Remakes you would like to see?

[Iliya]

So yeah, I nominate every Sierra game; just so they can remove the walking deads and the games can actually become... you know... fun.

I've never understand why the walking deaths, dead ends all Sierra's things are so annoying for the players... For me they make the game more challenging and more interesting.

[Igor Hardy]

So how does the Tex Murphy game Overseer compare to the original ? I found the gun battles that had an endless supply of bad guys a real turn off as I quickly ran low on bullets and the bad guys didn't seam to drop any when you killed them as far as I can tell. Was it possible to visit any of the landmarks listed on the map that came with the game or were they just red herrings?

I only did have a quick look at the original, so I can't tell you much besides the main plot being the same. Overseer seems to have a lot of extra scenes (mainly cut-scenes) as there's a lot of focus on Tex's personality and relationships, while the original two Tex games were very raw.

Overseer also doesn't have any arcade sequences, but you can die a lot, especially during timed sequences + there's some sneaking required. What else? The locations are 3D, cutscenes are FMVs... basically, if you played Under A Killing Moon it is pretty much exactly like it.

Gabriel Knight 3. Better 3D engine, make Madeline look hot instead of ill, re-add the scenes that were cut due to the engine's limitations, cover the plot holes, and then make GK4.

If I recall correctly, that included a motorbike chase - I'm thinking Full Throttle with vampires! Wasn't there also some changes made to the end-game sequence? In any case - that whole underground temple section needs a re-design.

I remember there was a huge section of the temple that was cut out late in the production because it was either too buggy, or it made the game run too slow. And yeah, the motorbike chase is the most fun sounding bit. Jane Jensen also said you originally could control Grace while she is climbing the Chateau's walls.

[blueskirt]

I've never understand why the walking deaths, dead ends all Sierra's things are so annoying for the players... For me they make the game more challenging and more interesting.

Or more frustrating and time wasting. Puzzles can be challenging and time consuming on their own without having to memorise every things of interest in now unreachable areas, wasting days trying to solve unsolvable puzzles, saving after every puzzles just in case you did something wrong and replaying the game countless times.

Even Sierra got a clue and removed those in its later games. You want to know why I never got into Tex Murphy games, search no further.

[Radiant]

I've never understand why the walking deaths, dead ends all Sierra's things are so annoying for the players... For me they make the game more challenging and more interesting.

Well, they're not as annoying as message boards make them out to be, but when combined with slow gameplay and/or unskippable cutscenes they do make a game rather tedious.

Come to think of it, somebody should remake KQ5 to get rid of all the stupid dead ends and make the cutscenes skippable.

[Questionable]

Nice idea, Questionable. To aid you in bringing this thread off topic, I think the BioShock universe would be an excellent setting for a business simulator. I imagine something like 'Plasmid Tycoon' where you play an up-and-coming entrepreneur stretching ethics and profit margins to their limits within the capitalism-gone-mad system of pre-collapse Rapture. And of course the game should be unwinnable, similar to Oiligarchy.

Do I smell a prequel?

[Eggie]

I've never understand why the walking deaths, dead ends all Sierra's things are so annoying for the players... For me they make the game more challenging and more interesting.

Well, they're not as annoying as message boards make them out to be, but when combined with slow gameplay and/or unskippable cutscenes they do make a game rather tedious.

It was the RPG elements that made it completely intolerable for me. When I spend time boosting a characters stats in the directions I want they become a unique incarnation of themselves in my head and it's just too damn emotionally distressing to scrap them and start the game anew; redoing all the tree climbing and knife throwing and other neat little things you can do it that game to develop your character.

And why does the quest have to become unwinnable just because you burn one bridge? That's not how life works, a resourceful person would find another way; not stand around paralysed until the end of time. And, at the very least, I expect my adventure protagonists to be resourceful.

Nice idea, Questionable. To aid you in bringing this thread off topic, I think the BioShock universe would be an excellent setting for a business simulator. I imagine something like 'Plasmid Tycoon' where you play an up-and-coming entrepreneur stretching ethics and profit margins to their limits within the capitalism-gone-mad system of pre-collapse Rapture. And of course the game should be unwinnable, similar to Oiligarchy.

Do I smell a prequel?

Aw man, I had this exact thought a few days ago. But I just completed the first Bioshock last weekend so my mind was pretty much submerged (a do ho ho) in Rapture mythos and there pretty much wasn't any genre of anything I didn't want there to be something Bioshock related of at that moment.

[Radiant]

It was the RPG elements that made it completely intolerable for me. When I spend time boosting a characters stats in the directions I want they become a unique incarnation of themselves in my head and it's just too damn emotionally distressing to scrap them and start the game anew; redoing all the tree climbing and knife throwing and other neat little things you can do it that game to develop your character.

While I don't necessarily agree on dead ends in general, I do agree that this particular dead end is just stupid.

Come to think of it, many Sierra dead ends are. This is a standard that has evolved: back in the high days of Sierra, it was (evidently) acceptable for a game to have dozens of dead ends, whereas now it is not any more.

[Iliya]

I don't like RPG elements in adventures. But don't mind if there is a dead end in game. The challenge in "dead end" is to understand that its a dead end, to understand what you did wrong. And when you understand it, there is a solution for it called F7 - restore game.

[Eggie]

Just saying; it would be a lot better if there was an actual solution for it ingame. It just doesn't make sense to me these guys walk around solving the obscure problems in their way for a living but they can't deal with the ones they create themselves.
Plus, it's tedious to go through the game again, especially if you become a walking dead early on and then the game lets you progress, blissfully unaware, to a certain point anyway... it feels like a punishment; the game is punishing me for... playing it... for doing stuff the designers PUT THERE for me to do... it's like I've been thrown out of the garden of Eden without even being told not to eat the apple in the first place. Argh, I can't deal with that. I'm just not that much of a masochist...

Anyway so... um... remakes: Um... Bubble Bobble, right, but with SALAMANDERS!

[Iliya]

it feels like a punishment; the game is punishing me for... playing it... for doing stuff the designers PUT THERE for me to do... it's like I've been thrown out of the garden of Eden without even being told not to eat the apple in the first place. Argh, I can't deal with that. I'm just not that much of a masochist...

The game is punishing you because you did something wrong. Sometimes the games are not just for fun! I believe people are creating games not just to entertain the gamers, but also to teach you something. Especially the younger players. The example with the apple is not accurate. What if you decide to burn the only bridge above the river. It will cause dead end, and will teach some young minds that it's not right.

[Privateer Puddin']

Not an adventure, but Crusader: No Remorse / Regret. That or an entirely new one.

[blueskirt]

The example with the apple is not accurate. What if you decide to burn the only bridge above the river. It will cause dead end, and will teach some young minds that it's not right.

No. Eating the apple is fairly accurate. If dead ends only punished players for doing stupid things, yeah, it would be unnacurate. But the thing is, dead ends punish players for any reason the developers see fit. You ate the pie instead of the meat? Dead end! You missed a rubber band lying on the sea bed of sharks infested waters? Dead end! You sold your car for 25 bucks instead of 25 bucks and a jetpack? Dead end! You forgot to save a mouse that appears on your screen for 2 little seconds? Dead end! You took the scuba suit that was in the left locker instead of the one in the right locker? Dead end! You didn't spy a conversation you didn't know existed because it only happens in a very specific room on a very specific time?

The list goes on. TVtropes got an article for dead ends, and Sierra has its own special section. Imagine if a button at the start of Myst made the game unwinnable at the end of the game, that would be ludicrous, yet, that's pretty much what Sierra did in Lighthouse.

I think dead ends survived this long in Sierra games not because developers wanted to teach you anything, but because without them, people would have complained Sierra games were too short.

[Snarky]

Actually, I think a big part of the reason dead ends were in there was to sell hint books or get people to call the Sierra Hint Line.

[MrColossal]

Poor implementation of dead ends is not a reason to never explore the subject again, right?

However, to be stuck in a walking dead and not know it, is not good design as far as I am concerned. An unwinnable situation in just about every game is considered failure. You lost the game. To design the game so that the player has lost but not to tell them so is generally poor design.

Generally when placed in an unwinnable situation a game is designed to understand this and it offers you a restart icon or alerts you that while you can still move around you will not progress. Or the gameplay makes it obvious that you are stuck and a restart button is ever present.

[Dualnames]

Poor implementation of dead ends is not a reason to never explore the subject again, right?

However, to be stuck in a walking dead and not know it, is not good design as far as I am concerned. An unwinnable situation in just about every game is considered failure. You lost the game. To design the game so that the player has lost but not to tell them so is generally poor design.

Generally when placed in an unwinnable situation a game is designed to understand this and it offers you a restart icon or alerts you that while you can still move around you will not progress. Or the gameplay makes it obvious that you are stuck and a restart button is ever present.

To be stuck in an unwinnable situation and apparently not be aware of it, is a headache I've been having lately.

I've come to terms to hint it terribly and just offer a mode without dead-ends. Deaths are okay on a game. Adventure game at least. I think they just force the usual technique players are using.

Trial and Error

I'm indeed mostly against dead-ends, but I think deaths are fine. Space Quest had a lot of deaths. Seriously. Way a lot of deaths. But the games are of the best I've ever played.

Just a thought.

[blueskirt]

MrColossal: That's how it is in puzzle games, but it's rarely like that in adventure games. I wouldn't mind them if they were well implemented, like say, if dead ends arrived in the same area you screwed up, not 10 hours of gameplay, 5 Myst puzzles, 2 minigames or a maze later, and if the game killed you when it became obvious you screwed up and the death message not only gave you a hint but also had a button that brought you back in the area where you screwed up so you don't have to worry about saving on different slots.

I think Quest for Yrolg featured some, but the game was so short that it wasn't an issue.

Dualnames: The animations and sarcastic death messages are part of what made Space Quest games so great. It's just too bad they didn't think of a Try Again button until the last game.

[Jared]

I'm surprised nobody suggested a demake for Escape from Monkey Island.

Actually, that would be brilliant. In potentia. The game had good graphics and some good puzzles (first half mostly) but went wwaaaaay of the rails in terms of having a coherent story, feeling like Monkey Island, and just general quality towards the end.

Simon The Sorcerer 3D. Someone just update those awful graphics, kill the terrible bugs, and make long-distance traveling easier.

Yes. Somebody was working on a 2D remake, looked like it went nowhere. I maintain Simon 3D is a very good game trapped in the buggiest thrown-together-at-the-last-minute engine ever. I'd really, really like to see some of the 2D stuff AdventureSoft made for it (apparently half the game was made in cartoon graphics)

I also second the idea of a 2D Discworld Noir, or at least a more stable version. Moreso than Simon 3D Noir was an absolute classic not many people got to enjoy. I'd also like fan Discworld projects because there has not been enough Discworld on PC for such a popular franchise.


When I was playing SQ4, with the various running-from-Sequel-Police puzzles I was thinking that if it was made again in the Half Life 2 engine or something similar it could be awesome - just like the first level of HL2 where you're running around on rooftops to escape the soldiers.


This may sound crazy, but going very recent - Knights of the Old Republic 2. Not only does Mass Effect make it look kind of shallow, but the fact that the game is missing HALF THE BLOODY ENDING! What's that? We need to stop the Mass Shadow Generator? Can you please explain to me what this is and why nobody brought up over the last two weeks? No? Okay then. I've saved the world? HOW DID I DO THAT???

And, you know, they could put the bucketloads of content that had to be axed back into the game, which apparently included an HK factory (!!!)

[Dualnames]

Jared: There's this team of people who are putting together the rest half of the game, as it was actually built but just not put inside the game.

[CTxCB]

So if you could have any game, (preferably adventures though other games would be fine to) and have it remade with modern software, graphics, and other perks, what game would you choose and what changes would you make? A graphical version of "Colossal Caves" with a built in auto map would be nice, (is this game really based on an actual place or is that just urban legend?) And maybe graphic versions of some of the other Infocom text based adventure games.

I'd like to see a remake of INN (Imagination Network), It was one, if not the first Graphical Online Game, all it needs is the same graphics enchanced, the music remade to sound better and to expand on what it was to what it could be...

[Jared]

Jared: There's this team of people who are putting together the rest half of the game, as it was actually built but just not put inside the game.

I know about the project but

a) It's 50/50 over whether or not it's dead

b) They won't do as good a job as Bioware would have.

Also, as I said, now I've played Mass Effect I want KotoR in the Mass Effect engine. True cinematic gameplay.