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Giving Killing Time another chance

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2014 10:05 pm
by Gunstar
Killing Time, an FPS that I've always wanted to love (FPS's are one of my favorite genres), but...
I love the graphics, the story is interesting, really looks like it should be one of the top FPS games of the era, right after Doom (on anything but the bad 3DO version) and the Jaguar's AvP. It is actually better than those two in many ways, except the most important to me, and that is control. The issue I have is mostly when turning (though I get easily disoriented a bit with all movement), the game moves and turns too fast, but this wouldn't be a problem except that to get the fast movement/rotation it seems to skip frames and I'm constantly over moving/turning more than I want and it makes it hard to center in on targets when shooting. I've found that if I hold the left and right triggers, it slows the turn rate (basically by NOT skipping frames) and it works a bit better, but it's a real pain to have to be constantly holding those buttons while turning and trying to aim at targets. This game reminds me of the Jaguar's Hover Strike (CART only; they fixed it with the CD version) with the skipping frames when turning making it difficult to aim and is also a bit disorienting.

This is the only thing I don't like about the game, but, I am suffering through this and learning to cope with this annoyance. As such, I have gotten further in the game than I ever have, and am really enjoying the graphics and levels of the game, and I think I'm finally going to stick with it and finish it. I really want to love the game, so I'm forcing myself to overlook the terrible rotation/aiming.

What do you guys think? Does anyone agree that they should have done something about the over-rotation? Is there a way to have it turn like when I hold the L/R down, without having to do that?

I really think the game would be better if they had chosen to let it move a bit slower, like AvP, and not attempt to make it faster by skipping frames.

Re: Giving Killing Time another chance

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2014 10:11 pm
by a31chris
I want this game!!!

Re: Giving Killing Time another chance

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2014 10:17 pm
by Gunstar
Yeah, it sat on my shelf unplayed for years, but I'm learning that it's a worth-while game and worth overlooking the control issues. Definitely get it. IMHO, it's better than Immercenary, Doom, EFMM, Cyberdillo and the Iron Angel games on the 3DO, the only ones I prefer to it are Space Hulk, Po'ed and Wolfenstein*. But, being such an FPS fan and 3DO fan, I play them all (Except Wolfenstein* and Doom; I prefer the Jaguar versions).

Re: Giving Killing Time another chance

Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 5:42 am
by FUJISAN
The evaluation of this game was high also in Japan.
It seems that however, sales were not so good in Japan since it was put on the market at the time of 3DO market decline though. :cry:

However, I Like this game.
by the way.
The Japan name of this game is a "閉ざされた館(Mansion Shut)" . :wink:

Re: Giving Killing Time another chance

Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 6:09 am
by Gunstar
I think the English name of 'Killing Time' is humorous because it has two meanings; 'Killing Time' (a time to kill) and also an American expression "Killing Time" means to waste time or doing something just to make time pass. :P

Re: Giving Killing Time another chance

Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 6:37 am
by FUJISAN
Gunstar wrote:I think the English name of 'Killing Time' is humorous because it has two meanings; 'Killing Time' (a time to kill) and also an American expression "Killing Time" means to waste time or doing something just to make time pass. :P
I see! :D

Re: Giving Killing Time another chance

Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 10:41 am
by mattyg
I remember buying it on first release. Myself and 2 buddies played it start to finish in 3 days. Each one of us had different gaming talents , puzzles , shooting and map movement. It was and still is brilliant but bloody hard!

Re: Giving Killing Time another chance

Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 11:01 pm
by Austin
Can't get over the framerate personally, so this one is at the bottom of the list for me. Shame too, because everything else about it is cool. I have better things to do these days than deal with interactive slideshows (that's how bad it drops at points inside the mansion).

Re: Giving Killing Time another chance

Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 1:47 am
by Martin III
FUJISAN wrote:The evaluation of this game was high also in Japan.
It seems that however, sales were not so good in Japan since it was put on the market at the time of 3DO market decline though. :cry:

However, I Like this game.
by the way.
The Japan name of this game is a "閉ざされた館(Mansion Shut)" . :wink:
Hah, that's cool. I like some of the name changes they do when games cross borders... "Tetsujin", for instance, being given the much more grandiose title "Iron Angel of the Apocalypse" in the USA. I guess they couldn't have used the straight translation of "Tetsujin" ("Iron Man"), since that would have put them at risk of a lawsuit from Marvel Comics for trademark infringement. Especially if Iron Man and X-O Manowar was in development at that time.

Re: Giving Killing Time another chance

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 2:56 am
by T2KFreeker
Hmm, I can't believe I missed this thread. As much as I like some of the other FPS games on the 3DO, Killing Time is easily one of my favorites. I know it has some framerate issues, but still, the game is tops. I'm glad that Gunstar gave it another shot. It's one of those games I would track down the Japanese version of just to have because it's that cool for me. I remember buying it shortly after it released. Funny as it was, I hadn't really seen anything on it, but the box art looked so damn cool. I really miss having the Longbox of this game just for that reason. The new users here should really look into getting this title as well. VERY cool stuff. Gunstar, you ever finish this one man?

Re: Giving Killing Time another chance

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 1:33 pm
by BEARD!
I agree with T2KFreeker. Killing time is an excellent game from what I've seen so far. I was initially put off buying it as is seen it described as a pseudo sequel to Escape From Monster Manor. So I bought EFMM first and thought it was more a tech demo than a game, I got bored of it very quickly. I know it's an early release and only had a short development period but it certainly hasn't aged well.

Re: Giving Killing Time another chance

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 6:38 pm
by T2KFreeker
BEARD! wrote:I agree with T2KFreeker. Killing time is an excellent game from what I've seen so far. I was initially put off buying it as is seen it described as a pseudo sequel to Escape From Monster Manor. So I bought EFMM first and thought it was more a tech demo than a game, I got bored of it very quickly. I know it's an early release and only had a short development period but it certainly hasn't aged well.
It's all a matter of opinion. I liked Escape From Monster Manor. :P All joking aside though, I still to this day don't understand all the talk about this game being a sequel. Just because you have monsters and the game takes place in a mansion and it's a first person shooter doesn't mean it's a sequel because what I just described is where the similarities end. I do remember hearing that back in the day, but it's wrong. I never heard it from anyone at Studio 3DO. Even if in concept it was supposed to be the game Return to Monster Manor, which never released, the concept changed very quickly. Killing Time is it's own game, and that's a good thing! :wink: Nice to see that other people are still playing it!

Re: Giving Killing Time another chance

Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 1:03 am
by Martin III
T2KFreeker wrote:
BEARD! wrote:I agree with T2KFreeker. Killing time is an excellent game from what I've seen so far. I was initially put off buying it as is seen it described as a pseudo sequel to Escape From Monster Manor. So I bought EFMM first and thought it was more a tech demo than a game, I got bored of it very quickly. I know it's an early release and only had a short development period but it certainly hasn't aged well.
It's all a matter of opinion. I liked Escape From Monster Manor. :P All joking aside though, I still to this day don't understand all the talk about this game being a sequel. Just because you have monsters and the game takes place in a mansion and it's a first person shooter doesn't mean it's a sequel because what I just described is where the similarities end. I do remember hearing that back in the day, but it's wrong. I never heard it from anyone at Studio 3DO. Even if in concept it was supposed to be the game Return to Monster Manor, which never released, the concept changed very quickly. Killing Time is it's own game, and that's a good thing! :wink: Nice to see that other people are still playing it!
Ewhac and gammadev actually refer to Killing Time as a sequel in their Let's Play of Escape from Monster Manor. Can't remember which specific videos they mention it in, but if I get around to rewatching those videos I'll make a note of it. Of course Escape from Monster Manor wasn't a big enough hit to justify releasing Killing Time as Escape from Monster Manor 2 from a marketing standpoint, but that doesn't mean the development team couldn't take the basic gameplay mechanics, concept, and themes of Escape from Monster Manor to create a new game.

Re: Giving Killing Time another chance

Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 11:45 am
by mikemacdee
The link in my signature covers all my thoughts on Killing Time. Can't think of anything else to add at the moment.

Well that's not entirely true. Anyone ever play Realms of the Haunting and think of it as a much more polished game in the same vein as Killing Time? Though its flavor is definitely less outrageous and more HP Lovecraft or Clive Barker.

Re: Giving Killing Time another chance

Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 11:02 am
by BEARD!
mikemacdee wrote:The link in my signature covers all my thoughts on Killing Time. Can't think of anything else to add at the moment.

Well that's not entirely true. Anyone ever play Realms of the Haunting and think of it as a much more polished game in the same vein as Killing Time? Though its flavor is definitely less outrageous and more HP Lovecraft or Clive Barker.

Excellent site mikemacdee. I played a good four hours last night, I can't believe how good this game is on the 3do, yet completely unknown to the wider retro community. Ive managed to get all the keys and winged vessels bar one of each, so I reckon I should complete it next time I play it over the weekend.

Re: Giving Killing Time another chance

Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 11:26 am
by NeoGeoNinja
+1 from over in my corner here, re: Killing Time being f*cking awesome!

It really is a great game. One the one hand, I'm happy its a relatively obscure/unknown 3DO classic, but... on the other hand, probably would have been cool (at the time) to see this ported to Saturn or/& PS1, just to give the game a bit more oomph.

Like I said, awesome... great game, but probably unfathomably so with a a bit more power behind it :mrgreen:

Re: Giving Killing Time another chance

Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 6:22 pm
by BEARD!
NeoGeoNinja wrote:+1 from over in my corner here, re: Killing Time being f*cking awesome!

It really is a great game. One the one hand, I'm happy its a relatively obscure/unknown 3DO classic, but... on the other hand, probably would have been cool (at the time) to see this ported to Saturn or/& PS1, just to give the game a bit more oomph.

Like I said, awesome... great game, but probably unfathomably so with a a bit more power behind it :mrgreen:

It was actually scheduled to be ported by acc-lame to the Saturn and PS1 in 97 after Battlesport but it was canned. I don't know if it would have been updated or a straight port but by the time the Saturn/PS1 version was due to be released the 3DO original would have already been 2 years old.

@ NeoGeoNinja - Another exclusive 3DO FPS I enjoy is Immercenary, u might want to check it out. It has a steep learning curve but once you start to make progress it gets a lot easier

Re: Giving Killing Time another chance

Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 7:41 pm
by NeoGeoNinja
BEARD! wrote:@ NeoGeoNinja - Another exclusive 3DO FPS I enjoy is Immercenary, u might want to check it out. It has a steep learning curve but once you start to make progress it gets a lot easier
I do actually really want Immercenary as it happens, but when I came to look at getting a copy a while back, there were next to no PAL copies available, and like yourself (I think?), I only buy the PAL versions and other regions if not released here (i.e. Crash N Burn).

Re: Giving Killing Time another chance

Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 10:57 pm
by BEARD!
The PAL versions quite uncommon, but when it does appear it's usually in the £5-10 range. There's 2 on eBay France but their way over-priced and have been listed for months.

Yeah PAL only for me, I'm hoping to complete my collection this year unless I get side tracked as usual.

Re: Giving Killing Time another chance

Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 11:23 pm
by NeoGeoNinja
BEARD! wrote:The PAL versions quite uncommon, but when it does appear it's usually in the £5-10 range. There's 2 on eBay France but their way over-priced and have been listed for months.

Yeah PAL only for me, I'm hoping to complete my collection this year unless I get side tracked as usual.
Although you've given me a rough outline before, I'm very much looking forward to finding out what you constitute as a full PAL 3DO collection.

I'm not a completionist myself, but very much anticipate seeing anything I may have overlooked in PAL format.

Do you run your PAL games through a PAL system, or do you use an NTSC unit? I've never tried the latter myself...

Re: Giving Killing Time another chance

Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2014 7:47 am
by BEARD!
NeoGeoNinja wrote:
BEARD! wrote:The PAL versions quite uncommon, but when it does appear it's usually in the £5-10 range. There's 2 on eBay France but their way over-priced and have been listed for months.

Yeah PAL only for me, I'm hoping to complete my collection this year unless I get side tracked as usual.
Although you've given me a rough outline before, I'm very much looking forward to finding out what you constitute as a full PAL 3DO collection.

I'm not a completionist myself, but very much anticipate seeing anything I may have overlooked in PAL format.

Do you run your PAL games through a PAL system, or do you use an NTSC unit? I've never tried the latter myself...

I'm still working off the same list I posted last year. I'm still checking online for other PAL games I might have missed, although nothing has popped up. If there's any I've missed, then they must be extremely rare.

Yeah I'm not a completionist either but since the 3do has such a small library, I thought why not.

I play my games through a PAL FZ-1 I'm looking into picking up an NTSC FZ-10 in the future.

Back on topic, I completed Killing Time last night. Excellent game all round, I loved the ending.