Finished: Another world (Megadrive version)
Funny, after the short credits roll it does its own “turn off your computer and go to sleep!”
Funny, after the short credits roll it does its own “turn off your computer and go to sleep!”
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It’s a great game, but too dificult for me.
I did it by myself for about half.
Then I finished it using a walkthrough.
I still remember the ending…
I know that in US the game title was “Out of this World”, while in Europe is “Another World”.
Always wondered why. 
The final sentence was different, too:
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Love that game. Today I use to play it using a Raspberry Pi and Recalbox. You can save whenever you want and can even rewind if needed. 
Maybe that´s some kind of cheat, but
i´ts just not the same today like it was when we where kids. Time is precious and very limited today. While I still like to play the old gems I´m not able to do it nearly as long as we did as kids.
So I have my little mighty retro box which can bring me to any memory/game/system I want to in seconds and give me a lot of comfort even for the hardest games. 
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Without a walkthrough I’d still be stuck in one of the earlier screens (loosing all those laser shootouts)
I did not have the luxury of saving anywhere, but there is a password system after every couple of screens. The thing is however, you also can mess up a puzzle or two and end up with a password of the game in an unwinnable state!
I have no idea how one person could ever finish this game without a walkthrough!
I started playing the follow-up “Flashback” now - I equally suck at it - but I haven’t looked up any hints so far.
I loved both and finished both back then. Without walkthrough. The walktrough was called time. Or “try again, you suck.”
Flashback was my christmas wish when it came out and I was happy enough my parents bought it for me.
Since I aboslutely loved Another World, I couldn´t wait to play Flashback and it was a blast. It was like wow. It looked amazing and had great sounds on the Amiga. But I need to say, I finished it too fast, I was a little disapointed. Couple of weeks ago I did a complete run again and need to say, without the ability to save all the time, I had given up. didn´t remember it was so hard. But I still like it
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Jenny LeClue has an eerie resemblance to Thimbleweed Park. For now I think it must be coincidence, but I’m expecting to run into the Sheriff-a-reno anytime soon!
It’s also a wonderful game. Just flipping through the items of the main menu already had me smiling; can’t say that of many other games I played so far.
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Judging from youtube, it seems it has a deduction interface, where you combine two clues, and the deduction is automatically made. This is great. Is there also a normal interface to use objects? or are all the puzzles deduction based? (which would be perfectly fine btw)
There isn’t much of a traditional point & click interface. The majority of puzzles I encountered so far were searching for clues / evidence followed by the deduction as you saw on Youtube. There are a few other puzzles that allow you to clear obstacles out of the way or open up a new room, but I have yet to find a use for any of the items I’ve collected (not that there would be many).
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That’s ok, as long as those other (and bad) games have a “Quit” option:
“Aha! Found it” 
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Completed Jenny LeClue and had lots of fun doing so. Jenny was very likable as a main character, and the storytelling was brilliant. Puzzles were rather easy, but I think that helped the narrative to flow along nicely. Given it’s aesthetics, parts of it were unexpectedly spooky and suspenseful. Getting stuck for too long would probably have ruined that masterfully crafted atmosphere.
The one bit that I found a bit odd was ending, but I’d still recommend the game as whole.
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I was hit with a heavy cold or a mild flu or something, so I ended up finishing Telltale Batman 1 & 2 over the weekend. The first one made a stab at detective work, but the second game seemed to be aimed at a much younger audience as far as reasoning goes, which doesn’t seem to combine well with the violence. For example, one of Riddler’s “difficult” puzzles was something like sleep, work, die. Which simply told you in which order to press three buttons.
For the most part I quite liked the games, the second one in particular. The QTE fight scenes were slightly less attractive than I expected based on the contemporary Guardians of the Galaxy, which features the very best QTEs I’ve ever experienced. Batman 1 & 2 QTEs by contrast were slightly less impressive.
Batman 2 did have an important innovation on the QTE concept that I don’t think I’ve really seen before, although it may have slipped my mind. It takes the choose your own path concept to the QTE action sequences. Do you want to shock this enemy or tackle them? Grapple them or throw a table? Pick within a couple of seconds and then have another QTE to make sure the attack actually succeeds. Walking Dead probably already had some of that, just not so explicitly. It shows that there are at least two paths that can turn QTEs from annoying interruptions to (almost?) engaging:
- Make them so good and elegant that they almost feel like discount Devil May Cry combos or like playing an actual space shooter, like Guardians of the Galaxy. Prince of Persia (2008) also kind of did this in the running on rails sections.
- Implement multiple courses of action through QTE (as opposed to act or die), basically the action form of the Telltale dialog system. Batman 2 expands on this in interesting ways.
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The best QTEs are no QTEs 
. Though I have to admit that the only game I played that featured them prominently was Indigo Prophecy, and that has been long ago. (I’d rather forget about the borderline dance sequence of Book of Unwritten Tales!)
That said, I guess there’s good intentions behind QTEs: they help to convey a sense of urgency and let players participate in the action instead of showing automatic cutscenes. But I personally found them more frustrating than fun. One reason I still like P&C adventures so much is that they don’t run on a timer 
.
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Depends a bit on how you define QTE. I would define games like DDR and Guitar Hero as good QTE, just like the Telltale/Oxenfree dialog system. Prince of Persia 2008 also has engaging QTE-like mechanics in the running sections.
If, on the other hand, you define a QTE as a random prompt to press a button that breaks the usual gameplay mechanics, it’s probably bad. Tomb Raider (2013) is a prime example.
So what I’m saying is that in Guardians of the Galaxy, Telltale has mostly succeeded at making theoretically bad QTEs (à la Tomb Raider 2013) into an engaging DMC-light DDR-like experience. They weren’t just acceptable, but occasionally quite fun. And in Batman, they’ve often made action decisions similar to dialog choices. Also there tends to be a certain consistency in QTEs.
By making you choose how Batman takes out an enemy, the QTE actually matters. It’s not just a matter of push the right button or the cutscene screeches to a halt. And it’s not just a matter of pressing a completely random button either. Those types of QTEs aren’t engaging, but punishment for zoning out a little during a cutscene. It’s especially egregious if there’s actually a 30-second cutscene which randomly throws in some QTEs at the end.
In Bayonetta QTEs were also well done. There the QTE is basically for a bonus, which makes it much more attractive. Instead of QTE or die it’s grab a nice little bonus with the QTE, no biggie if you miss it.
PS Rise of the Tomb Raider significantly improved on the QTEs. There were fewer of them (but still many), and those that remained weren’t usually as random. But they were merely more bearable, not so much enjoyable.
They do though. I leave the computer for a bit while not pausing (after all, can’t die and the music is nice) and then the TWP savegame for example says I’ve been playing for 20 hours. 
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Funny story… just played that part 2 days ago! I sucked at it.
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that’s so recognisable!
“You really must suck at these games?”
“No I just fell asleep over the keyboard”
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I’ve been playing some Bridge Constructor Portal. It co-opts your bridge builder mechanics in interesting ways (a bit like The Incredible Machine of yore), which is definitely amusing although not necessarily as engaging as your basic bridge builder.
My biggest annoyance is that you can only zoom by scrolling. I hate that. Nothing wrong with zooming by scrolling, but as the only option it’s the same thing as those adventure games that think point & click should be taken literally.
Played Ankh - Anniversary Edition in a vain attempt to clear out my backlog. It was relatively easy, except on two occasions (which coincidentally both involved throwing stuff out of a window or similar opening). It did have a few funny moments, but mostly it remained pretty bland. Perhaps better voice acting and better 3D technology could have helped to convey a bit more emotion and drama at some points in the story, but even then it would have still lacked a truly gripping plot.
Most noteworthy perhaps was that the end credits thanked Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and a couple other P&C veterans. Shows again that those old LucasArts games really left their mark on a lot of developers!
Can’t really recommend, but if it’s on sale and you’ve got some time to waste I guess there could be worse.
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Have you played the German version?
That’s a “problem” of all 3D adventure games IMHO. The graphics of Ankh weren’t that bad at its time.
Naw, only older/lower budget ones. I mentioned The Vanishing of Ethan Carter the other day. Coincidentally I went through the first 15-30 minds of The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit right after I posted that. Whether it’s any good I don’t know yet, but it sure looks amazing, and its hardly like Life is Strange looked bad. Stories Untold also looks mostly stunning, and I think Syberia 3 should also be good.
But perhaps more on point, the Gabriel Knight remaster looks pretty decent too. Not saying better, but not bad.
Until Down 