Tweek: There can be 8 players at any one time, whether they be human players or bots. So this could mean, for example, one human and seven bots, or four humans and four bots, etc.

Will pd's multiplayer have music? thanks. sweet site also! -- Joe

Tweek: Yes, why wouldn't it?

I just wanted to know what the hype is about the Bond games? The only reason why Goldeneye was the best FPS ever made was because it was made by RARE. Tommorow Never Dies on PSX was $hit but EA (I think) thought that because they had the Bond license the game would sell good. WRONG! I am betting The World is Not Enough on the N64 will not even be half the game Goldeneye is and prob 1/50th of the game Perfect Dark will be. I just had to say this because upon hearing that Perfect Dark will not be good because no Bond (heard it in a few letters I've read) is bull$hit!! Perfect Dark will better Goldeneye in everyway, in fact I am prob gonna sell Goldeneye, when I buy Perfect Dark, that is if I can find it! -- Chris

Tweek: Yes, you're right. But Bond is a very popular subject in a game and it sells well. I liked GoldenEye because of the James Bond style weapons and gadgets, and at first I was upset that GoldenEye 007's sequel was Perfect Dark - a game having nothing to do with James Bond. Now, I can see that Perfect Dark will be a huge game anyway - probably the best the console has seen (that's debatable, obviously). But, we should hope that the World is Not Enough is a good game too, for our own sake.

this is a cool site, i found this one on a search engine, and for the past almost year, i'd been going to a different one. this one is brighter and has more indepth coverage. it's cool. keep it up. -- Guy

Tweek: Thanks, it's always nice to get compliments.

hey i put an article in perfect dark chat in the forum, it's pretty good, so go and take a look at it, brainstorm, you can knock it i don't care just go there and read it. -- John Doe

Tweek: Ok. If you want to read John Doe's forum topic, click here.

it would be awesome if there were some sort of grenade you could throw into a room that would burn for a long time or make lots of little explosions that didn't do a whole lot of damage, cause i have been in levels where the guy hopped over and guarded the grenades or the special weapon, whatever we happened to be playing at the time, and what they would do is just sit and guard the armor in the temple, cause it was only in one place, and what i do is toss a grenade in there but they survived, and i didn't want to run in and attack cause they would have killed me and we were doing only live twice. it really would have helped to have had a grenade of some sort to throw in there and it would flush them out for real because it doesn't kill you all at once, it's like napalm or something, it sits and burns you so you have to move or you'll die. we need something like that, sort of like what the farsight does only not, cause with grenades you don't need a whole lot of accuracy, but with the farsight, they might move just before you shoot, and keep on doing that. and that would just ruin it for me, but if there was some sort of explosion you could cause using the farsight ooh that's a good one, if you put a mode where there was a barrel in every room that had something to hide behind, then if they hid, you could target the barrel with the farsight and the barrel explosion would kill them and next time i write i will collect my thoughts before i begin, give it some thought for your next shooter though Rare. -- Guysonguy

Tweek: I see your point, but I'm not a big fan of ridiculous weapons that make killing people easy. The FarSight will help in those sort of situations,but it's only good for people who aren't moving. I seriously doubt that napalm will be in the game, so you will have to make use of the vast range of weapons in the game.

Is Perfect Dark coming out on the Dreamcast? Thanks. -- Clancy

Tweek: I asked my magic 8-Ball the same question and it said, "Don't count on it". Perfect Dark will be a Nintendo-only game, so you may have to trade in that Dreamcast for an N64.

Wouldn't it be funny if Perfect Dark had Boris as the bad guy?! -- Datadyne Dude

Tweek: Yeah, that would be funny... but it ain't gonna happen.

More of a comment here, but Perfect Dark's cheats better be harder to get. GoldenEye was walkover! What do you reckon? -- Joe

Tweek: Yeah, I agree. Some of GoldenEye's cheats were relatively hard, such as Invincibility and Invisibility. It would be better if the majority of the cheats in PD were harder to get than GE's invincibility, instead of just the minority, if you kow what I mean. So, yeah, let's hope the cheats are harder to get in PD.

I just wanted to know is the game coming out in April for certain? and any news on how god the AI is on the bots in multiplayer? -- Julian

Tweek: I don't want to make promises, but I think it's safe to say that PD will be released in April. Let's just hope that's April 2000, not 2001.

In GE, when you run out of ammo, and need more, you have to kill a guard. What I don't get is why the guard doesn't start punching you and drop his weapon, like in the movies. Will PD fix this? -- SuperSniper

Tweek: It's hard for a game to be Perfect. You can't expect everything to happen like it does in the movies or in real life. The guards in GoldenEye obviously were planned to shoot, not fight hand-to-hand. I guess we can hope this is fixed in PD, but it will probably be the same.

Will your enemies sport the same weapons as you do? -- Jeff

Tweek: Expect it to be the same as GoldenEye. Some weapons were unique to the player, and all of the enemies' weapons were available for you to use after killing them. Your enemies will use some weapons that are the same as the player's, but they'll never use all of the same weapons as you do.

Hey whats up?

So PD doesn't come out till April 11, right? What do we do now for 3 months? Oh, well. Seriously though, I think the best new thing about PD will be the multiplayer with simulants. GoldenEye kicked ass with three other people, just imagine it would better graphics, more guns AND four simulants running around! Pure mayhem. Also, I've heard some people complaining because Rare said that PD would be harder than GoldenEye. They said that it would be harder mentally, though. That doesn't mean that It will be harder to kill guys, etc, it just means we'll have to think more and solve puzzles, and I think that's cool! Anyways, maybe I should go buy Harvest Moon to tide me over until April! -- o hirst

Tweek: Well, I'm sure you now know that PD will be coming out one day earlier (April 10), which is pretty good I guess. And I'm sure it'll be harder than GoldenEye all round, and I'm glad that it will be. Who wants an easy game? Rainbow Six is such an awesome game in my opinion, but it was far too easy. I would have bought that game if I hadn't finished it on medium difficulty the first time I played it. The co-operative mode is fun, but you don't always have someone to play it with. Let's hope that PD's single player mode will keep us playing for months instead of days. And by the way, you're right. Simulants will kick arse.

What do you know about the upcoming GameBoy Color PD? Anything more than IGN? http://pocket.ign.com/previews/13801.html. Please let me know any and all details! -- Meanor

Tweek: I don't know anything more that IGN about PD GBC, because this isn't a PD GBC site. But I've rounded up a team of people to run our PD GBC sister site, located here: /pdgb/.

Will there be a way to shut off blood in the game, like in Turok 2. I saw quiet a lot of blood in one of the PD videos on your site. -- Adam

Tweek: Possibly, but I can't be sure. If a few drops of blood in a video game bother you, maybe you shouldn't buy Perfect Dark. If seeing blood in a video game bothers you, does shooting people in the the head in video games bother you too? Or what about running over innocent people with tanks? Does that bother you? I assume you played GoldenEye quite a bit. If you found the violence in that game offensive, you may have to pass on PD. I do hope though that there is a toggle for blood, because it gives people like you a choice, and it allows more people to enjoy it. However, I'm sorry to say that I can't confirm this for you.

Can anyone tell me if perfect dark will be usind the expansion pack or not? -- o

Tweek: PD will use the expansion pak. I'm still unsure whether it will require the pak like Donkey Kong 64, but it will definitely be expansion pak compatible, as all N64 games these days are.

1. Are there any player-controlled vehicles with weapons mounted to them
2. What modes are there in Multiplayer- for example is there capture the flag, hold the flag (like in GE), Capture/invade the opponents base (like in Unreal Tournement). Or any others?
3. Any chance of a create-a-weapons option?
4. In Multiplayer, with the GB pak thing, do u have to take a pic of your face. If you don't, how will you be able to paste a pic of, for example, an ass to a face shape, without it looking a bit odd?
5. is it true that a few well known American celebraties have had there faces put in the game- if yes- which celebs?
6. Is there blood in Multiplayer?

7. What other vehicles are there apart from the hoverbike?

-- Jonesy

Tweek: Well, firstly, there's a lot of information I can't get my hands on. Some of your questions are pretty difficult to answer since I'm not actually in the PD team. But here goes. 1) I don't really know. The hoverbike is the only vehicle I know about and I've only seen Joanna using her own weapons whilst riding it. I honestly can't be sure, but I'd assume there would be a built in weapon. 2) Visit our Multiplayer section for that sort of information. There's modes that include Teams, Simulants, and "One Shot Kill". 3) Don't count on it. 4) I don't know, I've obviously never tried it before. The "paste an ass to your face" thing is already getting a bit old, and it won't look good. The novelty will wear off pretty quickly. I'm sure questions like that could wait a while, say until after PD's release? And by the way, take a picture of whatever you want. Nobody's going to stop you. If you want to make your character look good, use a real face. If you want to be funny, try other things. 5) I don't know if it's true. It's still a bit early to know that. 6) There's blood in single player so I guess there'll be blood in multiplayer. 7) I don't know of any other vehicles. Thanks for your questions.

Are Perfect Dark's graphics surpass those of Goldeneye? Also, you said there were 30 multiplayer levels, is that true? My last question is what other vehicles besides a hover bike will be available? -- Matthew

Tweek: Obviously Perfect Dark's graphics will be better than GoldenEye's. Haven't you seen the screenshots? We're assuming that the "30 levels in multiplayer" rumour is true but we can't be certain.

I know that Temple and Complex, from Goldeneye, will be in PD. But my question is what happend to the Facility. A while ago i heard that these three levels i just mentioned will be in the game, but it has been a very long time since i heard anything about the Facility. Since it was one of my favourite levels in GE...well I really hope that it´s still in the game!

PS. Sorry For any bad spelling -- Peter

Tweek: Good point, there hasn't been much talk about Facility. This is probably because the new version of it isn't finished. It will be in the game, so don't worry. And yeah, Facility was one my favourites, too.