Blood: Fresh Supply by Nightdive Studios Released!

[Daedalus]

Greetings.

For those who might be out of the loop, today marks the day which has seen the self-styled and somewhat questionably named Blood "remaster" by Nightdive Studios released!

Here's their promotional video:



You can get it at https://www.gog.com/game/blood_fresh_supply!

Expect it available from Steam later today.

Here is the marketing pitch from the site:

Blood: Fresh Supply Enhancements:

• Updated using Nightdive Studio’s KEX Engine

• Vulkan, DirectX 11 and OpenGL 3.2 support, play with unlocked framerates!

• Antialiasing, Ambient Occlusion, V-sync and Interpolation support

• Support for high resolutions including 4K monitors

• Fully customizable keyboard and controller pad support

• Extended modding support, including support for already existing mods

• Completely rewritten netcode supports up to 8 players:

• Play online in co-operative mode, kill each other in “Bloodbath” or split the difference in classic 4v4 team-based “Capture The Flag” mayhem

• Battle it out in local split-screen action

• Roll your own soundtrack with full CD and MIDI music support

• Look fully up and down with a new 3D view, or stick with the classic BUILD-engine style!

As luck would have it, I am presently not in a position to pronounce judgement on whether or not this is a faithful and amazing offering, a misguided effort, or a steaming pile of garbage, but hopefully it provides at least some excitement for those here.

In a slightly remote future, I will provide a complete breakdown of what this product contains and offers in great detail.

Stay fresh!

Update: Here's the Steam Option.

[Daedalus]

Well, regrettably I won't have the time to report on this in full in the immediate future, but after giving this just a cursory playthrough, I've encountered many problems, ranging from inconvenient to terrible. Given that I only ran through it briefly for a total of about fifteen minutes, I can't say it's looking good.

Here are the issues I encountered:

1) Bunz cheat gives inventory items.
2) Mario cheat presents the message "Not implemented yet."
3) Calgon cheat simply takes you to the following map.
4) Sound volume is all over the place and inaccurate.
5) Item voxels are dwarfed and feel like they're micro versions of themselves.
6) Enemy sounds are often inaccurate and wrong (incorrect sound files, monster sounds mixed up).
7) Use of jumping boots feels really flat. It lacks that magical feeling of real resistance when moving through space in Blood.
8) Enemy damage and health values are off.
9) Extra crispy zombies don't die/behave incorrectly if you sawed-off them into the air.
10) Enemy physics feel flat and unresponsive.
11) Innocents run towards you aggressively when they burn.
12) Fanatics on difficulties harder than Lightly Broiled will attempt to throw dynamite.
13) Fanatics attempting to throw dynamite just perform the animation and no dynamite comes out.
14) Enemy behaviour is slighly off in key ways.
15) Auto-aim doesn't appear to be working correctly - my crosshair was about 2mm to the left of a cultist and the napalm launcher's projectile missed it.
16) I tried number 15 with the voodoo doll and got the same result. The voodoo doll missed because the crosshair was 2mm to the left of an enemy.

There's a huge range of other problems being reported from people in Bloodbath and such, and this is shaping up to sound like a really shoddy release at the moment.

[Dimebog]

The state of this attempted remake (I wouldn't dare call it a "remaster") is pretty dismal. It's actually a real challenge trying to spot a single feature, mechanical aspect or even a tiny detail that is actually working or behaving like it did in the original game. That is, of course, if the intention was for the game to play exactly like BLOOD, which it doesn't even come close to accomplishing. It's almost as if someone is playing a cruel joke and even charging money for it just to drive the point home.

I find it extremely dishonest to advertise it as an "updated" version and even go so far as to claim it as being superior to its Build engine based counterparts, which unlike this abominable attempt actually provide a true BLOOD experience and are free of charge.

When the Steam hype dies down and fans realize they have been basically cheated, I predict nBlood will be established as the most superior way to play BLOOD, by the core community that will stick around long after the FS fad had passed. Time will tell, and quality will prevail.

I'd recommend getting FS if you have casual non-gamer friends, significant others and so on, and then have fun with the split screen mode. But as far as this release replacing BLOOD as the latest, most updated official release of the game, the very notion makes me want to cry. And that's what they are doing. Delete BLOOD from history and pretend FS is canon.

I put all my eggs in the nBlood basket - the only true hope of preserving the game along with limitless potential for new features, since it is open source and anyone could contribute.

[Umnir]

I got excited, maybe to play this game after years and years of pause but I might have to do that the old fashioned way.

[mouth]

Sup guys, jumped on the Fresh Supply yesterday since the moment I saw it. Played it for a bit, seemed alright, but did notice a few bugs (sound bugs, visual bugs). I don't usually play Blood ports or remakes, only the OG (Dosbox, sure). I'll probably go through the single player episodes unless the experience will suck.

Hell everyone btw! Looong time no see.

[Dimebog]

I got excited, maybe to play this game after years and years of pause but I might have to do that the old fashioned way.

Or try nBlood which free and provides the original experience but in higher resolutions. Also has features like anti-aliasing which I don't recommend, but its basically good old BLOOD with modern OS support, and responsive controls as you'd expect from a modern FPS. If you want to go full on nostalgia mode, switch to "software" mode instead "OpenGL" if you want the viewport to behave the same as in the DOS version and sprites render like they used to. The colour reproduction is spot-on in both OGL and Software modes - feels like 1997 again, but in widescreen and higher resolutions.

[Dimebog]

Sup guys, jumped on the Fresh Supply yesterday since the moment I saw it. Played it for a bit, seemed alright, but did notice a few bugs (sound bugs, visual bugs).

You haven't seen half of it, barely any feature gets close to original implementation.

Try nBlood in case you missed it, it's the most faithful port so far. Fresh Supply just looks like BLOOD but its far from it. Everything from player movement and enemy physics and behavior down to some fatally flawed weapon behaviors and damage / health numbers. The sounds are random and their volume is all over the place which is a shame since that used to be an invaluable source of information in the game. Enemy AI is buggy and doesn't behave like you'd expect. The monsters also ignore or make up their own rules with regards to difficulty settings.

[mouth]

Sup guys, jumped on the Fresh Supply yesterday since the moment I saw it. Played it for a bit, seemed alright, but did notice a few bugs (sound bugs, visual bugs).

You haven't seen half of it, barely any feature gets close to original implementation.

Try nBlood in case you missed it, it's the most faithful port so far. Fresh Supply just looks like BLOOD but its far from it. Everything from player movement and enemy physics and behavior down to some fatally flawed weapon behaviors and damage / health numbers. The sounds are random and their volume is all over the place which is a shame since that used to be an invaluable source of information in the game. Enemy AI is buggy and doesn't behave like you'd expect. The monsters also ignore or make up their own rules with regards to difficulty settings.

I'm definitely now trying nBlood too. First volume bug I really noticed in FS was the start of the second episode, you can barely hear "you're going to need a bigger boat". Oh well, I only spent like 2 euros, and I'd want to grab most Blood releases anyways. I'm still on the lookout for the USA big box release and Plasma Pak big box xD

[Umnir]

Great to see you Mouth!

[mouth]

Great to see you Mouth!

Thanks Umnir, great to see you guys as well! Let's keep this forum active

[Nilvah]

I'll admit I'm probably looking at this release through blood-colored glasses.

I haven't played it since my sister picked up the phone and kicked me and my friend's game offline in 1998.

I was able to hop in, have a very enjoyable multiplayer coop on Extra Crispy and it just worked. No bullshit, tweaking, or anything.

The single player mode was also fun and I definitely got the general feel of the game, but can't speak to how it used to feel since it's been so long.

I would like to try nBlood. Will I be able to try that version with the version that I purchased from Steam?

All in all, just flat out excited that people are talking about this game again because I got so much enjoyment from it as a youth.

[Umnir]

The Fresh Supply copy seems to have the whole unit blood thing in GoG is claims. Can anyone verify it has the vanilla version so I could try nBlood instead because there is no longer the old version available in GoG?

[Daedalus]

Great to see you guys alive and... still kicking!

I can't provide guidance right at this moment, but can confirm that GOG provides OUWB with Fresh Supply.

It's a little off-topic here, but since you're asking: If you want to check out NBlood, it's just a matter of sticking two files into your Blood directory and running the NBlood exe. Worked like a charm for me, though I'm holding back on officially rating it just at the moment!

And welcome to you, Nilvah. I'm glad you're feeling excitement for Blood. New Blood stuff is a rare treat, but I must suggest that you check out NBlood if possible if you're a bit hesitant to fight with compatibility. I think it works straight out of the box.

Disclaimer: A positive concerning "Fresh Supply" is that it's reported to currently have the best multiplayer response times for the time being, though reports are still coming in about horrible Bloodbath inaccuracies and bugs.

[Umnir]

Thanks big D

[Daedalus]

Sorry, guys, I just learned this a few moments ago, but NBlood can actually be slapped straight on top of Fresh Supply and runs straight out of the box!

No need to worry about Steam/GOG differences, since Fresh Supply contains all the original game's data.

This is an excellent "catch all" solution for people with questions.

Now go forth and... spill some!