Adventure Gaming Catch-All

adam.greenbrier wrote:
stauf7 wrote:
adam.greenbrier wrote:

I don't remember if it was in this thread or one of the deals threads, but there was once some question about the version of King's Quest VI included in the King's Quest Collection on Steam. I'm playing through that now, and I can confirm that it's the fully voice-acted CD-ROM version of the game.

Magic Schmap!

I can't tell you how tired I got of hearing "Alexander pulls out his magic map ... Alexander feels a strange pulling sensation."

When I type it all out like that, it looks a bit lewd, actually.

I never got tired of that. Mind you, I was a filthy-minded teenager when I played that game, so I guess it's only natural. These days, I'm much more matu... ah, hell, who am I kidding. I'd still get a kick out of it now.

Today is Heavy Rain release day! If you have a PS3, why are you reading this thread?

Just added a GoG purchase link in the OP to Gabriel Knight 2! Huzzah!!! One more of our "top ten"s that have been rendered playable again. If you've never played it, it's totally worth $5.99. Especially since you don't have to swap out the six CDs anymore.

Minarchist wrote:

Today is Heavy Rain release day! If you have a PS3, why are you reading this thread?

Because Friday is the release day in the UK.
At which point I shall purchase and THEN commence non-reading of this thread

Minarchist wrote:

Today is Heavy Rain release day! If you have a PS3, why are you reading this thread?

1) I'm at work.
2) I've got enough on my plate that I feel I can probably wait for a used copy or price drop.

Last weekend I bought Broken Sword for iPhone and am having a blast with it. It's the Director's Cut version - there's now backstory for Nico - so even if I know the original by heart it is new enough. It's full-voiced, beautiful and the interface is perfect. I think I'll be getting Beneath A Steel Sky for iPhone as well. And I hope there will be more updated (or better, even new!) adventures for iPhone.

Hey, I got Broken Sword too, it's great. Control scheme is much better than MI: SE and graphics are slick. Voice acting I a bit of let down, though.
From what I've heard Beneath SS was ported very well too, so I plan on getting that after Broken Sword.

Are there any other classic games coming out for iPhone?

UCRC wrote:

Hey, I got Broken Sword too, it's great. Control scheme is much better than MI: SE and graphics are slick. Voice acting I a bit of let down, though.
From what I've heard Beneath SS was ported very well too, so I plan on getting that after Broken Sword.

Are there any other classic games coming out for iPhone?

Well, voice acting has been top-notch when it first came out back in 1996, now it's more of a nostalgia for me. As far as I can tell it hasn't really changed, so that may be the problem.

I played Broken Sword like 6 months ago for the first time. I really enjoyed them, very well done games. That's cool they are on the iPhone now, I had no idea about that.

wanderingtaoist wrote:

I think I'll be getting Beneath A Steel Sky for iPhone as well. And I hope there will be more updated (or better, even new!) adventures for iPhone.

There's one particularly pixel-hunty spot in there that I worry about, since it was hard enough to see on a full-sized monitor. Drop me a line if you're stuck.

Updated the OP quite a bit, added a few new purchase links (notably Gabriel Knight 3); moved quite a bit out of "Upcoming" and into respective rankings, like Ceville, Rhiannon, Outcry (a very pleasant surprise if you enjoy the pyschological stuff), Machinarium, and others; also unfortunately removed several games altogether that didn't pass muster, like A Vampyre Story, Memento Mori (that one really sucked) and Simon the Sorceror 4. If anyone has new games to go in the new/upcoming section or has played something there and has an opinion as to where it could be moved, I'd love to hear it.

Note also that the special edition of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge has been announced, although with no firm release date yet set.

Only obvious thing I can see that's missing is the Tales of Monkey Island series from Telltale. Not sure if you'd include this with the rest of the monkey island series or on its own but I'd say it's at least on par with their Sam & Max episodes.

It's getting to be a great list though, I really need to spend more of my gaming time on adventure games.

Anyone else play Dune (1992) from Cryo Interactive and Virgin?

I just remembered it because of another forum thread and thought that it should at least be in the Solid Adventuring list. I just played through it again and if you love the Dune novels at all you'll love this game. It doesn't really stick to the story of the novel but the fact that you get to explore the planet and interact with the characters was enough for me to spend hours on this game.

The only place I've found the game is Amazon but I'm sure it's on Ebay too.

Amazon

Wikipedia

Trailer on YouTube

For those who bought the season of Tales of Monkey Island, the DVD can now be preordered for the cost of shipping. For everybody else it's USD 34.95.

Also note: Sam & Max season 3: The Devil's Playhouse is now available for pre-order at USD 34.95, and the first episode releases on April 15th

Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4Lw312RrXk

Season 3? I still haven't played through Season 2 yet.

AUs_TBirD wrote:

For those who bought the season of Tales of Monkey Island, the DVD can now be preordered for the cost of shipping. For everybody else it's USD 34.95.

Also note: Sam & Max season 3: The Devil's Playhouse is now available for pre-order at USD 34.95, and the first episode releases on April 15th

Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4Lw312RrXk

Shipping is quite expensive though but if you spent more than $50 it's free (worldwide) and that includes purchases such as Sam & Max even though it's a digital download.

In case you missed it elsewhere, The Longest Journey (perhaps my favorite adventure game ever) and Sanitarium are both half-off right now at Good Old Games. Just use the referral link at the top-left to buy them if you want, as I haven't yet performed the herculean task of updating all the buy links with referrals. Anyway, they're both fantastic games, and if you don't own them yet, now's your chance. If you still don't own them by the end of the sale...shame on you. Especially TLJ, which is in my opinion the best voice acting ever in a video game.

doubleplusungood wrote:

Is anyone else interested in an adventure game dealing with a pseudo-historical plot to assassinate Hitler? Look no further than A Stroke of Fate. There does not appear to be an exact release date yet (second quarter of 2009).

Is this game EVER coming out?! Recently Hooked Gamers interviewed Boris Chuprin, the lead designer of A Stroke of Fate.

HookedGamers wrote:

HookedGamers: The game was released in Russia over a year ago, a while before the aforementioned Alpha release. Why has it taken this long for an English version of the game to see the light of day?

Boris Chuprin: Mostly because of the huge amount of descriptions we supplied our game with. It's one of the most important features of the game - to immerse players into the world of the Germany of those years. We researched dozens of archives, memoirs, shorthands and books devoted to that period. Then we filtered in the most interesting parts and worked them into the game as descriptions, parts of dialogues, jokes, and even environments and fashion.

Full interview here: http://www.hookedgamers.com/features/2010/04/17/boris_chuprin_on_a_stroke_of_fate.html

Has anyone tried Whispered Worldyet? I think we've already talked about it in this thread earlier.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/th...

UCRC wrote:

Has anyone tried Whispered Worldyet? I think we've already talked about it in this thread earlier.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/th...

There's another thread for it somewhere but to reiterate my (early) opinion...

It looks awesome - the artwork is fantastic (animation is a bit choppy but forgivable). Reminds me most of the first two Discworld adventure games I think.

However, voice acting of the main character is unbearable to the point where I had to switch voices off. It's not that it's badly acted, it's just that they seem to feel the need to give the character a silly voice to add 'character' or something and it's excruciatingly bad.

Once I switched voices off though I think it works pretty well - especially since it meant you really start to notice the music in the game which is superb.

Puzzle wise I've not really played too far in but they haven't been too obtuse so far.

In fact, just read John Walker's review and this I agree with 100%

John Walker wrote:

The actor providing our hero's voice needs to have his vocal chords removed, sealed in a lead box and fired into space. You know that hateful baby voice Adam Sandler insists on doing in half his films? Times it by 20. It's excruciating to the point where I taught myself to speed-read just to skip his voice as quickly as possible. It's like having your favourite poem read out by Joe Pasquale.

(For the record, Joe Pasquale is extremely unfunny 'comedian' who's act pretty much consists of him talking in a really stupid squeaky voice).

Anyone played Secret Files: Tunguska? I'm curious about the upcoming Wii port.

stevenmack wrote:
UCRC wrote:

Has anyone tried Whispered Worldyet? I think we've already talked about it in this thread earlier.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/th...

There's another thread for it somewhere but to reiterate my (early) opinion...

It looks awesome - the artwork is fantastic (animation is a bit choppy but forgivable). Reminds me most of the first two Discworld adventure games I think.

However, voice acting of the main character is unbearable to the point where I had to switch voices off. It's not that it's badly acted, it's just that they seem to feel the need to give the character a silly voice to add 'character' or something and it's excruciatingly bad.

Once I switched voices off though I think it works pretty well - especially since it meant you really start to notice the music in the game which is superb.

Puzzle wise I've not really played too far in but they haven't been too obtuse so far.

In fact, just read John Walker's review and this I agree with 100%

John Walker wrote:

The actor providing our hero's voice needs to have his vocal chords removed, sealed in a lead box and fired into space. You know that hateful baby voice Adam Sandler insists on doing in half his films? Times it by 20. It's excruciating to the point where I taught myself to speed-read just to skip his voice as quickly as possible. It's like having your favourite poem read out by Joe Pasquale.

(For the record, Joe Pasquale is extremely unfunny 'comedian' who's act pretty much consists of him talking in a really stupid squeaky voice).

Kind of had a thread going for it here. Honestly, I haven't made it out of the initial starting area because I can't figure out what to frickin do. When you try and head into the forest, he heads there and then walks back. I spent over an hour clicking on stuff and trying to get more information from the NPC's but to no avail. I wasted 27 bucks. It sure is pretty, though. Yargh! Now I'm pissed.

Couldn't find a thread for Sam and Max Season 3 but here's the trailer for the new episode:

Sam loses it because...They Stole Max's Brain! (This looks like it could be one of the best episodes yet and so far this season has been hitting on all cylinders)

Also there is a new E3 trailer for Nelson Tethers Puzzle Agent. I like the aesthetic of it very much, although I kinda wish they didn't keep the jerky animation style of previous Grickle stuff. It very much looks like a slightly darker Professor Layton style game.

Edit: Also since I already bumped this thread up, may as well post the 50 Adventure Games 50% Off Sale from the Video Game Deals thread.

I loved all of the Monkey Islands when I was growing up and wanted to make a note so this thread was on my track list.

I recently started playing Loom.

wordsmythe wrote:

I recently started playing Loom.

One of my favorites from that era - though it's always hard to tell if that's because it's a genuinely good game or just nostalgia for one of the first computer games I ever played. Since I replayed it - and still enjoyed it - earlier this year, I'd have to lean towards the former.

wordsmythe wrote:

I recently started playing Loom.

I'm sorry.

Post your thoughts when you finish. I'm curious to hear what you think of it.

I actually found that Loom didn't hold up very well when I replayed it, but maybe that's just because I idolized it so much. The story seemed more juvenile and I clearly remembered the solutions to all of the puzzles. And it's a short game, perhaps shorter than your average Telltale Games episodes these days. Also it might be the fact that I replayed the inferior talky version of the game that Steam distributes which had some dialog cut to reduce the cost and size of the speech.

Even though I've lost some of the nostalgia I had for the game, I still think it's one of the all time greats for what it did at the time. Some things that haven't really been repeated. The ending of the game is still brilliant and replaying it actually makes me glad there were no sequels because it would've diminished the impact of that ending.

The voice-track version on Steam sort of annoys me because it's hard to know when they're done talking or just pausing. It's all sort of clunky in its own, almost-endearing way.

By the way, has no one else been playing Sam and Max: The Devil's Toybox? The third episode came out yesterday and it was great. If the quality holds up for the final episodes then I think this might be Telltale's greatest game/season to date. Each episode has had something fun and inventive in it, both gameplay and plot wise. Also the cliffhangers at the end of each episode are all just genius. Usually I find some of the middle episodes in a Telltale season to kind of drag on and be unsatisfying but so far each episode while very self contained has felt like an important piece in the season's overall arc. I played They Stole Max's Brain in one sitting yesterday and can't wait until the next episode.