Monkey Island: Special Edition OFFICIAL!

[Snugglecakes]

I'm not so much bothered by the inventory being hidden, it works just fine in TMI for example. But I want to be able to middle click or something to bring it up. And the part about combining items and not seeing them without opening the inventory again... I don't see how something like that can get out the door. Does right clicking something at least perform the default verb action? Like right clicking on the poster in the original makes Guybrush read it without having to click on "Look At".

[DPB]

The middle button doesn't seem to do anything, right click does do the default action though. If they'd just have given us the option to remap the controls this could have been averted, my mouse has five buttons that three of which have gone to waste.

[Snugglecakes]

Who would've thought... Monkey Island... a bad PC port of a console game! I'm sure there's some software somewhere that lets you map mouse buttons to keyboard keys and if I do buy this thing I'll be using it for sure.

[scabb]

 

I tip my hat at the artists who worked on it, because they were never going to live up to everyones expectations.

 

The attached scene is absolutely shocking. Really, really bad. MS Word Art ffs.

 

I'm a little bit disappointed by this remake. Very shoddy in places, the control scheme is off (The verbs / inventory windows are obviously designed for the 360 pad's triggers), and some of the voice acting / characterisation if you like is very poor.

 

Still, it's alright. Most of it's dead nice. Just a bit half-arsed.

[SyntheticGerbil]

There's weird white lines around things that haven't been cut-out properly. Some of the artwork literally looks unfinished.

 

All that I can say is... yikes. It's a budget project and all, I understand, but really?

 

And couldn't someone just do the art for the sign themselves for "Stan's previously owned vessels," instead of the bad typography in it's place?

 

I'm not sure I want to buy this anymore... we'll see.

[DPB]

I've just found that the mouse wheel will scroll through the verbs without you having to bring up the menu, but there's still no way of opening the inventory up without the keyboard. Would it really have been that hard to put an inventory icon somewhere, like Telltale just did?

[xgfx]

The attached scene is absolutely shocking. Really, really bad. MS Word Art ffs.

 

I'm a little bit disappointed by this remake. Very shoddy in places, the control scheme is off (The verbs / inventory windows are obviously designed for the 360 pad's triggers), and some of the voice acting / characterisation if you like is very poor.

 

Still, it's alright. Most of it's dead nice. Just a bit half-arsed.

 

I was alerted to that over at SA and as a Graphic Designer who adores typography and hand rendered lettering I have to say that is pretty lazy. But I won't let that ruin it, because I love the rest of the art.

 

I'm glad I bought it on Xbox, it certainly seems people on PC are pulling their hair out. It looks to have been primarily developed for the Xbox. Sad to say it guys, but that's where the money is at, and that's where gaming has been very slowly gravitating towards.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I'm assuming that the 2.5gb is to allow insane resolutions and still have the artwork looking detailed. On the XBox they only needed 1080p at the max. So really, it's a good thing.

 

PLEASE don't let me complaints put anybody off buying this game. Chances are you WILL enjoy it! Plus it's so cheap!

 

I'm already not feeling quite as harsh towards it as I did yesterday Especially if we're able to hack it!

[xgfx]

I'm assuming that the 2.5gb is to allow insane resolutions and still have the artwork looking detailed. On the XBox they only needed 1080p at the max. So really, it's a good thing.

 

It's been confirmed by LA that..

 

@lucasartsgames The PC version of SOMI:SE uses uncompressed art and audio, XBLA has it's own method of compression. - that's where the size difference is at

 

So yeah, probably to allow monumental resolutions.

[Serge]

@lucasartsgames The PC version of SOMI:SE uses uncompressed art and audio, XBLA has it's own method of compression. - that's where the size difference is at

 

Not quite true, however, at least for the art, which is compressed (with S3 DXT5, mostly - 4:1 compression rate, lossy). The resolution on PC, for the backgrounds, maxes out at 1080p (just compared extracted textures with the actual backgrounds).

 

http://www.scummbar.com/tx/games/mise/concept/77_gh-deck.jpg

 

Compare to:

 

http://www.jither.net/media/images/woohoo.png

 

... the latter being the actual resolution of the background, in a 1024x1024 texture tile.

[spiralout]

I was alerted to that over at SA and as a Graphic Designer who adores typography and hand rendered lettering I have to say that is pretty lazy. But I won't let that ruin it, because I love the rest of the art.

 

I'm glad I bought it on Xbox, it certainly seems people on PC are pulling their hair out. It looks to have been primarily developed for the Xbox. Sad to say it guys, but that's where the money is at, and that's where gaming has been very slowly gravitating towards.

 

It's the top selling game on Steam right now, which is no small feat. Classic adventure games are still more popular on PC than consoles. I'm not sure what problems the PC users are having that the Xbox users are not. They both have an annoying interface, and the Xbox controller can be used with the PC version in the same way.

[parabolee]

I'm going to paraphrase your points for cleanliness and clarity, then post my opinions of your opinions

 

\\

1. The new artwork looks a little shoddy in places.

 

2. There's irritating pauses between dialogue.

 

3. Some of the line-readings are sometimes incredibly off.

 

4. The characterizations, for the most part, seem terrible.

 

5. The music seems to suffer from the same problem as above:

 

6. The control system is ABOMINABLE.

 

7. My mouse clicks were not always responded to... Click, click, click, CLICK - ah it worked.

 

8. Finally, you all know this one: The new Guybrush isn't loveable.

 

OK some of these maybe because I'm playing on XBox rather than PC, but for the sake of shared opinion, here is how I feel about your thoughts

 

1. Your too picky, it looks awesome.

 

2. Only experienced this a few times not a big deal at all.

 

3. Only past the three trials so far, but I have not found this to be true at all.

 

4. Wow, I really disagree with you on most of these points. Love all the voice work!

 

5. WHAT?! The music is fantastic.

 

6. Can't speak to PC, but it's great on 360.

 

7. Again no issue on 360.

 

8. Could not disagree more. And I know that this is something several of you feel but I have to say I am head over heels for the new Guybrush sprite. Love him, love him love! He is so much more interesting and lovable (lovable dork that is) to me than his Curse or Escape counterparts. He is in fact my favourite thing about the SE

 

And remember this is from the person that hated the cover version of Guybrush so much I created a whole series of wallpapers and posters with a different head.

 

I'm just sorry you are finding so much to spoil your enjoyment of this fantastic release.

 

For me the ONLY issue I have is some of the characters arms look a little stubby and it annoys me a little every now and then. Other than that I am ecstatic about the Special Edition. I love swapping back and forth to compare, I love all the new atmospheric audio, really adds to the feeling of depth to the world. I think the voice acting actually makes several parts funnier than when read.

 

Roll on Monkey Island 2: SE

[Zak McKracken]

3. Some of the line-readings are sometimes incredibly off. Even the excellent Dominic Armato and the fantastic Earl Boen seen to have been given some bad direction on occasions. But other characters suffer much worse... Estvan's "You could wait for the cook to notice you, but that could take all day. Just find a mug and sneak into the kitchen. That's what we all do." Nooo.

 

You are absolutely right. I was talking about that earlier as well. And I don't know if it's just that I played the game so many times that I had a set idea of how they were supposed to say things but some of the delivery is painfully off. I don't like Estevan's voice at all either, he sounded too over the top and cartoony.

 

4. The characterizations, for the most part, seem terrible. Like they've tried to inject "more humour" at every available opportunity and failed miserably... Random characters speak with the most outrageous voices for no good reason. Cobb, the rat guy ("I thought it was rats"). No other MI game does this, why did they do it here?

 

I hated Cobb and Otis and your right it's like they tried to inject humour at every possible part and the great thing about Monkey Island was that the humour was never crammed down your face. You expected LeChuck to be menacing not be reduced to a laughingstock. I thought they nailed the shopkeeper and the Sword Master though. I also miss the beautiful close-ups they had before that unfortunately now are cartoon instead of going for a more real approach which I think was the original intention.

 

 

6. The control system is ABOMINABLE. I have to press a key to get the verbs up? I have to press a key to get the inventory up? I have to press TWO KEYS simultaneously to get them both up? It's horrendous! It's beyond horrendous. New players will miss out on mouse wandering and experimentation...

 

I hate it as well, but I figure I'll get used to it like I did with Grim Fandango (which is the only thing I really hate about that game)

 

If anything, my overall complaint would be that they've tried to ram as much "comedy" into MI as they possibly could... But that ISN'T Monkey Island. LeChuck is supposed to be SCARY, not funny. The relationship between Guybrush and Elaine, while a little shallow, admittedly, is supposed to feel genuine.

 

It worries me for future SE's. Monkey 2 at times is scary and foreboding from the end part in the Tunnels to the Voodoo Priest and it's all around dark atmosphere and it would tear me up inside if the voices were not taken seriously and portrayed cartoony and over the top. Your right that Monkey Island always walked that fine line between funny and serious and I think the new team may have not realised this. But the most important thing here is what does Ron Gilbert think about the overall visual changes and voices?

 

I don't want to come across too negative or picky either. And I hope everyone buys the game because for the most part the pluses outweigh the negative and am very happy that LucasArts took a risk and did this but as a huge fan of the series I think I have a right to want this game to be done right and with respect for the original spirit and vision.

[SyntheticGerbil]

It worries me for future SE's. Monkey 2 at times is scary and foreboding from the end part in the Tunnels to the Voodoo Priest and it's all around dark atmosphere and it would tear me up inside if the voices were not taken seriously and portrayed cartoony and over the top. Your right that Monkey Island always walked that fine line between funny and serious and I think the new team may have not realised this. But the most important thing here is what does Ron Gilbert think about the overall visual changes and voices?

 

Sorry to hear about all the comedy they attempted to inject into the voices, but I want to sort of go off topic and encourage everyone to listen to this Highland rendition of the music for the Underground Tunnels:

http://www.scummbar.com/mi2/MI2-CD2/16%20-%20The%20Underground%20Tunnels.mp3

 

I can never get enough of it. It's spot on for bringing the creepy yet still piratey, earnest, and somewhat goofy Monkey Island mood.

[Guy.brush]

I have no problem with the voices so far. I noticed the white noise around some of the cut-outs in backgrounds too. But there is so much good in most of the background art that it doesn't bother me too much. I'm too old to think that you could get something like MI:SE without compromising somewhere or in someway.

I really like the little touches in Melee Town, it feels much more like a caribbean harbor now.

Only thing in Melee town that irked me a little was the church. It feels like it was drawn by a newbie trying to hard to get it anally correct compared to the original background. It could've used some more artistic touches.

[Silvor]

Zak McKracken

 

Both Lucasarts and even Dominic Armato have stated several times that some of the dialogue was difficult due to the fact that it was never meant to be spoken.

 

If you look that deeply into the dialogue of other Lucasarts talkie games I'm sure you'll find voices that you're upset with there as well.

 

There was absolutely no way they could please people 100% with this.

Even if you loved all the voices, somebody else would have an issue with some of it. That's just the way it is.

 

Oh and by the way, ever consider that other people have different opinions on the games original spirit and vision? Because I'm pretty sure that varies wildly.

[andygeers]

I'm going to paraphrase your points for cleanliness and clarity, then post my opinions of your opinions

...

4. Wow, I really disagree with you on most of these points. Love all the voice work!

 

Roll on Monkey Island 2: SE

 

Personally, I agree! I can understand why people think some of the line readings are a bit off, but I think the comedy pirates were always supposed to be comic, and I think the voice casting is absolutely brilliant!

 

I do, however, agree that the controls suck - I can cope with most of it, it's just the combining inventory items thing that is really annoying now.

[SyntheticGerbil]

So I guess to sum up, some people will have criticisms about the voices, art, and laziness of the SE team and then on the other side the former people are said that they would have never been satisfied in the first no matter what.

 

Interesting. This is getting a bit too much like Special Edition Star Wars to me.

[Silvor]

I don't really think we're in a position to know if the team was lazy or not.

I myself don't think they were, maybe experience, budget and the overall scope of the project and the sort has something to do with the way it came out.

Accusing people of being lazy is kinda rude tough I think.

[SyntheticGerbil]

So it's either I agree with you that they weren't lazy or I'm rude?

 

Well call me rude.

[Guy.brush]

Well my guess is that the art director for this project was just glad that they got the project off the ground and therefore might've been a bit reluctant to push deadlines back and force the artists to repaint a background if some little thing was off. Also working with newbies from their Singapore division might've been a requirement by management to cut the costs.

Some of the cut-out errors seem to have happened after the backgrounds were drawn and somebody 'split them up to match the scumm rooms.

So are there backgrounds that are far from perfect: YES.

(Stan's font really is a shame)

Is the overwhelming number of backgrounds good or very good: YES.

 

It's the nature of things with projects like this. I don't doubt that a comitted team of dedicated fans with "endless" time on their hands could polish this a little better than their low-budget team could, but at least we got a more than decent effort I can enjoy

Don't get me wrong. I would love for a "mod team" to polish everything and bring the quality level to 100% in every screen. But people tend to underestimate how much more work it is to make a artwork look good in 1080p+. It really is a different ballgame. For a typical screen I'd say you need 1 day for a rough template, then another one for fine-tuning and one for coloring, lighting. That's at least 3 days for each background. How many rooms are there? 99? that's 99x3= 300 days. If you have 3 dedicated artists you could do it in 4 months fulltime work maybe. But it is a lot of effort.

And I'd rather have them start work on MI2:SE than to get every screen in MI to be anally perfect.

[parabolee]

But it is a lot of effort.

And I'd rather have them start work on MI2:SE than to get every screen in MI to be anally perfect.

 

Especially as it seems it's going to be easy for us to hack and create our own perfect version

[Guy.brush]

oh btw, the Guybrush digging up the Lucas logo seems to be there. I just got him before the blurry high.res Monkey Island background came up. I dunno exactly what I did, just clicked with the mouse during the LucasArts logo and there he was. It was just too fast. Seems to be a bug.

[SyntheticGerbil]

Well my guess is that the art director for this project was just glad that they got the project off the ground and therefore might've been a bit reluctant to push deadlines back and force the artists to repaint a background if some little thing was off. Also working with newbies from their Singapore division might've been a requirement by management to cut the costs.

Some of the cut-out errors seem to have happened after the backgrounds were drawn and somebody 'split them up to match the scumm rooms.

So are there backgrounds that are far from perfect: YES.

(Stan's font really is a shame)

Is the overwhelming number of backgrounds good or very good: YES.

 

Okay I can wrap my head around that. I do get the idea the art director kind of sucked either way because no doubt at least one of the artists (or more) on the supposed 3 person art team was talented, but it seems the person in charge could have made some better decisions on what was appropriate for the game. *I think* in the time they were finishing and didn't have a final release day they could have put some finishing touches and went through quality control though either way. Things like pixel garbage and unfinished parts make your team appear sloppy in the end, whether you had a certain budget and time or not. Years later, when people forget about the game's release period and budget, this stuff is scrutinized much harder. Much how a lot of The Dig doesn't hold up on retrospect, but people were apparently clamoring to buy it when it came out.

 

The worst thing going for this game is being a budget remake when parts of it, such as rerecording music and newly recorded voices aren't really things people do in budget title, and it becomes frustrating, especially when The Secret of Monkey Island was first released it was an AAA title.

 

Speaking of laziness, did they fix the sky on this redone background for the final game?

(top one, sorry I had to use a lo-res image because I could only find super high res instead, which would break the thread.)

 

It looks like whoever did it completely forgot to fill in the sky and his sketchy soft photoshop brush stuff made it in instead. The white from that cloud or whatever cuts into the ground on the cliff. Very sloppy.

[Haggis]

I just wanted to say that the sound effects in the special edition are really realistic. When the piranha poodles were barking, my cat woke up and was on alert mode, until I poisoned them. I guess they must have used real dogs to record that sound!