Grim Fandango being remastered for PS4 and Vita

[N1njaSquirrel]

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.

 

 

Unless they are waiting to release it at around 3rd-4th February.

[Ben X]

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.

 

Agreed on the inventory. U-G-L-Y.

 

As far as I can tell, there aren't any plans for a boxed version. I know they aren't able to release merchandise or a soundtrack due to rights issues, so perhaps that's also why there'll be no box.

[Bjorn]

Agreed on the inventory. U-G-L-Y.

 

As far as I can tell, there aren't any plans for a boxed version. I know they aren't able to release merchandise or a soundtrack due to rights issues, so perhaps that's also why there'll be no box.

No official merch? That blows. I almost never buy video game knick-knacks, shirts, etc., but I would totally take a Manny Calavera figurine to sit on my desk.

[MrHoatzin]

Just go to your local tianguis and buy a proper papier-mache calavera.

[Thrik]

They'd better include all the music in the game's data in a nicely extractable format then.

[Jake]

Count on Benny.

[Thrik]

It's mostly the cut-scene music I'm interested in, assuming that's gotten the orchestral treatment too. The original game had it all compiled into a video along with the other audio, sadly.

[Zeusthecat]

Regarding the inventory, I wasn't the biggest fan. Only being able to see one item at a time was kind of a pain and constantly cycling through all of them to find the one item I needed got rather tedious for me. I think it would have worked much better if instead of Manny pulling each item out of his jacket individually, he just held one side of his jacket open to reveal all of the items he had stuffed in there. I think this could be done in a way that wouldn't introduce an intrusive UI and would still feel very 'in-world'.

[chickenmonger]

The Double Fine Explorer might come in handy...

 

They'd better include all the music in the game's data in a nicely extractable format then.

[Udvarnoky]

The measures Grim took to abandon an interface were definitely imperfect, and I think the debate over whether it represents a fair trade-off will be perennial. 

 

Me, I kinda can't help but wince when I see a cursor over Grim, because getting rid of all that stuff was a big part of Tim's vision for the game, a vision that he courted controversy to achieve.  It's why my face has always been ¬¬ at this assertion over the years that if only Grim was point 'n click, it would have been perfect.  For better or for worse, the direct control, interface-freeness is tied to Grim's identity for me.

 

Cycling through inventory definitely became a nuisance, although Tim did seem to deliberately make inventory items way more scarce starting with Full Throttle, removing item combination (and its headache-inducing potential) in the process.  The Monkey Island series, in its irrepressible old-schoolness, reversed both of those streamlining efforts.  Note that Monkey3 is based on Full Throttle's interface, and Monkey4 on Grim Fandango's.  What are the two specific things Tim pointedly removed that Monkey Island revived when it poached those respective engines?  Sentence line, and inventory combination.

[Jake]

I played Remastered for just a few minutes this morning and I don't know what I can and can't talk about when it comes to specifics, but the controls are handled very well, the new music sounds GORGEOUS (the increased feeling of polish and... "completeness," of the opening cutscene is striking, even with the same 1998 visuals), and the shadows are confirmed pretty.

[antikewl]

 

If SCEE allowed me to press a pre-order button I would be pressing it right now.

[sclpls]

Well I did my good deed, and on another messageboard I was singing the praises of the Grim Fandango remaster, and convinced a couple of people to pre-order a copy.

[Bjorn]

Pre-order is up on Steam now as well. 

[SiN]

Best trophy: https://twitter.com/brandonnn/status/559488849294802944

[Bjorn]

Ha!

[Dr. Proton]

Pre-order is up on Steam now as well. 

Yes! I can't wait to play this again. Grim's probably my favorite Schafer game. Saying goodbye Manny is one of my favorite gaming experiences.

[syntheticgerbil]

Welp, tank controls it is again then.

[Vainamoinen]

No, I don't usually play games on ultra hard, particularly not for "achievements".

[Moosferatu]

And it's downloadable now!

[kaputt]

It seems the game doesn't have a proper widescreen mode, it just stretches the image. That won't prevent me from playing the game of course, specially because I didn't played it back then, but it surely is disappointing considering it is a "remaster".

[chickenmonger]

I think this might be the game that trips the trigger on me upgrading my computer, oddly enough. Intel HD3000 integrated graphics works surprisingly well for so many games I play, and minimum specs on GF: Remastered say HD4000.

 

Costume Quest 2 ran on my HD3000, with a little jumpiness here and there, so I can see why Double Fine would say HD4000 or better.

[Udvarnoky]

It seems the game doesn't have a proper widescreen mode, it just stretches the image. That won't prevent me from playing the game of course, specially because I didn't played it back then, but it surely is disappointing considering it is a "remaster".

 

I don't know how plausible such an effort would have really been.  At the very least there's probably little they could have done about the cutscenes.  Better to just leave the game in the aspect ratio the camera angles were composed for instead of monkeying with it.

[chickenmonger]

This reminds me a lot of the DVD releases of Babylon 5. While the live-action scenes were filmed, allowing for high definition scans, the original computer graphics cutscenes were only available in standard NTSC.

 

 

 

I don't know how plausible such an effort would have really been.  At the very least there's probably little they could have done about the cutscenes.  Better to just leave the game in the aspect ration the camera angles were composed for instead of monkeying with it.

[brkl]

Doesn't work on my HD4000, BTW. So I wouldn't buy one to play this. I get black instead of backgrounds and unplayable performance at the lowest settings. Of course, this is a silly little 2-in-1, but new.