Dear Esther - The first Portal 2 engine game gets release date Jan/Feb next year

Ferrio said:
Those evironments look nice. But just knowing the map sized is very small (due to the engine), really puts a damper on it.
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The game was ported to the Portal 2 engine and the map size has increased by a huge amount. As far as I'm aware it's tenfold the size and features a large amount of new areas to explore off the main path and lots of new story
 
Dr Eggman said:
What kind of game is it?
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You walk around environments while narrative plays. It's more of an 'experience' than what you'd call a traditional game.
 
An 8 from a mainstream publication seems higher than I would expect, it's something of an understatement to say that the game's appeal is quite niche.
 
Botolf said:
An 8 from a mainstream publication seems higher than I would expect, it's something of an understatement to say that the game's appeal is quite niche.
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I've heard it had a strong reaction from the IGF judges, I remeber one of them saying on twitter that it made him cry.
 
DoctorWho said:
Where the fuck did this come from?
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It certainly wasn't a surprise. The mod that this is based on was released ages ago and there have been screens of this for months. I even remember a GAF thread where a bunch of people talked about how crappy the remake looked due to "shitty Source".
 
Xun said:
Thanks dude!

What a terrible looking game!

You crazy.
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Ironically enough, the caves were also the best looking part in HL2! There's just something about wet rocks and cave walls that Source does really well. :lol

That said, it's easy to see where the complaints about the graphics (in a vacuum) are coming from. Source just looks extremely dated in screens, especially the outside environments - ground textures, foliage and rocks simply don't hold up to closer scrutiny. I don't think that's even debatable.

That said, this is a great effort by a small team and they're doing really well within the limits of the Source engine. The great art direction helps, too, of course.
 
Stallion Free said:
Wait, you are saying that after the most recent trailer?
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If we're going for a purely technical debate, I don't think saying many elements of Source are looking dated is out of line.

Skyrim has some damn ugly rocks and ground textures as well and I've gotten flak for mentioning that in the OT as well. :p

edit: also, I've clarified that I'm talking about the screens posted above, the latest trailer looks good.
 
epmode said:
It certainly wasn't a surprise. The mod that this is based on was released ages ago and there have been screens of this for months. I even remember a GAF thread where a bunch of people talked about how crappy the remake looked due to "shitty Source".
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Don't forget the storm in a teacup that was the game going indie.
 
epmode said:
It certainly wasn't a surprise. The mod that this is based on was released ages ago and there have been screens of this for months. I even remember a GAF thread where a bunch of people talked about how crappy the remake looked due to "shitty Source".
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Crazy. This is the first I'm hearing of it. Looks fantastic.
 
so what is this? an interactive ghost story? why do many narrative threads contradict each other? what's with the metaphorical stuff? does the hero suffer from logorrhea? is he a manifestation of ourselves? are we paul? are we parishioners seeking great epiphanies?

i think i hated it. seems like romantic gibberish or cod philosophy.

'with dear esther, it doesn’t matter if you don’t understand anything so long as it creates the right mood.'
is dear esther the coming equivalent of trash novels? the shovelware of indie games?
 
I wonder if this is worth paying for if I played the original. I liked it (I'm a fan of Myst and exploration-based games) but so much of the experience is seeing what happens and piecing it together for the first time. Looks like the locations and scenes are basically the same (the trailer shows some of the later scenes).
 
faceless007 said:
I wonder if this is worth paying for if I played the original. I liked it (I'm a fan of Myst and exploration-based games) but so much of the experience is seeing what happens and piecing it together for the first time. Looks like the locations and scenes are basically the same (the trailer shows some of the later scenes).
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They've added a few new pieces of dialogue (the voice actor came back to redo all the voice work) and the entire soundtrack has been redone (orchestrated) with different version of each tune that play depending on where you are. The redone OST is enough for me to buy it alone.
 
Looks beautiful. Can't wait. The original was great and I hope this pushes the envelope a bit further across the table.
 
faceless007 said:
It sounds like you already played it, so why are you asking?
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because the 'anything goes' postmodern claptrap ignores what is true. it ignores formula, thus it repudiates itself and escapes criticism. it is the lazy way out. the jackson pollock of video games. not that there is anything wrong with that.
 
Never did play the original mod... by the time I got to it, I saw a remake was coming.

$10 sounds a little steep... might wait for a Steam sale. I appreciate "art" games and anything that challenges the definition of what a game is "supposed" to be, but only to a point.
 
Looks fantastic, didn't enjoy the writing of the voice over, which was still delivered very well, will probably pick up at $5 as I will never get around to playing it. Keeping my eye on their next project.
 
Tesseract said:
because the 'anything goes' postmodern claptrap ignores what is true. it ignores formula, thus it repudiates itself and escapes criticism. it is the lazy way out. the jackson pollock of video games. not that there is anything wrong with that.
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...there is about a billion video games on the market at the moment that neatly toe the line of their respective genres and good on them, but what's wrong with a game trying something different for once? You make it sound like this game is distasteful or something.
 
tborsje said:
...there is about a billion video games on the market at the moment that neatly toe the line of their respective genres and good on them, but what's wrong with a game trying something different for once? You make it sound like this game is distasteful or something.
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nothing is wrong with that. i just want to know what it is.
 
Cromulent_Word said:
I wrote a bunch of crap in response to this... but instead I will just say:

Really?
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dude, you can only walk in this game while in COD I can run, jump, crawl, aim down the iron sigths and shoot people in the face. Do you expect people to pay 10$ for a game where you can only WALK? nah
 
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