So I played Quake 2 past midnight, checked socials and found... Streamer Kai Cenat is streaming Bloodborne to try and bring to attention demand for remaster/pc port.
So when I played Quake 1, I mentioned that Quake didnt have as much of a cultural impact as doom did. If people actually read these, this would be one hell of a hot take. Quake was after all from technical standpoint a leap forward for 3d graphics in games, Carmacks work has brought a lot to the table that modern games share a relation with. To suggest it didnt have a cultural impact would be ludicrous. You can see that impact mapped out on this image from wikipedia
But I didnt say that though, i said that Quake, as a game, didnt have as much of a cultural impact as Doom did.
Doom had bill gates greenscreened on it for an investors meeting, Doom was being ported to devices it shouldnt be possible because of its small size and the love of the meme, people nowadays recognise the pinky and cacaodemon sprites from Doom, you think folks will recognise the shamblr from look alone? Show a zoomer the quake symbol and ask them what it is, then make an appointment with your local retirement home when you're done having your soul hollowed out.
The most that the Quake series has in cultural significance is its multiplayer. 1's mechanic of the player not taking too much damage from explosions including their own helped pioneer rocket-jumping ie shooting an explosive at your own feet and using the force of the explosion to propel yourself. Quake 3 straight up depriotised singleplayer in favour for multiplayer and the most recent Quake game to date has that with a splash of hero shooter. Most folks who have heard of the quake series know it more for its multiplayer then they do the singleplayer. You remember Quake 4? What was your first thought about it, the stroggification scene? Yeah..
Thing is.. while i say Quake 1's game wasnt as significant compared to Dooms, its a lot more than can be said about Quake 2. Be honest, before the remaster... how often did you hear about Quake 2 when discussions about first-person shooters come up? How about classic shooters (boomer shooter)? Not much, i certanly didnt. Most folks seem to forget this game existed, its usually when the Quake series gets brought up that 2 is mentioned. "Aw man Quake was so good, its a classic. And Quake 3, man, I fragged so ma.." "What about Quake 2?" "Oh? Oh yeah Quake 2 that was good...too... yeah...".
Honestly, the RTX port was probably the most recognition Quake 2 got before the remaster, mostly to showcase how bad of an idea it is to put rtx graphics and raytracing to a 90s shooter. Made it look uncanny. But that was then, this is now and now we have a remaster that allows the game to played by more people and thats always a good thing, especially since the remaster is very good.... with one caveat being the lack of addon support similar to Quake 1 and Doom 1 & 2s recent ports. Seriously why?
Anyways playing Quake 2, its certanly a change from the lovecraft vibe to a sci-fi ww2 vibe but the music definatly helps in getting you engaged with the game. The strogg being a sort of forced amalgamation of human meat and hard metal is an interesting enemy to fight and their is a nice variety of them to fight, the big enemies that have that railgun however were very annoying since they can take up to 45 health off you while teasing the power of the railgun that you wont get just yet...ughhh... chaingun is a necessity for them. Thing about the weapons is that, from what i've noticied in my session, is theres quite a few weapons that end up being obsolete as soon as you find their contemporaries. For example, the super shotgun replaces the normal shotgun, the chaingun replaces the machinegun (unless theres weak enemies i wanna mow down without burning too much ammo) and the grenade launcher replaces throwing grenades.
Another change is that you collect power ups to use for later as opposed to using them now, most them being rather situational except for three items, the quad damage (for obvious reasons), the adrenaline (for health) and the compass which is a new thing added for the remaster that spawns some arrows to lead you to your objective. A very nice quality-of-life change to help keep the player moving forward. Honestly, I enjoyed my session with quake 2 and if you havent played it, get the remaster and you can play it along with the expansions, the new expansion made for this and the n64 version of quake 2.
Ok enough of Quake 2, lets go to news. Bloodborne was a launch title for the playstation 4 and for many people, it was one of their favourite soulslikes. Not me though because i never played it myself and at the time of writing, its not likely i will. Despite Sony porting some games like God of War, Uncharted and Ghost of Tsushima to pc, bloodborne has remained locked to the playstation consoles.
This may change with one streamer Kai Cenat, who has a sizeable audience and has been streaming games like elden ring lately, intending to stream bloodborne with the aim of getting demand for a pc port noticied by Sony and Fromsoft. Time will tell if it will succeed. Link to a pcgamer article covering it right here
Anyways, im not a professional essayist, i dont always articulate my thoughts well enough but i hope that as I write these, i will improve over time. At the very least, i dont get paid unlike some folks over at ign. You get my bad hot takes freely.
Anyways see you tomorrow, feedback is appreciated. Anons are currently on.