So I Reviewed Every CI Games FPS Ever Made

[@JakubMMajewski]

Wow! Just... wow! As someone who actually worked on a bunch of these games (in some cases, running the projects, no less), I'm very impressed indeed by your noble sacrifice! Boy, the stories I could tell about development. But there are some topics that really can't be discussed without alcohol ;). A couple of bits of trivia concerning the games, though. Firstly, you mention another engine at the start as being used in some of the early games (e.g. Code of Honor) - what you're actually looking at is an earlier iteration of the Chrome engine. Second - yes, you got City's modus operandi exactly right: it was all about recycling as much as possible. These games were sold at bargain bin prices in the first place, so I don't think anybody on the team ever felt like we're screwing anybody over - but I don't think anybody ever had any delusions of working on a great game, either. I will say this, however: I think most people did genuinely try to do the best job possible given the resources at hand. It's just that these resources were always calculated for the absolute minimum. Some of those games were literally done in 3-4 months. It wasn't until Sniper: Ghost Warrior that the company made a deliberate shift away from the budget sector. Even then, you can plainly see that while the company marketed SGW as a genuine AAA game, it... wasn't exactly that, was it? :) It is a slight pity you chose the alphabetical order for this video, as I think chronological order would have made for more interesting viewing. You would be able to see more clearly the different phases in the company's history - first, the rail shooter games developed on their own internal engine, then a second stage with Chrome, then the third with Jupiter EX, and finally, the "AAA" era with a new Chrome version and then Cry Engine. I can't say much about the first and last eras, but with regards to the middle two phases: Chrome was a remarkable engine to work with, because it had the worst AI known to mankind. Actually, it really didn't have AI to speak of - the enemies would move straight from waypoint to waypoint, and oscillated between deadly accuracy and total incompetence. It was possible to make a decent game with this AI - Techland did it with Call of Juarez, for instance - but obviously making good gameplay with such a system was a time-consuming, iterative process, which wasn't possible at City. As for Jupiter EX - that was a genuine barrel-load of fun. I had the pleasure of managing Terrorist Takedown 2, which was our very first project on Jupiter. The project very nearly drove me crazy, as the deadlines were impossible (though long by City standards - the whole thing took eight months, I think. But that's including everyone learning the new engine...), and I recall one particular night towards the end of the project where I just lay there in bed staring at the ceiling until morning, because my brain couldn't stop trying to figure out how to get the game finished on time (so, I guess we did care, though I'm not sure if you can call that love ;) ). Nonetheless, when I say it was a pleasure, I don't mean that sarcastically - for us, working on the project, it was just a fantastic feeling, leaving Chrome behind for a good new engine, and figuring out all the cool things that could be done with it. This was followed by Code of Honor 2, which was even more fun, because we actually knew what we were doing with the engine. But there's a great irony about Code of Honor 2 - namely, from the production perspective, there was so much innovation in the gameplay and level design, but from the player's perspective, it turned out to be one of the most underwhelming games we did on Jupiter. The problem was that our key innovation was modular level design, which we thought would allow us to make a bigger game with less effort, and concentrate more on good gameplay while we're at it. Unfortunately, upper management saw it as an opportunity to simply make the game faster and cheaper, so the end result was utter blandness, and none of what we wanted to achieve. Also, the snakes: there we are, crunching to get the game done on a crazy schedule, and management decides they absolutely must have snakes in the game, because... well, just because. I'm kind of surprised you didn't pick up on the snakes in the video, as they must have been the most ridiculously shitty element in the game - but then again, they were also lousy in that you could basically not notice them, so maybe that's what happened ;). Later Jupiter EX projects were all about recycling, and they got more and more demoralising, because there was no longer any satisfaction: we knew what we were doing, and we knew we could make a good game on Jupiter given the opportunity, but we also knew we wouldn't have that opportunity. Each new game had environments basically re-cut from existing assets (well, that was the theory at least: in practice, the environment team did their best to rework the recycled assets to make things feel new), and the guns, of course, would transfer from game to game, with just a couple of new additions each time. And yes, they got briefer and briefer. Although on that last point, I actually felt at the time, and I still do, that their brevity was actually a good thing, both from an end-user perspective and from a marketing perspective. No one agreed with me, of course, as everyone was too busy feeling ashamed about not having 20 hours of gameplay. But the way I saw it, we were selling a movie-length gameplay experience, which is actually a cool thing, precisely because it's a game you can finish in one evening, when most people actually finish very few of their games, precisely because they drag on and on. Most video game stories are two hour narratives artificially stretched out to twenty hours through repetitive gameplay, so it would have made sense to embrace the two hour experience as a sort of unique selling point. And it comes at the price of a movie ticket (sometimes less), so it wasn't a rip-off, either. Oh, one other bit of trivia: although I can't for the life of me recall if the American accent of our hero in Code of Honor was intentional or not, it actually would make perfect sense. As the name indicates, the French Foreign Legion is a formation where soldiers are all foreign citizens. It's a very unique force, with a kind of romantic charm to it (you know - these days, of course, they screen their recruits very carefully, but in the past, that was the place people would go when they escaped their country wanted for murder and the like). It's really very unfortunate that it only ever shows up in Van Damme films and City Interactive games. It deserves better. Thanks again for your efforts on this video! I'm actually pretty amazed it only took you two months. And you deserve a bloody medal for getting through Sniper: Art of Victory...

[@FerintoshFarmsPhotography]

Thanks for sharing your story

[@genghiskhan2068]

I always wondered how these budget title developers operate thanks for sharing your experience. Although for the record, I actually really liked Alien Rage, I was just a great game to turn your brain off too. Kinda wish you guys made a sequel, maybe taking a few "old school" design cues from newer games like doom 2016. SGW 3 was good too. Lords of the Fallen looks really cool too and I will give that one a shot.

[@ducreat]

I don't blame the workers. The player have to shoot people in CI oldschool FPS unlike some modern running simulators. The real issues are the unkillable teammates and scripted doors.

[@willv3462]

Man, what a fantastic post! Thanks!

[@shad8x936]

(Lemme translate that to English for yer convenience): Wow I admire your devotion to the career despite the weird ideas of people in charge. As a kid I got these games because they had nice, eye catching covers- and they were cheap, so it was easier to convince parents to buy them for me haha. I have great memories with Code Of Honor: French Foreign Legion :D

[@indeimaus]

now do it again

[@BlackSheepDream]

I would genuinely enjoy a Top 5 GGGman video in the style of the video you did on NL. Would be top content mate.

[@user-ik4nc8ob8h]

That was hard man,dark souls of video making

[@oz_jones]

_I will_

[@euclid239]

Oh you're here too....

[@lebendystraw3683]

You guys kangaroo-pool or

[@VictorvanSchagen]

This is a great blast of the past! I've worked at Ci for a while, as an environment artist, on Mortyr III: Operation Thunderstorm and SAS: Secure Tomorrow, and a short time on The Royal Marines Commando. I can confirm many things Jakub Majewski mentioned in his excellent post. I'd especially like to mention that, in those days, AAA games like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007) and Call of Duty: World At War (2008) were extremely expensive for Polish people (like as much as 1/6th of a monthly salary). Basically, City Interactive offered clones of such games, with similar locations (A CoD game had a level in an airplane, and I remember working on one as well), at a fraction of the price, so that everybody could afford them. As Jakub mentioned, the trade-off was copy-pasting lots of assets. I remember, as an environment artist, I could request a few new props at the beginning of building each new level, but the rest had to be made with the assets which were already available. Though the games we worked on weren't probably the best, I do have fond memories working on them, as there was a strong sense of cameraderie between the team members. On a side note: one of the Ci games not featured in this video I worked on as well was Logic Machines (kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJe1p42JgcyZl9E), a Nintendo DS game.

[@kamenanew9867]

Very cool man. Thank you both for these informative comments.

[@gast128]

I like CI games budget fps for what they are. Some of us are waiting for the rest to be released on Steam.

[@HazyJ28]

If you could find a programmer, I think a game like Logic Machines would work well on today's ARM platforms. I know you personally don't own the rights to THAT EXACT I.P, but you can't patent a generic idea about ropes and pulleys and the like. Just something to think about.

[@retrobit5973]

Massive respect to you guys. While these games are not innovative and mind blowing games, they were good while they lasted. I have only played Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 and when I played it, I enjoyed it. That was that. It reminded me that sometimes you can play average games and still enjoy them for what they are....

[@stuglife5514]

This really gives me a better perspective on all this. Much respect man, much respect for you and the people who you worked alongside (not for)

[@koi8859]

The truth is, that here in Poland we used to kinda love and kinda hate CI games - they gave lowspec pc gamers a chance to play some FPS back in a day, whatever it was, but it's true that they were doing "copy/paste" kind of work, some of the games were enjoyable, some were not, but those games costed us something about 3$-5$ for a game, so that wasn't that bad of a deal - I remember when I was younger, I was always exchanging those CI games with my classmates and we were like "Bro, you played Rajd na Berlin?" - YEAHH, SOO COOOL " BUT HAVE YOU PLAYED RAJD NA BERLIN : CIEŃ STALINGRADU??" - will you lend me this one?? I will give you Terrorist Takedown! --- and then someone got Call of Duty 2 or Medal of Honor Airborne and we forgot CI games - good old days to be honest

[@chaddanylak8706]

so CI game was a trading game at the same time

[@limepaul]

Posilh game industry sure came a long way. I mean compare the witcher, ancestors legacy, WW3 once it's finished. And then at ci games. Quite a improvment no.

[@Y.M...]

We can't trade games like we used to, sadly. All the DRM and stuff.

[@Xanderfied]

@@limepaul no.... WW3 wasnt a game to brag on

[@limepaul]

@@Xanderfied give it Tome i guess.

[@Gggmanlives]

Hey Sonny Jims, This video was about 2 months of work on and off so please consider sharing the video and supporting me on Patreon so I can make more videos like this. Enjoy!

[@CybershamanX]

Thank you so much for your hard work, buddy! Much appreciated! :) I'm settling in for a watch! :D

[@salokin3087]

Will do, Been hyped for this for a while!

[@johnwenzel2756]

getting the popcorn for this one

[@Ghosttea]

Man that's a lot of effort, totally worth it

[@ZinhoMegaman]

You just made my day Gggman! How did you find out that I love being a guinea pig for CI games? I really love their generic FPS games and now i will buy (not kidding) all games to complete my collection as well, thank you!

[@zetetick395]

27:38 "It has eleven missions; that's enough to count on two hands..." - I'm guessing you were born close to a nuclear testing area? @_@

[@triggytiggy740]

... Tasmania is a part of Australia

[@TI84PlusCE]

i don't get it

[@triggytiggy740]

@@TI84PlusCE ... theres a running joke that Tasmania is Australia's version of " the hills have eyes" where people were deformed due to incest from isolation. So things like being able to count to 11 on two hands wouldnt be a surprise to someone from Tassie.

[@zetetick395]

@@triggytiggy740 It was just a joke about him saying he has eleven fingers....Don't know what this Tazmania thing is about.

[@triggytiggy740]

@@zetetick395 yeah i get it... hence why i was joking he might be from Tasmania (... where aussies have 11 fingers)... Gggmanlives is Australian - Tasmania is a state of Australia 😂

[@salokin3087]

Nice, you've managed to review half of poland, absolute madlad

[@firebucket8203]

Salokin watched some of your videos. I gotta say their excellent

[@igorthelight]

The other half is The Witcher :-)

[@steelprophecy5951]

@@igorthelight nope.

[@igorthelight]

Ah right! :-)

[@SpaceLight202]

Half of poland?

[@OKNewman]

This is 45 goddamned minutes. AND you broke out the Wii. You're a true champion, sir.

[@saibgassanov3378]

He didnt tho

[@OKNewman]

24:12 - If you say so.

[@Zeina107]

The wii is still my favorite console. I love how the controllers are split. So i can sit with my arms at my side. Then together

[@josterplays8128]

"Mom, can we have Sniper Elite V2?" "We have Sniper Elite V2 at home." Sniper Elite V2 at home: Sniper: Art of Victory

[@joshuaa4677]

You joke, but I legit bought that game thinking it was the first game of the sniper elite franchise. I was very wrong

[@slaysymon2595]

This made me chuckle

[@Tiger-rw3od]

When your mom asked you, "why don't you play the game I bought you?" "You know, mom, I'd rather study".

[@peposo7]

@@Tiger-rw3od Mom: "Then it was worth a buy" You: "......."

[@peposo7]

@@Tiger-rw3od Mom: "Then it was worth the buy" You: "......"

[@rosfell00]

Schwarzenegger impressions, memes, monty python quotes... Yeah you can tell the Gman went nuts with this one I mean who can blame him... Working on something like this would totally drain whatever sanity you have left... Good job man...

[@jalkor87]

You can never have enough memes

[@Comkill117]

I think he turned into the AVGN at some point too.

[@rosfell00]

Gonna have to rewatch just to find when did that happen...

[@IcarusDawn]

Small detail but French Foreign Legion soldiers consists mostly of uhhh foreign recruits. That's why they're called the french foreign legion. So don't be surprised to hear diff accents other than french in a game about the french foreign legion.

[@paaatreeeck]

I believe the Officers are all french though, and they are expected to learn and mainly speak french. However, a group of american legionaries is certainly possible.

[@Kajnake]

"Theres also a version for wii, but to review that Id have to dust off my wii, set up my capture card and you know really be some kind of loser" *So anyway* That was the smoothest transition Ive ever seen

[@GigaBowserXL]

Ikr, I just about died at that part in the video XD

[@McBanditHope]

Reviewing every CI games fps: *"A task nobody has tried, and nobody probably should have."*

[@StalkerMarkedOne94]

Rather false statement but i understand the enthusiasm. :D

[@suwatsaksri7191]

Altf4games covered alot of their garbage, especially the early ones

[@captaincapslock4108]

@@suwatsaksri7191 ALFA4GAMES

[@retrogamer7571]

@@suwatsaksri7191 yeah

[@ramboti6402]

RosszPCJátékok

[@SourceSpy91]

I discovered your channel about a month ago and have pretty much spent that entire time watching every video you've ever made. Awesome job mate

[@thoughtsauce7225]

SourceSpy91 I’m glad I’m not the only one. I found him, and he’s more entertaining than a Netflix series.

[@ashdoglsu]

He does great reviews

[@M4tth2w]

couple of months here :) and same!

[@ReallyLazyMe]

Welcome to the club :)

[@SourceSpy91]

Agony and Hunt Down the Freeman are my faves

[@QuantumS1ngularity]

The Sniper Ghost Warrior games are meant for my type of people - the people who'd sleep with a sniper rifle under their pillow if it was possible. I mean EVERY SINGLE FPS game i come across i take the first possible sniper rifle and don't let it go till the end. Even in HL2 i finished the game mainly with the crossbow once i got it. I love the art of taking your enemies from a great distance w/o them knowing what hit em while you stay in the shadows. Sniping mechanics in FPS games add a certain strategy to it. It's not fry your brain strategy like in Star Craft, but if you play the mission for the side bonuses like "don't raise any alarm" and so on it really makes you do a lot of scouting and thinking ahead; not only making it rain with the machine gun that has the highest capacity of bullets. You have to choose the right moment and right enemy to shoot which for me has some appeal the usual type of FPS games don't offer. And i hate games where the mechanics doesn't let you play your snipe style and lets all enemies on berserk once you kill one of them despite the rest never heard or seen anything. P.S I also of course played Sniper Elite series, but the main difference between both is that Sniper Elite feels like a bad console port for PC with its' 3rd person and weird controls while Ghost Warrior gives you the full FP experience and as a whole feels like a much more complete game.

[@stuglife5514]

I actually sleep with an SKS in my bed

[@hi_tech_reptilez]

I think Sniper Elite 4 is supposed to be better than the earlier games, but I get what you mean from always going stealth in games first. Its my go to, then I mess with other stuff. I love bows personally though sniping is close. Even in fantasy games - like Skyrim? Lol..

[@norman6422]

Hey GGman, the French foreign legion is made up of international volunteers pretty much, so the character could have any accent the developers wanted theoretically.

[@jestemgraczem]

True. In fact if you're French you can't join the French Foreign Legion.

[@Olivman7]

@@jestemgraczem Speaking as someone whose father was in the FFL, yes you can.

[@jestemgraczem]

@@Olivman7 yeah, there was a Belgian backdoor enlist process and other stuff but officially FFL don't recruit French citizens.

[@Olivman7]

@@jestemgraczem Nope. 50'000 legionaries are French, according to Wikipedia. There just isn't any requirement that recruits be actual foreigners, it's just a possibility.

[@gympage]

@@Olivman7 most of the legion are foreigners. I was in it. the Legion only has around 7k memebers so you or wiki are wrong

[@GummyMoon]

I wonder if I should sacrifice an hour of my day watching a gggmanlives video... "I will."

[@robadc]

2x speed boi

[@mr.generic5100]

GummyBear 2 it isn't an hour

[@bappojujubes981]

Nice hahahaha!

[@GregoryKarastergios]

10:16 The "I WILL" gets me every time

[@postaled]

That's dedication for you. Gggmanlives - you're a martyred hero to live through and endure this trash for our entertainment, all the way to the Wii. And you are a truly positive thinker to manage to see the ''good'' elements whenever you can. I salute you, sir. Seriously though, this was really entertaining and greatly paced. Kept me engaged from start to finish. Great editing man. Impressive how the Jupiter engine games they ''created'' all look exactly the same. And you can see ripped FEAR assets all over them, even the simple 'use/press crosshair', bullet holes, bullet sparks, gun sway, lighting, office and wall textures, etc...I would say they just look like some pre-alpha version of FEAR - but that would be too much of a compliment.

[@effexon]

gggman is AVGN of pc games and more modern games.

[@beetheimmortal]

There was this one guy in my country (Hungary), who did this series from like 2007 to 2011 I think, called 'Rossz PC Játékok', or 'Bad PC Games'. CI games was quite a frequent guest. And yes, he played Mortyr too.

[@Monkerguy]

It was really strange seeing Gggmanlives playing CI games. I instantly had flashbacks of FreddyD! "Dobozpáncél, dobozpáncél! Te azt mondod gyáva, én azt mondom zseniális!"

[@47KRoman]

Oh my, Mortyr is the legend! xD

[@scrithen2836]

The accent of this dude makes him sound way angrier than he actually is

[@irontownsy4883]

Us Australians are always angry even when we're not.

[@musikalniyfanboichik]

huh, would never notice that without your comment. just an aussie charm combined with years of videomaking expierience i guess, i really like his delivery.

[@IconOfSin24148]

*Look at him, he doesn't play Beauty Factory!* *LOOK AT HIM AND LAUGH*

[@DominiqEffect]

FPS is a key word here.

[@Nionivek]

Yeah its a FPS: Fabulous, Posh, and Salacious.

[@skryreprototype1826]

And he calls himself a gamer? Unsubscribed!

[@00dDodo]

Your Sacrifice will be remembered Press F to pay respect

[@ibragimsameev7792]

F

[@BornToBeGoated]

Sacrifice*

[@PallasCat_]

F

[@Snyperwolf91]

F

[@Dakobra_]

F

[@czokybaczalsky97]

From 2007-2014 a truly good Hungarian youtuber FreddyD played through almost all of the City games of that era. He made tons of quality content and reviews about these and to be honest I am glad City created these because without them the early Hungarian YT would not have been the same 😊

[@xyn000]

The dude is a legend fr

[@msdos797]

How did it feel playing these games upside down?

[@Intestine_Ballin-ism]

harnesses tying him to the ground certainly help

[@the8thark]

Keep yer discrimination to your self sonny jims

[@DJPUPPETMASTER-RESURRECTED-]

I dont get it

[@dracomalfoyvevo]

9:20 "John, you must be careful"... *I WILL*

[@zHctiwT]

WOW what a smooth talker. Holy fuck that made me lol

[@kennyyy4L]

I Wheel

[@SneakyRANGERREX]

Really makes you appreciate the amount of polish and effort that goes into the more mainstream generic shooters that people take for granted that are actually tolerable.

[@borntopwnyou]

It wouldn't be unusual for an American to be in the French _Foreign_ Legion.

[@DivePlane13]

Just about to comment that

[@bajanking43]

It wasn't unique at all they recruited foreign recruits. In fact during WW1 black Americans couldn't fight for US armed forces when that war started, and they went to fight with French and Canadian forces. Than the Harlem Hellfighters became the first African American force allowed to fight in that war.

[@dsandoval9396]

You can't blame the guy, probably had one two many shrimps on the barbie. Chasing the dingo in the Aussie sun probably fried his brain.

[@dominicmanester8125]

God damn, it's so dumb, did he just see the word "French" and assume they would all be French without thinking? Little bit racist. ;)

[@Usernamesdontmatter1]

@@dominicmanester8125 Wait how is it racist?

[@dzonydzas4964]

CI Games was kind of meme here in Poland for quite some time :P Because of the doubtful quality of their games. We were calling them "Games from the (garbage) bin", because they were often found in the bins with cheap crappy games.

[@plasmaoctopus1728]

to think these look ok compared to a lot of steam games is pretty sad.

[@Murgablodazor69]

Old comment but i dont care. They are a meme in Hungary too because a youtuber named jatekpartizan reviewed most of them.

[@lukkkasz323]

@@plasmaoctopus1728 Steam Games are made almost for free and by amateurs, while CI's Games are made with OK budget but in very short time.

[@TheophilusKoriander]

"Wolfsschanze" doesn't translate to "wolf slayer". "Schanze" in German just translates to "a human made pile of earth". It can either describe a "Sprungschanze" which is a ski or car jump. Or it can describe a wall or an entrenchment used to hide from enemy fire. But a military bunker or base wich is protected by covers or trenches can also be called a "Schanze". In this case it described a military headquarter for Hitler and the leaders of the Wehrmacht. The Wolf part comes from Hitlers first name Adolf which means "noble wolf". So a more correct translation would probably be "Wolf's Lair". If I am not mistaken, this is also where the name for Castle Wolfenstein originated.

[@smug_cat1]

Yea a lot of Germans apparently know about some Wolfsschanze

[@kylershahalami6453]

the french foreign legion actually takes a lot of enlistees from other countries including the US

[@aliascent]

21:02 : Press G to throw a *granade*. Never encountered that spelling before. Anyway, I quite enjoy CI games. They're half-assed, uninspired , but they are the video game equivalent of a movie so bad it becomes enjoyable.

[@goopah]

Yep, I enjoyed them, and actually own most of the ones mentioned in this video. Except the Chicken shooters.

[@Patrik2166]

"Many tried but none has succeeded" I dunno... Játékpartizán did :D

[@laszlopados3350]

Meg jòhogy. FreddyD-t nem àllìthat meg egy jàtèk sem!!

[@madmaxx8266]

the Foreign Legion isn't just the French Army, it's more a mercenary company under the French Army. I always thought it was mostly made up of foreigners, as the name says, but I still wouldn't have made them American.

[@sampleentry5253]

Mad Maxx If anything, they should've used Francophone Africans.

[@robadc]

My uncle used to be in the Legion, he was a Mozambican-Portuguese exile, they're mostly made up of foreigners.

[@hemangchauhan2864]

>Lights off >Knuckles cracked >Gamer Fuel(TM) ready Yup, it's GGG time

[@Intestine_Ballin-ism]

*cracks open White Monster™* *sips* Ahhhhh, they don't make 'em like they used to

[@Ueberdoziz]

white monster?

[@Ueberdoziz]

ive just googled it, is it a lemon flavoured zero energy variant? sounds... disgusting, to be honest. xD but seems like you like it?

[@hemangchauhan2864]

@@Ueberdoziz It's a meme for 30 year something people who reminisce about the old days when movies/TV/games "were good". Google "30 year old boomer".

[@Intestine_Ballin-ism]

@@hemangchauhan2864 more like about old-ass millenials who have become so out of touch and dissilusioned with the current generation of people and technology that they are starting to look and act like boomers next to your average 17-20 year old, and the first thing that came to mind was the lite version of a pretty shitty energy drink

[@Kajnake]

Personally id prefer for it to be counted down based on release date. I love watching how developers DEVELOP themselves over different titles, as it adds more of a meta-story to these games

[@Darkthus]

Here in Hungary, City Interactive is quite infamous thanks to the "Rossz PC Játékok / Bad PC Games" series. The games they published are probably even worse (especially the ones made by Groove Games and Direct Action Games). Also, could you do a review on Mortyr 1 and 2?

[@steelprophecy5951]

Same in Poland.

[@unimportantcommenter4356]

He should totally review The Sniper game

[@Darkthus]

Me neither, from what I've heard about, the game has 2 big flaws: it's way too dark, and the game cheats (the game spawns enemies behind you + sometimes they respawn/spawn from thin air). Also, the future maps start off somewhat hard.

[@ducreat]

Did he try Marine sharpshooter?

[@yarpen26]

I didn't really play any of their FPSs but I had the misfortune of getting the first Art of Murder for Christmas 2008. Good Lord, what a piece of shit. And it ripped off Still Life like crazy. I forgot the entire story within 24 hours after finishing it.

[@johnmarstonlives]

The French foreign legion is exactly that. Made up of foreigners so him having an American accent isn't beyond the realm of possibility

[@ComradePenguinski]

Happy someone else realizes this. I mean, it is the French FOREIGN Legion after all.

[@budge3281]

RIP Fred Herbert the best damn bailbondsman we've ever had.

[@HeavyDave997]

I was thinking the same, from what I know there is alot of American special forces soldiers who joined

[@divergentevolution8114]

Lol imagine a nation where their strongest fighting force is made up of foreigners. Ahh France, just be neutral you just dont do the wars too good.

[@joriahdrakon9992]

@@divergentevolution8114 strongest?

[@marrvynswillames4975]

3:42 Alien Rage 6:38 Armed Forces 8:55 Battlestrike: Force of Resistance 1 and 2 11:46 The Royal Marines Commando 13:15 Battlestrike rail shooters 13:54 Code of Honor 1,2 and 3 18:11 Enemy Front 19:32 The Hell in Vietnam 20:50 Operation Thrunderstorm 22:20 Redneck Kentucky and Chicken Riot 25:44 SAS Secure Tomorrow 28:05 Sniper: Act of Victory 30:32 Sniper: Ghost Warrior 1,2 and 3 34:35 Terrorist Takedown series 41:12 Wolfschanze 2

[@tREX13470]

There's a reason that they're sometimes called "Shitty Interactive" in poland...

[@jordanwong7902]

tREX13470 I read that in the voice of that guy that runs citywok in Southpark.

[@bignaaasty5096]

its okay cause yall have cdprojectred

[@Peterx648]

makes sense lol

[@GastonMorales]

Arriving really late here. I was covering Lords of the Fallen at E3 2013, and the folks at CI invited me to try Alien Rage and I really liked what I tried. Did not get to cover the game release, but I still remember fondly my time with the closed demo.

[@o2Monster_X]

Gggmanlives you have to knighted or canonized for this.

[@Siledas]

"Armed Forces" looks like a mod for FEAR. Like, same post-processing effects, same parallax decals for wall-impacts, same enemy animations and AI behaviour. It's like they paid Monolith for the licensing fees to their engine and just reskinned the thing with as small an amount of effort as possible.

[@IDontWantAHandleKThanks]

Lithtech Jupiter EX They running on same engine.

[@cambreaKer]

same with terrorist takedown 2, code of honor 3 and sas secure tomorrow

[@VideosbySteve]

Theres something about these early/mid 2000s military fps games that are special...Low budget or not, id rather play most of these than the modern CoD or BF games. Added a few of these on my steam wishlist, thanks.

[@marlonbrans3567]

I feel the same i missed alot of these games i just wrote them down and i got a huge list of need to play games still all of them fps too.. wondering what game i should start with.. can you recommand me some old fps games i should start with first???

[@olisk-jy9rz]

@@marlonbrans3567 I love the original Far Cry, nice outdated graphics, great gameplay

[@retrobit5973]

Yes. Exactly. They are good for what they are. Sometimes games just should be downright not good or innovative. You would start to realise how much shotty games you played back then when the internet was small and thought to yourself "This is the bomb" only to later realise that that same game was just downright bad.

[@retrobit5973]

@@marlonbrans3567 sniper Ghost Warrior is pretty good actually. I played the 2nd one and it was good while it lasted. I still remember some missions from that game till this day

[@456ironmaiden]

Yikes

[@Futuretime23]

6:34 that's unmistakably DSP saying WTF

[@emmathepony1992]

that is DSP WTF lol

[@CrankyCuckman]

GGGman is confirmed a detractor d00d! *snort*

[@stribs311]

Who's DSP?

[@stribs311]

Who's DSP?

[@Da_ComputerMonster]

Is that seriously him? Man, He sounds so...dead inside nowadays. Heh.

[@IDrinkLava]

Gggmanlives, you do not know how long I have wanted this. City Interactive has gotten away with pumping out unplayable, 2-hour shovelware for far too long. When you brought up the Mortyr connection in the Battlestrike part, I knew then and there you had gone from being an entertaining KZbin reviewer to a true living legend.

[@DuckRotation]

I feel like you're being a bit unfair. They aren't trying to be shovelware. I think they were just learning over the years. Their games have admittedly gotten a lot lot lot better. Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is actually pretty fun if you can snag it for under $20

[@IDrinkLava]

No. Bungie's growth from "Pathways Into Darkness" to "Halo" was a learning experience. City Interactive is _peak_ shovelware. Before 2013, they would release a dozen poorly-coded $20 budget games with a playtime of less than 2 hours each year. All of them were either derivative adventure games or the recycled COD clones you see in this video. You might be thinking of their post-2013 rebranding where they tried to go legit as a AAA publisher. Since then, they only made Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3, a Far Cry ripoff that was poorly recieved and Lords of the Fallen, a Dark Souls-like that wasn't even made by them. There's been extensive layoffs since 2017, so CI Games won't last in the long run.

[@InputArchive]

I really enjoyed Enemy Front, I liked how you could tackle areas either guns blazing, stealth using silenced weapons and takedowns or use the environmental to wipe out enemies. Also the guns sounded and felt great, easily one of the best games CI Games.

[@davidpiksi]

You absolute madman. Why would anyone subject themselves to this suffering? Oh, and the jupiter engine is the FEAR engine, right? Everything looks identical

[@IDrinkLava]

If only it played identical. I tried a demo of Code of Honor 2 and I couldn't even bring myself to get past the cave level. Ironically, the Chrome engine games are the less-janky ones despite being on a weaker engine.

[@georgeharrison3726]

Yes they used the Monolith engine for that game and Terrorist Takedown something

[@Readher1337]

They have like ten games running on that engine. They paid a lot of money for it (well, relative to their capabilities of course) and wanted to cash on it as much as they could. Terrorist Takedown 2 was their first game to run on it, while the last one was Terrorist Takedown 3 I believe. I think these are all of their Jupiter EX games (some of these might've released only in Poland): Terrorist Takedown 2 Mortyr: Operacja Sztorm (Operation Thunderstorm) Code of Honor 2: Łańcuch Krytyczny (Code of Honor 2: Conspiracy Island) SAS: Secure Tomorrow The Royal Marines Commando Najemnicy (Armed Forces Corp.) Rajd na Berlin: Cień Stalingradu (Battlestrike: Force of Resistance 2) Code of Honor 3: Stan nadzwyczajny (Code of Honor 3: Desperate Measures) Wolfschanze 2 Combat Zone: Special Forces Terrorist Takedown 3 I'm actually pretty sad that I own all but three of them xD

[@IDrinkLava]

I think City Interactive's thought process behind all these recycled games was that they would make more money selling two $20 games that lasted 2 hours each instead of one $20 game that lasted 4 hours. It definitely seems like a sleazy enough ploy for CI Games' standards, though I have to wonder if it was cancelled out by having to pay twice as much for Jupiter EX/Chrome engine royalties.

[@Readher1337]

They bought Jupiter EX license. It was a single-time cost, no royalties afterwards. That's why they used it so much, it was probably hard for them to break even. Not sure about Chrome.

[@grips2519]

"We've made it through the entire list without wanting to kill ourselves" Speak for yourself

[@SkandiTV]

CI Developers lurking on suicide watch.

[@Wahinies]

One of those games my mom rented for me that she thought I would like was Dynasty Warriors 2 and that sparked a long tryst with the series. Not everything the parents get is bad :) plus you miss it when growing up and moving out and then nostalgia sets in when they pass on.

[@Drawnartist]

Dynasty warriors was so badass loved that series played it alot with my buddy down the street

[@Ghost_Of_SAS]

Pretty sure Armed Forces does run on the F.E.A.R. engine. I mean look at it.

[@dephranque9883]

Ghost81 however, those games much worse than fear

[@halospartan199]

Yeah, jupiter ex is the fear engine.

[@InfernalMonsoon]

You can see whole assets, particles, animation, etc being reused from F.E.A.R. - they're probably stock assets for the engine but it gives off a huge vibe of deja vu and flat out laziness.

[@halospartan199]

DarkStarAngelo Shame that the ai doesn't translate to this games, that would ( For me ) make them playable.

[@Readher1337]

They have like ten games running on that engine. They paid a lot of money for it (well, relative to their capabilities of course) and wanted to cash on it as much as they could. Terrorist Takedown 2 was their first game to run on it, while the last one was Terrorist Takedown 3 I believe. I think these are all of their Jupiter EX games (some of these might've released only in Poland): Terrorist Takedown 2 Mortyr: Operacja Sztorm (Operation Thunderstorm) Code of Honor 2: Łańcuch Krytyczny (Code of Honor 2: Conspiracy Island) SAS: Secure Tomorrow The Royal Marines Commando Najemnicy (Armed Forces Corp.) Rajd na Berlin: Cień Stalingradu (Battlestrike: Force of Resistance 2) Code of Honor 3: Stan nadzwyczajny (Code of Honor 3: Desperate Measures) Wolfschanze 2 Combat Zone: Special Forces Terrorist Takedown 3 I'm actually pretty sad that I own all but three of them xD

[@SuperDav1995]

Atleast fake churchill didnt say " *BLACK MESSA* "

[@NORKIE]

Still more entertaining than anthem. Jack is a good name, sounds like a handsome fellow...

[@emberbetz7925]

That was a good one haha

[@MrAdib-ty3im]

Really Underrated video game reviewer at least he deserves hundred millions of sub. I rather watch his video game review than Ign, gamespot and other sold out reviewers. He's really putting alot of effort in these reviews, still not that much sub

[@xmm-cf5eg]

before anyone gets pissed and tells you its a DP-28, not a DP-27, the Model 27 was a thing, if only for a short time. least you didn't have to lug a tripod around in that game, lol

[@goga.games18]

love refrence of lord tachanka

[@1111Tactical]

I have a new game to pitch to them. Battles of Duty: War Fights

[@farguc]

They could call if Call of Battlefield: Modern Duty

[@SkyYukiGuy]

Sounds like mobile rip off game these days.

[@father042]

11:43 lmao that Wilhelm scream

[@Gggmanlives]

You spotted it! Nice! I was waiting for someone to notice.

[@father042]

Is that in the game or edited in?

[@Gggmanlives]

I added it in.

[@firebucket8203]

Gggmanlives I love your work. Your editing is great. The commentary is well written ( if you write a script) and I love how you explain the mechanics of the game in detail.

[@TheSwiatu]

I worked at CI back in 2003 i guess? I remember Chickenator being in early development then - I worked on other games (the WW1 and WW2 arcade flight games and the destriction derby lookalike). It was a really small team back then and I enjoyed working there a lot!

[@retrobit5973]

Respect to you for that! :D. While we might be trash talking these games, please don't take it to heart as some of us has enjoyed some of these titles...

[@MultiKross]

Oh, and about those chicken games - there were three arcade shooter games called "Kurka Wodna", which were very popular in Poland (it was not developed by CI, but by Toontraxx). Basically any school Win95 PC had it installed. So I think that CI simply stole that idea and made their own 3D "spiritual successor".

[@torment4723]

Morouhuhhun says something to you?

[@Gulitize]

Or Moorhuhn in the original German title

[@ACE1918]

Gggmanlives is the game critic KZbin needs, but not the one it deserves.

[@Kraken160th]

"The guy in the French foreign legion doesn't have a French accent." Sorry man that's your fault not the dev's. It's in the name.

[@Jesse__H]

damn, son. MEGA video. Nice.

[@SicSemperBeats]

its crazy how their games can range from 1/10 all the way to 7/10 quality. some of these games are surprisingly good looking and thats hilarious....I will be checking out Alien Rage though

[@DeusFox]

44:15 knowing polish and hearing it, I can tell you it was a terrible translator at work. When they said "guarantee" they meant "warranty", so when he mentions toaster he literally means its warranty. That dialogue is an example of how badly English translates from polish. Mostly because "guarantee" and "warranty" are basically the same thing in polish.

[@sharpfalcon6196]

I think it was supposed to be a reference to The Rookie: "If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster."

[@Bazztoner]

Same on spanish, "garantía" is either warranty or guarantee

[@ComfySal]

11 chapters... Enough to count on 2 hand 🤔

[@drownsinkoolaid4203]

Australian hands, mind you. They're more like paws than hands.

[@thisisstupidplsrevert]

I replayed that part like 3 times because i was trying to make sure thats what he said lol.

[@CrankyCuckman]

#notall Australian's have 11 fingers! Only some of us.

[@leandergihr9598]

Or he may have had vacation in Chernobyl.

[@ajragle]

Maybe he counts his dick in this instance.

[@dksoulstice6040]

Review Suggestions: Psi Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy Gun Darkwatch Eat Lead: Return of Matt Hazard Wet Dead To Rights Cold Winter Brute Force Binary Domain X Squad Headhunter

[@OlujaDoTokija]

Add Men of Valor and Modern Warrior Special Tactics to the list

[@SpecShadow]

Add Pyl developed by Optimus Nexus this gonna be... something

[@theplatformerreviewer6905]

Add Second Sight

[@SpecShadow]

If we add TPP games then what about Shade: Wrath of Angels, From Dusk Till Dawn, Devil Inside, Messiah, MDK games...

[@larshansson1953]

The British security guard made me want to play SAS Secure Tomorrow

[@walnzell9328]

"Eleven chapters. That's enough to count on two hands." Um... What kind of hands do you have?

[@numberyellow]

"You don't, by any chance, happen to have six fingers on your right hand?" "Do you always begin conversations this way?" "My father was slaughtered by a six-fingered man"

[@MrManueldx]

My cousin has twelve fingers

[@numberyellow]

@@MrManueldx is your cousin from Pripyat?

[@MrManueldx]

@@numberyellow close , Mexico

[@numberyellow]

@@MrManueldx lol, well played.

[@labub]

Man you're a legend, how did you go through all these CI games?!?! Hats off to you mate, keep up the good work!

[@hallowseve5801]

I... remember Battlestrike Resistence from when I was a kid. My dad had it and he would always reference this one scene of John saying "Swallow the pill if you want to live... now hows that supposed to help!?"

[@whippyice5420]

ah man my mum used to bring me back games ever so often as a treat she always did her best bless her, she got me worms on the pc once it bloew my mind, gotta love a parent trying to do something nice for their kid

[@nigelskrypt]

45 mins of ecstasy! I'm glad you added clips from Monty Python 😂

[@Gryfflovesmemes]

I remember playing Sniper Ghost Warrior! I had moved in with my mom and her boyfriend had it on PS3, and I remember thinking it was professional and dope, but also not liking it, because the stealth was so broken. Also, it had *really* bad screen tearing for some reason. I actually something think about it from time to time, but I had completely forgotten what it's called. Thanks Gman

[@AlsGaming]

Great reviews man, the DSP soundbites crack me up everytime.

[@TheLaLeeee]

City Interactive is pretty famous in Hungary for making crappy games, thanks to an oldschool avgn like youtuber we had here. We still often quote those videos to each other with my friend.

[@giov182]

The amount of DSP that is in this video really makes me happy

[@anon343]

serious effort went into this video.. Kinda like a Jackass movie where they put themselves through so much pain for no reason.. good job!

[@theorangecarousel481]

Wow I'm early let me make a joke. Cleanprince Gaming

[@sheevinit1490]

Kevin Cooper This meme didn’t just die... IT WAS MURDERED!!!!

[@Ghosttea]

The negative opinion guy!! With really bland thumbnail.

[@drewhammond5203]

Kevin Cooper is MAD with CleanPrince Gaming

[@doommaker4000]

I've got a better one, ready for this? Downward Thrust

[@Sharkwellington]

[Popular game] is RUINING gaming!

[@colegmr]

6:46 It's budget F.E.A.R. !

[@brickproduction1815]

French Foreign legion is made up of well foreigners! Great review mate

[@bradenmatcham7069]

I like how in Sniper you just shoot a whole-ass casing, with primer and powder

[@playman350]

The British voice acting with the Guy Ritchie-type characters made me actually laugh out loud

[@musicaleuphoria8699]

AYE WHALE!

[@SnackersZ15]

You're one of my favorite youtubers, man. Glad to see this channel growing.

[@СкоринДанил]

in russia, these kinds of games that are made for penny by polish people we call польский шутер (polish shooter)

[@Stribog1337]

Oh no is it? Omg

[@noop9k]

Yeah, 'polish shooter' is a meme. Though the russian ones could be even worse. But I completed ZAR!

[@UndyingZombie]

Would explain a lot when you think about it. Though some areas of the world sadly did not get to see as much titles from the big companies a good section of the world got to see at different times.. Things where changing though on that around those years but not quite as fast as a lot of people would like. I lived oddly at a time I had a famicom and got to use my brother's Nintendo when I moved to live with him. Moving, and no longer having access to famicom games... That and sadly it took me a while to find proper adapters for the plugins back then. It was I want to say 1 or 2 years before I could play my famicom games again, most you could not find at all on the Nintendo for some reason. Cant remember when I got my hands on a Super Nintendo but I did have access to my brother's Sega Genesis before I had one.. Fell in love with the Shining Force series as well as D&D Warriors of the Eternal sun, and Masters of Monsters.. I am kind of old now but not THAT old as in, the famicom was my first console... and I had that when I want to say I was 5 or 6. 6 for sure but I remember having it at 5.. So I think I had it since then but it could have been my brothers that I am remembering before he moved away and took it with him XD.. I got lucky my brother, who while was a jock when he was in school he was also a "nerd". ( Really common now but was extremely rare to see when he was in school... IE to the point that it was almost unheard of. ) So he liked playing games on consoles and computers.. But because I was not as into sports as he was he was REALLY annoying to me about that stuff :P No idea why I am telling everyone this stuff.. Just bored I guess.

[@thatonedudefromdiscord4348]

@@noop9k gulman my man... remember gulman...

[@deadnameisdead]

In Germany we have altf4games and he was the first to Review These games after his Videos about CI. CI holded a good meme Status for us in the german Community

[@lutfimakarim8258]

Funny, before I saw your video, I didn't even know City Interactive made FPS games. I only knew them from their point n click adventure games, the Art of Murder and Chronicles of Mystery series.

[@saturdazedreviews3591]

Your reviews have always been funny, but this one is a real treat! Some of those edits had me dying

[@moserfugger6363]

Love your videos! Great topics! :-) Thanks a lot & greetings from Germany.

[@coachrenaldo]

45 minutes of pure, gggman!? *grabs popcorn and sits on a comfy chair* This is gonna be beautiful...

[@EvoSwatch]

Interesting content, subscribed

[@m.g7408]

Acctually Im quite tempted to go play through some of those games, that Aliens game looked impressive and really cool to play, also some of the others. And really cool comment on behind the scenes of these games by two of the developers. Love the channel. You have a new subscriber.

[@hellisfnboring8906]

One important thing, Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 got massive amount of patches, and its not really buggy anymore. Its a good stealth game if you playing on one of the harder difficulties (without bullet markers!). I dont think Alien Rage was unfair. Everytime you showed a death scene because of unfairness, you died because you were in the open. There is plenty of cover nearby for example at 6:32. BTW great video, loved a couple of games (Alien Rage, Sniper Ghost Warrior, Sniper Ghost Warrior 3, Enemy Front was kind of good but meh).

[@yarpen26]

Even at release it had enough titties to mitigate the lack of gameplay polish.

[@MrAwesomeGamer]

27:37 11 chapters, enough to count on 2 hands

[@Nixus237]

I didn’t know that Sniper Ghost warrior was made by this company but immediately recognized a lot of the jingle environments and guns from other games

[@KillThad]

29:47 Ah, a fellow Ed Wood fan.

[@Fawltykog]

That DarkSydePhil get's everywhere these days!

[@jackrose5077]

Man this video is so well made, and the fact that you had a developer comment on here, and the other comments on here really tie this video up as being pretty stellar, I'm really never impressed by videos on youtube, I'd say one of the only other content creators that are ALWAYS pulling my attention is Dunkey and maybe a couple of others. THE PACING in this video is PERFECT considering it's 45 minutes long! That's a long ass video and honestly a lot of the times that videos are that long is because people don't know how to pace their videos and their jokes, so the jokes tend to be this long drawn out and cringy experience that always leads me to putting the video at 1.75x speed so I'm not dying of boredom. Very well made, subbed.

[@NapoleonBonaparde]

6:35 hah its that noodle DSP nice edit xD

[@allhailthelegs]

This is probably the best video you've ever done.