New Leisure Suit Larry Games with Al Lowe?!

[Chyron8472]

I know. I've just been too lazy/busy to mess with it yet.

[MtnPeak]

What I love most about the Larry Reloaded game is that it will be seen by so many more new people, especially younger players. (But hopefully not too young, given the mature subject matter and nudity, which this game will have. Hehe.) Most people under a certain age would never consider downloading or playing a game with blocky, low res graphics, so it is great that this new game will have all new graphics and will be available on multiple platforms. Classic adventure series like this one live on, in a way, only so far as there are still new people playing them. This new Larry game will expand the fan base, and is not meant to merely give existing, nostalgic Larry fans a warm and fuzzy feeling, though it should do that too.

[DAISHI]

Originally Posted by exo

Stop for a moment and consider game remakes as a "genre". Now, are there any that come to mind where people liked them better than the original?

I mean... we have mostly all played the original LSL here, right? We know what to expect. We know the puzzles. We know the jokes. So many of us will go into the game with two things on our minds.

1: How does this compare to original?
2: Does the new content fit in the game?

The rules of nostalgia dictate that the older game goes into the comparison with a distinct advantage.

That said, I have *never* heard anyone play a remake and call it "an amazing game". It has to fight the up hill battle of familiarity (how amazing can a game be that you have already played before) and nostalgia (the game has to be different enough to be a remake without being so different it alienates the original fans).

I'm not sure that I would believe that sales of the old games would affect the remake. When VU first released the packs of remakes, the informal stats I saw where that sales were predominately driven by people who had played them before, and wanted to play them again on modern systems, but either lacked the knowledge of setting up dosbox, no longer had the games, or just hadn't cared enough to look into it before seeing a packaged version on the shelf.

personally, I did not run across any forum posts or conversations where someone said they had just discovered these games due to them being available again... although I am sure there were some of them out there, I do believe it was a minority of the overall purchases.

Also, I'm not sure how many gog users aren't familiar with these older games.... when the basis of what you sell is old games, your primary consumer base is going to be people who enjoy older games. I tend to wonder how many people stumbled across gog, and then stumbled across larry, and then said - sure, I'll give that a shot.

I definitely prefer playing the King's Quest remake to the original. lol.

[inm8#2]

The LSL Reloaded Alpha came early.

Telltale got a shout out in the update.

[Jennifer]

Originally Posted by inm8#2

The LSL Reloaded Alpha came early.

Telltale got a shout out in the update.

Ah, nice. I just got my alpha key.

I'll post my thoughts once I've given it go.
_____

OK, I just finished playing as much as possible. It's not completable, but it has most of the puzzles in place. It's alleviated my concerns about the progress, but I'm sure it won't for others since there is a lot missing still. The disco is not done, you can get the card but walk right past the bouncer, and there's no way to select the card in inventory as it's just marked with a ?, so this means the whole section where Larry gets tied up which lets you get the rope/ribbon is missing. On the flip side, the necessary inventory items are already in your inventory, so you can lean over the railing in Lefty's alley to get the Spanish Fly. Unfortunately, there's no way to use it, since the security girl isn't at her post. However, you can activate her close-up by using the hand icon above the security desk. It's weird to look at her and have the narrator say "It's not much to look at" though. Because of this, it means that you can't press the button behind the security desk, so you can't get up to Eve to finish the game. I tried clicking all over the desk, and just using the penthouse elevator, but the elevator doesn't seem to be a useable object.

The alpha does reveal some new stuff though, like extra narration for the areas Larry visits, plus slightly different puzzles (namely the Lefty's backroom password puzzle and the Spanish Fly puzzle, but I won't spoil their new solutions here).

There's also a bunch of black and white animatic style placeholder animations for many characters (including some for Larry), and the Caberet location isn't finished either (the disco and the caberet also don't seem to have any clickable exits, so I had to reload my saved game to get out of them.

The deaths also seem to be the kind where you start right back where you left off, but this shouldn't bother most people since you can still save and reload if you want to (I kept doing it myself out of force of habit). The scoring system also didn't work in this alpha, and the gambling system didn't work either (so there was no way to earn extra money). There's no voice acting (well, some placeholder ones: I noticed a placeholder narrator and a placeholder patron in Lefty's) yet either (although the team stated this one already in the news about the alpha release).

Some of the death animations weren't there either, and only a blue screen was there (and you had to cycle your icons to Exit to get out of it), like the Sierra characters rebuilding center for example.

I did like one hint at what's to come for the money system, and that was the ability to earn money in machines at the store (of course, you can't do that yet in the alpha). The Angry Broads game parody game in the store was pretty funny too, even if it was just a short animation.

The art and character animation though is great (even the placeholder animation), and the new dialog fit in well (which shouldn't be a surprise since Al and Josh are working on it). I can't comment on the music though, since I couldn't get a good listen to most of it since there was a bug that had the music play over the music from the last scene when ever you loaded a save game.

Oh, and there's an updated age verification system that's for American pop culture from the 90's and early 2000's, along with humorous wrong answers like in the original and the remake (and, luckily Ctrl-Alt-X still works to skip it altogether).

The good thing about this alpha is that, even if you're still a bit skeptical that they'll be able to make an April release after playing this, you can rest assured that the game is actually forming pretty well. It does look like we'll have a good to great final product out of this.

[flesk]

Awesome. I kind of regret not pledging $25 more now.

[barchetta]

How nice is it that (for the first time ever?) you get a look 'behind the scenes' how an adventure game is coming to life bit by bit?!

[flesk]

Originally Posted by barchetta

How nice is it that (for the first time ever?) you get a look 'behind the scenes' how an adventure game is coming to life bit by bit?!

It's cool, but of all the adventure game kickstarters I've backed Double Fine Adventure gives you a far better look at it than anything else. Granted updates have been a bit slow lately with Amnesia Fortnight and the Minecraft documentary, but still.

[MusicallyInspired]

Absolutely. DFA's ongoing video documentary has been more illuminating than any other method I know. It's half of the appeal of the whole project.

[flesk]

Not to mention the forum threads started by various team members early on in the project where they explained in great detail and answered questions about their involvement with the process.

[MtnPeak]

Unfortunately I didn't pledge enough to be able to test the Alpha version of Larry Reloaded, but I have heard from several people who did. I'm told the game is very fun, looks beautiful, and has some really clever writing. The live music recordings and voices haven't yet been added.

Very positive reactions to this early version of the game. I'm told it looks like it'll be a winner. Adventure gamers should be in for a treat with this one.

I can't wait till it is released in a few months. I hope many new gamers get to experience the fun of a true Leisure Suit Larry game.

[MtnPeak]

Apparently the music pieces in the Alpha version are just placeholders (for what will soon be recorded) and some were from the old VGA version put in temporarily to give the player a sense for what the game will be like with music. Here's more info on what to expect in the new Larry ReLOADed game:
(From a poster named aberdorf)

The soundtrack will be performed by the LNJO-Late Night Jazz Orchestra, so I think the sax part is safe. In fact, on the Orchestra's page there's a post saying:

"Announcing LNJO's guest vocalist on our upcoming video game recording session: Melora Hardin (yes, seriously)! Music by Austin Wintory!! #leisuresuitlarry #GoTeamLNJO"

I'll be keeping an eye at their Facebook page for more news about the Larry soundtrack: http://www.facebook.com/LNJOBand

By the way, the recording to the soundtrack will start, according to a Reddit user who revealed the Orchestra would play hours before the actual announcement, will be on March 11.

[MtnPeak]

Love the first sample of the live music recording!!!

One last tidbit before I turn back to my spreadsheets. Al recorded Larry’s Theme with his MOJO Big Band just a few days ago, and although we don’t have a final mix for you yet, we thought you might enjoy it. Here it is.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/replaygame/...eSuitLarry.mp3

Here's an excerpt from Josh Mandel's latest update...

I think it’s safe to say that there wasn’t an individual at Replay or N-Fusion who wasn’t as nervous as hell about this. Alpha versions are not intended for viewing by the general public, and for good reason. We don’t want people rushing to judgment about the final product based on programming, art, music, sound, and text that are incomplete. Speaking only for myself here (although I’m sure I’m not alone), I was fairly certain that we would be inundated with emails asking us about features, puzzles, scenes, and characters that aren’t in the alpha.

Instead, the response blew us all away. The vast majority of commenters clearly had no trouble understanding the concept of an alpha, and, better yet, were overwhelmingly supportive of our efforts. That’s not to say there aren’t issues people have brought up, and we’re listening to them.

But most of all, I think the alpha has proven something to that small, vocal contingent who’ve been doubting that we were serious about bringing Sierra On-Line gameplay, and Larry in particular, back to life.

...

We had an interesting little hiccup in the Breath Spray production a couple of weeks ago: on the label, we had text that included the words “Contains industrial-strength breath spray.” The company that produces the custom-printed spray contacted Kevin Kettler and said, “The FDA is refusing to allow us to put that on the label.” So we did a rewrite, but Kevin pointed out that while Larry has been rejected by many women over the years, this is the first time he was actually rejected by the government as well!

...

Read the whole thing here:
https://forums.replaygamesinc.com/vi...php?f=12&t=793

[Leplaya]

Holy smokes...I freaking loved that orchestrated version of Larry's theme. It was a blast to my ears(in a good way). How much longer are we going to have to wait for this game?

[Jennifer]

Originally Posted by Leplaya

Holy smokes...I freaking loved that orchestrated version of Larry's theme. It was a blast to my ears(in a good way). How much longer are we going to have to wait for this game?

I love that version of the theme too. They weren't kidding when they said that the new rendition of the Larry theme was amazing. I've added it to my WinAmp playlist.

The game's supposed to come out in April, so as long as there aren't any more delays, we won't have to wait much longer.

[MtnPeak]

My prediction is May, but I want them to take as much time as they need.

I also wonder what is going to happen with the whole nudity question and the Apple App Store.

Apparently they decided to include nudity (which I'm sure will be well-received by many players), though I'm not sure if it's in the form of hidden "easter eggs." I think Josh Mandel said on the Replay Games forum that they sought to find a way to make the nudity seem integral to the plot, had difficulty in finding a way, then ended up saying "to hell with it" and made it unapologetically gratuitous.

Apparently Apple's App Store approval process can be a bit arbitrary, or can seem that way from the outside. They have products on there now with lots of actual nudity (eg, Tender Loving Care), but also reserve the right to reject games with sexual content. So who knows?

I do all my forum commenting and web surfing on the iPhone (not often at a home office desk these days) I'm holding as I type this, and was planning to play the new Larry game on here as well. I hope iOS users don't have to get a watered down version because of silly Apple rules. Apple should just put a 17+ designation on the game's store description.

[Leplaya]

A game is a game, no matter how long it takes for the development of it to be 100% completed. The people working on this game know what they are doing, they want to be sure that nothing goes wrong when they get around to releasing this game. I think the game might be finished and released around June, but thats my two cents.

Although, regarding on the content. I am pretty sure there might be a slight chance of there being an option of censoring or uncensoring the game's nudity(correct me if I'm wrong, there wasn't much nudity in the first Larry game was there?). Most games nowadays get away with anything, so Larry shouldn't have a problem with the censorship. Although, my regard is this. Are there going to be cheats for this? Some people I know are hoping that there are a few cheats to get some cash since none of them are good with gambling.

[Blackthorne519]

It's called ReLOADed... get it.. Load... you know what a load is? Heh heh heh. ReLOADed. Wow. Heh. Load.


Bt

[MtnPeak]

Originally Posted by Leplaya

Although, regarding on the content. I am pretty sure there might be a slight chance of there being an option of censoring or uncensoring the game's nudity(correct me if I'm wrong, there wasn't much nudity in the first Larry game was there?). Most games nowadays get away with anything, so Larry shouldn't have a problem with the censorship. Although, my regard is this. Are there going to be cheats for this? Some people I know are hoping that there are a few cheats to get some cash since none of them are good with gambling.

Yeah, there was not as much nudity in the original Larry game. I think there was only some at the end when Eve was naked in the Jacuzzi, and you could turn off the water jets which had been creating bubbles covering her breasts. Apparently Replay is adding more nudity on top of that. All tasteful and nothing porno/explicit, of course; this is a respectable game, after all. :-p

Anyway, sounds like the nudity is a go for PC and other versions, and the only question is what will happen with the iOS version.

Also, I believe Josh Mandel (or someone) said on the Replay forum that there would be a gambling cheat, though I could be remembering wrong.

[Leplaya]

Originally Posted by MtnPeak

Also, I believe Josh Mandel (or someone) said on the Replay forum that there would be a gambling cheat, though I could be remembering wrong.

Hopefully there will be a gambling cheat. I cant play blackjack to save my life.