The Inventory RE(down)LOADED

[dimidimidimi]

The 8th issue of the PDF magazine for adventure games, The Inventory, is ready for download from the front page of Just Adventure (www.justadventure.com). On the 8th issue you will find:

- For the first time in gaming history a comic strip based on upcoming adventure game by Emerald City Games.
The strip will be featured on every issue of The Inventory up until its release date, which is still undetermined. It will hopefully give the community a look into the world and characters of the upcoming game.  Emerald City Games and The Inventory are excited about this new type of promotion, which is the first of its type in gaming history.

- 5 page mega preview of Syberia 2
A preview with the first screenshots from the 3rd world of Syberia, The Youkol Village, the latest information regarding the game and a mini interview with the PR manager of Microids, Cedric Orvoine. Find out also what Microids holds in store for us in the future!

- Preview of Space Quest 7
The fan based upcoming adventure whose creditcs include even Josh Mandel, gets uncovered on The Inventory.

- The Al Lowe Show!
The Inventory is proud to present to you the creator of the magnificent Larry Laffer series, Al Lowe and his compilation of  the best jokes for last month.

- Interview with Legacy Interactive
The developers of Law & Order 2 are talking about everything surrounding their Law and Order series.

- Interview with Screen 7 Entertainment, developers of Indiana Jones and the Fountain of Youth.
The developers of the fan based adventure that brings the whip back in Indy's hands and the mouse back in ours, come in The Inventory lounge to talk about their future plans and their game.

- Reviews of Runaway, Salammbo and Fatman

-All the latest adventure gossip
Written by our very own Carla Melloni, also known as Carla, or Mallia Gedde

- Talking dead
The new column by Mark Lovegrove, project leader of Indiana Jones and the Fountain of Youth talking everything about adventures.

Let the download begin...

[AJA]

ooh... sounds great.

[jannar85]

Looking great Dim - downloading now as always

[Vel]

Wonderful! Im downloading now!

[rodekill]

Overall a nice issue, but the SQ7 preview irks me. There are some confusing details in there.

For example:

We  are happy  to  report  that  the first  showings  of  the team's  work  on  the characters  demonstrate that  they  have  made  a much better job than Sierra previously did in Gabriel Knight  3  and  King's  Quest  8  and  has  nothing  to  be jealous of, from recent commercial adventures. Roger Wilco  looks  excellent  in  3D  and  does  not  loose  his comic  style  as  it  sometimes  happens  when  turning  a 2D character into 3D.

Firstly, I could very well be wrong here, but those character renders look suspiciously like Poser models. The author seems to be insinuating that the game will be using true 3d models for the characters, like they did with KQ8 and GK3. And even if so, it's hard to compair the graphics of a game in development now with games that were released several years ago, amateur or not.

As  they  stated,  adventures  that  try  to  convert  to  a  3D  environment, like  Escape  from  Monkey  Island,  suffer  in  the translation and are not true to the roots of the genre.
That statement alone, shows that the developers know very well what they are doing and how to make a real adventure in 3D unlike other commercial companies. SQ7's  3D  pre-rendered  graphics  will  allow  the developers to position the camera in the exact spot to
get the best perspective of a screen.

MI4 used pre-rendered backgrounds. I don't know what he's talking about here.

Both of these quotes sound like they come from a paid advert. Obviously they're not, but I think the author should maybe be a little more conservative and just state the facts, rather than making bold statements about how good the game will be.

I don't mind statements about how certain features look really good or promising, but saying things like "they  have  made  a much better job than Sierra previously did" is a little much, even if it's true, and doesn't sound very professional.

Anyways, sorry about the negativity. I still enjoyed the issue a lot. Especially that interview with the FoY team.  

[Lazy Z]

Cool, I was looking forward to reading a new issue of the Inventory. Seems like a really interesting issue too! Downloading now...

[auhsor]

w00t! I've been waiting for this for a while.

[Ginny]

This is a great issue! I really enjoyed the Screen 7 interview and Mark's column near the end. I also liked the comic strip. I read bits of Syberia 2 preview aswell (will read it all when I have time) and it was very interesting. Sometime soon I'm gonna start printing these out from the first one, and reading them like an official AG magazine that I can feedback on and have contact with the authors, etc.

If you would someday make this a printed magazine and send it out around the world (and thus naturally, charge for it), that'd be great! However this way is better for now