Duncan

I'm not sure whether you mean adventure games are better now than they've ever been or that they're better now than they have been in recent years. If it's the former, though, I'm kind of curious as to why you think that? I can appreciate your point about you and your games being compared to older designers and you're right, there is a lot of discussion, but I still can't see any improvement in current adventure games except probably resolutions being higher... which is pretty much mandated by technology advancements anyway.

That's pretty much what I think when I finish a new adventure game, not "Oh man, that was terrible, how the hell did that get made?" but "Oh man, how the hell did anyone think that was any good?" and it's what I expect from Moment of Silence, though I don't think I'll play it. I agree with what you said about adventure games not being exciting anymore. (Except whacking off to King's Quest IV ) Even Dreamfall or Fahrenheit I'm not as psyched about as I am about Psychonauts. EDIT: I wish the psyched/Psychonauts thing was intentional. That reminds me, on a vaguely related topic, I am so sure that when Psychonauts does come out some site like Gamespy or IGN will use the intro: "Double Fine's adventure-platformer Psychonauts finally hits store shelves. But after all the hype, were we psyched for naught?" Anyway, continue.

I hate you because you spelt 'because' wrong.

Oh man, after reading the Double Fine Action News for like two years, I felt this huge sense of accomplishment from the latest post even though I didn't do anything at all. Woo. And EB says April 19th. I wonder if that's official or not.

Oh, and while we're on the subject, and considering I have nothing better to do than mock Ubisoft, this in an excerpt from their Warrior Within FAQ. If you have time, read the whole thing. Its both depressing and hilarious. And the word 'emotion' is used about ten million times.

The story was not well thought through, no. Unfortunately, that's all I can help you with.

Yes, A Vampyre Story, about which is known... absolutely nothing. Except that it looks pretty and has vampires vampyres in it. My level of enthusiasm for that game is not outstandingly high. I am interested in what Telltale comes up with, but I'm not too excited about a game which hasn't even been announced yet...

Holy hell. I wish Ubisoft had made that instead of Warrior Within. ...Actually, since you've played it, can I ask what this is?

So in accordance with crappy weather over the world, we've had some earthquakes here the last couple of days. It's at the point now where earthquakes are my alarm clock. Also they're a regular clock, I guess, as they happen at random points throughout the day as well. Not just in the morning. Although there was one this morning which actually did wake me up and it felt pretty bad. But then I checked it online and to my disappointment it was only a 5.5 on the Richter scale. It felt a lot worse than that. I think I've long since passed the point where I'm frightened of them, as they're kinda commonplace where I live even outside of this week. I think it's been a few years without any regular or major earthquakes, though. As I understand it the city where I live is on top of a fault line. Nice work, God. Man. But now everytime there's an earthquake my first thought is not for my safety. Nor is it 'OMG which game/cat/family member would I save if my house was on fire?!'. Actually I keep thinking that if I had a girlfriend, I could tell her that the earth was moving for us. Even if she wasn't impressed by the lame romantic sentiment, I imagine she'd be impressed by my quick wit. Except it wouldn't really be a quick wit, because I could be sitting on this for a while. Because I'll never get a girlfriend if all I do is think up geography-related one-liners. And the earthquakes could stop for a couple of years anyway. Meaning I'd never get to use this. And I'd be sitting on this goldmine for years possibly. So now I have to figure out how to engineer an earthquake.

Yeah, what the hell, Moos?

...What, seriously? There's a Harem Adventures?

That's true. My disappointment with it comes from liking the early Cyan games, but ultimately it's the same puzzle-solving-type stuff, and it is well integrated into the game. I think that with Myst games you sort of already know if you're going to enjoy them or not. Actually, the more I think about it, Revelation is very likely the best adventure game from 2004. Which does not say much.

Why Myst IV, out of interest? About halfway through it, I don't actually see much to recommend it to a non-Myst fan. I am really looking forward to Myst V, though. Entirely because it's by Cyan and because it's (allegedly) the last one. I like that Cyan's ending it on their own terms and that (I assume) they'll be going back to this grand story/history they were exploring in Myst and Riven and those novels. That's part of my problem with Exile and Revelation, actually. They feel like Myst spin-offs. The puzzle design is okay, or at least in Revelation it is. But in the plots of both they feel completely off-track. They feel like The Further Adventures of Myst. There's some crisis with Atrus' family and you have to resolve it. There's none of the feeling the first two games - and Uru, even - had. To borrow a quote from you, the Cyan games feel like they had a reason to exist; that they had a story to tell. The Ubisoft ones feel like they needed to make a Myst game.

...Sort of. I think the problem with the genre is that it's burned out creatively, not that it's remained constant. I mean, if adventure games were the at the same level of quality that they were ten or even five years ago, I'd be playing a lot more of them. But none of the old Lucasarts or Sierra designers are working on adventure games anymore, and I think that's a huge problem. And that's the reason why I'm interested in, say, Psychonauts. Because I have more faith and trust in Tim Schafer than I do in the adventure game generally. Angry! Actually, not really. I read the Adventure Gamers boards too, and I know what you're talking about. There's always that argument about the average console gamer demanding instant satisfaction over patience and greater rewards. And that's crap. Also, I don't think I should have to regulate my gaming so I don't get any immediate satisfaction out of it. I mean, what is it going to do, make me fat and lazy? I'm playing Myst IV right now which requires a hell of a lot of patience. And once you solve a puzzle, honestly, there's not much reward. You feel kinda good, but that's it. I play games because they're fun, and I don't see why I should have to feel inferior about that.

Off-topic slightly, but what do you think of Myst IV so far, Redwall? I'm finding the puzzle design a lot better than Myst III at least, which from what I've played of it was crap. That said, I'm not too enthused with the story and acting. Mainly I'm irritated that they undid the Sirrus/Achenar death from the end of Myst, which I thought was the best part of that game. And Yeesha sucks.

Not to play down the importance of technology, but what I want at this point is an adventure game that's actually well written. Adventure games used to be a hell of a lot more fun, and now you always play someone incredibly bland who says incredibly bland things while you solve uninteresting puzzles and a half-hearted plot hangs in the background. But that's okay, because it's 2D, point-and-click, and the graphics look great! I haven't played a really well-written game since... probably Gabriel Knight 3. One of the most recent games I played was Sherlock Holmes: Silver Earring, which was atrocious on so many levels. It feels like standards have been lowered to the point where all you need for critical acclaim is a point-and-click interface and prerendered graphics. You don't need writing and you don't need energy anymore. I want the genre to progress in interface and puzzle design as much as anyone (by which I mean: as much as you guys) but I think it won't matter at all if there's no inspiration behind it. If you look back at Lucasarts and to a lesser extent Sierra, they were actually being creative. Not just in puzzle and game design, but in story as well. Today it just doesn't seem to matter so much. You can totally phone it in, and the audience will be so glad for evidence against claims of a 'dying genre' that they'll say Sherlock Holmes: Silver Earring is 'not so bad!'. That, and it wouldn't kill the genre to be funny again.

I think that's the outside of the library/college/museum place. Where you get that interminable and inaudible lecture about mammoths. Oh God, I am so ashamed I remembered that. At least I don't remember what it was called.

Syberia did have kickass art direction, though. I would totally put up a Syberia poster if I had one.

Yeah, I'm not a Syberia fan either, for the reasons you mentioned. Also irritating were the reviews saying that the character of Kate Walker was this amazing, wonderful paragon of realistic, believable characterisation not seen since April Ryan. Which drove me nuts.

Yeah, I played the English demo and didn't enjoy it at all. Then the game came out and people were saying "Oh, it's just that one section in the game that isn't any good. The rest is awesome!" Which to me always sounded a little suspicious. I'm not surprised to hear now that the demo kinda was representative of the whole game (poorly translated, overlong dialogue, frustrating puzzles, confusing design...) It sounds like the story is the game's only saving grace (is that true, toblix?), but I'm still not sure if I want to play it.

I had no idea whether to post this in Retro Gaming or not. I'm actually talking about the first one, from way back in the year two thousand. I decided to throw caution to the wind and post it here. So I'm curious to know who's played this, and more importantly, who's finished it? While I am enjoying the game immensely, I have been stuck on the same level for about a month, and another month on the level before that. What I'm stuck on now is the level where you're in the Hollywood obstacle race with all the other aces. I can get through seven of the eight obstacles (usually) okay, but I have never been able to do that last one where you have to fly through the New York street. So if anyone has finished it, if you could tell me how you got through that one thing, that'd be awesome. Oh, and I know you can skip missions, but I don't really want to.

Oh yeah! What's the multiplayer like? If I'm right, there are... four people here who can play it online. Sounds like a party to me! I am actually trying to prolong exposure to Crimson Skies so I don't have to go back to the infinitely more dull Morrowind.

Whee, just finished it. Final verdict: totally awesome. With just a few moments of extreme frustration, but whatever. It was just a hell of a lot of fun from start to finish; in the story and characters as much as the gameplay. Is the High Road to Revenge story about that archeologist thing at the end? I'm assuming it's not, different developers and all, but... actually I don't really care if it is. Just curious. I think I really will have to buy an Xbox now.

Yeah, despite my caution I'm pretty sure it's good. The only reason I'm hesitant is that I wouldn't just have to buy the game, I'd have to buy an Xbox too, and I can't really afford that. Still, I imagine I'll buy one eventually and High Road to Revenge will probably be at the top of the list.

Oh yeah, how is High Road to Revenge? I'm not too sure about it 'cause it's made by different developers and in my experience that rarely works out well. If it's as fun and the writing's as good as this one, I'll definitely give it a try. I heard that the emphasis was more on combat (wow, that sounds familiar) rather than stunt flying. Despite my being better at the former, I would miss stunt flying if it's gone. Oh, right, I don't actually have an Xbox. This would probably be one of the games that would make me get one, though.