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 Welcome to 2004! It's been several years since the run of The X-Files has ended on TV, and the show is slowly coming out on DVDs, when Vivendi Universal releases a survival horror game set in the X-Files universe, presented as missing episodes written by a series writer and starring the main characters of the show voiced by its actual cast, packed with extras like storyboards and behind-the-scenes footage. Resist or Serve was developed by Black Ops Entertainment, a company unknown for a few mediocre movie-based games and boxing titles for EA Sports, still struggling to repeat the success of its PS1 classic Treasures of the Deep. Resist or Serve wouldn't give the studio that success due to the designers' severe lack of imagination: you fight zombies pretty much the entire game, and their only feature is that they take many hits to kill. Normally. We won't be playing normally, though. We will use a cheat that lets you kill regular enemies with a single hit. And invincibility. EPISODE 7x97 Renascence      EPISODE 7x98 Resonance   EPISODE 7x99 Reckoning     EXTRAS 
SelenicMartian fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Oct 21, 2022 |
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Aug 5, 2022 15:33
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| # ? May 2, 2024 04:00 |
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Oh, this is going to be appalling and I am so here for it  I loved this stupid goddamn show so much.edit; holy crap, first vid is an hour long?
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Aug 5, 2022 16:04
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I know nothing about X-Files, is this before Vin Diesel was brought on-board?
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Aug 5, 2022 20:02
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-It's a nice touch that the beer is branded as Ergot Ale, since that's a fungus that can contaminate rye and barley at the least. Someone must be playing up the rotgut theme. -The word you were searching for at the 32 minute mark is "involved".
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Aug 5, 2022 20:44
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NGDBSS posted:-It's a nice touch that the beer is branded as Ergot Ale, since that's a fungus that can contaminate rye and barley at the least. Someone must be playing up the rotgut theme.
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Aug 5, 2022 23:29
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I definitely appreciate this playthrough with cheats, as kicking a zombie down is far funnier and less time-wasting than emptying a clip into one. The high attention to detail in the assets and the accuracy in the level design (at least compared to what a lot of other games of the time would feature) is big surprise, and a pleasant one. The soundtrack has also been pretty solid so far - the stingers for dead bodies or combat only get a tiny bit hammier than some of the TV series' own audio cues, and most of the time it's right on point. I'm curious what the lighter looks like up close.
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Aug 7, 2022 09:18
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The one-punch kills make this seem like a spoof, it's great.
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Aug 7, 2022 20:52
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The word in the letter was "involved", and the word on the package with the ammo clip was "wendigo".
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Aug 8, 2022 06:31
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Ignatius M. Meen posted:The word in the letter was "involved", and the word on the package with the ammo clip was "wendigo".  
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Aug 8, 2022 10:21
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That 'n' is probably the contribution of an Aussie on the team being more familiar with dingoes than Native American spellings told to do the art up for this based on what he heard. And an editing conference of dunces. Or maybe they're all rolled together somehow, it'd explain the Fu Manchu mustache on the g.
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Aug 8, 2022 11:24
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Looks like a perfectly normal wendingio to me. Is there a reason why Mulder was constantly looking kinda upwards while inside the sheriff's office? I think this game would have been pretty awesome it was released as a PSX title in the late 90s, but as it is it just feels like it missed the bus a bit.
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Aug 8, 2022 12:34
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Crazy Achmed posted:Is there a reason why Mulder was constantly looking kinda upwards while inside the sheriff's office? I thought he just knows better than everyone else. Or just upset about a missing videotape?
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Aug 9, 2022 12:51
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ally_1986 posted:I thought he just knows better than everyone else. Or just upset about a missing videotape? The truth is... up there?
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Aug 10, 2022 16:33
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'Hey, Scully, I've found a quick way to get to where we ne–' 'Start jacking, Mulder'
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Aug 12, 2022 15:25
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Mulder constantly looks upwards because he wants to believe SO hard that he's keeping his eyes peeled for UFOs even while indoors. Those snap movements during the trailer scene were hilarious - the way Mulder flashes the open diary at frozen-faced Scully seems so cartoonish in a way that you might expect it push this game further into Uncanny Valley territory, but instead makes it more endearing. Mulder's dig at Jewel's poetry in the Wheel House was extremely unexpected, but also amusing. (I think it was just a jab at the vibe of the poem rather than recognizing any specific content, though.)
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Aug 13, 2022 02:46
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I certainly can't fault the detail put into some of these locations. I don't think I saw a game of this era with one-way automatic doors. I certainly can fault a lot of other things though.
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Aug 16, 2022 06:03
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So far it seems pretty middling as survival horror stuff goes, but X-Files really doesn't map well onto survival horror.
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Aug 16, 2022 14:42
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malkav11 posted:So far it seems pretty middling as survival horror stuff goes, but X-Files really doesn't map well onto survival horror. I think it could work, X-Files also seems like it could work in stalkers like Clocktower, but it seems clear that things just didn't go well making this. One of the most obviously broken parts so far is the inventory. They were obviously going for the Resident Evil limited inventory but they also obviously decided at some point to drop it while keeping the UI (probably late in development). Big icons work when you can only see 8 (ish) of them at a time but now we've got big icons in a scrolling list and its baaaad. Also the notes are in there too which is even worse.
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Aug 17, 2022 02:18
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I don't think X-Files makes sense with a game style that involves killing dozens of enemies, let alone in a pretty standard zombie scenario. Being hunted by an unstoppable enemy ala Clock Tower, perhaps. It's by no means the only problem the game has, but a lot of the others seem reasonably common in the genre. The other X-Files videogames are not well regarded either, I don't think, but they're an FMV adventure game and a hidden object game, which seem...more fitting? At least to me. malkav11 fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Aug 17, 2022 |
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Aug 17, 2022 04:09
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Oh wow. X-Files was such a thing. I never saw all of the episodes, but I saw quite a few of them. I had the Windows 95/98 theme for it too, and the screensaver that had a giant green "X" breathing in and out. The ones I liked best were a bit more like The Twilight Zone types that didn't try to explain anything. I keep thinking I should grab a few of the early seasons and watch them with the family. It really threw me off when I first heard Gillian Anderson speak in her real accent. It was like Mind Your Language in reverse.
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Aug 17, 2022 08:26
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People of 2022, what protective gear Scully doesn't wear for the autopsy?
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Aug 19, 2022 15:47
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I'm pretty sure the street names are references to episode titles (although they misspelled "Ascension"), but I can't be bothered to look them all up. It amuses me when these types of games put the business names on the keychains (or directly on the keys, like with Shop Easy), considering that makes their shop infinitely less secure if a key ever gets lost. I never thought about how this is probably just an American thing(?) but there's a dated cliche about fire stations having a Dalmatian for a pet. The thing is, I've never heard of one having 2 of them, let alone 3 (as I understand it, they are not cheap and can also be mean), so it's interesting how the reuse of assets for presumed value wound up making the situation less realistic, yet more expensive, than if they hadn't bothered making Dalmatian-flavored zombie dogs at all. The random music stings could most definitely be generic, as they might trigger a selection from a pool of audio files as stock as the door noise, but at the same time, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they're also used in the show, if they're considered part of the music instead of sound effect. A lot of the soundtrack has sounded like it's from the same body of work that we hear in the show - I'd be interested to find out what other projects this game's sound design team has worked on. While this game leaves me disappointed in that we never got an episode of the show where Scully lugged a pair of bolt cutters around, using them whenever inconvenienced, I also definitely look forward to watching her throw molotov cocktails, so I suppose that'll be a wash in the end.
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Aug 20, 2022 00:10
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The situation takes a turn for the INFRA.
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Aug 26, 2022 19:04
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At first I thought someone was trying to channel Silent Hill but I think that "music" was just "spooky" thunder and lightning.
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Aug 27, 2022 00:51
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That "silicone sealant" is probably a tube of caulk. I remember using some black stuff with a caulking gun to seal cut edges on my aunt's deck a month ago.
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Aug 27, 2022 03:22
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Metal Epoxy would be a glue-type resin that bonds with metal
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Aug 27, 2022 03:44
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I feel like it might help if I remembered a goddamn thing about the X-Files metaplot. Like I have a vague sense that that Krychek guy was a recurring antagonist but that's about it. Well, and I guess that the black oil stuff was a thing. But also zero details there.
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Aug 27, 2022 19:06
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Krychek was basically a good guy who was brought on when Mulder got captured IIRC about Season 2 or 3 and then turned into a bad guy over time as poo poo happened, as I vaguely recall. Although I could easily be wrong and he was a bad guy from the beginning, but he was definitely presented at first as a good guy. I sure as hell didn't watch enough X-Files to tell you why he became a bad guy though.
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Aug 28, 2022 01:11
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Krychek became Mulders partner during the second season and is initially a good guy to gain his trust, but then its revealed that he's really working for the Smoking Man. A lot more happens over the rest of the show where he allies himself with different factions for reasons, but generally the character is an irredeemable dick.
Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 01:38 on Aug 28, 2022 |
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Aug 28, 2022 01:19
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Scully's side: autopsy, timed death, crafting puzzles. Mulder's side: You need a red keycard to open this door.
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Sep 2, 2022 15:03
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It's a wonder any secrets manage to stay secret when the super-hackers in X-Files exist. Didn't they get their own short-lived spin off too? The background of the game reminds me of an older Dan Olson (of recent "The Problem with NFTs" fame) video about an animated movie that fired its director and then just... didn't get another director. He went into much greater detail but initially described it a mixture of various big budget animation movies that then got diluted down to an ultimately meaningless version. Someone may have technically been in charge for this game but the metaphor feels like it applies. Without the skills to mix the elements together all you get is various elements that feel even more pointless since none of them work together in the slightest. And speaking of that exact thing seeing that the inventory can reset between acts within an episode except for some default amount of guns and ammo definitely feels wrong. But maybe I should be grateful for anything which cleans up that terrible interface.
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Sep 6, 2022 07:32
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Kibayasu posted:It's a wonder any secrets manage to stay secret when the super-hackers in X-Files exist. Didn't they get their own short-lived spin off too? Yep.
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Sep 6, 2022 12:43
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quote:In the pilot episode, which aired in March 2001, there is a hijacked plane that is being targeted at the World Trade Center; six months before the September 11 attacks occurred.
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Sep 6, 2022 14:25
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Oh yeah, that's how I heard about it, another one of those "[blank] predicted 9/11" things.
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Sep 8, 2022 02:48
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The puzzle design and premises are somehow getting dumber every step of the way. Also, really, you map your secret base by X-raying it from space?
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Sep 9, 2022 17:50
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SelenicMartian posted:Also, really, you map your secret base by X-raying it from space? They must have burned all the blueprints so this was the next logical step. I would love to know the price to rent a satellite. This map... so many questions!
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Sep 10, 2022 10:00
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I can't believe you've been keeping us from this riveting combat  I guess hallucinations could explain why getting set on fire did so little damage though.
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Sep 14, 2022 06:33
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Mulder's side of the episode is even more of a joke.
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Sep 16, 2022 15:15
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Fox Mulder's Dreams of the Rarebit-Fiend 
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Sep 17, 2022 23:11
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| # ? May 2, 2024 04:00 |
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That is likely the most awkward series of but-thou-musts (run away and/or die) I'll ever see.
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Sep 18, 2022 04:18
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