You are viewing an archived version of the site which is no longer maintained.
Go to the current live site or the Adventure Gamers forums
Adventure Gamers

Home Adventure Forums Gaming Adventure AG Community Game Playthrough - Tex Murphy: Overseer


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 09-23-2011, 04:18 AM   #21
Senior *female* member
 
Fien's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Holland
Posts: 3,706
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by diego View Post
BTW, talk about being over its time, with these two options as a default in modern games.
Please name a few modern games with hints, cause I can't come up with any. And skipping puzzles is hardly standard.
Fien is offline  
Old 09-23-2011, 04:38 AM   #22
Senior Member
 
diego's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: belgrade
Posts: 1,407
Default

Ok, maybe it's not the default, but there are examples: both Monkey Island special editions utilised hints as the new feature, last in the Runaway series included hint section, Black Mirror 2 and 3 featured diary as hints, Telltale games... i'm not saying game is any less better if it doesn't include it, because it really all depends on game design and if individual player can control him/herself and resist overusing it, but as i said i'd rather have good-implemented in-game hints than resort to outside walkthrough.

Yeap, you're right, skipping puzzles are even more rare, unless we're talking casual games, and to tell you the truth i'd like it to stay that way because "hot-spot highlight" is already making games easier. However, again it all boils down to player and how he/she's using all that help. I mean, Black Mirror 2 featured "lever for skipping puzzles" but i was never giving a thought of using it, but hints really helped me because they're in grades, like UHS hints and you can have an idea about solution without spoiling it too much. Keepsake done the same thing, with three levels of help until you can completely skip the puzzle.

Last edited by diego; 09-23-2011 at 05:18 AM.
diego is offline  
Old 09-24-2011, 04:12 AM   #23
She Wants Revenge
 
millenia's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Finland
Posts: 494
Default

Mmhm. I guess I should try to squeeze in here. I kinda unintentionally dropped out of the last walkthru. Played those Gabriel Knights and then when I was supposed to catch up there was a bunch of rl stuff etc. Anyhoo I started playing Overseer rather recently (few months ago) for the first time but had a pause and then found it hard to get back into the game since I had forgotten many details. So I decided I don't continue but start it over again at a later time.

Currently I am quite busy with school and fiddling with my DS and a bunch of new games (Just played Hotel Dusk and started Last Window, also trying to play Viva Pinata and FFIV ) but since I've already played a big part of Overseer I think I could probably find the time to advance with you guys. At least this way I could ask help when I get stuck or have forgotten something. And sticking to entertainment mode still, I will try out the nerve wrecking modes when my kids move out or something .

I played the other two FMVs and liked them both a lot. Also enjoyed Overseer except for the stupid sound puzzle (I really, really, really suck at sound puzzles, so just hand me the cheat code for it when we get there, okay?) and hopefully get to finish it now.
__________________
Currently playing: AlternativA, Diablo III
Recently finished: Hector - Episode 1, Dear Esther, Gemini Rue, Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper, Blackwell trilogy
All-time favourites: Discworld Noir, Gabriel Knight trilogy
millenia is offline  
Old 09-24-2011, 08:25 AM   #24
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Chennai, India
Posts: 141
Default

I really liked this first part. I enjoyed UAKM, so I was going into this game with the same high expectation, and it hasn't disappointed so far. The FMV works really well here.

Surprisingly no pixel hunting - Because of the nature of the interface I expected that I might miss a few items, but that hasn't happened yet. Apart from not noticing the travel part of the interface I didn't get stuck so thats good news.

One thing was that I found it hard to keep track of the different names. One of the names showed up in the conversation options and I had no idea who she was, or where I originally saw it.

Can't wait for Day 2
Siddhi is offline  
Old 09-24-2011, 10:41 PM   #25
Senior Member
 
inm8#2's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 569
Default

Made it through Day 1. The VR interface takes some adjustment but I like it. This actually seems like an advanced interface/style of play for ~1998. GK3 had a 3d interactive world as well but that came a year or two later.

I'm doing Gamer mode and so far it's not bad, but we just had one puzzle.

There's a large amount of information and names to take in, but it's always easy to revisit places and ask the same questions to repeat the information.

Ready for Day 2!
__________________
***Read the bolded part***

"You ever wish you could just follow your instincts, live for the moment?" - Gabriel Knight

Now playing - Legend of Grimrock
Need to finish - The Whispered World
Finished - Botanicula, The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time
Up Next - A New Beginning, Monkey Island 2 Special Edition
Anticipating - Asylum, Bracken Tor, The Last Crown
inm8#2 is offline  
Old 09-25-2011, 01:54 AM   #26
Senior Member
 
Arial Type's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 365
Default

The 1st Day is suspiciously easy (with the exception of domino puzzle, of course, which is evil).

But apart from that, the game is pure joy. The new control scheme works fine for me, simple and effective. Actors are also surprisingly good compared to previous texs, and that's without real celebs yet. Chris Jones is as cool as always, with many witty lines. Those glorious days of exceptional writing in adventure games... Jones and Conners are both cool.

The one thing I miss are mutants - you expect them in Tex Murphy universe somehow. But with Clint Howard and everything they're likely to appear.
Arial Type is offline  
Old 09-25-2011, 03:35 AM   #27
Senior Member
 
diego's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: belgrade
Posts: 1,407
Default

Damn dominos!

btw, i'm firmly behind the statement that game is ahead of it's time - i absolutely adore the option to continue the game even if you hadn't saved - it's just like the authors knew that there will be trouble and crashing with running on newer systems, even though those crashes are rather minimal (usually when i alt-tab and forget about the game for some time)

Last edited by diego; 09-25-2011 at 03:46 AM.
diego is offline  
Old 09-25-2011, 04:05 AM   #28
Senior *female* member
 
Fien's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Holland
Posts: 3,706
Default

Interesting. The game freezes a lot on my XP. I'm running the GOG download version, which is supposed to be compatible. Alt-tab is impossible, even Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't do anything when the game freezes; I have to pull the plug off the computer, which I hate doing.

The one good thing is that I can continue where I left off. Most of the time anyway.
Fien is offline  
Old 09-25-2011, 04:19 AM   #29
Senior Member
 
Arial Type's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 365
Default

Weird stuff. Mine version works smoothly under Windows 7 64 bit.
Arial Type is offline  
Old 09-25-2011, 04:41 AM   #30
Senior Member
 
diego's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: belgrade
Posts: 1,407
Default

Whew, finally! Now, i could have sworn that

slight dominos puzzle spoiler

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/5066/dominos1.jpg

is the same as

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/5141/dominos2y.jpg

just the other way around, but obviosly not as i managed to find the solution only by following the latter yeah, my math sucks
diego is offline  
Old 09-25-2011, 05:11 AM   #31
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Chennai, India
Posts: 141
Default

The solution I got was neither of those. In my solution the lights lit up on the third column of all three rows
Siddhi is offline  
Old 09-25-2011, 05:19 AM   #32
Senior Member
 
Kurufinwe's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posts: 3,038
Default

I've just installed the game and played a bit. I hadn't player Overseer in years, and it's great to be back with Tex.

The interface feels pretty awful, but after tweaking the keyboard bindings (using W/S for forward/back, Q/A for look up/look down and E/D for up/down), it's playable. The mixture of live actors (and a few real props) and low-tech 3D backgrounds makes the videos look horrible, but I'll live with it --- and the acting is definitely good, most of the time.

There are a few little (or not so little) changes compared to Mean Streets:

1) More women! Detective Steve Clements became Eve Clements, just as scientists Ron Morgan and (later on) Cal Davis turns into Rona Morgan and Val Davis. In Mean Streets, women only appeared if they were somebody's wife/girlfriend/mistress. In Overseer, they can have careers of their own. Welcome to the future!

2) Sylvia is completely different. In Mean Streets (and the flashbacks in Under a Killing Moon), she was some sort of valley girl. Here, they went with the type of femme fatale you expect to find in noir stories, which I think is much more interesting. Rebecca Broussard is fine in the role --- but every time she's on screen, the two main thoughts in my mind are (1) "Is that a wig?" and (2) "Eww, that dress!"

3) In Mean Streets, one of the ways to get information was from an informant. This involved long haggling sessions, and a shooting minigame to get more cash. Now, you just phone the database thing and get all you need by fax, which is much more convenient. (Yes, in 2037, mankind will have gone back to fax machines. Welcome to the future!)
__________________
Currently reading: Dune (F. Herbert)
Recently finished: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J. K. Rowling) [++], La Nuit des Temps (R. Barjavel) [+++]
Currently playing: Skyrim
Recently finished: MCF: Escape from Ravenhearst [+], The Walking Dead, ep. 1 [+++], Gray Matter [++]

Last edited by Kurufinwe; 09-25-2011 at 06:26 AM.
Kurufinwe is offline  
Old 09-25-2011, 05:47 AM   #33
Senior Member
 
diego's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: belgrade
Posts: 1,407
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Siddhi View Post
The solution I got was neither of those. In my solution the lights lit up on the third column of all three rows
no, what i meant was - the green circles represent
Spoiler:
three dominos pieces with biggest sum - 11, 10 and 9, because that's the way i figured the solution because they mustn't meet in the same row
diego is offline  
Old 09-25-2011, 06:40 AM   #34
Senior Member
 
Kurufinwe's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posts: 3,038
Default

And I'm done with this section! That was fun.

Another major difference with Mean Streets is that Overseer trimmed many of the possibilities you could explore in the original game. Then, it was possible to meet Blake Werner (then named Blaze Weiner), as well as Linsky's new girlfriend (that he was leaving Delores for). If I remember correctly, you met her in a restaurant, where she was busy eating a red herring. All those trails made the original game more open, but also more overwhelming. In Overseer, that was trimmed away, while the main story was considerably developed. I think that was the right decision.

And speaking of the delightful Delores, that was the original version --- with one of my favourite lines: She has the face of a saint . . . a Saint Bernard.
__________________
Currently reading: Dune (F. Herbert)
Recently finished: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J. K. Rowling) [++], La Nuit des Temps (R. Barjavel) [+++]
Currently playing: Skyrim
Recently finished: MCF: Escape from Ravenhearst [+], The Walking Dead, ep. 1 [+++], Gray Matter [++]
Kurufinwe is offline  
Old 09-25-2011, 06:52 AM   #35
Senior Member
 
Kurufinwe's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posts: 3,038
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by diego View Post
no, what i meant was - the green circles represent
Spoiler:
three dominos pieces with biggest sum - 11, 10 and 9, because that's the way i figured the solution because they mustn't meet in the same row
That's far too complicated for me.
Spoiler:
I just put the 7 in the centre, for obvious symmetry reasons. That leaves you with 8 dominoes that you combine into 4 pairs, each totalling 14. And then you just have to arrange those 4 pairs on the 4 lines going through the centre in a way that will get the right total on the 4 sides --- which I just do through trial and error because I'm lazy.
__________________
Currently reading: Dune (F. Herbert)
Recently finished: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J. K. Rowling) [++], La Nuit des Temps (R. Barjavel) [+++]
Currently playing: Skyrim
Recently finished: MCF: Escape from Ravenhearst [+], The Walking Dead, ep. 1 [+++], Gray Matter [++]
Kurufinwe is offline  
Old 09-25-2011, 10:34 AM   #36
Senior Member
 
inm8#2's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 569
Default

Sometimes when I'm interviewing, the first part of the video skips or stutters a bit.If I repeat the subject then it might run smoother, but usually a word or two are not spoken and I can just read the subtitles.

I'm running the GOG on an XP system.
__________________
***Read the bolded part***

"You ever wish you could just follow your instincts, live for the moment?" - Gabriel Knight

Now playing - Legend of Grimrock
Need to finish - The Whispered World
Finished - Botanicula, The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time
Up Next - A New Beginning, Monkey Island 2 Special Edition
Anticipating - Asylum, Bracken Tor, The Last Crown
inm8#2 is offline  
Old 09-25-2011, 12:47 PM   #37
Failed Birthday Elf
 
Intense Degree's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: London
Posts: 1,032
Default

Finished Day 1.

Lots of "clues" and information at the warehouse which was good. I wasn't quite execting the day to finish when it did, but I got the end video so I suppose I must have done everything required!

The game continues to impress on the whole and I'm looking forward to day 2! The environments aren't tiny and don't feel empty but in the same way I haven't had to go back combing every pixle to proceed and I like that.

I'm using the GOG version on Win 7 and bar one or two minor hang ups the game has worked fine.

Quote:
...I absolutely adore the option to continue the game even if you hadn't saved
Couldn't agree more! I also think this makes it feel more like a "modern" game than an "old" one, although I suppose it depends where you draw the line!
Intense Degree is offline  
Old 09-25-2011, 01:51 PM   #38
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 42
Default

Quote:
(Yes, in 2037, mankind will have gone back to fax machines. Welcome to the future!)
I found it charmingly quaint that Tex has the 2037 version of Google on his phone ... and it sends the information to a talking fax machine.

I've only had one crash running the GOG version on Vista so far, but the recovery function was a lifesaver. (I'd just spent half an hour picking up items in the attic and warehouse, and was not looking forward to going through all those draws again.)
AnneS is offline  
Old 09-25-2011, 03:28 PM   #39
Senior *female* member
 
Fien's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Holland
Posts: 3,706
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kurufinwe View Post
...every time she's on screen, the two main thoughts in my mind are (1) "Is that a wig?" ...
Certainly not. It's a polyester helmet.

I love watching vampy Sylvia do her stuff. The way she empties the ashtray with those sweets in the Parcheesi box, and then on her way out pops a sweet into her mouth.

Weird, Tex discusses the insurance policy with Sylvia, but he can't possibly know yet it's worth one million. Delores didn't tell him and he hasn't found the policy yet. And what's all this about Sylvia inheriting barely enough to pay off her father's debts. How can Linsky be in debt when someone pays him $20,000 on a regular basis?

Quote of the day:
I don't have to stick around and be insulted by the hired help. (Sylvia Linsky)



Time to start part two, which ends when Tex travels to the Anasazi ruins.
Fien is offline  
Old 09-26-2011, 08:56 AM   #40
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Chennai, India
Posts: 141
Default

Just finished the second part. The game is still going nicely with a good pacing.

One puzzle where I was completely stumped and had to consult a walkthrough.

Spoiler:
I never realised that the password was supposed to be a word. With it drummed into our head never to keep password an english word, I tried all sorts of other combinations. Forwards, reverse, looking at the paper upside down, replacing numbers for letters, combination of letters and numbers etc. Finally looked at the walkthrough and what do you know, its an anagram puzzle!


Another one where I was stuck for a long while, but eventually realised where I was going wrong.

Spoiler:
If ever you decide to do the time zone conversion on the Internet, keep in mind that San Fransisco and Paris are currently observing daylight savings, while Sydney is NOT. So the conversion will come out wrong as far as the game puzzle is concerned.
Siddhi is offline  
 



Thread Tools

 


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.