[Squinky]

Originally Posted by Davies

I thought about the CSI games (I have the first one) because CSI is one of his favourite TV shows. But the game is pretty flat and not very inspiring. I'm only working through it for the sake of completeness.

Which is why I'm suggesting the ones made by Telltale.

[Davies]

I have DOSBox (and the DOSBoxer front end), so that's no problem. In theory, anyway -- I've never used it yet!

I do have Harvest of Souls and have played probably about 75 or 80 per cent of the way through it (had to drop it when work got intense, and never got back to it). I love it to death, mainly because it's got such a creepy atmosphere. Not quite sure about it as a beginning game, since it is rather unusual, and especially since Col doesn't like "creepy" as much as I do!

I've broached the idea of having him try playing a game some time when there's nothing else to do. He's not absolutely against it, and that's a start. At the moment he's got a stack of new library books, though, so there's more than enough to keep him occupied!

He is coming round to the idea of using his laptop more, so that's good for him, anyway. At the moment he wants to learn how to add music to his MP3 player. (Yes, I said he's nearly deaf, but he can hear enough through headphones to enjoy music. What he hears is certainly very distorted, but he enjoys it. Especially big booming classics like Tchaikovsky and Beethoven -- what he calls "tits and cannons" music -- and pop with a strong beat, like Abba and Boney M.)

I bought him a Dragon voice-control program for Christmas, but he needs a memory upgrade before he can use it. We may be off to PC World this afternoon for that very purpose.

[Nelza]

Originally Posted by Fienepien

You say your husband likes court room thrillers too. He might enjoy In the 1st Degree, which in a way isn't a real adventure game, but more like a nice stepping stone, from film to games, even more so because it's entirely FMV. It's an older game, mid 90's, all dialogue trees, no inventory. The player has to interview witnesses and prove the accused is guilty of murder in the first degree. If this sounds easy, let me assure you that it isn't. Multiple endings.

There's just one snag... I don't remember if it was subtitled. Sorry! I'm terrible at remembering that kind of detail.

Ha ha ha! I was going to suggest this one too! It pretty much covers everything your husband wants although I also can't remember whether it has subtitles or not.

There's no picking up items and no puzzles though, it's all to do with using logic when questioning witnesses. Trying to get them to reveal as much as possible about the murder. All conversation based (choosing questions to ask them).

[Davies]

I've never heard of In The First Degree -- sounds interesting. I'll have to look into that one, if only for myself!

I forgot to mention that I had a laugh at Ouroboros' comparison of Colin with Theoden.





When I passed on the message to Col, for some reason I said Boromir, so now he thinks someone thinks he looks like Sean Bean. ("They'd have to add thirty-odd years to Sean Bean for a start," was his comment.)



EDIT: I've told him Ouroboros meant Theoden, not Boromir. "Of course," he said. "It's my kingly appearance." There's going to be no living with him now...

[marshal99]

Originally Posted by Crapstorm

Davies, in the entire history of PC games, there is one game that turned more non-gamers into gamers than any other (and it just happens to be an adventure game): Myst. If you only get one shot with your husband, go with the top performer.

It'll probably turn him off adventure games permanently. Sorry , but Myst is vastly overrated.

Originally Posted by Davies

I've never heard of In The First Degree -- sounds interesting. I'll have to look into that one, if only for myself!

The game needs a bit of patience as you have to sit through a lot of tree branching dialogue and a lot of things to sort through and sift through.
Not easy to get murder one verdict if you play it by ear because if you ask the wrong questions , the witness will clam up and all the avenue of questioning for that witness will end.

A detailed look at "In the first degree".
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x28...fmv_videogames

[Fien]

Originally Posted by marshal99

A detailed look at "In the first degree".
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x28...fmv_videogames

Hey, that's a nice one! And it does answer the question about the subtitles: None.

[marshal99]

There's also those old FMV murder mystery adventure games like

SFPD Homicide
http://www.csoon.com/issue11/sfpd.htm

and the Santa Fe Mysteries
The Elk Moon Murder
http://www.justadventure.com/reviews...r/ElkMoon.shtm

Sacred Ground
http://www.justadventure.com/reviews...redGround.shtm

[Nelza]

Originally Posted by Fienepien

Hey, that's a nice one! And it does answer the question about the subtitles: None.

Damn! For some reason I vaguely remember subtitles as an option because I sometimes found it hard to hear what they were saying. But maybe I just want to remember that.

[Nautilus]

You two would like to play the cinematic The Last Express.

Try the demo: expdemo.zip

Buy it from Gametap.

[Fien]

Aaahhhhhhhhhhhh... !
The Last Express...

But... no subtitles for English text, only for the few French, Russian (and German?) conversations. Yeah, the two of you should play it together.

[Crapstorm]

Ah, the old "gun in the face" puzzle.

Spoiler:

Click on the third fold of the woman's sleeve, retrieve the brass key, and quickly jam it in the top left bullet chamber.

[Fien]

Originally Posted by Crapstorm

Ah, the old "gun in the face" puzzle.

Spoiler:

Click on the third fold of the woman's sleeve, retrieve the brass key, and quickly jam it in the top left bullet chamber.

I can certainly see why you were disappointed in the game.

All you 3D fans out there... did you notice these non-3D faces have real expression?

[Davies]

Originally Posted by Fienepien

I can certainly see why you were disappointed in the game.

All you 3D fans out there... did you notice these non-3D faces have real expression?

The amazing expressiveness is because they were all rotoscoped from real actors. I recently read an interview with the designer, and it was a feat to put the thing together.

I do own The Last Express, but have never played it. Had a quick dabble (mainly to check it would run, having bought it second-hand) and it looked interesting but difficult -- one that you'd have to set aside plenty of time and get absorbed in, or else you'd get confused.

Col's laptop just died on us, so we're off to get a new one next week. There's one selling at PC World for about £700, which goes on sale at Makro (cash-and-carry) for £350 next Wednesday. How could we resist?

[Nelza]

Have you decided which game you're going to play together yet?

[xChri5x]

Originally Posted by Crapstorm

Ah, the old "gun in the face" puzzle.

hahaha


I kind of got my wife into adventure games by getting her to play Curse of Monkey Island. She really enjoyed it and then we played Day of the Tentacle and she liked that even more. She hasn't played anything for a couple of years though. I'm trying to get her to give Sam & Max season One a chance but no luck yet. Although she has expressed interest in playing DOTT again.

[Davies]

Well, we've got Col his new laptop and I've just finished setting it up and installing a basic suite of software and so on, so it's ready for him to use. (And for my part, I've had an abrupt introduction to Windows Vista.)

He did ask whether there were any games on it, so that's a good sign! So far I've just put a couple of standard time-wasters on -- solitaire, jigsaw puzzles, and mah-jongg tiles -- but I might stick Monkey Island on there as a surprise and see what he makes of it. Let's hope it works with Vista...

[2GooD]

Originally Posted by aries323

Martin Mystere game(s) could be fun for to play, too. These games are sort of like detective games, I'd think.

I wouldn't give anyone Martin Mystere as their first adventure game, especially when the interface might be an issue...

[tsa]

So, Davies, did you have any succes in getting your husband to play adventure games yet?

[Davies]

He hasn't been feeling very well, so isn't in the mood to try out the computer.

Also having a hard time figuring out the optimum position for it. Trying to find a compromise between seeing the screen and reaching the controls. He may have to get a pair of reading glasses instead of bifocals.

[Nelza]

It was hard getting my boyfriend into Adventure Games but he finally got into them when we played one that I had never played before.

He hated playing the ones that I'd already completed cause he felt like an idiot when he couldn't work out what to do and I'd be there giggling (not because I was being mean, but because he'd get so close to solving a puzzle but then go in a completely different direction, I'd get excited ).

We finally started Grim Fandango which he really enjoyed because we could be idiots together.