New adventure games

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Dizi
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Post by Dizi »

Well I wish I read that before I bought Dead Reefs :p

I haven't started playing it yet as I was in the middle of playing something else when I got it. Might start it as some point during the weekend, hopefully I will like it more than you :)

I also have just finished replaying the sam and max episodes, I bought the whole series when I heard about it...ohh me of full faith in tell tale. So all I had to pay was postage and packing and they sent it to me on a cd :) Fun fun fun love every minute of the game...here's me looking forward to next month and the start of season 2
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Scythe
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Post by Scythe »

Just remember you need to reassign the controls, or you won't get anywhere in the game (not that you'd be missing much).
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Scythe
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Post by Scythe »

Sherlock Holmes vs Arsene Lupin
Just marathoned it yesterday. It's the sequel to Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened, and pretty much more of the same. Except that this game is less mature (as in no gruesome corpses or worship of the great old ones). It pits Sherlock against another fictional character, a French master thief intent on humiliating the British in a first person adventure/puzzle game. Now, the puzzles in Awakened were hard, in Lupin they're harder. 80% of the game is spent solving riddles in locations with far too many interactable objects, such as when you need to follow the clues left behind at the British Museum by figuring which exhibit item you're looking for and typically solving a puzzle as well when you find it. It's bloody hard!

There's also the more traditional adventure game parts, which are equally unforgiving. Miss an item in one of the vast open areas, and you're stuck. When you need to crouch to find certain hot spots, and sometimes to look up as well, it's easy to miss something. Of course, sometimes everything seems obvious, but that's not the rule in this game. It typically fails to give you any decent hints, sometimes going so far as to not even give you a proper objective.

Still, fun was had along the way, the story is decent, if occasionally leaping the bounds of logic, and it takes you around some famous London locations that are interesting to explore. Shame about the voice acting though.

Culpa Innata is up next!
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Post by Scythe »

Just completed Penumbra: Overture and Penumbra: Black Plague. They're sort of first person horror survival adventure games (the first one more so than the second). You're trapped in a mine in Greenland that is built upon deeper excavations, and all surviving creatures seem to be infected with some virus that makes them kill crazy. What happened and what secrets are buried beneath the ice?

Lots of environment puzzles with the first person interface, which is kind of different and therefore fun for a while. Also some more traditional inventory puzzles and the like. Not exactly the most difficult of games, completed the both of them within 6-7 hours, I think. Some good stuff on the way.

Other adventure games recently played, but not completed:

Culpa Innata: I wish every game that started out as a program to emulate facial expressions would turn into a neat adventure game. The traditional adventure elements in this one are pretty bad, and ridiculously hard (as in extremely easy to overlook something because of terrible camera angles), however the vast part of the game where you go around interviewing people in this sci fi setting is awesome. Bear in mind though, that the world the game takes place in (based on some Turkish novel) is 100% ridiculous and unbelievable.

The Experiment: Very different adventure game, where you're an unseen person who guides what seems to be the sole sane survivor of a shipwreck on her quest to figure out what happened and what to do about it. Unique in that you look through various cameras by activating them on an overhead map and help the lady move about by turning on lights to make her go where you suggest, turning on computers near her to make her use them, etc. Some very clever puzzles come of this rather unique control scheme. Also some very long and boring walks, since she walks at the speed of a crippled slug. But you can spend the time reading emails and documents left behind, which are pretty awesome to read through. It gets rather silly as you progress though.
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Post by Zyx »

Fun news!

Subscribe to Telltale Games' monthly newsletter and get Sam & Max Season 2 Episode 1: Ice Station Santa for free!

Just go to here http://www.telltalegames.com/community/blogs/id-355

If you ever wanted to play the new Sam & Max games, this is your chance (until end of July). Remember that one episode of the first season is also free!
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Zyx
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Post by Zyx »

Is it Christmas already?

Telltale Games and LucasArts presents: Tales of Monkey Island

Also, LucasArts is releasing a re-make with of the first Monkey Island. updated graphics and voice-over.

Is this sacrilege or did I just die and go to Heaven? This is the second biggest news I've ever heard.
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eMTe
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Post by eMTe »

What to update? Cant they understand that ingame graphics is ok enough when it's clear and objects can be distinguished from the backgrounds? 320x200 is more than enough for the game to be playable and moderately beautiful. I dont see any reason for the update except money-making.

Sacrilege no. Sanctity is not the best term when talking about computer games. Money-making yes. Great term.
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Post by Zyx »

Why so cynical? What about bringing the joy of insult sword fighting to the next generation who don't even know what EGA and MIDI mean?

Anyway, I'm not that excited about the remake. Tales of Monkey Island, baby.

Brütal Legend, DeathSpank, Pixar's UP and now this... what a year.
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Post by Dizi »

I just fell off my seat when I saw that post. Me and my boyfriend were talking about if we could have any game remade what would it be and my answer was Monkey Island 1,2 and 4 in the style of 3 :p probably not going to happen that way, it will more than likely be 3d.

But the new games wow, wow wow, I have just ordered them now :p I can't wait to see monkey island have the telltale treatment :)
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Post by Dizi »

Just went to the site, if they are the graphics they are using then woohoo not 3d :p
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eMTe
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Post by eMTe »

It wasnt cynical. What about telling new generations that plot means more than graphics?

Let's enhance all computer games, colour all black/white movies, put old playwrights into modern sceneries. You know, it's a bit insulting for youngsters that previous generations think that new design is required for them to get interested in oldies (of any kind). Contrary, the more coarse presentation, the deeper reception. If one cant understand swordfighting in EGA he wont understand it in 3D. And if one needs to have great graphics to play games, because he wont play it otherwise it's even worse. If we look for such an audience we're turning into mediocrity.

You know, the funny thing is, what makes MI jokes so funny, even for you, is their eliticism. They're quite mature, sophisticated, aimed at adults. Same what makes Winnie The Pooh a classic - action and cute clumsy characters for children, general atmosphere and most of jokes for adults. Disney cartoon turned Pooh into totally childish (childish in bad way) tale with action only and nothing behind it. Same will be done with computer games. They are getting more and more oriented towards younger audience, which is nothing bad, unless developers have an idea how to interest mature player. But they dont seem to have. They just make games more and more simple and more and more tempting to play. But they're empty inside. Shooters, adventures, rpgs.

So what if nothing from plot and dialogues will be changed in the remake of MI. Now it wont, in 2015 who knows. Maybe theyll decide some jokes are too hard to understand and some characters not enough likable. And theyll make small changes. Who cares, younger audience must want to play MI and know the great world of insult sword fighting. It's not bringing the joy, Zyx, it's money-making. Dangerous way if you demand quality from entertainment.

There's a great saying about making art for children: art for children must be made exactly the same way as for adults, only better. What's better in this remake? Graphics? It's not betterness we should think about. And it's not important that we talk about older teens and not kids here. The direction of thinking is bad. Why not think about adding more jokes, instead enhancing graphics. Sacrilege? Surely. But at least adding some depth to the project.

I say no to this remake. Nothing to be remade imo. Dialogues ok, graphics watchable, no bugs. I dont see the point.

My purist pov.
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Scythe
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Post by Scythe »

Well, I look somewhat forward to full voice acting.
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Post by Scythe »

Moreover, it will be released for the consoles (at least X360), and if you are a purist, all it will take is the press of a button, and it switches to the original game.
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Post by Dizi »

I love that they are building it on top of the original game and it switching back to the old graphics is a great feature :) The more I read about it the more excited I am becoming about it :)
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Post by Pater Alf »

I'm quite excited about the new game series by Telltale Games. They did a great job with Sam & Max and I'm pretty sure they will do a great job with Monkey Island as well. I will preorder Tales of Monkey Island when I'm home tonight and so it will be one of the very few games that I've bought in years.
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Post by eMTe »

Hey, just dont kill the possibly heated debate with overoptimistic tones. ;)

I'm the pixelart fan after all and I once made SGSW almost furious with my "I hate games made after 1995" sentence. So treat my words moderately serious, but dont refuse to take part in discussion. ;)

We have topic onboards, probably requiring separate thread. Is remaking always ok? Is graphics more important than gameplay? Are they on par? What does sacrilege term really means when we talk about old games?

Let's make hot discussion. OG is on a verge of deletion, let's try to revive its spirit for a moment. :D
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Post by Pater Alf »

Arrgh! For some strange reason Telltale Games won't accept my credit card... :damnpc:

@eMTe
I see your point in the discussion. And I can understand your sorrow when it comes to remakes of (nearly) perfect classic games. Of course graphics are not more important than gameplay (you can clearly see that when you look at all those empty but perfect looking games nowadays) and there is always the danger that the spirit of a game is killed when a (bad) remake is created.
But as far as can see the new version of "Monkey Island" isn't really a remake. It seems to me that it is more an enhanced version of the original game. They leave everything untouched, but just improve the graphics and the sound/music. This is a thing that was made the same way by other companies many years before. Just think of the VGA versions of "Leisure Suit Larry", "Police Quest" or "King's Quest" or of "Pirates! Gold". These were classics too and did they take harm by improving the graphics and sounds? No, they were made enjoyable for a new generation of gamers. And that was many years before you had to mess around with tools like DosBox or SCUMMVM to play those great classic games.
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Post by Zyx »

Pater Alf wrote:But as far as can see the new version of "Monkey Island" isn't really a remake. It seems to me that it is more an enhanced version of the original game.
They leave everything untouched, but just improve the graphics and the sound/music. This is a thing that was made the same way by other companies many years before. Just think of the VGA versions of "Leisure Suit Larry", "Police Quest" or "King's Quest" or of "Pirates! Gold".
You wouldn't have needed to go that far with examples, the original SMI was EGA, but was later released with VGA graphics.

But there's certain truth in eMTe's point in that neither Maniac Mansion Enhanced (and the fan-remake Maniac Mansion Deluxe, which did go further than just update graphics/sound) feel like the original. But is it something objective or just nostalgia? :wink:
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Post by Scythe »

I just don't see the terrible heated discussion when Lucas/Telltale seem to be doing just the right thing: It's an enhanced version, with all the things gamers expect today graphically and soundwise, coming out on at least one popular console, and includes the original game in all its pixel glory and with original sound. Further, giving people the ability to switch between enhanced and original at a button press is simply genius.

But, make a thread about the horror and sacrilege of remakes, and I'll see if I can muster the rage to participate in the way you prefer. ;)
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Post by Dizi »

I agree with scythe on this, ok some remakes were terrible. But with what is known so far with MI remake, they are taking into account what both sides want, the MI fans want the game to retain what it was and the new market look for good graphics and sound... from the looks of what they are planning it is going to meet both these expectations.

A debate about remakes in general might be a good idea but trying to debate something that seems like it is just going to be another enhancement like the EGA to VGA version rather than a out and out remake seems silly.
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