Latest Adventure Games News page 312

ActionTrip has just previewed the upcoming Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude, touching on such signature aspects of the LSL world as the lovable characters, comedic story, and adult humour as well as the move to full 3D and cross platform release.

Gameplanet.co.nz awarded Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon a 4.5/5 (Excellent) and summed it up with:

"Spokane, Washington – December 17th, 2003 – Cyan Worlds, Inc., developers of the multi-million selling MYST® franchise, today announced that the highly acclaimed soundtrack for URU: Ages Beyond MYST® is now available at Amazon. Composed and produced by Tim Larkin, the soundtrack features over 50 minutes of original music including bonus tracks from future updates to URU Live content. The CD also features a special "URU: The Makers" video and exclusive interviews with Tim Larkin and Rand Miller.

LucasArts is currently running a customer survey relating to adventure games (Sam & Max in particular). The survey asks LucasArts fans for their particular taste in humor, which aspects of adventure games they feel are important (dialog, sound, story, puzzles) and how familiar they are with the Sam & Max franchise. There's even a question about which adventure games people have played, which lists anything from The Crystal Key to Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon as options.

Ubi Soft has announced a sequel to CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (based on the TV show of the same name) titled Dark Motives. The player will be able to tackle five brand-new cases in a first-person perspective, similar to the first game. Look for Dark Motives in March of 2004.

Got Game Entertainment has announced a North American publishing deal for A Quiet Weekend in Capri, an adventure game for the PC. In what becomes anything but a quiet weekend in Capri, this magical island off the coast of Italy serves as backdrop to a captivating mystery.

Still slow on the news, but a couple of new Black Mirror reviews has pop up on the net. You can find them at Stratos Group and Gameshark.

Ugarte's Dimension of Fantasy has posted an interview with Josh Mandel, formerly of Sierra, about his work at the company.

Alex Rodberg (alias Marweas on the AG forums) has written a designer diary for GameSpot describing the new direction for the Leisure Suit Larry series, and how the project got off the ground. Although Rodberg is a marketing manager and not a developer, he is a self-confessed Larry fan, and has taken it upon him many times to answer fan's concerns.

Obviously, it's been quite slow on the news these last few days. Marek blames the holiday season. Anyway, Four Fat Chicks has reviewed The Black Mirror, stating that it's "well worth your time and effort", while Gamer.tv reviews Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon, giving it a score of 9/10.

Both Jolt.co.uk and Quandary have posted their reviews of Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon. Here's a clip from Quandary's review:

Microïds has just released a movie (9.37MB) showing close to three minutes of actual gameplay, dialogue, and cutscenes from the upcoming Syberia II. Make sure you have the latest DivX installed to view this movie.

The latest review of Journey To The Center Of The Earth is now up at Gamespy.

IGN has just posted its review of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, giving it a score 9/10 and an Editor's Choice Award:

A demo of the recently launched and critically acclaimed Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon can now be downloaded in either English or German language. Further technical details can be had at Gamer's Hell.