The problem I have with Syberia is that the story isn’t over by the end of the first game, and then at the end of the second game…
Kate has thrown her life away for someone else’s dream which she is not part of, and what the hell happens next? She doesn’t ride away on a mammoth.
More than a decade later, they’re coming out with a third installment, so maybe I was wrong all these years thinking that the writers didn’t give a damn what happened to Kate. I mean, The Longest Journey/Dreamfall also went on a nearly decade-long hiatus, leaving the world stuck in a hosed state, but at least they gave the impression they would eventually come back to unhose the world in a sequel.
Also, when the hell is Loom 2 coming out?
I played and finished Grim Fandango back when you had to move Manny in ‘drive mode’. You kids today and your click-where-you-want-him-to-go rock ‘n’ roll lifestyles can only lead to sodomy and communism.
Ah, see, for me a lot of the character motivations and dialogue just didn’t make sense to me. Like, not to spoil it for anyone, but all the phone calls–I just don’t see the main character reacting to the phone calls realistically. Took me completely out of the game and just made me angry at the character. And the puzzles were just so damned easy. There was not a point in the game where I had to think about anything, except for the drink puzzle, which took me reading an object description more closely to figure it out two minutes later. I mean, no, I don’t want Sierra Online level arbitrarily difficult puzzles, but something that feels less than I’m simply being hand-held through an interactive movie. There was no joy or excitement for me in solving any of the puzzles (same with Broken Age.)
That said, it was a pretty game with nice atmosphere, and held my interest long enough to want to finish it. It just wasn’t anywhere near a great point-and-click adventure I was hoping it to be, and I’m not interested in playing the sequel.
I am excited and waiting for Thimbleweed Park, though.
Unfortunately, there’s no real way to quantify the difficulty of puzzles in games. For years the gold standard was the Babel Fish puzzle from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I would actually argue that the Discworld game gave that a run for its money a couple of times over. But the games The Adventure Company was producing a decade ago I found sufficiently challenging and interesting to be worth the price brand new without ever being frustrating. You maybe found them too easy. But generally I’m happy with the balance usually found in point-and-click adventure games these days, like the Deponia games or what Telltale used to make before they started making interactive cinematic games.
But… Broken Age didn’t seem like one half of a $20 adventure game. It was more like 1/4 of a $20 adventure game. Otherwise, I thought it was swell – humor, weird-in-a-cute-way aesthetic, didn’t have to get anybody molested by an octopus. But I think Tim Schafer can do better.
Oh, I totally agree. I love Tim Schafer’s work (especially when paired with Ron Gilbert, although Day of the Tentacle sans Gilbert is one of my favorites in the point-and-click adventure category), but I was a little let down by Broken Age. Still, I loved its aesthetic and storybook quality, and I hear the puzzles in part two are going to be a bit more challenging, and it’s almost certain I will buy and play through it as well.
Caverna is currently being shipped to me. I really like Suburbia. The problem is my wife is so damn picky about boardgames that she doesn’t even know what she likes. So now, I only get games I can play single player. I just got my copy of Tiny Epic Defenders. The Tiny Epic Galaxy kickstarter ends today, I think.
I also think I’m going to back the Trickerion game. It is way too heavy for me. I’ll probably never play it, but damn, it is a pretty game. It’d look great on my shelf.
I haven’t played many video games lately, mainly because my daughter damaged my computer (I love her, I love her, I love her). But I’ve been fiddling around with it after not turning it on for a month and it seems like it repaired itself? I don’t know. Either way, I’ve been able to put in a few hours of Civ V over the last week when that wasn’t possible before.
I have Shadows of Mordor. I’ve played a bit and like it. I’ll probably get back into it in a few weeks.
I think I may need to restart Divinity: Original Sin. Great game, but it’s one of those games that are intricate enough to make it difficult to hop right back in. But I’ve already gone on to the second major town! Not to mention the Winter Haven realm, or whatever it was called. Vae mihi.
Some friends at work and I were playing H1Z1 for a while, but it just wasn’t ready for prime time. We also play Company of Heroes 2 and Orcs Must Die 2 occasionally. Recently I started playing XCOM Enemy Within again with the Long War mod and am having a blast with that.
ETA: I’ve preordered the Homeworld touch up and intend to play that when it comes out later this month. I’m also thinking about Elite Dangerous as I’ve heard some good things about that.
I almost bought Besiege as it’s only 7 bux but I already broke one standing tradition this week by trying out an MMO, I wasn’t ready to break my Early Access rule. The trailer looks really fun (and very bloody). Save 60% on Besiege on Steam
Neverwinter’s fine. I’d be playing it right now but I got disconnected from the server.
Besiege is, at least, going in the direction of the Early Access version being cheaper than the release version since you’re getting an incomplete product. Beats the people wanting you to pay $30 for an alpha (or the occasional dev thinking you should pay $70+ to alpha-test their game)
I’m playing Shadow of Mordor now, and I’d like to thank everyone here who recommended it to me during the last Steam sale. Really great game. I’m actually close to finishing it, but I don’t want it to end - I just want to go around killing more orcs.
Aside from various Flash games (e.g. Marvel: Avengers Alliance, Marvel Puzzle Quest), I’m playing Diablo III: Ultimate Edition on the Xbox 360; I picked it up for $20 over Xmas and I think I’ve got my money’s worth out of it. After that is probably Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, but I’m in no rush at the moment.
Hi! I just joined the Steam SDMB community. I know that I missed all of the holiday sales, but can I ask what people are playing in mid-February 2015? I’d like to try to join in if I can.
SenorBeef invited me into a few rounds of Insurgency the other night and I had fun despite being the worst Insurgency player ever. Since then, I’ve been messing around in the training bit against bots and still suck but maybe suck slightly less.
I’ve been eyeing that one. I’ll have to watch a few playthroughs. She’s weird. Loves Cranium, Dominion, and Munchkin, hates Pandemic and wouldn’t even try Suburbia. Said she wouldn’t like Ticket to Ride.
She seems excited for Caverns. Because it’s a heavier game I’m going to have to have the rules down perfectly in order to not scare her away.
