(PR) Today, during the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted livestream, Nightdive Studios — renowned video game remaster developer and subsidiary of Atari, one of the world’s most iconic consumer brands and interactive entertainment producers — announced the immediate digital release of The Thing: Remastered on Windows PC, PlayStation 4|5, Xbox One and Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and the game’s availability to stream in the cloud for NVIDIA GeForce NOW members.
Created in collaboration with Universal Products & Experiences, The Thing: Remastered is a faithful HD restoration of the cult-classic 2002 third-person survival horror shooter game inspired by Universal Pictures’ genre-defining 1982 film, The Thing.
Where the film ends, a new terror begins.
Nightdive Studios, with Universal Products & Experiences, has upgraded this horrifying classic for the modern era through its proprietary KEX Engine for play on current-generation gaming devices up to a 4K resolution at 120FPS. Improvements to character models, textures, and animations have been hand-crafted by Nightdive Studios, with the implementation of advanced 3D rendering for updated lighting and atmospheric effects. The result is a suspenseful and disgustingly detailed remaster that reanimates the thrilling game for modern audiences.
“In keeping true to the spirit of one of the most iconic alien organisms in pop culture, The Thing: Remastered has emerged when you’d have least expected it,” said Larry Kuperman, Nightdive Studios’ Director of Business Development. “For the whole Nightdive crew, it has been an honor working with Universal and members of the original development team to not only remaster The Thing video game but deliver on the original vision for the game. We hope fans worldwide enjoy their return to Outpost #31.”
In the frozen arctic tundra, a mysterious shape-shifting alien has wiped out the crew of the U.S. Outpost #31 research facility. In The Thing: Remastered, players step into the boots of Captain J.F. Blake, the leader of a United States Army Special Forces rescue team sent to investigate the blood-curdling events that transpired in the original The Thing film. Trapped by the elements and at risk of infection by a horrific entity, Blake must keep his squad together to survive by gaining their trust and ensuring that their fear and paranoia don’t get the best of them… or himself.
The Thing: Remastered Key Features:
- Return to U.S. Outpost #31: Continue the story of The Thing and face off against terrifying monsters, from scuttling head-spiders and human-like walkers to gigantic multi-tentacled level bosses
- Who Goes There?: Command a squad of up to four NPCs from Soldier, Medic, and Engineer character classes through the game’s 11 frightening levels
- The Warmest Place to Hide: Someone in your squad may not be who they appear to be. The shape-shifting alien hides inside an imitation, so keep a watchful eye
- Don’t Lose It: Gain the trust of your squad members and minimize their fear levels lest they become defiant or, worse, succumb to paranoia
- Ultimate Alien Terror: Upgraded models, textures, and animations hand-crafted by Nightdive, plus enhanced lighting and atmospheric effects
- Stunning Visuals: Up to 4K 120FPS visuals on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S
- Checkmate: Trophies and Achievements on Windows PC via Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles
The Thing: Remastered is available now digitally for $29.99 on Windows PC via Steam (Steam Deck Verified) and GOG, PlayStation 4|5, Xbox One and Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. It is also playable on NVIDIA GeForce NOW, which gives gamers instant access to GeForce PC performance on nearly any PC, Mac, SHIELD TV, Android, iOS device, or Chromebook without downloads.
Discussion (7 replies)
Join Discussion →WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT
I didn't know that! Uuuggghhh...
Yep, been tracking this one almost weekly since the summer announcement. I snagged it on GoG last night, a bit pricey though at $29.99 but I know I'll get my money's worth out of it.
Lol! Played it for about an hour on the laptop but spent almost the same amount of time troubleshooting why VULKAN kept picking the iGPU instead of its dGPU. Credit to the iGPU though, still managed 15-25 FPS at 1440p. Turned out I had to go into NVCP and towards the bottom of the settings there's an option for picking which GPU handles OpenCL and once I switched that to the dGPU I was getting a solid 250 FPS (max the laptop display will allow). Had some fun and looking forward to getting back to it.
Controller cross-hair aiming and object p/u is a bit wonky though. NPC AI is still pretty bad also but so was the original. However team NPCs aiming is pretty good. Give 'em some guns and let them do the work.
Hahahahahahahahahahaha, the fun of playing games on laptops! You're bringing me back in the 2000s, when I worked for a freelance software testing company that had nVidia as one of our clients. Oh gawd the laptop testing, and the endless hassle of dealing with dGPU vs iGPU. Especially if it's an nVidia GPU, cuz then we're also dealing with Optimus shenanigans. Now imagine dealing with all this using alpha and beta drivers.
Valuable test data!
Ah, well there we go.
Yep, you can never take for granted when that gremlin will pop its head up but it's been a while and after checking OS settings I was stumped and even started googling to see if the devs screwed something up but day 1 yields nothing for that. I had actually updated the NV drivers for the heck of it which will lead into another story I'll be posting for tomorrow but while changing some of the settings I always do after a new driver update I came across the OpenCL setting, blind luck actually.
Yeah, I can honestly say I'm not a fan. I don't know about anyone else but I've learned to turn it off after experiencing freaky delays in just getting a game to launch. While doing my research I found a post suggesting just disabling the iGPU but when I did that it got rid of HDR, G-Sync, and I think also limited to 60 Hz so no matter what, Windows/Intel has designed things that you have to use iGPU to at least do a handoff to the dGPU. May not been the same for all folks out there but that's what I saw with my laptop so iGPU stays but at least everything is switched to dGPU in terms of settings.
I do admit that occasionally if all I'm doing is web surfing or basic junk, I'll turn off dGPU so I can unplug and prolong the battery life. It can also play some non-demanding tabletop style games as well at 1440p for about an hour or two.
How heartwarming it is to see that Optimus hasn't changed much since the late 2000s!
Woooooow. Like I said, bringing me back to those old days of QA testing nVidia's sh1t.
And that makes sense, and is part of the versatility of having a dGPU and an iGPU.
My friend has a Surface laptop. nVidia dGPU in the base, Intel iGPU in the display. In addition to all the usual fun of having an iGPU + dGPU setup in a laptop, with a Surface you also have to deal with how smoothly the swapping works when you detach the screen (not very), or if settings revert back to your previous changes when you plug the screen back in (they won't, so have fun with the game you're trying to run only seeing the Intel iGPU in the screen).
Decided to give it a try and yep, the old reg edits from the original still work but instead of making a registry entry add them to the config file (in user>nightdive>thing). They seem to kick in after a new level load but might on start. I only tried them after 2 or 3 level so I'm not sure. When I looked at the config file the script style seemed the same so I just added them at the end and it worked.
"PlayerInvulnerable" = "1"
"NPCInvulnerable" = "1"
"FullWeaponEquip" = "1"
"Fullammo" = "1"