Fronzel Neekburm

Damn, forgot to put "award bait" into the title of my previous post! Anyway... No, it‘s not. Why do you think I bought these games in the first place? "An idea which can not be called dangerous, does not deserve that title" - Oscar Wilde Besides, I‘m just an asshole on an obscure forum who‘s having a bit of mischievous fun by mocking a bunch of games over the observation that their devs seem to think that a complex story/message is inherently at odds with gameplay complexity, not a professional game journalist who tears into competently made games because he feels he‘s on a mission to save the world by cleansing video games of everything the tumblr crowd might deem objectionable. And I don't need to attempt to understand the arguments of the latter either, I understand perfectly well and and even sympathise with the basic ideology (as long as it comes from a place of sincerity, rather than blatant ego-boosting). It's the methods I don't agree with. You won't bring about change by bullying video game designers into conforming to your worldview. I dunno, what do we have here? Funny you should mention dumbing down though, since gameplay wise, these games have been dumbed down to a point where further dumbing down might be a hard thing to accomplish. Experimenting with the medium is all fine and dandy. But experiments can fail and none of these games advance the medium in any meaningful way. That alone doesn‘t necessarily mean that they‘re bad (Gone Home and The Novelist certainly aren‘t), they‘re just not very good either. Well, you're WRONG! (and politically correct, but that's beside the point) I actually found Serena quite enjoyable. The writing certainly is a hell of a lot better than Dear Esther‘s. Now, if Augustin had decided to sell Serena on Steam for 20 bucks a piece, that probably might have had an adverse effect on my perception of the game and I would've felt free to rip and tear into the game to my heart's content. Rip and tear! RIIIP AND TEEAAAAR!!!

What‘s this? Normally it takes me ages to finish even a single game, now I managed to complete FOUR games in a single weekend? Welcome to... Fronzel's #2deep4u pretentious artsy fartsy shovelware weekend quadruple feature Dear Esther The original 1st person walking simulator! Explore barren hebridean beaches while pompous purple prose narrations will make your ears bleed. Pretentiousness: 10/10 Actual gameplay: 1/10 Visuals: 6/10 (Most of the locations look like an episode of Baywatch, but set in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe. The cave looks absolutely stunningly beautiful, though) Fun: 1/10 Music: 6/10 (A mixed bag, but the tune that ends the game is genuinely great) Replayability: 4/10 (Surprisingly lots of it for a game that has no actual gameplay due to fairly randomized texts) Hours of gameplay: 1 Base price: €7,99 (Credit where credit's due: Apparently thechineseroom does not partake in Steam's regional ripoff and doesn't equate the $9,99 US-base price to €9,99) Minutes of gameplay per Euro: 7,5 Overall: 3/10 Gone Home Serious GOTY contender because it deals with angsty teenagers. Pretentiousness: 3/10 (The story might be a nonstop barrage of cliches, but the writing is actually quite enjoyable and the game works as a nice subversion of horror tropes.) Actual gameplay: 6/10 (You can pick up most objects, allowing for quite a bit of emergent gameplay, if you're creative enough.) Visuals: 6/10 (Most of it looks decent enough. I wonder why the doors look like they have to withstand a nuclear blast) Fun: 6/10 (Could have been improved if the player had been able to pick up that RoboCop VHS tape and watch that instead.) Music: 0/10 (Your mileage may vary. One of my favourite gameplay elements was dropping the various tapes of shitty Grrrrrrl music into the nearest wastebasket) Replayability: 1/10 (If you played it once, chances are you‘ve seen it all) Hours of gameplay: 1,5 Base price: €19,99 Minutes of gameplay per Euro: 4,5 Overall: 6/10 The Novelist Think "The Shining" and subtract all the axe/roque mallet murders and supernatural elements that bogged down the original. Pretentiousness: 4/10 (More pretentious than Gone Home by virtue of dealing with a family of three and two of them are artists. Likewise, the child will only be able to reach true happiness if you encourage his inner artist.) Actual gameplay: 3/10 (Walk through a tiny little holiday refuge and click on notes strewn throughout the rooms until the chapter ends. Rinse and repeat.) Visuals: 4/10 (Appealing CEL-shading look, unfortunately there's not a whole lot of it to see, due to the location being so damn small.) Fun: 6/10 (The story is strangly gripping, but the repetitive gameplay gets exhausting even in short doses.) Music: 5/10 (Take a piano, hit a random key every five seconds or so and add heavy reverb to the recording. Voila!) Replayability: 8/10 (You get to make some choices at the end of each chapter which greatly influence the rest of the story, rendering this a game that encourages repeat playthroughs even if the gameplay itself is lacking.) Hours of gameplay: 2 Base price: €14,99 Minutes of gameplay per Euro: 8 Overall: 6/10 Mountain It's cheap, it's DRM-free, what's there not to like? Pretentiousness: 7/10 (Tim Schafer likes this, which automatically adds a bonus two points to this rating) Actual gameplay: 1/10 (You can turn the camera and scroll out. You can also surf for porn on the internet while "Mountain" plays in the background) Visuals: 3/10 Fun: 3/10 (Strangely enough, this game might be more fun when you're not playing it and instead have it run in the background, only to return after some time to see what has changed. Kind of like a 2014 version of a Tamagotchi) Music: 3/10 (You can use your keyboard as a xylophone) Replayability: 3/10 (It's possible, but why would you?) Hours of gameplay: ? Base price: €0,99 Minutes of gameplay per Euro: Depends entirely on how much of it you're willing to take Overall: 2/10

Most of the discussion on the Pinkerton board revolves around stuff being randomly shifted to other parts of the game (for example, the visit to Grandma on Day 1 is now delayed until Day 4). The most glaring omission so far seems to be that Hartridge's office seems to be gone entirely. Perhaps they will put it back in a later build, but so far the conversation between Gabriel and him takes place exclusively in the lecture room.

That video is so freakin‘ brilliant! The sad punchline here is that TAHR is apparently among the people who never received their physical rewards.

Yeah, which is pretty much precisely the reason GK20 will have a hard time finding its niche. Thing is, a remake of GK1 probably would have made more sense if it came out 10 or even 15 years ago. Back then, someone who played GK1 might have thought "Ewww, look at those pixelly VGA-graphics! This oughta be SVGA!" On the other hand, today we have games that deliberately go for a GK1-like graphical style. A game with good pixel art graphics is more highly appreciated than a game with mediocre "modern" graphics. I absolutely agree that a GK3 remake would have been nice. I never played the original since the whole thing just feels like an unsuccessful attempt to marry traditional point&clickery to a 3D environment, resulting in clunky controls and graphics that have aged terribly. This kinda belongs in the political correctness debate thread, but whatevs: No, it‘s not just Moebius, it‘s become a fad in gaming "journalism" to jump on the being-professionally-offended bandwagon and take a holier-than-thou stance whenever the opportunity arises. Adventure games seem particularly vulnerable to bullshit criticisms since a lot of these games don‘t have a huge (marketing) budget to spend, so reviewers can feel free to tear into them at their heart‘s content for additional totally-not-corrupt-professional-reviewer street cred. I‘m not saying that GK20 will cause some kind of hitherto unseen cataclysmic shitstorm (After all, why go after the little guys when complaining about a lack of female/coloured/LGBT avatars in Assassin‘s Creed makes for that much better clickbait), but faux outrage is bound to happen to some extent. In an atmosphere that brings forth gems such as this, anything is possible.

Gabriel Knight 20th Anniversary Beta Not the unmitigated disaster I anticipated, but it‘s still quite an unoriginal by-the-numbers remake and whenever it differs from the original game, it‘s usually for the worse. Can‘t blame anyone but Activision, though, they were the ones who apparently insisted on remaking GK1 instead of doing something new. (Hell, spending the same budget on an episodic „Gabriel Knight mini-adventure“ would have been preferable to the highly ungrateful task of remaking one of the very few Sierra games that absolutely does NOT need a remake) It's by no means a bad game, but the main motivation for making it seemed to be for it to be successful enough to warrant a GK4. And frankly, with the current hostility towards adventure games in the gaming media and the potentially problematic content of GK1 in particular (A game featuring a womanizing white guy fighting an evil voodoo cult? Cue faux outrage!), I can't see that happening. Bioshock Hell has frozen over! 2K finally removed all the online activation requirements from Bioshock, enabling DRM-refuseniks such as myself a chance at exploring the world of Rapture. Unfortunately, this is about the best thing I can say about it. Even considering the lukewarm-at-best reception it was given amongst Looking Glass affictionados, I was surprised at what a tedious, deadening experience this turned out to be. All the elements for greatness are there, but Irrational (with the pressure of a $20million+ budget on them and their 2K overlords looming) can‘t figure out what to do with any of them. Unable to decide whether to create a „proper“ follow-up to the ingenious System Shock 2 or a generic horror shooter, they try to have it both ways, resulting in a painfully mediocre mess that can‘t hold a candle to its predecessor. Quest For Infamy After the mind-numbing tedium of Bioshock, playing a more light-hearted and fun game was sorely needed. Loving the atmosphere so far, the soundtrack is fucking BEAUTIFUL and having a public execution by Guillotine within the first couple of screens of the game is always a plus. Also, big props to Blackthorne who, despite already making good on his promise of a DRM-free version by distributing direct downloads via Humble, provided backers/pre-orderers with GOG and Desura keys. Big thumbs up for that! On the back burner: Gray Matter finally arrived on GOG, but for now I‘m busy with QFI.

Thanks for the exe! I can only agree with MusicallyInspired, this is really cool! Couldn't help but notice that the game is named sq1 for some reason. A subtle hint that you're also secretly working on recreating Space Quest locations in Unity? ;)

Wait, people are still watching this guy? He's a moron. If playing a point&click on a console isn't proof enough of that, check out his Superman 64 video (which is him failing the very first level of the game, peppered with strings of incoherent cursing). Compare that to protonjon's Superman 64 videos and you'll realize that watching AVGN is nothing but a mind-crushing waste of time.

Tomimt, do you have a downloadable executable by any chance? Personally, I'd prefer that over using the Unity Web Player.

Pics or it didn't happen! :P

The discussion is already well underway there. Still, would have been nice to hear the opinions of the local denizens.

First Beta is out. Any thoughts?

Someone posted a link to the Replay Games forums on facebook, noting how the place has become overrun with spambots... (Posting a screenie here, since most of the Replay forum refugees that occasionaly frequent SQnet won‘t be able to see the spammy glory for themselves) Anyway, going back to that place brought back so many fond memories. Especially the memories of all the fucking drama caused by that cover art contest. Too bad most of it‘s nuked now. To celebrate the bygone days of harmonious forum-postsmanship and mutual getting-our-hopes-up-for-a-now-crushed-pipe-dream-of-endless-LSL-remakes, here‘s my own Larry ReLOADed cover art submission. Hopefully, Tom King and Tahr won‘t get too jealous of my maaad MS-paint skillz. Who can spot all the various obscure references (all 3-4 of them) I‘ve hidden (in plain sight) in the picture? Lessons I learned the hard way from making this: - Receding hairlines are a pain in the ass to draw. So are hands, zippers, and just about everything else. - Justin McMenamin‘s child can draw a better Larry than I can - My logo somehow still looks better than the one on my Kickstarter backer box. In yo face, Andy Hoyos!

Super Hexagon will give you a seizure.

Bought this on gog during one of their summer flash sales and gave it a quick try. It's about as much fun as you'd expect a Star Trek-influenced Facebook simulator/parody to be. In other words: It's fucking horrible, avoid!

(Just to point out, the following isn't criticism, it's merely a suggestion) I‘d say those three points combined are basically the key to every single bit of backlash that SpaceVenture is facing is at the moment. True, you could say that technically, TGA have no obligations to their backers. On the other hand, you can‘t blame the glass-half-empty-crowd for coming out of the woodworks at this stage to call a bluff when everything that‘s been released so far are a shoddy prototype, a few 20 second clips on youtube and a bunch of good intentions. Secrecy is all fine and dandy, but if some people are getting concerned/frustrated/angry/disillusioned, why not put the cards on the table? Now‘s the time to put the SVRewards site to good use and share, share, share whatever you can about the game. What‘s the story? Who‘s the antagonist? What locations are we going to visit during the course of the game? What puzzles can we expect? Here, have a look at that new crazy inventory item we came up with! Putting up 1-2 Ken Allen-mp3s every month would be the icing on the cake! Don‘t want to spoil it for yourself? No problem! Just ignore the posts. As the old Russian saying goes: Trust, but verify.

Thanks, JimmyTwoBucks! This is exactly the kind of discussion I‘m hoping for! It is. Sorry if I offended you with my remark (I said it before, subtlety isn‘t my thing). You certainly had a point and the screens were very well chosen. The reason I got annoyed is that I felt you (and others) missed the point I was trying to make. It‘s not like this game doesn‘t look Space Quest-y enough (it does), it‘s just that I felt the locations could use some more stuff to liven things up. Putting in a character would normally do, but since the ship is abandoned, you‘ll have to find other ways to make the locations interesting. I think my criticism about empty-looking backgrounds stemmed more from a writing perspective than from an artistic perspective. I looked at the demo and wondered how you could write some remotely funny interactions with those rooms. Imagine Gary Owens intonating in an overly dramatic voice: „You‘re standing in an empty and extremely boring hallway. It is stuffed with crates.“ In the case of the crate corridor, if there is a way to make the location and possible interactions with it interesting, I can‘t think of it. The only thing that matters, however, is that the people who are making this game can think of it.

Didn‘t like my joke? I thought you were okay with swipes? Oh, I am taking it seriously (more seriously than the people who are allegedly #2PUNK2CARE), don't let my pitiful attempts at humor fool you into thinking otherwise. Seriously enough to read all the replies from beginning to end with the intent to engage in discourse, not to debunk every opinion contrary to my own. Though I have to admit that it‘s becoming harder. Whatever criticism comes up, it gets dismissed outright. I point out that the art could use some additional objects to liven things up, I get swamped with screenshots of a bunch of 20+ year old games. I point out that the controls are horrible, I get a "This ain‘t the Nineties any more! We‘re doing new things here! Get with the times, sucka!“ Someone points out that they‘re annoyed at the delay, and you basically rebut that with "Well, you should be happy that they didn‘t just stop the project and make off with the $400.000 they got.“ WTF, dude? I'm trying to avoid negativity, believe me. But it's hard to be optimistic if there's a prevailing attitude of "Don't like the game? Well, fuck you!". I'm repeating myself, but why not put out another prototype? I‘d hate to critizise the game for shit that isn‘t even relevant anymore. I mean, the last update states that the first third of the game is done, so why not put that out to soothe the minds of everyone concerned about the current state of the game? See this post. Ah, the old "It's an early build" counterargument, how I missed thee! :) Sure, it's an early build, stuff is subject to change. My concern is that they pointed out repeatedly that as far as the demo portion of the game is concerned, they're primarily concerned with bugfixing and that the gameplay portion will stay pretty much the same, save for making some puzzles "more intuitive". So yeah, early build or not, the gameplay from the demo is fair game, because... Wrong! By that time, they probably won't be able to make any sort of radical changes. (That is if testers should object to certain gameplay elements.)

@JimmyTwoBucks I was arguing for a complete removal of the swipe controls, which is why I hand picked only the most scathing of comments. Logical, no? But let‘s face it even the comments you provided for proper context are pretty fucking far from high praise. At best, some of the posters see potential in the swiping controls. Give us a tutorial and some directional icons and it‘ll be fine, that seems to be the assumption. The problem here is that even if the swipes were to be properly implemented into the game, that doesn‘t automatically make any of the puzzles that opened it (the crates, the cart, the airlock) any more enjoyable. Also, keep in mind that the responses in that thread are already skewed, since they were left in a fan forum and nobody wants to be that asshole who heaps the harsh criticism on everybody‘s favorite Andromedans.

Nothing wrong with that. In with the new, I say! As long as it adds something worthwhile to the gameplay. If it doesn't, you have no one but yourselves to blame if the reception will be along the lines of...

I‘m not really one for subtlety. Besides, there certainly are ways you could use swipe controls to add some fun to the game. Like giving the player the ability to smack Ace or to pick him up and drag him to some other part of the screen (Can‘t quite remember what game I stole that idea from... "Black & White“, right?). Those might be cool ways of using them, but the way they were used in the demo they just added unnecessary hoops to the gameplay.

Sorry, but I can‘t make out any sort of "idea or concept“ other than wanting to appeal to the tablet crowd. Sure, I kind of get the argument that TGA want to "rejuvenate“ the traditional point&click controls. But why fix it if it ain‘t broken? Take "Gabriel Knight“ for instance, they tried to innovate the UI by breaking up the hand icon into four seperate icons. Ultimately, those features added nothing to the game. Don‘t get me wrong, "Gabriel Knight“ is a great game (possibly the best from the Sierra catalogue). But it‘s a great game despite its UI, not because of it. Personally, I thought they felt less like a punch to the face than a running drop-kick to the groin. They were extremely painful and kinda hard to pull off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xECUrlnXCqk

Chris' playthrough video did a great job at showcasing how well the rooter puzzles could work in the game. I remember playing the demo and killing Ace by running into steam. He just lay there. At the time I thought that was one of the bugs, but it turns out you can actually revive him. A really cool idea! If you can find a way that makes these puzzles more intuitive (Chris said in the video that you already have), this is really something to look forward to. By the way, great job on today's update! Really liked the picture that came with it. I have no idea what that location is supposed to be (looks like a workshop of some kind) but it looks great! edit: Been reading up on some of the comments left on today‘s KS update. Good grief, guys! Take it easy with the Latin! "Mea culpa", "pro bono"... Can‘t a guy just sit back and enjoy the popcorn-munching glory of a bit of good old-fashioned Interwebz drama without having to consult a fucking dictionary?

Hey there, Mr Blackthorne! Looking forward to receiving Quest For Infamy! See, that‘s exactly what I thought as well*. It was only after they released an early prototype last year (which, if I may be so bold, played like a boring piece of tablet shit) that I began to wonder whether that confidence was severely misplaced. Have you played that demo yet**? I‘d love to hear the thoughts of a professional game designer and passionate fellow adventure gamer! I said it before, they can take as long as they want. As long as the game doesn‘t turn out to be swipe-controlled direct-to-tablet casual garbage (which I hope we can all agree on that this is not something we'd want, right? RIGHT?), I don‘t mind. I‘d like nothing better than the game being released by March next year and it rocking everyone‘s mind. * & ** edit: I edited parts of my original post which I felt came across as incredibly hostile and disparaging. I'm not out to win some stupid internet fight, I only want to add some (hopefully) constructive criticism. Besides, I already kind of got the answer to my question on one of the more places of the internet. An interesting and somewhat encouraging read. I guess if I were chatting with Scott Murphy on a regular basis, all my worries probably would have been laid to rest ages ago. God, I hope so! It's either that or "swipeamole" will become a word in certain circles.