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[EightBit Man]

Platforms: SONY PlayStation, SEGA Saturn, PC (Windows)
Release dates: August 31, 1996 (NA, PlayStation) - February 28, 1997 (EU, Saturn)

Screenshots as a reminder of this gem:

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Personal history and opinion​

My personal introduction to this game was with my purchase of my second PlayStation unit; through the included Demo 1 disc.
Here in The Netherlands it was distributed by Electronic Arts (HQ here in Rotterdam).

It was developed by Probe Entertainment, a English developer which had a record of handling movie licences pretty well up until that point (see: the 16-bit Alien 3 and Judge Dredd).

It was, and still is, one of my favorite games on the PlayStation.

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Insights into the game's development​

The PlayStation was chosen as the lead platform because lead programmer Simon Pick strongly felt that it was the most powerful format of the time. In particular, he reasoned that the Saturn and PC versions would come out better if the programmers were trying to emulate impressive graphical effects on an extant PlayStation version than if they were designing the game around the hardware limitations of the Saturn. Pick elaborated on how the team intended to optimize the game for Saturn:

"At the moment on PlayStation, we've got six or seven circular images which appear to make the lens flare effect, but maybe we'll just have two or three on Saturn version to keep the frame rate up. ... Frame rate is the main thing. We've got one guy coming over to us from SEGA who's very clever. He's written a program which basically takes a polygonal model, and as it's rendering it looks at the size of the polygons; if they're very small it says "there's no point texturing this, let's do it flat in just one color," and this way it saves processor time and helps keep the frame rate up. We're going to reduce the detail of the models quite a lot, and reduce the texturing so the roads on Saturn will probably be flat shaded - so it's like a gray road rather than having textures."

Source: Wikipedia

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Overall reception of the game​

Die Hard Trilogy was a commercial hit, with sales above 2 million units by March 2000.

The PlayStation version was positively reviewed. As of June 2017, it holds an 86% ranking at GameRankings. Most critics considered the high value-for-money of getting three games in one to be Die Hard Trilogy's strongest point.

Die Hard Trilogy was a finalist for the Computer Game Developers Conference's 1996 "Best Adaptation of Linear Media" Spotlight Award, but lost the prize to I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. However, Electronic Gaming Monthly editors named it Action Game of the Year.

Source: Wikipedia

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There's a interesting "making of" series by one of the persons involved with the development of this classic, action-packed game:




And who can forget the great soundtrack, spanning many styles?




-----


What was your experience with the game? Do you find it, like me, one of the finest games based on a film franchise?​

 

[Senua]

Bad games honestly.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Yeah, really not great.

 

[brap]

They're pretty bad.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Jeepers, never knew people were so against it. I loved it too. Was very fun

 

[Longcat]

I'm honestly surprised to see so much hate. I absolutely loved it back in the day. Most of all I remember there was a cheat code or something for the 2nd one that allowed you to customize the levels. Like edit the path you take. control enemy and object placements, explosions and all kinds of stuff, and save it to a memory card. I made so much stupid shit.

 

[DiddyInAHellcat]

Man I loved this game never got to finish it . My favorite one was the crazi taxi style

 

[Birdo]

Bad now, but I loved them at the time. I even got a light gun for it.

There was actually a sequel, but I never played it:

 

[Lukin1978]

Great games? Uhhh yeah okay

 

[brap]

You can really tell when's the last time somebody played these games. I play it 25 years ago guys it's good I swaer!!!

 

[Nankatsu]

Now this is a fantastic Die Hard game:

 

[Kazza]

I thought that all three sections were pretty mediocre, but the fact that they were all in a single game made it pretty good value. I rented it for the weekend from Blockbuster on my Saturn and that was enough for me. Fun, but nothing special.

 

[Digity]

It was fun back in the day, still got my ps1 copy. The best Bruce Willis game is Apocalypse, it has some hilarious one liners.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

Die Hard Trilogy was very popular at the time. I remember it being one of Playstation's biggest hits that year. The Sega Saturn port appeared to be a sloppy mess and notably inferior, which was all too common with third-party software titles (certainly not always the case, but that was the perception among the gaming public). I will freely admit that I haven't played this game in ages, so I cannot comment on it. I do hope it holds up well.

 

[EightBit Man]

You can really tell when's the last time somebody played these games. I play it 25 years ago guys it's good I swaer!!!

I booted up my copy yesterday. Think it's still a very great game...or a series of great games.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Never got a chance to play these, but I played the arcade version and (much later) the Saturn port. I thought that was a fun 3D beat 'em up.

 

[GymWolf]

more like 3 shitty games for the price of one (and i still feel robbed)

 

[Revolutionary]

Game was weird but ambitious. Had a lot of whole lot of fun with it back in the day, despite its shortcomings. The Die Hard 3 soundtrack is burned into my head for all eternity lol

 

[The Bloody-Nine]

I really enjoyed it at the time. Very fond memories. Had no idea people thought it sucked.

 

[icebomb]

PS1 games aged so badly, my eyes are offended.

 

[Gargus]

2 mediocre and 1 shitty game for the price of one.

There's your headline.

 

[cormack12]

Loved 1, didn't mind 2, disliked 3 but came round to it eventually to think of it as mediocre.

I'd really like to see 1 redone

 

[Space Runaway]

Definitely doesn't hold up but it was a pretty good package for the time.

Of the three I remember being impressed by the Die Hard 2 lightgun game as it had a level of environmental destructibility that you really hadn't seen before or would again until Crisis Zone the following gen. Plus it supported Konami's Hyper Blaster lightgun which hadn't even been released outside of Japan yet. =P

 

[TwoDurans]

Two bad games, and an okay game (DH1) that probably shouldn't have been a Die Hard game.

 

[Belmonte]

I read sometime ago an article in Edge magazine about its development. Very impressive what they made at the time tech wise. Isn't the first time we had a virtual city to explore in a console? And making 3 games at the same time with different gameplay is bonkers.

Couldn't find the article unfortunately.

I have good memories from it. I rented it some times to play with my friends in the weekends. Perfect since its arcade-like. One friend played Die Hard 2, other Die Hard 3 and I choose Die Hard 1. They need to wait a lot longer than me since Die Hard 1 was harder to die, heh.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

I read sometime ago an article in Edge magazine about its development. Very impressive what they made at the time tech wise. Isn't the first time we had a virtual city to explore in a console? And making 3 games at the same time with different gameplay is bonkers.

Couldn't find the article unfortunately.

I have good memories from it. I rented it some times to play with my friends in the weekends. Perfect since its arcade-like. One friend played Die Hard 2, other Die Hard 3 and I choose Die Hard 1. They need to wait a lot longer than me since Die Hard 1 was harder to die, heh.

The entire print run of Next Generation Magazine is available digitally here. Be sure to download all the issues and store them on your hard drive for future reference.

In addition, you can find a massive collection of videogame magazine scans here, courtesy of Retro CDN. Kudos for all their hard work.

 

[Northeastmonk]

I had this game back when I had Time Crisis with the Guncon. I’ll always remember the airport level. What a fun game for 10 minutes

 

[Paulxo87]

I played the hell out of this as a kid.

A lot of weird little Easter eggs in the third person shooter game. Bizarre random photos of the development team scattered within, weird NPC behavior, etc.

 

[FF:Enhanced_Reality]

These people are crazy. Die Hard Trilogy is fucking awesome.

 

[Cravis]

All three were awesome at the time.

Part 1 and 2 have held up and are still fun to play but part 3 has aged badly

“Slow down! We gonna go back in time”


There have been some great Die Hard games. Arcade on Saturn. Nakatomi Plaza on PC, and the Japanese only TG16 one.

 

[Flintty]

I loved this on my brothers Playstation. I think it was the first game I played where you could break windows. Blew my fucking mind.

 

[Senua]

These people are crazy. Die Hard Trilogy is fucking awesome.

Just like drum machines are awesome eh?

 

[Orta]

Now this is a fantastic Die Hard game:

Don't wish to derail but yeah, and probably the only game where you could smash a full sized grandfather clock over somebodies head

 

[Davernos]

I remember this game had a lot of nonsense screaming all the time.

 

[Arkam]

I remember liking the driving bits to get the bombs, but hating the rest. Was a one time BlockBuster rental only.

 

[Breakage]

I only found Die Hard enjoyable, but it was a 5/10 at best. The other two games were terrible.

 

[Grinchy]

This shit was awesome. I played the shit out of the airport level on a demo disc before ever getting the full game. The interactivity with the area was pretty amazing on a home console to a kid during those times. I ended up playing a lot of all 3 games. The weird part was that I had only seen the 3rd movie at that point.

 

[SportsFan581]

A favorite from the past, my most played section of the game was probably the driving part. The on-rails shooter was done well for the time.

 

[Guardian's Light]

Platforms: SONY PlayStation, SEGA Saturn, PC (Windows)
Release dates: August 31, 1996 (NA, PlayStation) - February 28, 1997 (EU, Saturn)

Screenshots as a reminder of this gem:

-----

Personal history and opinion​

My personal introduction to this game was with my purchase of my second PlayStation unit; through the included Demo 1 disc.
Here in The Netherlands it was distributed by Electronic Arts (HQ here in Rotterdam).

It was developed by Probe Entertainment, a English developer which had a record of handling movie licences pretty well up until that point (see: the 16-bit Alien 3 and Judge Dredd).

It was, and still is, one of my favorite games on the PlayStation.

-----

Insights into the game's development​

The PlayStation was chosen as the lead platform because lead programmer Simon Pick strongly felt that it was the most powerful format of the time. In particular, he reasoned that the Saturn and PC versions would come out better if the programmers were trying to emulate impressive graphical effects on an extant PlayStation version than if they were designing the game around the hardware limitations of the Saturn. Pick elaborated on how the team intended to optimize the game for Saturn:

"At the moment on PlayStation, we've got six or seven circular images which appear to make the lens flare effect, but maybe we'll just have two or three on Saturn version to keep the frame rate up. ... Frame rate is the main thing. We've got one guy coming over to us from SEGA who's very clever. He's written a program which basically takes a polygonal model, and as it's rendering it looks at the size of the polygons; if they're very small it says "there's no point texturing this, let's do it flat in just one color," and this way it saves processor time and helps keep the frame rate up. We're going to reduce the detail of the models quite a lot, and reduce the texturing so the roads on Saturn will probably be flat shaded - so it's like a gray road rather than having textures."

Source: Wikipedia

-----

Overall reception of the game​

Die Hard Trilogy was a commercial hit, with sales above 2 million units by March 2000.

The PlayStation version was positively reviewed. As of June 2017, it holds an 86% ranking at GameRankings. Most critics considered the high value-for-money of getting three games in one to be Die Hard Trilogy's strongest point.

Die Hard Trilogy was a finalist for the Computer Game Developers Conference's 1996 "Best Adaptation of Linear Media" Spotlight Award, but lost the prize to I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. However, Electronic Gaming Monthly editors named it Action Game of the Year.

Source: Wikipedia

-----

There's a interesting "making of" series by one of the persons involved with the development of this classic, action-packed game:




And who can forget the great soundtrack, spanning many styles?




-----


What was your experience with the game? Do you find it, like me, one of the finest games based on a film franchise?​

Absolutely loved it, played countless hours on ps1 ❤

 

[mcz117chief]

Played them on PC, even then they were pretty trash, good thing I got them as part of a PC magazine, the thought of paying a full price for this is just...ew.

 

[RobotXTaisen]

I played only the second (on PC) and it was absolutely cool!

 

[kingbean]

I played it but I didn't like it much.

 

[The Alien]

"Three great games for the price of one"

Well, at least the 2nd half of the statement is true. Lol.

 

[MacReady13]

For some reason I could never really get into the "Die Hard" section of this game, but parts 2 and 3 I played the shit out of! Loved this game on PSX.

 

[Doczu]

Wow, talk about polarizing opinions xD
This was one of my first games. I liked the third one, i sucked at the first game and didn't think much about the second as i didn"t have a gun and controls were trash on the gamepad.
But then a buddy came along with his lightguns and that made me somewhat like the second one.

Never tried the sequel. But Die Hard Arcade was miles better.

 

[israel cesar]

Once i played the 3 games so much i literally got sick, amazing soundtrack!

 

[tasos]

Loved it !!

 

[Northeastmonk]

Best part was hearing “Yippee-ki-yay”

 

[fazzk7]

I never post but longtime lurker. Logged in just to say how amazing these games were and how much I loved them.

distinctly remember this was my first exposure to PlayStation at a toy store. Kiosk had a demo disk and me and my brother played this. Fell in love and made me want a PlayStation. I got one as a gift and this game eventually and played it like crazy.

So many memories and so much fun with this game.

 

[Erdrick]

My friend rented this back in early 97 and it was a damn fun time. Lots of variety and for a licensed game? Quite fun. Music was pretty catchy too. I love the actors doing their best impressions of Bruce Willis and Sam Jackson. "You just killed someone!!!" "I need some Asprin..."

Similar to Alien Trilogy, which was decent enough in it's own right, it was a solid effort.