LucasArts Adventure Games to Hit iPhone/iPod

[Marcus Yam]

Sam & Max could Hit the iPhone.

LucasArts Adventure Games to Hit iPhone/iPod : Read more

 

[f-gomes]

Although I'm a very happy 31 years old retro-gamer, I wonder what this trend says about current status of gaming - is the industry unable to produce great titles, so that they must resort to old classics and sell them as new products?
If everybody in his 30s feels a great deal of nostalgia and "those were the games" feelings about games that are over 15 years old, why can't the industry produce such great titles nowadays? I don't think that a teenager will feel half as nostalgic about Crysis or Bioshock as I do for Pirates, Day of the Tentacle or Larry Suit Leisure.

 

[dechy]

Difference is, we (I'm also 31!) pretty much witnessed the rise of PC gaming, with stuff like Frogger, to Commander Keen (lol) to the King Quests/Hero Quests/Police Quests (the whole Sierra franchise back then really), to the rise of FPS with Wolf 3-D, Dune RTS, Warcraft, Diablo, etc... now it seems every genre is a repeat of some kind, with only twists in a story with too much emphasis on pure graphical prowess.

You're right, I doubt the kids these days playing will long for Doom III, Quake 4, GTA IV, etc... it's pretty much all sequels to them (how many kids nowadays can say they actually played the FIRST Grand Theft Auto? heh).

But, I'd give my left nut for Tie Fighter/X-Wing or a rehash of a good adventure game with all of today's insane graphic technologies... King's Quest III & even IV!

So yeah, aside from the abnormal blips on the radar of new "gaming", retro style gaming we got to taste will forever be remembered and next to impossible to re-create.

 

[chaohsiangchen]

[citation][nom]f-gomes[/nom]I don't think that a teenager will feel half as nostalgic about Crysis or Bioshock as I do for Pirates, Day of the Tentacle or Larry Suit Leisure.[/citation]

Crysis? No, but Bioshock will be a classic.

Graphics is the "thing" for this generation the way sounds and music of our time (30+yo gamer). One of the reason those Lucas adventure games are great, is because they have great music. Since 3D graphics took off, music, story and gameplay have been put aside for awhile until late 2007, when people finally realize that Crysis is boring at best, while HL2, Bioshock and COD4 really got it. I can see why Lucas Arts bothers to push their old IP into the market again. After all, they retro-ed Star Wars Trilogy before introducing The New Star Wars Trilogy. It could be George Lucas himself pulling the strings behind.

If the market reception is well, then they might go ahead and produce new games out of those old IPs.

Nowadays, it's quite hard to get new IP a head start. What can be tried, has been done many times. Just name a fantasy and I can show you a tonne of games. We're reaching a situation where good idea is hard to come by, and investment is too high to risk a failure.

 

[doc70]

[citation][nom]chaohsiangchen[/nom]Crysis? No, but Bioshock will be a classic. [/citation]
yeah, a classic... first to have that draconian install limits with a DRM that , as always, punished people like me, who actually bought it.
Anyways, it's just a game reloaded on a different platform, hardly newsworthy...

 

[WheelsOfConfusion]

I guess it's a warranty-friendly alternative to putting ScummVM on a jailbroken iPhone.

 

[fulle]

@chaohsiangchen

Bioshock isn't even remotely "classic" worthy. System Shock, maybe, but thats another example of a game that came out around 1998 when 3D Gaming was at its peak point in innovation. When you walked the store and Halflife (the original, before counterstike even existed), and Homeworld (first decent 3D real time strategy game) were in the PC section, and Consoles had titles like Goldeneye, Zelda Ocarina of Time, and FF7.

Bioshock a classic? You have to be out of your mind. That, or you weren't a gamer 10 years ago. You probably weren't even around for the rise of Diablo II, and don't understand how most current MMOs are just a copied formula.
Innovation is dead. They can't even make a fighting game better than SC for Dreamcast in the last 10 years. The last time I was impressed by a shooter was HL2 FIVE YEARS AGO.

 

[fulle]

*maybe I shouldn't abbreviate things...

By SC I meant Soul Calibur - which released for Dreamcast in 1999.
HL2 is obviously, Half Life 2. Which, while still going strong was released in November 2004.

 

[jhansonxi]

Using ScummVM would make it easy to port many of the old games.

I still would like to see Full Throttle 2.

 

[matt87_50]

"On iPhone, you know Apple's policy that we can't talk about a release until it's ready to release."

What??!?

 

[icebain]

We need more Freespace!!!1oneone

 

[Honis]

So the only definite release candidate is the PSP and iPhone/iPod is the only mobile hand held in the title? Do you guys listen to any of the comments? Maybe you should stop posting these things from your iPhone and start using something with grammar and spell check. As I type this Firefox is even correcting my spelling!

 

[chaohsiangchen]

[citation][nom]fulle[/nom]@chaohsiangchenBioshock isn't even remotely "classic" worthy. System Shock, maybe, but thats another example of a game that came out around 1998 when 3D Gaming was at its peak point in innovation. When you walked the store and Halflife (the original, before counterstike even existed), and Homeworld (first decent 3D real time strategy game) were in the PC section, and Consoles had titles like Goldeneye, Zelda Ocarina of Time, and FF7.Bioshock a classic? You have to be out of your mind. That, or you weren't a gamer 10 years ago. You probably weren't even around for the rise of Diablo II, and don't understand how most current MMOs are just a copied formula.Innovation is dead. They can't even make a fighting game better than SC for Dreamcast in the last 10 years. The last time I was impressed by a shooter was HL2 FIVE YEARS AGO.[/citation]

Oh yes, Bioshotck *will* be a classic. A few games are classic but they copied game play from other older games, just made it right. There are games which are full of innovative idea, but were total screw up. Some innovation didn't take off because the company who developed it didn't figure out how to use it, or couldn't market it due to hardware limit. In the end, innovation doesn't make games classical. Good games make themselves into classics.

Remember CellFactor just a few years ago? The use of "massive" physics is astounding, but no one has physics card at the time. Homeworld is another example. After a few short-lived hits, the game genre simply died into oblivion, deader than flight sim. Yes, it was spectacular when it first released, but when people had enough of them, they went back to play SC (Starcraft) or C&C General. If you still remember, there was such an innovative game called Time Shift just a few months ago. How'd that go? Far Cry 2 is another example of innovative idea gone south. Ubi team tried to do things that has never been tried before, but they simply didn't put too much effort on game play and story. You put too much emphasis on innovation, but fail to see good games are not just about innovation.

There is no innovation in Serious Sam at all. What they have done is to put massive classic Doom style, none stop, mindless action with some decent music and lame joke. That works just fine. Then let's talk about COD2 and COD4. To be honest, what Infinity Ward did was mere "done it right." Lucas Arts seldom push innovation on game development, but, yet, many games they've done are instant classic, including most of those SCUMM-based games. Innovation is good, but most innovation takes time to mature. Games aren't just about technical innovation. It is also about story, presentation, design and game play. Making a good game is more like an art than an engineering project, and people should keep that in mind. For example, both id Tech 4 and Source engine have similar features which both include codes to run simple physics. However, while id team was trying to figure out ways to scare you, Valve team was trying to make use of physics engine. Similar engineering level, different outcome.

There are also games that contains zero innovation, but the IP was then screwed up by "innovation." For example, Star Control series is totally screwed by Activision. When they tried to implement full motion picture and quasi-3D combat, they totally failed. It leave us with no new Star Control game ever since.

And why do you expect anything new from any fighting game release? Fighting game is popular, but most overdone genre of all games.

BTW, I don't play console and I don't like RPG due to Diablo II. That game bored me after 2 hours. Went back to RTCW and never look back.

 

[tpi2007]

I don't know how they are going to make it work on such a tiny screen, but I'm curious.

I'm 29 and still have the original Monkey Island 1 and 2, Day of the Tentacle, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atalntis, and I have tried ScummVM on my Nokia N95. It works, but you need a good control system; playing without a mouse isn't the same. And you need scren real estate to enjoy the game.

I don't know, but I feel that this is the kind of "sit at home and relax" kind of game. You need time to think things trough, enjoy the jokes, the plot. Putting it on a mobile phone in the fast lifestyle is just a curiosity in my opinion.

Why didn't they port it for the Game Gear back then ?

 

[vherub]

the scummvm games work great on the psp, I have played through a number of games. The nub isn't as responsive as a mouse, but the screen real estate is fine. I will happily purchase these games legit if they are released. I still have boxes of floppies and now unpayable cds from lucas and others that need work arounds like dosbox.
As for classic gaming? It's good to see companies revive their backists. Good books, music and games are timeless and can be enjoyed by all.
But there are great games being made now, no need to be so strict about time periods or age brackets.

 

[joebob2000]

OMG! Full Throttle, your time has come!