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It's good to see that the target was not so much reached...but breached (boom boom! Thank you! I'll be here all week... ), tossed a few coins into the pot anyway.

Regards,

Yickle

[four year period]

Including this post, 22 posts spread over a four year period almost to the very DAY!

Howzat eh?

With regards,

Yickle!

[Score:]

Well I certainly enjoyed playing it Dave, and I'll be going through the commentary shortly. 

For those that are still dithering, here's my review:-

Think back to the first Broken Sword (Circle of Blood to the redneck Americans).  The intro sequence.  Remember how it made you feel? I know how it made me feel, brilliant animation, music soaring as the wee bird flies towards the Eiffel Tower...

I knew I was in for an adventure.

That same feeling came back as far as The Blackwell Legacy is concerned, the overall feel brought everything back and I knew I was in for something special.

In the beginning...

As we should all know by now, if you all have kept up with the previews or played Bestowers of Eternity (the freeware taster of what was to come, released some years ago now), you'll know that the main characters are Rosangela Blackwell, a young New Yorker working as a freelance book reviewer and Joey Mallone, a ghost who has no idea why he can't leave the Blackwell women alone (apart from them possibly being physically attractive to him perhaps).

Without spoiling too much of the game, the basic premise is that Rosa and Joey act as a pair of ghost savers (as opposed to Ghostbusters), dealing with ghosts who have lost their way and moving on to the afterlife (whatever it might be).

It's Tetris Jim, but not as we know it...

Moving on, the inventory system and clues are handled much the same way as Dave Gilbert's previous release The Shivah.  Except this time, Rosa has a notebook to combine clues she gets and to talk about with others (which is nicely presented) plus there aren't any "use X inventory object on Y character" type puzzles - this makes the game alot easier in one way, as you're not manically using every inventory item on a person just to see if it'll work.

It also means the puzzles that are presented to the player are more conversational in nature, and it also means actual sleuthing is required.  Allow me to explain...

In your average adventure game, puzzles eventually become silly - something along the lines of "pick up worm, use worm 2 hours later in the game for fixing a warp drive".  With adventures such as The Blackwell Legacy, this never happens and everything is logical and straightforward.  As it should be.

To give a quick example: if you have a key labeled "F.B." and Rosa has already seen a fusebox that requires a key to open it, it's logical and straightforward that the key with "F.B." written on it would be the key to the fusebox.

Speech...the final frontier

How many adventure games have you played that are from a company such as Lucasarts or Revolution? Or even more scarce: Access Software? Usually, there's at least one slightly hokey voice in the game somewhere.

And this doesn't happen in The Blackwell Legacy.  All the characters - however minor - come across as right.  You're never thinking "Hmm, that wasn't quite right" - you just instantly accept it, and this is how voice acting should be.  You just accept it and you're not thinking about the voices until you're typing up a review such as this.

On screen!

The character portraits are quite nice too, the voices match the character portraits - and they animate appropriately.  The backgrounds are detailed yet not overly so.  The character sprites are nigh-on perfect.  For comparison sake, it's somewhere between The Dig and Broken Sword 1 quality and that means, for an independent game, it's very special indeed.

The final countdown...

And if you think you're only going to be getting a game that's going to last around 6-8 hours (depending on how good you are, I reason a skilled adventure gamer could do it within 4-6 hours) - think again.  There's an extensive blooper reel, full of humourous outtakes and adlibs and the Director's Commentary that extends the replayability.  For those of us who love DVD special features, these are things not to be missed.

This is one feature that really shines, you can go through the game with the Director's Commentary enabled, and Dave Gilbert's animated self will appear to discuss the part of the game that you're at throughout.

Score: 8.5/10
Price: $14.99 (£7.85 approx)
Difficulty: Moderate.

Also consider...: Sam & Max: Culture Shock - A far easier title and far shorter too, add to this the voice acting isn't that great.  Broken Sword 1 & 2 Compilation DVD - Available on the Sold-Out range for £4.99, buy this if you haven't played them already (and let's be honest, BS1 has been out for 10 years now...if you haven't played it by now - shame on you!).

With regards,

Yickle.

Ignoring my entry (of course):-

Receiving Best Design: Clip
Receiving Best Functionality: Clip
Receiving Best Idea: Tocsik (gotta give the guy/gal/it some credit)
Receiving Best Technique: Clip
Receiving the Oscar...: Clip
Receiving the Emmy for Best Drama...:Tuomas....

The others look nice, some feel as if railway track was added just to be entered legitimately, but I don't think I could use them for anything other than one-off cutscene backgrounds...and being the tightwad that I am, I like to reuse imagery alot

Tuomas get's the comedy award btw.  Not that one exists but y'know...it's the thought that counts

Regards,

Yickle.

EDIT: Modified for his highness Ildu.

I could have kept on working on this for another day or so adding those "finishing touches".  But I also wanted to be done by the 6th, so I decided to stop before I added too much.  There is a list of things I wanted to add, could have added, but knew I'd have spent days - nay weeks - getting it *just right*.  So here is the image, designed to be a horizontal scrolling background.



Regards,

Yickle.

EDIT REASON: Just noticed my background didn't conform to the resolution specifications, this has now been rectified via cropping...and you know what? Looks even better now!

I can foresee this:-

"MUM!!! I don't want to go walking!"
"Daaaaaaaaaaaaaad! I want to go to McDonalds!"
"I'm boooooooooooored.  I want to go home."
"I want an ice cream!" "You can't have an ice cream we are nowhere near an ice cream vendor" "I WANT AN ICE CREAM! waa waa waa!"
"I want to go into town with you!" "You can't, we're going to a pub, it's for adults only." "I WANT TO GO TOOOOO! *throws a hissy fit*"

: The above is that true it's almost not funny anymore....but then, I can imagine "adults" performing those same lines. *shudders*

Regards,

Yickle.

[extremely]

Well I got home fine...just almost skinted still I had a great night out and an adventure.  Next year, I'll save up and stay in a nice hotel where I can invite the ladies round

Speaking of the ladyfolk, when I reached Birmingham and I was just about to board the Manchester train, I noticed this extremely easy on the eyes petite young woman was struggling with this huge red mountaineering internal frame backpack almost the same size as her...and being the gentleman that I am I let her go in front and then charged in afterwards to stop the wave of people so *I* could get on

And of course what would be within my view? Chris and Disco can answer that one.

Anyhow, as the train approached Manchester Picadilly and I headed to the doors, we almost collided and I simply said "Ah, haven't we met before?" we started talking/giggling and I helped her with her bag (even taking into account my own!)...anyhow we gets to talking a bit more, comparing our cuddly companions (her monkey vs Mr. Flibble - NO CONTEST! ) and I walk away with both her MSN and her mobile number =)

Seems like someone up there is thinking "give the pidge a break!" And a very nice break it be! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!

Regards,

Yickle.

P.S. At the Travel Lodge, I got like an hour's sleep or so...guess thats what watching the BBC Learning Zone does to ye ^_^

Well, I'm all packed up and good to go! Weeeee! \o/

Regards,

Yickle.

Fish: if you can make it great, there'll be a lollipop waiting for you.  If not, I suppose I could always mail you one

In other news, my camcorder arrived and it's quite the cute lil purdy thing!  I'm not entirely sure The Law will allow usage of the camcorder at a karaoke venue (I'm thinking copyright law amongst others) so we'll just have to see about that.  But I'll be recording for everything else and when I get back home I'll transfer it to PC.

So for the time that I'm there, y'all will have "YicklePigeon Goes to Brittens 2006" by the end of the month.

Regards,

Yickle.

Unfortunately the Irn-Bru bars have been discontinued, and these "Wham!" brew-flavour bars have took their place.Ã,  And as with all marketing gubbins they're "New and improved!".

Well they're not.Ã,  And they're nothing like the Irn-Bru bars of the day...so I've complained to McCowans.

Let's put it like this, you eat an Irn-Bru chewy bar you think of the Irn-Bru drink.

You eat one of these "Wham!" brew flavour bars and you think of a supermarket branded "Iron Brew" drink.Ã,  Aka: a cheap knock-off.

Regards,

Yickle.

P.S. I couldn't find any Chupa Chup orange lollies.Ã,  Apple, various versions of strawberry, cola and others...but no orange.Ã,  So I got you two more generic orange lollipops.

[6pm]

New date 'n times for me.

Yickle now arrives at: Cardiff Central for 6pm Saturday 15th.  Chances are that I'll miss most of you by an hour, so I'll catch the bus (I'll ring AGA when I get to Cardiff and ask which bus(es) to get.

Yickle now departs at: 12:50pm Wednesday 19th from Cardiff Central.

Thats right Dave & Custard, I'll be seeing you both!

Regards,

Yickle.

I can come for the 15th-17th.  I'll bring my own toilet roll (not necessarily for waste), Sudafed, vimto lollipops (and Irn Bru chewy bars if possible) and a suitcase.

And my black hat and shades

Regards,

Yickle.

dkh:

Spoiler

Go to the Sharming Showroom, use the computer, go to the ledger, use the clue "Ethan G." on "Goldberg accounting" to form a link.  Then go back to Stone's PC, and search for "Ethan Goldberg".

[close]

Regards,

Yickle.

Bored.

Regards,

Yickle.

Quite nice, a huge improvement over what you started out with.  Btw, unlike others, I don't think the kitchen doorway is big...I just think you need to add two sliding doors...or just leave it open plan such as it is

The hallway looks a little off, but meh, heck of a lot of work gone into it and I like it

Regards,

Yickle.

This makes me think of Jagged Alliance, plus I've a similar idea for UT2k4.

Regards,

Yickle.

Tuomas, you're not the only Braggart anymore...I think this test be accurate!

My results for being a Braggart:-

57% Rational, 57% Extroverted, 42% Brutal, and 71% Arrogant

Regards,

Yickle.

The original picture, apart from the oft-pointed out river issue, is fine.  Thumbs up to Sektor! No doubt when it fills the screen with game characters etc it'll all pull together.  Indeed, if you want more reference material Sektor, how about the jungle section in Broken Sword 2?

Regards,

Yickle.

Hmm, apparently I'm a 71% match for Danny Devito and a 69% match for Tom Hanks.  Not too bad...but Courtney Love?! See here...

I'm in this one, I have some ideas and so I'm writing a script now :}

Regards,

Yickle.