I think we've gotten a tiny bit off the main point, which is that Microids has been bought out. I personally welcome our new alien overlords, if for no other reason than that I personally feel that Still Life II was a bit of a letdown. Personally, I feel they rushed it out the door, and in doing so gave us something that utterly fails to carry the torch for one of my favourite adventure games of the last decade. If the franchise has been deep-sixed because of it, perhaps it's just as well.
As for Syberia III without Benoit Sokal, from what I've seen, he hasn't exactly been batting them out of the park lately himself. His games have always been pretty but fundamentally flawed in places, especially in the writing stages, as his stories are intriguing and on the whole emotionally challenging but ultimately unrewarding. His ideas about what makes for an uplifting and cathartic ending are interesting, to say the least, but I'm inclined to think he's afraid to write a straight happy ending.
So if a Syberia III project actually does see the light of day without Sokal involved, I for one would take a look on those grounds alone. I think Benoit is a guy with a lot of interesting ideas, but his narrative sensibilities leave me a bit cold. An adventure with Kate Walker moving on from the rather disappointing ending to Syberia II would be a very welcome thing, in my books. Benoit isn't the only artist in the world who can draw interesting villages and doohickeys.
And as always, the argument of 2.5D vs 3D rears it's pixelated head. I think there has been enough proof in gaming genres outside of AGs that proves conclusively that 3D adventures can be every bit as beautiful and immersive as classic 2D and 2.5D adventures, given the right budget and art direction. Personally, I loved the graphics in Dreamfall, and we're a few years on from that now. We're just not seeing enough developers willing to risk the big budget on such a narrow market. I still have my hopes, though.
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