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[Vampire On Titus]

Haven't finished it yet but I gatta say I do HARD agree about the lack manual saves, it's terrible. You cant even save on your own so I'm always paranoid I'm gonna lose progress when I exit the game lol.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Old Skies finally gets a trailer. Not certain when the next Steam fest is but it should I'd imagine it's soon, so not long before the demo either.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Old Skies finally gets a trailer. Not certain when the next Steam fest is but it should I'd imagine it's soon, so not long before the demo either.

Alright so while the animations are uhm, well animated, far better than all the stuff we usually get in these games, they feel.....creepy? uncanny? don't fit well? Hard to describe but her walking animation at the end looks hillarious and not in a good way but maybe thats just me. Also thats a lot of shooting I guess? Maybe I'm just very picky, will prolly be good. Right?

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Alright so while the animations are uhm, well animated, far better than all the stuff we usually get in these games, they feel.....creepy? uncanny? don't fit well? Hard to describe but her walking animation at the end looks hillarious and not in a good way but maybe thats just me. Also thats a lot of shooting I guess? Maybe I'm just very picky, will prolly be good. Right?

Wadjet Eye basically only has one artist for their in-house games and that's Ben Chandler. His biggest strengths are environment art and portrait drawing, he's okay at figure drawing, and isn't really an animator. This is his first time animating in a non-pixel art style so he's doing an admirable job for someone learning on the fly but there are some amateurish qualities.

For one a good number of the shooting/action poses are lacking "anticipation" which results in weaker or flat looking motion (I've seen them in full on Twitch streams as well).


There's a somewhat eclectic mix of regular animation, stuff with tight in-between frames that's possibly rotoscoped (falling/rising thru time portals, walking cycle), and flat looking 2D vfx (person getting time sliced at the bar), so it doesn't look as cohesive as it could. Also, I just think the simplistic way the faces are drawn doesn't convey enough emotion for WE's style of game and they should add more detail or bring back the character portraits.

Those criticisms aside I still think the game looks good overall, I've played plenty of adventure games with far worse animation. And everything I've seen of the story, voice acting, environments, etc so far is promising.

 

[Fuz]

His biggest strengths are environment art

Spoiler

 

[Vampire On Titus]

So I finished Voodoo Detective and it's a solid game, I even liked the mix of comedy and noir-ish detective mystery. There's just a little bit lacking in certain aspects that kept the game from getting its hooks in me the way a really great adventure does. If there was a bit more passion to the romance, a little bit more intrigue to the mystery, an exhilarating twist or two, I could easily see Voodoo Detective reaching that height. As it stands it's a fun game with some clever dialogue and great production values.

I felt like the Voodoo Detective-ing could've been more creative. Each spell in your book is used only once and you basically know which spell it'll be in advance because of the items you're collecting. If the spells weren't single use and you needed to apply them to multiple situations differently, that would've helped. I could easily imagine a scenario where Voodoo Detective has to posses someone's body to get information out of a suspect. There's a lot you can do with the concept.

The puzzle's weren't a big challenge, I never got stuck, but I wouldn't call the game brain dead or anything. Outside of a few instances where you're just talking to people back and forth and the item you use gets automatically selected. For the most part I had fun walking around and solving everything. Some of the locations you go to look especially great, particularly toward the end. I also like the villain of the story and many of the character moments along the way.

I'd give it a solid 7, it could use a bit more of a pulse/some hook to push it over the edge but Voodoo Detective is a fun, well written game with some great artwork. You could do a lot worse.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Thanks to Gamepass, just downloaded the remasters of Day of the Tentacle and Full Throttle. It's time for my daughter and I to go back to adventure games together. I'm curious what her reaction is going to be, I'll just see what she works out on her own to start with, she's 10. We loved Rayman Legends for years, It Takes Two, CTR, Unravelled, Forza Horizon series, Flight Sim (she loves Paris and Japan), Pedro, Mario Bros, Kart, Zelda classics etc. She also loves Sims of course and dabbles a little in Fortnite.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Uchikoshi dropped a new interview with Nintendo Life, and in the spirit of Kotaro Uchikoshi interviews it's incredible.

Did you always intend for the sequel to have two playable protagonists?

First, "two is one" and "two opposites" are the main themes of the entire game. For example, yin and yang, man and woman, double helix... Love and hate could also be one of them. The fact that the main case in the game is the "Half Body serial killings" is also related to this. This naturally led me to the conclusion that the main characters should be two people. It would have been nice if I could have had two wives at the same time, but alas, such an opportunity will never come.

Did the two time periods in the game give you any flexibility in writing and developing the cast a bit more?

The two scenarios are chronologically connected as serial. In this sense, the two scenarios were not so much flexible as they were rigidly fixed, and I felt as if they were in danger of collapsing no matter where I poked at them. It was as if I was writing the scenarios while being bound in tortoise shell bondage by a dominatrix. I remember that while I was writing, the director, Okada-kun, would hit me with a whip. I still cannot forget the melting pleasure I felt at that time.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Sanitarium giveaway on GOG

It's a cool game, pick it up if you don't already have it.

 

[ShadowNate]

Limited Run Games will do a run for yet ot be released Nightdive Studios' Blade Runner. Preorders start June 24.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Did you guys try the Stasis BOne Totem demo? Got mixed feelings about it, especially the press space thing they have going for it. Also the fact that I'm playing two characters doesnt exactly set a horror mood for me. Other than that, atmosphere wise seems nice.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

New Korean narrative adventure game called Project M by NCsoft. Seems to be taking many stylistic queues from Detroit down to noticeably similar UI elements. Not surprising considering Detroit's long tail sales bringing it to over 6m. Detroit was an unexpected hit in Japan and It's not hard to imagine Korea taking to it as well since, from what I've seen, Korean adventure games are very similar to Japanese ones.

I'm hoping this will have a similar level of branching and interactivity as Detroit did, perhaps even surpass it in areas, so I'm looking forward to seeing more. I'm also looking forward to confusing the title of this game with Project Code Name M until one or both get official titles.

 

[Fuz]

NCsoft

Wait.
They're GAAS/gacha scum.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Wait.
They're GAAS/gacha scum.

These the guys that screwed frogware?

 

[Fuz]

These the guys that screwed frogware?

No idea. But I find hard to believe this Project M will be a standalone title.

 

[The Cockatrice]

No idea. But I find hard to believe this Project M will be a standalone title.

nvm im stupid, that was nacon.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

This newly announced 1st person, retro styled, adventure from Team Dexter Games seems rather good. Naturally I'm looking forward to the cliffhanger ending and extreme sports-battle royale sequel.

 

[Luthia]

A Twisted Tale campaign has launched on Kickstarter:



There's a demo available but I haven't played it yet, would love to hear your opinion if anyone have done it.

 

[Danjin44]

https://youtube.com/shorts/5u0iOqi-00g?feature=share

In original teaser she was playing 999 and now here she is playing Virtue's Last Reward.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

https://youtube.com/shorts/5u0iOqi-00g?feature=share

In original teaser she was playing 999 and now here she is playing Virtue's Last Reward.

Parallel worlds.

 

[Fuz]

A Twisted Tale campaign has launched on Kickstarter:



There's a demo available but I haven't played it yet, would love to hear your opinion if anyone have done it.

There's a lot I don't like, but don't wanna get overly grumpy and piss on the parade.
Best of luck to her.

 

[Fuz]

https://youtube.com/shorts/5u0iOqi-00g?feature=share

In original teaser she was playing 999 and now here she is playing Virtue's Last Reward.

But, to not disappoint anyone, I will get overly grumpy here.

Fuck vertical videos, double fuck vertical videos without a time slider and triple fuck the moron who invented them.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

You know I was joking when I said parallel world but this screen of Mizuki about to be punched looks awfully familiar.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Loretta is a story-driven adventure game in which gameplay focuses on choosing phrases in dialogue, interacting with objects, and making decisions: planning the murder and getting rid of the evidence. Killing a husband, trying to cover a crime, Loretta makes a player an accomplice.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

40 minutes of narrated gameplay from NintendoLife, this will be the point in the pre-release cycle to bail if you want to go in blind. I'm going to scrub around since I'm curious to see how new mechanics like Wink Psync and Truth Reenactment really work, but I'm gonna skip any heftier narrative content.

Also The Quarry is out, I always forget about the existence of SuperMassive games because I never liked Until Dawn and fell off Dark Pictures due to extremely uneven episodes. This new one looks like one of their more interesting games to me, though.

 

[protonion]

So this caught my attention on the ps store this week.

Noel the Mortal Fate is a visual novel that plays kind of like an old school jrpg.

The story is about a pianist girl that makes a contract with a devil.

I played for an hour and is definitely a good time.
Nicely paced with a lot of wtf twists. The gameplay segments are decent and don't overstay their welcome.

This version includes the first 7 seasons plus an extra 3.5 season.

I hope the rest seasons will be translated also.

 

[The Cockatrice]

This new one looks like one of their more interesting games to me, though.

60 bucks tho. Hell no.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

60 bucks tho. Hell no.

Yeah not gonna pick it up unless it's on pretty deep discount at some point. Too many games to play right now anyways. A friend of mine did pick it up so I might couch co-op it with him, though.



Cool mistake. I'll be checking this out later today.

 

[Majormaxxx]

Playing WHISPERS OF A MACHINE. On day 2...

 

[Mr Underhill]

Greetings, adventurous ladies & gents! Dropping by to let you know that Near-Mage, our adventure game where you get to study Magick in Transylvania, will have a playable prologue on Steam during the Next Fest, starting tomorrow 10 AM PDT / 7 PM CET.
It's about 40-ish minutes long, and it's a purely narrative bit of game that serves as an introduction to the characters, universe and atmosphere of Near-Mage. See you tomorrow in Transylvania?

Link to Near-Mage Steam page

(I spoilered the screenshots due to size; these are 1280x720 but the game runs at 3840x2160 if your hardware supports it).

Spoiler: Screenshots

 

[The Cockatrice]

Greetings, adventurous ladies & gents! Dropping by to let you know that Near-Mage, our adventure game where you get to study Magick in Transylvania, will have a playable prologue on Steam during the Next Fest, starting tomorrow 10 AM PDT / 7 PM CET.
It's about 40-ish minutes long, and it's a purely narrative bit of game that serves as an introduction to the characters, universe and atmosphere of Near-Mage. See you tomorrow in Transylvania?

Link to Near-Mage Steam page

(I spoilered the screenshots due to size; these are 1280x720 but the game runs at 3840x2160 if your hardware supports it).

Spoiler: Screenshots

Cool. Will give it a try.

 

[jacksp]

Just tried the Old Skies demo, it's good so far. Obviously still WIP (outlines are a bit jagged), apart from that I'm liking it. Wonder how many cool demos we'll be able to try during the Steam Next Fest, can't wait.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Played through the Old Skies demo and there's a lot I like about it, some I'm down on. I think it's safe to say that all the most important aspects are done well. The scenario and world building are very interesting, the dialogue is good, voice acting and score are great, and the puzzles are serviceable. A mix of simple inventory interactions and some clue combining mystery-type puzzles that will seem very familiar to anyone who's played a Dave Gilbert adventure game. It's worth mentioning that, having seen some Twitch dev streams of Old Skies, I know that there's some deeper time travel-y gameplay in the later missions. Deeper relative to the standard level of Dave Gilbert puzzle solving, that is. I had fun going through everything in the demo.

I am mixed on the art, while the backgrounds are beautiful, the figure drawing and animation are somewhat amateurish. Many of the animations lack the weight and dynamism of genuinely great 2D animation, so while I appreciate what the style is attempting to be there's a lot of room for improvement. My bigger issue, though, is the removal of the character portraits which have been a mainstay in Wadjet Eye's previous titles. Old Skies is clearly going to be a game with a lot of drama and emotional scenes, and the expressive range I get from the portraits in Unavowed vs the figures in Old Skies is night and day.

It's just such a massive downgrade and I can already tell from the demo that there are scenes that would've hit harder with artwork capable of conveying real emotion (I'm thinking of the final rooftop scene in particular).

Other than that, I'm also not a fan of the Unavowed style of hotspot lines that pop-up when you mouse over objects. I'd rather have voiced lines for those interactions and hear it through the character's voice. Also it makes me feel like I'm playing as a mouse cursor rather than controlling a character.

So yeah, there's a lot of good and some bad. Overall, anyone interested in the game should check out the demo. I am confident the game will be great despite some of the issues I have with it.

 

[jacksp]

Just played Casebook 1899 demo and I liked it. Can't help but see lots of inspiration from Lamplight City, and not only for the setting. What LC had and would've liked to see here is the way you can piss people off by telling them or revealing things you souldn't and that would prevent you from following a lead and ultimately reach the proper conclusion.

 

[Fuz]

Just played Casebook 1899 demo and I liked it. Can't help but see lots of inspiration from Lamplight City, and not only for the setting. What LC had and would've liked to see here is the way you can piss people off by telling them or revealing things you souldn't and that would prevent you from following a lead and ultimately reach the proper conclusion.

Oh, I really like the pixel art on this one.


Is it me, or this screenshot is very Sierra-like?*

* Not an expert on Sierra

 

[jacksp]

Oh, I really like the pixel art on this one.


Is it me, or this screenshot is very Sierra-like?*

Well it's very classic, which is a plus for me.

Finished the demo of Boxville, Machinarium-like game with beautiful style and atmosphere. Onto the next adventure (counted at least 15 interesting demos so far!)

 

[The Cockatrice]

Played through the Old Skies demo and there's a lot I like about it, some I'm down on. I think it's safe to say that all the most important aspects are done well. The scenario and world building are very interesting, the dialogue is good, voice acting and score are great, and the puzzles are serviceable. A mix of simple inventory interactions and some clue combining mystery-type puzzles that will seem very familiar to anyone who's played a Dave Gilbert adventure game. It's worth mentioning that, having seen some Twitch dev streams of Old Skies, I know that there's some deeper time travel-y gameplay in the later missions. Deeper relative to the standard level of Dave Gilbert puzzle solving, that is. I had fun going through everything in the demo.

I am mixed on the art, while the backgrounds are beautiful, the figure drawing and animation are somewhat amateurish. Many of the animations lack the weight and dynamism of genuinely great 2D animation, so while I appreciate what the style is attempting to be there's a lot of room for improvement. My bigger issue, though, is the removal of the character portraits which have been a mainstay in Wadjet Eye's previous titles. Old Skies is clearly going to be a game with a lot of drama and emotional scenes, and the expressive range I get from the portraits in Unavowed vs the figures in Old Skies is night and day.

It's just such a massive downgrade and I can already tell from the demo that there are scenes that would've hit harder with artwork capable of conveying real emotion (I'm thinking of the final rooftop scene in particular).

Other than that, I'm also not a fan of the Unavowed style of hotspot lines that pop-up when you mouse over objects. I'd rather have voiced lines for those interactions and hear it through the character's voice. Also it makes me feel like I'm playing as a mouse cursor rather than controlling a character.

So yeah, there's a lot of good and some bad. Overall, anyone interested in the game should check out the demo. I am confident the game will be great despite some of the issues I have with it.

Tried the demo, yeah faces suck ass especially hers, the dude seems fine but its the eyes that are really are absolute dog shit. Backgrounds...are ok..could be worse. Other than that, its fine, nice music, good voice acting.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

I tried out the demo for The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo and it's only like 11 minutes long but I'd still encourage people check it out because the style is really impeccable and I think it's worth it, even though it only lasts for just a bit. The best way I can describe it is like a playable Tex Avery cartoon.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Greetings, adventurous ladies & gents! Dropping by to let you know that Near-Mage, our adventure game where you get to study Magick in Transylvania, will have a playable prologue on Steam during the Next Fest, starting tomorrow 10 AM PDT / 7 PM CET.
It's about 40-ish minutes long, and it's a purely narrative bit of game that serves as an introduction to the characters, universe and atmosphere of Near-Mage. See you tomorrow in Transylvania?

Link to Near-Mage Steam page

(I spoilered the screenshots due to size; these are 1280x720 but the game runs at 3840x2160 if your hardware supports it).

Spoiler: Screenshots

Played it a bit, not much to say since its core gameplay is missing but the art-style/backgrounds are really nice. The UI, specifically the text/icon you click when you move to other rooms/talk/etc don't fit well with the colored backgrounds/style of the game tho. Maybe thats just me. Good luck with the development!

 

[jacksp]

Greetings, adventurous ladies & gents! Dropping by to let you know that Near-Mage, our adventure game where you get to study Magick in Transylvania, will have a playable prologue on Steam during the Next Fest, starting tomorrow 10 AM PDT / 7 PM CET.

Hey, it was on my radar from the Next Fest before I realized you posted here and I'll definitely check it out tonight.

I tried out the demo for The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo...

Caught my eye as well, let's see..

 

[Majormaxxx]

Playing WHISPERS OF A MACHINE. On day 2...

Was stuck for a day. Finally got what they wanted me to do. Clever and fun puzzle Hope to finish it soon, unless I get stuck again. (I won't use hints - kills the fun).

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Taking a break from the (not) E3 hype just to mention that this reference is based.

 

[Fuz]

Taking a break from the (not) E3 hype just to mention that this reference is based.

Spoiler

I don't get it.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Spoiler

I don't get it.

and more...

 

[jacksp]

I tried out the demo for The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo and it's only like 11 minutes long but I'd still encourage people check it out because the style is really impeccable and I think it's worth it, even though it only lasts for just a bit. The best way I can describe it is like a playable Tex Avery cartoon.

Oh my God I love it! Reminds me of the Pink Panther and Inspector Clouseau.

 

[Fuz]

Oh my God I love it! Reminds me of the Pink Panther and Inspector Clouseau.

 

[jacksp]

Mr Underhill Tried Near Mage demo and found it very interesting! Love magic, love spell casting, love adventure games, can't wait for the full game!

 

[WarpedPixels]

I tried out the demo for The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo and it's only like 11 minutes long but I'd still encourage people check it out because the style is really impeccable and I think it's worth it, even though it only lasts for just a bit. The best way I can describe it is like a playable Tex Avery cartoon.

Looks so good! I appreciate you bringing attentiont to it, shame it's so far away, though.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

I played the demo for Whispers of the West, a point & click multiplayer mystery game. It functions somewhat similarly to Ace Attorney except with much simpler scenarios, you and your friends wander around town collecting evidence, questioning people, and answering the central question posed (one per each 3 days of investigation). You've got a shared inventory so no matter who finds a clue anyone can use it, there's also different characters with traits that effect how people talk to you or give you special skills (forensics, lockpicking, etc).

In order to make sense of anything you're going to need constant communication with the other players. It does feel a little sloppy to get major pieces of evidence or the next relevant story thread relayed to you by someone else because you weren't actually there for the conversation. If there were even a simple question and answer reasoning/deduction segment that everyone participated in together, perhaps recapping the baseline relevant facts, the game might feel more cohesive as an actual story. As it stands it's an interesting experiment with some rough edges.

 

[Danjin44]

I don't know it matters but here is Famitsu score for AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative.

https://www.gematsu.com/2022/06/famitsu-review-scores-issue-1750

AI: The Somnium Files – nirvanA Initiative (PS4, Xbox One, Switch) – 9/9/8/8 [34/40]

I think it got same score as first game so if you loved first one (like me) then you gonna love this one as well.