Screw Shacknews!
Yarg, it seems that a gaming website, Shacknews, has already posted a crappy review of Episode 1 of Tales.
I personally think it was a cruddy preview/review. It sounded more like a rant than a professional opinion.
So just ignore that review when you are browsing through the net, as who would honestly take a site like that seriously? I mean, it's got Ads by Google everywhere on it. Clearly it sucks if it can't afford it's server costs and has to resort to cheapo stuff like that.
Monkey Island is awesome!
though then again if it sucks tomorrow then screw this post. I say it has a 50/50 shot of being good. I want it to be good.
I personally think it was a cruddy preview/review. It sounded more like a rant than a professional opinion.
So just ignore that review when you are browsing through the net, as who would honestly take a site like that seriously? I mean, it's got Ads by Google everywhere on it. Clearly it sucks if it can't afford it's server costs and has to resort to cheapo stuff like that.
Monkey Island is awesome!
though then again if it sucks tomorrow then screw this post. I say it has a 50/50 shot of being good. I want it to be good.
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Comments
I've pre ordered and I'm sure I won''t be disappointed.
I expect it to be awesome. Therefore it will be awesome.
You're in luck! I'm me from the future. The game rocked!
...or did it?
^-- Those people.
haha!
The reviewer found the game to be okay/average, not terrible. Let's keep things in perspective, guys.
what if the game really is crappy? it means there's a downfall in the series, after 4 sucked, now this, it will end up being like 'simon the sorcerer', after the third, they kept releasing more games, each crappier than the other....
I WON'T LET THAT HAPPEN TO MI! IT MUST BE STOPPED! IT MUST!!! BE! STO---- *BOUND AND GAGGED*
I mean, if he expected it then it would take a lot to go beyond those expectations.
Yet, there's something he's saying here that I agree with, perhaps there's something missing from the series. I mean, I haven't played TMI yet, and as much as I look forward to it, I hope I don't get bored of it like I did half-way with S&M season 1 and 2. I hate to admit that, as I appreciate the huge amount of time spent reviving these series. The games really didn't float my boat, and I hope TMI doesn't completely sink it. :-\
It's 3D.. get over it!
So you don't like the game because of Guybrush's facial hair?? What an absolute joke! Are you actually going to review..you know the important aspects of the game? You can use a mouse, stop complaining!
Wait, so you spend an entire paragraph talking about guybrush's beard, but one of the most important aspects, puzzle design gets a throwaway sentence?? Nice...
Great, because this is not the game YOU wanted, you would rather see Monkey Island never come back again, when theres hundreds of thousands of fans around the world and a new MI game hasn't been released in 9 years!
The essense of the original games was the story and the humor, two factors you conveniently payed little attention to in your review.
As for TOMI.. well I have every faith that it will not be disappoint.
Nevertheless, I expect TMI will get good reviews, as did EMI and all of Telltale's games.
I did think it was odd that the reviewer didn't mention much about the puzzles. I mean, that's where the fun comes from.
My guess is he got stuck and couldn't finish it in time for his review.
rofl. that would explain a lot!
Calm down, dear. It's only a review and TOMI is only a game. No need to get your knickers in a twist!
No it wouldn't. The review specifically states that the episode is short on content, which would seem to imply that the critic played it to completion.
Geez. You guys. It's only a review. Get over it!
The reviewer did mention the puzzles, silly, but he/she obviously avoided talking about specifics so as not to spoil the game.
EMI got good reviews? That's news to me. I distinctly remember most reviewers being quite critical of EMI (particularly in the printed press). Of course, the internet being what it is, I'm sure that quite a few good reviews could be plucked out of the digital aether. For example, there are specialist adventure game sites that consistently heap praise on all sorts of poorly conceived, badly written/translated, stale adventure games.
Having said that, if you or anyone here loves EMI then that's great. It's never a good idea to let the opinions of others - either positive or negative - unduly influence your own reactions to a game.
No, it was pretty well recieved by the press overall.
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/escapemonkeyisland?q=monkey%20island
If you charge $10 for a game, people will still nitpick, but all of a sudden the mention of price disappears and has no effect on a review.
It's been a while since LucasArts' infamous trademarked pirate made his last appearance in 2000's Escape from Monkey Island. Now the adventure series has jumped ship to Telltale Games, with Monkey Island co-creator Dave Grossman at the helm of a new episodic effort.
The pilot episode, "Launch of the Screaming Narwhal," begins with protagonist Guybrush Threepwood boarding the ship of zombie villain LeChuck to save his wife Elaine--a scenario that series regulars will be instantly familiar with. Guybrush is soon swept away to a breezy tropical island, trapped there until he can discover a means of escape.
Telltale is trying very hard to make these sound like authentic Monkey Island games, and in many ways "Launch" achieves that goal. Dominic Armato reprises his role as Guybrush, lending competent voice work to the dialogue. Jokes range from chuckle-worthy to cringe-inducing, with most falling somewhere in the middle--a sniffle here, a roll of the eyes there. Accompanying the conversation is a MIDI score from original Monkey Island composer Michael Land.
Unfortunately, outside of the crisp menus, Tales doesn't much look like a Monkey Island game. The title largely suffers from a bland, plasticine graphical style--a far cry from the warm, detailed art that established the franchise.
Secondary character designs are forgettable--two of three characters in town could be identical but for a mustache and a paintbucket color swap--but it's the bizarre appearance of Threepwood that is most offensive. The Satanic sharpness of Guybrush's goatee lends an obnoxious fratboy look to the character. Maybe it's the setup for a facial hair swordfighting joke, but in the meantime, it stands as an odd choice.
Players have the option of using the keyboard for movement, or a mouse-based "click and hold" solution. Neither feels like a perfect scheme, and I quickly yearned for a point-and-click option. Another quibble: the game's mouse sensitivity is painfully low, and there is no way to turn it up.
The puzzles are typical adventure game fare--"combine the juice with the thingy, then use it on the donkey"--and were mostly logical and satisfying. The episode's first major quest leads Guybrush to one of the episode's more amusing characters, an "expert treasure hunter" that reveals himself to be a Klingon-quoting action figure collector.
The collector quickly gives up a map, which leads to a familiar puzzle set in a Zelda-like maze that resets following a wrong turn. As a videogame puzzle it's immediately recognizable, but there are instances where the game fails to indicate that the player has diverted from the correct path, leading to some unnecessary confusion.
In fact, the word "unnecessary" came to mind more than it should have during my playthrough. It's likely that Telltale will improve some of these elements with later installments, as it did with the Sam & Max series. Whether another Monkey Island game is unnecessary altogether is another question.
There were few moments in what I played of Tales that took me by surprise. Instead, this is exactly what I imagined a Telltale version of Monkey Island would be like--a simple Telltale adventure game with a couple dozen hit-or-miss jokes. It doesn't quite recapture the essence of the original games, but it's not bad, either.
Of course, considering that games these days are dominated by humorless, blood-soaked treadmills, Tales' shortcomings may be easier to overlook than if the episodes had been released in 1998. If you're in need of a lighthearted change of pace from the open-world action genre, Telltale's latest is worth a look.
http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=1161
I think it's OK review... not negative...
Curse had a good story all through the game. And this is 90% the same team that did that game. They did it once, they can do it again. Im just a fan of the pirate stuff Monkey Island promotes.
I've been a little irked by this from the start of the new console generation. I'd have to say that you guys have given great value to your consumers, considering the fact that you guys could be like everyone else: selling the game for $60. I'd most likely still buy the seasons, but, like most games this generation, it's bitter sweet.
If anything, you guys deserve an award for not hijacking the consumer. Then again, I'm sure your own digital distribution helps eliminate a lot of the costs associated with the $60 price tags most games have.
In EMI's case it was mostly the opposite - the die hard fans of the games were the most critical, while the "mainstream" reviewers were better able to judge the game for what it was. An 83% on Metacritic (from a fairly balanced collection of reviewers) is nothing to sneeze at.
Perhaps, although some of those referenced review sites are a little lacking in integrity. I really don't recall any respectable publications giving EMI a very positive review, but then again, since I dislike EMI, I'll concede that maybe I only remember the ones that mirrored my own opinions.
I can definitely see your point. Having written video game reviews myself, I do my best to not fall into that trap. Also, many times with companies, you didn't pay for the game anyways because if you're an established news site and you've built up your PR contacts, it's quite possible to get a review copy of the game.
Especially when a review copy has been a part of it, I don't really comment on the price because I didn't spend my money on it. I focus on the gameplay, graphics, sound, and story. If I give something a bad grade, usually it's something major that causes me to have to increasingly push myself to get through a game.
In reference to the Escape from Monkey Island reviews. While I didn't officially review the game myself, I've always found point and click adventure games like Monkey Island rarely make a smooth transition from 2-D to 3-D. Take a look at Gabriel Knight: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned. I'm a huge Gabriel Knight fan and this one brought back Tim Curry as the title character and most of the game was great, but due to needing to adjust the camera angles a lot, I missed items and kept making myself motion sick.
I, personally, became a fan of TTG when they released Bone. Having met Jeff Smith and with Bone being one of my all time fave comics, I was so happy to have a video game based off of it.
The humor seems on par with the series to me, too. I never found Monkey Island as funny as Sam & Max or Space Quest, and I still don't, but it's got some worthy chuckles.
And not picking up on the fact that the Flotsamites were suppoed to have the same face seems pretty dopey to me. It's not recycling, they all have unique models and outfits and I'm sure they took just as long to create, it's just a gag.
Not everyone will be happy; but I know I will.
I actually like TTG's CGI style a lot better than the one used in EMI but that's personal taste. I didn't like how squishy Guybrush's head was. The goatee gives him just a smidge of age. He's not old but at the same time he's not quite the n00b he once was if you know what I mean?