Episode 114 - Bring Back Bricks - TimeSplitters: Future Perfect

Podcasts AND zombies? This is seriously supernatural. Welcome! On
this episode of the podcast, we’re going to be talking about
TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, a game developed by Free Radicals
and and the third and final entry in the TimeSplitters franchise, a
console FPS franchise that rode the wave of multiplayer shooters
released on consoles during the span of time between when Goldeneye
released and when people got sick of them. This particular entry
lands on the latter half of that timeline, and is in some ways
better and worse for it. Better because there is clearly experience
behind the design of this game, with a huge emphasis on variety
both in the campaign and multiplayer modes, a bevy of content to
unlock, and smaller, arguably more unnecessary, complexities hidden
within each of these. And worse because it does feel a bit like a
hodgepodge of FPS design philosophies, taking the originality it
has in its theme and running with it over that huge amount of
content in ways that may stretch it a bit too thin. Either way, if
you’re nostalgic for this game, or even just this era of everyone
sitting on the couch in the basement, arguing over who gets the
good controller and drinking Surge, this game will help you travel
back in time to relive that experience. We’re going to be talking
about the impact of Rare’s FPS games on the N64 on how the genre,
and therefore this game, developed, the aesthetics and theme that
place this game somewhere between pastiche and parody to video
games’ most favorite media genres, and we discuss which character
might be a silly himbo. Thank you for joining us this week, Dan.
This episode was an inevitability that we successfully put off for
almost six years. The game holds a bit of special place for a
subset of our childhood friends and was a preferred game to play in
those after-school moments and weekend parties in the suburbs as a
tween. But what about the rest of you? Did you play this game when
it came out, or, even more unlikely, revisit it recently? Do you
think it holds up as well as we did, or were we fully blinded by
the heavy tinting of the nostalgia glasses? Let us know over on
Discord or in the comments on YouTube. Either way, we hope you
enjoyed the episode and join us next time when we talk about
Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition!