Full Throttle 2: What are they doing?!

Punch · Sat 03/05/2003 01:52:55

I was just reading through the FT2 webpage (http://lucasarts.com/products/hellonwheels/default.htm) and I'm getting kind of worried. There's a whole lot of action mentioned and only the occasional bit of adventure.

Are they turning it into and Indiana Jones-esque game? Frequent action and push-pull puzzles? :'(

- Punch

Trapezoid · Sat 03/05/2003 01:55:08

It might be so. But even if it does turn out to be an action-adventure, I still think it could be a pretty cool game in its own right. The concept art and character models look quite promising (the screenshots look very incomplete, though.)

remixor · Sat 03/05/2003 02:05:55

I couldn't be more cynical regarding the direction this game is taken. If it turns out to be a good game, I absolutely will put aside all prejudices, but until that happens I'm of the opinion that it will be really bad. The graphic style looks like crap to me, there's far too much action (40 "strategically placed" weapons...? health bars? tons of fighting), and there's no Tim Schafer. Now, obviously Tim Schafer isn't the only one who could possibly make a worthy sequel, but with most of the great LEC adventure designers gone now, we get crap like MI4... Doesn't bode well for FT2 in my opinion.

Punch · Sat 03/05/2003 02:32:26

I'm sure it's still going to be good, it's just that... well... I was hoping for a similar game... Full Throttle was awesome, and turning it into an action game is just... wrong. I'm not saying they can't change it, what the hell would be the point of a sequal if there aren't any new ideas, but still...

Ah well. I'm sure I'll still buy it. And they can't have butchered it too badly.

- Punch

Nacho · Sat 03/05/2003 08:00:00

Let me show my oppinion...

LucasArts was for many of us the horny cybergirl who made us lose the adventure-graphic virginity

I remember Indy 3 and, Man! Monkey Island... After that the quality of the games rised, but not the charming. The sensations we had the first time we went down the giant head monkey wonÂ´t be repeated :'(

And after that, I dunno know why, maybe since Full Throttle... Quality down. Only Manny keeps the quality, why? Mr. Ron Gilbert is right, they only thing they care is how many poligons can the 3-d machine move, Monkey island 4 sucked...

Lucas has lost the fresh they had at their first games... now that creativity can be found here, in AGS, weÂ´re young, weÂ´re funny... We gotta keep teh good work!

Gonzo · Sat 03/05/2003 11:14:28

The new FT site has really given me doubts about the game now. Before I was confident it would be a great adventure game with action thrown in here and there (like the original) but the emphasis of everything on the site seems to tell us otherwise.

Besides that, the new screenshots look awful, especially the first one - looks like a bad Quake I modification with Full Throttle skins. And it makes me worry about the interface, the second screenshot with the fighting doesn't look like fun. Compared to the early screenshots which looked good, this is alarming, what have they changed?

But we shouldn't speculate, it's best to wait to play the game before we pass judgement. I'm just a little more worried now.

jetxl · Sat 03/05/2003 11:35:29

First they make crappy starwars games then they mess up Guybrush and now it looks like they make the coolest game ever into a shooter.
The only time LA makes a good game is when another company does the work for them.

Quesion has there ever been a good 3d game?
I can only think of Normality and alone in the dark (It was scary!)

Adamski · Sat 03/05/2003 11:47:00

I agree with Trap on this one.

It's going to make a lot of people very unhappy with Lucasarts though.

Eero · Sat 03/05/2003 12:03:51

Hmm, I really hope that they make Sam&Max 2 better than Full Throttle 2... :

Shattered Sponge · Sat 03/05/2003 12:26:10

Well, in my humble opinion, they managed to get a damn good game out of Indy and The Infernal Machine (yet to play the new one), but then the movies themselves always had a lot of action at their heart, so it would be difficult to see it working with something like FT... I guess we'll just have to see.

jannar85 · Sat 03/05/2003 19:06:00

Someone better e-mail LucasArts...or I won't buy FT2.

MrColossal · Sat 03/05/2003 19:49:27

i think the best answer to the what are they doing question is...

whatever they want, it's their company, it's their game and they can do whatever they want to do

no company sets out to make a shitty game so they are trying their damndest to make FT2 the best game they can in today's market place. now we've all been around for a few years and we know what today's markey place is like, so why is everyone so surprised?

you can't expect a company to never change especially in light of new technology, game playing ideas, trends and all that

also remember that we will be around on this earth for many years and who knows what new games will come out later. maybe adventures will come back in 10 years or whatever... maybe there will be new and better character's and games that we'll become attached too and make fan games off of

this is just full throttle, i bet tim schaffer or whoever isn't all that upset about the game [just maybe that he can't work on it and make a paycheck] he designed it many years ago and many years and projects have come and go, he's working on psychonauts anyway, his own game that he gets to design all over again

if you create something for a company you know that it is for that company and that they own it and they can do what they please with it. he's moved on i'm sure, along with many other people who made adventure games in the past

Trapezoid · Sat 03/05/2003 20:24:47

Come to think of it, FT2 isn't looking any more action-oriented than Psychonauts...

Jimi · Sat 03/05/2003 20:28:27

I haven't played the original.

Barcik · Sat 03/05/2003 20:46:36

I am sure each one of us is thrilled to know that. Really, thank you for contributing that to our humble debate.

remixor · Sat 03/05/2003 22:52:06

Quote from: Trapezoid on Sat 03/05/2003 20:24:47
Come to think of it, FT2 isn't looking any more action-oriented than Psychonauts...

Come to think of it, it's also not looking any more action-oriented than Doom III. The difference is that Doom III is a follow up to classic action games, and Full Throttle 2 is a follow up to a classic adventure game, and Psychonauts is an entirely independent entity that could be a barbie dress-up game and still wouldn't be breaking an continuity of anything in the past. Now, I expect Psychonauts to be aweosome, because it looks like it will completely live up to its expectations--that is, a really awesome action/adventure game developed by Tim Schafer. I am reasonably certain that Full Throttle: Hell on Wheels will not live up to the legacy of the first game, which was a great adventure with minor action elements.

Trapezoid · Sat 03/05/2003 23:53:08

Is a sequel not allowed to have its own legacy? No one complained when DOTT went in a completely different direction from Maniac Mansion...

remixor · Sun 04/05/2003 01:21:47

Quote from: Trapezoid on Sat 03/05/2003 23:53:08
Is a sequel not allowed to have its own legacy? No one complained when DOTT went in a completely different direction from Maniac Mansion...

Come on, at least DOTT stayed in the same GENRE. It also had a form of the multiple player character feature that was such a part of MM. DOTT is a great example of a sequel, because it introduces new plot, new characters and new technology, but keeps the same genre of the game, retains familiar aspects, and will appeal to the same people who loved MM. On the other hand, FT2 is not even the same type of game as FT. It will use similar characters and I assume plot elements in a totally different medium, which is a very odd thing to do, and has already alienated many fans of FT before it's even out.

MrColossal · Sun 04/05/2003 01:34:01

remixor, can you understand that times have changed?

cause if you can't see that isn't 1997 anymore than we can't talk about this

remixor · Sun 04/05/2003 01:43:15

Quote from: MrColossal on Sun 04/05/2003 01:34:01
remixor, can you understand that times have changed?

cause if you can't see that isn't 1997 anymore than we can't talk about this

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at here. If you think that I'm implying that FT2 should be 2D with sprites or something, you've read too much into what I've said. I think FT2 should take full advantage of today's technology (although judging from those screenshots, it doesn't look like it has), but I'm of the opinion--an opinion which for some reason may be stranger than I think it is--that a sequel to an adventure game should be an adventure game. Full Throttle was an adventure game with action elements. FT2 will be an action game with adventure elements. In writing those two things sound much more similar than they actually are. Ever played an action/adventure? It really plays nothing like an adventure game, and I expect that out of FT as well. I'm not even anti-action/adventure or anything, I just don't like that they're creating a sequel to a great game whose genre is different from the first game's. I mean, what if they released a sequel to Citizen Kane that was an action movie. It could be a really great action movie, but it wouldn't feel like a sequel to Citizen Kane at all since the medium would be so different. (This was a purely hypothetical example, btw, I'm not trying to actually say anything about Citizen Kane.) That's how I feel about Hell on Wheels: that I'll play it and maybe it will be a good game--but with LA's track record of late, I'm somewhat doubtful--but I can't imagine it will "feel" like Full Throttle, and to me that's a problem. If it's not a problem for you, fine, I think it would be great if LA made it a good game that people enjoy, but don't tell me I'm living in the past.