Moosferatu

Dreamfall gone gold

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So they're releasing

...a sequel to an adventure game...

...that didn't sell all that great to begin with...

...and adding enough action elements to alienate "hardcore" adventure game fans...

...but not enough action elements to win over other "hardcore" gamers....

...in April...

...published by Aspyr, who is best known for Mac ports of two-year-old PC games...

...for the PC, where games generally don't sell as well...

...and the Xbox, a platform that has been dead for months and already has a successor.

Not to rain on anyone's parade...but exactly how is this game going to avoid complete disaster?

Seriously, I've already pre-ordered and I've been following the game pretty much since it was announced. But having any hopes of it doing well at all are...well, I think kinda foolish.

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I have a feeling April is going to be a complete badass this time around, and I can't wait.

Yeah, I quite like the evolution of April; I just hope Zoe's not too similar to April in the first game (as her description seems to indicate).

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...that didn't sell all that great to begin with...

... in America. It did fine in Europe. About half a million copies total I'm told.

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...that didn't sell all that great to begin with...

Which game are you talking about?

...and the Xbox, a platform that has been dead for months

Same question, guess which word I've changed.

and already has a successor.

Which no-one will be buying until it gets some decent exclusive games, and that's looking like some time... barring arcade.

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I have a feeling April is going to be a complete badass this time around, and I can't wait.

Yeah, after that screenshot was taken, she totally KICKED THAT FUCKING VINE IN THE THROAT!!!

Honestly though: can't wait.

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...in April....

And what's so bad about releasing it in April? There tends to be a scarcity of games at this time of year, and publishing a niche title like Dreamfall during a busy eriod would be extremely foolish as it would be overlooked in favour of the latest mediocre tv/film tie-in.

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And what's so bad about releasing it in April? There tends to be a scarcity of games at this time of year, and publishing a niche title like Dreamfall during a busy eriod would be extremely foolish as it would be overlooked in favour of the latest mediocre tv/film tie-in.

OKay, I'll admit I added that one just to have a slightly longer list. Though I still generally don't associate April releases with big hits. Plus it means that it'll be competing with E3 for press coverage.

I still stand by the others, though.

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The only thing that can save this game in north ameria is for it to have a hot coffee mod. :shifty:

Though as far as I remember, tlj did great in europe and it took a long as time for it to get to the united states. In fact, didn't it come to the US because it did well in europe? or am I making this up?

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Funcom has finally said something about the release of the limited edition. It apparently isn't going to ship till the 30th. That sucks. I think I might just pre-order the normal version at ebgames, because I don't feel like waiting, and possibly get the other as well depending on how much it costs.

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It's $65. bah, I want it, but I don't want to wait an extra two weeks for it, which is stupid because we've already been waiting for so long. What's another two weeks?

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The first two weeks are probably the worst time to hold off from playing it though, since everyone else will be posting about how awesome it is and discussing puzzles and stuff. Torment I tells ya.

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The first two weeks are probably the worst time to hold off from playing it though, since everyone else will be posting about how awesome it is and discussing puzzles and stuff. Torment I tells ya.

Yeah, I caved and just pre-ordered it at my local ebgames. Naturally, the guy there had never heard of it before. :(

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damn it, ebgames just changed their ship date to the 20th as well. I knew I should have preordered from Funcom.

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And what was marek doing two THREE years ago? http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,262
Whoa it was weird reading that back. It's funny and sad that purely as a result of being an AG preview, 90% of it dealt with concerns over action elements.

P.S. If there's no tears running down character's eyes or no hairs moving, I totally want my money back.

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I was afraid that adding more action wouldn't be such a good idea after all. It's not that I think there shouldn't be action in adventure games (I was actually looking forward to roundhouse kicking the bad guys out of Stark). I was afraid that the combat system would be too undeveloped for fighting to be enjoyable.

What really scared me in IGN review, however, is that they mentioned that puzzles "have been greatly simplified". I don't know how simplified they actually are, but it doesn't sound good.

Well, I should really wait for other reviews before making any judgements. This wouldn't be the first game I have liked and IGN hasn't.

Quite funny, btw:

Ragnar: "And the ending ... just wait until you play it."

IGN: "However, one criticism does unfortunately have to be made, and it involves the ending. I'll keep it as brief and vague as possible, but Dreamfall's conclusion was extremely frustrating."

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IGN just recently adopted the practice of giving scores lower than 9.1, so maybe they just haven't learned how that works yet.

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Well, Gamespot gave a much more positive review, though with similar concerns as the IGN review:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/longestjourney2wt/review.html?sid=6147844

And Gamespy (subsidiary of IGN) gives an absolutely glowing 5/5 review:

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/dreamfall/702029p1.html

From the review:

"There's clearly a lot going on in Dreamfall. The game covers a lot of metaphorical, political, and religious ground, and is easily one of the best story experiences I've ever had in a Video game. It's a multi-threaded, complex affair that's much more than just an exciting adventure tale. The game poses profound and troubling questions about the uses and misuses of faith, the limits of corporate, governmental, and religious power, and the significant difference between belief and fanaticism and knowledge and wisdom. The dialogue is wonderful, brought to life by a stellar cast of voice-actors, and the characters are clearly defined and supremely likeable. The game easily holds its head up high with such classic fare as Planescape: Torment and Grim Fandango."

So, that's promising.

In more depressing news, I've now realized that I've probably spent more time in my life reading news/previews/reviews about this game than I ever will playing the game. Man, I'm quite the loser. ;)

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Has anyone gotten it yet? ebgames is driving me crazy. They still haven't gotten the PC version, but somehow they managed to get the xbox version yesterday. I called Best Buy, and after spending a couple minutes just trying to get the guy to get the name of the game right he said that he doesn't think they even carry it. Of course, it's possible that he still entered the wrong name. argh! I'm so pissed. I've been working on getting my school work done early all week for nothing.

[edit]bah, I just talked to the ebgames guy on the phone again. He says that it's not on their ship list for the next two day, so they probably won't get it till next week. What the heck is up with that? You'd think if you pre-order something they'd at least try to get a copy to you the same week. So, I broke down and paid way to much to get it next-dayed from amazon. bah. I hate you ebgames.

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Well, I just got to chapter 3 of the first game. I must say, I find it rather annoying that there are large passages of dialogue that seem to go on for hours while there's no visual but the back of the character who is speaking's head. What's the deal? Either let me interact or give a cut scene so I'm not bored out of my wits.

Other than that, I'm enjoying the game.

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