No, those distortions in close groupings of what's supposed to be straight lines, are a dead give away for AI upscaling. It's the thing's calling card.
@@AvalancheReviews What's crazy is that you've got free AI upscaled texture packs for other games like Half Life that actually look pretty good. Not only do I think AI should only be used for noncommercial projects like that but it looks like people making noncommercial projects are the only ones who actually do it with some semblance of competence.
They didn't even bother to rerig the animations and exporting those to a more recent version of the MD format (the wobble in models is a limitation of the MD2 format that the Quake 2 engine uses), unlike what Nightdive did in the Quake 1 and 2 remasters. A dev who worked on this "remaster" said the original source code is gone, and they had to reverse engineer the game logic and porting it to a custom engine made in Unity. Slipgate's total lack of experience in doing remasters of old 3D games, combined with doing multiple projects at once, and we got this awful thing. Like what Groove Street Games did to the GTA 3D Trilogy remasters. Atrocious af man
Is it bad that I like this art style? Lmaooo I’ve never played or even heard of the original but this game looks so funny I want to play it the new one, the squiggly lines makes it look like if ed Edd and eddy ppl made a pc boomer shooter
Complete pass from me as well, I expected them to fix the hideous wobbles and they didn't even try. Nightdive at least has the skills and ability to fix it. I know some love it, and I am all for the wobbling being a toggleable option--but that wobbly crap looks awful nowadays. There's a reason the most in-demand options for PS1 emulation are dithering and wobbly texture fixes, the wobbling looks like trash lol. But then you boot up MGS1 with all the fixes and its a gorgeous piece of game now, even with the old ps1 models.
The comparison shots speaks for themselves. How they managed to make the game look objectively worse than the original is baffling. And the music not playing correctly is just unforgivable, those radios was what gave the game it's whole vibe. The fact that the devs didn't realize that before putting it out says it all.
@@phaolo6 But like pointed out in the video, this was still in development for years. You'd think they'd get somewhere close to the goal with that amount of time.
The problem is the developers. 3DRealms just doesn't make good games anymore. Ghostrunner is the only game they've had any hand in recently that's rated above "mixed" on Steam and they weren't the primary developers, they had assistance from multiple other studios and One More Level were the primary devs. They had no involvement in the Ghostrunner sequel and that's being rated just as highly. Embracer has effectively killed 3D Realms and it's just heartbreaking to watch them continue on as a shell of their former glory.
At least they actually stand behind their remasters and fix them worth a damn if they are buggy... this is made by a company that "remade" (ie. took a huge piss all over) Rise of the Triad... by making the 2013 game....
Only exception as far as I can tell, was Blade Runner Enhanced Edition, and I don't know what caused Nightdive to release the state it was in along with temporarily inability to purchase the ScummVM release.
The devs apparently tried to mimic the feel of driving at night, in the rain, with an astigmatism, and every car around you being a lifted truck with LED lights. Nailed it.
The biggest thing is, a game like Kingpin has such a devoted fan base you could easily find mods for it to help put it in widescreen or add QoL improvements the remaster should have had.
After sitting in development Hell for years, 3D Realms suddenly announced that this was coming out like 2 months ago, then they dropped that gods awful Phantom Fury demo, then they suddenly announced dates for a bunch of stuff they've let languish. I'm pretty sure this is because their parent company Embracer Group is going through a financial reckoning right now, and 3D Realms is trying to show they can get releases out so they don't risk getting cut back or shut down. The studio's been a mess for years, announcing more and more projects that just sit in "coming soon" state for eons. This shipping in this abhorrent state is what happens when a badly run studio is desperately trying to save itself. There's a reason Scott Miller cut ties with them.
Oh they're owned by Embracer Group? They dead, then. They just shuttered New World Interactive, who actually had a decent game out and making money. Hell, I think we know who to blame for this now.
Yeah I guess Embracer is proof that the "perfect world" everyone wants where some company buys up old and beloved properties to reboot them isn't as easy as you think. Tho they really have been just gobbling up properties the past few years, not surprised they're axing some stuff.
@@djam7484 I hope it's good, but that's another title that got launched with very little content and has advanced at a snail's pace since. I hope it doesn't launch cut back.
You mentioned the guy who worked on the level design and said he worked on other games and I looked at the level and went "Probably dishonored." And it was. That dude has a style and likes to stick to it.
It's too bad Nightdive didn't do this. They blew it. Picking Unity as an engine might have been a bad choice as well as someone just went over the top with the post-processing.
In order for it to "look nice" - there would have to be tons of additional set pieces, geometry and level detailing, - and that's a lot of work. Something that these guys are evidently incapable of. Once a designer starts putting dubious engine whirligigs upfront, while actual creativity goes to the back of the bus, and then "leaves the building" - it's all over. Not even worth a look. Too many developers confuse Nvidia tick-boxes with creativity, and/or resolution with detail. Especially when it comes to "remastering" something. 🙄Basket case, basket case...
Man, what a shame. All publishers should jusy let Nightdive handle their remasters. Let them give Kingpin and XIII the proper remasters they deserve. At least Sin: Reloaded is being handled by Nightdive, so that has a much better chance at getting the treatment it deserves.
@@pastichiorocker that's just one rotten apple out of many they actually done right. Sounds like you're completely writing them off just for a point and click no one likes to play.
@@pastichiorocker BR:EE was a mistake. At the end they hit a deadline and had to ship due to contractual obligations, that's the danger of doing things the legal sellable way as Night Dive specializes in. Westwood's Blade Runner is a mindnumbingly complicated game using a renderer nobody else in the industry used or ever will use, and the only documentation is the painstakingly reverse-engineered ScummVM port-- over a decade of painstaking work, which couldn't be used by NDS because it was under the GPL license making it incompatible with a console release. BR:EE sucks, it's unplayable and unfinished... but it's not lazy. They bit off way more than they could chew and got burned, and it really should have been cancelled. The fact that the ScummVM release of the game happened between its project start and its release makes it even more confusing on the outside, but Night Dive didn't have a decade to work on it. It's not indicative of their work which is otherwise top notch.
@@pastichiorockerand I’ve been to prison before and now I got full custody of 4 kids and do a job most people don’t want to do….you can’t win them all…like I was saying my ex wife likes to remind people of somebody’s past….😅
I remember playing this as a kid and being fascinated by the dismemberment in Kingpin, spending time experimenting and what I can do. Not for any mobid reason, simply because I'd never seen anything like it in a game before.
Absolutely, I did the same. I remember it being well received but never really got the exposure or appreciation that a lot of other FPS got at the time. I spent a lot of time playing the PC Zone magazine demo, which for some reason seemed to be a lot more brutal than the final release. Perhaps things were toned down a bit to make it more 'palatable' for a wider audience.
Yeah sure mate, same with me, and after this game could not anymore fulfil our morb... curiosity simulation fantasies, we moved on to Postal 2: Apocalypse Weekend
@@meanmole3212Just you. I've never actually played a Postal game. Put I have seen them being played on RUclips... I don't get the big deal tbh. They're not particularly shocking.
Its definitely a game that I will always remember. Heavy language, Hiring mercs, Cypress Hill doing the soundtrack and multiplayer being called "Gangbangin". Really hope this turns out better, cheers Gman 👌
At this point, studios should just hire some modders who love the games they work on and give them 2-3 years full time. 100% sure we would have so much better games.
I am a fanboy of Nightdive but I also know when to admit they have had some mishaps. Blood and Bladerunner are notable examples of being released in pretty bad shape. To their credit they did rectify their mistakes pretty quick.
Jeez they made the explosions look like the explosions from Goldeneye. I remember I had a friend in 99 that was really hyped for Kingpin because of how dirty it was. Lotta memories of going over to his house to play it when we were 13. I remember him asking me if I knew who Cypress Hill was before it came out because he was hyped. And me having to show him some MP3s of Cypress Hill I got off Napster. Good times. Shame this remaster isn't representative of what Kingpin is supposed to be.
When Gman was walking to and from the radio, am I the only one who thought of the scene from Ace Ventura: Pet Detective where Ace is standing on a porch/balcony, sliding a glass door open and closed while singing?
They better not delist either the Steam or GOG versions of the original Kingpin Life of Crime and replace it with the defective version. Yes, I’m looking at you RockStar.
it seems like the distance fog is cranked up too high, making everything look washed out Also those little icons that appear when you pick things up look like they were made in powerpoint, just with the shape tools and the gradient fill effects
@@cenciende9401 nah this is a really specific kind of look, when i was a kid (like 7-10 years old) id make "comics" in powerpoint using its super simple shape tools and these pickup icons absolutely SCREAM the same vibe my comics would have. (Except i stopped using gradients, and swiched them out with transparent shapes id overlay on top that would act as my shadows) It's just, there's something VERY amateurish about their design
I remember playing this as a little kid, my friend and I. We thought it was the most hilarious shit ever, because we were as immature as a pair of little boys could be. The beginning, when you can attack that guy trying to sell you a pipe, and he runs off yelling "I'll be back muthafuka!" had us rolling.
This game was *the bomb* back in the day. The way they talked, the music, the theme/vibe had all my boys rollin when I played this 'Yo man, you got a dolla?"
And when installing the original game, I believe you could choose from the options 'censored' (no blood, loose body parts and swearing) and 'uncensored'.
From what i looked up apparently the original source code was lost so the devs had to make a lot of things from scratch its another silent hill HD collection situation
I’m 26 but spent most of my life obsessing over old games, and I’ve legit never heard of Kingpin. It’s crazy how many innovative and interesting games are out there that you might never hear about.
oh,oh,oh it's a near perfect example to give to people without visual hypersensitivity to explain why I have a hard time dealing with lens flares and a lot of bloom effects. thanks 3D Realms and slipgate ironworks for your heartfelt efforts to help the disabled...
Ahhh.... the golden era of FPS games late 90s early 2000s. Kingpin, Deus Ex, SiN, System Shock, Thief, Delta Force, AvP, Half Life, Blood2, Soldier of fortune, Unreal, Quake 3, No one lives forever, Tresspasser, Turok... the list goes on. Uhm wait either it was a golden era or just simply when I had time to play games for 6hrs a day lol
Why this is such an ignored and forgotten classic is mostly due to the requirements. It's not cause of Half Life. I do remember the day when i got my hands on it at launch, and it was literally the only game i knew that required a dedicated GPU. Most people didn't have one back then, and it was hard convincing your parents to get something that had no use other than videogames. Quake 3 Arena is THE game that made everyone get a GPU, due to sheer popularity. But before that, it wasn't that common. You could play anything at that time in software mode, and that's actually how most people played HL, Quake 2, etc. I took the disk to a friend who had a Voodoo card, and our brains exploded when Kingpin started. We couldn't believe the projected shadows, and lighting it had. It's hard to describe now how that felt, and even how hearing this kind of music in a game of that time was. It felt like seeing Doom for the very first time, all over again.
A crying shame. I was genuinely looking forward to this. Since I'm a relatively new PC gamer, I've been able to enjoy so many classic titles through their amazing remasters and overhauled versions. Too bad Kingpin won't be included - at least not this version.
Also available on Steam around $11 in Canada, so I mean there is that wherever you live, though remember Steam runs DRM. Can not pay with debit card though.
After seeing this as a remaster and the demo for the sequel to one of my favourite throwback shooters, it makes me really optimistic for SiN and Phantom Fury... They should just let Nightdive do the remasters and give Phantom Fury to the Ion Fury guys. Slipgate just don't seem to be up to it.
It was already hard enough convincing people that Kingpin was an underappreciated cult classic worth checking out. This awful remaster is gonna make it so much harder...
Kingpin also had the misfortune of being released just after Columbine which caused a moral panic over violence in games. On a lighter note I find the PS1-esque vertex wobble rather peculiar. That one's quite typical of the vertex animation used in Quake 2 iirc.
@@df71091 They went through the trouble of adding a censorship setting in the game mostly to appease watchdog groups, even after issuing a statement maintaining that the game was never meant for children at all.
Fucking same. I literally just woke up, looked up Kingpin reloaded after months of forgetting about it; saw it was released and said “oh shit” and ran to my laptop to check it on Steam Saw the reviews and just went “damn” this year sucks
Same, i had no internet and no basic english skills... The moment i found out that i have to crouch and interact with bodies to loot was such an opener😂
Yes i was glued to my PC's in the 90s as a young teen they should have used something similar to the GHOUL damage model rendering system that soldier of fortune had for the remaster..
10:00 that's a real shame because the effects on the flame thrower in this game looked really damn good for the time. The flame and particle effects were probably the biggest visual improvements they made to the quake 2 engine actually (well that and using texture colour palette that wasn't 256 shades of orange).
I think it's a testament games like these were made back then with limited technology. Yet despite that not being the case nowadays devs struggle remaking a decade+ old game.
A remake, is one thing. But remasters are one of the easiest things to do, just fix what's broken, compile it for modern hardware, and if you feel adventurous, update the graphics. However companies still find ways to screw it up in the worst ways possible.
This feels especially awful when you compare it to Half Life's 25th Anniversary update which just updated the codebase to be more accessible and added more multiplayer maps. Looks like that's all they had to do to give the game more life? At least now the original is on my radar.
The game is censored as of now btw. You cant take limbs off enemies anymore with the shotgun. Also you fail to realize they didnt even use quake 2 or port this to a custom quake 2 version like the q2 remaster, it's just fucking unity and their own jank inhouse stuff. That's why all the lighting and movement feel so fucking off. It's unity trying to poorly ape quake 2. That's why it's not a case of "adding shadows to an old game" but "rebuilding a old game in a modern engine and fucking things up in the process".
One great feature of the Nightdive Quake remasters is that they showed up free in my Steam library since I already owned the originals. I'll stick with the OG Kingpin after seeing this video.
The game looks like onions and flowers, what with all that damn bloom. I remember some old Flash game on Newgrounds that used a lot of audio samples from Kingpin.
all quake 2 engine games* have those wobbly models because of how the model format works, it's just that since kingpin uses a lot of close0up shots in the cutscenes the warping is much more noticeable. * the quake 2 remaster actually uses a different model format for the models that doesn't have the warping.
Shame, I was looking forward to this remaster for a while. Hopefully some patches will make it less jank, but still it's lame to launch it in this state.
This one will likely be known as the most mind-boggling waste of hard drive space and money the gaming industry ever made. It's not the first and not the only among this kind, but it surely is the most ridiculous one. You are literally paying money for Slipgate Ironworks to digitally spit you in the face. There is no reason to play this whatsoever, even if someone would to pay you to do so. Just stick with the original game. Speaking of the original game, a few notes are in order regarding that one. To be fair, Kingpin was an underdog of a game which was largely relegated to languish in obscurity for a reason. And the reason was not the presence of Half-Life (which is a common misconception), but a poorly designed combat. Kingpin just couldn't stand in the same line of quality during the time when the leaders of the industry launched titles near-perfect gameplay-wise. Same thing happened to other inherently flawed projects of the time: Sin, Requiem: Avenging Angel, Vigilance, Klingon Honor Guard, Blood II, etc. Sure, they all were well advertised in the magazines and all, but when push came to shove - they just could not deliver due to multiple gameplay issues, thus running out of steam and stalling very quickly. And that was the end of it. Apparently, it still is. As SGIW just managed to dig a deeper grave for Kingpin, while the modding scene never gave this game more than a marginal glimpse. P.S. Unlike what GMan says here, the flamethrower was NOT useless in the original game. It was rather the opposite. Flamethrower would set enemies on fire, effectively stopping them from attacking you, and while in a burning state - the enemies could be downed with barely a few pistol shots. Also, those stupid dollar signs never existed in the original game. Incorporating that nonsense as a part of the "enhancement", only goes to show how creatively impotent SGIW truly are.
I loved the original, but not for any of the usual reasons, all the swearing made me laugh out loud. This (for me) was a game on the humor level of Monkey Island.
Duuuude I still have my box my Voodoo 3 came in because I thought the cover was bitchin when I was 13. Remember that shit with the persons face covered in glow in the dark tribal paint? Good times.
Russian voice over of this game is glorious, even if you don't speak or understand the language you should look it up. The voices are super memorable and it arguably has even more profanity than the original game.
No, those distortions in close groupings of what's supposed to be straight lines, are a dead give away for AI upscaling. It's the thing's calling card.
Why would they lie about that??? Like, we can see it.
Going in for the kill
@@AvalancheReviewsTo try and save face among the stupid/ blind majority.
@@AvalancheReviews What's crazy is that you've got free AI upscaled texture packs for other games like Half Life that actually look pretty good. Not only do I think AI should only be used for noncommercial projects like that but it looks like people making noncommercial projects are the only ones who actually do it with some semblance of competence.
That's what I thought, it has that "look" of AI upscaling.
They didn't even bother to rerig the animations and exporting those to a more recent version of the MD format (the wobble in models is a limitation of the MD2 format that the Quake 2 engine uses), unlike what Nightdive did in the Quake 1 and 2 remasters. A dev who worked on this "remaster" said the original source code is gone, and they had to reverse engineer the game logic and porting it to a custom engine made in Unity. Slipgate's total lack of experience in doing remasters of old 3D games, combined with doing multiple projects at once, and we got this awful thing. Like what Groove Street Games did to the GTA 3D Trilogy remasters. Atrocious af man
Is it bad that I like this art style? Lmaooo I’ve never played or even heard of the original but this game looks so funny I want to play it the new one, the squiggly lines makes it look like if ed Edd and eddy ppl made a pc boomer shooter
@@lorddeeceeThe original Quake 2 engine had this same effect.
Complete pass from me as well, I expected them to fix the hideous wobbles and they didn't even try. Nightdive at least has the skills and ability to fix it.
I know some love it, and I am all for the wobbling being a toggleable option--but that wobbly crap looks awful nowadays. There's a reason the most in-demand options for PS1 emulation are dithering and wobbly texture fixes, the wobbling looks like trash lol. But then you boot up MGS1 with all the fixes and its a gorgeous piece of game now, even with the old ps1 models.
I feel so fucking bad for the devs, they were NOT the right studio for this and working on it must have been miserable
@@cacomeat7385 Yeah, 3DR should've given this project to Nightdive
The comparison shots speaks for themselves. How they managed to make the game look objectively worse than the original is baffling. And the music not playing correctly is just unforgivable, those radios was what gave the game it's whole vibe. The fact that the devs didn't realize that before putting it out says it all.
Idiocracy is so close
Simple, they didn't want to spend much for it.
They probably assigned some random dev to it with a minimal budget and time.
@@phaolo6 But like pointed out in the video, this was still in development for years. You'd think they'd get somewhere close to the goal with that amount of time.
The problem is the developers. 3DRealms just doesn't make good games anymore. Ghostrunner is the only game they've had any hand in recently that's rated above "mixed" on Steam and they weren't the primary developers, they had assistance from multiple other studios and One More Level were the primary devs. They had no involvement in the Ghostrunner sequel and that's being rated just as highly. Embracer has effectively killed 3D Realms and it's just heartbreaking to watch them continue on as a shell of their former glory.
They were clearly just going through the motions with this one. They simply didn't care.
They just straight up lied to you when they told you the textures were all done by hand. That skybox is undeniably done by AI. Jesus.
not only was it ai upscaled, they must have ran it through the model once and took the result without previewing it lmao.
Well... AI doesn't exist yet...
They did press the upscale button by hand..
@@Afternoon-T I'm convinced nobody at the dev studio played that remaster. Sending a game out like this is bullshit
NOBODY FUCKS WITH THE JESUS
This shows how good Nightdive studios is at remastering old titles
I find it funny how there's still people hating on Nightdive, just because.
At least they actually stand behind their remasters and fix them worth a damn if they are buggy... this is made by a company that "remade" (ie. took a huge piss all over) Rise of the Triad... by making the 2013 game....
Only exception as far as I can tell, was Blade Runner Enhanced Edition, and I don't know what caused Nightdive to release the state it was in along with temporarily inability to purchase the ScummVM release.
Nope, they did a great job on the turok trilogy
@@TheDRODORpartially, T3 came without multiplayer and they charge more than usual.
The devs apparently tried to mimic the feel of driving at night, in the rain, with an astigmatism, and every car around you being a lifted truck with LED lights. Nailed it.
I like how this hits my driving experience so perfectly. Chef's kiss.
I think you're right. The cutscene stuttering must signify the police
stopping them for inspection every quarter mile.
waited ages for this, it looks worse than the original
I know, isn't it great?! 😂
Yep, same here. Such a shame.
Ditto
They should have just left the original as is and made it multi platform with modern additions.
Looks, sounds and plays worse :D
It’s always disappointing when the best way to sum up a remaster is “just play the original”
Pretty much the same with most remasters, if there are fan versions def play it, if theres a "official" remaster just ignore it
The biggest thing is, a game like Kingpin has such a devoted fan base you could easily find mods for it to help put it in widescreen or add QoL improvements the remaster should have had.
I thought gamers would learn that by now.
After sitting in development Hell for years, 3D Realms suddenly announced that this was coming out like 2 months ago, then they dropped that gods awful Phantom Fury demo, then they suddenly announced dates for a bunch of stuff they've let languish. I'm pretty sure this is because their parent company Embracer Group is going through a financial reckoning right now, and 3D Realms is trying to show they can get releases out so they don't risk getting cut back or shut down. The studio's been a mess for years, announcing more and more projects that just sit in "coming soon" state for eons. This shipping in this abhorrent state is what happens when a badly run studio is desperately trying to save itself. There's a reason Scott Miller cut ties with them.
Oh they're owned by Embracer Group? They dead, then. They just shuttered New World Interactive, who actually had a decent game out and making money. Hell, I think we know who to blame for this now.
Yeah I guess Embracer is proof that the "perfect world" everyone wants where some company buys up old and beloved properties to reboot them isn't as easy as you think. Tho they really have been just gobbling up properties the past few years, not surprised they're axing some stuff.
not all hope is lost.. There is still Graven. i remeber playing the demo of that and really enjoying it. full release is out end of next month.
@@DorrajI like Embracer Group. They brought Destroy All Humans 1&2 back from the dead. Tomb Raider is also on the way.
@@djam7484 I hope it's good, but that's another title that got launched with very little content and has advanced at a snail's pace since. I hope it doesn't launch cut back.
You mentioned the guy who worked on the level design and said he worked on other games and I looked at the level and went "Probably dishonored." And it was. That dude has a style and likes to stick to it.
going from nightdives fantastic quake 2 remaster to this is crazy
It's too bad Nightdive didn't do this. They blew it. Picking Unity as an engine might have been a bad choice as well as someone just went over the top with the post-processing.
@@humanplayer6864 Nobody would've liked having to upgrade to a 4090 to run a "remaster" of a 90s game.
In order for it to "look nice" - there would have to be tons of additional set pieces, geometry and
level detailing, - and that's a lot of work. Something that these guys are evidently incapable of.
Once a designer starts putting dubious engine whirligigs upfront, while actual creativity goes to
the back of the bus, and then "leaves the building" - it's all over. Not even worth a look.
Too many developers confuse Nvidia tick-boxes with creativity, and/or resolution with detail.
Especially when it comes to "remastering" something. 🙄Basket case, basket case...
Nothing wrong with Unity, it's just an engine, the problem is the lack of effort in porting the game over.
Hell, I've written less messy Unity games than this. Not an engine thing. Just an incompetent development in so, so many ways.
Man, what a shame. All publishers should jusy let Nightdive handle their remasters. Let them give Kingpin and XIII the proper remasters they deserve. At least Sin: Reloaded is being handled by Nightdive, so that has a much better chance at getting the treatment it deserves.
Let them remaster Return to Castle Wolfenstein as well while at it ^^
Blade Runner Enhanced likes to have a word.
@@pastichiorocker that's just one rotten apple out of many they actually done right.
Sounds like you're completely writing them off just for a point and click no one likes to play.
@@pastichiorocker BR:EE was a mistake. At the end they hit a deadline and had to ship due to contractual obligations, that's the danger of doing things the legal sellable way as Night Dive specializes in. Westwood's Blade Runner is a mindnumbingly complicated game using a renderer nobody else in the industry used or ever will use, and the only documentation is the painstakingly reverse-engineered ScummVM port-- over a decade of painstaking work, which couldn't be used by NDS because it was under the GPL license making it incompatible with a console release.
BR:EE sucks, it's unplayable and unfinished... but it's not lazy. They bit off way more than they could chew and got burned, and it really should have been cancelled. The fact that the ScummVM release of the game happened between its project start and its release makes it even more confusing on the outside, but Night Dive didn't have a decade to work on it. It's not indicative of their work which is otherwise top notch.
@@pastichiorockerand I’ve been to prison before and now I got full custody of 4 kids and do a job most people don’t want to do….you can’t win them all…like I was saying my ex wife likes to remind people of somebody’s past….😅
I love it that you're always early to bring the real reviews asap, instead of all that bullshit of trying not to upset any publishers
Now we understand why we haven't gotten information about the development of the game within those 3 years, and this really shows
Its like Lighting fast VCR repair "fixing" Mr. Plinket's VCR. That's why it took 3 years, just squeezing out a paycheck for as long as possible.
I remember playing this as a kid and being fascinated by the dismemberment in Kingpin, spending time experimenting and what I can do. Not for any mobid reason, simply because I'd never seen anything like it in a game before.
Absolutely, I did the same. I remember it being well received but never really got the exposure or appreciation that a lot of other FPS got at the time. I spent a lot of time playing the PC Zone magazine demo, which for some reason seemed to be a lot more brutal than the final release. Perhaps things were toned down a bit to make it more 'palatable' for a wider audience.
Yeah, I think Soldier of Fortune coming out a year later made a lot of people forget how surprisingly grisly Kingpin was.
Before my time, so for me that kind of experience was in the masterpiece FEAR. But really it always needs to be in more games.
Yeah sure mate, same with me, and after this game could not anymore fulfil our morb... curiosity simulation fantasies, we moved on to Postal 2: Apocalypse Weekend
@@meanmole3212Just you. I've never actually played a Postal game. Put I have seen them being played on RUclips... I don't get the big deal tbh. They're not particularly shocking.
Its definitely a game that I will always remember. Heavy language, Hiring mercs, Cypress Hill doing the soundtrack and multiplayer being called "Gangbangin". Really hope this turns out better, cheers Gman 👌
This is the sheer definition of “Look how they massacred my boy” in game remastered.
At this point, studios should just hire some modders who love the games they work on and give them 2-3 years full time. 100% sure we would have so much better games.
DEMASTERED
Nightdive studios should be hired to do remasters. They hit it out of the park all the time!
Well apart from the Rott reboot
@@KillBoyUKnightdive didn't do the rott reboot
I am a fanboy of Nightdive but I also know when to admit they have had some mishaps. Blood and Bladerunner are notable examples of being released in pretty bad shape. To their credit they did rectify their mistakes pretty quick.
@@CaptToilet I’ve never played either of those so my bad. I wish they’d port blood to console though.
@@CaptToiletBlood had some problems also because of the rights holder. Most of the time Nightdive is on the ball though.
Jeez they made the explosions look like the explosions from Goldeneye. I remember I had a friend in 99 that was really hyped for Kingpin because of how dirty it was. Lotta memories of going over to his house to play it when we were 13.
I remember him asking me if I knew who Cypress Hill was before it came out because he was hyped. And me having to show him some MP3s of Cypress Hill I got off Napster. Good times. Shame this remaster isn't representative of what Kingpin is supposed to be.
When Gman was walking to and from the radio, am I the only one who thought of the scene from Ace Ventura: Pet Detective where Ace is standing on a porch/balcony, sliding a glass door open and closed while singing?
They better not delist either the Steam or GOG versions of the original Kingpin Life of Crime and replace it with the defective version. Yes, I’m looking at you RockStar.
Ikr
For the LAST TIME. Rockstar themselves have nothing to do with it, it's always the publisher/parent company Take-Two
@@humanplayer6864supporting piracy and blatant stealing just throws your own hole argument out the window
Don't forget Sega and co.
Just pirate the original if you want to play it. Who cares? What would the creators' cut even be after 24 years?
It blows my mind that the Original graphics actually do look better. WTF?
it seems like the distance fog is cranked up too high, making everything look washed out
Also those little icons that appear when you pick things up look like they were made in powerpoint, just with the shape tools and the gradient fill effects
it should hit sharper like it would with lower bitdepths, you shouldn't really see far away that it's washed out, it should just be fogged out.
I mean that's literally how all icons are made, shape tools and fill effects, usually in Illustrator.
@@cenciende9401 nah this is a really specific kind of look, when i was a kid (like 7-10 years old) id make "comics" in powerpoint using its super simple shape tools and these pickup icons absolutely SCREAM the same vibe my comics would have.
(Except i stopped using gradients, and swiched them out with transparent shapes id overlay on top that would act as my shadows)
It's just, there's something VERY amateurish about their design
@@cenciende9401 Its been a while since I've seen someone miss a point so hard
I remember playing this as a little kid, my friend and I. We thought it was the most hilarious shit ever, because we were as immature as a pair of little boys could be.
The beginning, when you can attack that guy trying to sell you a pipe, and he runs off yelling "I'll be back muthafuka!" had us rolling.
Wow what a friggin mess. I wasn't a huge fan of the original but this makes the original looks like a masterpiece.
This game was *the bomb* back in the day. The way they talked, the music, the theme/vibe had all my boys rollin when I played this
'Yo man, you got a dolla?"
This game introduced me to Cypress Hill. The tracks in the game are awesome.
Same here. This game sold albums. :)
The voice acting in the original was frigging hilarious.
you could tell they were really excited about how they were one of the first games that had people saying "fuck" in it lmao
@@DilbertDoubloonThey weren't though...
@@DilbertDoubloonDuke nukem was swearing back in 96 and others
@@DilbertDoubloon hearing "FUCKER" every 20 seconds was a special experience as a kid
@@NetSraC1306 F-Bomb Simulator '98
And when installing the original game, I believe you could choose from the options 'censored' (no blood, loose body parts and swearing) and 'uncensored'.
Yeah, the censored version straight up bleeped the profanity, and the utter lack of blood just looked and felt weird.
From what i looked up apparently the original source code was lost so the devs had to make a lot of things from scratch its another silent hill HD collection situation
I’m 26 but spent most of my life obsessing over old games, and I’ve legit never heard of Kingpin. It’s crazy how many innovative and interesting games are out there that you might never hear about.
The same time Half-Life came out, everywhere was Half-Life.
Well you weren’t even alive so
Back then I didn't realize it was Cypress Hill when I played it. In Indonesia we didn't have the IV album but we did got Skull & Bones.
How the hell is this 12gb?
oh,oh,oh it's a near perfect example to give to people without visual hypersensitivity to explain why I have a hard time dealing with lens flares and a lot of bloom effects. thanks 3D Realms and slipgate ironworks for your heartfelt efforts to help the disabled...
11:00 that is 100% AI and it's really disgusting to see from a company who entire business is making art. very sad.
So this is like the restoration work on the old Jesus painting that they hired someone to "restore"
Ahhh.... the golden era of FPS games late 90s early 2000s. Kingpin, Deus Ex, SiN, System Shock, Thief, Delta Force, AvP, Half Life, Blood2, Soldier of fortune, Unreal, Quake 3, No one lives forever, Tresspasser, Turok... the list goes on. Uhm wait either it was a golden era or just simply when I had time to play games for 6hrs a day lol
Even a flashlight looks like a PNG texture added on the layer above.
Those comparison shots are hilarious. What an absolute disaster. How could they look at their work and be ok with this???
At least they’re not like EA
Why this is such an ignored and forgotten classic is mostly due to the requirements. It's not cause of Half Life.
I do remember the day when i got my hands on it at launch, and it was literally the only game i knew that required a dedicated GPU. Most people didn't have one back then, and it was hard convincing your parents to get something that had no use other than videogames. Quake 3 Arena is THE game that made everyone get a GPU, due to sheer popularity. But before that, it wasn't that common.
You could play anything at that time in software mode, and that's actually how most people played HL, Quake 2, etc.
I took the disk to a friend who had a Voodoo card, and our brains exploded when Kingpin started. We couldn't believe the projected shadows, and lighting it had. It's hard to describe now how that felt, and even how hearing this kind of music in a game of that time was. It felt like seeing Doom for the very first time, all over again.
15:41
The footstep sounds as the dude keeps waking up to and away from the radio makes it hilarious for some reason lmao
It genuinely got a laugh out of me 😆
A reference to Coppola Dracula wasn’t what I was expecting but respect
but 'get tha' fuck outta my foyyyeyyyy' is still a great line
You've had some great intro's in the past, but this one may be your finest work.
A crying shame. I was genuinely looking forward to this. Since I'm a relatively new PC gamer, I've been able to enjoy so many classic titles through their amazing remasters and overhauled versions. Too bad Kingpin won't be included - at least not this version.
Also available on Steam around $11 in Canada, so I mean there is that wherever you live, though remember Steam runs DRM. Can not pay with debit card though.
Damn. Makes you appreciate Nightdive even more.
After seeing this as a remaster and the demo for the sequel to one of my favourite throwback shooters, it makes me really optimistic for SiN and Phantom Fury... They should just let Nightdive do the remasters and give Phantom Fury to the Ion Fury guys. Slipgate just don't seem to be up to it.
It was already hard enough convincing people that Kingpin was an underappreciated cult classic worth checking out. This awful remaster is gonna make it so much harder...
Kingpin also had the misfortune of being released just after Columbine which caused a moral panic over violence in games.
On a lighter note I find the PS1-esque vertex wobble rather peculiar. That one's quite typical of the vertex animation used in Quake 2 iirc.
This game originally used the Quake 2 engine.
Yes, i even found a notepad file from a developer on the cd that kinda wants to apologize for all the violence
@@df71091 They went through the trouble of adding a censorship setting in the game mostly to appease watchdog groups, even after issuing a statement maintaining that the game was never meant for children at all.
yeah those textures are ABSOLUTELY ai up scaled.
Slipgate Ironworks was spread thin with so many projects, including this and the upcoming Phantom Fury. And it's shows.
Greed.
Oh fuck man, I played this as a kid and have been waiting for this re release for so long. Fuck man
I became giddy for a minute when I saw this release out of nowhere. To see the reviews crushed that. Would've been an easy buy.
Fucking same. I literally just woke up, looked up Kingpin reloaded after months of forgetting about it; saw it was released and said “oh shit” and ran to my laptop to check it on Steam
Saw the reviews and just went “damn” this year sucks
I think this shows how difficult these conversions can actually be and how fragile a game's balancing can be to get just the right feel.
Shouldn't have just let Nightdive do the job. Now, their reputation is ruined forever. Good job, 3D realm.
Wouldn't be the first time
@@darthcinema4262repetition?
@@Indy_Bendy*reputation*
nightdive had nothing to do with this lol
@@Indy_Bendy He meant Reputation. Typos happen
Dodged a bullet there. Thanks for the warning.
The simpsons 'you stupid' guy kills me every time.
Hey it's been nearly a year since this remaster came out so I'm sure these issues are all sorted now, right?
Right?
I used to love playing through Kingpin when I was younger. It was so far ahead of it's time in a lot of aspects.
Same, i had no internet and no basic english skills...
The moment i found out that i have to crouch and interact with bodies to loot was such an opener😂
Yes i was glued to my PC's in the 90s as a young teen they should have used something similar to the GHOUL damage model rendering system that soldier of fortune had for the remaster..
10:00 that's a real shame because the effects on the flame thrower in this game looked really damn good for the time.
The flame and particle effects were probably the biggest visual improvements they made to the quake 2 engine actually (well that and using texture colour palette that wasn't 256 shades of orange).
I think it's a testament games like these were made back then with limited technology. Yet despite that not being the case nowadays devs struggle remaking a decade+ old game.
A remake, is one thing. But remasters are one of the easiest things to do, just fix what's broken, compile it for modern hardware, and if you feel adventurous, update the graphics. However companies still find ways to screw it up in the worst ways possible.
This feels especially awful when you compare it to Half Life's 25th Anniversary update which just updated the codebase to be more accessible and added more multiplayer maps. Looks like that's all they had to do to give the game more life? At least now the original is on my radar.
i still have the original copy of kingpin and i was looking of this "remaster" but damn this is a DEMASTERED!
I loved this game back in the day. What a shame they didn't respect the fans and make a half decent job of this.
One little addition to your words - they cut off multiplayer game from remaster.
Yeah while watching the video and seeing the "remastered" main menu I couldn't help but notice there was no multiplayer option.
There were no reverb farts in this episode.
Unsubscribing. Unacceptable.
The game is censored as of now btw. You cant take limbs off enemies anymore with the shotgun.
Also you fail to realize they didnt even use quake 2 or port this to a custom quake 2 version like the q2 remaster, it's just fucking unity and their own jank inhouse stuff. That's why all the lighting and movement feel so fucking off. It's unity trying to poorly ape quake 2.
That's why it's not a case of "adding shadows to an old game" but "rebuilding a old game in a modern engine and fucking things up in the process".
Was going to buy this, then the review drops. 🤣🤣🤣
This is the reason i love your channel, every so often you give me a reason to dust off my old gaming shelf
This should of been done by Nightdive Studios.
There used to be a .wav file with all the swear words. Those were fun times maaaaate
11:01 that's 100% AI upscaled lol
What I never understood about King Pin, all of their faces wobbling around like jello during an earth quake.
Can't believe that this has been in development for over 3 years
Its like civiee said you can take staff from 3d realms but you cant take 3d realms from staff
They screwed the pooch with this. What a shame.
This game is quite the clowns luncheon, it seems
One great feature of the Nightdive Quake remasters is that they showed up free in my Steam library since I already owned the originals. I'll stick with the OG Kingpin after seeing this video.
3 months after its release, this game is still a complete mess
And it looks like they abandoned it altogether. Wtf were they doing for 3 years?
Props for putting "Daytonaaaaaa!" at the beginning. That soundtrack is amazing.
My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined!
Kingpin is nothing if not a total VIBE
The game looks like onions and flowers, what with all that damn bloom.
I remember some old Flash game on Newgrounds that used a lot of audio samples from Kingpin.
There's no way they can't not patch this monstrosity
hot damn a TRIPLE negative
I've never seen another Quake 2 engine game that had these wobbly models. This is the only one I can think of.
all quake 2 engine games* have those wobbly models because of how the model format works, it's just that since kingpin uses a lot of close0up shots in the cutscenes the warping is much more noticeable.
* the quake 2 remaster actually uses a different model format for the models that doesn't have the warping.
am I stoned or are these 3D character models made out of water bed
They should have given the remaster to Nightdive Studios instead
Shame, I was looking forward to this remaster for a while.
Hopefully some patches will make it less jank, but still it's lame to launch it in this state.
This one will likely be known as the most mind-boggling waste of hard drive space and money the
gaming industry ever made. It's not the first and not the only among this kind, but it surely is the most
ridiculous one. You are literally paying money for Slipgate Ironworks to digitally spit you in the face.
There is no reason to play this whatsoever, even if someone would to pay you to do so.
Just stick with the original game.
Speaking of the original game, a few notes are in order regarding that one. To be fair, Kingpin was an
underdog of a game which was largely relegated to languish in obscurity for a reason. And the reason
was not the presence of Half-Life (which is a common misconception), but a poorly designed combat.
Kingpin just couldn't stand in the same line of quality during the time when the leaders of the industry
launched titles near-perfect gameplay-wise. Same thing happened to other inherently flawed projects
of the time: Sin, Requiem: Avenging Angel, Vigilance, Klingon Honor Guard, Blood II, etc.
Sure, they all were well advertised in the magazines and all, but when push came to shove - they just
could not deliver due to multiple gameplay issues, thus running out of steam and stalling very quickly.
And that was the end of it. Apparently, it still is. As SGIW just managed to dig a deeper grave for Kingpin,
while the modding scene never gave this game more than a marginal glimpse.
P.S. Unlike what GMan says here, the flamethrower was NOT useless in the original game. It was rather
the opposite. Flamethrower would set enemies on fire, effectively stopping them from attacking you, and
while in a burning state - the enemies could be downed with barely a few pistol shots. Also, those stupid
dollar signs never existed in the original game. Incorporating that nonsense as a part of the "enhancement",
only goes to show how creatively impotent SGIW truly are.
It's a shame. They've been working on it for some time, really weird.
Nightdive should have chosen this Remaster, over Rise of the Triad Ludicrous.
I loved the original, but not for any of the usual reasons, all the swearing made me laugh out loud. This (for me) was a game on the humor level of Monkey Island.
Goodness gracious! What have they done to my childhood!
The original was awesome I had that on my voodoo 3 Windows 98 PC from gateway....
Kingpin and soldier of Fortune or great first person shooters...
Duuuude I still have my box my Voodoo 3 came in because I thought the cover was bitchin when I was 13. Remember that shit with the persons face covered in glow in the dark tribal paint? Good times.
@@jackcoleman1784 baldur's gate 1 and 2, thief dark project, Half-Life.... Good times
That ambient occlusion is absolutely horrendous
Russian voice over of this game is glorious, even if you don't speak or understand the language you should look it up. The voices are super memorable and it arguably has even more profanity than the original game.
I bet Civvie is gonna have a field day tearing this "remaster" apart.