Vainamoinen

Two things about the website that make me happy: The screen swerves right and left with the mouse Animated rats in the foreground. We really, really needed that.

EVERYBODY's nose looks like a Pehampersandpercentparagraph. It's just that in the real world, we've all learnt to look away. There's a reason why the Japanese animation styles often just draw their characters without one. OH MY GOD his nose looks like a Vquestionmarkdollarsignasterisk!! I feel like a final variant of the swordfighting insult paradigm is in order.

A series of random trailer observations (possible spoilers) Wally confirmed (a much more happy and content dude than in the last parts) Swordmaster confirmed (and beefed as EFF) Otis confirmed Voodoo Lady confirmed (an aged variant?) Scumm bar owner/ cook confirmed Ask me about Loom™ dude confirmed Zak McKracken squirrel confirmed (just kidding, or am I?) "control Elaine" section back as possibility fish eating contest probable we have a new shadow shape to figure out crate delivery guy not just in teaser Violin ghost lady NOT spotted 0/11 Damn that LeChuck likes big and scary ships these days Dynamic light source / lantern spotted No other glimpses into UI / game mechanics Guybrush design seems more ToMI than LCR to me (sleeves, blonde, slim) And some rambling "Storybook" may have been the wrong term for the style. But the scrapbook, that idea could have communicated his spark of inspiration better to me. And the fact of the matter is, I love scrapbooks, especially as a travel journal. From Nathan Drake's scribbles on his quest to find Avery's treasure to Jones Sr.'s grail diary. This has always had the whiff of great adventures for me, regardless of the style, because the scrap only ever is a piece torn out of reality, leaving you to remember – or imagine! – the entire rest. And thus, the Ploy of Rex finally makes total sense to me. He could not ever hit a style that would fit everybody's idea of the places and the characters, so he must scrapbook the (s)crap out of this game. Maritza!! The "Power Nap" Maritza!? So glad to meet you again!

Ah well, at least I know what I'm going to do when I get home from work ... ... yeah ... watch the same trailer 300 times. No wishlist entry on GOG yet. Poke me other eye out!!!

You can never unhear those awesome explosion SFX.

I suggest to try Dave's Unavowed. Not so much because of the dialog (which is short and sweet), but because of some of its innovative experiments with mechanics and UI. In the course of this game, you're actually aquiring new team members, have to choose which ones to take in a new mission, and you'll face different challenges depending on what members you chose. It almost has an air of the RPG. I'm a bit meh on the ending(s) and the non voiced 'mouseover commentary', but fully on board with story, characters and the central turning point of the story. This is a much more grown up point & click adventure game that shows confidence in the things it tries to achieve.

Linking to this speech from "the other adventure game Gilbert": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfHpch-ipFU "I'm David Gilbert and I'm here to talk about creating dialogue with fewer words. Basically, game dialogue should be shorter." (Screen in background switches to "Thank you for your time" slide)

That was always a neckbreaking balancing act in LucasArts games, and I guess the preferences are very subjective. A lot of fans have no problem with Monkey Island looking and feeling like Day of the Tentacle. Others abhor the cartoony stuff and would rather have a gritty and at times brutal pirate story. And there's no "middle" here, no real balance that fits everyone. I'm quite with you, I would have wanted more of the grit in Tales. Then again, once we got to the ending of episode 4 and episodes 5, we had rioters over at the Telltale forum because this stuff was "way too dark for Monkey Island" for some. Lair of the Leviathan was definitely too cartoony for me (could go on for hours about "Noogie"), but the pirate faces meme was a massive hoot on the forums, and the manatee language phrasebook a stroke of genius. The bad yielded the good, so I eventually just shrugged it away.

And 'swallowed by a whale' is a popular seafaring trope/yarn that hadn't yet been in a Monkey Island instalment, so I say fair game.

Way too much bad news these days. Would really appreciate the ReMI marketing buzz to finally start spiking. Ahhh well. At least we have Marius' LCR recap tomorrow. 🥰

Doesn't say "fine". Must be a rip off. 😊

I hear no resemblance at all. And I've known Oh, du lieber Augustin for like 14 years before I first booted up LeChuck's Revenge. 😄 I mean, I can hear strong similarities between Jared Emerson-Johnson's "4-59" and a song from Bud Spencer's "Non c'è due senza quattro". But I don't even for a second think that Jared was inspired by a 1984 Italian movie.

I gladly applied the measuring tape here, but it's not mine. I found it rummaging through the pockets of countless "adventure games are dead" prophets.

They may be "cruft", but I really don't see how they're a less credible or less immersive artistic convention than, say, "drink this beverage to heal your flesh wounds instantly" or, heck, "the endangered animal you've just killed is carrying 248 gold pieces, a heart shaped dagger and two flaloolah flowers".

(Note: Quoted post is stolen from the ReMI ramp-up thread) I've been thinking this over and over, and there's good signs and bad signs. Ron's not likely to go from nine to one verb, that's for sure. But RonDave have also said they're "evolving" the genre. And whenever somebody said that about the adventure game genre in recent decades, it meant simplification (or action elements, but I don't expect that here). And evolution, I mean, it's a completely arbitrary, non-discriminating process. Evolution is sticking on random things that accidentally happen to work in a given era, and shearing off what has become unpopular for the most absurd of reasons. 💀

I've been playing Kathy Rain. Which has a lot of empathy, a lot of heart, some really decent characters that defy the stereotype, but the puzzle design is unfortunately extremely lacking. Preposterous thought: Maybe the reason for the demise of the point-and-click wasn't so much that players didn't want to solve those challenges any longer, it's that the developer copycats, who without a doubt still loved the genre, didn't always understand it. 😬 It makes me look forward to Return that much more though, so there's the ramp-up element. Expectation is skyrocketing. 🚀 Unfortunately my AMIGA was killed by a friend of my brother back in 1999. I have these fine LucasArts 10 Adventures CD-ROMs though, but I guess one of these days the aluminium coating will just peel off.

Worst edit in the history of edits. See actual post below.

Ungh, upscales, I hate upsca ... oh wait, these are actually fantastic! These pictures are really approaching what I'd think the original art would look in HD. Only (absolutely only!) point of criticism here: I love texture, a whole lot of it, on almost everything, but the sky doesn't have any.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OrAreYouJustHappyToSeeMe In the Roger Rabbit movie, Dolores asks detective Eddie: "Is that a rabbit in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?". It's of course a rabbit in his pocket, but with a whole lot of goodwill and a Mr.-Magoo-level of blindness, you could misconstrue it as an erection. And that's the joke. Interestingly, the meme was also used in Tales of Monkey Island – as "Is that a banana in your pocket or are you just happy to see us?" It's also used in Thimbleweed Park.

I can't say I'm a complete expert on US culture and language, but I would guess the 69 is a reference that has long since found its way into generally kid-friendly franchises. For me, most notably, the 1989 movie Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. It was probably perceived as too raunchy in Germany at the time, so they dubbed over it with a reference to Arnold Schwarzenegger. This might be one of the allusions that you can put into anything. Whoever understands it is probably old enough to do so. Same with the "Is that a ... in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" paradigm. It's in Who framed Roger Rabbit (rated PG). So, yes, the director probably asked Dom to NOW SAY IT WITH THE SLEAZY VOICE. But that doesn't make EMI a sex game. Well, for Fox News maybe. And that Argentinian TV station that raged about how kids imbibe "Grog XD". Hey, that was my joke up there. 😆

And the fencing theme Michael wrote for the beginning. I could listen to that for hours. Avoids time travel, indeed, but also makes the whole thing pretty linear because you know the outcome of these scenes. Hmmm. I'm still clinging to the prediction that ReMI will consist of a series of playable flashbacks. But we'll see. SOON. There's a reason LeChuck makes them ghost pirates first. 😉 I have no idea what you're talking about. Please elaborate in detail. 🙉

Have you tried clicking on all the stars on the main page of returntomonkeyisland.com? I do that every day. It really helps.

Devolver has a lot of their published games' soundtracks on bandcamp (which, arguably, is the platform that leaves most to the actual artist). The question, as always, is what "steward of the band" actually means and what reins Disney will keep tightly in their hands. Modes of distribution, if that remained with Devolver or Terrible Toybox, that would be awesome.

The game's probably finished by now, they'll just have to hold it back another three months until they can get the German voiceover done so we'll stop whining all the time. 🇩🇪 Errrr nothing to see here. Just some persistent negative thoughts. Move along. 🙈

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