Game bits: GoldenEye 007 pause music, HBO renews The Last of Us, and 90s classic Terminal...

[Shawn Knight]

In brief: Rare's seminal first-person shooter has finally arrived on the Nintendo Switch and Xbox Game Pass. The movie-to-game adaptation wasn't expected to make much of an impact when it first landed on the Nintendo 64 in the summer of 1997 but little did everyone know, Rare had a gem on its hands.

Critics praised the game's visuals, gameplay and multiplayer mode, and the soundtrack wasn't too bad either. In fact, the game's pause screen music sort of developed a life of its own.

Composer Grant Kirkhope recently recalled on Twitter that the pause screen music took about 20 minutes to write and that he didn't really have a clue what he was doing.

Your mission – sit back and listen to the music from the Q Watch in #Nintendo64's GoldenEye 007, coming 1/27 on #NintendoSwitch for #NintendoSwitchOnline + Expansion Pack members. 🎶 pic.twitter.com/8nSobxuR6b

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) January 25, 2023

Kirkhope was responsible for around half of the music in GoldenEye 007, with fellow composer Graeme Norgate handling the other half. Only one other person helped with music – British composer Robin Beanland, who is credited with the elevator music track.

Elsewhere, HBO has renewed The Last of Us for a second season. The game-to-series adaptation premiered on January 15, 2023, and is adhering to a standard once-weekly release schedule. As of writing, only two of nine episodes have debuted.

HBO said the first episode has already surpassed 22 million viewers domestically, adding that episode two was seen by 5.7 million viewers on Sunday night. That's more than one million new viewers compared to the series premiere the previous week, and is the largest week two audience growth of any HBO original drama series in company history.

The last episode of the first season is on track to debut in mid-March. For those that haven't already seen it, the first episode is now available to stream free from HBO's website.

In other gaming news, Ziggurat Interactive has announced a remastered version of 90s flight combat game Terminal Velocity.

Dubbed Terminal Velocity: Boosted Edition, the new game will feature quality-of-life enhancements like upscaled graphics, smoother gameplay, higher framerates and improved sound. The team is also baking in achievements and trophies.

Terminal Velocity: Boosted Edition will be available for PC via Steam starting March 14 (and on consoles at a later date). The original Terminal Velocity is also available on Steam, yours for $6.99.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/97416-game-bits-goldeneye-007-pause-music-hbo-renews.html

 

[psycros]

Good to know that leading men who openly express the desire to murder children can still find work, unlike his co-star who expressed the heretical opinion that actors should stay out of politics.

 

[Avro Arrow]

The funny thing about Goldeneye 007 is that I've been playing it for years on PC with the Project64 N64 Emulator. Nowadays, emulators can actually leverage modern GPU engines to make the games look even better than they did back in the day. The difference is day and night. Here's what the original N64 looked like:

Now see how crisp and clear a PC using the Project64 emulator can make this old game look:

For PS2 games, there's the PCSX2 Emulator and it's the same result. It's a day and night difference between what was and what can be. Here's what Ace Combat 5 looked like originally on the PS2:

Here's what it looks like now with the PCSX2 emulator:

Without changing textures or anything else in the game, these PC emulators actually make the old games better than they actually were. Input lag is gone, controls are much more precise and the visuals are just incredible. It's amazing what something as simple as de-interlacing can do.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

The funny thing about Goldeneye 007 is that I've been playing it for years on PC with the Project64 N64 Emulator. Nowadays, emulators can actually leverage modern GPU engines to make the games look even better than they did back in the day. The difference is day and night. Here's what the original N64 looked like:

Now see how crisp and clear a PC using the Project64 emulator can make this old game look:

For PS2 games, there's the PCSX2 Emulator and it's the same result. It's a day and night difference between what was and what can be. Here's what Ace Combat 5 looked like originally on the PS2:

Here's what it looks like now with the PCSX2 emulator:

Without changing textures or anything else in the game, these PC emulators actually make the old games better than they actually were. Input lag is gone, controls are much more precise and the visuals are just incredible. It's amazing what something as simple as de-interlacing can do.

Emulators are pretty dope, but that comparison is a little off. The original AC5 footage there is being played back at 426x238, while the original game ran at 512x448. It also was likely recorded using SCART (based on it being 25 FPS) and not the superior component cable version. Played on component cables AC5 looks a lot better then that original video.