New Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy-game by Hothead Games
Hothead just announced a new game based on Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. They set up a small teaser site (is that the voice of the original Arthur Dent, Simon Jones?): http://www.thenewhitchhikersguide.com/. Not much is known about the title just yet, but with E3 so close it wouldn't surprise me if more information is coming very soon.
On the one hand I'm very happy that there's a new Hitchhikers game, but I'm not sure if Hothead is the right company for it. What a Hitchhikers game needs, above all, is extremely good writing. I'm not sure if Hothead has writers that can come near Douglas Adams's level. Their games are pretty fun, but the writing (I guess I can only look at Deathspank, because every word of the Penny Arcade games was written by Jerry Holkins) is, in my opinion, pretty bad. And even if you enjoy Deathspank's humor, it's nothing like the kind of comedy you'll find in the Hitchhiker radio plays/books.
Anyway, maybe I'm being too pessimistic. I'm happy that this game is coming out at all, so let's stay positive for now.
Oh, and if someone from Telltale is reading this: get the Discworld license before Hothead gets their hands on it. Terry is still alive, and there are more movies and a television series coming soon, so get it before the rest of the videogame world realises what a perfect franchise it is.
On the one hand I'm very happy that there's a new Hitchhikers game, but I'm not sure if Hothead is the right company for it. What a Hitchhikers game needs, above all, is extremely good writing. I'm not sure if Hothead has writers that can come near Douglas Adams's level. Their games are pretty fun, but the writing (I guess I can only look at Deathspank, because every word of the Penny Arcade games was written by Jerry Holkins) is, in my opinion, pretty bad. And even if you enjoy Deathspank's humor, it's nothing like the kind of comedy you'll find in the Hitchhiker radio plays/books.
Anyway, maybe I'm being too pessimistic. I'm happy that this game is coming out at all, so let's stay positive for now.
Oh, and if someone from Telltale is reading this: get the Discworld license before Hothead gets their hands on it. Terry is still alive, and there are more movies and a television series coming soon, so get it before the rest of the videogame world realises what a perfect franchise it is.
Sign in to comment in this discussion.
Comments
Quoted for truth.
I loved the old Discworld games, and would love to see more of the series.
EDIT: I also thought the Hitchhiker movie was pretty good as well.
As far as I'm concerned, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy should've died when Douglas Adams did. Adams had a very unique sense of humor, and it'd be difficult for any other person to properly imitate it. I'll give the movie a pass since Adams wrote most of the script before he died, but the very idea behind "And Another Thing..." just doesn't sit well with me.
I wonder if this new game will be an adventure game. And perhaps more importantly, will it be as ridiculously difficult as the old Infocom text adventure?
The only way that I could be really interested in this is if they somehow got the surviving members of the original voice cast of the original radio series that the first couple of books are based on. I can't count the amount of times I've listened to those tapes (and later cd's). Like many fans I started with the books, but after discovering the radio series it's hard for me to go back to just the books (although I still like those as well).
If no one from the original series (or even Dirk Maggs, who did a brilliant job with the new radio series back in 2004 and 2005) is involved, I guess I'm not interested as well, for pretty much the same reason why I avoided the new book by Eoin Colfer.
Funny? Yes. Good games? No. Even Douglas himself admitted that he never really liked any of the games he worked on. I really enjoy reading about his ideas for the games, and they make for pretty great reads, but playing those games isn't an enjoyable experience, at least for me. They felt like the Hitchhikers television series to me: a lot of great ideas (the documentaries on how they created the special effects on that series are amazing), but without the proper execution it's all just a bit of a mess. Douglas was always at his best on the radio or on paper (it's a terrible shame he couldn't join Stephen Fry on the television sequel to their 'Last Chance to See'-radio show, probably the best thing he ever created). The only game I liked to play was Bureaucracy, I have fond memories of that one. The game being impossible was actually part of the experience in that game.
I can't imagine a new game being just text, even if Douglas was alive today. He was always going on about the beauty of new technology. Probably the reason why his ideas tended to be a bit ahead of what was possible a that time.
That's exactly why, try reading the books and enjoying the radio series and to a lesser extent the TV series for 20 odd years and you'll see why the movie, which did have a couple of redeeming features I'll give you, was to most people bloody awful.
the entire Magrathea sequence was breathtaking and I always enjoy it when I get to that bit but what they did to the 'lying in the mud' scene was quite simply unforgivable to reduce such a great piece of writing to Ford turns up with beer still makes me weep.
P.S. The movie sucked donkey balls big time. Long live the books, radio and TV series.
Bah! Humbug.
Brilliant! He mentions the mud scene!
I get your stance on BTTF now, I felt exactly the same way about the movie and refused to listen when anyone said differently; often very loudly and for rather long periods of time.
btw thank you for that link
I hope the developers have read that review.
In all honestly, I thought the gift of beer was better than Mr. Prosser lying down in the mud.
The fact that Telltale has done episodic gaming right can sometimes cause us to forget that other developers have done it...not as right.
Many episodic series (Penny Arcade Adventures included) are made with only enough budget for one or two episodes. So the developer makes those episodes, then assumes the money made from sales of the early episodes will pay for the later ones. This usually doesn't work out.
Episodes 1 and 2 of Precipice didn't sell well enough to justify Episodes 3 and 4. From what I understand Gabe and Tycho found the whole game design process pretty exhausting too.
Really?!? oh well no worries
I'm curious, what did you particularly like about Starship Titanic? I never quite managed to get into it.
"Last Chance to See" (the original) is a fantastic read too.
It's the parser. A parser with 12 hours of recorded responses. I have....something of a bias towards text parsers that nobody else seems to share.
Seconded, I think the Kakapo is my favourite animal in the whole world.
The radio series is very good though.
Sorry, just had to post that. I actually have some doubts about this new game concept, but "We'll see."
I bought "And Another Thing..." for some ridiculously cheap price when the local bookstore realized they ordered way too many of them for the actual demand. Still haven't read it, though. There are a lot of things ahead of it in the priority list.
I've only played the very beginning of the demo of Deathspank, and nothing about it has seemed funny enough to encourage me to buy it... I don't instantly trust Hothead to make this game well, but I'll wait and see what kind of gameplay and what kind of storytelling that they're going to put into it. The one thing they have going for them is that the Hitchhiker's Guide story has already established a precedent for retellings, so they don't have to do an all-new story, just reuse the existing stories and change details around so they the game and feel fresh. I feel like, in principle, it could certainly go well. It could also go poorly. We'll see.
And another thing, "And Another Thing..." was pretty disappointing. There was a long time between reading the first five books and reading this one, so I can't totally say that the tone isn't accurate, but it really just felt totally out of sync with the rest of the series.
Purpose number 2 for this post: If you want to play the original Infocom H2G2 game (now with graphics!) visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game.shtml - two different sets of visuals to choose from!
And yeah, you'll probably need to google a walkthrough too
Oh wow, you saw that too? I enjoyed it, although I haven't read the book. Mind you, I'm a big "Green Wing" fan and as such I am highly susceptible to the charms of Stephen Mangan. Do you have any other Douglas Adam adaptation recommendations?
The two Dirk Gently books are very very good - convoluted and confusing and completely absurd, but brilliant nonetheless.
TV wise, not much of Douglas's writing has cropped up - the original H2G2 TV series from the 80s was a different variant on the radio series/book, and he wrote all the scripts for that too.
The radio-series adaptations of Books 3, 4 & 5 were very well done, and much in the same vein as the original 2 radio series. Quite a lot of the original cast returned as well.
My opinion regarding Hothead's acquisition of the license? Cool. Sure. Why not? I'd play it. I'd like to see what they can come up with, both in game-play and art design. If there is one thing I love, it's seeing another person's artistic take on the series. That's always awesome.
And if it's a big hit, maybe Telltale would consider a Discworld game.
I did not like the Watchmen movie, but I believe that has the best opening to any movie.
I didn't say I hated it, I just have no strong opinions about the movie. I went to the theater hoping it would surprise me, but it was, like you said, impossible to be done perfectly. I guess it's my fault for having high expectations.
:eek: No, no, no, no. It was horrible and the first sign that they had turned Douglas' work into yet another typical Hollywood type affair. I stormed out of the cinema 30 minutes later and got a refund. It's the only time I've walked out on a movie, before or since. Although, I did watch it through to completion when watching it on TV a couple of years later. I didn't regret my previous actions upon doing so.