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Grim Fandango and Day of the Tentacle remastered versions ing cheap on PS4 store

Started by Mister Six, February 08, 2021, 06:34:17 PM

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Mister Six

Quote from: Hand Solo on February 10, 2021, 02:51:23 PM
Never played Universe the other Core Design adventure game.

Played the demo, and it had far too many verb actions - insert?! - which made solving puzzles pretty tiresome. Mostly I remember it for the Amiga Power review that joked about wanting to murder the composer's family, and which led to the composer writing to the magazine's publisher to demand an apology.

Consignia

Am I remembering incorrectly, or was Loom really short? I only played it a couple of times in the mid 90s, and I just recall it being a lot shorter than Monkey Island, or Fate of Atlantis with fewer locales and characters. I definitely didn't play it on hard though, as I am literally tone death and would never have been able to remember the songs you have to play. So that might have ended up with a shorter game experience.

Hand Solo

Quote from: Consignia on February 10, 2021, 03:51:38 PM
Am I remembering incorrectly, or was Loom really short? I only played it a couple of times in the mid 90s, and I just recall it being a lot shorter than Monkey Island, or Fate of Atlantis with fewer locales and characters. I definitely didn't play it on hard though, as I am literally tone death and would never have been able to remember the songs you have to play. So that might have ended up with a shorter game experience.

It is short compared to those two, the difficulty level only changes the notation system with Expert meaning you have to remember spells by ear etc. Looking online at a walkthrough video it seems to take about an hour and a half to complete which is decent innings for a game at the time, it's obviously shorter as it came on one disk compared to Monkey Island's 4, or sequel which I remember had fucking 11 which was a nightmare of disk swapping. I bought a hard drive for my Amiga when Indy and the Fate Of Atlantis came out with 12 of the fuckers. When DOTT and Sam & Max only came out on PC and not Amiga, that's when I sold my Amiga.

madhair60


Hand Solo

Quote from: madhair60 on February 10, 2021, 06:04:11 PM
It's a game, not Encarta

Should've put back trying to guess which nouns and verbs you have to type in too, bet you'd love that? Sierra freak.

madhair60

Quote from: Hand Solo on February 10, 2021, 06:15:39 PM
Should've put back trying to guess which nouns and verbs you have to type in too, bet you'd love that? Sierra freak.

yeah I would like that yeah cos i'm clever with words and don't need my interface to just be like a big hand, or an eye, ooh the eye is for looky-wooky and the hand is for touchy-wouchy, would you like to see the nice monkeys on the lovely island yeah???? etc, etc, the usual

Hand Solo

Quote from: madhair60 on February 10, 2021, 06:20:28 PM
yeah I would like that yeah cos i'm clever with words and don't need my interface to just be like a big hand, or an eye, ooh the eye is for looky-wooky and the hand is for touchy-wouchy, would you like to see the nice monkeys on the lovely island yeah???? etc, etc, the usual

Yes, putting as many extraneous steps in the way between the player and the environment they're trying to interact with is a much better approach, instead of just clicking on the object you're interested in to interact you should have to maneuver the character around like an RC car right up to the thing each time and be pixel-perfect not to mention guessing the verbs and nouns madness, point and click was an advancement on that older interface which is why everyone adopted it, Grim was a step backwards and it's telling they put the option back in for the remaster.

By your logic programming your own fucking game from code on the fly as you play it is an even better interface than what you mentioned. Why bother with a code interface, do it in binary machine language. Why use a gamepad or a keyboard? Go back to punch cards or replacing fucking vaccum tubes every 30 seconds etc etc haha old-school bathos

madhair60

i'm just going to bow out respectfully and acknowledge that I was doing was I honestly believed was a laughably obvious wind-up

Jerzy Bondov

madhair sitting down to play a game hoping he's going to have an absolutely fucking miserable time, literally rubbing his hands together with glee at the prospect he might play for six hours and have all his progress wiped out for some impossible-to-predict reason, that's his idea of pure bliss that is

bgmnts

Exit

I dont know the word 'exit'

Leave

Leave what?

Leave thread.

I dont know the word 'thread'

Kill self.

You are dead.


The Culture Bunker

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on February 10, 2021, 08:04:04 PM
Tell you the best adventure game? It's Broken Age.
That's another that I got on PS+ years ago. I remember liking it a lot, except for one or two puzzles on the 'ship' being annoying. The female lead character also looks just like a good friend of mine (and a similar name too) which perhaps helped me have a lot of affection for it.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

I'm wanking downloading Day of the Tentacle as I write this. The sale ends tonight at midnight.

St_Eddie

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on February 10, 2021, 01:27:17 PM
I should add that the work the ScummVM people have put into making so many classic games playable (it goes way beyond just the SCUMM games at this point) is a beautiful public service. I know this thread is about remasters but we're very lucky we don't have to wait for remasters of all sorts of old adventure games because of ScummVM's commitment to getting them running on every device you can name.

ScummVM is one of my favourite things in life.  I cannot recommend it enough to people.  Some smart boffin has recently programmed a way for people to use hi-res replacement images in the Sierra games through ScummVM.  This opens a whole new world of possibilities.  Exciting stuff!

Quote from: Hand Solo on February 10, 2021, 01:45:26 PM
I'd also talk up oft-unmentioned The Dig and Loom for pure atmosphere too...

Loom is pretty good but man, The Dig is seriously underrated.  It's easily one of the most atmospheric games I've ever played and very different to the usual comedy focused LucasArts titles.  A fascinating and turbulent development story to bringing it to life too, for those willing to read up about it (be sure to read all 6 pages of the whole feature).

Quote from: bgmnts on February 10, 2021, 02:44:48 AM
As an aside, if anyone is interested in checking out Double Fine's work, Costume Quest 1 and 2 are fucking great.

I wouldn't personally go as far as to say that they're "fucking great" but yeah, they're fun, quirky and charming games.  Worth a play, for sure.

Quote from: Hand Solo on February 10, 2021, 01:45:26 PM
Smashing, will prob get on that once I've played Thimbleweed Park, which is coming up in my backlog of shit to play over lockdown.

Thimbleweed Park is easily one of the best adventure games of the last couple of decades, so you're in for a treat.  The ending is shite though, so be prepared for that.

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on February 10, 2021, 02:41:04 PM
They didn't have any Loom left so I got Lure of the Temptress instead, which is alright but it's no Loom.

Oof.  Lure of the Temptress is gubbins.  The innovative virtual theatre system results in you spending an age trying to track down whichever fucker you need to talk to in order to progress the plot.  Also, when I last tried to complete it, my fuckwit of a sidekick glitched out and got trapped on a screen and wouldn't shift for love nor money, resulting in a game-breaking situation.  Revolution Software would go on to refine the foundations set by Lure of the Temptress with the vastly superior Beneath a Steel Sky (and of course the Broken Sword games).

Quote from: Mister Six on February 10, 2021, 02:44:48 PM
I should go back to The Dig. I always got stuck at the bit where you were supposed to reassemble the creature with a bomb inside it - couldn't get the bones in the right order.

You and every other person who ever played the game.  That puzzle is notorious, as is a latter one involving a rat alien and a cage.  Still, do persevere (and use a walkthrough if necessary) because the game as a whole is wonderful.

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on February 10, 2021, 08:04:04 PM
Tell you the best adventure game? It's Broken Age.

Nah, not having this.  The first half is pretty darn good but the second half takes a nose dive in quality; really poorly designed, obtuse puzzles and some of the most insultingly nonsensical set of twists and bullshit non-endings that I've ever encountered in an adventure game (real LOST syndrome - you can absolutely tell that they were winging it as they went along and setup a bunch of mysteries in part one, with no idea of how they'd be resolved in part two - which was released a year after part one).  Saying that Broken Age is the best adventure game is like saying that Chex Quest is the best FPS game.  I find it difficult to comprehend that anyone who's played all (or even the majority) of the oft recognised classics of the genre would name Broken Age as being the best of the lot.

Mister Six

Cheers, I'll probably get back to The Dig one day. At least now I have Google image search and YouTube to help me out with that bullshit bone puzzle.

Got through the forest in the first chapter of Grim Fandango and am worrying that my overriding memory of the game - that it's very, very funny but that the puzzles become weaker, fewer and more contrived as they go along, probably because it was very expensive to produce[nb]And, as would become apparent years later, because Tim Schafer can't manage a team for shit[/nb] - is going to turn out to be accurate.

madhair60

Tell you which one I loved, Discworld. I don't think that it's even particularly good, but I loved it.

Is it weird to be a big fan of adventure games but not to enjoy actually playing them all that much? They have gorgeous art, generally, and fabulous atmosphere, but the puzzles always seem like moon logic wank.


St_Eddie

Quote from: madhair60 on February 11, 2021, 12:00:13 AM
Tell you which one I loved, Discworld. I don't think that it's even particularly good, but I loved it.

Is it weird to be a big fan of adventure games but not to enjoy actually playing them all that much? They have gorgeous art, generally, and fabulous atmosphere, but the puzzles always seem like moon logic wank.

It very much depends on the game.  I think that the likes of The Secret of Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle have perfectly reasonable puzzle solutions, given the cartoony nature of the worlds in which the take place.  Moon logic puzzles tend to stand out more in the adventure games set in a grounded reality because it seems absurd to have a realistic character do a insane series of actions in order to achieve a relatively mundane goal.

Having said that, the fantasy based Discworld is one of the absolute worst in the entire adventure game genre for moon logic puzzle solutions.  It's absolutely notorious for them.  One of the main culprits for containing a shit ton of "how the fuck was I supposed to figure that out?!" moments.

St_Eddie

For anyone interested in playing some decent adventure games, here's a list of some of my absolute favourites...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* Day of the Tentacle Remastered - Lots has been said already.  My absolute favourite adventure game of all time.  Play it!

* The Monkey Island series (1-3.  I wouldn't really bother with 4 and 5) - The most renowned series of adventure games out there and with good reason.  Genuine classics of the genre.  The most fun you'll ever have pretending to be a pirate, whilst cooing at the second largest monkey head you've ever seen!

* The Gabriel Knight Series (play the original VGA version for the first game, as opposed to the iffy remake) - A trilogy of games revolving around the paranormal.  There's some quality writing to be found here from genre favourite Jane Jensen.  It's interesting to play through the series in order, as the technology of each game reflects the standards of when they were produced - VGA for the first game, FMV for the second and 3D for the third.

* The Longest Journey - A beautifully written adventure game, one of the best ever in fact and featuring an incredibly rich fantasy world to explore, full of interesting characters.

* What Remains of Edith Finch - A stunning, albeit short experience.  It takes a couple of hours to complete but the memories will last a lifetime.  Art.  Pure art.

* Thimbleweed Park - Ron Gilbert's (of Monkey Island fame) triumphant return to the adventure game genre.  A colourful cast of characters investigate a murder in this comedic adventure of epic proportions.  The developers have updated the game several times since its initial release, adding such things as a fully functional arcade.  A real labour of love from a couple of pioneers of the genre.

* The Tex Murphy series (start with the third game in the series; Under a Killing Moon - skip the first two. They've aged badly and you don't need to play them to understand the third game) - One of the few FMV games which actually benefits from the technology and a vastly underappreciated series in general.  This series has a real cult following (of whom I count myself among - I pledged £150 to the Kickstarter for the 5th game in the series).  Those who've played the series, love it.  Everyone else remains sadly unaware of what they're missing out on.  Please do allow me in indoctrinate you into the cult.  The series revolves around a future noir series of investigations into shady goings on, by a gumshoe (played brilliantly by co-developer Chris Jones) living in a post apocalyptic LA.  Part comedic, part dramatic, all brilliant.  Featuring a groundbreaking for its time 3D engine.  As fun today as it was back when it first came out.

* Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis - The real Indiana Jones 4!  Nuff said.

* Fran Bow (and its spiritual followup Little Misfortune) - A tale of psychologically scarred little girls going on an adventure seeping with darkness, as they tread the thin line between reality and the fantastical.

* The King's Quest series (play the free lovingly made, fan produced AGD remakes for the first 3 games in the series) - The jewel in Sierra's crown, if you'll pardon the pun.  Classic swords and dragons fantasy stuff.  The AGD remakes serve as a perfect introduction.  Part 4 is a bit of a headache with its old school typing interface but parts 5 and 6 return to point & click loveliness.  A word of warning though; save early, save often!  Oh, and avoid parts 7 and 8.  They are utter dogshit.  The rest are golden though!

* Beneath a Steel Sky (now freeware) - A marvelous science fiction tale, by British developer Revolution Games.  That Britishness pervades the game's world.  A flawed game in some respects, but also very memorable and brimming with personality.  A man with a secret past explores a dystopian city to investigate those who killed his tribe and kidnapped him.  Featuring one of the most lovably sardonic sidekicks ever; a little robot named Joey.

* The Broken Sword series (1, 2 & 5 - skip 3 & 4 - they're crap and you don't need to play them to understand 5) - I'd say that the Broken Sword series was adventure gaming's answer to Indiana Jones but the two official Indiana Jones adventure games already have that covered.  Still, this series of games is the next best thing.  Really fun and engaging globetrotting adventures with gorgeous hand-drawn art.

* Sam and Max Hit the Road - Bizarre, enthralling satirical lunacy featuring a dog and rabbit duo of freelance police, with a real penchant for violence and an unorthodox approach to solving cases.  An absolute must for any self-respecting adventure game player.

* The Dig - A dramatic sci-fi tale conceived by Steven Spielberg, about a team of astronauts flung into the farthest reaches of space and onto a seemingly dead alien planet.  One of the most atmospheric games of all time.

* Grim Fandango Remastered - Whilst the puzzles can be frustratingly obtuse; the world, story and characters ensure that this game is an absolute MUST PLAY.  If you a games player and you haven't played this game, then I tut at you.  This is gaming narrative at its absolute finest.

* The Last Door (seasons 1 & 2) - A loving homage to Lovecraft's works with a spellbinding minimalist approach to graphics, resulting in the player filling in the blanks within their own mind, much like reading a novel.  One of the most thought provoking horror games on the market and one which respects the player's intelligence to not have everything spelt out for them.  A genuinely creepy and unnerving game.

* I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - An adaptation of Harlan Ellison's classic short story of a computer AI gone mad, ruling over the last five survivors of the human race; subjecting them to an eternity of reoccurring deaths at the hands of their worst nightmares.  As unforgettable as it is harrowing.  Harlan Ellison provides the voice of the malevolent AI and is superb in the role.  An absolute must for horror and science fiction fans.

* Full Throttle Remastered  - One of the coolest games ever made and with a rocking soundtrack to boot.  A tale of bikers, a world gone bad and exploding bunnies.

* The Blackwell series (starts with The Blackwell Legacy - the first of five games) - A charming and often moving tale of a woman and her ghostly pal, traveling the city and helping the conflicted specters of the recently deceased to move onto the other side in peace.  Great voice acting and well thought out puzzles ensure that you'll have a good time with this award winning series of games.

* The Ben Jordan Case Files (free independently made series of adventure games) - Seriously underappreciated series of games.  The first couple of games are very amateurish in production values but they get more and more professional as they go on and the developer gets more skilled at making them.  Really well designed puzzles abound within this thoroughly engaging series of paranormal cases to investigate. 

* Kathy Rain - Something of a homage to the Gabriel Knight series.  A short but sweet adventure game revolving around a young woman's investigation into strange happenings.  Gorgeous pixel art and well designed puzzles aplenty.

* Dropsy - A strange and colourful adventure game about a grotesque clown with a heart of gold.  Featuring a unique interface, whereby you have to interpret what characters are saying based upon symbolic pictures.  A stunning art style perfectly compliments the bizarre and charming world in which the characters exist.

* Machinarium - A dialogue free tale of a world inhabited exclusively by robots.  The puzzles can be very tricky in this game but the imagination on display is awe inspiring.

* Toonstruck - A sort of inverse Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, featuring a live action Christopher Lloyd being sucked into a cartoon world of his own creation, which is slowly being corrupted into perversion by a sinister villain voiced by Tim Curry.  Also featuring a sidekick voiced by Dan Castellaneta (Homer Simpson).  Puzzles are on the tougher side of things but it's worth persevering for the sheer joy of exploring this deranged and subversive cartoon world with its wicked sense of humour.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I believe that near enough everything I've listed is available through GOG, so that's handy.  Seriously if you're looking for a adventure game to play, take your pick from above.  I wholeheartedly recommend them all.  Some of the absolute best adventure games that I've ever played and I've played a LOT of adventure games.

bgmnts

I Have No Mouth may actually be the only game where a character
Spoiler alert
eats a baby
[close]
. That alone is noteworthy.

Although not sure I'd consider Edith Finch an adventure gane in the same way Dreamfall or Monkey Island is. It felt more like a walking sim with some puzzles and mini games. It is a great game though.

Also I would definitely add 999: 9 hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors, Syberia and the first half an hour of Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy). Also, Sam and Max has gotten another remaster hasn't it? That's cool.

Although, sometimes its hard to say what counts, like is Ghost Trick an adventure game? I've seen Portal on Best adventure games list but to me thats a puzzle platformer. So I dont know.

St_Eddie

Quote from: bgmnts on February 11, 2021, 04:06:32 AM
I Have No Mouth may actually be the only game where a character
Spoiler alert
eats a baby
[close]
. That alone is noteworthy.

Actually, that moment was cut from the final game.  Details can be found here (along with a video showing the cut baby eating scene).

Quote from: bgmnts on February 11, 2021, 04:06:32 AMAlthough not sure I'd consider Edith Finch an adventure gane in the same way Dreamfall or Monkey Island is. It felt more like a walking sim with some puzzles and mini games. It is a great game though.

This is true enough but I would argue that walking simulators are a form of adventure game; a sub-genre.  Most are awful of course, but What Remains of Edith Finch demonstrates how brilliant the format can be, when probably executed and done right.

Quote from: bgmnts on February 11, 2021, 04:06:32 AM
Also, Sam and Max has gotten another remaster hasn't it? That's cool.

It's a remaster of the Telltale series, which was never anywhere near close to being a patch upon LucasArts' Sam & Max Hit the Road.  Still, the remaster is very nicely done, except for the controversial self-censorship and revisionist history in regards to certain jokes and the character of Bosco.

Basically, for those who don't know, the developer of the remaster recast the voice actor for Bosco, a black (well, technically grey) character.  The original voice actor was white and the developer deemed it necessary to recast the role with a black actor.  Which would be fair enough for any new games in the series, but it felt a bit off to me and some others to do that for a remaster of a pre-existing game (it would be akin to re-dubbing all of the classic episodes of The Simpsons with an Asian actor voicing Apu - arguably not a bad thing to do, but the revisionism would certainly be controversial).  It doesn't help that the new actor's performance is flat and not a patch on the original voice artist's performance.

Anyway, aside from the change to Bosco; here's a post I made over on Mix n Mojo (a fansite dedicated to LucasArts and LucasArts related adventure games), detailing the various changes to dialogue made throughout the game as well...

Quote from: Myself, over on Mix n MojoSo, it turns out that there's been a few alterations to the original dialogue as well. For example (from the Steam page)...

Original dialogue:
BOSCO: "You may call me Jean-Francois Sissypants, the cowardly French anarchist."

New dialogue:
BOSCO: "You may call me Jean-Francois Bonde-A-Part, the new wave French anarchist."

Later on...

Original dialogue:
BOSCO: "...or my name is not Jean-Francois Sissypants."
MAX: "But your name's not Jean-Francois Sissypants."

New dialogue:
BOSCO: "...or my name is not Jean-Francois Bonde-A-Part."
MAX: "But your name's not Jean-Francois Sissypants."

In their effort to be woke, Skunkape Games have made it so that the original joke no longer makes sense. It all seems a bit silly to me. Is the term "sissypants" really off limits in a Sam & Max game?

Here's a bunch of the other changes to dialogue...

Episode 1

Original dialogue:

It's the latest in BoscoTech inovation, it'll clear out a room of militant college students in no time, guaranteed.

New dialogue:

It's the latest in BoscoTech inovation, it'll clear out a room in no time, guaranteed.


Episode 2

Original dialogue:

Oh no, the Skinbodies are like Skinheads, but ten times worse!

New dialogue:

Oh no, the Skinbodies are like those horrible hairless cats, but ten times worse!


They also changed the license plate of that car parked next to the DeSoto

Original:
DRG DLR (drug dealer)

New:
RMS DLR (arms dealer, I guess?)


And, in the other episodes, when you click on some objects, Max still has the old voice from episode 1 (unlike the original).

Episode 5:

They changed one of Bob's line

Original dialogue:

Take our complimentary goggles designed for special-needs children so that the little ones can play along.

New Dialogue:

Take our complimentary wide-fit goggles designed for playing while bicycling or enjoying full-contact sports!


Original dialogue:

It's 'cause everyone on the internet has to pick an avatar, like a dwarf or an orc or an hot young fifteen-year- old girl curious about the adult world and willing to experiment.

New Dialogue:

It's cause everyone on the internet has to pick an avatar, like a dwarf or an orc or a troll... But we've got enough trolls.


Original dialogue:

Half-elf, foo'!

New dialogue:

Half- elf, troll!


Episode 6:


Original dialogue:

Max: A hundred trillion?! You crazy, foo'!

Bosco: Look man, all I know is, I keep making up the most ridiculous price I can think of, and you keep paying it! So I ask you, who's the foo'?

New dialogue:

Look man, all I know is, I keep making up the most ridiculous price I can think of, and you keep paying it! So I ask you, who's the crazy one?

Him saying "crazy" doesn't make sense, since Max called him a "fool".


They also removed a lot of dialogue, such as:

1-"Why the sex change"

Sam: Mind telling us how you came to be a woman?

Max: Did you use lasers, or just do it the old-fashioned way?

Bosco: Are you sassin' me? Boy I'll whup your behind so hard you won't be able to see straight!

Max: But I don't see out of my behind.

Bosco: You will after I get through with you!


2- "How's life as a woman?"

Sam: So how are those BoscoTech breasts holdin' up?

Bosco: Oh, these are all natural, honey.

Max: I'm not gonna lie, I like 'em bosomy.

Bosco: Oh, Max, you take after your father.

Max: Okay, you just crossed the line, pal!

Sam: Easy Max, theoretically, we have even more disturbed people to worry about right now.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

I always viewed the world of Sam & Max as a bit edgy; a dark underlying streak of humour for the adults, along with the deceptively cute dog and bunny for the kids. A lot of these changes all make the game seem a little bit toothless by comparison. The changes are not the end of the world (pun very much intended, given that the game's title is Sam & Max Save the World) but it is a shame, in my opinion, particularly when some of the alterations are being made in fear of offending... skinheads and militant college students?

I've gone into detail over on Mix n Mojo as to why I take umbrage with the changes and had a long debate on the matter with one of the site's staff members.  I won't repeat my thoughts here, but instead point anyone who's interested in hearing them towards the comments section of Mix n Mojo...

Debate Part 1 (scroll to the bottom of the page and then read the comments upwards from there)

Debate Part 2 (again, start at the bottom of the page)

The behaviour of certain staff members on that site really soured me towards the site in general (their review of the remaster labeled anyone who had a problem with the revisionism as "proud boys".  Also read the comments on the 'Debate Part 2' link above to see the staff members double down on that bullshit and utterly refuse to engage with my counter-arguments in good faith), which really disappointed me as a decades long time reader of theirs, it must be said.

The nonsense with the staff members at Mix n Mojo also had the unfortunate effect of leading to me prematurely ending my playthrough of the remastered game because anytime one of the censored changes would crop up in-game, I'd be reminded of that obnoxious, sanctimonious site staff member and his self-righteous name calling.  Thanks for ruining the game for me more than any alterations to content ever could, Mix n Mojo.

Quote from: bgmnts on February 11, 2021, 04:06:32 AMAlthough, sometimes its hard to say what counts, like is Ghost Trick an adventure game? I've seen Portal on Best adventure games list but to me thats a puzzle platformer. So I dont know.

Yeah, I draw the line at Portal.  It's a superb game but in noway is it an adventure game.  A game containing puzzles does not automatically mean that it ought to be classified it as an adventure game, otherwise Tetris would be an adventure game too.  Adventure games are defined by narrative, alongside puzzles and a mainly sedate gameplay method which doesn't involve player reflex.  There's a decent definition of what constitutes an adventure game on Wikipedia...

Quote from: WikipediaPoint-and-click adventure games are those where the player typically controls their character through a point-and-click interface using a computer mouse or similar pointing device, though additional control schemes may also be available.[53] The player clicks to move their character around, interact with non-player characters, often initiating conversation trees with them, examine objects in the game's settings or with their character's item inventory. Many older point-and-click games include a list of on-screen verbs to describe specific actions in the manner of a text adventure, but newer games have used more context-sensitive user interface elements to reduce or eliminate this approach. Often, these games come down to collecting items for the character's inventory, and figuring when is the right time to use that item; the player would need to use clues from the visual elements of the game, descriptions of the various items, and dialogue from other characters to figure this out. Later games developed by Sierra On-Line, including the King's Quest games, and nearly all of the LucasArts adventure games, are point-and-click-based games.

Point-and-click adventure games can also be the medium in which interactive, cinematic video games comprise. They feature cutscenes interspersed by short snippets of interactive gameplay that tie in with the story. This sub-genre is most famously used by the defunct Telltale Games with their series such as Minecraft: Story Mode and their adaptation of The Walking Dead. The Henry Stickmin series of flash games published by InnerSloth also use this method, where the player chooses a branching "choose-your-own-adventure" storyline in which quick-time events requiring point and click motions appear.

madhair60

When I said "moon logic wank" what I think I actually meant was "I'm too thick to solve them"

Jerzy Bondov

I was just being cheeky about Broken Age because it's a bit controversial. It's good but it's not that good. I actually preferred the second half with its (admittedly annoying) hard puzzles because I had to get out a bit of paper and do some diagrams.

Eddie, I respect your attention to detail on the Telltale Sam & Max remaster, but I find it hard to get worked up about them changing some shit unfunny jokes to some other shit unfunny jokes. But I found those games such a chore anyway, with none of the charm or detail of the LucasArts one. It just doesn't look like a Steve Purcell drawing, so what's the point?

Tell you what else I don't like? The Trilby series. Total fucking wank.

Discworld I love. Jon Pertwee's voices are so funny in that. He's not in the second two because he fucked off and died. Still, across the three games you've got Eric Idle, Rob Brydon, Nigel Planer, Tony Robinson, Kate Robbins and Robert Llewellyn.

St_Eddie

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on February 11, 2021, 09:40:46 AM
I was just being cheeky about Broken Age because it's a bit controversial. It's good but it's not that good.

"Oh right. I see. I get it. You were lampooning me. It was a simple lampoon."

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on February 11, 2021, 09:40:46 AMI actually preferred the second half with its (admittedly annoying) hard puzzles because I had to get out a bit of paper and do some diagrams.

Ah, yeah; the wires puzzle, right?  I too must confess that I rather enjoyed having to go old school and get the old notepad and pen out for that one.

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on February 11, 2021, 09:40:46 AMEddie, I respect your attention to detail on the Telltale Sam & Max remaster, but I find it hard to get worked up about them changing some shit unfunny jokes to some other shit unfunny jokes. But I found those games such a chore anyway, with none of the charm or detail of the LucasArts one. It just doesn't look like a Steve Purcell drawing, so what's the point?

I wasn't actually all that worked up about the changes themselves, though I didn't agree with them.  What proper pissed me off was being labelled as a bigot simply for not unequivocally praising the changes and declaring them as progressive by smug, self-satisfied arsehat website writers.

Having said that, I agree on the game itself.  None of the Telltale games were much cop to begin with.

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on February 11, 2021, 09:40:46 AMTell you what else I don't like? The Trilby series. Total fucking wank.

Ah, yes.  The trilogy of adventure games developed by the fast talking YouTube game critic Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame.  Personally, I rather enjoyed them.  At least story wise.  The puzzles were horrendous.  There's one in the third instalment involving a shadow mechanic, which counts among the very worst adventure game puzzles which I've ever encountered.  Yahtzee; appalling purveyor of game design but me oh my, what a critic!

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on February 11, 2021, 09:40:46 AM
Discworld I love. Jon Pertwee's voices are so funny in that. He's not in the second two because he fucked off and died. Still, across the three games you've got Eric Idle, Rob Brydon, Nigel Planer, Tony Robinson, Kate Robbins and Robert Llewellyn.

Discworld is possibly the first game to ever have a character vocally say fuck and all, when you can get Eric Idle as Rincewind to say the words "I want to be the first person in a game to say fuck!", via an extremely obscure and convoluted to unlock easter egg.

Speaking of British comedian voiceovers in adventure games, it was always fun to hear Chris Barrie as Simon the Sorcerer.

madhair60

Would it be of even remote interest to anyone if I did a sort of live-ish playthrough of Day of the Tentacle? I never got that far into it and I want to give it the old college try. It's possible that seeing as I'm marginally less stupid now I might actually be able to make progress.

Edit: I enjoy some of the Telltale titles but they are categorically not adventure games. You're basically just watching a movie. (Well, since The Walking Dead anyway)

If I were able to make a game of my own, it would probably be a Sierra-style point and click, complete with text parser. Then St Eddie could play it and rightly tear the arse off it, as I have no idea how to design an adventure game.

Eddie, do you have any thoughts on Leisure Suit Larry? I'm a big fan of that series. It's one of the few that's still going, but ymmv on the new ones. Personally I like them well enough, particularly given their following the atrocious Box Office Bust.

Nobody's mentioned Deponia yet, so I will. Deponia.

samadriel

Quote from: madhair60 on February 11, 2021, 11:12:46 AM
Would it be of even remote interest to anyone if I did a sort of live-ish playthrough of Day of the Tentacle
Record it so I can see! DotT is probably the easiest point and click I can think of, so it should be a smooth viewing experience. I look forward to seeing you rock it.


St_Eddie

Quote from: madhair60 on February 11, 2021, 11:12:46 AM
I enjoy some of the Telltale titles but they are categorically not adventure games. You're basically just watching a movie. (Well, since The Walking Dead anyway)

They are adventure games.  Horribly simplified, handholding adventure games where the player occasionally presses X to continue but adventure games all the same.

Quote from: madhair60 on February 11, 2021, 11:12:46 AMEddie, do you have any thoughts on Leisure Suit Larry? I'm a big fan of that series. It's one of the few that's still going, but ymmv on the new ones. Personally I like them well enough, particularly given their following the atrocious Box Office Bust.

I've only managed to play 1-5 so far, though I do own the entire series (including the two most recent German developed entries).  I enjoyed them well enough.  The humour is puerile and has aged badly in terms of political correctness but there is an undeniable charm to them.  I'll get around to finishing the series at some point.

What puts me off about the new games, from what I've seen of them, is that every background has phallic objects and buildings strewn about the place.  That bothers me; far too crass.  The original games were crass too, sure but in a different way.  The environments themselves were just regular environments.  They weren't like a toddler's colour book version of a day-glo, cartoonish take on a HR Giger painting.

purlieu

I'm pretty sure the number of people who've completed Grim Fandango without consulting a walkthrough or such is in single figures.

It's fucking great, though, isn't it? I can't remember how I first played it, but at some point my girlfriend of the time made me a copy of hers and, apart from it crashing quite a bit (the PC version was notoriously buggy in places), I enjoyed every second exploring the world of the dead. Great stuff.

madhair60

This thread is ace and I apologise for being a stain on it. And every other thread. And the planet