[Ninth]

Originally Posted by gillyruless

I wish I were a woman so that I can have Ninth's baby. I don't think anyone can do better than Ninth did in his post describing what I loved about Still Life.



Trepsie, I know you are both a student and admirer or art. Just for the sake of beautiful pieces of art, you should check out Still Life. Syberia is one of the most beautiful looking games that I have ever played and Still Life in its dark and sinister manner is even more beautiful than Syberia. My offer still stands and I'm sure so is Lynsie's.

Wow, thanks, you made my day!
Funny, writing this post felt like talking some books in the essays we wrote in french class a few years ago, as I was studying to go to an engineering school. I like to get carried away.

And yeah, there is something special in Still Life. Although I have to say that the paintings were what impressed me the most. The painter's workshop is the most (darkly) beautiful room I've ever seen in an adventure game.

[sp36]

6.7??? Too much

[Bastich]

Originally Posted by Ninth

Two puzzles had me stuck for some time (the receipe thing and the lockpicking), but even these two, which I disliked, were appreciated by some other players.

The lockpick puzzle was the best puzzle in the game by far. The recipe puzzle, OTOH, is probably the worst puzzle to ever (dis)grace a game. It is bad on pretty much every conceivable level. It is so ludicrous that the developers should be sterilized for thinking of it.

Originally Posted by gillyrules

Just for the sake of beautiful pieces of art, you should check out Still Life. Syberia is one of the most beautiful looking games that I have ever played and Still Life in its dark and sinister manner is even more beautiful than Syberia

I would definitely agree with this. The art was very good. It is just too bad that some idiot decided the game had to fit on 2 CDs and thus had the artwork so compressed that it is riddled with artifacts. I wouldn't compress pictures that much for a website, let alone a game.

[Ninth]

Originally Posted by Bastich

The lockpick puzzle was the best puzzle in the game by far. The recipe puzzle, OTOH, is probably the worst puzzle to ever (dis)grace a game. It is bad on pretty much every conceivable level. It is so ludicrous that the developers should be sterilized for thinking of it.

I hated it while I was playing, but thinking back, I kinda like the spirit, only I wish it had been implemented better.

Originally Posted by Bastich

I would definitely agree with this. The art was very good. It is just too bad that some idiot decided the game had to fit on 2 CDs and thus had the artwork so compressed that it is riddled with artifacts.

What's an artifact in this context?

[Bastich]

Originally Posted by Ninth

What's an artifact in this context?

If you can't see it, consider yourself lucky, but it is the stuff all around the edges of the panels on the walls for instance. It looks like semi-transparent blobs along the edges. I don't really know how to describe it, but to me it is very obvious.

You may have to view it full screen to fully see it.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

I can see it, Bastich. It makes the whole picture look cheap. The game looks a little less polished for it, in low res because it IS low res.

[Bastich]

I just bothered to read the review that this thread is about and the author mentions the compression too. I guess I'm not the only one...

[Ninth]

Originally Posted by Bastich

If you can't see it, consider yourself lucky, but it is the stuff all around the edges of the panels on the walls for instance. It looks like semi-transparent blobs along the edges. I don't really know how to describe it, but to me it is very obvious.

You may have to view it full screen to fully see it.

Man, I had to spend 5 minutes scrutinizing the screen to see what you were talking about. You're a picky guy, aren't you ?

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Hey, if I'm gonna spend good money on a new game I WILL be picky.

[Ninth]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

Hey, if I'm gonna spend good money on a new game I WILL be picky.

Sure. But that pushing picky-ness quite far.
I honestly didn't see anything wrong with the game graphically speaking while playing it, and you have to look real hard to see these "artifacts".

[Intrepid Homoludens]

I didn't need to look hard, though. I noticed it playing the demo, and I couldn't crank up the resolution. It's such a pity, because the nice art direction was stained by it.

It would never totally ruin the game for me, but I would certainly take off some points.

[Bastich]

Originally Posted by Ninth

Man, I had to spend 5 minutes scrutinizing the screen to see what you were talking about. You're a picky guy, aren't you ?

Maybe you need a new monitor?

Or a new prescription?

[Ninth]

Originally Posted by Bastich

Maybe you need a new monitor?

Or a new prescription?

Well, I'm not good with details.

[squarejawhero]

If you're playing on a 15" monitor then it's going to be harder to spot, but most modern PC's nowadays have monitors about 17" and over with a native resolution of 1280X1024, sometimes TFT's. If there isn't the option to increase the resolution any 2D game, no matter how good the design, isn't going to look great even at 1024X768, but especially 640X480. That picture, for example, is a small box on this monitor. The problem with 2D prerendered backgrounds is getting the balance between compression and size required, and any crisply defined backdrop at a large resolution is going to take up more space. Sure, you can fit in more detail, but if you've got a standard 17"-er then it's always going to look a bit crappy at a resolution of 1024X768 and you can't use anti-aliasing as it's 2D.

[fov]

I have a 17" monitor set to 1024x768 and it looks fine to me.

Obviously, we all have different pet peeves, and I don't discount that some people have a problem with the image, but the people who have an issue with it shouldn't assume that those of us who don't have an issue with it just aren't looking hard enough. I see what you're talking about. It just doesn't bother me. I don't think it "cheapens" the image at all.

[Agustin]

Nobody seems to realize the fact that the screenshot above is in JPG format and at 78K size it has a poor quality level. If the original in-game image was already in JPG format, then recompressing it with that codec will introduce a LOT of artifacts.

Even so, while I find valid complaining about such things, I think it's nitpicking to the point of being obsessive

[sethsez]

I do think it's definitely an issue, though. Even if you don't care one way or the other, good compression is still better than bad compression 100% of the time.

I also don't think it's nitpicking when the vast majority of the game's graphics are 2D backgrounds. If it were a menu screen, sure, it'd be nitpicking, but for people who see this it's always there and is a valid complaint about the game's graphics.

[fov]

Originally Posted by Agustin

Nobody seems to realize the fact that the screenshot above is in JPG format and at 78K size it has a poor quality level. If the original in-game image was already in JPG format, then recompressing it with that codec will introduce a LOT of artifacts.

Really good point. I was wondering about that (but forgot to say anything).

I remember a recent conversation on this board about how story in adventure games should be better... how dare the developers skimp on story and put all their money in graphics (those bastards!)... if they really cared about telling a good story they should just tell it and shouldn't worry so much about pleasing us with graphics. Etc. I don't remember which thread it was on and I may be embellishing just a little, but that was the gist.

Oh well. Can't have it both ways.

[SoccerDude28]

It could be that they were trying to develop it for both the console and the PC. This is not the first game that suffer graphically because it has to coexist on the XBOX. The whole game industry is full of games that have low res graphics, because it would be too expensive to remake all of the graphics for the PC. I wonder why people don't nitpick on those instead I agree with Agustin, this is becoming obsessive and unhealthy criticism, like you are looking for excuses to put down the game.

[sethsez]

(edit: to fov) And normally I'd agree with that sentiment entirely, but nobody's talking about re-rendering the backgrounds here. Just using less (or better) compression.

And soccerdude, people bitch about PC games that were scaled down for the Xbox all the time. God, I still remember when Morrowind came out...