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Old 05-30-2005, 04:46 PM   #1
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Default Runaway 2

Hey I am new here. I wonder Runaway 2 will coming out on USA?
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Old 05-30-2005, 05:10 PM   #2
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Hi, Tacking. Welcome to AG.

There is currently no publisher for a North American release of the game, but that's just a matter of time. I think it's a safe bet that Runaway 2 will find its way onto store shelves in the States at some point.

While you're waiting, stick around for our upcoming preview of the game!
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Old 05-31-2005, 03:56 AM   #3
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Great article. I tried Runaway but found it too annoyingly difficult for the wrong reasons, but I loved its style.

This got me a little worried -

Quote:
Runaway 2's puzzles promise to be just as quirky and illogical as in the first game. For example: Brian can't get across the quicksand until he does away with a mischievous lemur that keeps jumping across his path. The puzzle solution involves a mechanical toy dog that distracts the lemur by barking, walking around, and lifting his leg to—well, you know. If you couldn't stand the puzzling in the original game, you'll probably have the same complaints about the sequel, but if you enjoyed hobnobbing with drag queens, making coffee with Mayan relics, and finding creative uses for tubes of lipstick, Runaway 2 will be right up your alley.
Is advertising "illogical" puzzles really going to help this title sell?!
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Old 05-31-2005, 04:01 AM   #4
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It depends on their definition of illogical. Maybe they used the wrong term for puzzles that require 'out of the box thinking'. Not likely, though

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Old 05-31-2005, 04:21 AM   #5
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edited for sheer idiocy of comment

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Old 05-31-2005, 04:48 AM   #6
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I read on the preview: Puzzles like the first one!!!!

That´s is definitly bad marketing. The Puzzles from Runaway were dreadful....and i am talking about a certain one involving a pot plant...ARGH...i hated that one!!

I just hope that the plot from this one, is better than the first because, man....that plot sucked hard!!!
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Old 05-31-2005, 04:55 AM   #7
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First of all, we are NOT the game's advertisers or marketing department. I hope never to see THAT association made again.

Secondly, anyone that doesn't understand the term "illogical puzzles" in the context of a comic adventure can't have played many of them. Obviously the logic exists in the game world, but not particularly in ours. The word has no bearing on the quality of the puzzle. Some illogical puzzles in Runaway were good, some bad.
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Old 05-31-2005, 05:02 AM   #8
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This is definitely not good:

Quote:
Once again, items may become available only after you know you can use them, which will mean revisiting areas and taking a second (or third) look to make sure you've found what you need.
This is becoming a worrying trend in recent adventures. The worst culprit was Black Mirror, and there was a bit of it in Still Life. It really needs to be nipped in the bud.
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Old 05-31-2005, 05:11 AM   #9
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Quote:
This is definitely not good:


Quote:
Once again, items may become available only after you know you can use them, which will mean revisiting areas and taking a second (or third) look to make sure you've found what you need.



This is becoming a worrying trend in recent adventures. The worst culprit was Black Mirror, and there was a bit of it in Still Life. It really needs to be nipped in the bud.
Well...i actualy like that. It is more beliavable than getting all you can find on the screen without actually knowing why you will need that partiularly object for.
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Old 05-31-2005, 05:17 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruno_Malta
Well...i actualy like that. It is more beliavable than getting all you can find on the screen without actually knowing why you will need that partiularly object for.
Yeah, I agree with you. I don't like any of this "Let's pick up this Frying Pan now, because you never know, it might come in useful in an hour's time". I don't mind going back and finding items that I noticed, when I finally do have a use for them. As long as they were obvious to begin with and don't require a whole load of pixel-hunting to find...
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Old 05-31-2005, 05:23 AM   #11
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Quote:
Yeah, I agree with you. I don't like any of this "Let's pick up this Frying Pan now, because you never know, it might come in useful in an hour's time". I don't mind going back and finding items that I noticed, when I finally do have a use for them. As long as they were obvious to begin with and don't require a whole load of pixel-hunting to find...
I agree. Like you said, it´s not hard to know when you will need a object that you saw on the other screen and so on. You just have to pay atention and remeber where you saw that object that you will need now. This worked nice on Still Life. On runaway the problem with this was that therer were many objects and it involved a LOT of pixel hunting. Hope that they improve this on the second one.
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Old 05-31-2005, 05:31 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jackal
First of all, we are NOT the game's advertisers or marketing department. I hope never to see THAT association made again.

Secondly, anyone that doesn't understand the term "illogical puzzles" in the context of a comic adventure can't have played many of them. Obviously the logic exists in the game world, but not particularly in ours. The word has no bearing on the quality of the puzzle. Some illogical puzzles in Runaway were good, some bad.
Get off my case please, Jackal. Sometimes I swear you're waiting in shadows to take my comments out of context.

Any article and information supplied by a site IS in a sense, marketing for a game unless it contains relevant journalistic information obtained by playing it. It's not association, it's a form of marketing when the info is provided to you by the developer.

As for me not understanding terms, it's nothing to do with terms - it's plain English. Look up illogical in any dictionary. "Nonsensical but logical" may have been a better way of putting it.

Don't look at me, I just took it as read.
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Old 05-31-2005, 05:39 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by squarejawhero
Get off my case please, Jackal. Sometimes I swear you're waiting in shadows to take my comments out of context.
Riiiiight. Gimme a break. You referred to OUR preview as marketing for the game. I must have missed the so-called context. If you feel your case is being picked on, maybe your case is the problem.

Quote:
Any article and information supplied by a site IS in a sense, marketing for a game unless it contains relevant journalistic information obtained by playing it. It's not association, it's a form of marketing when the info is provided to you by the developer.
Ah, so you mean exactly like the situation we're dealing with, then. Emily playing a demo of the game and commenting on it.
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Old 05-31-2005, 06:04 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jackal
Riiiiight. Gimme a break. You referred to OUR preview as marketing for the game. I must have missed the so-called context. If you feel your case is being picked on, maybe your case is the problem.

Ah, so you mean exactly like the situation we're dealing with, then. Emily playing a demo of the game and commenting on it.
Why so defensive? I really liked the article!

It's just that referring to any puzzles as "illogical" in a genre that relies on logic tells me, and others it seems, that the game will have the same type of obscure (read: not fun) hit-and-miss puzzling as its predecessor. I've no problems accepting I've misread the intent of its use if that's the case, but there you go.

As a preview, it's publicity therefore critical marketing for a future game. Sorry 'bout that! If the preview takes the word illogical as a keystone in the gameplay, it doesn't really bode too well for those that didn't enjoy the first one. I apologise if it came across that I was referring to the article as a straight piece of marketing.

Even so, a preview is marketing in the eyes of the publishers and investors, which is why they're used. It's all controlled-condition stuff.
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Old 05-31-2005, 06:11 AM   #15
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Quote:
Any article and information supplied by a site IS in a sense, marketing for a game unless it contains relevant journalistic information obtained by playing it. It's not association, it's a form of marketing when the info is provided to you by the developer.
I'm also puzzled by the suggestion that dtp or Pendulo is marketing their game poorly. I played a demo of the game during which Chris Kellner basically stood back and let me go at it. My observation was that one of the early puzzles was quirky and illogical, just like they were in the first game - and frankly, I enjoyed the puzzles in the first game. If the word "illogical" is unclear to people who didn't play the first game, I apologize for that, but I think anyone who did play the first game probably knows what type of puzzle I'm talking about - and it's fair warning. From what I saw, the puzzles in the sequel are comparable to the puzzles in the original... why is it bad to say this out loud? Since when is it a journalist's responsibility to pimp a game to people who may not enjoy it?

I was not handed a fact sheet that said "This game has illogical puzzles." In fact, I was not handed a fact sheet at all. ALL of my observations about Runaway 2 are based on my experience watching the intro movie and playing a segment of the game. So, if you're saying it was a poor choice for dtp or Pendulo to allow a reputable adventure gaming site to preview their game... well, obviously, I disagree.

Quote:
Why so defensive? I really liked the article!
C'mon, if someone suggested that you were in bed with a publisher or developer based on something you wrote, you wouldn't be a tad defensive?

It may not have been the intention, but it sort of came across that way.

btw - I didn't say the puzzle wasn't fun. It was, especially the animations involved. Apparently "illogical" has a negative connotation for some people, but when you're dealing with a world that's illogical - a world where a trio of drag queens in the desert turn out to be some of your best allies - the game's skewed logic takes on its own charm. At least, it did for me.

Last edited by fov; 05-31-2005 at 06:16 AM.
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Old 05-31-2005, 06:24 AM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by squarejawhero
As a preview, it's publicity therefore critical marketing for a future game. Sorry 'bout that! If the preview takes the word illogical as a keystone in the gameplay, it doesn't really bode too well for those that didn't enjoy the first one. I apologise if it came across that I was referring to the article as a straight piece of marketing.
Emily addressed that point excellently. Our job - as press - is to call the game as we see it. NOT to pimp it in the best possible light. And yes, it probably DOESN'T bode well for people that disliked the puzzles in the first. That was the entire point, and that's the very reason for my "defensiveness". The implication is that, as a marketing pawn, we should have used only our rose-coloured pen in describing the game.

Even so, I still say that referring to a comic adventure as having illogical puzzles makes contextual sense to anyone familiar with the game style. It's like referring to "impossible physics" in a cartoon. It's not a negative; simply something understood in context.

Quote:
Even so, a preview is marketing in the eyes of the publishers and investors, which is why they're used. It's all controlled-condition stuff.
I'm sure publishers would love to use press for that purpose. But never confuse their agenda with ours. Again, that was the very reason for my raising this distinction. They can show us the material, but they don't get to dictate how we present it.
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Old 05-31-2005, 06:28 AM   #17
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Well, what Emily does not know is that I used some kind of gruesome mind control, developed in remote and hidden German psychiatric labs, on her, to ensure she only writes good things about the game. Obviously, it didn't work out. Seems we have to work more and harder on this new way to gain world domination.

Seriously: Emily played without being influenced mentally by me. My English is way too bad and my looks is not charming enough.
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Old 05-31-2005, 06:37 AM   #18
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It wasn't until I played the tape of our demo backward that I heard the hidden messages. Damn you and your Bavarian English!

Quote:
Originally Posted by dtp Chris
Seriously: Emily played without being influenced mentally by me. My English is way too bad and my looks is not charming enough.
Now now, don't be modest.

Here's a serious question, though, since you and I are the only two who have played through this lemur puzzle - I'm trying not to spoil it for people by giving it away, but overall, do you think "illogical" is an appropriate word? Or if not, how would you describe the type of puzzle it is?
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Old 05-31-2005, 06:42 AM   #19
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I've actually seen Chris from DTP wearing a silver, tin skullcap, like that little dude from Psychonauts. Your Jedi mindtricks won't work with me!

Anyway, apologies for the misunderstanding, Chris, Emily and Jackal. Actually, I didn't really realise how important my own forum posts are to cause such a fuss! I mustn't let the attention go to my head! (insert "too late" comment here)

I'd never want ANY journalist to go against their own instincts nor pimp a game. I just wanted to point out previews are a form of marketing, that's all, not accuse anyone of anything! Sorry...

Anyhow Jackal, I still disagree on the phrasing. So there. "Implausible situations"? "Nonsensical narrative"? We could argue semantics all day, but when referring to "impossible physics" or whatnot directly I can understand what you're saying. By referring to "illogical", that dictates "without logic".

Now I'm just being pedantic.

As for cartoons, I work in animation. When I'm not typing here that is.
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Old 05-31-2005, 06:44 AM   #20
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From your excellent article description, Em, distracting an animal IS logical in the sense of the requirement of the puzzle. The solution could be "surreal"? "Unorthodox"? Or just plain "funneeeee"!

Wahey! This could go on all day!
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