: If the XBLA sprites are an indication of how they handle updating graphics
: for an anniversary edition... I kinda don't want it. (I really don't want
: it after playing Marathon: Ressurection on the Unreal engine)
: This may be my inner crotchety old man talking but to me 3D model
: replacements of 2D sprites never match up to the charm of the original.
: Look at the cacodemons and pinkies and everything else in Doom 3, for
: example. Jaw dropping for its time, but even in 2004 I was a little
: dissapoint not just with the linear level design but some of the artistic
: license choices taken.
: My ideal anniversary Marathon would be to keep everything the same, but add
: hounds and armageddon beasts. That'll do it. Or maybe an extra prequel
: scenario in the alternate timeline where the SO stayed on the Marathon
: until the second attack where all was lost, and the SO and Tycho get
: captured by the pfhor which leads to Rise Robot Rise.
So basically Marathon Redux then? Not complaining as both sound appealing in their own way. I'd prefer if the direction they go with the remake's polygon models would be along the lines of Doom 4 and (hopefully) Doom Eternal as they do the original game's sprites justice unlike Doom 3. The XBLA sprites do Marathon's ones too as the original M2 sprites just don't look very good to me, but the original M1 ones do.
I'm thinking of at least trying the old texture graphics for M2 when I play them on my Mac soon, to see if they aren't as bad as I first saw them: I first saw the old textures for M2 and Infinity on ios and that spoiled it for me as I was used to the gorgeous HD ones, and also I think the ios ones were lower quality than the original Mac and PC/Mac Aleph One releases so I'll try them again on PC/Mac to see if they actually are good. I still prefer the HD monsters though. (I first saw the original ones in Infinity on PC as it didn't come with an HD monsters plugin) I also like both the HD and old graphics for Marathon 1 especially the lava in both versions, both hotplates and the M1A1 shimmering liquid. The only other hotplate polygons that don't suck are the ones in Doom 4.
I sympathise fully with your opinion of Marathon Resurrection though: it was a good attempt at a full 3D Marathon but that's just because it was really the only attempt: the polygon models are far too basic, the hunters are just the irritating hard as hell Marathon hunter like things from Unreal 1 (though that is a nice touch), the game is too dark, harder than the original on any difficulty and loaded with bugs. I still appreciate the modder's work but it's in dire need of an update, mostly lighting, model quality, grenade jumping physics and making sure some terminals of all kinds actually work; some are broken in the current game, making the level either harder or outright unwinnable, such as Try Again or Welcome to the Revolution (I forget which).
