Is "Back to the Future" the return of adventure games to mainstream???
Ok almost everybody, and really...everybody has seen and loved Back to the future, i dont have to be a magician to know that this will probably be Telltale's best selling game, even more than TMI, because theres gonna be millions of gamers, and even people that don't play games usually, waiting for the game...
So if this game is good, do you guys feel, like this could be a "historic" return for AV after about 12-15 years out of the spotlight?
So if this game is good, do you guys feel, like this could be a "historic" return for AV after about 12-15 years out of the spotlight?
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So cross your fingers and hope for the best.
But I have always said that the game will definitely garner more publicity for TellTale.
While BTTF is definitly "riding old licences", it is pretty definitly steering away from "teenager humour". If the spirit of the movies is preserved, this of course means the movies' kind of humour as well.
That said, this game has a rather interesting target group. Yes, there's the younger generation as well, and it's obvious that TTG's efforts are directed towards them. But these potential customers are those who have seen the movies way after the 80's and were probably fascinated by the "antique" flair
It has become obvious, however (from the early survey at least), that this game also lures the older generation into gaming, one that actually saw the movies in the theatre when they first came out. I'm not sure whether this could really be considered an "accidental" target group - I'm rather sure that TTG reckoned with that.
In Germany, Adventure games pretty much still are "mainstream", so the initial question doesn't mean that much to me. They hardly get the sales of FPS/RTS/MMORPGs, but they do have a really solid foot in the door on the gaming market here.
Eine Vielzahl von Welten fasziniert mich, aus diversen Gründen, weitaus mehr als Zurück in die Zukunft. Es gefällt aber den Kindern und die können es, abhängig vom jeweiligen Alter, womöglich nicht mal spielen, da die Spiele eventuell nicht mal auf Textebene lokalisiert werden; ziemlich für den Arsch gedacht. Zumal mir das heutzutage auch irgendwie zu viel Zielgruppengeschiele ist.
Aufgrund unserer Spielkultur, die u.a. auf der Tradition von Brettspielen oder der im Vergleich zu den USA unterschiedlichen Hardwarebasis beruht, haben Adventures in Deutschland einen anderen Stellenwert als in vergleichbaren Industrienationen. Nichtsdestotrotz, fristen sie auch hier, wie die Verkaufszahlen belegen, eher ein Nischendasein.
Nach über fünf Jahren finde ich die zumeist einfach gestrickte Slapstick-Schiene ermüdend, zumal der Humor, die Komplexität oder die Thematiken mich einfach nicht mehr begeistern. Das mag ausreichend sein für Spieler, die nicht mit diesen Spielen aufgewachsen sind; mich macht's mittlerweile aber einfach nicht mehr satt. TTG ist meist gefällig, aber selten großartig.
Ich möchte neue Adventures, die mich intelligent, meinem Alter entsprechend, unterhalten - von fesseln wag ich gar nicht zu sprechen. Das darf gerne auch lustig, sollte aber bitte nicht flach und öde sein.
Indiana Jones Fate of Atlantis and Indiana Jones Last Crusade both did it in the golden era of adventure games and are brilliant games.
Arguably people like second takes, third takes that hone ideas far more than the original. Monkey Island 2 over 1 or 3 over 2. Or a back to the future game when the Nintendo version was the worse thing ever.
You can't say it's not innovative and challenging to once take a movie Like Last Crusade and translate it into a video game successfully. Or BTTF.
Especially back in the golden age of video games with pix elated graphics, no voices, 8 bit music. Lucas Arts has been doing it since the arcade days, and now it's adapted. There's always been a audience for this and in the prime days of adventure games we had games like these.
Also games like Simon The Sorcerer , Broken Sword, were inspired by movie titles and outer influences. And most these old school CLASSICS have vintage humor to them and are teenage humor if not younger!
Alot of the games probably say Ages 6 and Up, lol. And if not then I must accept that as CLASSICS that almost every one loves ,that I'm probably mistaken and just humoring you.
Though if they do want to be Top Dog, I agree that they could start making new titles but that's increasingly hard today when games have evolved so far into story that they are far more complex to write and they take on a movie quality to them.
Video games have changed, I can't think of anyone out there really that reminds me of Lucas Arts, except maybe for a different type of Lucas Arts...
Even when I was playing these games as a kid and saw them in stores, I never romanticized about their EMPIRE. I just enjoyed the games. Rest assured they still make sales and they still have a successful company.
With all these web posts, nostalgia, youthful ideas, it's easy to look back and say golden age. Well, games were good back then, but that sort of mentality is like a blind fold for the several good games that have came out over the past decade or two.
FPS has been around since forever, and we've all watched those games evolve. Some of the games are BAD but are worthy noting for their technological evolution of video games/ genre.
I played FPS during the Golden Age of adventure games, and they were amazing games. Back then they looked real, felt organic. The graphics were good back then. The stories weren't that amazing.
What started FPS and kept it alive for so long is technology, controls, graphics. Early games that failed these died off. Now they are even further evolved and have story elements as did Adventure Games.Adventure games tried going 3D, changing controls, they failed miserably.
The industry has not changed as much as people fantasize. Adventure games are back already.
Also, with the Internet and modern age marketing games are different now. Back in the day more games would be on shelves than the web. Mostly FPS, RPG games are on the shelves now.
Smaller companies that sill produce adventure games do it mostly through on line.
Many titles like Simon The Sorcerer, Broken Sword were still producing, are still producing into the 2000s. Games like these fail due to Technology Simon 3D for example, where FPS has excelled. Telling a story with technology was harder back then, now it's easier. AMVs or whatever they were called, tried moving things in the right direction early on. They were successful for a long time but became dated, though if you look around they are still produced today.
HEAVY RAIN is really worth mentioning here, it's marketed BIG and is adventure game more or less at heart, atleast I think it's the same audience by whole. It's a modern game that uses the future technology of Blade Runner an old adventure game using Real Time 3D.
Because i just wanted to and Vainamoinen (whatever that means) seems to be located in germany and therefore i suspect he understands german as well. This might not be satisfying for everyone but missing translations for non english countries aren't either. ;O)
@doodo!
This post triggers many thoughts which i just don't have the time to write down. So just a few quick thoughts:
If LucasArts would have been always as innovative as TTG, we wouldn't have seen all those games we call classics by now.
Indiana Jones was a great licence but a) LucasArts adventures weren't only about licences, they once also made quite some innovative games as well and b) it was a up to date licence, although i wouldn't mind if they would have chosen Forbidden Planet or something with a similar potential. BTTF isn't a first class licence to me and no i won't find it ultra cool if there will be references to the film or DOTT.
FPS definitely is something completely different, only a few age well, like for instance Doom III or Bioshock. Adventure games related you could still make a perfect adventure with AGS. I would change all the good and bad innovations TTG brought to us within a second for better storyline, better riddles and more interesting dialogues. Simplified, if you can't offer both, i would rather fire the camera guys and hire better writers/designers instead or give them more time to come up with something more interesting.
Broken Sword was from 1996. And whilst it for sure was inspired by other media as well, which most probably is true for most stuff, it still was something new and just so very well done. Beside of Bone 2, which i would call TTG's best adventure so far, i haven't seen anything even coming close to the quality Broken Sword delivers. Why?
I sometimes had the feeling, when looking at the special material on the DVDs, that TTG's games are done by some nerds who don't reflect a lot or life in their very own bubble where these things seem to be a whole lot funnier than outside. I'm sorry if this isn't true and it sounds unfair but these were my first impressions watching the material.
Heavy Rain was a soso experience, some aspects where cool, others didn't work this well but at least they dared something!
Might sound a bit harsh but this was written under time pressure... :O)
If a convincing mastery of the English language is displayed by a poster, I of course can not answer to posts written exclusively in German. Wenn isch bin ehrlish, underschtehe ish doch wirklisch gar keinen Deutsh.
To find out what Vainamoinen means, you might want to ask Master Google.
But, FPS has been on the cutting edge of graphics as much as sport games have for about a decade now. Look at what's on the shelf and how amazing they look technologically, mostly FPS, RPGS (thank God), Sport games. FPS becomes a piece of history in the modern evolution of video games, what's mostly current.
Not until recently with games like Heavy Rain, Still Life, have we seen adventure games like these. Throughout the years, they've tried with games like The Last Express.
Adventure games literally fell out of time because they tried to become modern and just failed to be able to bridge the gap. You can't go back and use ancient video gaming engines. People are intellectually aroused and fascinated by the evolution of video games, they have been since the 70s. The successes of RPG and FPS show this very clearly, as well as the failures of Adventure games.
It wouldn't be very mainstream either.
By the way...
Anyone remember a old game, it's off world, you begin near teleporters and your some sort of marine or something...and it's set up like Rebel Assault, forget the name of it. It's one of those AMVs or whatever you call it.
Are you sure? My impression was that the humour in said licenced game matches the humour of the franchise the licence comes from.
This is definitely not the case. There are still enough adventure games released that are original and aren't part of any licence. This may not seem the case with TellTale but to me it looks like that was a deliberate choice. And I like it so far. I like revisiting 'forgotten' franchises and seeing new life breath into them. It's huge fanservice to a lot of people. Fans of Sam and Max got new games. Fans of Wallace and Gromit got a new game. Fans of Monkey Island got a new game.
And now fans of BttF(like myself) get a game.
Visit www.Adventuregamers.com and you'll see that enough adventure games are still released that aren't built upon an exisiting licence. Whether the games are of good quality is a different matter. In a world where there are countless of Adventure Game companies one is bound to handle the licenced material. And I am glad TellTale is that company.
For the first time I completely agree with you, might be the second time. Things are just on the net more now a days than they used to be. There's many good games out there that we all ignore, pretend don't exist.
AVS was almost a new classic if it weren't for it's non-finished feeling. Star Wars has been milked for like almost 40 years, so why can't other franchises that are arguably just as deserving, have a little fun?
I fully expect to this. If you've seen any of the comments over at places like Gametrailers (which are typically 12 year old console owners) a lot of them seem to expect this to be some kind of GTA style sandbox game.. Which really wouldn't have been a good use of the liscence, after the novelty of driving around the DeLorean wore off.
It's up to TTG to market the game more clearly. That's not really so much 12 years fault. 12 year olds are a average level of stupid, and a chunk of the target audience. The rest of the mature, thinking type will probably look into the project, find this web site and post a reply in this thread, instead of a youtube video made from a GTA mod, youtube where all their friends from Myspace and Facebook post!
Lol, you pretend as if I have disagreed a lot with you. We rarely attended the same discussions.
I'm not pretending, play acting lol. That's how I've felt, seen your name alot the past few days. I guess you blended with some one else some how.
I am sure it will garner new consumers too. Namely the BttF fan base. These are somewhat older people who are familiar with adventure games from the past and don't play next-generation games.
Either way a lot of BttF fans who aren't 'adventure gamers' will be attracted to this.
I have seen interest garner over at different forums on the internet.
Also Bttf.com posts updates surrounding the game.
The fans hope this will be some sort of continuation for the franchise and it helps that they know Bob Gale was involved.
Your forgetting Autumn Moon who recently released Ghost Pirates of Voojoo Island and Machinarium has produced enough mainstream success that you could find a copy in EB Games, finding an adventure game in there is as about as easy as finding their PC section.
If BTTF is good, sales of other Telltale games will probably increase. There will be a handful of non-gamers who will play this purely because of the license, and some of them will be retained.
The adventure game genre would have to finally evolve in a positive way to become mainstream. It hasn't done so in about 23 years. A good adventure game made from a popular license won't be enough by itself.
No, not at all. There are so so so so so many adventure games out there. Tell me with a straight face that companies like The Adventure Company haven't released any awesome games in the past decade.
People are being so over dramatic about adventure games! We have mainstream titles, how in Jebus's name isn't a Back To The Future Adventure Game on PS3, XBox, PC, mainstream!!?
How was Heavy Rain not Mainstream!?
AVS almost every one and their brother knows about the title...
Lucas Art is releasing special editions to old titles...
The XBOX recently came out with an exclusive adventure game title, Alan Wake, I think it was...
What more do you people want? Sam and Max is back, Monkey Island is back...Lucas Arts is leaning into its past. Broken Sword Director's Cut for PC, and possibly other consoles...
People need to stop being so dramatic about this, I mean I am about not being dramatic, but still...
Simon The Sorcerer 5 came out just last year, played 4 and enjoyed it, whiny internet dildos hated it...
How can any one with a straight face say that a title as big as BTTF or Monkey Island on the console and PC isn't mainstream??
We just got Indiana Jones 4, and Rocky 6, and now we're getting another Indy and Ghost Busters movie. How isn't TTG a tool for the entertainment media, in any way shape or form? How isn't it in any way shape or form main stream or current?
I think the problem here lies in the definition of a mainstream game.
As you describe it is when a wellknown franchise gets published through popular channels and can reach the mass consumers.
Other people would qualify a game mainstream when it ACTUALLY appeals to the mainstream audience. Like when it becomes a big thing again like back in the golden years of Sierra and LA. The focus in gaming now lies completely and clearly somewhere else than adventure gaming.
I'd say the closest thing that came to mainstream according to the second definition is Heavy Rain.
It got widespread attention. Ironically probably because it wasn't marketed as an adventure game.
It was a 'cinematic experience' lol.
That's the saddest part. The publishers can't even promote it as an adventure game again for the risk of it being shunned by the public view.
Other problem is that games are becoming sorta like casuals, because of computer revolution and the fact that many more people have computers in their houses and because of rise of internet, little games, mass-marketing... Adventure genre is being influented like every genre, but it's more visible to the die-hard adventure fans than to others.
I wouldn't say adventure games are mainstream, but they don't have to be. Are video games mainstream to movies and music? No.
Well, it definitely helps the sales and development of the game. The more mainstream it becomes the higher revenue the more a company can grow and produce games on a higher level.
I am not a graphics whore, but wouldn't it be awesome to play an adventure game once with the graphics of Uncharted 2?
The last true adventure games that I can think of that ware developed with up-to-date graphics is Broken Sword 3 and 4.
Anyway, there is an interesting big game coming out by Rockstar.
It's called L.A. Noir and it involves solving crimes.
It is SO EPICLY NOT an adventure game.
I'm not even sure you can call Heavy Rain an adventure game... Though I agree for this one.
The only successful adventures you get in the mainstream, quality wise, are RPG like the Mass Effects and stuff ...
And I agree and Heavy Rain was all about puzzle solving, choices, thinking, solutions. That's what made it such a awesome game, because you could have multiple paths and later on go back and try to chose one or the other. Similar to Blade Runner.
There was button smashing but I think it still very much so rooted from adventure gaming, as you had to do puzzles, lots of timed puzzles.
It's not a interactive movie, there are several parts of game play that had button smashing but it was awesome!
Anyone that says it's just a interactive movie never really played the game...
You walk around just like any other 3D sprite game, and the videos simply transition smoothly in and out of game play.
Even if it's a touch away from the adventure gamer, it definitely roots potential to future adventure games with modern game play/ graphics.
You had to use items with other items, collect items, think critically at times, make choices, choose dialogs, choose options, find ways around problems. What exactly is so far from a adventure game with Heavy Rain?
Anyone who says that Heavy Rain is just a interactive movie probably saw a demo or played a few minutes, most likely wasn't some one who got the full affect of the gaming experience.
It's just that those games that we traditionally call interactive movies rely more on story telling than puzzle solving, which are the two main criteria of adventure games.