LucasArts Reveals Monkey Island Return.

[Anian]

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Outdated?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This is not outdated:

Right, carry on. 

[Santar]

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.

[Scummbuddy]

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.

[monkey0506]

For some reason your link got an ellipses added in there Silvor....the thread is here.

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 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.

[Eggie]

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

[Santar]

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.

[AlbinoPanther]

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?

[Nacho]

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?

[Huw Dawson]

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

[monkey0506]

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!!)

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

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 our beloved AGS.

[MI fan-games] are being made with Adventure Game Studio, the same game engine that brought to the world such great games as 7 Days A Skeptic.

[TerranRich]

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!

[Alarconte]

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)

[Layabout]

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...

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

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.

[Layabout]

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.

[ManicMatt]

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

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

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.

[Layabout]

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!

[arj0n]

Great news, both of them

[ManicMatt]

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!