...my thoughts about 203 so far

edited March 2008 in Sam & Max
are:
This episode starts like a pure nightmare, in the office *again* and i have to talk to Sybil *again*. Why can't i buy just some dynamite, put it into Abe's ears and blow him up? The DeSoto game isn't good *again* (Paperboy), seems they are running out of ideas here. Hell could be less painful...

Puhhh i made it out of there and went to good old germany.

The castle is modeled very nicely and the lightning is good whilst it also could have been a little bit darker and more dramatic. What i really like is the rain. Is this a texture animation or is it just one placed with offsets? Very nice with the little drops!

I like the sound when you throw up the brain (wonder what it's thinking) to the Gargoyle's bowl. Generally i do like zombies but why on earth do they must have a rave party? This sucks! I would have enjoyed much more such an atmosphere like with Iggy here... ( http://youtube.com/watch?v=y4hPnZUMBwA ) I like that there are zombies and it would have been nice if there would be some work to do on the graveyard, or a garlic/shovel-minigame. Just more vampire like stuff to do...

I lookep up the solution for the song contest in the ttg walkthrough because i'm not interested in getting it out on my own, just too boring. A question pops up my mind: A few years after video games showed up game magazines printed cheats for games which really were strange sometimes. I still wonder if they a) came out during cracking, b) people searched for them by intention, c) if the publisher or developer leaked them or d) if they were released on purpose in order to enlarge the life cycle of a game in a magazine after the reviews.

I didn't get why the phrases should be funny at all. Nice comments on the fake books. The camera would have been much better if it would have been place on an asymetric ellipsoid inside the middle and with 360° movement. I like the dead undead fish swimming upside down. Maybe they could place it in the office bowl.

DJ Booth has some nice buttons like parents and subzero(!). In the poem it's written Jürgen and the rest is Jurgen, ah okay...nnnggggaaaahhhhh Nice music when you step out of the castle again and i like the bat flying around in the background, i love such little details.

Oh no, gaming hell level II, the masters of recycling did it again, you're in the tv station with all the... looking up the walkthrough again and right clicking to go through this as fast as possible, click, click, click, click ,click

Back to the castle, there are some texture issues on the floor at the doorway. Whilst i hate beeing at the tv station, it's a nice riddle. They just should have made it in another way.

Wau i had a hard time coming up with the holy water. The comments on the posters are great and made me laugh! The first time i feel well in the game. A little bit too much travelling with the DeSoto. Yesss, Sam&Max turned undead, i was hoping for this.

><> to be continued ><>
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Comments

  • NickTTGNickTTG Telltale Alumni
    edited February 2008
    do you have friends?
  • edited February 2008
    NickTTG wrote: »
    do you have friends?

    Ha ha! :D
  • edited February 2008
    Are you agenst the awsome point of Playing as Max er Sam in Max's body at the near end of the game or something?

    4 words: THE GAME WAS AWSOME!!!
  • NickTTGNickTTG Telltale Alumni
    edited February 2008
    i don't think he's gotten that far yet :( nice spoiler tags though
  • edited February 2008
    I think he ran out of correction fluid/whiteout
  • edited February 2008
    yeh... i was sympathetic to him and his opinion regarding 202 (i agreed with him there somewhat) but i am begining to doubt if we can make this guy happy at all :rolleyes:

    LET THE FLAME WAR BEGIN!!!!
  • edited February 2008
    WOOT :)
  • edited February 2008
    Dangerzone wrote: »
    i am begining to doubt if we can make this guy happy at all :rolleyes:
    Only if TT lets taumel design the game from start to finish. Then we'll see what kind of posts get put up when the tables are turned.
  • edited February 2008
    yeah... we really need to drive it into this guys head that the art team can only make 3 new locations between each episode... with minor adds/changes to a handfull of others (i dont have the quote that told us this, but i know it is on this forum somewhere.. can someone with no life please dig it up and quote it for us please?)

    re-vamping old locations gives us more to do in the episodes... and thus, makes the games longer... and everything is NOT the same, because they always change the lines for when you click things each episode, does this mean nothing to you tummel?

    ill probably bet hes happy we dont get to see boscos in this episode... meanwhile, i was actually kinda bummed out (i would have loved to have gone in there and seen his recent adds to his conspiracy wall, and seen the mess made cause hes gone) but i know why it was cut... the size of the game, this one was over 130 megs.. which is large for a sam and max episode... so i can sympathise with that
  • edited February 2008
    While I agree that Taumel's posts have been mostly negative for awhile, he *is* just giving his honest opinion.
  • edited February 2008
    his opinion sucks! My only consolation is that a fool and his money are soon parted :P
  • edited February 2008
    I stopped reading when I got to the part where you seem to not like paperboy and decided your opinion, in fact, does not matter lol.
  • JakeJake Telltale Alumni
    edited February 2008
    Taumel likes to hate. Adventure game fans like the pain, and the hardest hardcore Sam & Max games more than any, it seems. That said, taumel, I wish posts like htis were more than you just groaning loudly in my face for hours, with the occasional self-satisfied punctuations of "ah you did exactly what I wanted for a second, and for that second alone I don't hate you."
  • edited February 2008
    jake, dont worry about him... it just sounds like he needs to get laid or something :D

    i like how even when this guy has something "nice" to say... it still sounds like a put down
    "I hate the whole game, and i hate seeing all these beloved characters again, but i like this, and that is cool... yet i cant even give an honest opinion because i didnt even bother playing half of the game... kill me"

    so if all this is "old" and you are tired of seeing things *again* why dont you tell me what happens in the next 2 episodes... because im diying to know
  • edited February 2008
    Didn't do more than skim his post at first, I rescind my earlier defense since he was resorting to insults.

    What I don't understand is, wasn't Taumel a productive member back during Season 1? Or am I thinking of someone else?

    Either way, I'm disappointed to see this. His "review" is not much more than a thinly-veiled verbal attack on TT. You don't have to like Sam & Max, (it's not everybody's cup of tea), but don't treat TT like they are out to screw you over.
  • edited February 2008
    I thought after 202 it would be interesting to note what you feel more in detail whilst playing the game and as i had to swap to the walkthrough anyway it wasn't hard typing in a few lines in the editor after the taskswitch. And please note these are thoughts, this is not a nicely cleaned up review.

    It might sound harsh to fanboys but well that's not what i am as the ideal adventure game i would have in mind would look different (i guess i'm more the "road movie"-adventurer instead of the "do things at your base, go out and return to your base"-adventurer). In my opinion there are ups and downs in the game and the downs are often due to the same reasons. As i've payed for the game and am not working for the marketing department of ttg i guess it's quite fair writing down your impressions of the game. It's kind of amusing how some can't cope with critics again. They have no problems with serving you the same stuff over and over again but they get thin skinned when you criticise that. Beside of that it seems that as soon as you criticise certain things people get blind for the positive things you've mentioned too.
  • edited February 2008
    I don't like reused locations at all, but you can be constructive with your criticism, plus you lost me when you just skipped straight to a walkthrough. Don't people remember how to play adventure games anymore? We didn't have walkthroughs or the internet back in the day..and hey telltale has implemented a hint system.. When I was trying to figure things out in 203 I did explore all the locations and dialogue so I feel I got the full experience in the game.
  • edited February 2008
    As i've written before we already had this "choose the right phrase" idea several times before and as on top it wasn't an interesting one, a new idea or even funny i rushed through this and the first tv part with the walkthrough. The rest has been solved without looking into the walkthrough. I've got better things to do in my freetime than forcing me to solve boring stuff. And yes i remember solving adventure games without walkthroughs and so did i till 203 but i also want to be entertained in the time i'm doing so.
  • edited February 2008
    taumel wrote: »
    I've got better things to do in my freetime than forcing me to solve boring stuff.

    I don't think anyone has a gun to your head forcing you to play the new Sam & Max episodes :cool:
  • edited February 2008
    Well, as i've bought the season already i also will play through the episodes but i take the opportunity to skip the boring parts with walkthrough shortcuts by now.
  • edited February 2008
    TTG should not post the walkthru then for the next episode. I spent a good half hour on that puzzle on my own before I looked on how to solve it with the hints system on medium just because I want to feel clever like that. I even took a break from the game when I couldn't figure out how to beat the rap battle when I thought I did.

    Furthermore, and this is just my constructive criticism, the original post doesn't sound like any constructive ciritcism was given. The only thing that sounds remotely like it was to change the camera angle of the culb so that it would rotate in a 360 pan. It mostly sounded like general bitching to me about how the puzzles were boring/uninteresting/unoriginal and how playing the game is not worth it... whatever "it" may be. Maybe if there was more of the whole "I don't like this, but this would make it better" instead of the "We're doing this again? I hate it!" absolution method to the comments, people would take you seriously.
  • edited February 2008
    I liked the puzzle logic in this episode a lot better than the puzzle logic in the first and second episode. The only time I had to look at the walkthrough was when I didn't understand where to find the heart of gold, but when I looked up the solution I was thinking "I can't believe I didn't notice that chocolate heart before".

    Also, this episode had a good story and I liked how it progressed in a natural way, and even how you were able to visit old locations without having to be there for such a long time that it felt like a chore.
    I still think Abe Lincoln must die was funnier, and Culture Shock is the funniest. But apart from that, this episode was the best episode so far, when I consider all the other factors.
  • edited February 2008
    The only critique I can think of is that they made the castle scenes too beautiful, and now need to update the street and office scenes to match that level!

    --Erwin
  • edited February 2008
    let me get this straight, you used a walkthrough to figure out what to say at the poetry contest, and what to do at the tv studio. I was probably done with those puzzles by the time you got sam and max minimized!
  • edited February 2008
    taumel wrote: »
    As i've payed for the game and am not working for the marketing department of ttg i guess it's quite fair writing down your impressions of the game. It's kind of amusing how some can't cope with critics again. They have no problems with serving you the same stuff over and over again but they get thin skinned when you criticise that. Beside of that it seems that as soon as you criticise certain things people get blind for the positive things you've mentioned too.

    No no no no no. Your original post could have been about Mario for all it matters. The point is, the only times you mentioned something positive, you slathered it with large amounts of sarcasm, to the point where I could actually hear your eyes rolling. What you posted was not a criticism, it was a trolling attempt, pure and simple.

    You're expecting them to magically produce a new "Sam & Max Hit The Road" every month, which just isn't possible.
  • edited February 2008
    ShaggE wrote: »
    You're expecting them to magically produce a new "Sam & Max Hit The Road" every month, which just isn't possible.
    Or desirable, actually.

    There'd usually be a year or two-year wait between releases of SCUMM games, and that was about the right length of time. I used to avoid walkthroughs and hints as much as I could, so it'd take me a couple of months to finish one, and by the time the next one came around, I felt like it was time to play.

    With Season Two, we're already seeing comments from people to the effect of, "Episode 3 is out already? I haven't even started episode 2 yet!" I know I wouldn't want to have to keep up with games much longer than the episodes in Season 2, if they were coming out every month. I'd get oversaturated. And I love the series "Lost," for example, but I sure as heck wouldn't want to see a full-length "Lost" movie every week.

    I'm encouraged that most people are finally getting what we're trying to do with the Sam & Max episodes and how to approach them. The format's not going to work for everybody, obviously, but it's futile to keep expecting them to be something they're not, and in fact something we don't even want them to be. It's disappointing when the games don't work for somebody, but inevitable. I really liked forum poster Linque's attitude towards the whole thing: I appreciate what you're doing, but it's not for me.
  • edited February 2008
    Well, I just finished 203. Thoughts:
    Right off the bat, with the intro cutscene, I loved this episode. I was a bit disappointed with Moai Better Blues, mostly because the puzzles were too easy, but this one had just the right mix of head scratchers and humor. And it wasn't too short, either.

    Random specific thoughts:

    Stutgartt was beautiful. The darkness, combined with the awesome rain effect, combined with the ridiculous disco floor was perfect. I loved the way that Sam and Max would dance whenever they stopped on the floor. "Sub-Zero" was cool, too.

    This was, I believe, the first auto mini game that didn't involve either shooting other cars or running over stuff. When it started up and I realized it was Paperboy, a huge grin appeared on my face.

    Revisiting Midtown Cowboys was great, too. I wouldn't have liked a big elaborate puzzle there, but the quick "Addict him to (garlic) smokes" thing as a quick trip back to the earlier episode before getting back to the zombies was fun (and simple to figure out)

    The gun fight with Jesse James' hand was clever.

    Although there were a lot of puzzles that make me think for a bit, there were only two spots that really had me stumped (as in, I wandered around in the game for over half an hour not knowing where to go or what to do). The first was making the Holy Water. I did assume that Holy Water would come into play eventually, due to Superball's comments, but I didn't realize I'd have to make it myself. Of course, once I did solve that puzzle, it seemed obvious. (They always do.)

    The other spot that had me stumped was what to do with Lincoln's brain once I had it. Again, popping it into the monster's head should have been obvious, but I just couldn't figure it out for the longest time. Still, I *did* manage to finish the game without resorting to the walk though at all, so they couldn't have been too hard.

    All in all, I think this was an awsome episode, second only to season one's Abe Lincoln Must Die, and it has restored my faith in TT.
  • edited February 2008
    well, taumel, if you're done with your unnecessary comments, I'd like you to consider something: a lot of effort has been put into the making of this game and the developers can't always make a game that'll suit everyone's taste.

    as for the walkthroughs...they were made to help out a SERIOUS gamer, not an idiotic bitching dumbass like you who obviously can't face the fact that he can't stretch his brain once in a while and presents his stupidity through childish criticism.

    if you don't like the game - don't play it. it's as simple as that.
    now get back into your mouse hole and grow a brain already!
  • edited February 2008
    zozenka wrote: »
    if you don't like the game - don't play it. it's as simple as that.
    Too bad that only works for games and not for other things. :rolleyes: "If you don't like America, get out!" comes to mind.
  • edited February 2008
    This season, I've made a point to try and finish the game without using the hints at all.
    Made it through episode 1, and right to the end of episode 2, only to give in and ask for a hint on the last puzzle.

    I nearly made it through episode 3 without hints as well, but in the end I needed one hint
    to show me what to do to defeat Jesse James' hand. I had spent the previous two hours repeatedly looking for Jesse James' body in order to give him the Malt Liquor. I failed to pick up that Sam's comment had been misdirection, and not a hint.
  • edited February 2008
    I guess they'll continue to offer walkthroughs as they want this to be a smooth experience and as they've increased the difficulty of the puzzles some will find them too hard, also with the integrated hint system. By the way you can also google for them and i suspect the way the internet works that there are walkthroughs for 90% of the world online already before you can play the game due to the one day the games come out for gametap/usa sooner. Actually i think this is a good idea and they should also offer this for the episodes before (if they haven't done already) in order to provide some help for those who have problems.

    Why it shouldn't be possible to do a more ongoing story like in Hit the road is beyond me. The process wouldn't be any different as if you do it this way, it just would be less annoying due to hopefully beeing less repetitive.

    Yup you could have been more constructive and provide examples of how each point could have been done better but is this the job of thoughts? Not really...and it would have been more work whilst it wouldn affect the gamedesign of what is to come.
    But just as someone has mentioned the mini game. It's not a new game idea. Now you could argue that it's a hommage to the 8bit title Paperboy but even then the game insn't enjoyable at all. You just for once drive your car to one side and click click click until you've the amount you need to finish the game. This is so easy and simple. It doesn't matter if you target the zombies (no maybe irritating moves) or if you change the sides of the streets (why aren't zombies at least positioned in a way that you have to change the street sides and follow somekind of track?). You will still be able to finish the game with a lot of time beeing left. I miss some gamedesign and a little bit of balancing inside which makes the game interesting. It's just like the DeSato game before no challenge at all which makes it kind of superfluous.
  • edited February 2008
    I'll only post two sentences, and it's my only thought for this whole topic. Taumel is officially a troll. Useless to try to have a debate with, he lost the part of "giving your opinion to make a better game for everyone" and made it "giving my opinion to make an ideal game for me".
  • edited February 2008
    taumel wrote: »
    Why it shouldn't be possible to do a more ongoing story like in Hit the road is beyond me. The process wouldn't be any different as if you do it this way, it just would be less annoying due to hopefully beeing less repetitive.
    Backtracking. Remember, even though you can splice up HTR into several episodic acts based on the locations they use, you still end up backtracking to most of them at least once, with very few exceptions
    (unless you grabbed the black light from the office, then there's no need to go back to that location)
    .

    In essence, you'd still end up having the same elements that bother you, which is repeat locations. Once you get to the final episode and they introduce the Bigfoot's crisis and the totem poll puzzle, you'll find out that you'll have to go back to Bumpusville that was in the middle of the season, the Celebrity Vegatable Museum and the Mount Rushmore Bungee Jump and Dino Theme Park from the previous episode, and the handfull of locations that are involved with the Mystery Vortex Snowglobe that easily spand the season.

    Oh, sure, you may start the episode ina new location with new characters every time, but you just end up revisiting them eventually, especially if the designers purposely make it so that a background element cannot be picked up until you need it, which was rarely ever the case in HTR.
  • edited February 2008
    I think taumel's problem is that he doesn't like episodic format. He can't stand it. I've learned to enjoy it, so I don't agree with his opinion, but I respect it. My advice for him is to try accepting episodic games for what they are, or stopping playing them.
    Episodic format is made like this, if you want old style point'n'click entertainment you'll have to wait for AVS to be released. Honestly, I can't wait to play AVS just because I miss some adventure games features that we'll never find in any episode of S&M. But, again, a full-lenght point'n'click game can't offer what you can get with episodes. That's all, I presume.
  • edited February 2008
    ><°> continuing ><°>
    Back to the game and back to germany. Flint Paper, surprising.

    Wow a lab! Yes oh joy and even with a Frankenstein's monster! Oh where is the switch, where is it?! Ah okay have him awake. What i really like is the music and the mood here. It reminds me of the violine in the radioplay of Adam's Hitchhiker with the scene were they are sitting in the restaurant at the end of the universe. I also like the accent the monster is speaking and how this scene is setup. Very well done! Only the mexcian ruined the mood.

    Okay another DJ-Trigger, don't know what this should be good for but let's try it out. Putting brain into...okay i can't find out anything more to do here so i guess i'll have to go back to...Sybil *buahaha*...and there we are again back in pain *sigh*.

    Hey that was pretty challenging getting the heart of gold. Took some time till i got the chocolate and found out that the antenna is the key. Nice one!

    Again a hard one to come up with that you also have to talk to Stinky to move the hand around the glass. And some more driving. I wonder why you always have to confirm that you really want to change the location. Was this an issue in the tests? It's a little bit annoying.

    Okay i'm through...it was nice beeing in control of the monster at the end.

    It definately improved in the second part and i've enjoyed the difficulty of the riddles so i give it a 7/10. If it just would be less repetitive like a good road movie...

    fin
  • edited February 2008
    Erwin wrote: »
    The only critique I can think of is that they made the castle scenes too beautiful, and now need to update the street and office scenes to match that level!

    --Erwin

    The castle exterior is quite resource hungry; this is the only time the game choked (skipped dialogue, etc) on my GeForce 7300GS at 1400x900.
  • edited February 2008
    Glad you liked the last half, Mr. Taumel. Just out of interest, what has your favourite episode been so far (from season 1 and 2)?
  • edited February 2008
    taumel wrote: »
    ><°> continuing ><°>
    Back to the game and back to germany. Flint Paper, surprising.

    Wow a lab! Yes oh joy and even with a Frankenstein's monster! Oh where is the switch, where is it?! Ah okay have him awake. What i really like is the music and the mood here. It reminds me of the violine in the radioplay of Adam's Hitchhiker with the scene were they are sitting in the restaurant at the end of the universe. I also like the accent the monster is speaking and how this scene is setup. Very well done! Only the mexcian ruined the mood.

    Okay another DJ-Trigger, don't know what this should be good for but let's try it out. Putting brain into...okay i can't find out anything more to do here so i guess i'll have to go back to...Sybil *buahaha*...and there we are again back in pain *sigh*.

    Hey that was pretty challenging getting the heart of gold. Took some time till i got the chocolate and found out that the antenna is the key. Nice one!

    Again a hard one to come up with that you also have to talk to Stinky to move the hand around the glass. And some more driving. I wonder why you always have to confirm that you really want to change the location. Was this an issue in the tests? It's a little bit annoying.

    Okay i'm through...it was nice beeing in control of the monster at the end.

    It definately improved in the second part and i've enjoyed the difficulty of the riddles so i give it a 7/10. If it just would be less repetitive like a good road movie...

    fin

    There we go! Now that's more review-like. Also, this comes to mind: "He likes it! Hey Mikey!" :p
  • edited February 2008
    Chuck wrote: »
    With Season Two, we're already seeing comments from people to the effect of, "Episode 3 is out already? I haven't even started episode 2 yet!"
    Wait, where have you seen that? If it was my comment on the 'we moved back the 203 release date' blog post, that was only because I hadn't bought the full season yet.
  • edited February 2008
    This episode is the most gruesome so far. The length and difficulty was suitable for those who have played some earlier episodes, but wouldn't suggest it as first episode to play for anyone.
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