It's the couple of first days. Overall I'd say the voice acting seems a bit of a mixed bag, but Gabe was the only one that made me gringe. But I enjoyed the demo quite a bit actually. Based solely on it I'd be willing to go as far as to give it 3,5 stars out of 5. And the technical improvement POS has gained is pretty amazing, as I must admit I didn't expect much of them after Moebius.

 

Do you know if they're doing anything to Jackson Square? Out of all the places in the demo it felt like it was using some placeholder art. Definetly the weakest are graphically and it looked like it really could use some more passes before called finished.

Graphically, I don't think so. But interestingly enough, Jackson Square is the only part where they actually DID change some of the voice work, despite statements to the effect that the beta voice work was final and couldn't be changed. And thank God for that! The dancing kid was originally voiced by a guy trying to sound like a little kid. In the feedback thread I described the result as "truly abominable in a makes-me-want-to-brutally-rip-my-eardrums-out kind of way", "the worst voice acting I've ever had to endure outside of the original Deus Ex", "painful", "excruciating" and "utterly atrocious" among a few other things too vile to be repeated here. (If you think I'm exaggerating, that's only because you didn't hear it for yourself.)

 

I guess they got the hint. At the time I suggested that they should "consider luring any 8 year old off the street into the recording booth (promising candy ought to do the trick) and have that kid record the lines". I'm glad they did.

Even if I'd say I'd just try it to see how it feels like, I know I will end up playing the first book through. I couldn't resist playin BS5 nor Broken Age. I doubt I could end up resisting a game I've been waiting since I played Dreamfall ages ago.

Originally I was going to wait for the second half of Broken Age too, and I kinda wish I had waited. So I am going to stand firm with Dreamfall. There will probably be new cliffhangers between episodes, might as well wait a little longer on the original one ;)

What I am wondering is why wasn't the remake of GK published by Sierra? It was after all originally made by Sierra. Did Pinkerton Studios or POS acquire the rights to the GK series?

I think most likely because Activision wants King's Quest to be the first official Sierra re-launch title. We already know that Activision is making the rules for Pinkerton Road what comes to GK20th release and so on, so had they wanted to Activision could have made it Sierra re-launch title.

A really positive review from an adventure gamer who did *not* play the original: http://www.adventuregamers.com/articles/view/27478

What I am wondering is why wasn't the remake of GK published by Sierra? It was after all originally made by Sierra. Did Pinkerton Studios or POS acquire the rights to the GK series?

Simple: The GK remake was in the works long before Activision dug up the Sierra brand from their back yard.

Yes, Troels is correct. I'm guessing there would be licensing things, and considering that GK1 remake has gone back to being mentioned as far back as the Moebius Kickstarter in 2012, and Sierra was not launched until 2014, I'm guessing it has something to do with that.

 

And *technically*, the first Sierra re-launch title will be Geometry Wars 3 in December.

 

Talk to you later!

 

JDHJANUS

Josh

Motherfucker, these new puzzles! These new fucking puzzles, I hate them so! Hate! Hate! HATEHATEHATE!!!! There are 387.44 million miles of printed circuits in wafer thin layers that fill my complex. If the word 'hate' was engraved on each nanoangstrom of those hundreds of miles it would not equal one one-billionth of the hate I feel for this fucking filler shit garbage at this micro-instant. Hate. Hate.

 

The fuck is this shit? Myst? Dammit, Jenna Jameson, Y U have to do this to me?!

I found that one pretty easy, though. But also a bit stupid in that whether you have access to the drawer is determined by your ability to do the sign of the cross. I agree - it's just not good enough.

Bonus points for quoting I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream.

I am a protestant and this puzzle triggers me!

Seriously, my ancestors didn‘t join the wonderful world of Lutheran hedonism so I would have to make fucking crosses in a video game a couple hundred years down the road! Take your catholicism out of my vidya, you zealot fucks!

And that‘s saying nothing about how utterly pointless and contrived this thing is. It‘s not a cool addition, it doesn‘t advance the story in any meaningful way (or in a non-meaningful way, for that matter), it‘s just a showstopper they decided to haphazardly shoehorn in. This kind of puzzle doesn‘t just ask you to suspend your disbelief, it demands that you drown your disbelief in sulfuric acid and then tapdance on its grave.

Well, in all fairness, it is a catholic churchyard (isn't it?). As an atheist, the idea of a divine squirrel bothers me more.

 

But I agree with you and Harlan. This addition adds nothing.

As an atheist, the idea of a divine squirrel bothers me more.

 

I had to look up "How to properly cross yourself" on wikiHow.

 

 

 

This is what it has come to. These are the desperate measures my point&clickery has has driven me to.

 

FML

But... there's a sketch in the corner that pretty much spells out what you have to do.

 

Which arguably makes this puzzle even dumber. It's not even particularly challenging. It's just monkey see, monkey do. And don't even ask me why the sign of the cross grants access to something linked with the darkest and most ancient voudoun...

Yeah, I noticed that sketch. It just adds insult to injury when you know exactly what you have to do and still can‘t get it right. After about three unsuccessful attempts, I figured my time would be more wisely spent complaining about the puzzle on this forum rather than actually solving it. :P

"DJWTFISUPWITHTHEGEMSINTHESKULLS"

"DJWTFISUPWITHTHEGEMSINTHESKULLS"

I was actually surprised they didn't dumb down streamline the DJ-puzzle. That was the only one puzzle from the original game that I would have changed.

 

Oh and one last word on the sketch in the Gedde tomb: That seems more useful as an acupuncture chart than as an instruction on how to cross yourself/hit a bunch of random buttons conveniently placed in a bunch of skulls.

I don't get why people don't like the voodoo code-puzzle. To me, it feels very rewarding to solve. It makes you feel like you're uncovering something deeply forbidden and (mostly) forgotten. Plus, I've never found it that hard.

 

The clock puzzle I could live without, though. Never been able to solve that one on my own.

The clock puzzle is easy. Drei Drachen. Three o'clock. Grandaddy, you old fox.

 

The writing-on-the-tomb shit, however, required such a specific phrase that I had to use a walkthrough. If only they had at least done a "I need to address my audience first" kind of hint system for it, like with the audio splice puzzle in GK2.

 

As it stands, the tomb-writing puzzle reminded me too much of the juggling-cans puzzle in The 7th Guest. I agree completely with Fronz that they should have updated it.

If all the symbols didn't look like Dali vomited all over the clock, it would've been easy.

 

But, dude, the first message written out on the tomb is "DJ CONCLAVE TONIGHT BRING FWET KASH". Everything makes sense but the last two words, which can be picked up at Hartridge's lecture, along with "sekey madoule". It makes total sense to me, and puzzles like this rarely do. Less so with the GK 2 tape-splicing, which is too specific. Why is "show Mr. Knight our wolves" not equal to "show our wolves to Mr. Knight", for example?

Okay, you got me. I probably didn't bother translating the first message back then and that's why I got stuck. That, and I'm an idiot.

I'm pretty sure I originally had to check the voodoo writing solution from a walkthrough back when I played GK1 in the glorious 90's. Though in retrospec it is pretty logical, as you just combine already known things in it.  Of course, one thing how it could be made easier would be to accept a line of text with correct words in it , no matter what the exact order of those words is. That would be relatively simple check to do, as the list of acceptable words is pretty short.

Everything makes sense but the last two words, which can be picked up at Hartridge's lecture

Oh yeah... the lecture... I guess that would explain why I never picked up on that clue... Let's just say many a left mouse button was clicked during that lecture... :P

 

Didn't have a problem with the Drei Drachen puzzle. Then again, I might've had a Heimvorteil with that one...

 

And I completely agree with Frede about GK2's tape splicing puzzle. If you have to spell out the solution for the player in the game's manual, then that should be a subtle hint that your puzzle design is all sorts of screwed up.