The Penal Zone - yet another reaction thread

[ATMachine]

So.... yeah.

First of all, mad props to Jared Emerson-Johnson for the awesome score. It was eminently hummable and suitably melodic, while also feeling very electronic, very 70's SF-esque. This is a pretty amazing feat, because "hummable" and "70's SF music" normally fit together about as well as chocolate ice cream and mayonnaise (for anything in the time span predating Star Wars, that is).

I loved all the new graphic effects: the film grain filter and real time shadows etc. (The fact that Sam's suit now has a weave amuses me greatly, for some reason.) Am I the only one around here who can play this baby on graphics level 9?

The cursor is Sam's hand now. (And, when you're in Max Mode, it's Max's hand--a nice touch!) THANK YOU, Telltale, for FINALLY incorporating this feature from Hit the Road and the late, lamented Freelance Police. I've only been begging for this little detail for, what, six years and three seasons?

Voice acting, again, superb. David Nowlin and William Kasten have really hit their stride with practice. And Roger L Jackson brings the house down as Skun-ka'pe.

I was rather bemused by the Nazi-style banners (with the letters SA in black, instead of a swastika) in Skun-ka'pe's ship. I wonder if that'll cause any problems in the (presumably inevitable) German localization? After all, SA can also stand for the Sturmabteilung (Hitler's Brownshirts)...

[Hassat Hunter]

I am sure if it was majorly offensive to Germans, the new interns would have notified them of that...

...or maybe they actually added that in intentionally to upset countrymen.

[Katsuro]

Originally Posted by Hassat Hunter

...or maybe they actually added that in intentionally to upset countrymen.

teehee~

[Laserschwert]

Originally Posted by Hassat Hunter

I am sure if it was majorly offensive to Germans, the new interns would have notified them of that...

Actually, we don't care... it's just the stupid law over here.

[OzzieMonkey]

Originally Posted by ATMachine

) Am I the only one around here who can play this baby on graphics level 9?

No, definitely not. But it seems like there are a lot more problems with this than there were for TMI, and that seemed to be slow on a lot of computers. Aren't the system requirements the same as Tales? I can run both on the highest possible settings for my monitor, the game is not a hardcore fps, it's strange that someone with a 5850 radeon card got framerate issues, when I have a 4850 and I'm playing it perfectly on full blast (mind you, I'm running on windowed mode, but still).

[ATMachine]

Originally Posted by Laserschwert

Actually, we don't care... it's just the stupid law over here.

Yeah it's the legal aspects I was worried about. I don't know what German law is regarding video games that have parodies of Nazi logos, but actual Nazi logos get banned pretty hard.

[Leak]

Originally Posted by ATMachine

Am I the only one around here who can play this baby on graphics level 9?

Sorry to disappoint you, but - no.

Originally Posted by OzzieMonkey

I can run both on the highest possible settings for my monitor, the game is not a hardcore fps, it's strange that someone with a 5850 radeon card got framerate issues, when I have a 4850 and I'm playing it perfectly on full blast (mind you, I'm running on windowed mode, but still).

Yeah, well - playing in windowed mode means zero anti-aliasing; I'm pretty sure that's gonna make a world of a difference framerate-wise...

np: Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip - Inert Explosions (Logic Of Chance)

[Hassat Hunter]

Most FPS issues seem to come from powerful PC's bottlenecked by inferior graphics cards (as usual). Still these days (2010) people don't really have that much understanding of what is in their PC.

And I think it's more prominently here because adventures in general aren't as demanding as, say, RTS and FPS, whose gamers need to pay attention to that at all times to run their games (*sigh*).

I mean; you got a Quad-Core, 4+GB memory and run a GeForceFX8xxx or older? Seriously?
(Okay, well, I could see it if it was a 8800GTS, but otherwise...)

[stemot]

I'm running on graphics level 9 and it never dips from 60fps. I could see why the new graphics would cause problems on older hardware though.

[OzzieMonkey]

Originally Posted by Leak

Yeah, well - playing in windowed mode means zero anti-aliasing; I'm pretty sure that's gonna make a world of a difference framerate-wise...

Wait, what? Is that just the smoothing of jagged edges, cause I still have that. I don't see a single difference between windowed and full screen (other than the mouse is much better windowed), so is that what you meant?

[Leak]

Originally Posted by OzzieMonkey

Wait, what? Is that just the smoothing of jagged edges, cause I still have that. I don't see a single difference between windowed and full screen (other than the mouse is much better windowed), so is that what you meant?

Yeah, it's been my experience at least with ATI cards on Windows XP and now 7 that anti-aliasing simply doesn't work in a window.

EDIT: Okay, after some testing it appears that this is in Windows XP only, it does work in a window in 7 - I guess WDDM does allow it.

np: Nice Nice - One Hit (Extra Wow)

[OzzieMonkey]

Originally Posted by Leak

Yeah, it's been my experience at least with ATI cards on Windows XP and now 7 that anti-aliasing simply doesn't work in a window.

EDIT: Okay, after some testing it appears that this is in Windows XP only, it does work in a window in 7 - I guess WDDM does allow it.

np: Nice Nice - One Hit (Extra Wow)

Well, I have Windows Vista, so I guess That's why I still have it.

[Vainamoinen]

Originally Posted by ATMachine

I was rather bemused by the Nazi-style banners (with the letters SA in black, instead of a swastika) in Skun-ka'pe's ship. I wonder if that'll cause any problems in the (presumably inevitable) German localization? After all, SA can also stand for the Sturmabteilung (Hitler's Brownshirts)...

Well, I noticed these banners too, and I have almost stopped worrying about the German localization (season 2 is about to be released in a localized version on April 30 - talk about being late!). In fact, a swastika would have been the real problem (as they are expressly prohibited in Germany). The letters "SA" on these backgrounds could, however, be a problem to some players. I don't think they'd get the joke, and that's the moment when my fellow countrymen and -women might be offended. Nevertheless, these flags are so marginal and almost inexistent in the game... I'd say just leave them in. I mean, for the localized German version in late 2012.