You are viewing an archived version of the site which is no longer maintained.
Go to the current live site or the Adventure Gamers forums
Adventure Gamers

Home Adventure Forums Gaming General Al Lowe's Review Of Magna Cum Laude...


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 10-27-2004, 06:16 PM   #1
T.J. Hooker's Lovechild
 
JHousequake's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Lost Wages
Posts: 149
Default Al Lowe's Review Of Magna Cum Laude...

Okay, this didn't really upset me, but yeah I pretty much agree with everything he said having played the game and cheating...

TAKEN FROM http://allowe.com/Larry/MCL.htm

What About Magna Cum Laude?
Hundreds of you have asked my opinion of Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude. Although I have yet to finish the game, I have seen quite a bit of it.
Truth be told, I may never finish it.

But here's my initial impression, and I promise to update this page as I progress through the game.

First Impressions Count
I expected worse, especially after reading the many reviews across the Net. MetaCritic.com reports that MCL's reviews across the Net have averaged 64, on a scale of 100.
Differences It is not Larry 8! Even though VU calls it a "Leisure Suit Larry game," Leisure Suit Larry's only role is a cameo as the "help voiceover." It is not an adventure game.There are no real puzzles, no interactive dialog, no narrator, no character develop-ment, and nearly no plot. Much of the dialogue is uninspired and trite. There's more profanity in the first scene than in all the previous Larry games combined. Women cuss like sailors. The F-word is repeated so often the writers must have used a macro. The plentiful load screens show cheesy photographs of average-looking college-aged women who don't look sexy, but rather, ill-at-ease.


Similarities The protagonist is a loser named Larry who has trouble scoring with women. The game works hard, usually too hard, to reference earlier Larry games. Like Larry Laffer, it seems to desperately want to fit in. The animation is 3D and wonderfully jiggly. (Actually, "pendulous" would be a better word; most of these breasts are too large to jiggle.) There's some humorous dialogue. And it's more than bawdy enough.

But… All this ignores the glaring disaster of those damned mini-games! They're distracting, repetitive, and boring. Who wants to play lame arcade games that wouldn't be fun even on a GameBoy? Not even this game's giant breasts are worth this slog.

MCL is definitely unlike the other Larry games.

Bottom Line
Those who seek 3D boobs, profanity, and fart jokes will be pleased.

Those who fondly remember the earlier games will be severely disappointed.
JHousequake is offline  
Old 10-27-2004, 06:29 PM   #2
Resident AG Ninja
 
TigerShard's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
Posts: 387
Send a message via ICQ to TigerShard Send a message via AIM to TigerShard
Default

I have yet to play any Larry games, and would like to try them, but I definately know this is not one of them. Every time I go to IGN I get these gigantic boobies thrown at me, and it makes me sick. I feel like I'm browsing a porn website. Are male gamers really such pigs? I enjoy female leads and characters in games not because how of they look, but because of who they are. In BS, Nico is just awesome. She is strong willed, independent, and has a unique personality. The same goes for characters such as Yuna from FFX, and Laura Croft from Tomb Raider. I don't see anything wrong with female characters displaying their assets (or males ), but I do have a problem when women are just thrown around as sex objects, like in MCL ads.

Sorry for the rant, it has been building up
__________________
"Funny, everytime I get involved in saving the world I turn into a kleptomanic." -George Stobbart in Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon

"Intution tells me how to live my day. Intuition tells me when to walk away. Could have turned left, could have turned right, but I ended up here, bang, in the middle of a real life" - Natalie Imbruglia 'Intuition'
TigerShard is offline  
Old 10-27-2004, 07:06 PM   #3
Rabid Tasmanian Devil
 
LeisureSuitedLooney's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: New Hampshire
Posts: 1,158
Default

Al Lowe hit the nail on the head...the game may have a protagonist named Larry, but it's really not a Larry game. What made the previous games so funny was the fact that Larry was so naive, when he thought he was a stud. The majority of the games even had him fail in some wacky way before anything even happened...but in a way that led him to believe he had "scored". The new game lacks any of that subtlety, and is just too "in your face" to be fun.

Having said that, I'm glad he wasn't involved on this project. It would have been an insult to the classics he DID create. When I started playing the new one, I had a very positive attitude, expecting it to gain momentum as I played. Now, nearly 2 weeks later, I kinda feel like Al Lowe does...I might finish it, might not. It's too bad they sacrificed humor for vulgarity.

Bring back Larry 8!!
LeisureSuitedLooney is offline  
Old 10-27-2004, 07:21 PM   #4
T.J. Hooker's Lovechild
 
JHousequake's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Lost Wages
Posts: 149
Default

Tiger; The rant is welcomed as you made some good points but I find it very interesting you mentioned Lara Croft as a positive female figure. She was designed to be an 'empowered woman' in Toby Gard's vision but since then has gone to the status of becoming sort of like a digital pin up girl or an adolescent boy’s fantasy of a woman to join the ranks with many girls in fighting games who appear to be empowering woman on one hand but on the other they're optimized with features such as 'breast jiggling' obviously there for oogling. I think Magna Cum Laude is at least decent in obviously admitting they're objectifying women and not trying to blur the line pretentiously.

It's still got horrible game play though.
JHousequake is offline  
Old 10-27-2004, 11:15 PM   #5
Junior Junior Member
 
Krazy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Australia
Posts: 303
Send a message via MSN to Krazy
Default Al Lowe's Magna Cum Laude Comments

http://www.allowe.com/Larry/MCL.htm
Discuss
__________________
Deviantart
Youtube
Krazy is offline  
Old 10-27-2004, 11:42 PM   #6
ACK!
 
Tanukitsune's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Spain
Posts: 2,448
Send a message via MSN to Tanukitsune
Default

He says this game is for fans of 3D boobies, cussing and fart jokes...
Sounds like it will be a hit with the mainstream gamers...

So in the end LSL:MCL is like Mario Party Pr0n...

I guess that's why the next game IS a "party" game...

It may be a good thing if people stop playing "I kill you" games and start playing "naughty" games, but for some strange reason the media prefers violence over sex...

I'd rather be "grabbed" than stabbed... Wouldn't you?
Tanukitsune is offline  
Old 10-28-2004, 02:20 AM   #7
Evil Webmaster
 
MDMaster's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 1,037
Default

Hmm... depends on who is grabbing
__________________
Pushed back to square
Now that you've kneed her
In the throat
So there you go
MDMaster is offline  
Old 10-28-2004, 02:21 AM   #8
Banned User
 
Simo Sakari Aaltonen's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Finland
Posts: 447
Default

Fabulous. They have made Larry precisely the thing it never was but always got the heaviest flak for supposedly being: nothing but pornography. And apparently the crappiest imaginable kind at that.

As for the target audience, I'm reminded of those nauseating beach volley games - with cartoon "babes" (right) on the cover - that I can't imagine anyone ever buying off our local store's shelf, only I can imagine only too many subhumans going for this Vivendi crap because it stands on the headstone of a solid game series.

Just goes to show that you can't make a halfway decent game if the designers haven't got a single iota of either brain or maturity to spread around between them.

Give me games 1-3 and 5-7 any day, the ones that did have plenty of genuine creative talent behind them (Al Lowe for one, of course, but also plenty of others).

This is the one that should have gone missing instead of The Missing Floppies.
__________________
Simo Sakari Aaltonen
([email protected])

www.adventurecompanion.com
Simo Sakari Aaltonen is offline  
Old 10-28-2004, 04:30 AM   #9
Junior Member
 
Sjnuffelke's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 16
Send a message via MSN to Sjnuffelke
Default

i just see it as a failed attempt to blow some new life into the LSL series...

too bad though, loved the humor in those games...
Sjnuffelke is offline  
Old 10-28-2004, 05:10 AM   #10
Junior Junior Member
 
Krazy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Australia
Posts: 303
Send a message via MSN to Krazy
Default

I can't even imagine what Al Lowe must be feeling right now
__________________
Deviantart
Youtube
Krazy is offline  
Old 10-28-2004, 05:33 AM   #11
Grumpy & bitter man
 
VoodooFX's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Slovenia
Posts: 1,171
Send a message via ICQ to VoodooFX Send a message via MSN to VoodooFX
Default

I've merged the two threads, since they are both about same thing.
__________________
We may have days, we may have hours, but sooner or later we all push up flowers.
VoodooFX is offline  
Old 10-28-2004, 08:58 AM   #12
Mostly absent
 
Mattsius's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Turku, Finland
Posts: 2,532
Default

I've pretty much said everything you can about this game already (here for instance).
Good to know that Al is feeling the same.
Mattsius is offline  
Old 10-28-2004, 11:58 AM   #13
Senior Member
 
LeChimp's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Michigan, USA
Posts: 356
Default

Well no one is buying the newest one right? I mean, they're already creating an uncut edition which they would only make once sales of the first edition slow down, and I didn't even see MCL when I was at Best Buy (I doubt it sold out)
LeChimp is offline  
Old 10-28-2004, 06:25 PM   #14
Senior Member
 
Zack's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Medford, Oregon
Posts: 537
Default

Well, I hate to say it, but my fears about it not being an actual Leisure Suit Larry game were true, so I'm definitely not going to ask for this game for Christmas.

P.S. It was nice to read Al Lowe's impressions about this game, though.
Zack is offline  
Old 10-28-2004, 08:24 PM   #15
More slaw!!!
 
Toefur's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Downunderverse
Posts: 584
Default

This little review of Al's really makes me have more respect and appreciation for the original Larry games.
__________________
Tex Murphy is back! - Kickstarter project now accepting your support!
Toefur is offline  
Old 10-28-2004, 11:18 PM   #16
Senior Member
 
CrimsonBlue's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 1,167
Default

Well, while I agree wholeheartedly with him, I'm not so sure if the developers appreciates badmouthing from the creator of the series. I'm pretty sure Ron Gilbert have some strong opinions on Escape from Monkey Island too, but letting it out in such a manner wouldn't gain him any more respect from me. The way Al Lowe spoke of Magma Cum Laude is a bit unfair to the developers of the game. I would at least be a bit offended...
CrimsonBlue is offline  
Old 10-29-2004, 12:08 AM   #17
Junior Junior Member
 
Krazy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Australia
Posts: 303
Send a message via MSN to Krazy
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by CrimsonBlue
Well, while I agree wholeheartedly with him, I'm not so sure if the developers appreciates badmouthing from the creator of the series. I'm pretty sure Ron Gilbert have some strong opinions on Escape from Monkey Island too, but letting it out in such a manner wouldn't gain him any more respect from me. The way Al Lowe spoke of Magma Cum Laude is a bit unfair to the developers of the game. I would at least be a bit offended...
Hey man, these guys took his creation and took away everything that made it good and excluded him from taking any part in the proccess. How would you feel?
__________________
Deviantart
Youtube
Krazy is offline  
Old 10-29-2004, 01:05 AM   #18
T.J. Hooker's Lovechild
 
JHousequake's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Lost Wages
Posts: 149
Default

Quite frankly I've never seen Al Lowe rant like this, they've clearly screwed with his baby and I doubt the developers are going to lose any sleep over this generally because everything that is missing from the game is what they smugly claimed was slowing down the series. Remember, the purpose of this game was an experiment to move away from Sierra’s old adventure franchise to another genre altogether that is more marketable to today’s modern audience. (NOTE: And just to tell you, Vivendi have been trying to do this for a while now, you don’t think it was Al Lowe’s idea to postpone LSL8 for Larry’s Casino do you?) Unfortunately though, I think they’ll succeed because as another reviewer put it there simply isn’t any other game like this on the market at the moment; it’s all medieval, gothic or space related, and only the fans know they’re being short changed.
JHousequake is offline  
Old 10-29-2004, 01:28 AM   #19
Umbilicus Mundi
 
Erkki's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Stonia
Posts: 1,266
Default

I got to try this game for a couple of hours yesterday. It's not really that bad. It starts off really lame, but gets better after the first hour or so. Some of the minigames are actually fun (unlike the main sperm one).
The 7 of 10 score is justified I think.

The graphics and especially the environments look really nice & cartoony. It's not quite cell-shading I think? I have only played XII that is cell-shaded, but this looks much better to me.

But it's definitely not a Larry game.
__________________

Erkki is offline  
Old 10-29-2004, 02:56 AM   #20
ACK!
 
Tanukitsune's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Spain
Posts: 2,448
Send a message via MSN to Tanukitsune
Default

Micromania, Spain's most populat PC gaming mag not only gives it a good score, but it also gives it the "recommended game of the month award", which they also gave to Scrapland...
Tanukitsune is offline  
 



Thread Tools

 


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.