The fact that you had me sit through 57 minutes of content on an obscure game way before my time based on a book from the 60's is crazy. Good video and I'm loving the channel. Can't wait to see you grow further.
Second comment. I did some research and found two old reviews of Ubik on PS1, both German translated to English via Google Translate so the translation may be off in places, and the first one is absolutely glorious. Video Game: "I love this trash company. Every time a package from Cryo comes our way, I start to cheer and look forward to the upcoming test. I'm of the opinion that owning all Cryo titles has already become a cult - the things probably even have collector's value. If you like rubbish of the worst kind or just want to do something bad to yourself, you absolutely have to grab it!" Mega Fun: "The controls and menu navigation are very complicated and not always well thought out. This negative impression also continues technically. The graphics are very pixelated and the backgrounds aren't exactly convincing either. In addition, there are excruciatingly long loading times."
I stopped this video and started reading Ubik because of this video. I spent the whole night captivated from start to finish. My mind is genuinely racing from some of the concepts presented. Huge thanks for putting me onto the book.
I've got to be honest - you've done it again dude. This video is absolutely incredible! I've actually been putting off reading Ubik for years for absolutely no reason but this has absolutely pushed me to bump it up the list! As for the game - well it was absolutely hilarious watching you slog through it. I was cracking up at the idea that you can't equip items from your inventory! These cryo games are literally something else All I can say is please never stop making these - I enjoy them immensely
I've only known this channel for one day (as of writing this comment) and only have seen the "Game Reviews" playlist, but I already had a kneejerk "Oh fuck!" response to seeing Cryo's logo in the intro. Kudos to your work dude, keep it up!
Ubik is an incredible book and I agree, I think it could well have made for a very good film. I was so excited when I learned there was a PSone game based on it, a while back... then I discovered it was made by Cryo and in a weird adventure-strategy-action mess kind of way. Let's hope it will be remembered more for the novel than the game! Loved the vid, great stuff as ever Sean :)
I never read PKD books, but I think, if many people think UBIK is need a trim down, somehow I already thinking if there is a studio had the fund for UBIK movie, I think split it between 4-5 part, with each movie had 2,5 hours run time seems appropriate. Stiil, there will be cut here & there, but at least not all of necessary plot/story. Also, based on Sean intro, I think if there is any AAA studio want to make game with total adaptation of the book, somehow I imagine it with Final Fantasy XV style world & combat with online co-op. Large map with semi open world and team based action-rpg combat will be great as the mechanic & nature for the game. Large skill tree set/upgrade with huge NPC interaction, I bet it will be at least good/decent enough... and I already sure, that game will take hundred of gigs of our storage space.
I'm enough of a PKD fan and liked the original novel enough that I used the handle Ubik for a long time online, and always wondered about this when I heard about it. I'm honestly quite relieved I never tried to play either the PC or PS1 version. Thanks for subjecting yourself to this for us. I think it's time for me to re(rererererererere)read Ubik now.
Your intro sold Ubik to me, so I'll be adding the book to my infinite backlog. Your ongoing quest to undergo cryo treatment for science is commendable. And slightly concerning :D. Thanks for another banger Sean!
The "...If I hadn't read Ubik, I would've had absolutely no idea what was going on in this game, to be honest I still kinda have no idea what was going on in this game..." was such great comedy gold.
I remember seeing this in one of the Game stores in Dublin years ago, went to buy a few games during a day shopping, had a look at it but left it back on the shelf. After now seeing the gameplay, I'm glad I did. It is the 1st time that I've seen the gameplay of Ubik and like yourself I generally don't like to slate games but try to look past the flaws and give them the benefit of the doubt in most cases, some of the best games I've ever played are ones that many others consider to be junk as they do have some unique features that make them memorable but there are those that we really do need to walk away from because I agree, they will scar you for life lol... If I ever do decide to make my own review of Ubik, I think that I'm just going to reference this video as you have been able to explain more about the game way better than I ever could. Its a Not so great game but a great review & video, I really enjoyed it, epic work, well done!
Big fan since I discovered your stuff via I Finished a Video Game shouting you out a couple of months back. I ended up reading Ubik because of this video. Can't thank you enough - keep up the great work, Sean :) looking forward to whatever Cryo masterpiece will next get a look in.
Wtf I only noticed halfway through how small this channel is and how little views this video has. That’s a damn shame, the quality is insane. Great job!
Combine mindpower with firepower. Thats a pretty good tagline. The Cryo interactive trailer for Ubik looks pretty dope. HOLY COW the Killzone effect, blarhg. I've never read UBIK but this game sure is bonkers cool, if a bit of a shame its not better. Maybe someone should remake it and give it a proper go. The twist about the Rinciter bomb is actually, a decent twist.
Ubik on PS1 released in 2000? That makes sense. 2000 in general seemed like a mixed bag for new PlayStation 1 releases. It gave the world Spyro: Year of the Dragon, fundamentally the peak of Spyro's game design, and some good licensed games, but it was clear there was gradually less effort put into making quality games. The most notable example is that this year gave us Tomb Raider: Chronicles, the first Tomb Raider game to fail critically and financially. I've been religiously replaying PS1 Tomb Raider, it's now my favourite series of games on the PlayStation, and Chronicles is still one of the most uninspired games I've ever played. Ah well, I still have the first four to enjoy regardless. I might give the Ubik book a read someday, sounds like a great read.
Ya the good old days, back when developers were happy to move on to new hardware. Almost two damn years and the best looking game on ps5 is still a launch title 🤦♂️
Oh wow, I had this as a dumb kid! I forgot it and it became a vague memory. I remembered it may have existed, but it felt like it was a fever dream and may not have actually happened. I remember always getting five minutes into the game and having no idea how to progress through it. It was always frustrating to interact with and it didn't give me any feedback as to how to progress. I would give up and play something else every time. Mind you, my exposure to games at the time was Crash, Spyro and Bomberman Fantasy Race. The fact that Snake in Mgs1 couldn't jump caused endless confusion for me!
It would be easier for cryo to make a new game based on the PC version then to port it, if I was cryo I would make a turn based(like the PS1 final fantasy) game where similar to the final release your team could be different every mission.
Sean, I don't know how you do it. Personally I would need a strong beer in my hand to get through this game, actually make that a whiskey or a tequila.
Before your review I haven't heard of this game. So thank you for this review! :) Looking up reviews, the PS1 version got (unsurprisingly) really bad review scores, while review scores for the PC version range from okay to amazing.
Yeah but Cryo also did Captain Blood, and it's little-known sequel Commander Blood (which is tons of fun!). Then Dune, of course. All sorts of beautiful, weird, very French games that are more like dreams. Nobody else gives games the theme, the feeling, that Cryo did.
Holy crap. This game looks other worldly busted. So sorry you had to put yourself through all of that for our entertainment Mr. Seanson 😫 It is greatly appreciated lol. Excellent music choice for the video by the way.
I started this with you months ago and this made me want to read the book 1st and I just finished it really good but now I can finally finish the video
Have dull, nostalgia driven game reviews got you down? You need today's modern Ubik review by Sean Seanson! Informative and humorous, an hour will shimmer away before you know it. Guaranteed safe when watched as directed. I was already a PKD fan, and tore through Ubik in the last couple days. Feels like I'm going to processing it for some time. TvTropes claims that this game is well liked by readers and gamers alike but... well, now I know to check out the PC version if any, lol! Great entertaining vid, subscribed.
Would absolutely watch a video you did on load screens. Either a history + survey of different kinds with examples, or a long ASMR type where it's just hours + hours of actual load screens.
I love the book so much, my favourite book ever. I actually have a copy of the pc game but was never able to get it running… thank you for this review so I finally know what it’s about
Wow, this Syndicate Deluxe, no less. After watching your Cryo-torment, I'm starting to think that my old love for Lost Eden and Black Moon Chronicles needs a reality check. Were they ever good? I can't be sure anymore.
Alright Sean, you've gotten me to break my 11 year streak of never commenting on YT, because I need to know what the music is you use for the "Sean Seanson Video About Video Games" title card at 5.29. Everyone else seems to jizz their pants over 'Fuchikoma', which is funky as hell, but the other one is a way better groove! Love your content, keep it up, you maniac! ^^ p.s. Club Mix Vol. 5 is on the way I hope, they make my walk to work fly by! ^^
Im honoured you were willing to break your streak in the name of banging tunes. The intro music is actually a track from the CZcams Audio library called Peachies. Turns out if you wade through the thousands of tracks in there you'll find some gems from time to time. Also Club PlayStation No.5 somewhere in the hopefully not too distant future. Keep yer eyes and ears peeled 👀👂
You get your funeral, but only after your batteries run out at the Moratorium, the place where they keep the half-lifers. They don't arrive there dead, they arrive _near_ dead, with their final hours, or maybe days, stretched out and allocated to visitors who come to see them. They warm the half-lifer up a bit and get their bodily processes partly operating, at a faint level. From there an amplifier goes on their temple and you can have a 2-way conversation with the wife you've had frozen for the last 40 years. In between visitors, they're put back in the fridge and their thinking enters a deeper, slower level. Which I won't go too much into because it's bloody fascinating, and eerie! Read the book!
You mentioned PC ports usually being terrible, but one of my favorite games as a kid was MechWarrior. Which is probably better on PC, but I wanna say they did their own thing that succeeded if I remember the magazine reviews.
Great video! Your content it's pretty good! really! I've heard good things about the PC version of this game, but this ps1 version looks really awful! This novel (Ubik) is one of my favourite books and I love PKD. It's really weird that a novel like this one, with so many great elements to transpose on the big screen only had a videogame and not a movie. PD: That note on the manual was written by Norman Spinrad, a sci fi writer who was a friend of PKD xD
This is something intersting The developers thought long and hard about how to translate Dick's work into a video game. Fans of the time associated him with the world of the Blade Runner movie, so the team felt compelled to stick to this. However, they wanted to avoid a wholly science fiction route and instead stay somewhat true to the book. They thought that Dick's 1960s description of the future was more in the tone of Starsky & Hutch, whereas they wanted to update this with a Blade Runner or Total Recall dark cynicism.[2] The PlayStation conversion was difficult due to the hardware not supporting z-buffering.
Great video as always, Sean. On a slightly different note, if you don't have 1 on1 Government on your Japan Only wheel, then you should take a look. I reckon it will be right up your street :D
"Took the best of Dick in them" - probably the highest brow CZcams content to legitimately be able to use this phase... but seriously credit to the profession and channel for getting through such torture! Now I'm off to read Ubik and beck back on the PKD reading binge
Thank you! And in regards to the playthrough unfortunately not, my playthroughs are usually split over a few days and I also tend to play with video capture in mind. Which sometimes doesn't make for the most natural experience. It more or less means I explore every nook and cranny just to have a wider range of footage, take time out to experienment with abilities and items... let's just say it wouldn't make for a very good longplay haha
@@SeanSeanson Thanks very much for the reply! I am working on mapping the entire game and writing a guide for GameFAQs so it would be really interesting to see your playthrough, but I totally understand you only want to put the best material out there. Thank you so much for preserving PS1 history! I do a fair bit of PS1 / N64 translation over on GameFAQs so I am sure you will get lots of comments from me! Have a good weekend mate!
New fan of yours and I have to say you did a bang up job describing Ubik and its wide influence. It did, as you point out, influence The Matrix. Though it did so mainly through postmodern philosopher Baudrillard who wrote Simulacra and Simulation featured in the film. I do think it is difficult to make a coherent movie adaptation of Ubik. The biggest issue is that the characters are just dull vessels. Much like Asimov, PKD really struggled to make interesting characters. Ironically he always wanted to write "real novels" as sci-fi didn't feel good enough to him, but it paid the bills (and for the drugs!). The time however is ripe for Ubik's themes. Corporations are replacing reality with commercials and fear mongering so that they themselves cannot discern what is real. In a close read you'll find that the "psychics" and "anti-psychics" in the novel aren't necessarily real, they are just measured and believed to be real and their services are sold. The protagonist Chip gets into an argument with his door on his way out of his apartment because the door wants a microtranaction to open, and so on. We are very much living in the techno nightmare where everything is measured and collected without purpose and put into black boxes we cannot understand. I thought the recent White Noise did a decent job with postmodern themes, Ubik has much of the same hopelessness in a world that is filled with information that is impossible to understand.
Wow... just...wow. Finished the review after reading Ubik last night. Seeing the world of of Ubik, a book I now consider a favorite, through the lense of a Cryo Interactive PS1 port is nothing short of surreal. Right from the start with Joe Chip of all people describing himself as a black and white "good guy". Talk about missing the mark. I don't believe that a combat focused game is the answer for a Ubik adaptation. A point and click adventure type of game would likely be iddeal. Maybe an RPG along the lines of Planescape? Beyond the simple adaptation isssues this port appears to be a scam. I've never used that word for a PS1 game but seriously this Ubik PS1 is a lie on a disc that should have never been allowed to sell in stores.
Even before watching the video, I get this flashback to being given a copy of the pc version of this game as a kid, trying to play it and getting stuck in the very first mission when the NPCs refuse to pathfind unto the very first elevator I meet. Can't wait to see if I was dumb as a kid or it just was that poor of a game.
Okay, this is not what I was expecting (I thought it was going to be a Solaris game, which would have been equally weird, but yeah...). One thing I did know: It was going to be a Cryo game, because you, sir, are a masochist. I am a little surprised that Westwood's Blade Runner didn't come up at all - it came out in '98, and looks like it plays a lot like the PC version of Ubik, except... Well... Good.
I used up all my Westwood Blade Runner footage during the Fear Effect video. That and the Cyro brain fog made me forget it existed during the writing process 😂
This video made me buy and read the book. I can say I didn't see what made it a masterpiece. It might be me, it might just be that all the other media that fed off from this book so much, it lost it's charm somehow. But it was definitely nice to experience. If only it could lean into the other psi characters a little more or didn't waste the whole last half of the book to the things going back gimmick. I read elsewhere that people did not enjoy the ending either but it was alright in my opinion. Some cool sci-fi movies using it 50 years later doesn't take away from it imo. Thanks for the recommendation anyway. Looking forward to more like this.
Jaysus mate, this sounds absolutely dreadful, even by Cryo standards! Honestly, this should be shoved at people who claim middling fare like something scoring 5/10 are "the worst game ever", because this allows for perspective and realisation - it can always be worse. Thank you for your sacrifice mate, and hopefully some better games are coming in your future!
When this video released, I watched it up until your spoiler warning; I'd read Do Androids Dream of Electric and A Scanner Darkly and enjoyed both of them greatly, so I wanted to read Ubik myself before watching the rest. I've finished the book and your video, and enjoyed both greatly. Thanks for encouraging me to read more and deepen my love for Philip K. Dick's work. A better approach to this game, I feel, would have been to make it a prequel to the book, following Joe, Glen, and the rest of Runciter Associates in their anti-psi operations. That would have been a better fit for the mission-based gameplay, and let them expand more on the inertials apart from Pat, who weren't developed much in the book.
Cryo Interactive is like bunch of snobby book readers who liked Myst and similar adventure games so much, they made their own game studio. But they forgot to learn about game design and made their own rules.
I used to think I knew my stuff when it came to weird/obscure/trashy PS1 games, but since finding your channel I've come to realize that PAL exclusives are a *huge* blind spot for me. I've gone through like 20 videos of yours and the number of games you've showcased that I've heard absolutely nothing about is in the double digits! Hell I didn't know of Cryo at all and it looks like they alone have shat out at least two all-time top 10 PS1 dumpster fires.
I played this game on the PC when it was current. For it's time the graphics were respectable game play was passable, a bit of a drag until you learnt psionics then it went up a gear or two. What was incredible was the story. There was a reveal around half way though that some 25 years later I still remember being one of the greatest twists I have encounted, maybe as I wasn't expecting it from a game and it was only after finishing it I found out it was based on a Philip K Dick book. I distinctly remember thinking was I looking into the future and seeing games being as gripping as movies, sadly they are more miss that hit these days but then they spend most of their efforts in filling them with woke drivel and micro transactions. To be critical of it now is an injustice as it must be judged in context which is almost impossible to do now. Even when I saw the footage even I was aghast as I would never have dreamt they were that bad but for the time they weren't bad at all.
Yeah I think alot of Cryo games on the PS1 games needed like fan patches and hacks to fix, improved and rebalance. For Ubik tho... it be hard to say... as to fix loading times. maybe play it on a emulator with overclocking on. and the story, hard to say if there's a way fix it to just add-in clip notes and additional story to the game? even if the missing fmvs are just Jpegs with text.
Speak of Which i plan to make something out What the Dead Men Say, Which was later made into Ubik the book. And also maybe someday i actaully you to do that pc version. Aka the orginal This game look like this could be a cult game.
In this video you mention that you like a lot of games that are generally regarded as being bad, would like to see a video about this topic and why you like the games in spite of their reputation
One of my favorite books of all time having a terrible PS1 adaptation is very surprising news to me! I'll be watching this video but suspect passing on the game itself XD
Great video. I’ve read UBIK over a dozen times over the years and still pick up on something new each time. Great book and no doubt this game butchers it. I can imagine a decent game in the style of Deux Ex could be achieved today but let’s be honest, it’ll not happen.
I don't understand why no one mentions in the book that Joy couldn't understand latin t It's one of the first things he asks to pat about, whether it's Hebrew, and she tells him no, it's Latin. And then after the moon incident, he suddenly understands Latin. Plus, the book talks about how realistic 1939 cars are so jory couldn't make them, and only Glen could know how those look. So yes, I think, as the back of your book says, Glen is dead and book takes place in his dying brain :D
And the what the dead man say. Well i did ai concept Well let see i plan a ton of stuff in it. Is like Ubik meet Foucault's Pendulum/goc concild of 108 from scp wiki meet Freejack with some weird humor of total recall ( the og ) with art style of saban Marvel. And also diabolik cartoon and also dic action show ala,where on earth is Carmen sandiego. 90s action fox kids. I plan a crossover with super sentai. And yeah other the main concept. There is plan with the illuminati. Who is main villain. And there are try to doing some weird politcal stuff. There is Will be about the after death of curse There a epsidoe with a heist one. And also every single secret society is out to get it. And also the mafia Will be Here too
The fact that you had me sit through 57 minutes of content on an obscure game way before my time based on a book from the 60's is crazy. Good video and I'm loving the channel. Can't wait to see you grow further.
Appreciate the kind words friend! Thanks for watching :)
Second comment. I did some research and found two old reviews of Ubik on PS1, both German translated to English via Google Translate so the translation may be off in places, and the first one is absolutely glorious.
Video Game:
"I love this trash company. Every time a package from Cryo comes our way, I start to cheer and look forward to the upcoming test. I'm of the opinion that owning all Cryo titles has already become a cult - the things probably even have collector's value. If you like rubbish of the worst kind or just want to do something bad to yourself, you absolutely have to grab it!"
Mega Fun:
"The controls and menu navigation are very complicated and not always well thought out. This negative impression also continues technically. The graphics are very pixelated and the backgrounds aren't exactly convincing either. In addition, there are excruciatingly long loading times."
I had a read of those as well, and the first review truly encapsulates the Cyro experience.
I know its gonna be bad, but I just can't get enough.
Man that cryo reveal made me so pumped, the bad game playthroughs are top tier content
I wish there's a content creator like you for every console platform. So many hidden gems.
I stopped this video and started reading Ubik because of this video. I spent the whole night captivated from start to finish. My mind is genuinely racing from some of the concepts presented. Huge thanks for putting me onto the book.
Delighted I could help spread the good word, its absolutely wild!
I've got to be honest - you've done it again dude. This video is absolutely incredible! I've actually been putting off reading Ubik for years for absolutely no reason but this has absolutely pushed me to bump it up the list! As for the game - well it was absolutely hilarious watching you slog through it. I was cracking up at the idea that you can't equip items from your inventory! These cryo games are literally something else
All I can say is please never stop making these - I enjoy them immensely
Really appreciate the kind words man!
I enjoyed cats sniffing the box. Delightful.
I'll shoehorn them in every chance I get, that's a promise.
legend has it sean puts catnip in each of his ps1 cases
I cannot comprehend the level of mental anguish that you experienced just getting through this game. A headache in digital form.
Cryo for PS1 seems like the LJN for NES and the Quantic Dreams for Dreamcast.
The Cryo Man does it once again! Cryo's PS1 output sure is fascinating, but man... God bless your mental fortitude🙏
I've only known this channel for one day (as of writing this comment) and only have seen the "Game Reviews" playlist, but I already had a kneejerk "Oh fuck!" response to seeing Cryo's logo in the intro.
Kudos to your work dude, keep it up!
Thank you, appreciate you watching! :)
14:24 you’re already 4 parallel universes ahead of every Hollywood tv studio for just reading it
Ubik is an incredible book and I agree, I think it could well have made for a very good film. I was so excited when I learned there was a PSone game based on it, a while back... then I discovered it was made by Cryo and in a weird adventure-strategy-action mess kind of way. Let's hope it will be remembered more for the novel than the game! Loved the vid, great stuff as ever Sean :)
I never read PKD books, but I think, if many people think UBIK is need a trim down, somehow I already thinking if there is a studio had the fund for UBIK movie, I think split it between 4-5 part, with each movie had 2,5 hours run time seems appropriate. Stiil, there will be cut here & there, but at least not all of necessary plot/story.
Also, based on Sean intro, I think if there is any AAA studio want to make game with total adaptation of the book, somehow I imagine it with Final Fantasy XV style world & combat with online co-op. Large map with semi open world and team based action-rpg combat will be great as the mechanic & nature for the game. Large skill tree set/upgrade with huge NPC interaction, I bet it will be at least good/decent enough... and I already sure, that game will take hundred of gigs of our storage space.
I praise your patience ! I gave up during the first mission when I tried this game…
~Cryo-induced screaming~
I actually never managed to make it past that moon-hole. Thanks for solving the mystery!
I'm enough of a PKD fan and liked the original novel enough that I used the handle Ubik for a long time online, and always wondered about this when I heard about it. I'm honestly quite relieved I never tried to play either the PC or PS1 version. Thanks for subjecting yourself to this for us. I think it's time for me to re(rererererererere)read Ubik now.
Your intro sold Ubik to me, so I'll be adding the book to my infinite backlog. Your ongoing quest to undergo cryo treatment for science is commendable. And slightly concerning :D. Thanks for another banger Sean!
Ubik the book is an absolute masterpiece in plotting and world building. One of my all time favourites
The "...If I hadn't read Ubik, I would've had absolutely no idea what was going on in this game, to be honest I still kinda have no idea what was going on in this game..." was such great comedy gold.
I remember seeing this in one of the Game stores in Dublin years ago, went to buy a few games during a day shopping, had a look at it but left it back on the shelf. After now seeing the gameplay, I'm glad I did. It is the 1st time that I've seen the gameplay of Ubik and like yourself I generally don't like to slate games but try to look past the flaws and give them the benefit of the doubt in most cases, some of the best games I've ever played are ones that many others consider to be junk as they do have some unique features that make them memorable but there are those that we really do need to walk away from because I agree, they will scar you for life lol...
If I ever do decide to make my own review of Ubik, I think that I'm just going to reference this video as you have been able to explain more about the game way better than I ever could. Its a Not so great game but a great review & video, I really enjoyed it, epic work, well done!
Appreciate it pal!
Big fan since I discovered your stuff via I Finished a Video Game shouting you out a couple of months back. I ended up reading Ubik because of this video. Can't thank you enough - keep up the great work, Sean :) looking forward to whatever Cryo masterpiece will next get a look in.
Well I'm glad you found me! Appreciate the kind words, thanks so much for watching :)
Wtf I only noticed halfway through how small this channel is and how little views this video has. That’s a damn shame, the quality is insane. Great job!
Combine mindpower with firepower. Thats a pretty good tagline. The Cryo interactive trailer for Ubik looks pretty dope. HOLY COW the Killzone effect, blarhg. I've never read UBIK but this game sure is bonkers cool, if a bit of a shame its not better. Maybe someone should remake it and give it a proper go. The twist about the Rinciter bomb is actually, a decent twist.
Ubik on PS1 released in 2000? That makes sense.
2000 in general seemed like a mixed bag for new PlayStation 1 releases. It gave the world Spyro: Year of the Dragon, fundamentally the peak of Spyro's game design, and some good licensed games, but it was clear there was gradually less effort put into making quality games. The most notable example is that this year gave us Tomb Raider: Chronicles, the first Tomb Raider game to fail critically and financially. I've been religiously replaying PS1 Tomb Raider, it's now my favourite series of games on the PlayStation, and Chronicles is still one of the most uninspired games I've ever played. Ah well, I still have the first four to enjoy regardless.
I might give the Ubik book a read someday, sounds like a great read.
Ya the good old days, back when developers were happy to move on to new hardware. Almost two damn years and the best looking game on ps5 is still a launch title 🤦♂️
Just finished Ubik so I can finally watch this video
I’m glad you shared your tots with us about Ubik. 💕
4:41 Almost like Dune situation actually
Now let's see someone make an adaptation of Dick's VALIS.
Haha! The zoom in on Cryo!
How nerdy can you get, this nerdy and I love it ❤
I never knew about this game until this video.
Oh wow, I had this as a dumb kid! I forgot it and it became a vague memory. I remembered it may have existed, but it felt like it was a fever dream and may not have actually happened.
I remember always getting five minutes into the game and having no idea how to progress through it. It was always frustrating to interact with and it didn't give me any feedback as to how to progress. I would give up and play something else every time.
Mind you, my exposure to games at the time was Crash, Spyro and Bomberman Fantasy Race. The fact that Snake in Mgs1 couldn't jump caused endless confusion for me!
It would be easier for cryo to make a new game based on the PC version then to port it, if I was cryo I would make a turn based(like the PS1 final fantasy) game where similar to the final release your team could be different every mission.
It was about time for some new Sean Seanson content 😁😁
this person has some good graphic design
Sean, I don't know how you do it. Personally I would need a strong beer in my hand to get through this game, actually make that a whiskey or a tequila.
Before your review I haven't heard of this game. So thank you for this review! :)
Looking up reviews, the PS1 version got (unsurprisingly) really bad review scores, while review scores for the PC version range from okay to amazing.
Stamina: 20, well done for getting through that one holy moly
Cryo - French - PS1 - UBIK
Titus - French - N64 - SUPERMAN
We're through the looking-glass here people
Yeah but Cryo also did Captain Blood, and it's little-known sequel Commander Blood (which is tons of fun!). Then Dune, of course. All sorts of beautiful, weird, very French games that are more like dreams. Nobody else gives games the theme, the feeling, that Cryo did.
Holy crap. This game looks other worldly busted. So sorry you had to put yourself through all of that for our entertainment Mr. Seanson 😫 It is greatly appreciated lol. Excellent music choice for the video by the way.
I started this with you months ago and this made me want to read the book 1st and I just finished it really good but now I can finally finish the video
Aw congrats, that's a big journey for a video! Hope it was worth it
Woah, this is jank even by Cryo standards! (although I think I say that every time you show us a Cryo 'gem')
Have dull, nostalgia driven game reviews got you down? You need today's modern Ubik review by Sean Seanson! Informative and humorous, an hour will shimmer away before you know it. Guaranteed safe when watched as directed.
I was already a PKD fan, and tore through Ubik in the last couple days. Feels like I'm going to processing it for some time. TvTropes claims that this game is well liked by readers and gamers alike but... well, now I know to check out the PC version if any, lol! Great entertaining vid, subscribed.
Appreciate the kind words! Thanks for watching :)
Would absolutely watch a video you did on load screens. Either a history + survey of different kinds with examples, or a long ASMR type where it's just hours + hours of actual load screens.
Something tells me Cryo will be the LJN of this channel lol
I love the book so much, my favourite book ever. I actually have a copy of the pc game but was never able to get it running… thank you for this review so I finally know what it’s about
Wow, this Syndicate Deluxe, no less. After watching your Cryo-torment, I'm starting to think that my old love for Lost Eden and Black Moon Chronicles needs a reality check. Were they ever good? I can't be sure anymore.
This is a prime example of how entertaining you are as a person. I literally couldn’t care less about this game, but I watched the whole video 😆😆
I literally read the book so I could watch this video lol What a great read.
Alright Sean, you've gotten me to break my 11 year streak of never commenting on YT, because I need to know what the music is you use for the "Sean Seanson Video About Video Games" title card at 5.29. Everyone else seems to jizz their pants over 'Fuchikoma', which is funky as hell, but the other one is a way better groove!
Love your content, keep it up, you maniac! ^^
p.s. Club Mix Vol. 5 is on the way I hope, they make my walk to work fly by! ^^
Im honoured you were willing to break your streak in the name of banging tunes.
The intro music is actually a track from the CZcams Audio library called Peachies. Turns out if you wade through the thousands of tracks in there you'll find some gems from time to time.
Also Club PlayStation No.5 somewhere in the hopefully not too distant future. Keep yer eyes and ears peeled 👀👂
@@SeanSeanson Thanks for the reply bro! ^^
mmmm, that is going to be bumpin' out the speakers for the foreseeable future! ^^
if my funeral doesn't involve dragging my body to the memetorium, I'm not going
You get your funeral, but only after your batteries run out at the Moratorium, the place where they keep the half-lifers. They don't arrive there dead, they arrive _near_ dead, with their final hours, or maybe days, stretched out and allocated to visitors who come to see them. They warm the half-lifer up a bit and get their bodily processes partly operating, at a faint level. From there an amplifier goes on their temple and you can have a 2-way conversation with the wife you've had frozen for the last 40 years. In between visitors, they're put back in the fridge and their thinking enters a deeper, slower level. Which I won't go too much into because it's bloody fascinating, and eerie! Read the book!
i have to say i think about this game about once a month because of this video
Its gonna live rent free in my head forever so it might as haunt other people from time to time as well.
You mentioned PC ports usually being terrible, but one of my favorite games as a kid was MechWarrior. Which is probably better on PC, but I wanna say they did their own thing that succeeded if I remember the magazine reviews.
Great video! Your content it's pretty good! really! I've heard good things about the PC version of this game, but this ps1 version looks really awful!
This novel (Ubik) is one of my favourite books and I love PKD. It's really weird that a novel like this one, with so many great elements to transpose on the big screen only had a videogame and not a movie.
PD: That note on the manual was written by Norman Spinrad, a sci fi writer who was a friend of PKD xD
This is something intersting The developers thought long and hard about how to translate Dick's work into a video game. Fans of the time associated him with the world of the Blade Runner movie, so the team felt compelled to stick to this. However, they wanted to avoid a wholly science fiction route and instead stay somewhat true to the book. They thought that Dick's 1960s description of the future was more in the tone of Starsky & Hutch, whereas they wanted to update this with a Blade Runner or Total Recall dark cynicism.[2] The PlayStation conversion was difficult due to the hardware not supporting z-buffering.
You have insane patience 😂
Its a character flaw at this stage 😅
amazing top quality
I wouldn't mind 4 hours of loading screens as long as I can listen to your silky voice.
Don't tempt me
@@SeanSeanson it could be a relaxation video to get me through the day...
Damn son.
13:48 what a man!
What a MAN!
Great video as always, Sean.
On a slightly different note, if you don't have 1 on1 Government on your Japan Only wheel, then you should take a look. I reckon it will be right up your street :D
Its on the wheel alright, but its not on the viewer wheel. If you havnt picked a game already, I can add that as your pick if you like?
@@SeanSeanson Sounds good to me :D
@@massiveprogressive9488 Consider it done :)
"Took the best of Dick in them" - probably the highest brow CZcams content to legitimately be able to use this phase... but seriously credit to the profession and channel for getting through such torture!
Now I'm off to read Ubik and beck back on the PKD reading binge
It was a risky line for sure, that ad revenue is hanging by the balance 😅
Of course it was Terry Gilliam that said that... 😝
The graphic remind me of that westwood blade runner game, i don’t know Why
Oh, Cryo... What have you done..
This is amazing work! Subscribed! Did you upload the full playthrough anywhere? I'd love to watch it!
Thank you! And in regards to the playthrough unfortunately not, my playthroughs are usually split over a few days and I also tend to play with video capture in mind. Which sometimes doesn't make for the most natural experience. It more or less means I explore every nook and cranny just to have a wider range of footage, take time out to experienment with abilities and items... let's just say it wouldn't make for a very good longplay haha
@@SeanSeanson Thanks very much for the reply! I am working on mapping the entire game and writing a guide for GameFAQs so it would be really interesting to see your playthrough, but I totally understand you only want to put the best material out there. Thank you so much for preserving PS1 history! I do a fair bit of PS1 / N64 translation over on GameFAQs so I am sure you will get lots of comments from me! Have a good weekend mate!
Cryo seems to be your equivalent of the AVGN's hatred of LJN.
I wouldn't call it hatred, more of a morbid curiosity.
I actually quite like Cryos creativity even if their execution is eh... quite abysmal.
New fan of yours and I have to say you did a bang up job describing Ubik and its wide influence. It did, as you point out, influence The Matrix. Though it did so mainly through postmodern philosopher Baudrillard who wrote Simulacra and Simulation featured in the film.
I do think it is difficult to make a coherent movie adaptation of Ubik. The biggest issue is that the characters are just dull vessels. Much like Asimov, PKD really struggled to make interesting characters. Ironically he always wanted to write "real novels" as sci-fi didn't feel good enough to him, but it paid the bills (and for the drugs!).
The time however is ripe for Ubik's themes. Corporations are replacing reality with commercials and fear mongering so that they themselves cannot discern what is real. In a close read you'll find that the "psychics" and "anti-psychics" in the novel aren't necessarily real, they are just measured and believed to be real and their services are sold. The protagonist Chip gets into an argument with his door on his way out of his apartment because the door wants a microtranaction to open, and so on.
We are very much living in the techno nightmare where everything is measured and collected without purpose and put into black boxes we cannot understand. I thought the recent White Noise did a decent job with postmodern themes, Ubik has much of the same hopelessness in a world that is filled with information that is impossible to understand.
Wow... just...wow. Finished the review after reading Ubik last night. Seeing the world of of Ubik, a book I now consider a favorite, through the lense of a Cryo Interactive PS1 port is nothing short of surreal. Right from the start with Joe Chip of all people describing himself as a black and white "good guy". Talk about missing the mark. I don't believe that a combat focused game is the answer for a Ubik adaptation. A point and click adventure type of game would likely be iddeal. Maybe an RPG along the lines of Planescape? Beyond the simple adaptation isssues this port appears to be a scam. I've never used that word for a PS1 game but seriously this Ubik PS1 is a lie on a disc that should have never been allowed to sell in stores.
It's a shame this wasn't more like the book.
I’m marking my claim here. This guy is 500k worthy. 19.5k right now but your videos are fucking great.
Much love, thank you 🙏
Now i want you to do pc Ubik version
Even before watching the video, I get this flashback to being given a copy of the pc version of this game as a kid, trying to play it and getting stuck in the very first mission when the NPCs refuse to pathfind unto the very first elevator I meet. Can't wait to see if I was dumb as a kid or it just was that poor of a game.
Okay, this is not what I was expecting (I thought it was going to be a Solaris game, which would have been equally weird, but yeah...). One thing I did know: It was going to be a Cryo game, because you, sir, are a masochist.
I am a little surprised that Westwood's Blade Runner didn't come up at all - it came out in '98, and looks like it plays a lot like the PC version of Ubik, except... Well... Good.
I used up all my Westwood Blade Runner footage during the Fear Effect video.
That and the Cyro brain fog made me forget it existed during the writing process 😂
Well, that was as much a great video as Ubik remains an astounding achievement in total crappiness on good ole PS1
Rewatching this and only bow noticed "Phi-lims" for Films.
we spell it fillum
This video made me buy and read the book. I can say I didn't see what made it a masterpiece. It might be me, it might just be that all the other media that fed off from this book so much, it lost it's charm somehow. But it was definitely nice to experience. If only it could lean into the other psi characters a little more or didn't waste the whole last half of the book to the things going back gimmick. I read elsewhere that people did not enjoy the ending either but it was alright in my opinion. Some cool sci-fi movies using it 50 years later doesn't take away from it imo. Thanks for the recommendation anyway. Looking forward to more like this.
I can't go there!
I can't go there!
I can't go there!
I can't go there!
...omg😂
Jaysus mate, this sounds absolutely dreadful, even by Cryo standards!
Honestly, this should be shoved at people who claim middling fare like something scoring 5/10 are "the worst game ever", because this allows for perspective and realisation - it can always be worse.
Thank you for your sacrifice mate, and hopefully some better games are coming in your future!
5:27 NOOO GOD PLEASE NO
God indeed
When this video released, I watched it up until your spoiler warning; I'd read Do Androids Dream of Electric and A Scanner Darkly and enjoyed both of them greatly, so I wanted to read Ubik myself before watching the rest. I've finished the book and your video, and enjoyed both greatly. Thanks for encouraging me to read more and deepen my love for Philip K. Dick's work.
A better approach to this game, I feel, would have been to make it a prequel to the book, following Joe, Glen, and the rest of Runciter Associates in their anti-psi operations. That would have been a better fit for the mission-based gameplay, and let them expand more on the inertials apart from Pat, who weren't developed much in the book.
Cryo Interactive is like bunch of snobby book readers who liked Myst and similar adventure games so much, they made their own game studio.
But they forgot to learn about game design and made their own rules.
I used to think I knew my stuff when it came to weird/obscure/trashy PS1 games, but since finding your channel I've come to realize that PAL exclusives are a *huge* blind spot for me. I've gone through like 20 videos of yours and the number of games you've showcased that I've heard absolutely nothing about is in the double digits! Hell I didn't know of Cryo at all and it looks like they alone have shat out at least two all-time top 10 PS1 dumpster fires.
Btw, didn't that antology adapted this one? I'm recognizing some terms
You're gonna end up in Cryostasis at this rate.
Zeppelin? Oh the Sean-anity!
I played this game on the PC when it was current. For it's time the graphics were respectable game play was passable, a bit of a drag until you learnt psionics then it went up a gear or two. What was incredible was the story. There was a reveal around half way though that some 25 years later I still remember being one of the greatest twists I have encounted, maybe as I wasn't expecting it from a game and it was only after finishing it I found out it was based on a Philip K Dick book. I distinctly remember thinking was I looking into the future and seeing games being as gripping as movies, sadly they are more miss that hit these days but then they spend most of their efforts in filling them with woke drivel and micro transactions. To be critical of it now is an injustice as it must be judged in context which is almost impossible to do now. Even when I saw the footage even I was aghast as I would never have dreamt they were that bad but for the time they weren't bad at all.
Yeah I think alot of Cryo games on the PS1 games needed like fan patches and hacks to fix, improved and rebalance.
For Ubik tho... it be hard to say... as to fix loading times. maybe play it on a emulator with overclocking on.
and the story, hard to say if there's a way fix it to just add-in clip notes and additional story to the game?
even if the missing fmvs are just Jpegs with text.
Speak of Which i plan to make something out What the Dead Men Say, Which was later made into Ubik the book.
And also maybe someday i actaully you to do that pc version. Aka the orginal
This game look like this could be a cult game.
In this video you mention that you like a lot of games that are generally regarded as being bad, would like to see a video about this topic and why you like the games in spite of their reputation
One of my favorite books of all time having a terrible PS1 adaptation is very surprising news to me! I'll be watching this video but suspect passing on the game itself XD
I mean there not many movies or game
That got Artificial Afterlife.
Dick did get to see blade runner in a special screening
Should I stop watching and go read the book before continuing? I probably should, right? 16:58
Great video. I’ve read UBIK over a dozen times over the years and still pick up on something new each time. Great book and no doubt this game butchers it. I can imagine a decent game in the style of Deux Ex could be achieved today but let’s be honest, it’ll not happen.
I don't understand why no one mentions in the book that Joy couldn't understand latin t It's one of the first things he asks to pat about, whether it's Hebrew, and she tells him no, it's Latin. And then after the moon incident, he suddenly understands Latin. Plus, the book talks about how realistic 1939 cars are so jory couldn't make them, and only Glen could know how those look. So yes, I think, as the back of your book says, Glen is dead and book takes place in his dying brain :D
Never meet this game,in Russia licensed ps1 disks been extremely rare.i implant Chip in my console,and use pirate disks with bad translation's
All gave some, but you gave all. tyfys
And the what the dead man say. Well i did ai concept
Well let see i plan a ton of stuff in it. Is like Ubik meet Foucault's Pendulum/goc concild of 108 from scp wiki meet Freejack with some weird humor of total recall ( the og ) with art style of saban Marvel. And also diabolik cartoon and also dic action show ala,where on earth is Carmen sandiego. 90s action fox kids.
I plan a crossover with super sentai.
And yeah other the main concept. There is plan with the illuminati. Who is main villain. And there are try to doing some weird politcal stuff.
There is Will be about the after death of curse
There a epsidoe with a heist one. And also every single secret society is out to get it. And also the mafia Will be Here too
Oh I do indeed smell shite!