I played the pseudo-sequel (perfect dark) around then (early 2000s-ish?) and enjoyed it. The AI was humorous, but brutal on higher difficulties. I had no coding experience at that time.
A few years after that I got a hold of Unreal/UT and there was a... "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!" moment when I opened UnrealEd and everything just kind of fell into place. The way videogames were constructed was revealed, and I stopped seeing cool visuals and started seeing static meshes and particle emitters.
I still enjoy modern games, but in a more 'what are they going to going to do with this idea/story' than 'how'd they do that effect?!' sense.
Probably the last true "This is awesome!" videogame moment I had was banking sawblades off the walls of DM-deathfan or whatever the outdoor variant map was called. I suppose spending a day with amnesia would be worth it to experience that again.
Edit: oh, and I should give a shoutout to Unreal 2 here, for what it's worth. It flopped big time in popularity, but still did amazing things in that era, graphically speaking. Seems appropriate the engine evolved to become an industry-standard later on.
A few years after that I got a hold of Unreal/UT and there was a... "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!" moment when I opened UnrealEd and everything just kind of fell into place. The way videogames were constructed was revealed, and I stopped seeing cool visuals and started seeing static meshes and particle emitters.
I still enjoy modern games, but in a more 'what are they going to going to do with this idea/story' than 'how'd they do that effect?!' sense. Probably the last true "This is awesome!" videogame moment I had was banking sawblades off the walls of DM-deathfan or whatever the outdoor variant map was called. I suppose spending a day with amnesia would be worth it to experience that again.
Edit: oh, and I should give a shoutout to Unreal 2 here, for what it's worth. It flopped big time in popularity, but still did amazing things in that era, graphically speaking. Seems appropriate the engine evolved to become an industry-standard later on.