[Intrepid Homoludens]

"Please, Tim, eat our brains. Please?"

Psychonauts will be playable on Xbox 360 | Joystiq.com, Jun 19th 2006 2:55PM

It looks like Tim Schafer's e-mail campaigned paid off, with many Psychonauts fans (who suffered from a variety of life-threatening illnesses) are getting their wish to have the title backwards compatible on their Xbox 360. 1UP is reporting forum chatter that the BC Ninjas working at Microsoft took the call and are now working on the title. Indeed, at least a few Joystiq readers received similar assurances.

Whether these e-mails are earnest or just a means to assuage the longing, we will find out soon enough. They can not just wait for all of those people with fake life-threatening illnesses to just fake-die and ignore it.

w00t.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Oh, and it's not necessarily BC right now. It's on the waiting list, as MS has its hands full with all the other titles slated to be 360 friendly, so Mr. Schafer's little masterpiece should be worked on soon.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Don't worry, Raz. Soon you'll be able to prove what a bad-ass psychic you can
be in vivid high definition!

Backwards Compat: Psychonauts Almost Done | Aeropause, 29 August 2006

Alan Stuart, one of Microsoft's Backwards Campatibility NINJAS, responded to my "concerns" about the lack of Psychonauts and many other high-profile games from the latest BC update.

To those waiting for Psychonauts, Alan told me, "We worked on Psychonauts and it was almost ready to ship, but it didn't make the deadline. We continue to work on all games."

I was under the impression that they had once again ignored the community... but this is certainly good news for those that still treasure Psychonauts (and many other Xbox hits, such as JSRF).

[insane_cobra]

I'm currently playing the PC version of the game and while I certainly love all those things everyone's been raving about (well, except for Raz whom I find mildly annoying), I must admit I'm pretty disappointed by some design decisions. I'll elaborate on that once I succeed in fighting my way through Meat Circus.

[BenjaminBunny]

I still haven't played it...

[Spiwak]

You're pretty much an incomplete human being. You should get it as soon as you can.

[SoccerDude28]

Awesome. Hooaray for Tim S

[Jake]

Originally Posted by insane_cobra

disappointed by some design decisions...

Originally Posted by insane_cobra

...Meat Circus.

The design decision to include the Meat Circus in the form in which it shipped was my only big gripe about the game. It was such an exercise in frustration when the rest of the game was such a smooth trip through awesome .

Of course there were lots of minor things things elsewhere in the game that I wasn't amazingly excited by, but every game in the history of games is full of those so I didn't let them bother me. An enjoyable game through and through.

[RLacey]

This reminds me that I really should finish the game at some point. I got to the Meat Circus and just got annoyed by it. Which is a shame, because up until that point it was a strong contender for being one of the most fun games that I've played in years.

[Fop]

I had to buy a gamepad for Meat Circus, got through the rest with keyboard & mouse.

[vaga_koleso]

I haven't finished it yet either, but it's still a strong contender for the funnest game in years. It's easier for me, I guess, since I don't finish most games nowadays Last one I finished was Beyond Good and Evil I think, and that was near two and a half years ago.

Tim's stuff has pretty much always been top of the line in my book, though.

[Kolzig]

Meat Circus wasn't that hard. I don't get it why people had problems with it, but maybe that's just me.

[vaga_koleso]

Originally Posted by Kolzig

Meat Circus wasn't that hard. I don't get it why people had problems with it, but maybe that's just me.

I haven't gotten to it yet on my PS2, but I hear that the controls are much worse in the PC version and it sounds like that's what some of the people here are playing. Maybe that's the problem. Or, of course, it could be that you are just that good

[Kolzig]

Oh and I played through the whole game with keyboard and mouse controls.
No need for a gamepad here, I never use that with PC these days.

Although maybe I should, because my wrists are killing me, the way I handle the mouse is damaging my hands.

[insane_cobra]

Well, I finished it this morning, not long after I wrote that last post. Meat Circus wasn't that hard in itself (I played with a gamepad), but it was brutally hard when compared to the rest of the game. That's one of the biggest problems I had with it, nothing in the game prior to Meat Circus prepared you for some of its challenges.

Take that timed sequence at its very beginning. It wasn't that painful to pull off once I figured out what to do and where to go, but when I first encountered it, I was completely puzzled. Should I go explore a little before I help him catch the bunny? How to use those giant wheels? Why can't I kill the sword throwers? I should've been taught all that before, in safer surroundings, and the challenge should've been in completing the task as swiftly as possible. Instead, the game throws you in the middle of a timed sequence and forces you to experiment while the clock is ticking away. Bound to cause many restarts and a lot of aggravation.

Or those curved grids, another challenge you haven't really encountered before. That part was the hardest for me. This time I knew what to do, but I just couldn't pull it off! Everything leading to Meat Circus was almost a walk in the park, what were they thinking?

But I found some things mildly annoying even before that. The camera, for instance, it's awful. The controls in general are fine, but not the best I've seen. Raz annoyed me, that little "look at me, I'm so special, way better than these other kids" prick. The inconsistent save/load system that would sometimes bring me back to the exact location where I saved, and sometimes just drop me at the area entrance. Invisible walls, sometimes passable from only one side. And finally, a number of crashes, but that's probably my PC's fault. Next time someone dares to question the value of playing on consoles, I'll sit him down in front of my PC with a copy of Psychonauts.

But I loved the art direction, I loved the level variety, I loved the story (though, in my opinion, it's not among Schafer's best), I loved most characters and I very much appreciated all the cleverness and attention to detail.

Gameplay itself was good, but let's face it, we've seen almost everything this game has to offer before, although probably not in one place. This is not among the best platformers as far as pure mechanics are concerned, but it's competent enough.

In the end, now that I've given it some rest, I can honestly say that I loved the experience. The bad points don't overshadow the good ones, but it's such a shame that there are bad points at all. This game could've been almost perfect were it not for some design shortsightedness. I guess in that regard it very much reminds me of The Incredibles.

[Spiwak]

Originally Posted by insane_cobra

But I found some things mildly annoying even before that. The camera, for instance, it's awful. The controls in general are fine, but not the best I've seen. Raz annoyed me, that little "look at me, I'm so special, way better than these other kids" prick. The inconsistent save/load system that would sometimes bring me back to the exact location where I saved, and sometimes just drop me at the area entrance. Invisible walls, sometimes passable from only one side. And finally, a number of crashes, but that's probably my PC's fault. Next time someone dares to question the value of playing on consoles, I'll sit him down in front of my PC with a copy of Psychonauts.

I don't remember running into that many problems of that nature (saving, design issues, etc..) but I also played on the PS2. Also, Raz was one of the better parts of the game (which is saying a lot) precisely because he was kind of a prick while also being naive and totally likable. While most of the other characters can be described mostly as personality archetypes and therefore one-dimensional, there were some interesting facets of Raz's personality; and was fascinating because at first he really isn't that likable (voice is kind of annoying, eager beaver attitude we all hated when we were kids) but grows on you as the game progresses.

[insane_cobra]

Completely opposite for me, I liked him in the beginning, but almost couldn't stand him by the end. And he's an archetype all right, seems you just had the fortune of not having to deal with such people in real life.

[Spiwak]

Originally Posted by insane_cobra

Completely opposite for me, I liked him in the beginning, but almost couldn't stand him by the end. And he's an archetype all right, seems you just had the fortune of not having to deal with such people in real life.

It can be argued that at first he's just as archetypal as the other kids, but his story and personality develop as the game progresses, what with the dreams/flashbacks and fears resurfacing at times. Being able to go into his head revealed a lot, and Meat Circus was a perfectly chaotic mesh of the fears of both him and the army dude. I dunno, I guess it's just one of those agree to disagree moments.

[Junkface]

Originally Posted by Kolzig

Meat Circus wasn't that hard. I don't get it why people had problems with it, but maybe that's just me.

I share your bafflement and also played with keyboad and mouse. The only part that took me a fair few attempts was the part with the flaming mesh and even that didn't bother me to the point of frustration. I can see how the difficulty should have been smoothed out a bit but can't understand how so many seem to think of the whole level as a fun-obliterating difficulty spike.

Psychonauts is probably the best game I've played in a year or two with my only major complaints being to do with the pacing (the whole devious plan thing seems to unfold a bit too quickly and a lot of the subplots suddenly peter out), ocassional oversaturation of cutscenes and that the visuals and concept sometimes really show up the gameplay itself. The game's absolutely brilliant for the atmosphere of the night scenes or the house of cards in the black velvet level alone though. Also, yeah, Raz is a prick at times but I liked him a fair bit by the end.

[Udvarnoky]

Wow, I guess this mean's Psychonauts is definitely going to be backwards compatible. Great news.