Quoting: flesk("truly odd art style" is also just opinion)

No, it is not.
Here's the definition of the word odd:
different to what is usual or expected; strange.

I'd say that is objectively true here.
Unless, of course, you can show me the dozens or hundreds of games in that genre utilizing that cubism look that would make it appear less "unusual or unexpected".

Quoting: fleskI don't think it's possible to make a sequel to a 30 year old franchise without dividing your fanbase though

That's certainly true.
But the question is where you draw that division line.
For stuff like a verb menu, I'd say you wouldn't even lose 5% - the vast majority of modern "classic" point & click adventure games don't have that, either. It was always a matter of game limitation, in contrast to a deliberate art style.
But this? Very clearly from relevant comments and even like/dislike ratios on official videos, the division line is much closer to 50% than 5%. Because of its oddness. That's not some vocal minority.
With roughly a 1/3 division of "I like the art style", "I don't like the art style, but looking forward to the game anyway" and "I don't like the art style (no or negative comment on purchase plans)".
That you even have so many comments of the 2nd category proves that the art style was not a good choice - if you define good by "the target audience likes it".

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: fleskI think nostalgia is the primary reason why everyone's being so critical of this new style.

Ehrm, no.
I would see the same art style just as critical in any other game.
The reason it's so bad has very little to do with the game it is used for. It's just not a good choice of art style for anything, really.
And the reason you see so much backlash is because a lot of people actually care about Monkey Island. If it wasn't so, the game would with 90% certainty just silently die.
I don't think "divide your fanbase with a truly odd art style" is a great idea, no way how you look at it.

Quoting: fleskWhat is the spirit of MI1 and MI2 though? If it's the exact art style of the originals, then neither Curse, Escape nor Tales are true to their spirit; all having distinctly different art styles. And, if you ask me, not even MI1 and MI2 share the same art style, as MI2 has a more "painterly" style, although they look similar by today's standards.

All of them utilized a comic-book-like art style, with 1 and 2 being a bit more on the "realistic" or "painted" look, 3 going full-on comic and 4 also trying to go for comic, albeit with little success due to being early age 3D.
Same style that the vast majority of point & click games from that era used, really.

Whatever this is, is nowhere near comic book.
It's a lot closer to a pop-up book for kids meets tumblr paired with cubism. Guybrush has rectangles for ears and LeChuck's face is a triangle, ffs!

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Dear lord, that art style is honestly horrible.
Everything looks wrong and abstract and cheap.
And it's the worst kind of "everything is flat" abstraction.

Usually, a new Monkey Island game would be a certain purchase for me, but I have to be able to at least look at it without disgust.
And I thought Monkey Island 4 looked bad... I mean, yeah it did, but at least it was that usual "early 3D looks like shit, deal with it" kind of bad.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

This will go into the imaginary "show off" distribution in which everything is terminal.
No Chrome, no Firefox. Only Lynx.
No Steam, no Battle for Wesnoth even. Only various roguelikes, that one economy/war sim whose name I forgot and now this.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: TermyYou argue that having shortcuts in the game devalues your achievements. That is only true though if you somehow are compulsively forced to go the easy route.
Just because this options exist doesn't mean you have to or even SHOULD take them if you don't have some kind of impairment. So nothing is taken away from you.

That is false.
I explained what is indeed "taken away" from people by options even if they are not using these options.
You either did not read, understand or chose to ignore what I wrote before.
As I'm not in the habit of repeating myself, I'll leave you to your bliss.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: TermyOther people's "admiration" (read: bragging rights) should also not be you sole motivation to invest time into getting better. If achievements are the only thing that motivates you to dig into a difficult game, you really should work on your self-sufficiency.

Who are you to say what should or shouldn't motivate people?
Motivation is a very hard thing to come by, so honestly, any source of it is absolutely valid to me.

Quoting: TermyThere are people out there that just don't have the reaction time or motor skills to master such a gamne - and there is nothing they can do about it, no matter how hard they train.

That is quite simply not true.
Everyone (unless an actual disability prevents them*) is capable of learning any skill at least to a level of "competent". Obviously, people have varying amounts of talent, but talent never prevents you from improving yourself in a skill - it "only" makes the process longer or faster.

I can fully understand that someone doesn't want to invest the time necessary to "git gud" in a game. I'm the same way about fighting games ala Street Fighter, hence I stopped playing them.
But then I just play one of the thousands of other games more suitable to me - I don't go about demanding Street Fighter be changed to suit my own laziness. I absolutely despise that kind of handout mentality, as it breeds weak minds. Nor would I want to impact the club of people who like SF the way that it is.

* And even then there are people who overcome their disabilities, e.g. the guy who beat Elden Ring (and others) while being only able to move his head and mouth, using a "mouth controller".
The guy could have gone whining on social media like so many others. Instead he overcame. Truly inspiring!

Quoting: TermyWhy exclude those people just because you tend to take shortcuts, just because they exist?

This makes zero sense to me. Not sure I get what you are talking about here.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

No, difficulty is not an accessibility option.
An accessibility option is something that enables people to play a game who would otherwise not be able to due to disabilities. Dyslexia, color blindness, etc. Actual disabilities.
And those should be in way more games than they are - although I do understand there's a definite increase in development cost providing them and not all devs can afford that for a small target audience.
Those options also do not provide tangible benefits to anyone who doesn't need them.

But there's no such thing as a "is bad at video games" disability.
That's a mere question of what one is willing to invest in order to improve. People who aren't willing to invest anything to improve shouldn't be catered to and rewarded for their laziness.


One misunderstanding or lack of knowledge I see often in this context is that some players and devs do not understand why an option such as that would affect someone who is not using it.
"You don't have to use it, so it doesn't affect you! Hurrrr!"
Let me explain it for those in the back rows:

Imagine achievements as an exclusive club.
Everyone in that club is assured of their exclusive status and that of everyone else in the club.
It's a good feeling, something to strive for.
But if the flood gates are opened and everyone's allowed in, suddenly that exclusiveness is no longer there and that club feels mighty crowded now.
You can think people who feel like that are dicks or whatever, but what you can't argue is that they are not affected. They factually are.

You can call that elitism if you want, and I'd agree.
But I also don't believe that elitism (if defined by skill, talent and perseverance and not just inheritance or status) is a bad thing at all, quite on the contrary.

Quoting: llamajackerIf people are worried about their bragging rights being watered down - they were already watered down by tools like the above.

That's like saying you should never strive to get good at anything because shortcuts exist and someone will use them, which would then invalidate or lower your own accomplishments.
Other people's inadequacies should never serve as an excuse for your own.

All of that said, though, the devs here do explain in-game that this new mode is not the way that the game should be played unless you really feel like you do need it. And they try to motivate players to actually increase the difficulty.
I don't agree with including modes like that, but among implementations of story-like modes that I can't stand, this is really the least devaluing option possible. And they did that years after the game first came out - at this point, the exclusive club has been open for years and whoever was in it more than likely had their share by now.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

The game definitely reminds me of Hexen/Heretic.
Especially with the regions you can go back and forth between as you find keys, etc.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I actually had the same issue, but resolved it by removing those lines in the config entirely - they only affect online play, anyway.

But good to see it's properly fixed already.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: dpanterI never played Nox back in the day, worth a go 22 years later?

I would say yes, it's quite a unique game. Doing it myself currently.
And with the three very distinct classes even worth multiple playthroughs.

I would strongly recommend not setting it to 1080p, though, as your character will be abysmally tiny on the screen.
Put it to 1600 x 900 at max.

View this comment - View article - View full comments