Enhanced Edition Looks Like Complete Dogshit
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Luke Plunkett
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Image: Blade Runner
In 1997, Westwood Studios—famous for their real-time strategy games like Command & Conquer and Red Alert—released a game called simply Blade Runner. It was a grimy point-and-click adventure game, and became one of the all-time greats in the genre.
This was partly because of the game itself, which had its flaws but was a serviceable enough adventure, but mostly for its feel, and how it showed that a licensed game didn’t have to be a rushed platformer. Westwood’s Blade Runner had been made with genuine love and reverence for the source material, and felt like a piece of the Blade Runner universe in a way that few games of the 90s (with some exceptions) could even dream of. Its grimy pixels and texture work took players right back to the streets of Ridley Scott’s 1982 masterpiece.
That was then, though. Now, as they seem to be in every other way at the moment, things are worse. Nightdive released a remake of the game last week, called Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition, and it is bad in just about every way you can imagine.
First and most egregiously, the game’s muddy visuals have been worked over, the result being a hideously smoothed and unnatural aesthetic that looks like someone typed “Blade Runner” into DALL·E mini. The whole game now runs at 60FPS as well, more than doubling the original framerate, which in some cases looks fine but in others can be really jarring.
The original game is on the left, with the Enhanced Edition on the right. Notice how much character is lost by smudging out things like the lighting and weather effects (and the fact you can no longer read the flashing red street sign)Screenshot: Blade Runner | Kotaku
But there are loads of other weird issues as well.
There are new bugs (this isn’t a port, the whole game basically had to be rebuilt from scratch), the game’s fonts have been changed, it’s missing some international language dubs, and its music has been somehow downgraded. Oh, and if all that wasn’t bad enough, the remake has also been essentially banned in Australia and New Zealand.
Indeed, things are so bad, and the reviews and reaction to the release so hostile on places like Steam, that Nightdive have rushed to add a painstakingly reverse-engineered, fan-recreated version of the game on Steam (this bundle was always available on GoG). It’s one that’s pretty much indistinguishable from the 1997 original, but made a bunch of its own welcome improvements and has been modernised to run on ScummVM. Anyone booting the game up now will be given one of three options: the remake, the ScummVM version (called the “original”) or a version of the latter, “with some restored content that was left unused from the original game.
”
Even this sucks, though, at least on the Good Old Games shopfront, because it erases much of the credit and prominence of that fan-made edition. Before this Enhanced Edition was released, GoG had worked with a team of fans to take what used to be a laborious process—combining fan-made edits with an executable you needed an original CD-ROM for—and bundled it all up in an easy, legally available means to play a classic adventure game (much like we saw more recently with Daggerfall). That version had been up on GoG’s shopfront for over two years.
Now its place has been taken by the Enhanced Edition. “When GOG put Nightdive’s new Enhanced Edition on their store, they did this by completely replacing the Blade Runner product page with the new product,” one of the ScummVM version’s developers, Thomas Fach-Pedersen, tells Kotaku. “All ratings and reviews of the ScummVM versions are gone. Our version had a rating of around 4.7 out of 5.
The new version has a rating of 1.5.”
Any mention of ScummVM has been removed from the page. Our version is now referred to as ‘the original version of Blade Runner’ and is listed as a free add-on in an apparent attempt to calm down upset customers.
It was hurtful to see GOG to replace our version with a new version that I feel, and I don’t appear to be alone in feeling this, is an inferior version. And if users want our version legally, Nightdive now earns money on every purchase.
Making matters even worse is that while the ScummVM version had been available on GoG, it had not been available on any of the other shopfronts of platforms the Enhanced Edition has been released on. “This I had no problem with—I don’t mind their version standing or falling on its own merit,” Fach-Pedersen says. “But when the poor reviews and ratings hit, and customers got upset, Nightdive decided to release a quick fix update which consisted of bundling the ScummVM Blade Runner version with theirs on Steam..jpg)
I’m sure most people can understand that this felt like a step in the completely wrong direction.”
This emergency bundle is now available on both GoG and Steam, though the Enhanced Edition has also been released on Xbox, PlayStation and Switch as well, whose storefronts at time of posting make no mention of including the original game.
Blade Runner Enhanced Edition — Graphical Comparison
If you’d like to know more about how the ScummVM version came together (its github page is here), and just how much work the team of fans put in only to have their version now making money for someone else, Fach-Pedersen explains:
I started working in reverse engineering Blade Runner around 2012, working evenings and weekends. The project almost died several times before I was joined by other great programmers at ScummVM. Reverse engineering a game like this consists of using a disassembler to look at the game’s assembly code and trying to work out what higher-level code would produce that code.
It involves recreating data structures and structured code with loops, if-then-statements and function flow from a stream of code with no structure, no data names and very few, if any, function names.
Most adventure games, and certainly most modern games, use scripting languages to implement the game logic. This means that if you reverse engineer the (usually fairly simple) scripting language, you get a lot of the game logic for free. But Blade Runner did not use a scripting language and so the logic for every room and every character and item interaction had to be pain-stakingly recreated from machine code. It was an amazing team effort that I’m very proud to have been a part of.
The game was difficult to play at the time I started the project. It could start on Windows computers of the day but because computers were so much faster, many parts didn’t work and the game would lock up in places. There were hacks and workarounds produced by fans but getting it to run reliable was tough.
I don’t know if it’s runnable on Windows computers of today.
Our reverse engineering effort allows the game to be played on almost all platforms that ScummVM runs on, including Windows, Mac OS and various unix-like operating systems.
Before we go, and because they’re not properly credited otherwise, here’s the full roster of the ScummVM version’s development team:
Developers:
Thanasis Antoniou aka Praetorian
Thomas Fach-Pedersen aka madmoose
Peter Kohaut aka peterkohaut
Eugene Sandulenko aka sev
Subtitles:
English: Antoniou Athanasios aka Praetorian, Thomas Fach-Pedersen aka madmoose
French: Xavier Mohedano aka Kwama57
Spanish: Víctor González Fraile, Sergio Carmona
UPDATE: June 27, 4:40am: Clarified the extent to which the “original” GoG edition had been rebuilt by fans, and added comments from Thomas Fach-Pedersen
UPDATE 2: June 27, 6:30pm: GoG has told Eurogamer:
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..by buying the title on GOG you receive two versions of the game, the new and the original one, for the same price as the original was sold before.
The now delisted original version is included with the purchase of Blade Runner Enhanced Edition not as an add-on, but it shows up in your GOG library as a separate game – and both versions will continue to be fully supported. This way GOG users can choose which version of the game they want to play.
The decision to handle the release on GOG this way, in what we feel offers the greatest value for fans of this game, was made with input from multiple parties.
‘Blade Runner 2099’ Sequel Series From Ridley Scott In Works At Amazon – Deadline
EXCLUSIVE: The replicants are heading to the small-screen as Amazon Studios has put a live-action series set in the Blade Runner universe into development.
Ridley Scott
Mega
Ridley Scott, who directed the original 1982 Blade Runner movie, is executive producing the series, Blade Runner 2099, a follow-up to the feature film sequel Blade Runner 2049, which was released in 2017 and directed by Denis Villeneuve.
Silka Luisa, showrunner of Apple TV+’s upcoming Elisabeth Moss-fronted drama series Shining Girls, is writing and exec producing Blade Runner 2099, which comes from Alcon Entertainment in association with Scott Free Productions and Amazon Studios.
The project, which would mark the first Blade Runner live-action series, is in priority development at Amazon Studios, which is fast tracking scripts and eyeing potential production dates. Staffing is currently underway for writers to join a room. Scott may direct if the series moves forward, sources said.
Silka Luisa
Apple
1982’s Blade Runner, which is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, is set in a dystopian LA in 2019, in which synthetic humans known as replicants are bio-engineered by the powerful Tyrell Corporation to work on space colonies. When a fugitive group of advanced replicants escape back to Earth, a cop reluctantly agrees to hunt them down.
Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young and Edward James Olmos starred.
The 2017 sequel, which is set in 2049, starred Ryan Gosling as a replicant blade runner, who uncovers a secret that threatens to destabilize society. Ford and Olmos reprised their roles from the original and it also featured Ana de Armas, Dave Bautista and Jared Leto.
As indicated by Blade Runner 2099‘s title, the latest installment of the neo-noir sci-fi franchise will be set 50 years after the film sequel.
Blade Runner Black Lotus
Adult Swim/Crunchyroll
Elsewhere in the franchise, Blade Runner: Black Lotus is an anime series that debuted late last year on Adult Swim and Crunchyroll. It is set in 2032 and centers around a female replicant, voiced by Jessica Henwick.
Blade Runner 2099 is the latest extension in the Blade Runner franchise since Alcon Entertainment in 2011 acquired the film, television and ancillary franchise rights to produce prequels and sequels to the 1982 sci-fi classic.
The company, which is behind Prime Video series The Expanse, has been ramping up activities across the Blade Runner franchise in the last few years. Last year it struck a licensing deal with Striker Entertainment to create a range of Blade Runner consumer products and, in September, Alcon Entertainment co-founder and co-CEO Andrew Kosove revealed that the company has two people whose job it is to keep the franchise’s timeline and continuity intact.
Kosove and his Alcon co-founder Broderick Johnson are exec producing the series along with Michael Green, who wrote Blade Runner 2049, Ben Roberts and Cynthia Yorkin as well as Scott Free Productions’ David W. Zucker and Clayton Krueger.
Blade Runner 2099 was taken to the streaming market last fall. When Scott in November teased the project, telling the BBC that a pilot and a bible had been written without sharing further details, talks with Amazon Studios had already been underway.
The Blade Runner series is the second high-profile feature film directed by Scott that is being adapted for television; Noah Hawley is behind a reinvention of Alien for FX that is in prep for a 2023 production.
Scott Free Productions is currently behind HBO Max sci-fi series Raised By Wolves, which launched its second season earlier this month, heist series Jigsaw for Netflix, The Good Fight, which is heading in to its sixth season for Paramount+ and Steven Knight’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations for FX and the BBC.
Blade Runner 2049 and 7 more remakes to watch
Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 comes out on October 5th. Not a remake of the original adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, as one might think, but… a sequel! Although moviegoers think otherwise — the plot of the two films is too similar, even if they were filmed with a difference of 35 years… , endangering the life of all mankind .
.. In order to be known as a hero and not destroy the Universe, the guy will have to try to find his senior colleague, an experienced policeman and just a tough guy Rick Deckard. The cast of the new film cannot but rejoice — the courageous Harrison Ford, the charming Ryan Gosling, the cold Robin Wright, the treacherous Jared Leto. This movie is worth watching if only for the cast.
According to director Denis Villeneuve, he literally had to «beat out» permission from Ridley Scott (who, by the way, became the producer of the film) to shoot a restart of the story (isn’t this a remake?). Apparently, in order for Scott to give the green light to the release of the film, Denis had to cheat and declare Blade Runner 2049 nothing more than a continuation with a claim to restart. These are the complex manipulations carried out by Hollywood directors in order to make an interesting film.
So far we haven’t been able to compare Blade Runner 2049” with the film that was released in 1982, and to decide what is still being served to us under the “sauce” of another action-packed action movie, we suggest recalling other famous remakes that, if you suddenly haven’t watched, will help brighten up the autumn evening.
The Magnificent Seven, 2016
In 2016, Antoine Fuqua decided to make a new interpretation of the classic western by John Sturges, which, in turn, is an adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s philosophical drama Seven Samurai. The fearless Sam Chisem, the gambler and joker Josh Farraday, the insanely charismatic Shooter Robichaux, the cold-blooded and imperturbable Billy Rocks, the insane Jack Horn, the Indian with the strange nickname Red Harvest and the former Mexican gangster Vasquez — this magnificent and invincible seven was to act as a «shield» between the inhabitants of the villages in the Wild West and a gang of thugs. The remake is one of the best Westerns ever made. And most importantly, Antoine Fuqua did not spoil the great film, even if he added pathos and vivid special effects to it.
King Kong 2005
The giant gorilla first appeared on screen in 1933. Since then, «King Kong» has been restarted more than once, filmed sequels, spin-offs, parodies, cartoons, comics, etc.
But the picture of Peter Jackson with Naomi Watts in the title role surpassed them all … The director brought the remake as close as possible to the original, and combined with innovative visual effects, the picture turned out to be truly spectacular and commercially successful (the film grossed $ 550 million at the box office). Well, the last phrase “It was not the planes that killed him … the beauty killed the monster” still makes the audience cry.
Scent of a Woman, 1992
A remake of the Italian film of the same name by Dino Risi about a retired blind colonel Frank Slade who decides to treat himself to a trip to New York at least once in his life. No, this is not a comedy, as it might seem at first glance, this is a rather sentimental and dramatic story that life gives us the most unexpected surprises. And only we have to choose — to remain human and continue to live a full and eventful life, despite the troubles, or turn into trash who gave up and gave up … All the characters are perfectly matched in the film, including women in episodic roles .
.. Well, Al Pacino, who was awarded for playing in this film the Oscar and Golden Globe awards, forever etched in the memory of his incredible charisma and reckless actions …
«Rise of the Planet of the Apes», 2011
And not only «Uprising», but also «Revolution» and «War» — all three films are a remake, or rather a restart of the fourth film of the original «Planet of the Apes» pentalogy. Over the course of the three films, the monkeys gradually become human, confront people and simply want to live without anyone persecuting them. The picture is incredibly strong, unpredictable and spectacular. What is Caesar on horseback worth — a real leader of the pack! The events that we, the audience, literally live together with the monkeys, make us think about our own humanity and kindness … Perhaps there is no better film adaptation of the novel «Planet of the Apes» by Pierre Bull than this one!
«Hachiko: The Most Faithful Friend», 2009
A sadder movie, probably, has not yet been invented.
Maybe it’s all about the sentimental game of Richard Gere? Or in the main four-legged hero with the talent to knock out a tear? One thing is clear for sure: only a person with a callous heart did not sob (yes, he did sob, did not even cry) over this incredibly emotionally and deeply touching picture. The film is a remake of the 1987 Japanese film The Story of Hachiko, based on a true story. You can’t even watch the trailer without crying if you’ve seen this story at least once. A kind, sad film that leaves ambiguous feelings in the soul, making you love dogs even more and marvel at their devotion …
Cinderella, 2015
A kind Disney fairy tale about Cinderella, not an animation, but a full-fledged movie. Handsome, kind, with moral guidelines … Everything is here, as it should be in a classic fairy tale: an evil stepmother, bitchy sisters, a charming Fairy Godmother, poor Cinderella, glass shoes, a closet and faithful mouse assistants. The clock will strike midnight, and the beautiful girl will again turn into a mess.
Classic! The director did not even have to invent anything, everything went according to the original script. Lily James, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter — this trio looked very organic. And Miss Bonham Carter’s attacks will make even the most gloomy spectator laugh!
Good Father, 2013
In 2013, Ken Scott thought, Why not make my own remake movie? There is no need to ask permission from anyone! What prompted the director to such a strange act? Perhaps the fact that the original film called «Daddy» was not successful at the box office, and the idea seemed to the director more than original. And what did Ken do? It’s simple — he invited famous Hollywood actors to his project, thinking that then success would be guaranteed! The remake was accepted with a bang, the budget paid off! The main storyline is occupied by an ordinary hard worker David Wozniak, who in his student years managed to become the biological father for 533 children. A true hero father! Sparkling jokes, in which every married couple could recognize themselves, sentimental moments and just a light plot — this remake deserves to take a place in the collection of movies that you want to review again and again.
«Blade Runner 2049» — the reasons for the failure of an excellent sequel — Movies and series on DTF
Attention (!): An ode to graphomania is inevitable.
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«Blade Runner 2049» is the continuation of the legendary cyberpunk sci-fi by Ridley Scott, recognized at the same time as a failure and the best milestone in the history of world cinema in the science fiction genre. The venerable director of today’s generation, Denis Villeneuve, was responsible for the development of the second part. Having shot a stunning sequel to one of the main films of the past decades, Villeneuve hoped for a proper rolling reaction from the vast majority of the huge audience, but the final box office of the picture was far from successful numbers — $ 259239,658 with a budget of $ 150,000,000. Did the film deserve such a result, or did its authors, for a number of specific reasons, miss several important production and ideological factors from their own usefulness? Let’s figure it out.
Honestly, I don’t know, because we had the best criticism. I’m still digesting it all. Those were the best reviews I’ve ever had in my life and I’ve never had a movie that was so well received. At the same time, the box office in the United States, to be honest, was a disappointment. Because it is very expensive to make such a film, and, of course, he will still earn a lot of money, but this is still not enough. I think this is because people are probably just new to this universe, and also because of the length of the film. I don’t know, it’s still a mystery to me.
Denis Villeneuve on why Blade Runner 2049 failed.
Villeneuve’s directing method a priori implies a deliberately stretched tone of the narration, in which each character can easily afford to be distracted from the main flow of the plot and headlong into his own mental suffering, thereby only strengthening the influence of the all-consuming atmosphere on his viewer.
That is why Blade Runner 2049″ is able to be distracted from consistent answers to the main mysteries of the story, and therefore he devotes more time to revealing the surrounding space — the heroes linger in the frame for several long minutes, examining their immediate surroundings, or at a leisurely pace moving towards one goal or another.
For example, Arriving at a mysterious junkyard in search of new evidence, the protagonist in the person of police officer Kay (Ryan Gosling) orders his car to turn on the security mode, after which he begins to climb a pile of garbage in order to catch his eye on a certain stronghold of the local inhabitants. it takes more than one minute to take important details.Take also almost any static dialogue of various characters — they think over their speech during a seriously prolonged silence, followed by only one replica, predictable in its obvious semantic meaning, in the spirit of «I know» , «clear» , «I thought so» .
If Scott turned out to be a modernist cyberpunk, then Villeneuve has a postmodernist collage in which echoes of motives are heard and visual quotes from many films are visible, one way or another beating the relationship between a man and a robot.
However, such behavior on the part of almost every hero of this story is justified by just the same dominant factor of the local atmosphere — a dystopian future with the existence of the so-called replicants implies the most mechanical way of life, in which living people are not characterized by a particularly bright spectrum of emotions, it would seem, for a long time inherent in the human race. The viewers, who saw emotionless characters on the screen, withstanding long pauses in dialogues, immediately begin to doubt what exactly they are watching right now — multi-million dollar blockbuster or extremely meditative art house . It is far from a secret that the image of the protagonist of this or that story is the aspect of the film that the audience grabs first of all, because she really wants to compare herself with this figure on the screen, watching her long road to victory.
But what does «Lewis Runner 2049» offer us? Kay, played by Ryan Gosling, first loses his only love in life, then learns that he is not the chosen replicant at all, and then dies at all, watching the grains of snow settling on his coat, knowing that he was not destined to see that bright the future for which he fought so desperately. Is this the mask of a hero that many would want to try on their own skin?
Another moment, for which the authors of the script Hampton Fanche and Michael Green are responsible and for which the viewer is most attentive, is a homage to cinema in the form of a wooden horse that played the role of a rosebud from Citizen Kane.
Another factor that rightfully deserves the title of dominant in a long chain of causal nature is Villeneuve himself. Just think how many people in the world have not yet watched the original tape of Ridley Scott, not so much because of lack of time, but because of the elementary lack of desire to touch the cinema of the past century.
In view of the unfamiliarity with the first part, people simply do not see the point in wasting their free time on a sequel, and no casting and marketing decisions like Ryan Gosling or Jared Leto will play even a minimal role here. Denis Villeneuve, in turn, is a devoted fan of Scott’s film from bone to tooth, who knows the plot of the film 1982nd year almost by heart. Imagine an ordinary viewer meeting with a genuine expert in an area completely unknown to the first . The result here is obvious. Both Running — the movie is not mass, but it is clearly expensive. Therefore, it would be quite appropriate to conclude that Villeneuve bore all the responsibility for the risk. It is not for nothing that one of the most important life rules is considered to be the phrase «never expect something from people, you will remain disappointed» . Apparently, Villeneuve wanted to believe in the best deal, but we all know the outcome of such a strategy.
The legendary film of a difficult fate, which became the founder of a whole direction of cyberpunk, cannot be surpassed in any way, but is it necessary to do so? Villeneuve initially did not expect to surpass the skill of the former artist, only to adopt his legacy and allow the old hit to find a worthy continuation, which really has something to tell.
Denis Villeneuve, for all his trademark perfectionism and incredible technical virtuosity, is well aware that in the world once created by Ridley Scott, he himself is nothing more than a replicant. Therefore, he had a fairly modest variation in the choices: submit to the rules of his creator, or risk taking the side of rebellion in order to reshape several features of the universe. And the most striking thing here is that Villeneuve cleverly manages to sit on two chairs at once.0053 , cleverly updated the early world of the original while retaining key aspects of its surprisingly rich lore. The problem is that this is not the kind of blockbuster movie that collects billions of dollars at the box office — without an abundance of exciting action scenes, all sorts of chases and fast-paced plot.
This is by no means dynamic, but, undoubtedly, extremely rhythmic, and most importantly, an overwhelmingly atmospheric, indescribably beautiful epic about a dystopian future.
The first thing my sons said to me was: “Dad, you honored the first film to the very end.” Because he had the same fate. The original «Blade Runner» was not a success when it came out, but after a while it became what it is today. I didn’t want the same. However, I am pleased with how enthusiastic fans of the first part warmly received the second part, and this is the most important thing for me.
Denis Villeneuve.
It’s hard to believe today that when Ridley Scott’s film was released, it was a commercial failure. But he was nominated for two Oscars, confidently made up for the box office, and his popularity continues to grow even now, after 35 years. Perhaps, based on previously formed judgments, it is worth recognizing that the same fate awaits the sequel behind the authorship of Villeneuve. Let the vast majority of the world audience continue to turn away from this form of science fiction films, but the answers to questions about the future classics will judge everyone one way or another.
