Classic Review: Crysis

Crysis, the game that brought even the highest specced hardware at the time to it's knees is now 11 years old. "But can it run Crysis?" became one of the most famous gaming memes of all time. It referenced the fact that practically no PC, neither launch or for many months following the game's release in 2007 could actually play it at it's highest settings. I constructed Maxximus that year with the intention of playing Crysis but only managed high resolution for most of the game, with alien levels grinding it to 10FPS in places. Even 10 years on, many including myself currently lack the GPU power to render the game on ultra detail at 60FPS in 4K, despite being able to run some later games with those settings without issue, but it makes me smile rather than annoyed because... well because it's Crysis!

After recently playing Far Cry, I thought I'd take Crysis out for a spin again. I'm pleased to report that the EA's normally crap Origin platform installs the best version of the game without issue but you may need to edit a config file to manually generate a resolution above HD as that wasn't considered at the time of Crysis' development. I played in ultra detail but in 2K [1440p] as I wasn't getting close enough to 60FPS at 4K. I'm pleased to report that the game holds up very well and I had no issues with it at all for it's duration.

Far Cry, Crytek's original game, was noted for it's extraordinary draw distances, superbly drivable land and sea vehicles and it's sandbox approach to the outdoor levels which allowed the player to choose their own route to an objective rather than standard linear path with dozens of scripted sequences as employed by many developers. For Crysis, Crytek took those elements and enhanced them with an even more free roaming environment, superior AI, added an airborne vehicle and wrapped it up into CryEngine 2, a magically beautiful and realistic graphics engine that can still hold a candle to the first person shooters that followed it but has been surpassed by a few iterations since then to power the Crysis sequels, the Sniper series, Homefront and 2017's Prey.

The gameplay experience is still top-notch especially the majority of the game's campaign that dealt with you killing a lot of North Koreans. You can around the island picking them off one by one in your heavily armoured and souped-up Nanosuit or go for a full-frontal assault depending on your play-style or your mood. The the game caters for multiple approaches for the same problem, be it stealth, distraction, long range or just drive in and kill everything!

You have an arsenal of weapons to chose from, mostly real-world fare - pistols, machine gun, shotgun, assault rifle, minigun, rocket launcher etc., all which can be customised with necessary attachments like suppressors, grenade launchers and scopes, basically all the tools you need including your Nanosuit. The Nanosuit is Crysis' true gimmick and it can both save your life and enhance your gaming experience with its different modes, the default being armour which prevents damage, strength for jumping or punching your way through doors (and people), speed for running and a cloak which bends light around your armour effectively making you Predator.

The latter third of the game sadly falters a bit due to it's alien levels. You find your way eventually to an alien ship thingy and the gameplay changes radically from what it was to fighting flying aliens in zero-g! It's thankfully not as misjudged as the infamous "Xen" of the original Half-Life, but it's a bit shit. Improvement comes later when you escape from the ship and proceed to the final showdown on board the USS Constellation aircraft carrier which was for the most part thrilling and exciting in it's own way but not as good as when you were battling the N.Koreans.

It's evident now, looking back at this that Crytek were not just building a game, but a game engine tech demo that had pretty much all of the possible graphical features they could think of putting into it like force-based destructible scenery, enhanced volumetric smoke, realistic surface water behaviour, unpredictable artificial intelligence and physics based combat, all without any regard to people being able to actually play it or not - the fact that it ended up being a great and successful game must have actually been a surprise to them. 

 

In my opinion, Crysis represents the first game for the way games look like today because one would be hard pressed to find a graphical or physical engine feature in a game now that isn't just a more modern or better version of what Crytek did here. Developers (even Crytek themselves) sadly don't put as much effort into games, or innovate as much as Crytek did for Crysis because that's not what makes money today, instead it's micro-transactions and loot crates.

I'm glad I could go back and enjoy Crysis as it was meant to be experienced after a decade. I feel primed now to play Crysis Warhead, Crysis 2 and 3 for the first time soon.

Pros: Still a fantastic looking game. Nanosuit! Customisable weapons! Kill North Koreans!

Cons: Still can't play Ultra detail in 4K @ 60FPS 11 years later! Alien levels are shit. Boss fights a bit tedious.

Crysis is available to buy today from:

GOG @ €18.19

Steam @ €14.99

Origin @ €9.99

Note that my original experience was with the PC CD-ROM version and this review is based on the Origin digital download version.

Disclaimer: This post uses elements from my own original Crysis review dated September 14th 2008.

Replay Review: Quake 4

Quake 4 was released in 2005 and continued the sci-fi single-player narrative id began in Quake II by doing what it does best - pitting you against the forces of the Strogg so you can kick their ass - with a Hyperblaster! Quake 4 is the very definition of a mid-2000's bog-standard shooter, it is nothing special and brings little to the table. So why play? Well it was developed by Raven Software who were major players in FPS development at the turn of the century with multiple successes in both the Star Trek and Star Wars IPs and the Soldier of Fortune games. Development was supervised by id, the people that defined the FPS genre but I guess the real reason it's just nice to play something dumb that you don't really need to think about - that's Quake 4! 

2004's Doom 3 was id's proof of concept tech demo of their Tech 4 engine and they gave it to Raven for this, the fourth iteration of the Quake franchise. Tech 4 included normal mapping and specular highlighting for the first time but it's primary innovation was its use of entirely dynamic per-pixel lighting, as opposed to pre-calculated per-vertex lighting or lightmaps and Gouraud shading. The engine was designed for somewhat dark environments and criticized for its perceived inability to handle extremely large day-time outdoor areas. This coupled with the fact that id didn't licence Tech 4 before Doom 3's release (which was delayed) meant that Epic Games cornered the market with the Unreal engine to this day. For such an essentially dark game as Quake 4 this meant that the lighting effects alone would be responsible for it's graphic fidelity and finally getting a chance to see it in it's ultra glory in 4K was worth it.

Unlike Quake II, this game features (and is pretty generous with) AI teammates. Yeah, they shoot and kill enemies only about a tenth as effectively as you do and seem to be blessed with much better armour because it takes a lot more for a Strogg to kill them than it does to kill you! That's fine because more often than not a 'live' team member needs to 'stay with the computer to open the door' or some other plot device designed to send you out on your own again - patterns which Raven used as superior plot devices in Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force earlier. Team mates provided a much needed realistic idea of being in a war zone with entire units of troops (something that the WWII games of this period were already doing) with fluidly changing objectives rather than just plodding on as a one-man-army which was a concept that is best was reserved for Doom or games with unrealistic mega-hero or Mary Sue characters. One of your team mates is voiced by Peter Stromaire himself so that makes it worth it alone but the late Charles Napier puts in a good turn as General Ulysses Harper.

I prefer Quake 4 to Doom 3 because the sci-fi combat on an alien planet setting is superior to the sci-fi horror aspect of Doom 3 which was too dark and the jump-scare tactic got old pretty fast. Essentially in Quake 4, you're a space marine who is dropped in to fight the evil Stroggs again and destroy their communication equipment which will render them incapable of continuing to fight effectively. Because of my previous experience with Raven's games such as the sublime Jedi Knight II, I was expecting much more plot wise with Quake 4. Sadly this didn't really come to pass, it appears id exerted too much influence and prevented Raven from crafting a plot fitting the adventure.

It's not the shortest FPS of this era and while one could probably complete it in 7 or 8 hours, less than other games that year such as Call of Duty 2 or Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. I note that F.E.A.R. which was released at the same time and had a similarly modern engine was also an 8 hour game but by virtue of the fact it had an better plot it was not as noticeable as Quake 4 as being too short. Raven only did 2009's Wolfenstein following this and  they now seem to exclusively support whatever primary developer is working on the Call of Duty franchise.

Quake 4 is still worth loading up but has issues on modern graphics cards with more than 1 Gb VRAM (which I guess is practically all of them), and it looks terrible even with ultra textures and HD resolution. One must rummage in either GOG or Steam forums to find configuration settings which you can edit into your installation with a text editor, which is a simple and painless process to get it working correctly. One example is here.

Pros: Shoot aliens with a variety of great often classic weapons like the nailgun, combat is king. It has Peter Stromaire. 

Cons: Short. No environmental variety. Wafer thin plot.

Quake 4 is available on GOG for €14.99 or on Steam for €14.99, both overpriced so wait for a sale and get it for about €3.50.

RIP Sen. John McCain

Senator John S. McCain III, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has died aged 81. 

McCain was a Vietnam war hero who flew A4 Skyhawks for the U.S. Navy and survived five years as a prisoner of war after being shot down in 1967. His captors offered him early release after learning his father was a notable naval officer. But he refused to leave before the other prisoners and released in 1973 instead.

In '86, he was successful in the Republican Arizona senate race and subsequently served three decades in Congress, even securing his party’s nomination for president in 2008, a race which he unfortunately did not win.

McCain was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2017 and flew back to Washington days after surgery with a large scar visible above his eye to partake in the Senate’s health care debate. In his final hours,  his family announced that he had refused further treatment.

Capt John S. McCain's awards

He achieved the grade of O-6 (Captain) in the Navy and his "fruit salad" would allow him free drinks in any officer's mess with multiple awards of the Bronze Star, Legion of Merit and Navy Commendation Medal (all with combat 'V's to signify awards from combat engagements) in addition to the Silver Star, Combat Action Ribbon, POW Medal and two Purple Hearts, and many more, undeniable proof of his status as a hero despite the claims of some.

McCain is survived by his wife Cindy, seven children and five grandchildren.

First Play Review: The Witcher

I embraced Bioware's Dragon Age and Mass Effect franchises so fully since the turn of the century that I missed out on what are regarded as two of the best RPGs ever. One is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and the other is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. At time of writing both remain unplayed in my  playlists, oversights I believe I may finally have a chance to rectify in time mainly as I believe the the energy of Bioware's star may now be dying.

I was put off playing either Skyrim or The Witcher 3 because they were not the first games in the franchise. However I learned from the several people I spoke to who have played Skyrim only two have played any other Elder Scrolls games so it's not necessary to have done so and not get rewarding value of the experience. The Witcher is a little different however as you play the one character throughout all three games and in a fashion similar to Bioware games - some of your choices are recorded and used from the final save. So before I could ever play The Witcher 3, I would really need to establish my canon by playing the previous entries.

The Witcher was released by Polish developer CD Projekt in 2007 (who also established GOG.com) and while it received praise and favourable reviews, it lacked the spit and polish of it's peers and suffered some instability as well as poor voice acting. An 'Enhanced Edition' was released in late 2008 that corrected the instability and other bugs, added new animations, side-quests, NPC models and recoloured generic NPCs and mobs. It was also noted that it vastly expanded and corrected dialogues as well as voice acting replacements and load times were reduced by roughly 80%. It's this Enhanced Edition (known as The Director's Cut in the U.S.) that's available on both Steam and GOG.

Graphically, the game uses a bastardized version of Aurora, the successor to Bioware's Infinity Engine, featuring full 3D environments, real-time lighting and shadows and surround sound. Aurora was used to produce Neverwinter Nights in 2002 so it was five years old when The Witcher was originally released but there was so many graphical enhancements (by CD Projekt and modders) that one would think it was a more modern engine than Aurora, or at least a game that graphically on par with anything from 2008. The character and monster models and animations are sub par but the lighting is something I found very effectively used in this game. Things hide in the shadows and you use what's essentially night-vision goggles by drinking a 'Cat's Eye' potion (which you must craft yourself). Artificial intelligence is pretty standard but I like the way that when it starts raining, that NPC's run for shelter and complain until the shower stops.

Combat in The Witcher received very bad press at launch because it's different to any other game. The Witcher's game manual describes the nature of combat, what needs to be done and when as it's an event that needs timing. Paying attention during the tutorial level will also help. It's worth noting that the easy difficulty gives you an nonintrusive colour coded cursor assist for attack combinations whereas the harder difficulties this assist is absent. I played in easy mode (because I'm old) but I did not find the system difficult although it took a bit of getting used to. You will likely ever use one of two weapons for the most part, a steel sword (against man) and a silver sword (against monster) and you will need to be in one of three combat styles: quick, strong or group to be in any way effective. I found the combat one of the more interesting aspects and a welcome deviation from the standard single click for an attack on an enemy in almost every other RPG. 

 

I would say that CD Projekt concentrated more overall on story than graphics or gameplay, while I think most players would prefer a better mix of the two, the story here is certainly enough to allow players to overlook it's shortcomings in other areas. The setting for The Witcher is a bit more realistic than Dungeons and Dragons' staple of fantasy or Dragon Age's dark fantasy. I would class this more like a medieval fantasy, just with the obvious additions of monsters and magic. The original creator, Andrzej Sapkowski, author of The Witcher series of novels drew heavily from Slavic mythology for his monsters and fusing them with Tolkeinesque ideas of dwarves and elves of modern fantasy. The final piece of the puzzle is of course the titular Witcher himself, Geralt of Rivia who has been compared to Philip Marlowe in that he is both cynical and noble. The result is a truly compelling setting for a detail-rich RPG where one may need to abandon one's traditional concepts of good and evil as well as order and chaos in order to get the most of the incredible adventure that this would seem merely the first part of. 

To the best of my knowledge, some fan-made enhancements have made it into the official release of The Witcher which also enhanced it's value. Ten years on, while playable it's strongly recommended that one uses some extra modifications which correct the last few possibly game-breaking story bugs in some of the side quests and enhance the graphics for modern systems. While I will say I noticed a distinct enhancement to the graphics especially as I played in 4K, there was a large amount of crashes but fairly isolated to going in and out of taverns. Sadly you do this a lot so the game crashed a lot (about 50 or so crashes over the 60+ hours I played the game), but the story and desire to stick with such an impressive game kept me hooked enough to ignore the excessive crash inconvenience. It just made me quick-save when going near a tavern.

Pros: Compelling story. Interesting characters and setting.

Cons: Combat will be too odd for those who cant adapt. Quite buggy and unstable, but your mileage may vary.

Handy links:

https://www.kirmiziperfect.com/installing-best-mods-for-the-witcher-1-guide/

https://www.gog.com/forum/the_witcher/recommended_mods_and_adventures

The Witcher is available now from:

GOG.com @ €8.09

Steam @ €7.99

But as always find it for less than €2 during frequent sales.

Super Soldier Serum being worked on by SPEARHEAD?

FOX News reports that archaeologists in Egypt have now unlocked the secrets of the ancient black granite sarcophagus unearthed recently in Alexandria dating back to the Ptolemaic period 2000 years ago. The huge coffin was found to contain three skeletons, those of a woman of 20 to 25 years of age, between 5-feet-3 and almost 5-feet-5, a man between 35 and 39, who was between 5-feet-3 and just over 5-feet-5 and a second man between 40 and 44, and was between 5-feet-10 and just over 6-feet tall.

The infamous disgusting red liquid that was found inside the sarcophagus was theorised by Dr. Ayman Ashmawy, head of the ancient Egyptian antiquities sector, as likely to be sewage water combined with the decomposing remains of the skeletons’ wrappings. More than 30,000 people signed an online petition asking to drink the liquid believing that by doing so they would absorb the mummies' powers.

The strange petitioners may be onto something however as it was understood that SPEARHEAD had an "R&D interest" in the liquid and a man believed to be Brigadier General "Whopper" Creedon, the Assistant Commander for Intelligence and Information was sighted in the region in July.

A man believed to be Brigadier General "Whopper" Creedon in Egypt in July.

Internet speculation has swayed between SPEARHEAD developing a Super Soldier Serum to them covering up a secret unearthed in the tomb not suitable for the general public.

Source: FOX News

Classic Review: Far Cry

German developer Crytek's first game was Far Cry, one of the first FPS to evoke a sense of freedom by breaking out of the linear "corridor" gameplay of its genre predecessors. Far Cry was one of those games that few could play at max settings at launch even with above average hardware. It was an issue that would be exacerbated later by Far Cry's technical successor Crysis but Far Cry had the issue before it albeit to a lesser degree, certainly not not enough to spawn memes.

Far Cry was the last game I played with my old GeForce3 Ti 500 as the poor resolution at which I was forced to run its demo prompted me to get a 5900XT in March 2004*. Even then however, it fell slightly short of the 'Ultra' settings I dreamed of and was incapable of either full screen anti-aliasing or anisotropic filtering to any degree without reducing the frame rate to sub 30FPS which is shit. Even with the details set to medium it got choppy in places and had to run at 800x600 for some outdoor heavily populated levels. Despite the disappointment, overall it didn't prevent my enjoyment of the original game experience delivered by Far Cry as high resolution on such a fantastic engine as CryEngine1 was amazing but it certainly made me less surprised concerning the Crysis situation a few years later.

By the time I was benchmarking a new ATi X800 Pro in mid 2005 (GPUs were replaced a bit more frequently than today) the Far Cry issues were tamed boasting a 60FPS with 4x AA / 8x AF @ 1280x1024. Recently I got the chance to return to Far Cry for a third time to enjoy the whole lot on ultra but this time I had 64 bit textures for the first time and the ability to play in 4K resolution.

Reinstallation from CD is untested at this point but a modern download installation of Far Cry from Uplay, GOG or Steam should set up everything without too much tweaking. The game received updates to v1.3 but an additional patch for 64-but systems was released later to include bump mapped rock face textures and increased environment activity. 4K resolution was available in my system after a restart.

Far Cry may seem old to those that have only been playing FPSs for 15 years but at the time, when most weren't even able to play it a max it still looked extraordinary. To see it in it's maximum glory I'm happy to say that it still looks impressive. The graphics gap between this and games that were released five years before it is far greater than the visual gap between this and games made five years after it possibly even 8 years. The original CryEngine is significantly superior to idTech 3 including superior bump mapping but wasn't quite up to idTech 4 as that innovated with per-pixel lighting as opposed to vertex shading. Of course it would have been impossible to render Far Cry's expansive island-hopping environment Tech 4 at the time as evidenced by the mainly darkened indoor confinement of Doom 3 [2004] and Quake 4 [2005] so the trade off in this case was welcome as neither if id's 'tech demos' could hold a candle to Far Cry.

The outdoor environments of Far Cry were truly astonishing and it felt like a living breathing world. You could see distant birds fly, water flowed and rippled and enemies pottered about on their daily routine (before you killed them), but the absence of animals may be noticed by those more familiar with later Far Cry games. The islands are supposed to be lush islands in the Pacific. Old Japanese World War II bunkers, scuttled ships and downed aircraft often provided set pieces for the adventures of Jack Carver, your character and one of the more inappropriately dressed protagonists in videogames.

 

Weapons feel effective and punchy, they're typical real world 2004 weapons, Desert Eagle, M4 Carbine, H&K MP5, Machine Gun, Sniper Rifle, Rocket Launcher, grenades etc., the usual fare. Interestingly the game has an advanced version of the OICW which was a prototype weapon being tested by the U.S. armed forces in the early 2000's. The OICW never left the prototype phase but it excited Hollywood and videogame developers appearing in many releases including Universal Soldier 2, Die Another Day, the Delta Force games and the Ghost Recon franchise.

Enemy models are well done for the age of the game but there's little variety among the hundreds of human mercenaries who are there to prevent you casually walking to the end game. The genetic mutant army is a little more interesting and diverse and the most science fiction-ey element of the Far Cry franchise which grounds itself to quasi-reality from Far Cry 2 onward. The artificial intelligence on display here wasn't too shabby, enemies took cover when under fire and search for you if they saw you. Sadly sometimes they had super-vision and were able to see you while prone in the long grass, but stealth in this game was never a viable strategy anyway.

This was as far as I recall the first FPS that I played that evoked such an extraordinary sense of freedom. While it's pretty much the norm now, it had to begin somewhere. In Far Cry you required driveable vehicles on the roads or the water in order to reach some objectives, or to just generally traverse the expansive outdoor levels. Sure you had to travel around and do a lot of killing, but the journey to go and do this is still a wonderful experience.

Pros: It's like taking a tropical island holiday (just have to contend with unruly locals). Great weapons, vehicles, scenery and AI. Looks great on a modern system 14 years on.

Cons: A few linear 'indoor' levels are a pretty 'standard' FPS experiences, but an welcome change of pace mid game and there's not as much as most shooters. Later levels with the heavier Trigens aren't as good as the earlier levels.

Far Cry is available today on the Ubisoft Store @ €9.99, Steam @ €9.99 or GOG @ €8.09 but as always often appears for €3.50 or so in many sales.

*VerTecX21 Hyperion - Changes to original Specification 03/03/2004

A definition of retro gaming

I was recently asked what my definition for "retro" gaming with regards to PC gaming is. The question is necessary as everyone's answer regardless if they're a console or a PC gamer, is different. It's one of those questions that's unlikely to ever be definitively defined in such a way as to be agreed upon by everyone.

Quake II

For PC gaming, some sources will use the arrival of the CD-ROM or the move from a dedicated DOS mode to a native Windows game is the deciding factor. Others define the viewpoint, control system or essence of the game as retro - e.g. I've seen Pillars of Eternity (which evokes Baldur's Gate's isometric viewpoint) or games like Cuphead (a traditional side scrolling Run & Gun) being referred to as retro because they're *based on* the ideas of the types of games that aren't considered modern, although the games themselves certainly are.

In the gaming console community, many players use the generation of the console and say that 4th generation consoles or those that came before them are retro. Others however drag that out to 5th and others claim 6th generation consoles, meaning that the Playstation 2, Game Cube and XBox and the games designed for them are all retro. Players from both camps have argued that the switch from 2D to 3D games to define what's retro and what isn't.

So it's obviously subjective as what is retro or just 'old' at the end of the day, but for me personally I tend to consider a few factors including how well a game functions on modern hardware without significant editing but I would consider the game's base engine technology as a primary factor. A game's engine has a considerable effect on the look and feel of a game, both graphically and functionally although in some cases an engine can be pushed from it's retro beginnings to something that wouldn't be considered retro at all, for example Max Payne (2000) and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (2003) use the same engine (MAX FX) but for Max Payne 2 it was so much improved that it surely surprised everyone that it was using the same engine as it's predecessor.

I designate games like Quake II as retro due to the fact they were created using engines that game developers were still getting to grips with the concept of true 3D engines. I think my cut off point would be games using those early blocky 3D engines like Quake II, Unreal, Jedi Knight and Neverwinter Nights where humans had square heads, triangles for noses and were woefully animated. Many were in fact less asthetically pleasing than their 2D counterparts. In my opinion the Unreal Engine 2 (Unreal Tournament 2003), id Tech 3 (Quake III) engine and their contemporaries are less dramatically different from today's similar games and shouldn't be regarded as retro. Splinter Cell (2002) for example was one of the first games to use the Unreal Engine 2 which was considered good enough to power the entire Splinter Cell franchise for 11 years, up to and including the most recent Splinter Cell: Blacklist (2013).

Splinter Cell

There was a crop of games between around 1999 and 2003 that straddle the divide between retro and not, I'll just give you a few examples:

• Quake III: Arena (1999) = Not retro (id Tech 3)
• Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance (1999) = Retro (Last in the greatest game series of the 1990's but graphically a dinosaur compared to space-flight games of the 2000's)
• Deus Ex (2000) = Retro (Unreal Engine 1, needs work to get working on modern PC)
• Star Trek: Voyager: Elite Force (2000) = Not retro (id Tech 3)
• Max Payne (2001) = Retro (MAX-FX engine in development since 1997)
• No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way (2002) = Retro (LithTech Jupiter engine, is comparable to idTech 3/Unreal Engine 2, but rights issues have prevented re-release and support of the game and it requires retro-style shenanigans to get working).
• Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (2002) = Not retro (id Tech 3)
• Neverwinter Nights (2002) = Retro (Aurora Engine, Bioware's first 3D engine)
• Knights of the Old Republic (2003) = Not retro (Odyessy Engine, Bioware's second 3D engine, a dramatic improvement over Aurora that would set a standard for years). 
• Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death (2003) = Retro (Rebellion used the Asura engine previously deployed with Aliens Vs Predator (2000) and this iteration of it was not up to id Tech 3 standards but later iterations were).

Of course I reserve the right to change the status of the entries on this list in time due to technical circumstances, but this is what I suspect to be true at time of writing.

In conclusion 'retro gaming' is an entirely subjective concept and merely a semantic issue at the end of the day, unlikely ever to find a true concensus. But now you know where I stand.

Retro Review: Unreal

"Will I try out Unreal or Quake II on a modern system?" I contemplated recently. These two games dominated 1998 and required serious hardware at the time. I constructed Magnus, a Pentium 333MHz PC with a Voodoo2 accelerator just to be able to play them. Their rivalry was legendary; Quake II pipped Unreal to the finish line releasing at Xmas 1997 while Unreal ended up releasing 4 months later and was really the only competitor to Quake II at the time. Quake II went the sci-fi military route after Doom's sci-fi horror (and the original Quake's Gothic horror). I certainly enjoyed the Quake II premise more than Unreal's setting, which was an alien planet, with medieval architecture(?) with eh... sci-fi weapons and you were a prisoner on a ship that crashed there and had to survive oh.. and liberate the friendly locals from an evil empire... or something... hey if you're looking for Shakespeare, go and play KOTOR or Mass Effect!

I've always considered Quake II to be a demo of the second iteration of ID's ID Tech engine which showcased neat graphics over substance. Unreal on the other hand was technically superior with more graphics options, greater atmosphere, superior AI behaviour and fantastic music fidelity. The legacy of both games is still felt today; ID Tech powers Doom, Wolfenstein and a few other big shooters but the Unreal engine technology has gone on to power hundreds of games in the past 20 years and the latest iterations of both engines are still in use today.

The fact that Quake II demands €4.99 on Steam or the GOG version Quake II: Quad Damage forces you to get the extra mission packs as well for €8.09 put me off buying Quake II and Unreal still demands just under €10 on both platforms - but is often given a significant discount to drop it under the €2 mark. I'm fine with spending €2 or 3 especially on a game I already own, to just not faff about with CD's. In May, GOG gave everyone (who was quick enough to grab it) a free download of Unreal Gold - which bundles Unreal with it's official add-on Return to Na-Pali - in celebration of the game's 20th anniversary which made the decision which of the two games to play much easier.

Support for Unreal officially ended in 2000 with patching to version 2.26f by Epic MegaGames. Sadly this in not enough to maintain the game to work satisfactorily 18 years later but thankfully Unreal has enterprising fans who have enjoyed modding and enhancing the game's capabilities in the intervening years. Among the necessary downloads today are Patch 2.26i the latest community patch which had the blessing of Epic games - this is found at oldunreal.com and one should also visit unrealtexture.com to grab high end textures for the game.

With some tweaking, one can get the game running fine in 4K quickly enough and I was soon once again on escaping from the Vortex Rikers as memories came flooding back. The ship is crashed and you're the only survivor a former prisoner, now free to explore and kill - yay.

One memory that was tainted by time however quickly became apparent. Quake II's weapons were solid and varied enough to have the proper tool for each job but sadly I found the weapons and combat inferior in Unreal by comparison. One should expect an enemy to drop from two or three shots from the second (as in not the shitty default) weapon you pick up. They don't, it was something like 10 - and this is the issue with Unreal, the combat is significantly inferior to Quake II. In my opinion this was corrected when the first Unreal Tournament came online simultaneously with Quake III: Arena - this time the combat in Unreal was better than Quake's - but that's another story.

I was hoping for a quick play-through of Unreal but even though the game was now being presented to me in a far superior fashion than ever conceived even by the developers at time or release I knew I wouldn't have had the patience for the dull combat for too long. I decided to play "permadeath" which is to play as if you only have one life. I did my best to stay alive for a few hours until a well placed tentacle monster riveted me with it's stingers and the camera panned slowly away from my fresh corps after which I uninstalled.

I may give it another go at some point in the future, with some mod that increases the power of your weapons to reduce the tedium of the combat.

Pros: The game that gave us the Unreal Engine used in many hundreds of games since.

Cons: In game HUD not good at scaling in 4K. Time has not been kind to the combat mechanics. Story is very meh, but it shouldn't just be considered as the 'Unreal Tech demo'.

Unreal Gold is available for €9.99 on Steam or €8.09 on GOG but appears frequently in sales for under €2.

Retro Review: Dark Forces

My recent foray into playing the old Deus Ex led to an understanding that there had also been progress on "enhancing" the gameplay and technology of Lucasarts' 1995 Star Wars shooter Dark Forces. This piqued my interest as by today's standards Dark Forces is ancient, my devotion to Star Wars is obvious, I had fond memories of the game, I bought it in October on a GOG sale for €2 and hadn't tried it out yet. Sadly playing such old games on a 28" 4K monitor isn't ideal so enhancements are required and I was eager to see if they worked.

Dark Forces is now 23 years old and on boot-up it certainly looks it. Also, you likely won't be able to point and shoot because of the controls. 1n 1995, no one, not even Doom developers ID had created a 3D shooter environment in which a player could look / shoot up or down before. There was also no mouselook, instead you used PgUp/PgDn to aim upwards and downwards and the arrow keys moved you around. While GOG's Dark Forces Dos Box solution adds mouse control, the solution is a terrible mouse/keyboard control solution for the game.

The graphics have been addressed with DarkXL which was an ambitious project to allow higher resolutions and colour depth as well as a more modern control option (WASD/Mouselook). Sadly development has been halted, which is a shame because there are a few obstacles that can't be overcome due to the engine changes and unless you're prepare to work around them, you will encounter a game breaking bug or two. This Steam thread discusses DarkXL in depth, but it's the same issue for GOG. An alternative to DarkXL is Dark Forces Plus, a  "compilation of key mappings and a GlovePie script that is intended to allow the game to be played more like a modern FPS while retaining close to a vanilla aesthetic".

It wasn't my intention to play the whole game and I was intrigued with DarkXL, how it would look, run and how far I could get using it so I went with that option to take me back to a time when they made great Star Wars games. The difference in using DarkXL was phenomenal by comparison to vanilla Dark Forces. Firstly I could control movement and aiming as one can in today's FPS. There was no pixelation of graphics, yes the resolution is still low - not expecting miracles but there was light mapping, glow and antialiasing galore and I was getting a much more immersive and smooth gameplay experience overall.

The best way is to show you the difference using these YouTube videos someone created specifically to show the difference between vanilla Dark Forces (top) and DarkXL enabled Dark Forces (bottom).

Notice how jagged everything is in the first video and how harsh e.g. the ceiling tiles look as you move. Then compare it to the DarkXL beneath. I stopped at the "Level 9 crash" as mentioned in the mod's notes, but up to that point there was a flood of nostalgia coming through the screen at me. As DarkXL is open source I hope some enterprising individual can pick up the mantle of it's developer and correct the few (but considerably large) bugs that remain.

The Dark Forces / Jedi Knight games have fantastic level design that made the best use of vertical space unmatched by anything since. The sights, sounds, enemies and weapons are all Star Wars, it's certainly not Doom in a Star Wars skin. The story and it's protagonist Kyle Katarn were one of the keystones of what was known as the Star Wars Expanded Universe, and while rendered non-canonical now due to Disney's "Legacy" directive it can still be enjoyed for what it is - a great game that spawned the Jedi Knight sequels. While of course technically inferior more than 20 years on, no one who had played them can forget them unlike many such games since.

Pros: It's Star Wars. Outstanding level design. Interesting plot for a shooter, probably the first FPS with an interesting plot.

Cons: Ancient tech but mods have lessened the impact to a great degree. Sadly it's difficult to finish the game with them without some hacks.

Available from GOG @ €4.89 or Steam @ €4.99 - but wait for sales to pick it up for €2 or so.

Retro Review: Finally checked Deus Ex off the bucket list

Three new IPs appeared in 2000 that would certainly define aspects of gaming for the new century, Hitman, The Sims and Deus Ex. I regarded The Sims as pure nonsense even to this day, but can't argue against it's popularity nor disregard it's positive affect on PC gaming over the years. I eschewed Hitman as a series because I wouldn't want to spent that amount of time with what is essentially a bad guy. As for Deus Ex, well, while I loved The Matrix and conspiracy movies it was still a new IP but my gaming schedule was so full back then. In Summer 2000 alone, Soldier of Fortune had already arrived, Diablo II and Icewind Dale came out and both Star Trek: Elite Force and Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn were released at the end of the summer to take us into the first Xmas of the new millennium. There just wasn't time.

Deus Ex could have been the game I got at Xmas that year but instead I choose No One Lives Forever - a tongue-in-cheek 60's styled FPS that was as much Austin Powers as it was James Bond and arguably possibly one of the best female protagonists in gaming history. Today I lament the fact that due to Fox/WB rights issues it can't come to GOG or Steam. Despite Deux Ex being lauded as #1 or 2 game of the year, NOLF was so good I had no regrets. As 2001 was filled with just as many distractions like Aliens vs Predator 2, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal and of course Max Payne, I all but forgot about Deus Ex.

In 2003 the Deus Ex sequel Invisible War didn't come into my radar range as much as it's original and I recall the consensus was that it wasn't near as good. I recall however in 2005 I noticed that Deus Ex was still getting one of the top 5 spots in the greatest PC Games of all time lists no matter what the source. I thought maybe I should have played that after all, but made no move to do so. In 2010 the situation hadn't changed that drastically which still spoke volumes about its quality and as a third entry in the franchise, eight years since the last, was creating a lot of buzz I thought perhaps it was time to correct the Deus Ex oversight. It was still ANOTHER 5 years later before I added the Game of the Year edition to my Steam library in 2015. There it sat for more than two more years before I finally said "Deus Ex - let's do this!"

When you boot up a 18 year old game, no matter how good the optimisation is on Steam or GOG it will run, but may not run the best it could and certainly not going to look very pretty. Initially I discovered the game was much too dark, I was having a significant frame rate drop when looking at water and boy were graphics that ugly in 2000! Thankfully due to the game's success, popularity and much beloved status, fans have programmed hundreds of fixes, add-ons and patches that improve the Deus Ex experience exponentially for modern gamers. The ones I used to give me the best solution were a new Direct3D 10 Unreal Renderer, high resolution textures and a new launcher with which to configure parameters for the game that wouldn't have even been dreamed about 18 years ago such as making the GUI big enough to prevent eye strain at 4K resolution with which I enjoyed the entire game with with no issue.

Normally to stand playing something so old there would need to be a wistful sense of nostalgia involved commonly from having played the game back when it was modern and if nothing has replaced it in the intervening years and I'll cite the X-Wing franchise and Duke Nukem as examples (I chose to ignore Duke Nukem 4Ever). In Deus Ex's case there is no familiarity as I never played it before and it's mechanics with RPG elements are so out of place from a game of that era I found myself both unprepared and marvelling at the game which I can wholeheartedly agree was way ahead of its time.

The RPG elements which slowly found their way into more modern shooters may have been touched on by earlier games than Deus Ex but there was enough here to call Deus Ex an FPS/lite-RPG. Customising your character with different augmented abilities and specifying skills were astonishing. The weapon upgrade mechanic was something I thought was originally Crysis' bag, but J.C. Denton was doing it in Deus Ex several years earlier. The multiple physical approaches (sometimes more than two or three) as well as style (stealth, tech, guns blazing) to the objectives in each mission comprised of multiple and optional goals were features that I now see were directly responsible for the game's longevity and valid reasoning for support for many play-throughs, none of which were likely to be identical unlike so many other examples of the genre.

The game is hard - managing an inventory of only a few spaces when you had so many great options for equipment and weapons made decisions to drop and select things very hard - you want to carry everything unrealistically like other games. Unlike most video-game heroes you're not carrying a quarter of a million rounds of ammunition around with you, you need to improvise, adapt and overcome which was undoubtedly developer Warren Spector's goal as well as weaving a carefully crafted narrative with characters that adapt to many of your decisions. Deus Ex is also a product of a time when FPS games were far longer in length, taking me 34 hours to complete and I'm glad to say that I have. 

Pros: More than just a mindless shooter, Interesting RPG elements and multiple paths were ahead of it's time.

Cons: Needs some finnicking with third party software at installation to get it working properly, it won't run best out of the box anymore.

Available at Steam for €6.99 but wait for frequent sale when it's about €2.75 or less.

The United States Space Corps - The Resurrection

It was understood that due to it's previous rejection in the U.S. Senate last autumn that the fate of the proposed sixth branch of the U.S. armed forces dubbed "The Space Corps" by it's proponents was sealed and sent to whatever page in history pipe dreams go. That was until Monday morning at least when POTUS45 announced that he was directing the Department of Defence and The Pentagon to begin work on establishing the new branch of the armed forces responsible for asserting U.S. dominance in space, apparently a "recent idea of his" which he has designated "Space Force".

However, this bizarre directive which can't actually be enacted without Congressional approval (something that was refused last year) may be years before such a force could be fully established. The announcement apparently took the Pentagon by surprise although as part of last years NDAA deliberations, it has been working to deliver an interim report to Congress by August on whether it's feasible to carve out a separate Space Force branch from the U.S. Air Force. If POTUS45 got wind of it, he likely made up his own mind about it and simply told people to get it done.

However, the creation of a new military service is not a small policy that can be simply added to an annual budget request, it's "major legislation. It is going to take years. I don't think Congress will get around to authorizing it until next year at the earliest," said Todd Harrison, director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in an interview on Monday.

It's conjectured that the creation of the space force may not have a huge impact on the annual budget request due to the DOD likely leveraging personnel and capabilities it already has but if requires an accompanying service academy like the Air Force Academy, then it will all add up exponentially.

"Renewed space threats are driving this -- Russia and China," Harrison said "This is what reignited this in 2016, and the concern was the Air Force wasn't moving fast enough. But the biggest winners if a space force happens? Contractors. Anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000 personnel could be added to the space force, augmented by a force of contractors and civilians that may be double that number. That's where the experts are."

Air Force leaders past and present almost unanimously agreed against the previous suggestions of establishing a Space Corps last year. However, following POTUS45's order Monday, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldstein (left) voiced agreement with the president's position that the U.S. military approach to the space domain must become more robust to meet current and future challenges (as publicly disagreeing would likely need to be followed by their resignations). A statement from the Air Force brass included: "The President's statement to the National Space Council adds emphasis to the Air Force position -- space is a warfighting domain and the entire national security space enterprise must continue to enhance lethality, resilience and agility to meet the challenge posed by potential adversaries," they wrote. "We look forward to working with Department of Defense leaders, Congress, and our national security partners to move forward on this planning effort."

Source: Military.com

R.I.P. Gunny

Gny. Sgt. R. Lee Ermey USMC a Marine for 11 years and later an actor and consultant in Hollywood made famous by Full Metal Jacket has died at 74.

I've lost one of my heroes and role models. Marines die, but the Corps is forever, so he is forever.

Semper Fi Gunny.

Over-zealous General attempts to wrest control of 5G roll-out!

Brig. Gen. Robert Spalding USAF, the senior director for strategic planning with the National Security Council, left the White House this week following the leak of a memo that advocated for a government takeover of development of the nation’s 5G mobile telecom network.

Last week the Wall Street Journal reported some White House officials viewed next-gen 5G wireless service as a “key area of competition,” and saw a potential threat from China as justification for a “moonshot” government effort behind the network’s development. Moonshot in this context being an ambitious, exploratory and ground-breaking project undertaken without any expectation of near-term profitability or benefit and also, perhaps, without a full investigation of potential risks and benefits.

Spalding was the memo's author which irked the telecom industry and irritated the White House according to the Washing Post, but was not implicated in the leak. However it was decided his backing of the potential government takeover of the 5G network exceeded his NSC role.

FCC chairman Ajit Pai told the New York Times that he opposed the idea of a government-built 5G network, and industry group USTelecom said government involvement would likely slow the technology's development.

"What can seem like a logical idea can often be derailed in the way it's presented," said Brigadier General "Whopper" Creedon, USMC, SPEARHEAD Assistant Commander for Intelligence and Information who as a Colonel in 2005 served the NSC as Military Assistant to the Deputy National Security Advisor for Extraterrestrial Encounters. "My proposal for AMDI, the Alien Mothership Deterrent Initiative needed to make it look like it was coming directly from the advisors never by me. If it got shot down - fair enough, if it got accepted - all good but if it crashed and burned it would have been difficult for the advisors to pin it on me without looking like they were idiots for suggesting it."

"One doesn't just suggest taking government control of a new telecommunications standard roll-out! You give the companies 'incentives' to get them all to do the job faster themselves. You have to know how to play the game but more importantly you have to know the players, sadly Spalding was too over-zealous with his proposal for the current administration to handle or likely even understand," said Gen. Creedon.

Source: Fox News / WSJ / NYT / Washing Post

Doctor Pinnochio

During the week the White House physician Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson spoke to the media and gave a glowing report on POTUS45's health. Repeating the word "excellent" more than half a dozen times and uttered statements like "He has incredible genes... He has incredibly good genes, and it's just the way God made him." - God of course having no place in a medical diagnosis, but that's another issue.

Other statements included "if he had a healthier diet over the last 20 years, he might live to be 200 years old" which lead the media to question if the man was even a real doctor. Yes he's a real doctor but he's lying.

He's lying because he reported that the president had somehow grown an entire inch in his 70's. He's lying because he reported that the president is just one pound shy of being classed as obese. He's lying because I've stood in uniform and lied to enough people at the behest of a superior to recognise when I see other people forced into doing it too. 

Sadly that's what's missing from the media reports questioning Dr. Jackson's diagnosis. Like it or not POTUS45 is the Commander in Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces of which Dr. Jackson is a member. Ordering a subordinate to give false statements is not a crime. Giving false statements to the media is not a crime. But I do hope Dr. Jackson is of good enough character to at least loose sleep over what he's had to say...

I know I have.

SPEARHEAD: Zuma not intercepted by aliens. Pentagon says "Ask SpaceX!"

Zuma, a billion-dollar spy satellite built by Northrop Grumman was launched Jan. 7 on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and was reported as "failed to reach orbit." As everything about the mission except the launch itself was secret, few details will be available to the public. Despite the loss SpaceX was quick to assert last week that its Falcon 9 performed as advertised.

Chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana W. White and Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., Director of the Joint Staff elected not to comment on the launch, and refer all questions to SpaceX. 

SPEARHEAD's Assistant Commander for Intelligence and Information Marine Corps Brig. Gen. "Whopper" Creedon has denied reports that Zuma was intercepted by an Extra Terrestrial spacecraft, answering a reporters question with the word "Bollox".

Source: Space.com

2017 - Those We Lost

We pay tribute to those lost in 2017 including:

Powers Boothe

Roger Ailes (77) American television executive and media consultant. Chairman and CEO of Fox News and the Fox Television Stations Group.

Richard Anderson (91) American actor ("The Six Million Dollar Man", "The Bionic Woman").
Jim Baikie (77) Scottish comics artist ("The New Statesmen", "Judge Dredd", "Star Trek", "Batman")

Chester Bennington (41) American singer, songwriter, and actor. Linkin Park lead vocalist.

Chuck Berry (90) American singer, songwriter, musician. Pioneer of rock and roll music. "Johnny B. Goode".

Jack Blessing (66), American actor (Dulmur in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine "Trials and Tribble-ations").

Powers Boothe (68) Emmy winning American actor ("Tombstone", "Red Dawn", "By Dawn's Early Light", "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.")

Rich Buckler (68) American comic book artist. (Iron Man #196–197) Creator of Deathlok.

Wally Burr (91) American voice actor and director (The Transformers series, Transformers: The Movie and the G.I.Joe series/movie).

Glen Campbell (81) American singer, guitarist, songwriter, television host, and actor. "Rhinestone Cowboy".

Bernie Casey

Bernie Casey (78) American actor and football player. ("I'm Gonna Git You Sucka", "Under Siege", Lt. Commander Cal Hudson in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine).

Captain Eugene Cernan, USN Ret. (82) American astronaut, naval aviator, electrical engineer, aeronautical engineer, and fighter pilot. Apollo 17, last person to have walked on the Moon.

Don Cockburn (87) Irish journalist, presenter and RTÉ newsreader.

Fred Cogley (82) Irish sports broadcaster.

Alan Colmes (66) American radio and television host, liberal political commentator for the Fox News Channel, and blogger. Co-host of "Hannity & Colmes".

Mike Connors (91) American actor ("Mannix").

Chris Cornell (52) American musician, singer, and songwriter. Lead vocalist for Soundgarden and Audioslave. Perrformed theme song to "Casino Royale" (2006) "You Know My Name".

Liam Cosgrave (97) Irish politician, Taoiseach (1973–1977).

Alfie Curtis (87) British actor (Dr. Evazan in Star Wars: A New Hope).

John Cygan (63) American actor and voice actor ("Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" video game series, Dash Rendar in "Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire" and "Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance").

Dick Gautier (85) American actor and singer (Rodimus Prime in "The Transformers" and Serpentor in "G.I.Joe").

Nelsan Ellis (39) American film and television actor and playwright. (Lafayette Reynolds in "True Blood").

Miguel Ferrer

Miguel Ferrer (61) American actor ("RoboCop", "Star Trek III: The Search For Spock", "NCIS: Los Angles").

Neil Fingleton (36) English actor and basketball player. Tallest British-born man. (Mag the Mighty in "Game of Thrones", motion capture for Ultron in "Avengers: Age of Ultron").

Captain Dara Fitzpatrick (45) Irish Coast Guard helicopter pilot.

Sir Bruce Forsyth, CBE (89) British presenter, actor, comedian, singer, dancer, and screenwriter whose career spanned more than 75 years.

Colonel Wesley L. Fox, USMC Ret. (86) Legendary American Marine Corps officer, Medal of Honor recipient.

Jim French (89) American radio host and voice actor (Father Grigori in "Half-Life 2").

Stephen Furst (63) American actor ("Babylon 5", "St. Elsewhere").

Frank Vincent (80) American actor, starred in many mafia tough guy roles.

Captain Richard F. Gordon Jr. USN Ret. (88) American naval officer and aviator, chemist, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. Gemini 11, Apollo 12.

Dick Gregory (84) African-American comedian, civil rights activist, social critic, writer, entrepreneur, conspiracy theorist.

Robert Guillaume (89) American actor and singer ("Benson", Dr. Eli Vance in "Half-Life 2").

Robert Hardy, CBE (91) British actor ("All Creatures Great and Small", "War and Remembrance").

Richard Hatch (71) American actor ("Battlestar Galactica" 1978 / 2004, "The Streets of San Francisco").

Maureen Haughey (91) Irish political figure, wife of Charles Haughey.

Glenne Headly (62) American actress ("Dirty Rotten Scoundrels", "Future Man").

John Heard (71) American film and television actor ("NCIS: Los Angeles", "Snake Eyes", Commander Barry Garner in "Battlestar Galactica" (2004)).    

Hugh Hefner (91) American magazine publisher (Playboy), businessman (Playboy Enterprises) and reality television personality.

John Hillerman

John Hillerman (84) Emmy winning American actor ("Blazing Saddles", Higgins in "Magnum, P.I.").

Skip Homeier (86) American actor (Melakon in "Star Trek "Patterns of Force"" and Dr. Sevrin in "Star Trek "The Way to Eden"").

Captain Thomas J. Hudner Jr. USN Ret. (93) American naval aviator, Medal of Honor recipient (Battle of Chosin Reservoir).

Dave Hunt (74) American comic book artist ("Transformers").

Sir John Hurt, CBE (77) BAFTA winning British actor ("Alien", "1984", "Hellboy", "Outlander").

Captain Arthur J. Jackson USMC Ret. (92) American military officer, Medal of Honor recipient.

Clifton James (96) American actor (Sheriff J.W. Pepper in "Live and Let Die").

Al Jarreau (76) Grammy winning American jazz and R&B singer ("Moonlighting").

Gordon Kaye (75) English actor and singer ("Allo 'Allo!").

Specialist Four Thomas James Kinsman, USA (72) American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient.

General William L. Kirk USAF Ret. (84) American air force officer. Commander in Chief, U.S. Air Forces in Europe/Commander, Allied Air Forces Central Europe (CINCUSAFE/COMAAFCE) from 1987 to 1989.

Sonny Landham

Sonny Landham (76) American actor ("Predator", "48 Hrs.", "Lock Up").

Martin Landau (89) Oscar winning American actor ("Space: 1999", "Mission: Impossible", "Meteor", "By Dawn's Early Light").

Peadar Lamb (87) Irish actor (Fargo Boyle in "Father Ted "Chripy Burpy Cheap Sheep"").

Joan Boocock Lee (95) Wife of Stan Lee (Computer Voice in Iron man (1994)).

Victor Llamas (41) American comic book artist ("Batman", "Star Wars: Republic", "G.I. Joe").

John Mollo (86) British costume designer ("Star Wars").

Lawrence Montaigne (86) American actor (Decius in "Star Trek "Balance of Terror"", Stonn in "Star Trek "Amok Time"").

Mary Tyler Moore (80) 7-time Emmy winning American actress.

Lt. General Harold G. "Hal" Moore, Jr. USA Ret. (94) American army officer and author ("We Were Soldiers Once… And Young").

Sir Roger Moore, KBE (89) English actor ("The Saint", "The Wild Geese",  James Bond in seven movies).

Captain Bruce McCandless II, USN Ret. (80) American astronaut (STS-41-B).

Douglas Netter (95) American television producer ("Babylon 5").

Barry Norman (83) British film critic and television presenter.

Michael Nyqvist (56) Swedish actor ("Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol", "John Wick").

Bill Paxton (61) American actor ("Navy SEALS", "Apollo 13", "Aliens", "True Lies", "U-571", "Twister", "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.").

Michael Parks (77)American singer and actor (Kill Bill movies, "Argo", "Django Unchained").

Lt. General Leonard H. Perroots, Sr., USAF Ret. (83) American military officer, Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (1985–1988).

Tom Petty (66) American Hall of Fame musician and voice actor.

Tim Pigott-Smith

Tim Pigott-Smith, OBE (70) BAFTA winning British actor ("Quantum of Solace", "Flyboys", "Johnny English", "Jewel in the Crown").

Richard Portman (82) Oscar winning American sound mixer ("The Godfather", "Star Wars", "The Deer Hunter").

Oberfeldwebel Willi Reschke (95) German Luftwaffe ace. 26 aerial victories in 70 missions.

Don Rickles (90) American stand-up comedian, actor, and author. ("Run Silent, Run Deep", "Kelly's Heroes", Mr. Potato Head in the Toy Story franchise).

George A Romero (77) American-Canadian filmmaker, writer and editor. Progenitor of the fictional zombie of modern culture ("Night of the Living Dead", "Day of the Dead", "Land of the Dead").

Master Sergeant Wilburn K Ross USA Ret.(94) American WWII veteran, Medal of Honor recipient.

Peter Sallis OBE (96) British actor. ("Last of the Summer Wine", Wallace and Gromit franchise).

Sam Shepard (73), Pulitzer Prize winning American playwright and actor ("The Right Stuff", "Black Hawk Down", "Stealth").

Harry Dean Stanton (91) American actor ("Alien", "Escape from New York", "Red Dawn").

Charles P. Thacker (74) American computer designer, co-inventor of Ethernet.

Jay Thomas (69) American actor, comedian, and morning radio personality. (Marty Grossman in "Ray Donovan", Brett Morris in "American Dad!").

Colonel Leo K. Thorsness, USAF Ret. (85), American air force officer and Medal of Honor recipient, member of the Washington Senate (1988–1992).

Private First Class Edward J. Tipper Jr. (95) American World War II veteran (Easy Company), depicted in "Band of Brothers".

Margaret Towner

Margaret Towner (96) British actress (Jira in "Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace").

Michael Twomey (83) Irish actor. (Cha and Miah).

Judge Joseph Wapner (97) American judge and television personality ("The People’s Court").

Stewart Wieck (49) American game designer (White Wolf Publishing).

Len Wein (69) American comic book writer and editor (Watchmen, Iron Man #82–85) Co-creator of Wolverine.

Captain Paul J.Weitz, USN Ret. (85) American naval officer and aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. Skylab 2, Commander of STS-6 mission.

Adam West (88) American actor ("Batman", "Family Guy").

Stanley Weston (84) American inventor and licensing agent. Created the G.I. Joe toy line in 1963, as well as the very concept of the action figure.

Lt. General Samuel V. Wilson, USA Ret. (93) American army officer, Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (1976–1977).

Bill Woodson (99) American voice actor (Narrator on "The Winds of War", "War and Remembrance" and "Battle of the Planets").

Captain Jerry Yellin, USAAF (93) American fighter pilot. Flew final combat mission of World War II.

Malcolm Young (64) Scottish-born Australian Hall of Fame guitarist and songwriter (AC/DC). 

May they rest in peace.