FeelTheRads
Arcane
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- Apr 18, 2008
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Yeah, read it. If you like the game you'll like the book too, I think.
I am (nearly) at a loss for words. The selective use of colors do a great job setting atmosphere and mood, while helping to differentiate the screens and areas from one another. The conservatively drawn backgrounds (wait, that's what they wrote) are incredibly well-composed: they retain some texture, but focus on presenting unique shapes with guided forms, and avoiding unnecessary clutter.Gamespot said:the limited use of colors, and the conservatively drawn backgrounds
The atmosphere was nice. Especially early on. The puzzles felt all over the place though. Sometimes with little rhyme and reason as to why you were performing them (tortoise skeleton springs to mind). It's been ages since I played it though. My recollection is pretty blurry. Maybe it's time to dig out the old lucasarts adventure CD-ROM collections again.
dig out
I think there's a reason why it feels short(ish) and why the ending is the way it is: if I remember correctly the script was written for Spielberg's half hour anthology tv show Amazing Stories but due budgetary reasons it was rejected and they gave the script to LucasArts in the late 80s or early 90s.
Spielberg loves those sort of "nothing left unresolved" type of endings.
Yours will be harder to digest.
Should we not unearth the core of the matter? Is The Dig a thing to be dug by everyone, or does it bore its audience?I'm digging the direction this thread is taking.
Yours will be harder to digest.
She dug it.Yours will be harder to digest.
And that's what SHE said.
Oh god. I remember Moriarty's version was darker and that Spielberg pussified it but I hadn't realized why. I always wondered why Moriarty refused to acknowledge the release game as his own despite being credited on it, and despite the fact that it's not that different from his own design (much more similar to it than to the original version that IIRC Falstein had started with). I wonder if he was pissed off at the Spielberg treatment that it was given, and at the ending, which is definitely not-Moriarty in tone, and whether this had anything to do with him leaving the project and LucasArts.You remember correctly. Reading some more info about it earlier today, it also seems to have gone through quite a troubled production process, changed executive producer 4 times, characters put in then scrapped, and "mildified" because Spielberg is a pussy and was butthurt by people complaining about the blood&gore in Jurassic Park, which they had been warned about by the PG13 thing, but which they ignored.
Oh god. I remember Moriarty's version was darker and that Spielberg pussified it but I hadn't realized why. I always wondered why Moriarty refused to acknowledge the release game as his own despite being credited on it, and despite the fact that it's not that different from his own design (much more similar to it than to the original version that IIRC Falstein had started with). I wonder if he was pissed off at the Spielberg treatment that it was given, and at the ending, which is definitely not-Moriarty in tone, and whether this had anything to do with him leaving the project and LucasArts.You remember correctly. Reading some more info about it earlier today, it also seems to have gone through quite a troubled production process, changed executive producer 4 times, characters put in then scrapped, and "mildified" because Spielberg is a pussy and was butthurt by people complaining about the blood&gore in Jurassic Park, which they had been warned about by the PG13 thing, but which they ignored.
When Moriarty took over, he decided to start again from scratch. This version of the game was similar to the actual game that was released, but it had one extra character, a Japanese science-hobbyist business tycoon named Toshi Olema, who uses his money to buy his way onto the Attila project crew.[9] Toshi would have met a gruesome death when he stumbled into a cavern with acid dripping from the ceiling, with the other astronauts being unable to safely retrieve his body to bring him back with life crystals. He was later completely removed from the story. This version of the game was also very bloody and adult, and although Spielberg thought this feel was very fitting, he had received quite a bit of complaints about the first Jurassic Park film, from parents who had ignored the PG-13rating and brought their young children to see the movie because it was about dinosaurs, only to discover that the movie contained blood and graphic violence. So, worrying that parents would purchase the game for their rather young children, he requested that it be toned down a bit.[10] Other notable design ideas which were dropped during the game's production include a survival angle, which forced the player to keep water and food supplies for life support, and exploration of entire huge cities on the planet.[11]
Oh god. I remember Moriarty's version was darker and that Spielberg pussified it but I hadn't realized why. I always wondered why Moriarty refused to acknowledge the release game as his own despite being credited on it, and despite the fact that it's not that different from his own design (much more similar to it than to the original version that IIRC Falstein had started with). I wonder if he was pissed off at the Spielberg treatment that it was given, and at the ending, which is definitely not-Moriarty in tone, and whether this had anything to do with him leaving the project and LucasArts.You remember correctly. Reading some more info about it earlier today, it also seems to have gone through quite a troubled production process, changed executive producer 4 times, characters put in then scrapped, and "mildified" because Spielberg is a pussy and was butthurt by people complaining about the blood&gore in Jurassic Park, which they had been warned about by the PG13 thing, but which they ignored.
For the record, here is the complete wiki quote:
When Moriarty took over, he decided to start again from scratch. This version of the game was similar to the actual game that was released, but it had one extra character, a Japanese science-hobbyist business tycoon named Toshi Olema, who uses his money to buy his way onto the Attila project crew.[9] Toshi would have met a gruesome death when he stumbled into a cavern with acid dripping from the ceiling, with the other astronauts being unable to safely retrieve his body to bring him back with life crystals. He was later completely removed from the story. This version of the game was also very bloody and adult, and although Spielberg thought this feel was very fitting, he had received quite a bit of complaints about the first Jurassic Park film, from parents who had ignored the PG-13rating and brought their young children to see the movie because it was about dinosaurs, only to discover that the movie contained blood and graphic violence. So, worrying that parents would purchase the game for their rather young children, he requested that it be toned down a bit.[10] Other notable design ideas which were dropped during the game's production include a survival angle, which forced the player to keep water and food supplies for life support, and exploration of entire huge cities on the planet.[11]
The bit in red is what makes me want to kill half the planet, or at least neuter these people so that they won't spawn even more retards. Apparently the whole "incl00sive" thing started way before we realized.
he had received quite a bit of complaints about the first Jurassic Park film, from parents who had ignored the PG-13rating and brought their young children to see the movie because it was about dinosaurs, only to discover that the movie contained blood and graphic violence
The bit in red is what makes me want to kill half the planet, or at least neuter these people so that they won't spawn even more retards. Apparently the whole "incl00sive" thing started way before we realized.
It's always been like that, the American perpetually offended bullshit has always existed, just look at the Hays Code in the 1930s concerning films, or the Comics Code. People have always whined about how something has offended them or something will damage them kids. During the 80s and 90s we had video censorship in finland because "OMG The minors might get brain damaged for watching violence!".
This whole thing isn't anything new but due social media it has absolutely exploded all over because all those fucking crazies can now meet each other online and get even more offended and spout their bullshit all over.
The Dig is a weird LucasArts adventure dreamed up by Steven Spielberg
By Andy Kelly 2 hours ago
Revisiting the cult '90s sci-fi epic.
Watch a video version of this article above.
The story of The Dig begins in 1989 with Steven Spielberg. While working on Amazing Stories—a science fiction anthology TV series he created for NBC—he dreamed up an ambitious yarn about an archaeological dig on an alien planet. Realising a television budget couldn’t do it justice, he put his idea on ice.
Then Spielberg found a way to bring his story to life, with a little help from his old pal George Lucas. Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert and industry veteran Noah Falstein had developed an adventure game based on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade for LucasArts, and Spielberg—an avid gamer—was impressed.
A meeting was set up at the Skywalker Ranch between Spielberg, Lucas, Gilbert and Falstein. Ideas were thrown around, and the concept for what would become The Dig gradually began to take shape. Spielberg envisioned the game as a cross between Forbidden Planet and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Indiana Jones in space.
(Image credit: LucasArts)
In the years to follow, The Dig would suffer a prolonged and troubled development. Falstein eventually left the project, and Loom creator Brian Moriarty took the helm. The game was originally going to have RPG elements, such as locating food and water to stay alive, but ended up as a traditional point-andclick adventure.
Over time the characters, story, and locations would change dramatically, but the fundamentals of Spielberg’s idea remained intact: archaeologists uncovering the remains of an ancient alien civilisation on another world, and then—under the influence of what they find there—turning on each other.
The Dig was finally released in 1995, with Robert Patrick (Terminator 2, The X-Files) voicing the lead role. Reviews were mixed at the time, but the game has since become something of a cult classic. It’ll never be as fondly remembered as Full Throttle or Sam & Max, but it’s one of the most interesting and unusual games LucasArts ever made.
It opens with a radio telescope detecting a deadly asteroid heading for Earth. The governments of the world devise a plan to knock the rock off course with a series of nuclear explosions. Michael Bay would use the same premise just three years later in his apocalyptic cheese-fest Armageddon.
(Image credit: LucasArts)
A pre-mission press conference introduces us to the game’s stars: commander Boston Low, journalist Maggie Robbins, and scientist Ludger Brink. While other LucasArts adventures boast large, colourful casts, the majority of The Dig is spent in the company of these three and their conflicting personalities.
Robbins is uptight and combative. Brink is pompous and self-regarding. Low is practical and easygoing. From the earliest scenes you can sense the tension in their dynamic, and it only gets worse as the game goes on and their situation grows more dire. The natural-sounding banter and confident acting are among the game’s strongest points.
The mission goes to plan, but there’s more to the asteroid than meets the eye. It’s actually an alien spacecraft, and whisks Low and his team to another planet, light years away. Getting home becomes their next priority, and this is where the game proper begins. The planet is never named, but a novelisation by Alan Dean Foster calls it Cocytus: the lowest circle of Hell in Dante’s Inferno.
That’s a dramatic name for what is actually quite a peaceful setting. Whoever lived on this barren world has long since gone, leaving behind strange ruins. The Dig is a slow, understated game that’s more Solaris than Star Wars. There are a few moments of action, including a run-in with a giant alien spider, but mostly you’re just wandering around, solving puzzles, and poking through the ruins looking for a way home.
(Image credit: LucasArts)
Let’s talk about puzzles. They are, by far, the worst thing about the game. LucasArts puzzles are obscure at the best of times, but here they’re oblique to the point of farce. While shrinking a sweater in a dryer for 200 years to thaw out a frozen hamster in Day of the Tentacle was ludicrous, it was at least tethered (loosely) to real-world logic. The Dig is a confusing morass of orbs, crystals and weird alien machinery that will have all but the most patient adventurers reaching for a walkthrough.
It gives you the feeling of being an archaeologist, deciphering the enigmatic culture of a lost alien civilisation. But it’s also pretty boring. It’s the story, atmosphere, and characters that make The Dig worth revisiting. The central mystery grabs you the moment you land, and it’s intoxicating. It was the desire to find out more about it that got me through the worst of the puzzles.
Spielberg’s love of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre inspires one of the game’s biggest dramatic hooks. In the movie a gold discovery makes Humphrey Bogart’s character crazy and paranoid. In the game it’s a cache of crystals that can raise the dead, and it’s the geologist, Brink, who loses his mind. After being revived by them, he becomes erratic and illogical, behaving like a drug addict.
(Image credit: LucasArts)
Like so many ambitious science fiction stories, The Dig falls apart at the end. All of the planet’s mysteries are explained in a single conversation, and it becomes a lot less interesting as a result. It’s the mystery that makes the game compelling, and losing it left me feeling slightly empty. It’s not that the big reveal is bad—just that not knowing is always more evocative than knowing.
The Dig scored 87% in our original review, but that was 25 years ago. Time has not been kind to it. The background art, music and atmosphere have held up, but the pointing and clicking has not. Yet despite its flaws, I enjoyed replaying it. If Monkey Island was LucasArts’ summer blockbuster, this was their experimental art house movie, and I’m glad Spielberg chose a videogame as the medium to tell this fascinating story.
The Dig is good. Great atmosphere, great graphic design marred by a technology that couldn't support it (seeing those super pixellated screens and imagining how absolutely gorgeous the original paintings must've looked makes me sad), fantastic soundtrack that made excellent use of iMuse's ability to seamlessly transition from one track to the other (AFAIK this is the only non-MIDI Lucas game to pull it off). The sense of exploring an alien world and trying to understand an alien civilization has never been done so well IMO. Puzzles are good, fuck the haters - some are on the obtuse side, but aside from the afore-mentioned unmentionable bone puzzle they are all 100% logical within the alien world, and since the whole point of the game is to figure out the alien world's logic, they fit perfectly into the narrative. Besides, no one could possibly complain about having to backtrack or stop and think about puzzles when you're listening to the Tram music while doing so. The themes it explores are unique - it's an "adult" game in all the good ways. The exploration of mortality, immortality, loss, memory, it's all done extremely well, the game hits hard with some of its points without ever being preachy; it's a hard line to tread, and the game does it perfectly from beginning to... well, just before the end. Up until the very last action you take in the game, the narrative gets better and better, but as soon as the ending cutscene kicks in, it slowly spirals into complete retardo, because Spielberg. I don't know if he's the one who wrote it, but whoever did was clearly aping him, and it ruins the last minutes of an otherwise great game. I still think it's one of Lucas's best though - unsurprising since it was the brainchild of Brian Moriarty, who's perhaps the only video game writer who knows how to use interesting thematic issues to make great games out of them. I think I'd rank it up there with PST, MotB and Trinity (another Moriarty game, how surprising) as the best written games.