KickStarter Jane Jensen's Pinkerton Road Studio & Moebius Closed Down

[Jaesun]

Make sure to fill out the survey too. Read the email.

 

[Keshik]

Ah right, I totally forgot about that, put aside for a day when I had thought about it a bit more.

 

[DeepOcean]

I played GK 2 , for a FMV, it is actually well done. FMVs suffered of terrible low production values and the acting was so terrible that made me rage quit every time I tried to play one. GK 2 avoided most of those problems, the acting was decent (it wasn't anything to be impressed but wasn't facepalm worth), the puzzles were decent (more than what you can say about other FMVs), graphics were decent and didn't had cheap looking clothing and scenarios for the most part. The plot wasn't as original as GK 1, you are a paranormal crime hunter, hunting werewolves ... blah, blah, blah but Gk 2 had one of the best written villains on a video game: Friedrich Von Glower, the characterization of this guy is incredible, he appear to be a bro, but there was always a feeling of mortal danger when Gabriel was with him. All that Baviera history tour was amazing, I don't know if the game could work in 2d graphics, GK 1 style, some charm of the locations would be lost. It is funny how everybody is talking about the necessity of a improvement on the writing of video games when Jane Jansen and others wrote stuff light years ahead of the today's garbage ages ago. Man, gaming declined so much that to return to the standard of 15 years ago would be a revolution.

 

[Redlands]

I have wished and wished one of those remake adventure groups would remake GK2 back to the old 2D version like the first GK. :/

But if you did, it would probably lose a lot from the fabulously GAY ending to the first chapter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=g1DQQN7SNpw#t=154s

 

[Aeschylus]

Ah, GK2 wasn't that bad. As far as FMV adventure games went, it was probably the best (not that that's saying much). The story was decent and the adventure game aspects were pretty good as well. I do agree it hasn't aged terribly well though, and some of the action-y sequences were awful.

 

[ghostdog]

Ah, GK2 wasn't that bad. As far as FMV adventure games went, it was probably the best (not that that's saying much). The story was decent and the adventure game aspects were pretty good as well. I do agree it hasn't aged terribly well though, and some of the action-y sequences were awful.

Indeed GK2 isn't bad. The story is really good with the nice historical connections only a good writer like Jensen could create. I replayed the series recently and my main problem with it is the simplification of interactivity for the sake of being cinematic and some crappy pixel hunting, which is much more frustrating in FMV surroundings.

On the other hand I'll have to correct you, it's not the best FMV adventure game, since that title definitely goes to Pandora Directive. Although you could say that Pandora was more than just an FMV game, since it used actual 3D exploration and basically that's the only really good way to create an FMV game.

 

[DalekFlay]

Under a Killing Moon you fucking philistines.

 

[jaybirdy]

I like the cutscenes in GK2, especially Von Glower as everybody mentioned. The story was impressive in that it tied Gabriel's animalistic urges with the werewolf theme, and it highlighted that he needed to transcend that to fulfill his destiny of being the Schattenjager. It's absolutely essential; if only the gameplay wasn't so terrible. It was Telltale before Telltale, shaving off all the complexity and interaction that is fun in an adventure game with the mighty pointer that does everything.

Also, I wouldn't call Tex Murphy FMV games. It may have had cutscenes with live actors, but the gameplay was 100% 3D greatness. It was the true evolution of the adventure genre.

 

[cvv]

Overseer FTW, what's wrong with you?

Also - G2 was great, yes acting was retarded compared to Tex Murphies but not as retarded as to render the game bad.
G3 was unplayable for me either, although I've read great things about it from ppl who survived the engine.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

I love Gabriel Knight 2.

It also stars fucking Brad Greenquist as the Wagner museum guy.

 

[kaizoku]

new update
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects...-road-2012-2013-csg/posts/466234?ref=activity



posting this video which was not on the update (it was recorded by someone attending the PR event)





I completely forgot about the chap1 alpha...

 

[Cyberarmy]

Dat Gabriel Knight 1 theme...

 

[DeepOcean]

Gray Matter with all it's shortcomings, it had an amazing soundtrack.

 

[Edifice]

I hope they take all the feedback to heart instead of just listening to the yes men on their forum.

The plot seemed interesting but the game was seriously lacking in the puzzle and exploration department. I don't have much hope that they will improve the first chapter since they'd pretty much have to redo everything but at least they can improve the later ones.

 

[jfrisby]

I hope they take all the feedback to heart instead of just listening to the yes men on their forum.

That alpha-backer-feedback thread is a pretty thorough passive-aggressive skewering of everything that hints of the mistakes made in Cognition, and all of Jane's other bad tendencies (that have been melodramatically developing since KQ6/GK1+2). It seems like they've been reading it, and larger concerns had pretty unanimous support. I'm a little hopeful that JJ would be the type to obsess over criticisms and make it better.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

GK2 had insane scope, too. Like it ends with an original fucking Opera that was written just for the game. And they even had the balls to claim that it was an undiscovered Wagner Opera. Yeah, you only hear a tiny portion of the opera and if Wagner wrote it it's like the shittiest Opera he ever wrote (and doesn't even sound like Wagner really), but still.....not many games at the time were reaching as far as that game was reaching. And given the production values were often very obviously barebones, it's amazing how much the game succeeds at. I think it's a very different game than GK1 and I still prefer GK1 if forced to chose, but I think GK2 is a great game in its own right. And kind of a weird relic of the FMV craze of the 1990s that gives it way more added nostalgic appeal just because so few games have done anything like that before or since.

GK3 has some bad puzzles and an awful engine, but I remember being really sucked into the story. It was kind of like the Davinci Code, only before the Davinci Code and way smarter than the Davinci Code.

 

[DeepOcean]

I hope they take all the feedback to heart instead of just listening to the yes men on their forum.

The plot seemed interesting but the game was seriously lacking in the puzzle and exploration department. I don't have much hope that they will improve the first chapter since they'd pretty much have to redo everything but at least they can improve the later ones.

Are you talking about Cognition or Moebius?

 

[Edifice]

I hope they take all the feedback to heart instead of just listening to the yes men on their forum.

That alpha-backer-feedback thread is a pretty thorough passive-aggressive skewering of everything that hints of the mistakes made in Cognition, and all of Jane's other bad tendencies (that have been melodramatically developing since KQ6/GK1+2). It seems like they've been reading it, and larger concerns had pretty unanimous support. I'm a little hopeful that JJ would be the type to obsess over criticisms and make it better.

Let's hope so.

GK3 has some bad puzzles and an awful engine, but I remember being really sucked into the story. It was kind of like the Davinci Code, only before the Davinci Code and way smarter than the Davinci Code.

It also had one of the best puzzles in the genre!

I hope they take all the feedback to heart instead of just listening to the yes men on their forum.

The plot seemed interesting but the game was seriously lacking in the puzzle and exploration department. I don't have much hope that they will improve the first chapter since they'd pretty much have to redo everything but at least they can improve the later ones.

Are you talking about Cognition or Moebius?

I was referring to the Moebius alpha.

 

[Name]

Jane Jensen becomes MCA of adventure games in my heart.
Everything she touched turns to be the best in the series (for me).
KQ6? Best in the series. No Cedric, no Disney cartoon, few deadends and crazy puzzles.
PQ3? Minus the tedious driving part, it's way better than the first two, especially in terms of writing, and you get to pop-a-Mole (or be popped). And it's dark, but not GRIMDARK as the stupid GRIMDARK Open Season.
GK1-3? Authentic Voodoo, Werewolves and Da Vinci Code.

Does her two children games (EcoQuest I and Pepper's Adventure) also hold true to this record?
Does she have much to do with Cognition? Consultant sounds more like a brand recognition or QA.

 

[Infinitron]

Pepper's Adventures in Time was pretty cool, if sometimes a tad repetitive. Didn't like EcoQuest - that 90s Captain Planet environmentalist fad was extremely tiresome. I think it may have been better than the sequel though.

 

[ghostdog]

Yeah, she had very little to do with cognition, and it's for the best because that game's story is plagued by all those things her GK games manage to, mostly, avoid. Implausible situations, convenient coincidences and really awkward dialog.

Problem is that her last big adventure game, Gray Matter, wasn't that good IMO. Too many coincidences here too and plotlines (magic and the phantom of the opera mad emo scientist) that didn't really mesh well. Also even if she obviously researched a lot her English locales, you never got that awesome feeling you got from the GK games where reality merged with fiction and myth and history and folklore in a seamless, spectacular way. At least the dialog was decent, a good writer like Jensen is sure to give you that.

 

[DeepOcean]

I was dissapointed by Gray Matter, you pratically knows how the story will end on the middle of the game and the puzzles only get remotely interesting at the end of the game(The Alice in Wonderland riddle was cool but a bit too easy) . But the dialog was fun and even the emo phantom of the opera scientist is relatable.

 

[Taxnomore]

I loved Gabriel Knight 2 but I have the feeling I missed something, else the conclusion of the story is rather absurd.

Spoiler

If I remember it correctly, Von Glower is actually not that bad of a guy. He is not the werewolf you are looking for, is rather friendly to you. Sure, he did nasty things to that king but that was centuries ago and you don't know the actual reasons and might have been justified. Point is : he is not killing people anymore, he does not have an evil plot, and is not trying to kill you.

Gabriel turning into a Werewolf is an accident caused by the real bad guy of the game whose name I forgot.

But it turns out the only way to cure Gabriel is still to kill Von Glower. So they stage a trap and brutally murder the innocent guy for their own convenience. Gabriel can't even use the excuse his life is in danger because Von Glower actually shows you can be a Werewolf without killing anyone and not die. Still, they decide to slaughter him because, Screw Werewolves.

I did like GK3, and it would have been a masterpiece without the cat moustache puzzle.

 

[MaskedMan]

Spoiler

Gabriel found some black fur in the corpse cave, suggesting that Von Glower took part in the killing and eating that was going on there. The wolf killings around town were all Von Zell, but there had been a lot of missing persons cases in the rural areas around Munich, going back to the 70's (before von Zell got turned?) and it seems those people were killed when the lodge was on their "hunting trips". I don't think there was any actual proof that von Glower killed them, but he and von Zell were 100% bros back then and how do you hide that shit from a werewolf when Gabriel found it 10 fucking minutes after stepping into the woods? So he either tolerated Von Zell killing and eating people as long as it didn't bring any attention to them, or he did it himself on a 4 food only basis to keep himself controlled. Not entirely innocent.

 

[ghostdog]

Spoiler

Yeah, it's suggested that Von Glower was also driven to killings in some occasions, it's just that he could control his urges and be very discreet. And that was basically in the past, it seems that at the point of the story he had almost full control on his wolf side. The black wolf fur doesn't prove anything though, he could have been there trying to stop Von Zell. But, he had to be killed for two reasons:
1) To cure Gabriel from the curse
2) To stop him from making any other wolf packs, because he would definitely keep on trying to do so. As MakedMan said this would most likely result to more killings, and as it seems Von Glower was more concerned for his privacy rather than the actual murder of innocents.

Anyway, the fact that he isn't really evil, makes him a great character and antagonist.[/spoilers]