09-30-2003, 12:24 PM | #1 |
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Agon
So what do you guys think of AGON? Anyone tried it out? The serialized approach is interesting; I think I'm going to download the first episode. For only $10, why not? Sure, it's $140 by the time you've gotten all the episodes, but for being spread over two years, that's not bad at all. It's definitely something new to the gaming world.
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Chris "News Editor" Remo Some sort of Writer or Editor or Something, Idle Thumbs "Some comparisons are a little less obvious. I always think of Grim Fandango as Casablanca on acid." - Will Wright |
09-30-2003, 12:42 PM | #2 |
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wow! That's a lot of bucksees for a single game. My belief is that a game should give you as many hours of satisfactory gameplay or afterthought as the number of US$ you spend on it. Can this game give me over 140 hours of gameplay?
The review says 4 hours each... *sigh* But given it's a good review, I'm sure it's worth a look into. *waddles off to the website to read about it* |
09-30-2003, 12:47 PM | #3 |
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You don't buy many adventure games, then, do you? :P How many $50 adventure games give a solid 50 hours of playtime? Not many. That being said, AGON certainly has a higher dollar:hours ratio than most adventure games, but if each episode is 4 hours long, we'll end up with 56 hours of gameplay by the end. That's $2.50 per hour. Honestly, that's not much more than what you get for most new adventure games at $50 or so. It's definitely still not a great value, but bear in mind you're not ever paying $140 at once. $140 over the course of two years does NOT feel like $140 to your pocket book. That's like 6 bucks a month--hardly even noticeable.
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Chris "News Editor" Remo Some sort of Writer or Editor or Something, Idle Thumbs "Some comparisons are a little less obvious. I always think of Grim Fandango as Casablanca on acid." - Will Wright |
09-30-2003, 12:56 PM | #4 |
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Well, I am only recently into the world of adventure games, so, no, I haven't bought many
The only ones I've ever bought are IJ and Fate of Atlantis (FoA), MI1, MI2, MI3 and MI4, Full Throttle... All these games, I can honestly say have given me 2x the hours as the number of dollars I spent on them. And I guess this was possible because I bought all these games pretty recently, when they were cheap, and not when they were released. (I have yet to play MI4, doesn't work on my hunk of computerous mass.) Other than that - none. But, you have a point, given the non-replayable nature of adventure games, perhaps the rule shouldn't apply. I've generally applied this rule to FPSs and RTSs and I've stuck by it for the past couple of years. Maybe it's time to break the boundaries btw, The music samples for this game are mindboggling! |
10-02-2003, 11:16 AM | #5 |
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The catch is, will they even be able to finish the story? If it's determined not to be commercially viable, the company could just abandon the project in the middle and the story would go unfinished. IMHO, this is the biggest flaw about serialized games. And that's one reason I wouldn't play it unless the last episode was released.
by the way, I've played adventure games over and over again FAR more times than I would even consider playing an FPS game or any other game. Replaying adventure games is like reading a good book all over again, IMHO. |
10-02-2003, 11:29 AM | #6 | |
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Anyway, you have a good point regarding the dedication of the team. It is risky to put full trust in them and then not get your money's worth of an ending. However, if that were to happen, you could always finish it yourself - in your head |
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10-02-2003, 12:19 PM | #7 |
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krkode - A book (or a movie, or a game, or a work of music) does not have to be all about the story, though. If this were truly the case, our generally accepted ideas of who we consider "great authors" to be would be radically different. The way a story is teld can be much more important than the story itself, which is why Shakespeare, for example, is still so widely read today. He certainly didn't make up most of those stories; most of them were traditional stories that had been passed down for generations. Now, whether you DO like Shakespeare or not, it's pretty hard to deny that his style of storytelling is one that has captured and inspired millions of people over centuries. A truly great game, likewise, should have reply value not based on the story (or at least not entirely based on the story), but based on the way that story is told. The reason I keep playing Grim Fandango is not because the story is particularly original--it pretty much takes from a bunch of well-known film noir stories, as well as movies like Casablanca--but the style in which it was told and the overall feel of the game is incredibly unique and moving. That's just an example in the gaming world; there are many others.
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Chris "News Editor" Remo Some sort of Writer or Editor or Something, Idle Thumbs "Some comparisons are a little less obvious. I always think of Grim Fandango as Casablanca on acid." - Will Wright |
10-02-2003, 01:01 PM | #8 | |
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10-02-2003, 01:09 PM | #9 |
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Well, I've read all the books you brougt up, and the first two stories you mentioned, at least, are really not that complex: a guy gets injustly imprisoned and takes revenge, a captain really wants to kill this one whale. The next hardly even HAS a story: a guy gets his soul put into a picture (that's about it--the entire book hardly has any plot, it's essentially all about Dorian the character himself). The story of LOTR is pretty basic as well--it's the context the story is put in that provides the excitement. Great Expectations is perhaps the exception to the books you listed--it was originally published in serialized form (how coincidental, given this thread ), so the whole point was to have a rapidly evolving story that would keep readers' interest from months to month.
It's very possible I could have just misunderstood what you meant in the first place, though; if so, feel free to ignore me
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Chris "News Editor" Remo Some sort of Writer or Editor or Something, Idle Thumbs "Some comparisons are a little less obvious. I always think of Grim Fandango as Casablanca on acid." - Will Wright |
10-02-2003, 01:17 PM | #10 |
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I doubt you have misunderstood, Remixor. Perhaps it is I who was unclear in expressing my opinion.
As you have shown, the stories of my favorite books are indeed simple. But it is how they were told that makes them my favorite. They're either good vs evil, revenge, or hunt for something, relatively clichéd plots, even for their time, I would think. But they were wonderfully told, and that's why I reread them. Yes, I too value how a story unfolds, and perhaps that explains why I am never bored of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. But, you must admit, not every game has what that game has (I haven't played Grim Fandango) |
10-02-2003, 01:20 PM | #11 |
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Yeah, I see what you mean now. It's essentially what I was saying as well.
And of course not every game is able to achieve that. That's why we have bad games, good games, and great games. PLAY GRIM FANDANGO.
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Chris "News Editor" Remo Some sort of Writer or Editor or Something, Idle Thumbs "Some comparisons are a little less obvious. I always think of Grim Fandango as Casablanca on acid." - Will Wright |
10-02-2003, 03:13 PM | #12 | |
:P ^^^ at tamz
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10-03-2003, 04:54 AM | #13 | |
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10-03-2003, 07:17 AM | #14 |
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I was with you guys in the beginning. If I hadn't gotten a review copy I don't know if I would have played it. I don't want to be in the middle of a story - no matter how great it is - and then have no closure due to financial issues on the part of the company. But hopefully enough people will jump on board to make this financially viable.
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10-04-2003, 03:02 AM | #15 | |
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According to their FAQ, it is a possibility that lack of interest and/or funding would cause early termination of the project, but it sounds like they would still try to dedicate some effort to bringing closure to the project:
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10-04-2003, 07:21 AM | #16 |
:P ^^^ at tamz
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I'd be interested to hear second opinions from whoever plays Episode 1.
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In the next AG crash ___| A temporary board ____| I am born to spam In the "Get New" list __| Scrolling up and down | I am born to spam through a broadband ISP | i am back to steal your bandwidth --Spammo-head, "Windbag" |
10-06-2003, 05:40 PM | #17 | |
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Well, I played for a while, then I idiotically quit without saving. I've never managed to do that before, so I don't know what happened this time In any case, I'm enjoying it so far for the most part. Years of LEC- and Sierra-style adventures have built up in my a pretty strong resilience to node-based games (this is in fact the first one besides Myst I've managed played for more than a few moments). It's not astounding, but I really like that you pick up clues that you have to write down yourself. That's something I've missed from a lot of recent adventures. It feels good to have a sheet of paper covered with my otherwise illegible scribbles at my side while playing the game. Anyway, I think I'm pretty close to the end of this episode, but I'll have to start over and redo all the stuff I've done due to my dumb mistake. I'll post again once I'm done.
EDIT: Bwhahaha, check out JA+'s first line of their AGON preview: Quote:
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Chris "News Editor" Remo Some sort of Writer or Editor or Something, Idle Thumbs "Some comparisons are a little less obvious. I always think of Grim Fandango as Casablanca on acid." - Will Wright Last edited by remixor; 10-06-2003 at 05:54 PM. |
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10-06-2003, 06:10 PM | #18 | |
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I'm interested to see if the episodes end relatively satisfactorily or if they leave you hanging, waiting for the next part...please enlighten as to this once you're done, Remixor |
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10-06-2003, 06:33 PM | #19 |
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Is it true that you get a copy protection code that's only good for one single installation of the game when you buy it? I've read that that's the case on another forum. Incredibly stupid if it's true. One hard drive crash and you'll have to buy the game all over again, not to mention if you, after uninstalling it, would like to replay it in the future. Money (140 dollars worth of it) go bye bye...
Last edited by Magskvalp; 10-06-2003 at 06:41 PM. |
10-06-2003, 07:07 PM | #20 | |
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magskvalp: I'm not sure. You do get a code, but I don't know if it's only good for one install. I'll check their website. EDIT: Ok, this is how I THINK it works (don't quote me): Each code is only good for one install of the game, but since your billing information is on file you should be able to re-download the game if need be, which should get you a new code. EDIT AGAIN: Ok, this time it's official. I checked their FAQ. Each code is only good for one install of the game, but if you need to reinstall or install on a new computer or something, you just email [email protected] and they'll get you a new one. LAST EDIT, SERIOUSLY: Ok, so everything in EDIT AGAIN stands, but also apparently if you're reinstalling on the SAME COMPUTER as your original code (or at least the last one you were assigned), you don't need a new code.
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Chris "News Editor" Remo Some sort of Writer or Editor or Something, Idle Thumbs "Some comparisons are a little less obvious. I always think of Grim Fandango as Casablanca on acid." - Will Wright Last edited by remixor; 10-06-2003 at 07:37 PM. |
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