Adventure Game Studio

I don't know if this is old news to you guys (in which case you should just ignore this), but I was quite surprised when I read this at gamasutra today:
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23858

The company developing the sequel (called Tales Of Monkey Island) is Telltale:
http://www.telltalegames.com/monkeyisland

***

In parallel, Lucas arts is also working on a Monkey Island: Special Edition, a makeover of the original that will allegedly "bring the game into the modern era",according to Gamasutra's review.
Check out the hot site: http://www.lucasarts.com/games/monkeyisland/

In my oppinion, Mr. Treepwood is looking a tad too much like a surfer "dude". Oh, well.

I like Telltale's guybrush. He Finally looks awesome manly :P.
In contrast, LucasArt's Guybrush has...a 20 year old hairstyle? And their (background) music is nice, but seems to laid back.

So yes, I am excited. And also ready to point out every single flaw I see, like the hardcore fanboy I am :=

Telltale, you beautiful bastards. It looks like they've also managed to get Michael Land back on board, who is pretty much my idol and one of the reasons I got in to video game audio in the first place. The Monkey Island 2 and 3 soundtracks really have yet to be beaten in terms of depth and complexity in the video game world, and they're well over a decade old!

It's all terribly exciting, and yet at the same time a bit deflating for me... I'm still working on and off on Oswyn (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=32281.0) and this is probably not going to help the potential sigmata that at first glance, the game seems very similar to a certain series set deep in the Caribbean. Even though both series of games are going to be totally and completely different in tone and atmosphere... hopefully!

But yes, I'll be first in line to play this. Make it better than Escape, please!

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES

Ahem.

Eff Tee Doubayou, as they say.

Pre-ordered Tales, the remake will probably end up being bought on both 360 and PC.. :D

I am LITERALLY having to gag myself with a pillow to prevent someone calling the police. I can't contain myself. Not only are two new Monkey Island games being released, but Ron's got his hands back in the honey pot?!?!?! ;D :D ;D :D

I'm ordering it now....NOW!!!

I'm ordering it as soon as they fix the Paypal ordering system.

DON'T BUY ALL THE DATA BEFORE I CAN GET TO IT GUYS OKAY!!

Really disappointed that this is 3d tbh but still very excited.

As long as I can turn off the voices to avoid Dominic Armato's incredibly annoying nasalspeak I'll give these a try.  I'd rather play them with just the text, anyway.

OOOooooh, I like that the they're keeping the game exactly the same, rather than trying to change it so much to appease new audiences.


~Trent

Quote from: ProgZmax on Mon 01/06/2009 20:44:45
As long as I can turn off the voices to avoid Dominic Armato's incredibly annoying nasalspeak I'll give these a try.  I'd rather play them with just the text, anyway.

Really? I usually like voices in the games, without them I often feel like I'm deaf or that something is wrong with the speakers...I don't know why.

I never really liked that voice for Guybrush. Even in Monkey Island 3 it used to grate me.

MI SE looks fun, with a bit to much vector graphics. Yay, the monkeys are listening! (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=37826.msg497243#msg497243) hmm, but I kinda played MI1 so many times already.

I am less impressed with 3D telltale MI game. Probebly because of Vampire Story and MI4, which did not happen.

PS: Love Dominic Armato's voice. That was the only good thing about MI4, which did not happen!

Telltale wasn't involved in either Vampyre Story or MI4 (which did not happen), though. Right?

I just wish Ron was listed as part of the Telltale team. Oh, and Dave Gilbert. Get the gang back together!

Still $3495 is a lot of money right? I could buy a car with that!  :P

EDIT: Just to avoid confusion (and so I look at least 0.1% less of a prat)

http://www.telltalegames.com/store/talesofmonkeyisland

Quote from: Snarky on Mon 01/06/2009 21:39:31
Telltale wasn't involved in either Vampyre Story or MI4 (which did not happen), though. Right?
...

I was referring to the 3D graphics, dickweed.

Oh, boy! Oh, boy! I'm really excited about it! :D

That's a question I was going to ask: will Dominic Armato be Guybrush also in the TellTale game? I like very much his voice and interpretation!

(Is it just an impression or TellTale seems be "the next LucasArts" in terms of adventure games?)

I am looking forward to the special edition one...
Not sure if I will be so interested in the telltale monkey island games...
(for the same reason I havent been any interested in the sam & max games).

Quote from: Snarky on Mon 01/06/2009 21:39:31
Telltale wasn't involved in either Vampyre Story or MI4 (which did not happen), though. Right?

I just wish Ron was listed as part of the Telltale team. Oh, and Dave Gilbert. Get the gang back together!

Yeah, I remember when Dave worked on Monkey Island 1, right before Bestowers of Eternity!

I literally don't believe it...

I don't believe it, I don't believe it, I don't believe it...

I'm *so happy*!

Fuck Yes!

There I said it.

Jet, MI SE doesn't have vector graphics. They are all digitally hand painted. The sprites look properly animated as well.

Quote from: José Luiz on Mon 01/06/2009 22:05:32That's a question I was going to ask: will Dominic Armato be Guybrush also in the TellTale game? I like very much his voice and interpretation!

He is voicing Guybrush in the Telltale series as well :)

Personally, I am not that interested in the special edition of MI1. The graphics looks stiff and lost their good old pixely warmth, voices I never truly cared for in adventure games except in the case of Grim Fandango, as for the enhanced soundtrack, I have trouble listening to the MT-32 version of old games' soundtrack because it doesn't sound like it did on my adlib/soundblaster card. If the music is that great, I'll just download the soundtrack and if I want to play MI1, I still got the original in my folder of games to preserve until the end of time (which I played far enough already anyway).

I am more interested in Tales Of Monkey Island and more importantly what is Ron Gilbert's involvement in the project.

Also, in case any of you are interested, Ron Gilbert posted some behind-the-scene tidbit regarding Monkey Island 1 on his blog.
http://grumpygamer.com/

So those rumors were true after all!  I am a happy man.  :D  This is a good day for adventure gamers indeed!   ;)

QuoteI just wish Ron was listed as part of the Telltale team. Oh, and Dave Gilbert. Get the gang back together!

Are you sure you don't mean Dave Grossman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Grossman)?  ;D  He's already done work for Telltale so it's no stretch for him to be involved in some capacity, though since he was the programmer I'd be more interested in seeing Tim Schafer added to the team.

Edit:  I don't get why they made Guybrush and Elaine look so ridiculously cartoony in the closeups but made the other characters look like rougher-edged versions of the originals.  Also, Guybrush's hairstyle is utterly, completely horrible.  Looks like he could saw people in half with the sides of it.

I'm not much digging the style of the new graphics either, it's nice to them to include the option to switch back.
The voices'll be nice though. I always thought that was one thing they got really right in the post-Gilbert era of the franchise.

ANYWAY, what is on my mind now (because my mind has already been through the actually important things but I'm still having trouble not thinking about the fact these games are going to exist) is whether or not this will hail the triumphant return of having a 'look at' command. I'm hoping yes because MI is always something that's going to benefit from a device that doubles it's capacity for throwaway gags and, honestly, I've missed it. Hopefully Telltale will be confident that the new audience for adventure gamers has matured enough for this quantum leap.

Wonderful news.  I'm very excited about this.   ;D

I'm especially looking forward to Monkey Island Special Edition.
Not so much impressed with Telltales Tales Of Monkey Island, but I'll probably buy it anyway, cos it's Monkey Island.   :P

Ugh! The SE graphics are appalling! What the hell is with that hat Guybrush is wearing?

Telltale's Guybrush is adequate. At least Elaine looks ok! Let's hope the gameplay is up to par. I've been enjoying their other adventures...

Oh, and jet, Telltale didn't do the 3d graphics for MI4.

Am I the only one who doesn't find Telltale's 3D graphics appealing in their games for the most part?

Their simplistic style works for Wallace & Gromit, as well as Strong Bad, but the whole thing gives off this amateurish vibe to me. It's not the fact that it's 3D that's unattractive--it's just the execution.

I mean, compare any Telltale game to any DoubleFine game and you can see the difference.

(http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/3811/sammaxbrutallegendcopy.png)

Despite what some others might have said on the matter, the Monkey Island series has played a huge role in my life. I was thinking quite seriously on this today, and if I hadn't gotten so horrifically stuck on The Secret of Monkey Islandâ,,¢ for so horrifically long, I honestly doubt if I ever would have gotten into the adventure game scene at all. Sure I like Loomâ,,¢ but that was the only other adventure game title I ever played as a child, and I beat it in a reasonable amount of time like a normal person.

It took me years of playing SoMI (off and on) to finally complete the game, only shortly before the release of EFMI. I didn't play Sam & Max, Day of the Tentacle, or many other titles which I know a lot of you grew up playing ([insert the entire list of Sierra titles here] anyone?).

Any sane, sensible person of course would have given up on the game after having been stuck in the same spot for so very long (like my older brother did), but not me. No, I continued thinking and searching and digging always trying to come up with new ideas (just ask my brother!). Somehow the game invaded my mind in a way I can't quite explain. It's what inspired me to my current dream job as a professional game developer.

The fact that there are finally, after all these years, some official, licensed developments in this game series which has become such a huge part of my life...just makes me explosively happy.

One thing I especially appreciate about SoMI SE is that you can seamlessly switch back and forth between the SE and the original pixelated graphics at any point during the game (according to the video on LA's website).

And from what I've seen TT's work is good so I'm very much looking forward to the TMI series...

By the way, using a hyper-complex uberalgorithm, I years ago decided that if there were to be another game in the MI series, it would have to be TMI (hence my pet project I've been working on since that time). So I highly adore the fact that TT stuck with that idea. ::)

I can not believe this is real, I am very excited. It makes me wonder where things would have gone if Sam & Max: Freelance Police hadn't been cancelled. Would our pants currently be a lot dryer at this junction? It's funny how things work out...

Also, the Guybrush design in the special edition: what the hell? Seriously... what... the hell?

With Telltale's style, I think to be fair we've only really seen them take on two comic series so far (S&M and Bone) so their adaptations have had a clean (if uninspired) comic look to them.  I think the graphics shown for Monkey Island look different and more detailed than Sam and Max, but only time will tell whether or not the visuals are actually richer.  I do agree that Telltale's games tend to have a sterile look to them presentation-wise, so I'll withhold judgment on Monkey Island until I see more than a cutscene.

I agree with JBurger... I have seen the images and they made me feel a bit... "Eeeek". :(

Quote from: ProgZmax on Tue 02/06/2009 00:54:09

QuoteI just wish Ron was listed as part of the Telltale team. Oh, and Dave Gilbert. Get the gang back together!

Are you sure you don't mean Dave Grossman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Grossman)?  ;D  He's already done work for Telltale so it's no stretch for him to be involved in some capacity, though since he was the programmer I'd be more interested in seeing Tim Schafer added to the team.

Tim Schafer was what I meant to say. Who can keep all these geniuses with their confusingly overlapping names apart? (Also: I blame jetlag.)

Grossman is already working (http://www.telltalegames.com/monkeyisland/team) on the game. And as I understand it, all three of them wrote as well as programmed the original game.

This is already pretty amazing news, but if we were getting a new Monkey Island game (nay, a series of Monkey Island games!) made by a team including Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer, Dave Grossman, Steve Purcell and Michael Land--and Dave Gilbert too, why not?) I'd be squealing like a schoolgirl at a Hannah Montana concert.

Quote from: Snarky on Tue 02/06/2009 08:17:37
I'd be squealing like a schoolgirl at a Hannah Montana concert.

Or after a Michael Jackson concert.

http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,1024

This enthusiastic preview article from Adventure Gamers confirms the presence of a look at function and the ability to combine items. Something I definitely missed in Telltale's Sam & Max game so that's good news, as is the apparent little reuse of locations. Also confirms a direct control scheme... which will probably not sit well with a lot of people.

Also apparently Alexandra Boyd from Curse of Monkey Island is back in her role as Elaine, so, cool that i guess. I liked that voice better than the one in Escape...

How did Rodekill get the part of Guybrush in the remake?

(http://www.rodekill.com/junk/rodeavatar.gif)

(http://ssh.me.uk/img/lucasometer.png)

I don't think it's possible for me to describe how incredibly happy I am today after reading this news.

Remake of the original game? I just finished it 4 days ago for the first time, and now I get to replay it!  ;D I'm struggling to decide whether I'm going to enjoy the new music or the new voices more... and they appear to have kept the "Ask me about Loom" pirate.
Telltale making a new episodic series? That's awesome on a whole other level.

Anyone else noticed how anti-LucasArts the Meet the Team page is for ToMI? It mentions how awesome Sam and Max: Freelance Police would have been and mentions that one of the designers "Kept as far away from Star Wars as possible" in his tenure over at LucasArts...

I actually like the weird hairstyle that Guybrush has in the remake, and the fact that he seems quite a bit older in ToMI than EfMI. My sole complaint is that LeChuck looks silly...

- Huw

EDIT: LucasArts are officially out of my bad books. It only took them 5 years.

I don't really mind the direct control scheme at all; it didn't bother me in Escape from Monkey Island.  What worries me about Telltale's games is that in streamlining the controls they tend to rip out much of the fun the player was able to have with scenery and characters and greatly limits the amount of interactions on screen, though I'm certain this is a design decision more than an engine limitation.  I remember when I first played Telltale's S&M I felt like half of the interface was shut off once I left their office because there was hardly anything to interact with on some level that wasn't part of a puzzle.  I can see that this reduces confusion for the casual audience, but still...

Hopefully they will merge the direct control with a verbcoin of some sort that provides easy access to the commands as well as the inventory and save/load.  I'd rather not see them go the road of the Broken Sword DS where all your available options are mapped out for you to the cursor with very little room for doing anything different/silly.  It might be fine for Stobbart not to talk to a moosehead trophy but for Guybrush it's all in a day's work.

Just watched a short clip with Grossman talking to a GameSpot interviewer. He explained that this game ISN'T Monkey Island 5 but it happens afterward, despite MI5 not actually existing - their justification for this is that MI5 needs a blockbuster budget, needs to be 40h long and so on. They're quite right about this.

Of course, if that's not a dropped hint that "MI5 will still happen at some point" I don't know what is. LucasArts seem to have finally noticed that Point and Click Adventure Games are not dead and never will be.  :)

- Huw

No, they're just braindead for the most part, and being hurled at us as episodic games. Hoo-bloody-ray.

Looks good, it's a start :) Undoubtedly handled better because it's not by LucasArts (in their current era), but yeah, maybe it'll give their creative department a kick up the backside. Nice to see some interesting names working on these games too - though I haven't been enticed by episodic games yet. Wallace & Gromit and this series are quite tempting though!

I have really enjoyed the two Sam and Max seasons and the Strong Bad games also, so I am on board for this. Really made my day before I had to go to work.

The remake, however, I'm not too bothered about. May give it a shot, just out of loyalty.

yes, i totally agree with jburger on the graphics. i bought season 1 of sam and max, and the whole thing was kinda disappointing and felt rushed. re-using characters from one episode for completely unrelated roles in a next episode to avoid building new characters felt lazy. and the trailer of monkey island doesn't seem to be much of an improvement. we'll have to wait and see. though, i'd prefer telltale doing something new. but there's more money to be had by riding the success of famous titles.  :-\

OH.


I had not seen the videos when I checked out the sites the first time. I gotta say about the SE art: AWESOME (even if Guybrush does look silly).

Both announcements came as a big surprise to me. A very pleasant surprise, to say the least. Both projects look very promising too!

I'm not that euphoric, to be honest. Graphics-wise it's just not my style, even the Escape From Monkey Island iteration of Guybrush looked better... and judging by the screenshots, hm, I feel they'll do a streamlined, more action-ey remake. For me MI is a thing of the past, something that really *belongs* to the past. It's something to dig out and play via ScummVM. I don't really know who is the target audience here. Newcomers won't easily be won over to adventure games, not even with a flagship name. And ancient dinosaurs like me will automatically compare the remake to the original. A lose-lose situation.

They might even include achievents.

"Clicked the Parrot 100x achievement unlocked!"
wheee...

The remake won't be actioney in the slightest, it really is just the orginal game with 'bad gaming webcomic' graphics pasted on top.

'Steamlined, more action-ey remake'?!

Uh... you DO know it's built on the code of the original game, right? And that it's pretty much a 1:1 remake, complete with the option of instantly flipping back and forth between the original and the enhanced?

Really, I fail to see what about this venture cannot be seen as totally effing awesome.

Quote from: Ghost on Wed 03/06/2009 00:59:39
I'm not that euphoric, to be honest. Graphics-wise it's just not my style, even the Escape From Monkey Island iteration of Guybrush looked better...

Yeah, I feel the same way.. except that I'm not excited at all. I loved MI1+2, couldn't really get used to the comic style of MI3 and didn't even play MI4 for I consider that 3-d art just ugly*. Also the humour + puzzle elements weren't as good as in the old games..

* in contrast to Grim Fandango which I liked very much (though I would have preferred drawn characters and backgrounds there too).


EDIT: Ah, you meant the remake... I'm talking about the Sequel...

Quote from: Eggie on Wed 03/06/2009 01:06:56
The remake won't be actioney in the slightest, it really is just the orginal game with 'bad gaming webcomic' graphics pasted on top.

Quote from: DC on Wed 03/06/2009 01:09:47
Uh... you DO know it's built on the code of the original game, right? And that it's pretty much a 1:1 remake, complete with the option of instantly flipping back and forth between the original and the enhanced?
Really, I fail to see what about this venture cannot be seen as totally effing awesome.

Okay, so it won't be action'd up- one point for them  ;)

I still hold to my view that I'm not impressed by the graphical makeover, that I *have* a memory-tinted view on the game (it being one of the first adventure games I ever played and so on) and that I'd rather not ruin my fond memories by playing the remake, even if I *can* buy and make it flip back to the original I ALREADY OWN.

That's all I'm saying, and that's why it is not effing awesome for me.

Note how I say "for me", because I admit that all my points are rather subjective.

I never really understood the backlash against cartoony graphics in Monkey Island games... nor do I understand it here. I'll admit that the repainted cover art looks naff, and the design for Guybrush as seen there looks dire, but having watched a few gameplay videos I can say that in the game it looks nice. And I love the new backgrounds too. I don't agree with "bad gaming webcomic" graphics at all.

And if you really can't get into the graphics, what about the freshly recorded music and voice overs? I for one am excited.

Quote from: Mr Flibble on Wed 03/06/2009 01:21:07
I never really understood the backlash against cartoony graphics in Monkey Island games... nor do I understand it here. I'll admit that the repainted cover art looks naff, and the design for Guybrush as seen there looks dire, but having watched a few gameplay videos I can say that in the game it looks nice. And I love the new backgrounds too. I don't agree with "bad gaming webcomic" graphics at all.

And if you really can't get into the graphics, what about the freshly recorded music and voice overs? I for one am excited.

I also don't see how it looks like 'bad gaming webcomic." graphics.

If you look at this:

(http://i585.photobucket.com/albums/ss297/ryano082/1047145728-00.gif)

and this:

(http://www.adventuregamers.com/images/db/10126.jpg)

It is quite obvious the background artists have been very faithful to the original VGA version of the game. They are all hand painted and capture the feel of the setting.

Okay, so other than guybrush's hair (which I admittedly am not terribly fond of), he is rather faithful to the character appearance in all places other than in the close-ups.

If you will take off your rose coloured specs for a moment please, I pose a question. If you were told about this great game, inspired by a Disney ride (very important) about a naive kid who travels to a pirate-infested island to become a pirate, in an adventure jam packed full of comedy and ridiculous situations, would you envision a game with realistically proportioned characters, or a game with cartoony and stylised characters? Also note that at that time, Lucasarts and Sierra were in great competition, with Lucasarts pretty much playing catch up. In the move to VGA with KQ5 et al, Sierra introduced realistic looking character portraits to match the greater amount of colours available to them. Lucasarts would have most likely seen this and chose to go in a more realistic art direction to match this.

This may be only me, but the story and situations of the Monkey Island series are better suited to stylised, cartoony graphics over realistic characters. MI1 Guybrush v2.0 is more of an amalgam between CMI Guybrush and SoMI Guybrush with a bad haircut.

So on to the haircut. It's part of the character. Remember, at the start of SoMI, Guybrush is a very naive character who thinks it would be cool to be a tough guy Pirate. In this line of thought, he probably had little to no contact with a real pirate, so he wouldn't really know what a pirate really looks like. They didn't have TV back in those days. It would be quite logical for a kid to get what he thinks is a tough-guy pirate hairdo, where in fact he got a mullet.

Brock Sampson is a tough-guy and he has a mullet.

Alternatively, it could also be misguided art direction.

The ultimate test for this game will be whether it captures the feeling of playing the Secret of Monkey Island. Hopefully (and to me, watching the gameplay vids, hearing the voices and soundtrack, it kinda does, but playing it will be the ultimate test) it will be like meeting an old friend you haven't seen for a long time, cept he has cool new clothes. Unfortunatly, he had a slight accident with a lawnmower, but we can look past that.

That poor pirate in that enhanced screenshot with the disproportionally short legs looks like he's only leaning against the wall because his legs have permanently stiffened. I really feel sorry for the guy  :-[

Maybe it's just me, but Guybrush's silly hair looks more natural in the acual game.  :-\ Might be the shading.

I don't like the new cover art. The thing I really liked about the original was how adventurous it felt. The new one has too bright and happy colours and cartoony style that significantly hurt the meaning of the composition.

Anyone noticed how they changed the Monkey Island logo?

EDIT:

Quote from: Huw Dawson on Tue 02/06/2009 14:02:42
My sole complaint is that LeChuck looks silly...

That's what I thought of his CMI design back then...

EDIT 2: They destroyed that "decent looking pirate" character. He was supposed to be smiling and friendly.

Quote from: Krazy on Wed 03/06/2009 06:25:46
That poor pirate in that enhanced screenshot with the disproportionally short legs looks like he's only leaning against the wall because his legs have permanently stiffened. I really feel sorry for the guy  :-[

He's just a bit 'legless' from all the grog. :p

I still think it's weird how closely they stuck to the original pirate designs for the 3 you can talk to close up (even their distant sprites are convincingly similar) as well as the sword trainer and yet Guybrush looks like some kind of gangly twatface with a cromagnon brow and razor hair.  It's like they completely disregarded his closeup portraits (and Elaine's) but stuck with everyone else's, which results in some really obvious and dodgy differences.

Quote from: ProgZmax on Wed 03/06/2009 15:34:17
Guybrush looks like some kind of gangly twatface with a cromagnon brow

Isn't a Cro-Magnon brow a normal one?

Just watched the SE video. How much bigger and more stupid will Guybrush's hair get?

He's gone from cool looking guy to someone I just want to punch. And whoever does Elaine's voice acting is terrible. They seriously shouldn't have used that seduction line in the video, lol - I'd have slapped her.

I'm sure the SE will make a lot of people happy, but I'm surprised they keep refering to "fans" in the video. I'd like to know which communities they actually approached, if any, or whether they just took comments from the LEC forums... Whoever keeps suggesting they make GT's hair bigger and more stupid, should be shot :P

We used to have a term in school many years ago called "Paste on head" which reffered to a few people there that looked like they'd stolen someone elses head and put it on their body, or were literally wearing a print out copy of someones face lol. Well, Guybrush in my eyes, is a paste on hair guy.

Precisely I was beating up MI and MI2 in my Nintendo DS this days, and I was thinking how anybody done yet a remake or enchanced MI game of quality.

For the old players, Remaked MI is going to be another excuse to play the game AGAIN.

Oh my god, clasist and elitish people, take it easy, man. It's only a remake to capture new public... The original game still exists!
People don't will go to your houses to tell about the New game Lucas has invented!

As Guybrush Peepwood will said..." Insignificant remake".

Aye, but they could concentrate on bigger, better things for their old-school fans, not people who aren't yet fans, like, err, The Dig 2 perhaps? Full Throttle 2? Day of the Tentacle 2 (or 3, however you look at it) ... as I said before, I'm more of a sequels fan. Remakes & episodes have trouble filtering neat and tidy through my fan, if you know what I mean.

Maybe if Monkey Island isn't to your taste, perhaps Fate of Atlantis on the Wii will be more your cup of tea? (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/02/03/indiana-jones-and-the-staff-of-kings-includes-unlockable-fate-of/)

(http://medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/screenshot_213652.jpg)

I love the smell of Renaissance in the morning!

I'm happy about all the new Monkeys. They look good enough for me. So far.

Too bad that due to the remake our Monkey Island Speech Project (http://speechproject.mixnmojo.com/) is rather pointless now. Especially too bad for the actors who recorded hundreds of lines already.

I don't mind the remake since it's built on the same code, and I get a chance to switch between graphics anyway. That haircut is terrible though, and I usually enjoy a good mullet.

The episodic thing I'm not too fond of. I can see it working for Sam & Max since they've been in both comic and saturday morning cartoon-form, but not for Monkey Island. I just don't get the adventure feeling when I have to tune in next week to find out what happens. The choice of making it 3D is probably both cheaper and faster, but it loses the personality it had in the first three games and looks too sterile.

We'll see when it gets here though.

OMFG. Not totally related but you know what? When this thread first popped up I thought, "remakes, here we go" and then thought to myself I would be absolutely devestated if they remade certain classic movies I love. One in particular, Arnie's " Total Recall", which I watched a couple of weeks ago. Low and behold:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8080966.stm

That's the final bit of faith in the media I have - drained out of me. I give up. If my career as a film-maker or game-maker is to think, I make a hit and all it has left in it for the future is a remake, and then a remake of a remake, and such...**** it. What's the point. Post-modernism has reached a new low as far as I'm concerned, and these cash-making bandwagons are really doing my head in. There is absolutely nothing about this new MI series that says anything to me other than "we want more money, and so does Ron Gilbert". It's cheeky, crap, and uncessesary. MI was great, yes, but let it burn out into the depths of cultville.

And Ascovel, hehe -- well, to be fair, if they "remake" FoA, I give this all up completely. I'm fed up of commercial companies thinking the only way forward with point & clicks is motha ******* remakes.

On one hand they want more money, on the other hand I already paid for that content but they didn't give me the quality I deserve in this day and age, so they're making up for it and I'm downloading of a torrent.   :P ;D

Quote from: Mods on Wed 03/06/2009 17:02:54
OMFG. Not totally related but you know what? When this thread first popped up I thought, "remakes, here we go" and then thought to myself I would be absolutely devestated if they remade certain classic movies I love. One in particular, Arnie's " Total Recall", which I watched a couple of weeks ago. Low and behold: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8080966.stm

Hmm, in my opinion Total Recall is one of those films they don't make anymore. Today they take a concept out of a book and dumb it down and change it (you can use any Will Smith movie), but TR has it's atmosphere, action and story and yes I know in some places it looks laughable by today's standards but also everytime I watch it I can't but think - this movie is cool. And another thing - it's memorable with anything from 3-breasted prostitute to robot taxi driver (unlike many other Schwarzeneggers flicks).
Same goes for Blade runner (not that BR isn't a much better movie I'm just metioning another PK Dicks book).

Well that makes sense ;) It's what I do with "remake" movies, as far as I'm concerned a free rip is all they're worth.

As for your later statement, yep I agree. What annoys me most is that often you hear psychologists and even just buffs go on and on about how an audience "relates" to characters, settings, scenes, the storyline and so on. In recent years they've even gone to the lengths to say that we form a "relationship" with certain films, products and stuff. So, like Total Recall, or even MI for that matter - they DO seem like an "old friend" to me. But they're an old friend that's currently dead. And as far as I know exhuming the dead isn't exactly a popular franchise in the real world. Some things are better left un-touched. And I also don't understand why people feel everything needs to be modernised. TR for example is a great example of how, when it was made, the graphics, CG and stuff were amazing. Of course it won't look like that today, and it shouldn't. It should continue to just stand for something it meant/created when it was created.

Just like the MI page for the SE, where it says something like, with graphics you could never have imagined! And that strikes me as a bit stupid - because that's what your imagination is FOR. Filling in these gaps, gaps that, with products with huge success, obviously need never be filled. And to be honest, the new graphics aren't that great. Well, I'm officially angry about all this remake stuff now - so it's time to go and get drunk :P

Movie will probably be changed and made PG13 (thank you liberal America  :P) just to sell more tickets (which is what they did with Wolverine and T4 and I am legend etc.) ruined everything.
But I guess, the remake of a game is a personal opinion, I like voices in games and although I loved the original game, I'll give this a try. I'm not that emotinally attached to those "old" games, which might be the case with a lot of people here so to each his own, I say.  :)

I'd like to officially state that I think these guys look awesome:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/EggHeadCheesyBird/theseguys.png)

So yeah, statement retracted before it becomes shorthand for 'ill-informed graphics analogies' in this forum.

I'm sure if if one day I want to my girlfrind play this epic adventure game, she will be more pleased to play with this graphics, than the originals; And that is a Good Thing.

And I will congratulate Lucas, or EA, or the hell they are, for making play good games to more people!

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/small.jpg)

I don't know what to say....


I still remember my brother buying CMI and saying it will be the last game...I was devastated. No more monkey island?

I remember EMI being released. I, unlike many, liked it. It was my least favourite MI, but I still liked it.

I waited for Monkey Island 5. Every few months since I got broadband, I've checked the Monkey Island Fansites, for news, and more recently, began to notice them closing down due to lack of interest. They were giving up hope. I was, too. Not long ago, I resigned myself to the fact that Monkey Island is over. Now this...wow.

I'll probably buy SMI SE out of sheer fanboy-ism, and I'll definitly buy Tales, because of how great the Adventure Gamers review made it out to be.

As far as the Special edition's art goes, Guybrush looks ridiculous. On the other hand, I think Elaine looks great (See here for a good shot of them both- http://www.adventuregamers.com/images/db/10134.jpg (http://www.adventuregamers.com/images/db/10134.jpg)), and the backgrounds stay really true to the originals. Overall, I think it's a pretty good job.

Both games look promising, so fingers crossed.

Just posting to say:
*yay*

The still images bother me in SoMI. The new repainted images make that problem less so.

I think that SoMI voice-addition thing will still be worthwhile, as I don't believe there's a way to run through the "old game" with the new music and voices...

- Huw

Quote from: DanielH on Wed 03/06/2009 21:04:16(See here for a good shot of them both- http://www.adventuregamers.com/images/db/10134.jpg (http://www.adventuregamers.com/images/db/10134.jpg))

With regard to this I'd actually say they both look very nice...except Guybrush's hair. I cannot possibly be meant to take that seriously. But I actually find it humorous. I understand a lot of people will take one look at it and...

FFFFUUUUUU--
(http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/2364/ffffuuuu.jpg) (http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/2364/ffffuuuu.jpg)

Edit:
Dedicated to all the haters... (http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/4453/miffffuuuuuuve.png)

...as for me, I take the series very seriously. Though I'd like to think I'm not that cynical that I can't accept his new hair for what it is and LMFAO every single time I see it. :P

Oh gods, oh gods! ;D
Am I dead? Is this heaven?
Or is this hell as my computer couldn't run a single frame of it?
Oh well, time to saves up the cash.
And gets a job.

Although I'm excited with both new releases, I'm not so sure about those 3D graphics. The sketches of Elaine and Le Chuck look much better than the full finished Guybrush. But I thought the lab interior was well done.
My opinion is that Adventure games should stay at fine drawn graphics (pixel art or not) and skip 3D, or else do something with the quality of a Pixar cartoon, to stay in the middle is just a bad option to me.
Anyway, I'll be playing those games and looking forward to be surprised.   

I was about to say it will suck.. WHY?

IT WON'T!!!! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND ALL, I'VE WAITED THIS FOR ALMOST 10 YEARS...AND AT LAST IT HAS COME. A MI GAME.

THANK YOU!!!!! ;D

This is going to be good. The remake's graphics are kind of iffy for me, but it's cool that they have the switch option..

Honestly, I see nothing wrong with the new games. Call me an optimist, I guess.

About the 3d graphics in adventure games, I think they have a good job in games like Grim fandango (a little outdate today), Broken Sword 3 or Dreamfall (and sure others than I don't know). The problem with 3d games is that the producers put more money in graphic designers than in scripters, programmers, and puzzle creators. But this is a situation fixeable by coherent gamemakers.

Quote from: Alarconte on Thu 04/06/2009 12:04:49
About the 3d graphics in adventure games, I think they have a good job in games like Grim fandango (a little outdate today)...

Outdated? I disagree there. Today they might use more normal mapping and stuff but to me GF graphics still look cool plus the rendered characters+prerendered backgrounds is still a pretty big part of adventuregames (Still life etc.) and the style of GF (skeletons and Art Deco/Aztec) are so suitable for that knid of modeling that you can't really see how old it is, it looks natural and nothing is too bulky or unnatural (except maybe Glottis, but he always looked a bit strange to me).
This is not outdated:
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Office-final.jpg)
Right, carry on.  :)

Hello.
Just wanted to let people know that the voices and updated sounds and music are disabled when you switch to the old art.
Big let down for me as I was planing on playing it with the old art, kinda like the old talkie versions of the Lucasarts games.

Link:
http://forums.lucasarts.com/thread.jspa?threadID=138463start=0

Maybe if they realise the demand is there they will add this, even tough the game is finished already.

I was just quietly hoping that I would get the voices on with the old art. Thanks for the letting me know I won't get that.

For some reason your link got an ellipses added in there Silvor....the thread is here (http://forums.lucasarts.com/thread.jspa?threadID=138463start=0).

I do agree that having the updated sounds with the original graphics would be cool, but their reasoning was "to keep the original as 'pure' as possible" (not a direct quote).

Another topic I think you may all find interest in at the LA forums is this one (http://forums.lucasarts.com/thread.jspa?threadID=138500start=0) started by myself. Apparently years ago I registered there but never once posted. On one of my old haunts it's become a great topic for discussion.

I've got one! Big Spender
Feed every single coin you own into the broken grog machine.

Thanks for the heads up on the broken link monkey_05_06.
Their reasoning for not having voices when using the old art was pretty weak if you ask me.
I don't see why they couldn't have just made the voices and updated sounds a setting in the options menu.

I just want to say...

I AM HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY argh and I am rubber too!!!

This is so fantastic!!!

And who give a damn about Guybrush silly hair? This is a step forward and I hope that LA and other companies will find that it is enough commercial for them to make adventure art, I mean games in the future!

We all love them and we all need sequels like someone said here, maybe prequels?

Just to say that I am happy again!

And to add that I think that Ron Gilbert with Michael Land and I sorry but I don't know who were graphics guys in first 2 games are Monkey Island for me!

Btw. I never ever wanted to play MI 4 because of stupid graphics! Did I missed something?

I have been browsing for images of MIR, and I must say that, whereas I was a bit skepting at the beginning, it looks promising... and hey! It has the "Red button" feature that allows you to convert the modern game into the original, what else can you ask for? :)

Quote from: Eggie on Sat 06/06/2009 19:22:09
I've got one! Big Spender
Feed every single coin you own into the broken grog machine.

Is that possible? I could only feed 2 coins in...  :-\

- Huw

Just FYI for those who may have missed it...Eggie was referring to the thread I linked in which me and some others have been wondering what LA is going to do about "Achievements" for the XBLA release of SMI:SE.

I don't know if you can feed more than 2 coins...lemme check that. Eggie's suggestion should be okay. Guybrush is telling me it doesn't work, but being persistent I've drained over 20 pieces o' eight so far...I'm also interested to see if this can become a walking dead! := (Edit: Arrrrgggghh!! (http://monkey.05.06.googlepages.com/SMI_ScummVM_Save_-_No_Money.rar))

And I'm sure you'll all be pleased that when someone said (gasp!):

Quote from: minimoe (http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/member.php?u=21194) at the TellTale forums (http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/)Are there other, non-professional, versions [of Monkey Island] being made? :)

I'd love to see what would be the fan-fiction equivalent of video game making going on with the MI series...Games like 7 Days A Skeptic from fullyramlomatic and other similar "indie"-games with limited graphics are awesome for the retro feel of them.

I was quick to blatantly plug (http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=132119#post132119) our beloved AGS.

Quote from: An excerpt from my post (http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=132119#post132119)[MI fan-games] are being made with Adventure Game Studio (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/), the same game engine that brought to the world such great games as 7 Days A Skeptic. ;D

This is INSANELY awesome, exciting news!

Now they just need to do this with the Sierra "Quest" games... preferably the King's Quest and Space Quest series! ;)

I will just plaid if  Sierra make just new adventure games...

I love Magna Cum Laude (...... problems here? xD) but isn't and adventure game.

For good sake, is no need to make a classic outdated adventure game (Like the feel I got with space quest 6), but anybody can make good news adventures game (whereas the midquality of Broken Sword 3) that can be good for much people to play... And if they are about a classic theme, like Space Quest or King Quest... better.

What you say to a Police Quest, Broken swordish3d/gran theft auto style? xD

(out out topic xD)

Quote from: Alarconte on Tue 09/06/2009 21:46:21
I love Magna Cum Laude (...... problems here? xD) but isn't and adventure game.

Really? Wow. I didnt think anyone liked that game, let alone love it...

If you are looking for something more 'sierra' style, perhaps you should take a look at Grey Matter (if it ever comes out) by Designer Jane Jensen (co-writer of King's Quest 6).

In this day and age, classic adventure games seem more suited to easily accessible and shorter episodic experiences that the telltale games deliver. Whilst they have an advantage by using pre-existing IP, it does seem to prove that adventure games are selling in a large number, well a large enough number to be a finacial viable game studio.

Personally I think games like the King's Quest and other Sierra adventure games would feel 'dated' as people have more sophisticated tastes when it comes to original stories in video games. There really has been a black hole of nothingness for years when it comes to truly funny and entertaining game experiences, whilst the serious and fantasy genre has been overloaded with material.

As for the space quest series, I feel they were really a product of their time. It was at a time where videogames didn't really explore parody as a genre for game storytelling and it was in the right place at the right time. With cinema's bad trend to cash-in on films by releasing parody films which use situations and characters from epic films for comedy has left a sour taste in people's mouths. The joke was funny for maybe one film (let's say scary movie), but it got old very quick. (see scary movie 2, 3, 4, 6, epic movie, date movie, police academy 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc). It might work for one more Space Quest as the formula has not been done for a while, but any more and it would just cease to be entertaining. True, in the Space Quest series they did develop storyline, but it was generally pretty flimsy and resorted to parody far too often. Space Quest 1-3 (hmm... maybe not so much 3) were quite entertaining for what they were, 4 was exceptional as it introduced and excellent element with the time travel thing and travelling to Space Quest Sequels, along with excellent voice acting and narration), Space Quest 5 was poor and Space Quest 6 was abysmal.

The Leisure Suit Larry series is an exceptional example in how to return to a much loved series in a bad way. People fondly remember playing the games not because of the sexual nature of the games, but the humourous and embarassing situations Larry found himself in. Yes it was a bit sexy (well as sexy as an 8-bit 16/256 colour game could be), but the jokes and situation comedy made the series memorable. You can't help but feel sorry for Larry, the aging hipster trying to get laid. He was someone men could relate to, but also feel better about themselves. Every man (that calls himself a real man) has gone through that quest of loosing one's virginity, and while it may not have been as pathetic (or it may have been) as Larry's. The sequel was of a similar nature, although it involved Larry looking for something a bit less superficial.  Larry 3 involved the player taking the role of Larry and his love interest Patti undertaking detective work in a conspiracy. Larry 5 reverted Larry back to that loser phase, once again looking for sex but seeming to fail at every corner. 6 I believe was similar, although I have never played it. Many Many years later, Sierra were looking to make a quick buck off college kids, schoolkids and people who fondly remember playing the games when they were younger. They fucked it up by concentrating on the sexual aspect of the series whilst ignoring the actual fun bits like the story and gameplay. Epic Fail. The same could be said about the movie studio one they just released. (anyone played it?)

Anyway, I forgot my point.

I seem to have totally forgotten my point...

Box Office Bust isn't really anything like Magna Cum Laude (or a Leisure Suit Larry game, for that matter).  It's more of a puzzle platformer where you exercise Larry Lovage's supernatural jump skills to clamber all around the studio collecting pieces of a lost movie script, golden Larry statues, and other things while driving golf carts and running over people and having the occasional fistfight.  I have to admit that I enjoyed it at first because of the variety of 'quests', but the main character's horrendous comments (ranging from really poor innuendo to outright offensiveness) started to grate on me very quickly and I found myself despising the character I was supposed to be playing, which pretty much ruined the game for me.  There is some sex involved, but it's so utterly transparent and brief (the wooing part consists of finding one thing in the studio the girl likes and then solving a text-puzzle where you pick all the responses she'd like) it seemed very tacked on.  The adventure and platforming is actually pretty solid, and if the character wasn't such a knobface (he literally has a stupid comment for every thing you do, and it gets annoying) I'd probably have played through the game.

Hmm, it doesn't sound as bad as MCL. If all the gameplay elements are cohesively put together into the main game and not blatanly tacked on as minigames, then I guess it sounds like they were going in the right direction. It just happens that poor scriptwriting and simplistic puzzles to woo the girls (since this was a major part of any Larry game, and for the most part involved complex traditional Adventure style puzzles) were this games downfall. Do the studio's responsible for these new Larry games just totally ignore the fact that they could probably easily contract Al Lowe to write the dialog and puzzle elements of the game, and thus creating something people might not be afraid to part their cash to buy?

There is not just that problem, they certainly need to market the games better. The first I heard of it's release was seeing it in a game store for about half the price of a regular retail title. My first instincts were really low price=awful game.

Quote from: Layabout on Thu 11/06/2009 06:43:27
Hmm, it doesn't sound as bad as MCL.

No no no, ProgZmax didn't quite express just how bad Box office bust is. I nearly snapped the disc in half out of anger and frustration, which would have been more fun than actually playing the game, but I wouldn't have been able to trade the game in if I'd done that.

And the platforming wasn't solid at all in my experience. (Maybe i've played more platformers than ProgZ?) And the camera WANTED you to not see where you're going and fall to your death.

Oh anyway, MONKEY ISLAND X2 OMG!!  :o

Oh no, I have been challenged!

Maybe you just aren't terribly good at the game, which is why you are angry?   :=

Or maybe you just played the console version instead of the PC version (the one I have) and the mouse+ keyboard works better?  I think it's fair to say that there are potentially dozens of reasons why I had no problem with controlling the character and playing the game and you did, and I think it's unfair to say 'oh no, the game has horrible controls because I say so' rather than 'I had a bad experience with it because...'  Every once in awhile the controls would nag me not because they weren't good but because Larry has a tendency to grip and slide slowly down a surface when I'd want him to just fall, but overall I think they did okay with that particular gameplay element.  Larry's excessively annoying personality is what made it difficult for me to want to keep playing.  I freely admit that they could've slapped any name they wanted on this game because of it's tenuous connection to the series, but looking at it as a non-larry title it was rather fun.  It's certainly not going to be to everyones' taste, though (especially some of the outright guttural humor).  I'm not sure if Al Lowe could've made the game a success simply by writing the dialog, but I'd probably have continued playing the game if he had.

That's settled, I won't even waste the bandwidth aquiring a copy through dubious means.

But Monkey Island... That's a title I'd pay good money for!

Great news, both of them

True I did play the 360 version. Okay then, here's the point of the game where I turned it off for good.

Wild West dream sequence:

Larry is in a bar, in a shooting section. I take down some bad guys. A cutscene is played. Whilst I am watching the cutscene, the enemies start shooting me, whilst I am unaware because it's showing me some other bad guys. I get past that section, and now I'm on a on-rails shooting section on a horse and carriage. Bad guys throw explosive barrels at me, but I cannot shoot some of the barrels down in time because I cannot even see them behind the corner yet. Next I am required to climb a mountain type cliff. I get to the top, and I cannot see my objective. I slowly creep towards the camera, unsure of what is in front of larry because the camera won't show me. Larry slips and the camera is now willing to show me that theres an edge. I fall and die. I lose the will to ever play this stinker of a game again.

And as for treating it as solely a platform game.. well It's a terrible platformer too.

I was just shocked you liked it even a bit! You're usually so critical about games, that's all!

Quote from: ProgZmax on Mon 01/06/2009 20:44:45
As long as I can turn off the voices to avoid Dominic Armato's incredibly annoying nasalspeak I'll give these a try.  I'd rather play them with just the text, anyway.

Of course you can - there has been an incredible invention callde the power toggle - on your speakers (if you have those small active ones) (or, as in my case, on the old stereoset beside my PC which I use for sound), if that won't work, you could always pull the plug out from your PC's sound card. Of course, this won't guarantee you will be able to follow the dialog at all, since maybe they don't have those "old-fashioned" lines of dialog floating above the heads of the characters.

I hope this post was of any help - I myself found it quite funny to write, anyway.

But then the question is:
Dominic Armato's nasalspeak, or Michael Land's musicspeak?

Yeah, your 'funny' post wasn't terribly useful, but you sure wrote an awful lot anyway!  I don't think it's reasonable to sacrifice a decent sound track and sound effects because a company can't install a tiny setting to switch between bad voices and good text.

Quote from: ProgZmax on Fri 26/06/2009 18:40:57
Yeah, your 'funny' post wasn't terribly useful, but you sure wrote an awful lot anyway!  I don't think it's reasonable to sacrifice a decent sound track and sound effects because a company can't install a tiny setting to switch between bad voices and good text.

The voice volume setting and music volume setting are separate. You can set 'voice' all the way to zero, and 'music' all the way to ten. This high-tech volume system is in the game, so you don't have to mess around with that pesky speaker volume. Also, turn on subtitles so that you can follow the game.

I hope this helps.

Hooray!  Hopefully this works its way into the Tales of MI series since I don't really care about the 'remake'.

I'm excited, sure, but can't help but think that that wonderful magic will be gone now :(

Is this now for sale? If so could someone possibly point me in the right direction? Thanks. :)

Approximately within the month the Special Edition will be up for sale.

Thanks.

It seems like it's not over yet:
http://www.gamingshogun.com/Article/4679/LucasArts_Teasing_Big_Announcement_Monday_via_Twitter.html

It could be something, it could also be nothing. My only wish is if it is adventure game related, that it's being made by one of the various team of former LucasArts employees. These games were great because they were made by the of Ron, Dave, Tim and co., Tales Of Monkey Island made by Telltale, I'm fine with that, but a sequel to FT, DOTT or MI made by a bunch of clueless noobs working at LucasArts, this I'm certainly not fine with.

If they use the same people they are for the monkey island visual remake they've already lost me as a potential customer because whoever they're using for the update is absolutely atrocious.

Now let's just imagine a DOTT remake that has Laverne, taking the sheer height of Guybrush's hairdo in the makeover as a loose rule of thumb... Oh man. Ringu. But with LAVERNE.

Day of the Tentacle's visuals are already perfect as they are, and they have a very specific style that is not up to the, uh, interpretation of the special edition team. Just imagine how stiff they could make all those wonderfully cartoony pieces of animation look! And they could give everyone weird angular faces.

Quote from: Krazy on Mon 06/07/2009 04:49:56
Day of the Tentacle's visuals are already perfect as they are, and they have a very specific style that is not up to the, uh, interpretation of the special edition team.

Yup. Same with MI1.

Atleast it appears LucasArts may be 'trying' to claim back some of their golden days since the reintroduction of the point 'n' click genre. I just wished they'd release full games rather than these silly little flash-style episode games. It kind of takes away the fun.

Your wish is their command DazJ,
http://www.lucasarts.com/company/vip/catalog/lec_backcatalog_2009.pdf

• Armed and Dangerousâ,,¢
• Indiana Jones® and the Fate of Atlantis
• Indiana Jones® and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
• LEGO® Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure
• LOOMâ,,¢
• Star Wars Battlefront® II
• Star Wars Republic Commando®
• Star Wars Starfighterâ,,¢
• The Dig®
• Thrillville®: Off the Railsâ,,¢

(not exactly new titles, but still...)

The Dig ( !) been wanting to play that, as well as LOOM. ;D

Quote from: Krazy on Mon 06/07/2009 04:49:56
Day of the Tentacle's visuals are already perfect as they are, and they have a very specific style that is not up to the, uh, interpretation of the special edition team. Just imagine how stiff they could make all those wonderfully cartoony pieces of animation look! And they could give everyone weird angular faces.

Yep, that's the biggest thing I hate with the newer 3D adventure games; the characters are always so stiff.  I love the TellTale Sam and Max series, but all the characters seem a bit robotic.  I realize there are some advantages to 3D (such ability to pan in, out, and across a scene; more varied (and dramatic) camera angles, etc.), but it's so much harder to pull off believable characters.  It takes a lot more work and computer horsepower to make believable characters.  Maybe someday we'll Pixar quality characters in games, but not today.  I still love 2D adventure games better for this reason.

Played the game, I am now at peace with the world.
I have a FEW problems with some of the design decisions but evidently nothing so big as to stop me playing through the first part of the game again this very afternoon just to wave my arms and giggle in excitement at it's existence.

Monkey Island is back, everything is going to be all right.

Yes I had a few annoyances I wish for them to fix, but so minor compared to everything Monkey Island has returned and is great!!!  I completed the first episode today already, it's really great I can;t wait fro more monkeys on the 15th.

As for the steam games from lucas i bet thier going to be sold , and gifted all over and you'll see steam sales data proving that they sell even today!

Disneytized graphics.

Yuck.

Apart from the fake dialogue options and the horrible walking implementation, which I assume is due to it being targeted for the Wii, I rather like it so far. Feels a bit empty, but I guess that's the drawback of short episodic games.

(http://esseb.com/images/tmi_dialogue.jpg)
Why even have the options there?... The previous games did this a couple of times as well, but for humorous effect at least.

Quote from: Esseb on Wed 08/07/2009 21:45:36
Apart from the fake dialogue options and the horrible walking implementation, which I assume is due to it being targeted for the Wii, I rather like it so far. Feels a bit empty, but I guess that's the drawback of short episodic games.

So far I agree. I love the game just not so much the controls...

I got used to the controls after a while. I enjoyed the game, it was longer than I expected it would be, but I felt the puzzle design was a little screwy in places. Far too many instances of things being wildly illogical. And a few too many EMI-esque anachronisms. Overall, good but I hope it improves.

Spoiler

Check the pirate's sock to find his membership card.

[close]

I like the COMI cursors and font used but like everyone else, I think the controls are a bit hit and miss. Still, it FEELS like a Monkey Island game and that's what matters :)

I think the remake looks good, the background art is lovely and updated music is a nice, but I agree that some of the new character designs look a bit naff. I personally can't stand Telltales games though. They scream medicority, are visually very sterile and have boring puzzles. With the pickings being as slim as they are for commercial adventure games these days, I think people are a little forgiving of what are pretty dull games. This very community, in my opinion, produces a dozen or so games a year with better artwork, writing, puzzling than anything that Telltale have produced.

Quote from: anian on Wed 03/06/2009 17:17:07
Hmm, in my opinion Total Recall is one of those films they don't make anymore. Today they take a concept out of a book and dumb it down and change it.

That is exactly my problem with 'Total Recall'. In my opinion it was one of the biggest offenders of Hollywood's penchant for taking a Philip K. Dick story and shoe-horning it into a sci-fi action film template so I say being on the remake, as long as it's using 'We Can Remember It for You Wholesale' as it's reference point.

And while I love my traditional 2d art there is absolutely nothing inherently wrong with a 3d approach. The reason a lot of modern 3d adventure games look stiff and sterile is simply due to the lack of skill/tech/budget available to those developers. As someone already illustrated with a Brutal Legend screenshot, you can get wonderful results with 3d too.

On the puzzles; I think Mike Stemmle's design philosophy is the write the story first then slap on arbitrary scattered obstacles whether they fit or not.

Leads to very hit and miss gameplay but at least you DO get a good story. Which this game definitely has. It definitely, definitely has. It's a really good story, guys!

The walking thing makes sense when you consider the dynamic camera angles it allows for, which change as you walk around. You couldn't really do that with point and click walking without getting confused and disorientated.

Too much to wirte in a post here! Check my blog for a full but poorly constructed review.

http://hurton.blogspot.com/

Quick review:


Pros:

1.  Longer than any of the Sam and Max episodes (it sure felt that way, at least).

2.  Varied locations and characters right from the start.

3.  Good (if understated) music by Michael Land.

4.  Pleasant visuals.  Good use of lighting and aliasing and the character designs are an improvement over the Escape versions (in my opinion).

5.  Multiple inventory items.

6.  Passable voice acting.

7.  Some enjoyable puzzles (mainly in the jungle section and de Singe's lab).

8.  It's nice to be able to turn off voices and add subtitles, which change color based on character.

9.  Movement with the WASD keys + LEFT SHIFT to run made it easy to get around Flotsam island.

Cons:

1.  Really, really flat humor.  This is one of my biggest gripes with Telltale.  They NEED to get someone who knows how to write witty, amusing dialog.

2.  Poor dialog choices that often mis-represent what you are saying or lines of choices that all say the same thing.  What happened to the wildly different replies?

3.  Some confusing puzzle elements that didn't make sense until AFTER they were solved.

4.  Title screen takes too long to appear (having to move back and forth through the trees).  Quicksave/quickload/quit shortcuts would help somewhat here.

5.  Inventory combination seems needlessly tedious.  Why not just allow you to pick up the item and left-click on the target?  This seems like a device to pander to casual gamers more than anything.

6.  The click-and-drag mouse movement is wonky at best.  I'd often find Guybrush turning in the opposite direction I was pointing at because of the changing camera angles while moving.


As you can see, the positives quite outweigh the negatives.  Frankly, I'm surprised that I found myself enjoying the game overall, considering how dismal the Sam and Max games were for the most part.  I wasn't overly impressed with Michael Land's new treatments of the original themes; I honestly think he's capable of much better, but they're serviceable.  The dialog writing was, overall, passable, though I can't remember chuckling at a single dialog option or random Guybrush statement like I did (and still do) with Monkey Island 1 and 2.  Clearly, Telltale needs to flesh out the dialogs so you feel like you aren't just wasting your time clicking to get the same responses.  

I don't think that The Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is 'the' Monkey Island game everyone's been lusting after, but I do think episode one is a good, solid start towards what could be a very impressive series.

Oh, and Flibble:

Spoiler

He does explicitly tell you that he lost his card while fighting for mastery of the Narwhal, so you at least have SOME clue that it's around the ship.  I agree the sock doesn't seem like a plausible place for it to end up, but that area doesn't have a lot of interactions so it's not hard to find, either.

[close]

Quote from: ProgZmax on Fri 10/07/2009 19:35:51
I don't think that The Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is 'the' Monkey Island game everyone's been lusting after, but I do think episode one is a good, solid start towards what could be a very impressive series.

I so agree with that. Indeed.

Quote from: ProgZmax on Fri 10/07/2009 19:35:51
Oh, and Flibble:

Spoiler

He does explicitly tell you that he lost his card while fighting for mastery of the Narwhal, so you at least have SOME clue that it's around the ship.  I agree the sock doesn't seem like a plausible place for it to end up, but that area doesn't have a lot of interactions so it's not hard to find, either.

[close]

Spoiler

I was thinking it'd be on the boat somewhere because he said that, and so I'd get it after I was able to knock him down. I found it in the sock right away just by clicking for fun to hear a description but I never would have looked there. I think it's a good example of a puzzle that makes sense afterwards; I can hear a designer chuckling to himself, "He lost it two years ago, okay so check his socks, because pirates don't wash or change their clothes."

It's like the cheesewheel being on the boat, or the bombs being in the jungle, or the nose-shaped sconce. They necessitate you finding them randomly before you encounter the puzzle, because when you encounter the puzzle first you have no idea to check those random locations for items.

[close]

I agree.  Those all fall under my 'puzzles that make sense after the fact' statement, which I don't believe to be good puzzle design by any means.  Just to put these in some perspective, I would class the cheese wheel on deck  as being equivalent to forcing Guybrush to go to Wally's office to get a potato from his filing cabinet in order to make the Vichyssoise in MI 2 -- which of course he didn't have to do.  One example I can think of that felt similar to some of these puzzles in MI 2 would be the 'monkey' wrench puzzle.  That really got on my nerves back in the day!

Oh man, the first time I did the MI2 'Wrench' puzzle when I was little, I never got it and my brother told me to use the monkey on the valve. But I never understood why i used the monkey until about a few months ago, re-playing the game, when my mouth fell open and I smacked myself in the face for not seeing 'Monkey-Wrench'.  ::)

You know, as dire as the puzzles were... I enjoyed playing it and look forward to the next episode. They must be doing something right.

Yes, it was a good game. We've established this  ;)

Monkey Island: Special Edition has been released  :=
8,99 euro on steam!

Whooooohooooo!

source(german): http://www.computerbase.de/news/software/spiele/adventures/2009/juli/the_secret_monkey_island_special_edition/

The remake is receiving some flak on the LucasForums, namely for the PC controls that requires you to press keyboard keys to make the verb and inventory bars appear, speech being sprinkled with many pause in between sentences and several half-assed details in the backgrounds.

You can read the whole thing here, it starts on page 6 and continue on the next page: http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php98020&page=6

Edit: Apparently the issue with the pauses in the speech can be corrected by going in the classic mode, changing the subtitle speed to maximum and going back to enhanced mode.

I have downloaded the trial version from Xbox Live, but have yet to try it.  But for ten dollars, I probably will buy the full version. I have a ton of Microsoft Points to use anyways.

SE looks awful, the white artifacts around the stuff they've pasted in is such a joke. I've bought tales but yet to play it. To think that these are most of the same guys who spent hours pushing pixels and writing timeless scripts to get the perfect game back in the 90's, goes to show how much the games industry has changed.

Is there a demo version for the PC?

Yes.  Check Telltale's website.

Monkey Island for the X-box was reviewed in the Sun the other day and got 4.5 out of 5!

I can't believe there's still a person at Lucasarts who thought that Comic Sans was an acceptable typeface. (http://www.lucasforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2932&stc=1&d=1247741382)

On the other hand, maybe I can.

Been playing the special edition on my 360.  It is sure worth the 10 dollars in MS points I spent on it. I originally had this game back in the early 90's which had about 10 5 1/4 inch disks. I really wish I still had it.

I like the ability to switch from new graphics to old school graphics with the press of the back button.

Just to let you know...I never finished the game when I had it.  :-[

played the new version on pc. Won it in 2 hours aprox...

Prefer the original. Hate the new voice overs.

I don't know....I love the pixel!  := ;D

Currently downloading the new version...

I really like the new version, although the charm of the old pixel backgrounds never can be matched. Fortunately you can change between the two. The voices are great, although I never heard the other games in English, so I can't compare them.

But what's really a problem is the controls. If I have have to switch to the old style game to swap the grog between the mugs, something's wrong. How could they fuck this up?

But nevertheless, it's worth the cost.

On the 360 I could use grog with empty grog pint, but it was a bit finnicky, so there must be a way on pc too.

Lucky I did not go ahead and buy the full episode of Tales, the demo is practically unplayable on my PC. Only money down the drain for SoMI Special Edition that didn't work.  Bah.

Isn't official, but still cool none the less.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPaH8oIJd7g&fmt=22

The demo was practically unplayable on my comp, too...jumpy, slow graphics, and speech animations lagging far behind the actual voices.  And what's up with that dumb "click and drag in the direction you want to walk" control?

Hmm, after reading the harsh criticism here I'm wondering if I'm going soft in my.. erm, early twenties, or if I've just been so starved of Monkey Island I'll be happy with anything because I thought ToMI (or part one, at least) was terrific - in spite of a few qualms with the puzzle design, everything else was strong to me. Loved the music, graphics, dialogue, voice et al. (I was atually excited at the news Alexandra Boyd was back as Elaine, one of those moments where even I start to consider myself too nerdy)

I also went in sceptical knowing that Mike Stemmle was attached because I really didn't like just about anything involving Escape From Monkey Island, but it felt like the lessons had been learnt to me.  Aside from one glitch to drive a gamer insane - the dialogue choices as mentioned. There is no better way to piss a gamer off then to give Guybrush a hilarious line to say - and then he says something entirely unrelated. Who thought that would be a good idea? Fortunately it doesn't happen quite enough to drive you insane. (Outside of convos with Voodoo Lady and Pickerninny(?))

I also think Sam 'n Max and Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures are very good fun as well, so bear that in mind...

Am I the only one who thinks the graphics of SE are wonderful? I mean, besides Guybrush's awful haircut.

Quote from: Paper Carnival on Thu 30/07/2009 22:06:43
Am I the only one who thinks the graphics of SE are wonderful? I mean, besides Guybrush's awful haircut.

Well, they are on par with the original graphics I think, so yes, they are wonderful. :) Although rushed. You can see bits of not painted over pixels in some background (mostly in the Mêlêe forests). I was actually pretty disappointent that there were no added animation. So it's a good thing that graphics are faithful to the original and its a bad thing (some pirates still don't have chairs to sit on in the Scumm bar). I still would have wanted to see some more inbetweens on the animations :(. I also would liked to see people actually talk. I mean see them talk, not just hear them. :)

I also got that Telltales episode. So far so good. Feels like a Monkey Island game and that's nice. First it was a little awkward to go back in time and control the character with the keyboard like in some AGI game. ;)

edit: Ok I finished the first episode. I was a little disappointed how they only bothered to design two kinds of less important NPCs. Short fat one and long skinny one. Shortone didn't bother me as much but I was really confused why the glassblower was sitting in front of the court house and also leaning on his own house. ;)

F10. Pure beauty.

Has anyone tried the iphone version? Its in the app store for 10 bucks, is it worth it?

It's good on the iPhone but the gfx get scaled down to screwy resolution without keeping to a proper aspect ratio. It still looks alright though and has all the voice acting!

I played through Episode 2: The Siege of Spinner Cay yesterday, and I have to say I like that they're doing some new and interesting stuff with the characters and that the puzzles were well thought out. A couple of cracks are showing, though, which I think indicates that the short production time makes things tough for little ol' Telltale.

There are a few bugs that show up if you explore an island after you're meant to have done everything in the area (but there isn't anything specific to tell the player this is the case), a couple of typos in the subtitles, and it's becoming more obvious that there are a handful of models for the bit-part pirates that are simply getting new skins stuck on them.

This new episode will probably also annoy people who disliked the more fantasical development of Escape, though the game has a foundation of evil zombie pirates in the first place so I coped with it. I'm hoping they know to keep a clear divide between ToMI and Sam 'n Max in terms of wackiness, though - something I especially thought of because aspects of this episode got me thinking of Moai Better Blues.

I still have to say, though, that the greatness of new Monkey Island is my dominating thought and I'm happy with how things going. There still isn't much of an over-arcing plot, though, so things can go wrong from here. (Still a bit scarred by how massively Escape went downhill after the halfway point, ya see...)

The only bugs I've encountered with TMI is that if you talk to a character before you're "meant to" you can often ask them about things you haven't encountered yet.

Well, the new episode features a unique item that you can pick up at least twice and Guybrush behaving as if a character who's left the scene is still there, which I guess are pretty major in the world of AG bugs, but they're relatively out of the way so you're not likely to encounter them unless you get stuck (as I was)