LowLevel

I hope they'll add the soundtrack on Steam, as Terrible Toybox did for Thimbleweed Park! I'm still playing the game at a slow pace, but one more reason to finish it is that I want to visit the spoiler-full category of the forum and join the Kool Kids Klub.

I am playing through chapter 2 and the only things I can say without adding spoilers are my reactions so far: Laughter and giggles I love the narrative approach My opinion of the art style has improved from "OK" to "very nice" I've also peeked at the review scores and I'm happy with the positive results. 🙂

Terrible Toybox has created a new Discord server, to discuss all their games: https://discord.gg/TerribleToybox It's like IRC but more colorful and people don't DDoS you to death.

OMG,😂 I tried to ██████████ the █████ and when █████████████ all red and it ████████████████████. Then I thought: "██ █ ████ █████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ███████!" and after I checked ██ ███████ it was that! 😂 😂😂😂😂 ROTFL Help, I can't breath!!! 🤣

Casting the game to the TV would technically fulfill both wishes.

RtMI is now the first game of the official list. Above it there's only Steam Deck. I had to read the score of a few reviews but I didn't read any article. Now I can start playing. 🙂

I don't want to do it. When "The Secret of Monkey Island" was created, along with its sequel, the games functioned as a spark that triggered the birth of a cult-like social phenomenon, decades-long discussions and wild theories about their underlying meanings. The authors did not even imagine the repercussions the games would have over time, because for them it was simply a good pirate adventure. In assessing what the first two games meant to me, I would attribute more value to all the discussions I had for years than the games themselves. The questions never answered are for me more important that playing a game. Finding out what the infamous "secret" is is more exciting to me than simply playing the game. And I also enjoyed reading the scholarly papers that were written about the games; I hope to see more of them fueled by what Noah envisioned. Don't get me wrong, I will enjoy the game for what it is in its most practical form: a game to play. But I don't want to limit my expectations and hopes to avoid possible disappointments. I did not wait 30 years to suppress my hopes and emotions and I prefer to embrace my expectations fully, without limiting them. And if I will not find in the new game what I hoped for, then and only then, I will activate the "it's a straight pirate adventure" mode. 😉

I can relate to that. That dash of healthy detachment that I applied in the previous months is beginning to crumble in these hours. The things said by Noah Falstein and Dominic Armato have really raised my expectations, and although I have taken every statement made over the past few months with a pinch of salt, the only thing I feel now is a very strong trepidation to find out what they were talking about. It is not just a game that I have been waiting for 31 years; it has become in my mind an event that I am sure will be an extraordinary experience, regardless of the merits of individual aspects such as story, art style or puzzles. I see myself shiver with antici...

A small positive news about RtMI: it's currently at position #11 in Steam top selling games. 🙂 (Source) I really really hope that the developers will feel satisfied with the results. They deserve it!

My prediction is that it will be more or less the same. I don't remember: did Tales receive a similar media coverage, before its release? Was it advertised in similar ways? I've always thought that a large part of the reason is that it was, for many, the first Monkey Island game that they played. I like the game and I think it's a good game, just not a real continuation of the story of the first two games of the franchise. For what? Is something happening and nobody bothered telling me? 🤔 "September 19 at 9AM Pacific on both Nintendo Switch and Steam" (Source)

While we are here in the infobunker... shall-we-play-a-game? Here follows a chart of Google Trends (Source) that shows two things: at the far left, the blue peak of search interest registered for "tales of monkey island" the day its first episode was released. at the far right, the red increase of search interest related to people searching for "return to monkey island". Here is the game: What's your prediction for the release day of Return to Monkey Island? Will people search interest surpass the one registered in 2009 for "Tales"? 🙂 Boring technical clarification about those numbers: The values that you see in the chart don't show the raw number of searches but only relative values. A higher peak for RtMI would mean that the percentage of searches for "return to monkey island" recorded on release day was higher than the percentage of searches for "tales of monkey island" that was recorded in 2009, the day the first episode of Tales was released. So, in theory one should consider that there were fewer people on the Internet in 2009.

It's a leftover of an old sales page: https://steamdb.info/app/324000/info/ Probably it was used for a sale of MI2SE, this old Reddit thread talks about it.

I may be wrong, but I have read that reviews remain even after a refund. I guess that makes sense, since a refund can be a strong indication of an actual problem with a product. The User Score can be easily gamed, yes, but the Metascore comes from critics and it isn't generally affected by review bombing. I hope it is the kind of vote that people trust the most and that most people consider review bombing as a form of unfairness to the game. Added: also, Steam depends only on user reviews. This user average vote displayed in the shop itself, near to the Buy button, might influence buyers' decision more than users reviews read elsewhere.

Yes, but you can purchase the game, review it and ask for a refund. While I expect some legitimate negative reviews, I have observed behaviors (including "political" ones) that don't have much to do with the controversial art style, so I wonder if some form of organized attempt to shift reviews is likely or if I'm just being paranoid. 😛

I think that regardless of how ambiguous the ending will be, the game will be designed to fit in perfectly as the "third game" of the original Gilbertian trilogy. This is despite the fact that the game will incorporate elements from chapters of the franchise subsequent to MI2, and despite the fact that it cannot possibly be the same "MI3a" game dreamed of by many fans. My serious prediction is that the authors have found a way to make the game feel like a final third installment, in the sense that a person unfamiliar with the franchise could play only "Secret," "Revenge," and "Return" sequentially and feel them as an entire cohesive and organic story.

As the time of release approaches, my concerns increase a bit. Serious question: do you think the "angry mob" will have any influence on Steam reviews? The (almost completely unmoderated) Steam discussion forum is so full of trolls and people attacking each other that I can't tell how genuine their complaints are nor what the chances are of a "review bomb."

For me (CET time zone) it is perfect. I assumed that Monday would be a normal work day for me and after work I could install the game. Instead, I took the break from work for Tuesday. It will be my Full Monkey Day! 🙂

For once, the information on Steam was correct. 😛

I just have an indirect feeling about all the articles and videos released this week, but it clearly points toward a substantial increase in details and spoilers, which for me is definitely too much. I just hope that it implies that they can afford it because the remaining unrevealed content is huge.

If you are not afraid of spoilers, there is an extended gameplay video published by IGN: IT SPOILS A PUZZLE!

I ask here because it is the only safe bunker I can trust. I only recently joined this forum: perhaps did you take a poll on how much you liked the art style, when the game was announced? Comparing it with opinions that have emerged in other communities would be interesting to me.

I don't know if it helps your research and I apologize for the intentional vagueness but someone wrote somewhere what I have reason to believe it is inside information. No source was provided: Sound designer: Elise Kates (lead) Andy Martin (ambiences)

I'll stick with the good old Steam datetime: 19 September 2022 – 16:00:00 UTC For your convenience:

The guys at Rubber Chicken with a Podcast in the Middle have made this great animated pixel-art cover of the RtMI trio playing... RtMI. 😃