Incline Chris Avellone Appreciation Station

[Irenaeus]

shit, shit, shit and shit

 

[MRY]

What about Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto III, Duke Nukem 3D, Donkey Kong Country, Might & Magic X, Return to Zork, and Telltale's Sam & Max? Not sure what meaning "reboot" has here, though, so those might or might not count.

Articles before initialisms are typically pronounced as they fit - "an" FPS would be more euphonious, so I'd stick with that.

Maybe Roguey reads it as an acronym, i.e., "Fips." :D

 

[Roguey]

What about Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto III, Duke Nukem 3D, Donkey Kong Country, Might & Magic X, Return to Zork, and Telltale's Sam & Max? Not sure what meaning "reboot" has here, though, so those might or might not count.

Reboot means same title, no continuity with previous titles.

I guess Rockstar rebooted with GTA 3 and 4, but they still want to use those numbers for whatever reason.

 

[Rev]

There have been good reboots, like Shinobi 2002, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Ninja Gaiden 2004, and Doom 2016.

Have you actually played any of those games?

 

[vortex]

Sometimes I read FPS as frames per second.

 

[Infinitron]

By a very generous definition of the term, System Shock 2 itself could be considered a reboot.

It isn't of course, but before Night Dive brought the original game back into the spotlight, you could say that game journalists treated it as if were a de-facto "reboot" that had completely superseded its predecessor.

 

[Irenaeus]

I think reboot is when you pretend the old stuff never happened, here's something new instead (and shit).

 

[Fairfax]

What about Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto III, Duke Nukem 3D, Donkey Kong Country, Might & Magic X, Return to Zork, and Telltale's Sam & Max? Not sure what meaning "reboot" has here, though, so those might or might not count.

Reboot means same title, no continuity with previous titles.

I guess Rockstar rebooted with GTA 3 and 4, but they still want to use those numbers for whatever reason.

Agreed. That's why I think calling the new System Shock a reboot seems silly. They are supposedly expanding upon the original rather than rebooting the whole thing, and they licensed a sequel to the originals at the same time. Not exactly great brand management, if you ask me.

 

[MRY]

I think they're just looking for a word that will mitigate against outraged blowback while maintaining brand awareness, right?

As long as it's not the Ecce-Homo-level prosperization of the "enhanced" Monkey Island visuals, all should be fine.

 

[Roguey]

Have you actually played any of those games?

I played and enjoyed Shinobi. I haven't played the others, however it's undeniable that they've been well-received.

Agreed. That's why I think calling the new System Shock a reboot seems silly. They are supposedly expanding upon the original rather than rebooting the whole thing, and they licensed a sequel to the originals at the same time. Not exactly great brand management, if you ask me.

That would be a remake, but for some reason Chris is absolutely insistent that it isn't.

 

[Fairfax]

I think they're just looking for a word that will mitigate against outraged blowback while maintaining brand awareness, right?

As long as it's not the Ecce-Homo-level prosperization of the "enhanced" Monkey Island visuals, all should be fine.

I think a "reboot", if it's indeed a full reboot, is much more likely to get flak from fans than an elaborate remake. The KS campaign calls it a "faithful reboot", which sounds like a weird middle ground.

That would be a remake, but for some reason Chris is absolutely insistent that it isn't.

Should be clarified in the interview.

 

[Fairfax]

Speaking of the interview, guess I owe you guys an update:

Not sure if I mentioned this before, but I'm doing it as a back and forth via email so I can ask follow-up questions. This means it'll take much longer than just sending him a list of questions, but I believe it's for the best. Chris did warn me that he's been very busy and it'd take time to answer stuff, so if it takes too long, blame me. Not that I'd care, but credit where it's due.
MCA clearly likes the Codex a lot, and he's been sharing stuff he never mentioned before. That tweet about the Codex knowing more about his life and work than him (which he repeats in the interview) was more of a sign of appreciation, not a "damn, these fuckers are creepy".
He'll talk about creating the new studio. He says he'd welcome more suggestions for a studio name, and that doing so through his twitter is easier for him to compile them.
Some people in the sugarbombed interview thread suggested he and Tim Cain don't see eye to eye or that he doesn't like Tim. That's far from the truth. Chris says they're still in touch and have lunch. I think people who read this thread saw him praise Tim a few pages ago, though.

About the Codex questions:

- I'll review the other questions and start tackling them - at first glance, nothing seemed *gasp* terrible.

Looking forward to how he'll answer Harold's questions.

Also, he had to double check one of his answers with Night Dive because it was about System Shock. They were ok with it, so I guess that's another studio which doesn't blacklist the Codex.

 

[Rev]

Good work Fairfax, it will be interesting to see the interview when it's all ready.
Hopefully you will also release it before the Sawyer one, since that's taking forever to come out.

 

[Fairfax]

Good work Fairfax, it will be interesting to see the interview when it's all ready.
Hopefully you will also release it before the Sawyer one, since that's taking forever to come out.

Apparently that's up to the staff. I sent the Lionheart interview last week, for example, but they still have a backlog of site content. I've been told (not by the staff) that they still have stuff from gamescom to post and that they have a 1 post per week policy, which means it'll take quite a while to be posted.
However, as soon as I'm finished I'll let you guys know so that you can light a fire under their ass to release it faster.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Reboot means same title, no continuity with previous titles.

I guess Rockstar rebooted with GTA 3 and 4, but they still want to use those numbers for whatever reason.

GTA3 is a sequel to GTA2. You even play as the same protagonist.

 

[Shadenuat]

He'll talk about creating the new studio. He says he'd welcome more suggestions for a studio name, and that doing so through his twitter is easier for him to compile them.

waaaaat

 

[Quillon]

He'll talk about creating the new studio. He says he'd welcome more suggestions for a studio name, and that doing so through his twitter is easier for him to compile them.

waaaaat

yea, waaaaat

 

[Fenix]

By a very generous definition of the term, System Shock 2 itself could be considered a reboot.

It is not a reboot, because while it was different from SS, it createad something new. Reboot is a parasitism that trying to distort already existing ideas.

 

[Fairfax]

Any german user willing to translate something for me? It's for the MCA interview.

 

[Volrath]

When was the last time a multiplatform fps had decent gameplay?

Doom 2016?

You truly are the worst troll ever. Or best, considering how you look at it.

 

[Roguey]

You truly are the worst troll ever. Or best, considering how you look at it.

It's my understanding that the worst criticism Doom 2016 has received is that it's merely okay instead of great.

 

[Grotesque]

Any german user willing to translate something for me? It's for the MCA interview.

how many words?

 

[Fairfax]

Any german user willing to translate something for me? It's for the MCA interview.

how many words?

248:

DSA-Game: Planescape wird von einigen Spielern und Kritikern selbst heute noch hochgelobt, auch wenn der kommerzielle Erfolg leider nie ausreichend für eine Fortsetzung oder zumindest ein ähnliches Spiel war. Man merkte jedoch ab der Hälfte des Spiels, daß es sehr linear wird. Es gibt einige Lücken und Ungereimtheiten in der Geschichte, z. B. die nicht korrekt vollendete Romanze mit dem diebischen Tiefling Annah. Oder das Tagebuch der Succubus Grace, das man zwar immer mitschleppen, aber nie lesen konnte. Auch der überflüssige ini-Eintrag CD5="" verwundert (Planescape kam bei Erstrelease auf 4 CDs). Da war noch einiges mehr geplant, oder?

GH: Chris und Colin, so gut sie als Designer waren, hatten ein paar extreme Schwächen. Sie waren leider extrem desorganisiert und langsam. Die Folge dessen war, dass mehr Inhalt geplant war als es letztlich ins Game geschafft hat. Ab einem gewissen Zeitpunkt musste ich die Daumenschrauben ansetzen und denen klar machen, dass das Game zu einem bestimmten Termin fertig werden musste, auch wenn das bedeutete, dass verschiedene Änderungen vorgenommen werden mussten, wie etwa die Streichung diverser Subplots und so fort. Ich habe das natürlich nicht gerne gemacht, aber ich habe eben vom Interplay Management damals ganz enormen Druck bekommen, was letztlich auch zu meinem Weggang geführt hat. Mein Ziel war, sicherzustellen, dass das Game nicht sinnlos zusammengestrichen wird und total verkrüppelt wird, nur weil Interplay einen Auslieferungstermin und Abrechnungsquartal einhalten wollte. Daher habe ich das bis zur Betaphase durchgekämpft und dann meine Kündigung eingereicht.

I know from my limited german that he's talking about cut content and blaming MCA and CMCC for being extremely disorganized and slow, but I don't want to bring that up without the full context.

 

[Barnabas]

Any german user willing to translate something for me? It's for the MCA interview.

Yeah he said you're a dumb cunt

 

[Fenix]

I learned German at school, and judging even from those small bits that left from those times, I think you translated it wrong.