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MI2:SE steam update


LordTrilobite

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How I miss the days where you could just download an exe patch. To apply to the game you installed from disks.

 

 

 

Those borders would take a LOT longer than 10 minutes!

 

Ok, yeah, to clean up and make pretty. The Youtube guy just smoothed and blurred the originals. But really, I think you'd only have to etch outlines into them and it would fit the style nicely.

 

But still, if LucasArts are unable to make those borders, then it's clear they don't care about the game, because they're unwilling to put work into fixing it.

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Min jiffies is still very much turned on. Puzzles will still be too quick, Captain Dread will still be too slow.

 

The min jiffies were only disabled to allow Guybrush's animation of him hammering the nails into the coffin to be sped up, it has nothing to do with the timing of the puzzles.

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Surely it would've cost LucasArts a lot less money to supply one of us with pizza and beer for a couple of weeks while overseeing their project. It's clear that the people on these forums have a much deeper knowledge of Monkey Island than anyone currently working at LucasArts.

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It costs a paltry 7 pounds, they re-released an almost 20 year old game, that works on modern computers, that includes unseen concept art, that has been bugfixed after release and that has updated graphics, music and speech.

 

Its an almost ridiculous embarrassment of riches, a fanboy's dream and more than anyone would have thought possible a few years ago. And yet still we moan. Crazy.

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It costs a paltry 7 pounds, they re-released an almost 20 year old game, that works on modern computers, that includes unseen concept art, that has been bugfixed after release and that has updated graphics, music and speech.

 

Its an almost ridiculous embarrassment of riches, a fanboy's dream and more than anyone would have thought possible a few years ago. And yet still we moan. Crazy.

 

I have no problem with the SE apart from it being visibly rushed. I love it, but the care put in diminishes after Scabb Island (although, really, that's existent in the original anyway).

 

I'm also pretty obsessive over MIDI and the fact I can't use my own MIDI driver is pretty annoying.

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I think the special edition is great, fantastic even. I applaud Lucasarts for their fantastic efforts.

 

Still, moaning is important. If it's constructive, that is. They probably wouldn't have bothered with a patch if everyone just closed their ears during the Bone Song and just tried to enjoy the out-of-synchness. I'm glad people moan because of these imperfections since they are definitely fixable and there's no reason to just accept these bugs. The fans are the ultimate quality assurance team.

 

I moan because I care. It's almost a fan's responsibility. Not saying constant moaning and whining isn't annoying, though...

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It is indeed fantastic, and I love it. It's just that it could've been better, at no additional cost, if they had someone there who knew the game as well as we do. I am merely lamenting that fact. Wasted opportunity. Things like using the wrong MIDI instruments are still pretty poor, you have to admit, and the patch was for things that really should not have been released in that state in the first place so I don't see why LucasArts deserves applause for it. I've never had applause for fixing a website that was broken when I delivered it.

 

Don't get me wrong I do love what they've done, and I believe we do all share the same opinion of the SE, except elTee, who is very valuable to this community but seems to see this SE through rose-tinted glasses. There is stuff wrong with it that shouldn't be wrong with it, that's a simple fact.

 

Doesn't mean I'm not enjoying it, but LucasArts' idea of quality control is useless and certain parts will irritate me until they are fixed, if ever. This was never a problem with the classic LucasArts titles. In my mind, if you're going to remake a classic game, you need to include all the things that made it great in the first place, including the polished quality of MI2. Fail.

 

If they had the time to include audio commentary and concept art, none of which is essential, then they had time to get basics right, which is.

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It is indeed fantastic, and I love it. It's just that it could've been better, at no additional cost, if they had someone there who knew the game as well as we do. I am merely lamenting that fact. Wasted opportunity. Things like using the wrong MIDI instruments are still pretty poor, you have to admit, and the patch was for things that really should not have been released in that state in the first place so I don't see why LucasArts deserves applause for it. I've never had applause for fixing a website that was broken when I delivered it.

 

Don't get me wrong I do love what they've done, and I believe we do all share the same opinion of the SE, except elTee, who is very valuable to this community but seems to see this SE through rose-tinted glasses. There is stuff wrong with it that shouldn't be wrong with it, that's a simple fact.

 

Doesn't mean I'm not enjoying it, but LucasArts' idea of quality control is useless and certain parts will irritate me until they are fixed, if ever. This was never a problem with the classic LucasArts titles. In my mind, if you're going to remake a classic game, you need to include all the things that made it great in the first place, including the polished quality of MI2. Fail.

 

If they had the time to include audio commentary and concept art, none of which is essential, then they had time to get basics right, which is.

 

Rose-tinted glasses? As in, overly nostalgic? That sounds like everyone except me...

 

The point is, I'm treating this thing for what it is: an attempt by LucasArts to bring the game to a new generation of fans. When you compare it to the first SE, and take into account that they only had a year to make it in, then I think they've done a really excellent job. Because I'm not getting hung up on irrelevant details; some of you don't seem to be able to see the wood for the trees here. What's most important is the atmosphere, and they've got that exactly right in my opinion. That is far harder to achieve than anything else, and I'm glad they spent their development time on it.

 

There's much more to like here than there is to dislike, I'm utterly convinced of it. And I'm not the only one. I'm just trying to be rational about it.

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Sorry elTee if I hit a nerve, didn't mean to. I just found your review quite... happy... compared to the older mojo reviews which were quite honest!

 

Like I said, yes I love the SE, but I'm lamenting what should've been. That's all. And anyone who spends money on anything is entitled to give their opinion on it. Like you said, the atmosphere IS great, that's the most important thing. To me, a huge part of my love for the originals comes from the exceptional quality they had. This quality seems like a thing of the past for LucasArts and it makes me sad. I'm a sucker for painstaking attention to detail, and over the years I've come to expect just that from LucasArts. The new team has a long way to go still.

 

At the end of the day, do I want my 10 bucks back? Of course not! But it should be better than it is.

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You've not hit a nerve, I think this is an important debate - there's clearly a big split here between people who are satisfied with the SE, and people who think it doesn't live up to the original.

 

The way it breaks down to me is: yes, it could have been better. Most things could be! But it could have been so much worse that it doesn't even bear thinking about. Look at the first SE :)

 

Fundamentally, LucasArts exceeded my expectations with the game - which is more of a sad commentary on what I'd come to expect from LucasArts more than anything else, but nevertheless, it was better than I was expecting it to be, and better than it actually needed to be (in the eyes of LucasArts.) So I am happy, and I the review tried to project the enthusiasm and relief that I felt outwards. I really am sure that if I analysed the original in the same way that some people have analysed the SE, I would find a whole load of 'problems' with it - but it's just lodged in all of our memories as the perfect game. In the same way that I don't want to corrupt that memory, I don't particularly want to lessen my own enjoyment of the SE.

 

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I am happy to disagree with people because we're all on the same side, at the end of the day :)

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Although I understand that there are many irritating problems with the SE that should not be there, I also must say I understand where elTee is coming from. Generally put, it was a good game. And it gave youngins like me a chance to really play the game at all, which is invaluble (it was hard to hang around here when I knew only CMI and EMI; the SE's and Tales really helped out). The fundamentals were all there; I was able to see past the bone song fiasco and overly-fast timed puzzles and still call it the best game I've played in years. If these had been fixed? Well, then it'd have been the best game I'd played in a decade.

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Is there actually someone here who's disappointed with the SE? Not talking about the first one, obviously.

 

To me it feels like everyone agrees it was pretty great. Everyone seems to agree that there were some issues also. I think the only rift here is that the issues bother some people more than others. These things didn't bother me that much when playing through the game and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's just better to let Lucasarts know about them so they can improve.

 

Maybe it would be more effective if I just went to their Facebook page. The problem is that Mojo rocks and the Facebook doesn't. I guess the "worst" problems have now been fixed, though.

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Now that the unforgivable offences have been fixed in the second SE (like the removal of the intro from classic), I'm not that bothered by most other small problems it has. I think it's a really good remake. Though like has been said before, it should have been fixed from the day of the release. It's a missed opertunity.

 

And moaning is indeed important. If you strive for perfection, you may never actually achieve it, but things get improved along the way.

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Jeopando is right. We shouldn't feel like we're curmudgeons or picky or cynical because some of us choose to invest a little energy in talking about what could be better. Sure, it's am embarrassment of riches. Sure, even 3 years ago this project would have been unthinkable. I am jumping for joy at the idea that they actually did this. Still there are areas for improvement and some of them are things that could be improved without too much work, so they are well worth talking about - after all, many of those things have indeed been fixed in this latest patch.

 

What I do NOT agree with is thinking you know so much that you can attribute every flaw to some fundamental failing at LucasArts. It's never that simple. Your special edition not being perfect cannot simply be attributed to LucasArts being bad at what they do. It can be attributed to a handful of genuine mistakes, compromises made due to deadlines that almost all developers have to deal with and your own idealised expectations not being met. Some people here are desperate to maintain this 'LucasArts are bad' narrative and while I can understand their reasons, weaving the MI2 flaws into this narrative simply ain't working for me.

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What I do NOT agree with is thinking you know so much that you can attribute every flaw to some fundamental failing at LucasArts. It's never that simple. Your special edition not being perfect cannot simply be attributed to LucasArts being bad at what they do. It can be attributed to a handful of genuine mistakes, compromises made due to deadlines that almost all developers have to deal with and your own idealised expectations not being met. Some people here are desperate to maintain this 'LucasArts are bad' narrative and while I can understand their reasons, weaving the MI2 flaws into this narrative simply ain't working for me.

 

Yeah, I think this attitude informs part of my reaction to the complaints, in a way. I've seen enough from LucasArts over the last ten years or so to know when they're being 'bad' and when they're not, and this time, they're really not. This is the best we've got from them in a very long time.

 

I encourage everyone to speak their mind freely, whether they're happy or extremely upset about the SE, but for me, my enjoyment of the game was not harmed in the slightest by the issues that have been raised in this thread. It's not a case of 'ignorance is bliss' or even being some kind of LucasArts apologist, I'm just genuinely extremely satisfied :D

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