@@divecolosio4988 If you haven't picked it up since this comment I recommend you try it. Especially for the price. The controls are a little different but it's not bad at all and super fun. And the destruction in it is a nice call back to when games cared about that kind of stuff. I actually wish there were people online. Haven't played it in a while though.
Nowadays the majority of those grand titles are officially shipped with subtitles (and sometimes voice acting) for multiple languages. Playing games without knowing English was much simpler and fun experience in the PS2, considering that games overwhelmed had a design that favoured gameplay over story.
@@LemonRush7777 Have you tried Titanfall 2, the story isn't as deep as 'Spec Ops: The line' but it does manage to make you care about the story and some of it's characters. I recommend you play it on hard difficulty since then you need to use the movement mechanic's which already somehow make the game fun. And when replaying it you should play it on master difficulty.
Call of Duty: throw grenade into a room. Some debris is flung about Black: throw grenade into a room. Whole wall is blown apart. Windows shatter. Three car alarms go off. *PANAIC SCREAMS FROM ENEMIES IN THE NEXT BUILDING OVER ARE HEARD*
@@redline841 I enjoyed FEAR one and two a lot. Three really didn’t catch me at all. But you are right. The combat was still madness from start to finish.
That's so damn scummy, I can't imagine being denied overtime pay and then being told by the studio that fired me "Pay us back or we're reporting YOU to the authorities."
Bodycount once discussed in a GameInformer article (during development, I'm pretty sure.) that the repeated levels were originally to show off some persistent entity tech. Bullet holes, corpses, and bloodstains you left in the level previously would still be there when you revisit.
I used to play this at launch with some of the Eurogamer staff, could never get in to it. And no one else did as I can remember stores drastically dropping the price of the game soon after release, I bought a PS3 copy when it was £3 less than a month later.
I could not agree more with the sentiment that remakes should focus on polishing things that were not quite successful the first time around. There are so many good ideas that were not done quite right. I get that it's easier to cash in on something that was already successful, but so many remakes/sequels of good games just kill franchises because they fall short of the original.
@@Raycevick Not so much bugs as much as incompetent balancing. There was a bug recently that let you get serious airtime as Brigitte, though, but that was more an annoyance than anything gamebreaking. I think I misinterpreted what you meant by polish, I didn't think you were referring specifically to bugs.
I used to play Black with my stepfather. He played carefullly and smart, i played dumb and loud. Black was fun for fun's sake so thank you for giving me some closure on why it didn't have a sequel.
Benja Pizarro me too. Played Black with my father. He really enjoyed wrecking havoc with silver M16. Black Ops difficulty is a must to experience Black.
BLACK holds a special place in my heart, being the first FPS I ever truly enjoyed. Up until then, I had only dabbled in a bit of Halo at a relative's house once or twice at the most, but BLACK was the first one I really sank my teeth into, on my own time. I liked how short and sweet it was, in spite of it not having much depth, more focused on the "gun porn" aesthetic--it was cathartic. Point and shoot and everything explodes. How that game managed to keep a steady frame rate 98% of the time (toss enough grenades around and it might actually dip a little) is beyond me. I vaguely remember playing the PS3 demo of Bodycount and not really liking it. Among other things, having to stand still in order to aim didn't sit too well with me. And I don't think I'm "dangerously curious" enough to try the full game.
chaffXgrenade this comment pretty much explains my relationship to the game. Total hidden gems my friends didn’t even know about. I was astounded as a kid seeing these effects on a ps2. I knew body count was the spiritual successor to black and also played the demo only to be disappointed as well.
@Brupcat I don't own a time machine, but I wish you all the best in your endeavour, that's got to be a hell of a mission. My time as a writer has shown me how easy it is for a passion project to get away from you just due to scale creep. If I ever finish Prodigal (my main piece, a cyberpunk thriller inspired by Deus Ex) it would probably be after my ##SHoK## universe is dead and buried.
@@Web720 Are you talking about F.E.A.R.? I just tried playing that last week and it was terrible and nowhere near as good or better than Black. Aiming sucked. Shooting sucked. Etc. Level layout was boring and pointless. Black was superior in every way.
In a scale of 1 to 10, the level of fear I feel when: 1- I hear someone broke into my house 5- My sister borrowing my cellphone charger 9- Being at a haunted graveyard 20- Being at the graveyard from that particular Black mission
Hi, i'm a little late to the video, but my dad actually wrote the storyline and directed the voiceovers for Black. (Guy Miller, he was never actually credited with either of those roles though) EA actually flew him out to the set of '24' to direct the actors. I asked him about the production for Black, and he told me that Alex Ward called him in to do those things AFTER the game was finished, and so the storyline was completely separate to the gameplay. My dad also said Alex Ward was not a great guy (i've changed the wording on that)
Damn, not to say that I don't believe you but if what you're saying is true...then screw Criterion lol. How in the world were you unable to make your gameplay and story around the same time at all? At least games like Halo and Call of Duty evolved their stories at or around the same time as their gameplay mechanics improved. But big s/o to your dad for what he contributed. Hope you are both in good health!
I could not care less about these games, I've never heard of them. But man, Ray just pulls you in. These are like short documentaries. Total engrossment.
Thank you so for much this video. I adore BLACK and was so excited for bodycount, what with Stuart's many appearances promoting the game. When the awful reviews started hitting I always wondered what went wrong. Now I know! :-)
TheBlackDrag0n there’s a reason for lowered crosshairs. It creates and illusion of the environment being larger than it really is and helps make vertical combat easier. Look into why Halo does it, very interesting.
It doesnt even need to be. Halo's justification is that a lot of fights are semi-airborne On top of this, bungie used it to effect with it's large visual spaces made directly around it. This is a generic FPS that would've done just fine without it lmao.
Yeah but in Halo there is reason you want to look up like spaceships and things attacking from sky. In Bodycount however there is no reason to give player focus on the empty sky. It's plain annoying.
@@akosv96 Except you can just... look up, if you want to look up. I seriously despised this argument, cause it makes 0 sense. In order to put more stuff on the screen, you shouldn't be messing with the UI, you should change the FoV. If Bungie wanted people to be able to see platforms above them while in combat, then they should have changed the FoV, not forced you to stare at the sky when shooting enemies.
I misinterpreted the title of this video as suggesting that a game called "Raycevick" was going to be a spiritual successor to Black and got excited. I was disappointed to learn I was mistaken on that count, but ultimately NOT disappointed to have watched the entire video. Great job!
@@kricku i have the MCC, not to mention still own the original 2 for my old ass xbox. as far as i can tell, the crosshairs are dead center my dude, if their off, its not egregious like in bodycount
@@quinnmarchese6313 default Crosshair placement in the original Halo games was lowered. However if you've only ever experienced it RECENTLY on MCC then you've probably experienced it with the default setting being centered. Addendum: Very similar Crosshair placement to Black and Bodycount.
Black was one of the most fun and entertaining games back when i had a PS2! I absolutely LOVED the guns in it, so action-movie-like! I haven't managed to progress too far in it tho, it was not an easy game for a new gamer.
Black was the best thing you could play with the ps2, as a Fps. It was a nice gift lol... This is how a game stands well, when there's a particular element to work with. In this case, guns. Guns with Michael Bay effects. Loved all of them, in sound, visuals and power. You could repeat the game, changing your gun pack. In Black mode the gameplay becomes wonderful. Spamming the grenade launcher from the m16 was the best thing evar. The IA was kinda dumb, I admit it.. But fun and dangerous enough to make you think how to play through.
@@johnarmstrong5533 most recent one in media is telltale games.... ironically companies that fix the wages and creative freedom -valve- end up with the same issues cannot agree jack shit and half life gets shelved! seems like any game co. doing really cool shit only has one game in them and then people leave.......
Learning implies someone at the top feels a need for growth. Unless we're talking profit margins, argument irrelevant, back to churning out safe sequels and chasing trends. /s
Black was my first FPS experience on my newly bought PS2 Slim back in 2006, many years later it still stands as my favourite console FPS alongside TimeSplitters 2. (which I really wish that THQ Nordic would hurry up and remaster the TS games already)
Man, I discovered you about a week ago and ended up binging your videos. First new subscription in a long time and your videos are up there with Super Bunnyhop for me. Keep it up, dude!
I was one of those weirdos that kinda enjoyed Bodycount - I like weird shit and love collecting it. It's a game where it clearly had passion put behind it but the further you play through the game, the more you realise that passion kept dwindling and eventually died just to push it out with only a mere fraction of it's true vision. A real shame honestly because it's art style was great, the mix of run and gun and rooting yourself like Time Crisis and shoot around corners was a nice touch and it clearly wanted to be ridiculous but eventually just became stale, by the numbers and hopped onto trends like regenerating health in the hopes that it would sell. Like it's REALLY fucking sad because it really would have been bloody good, a cult classic even if things just worked out.
it's so hard to pull myself away from the screen on ANY of your videos, they're so well written and presented that they never lose my attention; and having someone with adhd *willingly* sit through a 30 minute video on a game he's never even heard of before is pretty impressive.
Rockstars 100hour weeks have brought light to the norm for game devs. They have been facing bullshit conditions pretty much since video games have existed
@SHADOSTRYKR It has its roots in the time when people actually cared about their product and consisted of a small number of people. For companies to expand this idea to hundreds of employees in modern times is just an excuse to save money.
The difference is that back in the day, those work weeks were self motivated. The developers wanted to make it better and put their time in for it. In the modern world, the 'motivation' is pressure from the outside. It went from passion to abuse.
my main pet peeve with Black was how anatomically innacurate the guns were to their real world counter parts. such as the G36 and Uzi having two charging handles.
Man you go deep with finding out things, or at least further than I could be bothered with. There's this PSP fps game called Coded Arms, and it was supposed to get a sequel on PS3 but it died off. The first was fun, apparently there was a second subtitled Contagion which had a plot but I never knew about it, but the would be 3rd was looking good and I was excited for it.
When i got my first ps2 this was my 2nd game i got with it, not even knowing what this game was all about, and i ended up playing the game for days and my go to game when i got home from school. Thanks for the video, made me pull up my ps2 and go for a game run. GG
Holy shit. That cocking of a nonexistent bolt handle on the left side of the AK right as you are talking about leaving the inaccuracies for someone else to pick apart is some seriously subtle humour.
I consider Bulletstorm to be wasted potential, despite being actually good. The gameplay belongs to an Arena shooter but the levels are mostly corridors? WTF?
@@MerlautJones You disagree on the game being good or the small and linear level design? Because those guys used to make arena shooters. The only part in the entire game that's even remotely like the games the used to make was a hall with a broken staircase, that adds some verticality. The rest have some more open areas but some idiot thought that putting more ruins or garbage in the way was actual good environmental design.
This is still one of my favorite fps of all time, i keep replaying it annually on the hardest difficulty on the x360, it's really a shame no real sequel was ever produced
I befriended a co-worker while working in retail over 10 years ago. Ended up chilling with him and his friends at their digs quite often, smoking pot playing PS2 and just talking shit. That's where I played Black, never got the chance anywhere else but damn those are some great memories. Thanks for this blast from the past!
Black was one of the most amazing games I had ever played at the time... and the entire reason for that was because I had a 5.1 surround sound system when I played it, and the audio design for the game was absolutely incredible.
I studied game design in college and one of my lecturer was a QA tester for bodycount. He told many stories on how the game was a train wreck. One of them was the story of DAve, on how DAve spelled his name. The QA testers constantly reported it as a bug but the devs said that was how he actually spelt his name. In the end, when they sent it for review for PlayStation, it was reported as a bug
You coud've also mention that CI Games "Enemy Front" initally was developed with Stuart Black as another "Black Spiritual Successor " in WW2 but he later left them and game was remade to what it is today.
God the lower third reticle placement has always been a design decision that I never understood. It feels like I'm playing ArmA with my Track IR and I've got my head craned up the entire session. Incredibly uncomfortable, even just to watch. It forces most of your attention to be somewhere that cuts off a bunch of your lower peripheral vision and coincidentally makes the games feel more claustrophobic, especially since most other games teach you to have the resting/primary location of your focus to be where you shoot. It doesn't help that I instinctively move my head in footage of FPS games to mimic the correlating TrackIR input but that's just me being weird.
Not even close to finished this video, i just hope he mentions the fact that the sound for the MP5 in this game was lifted directly from Die Hard as a deliberate reference to the sheer LOUDNESS of the guns in that movie. A pure spectacle of gunplay from the '80s
Wow what a great video. I love Black so much and I was always bummed that no one knew it existed, but also that no sequel was ever made. And I remember how Bodycount kind of just came out without much of an acknowledgement from anyone. Crazy to know the reasons behind why that game was what it was, as opposed to what it could be. Thanks for resolving a long standing personal disappointment I've had with this game for years.
Omg I hate that not centered cross air! How the hell people like it? It is so distracting! Every single time I see one I imagine the player running around and shooting looking at the sky... Herp derp look ma i shoot.
@E115 I know right? Why most games doesn't have an option to choose the position? I think I saw this just once.... Lately I bough and completed PREY and had this retarded cross air, it took 20 seconds to fix it by change a value in the main cfg file, was it too difficult to implement an option in the menu?
I thought I was the only one where that trend is constantly driving me nuts. I don't understand why developers do that - it's just baffling to me. Probably the worst is that rubbish GoldenEye remake or whatever it was that had a crosshair so high up the screen you're literally licking the floor.
OMG I am so glad I watched the whole video.. I am playing “Black” right now for the first time and I am quite enjoying it. I almost ordered “Bodyvount” 10 minutes in... fortunately I finished the vid
I still remember walking into my used game store to pick up Black and the thing that everyone told me while I was in there talking about it was, of course: "This game has some of the best sound effects in any shooter". And I was not disappointed.
I never knew this game “bodycount” existed till I watched this video see the box art and remembered I actually rented it back in the day on its release date and played it once and took it back to the store😂.. now that’s bad when u actually played it (being only once) but still totally forgetting it existed.
One of the best shooters ever, they have the source code literally sitting still, why not go for a PC port and make tons of extra money out of it? Dumb publishers, stupid bloated companies... They're out of touch of what gamers actually WANT and would pay hard cash for it. Hell, they wouldn't even need to pay labor to port the source code, I'm sure fans would be more than glad to do it given the tools to do it.
@feelingshred the xbox360 backwards compatible version of Black is good. It's upscaled to HD. I've played it. It's also available via Microsoft game store and on the Xbox One
@@pp3k3jamail Black achieved what big shooters such as CoD MW and Crysis first, destrutible environment, large immersive of firing weaponry, one of the first FPS to featured a dynamic screen & motion effects on gameplay, amazing sound design etc. Again Black was first came out in 6th gen console platforms which were had a large limitation of hardware for the FPS genre, compare to CoD MW and Crysis which were 7th gen console shooters.
I bought this game for $5 at my local mom and pop shop a couple years ago. I loved this game but nobody knew what it was. I only ever played online on when one other person was online. It was awesome. And the campaign Is one of the best I have played in ages. I'm glad someone finally made an in depth video on it.
BJL i mean, I'd love him to explore Morrowind, but you gotta admit that either a comparison between 2 and 3 or a video on New Vegas vs 3 would be interesting to watch
Please do a video on one of the Arma games. It'd be really interesting to finally see someone do an analysis on at least one of them. At the very least arma 3 has a decent soundtrack. You even used one of the tracks at 9:05. I really find that the games really are quite unique in fairly unexpected ways.
I second this. ArmA has always been simulator first, but I think there is enoughthere both from a design perspective and a story perspective to warrant a serious exploration.
Tbh, I think it's very difficult to analyze ARMA (particularly ARMA 3) in the same way that one might analyze a stand-alone game, I think ARMA is very much a playground and a set of tools - it'd be like analyzing GMod. A lot of it would invariably have to do with how the community has made use of those tools rather than the tools themselves.
@@fuzzydunlop7928 There's still alot there you can analyze before getting into community stuff. And even then, I honestly think that simply makes it a better game to analyze. Not only is the game itself part of the analysis but so is the community around it.
@@demongrenade2748 I think in any game that's been modded heavily or that has a committed community it's vital to take that into account. We can't talk about Spacestation without the people who keep at it, y'know? What would he discuss with ARMA though, do you think? The physics? I bring this up because besides the second ARMA, the campaigns always seemed more like showcases for the engine's possibilities rather than stories built for the sake of telling a story. I'm a huge ARMA fan, btw. I've logged more hours in on Arma3 than just about anything else. I guess he could talk about the map design - Altis and Stratis are absolutely amazing to look at, even with the settings optimized for my toaster of a PC, it's still very pretty.
@@fuzzydunlop7928 Well there is a campaign with an actual story. 2 actually. The main campaign and the Apex campaign. Then there's the loads of different mechanics for all the different types of play that he could go into. From infantry, to tanks, to jets, and finally boats. They all have their own strengths and weaknesses and all are very mechanically different. The pure depth of mechanics in this 1 game is absolutely astounding. Then he could cover sound design and soundtrack. Then he could get into community tools, then the community then the actual mods that came from Arma. We've had a few genres start with Arma. Battle Royale started with Arma and so did the open world survival genre. Those are just 2 examples of mods to discuss. I think it says alot about arma as a whole when entire genres of extremely successful games can emerge from its sandbox. And thats not even mentioning things like Zeus or Arma 3's dlc strategy. Somewhere in there you gotta mention arma's technical shortcomings and bugs. But overall its very possible. And I think Raycevick would really enjoy it because he really seems to like games where the mechanics create an in depth Sandbox, which arma is the epitome of. Its like Halo in that respect.
I've heard that as well from folks, but it's so hard to tell from that generation. Totally different architectures, and if memory serves the Xbox had a better CPU and RAM, but GC had better GPU I think?
Have u thought about talking about old rts games? I recommend Battle for middle earth 2. And it's situation with ea having created the series but Warner brothers owning lotr now
Depends on what you were after, I found each level fun regardless of how many times I went through it simply because firing the guns so much fun. I enjoyed it so much I even finished it on Black Ops difficulty which is an achievement in itself since how much bullshit the final level was.
"Making a game where you kill to progress is easier than one that you are encouraged to be non-lethal." ...the phrase that killed way too many "Cop Games" in their concept stages.
@@acetrigger1337 The Elite Force mod let me fullfill my dreams of ditching armor, grenades, and headgear so that I could hold enough rubber ammo to break every bone in the level
I miss story-driven, simple FPS games, with WASD+mouse controls and drab, realistic vistas. I don't need drops that look like candy, guns that look like Super Soakers, extra super moves that just mix up the controls, or worlds that were designed by Hot Topic. Bring back the '90's.
More people watched this than actually played Bodycount.
So what's your verdict on Bodycount? Worth giving a try?
+Dive Colosio it sucks major ass
@@divecolosio4988 If you haven't picked it up since this comment I recommend you try it. Especially for the price. The controls are a little different but it's not bad at all and super fun. And the destruction in it is a nice call back to when games cared about that kind of stuff. I actually wish there were people online. Haven't played it in a while though.
Ofc
@@Doomreb
This is extreme bad advice. It's a bad game.
For me Black's lack of a compelling story wasn't an issue. I was a kid back then who didn't even understand English lol
Same lol
Nowadays the majority of those grand titles are officially shipped with subtitles (and sometimes voice acting) for multiple languages. Playing games without knowing English was much simpler and fun experience in the PS2, considering that games overwhelmed had a design that favoured gameplay over story.
Honestly, I have yet to see a traditional military shooter whose story I give 2 fucks about aside from Spec Ops: The Line.
Me too kid.
@@LemonRush7777 Have you tried Titanfall 2, the story isn't as deep as 'Spec Ops: The line' but it does manage to make you care about the story and some of it's characters. I recommend you play it on hard difficulty since then you need to use the movement
mechanic's which already somehow make the game fun. And when replaying it you should play it on master difficulty.
Call of Duty: throw grenade into a room. Some debris is flung about
Black: throw grenade into a room. Whole wall is blown apart. Windows shatter. Three car alarms go off. *PANAIC SCREAMS FROM ENEMIES IN THE NEXT BUILDING OVER ARE HEARD*
And note this was on the original xbox not the 360
Sounds like FEAR
@@redline841 I enjoyed FEAR one and two a lot. Three really didn’t catch me at all. But you are right. The combat was still madness from start to finish.
@@iGingerYT
1 is the best
@redline841 you play trepang2 yet?
Black was an INCREDIBLE technical achievement at the time. Genuinely I was shocked there weren't followups
very realistic Black people in Black
As I would like to call it "Colored Game"
Simple reason: About a year/18 months after Black came out on PS2…the first COD MW came out on PS3…
That's so damn scummy, I can't imagine being denied overtime pay and then being told by the studio that fired me "Pay us back or we're reporting YOU to the authorities."
I always got Bodycount and Brink confused.
I mixed just now realized I was thinking Bulletstorm, and it is different than Bodycount :3
Same, and I played a bit of both
Oh shit voidtracks. Swag
im witnessing a true swag moment right now oh fuck
@@zoinksboy3786 huge swag sister
At the time, Black felt almost like having a next-gen game run on a PS2, it was staggeringly good, and I dont really like FPSs
- “Black’s co-creator Stuart Black...hue hue”
Raycevick, 2018
I get it!
Cringe mode activated
time stamp?
@@CheeseMeeseGetCheesed it's within the first 5 minutes you lazy duck
Paycheck, 2018.
Bodycount once discussed in a GameInformer article (during development, I'm pretty sure.) that the repeated levels were originally to show off some persistent entity tech. Bullet holes, corpses, and bloodstains you left in the level previously would still be there when you revisit.
That would have been sick
I used to play this at launch with some of the Eurogamer staff, could never get in to it. And no one else did as I can remember stores drastically dropping the price of the game soon after release, I bought a PS3 copy when it was £3 less than a month later.
Larry Bundy Jr Really? It was quite popular when I was in high school, i remember the graphics absolute blew our minds
I read this in your voice guru Larry lol
Hey good for you, Man
HELLO YOUUU
@@goldenpun5592 y
I could not agree more with the sentiment that remakes should focus on polishing things that were not quite successful the first time around. There are so many good ideas that were not done quite right. I get that it's easier to cash in on something that was already successful, but so many remakes/sequels of good games just kill franchises because they fall short of the original.
I'm forever imagining R6: Siege with Blizzard's polish.
@@Raycevick With all the issues I am having with overwatch I am not sure I want that lol
@@Raycevick Blizzard has polish? Have you played Overwatch recently?
@@Calvin_Coolage It's getting bugged now too?
@@Raycevick Not so much bugs as much as incompetent balancing. There was a bug recently that let you get serious airtime as Brigitte, though, but that was more an annoyance than anything gamebreaking.
I think I misinterpreted what you meant by polish, I didn't think you were referring specifically to bugs.
I used to play Black with my stepfather. He played carefullly and smart, i played dumb and loud.
Black was fun for fun's sake so thank you for giving me some closure on why it didn't have a sequel.
Hahahaha same here! (But with my father)
Benja Pizarro me too. Played Black with my father. He really enjoyed wrecking havoc with silver M16. Black Ops difficulty is a must to experience Black.
Got it as a gift from my mother(Who mostly hated "shooters") lmao.
She ended up loving the credits theme.
Such a wonderful game.
My stepdad introduced me to black
Your analogies are hysterical:
"Budget of a ham sandwich"
"All the drama of my grocery list"
"As linear as a T square"
the aesthetic of black is so good, the enemies, maps, lighting, guns, i love this game
I liked Black back on the PS2, I wish they would make an HD remake or a remastered version of Black with better A.I. and better graphics.
More firearms too.
All i want is to play em on other platform tbh
@@Fat_Rucker you can Play it on Xbox one
ya this game was amazing good times
I just want to play every level with infinite ammo one more time :(
As always, your videos brighten up my subscription box...when RUclips decides they're in there, of course.
It's always good when YT forget to do so. You get an hour of high quality production
BLACK holds a special place in my heart, being the first FPS I ever truly enjoyed. Up until then, I had only dabbled in a bit of Halo at a relative's house once or twice at the most, but BLACK was the first one I really sank my teeth into, on my own time. I liked how short and sweet it was, in spite of it not having much depth, more focused on the "gun porn" aesthetic--it was cathartic. Point and shoot and everything explodes. How that game managed to keep a steady frame rate 98% of the time (toss enough grenades around and it might actually dip a little) is beyond me.
I vaguely remember playing the PS3 demo of Bodycount and not really liking it. Among other things, having to stand still in order to aim didn't sit too well with me. And I don't think I'm "dangerously curious" enough to try the full game.
chaffXgrenade this comment pretty much explains my relationship to the game. Total hidden gems my friends didn’t even know about. I was astounded as a kid seeing these effects on a ps2. I knew body count was the spiritual successor to black and also played the demo only to be disappointed as well.
I just want a game that plays like a combination of BLACK, FEAR and Bulletstorm.
@Brupcat I don't own a time machine, but I wish you all the best in your endeavour, that's got to be a hell of a mission.
My time as a writer has shown me how easy it is for a passion project to get away from you just due to scale creep.
If I ever finish Prodigal (my main piece, a cyberpunk thriller inspired by Deus Ex) it would probably be after my ##SHoK## universe is dead and buried.
@Brupcat I do feel like I should give you a prize for being the only person to bring up the game I talk about in this video.
You mean Fear and bullet storm because Fear easily beats black in almost every regard.
@@Web720 Are you talking about F.E.A.R.? I just tried playing that last week and it was terrible and nowhere near as good or better than Black. Aiming sucked. Shooting sucked. Etc. Level layout was boring and pointless. Black was superior in every way.
Gimme 3
In a scale of 1 to 10, the level of fear I feel when:
1- I hear someone broke into my house
5- My sister borrowing my cellphone charger
9- Being at a haunted graveyard
20- Being at the graveyard from that particular Black mission
I feel the Asylum was worse
The sound of that sniper man, I can still hear it in my head
Fuck that Sniper, man. Felt great once you took the nest and got to snipe waves of enemies, though
Bruh, the forest mission and Asylum is so bad and good
It's been so long since I've played black and your comment is starting to awaken some deep buried traumatic memories from the game.
Hi, i'm a little late to the video, but my dad actually wrote the storyline and directed the voiceovers for Black. (Guy Miller, he was never actually credited with either of those roles though) EA actually flew him out to the set of '24' to direct the actors. I asked him about the production for Black, and he told me that Alex Ward called him in to do those things AFTER the game was finished, and so the storyline was completely separate to the gameplay. My dad also said Alex Ward was not a great guy (i've changed the wording on that)
Damn, not to say that I don't believe you but if what you're saying is true...then screw Criterion lol. How in the world were you unable to make your gameplay and story around the same time at all? At least games like Halo and Call of Duty evolved their stories at or around the same time as their gameplay mechanics improved.
But big s/o to your dad for what he contributed. Hope you are both in good health!
I could not care less about these games, I've never heard of them. But man, Ray just pulls you in. These are like short documentaries. Total engrossment.
Yeah, Raycevick is the only channel where I watch videos for games I don't care about.
Hes very similiar to ahoy
If you like it, then Ahoy and GVMERS should be your next stop ...
@@bpcgos i also really enjoyed gamemakers toolkit
@The Shadow Mortician white light..? Never heard of him/her, thanks for the lead. Gonna check it now...
Thank you so for much this video. I adore BLACK and was so excited for bodycount, what with Stuart's many appearances promoting the game. When the awful reviews started hitting I always wondered what went wrong. Now I know! :-)
Happy to see Examined Life of Gaming get his reference too. (BLACK's gun models are ugly!)
That crosshair's really damn low. I think it's even lower than Halo's.
god I can't watch this video because of it
the god awful camera is actually hurting my eyes
TheBlackDrag0n there’s a reason for lowered crosshairs. It creates and illusion of the environment being larger than it really is and helps make vertical combat easier. Look into why Halo does it, very interesting.
It doesnt even need to be. Halo's justification is that a lot of fights are semi-airborne
On top of this, bungie used it to effect with it's large visual spaces made directly around it.
This is a generic FPS that would've done just fine without it lmao.
Yeah but in Halo there is reason you want to look up like spaceships and things attacking from sky. In Bodycount however there is no reason to give player focus on the empty sky. It's plain annoying.
@@akosv96 Except you can just... look up, if you want to look up. I seriously despised this argument, cause it makes 0 sense. In order to put more stuff on the screen, you shouldn't be messing with the UI, you should change the FoV. If Bungie wanted people to be able to see platforms above them while in combat, then they should have changed the FoV, not forced you to stare at the sky when shooting enemies.
I misinterpreted the title of this video as suggesting that a game called "Raycevick" was going to be a spiritual successor to Black and got excited. I was disappointed to learn I was mistaken on that count, but ultimately NOT disappointed to have watched the entire video. Great job!
the fact that Bodycount's crosshair is so low on screen pisses me off
Wait until you hear about this little game called Halo
@@kricku i have the MCC, not to mention still own the original 2 for my old ass xbox. as far as i can tell, the crosshairs are dead center my dude, if their off, its not egregious like in bodycount
@@quinnmarchese6313 default Crosshair placement in the original Halo games was lowered. However if you've only ever experienced it RECENTLY on MCC then you've probably experienced it with the default setting being centered.
Addendum: Very similar Crosshair placement to Black and Bodycount.
@@doublevendettaonly in halo 2+, CE’s is centered
Oh, Raycevick posted...
"The Spiritual Successor to... *Black* ?"
I have never clicked on a video faster.
I haven't played black, body count, or like half the other games raycevick covers but he's so damn entertaining that I watch all of them.
*_NUTTED_*
Black was one of the most fun and entertaining games back when i had a PS2! I absolutely LOVED the guns in it, so action-movie-like! I haven't managed to progress too far in it tho, it was not an easy game for a new gamer.
Black had the best gun sound effects ever
Black was the best thing you could play with the ps2, as a Fps. It was a nice gift lol...
This is how a game stands well, when there's a particular element to work with. In this case, guns. Guns with Michael Bay effects. Loved all of them, in sound, visuals and power. You could repeat the game, changing your gun pack. In Black mode the gameplay becomes wonderful. Spamming the grenade launcher from the m16 was the best thing evar. The IA was kinda dumb, I admit it.. But fun and dangerous enough to make you think how to play through.
Usual story no passion and original creators leave, too much crunch and employees pissed off. Jesus. Nobody learns.
Welcome to humanity.
Here's your sign.
Let's all laugh
at an industry
that never learns anything
tee hee hee
@@johnarmstrong5533 most recent one in media is telltale games....
ironically companies that fix the wages and creative freedom -valve- end up with the same issues cannot agree jack shit and half life gets shelved!
seems like any game co. doing really cool shit only has one game in them and then people leave.......
@@hanniffydinn6019 Valve puts out regular nearly daily updates for their only actual remaining piece of software (Steam)
Learning implies someone at the top feels a need for growth. Unless we're talking profit margins, argument irrelevant, back to churning out safe sequels and chasing trends. /s
Black was my first FPS experience on my newly bought PS2 Slim back in 2006, many years later it still stands as my favourite console FPS alongside TimeSplitters 2. (which I really wish that THQ Nordic would hurry up and remaster the TS games already)
How does that make OP an idiot?
Pretty sure THQ is closed and has claimed bankruptcy years ago.
omg timesplitters, getting moist just hearing that title again
I ain't gonna lie, single player killstreaks is something I only just realised I wanted...
Black was my favourite game on the old consoles, the damage in the levels just amazed my tiny little brain back then
2:55 I'd recognise the Operation Metro theme anywhere
PillzSufrie love that map 😍
More like operation grenadespam
Operation GRENADE GET DOWN*
My SAIGA with frag rounds misses those days...
It's called "Frostbite Pillars."
Here we go, a new Raycevick video was uploaded. Grab your popcorn guys!
Spoggi99 cringe
@@TheBoxNasty
You are cancer, girl.
AND an interesting topic! Love Black!
Cringe
@@fartmerchant762
You suck, Dirty Bong Water.
Man, I discovered you about a week ago and ended up binging your videos. First new subscription in a long time and your videos are up there with Super Bunnyhop for me. Keep it up, dude!
Will try to, Jeremy. Thank you for your kind words.
Oh man, I miss Black. I thought the plot was so cool, it had a Tom Clancy vibe to it. Plus the actor for the main character was great.
i will always love criterion as a development house. the burnout series and black, both masterpieces in wildly different genres
They couldn’t be more different and still super fun. Burnout Paradise was a game I played so much
I was one of those weirdos that kinda enjoyed Bodycount - I like weird shit and love collecting it. It's a game where it clearly had passion put behind it but the further you play through the game, the more you realise that passion kept dwindling and eventually died just to push it out with only a mere fraction of it's true vision. A real shame honestly because it's art style was great, the mix of run and gun and rooting yourself like Time Crisis and shoot around corners was a nice touch and it clearly wanted to be ridiculous but eventually just became stale, by the numbers and hopped onto trends like regenerating health in the hopes that it would sell. Like it's REALLY fucking sad because it really would have been bloody good, a cult classic even if things just worked out.
WOW arnt you awesome you like shity things so cool
How does that make you a weirdo? I enjoyed Bodycount too.
I liked bodycount, but it's one of these games that I would complete and never play again, maybe sometimes for nostalgia.
it's so hard to pull myself away from the screen on ANY of your videos, they're so well written and presented that they never lose my attention; and having someone with adhd *willingly* sit through a 30 minute video on a game he's never even heard of before is pretty impressive.
Rockstars 100hour weeks have brought light to the norm for game devs. They have been facing bullshit conditions pretty much since video games have existed
Every couple of years, crunch goes through the news again. Pretty fucked up that things still haven't been changed over decades of these stories.
@SHADOSTRYKR
It has its roots in the time when people actually cared about their product and consisted of a small number of people. For companies to expand this idea to hundreds of employees in modern times is just an excuse to save money.
The difference is that back in the day, those work weeks were self motivated. The developers wanted to make it better and put their time in for it. In the modern world, the 'motivation' is pressure from the outside. It went from passion to abuse.
Black was so good. Still one of my favorites.
my main pet peeve with Black was how anatomically innacurate the guns were to their real world counter parts. such as the G36 and Uzi having two charging handles.
10:50 Allows you to lean in any erection?!
I heard that too, thought I was crazy
Yes. lean into them.
In words of Generel Grivous "A fine addition to my erection"
Tighten the weapon's spread?
Lmao was hoping someone else noticed this. He totally said erection
I'll admit that little piece of DiRT Rally footage made me really want a Raycevick CMR video, maybe, possibly, sometime, please?
Man you go deep with finding out things, or at least further than I could be bothered with. There's this PSP fps game called Coded Arms, and it was supposed to get a sequel on PS3 but it died off. The first was fun, apparently there was a second subtitled Contagion which had a plot but I never knew about it, but the would be 3rd was looking good and I was excited for it.
When i got my first ps2 this was my 2nd game i got with it, not even knowing what this game was all about, and i ended up playing the game for days and my go to game when i got home from school. Thanks for the video, made me pull up my ps2 and go for a game run. GG
Holy shit. That cocking of a nonexistent bolt handle on the left side of the AK right as you are talking about leaving the inaccuracies for someone else to pick apart is some seriously subtle humour.
Funny how both of theses companies are mostly known for their racing games (Criterion: Burnout Series) (Codemasters: Dirt Series, F1 Series)
Codemasters is now owned by EA
An interesting video would be “Wasted Potential”, there are so many games, especially in the 7th gen, atleast in my experience.
Bladestorm and LOTR: Conquest. Great ideas, poor execution. Not that I haven't played them an almost embarrassing number of hours.
I consider Bulletstorm to be wasted potential, despite being actually good. The gameplay belongs to an Arena shooter but the levels are mostly corridors? WTF?
@@tomstonemale Disagreee
@@MerlautJones You disagree on the game being good or the small and linear level design? Because those guys used to make arena shooters. The only part in the entire game that's even remotely like the games the used to make was a hall with a broken staircase, that adds some verticality. The rest have some more open areas but some idiot thought that putting more ruins or garbage in the way was actual good environmental design.
you make me realise how the current generation is the least fun I've ever had, so much originality in previous generations compared to today :(
i think you should look at Brink and it's successor Dirty Bomb, damn whole Splash Damage saga will be interesting
Heck yeah
Hmm, I do really like Dirty Bomb.
I loved Brink. That game was so awesome.
Wow I have Brink, but knew nothing of Dirty Bomb. I see that it's multiplayer & pc-only so I'll pass.
Artuurs Z. Why is he a piece of shit? Because he doesn't own a PC? Are you that dense?
2:34
Sweet Jesus, never thought I'd see project: Snowblind
This is still one of my favorite fps of all time, i keep replaying it annually on the hardest difficulty on the x360, it's really a shame no real sequel was ever produced
I befriended a co-worker while working in retail over 10 years ago. Ended up chilling with him and his friends at their digs quite often, smoking pot playing PS2 and just talking shit. That's where I played Black, never got the chance anywhere else but damn those are some great memories.
Thanks for this blast from the past!
Raycevick, why are your essays so good?
Bondon45 I feel like Newrdwriter's are much better
@@travosk8668 nerdwritter makes
Because he plays the game
His mom is a professional writer, so he sometimes sends his scripts to her to proofread.
@@travosk8668 Nerdwriter makes like 10 min. videos where he talks about nothing, and you learn nothing, for the duration of the vid . . .
Raycevick and GVMERS should have at least 3 million subs for all their work, effort, and love put in their videos...
Black was one of the most amazing games I had ever played at the time... and the entire reason for that was because I had a 5.1 surround sound system when I played it, and the audio design for the game was absolutely incredible.
I studied game design in college and one of my lecturer was a QA tester for bodycount. He told many stories on how the game was a train wreck. One of them was the story of DAve, on how DAve spelled his name. The QA testers constantly reported it as a bug but the devs said that was how he actually spelt his name. In the end, when they sent it for review for PlayStation, it was reported as a bug
You coud've also mention that CI Games "Enemy Front" initally was developed with Stuart Black as another "Black Spiritual Successor " in WW2 but he later left them and game was remade to what it is today.
I wanted to, but couldn't find a way to elegantly segue into it without the script sounding repetitive. Maybe I'll discuss it in a future video.
@@Josep_Hernandez_Lujan It really is absolute trash
City Interactive, or CI Games, is an awful developer
God the lower third reticle placement has always been a design decision that I never understood. It feels like I'm playing ArmA with my Track IR and I've got my head craned up the entire session. Incredibly uncomfortable, even just to watch. It forces most of your attention to be somewhere that cuts off a bunch of your lower peripheral vision and coincidentally makes the games feel more claustrophobic, especially since most other games teach you to have the resting/primary location of your focus to be where you shoot. It doesn't help that I instinctively move my head in footage of FPS games to mimic the correlating TrackIR input but that's just me being weird.
The way the gunmodel almost covers the crosshair in focus mode looks very annoying as well in Bodycount.
It definitely is.
Not as bad as battlefield 3 where the zone capture icon almost covered the ironsights lol.
Not even close to finished this video, i just hope he mentions the fact that the sound for the MP5 in this game was lifted directly from Die Hard as a deliberate reference to the sheer LOUDNESS of the guns in that movie. A pure spectacle of gunplay from the '80s
Wow what a great video. I love Black so much and I was always bummed that no one knew it existed, but also that no sequel was ever made. And I remember how Bodycount kind of just came out without much of an acknowledgement from anyone. Crazy to know the reasons behind why that game was what it was, as opposed to what it could be. Thanks for resolving a long standing personal disappointment I've had with this game for years.
My pleasure, 117.
HAPPY 300K :)) YOU EARNED IT
Omg I hate that not centered cross air! How the hell people like it? It is so distracting! Every single time I see one I imagine the player running around and shooting looking at the sky... Herp derp look ma i shoot.
@E115 I know right? Why most games doesn't have an option to choose the position? I think I saw this just once.... Lately I bough and completed PREY and had this retarded cross air, it took 20 seconds to fix it by change a value in the main cfg file, was it too difficult to implement an option in the menu?
You just ruined it for me. I loved uncentered cross hairs and now I keep thinking about the character looking at the sky. :(
@@NickGeo25 man, look how nice is aiming in black compared to that spiritual successor. HERP DERP HERP DERP shooting people while singing Mr blue sky
I thought I was the only one where that trend is constantly driving me nuts. I don't understand why developers do that - it's just baffling to me. Probably the worst is that rubbish GoldenEye remake or whatever it was that had a crosshair so high up the screen you're literally licking the floor.
@@InfernalMonsoon licking the floor ahahaha... Brilliant!
I guess it's time to go to sleep.
*Notification pops up from Raycevick*
I guess not.
Awesome video as always. That story about the employees having to give back money is insane.
Man I appreciate how much work you put into these videos, it makes every time I see an upload from you an absolute thrill.
OMG I am so glad I watched the whole video.. I am playing “Black” right now for the first time and I am quite enjoying it. I almost ordered “Bodyvount” 10 minutes in... fortunately I finished the vid
Congrats on 300k.
You should play Total Overdose, I used to love that game when I was in school, I have seen 0 videos on that game, Other than playthroughs.
I still remember walking into my used game store to pick up Black and the thing that everyone told me while I was in there talking about it was, of course: "This game has some of the best sound effects in any shooter". And I was not disappointed.
I never knew this game “bodycount” existed till I watched this video see the box art and remembered I actually rented it back in the day on its release date and played it once and took it back to the store😂.. now that’s bad when u actually played it (being only once) but still totally forgetting it existed.
Battlefield 3 background music, i love you
One of the best shooters ever, they have the source code literally sitting still, why not go for a PC port and make tons of extra money out of it? Dumb publishers, stupid bloated companies... They're out of touch of what gamers actually WANT and would pay hard cash for it. Hell, they wouldn't even need to pay labor to port the source code, I'm sure fans would be more than glad to do it given the tools to do it.
@feelingshred the xbox360 backwards compatible version of Black is good. It's upscaled to HD. I've played it. It's also available via Microsoft game store and on the Xbox One
Gamers want Fortnight and gacha games, you are an irrelevant minority.
Man, black was so ahead of its time... Such an underrated game.
A head of it's time as far as what? Black didn't do anything different or innovative.
@@pp3k3jamail Black achieved what big shooters such as CoD MW and Crysis first, destrutible environment, large immersive of firing weaponry, one of the first FPS to featured a dynamic screen & motion effects on gameplay, amazing sound design etc. Again Black was first came out in 6th gen console platforms which were had a large limitation of hardware for the FPS genre, compare to CoD MW and Crysis which were 7th gen console shooters.
I bought this game for $5 at my local mom and pop shop a couple years ago. I loved this game but nobody knew what it was. I only ever played online on when one other person was online. It was awesome. And the campaign Is one of the best I have played in ages. I'm glad someone finally made an in depth video on it.
I cannot tell you how many times I have gone back and watched your Halo 2 video dude these things are all put together so well
I hope to see you expand your scope to the fallout series.
Great video btw (as always).
@BJL his comment had nothing to do with how good the game is.
Would be interesting to see a comparison between the original fallouts, Bethesdas fallout games and the wasteland series.
BJL i mean, I'd love him to explore Morrowind, but you gotta admit that either a comparison between 2 and 3 or a video on New Vegas vs 3 would be interesting to watch
+BJL well thats a natter of subjectivity both are similar in design but differ in narrative it would be interesting to see both honestly
Please review Vanquish? It's such a unique one of a kind "bullet time" game that we might never get sequel or similar game again . . . ever.
Please do a video on one of the Arma games. It'd be really interesting to finally see someone do an analysis on at least one of them. At the very least arma 3 has a decent soundtrack. You even used one of the tracks at 9:05. I really find that the games really are quite unique in fairly unexpected ways.
I second this. ArmA has always been simulator first, but I think there is enoughthere both from a design perspective and a story perspective to warrant a serious exploration.
Tbh, I think it's very difficult to analyze ARMA (particularly ARMA 3) in the same way that one might analyze a stand-alone game, I think ARMA is very much a playground and a set of tools - it'd be like analyzing GMod. A lot of it would invariably have to do with how the community has made use of those tools rather than the tools themselves.
@@fuzzydunlop7928 There's still alot there you can analyze before getting into community stuff. And even then, I honestly think that simply makes it a better game to analyze. Not only is the game itself part of the analysis but so is the community around it.
@@demongrenade2748 I think in any game that's been modded heavily or that has a committed community it's vital to take that into account. We can't talk about Spacestation without the people who keep at it, y'know? What would he discuss with ARMA though, do you think? The physics? I bring this up because besides the second ARMA, the campaigns always seemed more like showcases for the engine's possibilities rather than stories built for the sake of telling a story. I'm a huge ARMA fan, btw. I've logged more hours in on Arma3 than just about anything else. I guess he could talk about the map design - Altis and Stratis are absolutely amazing to look at, even with the settings optimized for my toaster of a PC, it's still very pretty.
@@fuzzydunlop7928 Well there is a campaign with an actual story. 2 actually. The main campaign and the Apex campaign. Then there's the loads of different mechanics for all the different types of play that he could go into. From infantry, to tanks, to jets, and finally boats. They all have their own strengths and weaknesses and all are very mechanically different. The pure depth of mechanics in this 1 game is absolutely astounding. Then he could cover sound design and soundtrack.
Then he could get into community tools, then the community then the actual mods that came from Arma. We've had a few genres start with Arma. Battle Royale started with Arma and so did the open world survival genre. Those are just 2 examples of mods to discuss. I think it says alot about arma as a whole when entire genres of extremely successful games can emerge from its sandbox.
And thats not even mentioning things like Zeus or Arma 3's dlc strategy. Somewhere in there you gotta mention arma's technical shortcomings and bugs.
But overall its very possible. And I think Raycevick would really enjoy it because he really seems to like games where the mechanics create an in depth Sandbox, which arma is the epitome of. Its like Halo in that respect.
Black is the first game I have ever played, and this video gave me a nostalgia trip like no other. Thank you so much man
The minute I finish this job hunt I’m gonna support the hell out of your patreon I swear
I heard that the Gamecube was technically the most powerfull 6th gen console and it was largely held back by the small 1.5 GB Gamecube discs.
I've heard that as well from folks, but it's so hard to tell from that generation. Totally different architectures, and if memory serves the Xbox had a better CPU and RAM, but GC had better GPU I think?
Black was a game ahead of its time. one of my top 3 games of all time.
Yes!!! I bought my PS2 in 2007 (way too late, I know) and I got Black. I fell in love with this game immediately.
FINALLY this finally gets the proper recognition it deserves
This reminded me to make a video on what happened to the Black sequel. I'll have to do that some time.
Your choice of music for everyone of your videos is amazing.
Have u thought about talking about old rts games? I recommend Battle for middle earth 2. And it's situation with ea having created the series but Warner brothers owning lotr now
Mandalore gaming has made a couple videos for old RTS games
I remembered that RTS is not his niche. Best left to those who understood the genre better.
Mark's got it right.
@@Raycevick thank you for the quick answer. Was hoping for a sliver of a chance my favorite essay channel could review my favorite game.
Black was good no replay value tho
the Gunplay was great... for a Console Shitter.
It had a cool concept; focus on the simple joy of firing a gun and getting fired at.
Pretty ahead of its time.
Depends on what you were after, I found each level fun regardless of how many times I went through it simply because firing the guns so much fun. I enjoyed it so much I even finished it on Black Ops difficulty which is an achievement in itself since how much bullshit the final level was.
@@acetrigger1337 ahhh PC mustured race how's red dead redemption 2 working for you
@@acetrigger1337 Speaking like trve PC Mustard Rage member.
"Making a game where you kill to progress is easier than one that you are encouraged to be non-lethal."
...the phrase that killed way too many "Cop Games" in their concept stages.
I miss SWAT
@@assaultspoon4925
"Ready or Not" is promising a Return to the "SWAT 4" format of Tactical Police Shooter.
@@acetrigger1337 If they don't let me ruthlessly spray civilians with pepper spray and tear gas grenades, I'm walking
@@assaultspoon4925
I allways prefered to introducing the Buttstock to my fellow civilians... but sometimes they need to look at it CLOSER.
@@acetrigger1337 The Elite Force mod let me fullfill my dreams of ditching armor, grenades, and headgear so that I could hold enough rubber ammo to break every bone in the level
One of the most entertaining and informative shows on youtube. Could easily go big during prime time on tv.
This is really my favorite RUclips channel! Keep up the amazing work and I hope that the channel blows up even more
I miss story-driven, simple FPS games, with WASD+mouse controls and drab, realistic vistas. I don't need drops that look like candy, guns that look like Super Soakers, extra super moves that just mix up the controls, or worlds that were designed by Hot Topic. Bring back the '90's.
You miss the 00s, not the 90s.
none of this shit was in the 90s
2007:Black
2018: Escape From Tarkov
Yeah I was thinking of Tarkov as well but didnt know why...I guess because both are gun porn?
no destructible environments and guns aren't fun to shoot because you die before getting a chance to use them
@@gaussminigun git gud
@@elijah4168 HAY!
:(
2005*
Seems someone watches examined life of gaming
Nobody watches that garbage.
I love how you make me care and engage so much about obscure titles I never heard about before. Keep up the great work.
It always surprises me when I look at your subscriber count. You deserve more.
the low reticule is driving me insane
10:50 - "lean in any erection"
Good stuff.
Thank you, was looking for this
Black - The game with the world’s best videogame shotgun
FEAR
Talion Blacktear You spelled F.E.A.R. wrong.
Halo CE
That's not how you spell Combat Evolved.
(Seriously tho, everyone here is right)
@@kjj26k i know kkkk
BLACK sound effects for gun reloading is so satisfying in an unironic way
God... Black was such a great game. I'm getting a little nostalgic and emotional watching this.