Back to the Future: Crysis Edition
November 23, 2009 2:19 PM Subscribe
What do you do if you're a fan of the Back to the Future films and you know how to make mods in the PC game Crysis? Why, you make an awesome Back to the Future mod, of course!
The mid-jump re-materialization kinda blew my mind. I wonder how much he wants for a TARDIS mod.
posted by lholladay at 2:23 PM on November 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by lholladay at 2:23 PM on November 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
tire burn marks in mid-air? There's almost too much detail.
posted by GuyZero at 2:31 PM on November 23, 2009
posted by GuyZero at 2:31 PM on November 23, 2009
I heard it requires 1.21 jiggabytes of RAM.
posted by Rhaomi at 2:31 PM on November 23, 2009 [21 favorites]
posted by Rhaomi at 2:31 PM on November 23, 2009 [21 favorites]
Is it just me, or is the only flaw the fact that the car handles wayy too good for a DeLorean?
posted by leviathan3k at 2:34 PM on November 23, 2009 [2 favorites]
posted by leviathan3k at 2:34 PM on November 23, 2009 [2 favorites]
I first saw this video without any context and I thought it was part of some sort of Fallout 3-style Back To The Future sandbox game. Then my dreams were dashed. But can someone get on that?
posted by starman at 2:42 PM on November 23, 2009 [2 favorites]
posted by starman at 2:42 PM on November 23, 2009 [2 favorites]
While gawking at this I somehow found my way to Achron which is/will be an RTS with player-controlled time traveling. The possibilities for an FPS with a similar system hurt my brain in a good way.
posted by Skorgu at 2:52 PM on November 23, 2009
posted by Skorgu at 2:52 PM on November 23, 2009
Bummed the digital speedometer on the dash doesn't read the speed.
posted by wcfields at 2:57 PM on November 23, 2009
posted by wcfields at 2:57 PM on November 23, 2009
tire burn marks in mid-air?
Yes. That's how it happens. You've never traveled through time, have you?
posted by scrowdid at 3:01 PM on November 23, 2009 [2 favorites]
Yes. That's how it happens. You've never traveled through time, have you?
posted by scrowdid at 3:01 PM on November 23, 2009 [2 favorites]
Oh, I know how time travel works. I KNOW MORE THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY IMAGINE.
I'm just surprised he bothered modelling it.
posted by GuyZero at 3:02 PM on November 23, 2009
I'm just surprised he bothered modelling it.
posted by GuyZero at 3:02 PM on November 23, 2009
That's way too cool. I used a YouTube mixer site to put the theme song with it...and I was filled with GLEE!
Too cool!
posted by Khazk at 3:28 PM on November 23, 2009
Too cool!
posted by Khazk at 3:28 PM on November 23, 2009
I'm always amazed when I see these mods (and our own lovely MeFi mods, of course). Pretty neat.
True story: my mom worked in PR for movies and TV and stuff when I was a kid, and I saw Back to the Future in a preview screening in New York about a week before it came out. These days, you'd have to pay me to watch those movies--they just seem too blandly wholesome, even with the nostalgia factor. But when I was 10, it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen.
So much so, in fact, that when the lightning bolt finally shoots Michael J. Fox, well, back to the future, I was so excited that I literally jumped up out of my seat--in a movie theater completely filled with people--and shouted "HOLY SHIT!" It was the first time I ever swore in front of my mother, but I think she was too taken aback to do anything about it, and the moving was still playing for another ten minutes, in any event. Sorry mom!
posted by Admiral Haddock at 3:34 PM on November 23, 2009 [10 favorites]
True story: my mom worked in PR for movies and TV and stuff when I was a kid, and I saw Back to the Future in a preview screening in New York about a week before it came out. These days, you'd have to pay me to watch those movies--they just seem too blandly wholesome, even with the nostalgia factor. But when I was 10, it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen.
So much so, in fact, that when the lightning bolt finally shoots Michael J. Fox, well, back to the future, I was so excited that I literally jumped up out of my seat--in a movie theater completely filled with people--and shouted "HOLY SHIT!" It was the first time I ever swore in front of my mother, but I think she was too taken aback to do anything about it, and the moving was still playing for another ten minutes, in any event. Sorry mom!
posted by Admiral Haddock at 3:34 PM on November 23, 2009 [10 favorites]
Best movie mod I ever saw...Redrum: the Shining 2 for Duke Nukem 3D. Although the Platoon mod for Duke came close.
posted by Brainy at 3:46 PM on November 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by Brainy at 3:46 PM on November 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
I saw this (and blogged about it) yesterday. I can't recall ever before in my life actually yearning for a Back to the Future game, and yet here I am now doing just so.
They'd never pull it off how I imagine it though.
posted by Bageena at 4:29 PM on November 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
They'd never pull it off how I imagine it though.
posted by Bageena at 4:29 PM on November 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
Wow, maybe we can finally have a game where white people invent rock and roll!
posted by lumpenprole at 5:16 PM on November 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by lumpenprole at 5:16 PM on November 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
Wow, maybe we can finally have a game where white people invent rock and roll!
In the movie, it's a paradox, and nobody invented rock and roll.
posted by empath at 5:23 PM on November 23, 2009 [8 favorites]
In the movie, it's a paradox, and nobody invented rock and roll.
posted by empath at 5:23 PM on November 23, 2009 [8 favorites]
Would part of the gameplay involve avoiding your mother's advances at the big dance.
Icky!
posted by cazoo at 5:54 PM on November 23, 2009
Icky!
posted by cazoo at 5:54 PM on November 23, 2009
How about Back to the Future: Hill Valley, a Grand Theft Auto: Vice City mod.
And I don't care what anyone says, Back to the Future is a masterpiece beyond criticism.
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posted by General Tonic at 6:43 PM on November 23, 2009 [4 favorites]
And I don't care what anyone says, Back to the Future is a masterpiece beyond criticism.
-
posted by General Tonic at 6:43 PM on November 23, 2009 [4 favorites]
Well, the first rule of making a video game about a licensed property is that you don't redo the fucking story from the movie in the game. Games are different from movies and should be approached differently.
The first thing you have to think about is systems, and obviously time travel is going to be the primary mechanic in the game.
So the first thing I'm gonna do is drop Marty McFly. He already had his own story, and it's finished. And I'd make it a GTA style open world game that takes place entirely in Hill Valley, but let's switch up the eras -- the 1920s, 1960s, 2010 and 2050. I'd start with just a bunch of kids that stumble on Doc's plans for the time machine and decide to build it themselves using info they gleaned from the internet and a used Toyota Prius -- the first part of the game is just collecting parts for the time machine while learning game mechanics and getting used to the layout of the town. They you have them start time hoping, solving crimes, getting involved with gangsters during prohibition, going to a huge open air rock festival, etc, while constantly adding new abilities and stuff to the car.
I think to really make the game worth playing, though, you have to make time travel and experimentation a pretty constant thing --- going back to the future, seeing how what you did in the past effected things, then going back and changing some more stuff, etc. And it has to be pretty forgiving so you don't get yourself into unwinnable states.
I think maybe also there needs to be an antagonist -- probably some nefarious organization of time travellers that needs Doc's papers to create some ultimate time machine that will let them Rule The World.
I dunno, just thinking out loud here. But anyway, having a faithfully rendered car from the original movie in the Crysis engine is cool and all, but driving the car took up approximately 1% of the screen time of the trilogy, and the rest of it was the equivalent of adventure game puzzle solving.
I'm not sure how you make Back to the Future into a game about driving around, but I'd love to hear how someone thinks that would work.
posted by empath at 7:20 PM on November 23, 2009 [13 favorites]
The first thing you have to think about is systems, and obviously time travel is going to be the primary mechanic in the game.
So the first thing I'm gonna do is drop Marty McFly. He already had his own story, and it's finished. And I'd make it a GTA style open world game that takes place entirely in Hill Valley, but let's switch up the eras -- the 1920s, 1960s, 2010 and 2050. I'd start with just a bunch of kids that stumble on Doc's plans for the time machine and decide to build it themselves using info they gleaned from the internet and a used Toyota Prius -- the first part of the game is just collecting parts for the time machine while learning game mechanics and getting used to the layout of the town. They you have them start time hoping, solving crimes, getting involved with gangsters during prohibition, going to a huge open air rock festival, etc, while constantly adding new abilities and stuff to the car.
I think to really make the game worth playing, though, you have to make time travel and experimentation a pretty constant thing --- going back to the future, seeing how what you did in the past effected things, then going back and changing some more stuff, etc. And it has to be pretty forgiving so you don't get yourself into unwinnable states.
I think maybe also there needs to be an antagonist -- probably some nefarious organization of time travellers that needs Doc's papers to create some ultimate time machine that will let them Rule The World.
I dunno, just thinking out loud here. But anyway, having a faithfully rendered car from the original movie in the Crysis engine is cool and all, but driving the car took up approximately 1% of the screen time of the trilogy, and the rest of it was the equivalent of adventure game puzzle solving.
I'm not sure how you make Back to the Future into a game about driving around, but I'd love to hear how someone thinks that would work.
posted by empath at 7:20 PM on November 23, 2009 [13 favorites]
nefarious organization of time travellers
Heinlein's black hats from The Number of the Beast???
posted by Confess, Fletch at 7:38 PM on November 23, 2009
Heinlein's black hats from The Number of the Beast???
posted by Confess, Fletch at 7:38 PM on November 23, 2009
Ripping out your opponent's spine took up like 1% of the original Mortal Kombat, but that's what people remember from what was otherwise just a subpar fighter. The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man was like 1% of Ghostbusters but is the iconic villain of the franchise even though it wasn't even the chief antagonist of its own movie.
A Back to the Future game that didn't include the DeLorean and the hoverboard as detailed game mechanics would be moronic. There are a thousand games with time travel adventures, so this one would have to distinguish itself with nostalgia.
posted by Riki tiki at 9:29 PM on November 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
A Back to the Future game that didn't include the DeLorean and the hoverboard as detailed game mechanics would be moronic. There are a thousand games with time travel adventures, so this one would have to distinguish itself with nostalgia.
posted by Riki tiki at 9:29 PM on November 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
The game could be about Doc Brown's kid teaming up with one of Marty's kids in 2010.
Doc's kid (Jules) has rebuilt the DeLorean, as a birthday gift to his dad, but he's not happy because he can't get the details to match the original just right. Marty's kid (a confident, non-loser Marty Jr), angry after a fight with his dad, suggests that they take the thing for a spin to 1985 to see their dad's when they were young, his motivation being to see ifhis dad was always an asshole. Jules agrees, and they travel back to 1985 where they see the events of the first movie taking place in the parking lot.
But something goes wrong. Instead of Marty going back to 1955, coming back and finding out that Doc Brown wore a bullet proof vest to survive the Libyans shooting him, both Marty and the Doc are tasered (!) by a mysterious figure wearing all black. The figure then proceeds to abduct Marty and the Doc, steals the 1985 DeLorean, and dissapears in time.
The first adventure, then, is Jules and Marty Jr travelling around Hill Valley of 1985 (look out for lots of hilarious 1980s pop culture references!) to find out what they can about the Man in Black. Turns out it was Griff Tannen (from 2015), who had stolen the 2010 DeLorean that Jules had built six years later in 2016, after breaking out of jail and swearing revenge on Marty and Marty Jr for the events that saw him arrested in 2015. Turns out his intention was to go back to 1885, leave Marty and the Doc stranded there (Griff, dumb as ever, hasn't thought of the best of plans), and then return to 2015 to clear his name.
Jules and Marty Jr head to 1885 (the events take place after BttF3), however Griff was ready for this (he's from the future so he knew this is what would happen) and tipped of Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen about Jules and Marty Jrs arrival and how he could clear his name following the events of the third movie. Held up at gunpoint, Griff and his gang steal the 2010 DeLorean and ride off with it to their hideout. After some searching, Jules and Marty Jr find their abducted fathers ("Great Scott!" + "This is heavy!") and with their help, they get the 2010 DeLorean back from Buford (who probably goes back to jail again). They deposit their dads back in 1985, and then Marty Jr and Jules fly to 2015 to get the DeLorean back from Griff.
The 2015 adventure sees them caught by future police for some minor infraction ("Boy, Hill Valley has really become a police state!" ... shades of 1984 are implied) and their DeLorean impounded and crushed into a cube. They then realise they have only two hours to stop Griff from changing the future. Somehow they stop him, Griff and his 'twin' go to jail (because the events of BttF 2 have played out essentially the same) and Jules & Marty Jr take the 1985 DeLorean Griff stole to get back home, with Marty Jr realising how much his dad went through to ensure that the loser Marty Jr of 2015 he met never came to fruition.
They arrive back in 2010, just after they left, and Doc Brown gets his birthday gift ("It looks exactly like the original DeLorean I built!"). Marty Jr goes home and reconciles with his dad, telling him about his adventure. Meanwhile, old Biff overhears that there's a new time machine, looks at a picture of his grandson Griff... and gets an evil look in his eye. OH YES, SEQUEL!
posted by Effigy2000 at 10:11 PM on November 23, 2009 [15 favorites]
Doc's kid (Jules) has rebuilt the DeLorean, as a birthday gift to his dad, but he's not happy because he can't get the details to match the original just right. Marty's kid (a confident, non-loser Marty Jr), angry after a fight with his dad, suggests that they take the thing for a spin to 1985 to see their dad's when they were young, his motivation being to see ifhis dad was always an asshole. Jules agrees, and they travel back to 1985 where they see the events of the first movie taking place in the parking lot.
But something goes wrong. Instead of Marty going back to 1955, coming back and finding out that Doc Brown wore a bullet proof vest to survive the Libyans shooting him, both Marty and the Doc are tasered (!) by a mysterious figure wearing all black. The figure then proceeds to abduct Marty and the Doc, steals the 1985 DeLorean, and dissapears in time.
The first adventure, then, is Jules and Marty Jr travelling around Hill Valley of 1985 (look out for lots of hilarious 1980s pop culture references!) to find out what they can about the Man in Black. Turns out it was Griff Tannen (from 2015), who had stolen the 2010 DeLorean that Jules had built six years later in 2016, after breaking out of jail and swearing revenge on Marty and Marty Jr for the events that saw him arrested in 2015. Turns out his intention was to go back to 1885, leave Marty and the Doc stranded there (Griff, dumb as ever, hasn't thought of the best of plans), and then return to 2015 to clear his name.
Jules and Marty Jr head to 1885 (the events take place after BttF3), however Griff was ready for this (he's from the future so he knew this is what would happen) and tipped of Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen about Jules and Marty Jrs arrival and how he could clear his name following the events of the third movie. Held up at gunpoint, Griff and his gang steal the 2010 DeLorean and ride off with it to their hideout. After some searching, Jules and Marty Jr find their abducted fathers ("Great Scott!" + "This is heavy!") and with their help, they get the 2010 DeLorean back from Buford (who probably goes back to jail again). They deposit their dads back in 1985, and then Marty Jr and Jules fly to 2015 to get the DeLorean back from Griff.
The 2015 adventure sees them caught by future police for some minor infraction ("Boy, Hill Valley has really become a police state!" ... shades of 1984 are implied) and their DeLorean impounded and crushed into a cube. They then realise they have only two hours to stop Griff from changing the future. Somehow they stop him, Griff and his 'twin' go to jail (because the events of BttF 2 have played out essentially the same) and Jules & Marty Jr take the 1985 DeLorean Griff stole to get back home, with Marty Jr realising how much his dad went through to ensure that the loser Marty Jr of 2015 he met never came to fruition.
They arrive back in 2010, just after they left, and Doc Brown gets his birthday gift ("It looks exactly like the original DeLorean I built!"). Marty Jr goes home and reconciles with his dad, telling him about his adventure. Meanwhile, old Biff overhears that there's a new time machine, looks at a picture of his grandson Griff... and gets an evil look in his eye. OH YES, SEQUEL!
posted by Effigy2000 at 10:11 PM on November 23, 2009 [15 favorites]
Some quick plot holes I've noticed in my outline above that I'll now quickly plug.
The Man in Black (Griff) incapacitated the Libyans in 1985 using a time dilation device before he tases Doc Brown and Marty. This way when Jules and Marty Jnr deposit them back in 1985 they can resume history as played out in the first movie. However the timeline is changed enough because of this to allow for a second 1985 deloreqn to exist in the future, which is what Marty Jnr and Jules use to get back from 2015.
posted by Effigy2000 at 10:33 PM on November 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
The Man in Black (Griff) incapacitated the Libyans in 1985 using a time dilation device before he tases Doc Brown and Marty. This way when Jules and Marty Jnr deposit them back in 1985 they can resume history as played out in the first movie. However the timeline is changed enough because of this to allow for a second 1985 deloreqn to exist in the future, which is what Marty Jnr and Jules use to get back from 2015.
posted by Effigy2000 at 10:33 PM on November 23, 2009 [1 favorite]
effigy2000, thats heavy. and awesome. and awesomely heavy.
back to the future was my FAVORITE movie growing up. this game might make my life complete.
posted by Glibpaxman at 10:45 PM on November 23, 2009
back to the future was my FAVORITE movie growing up. this game might make my life complete.
posted by Glibpaxman at 10:45 PM on November 23, 2009
And anything else that dosent make sense is explained away at the end by a line from Marty jnr who says that his dad once told him "son, if you ever go time travelling and something dosent make sense, just go with it. Trust me, it'll save you a massive headache."
posted by Effigy2000 at 10:45 PM on November 23, 2009
posted by Effigy2000 at 10:45 PM on November 23, 2009
Not exactly what you were talking about, but like this empath?: Grand Theft Delorean
posted by P.o.B. at 3:53 AM on November 24, 2009
posted by P.o.B. at 3:53 AM on November 24, 2009
Let's see if you bastards can do 90Hz.
(also, you can download a Delorean-esque hover car for Burnout Paradise, as part of their "slightly different versions of four famous cars we didn't have the rights to" DLC package. It leaves flames behind when you hit boost, and the hovering lets it fly far off jumps.)
posted by Spatch at 5:35 AM on November 24, 2009
(also, you can download a Delorean-esque hover car for Burnout Paradise, as part of their "slightly different versions of four famous cars we didn't have the rights to" DLC package. It leaves flames behind when you hit boost, and the hovering lets it fly far off jumps.)
posted by Spatch at 5:35 AM on November 24, 2009
effigy2000, thats heavy.
Why are you kids always talking about things being heavy in the year 2009? Is there a problem with Earth's gravitational pull?
posted by poppo at 5:36 AM on November 24, 2009
Why are you kids always talking about things being heavy in the year 2009? Is there a problem with Earth's gravitational pull?
posted by poppo at 5:36 AM on November 24, 2009
I'm not sure how you make Back to the Future into a game about driving around
Hmmn. It would be cool if you could figure out how to make it work like Portal, with tasks/levels you can only access (or escape from) by driving/time jumping from one location in one time period, into the same location at another time, like the trestle/bridge from III.
posted by steef at 5:44 AM on November 24, 2009
Hmmn. It would be cool if you could figure out how to make it work like Portal, with tasks/levels you can only access (or escape from) by driving/time jumping from one location in one time period, into the same location at another time, like the trestle/bridge from III.
posted by steef at 5:44 AM on November 24, 2009
Effigy2000: The game could be about Doc Brown's kid teaming up with one of Marty's kids in 2010.
Why don't you make like a tree and get outta here. If you're going to make a BTTF game, you've got to have some serious 1955 action, and if you're going to have some serious 1955 action, I'm going to insist that Marty Jr has to impersonate Marty Sr (they look the same!!1!) and takes Lorraine to the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance but then Strickland sees him and wants to yell at him so Marty Jr ducks behind a punch bowl just as Marty Sr from Part II drops the sandbags on Biff's goons to save Marty Sr from Part I and Strickland sees this and George gets the guts to dance with Lorraine but then Strickland wants to talk to him about his friend Calvin Klein and all the hijinx going on because seriously folks BTTF is all about Shakespeare-level identity confusion and elaborate interactions between people and iterations of themselves from other timelines I mean come on you're not thinking fourth-dimensionally, Effigy2000.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:44 AM on November 24, 2009 [3 favorites]
Why don't you make like a tree and get outta here. If you're going to make a BTTF game, you've got to have some serious 1955 action, and if you're going to have some serious 1955 action, I'm going to insist that Marty Jr has to impersonate Marty Sr (they look the same!!1!) and takes Lorraine to the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance but then Strickland sees him and wants to yell at him so Marty Jr ducks behind a punch bowl just as Marty Sr from Part II drops the sandbags on Biff's goons to save Marty Sr from Part I and Strickland sees this and George gets the guts to dance with Lorraine but then Strickland wants to talk to him about his friend Calvin Klein and all the hijinx going on because seriously folks BTTF is all about Shakespeare-level identity confusion and elaborate interactions between people and iterations of themselves from other timelines I mean come on you're not thinking fourth-dimensionally, Effigy2000.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:44 AM on November 24, 2009 [3 favorites]
1.)This is awesome
2.) I just finished the trilogy on Sunday, the second time I've seen the whole thing, so the timing on this post is neat.
3.) To throw into the game ideas (which are great, and another reason why I love the discourse at this place sometimes): While watching BTTF 2 I thought it would be fun for the filmmakers to keep layering on reasons for going back to that fateful night in 1955. I think the Doc even mentions that it has some sort of "hub"-like significance, so by the eighth or ninth iteration you've got copies of Marty and Biff and the Doc and whoever else running around, bouncing off of each other but trying not to directly influence anything except what they're there to do; after a while it looks like that Kylie Minogue music video that Michel Gondry did. Shakespeherian is totally on the right track.
posted by Monster_Zero at 11:37 AM on November 24, 2009 [1 favorite]
2.) I just finished the trilogy on Sunday, the second time I've seen the whole thing, so the timing on this post is neat.
3.) To throw into the game ideas (which are great, and another reason why I love the discourse at this place sometimes): While watching BTTF 2 I thought it would be fun for the filmmakers to keep layering on reasons for going back to that fateful night in 1955. I think the Doc even mentions that it has some sort of "hub"-like significance, so by the eighth or ninth iteration you've got copies of Marty and Biff and the Doc and whoever else running around, bouncing off of each other but trying not to directly influence anything except what they're there to do; after a while it looks like that Kylie Minogue music video that Michel Gondry did. Shakespeherian is totally on the right track.
posted by Monster_Zero at 11:37 AM on November 24, 2009 [1 favorite]
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posted by Servo5678 at 2:22 PM on November 23, 2009 [2 favorites]