[MrFlibble]

I'm going to go a little bit off-topic here, but how does generally a source code release come about? I have read that it's John Carmack's personal philosophy to share the code, which has turned out to be indeed a very wise and successful strategy as proven by Doom, Quake and other id Software's titles.

However I have absolutely no idea of who, how and when decided to release the source of Duke3D, Rise of the Triad or Shadow Warrior for example. I suppose that there must be some kind of motivation for the owner to do so. Perhaps the current Blood IP owners think that since the game is playable in DOSBox there is no need for a source port? (More likely, no one in charge cares at all, but that's another story.)

I guess that from the community standpoint, it probably doesn't matter who owns the IP as long as the source code is made available. Perhaps it could work to approach someone in WB who could possibly care and attempt to negotiate a source code release, as opposed to buying out the IP itself?

[Micky C]

I wasn’t around at the time so can’t really say, but I’d guess that it’s a combination of good will to the fans, and having the life of the game be extended due to fans working to make the games run on modern operating systems.

These days though, those reasons are less of a priority for companies. Games will run on future operating systems for quite a while, and companies would rather you forget old games and buy new games instead.

In Blood’s case, it may be that they don’t want to go through the effort of drawing up a licence? It’s not a lot of effort I imagine, but considering they’ll get very little if anything out of it, the effort becomes significant.

[cybdmn]

A proper licence is not such a big deal. They could take the gpl or something like that. A bigger task would be checking and cleaning up the code. Removing potential third party code which is not the property of WB.

I guess they simply does not see any advantage for themself in releasing the code.

I was under the impression that over the last 10+ years various attempts where made getting the source released. So i would think this wouldn‘t change at next try.

[Sanek]

I'll probably be a minority here, but I wouldn't mind if a new game based on Blood IP will be a mix of various genres.
How about a rogue-like RPG in either first- or third-person set in Blood's universe. Just imagine a game like Strife but with enemies from Blood.

[Mr. Tibbs]

Commando Nukem posted a video review for SiN from a guy named Civvie 11, which was pretty enjoyable. His three-part Blood 2 review, however, is fantastic. He really deep dives into the game's quirks, and does a great a job explaining why the game was such an unfortunate follow-up to Monolith's hall of fame debut.



Part 2 & Part 3.

[NightFright]

Good lord, Blood 2. I remember playing the sh*t out of this back in the days. I cannot exactly tell you why I played it so much, but I guess the music and general atmosphere of the game caught me, in spite of the tons of bugs it had. Actually I got so annoyed by some of them that I sent a fax with 3 pages to Monolith in the US (from Germany) with things that pissed me off. Amazingly, almost all my complaints got addressed in v2.0. Unfortunately, even that didn't turn it into a bearable experience. Before watching this video, I didn't remember the level recycling so much, but looking back at it now, it shows how cheaply this game was designed and stretched. It's all true what he is saying in the video, the freaking bullet-sponge enemies and weapons without any real punch turned gunfights into a pain in the a**. Too bad that's actually the core of FPS gameplay, so if you screw that, there's no way you can succeed in any possible way. In total, the whole game just felt completely pointless and almost ruined the legacy of Blood. Gratefully, the first game received a lot of love by fans even ages later by creating new levels and campaigns for it, long after Blood 2 was rightfully forgotten.

Blood 2 belongs into the poison cabinet of game development and should only brought to daylight to demonstrate how you should NOT make a computer game.

[Zaxx]

NightFright, on 03 April 2018 - 04:31 AM, said:

Blood 2 belongs into the poison cabinet of game development and should only brought to daylight to demonstrate how you should NOT make a computer game.

Exactly. I'm a die hard Blood fan but I could never get myself to finish Blood 2 because the game is so bad that I always lose interest after a few hours. I can handle frustrating games (and oh boy is Blood 2 a frustrating mess) but not the massive boredom that comes from the fact that no element of the game is even remotely enjoyable. It's just jarring that shooting cultists to pieces with dual machine guns can be so boring.

[cybdmn]

NightFright, on 03 April 2018 - 04:31 AM, said:

Blood 2 belongs into the poison cabinet of game development and should only brought to daylight to demonstrate how you should NOT make a computer game.

You neiled it pretty well down. At least the add on is better.

[OpenMaw]

Blood 2's biggest problem is that it's obviously not a finished product.

Now, I know everyone wants a Blood remake or a reboot, but honestly i'd love to see someone do a remake of Blood 2 and do it the way fans were asking for it to be done.

[axl]

I remember seeing screenshots of Blood 2 in a gaming magazine in 1998. I loved Blood 1 and the screenshots of Blood 2 just looked so amazing and promising.... Needless to say, I was seriously disappointed.

If you just compare the train levels in both games, you cannot help but think how amazing this level is in Blood 1 (phantom express) and how linear and completely bland the level design is in Blood 2.

[NightFright]

These three vids were funny and interesting, though. I wasn't aware of the Cabalco Death-Ray and that you could only find it once in the entire game. Luckily, it doesn't matter I never found it, considering that even with that, killing the annoying enemies wouldn't get any easier. How frustrating must that have been for anyone who managed to obtain it back then? This game was just constantly showing you the finger at any possible opportunity.

I have just recently played the first Blood with the help of BloodGDX again after many years. What an awesome experience it was/is, especially compared to the successor.

[Zaxx]

Commando Nukem, on 03 April 2018 - 09:47 AM, said:

Blood 2's biggest problem is that it's obviously not a finished product.

Now, I know everyone wants a Blood remake or a reboot, but honestly i'd love to see someone do a remake of Blood 2 and do it the way fans were asking for it to be done.

I dunno, I don't think we need another FPS with a sci-fi setting.

[OpenMaw]

Zaxx, on 03 April 2018 - 11:39 AM, said:

I dunno, I don't think we need another FPS with a sci-fi setting.

Blood 2 doesn't really have a sci-fi setting... Not beyond the broad definition of "sci-fi" It's definitely got it's foot in the action-horror camp with a near-apocalyptic urban brawl for most of it's run.

[axl]

Commando Nukem, on 03 April 2018 - 09:47 AM, said:

Blood 2's biggest problem is that it's obviously not a finished product.

Indeed. Maybe Monolith put too much focus on Shogo which was released around the same time ? Shogo was definitely the better game.

[Zaxx]

Commando Nukem, on 03 April 2018 - 11:43 AM, said:

Blood 2 doesn't really have a sci-fi setting... Not beyond the broad definition of "sci-fi" It's definitely got it's foot in the action-horror camp with a near-apocalyptic urban brawl for most of it's run.

Yeah, it's this futuristic horror schlock really, the Dracula 2000 of video games. The thing is that futuristic is enough for me as a downer because most classic FPS franchises have either a futuristic / sci-fi setting:

- Duke Nukem: futuristic / sci-fi
- Wolfenstein: sci-fi with robot nazis because the occult is not cool anymore for some weird reason.
- Doom: sci-fi
- Shadow Warrior: not purely sci-fi but still lots of sci-fi stuff, one of SW2's settings is basically cyberpunk
- Serious Sam: sci-fi
- Quake: guess id thought the medieval / Lovecraftian setting was too unique so it's all sci-fi shit for Quake 2 and Quake 4!
- Ion Maiden: sci-fi / cyberpunk

All of these games have their on flavors of course but still, it's always some kind of sci-fi stuff while Blood was very distinct with its 1928 setting and its classic horror vibe. Blood has a bit of sci-fi but it's this Jules Verne stuff with its Tesla gun and machinery that reminded you of the classic Universal Frankenstein movies. I love that stuff so that's what I'd like to see in a potential sequel... and really whipping out two tommy guns will always have more style than some futuristic SMGs.

If Blood wants more sci-fi I think a steampunk vibe would be more ideal with some Lovecraftian horror. More Clive Barker's Undying and BioShock, less Doom and Quake.

[Khallos]

The trailer for Blood 1 ended with an advertisement for Blood 2. A move so bizarre that I would just love to hear what the thought process at Monolith must of been like.

[HulkNukem]

Khallos, on 03 April 2018 - 02:11 PM, said:

The trailer for Blood 1 ended with an advertisement for Blood 2. A move so bizarre that I would just love to hear what the thought process at Monolith must of been like.

Really? Which trailer was this?

[Khallos]

HulkNukem, on 03 April 2018 - 02:18 PM, said:

Really? Which trailer was this?

Horrible quality I know, but its at around 0:47

[HulkNukem]

That is hilarious and really weird.
Based on the old development updates from the old website, Monolith was moving into new offices, finishing off Blood and the shareware, working on Shogo, and now apparently starting preliminary work on Blood 2.
That's a lot of work for a brand new company.

[NightFright]

Looks like they bit off more than they could chew. And eventually they choked on it.

[Zaxx]

I'll just leave this here:

Man, I love this song and I'm one of the few people who know it only because of Blood (never even heard of the band before the game which is weird since as I've read up on them they were quite big back in the day).

[Dzierzan]

Heh, when making trailer for my mod for Blood, I used Blood's trailer as a reference.

http://www.moddb.com...pons-mod/videos

[OpenMaw]

Zaxx, on 04 April 2018 - 12:15 AM, said:

I'll just leave this here:

Man, I love this song and I'm one of the few people who know it only because of Blood (never even heard of the band before the game which is weird since as I've read up on them they were quite big back in the day).

I meant to mark you up.

I always thought if someone did a Blood movie, and they made the dark, twisted love between Ophelia and Caleb a central part of the story, that song would be great for the ending credits.

[Zaxx]

Commando Nukem, on 04 April 2018 - 01:39 AM, said:

I meant to mark you up.

Haha, no biggie.

Anyway yep, it would be great as a title song for a movie like that. Some people say that it didn't fit the game though because Ophelia and Caleb's love for her weren't huge parts of the game's storyline and while I think they are right in that the song is still dark and gothic enough that its atmosphere fits nicely.

[MusicallyInspired]

I discovered Type O Negative from their instrumental rendition of Haunted on the Descent II redbook soundtrack. Later found the 10-minute original and was blown away. Never got into the band other than that though.

[Malgon]

Mr. Tibbs, on 02 April 2018 - 07:37 PM, said:

Commando Nukem posted a video review for SiN from a guy named Civvie 11, which was pretty enjoyable. His three-part Blood 2 review, however, is fantastic. He really deep dives into the game's quirks, and does a great a job explaining why the game was such an unfortunate follow-up to Monolith's hall of fame debut.

Part 2 & Part 3.

Almost finished watching part 2 and this has been very amusing and also quite interesting to see how under-cooked the whole thing really is, even though I'd always heard that it was like that. I've had the game for ages and have been meaning to play through it at some point and check it out for myself, but after seeing how bastard hard and unfair it is on the normal difficulty, on top of the state it is in, I'm not sure I really want to. Now to watch part 3 and see how much worse it can get!

P.s. After hearing more of Ishmael's voice, I thought to myself 'hey, that sounds like the G Man', and it turns out that it is the same guy!

[NightFright]

Yeah, it's Barney/G-Man. Also voice-acted the male civilians in Blood 2.

[Player Lin]

Commando Nukem, on 03 April 2018 - 09:47 AM, said:

Blood 2's biggest problem is that it's obviously not a finished product.

Now, I know everyone wants a Blood remake or a reboot, but honestly i'd love to see someone do a remake of Blood 2 and do it the way fans were asking for it to be done.

If not a reboot/remake of Blood 2, at least a port that make I can properly playing it with my usual playstyle (normal WASD or default arrow key style) because of that stupid Blood2.exe CTD bullshit, I just can't get used to play it without CTRL, SHIFT, ALT, ... keys etc.

Screw the guy who made the input part of Blood 2 engine(or other ones), and broken that in DBCS version of Windows after patches.

[daMann]

Hello so on Blood 2 or blood remakes...

After Bloodlines reboot is done, I'd like to do a 1.5 Blood, that basically brings some of the Blood 2 setting to Blood, some graphics, some new enemy graphics... Like a modern cultist vibe (and maybe dehacked style editing to change behaviors of some monsters?) But really angle it towards a modern Gothic... a broken, depressed world, like the one described in the aborted Phantasm Ravager script, the plague zone stuff...

Ok basically just make my dream Phantasm vs Caleb game ... Wouldn't be too complicated... Crumbling sky scrapers and buildings, impossibly tall Gothic churches, Masoleums, modern hospitals, etc. Streets filled with debris, cars lining streets...

Either Eduke or Blood... One would be easier than other

So one idea for a map would be a Willy Wonka factory just fritzed out, broken down, maybe horrors are using it to produce something sinister..

[Mark]

I have always wanted to do an "urban decay" type city map. To do it right IMO you have to load it up with a ton of props for atmosphere. Also, its difficult to make a convincing broken down look with sectors. You'll have too many flat surfaces with squared corners and generic looking holes in the wall or blasted walls. It can be done with a boatload of custom assets but I'm not sure of the quality you can achieve without them.

On the other hand, some very enjoyable moody maps have been made with only original game assets. Not fancy enough for me because I love lots of details ( eye candy ) in a map but I recognize they can still be enjoyable to play.