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Leisure Suit Larry - Wet Dreams Don’t Dry

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Well of course he wouldn’t - he doesn’t speak German! Even then, there’s a storied tradition of Al Lowe being loved among the German peoples.

     
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I’m looking forward to it.  if it sucks, meh, it sucks.  No big deal.  The originals are all still fantastic.  I don’t mind someone new taking a shot at it.

     

Bill Martin
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http://drnoise.bandcamp.com

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I was a bit surprised to see that Jack Allin wrote the (pre)review of the game.

I thought what was said was fairly positive. It seemed to base its observations on the same PR that the EG reviewer did. But with far different conclusions. But I think he was wrong in giving this game a less-than-negative review.

And, let’s not pretend that while the adolescent boy in an adult male body was really interested in “Finding Dildo” when our primary interest was in finding the Easter eggs that disrobed all the female characters.

I’m not sure the new German developers of this game get it. That is that the ‘#me too’ movement in the US pretty much says that the content of the old Larry games might be considered inappropriate today. Take any Easter egg hunt in Love for Sail. Subtract Larry. And insert Harvey Weinstein.

This may be the wrong game at the wrong time for the wrong market. Just my opinion.

     

For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.

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Anna’s quest is great. Looking forward to this.

     
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rtrooney - 23 May 2018 10:17 PM

I was a bit surprised to see that Jack Allin wrote the (pre)review of the game.

I thought what was said was fairly positive. It seemed to base its observations on the same PR that the EG reviewer did. But with far different conclusions. But I think he was wrong in giving this game a less-than-negative review.

And, let’s not pretend that while the adolescent boy in an adult male body was really interested in “Finding Dildo” when our primary interest was in finding the Easter eggs that disrobed all the female characters.

I’m not sure the new German developers of this game get it. That is that the ‘#me too’ movement in the US pretty much says that the content of the old Larry games might be considered inappropriate today. Take any Easter egg hunt in Love for Sail. Subtract Larry. And insert Harvey Weinstein.

This may be the wrong game at the wrong time for the wrong market. Just my opinion.

Thinking about it some more, although I think Al Lowe and LSL were never bad-intentioned and generally had their hearts in the right place, I think it’s probably true that some parts of the LSL games would not be acceptable today in mainstream circles.

LSL was never a glorification of sleazy “pick-up” culture (just the opposite actually), and Larry was always portrayed as a lovable loser to be laughed at and never as a role-model. However the kinds of things that the games allowed and encouraged like peeking on showering girls through holes in the wall, even if it’s the sort of thing a guy like Larry would do, unfortunately delve into the “creepy” territory by virtue of the player’s agency. As movies or books they might be okay, but as games I think that is what will make LSL in the post-#MeToo era problematic.

And maybe even that is being too generous. After all they are comedy games, and predatory behavior is not something to be laughed at.

     
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As a character, Larry definitely is problematic from a modern perspective, as the things he does, and makes the player do, go beyond what is socially acceptable these days. In the 80’s and 90’s you could get away with peeping and what not by saying “oh, it’s just boys being boys”, but now the floor has dropped off from that line of thinking.

Larry Reloaded already showed how modern media sees Larry, and that was before #meToo was even a thing. A game like that isn’t taken well anymore, especially when there even is a reward, “true love”, to be won from the antics of Larry.

If the devs are doing a straight cut sex comedy romp, then the new game will be similarly mauled by the mainstream critics. There has to be something more in it for it to be justifiable, a commentary on the behaviour or study on how social norms have changed. But anything that is like the old games won’t cut it anymore.

It did strike me a bit odd, that it is Larry, especially in these days and ages, that is getting a continuation, but then I realized that the reason for that might be two-fold: the first being, that the license is owned by Codemasters, so it might have been cheaper to obtain than anything from the vaults of Activision. The second is that the devs might be hoping that the familiar name tied to the raunchy reputation will help it sell more copies. They just might have misread the current climate, as is a bit evident from their sales pitch.

     

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Ok, this topic has developed into something else but let me take a shot.
LSL games can’t be blamed for Larry not taking “no” for “no” because women doesn’t say “no” to Larry. These games really can’t be blamed for never depicting women who say “no” too because most times women are just manipulating Larry. So some would say that they depict most women as manipulative but even there one could argue that is comic comeuppance -that women see that Larry is unromantic and this kind of guy who thinks women will fall for anyone so they punish him for that.
I guess LSL series can be blamed about sex negativity if one would assume that Larry is being punished for wanting sex. But it would be more logical to assume that Larry fails for not being romantical and for not understanding other people especially women.
We could turn tables and accuse LSL games for being unfair to guys who doesn’t look stereotypically attractive. But it can just be seen as question of taste in comedies -would one find comedy about unattractive man failing with women funny? Also Larry’s unattractivness can be seen as over top and more of parody of inner ugliness of someone who thinks that women fall for men easily.
Then there is question of geek culture -Larry is programmer and maybe he represents toxical side of geek culture that has been mostly men dominated and has limited view of women. But again Larry’s geekiness can be seen just as one more over top element of his unattractivness.

     
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tomimt - 24 May 2018 02:06 AM

If the devs are doing a straight cut sex comedy romp, then the new game will be similarly mauled by the mainstream critics. There has to be something more in it for it to be justifiable, a commentary on the behaviour or study on how social norms have changed. But anything that is like the old games won’t cut it anymore.

Totally agree. Sadly I think this is beyond the abilities of your average adventure game development team. They’d need one hell of a writing team to pull it off.

     
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I’m not convinced the LSL series should have come out of the 80s. The whole thing should have ended with LSL3. It would have been a fun, sexy rom-com about a lovable loser who fancies himself a stud, then becomes a better person and eventually finds love (with a woman who’s completely out of his league but loves him for who he is anyway). Sure, it would have had some elements we’d consider tone-deaf (or even icky) nowadays, but nothing you couldn’t chalk up to the spirit of the time.

Adding more games to the series was a mistake, especially as LSL then became just about Larry trying to bang every woman in sight. Clearly Al Lowe recognised the problem from the start, and that’s why he made Larry a loser who generally doesn’t get the girls (Softporn, the original text adventure that LSL1 is adapted from, notably doesn’t have a loser protagonist, and the tone of the whole thing is vile). But those are games; players expect to win at some point. And so Larry has to get some of the girls, and the game has to explain why a gorgeous woman would want to sleep with some middle-aged creep—and that’s not easy.

Look at the types of women Larry bangs (or almost bangs):

Women who fall in love with him at first sight: Kalalau (LSL2)

Extremely loose women who will seemingly sleep with anyone who talks to them: Eve (LSL1), Patti (LSL3), Drew (LSL7), Vicky (LSL7)

Manipulative women trying to take advantage of him: Fawn (LSL1), the various amazons (LSL2), Michelle (LSL5), Gammie (LSL6), Dewmi (LSL7), Annette (LSL7)

Freaks with an uncontrollable urge to sleep with anyone who indulges their kink: Suzi (LSL3), Bambi (LSL3), Lana (LSL5), Thunderbird (LSL6), Char (LSL6)

Women he cons into sleeping with him: Shamara (LSL6)

Desperate women who sleep with him in exchange for something they really want: the prostitute (LSL1), Tawni (LSL3), Cherri Tart (LSL3), Chi Chi (LSL5), Merrily (LSL6), Captain Thygh (LSL7)

Women he straight-up drugs: Faith (LSL1), Burgundy (LSL6), The Juggs (LSL7)

That’s… not a pretty picture.

At the end of the day, seduction-as-an-inventory-puzzle is inherently problematic. There are recent games about seduction and sex that manage to be sexy while not being morally icky, but it’s a tough balancing acts—and most of those are interactive stories (visual novels) rather than full-fledged games. Maybe this new game will make it work on all fronts (fun, sexiness, gameplay, not being gross), but I’m afraid the whole Larry premise makes that unlikely.

I’m not holding my breath.

     
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If you start chasing respect from people who are paid to be critical you’re in for a lifetime of disappointment. I’m sceptical of their influence and this idea that “now is not the right time”. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare came out when America was at its most war fatigued - bringing with it a series of dumb jingoistic Michael Bay action when the collapsing Bush administration was nightly news.

Just look at the comments in that Eurogamer article to see how people really feel. No one is going to care about how hard these bloggers squeal if the game is funny.

     
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Supposedly people and players should be open to more things like these in 2018 but sadly i see with its look of this new LSL it will try to appeal to young players, where i dont think from the look of larry that the ‘40-years-old-virgin’ will be the subject, he looks more like a teenager, and the woman in pics looks like him. so anyhow this game is a total different reboot with a new kind of 2018 loser, without the too much sexual innuendo of the 90s when most players were either adults or thinking like them.

WOW! Kuru, amazing collective post for Larry’s Women at all Al LSL games.  Thumbs Up

     

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Kurufinwe - 24 May 2018 06:57 AM

Extremely loose women who will seemingly sleep with anyone who talks to them: Eve (LSL1), Patti (LSL3), Drew (LSL7), Vicky (LSL7)

At first i would have agreed that there are women in Larry games that fall for him on first date. But can it really be called date when someone sits in same spot when person she is dating with is exploring elsewhere? It is more of adventure game convention with no counterpart in real life.

Kurufinwe - 24 May 2018 06:57 AM

Manipulative women trying to take advantage of him: Fawn (LSL1), the various amazons (LSL2), Michelle (LSL5), Gammie (LSL6), Dewmi (LSL7), Annette (LSL7)

I think it is comic comeuppance for Larry.

Kurufinwe - 24 May 2018 06:57 AM

Freaks with an uncontrollable urge to sleep with anyone who indulges their kink: Suzi (LSL3), Bambi (LSL3), Lana (LSL5), Thunderbird (LSL6), Char (LSL6)

While they are caricatures are those words really justified towards these women? In LSL6 case comedy seems to be in fact that Larry in his 70’s mentality doesn’t understand that people can have tastes that greatly differ from his. Fact that whole game is built around this one idea shows that series was really tired though. Kind of sad because more player friendly design philosophy of that game.

Kurufinwe - 24 May 2018 06:57 AM

Women he cons into sleeping with him: Shamara (LSL6)

While it is Shamara who understands things wrong i admit that comedy would have been still there if Larry explained that he didn’t mean those gifts that way.

Kurufinwe - 24 May 2018 06:57 AM

Women he straight-up drugs: Faith (LSL1), Burgundy (LSL6), The Juggs (LSL7)

But didn’t Faith knew what those pills were? Juggs case that whole puzzle was so contrived that i didn’t see beyond it’s irritating cartoonishness of whole thing.

     
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Kurufinwe - 24 May 2018 06:57 AM

I’m not convinced the LSL series should have come out of the 80s.

We have FPS games that blow up people’s head, GTA games that allow you to kill anyone and steal any cars you like. Witcher games with very realistic 3D steamy hot sex scene.

And a pretty mild game like Larry is a problem???

     
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Once again professional gaming journalists are trying to be more Catholic than the Pope. Sad to see Eurogamer in such a poor state these days. That’s why Larry is still so popular - he will always be one of the symbols of a true adventure spirit, a character who never takes a second thought, who doesn’t follow some moral code and finds a new adventure behind every corner.

That said, I’m also a bit skeptical about sequels made by people unrelated to the previous games in the franchise. I expect nothing more than a clone, even with the original license attached. It might turn a good game, but it won’t be Larry to me, just an -inspired German game. And I also share the “German humour” concern, having played the so-called Simon the Sorcerer 4 and such.

     

PC means personal computer

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rtrooney - 23 May 2018 10:17 PM

I was a bit surprised to see that Jack Allin wrote the (pre)review of the game.

I thought what was said was fairly positive. It seemed to base its observations on the same PR that the EG reviewer did. But with far different conclusions. But I think he was wrong in giving this game a less-than-negative review.

And, let’s not pretend that while the adolescent boy in an adult male body was really interested in “Finding Dildo” when our primary interest was in finding the Easter eggs that disrobed all the female characters.

I’m not sure the new German developers of this game get it. That is that the ‘#me too’ movement in the US pretty much says that the content of the old Larry games might be considered inappropriate today. Take any Easter egg hunt in Love for Sail. Subtract Larry. And insert Harvey Weinstein.

This may be the wrong game at the wrong time for the wrong market. Just my opinion.


I feel like this is the perfect time to see a bumbling 80s creep land in a #metoo/MRAs world.  The tension between such a clash of views is where the comedy will be at its best.

Having said that, if it’s not handled with the appropriate sensibility and perspective it’s going to be awkward at the very least.  The cynic in me also notes what a perfect time it is to launch such a controversial title which may drive the wrong kinds of people to it in their droves for the wrong reasons.

It could be absolutely horrific but I’m going to stay positive until I see the opinions here upon its release.

     

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