How can you create a single image that will amaze the world?
Biohazard achieved this in the very first instant after the opening scene.
Hawk stared at the scene before him in disbelief, remaining motionless for a long time.
Inside the opulent Western-style dining room, candlesticks burned on the Table, and an overturned glass lay on the table.
The weathered, old wooden tabletop instantly added a touch of eeriness to the environment.
The walls are in a classic Victorian style.
The background features ornate stained wallpaper, plaster reliefs, and wooden paneling.
Two supporting pillars lift up the second-floor corridor overhead, further compressing the visual space.
It's worth noting that the game's perspective is different this time.
It is neither first-person nor third-person.
Instead, it's like a camera set up at the corner of a long table, taking a peculiar picture of Jill, the protagonist at the doorway.
This camera position was clearly designed by an expert; the angle was chosen quite cleverly.
The candlestick undoubtedly occupied the visual center of attention, and due to perspective (where objects appear larger when closer and smaller when farther away), it even looked larger Jill.
It looks like a mysterious ritual implement.
The two supporting pillars perfectly encircle Jill in the middle, giving the entire shot a sense of indescribable oppression.
It's as if it's conveying the image of being "trapped" to the players.
Everywhere you look, there are details.
The attention to detail is outrageously high!
The only drawback might be the exceptionally low resolution of the main character.
Jill is blurred somewhat like a mosaic, but the details are still discernible enough.
This is indeed a slight drawback, but unfortunately, its strengths are so great that Hawk didn't even notice the protagonist's lack of precision at first glance.
"Is this... is this the kind of video technology available in 1988?!"
After a long while, Hawk managed to close his mouth, which had involuntarily opened wide in surprise.
Now he understands why Gamenova released a separate enhancement chip for this game.
He glanced at the other two boxes on the Table, his eyes instantly burning with desire.
Although he hasn't even officially started playing yet.
But one thing is certain.
$99.99?
They made a fortune!
The extra set I gritted my teeth and bought will probably be the best financial decision I've ever made in my life.
"How the hell did that?"
Hawk is a long-time GAMENOVA fan, and although he's not a professional in the field, he's very familiar with the graphics of past games.
Even Quake, the game that remains the pinnacle of 3D games to this day, could never achieve this level of visual fidelity.
Although Quake is a first-person true 3D game, its 3D space is actually not very complex.
To ensure gaming performance, it has made regrettable compromises in many areas.
The walls are mostly straight, with at most a few slanted surfaces.
Elements such as curved surfaces and complex geometric polygons, which can severely slow down rendering, have been avoided as much as possible in Quake.
In Biohazard —you name it!
Damn, this candlestick, so exquisitely detailed that even the patterns are clearly visible, would be enough to completely drain the graphics card's performance in Quake.
Not to mention the two rounded support pillars on either side.
The roof features a two-story floor with relief carvings.
This is fucking amazing!
Could it be that the enhancement chip developed by Gamenova is alien technology?
Well, it turns out this pre-rendering technology is indeed impressive enough.
If you don't look closely at the details of the light and shadow, it can really be mistaken for real.
This thing was created by the world's top graphics website.
The participants are pioneers in 3D technology, as well as Industrial Light & Magic, Hollywood's leading special effects studio.
It's no exaggeration to say that even filmmaking couldn't achieve this level of quality.
Pre-rendering technology allows GAMENOVA to achieve top-notch quality in every scene.
The most ingenious part is that, while maintaining such a high level of detail, these pre-rendered images don't consume much rendering power.
The two graphics chips actually dedicate the vast majority of their performance to spatial calculations and character rendering.
Through depth calculations, the desktop will automatically appear in front of Jill, obscuring her legs that should be hidden.
It is this small detail that makes the scene so impressive.
"My goodness—it was totally worth the ticket price! totally worth the ticket price!"
Hawk tried to crank the joystick, Jill immediately started running in response.
From that moment on, Hawk had no more worries in his heart.
I was so stupid, really.
My faith in Gamenova is not strong enough.
If I had known this would happen, I would have bought several more properties, even if it meant taking out a loan from the bank.
Even if the gameplay is a mess and the storyline is terrible, the sheer quality of the graphics is enough to cement its legendary status.
It was only then that Hawk noticed the background music hidden behind the screen.
An audio cable is connected from the NX's standalone sound card to a pair of speakers.
Hawk had already bought a sound card specifically for Rocksmith back when he was playing it.
After all, this thing can produce CD-quality sound, and it's cheaper than a regular CD player, so why not buy it?
Not to mention it can also be used for online gaming.
The shock of what he had just witnessed was so intense that, in that moment of information overload, all his senses except his eyes were temporarily shut down.
Only now are these senses beginning to slowly return.
What he noticed first was naturally the background music composed by Lin Lixin himself.
"Da, da, da----"
There was a pendulum clock in the cafeteria, chiming at a very unsettling frequency.
Then came the sound of some kind of string music.
Multiple string sections combined with specially tuned synthesizer sounds create a sense of emptiness and eeriness.
For some reason, even though the restaurant was fairly well-lit and there was nothing creepy inside,...
But Hawk suddenly felt a chill travel from the soles of his feet straight up to the top of his head.
In an instant, goosebumps covered my arms.
He quickly picked up another OST soundtrack disc from the table and glanced at it.
Damn! It really was Lin Lixin who wrote the music.
Who would be so kind as to record a CD specifically for this kind of music?
They were even specially packaged in a box.
Damn it, listening to music with this stuff is just plain stupid!
Even if you're not sick, you can scare yourself into getting sick.
With this background music playing, even the most cozy house will look like a haunted house.
"Cough cough----"
Realizing he'd been startled before even seeing anything, Hawk quickly coughed twice to cover his embarrassment.
What's there to be afraid of!
It's just a video game, how scary can it be?
I can go to Haunted House and not even scream, so what's this mere pixelated video game? Bring it on!
After finally getting into a good state of mind, Hawk began to try to familiarize himself with the controls.
It seems that this game has successfully continued the operational paradigm that GAMENOVA has always established.
The design of interactive buttons and similar elements is very intuitive.
He went to the table and tried pressing the interaction button.
[INKRIBBON]
[Take the ribbon?]
[Yes][No]
The Backpack interface is nothing new; many games have already adopted this grid design.
However, the contents of the bag made Hawk suspicious.
Good news, there are guns.
Bad news, there's a gun.
This is, after all, a horror game.
Having a gun isn't necessarily a good thing.
"A pistol, a dagger, and three ribbons? What are they for?"
It looks like it's for some kind of typewriter.
Although I didn't understand, I still picked it up without thinking.
The Backpack has a full eight slots, which is a very generous feature for a puzzle game.
However, the 15" displayed in the lower left corner of the pistol made his gaze linger for a moment longer.
This clearly refers to ammunition.
This only intensified Hawk's unease.
There used to be a typewriter here, but I hadn't noticed it before.
1
Stepping back to take a look, I saw a typewriter sitting on the small table next to me.
The clever visual guidance subtly helped Hawk understand the functions of the ink cartridge and the typewriter.
"Oh, it's a save file. That's interesting."
Saving your game at the typewriter by consuming ink cartridges is more immersive than saving directly through the menu options.
As Jill moves around the room, the camera shifts accordingly.
Although the cameras were fixed, the selection of each camera position was very skillful, maximizing the cinematic feel without interfering with operation.
I think you should come and take a look at this!
Bill Paxton's voice rang out, and Barry, the voice actor and face model for him Barry, was squatting in front of a pool of crimson filth, holding a Magnum.
[It's blood----]
Barry's voice immediately lowered, becoming more serious.
[ Jill, see if you can find any other clues. I'll investigate this.]
[Hopefully it's not Chris's blood----]
After he finished speaking, Hawk noticed the door at one end of the restaurant.
I came from the lobby, so this should be the only way.
But as soon as Hawk pressed the interaction button, the screen went dark, and in its place appeared a wooden door facing him.
The wooden door is exactly the same as the one we saw in the previous picture.
But this perspective is truly somewhat eerie.
"Dong"
Squeak-
The doorknob slowly slid down, the hinges creaking with a teeth-grinding sound.
The camera slowly pans forward, entering boundless darkness.
Hawk opened his mouth, then suddenly uttered a curse.
Good grief, it turns out it was just a loading animation!
Damn it, is it really necessary to make map loading this complicated?
That's so creepy!
Honestly, Hawk would rather it just stay as a black screen loading.
At least my heart can calm down a bit during the transition.
Passing through the wooden door, a narrow and cramped corridor comes into view.
The camera shot down from the roof at an angle, like some kind of surveillance perspective, which made alarm bells go off in Hawk's mind.
disturbed!
An intense sense of unease welled up within me.
A cramped, dimly lit corridor; strange camera angles; and a corridor where you can't see what's ahead.
His intuition told him that something bad was about to happen!