Good Old Games Sale Spotlight

[Vainamoinen]

Have spent the last hour with the Giana Sisters (or, to be absolutely precise, only one of them). Not a GOG purchase, but my first ever kickstarter backer reward!

I LOVE it up to now. It's a pity that they only plotted in-game rewards for collecting jewels until after the game was almost finished. So that's not really the satisfying bit of the game. The rest though... hmmmmmmmmm. Great, great stuff.

[der_ketzer]

Originally Posted by Vainamoinen

Have spent the last hour with the Giana Sisters (or, to be absolutely precise, only one of them). Not a GOG purchase, but my first ever kickstarter backer reward!

I LOVE it up to now. It's a pity that they only plotted in-game rewards for collecting jewels until after the game was almost finished. So that's not really the satisfying bit of the game. The rest though... hmmmmmmmmm. Great, great stuff.

Have they sent you a Steam key too? If so: can I have it since you will not use it?

/me is shamelessly begging.

[Woodsyblue]

Here is some promising GOG related news: GOG close to announcing deal with one of three major publishers.

GOG are apparently close to announcing a deal to acquire classic (and probably modern) games from either Microsoft, Take-Two, or LucasArts. If they get LucasArts' back catalog I may just explode with happy.

[Jennifer]

If it's LucasArts, my wallet will be hurting in the near future.

[Vainamoinen]

Oh would these guys finally get Trackmania Original on board (not sure if Nadeo still has the rights or if it's Oopsisoft). I want my mother to play that.

I'd have nothing against playing take-two's back catalog of YDKJ titles. Still, I'd like the German versions, which are COMPLETELY different and won't be on GOG anytime ever. Apart from MAYBE BioShock with no DRM, I'm not sure that company is of any interest to me. Oblivion, maybe, because I have longed for another open world experience for some time now, being caged in by adventure/Telltale environments - but the lack of a strong story has killed so many open worlds for me, most of all in Gothic 3.

LucasArts, well, yeah, LucasArts. I've got my 10 adventures CD, which still works peachy with ScummVM, and even Full Throttle works halfway decent with the help of this genius little tool, so the only adventures I miss playing are Grim Fandango and Curse of Monkey Island. Now Grim Fandango I got to ALMOST work these last years. Then it started crashing, but by then I was already so unnerved by the ludicrous controls that I didn't want to continue anyway. That leaves me with Curse and only Curse, which by now I've bought twice. So, also not a deal I look forward to too much.

I thought that Microsoft would be the most interesting candidate, but after going through their back catalog, I found mostly duds. So... not interested in this announcement.

[Darth Marsden]

A little lost in the crowd, but Tiny and Big: Grandma's Leftovers is on offer at 60% off.

Worth getting at that price? I've heard conflicting thoughts on it.

[Vainamoinen]

Quoting my review from gog.com:

It's not the length... it's the design (three stars)

"Tiny & Big: Grandpa's Leftovers". No, seriously, take a look at that title again. Not that I have anything against "childish" stories in games, but this does strike me as unimaginative. I didn't expect a strong narrative in this game, but at least a few likeable, stereotypical, halfway interestingly designed characters. You will find nothing of the kind here. Tiny's entire role is to claim his underwear, Big is the meanie and tries to kill him. Tiny has some goggles and his gear, Big has telekinetic superpowers. That's all there is to know, and that makes every cutscene a waste of time. The unintelligible babble of the characters with understandable subtitles also has been done to death, from Banjo-Kazooie to Rayman. I admit, I shudder when I see this game compared to Psychonauts. Entirely different league.

Childish title and insultingly lackluster story aside: The gameplay is hardly for kids. You can do a lot of interesting things with the physics engine, no doubt about that. And the game gives you just the right tools to handle the environment, without delay and swift controls. Fun right there. The idea to literally collect the game's soundtrack in the form of cassettes also deserves honorary mention. The downside is that levels lose a bit of individuality as the same music is played over and over. If you're looking for other collectibles than cassettes: They actually expect you to collect "boring stones" (that is indeed the name of the collectible). Again, the designers slap themselves in the face with a vengeance. Where's the fun in that?

The way the game saves progress must also be called disadvantageous. During levels 2 to 5, the game saves automatically and relatively often at crucial waypoints; but the player has no idea when and where these points are. Also, leave the game and your progress in the respective level is lost. It's the nature of the engine that you die relatively often - and on purpose if you've maneuvered yourself into frequent unsolvable situations - so this is a source of constant motivation loss.

T&B will give you four rather enjoyable levels. Two small beginner's levels and a boss fight do not really count as entire levels, so the advertised six is a rather optimistic count. That's all right, however. Six to seven hours are OK for the price. But you might leave the game thinking that with exactly the same budget, effort and approach, a much better game could have emerged if it was better designed.

[Darth Marsden]

Hmm... $3.99 for that doesn't sound too bad. Think I'll give it a go. Thanks, Vain.

[flesk]

I can understand the comparison to Psychonauts if you disregard everything from Psychonauts but the camp ground hub. It's a bit similar to that in that some of the levels are huge with lots of collectibles that might make you want to revisit them again several times. And it's good fun to just mess around without worrying about progressing the story

It's very lacking on the story part though, and I personally didn't feel like it offered enough rewards to pull me through the later and harder levels where I would die repeatedly. And I'm not good enough at platformers to keep playing for very long when I'm not able to make progress.

Still, I've spent 4.4 hours playing it on Steam, of which at least 3 hours were very enjoyable. I'll probably revisit at least the first level, since that's where I had the most fun, and some of the hard to reach areas I saw from afar looked intriguing.

[Gibbeynator]

Originally Posted by Woodsyblue

Here is some promising GOG related news: GOG close to announcing deal with one of three major publishers.

GOG are apparently close to announcing a deal to acquire classic (and probably modern) games from either Microsoft, Take-Two, or LucasArts. If they get LucasArts' back catalog I may just explode with happy.

Probably going to be Take-Two. I'm not sure what games Microsoft has that would be worth putting on GOG, and LucasArts hates us.

[der_ketzer]

Originally Posted by Darth Marsden

A little lost in the crowd, but Tiny and Big: Grandma's Leftovers is on offer at 60% off.

Worth getting at that price? I've heard conflicting thoughts on it.

The game is as long as you want it. If you don't care for collecting boring stones (the game calls them that, not me) or the music tapes or find the secrets in the levels it will be around 2 hours. I have been playing it on and off for 4 hours now and I haven't even touched level 3 of 6.
And I really love it.

[Darth Marsden]

Well I'm downloading it now, so I guess we'll find out!

Oh, and Giana Sisters is actually pretty good. It's one of those 'frustrating but fun' games that I love and loathe so much. Finding all the hidden gems is proving to be an absolute bitch in places, and I died way to often in Level 4, but whatever. I'll keep going, but won't try going for all the gems until there's a walkthrough - for when I get stuck. AND NOT BEFORE.

Hint for Level 2: In the tunnel after the 'castle', look at the rock above it. One section's cracked - use the fire-charge move to crack it and bounce your way up.

[Vainamoinen]

I think I'd rather have a hint for level 4 (?). There's a bridge in the background and I THINK I have to walk over it, but I don't know how.

[Darth Marsden]

Pssh. Best of luck with that one - it's the one I kept dying on. I was also one giant gem short, so GRR.

EDIT: Tiny and Big. Hmm. Not one I'll keep playing. I'm not a huge fan of physics puzzlers, but I thought this one might get me into it. Eh, not so much. It's not a terrible game, just very repetitive.

[flesk]

Originally Posted by Gibbeynator

I'm not sure what games Microsoft has that would be worth putting on GOG

Age of Empires
Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings
Age of Empires II: The Conquerors
Age of Mythology
Age of Mythology: The Titans

I love those games, and would buy them all on GOG if I didn't own physical copies.

[Vainamoinen]

Originally Posted by Darth Marsden

Pssh. Best of luck with that one - it's the one I kept dying on. I was also one giant gem short, so GRR.

Finished it with a LOT of gems missing. That level was a bitch, and it was only number 4?!?

[Jennifer]

Originally Posted by Vainamoinen

LucasArts, well, yeah, LucasArts. I've got my 10 adventures CD, which still works peachy with ScummVM, and even Full Throttle works halfway decent with the help of this genius little tool, so the only adventures I miss playing are Grim Fandango and Curse of Monkey Island. Now Grim Fandango I got to ALMOST work these last years. Then it started crashing, but by then I was already so unnerved by the ludicrous controls that I didn't want to continue anyway. That leaves me with Curse and only Curse, which by now I've bought twice. So, also not a deal I look forward to too much.

It sounds like it's been a while since you used it (since Full Throttle plays pretty much spot-on now), but The Curse of Monkey Island also plays great in ScummVM. Also, Grim Fandango now plays great in ScummVM's sister project, ResidualVM. For Grim, ResidualVM really is the best choice for modern machines, as it's a real hassle to get working (as you mentioned). Grim works wonderfully with ResidualVM though. I've completed it twice on Windows 7 64-bit with ResidualVM, and the program never crashed once.

Originally Posted by Vainamoinen

I thought that Microsoft would be the most interesting candidate, but after going through their back catalog, I found mostly duds. So... not interested in this announcement.

Microsoft purchased so many companies over the years though, that there's bound to be some gems in their back catalog (like with Activision and the Sierra/Infocom games).

[Gibbeynator]

Launching today on GOG (and not on Steam, as is legally required for everyone talking about this game to mention) is Incredipede. Standard $14.99 price tage, but it's currently down at $11.99 until November 1st.

Also, sometimes a picture can say a thousand words, but it only takes two to get me excited!

[Alcoremortis]

Originally Posted by flesk

Age of Empires
Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings
Age of Empires II: The Conquerors
Age of Mythology
Age of Mythology: The Titans

I love those games, and would buy them all on GOG if I didn't own physical copies.

Yes to all of these.

I never played Rise of Rome, so I'd at least buy that one. And I'd probably buy the others as well just because.

[lucidity02]

Originally Posted by Alcoremortis

Yes to all of these.

I never played Rise of Rome, so I'd at least buy that one. And I'd probably buy the others as well just because.

Are any of those games okay for beginners? I've been meaning to try XCOM because of the ridic amount of hoopla it's been getting, but then I remembered that I suck at strategy games and would probably need practice before even trying to jump into XCOM.