Kluf

Okay, for some this game is even buggier than I thought. I didn't use any special mind tricks to run it, no seducing either. But another remarkable bug (or more design flaw) I met is that when you press the escape key in-game you can't return to the action anymore. I often use the menu screen to pause the game but when you tried that with Evil Twin it punished you: when you were in the menu you had the possibility to choose the continue option which threw you back at the beginning of the level. Even worse, you only had 5 lives after that (even if you had for example 30 before) and you could only do this 3 times, so after you used up these possibilities you had to load a save game which possibly set you three levels back. I fell so often for that it made me :\. There was a patch but it fixed nothing important.

Weird no one mentioned Evil Twin. I think this was the prime example for me for a love-hate-relationship with a game. Wonderful graphic style, music, sound, story, dark humor, but ridden with countless bugs, camera annoyances and barely something resembling you could call a control, more a chaos. I've never finished it after I lost the save games. I often stopped playing it in frustration for months just to come back because I remembered how wonderful it was in some parts. The old adventure/RPG Veil Of Darkness was of similar, but less shizophrenic breed. It had a wonderful story and atmosphere, but some pointless mazes and the chance-based combat system made it hard in some places to appreciate it fully. There are some examples of freeware games I felt similar with, specifically with all Captain Mostly games.

Wonderful. Someone who remembers this underrated game. I played it for a while and loved the atmosphere and the story. Graphics are ugly, I think even for this time and are overly pixelated. You often can't recognize what this weird box should represent. Also the interface is huge and occupies over a third of the screen. But the game has many beautiful scenes. The knights who all went slightly insane and one who shoots you with a shotgun if you say the wrong thing, for example. The many intrigues between them really intrigued me. I can't really explain many of the wonderful moments of the game because my english is horrible. But anyway, I think if the graphics would be better so you could recognize the things as........things, then it would have been awesome. And if the interface would be smaller. I have never played through it, I didn't want to use the walkthrough all the time. It wasn't easy, also.

Lady In The Lake

Is there anyone who played at some time this specific game called ''Evil Twin''? It is a morbid Jump'nRun, more mature than Rayman and less playful. The majority who hasn't played this game I want to give a recommendation BUT with a definite warning so you won't hunt me to the gates of hell: There are some things which you have to accustom on like that when you press the Esc-key you escaped in one way, but the doors are closed with an iron bar which is to heavy to move, in other words: you can't go back to play further in the game. There are then three continues in the menu which teleport you back to the beginning of the level, when you lost them you have to restore a saved game. Another nice side effect: You can have 20 lifes if you want, you could have endless, but when you proceed with a continue it gets reduced to 5 lifes. Second thing: The camera is terrible. Well, something to expect of an Ubi(_)Soft platformer. You will fall from edges because of that. You won't have the priviledge of looking in the way you want. You will want to bash the tower with the keyboard because of that. Third thing: The controls are terrible, not more, pretty much the same. Sometimes it feels like this shizophren boy slides. Result: you will fall off edges..... Tip: Play with a cheat. With endless lifes this game is just fair: You can still die though. So, and why should you play this game? Well, when you masochistic of course, besides that: Because of the black subtle humor, the brilliant, weird, strange ideas, the indefinite atmosphere, oh, and the soundtrack, the best I ever heard in a game. I can just listen to it alone, it's a pleasure. The graphics have also a unique style. Still a pleasure for the eyes! It's really a true piece of art, but only when you can bear the bugs. I have to look for a patch, but I think I already have. It's a shame that nobody cared enough about that, you feel often enough like an innocent beta-tester. This game also went by with low attention like Beyond Good&Evil a short time ago. It's of the same quality, only with these nasty bugs. It just shows how it destroys a game. I really build a hate-love up to it. I should pluck a flower to decide....

Maybe I just don't get what you mean........why should there be ''Cinematic direction'' in a game, except maybe in cutscenes?

Eh, that was when you, ehm, fucked her. But it also works when you talk to the fortune teller........ I think there should be different things seen when you play with Lydia, I didn't tried it out. And why is no alien sex allowed? I never saw an option for that! Hm, Barth has just inhaled too much peace in some ways....

I don't know where the problems are in the voice acting, I only played the german version and it was excellent. I can imagine that there are evil french accents, maybe to make a authentic french feeling. This is a really french game, maybe the first one and one so far. They made a very unique game, the vision which the author had wasn't anything that's for a normal player, something you can mess at international standards. I think you missed the lack of a clear story. It's interesting that you even don't get really introduced to the world, but you find out yourself the longer you play. It makes you curious. You just have to let yourself fall into it. Yeah, typically french.

When IGN would review it.....sure, it seems.

The only text adventure I willingly started was Arthur and because it has graphics.... The positive thing about text adventures is that there are no graphics which could be annoying, eye-melting. To this time the technic was only so far that 16 colors had been possible. So far the ideology of Infocom really paid out to only make interactive fiction until the bitter end, it makes them timeless. I personally find them also more fun then some with graphics. Imagination can do a lot more. But I never got myself over to try out really more. This should really a good one to start, it has really high critical acclaim and it's the work which Steve Meretzky is most proud of. Has anyone played Leather Goddess of Phobos 2? I wonder myself why most people hate it! I love it, at least the beginning in Atomic City...

Honestly, it's for me a agony to play it with only 16 colors. I can't ignore it or look over that. It's the point where the gameplay doesn't matter anymore, it's like a bar in the eye. Well, there are only two games I played with only 16 colors: Duke Nukem and Space Quest 3. The first one is very addictive and the graphicer seemed to be very talented because I see it more as an unique graphic style. I always thought it was a VGA game, I was surprised when I played it again. And Space Quest 3 would have been one of my most beloved game if it wouldn't have the parser interface (who doesn't accept the most rudimentary words - arrgh!) and had better graphics. I beat it only with walkthrough. It was a bit of fun that way. It's funny (or not) that he doesn't recognize the same english words in german..... Maybe it would already one of my favorite games if it would have a mouse control....

I tried to emulate the Amiga version on PC, because I can't bear only 16 colors. Well, I failed on the try, but it's certainly great.

Why has everybody to open up a new page about games? Aren't there enough? I don't have the overview anymore and certainly won't read the same news on your page again. I would say he could get a writer for Idle Thumbs but I'm not sure if he would get accepted, if you would get accepted. Some seem annoyed.

I don't see actually your point.... But I think when a game would be open-ended like this and had this many possibilities and ways the storys could evolved you wouldn't need to save. It would be enough when the game gets saved when you quit it. There is no actual frustration then in the game. I'm frustrated when I have to play the same parts over and over again. My mind just collapses when I fight against the death of my hero, you loose 20 times but don't proceed a bit. In a game with possibilities so near to reality there isn't this frustration. When you die you can try it completely different. This is very hypothetical of course. But for me this makes clear why the savepoints system doesn't work, not for me at least. I'm patient, but I hate repitive gameplay.

That was WOOHOOORRD My most beloved error is when I tried to start Windows Media Player then this text popped up: Internal application error. I uninstalled it then, installed it again and it still occured. Is this then still an ''Internal application error''?

Sure you can't find it? http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00002NDEF/qid=1098500978/sr=52-1/ref=sr_52_1_etk-software/104-1931497-1379114?v=glance&s=video games&n=229534 It's the Collector's Edition I suppose. Yeah, it runs under Xp, but you will need the super important patch except you use DirectX6 (maybe the patch is integrated in this version, it should be).

That's what he means: Looks scary, hm?

8 Years?!? Well, let me think it was released in 1999, now we have, umm *looksincalendar*, 2004, yeah 2004, that makes, pff, let's think, hard maths I have to admit........*grabscalcutar*.............5 YEARS!! Are you a time traveller or what? Abe's Odyssey has the same system. But it's also very unique.

Exactly what I mean. Tomb Raider even wasn't that big of an innovation. It wasn't the first game where you see your gaming character over the shoulders. Fade to black already had the 3rd person view. Also I don't think that lever pulling and buttons hitting were really something new. Maybe in this amount. The only innovation was that you played as an woman. There was no action title who had this before (not that I know of). And I think this a really overrated innovation. And Outcast even had a female lead. Outcast was overlooked. None of its ideas was the inspiration for other games. Well, I could write endless about it, but you better play it to find out or you already know it.

I think the reason for this is that at the time of the release it was measured with Tomb Raider. Outcast was a long time in development and it was hyped as the game who beats Lara in the ground just like every other action title with a 3rd person view. It's ridiculous to think the view says everything about the gameplay. Infogrames had the bad idea and promoted it even like this. You see even effects on the game: Bruce Willis was the, ehm, *cough* inspiration for Cutter Slade. I thought everytime I played it that this game would be a piece of art if it hadn't this kind of hero. It would be more memorable, though it's still much fun. I never quite understood why Tomb Raider got the better ratings. Outcast was totally different and new. It was the first game which had such a lively 3D gaming world. The people remember what you did. When you killed a person they won't help you anymore (also there is a way to kill people with dynamite & nobody cares) It had very easy controls. You just walked over things and you had them. It had a story which grabbed you and even made you think a bit after the game ended. Maybe the press was disappointed that the action part was kinda small. Cutter Slade was no alien ass-kicker. No Bruce Champ...eh, I mean Duke Nukem. He was social. Maybe they were irritated of that. And what was with Tomb Raider 4? There it's strange. The fourth installment was promoted that it had a great story. It should also have much better graphics and more character development. It certainly got better ratings. Tomb Raider 4 had really all more of this but nothing of that was really good. The story was tiresome, it didn't really interest. It didn't influenced the gameplay. There were just some cutscenes which developed the story. Character development was small. We had a villain this time and we learned that Lara was his student. But besides she's still the cold-hearted woman who hates man. There were also more puzzles, but they just made the game boring. Maybe it was easier for the gaming press to see that it had more of that all and think that it was good. But Outcast had great features, but it was promoted for the wrong one which also weren't nearly not there. I would love to see a Outcast 2. There are some Screenshots on the net and they still great although they are some years old. I also think that Outcast has still great graphics. No other game has such a smooth landscape. There is a way to change also the resolution to 640x480 (just look in the Ini-files, in one you can change the height and width.) Hope my grammar is OK.

I don't have much to add, but I think the game Outcast makes a good deal with the save method. The process of the saving affects also the game environment. 1. It is integrated in the story. At the beginning of the game you get an artefact called "Gamsav". It's really rare of course. I think you get told that it brings you back at the moment in time when you used it. Some kind of that. 2. It needs a time until the progress in the game is saved (the reason is not because the game needs so long to save, it's a part of the design). So in that time you can get attacked. The result of this is that it is impossible to save in battles. The gamsav makes also some noise when you use it so it says enemies that you are around. Sadly it isn't used very good in Outcast. I never really "called" enemies through the use of the gamsav also I were a few time near them. And secondly the game was just too easy so it could build excitment with that. I never felt my heart pumping. It's strange that no other game exists to my knowledge that has a save method like this.