[Jackal]

Paul, this thread has absolutely zero bearing on how we'll review the games. Our editorial standards aren't so flimsy as to be swayed by a few enthused forum opinions.

[fov]

Originally Posted by RLacey

If we follow that logic, do I get to kill you if you even consider giving a King's Quest game five stars?

Come on, now. Do you honestly think I would?

I can't think of any game that deserves five stars. Not any that's come out yet, at least.

[Squinky]

Originally Posted by paul1275

A review at the end of the day is one person’s perception of a piece of work. It should not be biased and it should not be subject to vetting.

All reviews, by their very nature, are biased. Bias is inevitable and unavoidable. And I say this even despite being a writer for this site and a huge Monkey Island fan.

[GoT]

Lets just be thankful that theres so many people that are interested in seeing monkey island reviews (no matter how many stars they get) because they deserve lengthly reviews no matter about any bias. However i do remember seeing a poll run not too long ago... it had all different genres of games and each genre was eventually filtered down after a series of polls and i may be mistaken but didnt Grim Fandango win the adventure game poll? not monkey island? i think one of the reasons that monkey island has such a cult following (and i said ONE of the reasons so dont go quoting me and saying theres many reasons cause of course there is) is because it was about "PIRATES". Sierra were the main opposition in the market at the time and were pushing out Fantasy and Sci Fi adventures. I think the LSLarry games were pretty original too but were of course very adult orientated.

GoT

[Jazhara7]

Originally Posted by fov

[shameless promotion]

An article having to do with Secret of Monkey Island.

[/shameless promotion]

Ooh, that's the article that relieved me of any problems of finding a New Year's resolution! And I've even managed to keep that New Year's resolution too.

Thank you, Fovily!


-

[After a brisk nap]

Originally Posted by fov

If The Secret of Monkey Island were a perfectly designed adventure game, I wouldn't have gotten frustrated and looked at a walkthrough. Three times.

I don't agree with that. I don't think it's necessarily a flaw that not every person can solve every puzzle in the game. Of the three puzzles you were stuck at, the first one (seagull) is hinted at in the manual, the second one (how to get to the giant monkey head) I'm pretty sure is hinted at in one of the notes you find on the island, or in conversations with Herman, and the third one (squeaky door) was pretty intuitive, I thought.

Structurally it is a good game, and I think it has some great puzzles, but it also has some unintuitive puzzles.

It's really the structural quality I'm mainly thinking of when I say Monkey Island is a perfectly designed game. Sure, inventive puzzles and high-quality writing elevates it to a masterpiece, but it's the expertly constructed framework that makes it (and I'm not backing down on this) flawless. There's the pacing, the mix of easy and challenging puzzles, the balance of freedom/non-linearity with directed progress, the interaction density, the construction of the story, the use of foreshadowing to tie everything together, the way the action moves between different locales... And most importantly, the way the player is involved in Guybrush's adventure, so that by the end you feel that you have

Spoiler:

searched for treasure, fought the swordmaster, broken into the Governor's mansion, survived LeChuck's attempt on your life, set sail to save Elaine, made your way to Monkey Island, shot yourself out of a cannon, faced cannibals

... and so on. Not like you've just moved your character from cut-scene to cut-scene, where the story happens without your input, like in some games I could mention.

Monkey Island is a game that lets the player do all the cool stuff, and has a lot of cool stuff to do. And that, I think, is the most important lesson it has to teach modern adventure games.

[SoccerDude28]

Originally Posted by Jackal

Paul, this thread has absolutely zero bearing on how we'll review the games. Our editorial standards aren't so flimsy as to be swayed by a few enthused forum opinions.

I will post here and tell you it's the best review ever if you give it 5 stars

[GoT]

Whats that inside the christmas hat Soccer Dude? is it a monkey island 2 review?

[Ninth]

Originally Posted by fov

Come on, now. Do you honestly think I would?

I can't think of any game that deserves five stars. Not any that's come out yet, at least.

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis does. It got 4,5/5 here, but since the only con was "hard to run on modern computers", when now with ScummVM you can not only run it smoothly but also with better graphics, I'd say it deserves to get the perfect score.

Deathgate is also, in my opinion, perfect.

Monkey Island is not perfect, even though the first one is probably my favorite AG. I would give the first 4, and the second 4,5.

[GoT]

is this scumm VM thing free to get and install etc? cause i'd love to play the indy games again if they're available to play. can i download any from freeware or anything?

[AFGNCAAP]

Scumm VM, ie. the emulator itself, is freeware. The games it helps to run, however, are not (except Beneath a Steel Sky and Flight of the Amazon Queen, also available on their website).

[Tobbe]

Yep, as for Indy, you have to buy that game to play it, then you can do it via ScummVM..

[GoT]

sweet thanks for the tip, ive just downloaded ScummVM and installed it... gonna try out some old games now if i can find em on freeware sites
not very many of my old versions have survived or turned up after all my house moving over the last 10 years... moving interstate has its downfalls
okies... heres hoping we see a monkey island review soon hehehe..

GOT

[Ninth]

Originally Posted by GoT

sweet thanks for the tip, ive just downloaded ScummVM and installed it... gonna try out some old games now if i can find em on freeware sites
not very many of my old versions have survived or turned up after all my house moving over the last 10 years... moving interstate has its downfalls
okies... heres hoping we see a monkey island review soon hehehe..

GOT

Most of the games that will run on ScummVM (Lucas Arts games, Simon the Sorcerer, etc...) aren't free yet.

There are two exceptions that I know about: Beneath a Steel Sky and Flight of the Amazon Queen.

[GoT]

okies i might consider trying one of them then and then see if i can find some cheap older copies of other games on ebay or something. Thanks heaps.

GoT

[Kolzig]

Wow, so AG is really gonna do the reviews someday?
I thought that would never happen.


It's great to be back at AG, btw.