If it's feasible, I wouldn't mind having an all-joined-together full MI game on the DVD, but I don't think they should throw lots of resources at it ... I'd prefer some good commentary or other extras.
With the way Tales seems to be paced, if Episode 2 continues directly after the Episode 1 ending then surely it would make more sense to join them all together on the DVD version, so yeah another vote for a full joined version on DVD.
I also think it may be confusing for players that are new to episodic games.
For example if the player saves his/her game and then takes a break from it a couple of days, He/she might be wondering which of the five episodes the saved game exists.
If they can get confused by that... not remembering in which episose they were is the least of their possible problems for sure.
See, if Dave Grossman is against it, we probably won't get it. But I have to say, while I agree with what he's saying, I think what he's missing is that the very point of the bonus DVD is to give players a way to revisit the experience AFTER the episodic run is over, so tailoring it to that purpose makes sense to me. Yes, you lose part of the experience, but by the time the DVD rolls around, that experience is over anyway.
I still don't understand the 'episodic experience' argument. It's just silly. It's not like the chapters in previous Monkey Islands ended without cliffhangers. If they release Tales on DVD, I expect them to give us the option to play the WHOLE game, from beginning to the end. Watching credits after each chapter and being thrown to the main menu or the desktop kills the atmosphere and immersion.
I still don't understand the 'episodic experience' argument. It's just silly. It's not like the chapters in previous Monkey Islands ended without cliffhangers. If they release Tales on DVD, I expect them to give us the option to play the WHOLE game, from beginning to the end. Watching credits after each chapter and being thrown to the main menu or the desktop kills the atmosphere and immersion.
Agreed, I really wish the DVD version will have the chapters bound together. For example instead of the Screaming Narwhal credits, there'd be the Spinner Cay splash screen and off we go with chapter 2!
I didn't like the response of Dave Grossman (if that's how it's spelled).. He says it makes more sense to leave it episodic, because it adds to the feel of episodic gaming (community talk inbetween the episodes etc).. however I think this is a bit silly. I mean if I purchase the dvd and have all the episodes I'm not gonna speculate about the new episode if it's already on the disc. I'm gonna play it to find out what will happen and not go online and ask other people. Sure now it works because we have to wait anyway, but by the time the dvd comes out all the episodes are finished and released anyway.... soo in short his reasoning made no sense.. I'm all for a streamlined dvd experience and no installation of individual episodes....
I understand the emotions of those stating the "no episodes" sentiment.
However, step back for a second and look at an analogy. We have a TV show producer. The TV show producer produces his shows in episodic format. Some fans of a new show find out he's making episodes of one of their favorite old movies, and jump on board.
Now, they all begin clamoring, asking why the DVD of his TV show is still in the episodic format. They want to know why it's not a movie. It IS a DVD after all.
This really is what the argument seems to be about, from the outside.
They MAKE A MOVIE out of the TV show? Wow, I was not aware. You'll have to point those DVD's out to me.
Star Wars: Clone Wars (the 2D animated series, volume 1 -that's season 1 and 2- and 2 -season 3)
Star Wars: Droids
Star Wars: Ewoks (The animated series)
(Though in those two last cases there's not the full series, only selected episodes rearranged into movies, and in neither three cases is the option of playing full separate episodes, with credits)
But this is not the usual thing. Most likely, what other TV show DVDs do is having an option to play the episodes in order, WITHOUT end credits. And this is what I mean.
Actually, I've not played the full ToMI episode, so I don't know how it ends, and (obviously) how the second episode starts, but I think it would be a nice (optional?) feature to skip the credits and pass automatically to the next chapter, with a chapter title screen, just like the previous four MI games.
In any case, maybe I misunderstood you in my previous post.
I would prefer TMI to be whole one game not separated as five episodes on the DVD they should have done this with Sam & Max at the start its a little silly having 5-6 separate programs on one installation and you have to go and click on one to continue when they can easily link up all the episodes together so we don't have to see the opening and end credits several times.
I really haven't changed my opinion on this since this post. The only thing I would like to add is, the time to really discuss this is after three or four of the episodes have been released, so you can have a better idea of what the game would look like stitched together.
You can't take 15 seconds to close down a finished game and start the next one up?
What the heck do you people do watching a TV Series DVD box set when the first one finishes and you have to get up to insert the 2nd disc? Go moan on the TV show's website about why they don't include a free robot arm to swap discs for you?
Of all the trivial stuff to moan about, I think this one takes the cake (and I've read taumel's posts).
It may be 15 seconds for your powerhouse of a gaming PC but it takes four minutes each time to start up for me. Add to that, the default resolution and graphics settings will have to be tinkered with if the episode is new. That means I could only play readily set up without a break on a rerun.
Then there's the five-minute long credits sequence each episode has and most likely each episode will have opening credits of sorts. It's beginning to add up to nearly half an hour in between episodes. Far from the same time taken to change a DVD.
It may be 15 seconds for your powerhouse of a gaming PC but it takes four minutes each time to start up for me. Add to that, the default resolution and graphics settings will have to be tinkered with if the episode is new. That means I could only play readily set up without a break on a rerun.
Then there's the five-minute long credits sequence each episode has and most likely each episode will have opening credits of sorts. It's beginning to add up to nearly half an hour in between episodes. Far from the same time taken to change a DVD.
So... if the chapters were all combined, you would save what, maybe the settings (which, after setting the first one, you should know which options to configure quickly) & credits time (which are 3 minutes 15 seconds, more or less)? Because the opening sequences will still be need to be there, and the four minutes of start up should still be there, only in the form of loading times.
So... if the chapters were all combined, you would save what, maybe the settings (which, after setting the first one, you should know which options to configure quickly) & credits time (which are 3 minutes 15 seconds, more or less)? Because the opening sequences will still be need to be there, and the four minutes of start up should still be there, only in the form of loading times.
Yeah, but you are doing this four times (you don't count the first settings change and the last credits in the five episodes) so that is still about 15 mins. each time you play the game.
15 minutes out of... erm... something like 20-30 hours of gameplay. I don't know, I'm just not that bothered. Even sort of welcome the opportunity to step away and do something else if I've done a fast play through of an episode, from memory, non stop for 1-2 hours.
I think this would be a great addition, but it's a non-trivial problem. If each episode has opening credits these would have to be tuned significantly to avoid a jarring break in immersion. You'd also need to create some kind of intermission style screen to show the chapter break and rework the surrounding scenes so it doesn't look weird. If you just cut straight from a cliffhanger to the resolution in one go it is inevitably going to seem a little weird.
I'd love it if Telltale did do something like this, but I can't see it happening unless they really want to push the complete season as a separate release. It's way too much to ask for them to do this just so it flows a little better in our season compilation.
But this is not the usual thing. Most likely, what other TV show DVDs do is having an option to play the episodes in order, WITHOUT end credits. And this is what I mean.
I have multiple series on DVD and none of them do this. They have a "play all" feature, but they play each episode in its entirety, intro, end credits and all. You can skip through them manually if you can skip chapters on your player, but they have to show them by law. And that's why I think it's unlikely Telltale would string all five episodes of Tales together, they'd have to create a new, mondo credits list for the end, and if you've ever played any of the final episodes in their past series you'd know they're friggin' big as is. Plus, they'd have to do a bit of new programming for the save files I'm sure, not to mention the way the first episode was structured, it's more like a TV show with a story arc as opposed to a mini-series or something even. There's brief credits for Lucasarts and Telltale, Title, then a cold opening with the beginning credits starting after the first scene is over. Then there's the main part of the game divided into something like 3 or 5 acts, then a definite "end" with a bit of a cliffhanger and the end credits. If anything, Tales is more like a TV show than the past games were.
I'm not saying it wouldn't be nice to play each episode one after the other, I'm just saying it's not a simple change for Telltale to make. And honestly, if I had to choose between them implementing this feature and ... say, a Dominic Armato commentary track I'd choose the commentary track. If they do manage to slip the feature in, great! I'm just doubting they'll bother. Unless of course, like, a thousand people say they'd really, really like it or something.
Comments
Hehe another rather stupid idea, stitch them together and add commercials for other telltale games in between
Imagine the monty muzzle sales pitch between chapter 1 and 2
now there's a good idea!
If they can get confused by that... not remembering in which episose they were is the least of their possible problems for sure.
I still don't understand the 'episodic experience' argument. It's just silly. It's not like the chapters in previous Monkey Islands ended without cliffhangers. If they release Tales on DVD, I expect them to give us the option to play the WHOLE game, from beginning to the end. Watching credits after each chapter and being thrown to the main menu or the desktop kills the atmosphere and immersion.
Agreed, I really wish the DVD version will have the chapters bound together. For example instead of the Screaming Narwhal credits, there'd be the Spinner Cay splash screen and off we go with chapter 2!
However, step back for a second and look at an analogy. We have a TV show producer. The TV show producer produces his shows in episodic format. Some fans of a new show find out he's making episodes of one of their favorite old movies, and jump on board.
Now, they all begin clamoring, asking why the DVD of his TV show is still in the episodic format. They want to know why it's not a movie. It IS a DVD after all.
This really is what the argument seems to be about, from the outside.
Many TV show DVD's have the two options.
They MAKE A MOVIE out of the TV show? Wow, I was not aware. You'll have to point those DVD's out to me.
Most of the ones that I've seen play full episodes (Title-to-Credits), in order. Just like you would if you were playing episodic games in order.
Star Wars: Droids
Star Wars: Ewoks (The animated series)
(Though in those two last cases there's not the full series, only selected episodes rearranged into movies, and in neither three cases is the option of playing full separate episodes, with credits)
But this is not the usual thing. Most likely, what other TV show DVDs do is having an option to play the episodes in order, WITHOUT end credits. And this is what I mean.
Actually, I've not played the full ToMI episode, so I don't know how it ends, and (obviously) how the second episode starts, but I think it would be a nice (optional?) feature to skip the credits and pass automatically to the next chapter, with a chapter title screen, just like the previous four MI games.
In any case, maybe I misunderstood you in my previous post.
It may be 15 seconds for your powerhouse of a gaming PC but it takes four minutes each time to start up for me. Add to that, the default resolution and graphics settings will have to be tinkered with if the episode is new. That means I could only play readily set up without a break on a rerun.
Then there's the five-minute long credits sequence each episode has and most likely each episode will have opening credits of sorts. It's beginning to add up to nearly half an hour in between episodes. Far from the same time taken to change a DVD.
So... if the chapters were all combined, you would save what, maybe the settings (which, after setting the first one, you should know which options to configure quickly) & credits time (which are 3 minutes 15 seconds, more or less)? Because the opening sequences will still be need to be there, and the four minutes of start up should still be there, only in the form of loading times.
Yeah, but you are doing this four times (you don't count the first settings change and the last credits in the five episodes) so that is still about 15 mins. each time you play the game.
I'd love it if Telltale did do something like this, but I can't see it happening unless they really want to push the complete season as a separate release. It's way too much to ask for them to do this just so it flows a little better in our season compilation.
I have multiple series on DVD and none of them do this. They have a "play all" feature, but they play each episode in its entirety, intro, end credits and all. You can skip through them manually if you can skip chapters on your player, but they have to show them by law. And that's why I think it's unlikely Telltale would string all five episodes of Tales together, they'd have to create a new, mondo credits list for the end, and if you've ever played any of the final episodes in their past series you'd know they're friggin' big as is. Plus, they'd have to do a bit of new programming for the save files I'm sure, not to mention the way the first episode was structured, it's more like a TV show with a story arc as opposed to a mini-series or something even. There's brief credits for Lucasarts and Telltale, Title, then a cold opening with the beginning credits starting after the first scene is over. Then there's the main part of the game divided into something like 3 or 5 acts, then a definite "end" with a bit of a cliffhanger and the end credits. If anything, Tales is more like a TV show than the past games were.
I'm not saying it wouldn't be nice to play each episode one after the other, I'm just saying it's not a simple change for Telltale to make. And honestly, if I had to choose between them implementing this feature and ... say, a Dominic Armato commentary track I'd choose the commentary track. If they do manage to slip the feature in, great! I'm just doubting they'll bother. Unless of course, like, a thousand people say they'd really, really like it or something.