[Sughly]

Originally Posted by Fien

Gray Matter can be legally downloaded at
http://gamerunlimited.gamesplanet.co...r-2194-14.html
My first impression of the game is not altogether positive, I'm sorry to say. That contrived intro in the cheap graphic style of the now so popular casuals! And those non-descript descriptions come straight out of the adverage cookie-cutter adventure: "someone must read a lot" and "the fireplace hasn't been used in ages". The Gabriel Knight games grabbed me from the start, this one doesn't. But it's a Jane Jensen game, so I'm waiting for the story to kick in.

Pretty much my thoughts so far. I only just got my copy so I've only had a chance to play literally half an hour, so it's an extremely premature evaluation. That said though, I'm here in these forums rather than playing any more of it. I'm sure once the story starts to flesh out it will draw me in more but so far the game hasn't grabbed me at all.
I know people are defending certain elements of graphics and animations and whatnot, but the point still remains that previous JJ games ahve grabbed me from the very beginning and haven't let go. This one hasn't even come close to giving the same impression.

And those descriptions (so far) as Fien pointed out... bleh. Uninspiring, uninteresting. Like I said though, very early thoughts here. I actually quit on the vague comments. I went outside and she describes a plaque she saw. What plaque? A plaque about what? What the hell are you talking about woman!? (By the way, feel free to point me in the right direction someone, I really don't know what she's talking about!) After the vague descriptions inside the mansion I just had enough by then.

Originally Posted by Monolith

Already I can see the negative comments on animation as unjustified. What adventure game even had great animations? From what I see, the animation is better than most.
...Also the graphics are absolutely gorgeous. The quality of the models and the use of the latest shader technology makes it so polished. Glad to see the use of softshadows to create a nice transition between 2d and 3d.

Well, first of all there have been plenty of better looking character models, someone pointed out Book of Unwritten tales for instance, or for my more biased opinion, the numerous great 2D games surfacing which do a much more cleaner and professional job. Not trying to start a 2D vs. 3D debate, just pointing out that it's, IMO, getting better results for the AG budgets these days. Moving on...

It's not the be all and end all for these graphical problems, its true, and what someone jumped in to defend (along the lines of the game being a struggle to get made), it's a fair point to make. I would prefer the game as is then no game at all for sure! But that still doesn't mean that, as the die hard adventure fans, we can scrutinize what we love to play, especially from a developer/designer we love so much. We just wanted it to be perfect! Not too much to ask

With all that ranting said and done, I just hope I have the will to keep going with it. Seems hard to get the motivation to be honest, but as I said before I know the story is in there, so, I'll push on...