The Lost Vikings

[Alex]

Sorry to be pedantic, but it was always a talkie game with a floppy version for cheapskates, the same as other adventure games of the era. Er, wasn't it?

Blimey, was it? I thought that the talkie was only on the cd version cos i can remember playing the diskette one without voices. Maybe my computer was too shit to handle it? Well anyway, it was still awful and some of the worst acting in a game ever.

SS2 was infinitely better done in every way, I thought. Simon was more of an obnoxious teenager that a little brat and that angle tickled me more. It was abusive, sarcastic, parodied AND had Mr. T in. No contest.

You were lucky you didn't play SS3D, your life was spared. For the sake of your children as yet unborn, never even look at the box art.

[ragnar]

Well, I guess it's hard to combine 2d and 3d. I mean of course the whole system of interaction, not just the graphics technique. In a 3D game there's a set of rules defined by three-dimensional space and in a 2d game there's one defined by the plane. If someone uses 3d graphics in a 2d game, by all means, go right ahead. What exactly do you mean by using both 2d and 3d?

I didn't mean that a single game should use both 2d and 3d, I meant that some games can be 2d and some other 3d. Apart from that, quite a lot of games uses both 2d and 3d and quasi-3d engines. Most recent adventure games uses 3d on 2d backdrops for example. SimCity 4 uses a 3d engine optimised for certain angle viewpoints. There are probably more examples. And even if a game uses a 3d engine, they should optimise it for the game to be run, not just use a freeroaming camera just because it's possible.

Of course, you have a point about Worms. They had used up the game system, but is 3d then the natural next step, or could they've done something different in the two dimensions they began with? Did they have to make a new Worms game?

They have tried to do both other games and other things with the worms concept (Worms Blast for example), but Worms seems to be what they have done best. I actually think Worms 3 should be more compared to the first Worms version than World Party, since it's very rough and they haven't been able to really optimise the worms experience in 3d yet. Wait a couple of iterations and I'm rather sure that you will agree that the 3d version is better than the 2d one.

I agree that Broken Sword 3 doesn't look bad (I regret using it in my other post up there). In fact, I was surprised in a good way when I played it. I still feel it would've been better in 2d, though, because in games like these visuals matter so much, and with today's standard of 3d graphics there just isn't enough detail to fill the extra space 3d opens up. I'd much prefer a couple of detailed drawings or paintings of a flat, where the level of detail is up to the artist (and the resolution), over a room where, even though I can turn around to look everywhere, there isn't any reason to because it doesn't look good enough.

I agree that it sometimes look rather polygonish, but making the game 2d would have made the game much more difficult to make, especially in terms of camera angles and camera movement. It should be much more possible to make the world be more alive in 3d (not that they used that very much in 3d though) with things moving (birds, animals, people, cars, etc.) that is part of the game world, but not important to the game. Syberia II is rather good at that respect, btw.

And finally, you didn't like Simon the Sorcerer 1 & 2? I loved them. Why didn't you enjoy them?

I have only played Simon 1, but I found the puzzles quite horrible where the only possible way to solve it was to try everything with everything else (if you don't use a walkthrough) and I quickly got rather bored of the humor in the game.

[Huz]

Blimey, was it? I thought that the talkie was only on the cd version cos i can remember playing the diskette one without voices. Maybe my computer was too shit to handle it?

Sorry, I was making no sense there! I just meant to point out that the CD-ROM version came out at the same time as the non-talkie floppy version, not as some kind of bastardising last-minute addon as you seemed to be implying. I know what you mean though - I didn't much like the voice acting in Fate of Atlantis once I got the CD-ROM version, since I'd played it on the Amiga and formed my own idea of the 'voices'. I still reckon the mere presence of Chris Barrie made the talkie version of Simon 1 a worthy upgrade, though.

As for the Simon humour, it does have an uncanny knack of polarising opinion! I much prefer the humour of Simon 1 and the character of Simon in it (in number two he just needed a slap!). I really need to replay both, though, because the details in my brane are sketchy...

[Alex]

I still reckon the mere presence of Chris Barrie made the talkie version of Simon 1 a worthy upgrade, though.

But that was what made it crap for me. He was so, so baaaaad. It really distressed me, considering how top he usually is in comical roles. Still, at least he wasn't out-done by any of the others...except the guy who did the swampling.

[Huz]

But that was what made it crap for me. He was so, so baaaaad. It really distressed me, considering how top he usually is in comical roles. Still, at least he wasn't out-done by any of the others...except the guy who did the swampling.

I thought he was good! A lot of Simon's lines and the situations he found himself in were ludicrous anyway, so Chris Barrie played it with just the right amount of understatement and irony...

"I leave you with this extremely valuable spell-book, and dog, to assist you..."

...is just about the only line that springs to mind right now, and that's because it's in some dodgy remix. I never got around to playing the talkie version to the end (having already completed it on the Amiga), so it's long overdue for a dust-off - I'll be able to find out whether my original opinion was the result of being a mad Red Dwarf fan-boy then!

[Dr Edison 007]

I'm wondering, since this is on the greatest platformers, would you respect me if I said Super Mario Bros. 3 was the greatest?

[toblix]

I'm wondering, since this is on the greatest platformers, would you respect me if I said Super Mario Bros. 3 was the greatest?

Well, do you really look like your avatar?

[Dr Edison 007]

Do you look like Angelina Jolie?

I didn't think so.

[toblix]

No, but at least I have a basement full of mannequins and dead bodies.

[Skinkie]

Gotta respect that.

[Dr Edison 007]

I'll step down graciously now.