Grim Fandango being remastered for PS4 and Vita

[Zeusthecat]

Not to brag or anything, but I had some pretty mad skills when it came to navigating around that underwater conveyor belt area.

[Udvarnoky]

Anyone who doesn't defiantly stick with the tank controls is Not A Real Fan™.

[Cordeos]

I honesty don't remember having trouble with the original control scheme. What does tank controls even mean?

[Professor Video Games]

The movement inputs are relative to the character, not the camera, so pushing the up arrow key always makes Manny walk straight forward regardless of what direction he is facing on screen. The left and right keys make him turn I think.

[Vainamoinen]

Yes, that's it. However, the original Grim alternatively had WASD controls some kind of direct control as well. Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of its control woes. Oh no, not at all.

 

 

The people who don't use tank controls may not be Real Fans™ of Grim Fandango. They are, however, Real Fans™ of LucasArts.

 

When you clicked on a written verb or an icon in a verb coin, at least you directly knew what command you just issued. In this ingenious control scheme, you had to look up in the manual whether what you'd just did had any sense. The "I already tried that" effect was striking.

 

I hated Grim's controls.

[Bjorn]

Oh man, that layout.  I miss the days of having the little paper/cardboard overlay that was made for your keyboard so you could remember what every freaking button did. 

[Kolzig]

You know, I was thinking that it is enough if I own the original on PC and just play it through ResidualVM, but Tim is forcing my hand. I really want to try out the new control options and hear the director's commentary bits.

 

Also I am almost caving in on buying this ALSO for Vita for on the go gaming.

[Tanukitsune]

I'm probably going to buy the Vita version as a day one perch and eventually double dip for the PC version. I'd hate to say this, but I can barely play games with tank controls anymore, so this is a god send.

[N1njaSquirrel]

you know, I really wouldn't be surprised if Grim was next months PS+ game. 

[Roderick]

UNF those dynamic shadows. I will be so happy to see Grim on Steam, just so I can coerce all my friends to buy it.

[Vainamoinen]

Is there any video that shows how the point & click inventory actually works...?

[thorn]

Ah cool, and I would agree with Schafer. Even as frustrating as the tank controls could be at times, I think it was the best way to control Manny without having any kind of point and click option. I do hope though that some tweaks were made to the way Manny navigates to make it easier to get into certain areas or rooms. That was really my major gripe. Some spots just had such a super narrow area where you had to walk with just the right trajectory to get to the next scene and if you fucked it up, Manny would just hit an invisible wall and rebound off in a different direction.

 

This. Very this. I never had a problem with the tank controls, but I hated when Manny ended up running somewhere completely different to where I intended. My strongest memory of this is coming up from the cat track betting office, he'd always veer up the stairs towards Carla's security office instead of running straight along the walkway.

 

The music sounds great, but I think I'm going to have to listen to the soundtrack a few times first before playing the game. I've listened to the original OST so many times that it'll be jarring to hear the subtle differences.

[syntheticgerbil]

I'm pretty sure I only ever used tank controls, but maybe it's because I was in the PS1 generation when that was a usual thing on a prerendered background. I'm not really against them though I do remember hitting invisible walls maybe a bit too often.

[Vainamoinen]

I remember coming across tank controls for the first time in Resident Evil 2 in 1998. Unfortunately that game starts with a lengthy dodge the zombie sequence, so I probably restarted a hundred times before I somehow managed to get through the first minutes. I eventually mastered them - but then again, interacting with a complex world via verbs is a totally different thing than shooting brains up. Manny never looked at the right stuff, never performed the right action and hardly ever gave an indication that he didn't, he never walked in the right direction, he never had the right item in his hand. For me, point and click has always been vastly superior to the needlessly prolonged and complex control mechanisms of Grim Fandango.

If Double Fine incorporates, matches or even surpasses the fan made P&C patch, especially including the inventory handling, the new Grim was well worth buying.

[Jake]

It is based on the fan patch code, with its author assisting.

[Vainamoinen]

If Double Fine supplies the inventory art, good news indeed.

[thorn]

If Double Fine incorporates, matches or even surpasses the fan made P&C patch, especially including the inventory handling, the new Grim was well worth buying.

What did the patch do with inventory handling?

[Vainamoinen]

Essentially, what Tim and Cie. should have done 18 years ago anyway.

 

[Udvarnoky]

Part of Tim's motivation for the direct control was to get rid of a conventional interface entirely.  No cursor, no overlays. 

[Thrik]

When I played Grim Fandango on my living room TV, I realised exactly what Schafer was striving for. The game looks absolutely gorgeous with no UI distractions, also I found that the backgrounds looked much nicer than on my computer due to a combination of the distance and TVs typically having better upscaling technology. It's really sad that the game never got to be on a platform where its control scheme actually made sense the first time around.

[Roderick]

I actually like the inventory system. Might not offer a lot in the way of clarity, but it feels like a very 'in-world' thing. Just look at that screenshot with the inventory: horrible, even if it is practical.

 

Does anyone know whether there'll be a boxed version? I have a gorgeous box of the original game, wouldn't mind putting a new one next to it.

[Cordeos]

When I played Grim Fandango on my living room TV, I realised exactly what Schafer was striving for. The game looks absolutely gorgeous with no UI distractions, also I found that the backgrounds looked much nicer than on my computer due to a combination of the distance and TVs typically having better upscaling technology. It's really sad that the game never got to be on a platform where its control scheme actually made sense the first time around.

 

I'm super excited to use put the HD version on my projector.

[Bjorn]

Yeah, I actually liked the inventory and no-UI in the original design as well.  It may not be as functional, but it serves other purposes that trump pure functionality for me. 

[syntheticgerbil]

Man, finding out the inventory system for the first time, while just a cute sort of thing, felt so revolutionary at the time.

[antikewl]

you know, I really wouldn't be surprised if Grim was next months PS+ game. 

 

Unlikely. It'd have a release date to sync with the PS+ update, i.e. 3/4 February.

 

Talking of Playstation releases, anyone else in the EU a bit worried that it won't arrive on the 27th? There's been no mention on the EU blog, and their release timings have been pretty awful recently.