The Cave: Ron Gilbert's Double Fine Game (A Tim Schafer Production) (Not Double Fine Adventure)

[Tanukitsune]

Depends on the voice actor and the delivery, sometimes the voice you make in your head when you read the line is funnier and sometimes it's the voice actor.

The narrator was pretty good, not too monotone, not too hammy. Although I would have preferred if he hammed up the "AND MURDER!" line. But does this mean the only one to talk will be the narrator?

[Chris]

Depends on the voice actor and the delivery, sometimes the voice you make in your head when you read the line is funnier and sometimes it's the voice actor.

The narrator was pretty good, not too monotone, not too hammy. Although I would have preferred if he hammed up the "AND MURDER!" line. But does this mean the only one to talk will be the narrator?

There are also NPCs who speak; the balance of Cave and NPC speech differs by level.

[BigJKO]

It sounds to me sort of like most adventure games, where dialogue would be funnier if you read it yourself, but it's 2012 so you gotta have voice acting. I think there was a discussion about this around the Monkey Island remakes, and nobody agreed with me.

Wait, I thought everyone agreed that the Monkey Island dialogue was funny when written out, but just sounded weird most of the time when spoken, especially with the over-the-top comic voices in the remakes.

I don't have that problem with The Cave, though. I'm looking very much looking forward to The Cave. The art style looks amazing, the animations look great, everything looks top notch, so far.

[ThunderPeel2001]

It sounds to me sort of like most adventure games, where dialogue would be funnier if you read it yourself, but it's 2012 so you gotta have voice acting. I think there was a discussion about this around the Monkey Island remakes, and nobody agreed with me.

That's a little bit too sweeping. Obviously it's possible to have funny dialogue that's spoken!

[BigJKO]

Sweeping statements are toblix's specialty.

[toblix]

I always over-sweep (stupid stupid STUPID!), and of course there's plenty of funny spoken dialogue in video games (which I think I didn't really rule out,) but I feel like there's more of a potential for it falling flat when it's voiced by an actor than when I just read it myself. I guess a logical explanation is that written comedy allows for a lot more interpretation that fits one own sense of humour, whilst having it voiced nails it down in one specific way which has a statistically higher chance of falling flat for any given player. Anyway, I realise every game of this number of As needs to be fully voiced, just from a marketing standpoint.

[ThunderPeel2001]

So you're saying a comedy film would be funnier if you muted the TV and put on subtitles? :-/

I think the poor quality of voice acting/direction is more to blame than anything.

[toblix]

Once again I fail to convey my thoughts.

FINAL ATTEMPT GO SUPER理解を伝える最後の試行!!!

I tend to prefer non-voiced dialogue when there's not much acting going on other than the voice, as in physical full-body acting. When Indy is talking to Professor Sternhart, or Sam and Max are chatting, and they're just doing their head-bobbing and arm-outstretching animations or whatever, there's no real link between the text flow and motion of the characters. In more modern games, voice and motion are linked, which is something else. I think. I really don't know. Maybe it's just that I've had an unpleasant experience with playing a game I'm used to reading, and suddenly it has voices and I thought it sounded wrong.

If the performance was bad, maybe I would still be able to find the script to a bad comedy film funny because I would internally deliver all the lines according to my unique sense of humour.

I don't really know what I'm saying.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Gotcha, I think.

[syntheticgerbil]

Haha, well I'm very excited for this game. I will definitely try to bump it up on my list of things to play next year. I feel like this is exactly the type of thing I'd enjoy, even though I can't tell all of the precise parts of the gameplay from the trailer.

[Erkki]

The funniest delivery would be a computer-generated voice like Microsoft Sam reading the dialogue.

[melmer]

Another trailer came out for this a few days ago. I don't really understand what the game is about and I'm far too lazy/uninterested to do the research.

Ooooh I just watched the trailer again with the sound on, that helped

It needs a 'how to play' trailer. Show the character select screen, then show multipule characters entering the cave (I'm guessing they will enter the same cave) and then paths split according to the characters abilities (I'm guessing that's what the games about?)

I get its a puzzle platformer, but I don't get it. It needs a trailer that makes people go 'oooo I get it, you fight the alien with the flaming human skull'

[Ben X]

[Chris]

I get its a puzzle platformer, but I don't get it. It needs a trailer that makes people go 'oooo I get it, you fight the alien with the flaming human skull'

It's actually not; it's an adventure game. (I realize that's not fully apparent from the trailers.) You run and jump around, but there are maybe two or three actual platforming puzzles in the entire game (and you might not even see them depending on which characters you choose). It's just an adventure game that happens to be played from a side view. You explore environments, experience a story, solve puzzles, and combine items--that's the game.

[Tanukitsune]

It's like the Dizzy games then?

[Chris]

It's like the Dizzy games then?

I don't know, I haven't played those. It's like an adventure game with less talking and a side view.

[toblix]

So it's like The Lost Vikings, but an adventure, and without the vikings?

[MrHoatzin]

The side view is really exciting to me. It is surprising platforming adventures such as this one haven't caught on.

I remember in grade school filling notebooks with these elaborate diagrams of puzzle caves. I thought of them as platformers as they were inspired by The Lost Vikings and Commander Keen (and trap-laden tombs of Indiana Jones)—but it always stumped the tween me that I couldn't fit them into the platforming genre since there was not much platforming going on. They were just elaborate trap mazes with unique solutions behind every "room".

[Tanukitsune]

I think the Lost Vikings mixed with Dizzy sounds like it would be like The Cave, only not as witty.

Dizzy is an adventure game with platforming in it and the Lost Vikings has different character with different abilities to solve puzzles, so it wouldn't be too far-fetched to say they would be like The Cave combined.

[melmer]

combine items

See, I never would've got that. So it's a proper proper adventure game.

Maybe just get the voice over man in the next trailer to say "it's a proper proper adventure game with combining items n shit...I promise"

Not saying a trailer needs to show everything about a game for it to be successful and arose interest. But showing a single puzzle getting solved by a couple of characters in different ways would help dum dums like me understand what I'm spending my Xbox coins on.

Or perhaps the world just isn't ready yet. The human mind needs to evolve before it can fully comprehend what is inside "the cave"tm

[melmer]

Jesus Christ this game was impossible for my tiny 7year old mind, bird seed to kill the birds!? Mind blown

That could possibly be the worst case of 'back tracking' in a game I've ever witnessed.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Yep, it's not that much of a surprise that the Dizzy Kickstarter tanked! :-/

[melmer]

Woah that's a proper tank. The only way the game would work is if they did a 'mega man 9' and make it 100% retro graphics and sounds

It wouldn't be dizzy without walking out of one screen then on to the next

[Tanukitsune]

You can pre-order it on Steam. I usually don't pre-order digital games, but for The Cave? Yes, please!

[brkl]

Huh, this has co-op, but only local?