[fov]

Originally Posted by Isak

By the way, does anyone know who voiced Styles? He sounds awfully a lot like Lewton from Discworld Noir!

His name is Steven Pacey, and he's a TV / stage actor in the UK. (According to MobyGames, it's not the same guy who voiced Lewton.)

[millenia]

Originally Posted by Isak

Spoiler:

I understand what you mean, however, the ending didn't convince me. It was to abrupt. To little had been told about Angelas relation to Styles, and I just felt with such an abrupt ending, we could at least expect some deeper insight in how Styles were doing after finding out about Angela; would he keep on searching for Laura (did he still believe that she existed as a ghost, and as "marvio" suggested; would he become mad, and what would things develop? Or if, like it seems in the ending, at least to me, he accepted that Angela was playing with him, how would he react to it? It seems unlikely that anyone in Styles state (during the game) would react like he did when finding out Angela was behind all the tricks.
I mean, in the end, Sam is making breakfast, joking around and everything seems fine. But everything shouldn't be fine.

And what was that about Sam necklace? Okay, it looked exactly like Styles mothers necklace, but would that make her an imposter?

Yes the ending is a bit abrupt and that's why I understand that many people have a bit negative feelings about it. It just didn't ruin it for me at all even though it most likely could have been done better.

Spoiler:

I think Styles was hanging on to Laura because of the tragic accident and blaming himself for not rescuing her (the issues with the non existent scarring etc.) but when he found out it wasn't a tragic accident and I guess he couldn't have done a thing to save her (except for helping Angela but that would have required seeing in the future) I think he "started to heal". Also getting a friend (Sam), accomplishing something with his studies and moving to the outside world are all things that help him heal. He could have gone berserk to Angela I guess but I don't think it's too far fetched that he realized her to be a victim rather than the villain and he chose to put his pain aside and try to help her. But you are right that all this is not really explained well and can leave people wondering about Styles reaction (or lack of).

In the end not everything is fine but on the road there. I like how Styles and Sam have a friendship and a slight hint perhaps to a romance to come. It would have been inappropriate to pair them up right away. Overall their relationship is very entertaining. "That girl", all the hints to old romantic novels like Jane Eyre and such with a handsome but brutish lord of the mansion and the young girl arriving there mixing things up.

For the necklace I just suppose it was coincidence or if you choose to believe so, fate. Sam and Styles complete each other, need each other. Even if they never became romantically involved they both had issues and they helped each other resolve them (maybe at first not intentionally but that's what happened in the end anyway).

[marvio]

Milenia,

I never said I hated the ending, only that the story promised a lot more then it was delivered, that was all.

Also, like I said, I must've missed something on the story, the stuff you're talking about, I just don't remember it! When the conclusion came I was like, HUH? Wha? But? There was some really tenuous connection there, but it was paper thin at best; Again, as far as I can remember.

But overall I really enjoyed the game, I'd even recommend it to people, unlike "The Black mirror", fighting myself through that one now

[millenia]

When I talked about not understanding why some people hate the ending I didn't mean you really. Just in general. Disappointment is understandable even though I personally found the ending decent.

[marvio]

I just noticed on your sig...

I have never played "Under A kiling moon" or "Discworld Noir"; I know, I know...

Are they really that good? From my expirience people tend to put on "rose glasses" when remembering the past, whcih includes games. For example, I've played through some of my favorite titles frm the past and was disapointed to realize they really weren't all that good (one of the reasons I'm not going to replay TLJ, I want that memory untainted!!!)

IS it worth a try?

[ozzie]

I played UaKM for the first time a year ago. Still holds up very well considering its age. The puzzles are well designed, entirely fair and the excellent hint system may help you with some of the harder ones. Otherwise one of the later stealth sequences was quite stressful, maybe too much for adventure fans who dislike timed sequences.
Tex Murphy is a great protagonist, and quite a lot of the supporting cast is endearing, too. Yet, the story feels simplistic and the villains aren't well characterized. The terrible acting, while holding some trash appeal, can be a bit too much. And Chris Jones wasn't much of a director. I'm glad they hired a proper one for the sequel. Made a big difference.

[zane]

Both discworld noir and under a killing moon are solid adventures and worth playing. UaKM is kindv cheesey and not perfect, but it makes it all the more worth it when you play the far superior pandora directive. Plus, the cheesieness can be pretty fun

[marvio]

Originally Posted by zane

Both discworld noir and under a killing moon are solid adventures and worth playing. UaKM is kindv cheesey and not perfect, but it makes it all the more worth it when you play the far superior pandora directive. Plus, the cheesieness can be pretty fun

Sounds right up my alley!! Idon't mind cheesiness at all, actually I love it!! :>)

I also miss the (good) FMV games.; I installed "Darkstar", but even at the begining, it looks like it's gonna be terrible!

[millenia]

Discworld Noir I bought and played around the time it was published. I wasn't really following the genre at the time, I just happened to have a decent summer job and ran into the game in a bookstore. I've replayed it a few times and it's better every time. Everything is just in a right place there: great logical, interesting and fun puzzles, engaging and mysterious story that is truly epic despite all the discworld and noir humour in the game (which is good, humour just can sometimes flatten the actual grand scheme).

UaKM I just played the first time (well I did try it a bit like 15 years ago but never finished) and while it was old it was still very good. Cheesy and some bad acting yeah but it's a great detective story, like Discworld Noir. Those games are actually similar in many ways. I will be starting the Pandora Directive as soon as I finish some adventures that I have started earlier. Or perhaps tonight, who knows?

[marvio]

Originally Posted by millenia

Discworld Noir I bought and played around the time it was published. I wasn't really following the genre at the time, I just happened to have a decent summer job and ran into the game in a bookstore. I've replayed it a few times and it's better every time. Everything is just in a right place there: great logical, interesting and fun puzzles, engaging and mysterious story that is truly epic despite all the discworld and noir humour in the game (which is good, humour just can sometimes flatten the actual grand scheme).

UaKM I just played the first time (well I did try it a bit like 15 years ago but never finished) and while it was old it was still very good. Cheesy and some bad acting yeah but it's a great detective story, like Discworld Noir. Those games are actually similar in many ways. I will be starting the Pandora Directive as soon as I finish some adventures that I have started earlier. Or perhaps tonight, who knows?

We should do "Pandora directive" together!!

I just have to finish "The dark Mirror", I'm easily 70% done, just stuck in the slider puzzle at the tomb.

[Trexxie]

@inm8#2
No, you are not harsh at all - everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion.

And I love the cutscenes, sure they're within the small budget, but I love the comic - book feel.

My fav games of all time are Grim Fandango, Neverhood and The Longest Journey..I've played GK games and loved them and loved the Broken Sword...
So what I'm saying - I love the story, so I don't like the way Gray Matter was simplified and I go to fast through the story.

Now I am getting out of here so I don't catch any spoilers...I've seen laready that many people don't like the ending - I don't like any ending...'cause it is the ending and it means that I am done with playing the game.

Cheers all!

[J-Boo]

I just finished this game. Of course it wasn't perfect, but overall I did enjoy it very much. I really liked the atmosphere of the game (the music especially I thought enhanced the tone).

However, like many of you, I didn't like the graphic novel-style cut scenes, and the ending left me feeling confused and cheated. I was also disappointed at how short the game was, but I guess in today's market, we who enjoy these types of adventure games can't be picky.

[Len Green]

I finished the game - but not without many considerable difficulties. +
I'm afraid that overall I go along with the detailed Review here on AG.
I support many of the criticisms in that Review, although not all, but I have several others of my own. There were far too many technical, gameplay, and interface hitches and drawbacks… even some crashes!!
In addition the story, although Jane Jensen's wonderful storytelling abilities and the marvelous voice acting, was too unrealistic for my liking and did not hold together - and the ending was too over the top for me!

In addition to the abovementioned technical faults… MHO, one or the other – either a thorough fantasia whose basis nobody ever takes seriously, or a reasonably realistic if exaggerated narrative. Gray Matter is a mixture of both all the way through and hence loses credibility.
Not everybody may agree with that opinion of mine, but although Jane's previous masterpieces were highly fictitious, yet they were largely if not completely rooted in reality. IMO, Gray Matter is neither here nor there!

Overall I was disappointed since I was hoping for a wonderful game, as per all Jane Jensen's previous masterpieces. I guess that the reasons for so many of my dislikes are due to the troubled and too lengthy history of the game and budgetary restrictions.

That's about it for me. I'm truly sorry since I revere Jane Jensen and otherwise I believe that Gray Matter could have been an all time block-buster and classic.
What a pity!

[Luther10]

Originally Posted by Len Green

I finished the game - but not without many considerable difficulties. +
I'm afraid that overall I go along with the detailed Review here on AG.
I support many of the criticisms in that Review, although not all, but I have several others of my own. There were far too many technical, gameplay, and interface hitches and drawbacks… even some crashes!!
In addition the story, although Jane Jensen's wonderful storytelling abilities and the marvelous voice acting, was too unrealistic for my liking and did not hold together - and the ending was too over the top for me!

In addition to the abovementioned technical faults… MHO, one or the other – either a thorough fantasia whose basis nobody ever takes seriously, or a reasonably realistic if exaggerated narrative. Gray Matter is a mixture of both all the way through and hence loses credibility.
Not everybody may agree with that opinion of mine, but although Jane's previous masterpieces were highly fictitious, yet they were largely if not completely rooted in reality. IMO, Gray Matter is neither here nor there!

Overall I was disappointed since I was hoping for a wonderful game, as per all Jane Jensen's previous masterpieces. I guess that the reasons for so many of my dislikes are due to the troubled and too lengthy history of the game and budgetary restrictions.

That's about it for me. I'm truly sorry since I revere Jane Jensen and otherwise I believe that Gray Matter could have been an all time block-buster and classic.
What a pity!

I'm completely agree with you. I think we're just expecting too much and are disappointed in the end. It's still a good game, but is it good enough for a game bearing the name Jane Jensen, probably not.

[zoecastillo]

I haven't been around the forums in awhile, but I must interject here quickly to simply state I am in love with Gray Matter. My work schedule is completely insane - and somehow I am on my 3rd time playing in less than two weeks - I can't get enough of the story. I want so badly to have a sequel and to see more interaction between Dr. Styles and Sam. Yes, it moves a bit slow - but, I am blown away by the beauty of the story. And what can I say about the music? The Scarlet Furies - I am now a HUGE fan - the songs are hauntingly brilliant. And that is my verdict - 5 stars for a deeply thought out story about the human condition.

[marvio]

Originally Posted by Len Green

I finished the game - but not without many considerable difficulties. +
I'm afraid that overall I go along with the detailed Review here on AG.
I support many of the criticisms in that Review, although not all, but I have several others of my own. There were far too many technical, gameplay, and interface hitches and drawbacks… even some crashes!!
In addition the story, although Jane Jensen's wonderful storytelling abilities and the marvelous voice acting, was too unrealistic for my liking and did not hold together - and the ending was too over the top for me!

In addition to the abovementioned technical faults… MHO, one or the other – either a thorough fantasia whose basis nobody ever takes seriously, or a reasonably realistic if exaggerated narrative. Gray Matter is a mixture of both all the way through and hence loses credibility.
Not everybody may agree with that opinion of mine, but although Jane's previous masterpieces were highly fictitious, yet they were largely if not completely rooted in reality. IMO, Gray Matter is neither here nor there!

Overall I was disappointed since I was hoping for a wonderful game, as per all Jane Jensen's previous masterpieces. I guess that the reasons for so many of my dislikes are due to the troubled and too lengthy history of the game and budgetary restrictions.

That's about it for me. I'm truly sorry since I revere Jane Jensen and otherwise I believe that Gray Matter could have been an all time block-buster and classic.
What a pity!

Care to elaborate about the glitches?

If there's one thing about the game is that it really has a flawless interface, everything worked, it was intuitive, and at least for me it never crahsed! Really kinda puzzeled by your statement....

Zoe,

Dude, really, beautiful story? It's at best an average "Lifestyle TV" afternoon movie grade story...

The ambiance is absoutely great, and it promisses a lot, but in the end completely fails to deliver

[Len Green]

Care to elaborate about the glitches?

If there's one thing about the game is that it really has a flawless interface, everything worked, it was intuitive, and at least for me it never crahsed! Really kinda puzzeled by your statement....

Zoe,

I can only speak from my own gameplay experience.
~~~~ On 2 occasions, Sam decided to mark time on the spot. Trivial I agree.
~~~~ On 2 different occasions the game crashed out to my desktop.
~~~~ On a very great number of occasions, 2 hotspots alternated (like warning lights on a car) and on many occasions I was taken to the wrong location. This is a tangible technical fault which happened many times and is a fairly serious glitch in any game.
~~~~ I'm almost sure that I fell into at least one dead end and maybe more than one. I can't prove this without beta testing the whole game - and I'm not prepared to do that. However, not only me but a number of platyers on different forums have reported that they were forced to return to a previous save since it was impossible to proceed otherwise.
This is one of the worst bugs since your previous save might be 'hours' back.
~~~~ There might have been other glitches but this was more than enough.

You were fortunate in having a completely trouble free gameplay from beginning to end.

[marvio]

Originally Posted by Len Green

I can only speak from my own gameplay experience.
~~~~ On 2 occasions, Sam decided to mark time on the spot. Trivial I agree.
~~~~ On 2 different occasions the game crashed out to my desktop.
~~~~ On a very great number of occasions, 2 hotspots alternated (like warning lights on a car) and on many occasions I was taken to the wrong location. This is a tangible technical fault which happened many times and is a fairly serious glitch in any game.
~~~~ I'm almost sure that I fell into at least one dead end and maybe more than one. I can't prove this without beta testing the whole game - and I'm not prepared to do that. However, not only me but a number of platyers on different forums have reported that they were forced to return to a previous save since it was impossible to proceed otherwise.
This is one of the worst bugs since your previous save might be 'hours' back.
~~~~ There might have been other glitches but this was more than enough.

You were fortunate in having a completely trouble free gameplay from beginning to end.

Well, the hotspots blink because there's not enough screen realstate, sometimes, to display them all at the same time, that's a design choice, not a bug.

Dead ends!! Really? The game puts you on such rails, to a fault, that is actually impossible to be at a dead end. That is truly confounding.

What do you mean by, "mark time on a spot"? I really don't get it?

And about the crashes...

Most often is due to your Windoze install/config... I installed this game in four different computers, including a laptop, and it never crashed once... But then again I keep my computers to a minimal of installed apps, specially crap that runs on background, and drivers always up to date; Sounds more like you need to do some house keeping, actually that's true for 99% of the population out there, for crying out loud people, keep your machines clean!! (rant of an IT consultant)

Don't get me wrong dude, I'm not trying to be argumentative, and I didn't really specially loved the game, but glitches? Nahh...

Edit: After re-reading my post I realized I may have sounded like I was an ass... Sorry for that...

Although all the points are valid, most of it is out of frustration, because I'm an IT consultant, so I see people, day in/day out, commenting on how much their computer/windows sucks because it crashes, blah blah blah...
When most times it comes down to either a horrendous ammount of crap software they have installed, incorrect config, or the actual software being crap.

One huge issue, specially with gaming is 64 bit, and I realize you can't even buy a computer anymore without a 64bit version of Windows, but you can actually call up MS and they will send you a 32 bit version of whatever you have, free of charge!!
Don't drink the cool-aid 64 bit doesn't really give you anything more then being able to use more then 4 gigs of RAM and more then 4Tb of storage, and I say "you" as in the average user, there are applications that only 64 bit will do correctly, but they really are far and few in between, mostly scientific apps, and 3D rendering apps, other then that you're better off with 32 bit, always! Or at least for the next 2 years or so... Notice that most of your games installs under "program files (x86)"? That's because the code is 32 bit, natively, and windows now has to do a type of emulation, not really but it's the easiest way to put it, to run it, and the few games which are actually 64bit will always come with a 32bit executable as well, because developers will have to consider windows XP for a while still, and though it had its own 64bit version, not only it sucked hard, but the install base is minimal.

So, there, a long winded explanation to my post...

[Len Green]

Certainly no point in arguing. I experienced the glitches I mention - you fortunately didn't... Period!

Well, the hotspots blink because there's not enough screen realstate, sometimes, to display them all at the same time, that's a design choice, not a bug.

I didn't say it was a bug – I definitely agree with you… it is a design fault and a rather nasty one IMHO since it causes a lot of annoyance and frustration!
I have played hundreds of Adventure games and never come across a pretty bad fault of this nature before!

Dead ends!! Really? The game puts you on such rails, to a fault, that is actually impossible to be at a dead end. That is truly confounding.

Don't rely upon me. Please browse this and other forums and count the number of times assorted players have written that they had to replay the game from a previous point. And the game is only now being played by the general gamer folk in USA.
If you are forced to return to a previous save since it's impossible to work your way ahead without doing so, this is a typical dead end by definition.
Seems that I was not alone in this. N.B. Suppose your previous save is a long way back – this involves possibly hours of repeated playing – IMO, one of the nastiest of bugs since it is not as obvious as crashes, freezes etc.,

What do you mean by, "mark time on a spot"? I really don't get it?

Anybody who has ever been a soldier or even observed them knows what it means to "march time".
As I sail – a fairly insignificant animation buglet!
And about the crashes...

Most often is due to your Windoze install/config

Certainly not impossible. But I've played several recent games, released both shortly before and shortly after Grey Matter without one single crash.

All the above are negative aspects that I experienced whilst playing the game.
It seems that at least some others have endured at least some.
I would like to stress that ALL of these apply only to the technical side of the game and not to Jane Jensen's story, characters, texts, voice acting, etc.
I guess these faults are due to the exceedingly troubled history of developing the game coupled with lack of budget etc.

[zoecastillo]

Marvio -

First of all, I am far from a "dude." Second of all I am a trial lawyer who deals with serious real life stories that you could probably not even begin to imagine. Third of all - I haven't watched tv in about 8 years - it's piddly trash. Fourth of all, oooh - let me run and change my opinion because you disagree with me - I'll get right on that.

So, to reiterate for the rest of the world who thinks others are entitled to their own opinions - I LOVED the story of Gray Matter. See ya all when Black Mirror 3 comes out. Peace out.