Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 09:10:03 PM

Login with username, password and session length

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

Previous topic - Next topic

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: popcorn on April 14, 2021, 01:53:59 PM
Apart from all the red herrings.
Yup. I can never get back all the time I spent, fruitlessly trying to use items with
Spoiler alert
the Recyclotron
[close]
.


Rev+

Although his opposition for the term 'interactive movie' could maybe have been been a bit more forceful at LucasArts, because they were really hot on calling Monkey Island that on the box.  Not his call, yeah, but everyone used that term back then.

Consignia

Finally got round to playing Full Throttle after a quarter of century! Good fun, all the puzzles nice and logical, and the story was pretty compelling. I did think it was a little short; only 4 or 5 discreet areas with 3 or so goals in each one. Somewhat shorter in my mind than Fate of Atlantis or Day of the Tentacle[nb]two of my faves[/nb]. I'm fine with getting it free on gamepass, but not sure how I'd felt saving months of pocket money for something that length, but that just might be me lengthening it's contemporaries in my mind.

My biggest actual gripe was playing on an Xbox with a controller. Not even the games fault, but interacting with the environment was so much harder without a mouse. It was ok when playing DoTT remastered on PS4 because I can play that game blindfolded, I know exactly which objects to interact with. But it took me ages to work out there was a lock on the bottom of a gate, and the object highlighting only made things worse because it didn't separate between the lock and the gate. Something that would have been a lot easier to explore with a mouse. I didn't even know there was a look function until half way through the game, because I thought the skull action was purely for putting lips on things. Again down to the controller being a sub-optimal way of playing these games.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

I also found the controller a bit bothersome while playing DotT. I wonder whether it might be better if the cursor matched the position of the analogue stick - i.e. if you move the stick slightly to the left, the cursor moves slightly to the left and if you move all the way to the left, the cursor does the same. It might have been a bit faster and more mouselike than the system they went with.

Or, better yet, they could have actually used the PS4's trackpad for once.

At least they updated the interface. I tried playing with the original one, but it was a finicky, slow load of plop with the joystick.

Consignia

Ha, yeah. I think even back in the day, Lucas Art games supported joysticks and they were just as awkward back then. I suppose it's good these games are available to many, but they can't get around the fact they are designed to be played with mice.

St_Eddie

Quote from: Consignia on April 21, 2021, 01:54:10 PM
Ha, yeah. I think even back in the day, Lucas Art games supported joysticks and they were just as awkward back then. I suppose it's good these games are available to many, but they can't get around the fact they are designed to be played with mice.

Conversely, LucasArts' Rebel Assault could be played with a mouse as opposed to a joystick and it was a nightmare to do so.

Mister Six

Restarted and completed a proper playthrough of Grim Fandango and have concluded that it's not really a brilliant game. The story is fun, the worldbuilding is superb and every line of dialogue is gold, but as a game it's a bloody struggle far too often.

The interface is cumbersome, and even though Resident Evil had been out for at least a year before production got heavy on GF (and Alone in the Dark was out for years before that), they didn't learn from that game about how to stage pre-rendered environments. There are spots that look like exits but aren't, and areas that are exits but aren't clearly marked. Seemingly everyone has trouble finding the second betting window because to get there you have to walk offscreen in a direction that has no indications of containing anything of note, and there are screens where you have to inch your way around some obstacles or Manny will hit an awkwardly placed boundary and step out of the room.

And the puzzles are sometimes intuitive and clever, but often rely on the player doing things for no clear reason, because it will eventually trigger something down the line. So you end up just trying everything on everything else, which is even more of a pain than usual because of the cumbersome inventory system and because it's not always clear which parts of the environment you can interact with.

So yeah, great fun every time you talk to someone, or look at something, but the game itself is overrated as hell.


Waking Life

I have this on my drive and keep meaning to play, but the faff I've heard about the controls had put me off previously. Did they not fix much of this in the remaster?

I completely DOTT in one sitting a few months ago. Even with the familiarity of the puzzles, I had a great time, so probably should also try this and Full Throttle. I really want to play full Monkey Island series (1-3) and Indiana Jones again, so was hoping LucasArts would do a console re-release of the back catalogue at some point, given the bankability of nostalgia. My laptop has been useless for some time, although I'm still surprised these games never took off more with the touchscreen market (particularly since it coincided with the success of the Walking Dead game).

Are those Sherlock Holmes games worth playing? I know it's probably quite a different game type, but I saw the last two on sale recently and was tempted.

Mister Six

Grim Fandango lets you toggle between the original tank controls and camera-angle sensitive up/down/left/right controls. The latter mostly make it much easier, although there are still times when connected screens are set up in such a way that if you hold the direction once you run through the door, Manny will turn tail and run back again.

Tank controls are still mandatory for the occasional vehicle-driving sequences, and they suck - use the D-pad, not the sticks, as it's very easy to accidentally turn as you move, which makes one vehicle-based timed puzzle especially frustrating.

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: Waking Life on December 18, 2021, 09:58:21 AMAre those Sherlock Holmes games worth playing? I know it's probably quite a different game type, but I saw the last two on sale recently and was tempted.
I've played a couple of them on PS3/4 (I think they're Russian?) and they're decent enough fluff if going cheap. 'Crimes and Punishments' and 'The Devil's Daughter' are the two I know.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: Mister Six on December 17, 2021, 10:14:32 PMStuff and things
That all sounds familiar. The odd thing is that all those complaints don't really stick in the memory, so I ended up remembering it being really good.

One annoyance I've just been reminded of is in the third level. I spent a silly amount of time failing to find the lighthouse, because the camera angles made it look like there was no path that way

Mister Six

Yeah, I assumed it was just a background detail too.

I suppose it's ultimately a glass-half-full thing in the end - I also basically have good memories of the game, because the number of times it made me laugh, the wonderful characters and the stellar voice work all leave a stronger impression than all the frustrating niggles in the long run. I just struggle to call it a masterpiece in the way that I might with some of Schaefer's other games, DOTT included.

Sexton Brackets Drugbust

Grim Fandango was literally the first Adventure Game I completed with no hints whatsoever.

I'm forever gutted that I burned through many of the Golden Era classics with an attitude of 'plenty more where they came from,' not realising that an adventure game famine was just around the corner, come the millennium.

Grim was the exact point I realised that the as-yet unsolved mystery was something to savour and ruminate on, frustrating though it may sometimes be.

falafel

Number of times I've tried to get through Grim since I first completed it and just thrown the toys out of the pram about halfway through. It really does have some infuriating moments. I think what I really want is a miniseries recounting the story without the awkward puzzles. Never gonna happen. And damned if I'm watching a Let's Play.

Mister Six

It'd make a fantastic film, especially a stop-motion one by the lads that did Kubo and the Two Strings, but it's too weird and not really kid friendly, and nobody would fund it. Shame.