ThunderPeel2001

Yep, it’s a question I’d really like to know the answer to. Even if there’s nothing interesting in that answer. Anyway, great post by Ron. Glad he has the insight, experience and fortitude to stick to his guns. I completely support him making the game HE wants to make. I look forward to playing it and really hope I love it. I’m glad that the ReMI conversation at Mixnmojo has been polite and respectful, even towards those of us who haven’t immediately warmed to Rex’s artwork. (There’s no need for the fan base to tear itself apart because of differences of opinion.) And that everyone agrees the ReMI team don’t deserve any ire directed toward them. I’m sorry Ron had to even write that post, but everything he’s said has just makes me more excited. Can’t wait!

This is very intriguing! Was there really a lighting system in the original SOMI??

Jake has already mentioned it, but I was going to point out that the developers literally added an option to turn off in-jokes, which says lot. That said, I guess I'm glad Ron got all the self-referential stuff out of his system. He seems to be focussed on making a solid pirate tale, so I'm looking forward to that aspect of it! An interesting take. I wonder if they could massage it into being in the same universe... the problem is Chuckie's t-shirt, but I'm sure Ron will find a way to explain it. (Presumably, "voodoo!")

I just remembered that I wrote this little guide a while back for the Steam forums. Thought I'd paste it here for posterity. Basically I found a couple of mods that really improve the PC experience. I highly recommend them if you're considering replaying Psychonauts on Windows any time soon. (I might even be able to find the time to upload the up-rezzed HUD and videos somewhere for my fellow forum chums,) 1. Fix the Aspect Ratio Psychonauts supports widescreen monitors and high resolutions out of the box, but the cut-scenes (videos) and HUD got stretched in the process. This little mod fixes that: https://thirteenag.github.io/wfp#psychonauts That might be good enough for you, but if you want more... 2. Insert AI Upscaled Videos & HUD Textures The 3D elements of the game still look rather good, but the UI never got a rez increase and they look really rough at higher resolutions. And the cut-scenes video look noticably lower resolution than your game... So why not use AI upscaled versions instead? https://www.nexusmods.com/psychonauts/mods/4?tab=files Forget HD texture resolution projects that never get finished. This is all you need to make Psychonauts its mostest excellent! Enjoy!

😮 You should be legally protected against this kind of fraud. Your bank might have been trying to fob you off making a claim, but you should be able to get that back if you paid with a credit card. I hope it wasn't much.

Dang. Were you able to get your money back? I'm reporting the FB ad now. Maybe I can stop others falling for it.

Yep, looks great in that video

Yep, far too good to be true! I was soooo close 😆 🤦‍♂️

Looks like I found the original on Etsy: Same images and same wording. £150... much more expected! https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/730309245/the-grail-diary-last-crusade-inspired

I went to https://www.kittiway.com and it’s made me think the whole is very very dodgy. Bah Also the image on the header of the Indy page looks weird. Why would they pick they of they really were fans and not a fake store. Need to discover where those images are from. #iwanttobelieve

Yep, it really is Easy mode! So many changes and entire sections, characters, etc. cut. Same with Thimbleweed Park. I know I keep harping on about it, but with CMI the Normal mode doesn’t cut anything. It just has different puzzles, so basically you’re getting extra puzzles rather than having things removed. They didn’t even bother including Easy with the SE edition, did they?

I just came across this insane Indiana Jones prop replica store. Everything on there looks far too good to be true. Am I about to get ripped off if I buy a Grail Diary? My excitement is clouding my reason. What am I missing here? https://www.kittiway.com/collections/indiana-jones-collection-50-off - DO NOT TRUST! UPDATE: THE ABOVE LINK LOOKS DODGY - WITH IMAGES FROM OTHER ETSY SELLERS! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Yep, when given the choice, and I stop and I think about it, that's the route I'd take, too. I think I'd rather see Tim (and Ron) fully flexed than them constrained by a deliberate attempt at recreating the past, for example.

Yes, Tim has said that that's exactly what happened. When the budget exploded, they updated their plans. Tim's original idea (as seen in the Kickstarter pitch video, IIRC) was to even help program the thing like a Scummlette. He used the example of tweaking the timing on the scrolling on the Fettuccini Brothers circus tent scene in MI1, which he said he took ages to get "just right". He wanted more of that low level experience again. But when they had the money to do something more polished and modern, he took the opportunity instead to do that. Edit: Scrolled down and Ben beat me to it.

Bear in mind that Mario is Nintendo's flagship game. They literally use that franchise to sell hardware, they have a lot of money and a very good reason to spend lots of it... They have a lot more resource available to them than Double Fine. That said, honestly for me Psychonauts 2 was one of the most polished gaming experiences I've ever had. I just loved it from top to bottom. (And am sad DF didn't get any BAFTAs despite so many nominations.) I'm still hoping they take the Psychonauts 2 engine and remake the first game with that level of polish one day. So anyway... any more news about Loom?

Yep, he certainly put more effort into MI2's and TP's difficulty levels than the CMI team did... but having tried them all CMI's was far more satisfying to me. I guess I don't think an Easy mode is worth the effort. Fans won't play it, and I doubt newbies are about to jump into the fifth instalment of a franchise? 🤷‍♂️ (Unless Devolver are hoping to snag new fans with this?)

I thought it was utterly flawless. Far less glitchy than other games I was playing at the time (Mass Effect Remastered being the one that leaps to mind). The whole experience felt massively polished to me. I didn’t see a single bug. I was really impressed with just how gorgeous and slick it all was. I haven’t played SMO.

Yep, that does make more sense. Doh. I stand corrected! Well this Chris chap did a good job. MI2 felt heavily edited by comparison, whereas Normal on CMI (which is how it’s described — rather than being an “Easy” mode) felt well designed and very deliberate.

Agh. Yep, I think you’re right. My bad. Strange because unlike MI2 it definitely feels like the other way around when you play it. With MI2 whole sections were pulled as I recall.

CMI didn’t have an “Easy” mode, that was whole point I was trying to make. It had a NORMAL mode which was the same difficulty as Sam & Max, Full Throttle, etc. As Ackley pointed out in the Tweet you quoted: The game was designed as Normal mode and then more difficult puzzles were added for Hard. Whereas MI2 had whole puzzle sections removed for Easy.

YES!!!! Ha. That’s so true. It would get me every time, and I’d always feel like a satisfying conclusion when I finally got it.

Anyone got any thoughts on the difficulty modes? I believe Ron has said there's two again (Easy and Normal). For me, Monkey Island 2 completely got it wrong: There were originally supposed to be three modes: Easy, Normal and Hard, but Normal fell by the wayside and we were left with Easy and Hard. Larry Ahern and Jonathan Ackley perfected it with Curse though: Normal and Hard. I've played through Curse probably more than any other LA game, and I always do Normal followed by Hard. It's SO much fun to do with this way. Normal is a fantastic, challenging, well crafted adventure game. It's perfectly in line with other LA adventures of the era. And afterwards you get to play on Hard and uncover some tricker puzzles... which means you basically get two solid adventure games for the price of one. It worked SO well. Oh the other hand, I don't know anyone who played MI2 on "Easy"...

I so want to love TP. I think I made the mistake of playing the "easy" mode first, and by the time I got to the end I was so disenchanted I couldn't bring myself to go through it again and never played the "full" version. I tried and just couldn't bring myself to continue, beautiful looking though it is.

I wonder how many people thinking Broken Age had a troubled development have watched the whole documentary? The backer forums were a calm place throughout the whole process, but that's where everyone knew what was going on. Outside of those forums you'd think the DF offices were on fire or something. It seemed like all the non-backers totally freaked out on behalf of the mostly happy backers.

Welcome! Thanks for those thoughts and for sharing that Moriarty quote. So interesting! Glad I know which version to play should I ever revisit Loom again. They can have issues sometimes, but Psychonauts 2 was incredibly polished from beginning to end. They really pulled out all the stops!