The Escapist Magazine Digs Telltale Games

edited December 2010 in General Chat
Shamus Young, the guy behind The Escapist's 'Experienced Points' column has put together a nice little write up about adventure games that goes into detail about how the genre has had its ups and downs, attributing much of its current upswing to Telltale Games.

It's called 'The Rise, Fall, and Rise of Adventure Games. Check it out HERE. It's a great read, not only for fans of Telltale but for video game fans in general!

What do you guys think? Is there anything you'd like to see different about where adventure games are going? Has there been one particular adventure game, new or old, that's struck you as being a shining example in the genre? Let's hear it!

Comments

  • edited August 2010
    I don't think Day of the Tentacle has been topped yet. For me that remains the pinnacle of adventure gaming.

    I hope to see some similar time bending puzzles in BTTF (Twin Pines / Lone Pine springs to mind as a similar mechanic in the movies).
  • edited August 2010
    Wow! I just love a pic of Guybrush attempting to climb the Screaming Narwhal! :D Nice article, BTW.
  • edited August 2010
    Curse of monkey island is probably my favourite adventure game. I agree with DOTT in terms of the puzzles. The main thing I didn't really like about that game was the art style. Namely, the colours... maybe that was just my weird eyes, though :p
  • edited August 2010
    I love Telltale's games like everyone, but: "These new adventure games are smarter, wittier (...) than their ancestors ever were" is something i don't agree with. If there is a weak spot on Telltale's games that is puzzle difficulty, and (linking this to what ajohnson asked) that's something i want to see different.
  • edited August 2010
    Have to agree with Ignatius here, even though I still really like the TTG games obviously.
  • edited August 2010
    This is perhaps the only thing I've ever liked from that site.
    I can explain my hostility to the site if anyone cares to hear.
  • edited August 2010
    Elvenmonk wrote: »
    This is perhaps the only thing I've ever liked from that site.
    I can explain my hostility to the site if anyone cares to hear.

    Sure, why not? Perhaps a separate thread, though.
  • edited August 2010
    Why?
    You want to let the new guy THINK stuff stays on-topic here?
  • edited August 2010
    lol.
  • edited August 2010
    Hayden wrote: »
    Sure, why not? Perhaps a separate thread, though.

    It doesn't deserve it's own thread.
  • edited August 2010
    Elvenmonk wrote: »
    It doesn't deserve it's own thread.

    Explain away. We're sitting comfortably
    :D
  • edited August 2010
    Ignatius wrote: »
    I love Telltale's games like everyone, but: "These new adventure games are smarter, wittier (...) than their ancestors ever were" is something i don't agree with. If there is a weak spot on Telltale's games that is puzzle difficulty, and (linking this to what ajohnson asked) that's something i want to see different.
    I want to see the return of difficulty settings. I always like to play through a game first, reasonably quickly, so that i experience the story/flow better. Then, as a higher difficulty will have more puzzles, it will still feel fresh on the second run through.
  • edited August 2010
    Locations, locations, LOCATIONS! That's what I want to see in a point n' click, as well as more characters. The Penal Zone had the most locations (so far) in Season 3, but some of them were only 2-3 puzzles long so they felt pretty undeveloped. In The Tomb of Sammun-Mak however, the Disorient Express was a great location hub and (while some are just remakes) introduced a great amount of characters, all with fleshed-out personalities.
  • edited August 2010
    Fealiks wrote: »
    Explain away. We're sitting comfortably
    :D

    My hostility from the site is from when the admins there ,basically,forcefully took over WC. Since they're sister sites admins there had control on WC. They started banning us loyal WC members for things that weren't against the rules and their reasons was basically "I'm an admin, I can do what I want."
    Then they started to encourage those elitist Escapist users (who are, atleast from the most I've seen [not all, just most] are soo full of themselves it's ridiculous.) to spam WC with their in forum badges and then when they'd necro threads that were 2-3 years old and spamming every forum possibile with threads that just said "Wow, I find this interesting." or "This game is just a WoW clone." or "This game sucks." or "You need to learn to spell better, and learn better gammar." Hell, users have been banned for bad spelling and grammar there.
  • edited August 2010
    Elvenmonk wrote: »
    My hostility from the site is from when the admins there ,basically,forcefully took over WC. Since they're sister sites admins there had control on WC. They started banning us loyal WC members for things that weren't against the rules and their reasons was basically "I'm an admin, I can do what I want."
    Then they started to encourage those elitist Escapist users (who are, atleast from the most I've seen [not all, just most] are soo full of themselves it's ridiculous.) to spam WC with their in forum badges and then when they'd necro threads that were 2-3 years old and spamming every forum possibile with threads that just said "Wow, I find this interesting." or "This game is just a WoW clone." or "This game sucks." or "You need to learn to spell better, and learn better gammar." Hell, users have been banned for bad spelling and grammar there.

    Ugh, that's why people with God-complexes or who aren't adults shouldn't be mods.
  • edited August 2010
    WC? Water Closet?
  • edited August 2010
    Fealiks wrote: »
    Ugh, that's why people with God-complexes or who aren't adults shouldn't be mods.

    All the admins were like 23+.
    And WC stands for WarCry. It's a forum dedicated to MMOs. I really only played LOTRO, which that board was dead, so I mostly talked in off-topic. We had tons of fun in off-topic. A few of the forums posters moved to my forums, and some just left. All in all, those who're at my forums still act like nothing happened.
    And we were nice to all the Escapist users who came over untill everyone just started to spam all boards thenleave. So we soon became somewhat hostile towards them, and it was only two users who were hostile. But over still a very open community, just had a lot of inside jokes. I mean what do you expect from a forum that's from like when Everquest was the dominating the MMO markert. I joined shortly after LOTRO came out and I was accepted shortly as a regular and quickly caught onto some inside jokes.
  • edited August 2010
    Argh. More acronyms. If it wasn't 11:30pm and bedtime, I'd make something mildly amusing out of LOTRO.

    Oh, wait. I'm from New Zealand, I ought to be able to figure out Middle Earth, I guess.

    Anyway, I like TYFSBOPG. You?
  • edited August 2010
    The yellow feet some big, old people get?
  • edited August 2010
    jp-30 wrote: »
    Argh. More acronyms. If it wasn't 11:30pm and bedtime, I'd make something mildly amusing out of LOTRO.

    Oh, wait. I'm from New Zealand, I ought to be able to figure out Middle Earth, I guess.

    Anyway, I like TYFSBOPG. You?

    It was just for you. :P
  • edited December 2010
    For me, Day of the Tentacle (DOTT),Full Throttle (FT) and Psychonauts were the best, although Sam & Max hit the Road and Discworld came a close second. Full throttle suffered from being so short; but it looked amazing, had a cynical sense of humour, rewarded lateral thinking and featured Mark Hamill as the bad guy.

    Psychonauts was great as it was original, and had hidden all of its adventure gaming inside a platformer that was good as well. Again, it had a great sense of humour.

    I agree with everyone so far about the wit of DOTT, and the time-based puzzles like obtaining vinegar by finding a bottle of wine in the past, putting it in a time capsule, opening the capsule in the future and then sending it back to the past. I also liked that the wine was called "Chateau de Cheapo 1775". I liked its attitude too, in that during the course of the game you completely redesign the American flag and forget to correct it before the end of the story.

    Discworld was damn near impossible, but was large enough for the exploration aspect to take over and it was always fun talking to the citizens of Ankh-Morpork. Plus one of the puzzles was solved by convincing an urchin to teach you to pickpocket, which was a skill you kept for the rest of the game. At the time, no-one knew that you could include RPG elements in other games.

    In conclusion: These games were funny. They rewarded exploration. They made you find off-label uses for items (using a padlock as an anchor in FT, using a hand mirror as a dragon's breath catcher in Discworld, using tippex to paint a cat in DOTT and using fertiliser as a weapon in FT). They had difficulty curves that were reasonable, but didn't mind throwing in really easy puzzles later on to throw you off. They ensured that all characters were properly fleshed out. Most importantly, they were just fun environments to be in.
  • edited December 2010
    For me, Day of the Tentacle (DOTT),Full Throttle (FT) and Psychonauts were the best, although Sam & Max hit the Road and Discworld came a close second. Full throttle suffered from being so short; but it looked amazing, had a cynical sense of humour, rewarded lateral thinking and featured Mark Hamill as the bad guy.

    Psychonauts was great as it was original, and had hidden all of its adventure gaming inside a platformer that was good as well. Again, it had a great sense of humour.

    I agree with everyone so far about the wit of DOTT, and the time-based puzzles like obtaining vinegar by finding a bottle of wine in the past, putting it in a time capsule, opening the capsule in the future and then sending it back to the past. I also liked that the wine was called "Chateau de Cheapo 1775". I liked its attitude too, in that during the course of the game you completely redesign the American flag and forget to correct it before the end of the story.

    Discworld was damn near impossible, but was large enough for the exploration aspect to take over and it was always fun talking to the citizens of Ankh-Morpork. Plus one of the puzzles was solved by convincing an urchin to teach you to pickpocket, which was a skill you kept for the rest of the game. At the time, no-one knew that you could include RPG elements in other games.

    In conclusion: These games were funny. They rewarded exploration. They made you find off-label uses for items (using a padlock as an anchor in FT, using a hand mirror as a dragon's breath catcher in Discworld, using tippex to paint a cat in DOTT and using fertiliser as a weapon in FT). They had difficulty curves that were reasonable, but didn't mind throwing in really easy puzzles later on to throw you off. They ensured that all characters were properly fleshed out. Most importantly, they were just fun environments to be in.
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