[mszv]

Great Review Jack!
I'm possibly the laziest adventure gamer on the planet - and I'm not ambitious as a regular game either. For many games, I'm more interested in an interactive story than the gameplay. So, Dreamfall will probably work out just fine for me.

I'm not sure if I'll play Dreamfall first or Paradise - though I can't play anything until my class is over or at least almost over!

On graphics - I can't see how better graphics make us lazy - just can't see it. I thought the whole point was to make a game look so wonderful that it was if you were really there. That doesn't say anything about gameplay - when a game looks and sounds great, and things move and the world seems alive and all - that doesn't in the least imply that gameplay has to be limited. As far as I can tell, to use a game from another genre, Oblivion is said by many to be the best looking game of all time (for now!), but you still have to, you know, do stuff - engage in gameplay. It's not a lazy game. Oblivion is also on my list of games to play, but I think I'll play Paradise (out any day now, right) and the lovely Dreamfall first!

[Panthera]

Oh, Jackal, talking about spoilers (I know nobody is, but I read about spoilers somewhere else, so I'm talking about spoilers ), you might consider removing Kian's last name... Lots of ppl. complaining about it on Rangar's blog

[Jackal]

Heh. I just responded to that blog thread after taking out the TLJ character reference. Kian's last name is a spoiler?

[Panthera]

Well since

Spoiler:

the old lady at the end and start of TLJ is called lady Alvane and the way it was presented lead us to believe that she is April (witch she apparently can't be or else timetravel and other strange things must be involed for her to get Kian ), I would say the name Kian Alvane is a spoiler...

Oh and since you've edited the title, could you please edit it so that the - is in the right place? I'm embarrased by my mistake, and I don't like to see it everytime this thread is updated..

[Jackal]

Ah, okay. Man, TLJ scholars shouldn't be reading reviews.

Thread title changed.

[Panthera]

well, I don't really think you have to be a scholar to see that as a spoiler You got to remember that loads of ppl. just replayed TLJ in anticipation of Dreamfall, refreshing their memory.. (oh, and I know your not entierly serious, but I thought I'd answer it anyway)

His last name has raised many, many questions for me, and I'm guessing that since you didn't know it's a spoiler, we'll not get the answer to it in this game.. Man, I'm looking forward to playing Dreamfall! it's so hard to wait!!

and thanks for editing title

[Jackal]

Yeah, my comment was facetious. But I'm saying it would probably only matter to people who get into the series pretty deeply. I just shared a detail that's plainly revealed in Dreamfall (with just as little attention given it as my review) and has absolutely no bearing on the game. If Funcom really wanted it to be a mystery, they shouldn't have given him a last name.

[fov]

Originally Posted by mszv

I'm possibly the laziest adventure gamer on the planet - and I'm not ambitious as a regular game either. For many games, I'm more interested in an interactive story than the gameplay. So, Dreamfall will probably work out just fine for me.

Sounds familiar. In fact, hearing the game is all story with few to no puzzles to get in the way is appealing to me! (I never did understand why so many people disliked Tender Loving Care... )

Now I just have to get a computer that'll run the game. I might actually buy it before then, just to look at the box from time to time... is that weird?

[Melanie68]

Originally Posted by fov

Sounds familiar. In fact, hearing the game is all story with few to no puzzles to get in the way is appealing to me! (I never did understand why so many people disliked Tender Loving Care... )

That sounds appealing to me too. Hearing about the story and the exploration - that's enough for me.

I might actually buy it before then, just to look at the box from time to time... is that weird?

No. I've bought games before in anticipation of a new computer.

[Christina]

Originally Posted by fov

Sounds familiar. In fact, hearing the game is all story with few to no puzzles to get in the way is appealing to me! (I never did understand why so many people disliked Tender Loving Care... )

Heh, I liked Tender Love Care too - but you and I must have pretty deviant minds then.

Now I just have to get a computer that'll run the game. I might actually buy it before then, just to look at the box from time to time... is that weird?

That's assuming you can actually find a store that has the game in stock. The PC version has been very difficult to obtain offline.

Anyways, good job on the review Jack! I agreed with all of your points.

[AGA]

I'm a few chapters in, and enjoying very much. Two not-so-minor annoyances though:

1. Zoe's voice. I have to completely disagree with your assessment of this, Jack. Her voice is so bland and monotonous that I find myself mentally shouting 'SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!' during her longer speeches. All the other voices are great though, true.

2. The camera. Again, I have to disagree. This is really, really bad. The camera-follows-character-but-at-a-slight-delay thing is ridiculous. It makes walking around very awkward, and makes precise hotspot targeting a nightmare. Unless there's some secret means of controlling the camera independently that I've missed? Perhaps I'm just spoiled by all the action games I've played with better cameras, but this is a huge irritation to me...

Aside from these points though, it's all very good. I will return to the game!

[Legolas813]

Go in the options menu to change the camera options.

[RLacey]

Originally Posted by AGA

I'm a few chapters in, and enjoying very much. Two not-so-minor annoyances though:

1. Zoe's voice. I have to completely disagree with your assessment of this, Jack. Her voice is so bland and monotonous that I find myself mentally shouting 'SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!' during her longer speeches. All the other voices are great though, true.

2. The camera. Again, I have to disagree. This is really, really bad. The camera-follows-character-but-at-a-slight-delay thing is ridiculous. It makes walking around very awkward, and makes precise hotspot targeting a nightmare. Unless there's some secret means of controlling the camera independently that I've missed? Perhaps I'm just spoiled by all the action games I've played with better cameras, but this is a huge irritation to me...

Aside from these points though, it's all very good. I will return to the game!

I thought you'd ordered from Play.com ...

Curse this annoying extra wait !

[Jackal]

Originally Posted by Legolas813

Go in the options menu to change the camera options.

Exactly. The only reason to rely on the default camera is if you're using the mouse-only option. It should behave like any other quality action game (Splinter Cell, etc.)

As for Zoë's voice, well, see if it grows on you. It was nothing like what I expected, but after I adjusted, I really liked it. She is, after all, very apathetic and dispassionate about life (at the beginning, at least.)

[Legolas813]

Originally Posted by Jackal

Exactly. The only reason to rely on the default camera is if you're using the mouse-only option. It should behave like any other quality action game (Splinter Cell, etc.)

That's for PC of course. On Xbox I find the default camera setting to be just right.

[Jackal]

Don't you manually control the camera with an analog stick for Xbox? I just assumed it played the same way as with a gamepad on PC.

[Legolas813]

The settings on Xbox are "Normal" and "Fixed Behind". I use Normal and it lets you manually control the camera, however if you don't move the camera it will usually try to straighten itself out eventually. For the most part, though, it works like any other 3D game: move with the left analog, look around with the right. I still can't totally tell the difference between the two camera options.

I just leave it on Normal and it works out just fine. This is one of the first games too where I didn't have to change the horizontal or vertical axis. Everything is set perfect by default (on Xbox).

[Jackal]

It has those two settings for PC, too, so I think it does work the same. But it's so much simpler and faster to move the camera yourself that I didn't bother with the other option. I didn't have to do much re-mapping, either, though by default I found the horizontal mouse axis needed to be inverted. Actually, the axes for gamepad and mouse were completely opposed to one another, so what worked for one was backwards for the other. But I can't imagine people will keep switching like I did for review.

[Lucien21]

review is actually putting me off.

As much as I like my story in a game. The game part is essential.

I had enough of non-interactive click athons with Still Life and Syberia.

It's supposed to be a game not a movie and the lack of puzzles and gameplay really worries me.

How can you spend all those years developing a game and forget the game.

DOH!!!

[Jackal]

I hope no one misunderstands the context for the gameplay discussion. It's really not a movie. There's not much challenge, no (although there seem to be more help threads than I expected ), but there is still SOME gameplay. There are things to do, there are puzzles, the game doesn't play itself. And being direct control, you're actually more hands-on (literally) throughout the game, and that shouldn't be overlooked, as it makes the whole feel of the game much less passive. There are SOME stretches where you're doing pretty much nothing, but it's not consistent throughout the game.

So there's not enough gameplay to make it a 5-star game (and really, it had the potential to be), but there's enough to make it a 4-star game. To me, that's still pretty worthwhile.

Maybe everyone understands that. I just feel like some people are hearing "no gameplay" and being turned off. (Lucien, these comments aren't specifically directed at you.)