[KasiaD]

Well. If I had the choice, I would prefer to employ even not talented amateurs, but American, than the German impersonators. Given the fact that Darren is so "american" all the time makes him sound like an idiot, speaking like he does.

All in all, I will launch the game in the evening and check the credits to make sure.

terhardp - I am not 100% sure, but Art of Murder and Chronicles of Mystery were dubbed by English voice actors. At least playing them I had no suspicion it was otherwise.
So I agree with you that the sense of humour was at best contrived in them, but at least the actors did not seem to be out of place as Darren does.

[aimless]

What you don't get is that America is a very large country and there are quite a few strong regional accents. If you don't like Darren's accent, okay, but I'm a native speaker and his accent wasn't any stranger to me than that of many people from some other part of the US. Wherever the actor is from, I thought he was quite good.

Tim Curry (English) has been criticized many times for his fake Southern (US) accent in Sins of the Fathers, but I am Southern and I can tell you he hit it dead on and I certainly don't wish that an American had been used instead to voice Gabriel in that game.

[Mermaidman]

I played the first one and thought that despite the flaws in the acting I liked the story and thought it was very engaging. So I played the second one and I am disappointed to find the internet has very little discussion on the actual plot of the story.

I have one question though

Spoiler:

Is Miss Valley really nervous because she thought Darren/Adrian was trying to access the black mirror? and I thought it was very shocking when you found out she met the same fate as her brother. And it shows how far Angelina was willing to go by seducing and kissing her own flesh and blood

[Neptin]

BM 3 gameplay preview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hqYRWNTiWE

Can't wait till friday

UPDATE:

Launch-Trailer:
http://www.gamestar.de/index.cfm?pid=1589&pk=15567

German demo:
http://demos.dtp-entertainment.ag/black_mirror_3

[Krystal]

Looks awesome, definitely looking forward to play BM3.

[Tiocfaidh]

Finished Black Mirror 2 couple of weeks ago.

Before I started the game I rewatched a playthrough of the first one.
I remeber enjoying it when I played it myself but when I watched/fast forwarded though it I recognized how tedious this game could be.

Especially when the game didn´t let you progress without ANYTHING else to do but wait

So I started the second one and really liked the graphics/settings.
I was instantly annoyed with the characters though.
Alright, I get it this is supposed to be a "serious" AG but has every single character to be an A-hole ?
I mean every-single-one-of-them is unpleasant, yelling at each other, or making lame wise cracking comments or lame jokes.
It got on my nerves pretty quickly but got better when the drama started to crush in Darren´s little world.

Initially I was bored with the New England setting but it grew on me quickly.
Especially the change of weather was very effective and implemented beautifully.

Puzzles were a mixed bag.
I enjoyed many of them. It was nice that you could skip the trial & error ones (I never did, but the option to skip them was very motivating). The journal functioned as a nice built in hint system (compared to Gray Matter where it was practically useless). But Darren additionally giving us broad hints all the friggin time was annoying and unnecessary. I´m not a genius but I´m not dumb, so please STFU.

Inventory puzzles often came off as ludicrous. I can tolerate the main character of a funny cartoon game permanently picking up huge objects but in a horror AG it´s counterproductive and destroys the immersion.

Letting the main character make the obligatory "suspension of disbelief" comment makes it even worse.

Spoiler:

after finding a (of-course) half-dead butchered guy in one of the lockers and his life being in grave danger Darren puts rubber boats and hoses into his trousers & enjoying himself immensly doing it

As Still Life 2´s inventory system was too realistic for it´s own good, BM2´s approach was too silly.

In retrospect I have to say that I enjoyed Chapters 2, 5 & 6 the most.
The start was slow and the Willow Creek chapters were nothing special although I had high hopes when I returned to some locations of the first game. I was really looking forward to it and all we get are unintersting characters (those brothers ) & locations (museum).
Furthermore it´s not very imaginative to let the protagonist

Spoiler:

getting captured practically the moment he escaped the Willow Creek dungeons

Game really got interesting when we finally reach Black Mirror.
I enjoyed most of the twists and turns and the

Spoiler:

nightmarish lighthouse sequence

.

Black Mirror 2 is an OK game, a solid 3/5 maybe even 3.5 but compared to Gray Matter which happened to keep me interested all the way through, a game I didn´t want to end, my mind wandered once too often while playing BM2 forcing myself to play through certain portions of the game.

I´ll get Black Mirror 3 when it´s down to 20 bucks but I am not in a hurry ...

[Phaid]

This might be a weird question, but can someone point me to a UK store (shipping to entire Europe) where it is possible to buy a boxed version of BM2?
I checked game.co.uk, zavvi.com, sendit.com - nothing... There are some new copies on ebay.co.uk, but the sellers are from the USA, there are no UK-based offers.

[Oscar]

I thought Black Mirror 2 was really great. It was unfortunate that Black Mirror 3 did not give it the conclusion it deserved.

[Weare6]

Can anyone tell me If BM1 is any good.
I want to play it either way but I am just wondering how it
compares with the newer ones. (referring to gameplay,story, puzzles..not graphics)

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Phaid

This might be a weird question, but can someone point me to a UK store (shipping to entire Europe) where it is possible to buy a boxed version of BM2?
I checked game.co.uk, zavvi.com, sendit.com - nothing... There are some new copies on ebay.co.uk, but the sellers are from the USA, there are no UK-based offers.

I've been looking - you won't find a cheap version of BM2 here in the UK easily. It's bizarre, such a difficult game to find.

But not impossible, here are some places selling it:

http://bit.ly/k4mnbS (goes to Google but the URL was too long to paste!)

This seems to be the best price: http://www.computer-shows.com/black-...-pc-dvd-p75323

Not exactly a big name retailer though. I've been trying to find a physical copy for <£10 but it seems impossible.

Amazon would normally have a good price if they had it in stock but they rarely do and when they do, its one of their wholesale sellers who only have one copy and price it accordingly (last one was £26).

[Phaid]

Thank you Stuart, I'll have a look at those offers. Indeed, the game is kind of difficult to find, even amazon is out of stock.
This exactly why these days, I buy adventure games either digitally or order boxed copies the moment they become available - the longer you wait to grab the latter, the more difficult they become to find.

[millenia]

Originally Posted by Weare6

Can anyone tell me If BM1 is any good.
I want to play it either way but I am just wondering how it
compares with the newer ones. (referring to gameplay,story, puzzles..not graphics)

It is good. Its biggest fault is the triggers which seem to be connected to time instead of events. So you often find yourself roaming around waiting with nothing to do. Otherwise it's pretty solid and interesting adventure though personally I thought the story was a bit too predictable. I think BM2 and 3 are smoother, easier and more user friendly but the first one isn't horrible or anything at those aspects. I will be replaying the whole trilogy at some point, it's been years since I played BM1.

[Oscar]

Originally Posted by Weare6

Can anyone tell me If BM1 is any good.
I want to play it either way but I am just wondering how it
compares with the newer ones. (referring to gameplay,story, puzzles..not graphics)

BM1 in my opinion is the best of the series. It was created by Czech company Future Games who didn't do the German-made BM2 and BM3, the same company who did the excellent Nibiru: Age of Secrets.

[Stuart]

I think this is a fantastic game and in my opinion it is better than the first Black Mirror.

It is slightly more user friendly than the first but more importantly (for me) there are a greater variety of locations. I like Willow Creek/Black Mirror Castle but it can become dreary and tiresome after a while. The first half of the game takes place in a sleepy coastal town in America, with the suspense gradually building.

The story was really well written and paced and although his accent is jarring at first, the main character Darren becomes likeable as the game progresses. It is also a very long game, much longer than many adventures that can be finished in 8 hours or so.