Their logos and packaging were designed by focus2 in Dallas, TX. I used to work there. Fun fact: The lead designer for Return to Wolfenstein project was flying back from Hong Kong, from a press check/approval of the metal tin packaging, on 9/11. He was stuck out of the country for a while. Really cool guy. But I’m not sure focus2 was involved in Rage. They were decimated by the economy after 9/11, never did really recover from that. I think they had gone under by then.
I can imagine they dragged that influence for a while, retouching old logos and keeping this style. I singled Rage out because it’s different and aim to be edgy in comparison to classic games, yet it standed out on a shelf.
Bungie’s Oni was really good for the era. Right before halo and when they were still releasing games for Mac. Think I still have that disc in storage somewhere alongside my Mac copy of Halo CE.
There were quite a few games using the same formula (and improving on it), to the point where I feel Desperados would be my favorite in that genre, not Commandos itself.
I still remember having to reparation my drive and reinstall windows, upgrading from fat16, because commandos wouldn’t fit on either partition.
Gunman Chronicles is unironically great. Granted, I love games with ludicrous numbers of weapons, but the fact that the weapons have a bazillion firing modes is fun.
Rockstar is pretty shitty to devs, but okay, the Midtown Madness devs did have a glow up because they were under new management
I just recenly learned about Oni 2s leaked prototype existence and I’m salty that they piecemealed that IP into oblivion… HOWEVER…Oni’s engine would become the RAGE engine that powers and gave life to GTA IV, Red Dead Redemption, GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 (…and perhaps GTA VI…?)
I absolutely loved Oni. I didn’t own a copy for a while but I’d play it round a friends house once a week… Those fighting mechanics just felt so tight (for the time) and the gun play was weighty and responsive.
Shame to hear about the fate of Oni 2 from here, I had no idea
Some classics in there for sure. For those that haven’t played it, Oni was a quiet favorite of mine from around then. I don’t think it got a lot of attention at the time, or even today. This was Bungie near the end of its Mac-first pre-Halo era.
I remember the levels being copy/paste rooms, but things like bathrooms and break rooms were absent. It didn’t really feel like a real world people live in.
I remember them boasting that an architect contributed to the level design. Turns out, real world environment design didn’t map to early 2000’s game design very well.
Now designing a modern VR game or something, that might be a different story.
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