Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32624

Has anyone else been following the news on this lately? It looks really interesting. It's a ground up remake (by Starbreeze, the same devs) of the Chronicles of Riddick Xbox1 game, with redone graphics, a new engine, and new content that doubles the game length. There's a play mechanic in the new content where you fight human beings who are actually remote controlled drones; sometimes you get to hack the drone contol thingies and then you become one of the drones. This shifts the gameplay from stealth to more straight shooter, then back again when you contol Riddick. Sounds like a neat way to mesh the play styles.

The multiplayer also includes these interesting sounding modes:

Quote:

Spilled in the latest issue of Official Xbox Magazine US, Riddick's new online modes include the obligatory 12-player deathmatch and capture the flag modes, as well as an interesting Butcher Bay Riot game that pitches three teams of four against each other.

Teams include guards, mercenaries and prisoners, each tasked with fighting their way to and activating a central power cell. Although each team apparently plays the same, the implementation of a Counter-Strike-style weapon purchase system sounds fun - and at least it's not Halo 3 with Vin Diesels.

As we mentioned though the most exciting mode revealed is Pitch Black, which puts combatants in a big dark arena and makes one of them a fast-moving, ultra blade-wielding Riddick - the others are just grunts with guns and flashlights. Good luck.

If the grunts can manage to spot and kill Riddick - who can see clearly in the dark, by the way - they can become Riddick in the next round. This is going to be shit scary, and you know it.

I never played the original game, but I know a few people who did, and talk highly of it.

myp · **Posted:** Fri Dec 05, 2008 21:16

Yessssssssss. I loved the first game, but didn't complete it as I traded in my Xbox 1 when I bought my 360 (it's not forwards compatible). It's a very, very good game, so I'm looking forward to this muchly. Do you know where it fits into the story? Escape from Butcher's Bay was meant to fill in the gaps between the films Pitch Black and Chronicles...

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38603

i thought the animated thingy filled the gap and the game was sort of based on the prison part of the movie

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32624

myoptinsel wrote:

Yessssssssss. I loved the first game, but didn't complete it as I traded in my Xbox 1 when I bought my 360 (it's not forwards compatible).

One article I read mentions that -- Starbreeze claimed they abused the Xbox hardware so badly to get stuff running fast that it couldn't be made to run under the 360's software emulation.

Quote:

Do you know where it fits into the story? Escape from Butcher's Bay was meant to fill in the gaps between the films Pitch Black and Chronicles...

From what I've read, the Dark Athena bit follows on immediately from Butcher Bay. The article I linked to also mentions you can start Dark Athena directly, you don't need to play Butcher Bay first.

myp · **Posted:** Fri Dec 05, 2008 21:49

That's excellent - it caters for people who have and haven't played the first game.

Runcle · **Posted:** Sat Dec 06, 2008 2:32

mind you, I bought the first far cry on the basis of grim liking it so much, but its like controlling myself with a large gin in one hand and a plasma tv in the other, with a head full of meth. Sounds fun but it was shit as fuck. This is from someone that finished half life on a fucking touch pad.

GovernmentYard · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5318

Riddick on the XBox was a brilliant, brilliant game. CLoser to a 360 title than anything else on the platform - and so unsung a gem that it made Eternal Darkness look like Wii Sports in the recognition stakes.

DBSnappa · **Posted:** Sat Dec 06, 2008 19:25

Yup, COR was one of the best swansongs the xbox had. I still have my copy.

Derek The Halls · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 3742

I hope this means they'll make the old one compatible. I've kept hold of it just in case.

myp · **Posted:** Sat Dec 06, 2008 21:32

I doubt they will be able to - see DocG's last post...

Sir Taxalot · **Joined:** 5th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 4756

I quite enjoyed the films, too

Zio · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6093

Someone else here who really enjoyed the first game. I can see myself picking this up when it gets a release. I might even do the Butcher Bay bit again anyway, since it was a great laugh when I played it the first time round and not exactly the longest game in the world as I recall.

RuySan · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 3542

Runcle Scrooge wrote:

mind you, I bought the first far cry on the basis of grim liking it so much, but its like controlling myself with a large gin in one hand and a plasma tv in the other, with a head full of meth. Sounds fun but it was shit as fuck. This is from someone that finished half life on a fucking touch pad.

What??

Far Cry is the best FPS game ever (even with the the dreaded baboons), dick.

DBSnappa · **Posted:** Mon Dec 08, 2008 19:31

Nirejingle Bells wrote:

I hope this means they'll make the old one compatible. I've kept hold of it just in case.

Hang on, unless I'm getting m y wires crossed, isn't the sequel the first game remade with a whole load of extra content effectively doubling the length of the game?

myp · **Posted:** Mon Dec 08, 2008 20:01

Yeah, coupled with Glenda's earlier post claiming that the game abused the Xbox hardware so much there was no chance of getting it to work in the emulator, it's fairly unlikely they'll get the original to work.

I notice that Microsoft's backwards compatibility list hasn't been updated since last November. Does that mean they're giving up getting any more games to work?

Runcle · **Posted:** Mon Dec 08, 2008 20:19

RuySan wrote:

Runcle Scrooge wrote:

mind you, I bought the first far cry on the basis of grim liking it so much, but its like controlling myself with a large gin in one hand and a plasma tv in the other, with a head full of meth. Sounds fun but it was shit as fuck. This is from someone that finished half life on a fucking touch pad.

What??

Far Cry is the best FPS game ever (even with the the dreaded baboons), dick.

have you played the xbox 360 version?

myp · **Posted:** Mon Dec 08, 2008 20:20

That was a different game completely.

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38603

are there any stone cold classics still not on the list?

myp · **Posted:** Mon Dec 08, 2008 20:41

It depends on whether you're just talking about Xbox exclusives or multi-format games. If we're talking exclusives, I can't think of any, actually...

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38603

and multi-format?

Runcle · **Posted:** Mon Dec 08, 2008 20:45

Oddworld:Strangers Wrath? I always wanted to try that but I dont think its BC yet.

RuySan · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 3542

Runcle Scrooge wrote:

RuySan wrote:

Runcle Scrooge wrote:

mind you, I bought the first far cry on the basis of grim liking it so much, but its like controlling myself with a large gin in one hand and a plasma tv in the other, with a head full of meth. Sounds fun but it was shit as fuck. This is from someone that finished half life on a fucking touch pad.

What??

Far Cry is the best FPS game ever (even with the the dreaded baboons), dick.

have you played the xbox 360 version?

why would i do that to myself?

myp · **Posted:** Mon Dec 08, 2008 21:25

davprezzie wrote:

and multi-format?

Cross referencing a few lists:

Second Sight
Hitman 2
Colin McRae 2005 (-fake edit- shit, that's been added now)
Driv3r (forget that)
Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition
Need for Speed: Underground (the one that's miles better than the awful sequel)
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
ToCA Race Driver 2
Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy
SSX Tricky (I have it on the Gamecube, but that's not the point

)
TimeSplitters 2
TimeSplitters: Future Perfect
Top Spin

Man, I love lists. I know some of those games have been superceded by sequels, etc, but for the completist inside me, it's a bit annoying.

Also, these are just the games I like in - I'm not interested in debating the merits of them.

DBSnappa · **Posted:** Mon Dec 08, 2008 23:44

Runcle Scrooge wrote:

Oddworld:Strangers Wrath? I always wanted to try that but I dont think its BC yet.

Yup, this was awesome, if only for the ridiculous "alive" ammo. Looked fucking awesome as well and it isn't on the BC list either.

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32624

Riddick demo is on Xbox Marketplace. Click here to add to your queue.

myp · **Posted:** Wed Mar 04, 2009 15:41

Oh yes!

Malabelm · **Posted:** Wed Mar 04, 2009 16:33

Cool. I love the first game so I'll check this out.

And on a side-note, I have two copies of the original game if anyone wants one [the spare] for their Xbox, albeit the scummy Classics version.

LewieP · **Joined:** 29th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 7600

I just got offered a review copy of this by the USA PR firm, but they won't ship to Europe.

I will get someone in the USA to do it for me, and then send it on when they are done, hopefully it will be region free.

Does anyone know what the publishers record for region free games is like?

DBSnappa · **Posted:** Thu Mar 05, 2009 9:39

Sooo, what did people think?

Bad points. The voice acting of the NPCs or more particularly the enemy guards is crap - there's no sense of identity to any of them as in they all sound the same and they all sound like they're coming from the same place, which is odd.

The graphics are a bit hooey - to my untrained eyes it looks like they've ported the engine from the xbox version over. That looked amazing all those years ago on that machine, this looked distinctly average in comparison. If it isn't that, then it's definitely the engine they used for The Darkness - which bearing in mind was originally slated for previous gen, so that probably explains it.

The weapons feel a little indistinct.

Having said all that I enjoyed it. The multiplayer doesn't look like it's going to bring anything new to the party though.

myp · **Posted:** Thu Mar 05, 2009 9:41

I haven't tried it yet, as I set it up for download just before I started playing Fifa.

I'll be happy if it's a simple port, tbh. I loved the first game and was gutted when I found out it wouldn't run on the 360.

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Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena

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