Mystery GOG countdown (now general GOG discussion)

[CeeKay]

Didn't activision also acquire Infocom awhile back?  Those game would be a no brainer for GOG.

[CeeKay]

well, 10 days in and so far this 'February is the Month of Activision' has been a bust.  they released a new game yesterday but it wasn't an Activision title.  one of the interviews quotes:

Besides Gabriel Knight and Arcanum, can you give us a heads-up on other titles we'll see down the road? 

It would not be exciting at all if I would list all the titles here. Let me just say, that we have some really good stuff coming. Something for the RPG fans, quite a lot for the adventure lovers, some strategy games and ... oops ... I am really saying too much. We are starting with the first two titles today, but check us out each week in February, as Feb will be Activision month at GOG.com, and we will be releasing new Activision games every few days.

so I was hoping on have a couple of other titles out there by now 

[edit]forgot to link to interview.

[Huw the Poo]

They'll come every Thursday.  They also do releases on Tuesdays, so it looks like they're continuing to release non-Activision games this month too.

As for the Activision games released so far, yeah, I've been underwhelmed.  There are still plenty to go though, and let's not forget there's another big publisher deal to be announced in March apparently.

[CeeKay]

They'll come every Thursday.  They also do releases on Tuesdays, so it looks like they're continuing to release non-Activision games this month too.

As for the Activision games released so far, yeah, I've been underwhelmed.  There are still plenty to go though, and let's not forget there's another big publisher deal to be announced in March apparently.

I guess the guy they interviewed was just shooting his mouth off because over her in the States every Thursday is more than a few days away 

[Bullwinkle]

New ones are up:

Space Quest 4,5,6  (why no 1-3?)
Phantasmagoria

Both $9.99.

[Chaz]

Phantasmagoria is vaguely tempting, as I'm not certain that my CD version will work on modern PCs (Phantasmagoria 2 sure didn't).  At the same time, it wasn't terribly good. 

Isn't the entire Space Quest series available from Steam for around $10?

[CeeKay]

Isn't the entire Space Quest series available from Steam for around $10?

it's 20 bucks, it was 10 during the Holiday sale.

[Octavious230]

This is very cool even if I'm probably going to pass on these two. Space Quest was great back in the day but now I just don't think I have the patience to die million horrible ways anymore.

[baelthazar]

I never got to play Phantasmagoria, but people always talked about it. I'm tempted to check it out. But I also tend to get "Adventure game burnout" where I play for a few hours/evenings, and then decide "to heck with it."

Bael

[Bullwinkle]

Got the e-mail this morning.  Caesar III is out.  The Interstate '76 Arsenal is due Thursday.

I know there have been words that I76 doesn't hold up, but I think I'll still give it a go.

[CeeKay]

I may get I76.  I played it on Gametap but can't remember if I liked it or not.

[Huw the Poo]

How's Caesar III?

[Bullwinkle]

How's Caesar III?

I remember loving it when it came out (it has an 88% score on GameRankings), but I don't think I have the patience for it any more.

[Huw the Poo]

Patience is my middle name!  Well OK, 'the' is my middle name, but still.  I am patient.  Sometimes!

[baelthazar]

From what I've heard, Caesar 3 is fine, if you never played Pharoah or Zeus. If you played those - you will find that Caesar 3 is the early technology of both of those games, and thus is missing some of the nice elements found there. Caesar IV is only about $8 more on Direct2Drive, so I'm not sure if the older one is really worth the money - as far as city builders is concerned.

Bael

[Bullwinkle]

Pharoah and Zeus are definitely better.  More personality, too. 

Show some of that self-promoted patience, Huw, and wait for them ('cause I know you're so good at waiting to buy stuff)!

[Huw the Poo]

Ah, thanks Bael.  I played - and loved - Pharaoh.  I have plenty of games to play at the moment anyway, it's just that I have some sort of GOG addiction.

[Huw the Poo]

Show some of that self-promoted patience, Huw, and wait for them ('cause I know you're so good at waiting to buy stuff)!

HAHA!  Man, I don't have a reputation for impulse buys already do I?

[baelthazar]

Yeah, I can't wait until they put Zeus up! Even that one about China would be cool.

I hope they decide to go with those. The fact that they were pulled form Gametap tends to make me believe that they plan to release them here.

Bael

[Huw the Poo]

New games up:

Gabriel Knight 2 $6
King's Quest 4, 5, 6 $10
Call to Power 2 $6

[Bullwinkle]

Actually, only GK2 is up.  The other two come Thursday.

[CeeKay]

definitely grabbing GK2, loved that game, and it's the only GK game I actually completed.  I may also grab Call to Power 2 since I had fun with that 'we lost the Civilization license' game.

[Nth Power]

Picked up GK2.  I used to have CtP2 on disc, but don't think I played it much.  I don't even remember if I liked it or not.

[Laner]

I wonder if KQ6 will be the Windows/CD version; that is a bear to get running on modern systems.

Edit:  Probably not.  Download size is 291MB for all three, and the screenshots are from the DOS version.  Nuts.

[baelthazar]

I may get Call to Power 2. I remember REALLY liking that game (in some ways better than Civ III). I remember they were really "ballsy" for letting you actively pursue Slavery as an viable part of an economy. You could also have bioterrorism, and you could certainly play a "rogue state" in CtP2. I wonder if 1024x768 is the highest resolution available (probably)... would be great if I could set it higher!

Bael

[Bullwinkle]

This week it's Phantasmagoria ugly sister P2: A Puzzle of Flesh.  And on Thursday a game I'm sure some will be psyched about: Return to Krondor.

[MonkeyFinger]

I wonder how well RtK will work. I remember it being notoriously hard to run period, needing an enourmous amount of free memory. I recall all kinds of issues trying to load drivers high, find the smallest mouse driver possible, QuarterDeck EMM386, expanded, extended, boot menus, yada yada. In other words, the Good Old Days. 

How well does DosBox handle something like that?

[CeeKay]

no Betrayal at Krondor?

[MonkeyFinger]

Oh, hell... I think all the shenanigans were needed for Betrayal, not Return... perhaps that's why they published this one.

[frost]

what does krondor play like?  Is it turn based, or just hack and slash? 

[CeeKay]

what does krondor play like?  Is it turn based, or just hack and slash? 

IIRC it was turn based combat, can't remember what the non-combat part was like.

[dangerballs]

no Betrayal at Krondor?

That could be because Betrayal at Krondor was already released as freeware awhile back.

[baelthazar]

Yeah, AFAIK, you can DL Betrayal right now for free.

Bael

[CeeKay]

according to Vivendi it's not supposed to be anymore.  besides, a GOG version would probably be tested and optimized.

[CeeKay]

today we have Gabriel Knight 3.

[Kevin Grey]

today we have Gabriel Knight 3.

Man that game is so underrated.  Everyone got so hung up on the bad puzzle that was famously lampooned on Old Man Murray but the game is quite progressive for the genre and some of the internet-based puzzles are fantastic. 

[kronovan]

today we have Gabriel Knight 3.

Man that game is so underrated.  Everyone got so hung up on the bad puzzle that was famously lampooned on Old Man Murray but the game is quite progressive for the genre and some of the internet-based puzzles are fantastic.  

I really liked GK3 as well, and I'd say I liked it as much as the other 2 in the series - with perhaps Sins of the Father being my favorite. I remember a few things 3 had going against it were; many disliked Tim Curry's voice as the main protagonist and many bemoaned the Rennes-les-Chateau setting, which just had about the 10,000th supernatural-templar-UFO-pseudo-history book written about it.    I actually thought it all worked well and I liked all of the puzzles in the game. I don't remember the Old Many Murray puzzle though?

[Kevin Grey]

I really liked GK3 as well, and I'd say I liked it as much as the other 2 in the series - with perhaps Sins of the Father being my favorite. I remember a few things 3 had that going against it were; many disliked Tim Curry's voice as the main protagonist and many bemoaned the Rennes-les-Chateau setting, which just had about the 10,000th supernatural-templar-UFO-pseudo-history book written about it.    I actually thought it all worked well and I liked all of the puzzles in the game. I don't remember the Old Many Murray puzzle though?

http://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/77.html

[kronovan]

I really liked GK3 as well, and I'd say I liked it as much as the other 2 in the series - with perhaps Sins of the Father being my favorite. I remember a few things 3 had that going against it were; many disliked Tim Curry's voice as the main protagonist and many bemoaned the Rennes-les-Chateau setting, which just had about the 10,000th supernatural-templar-UFO-pseudo-history book written about it.    I actually thought it all worked well and I liked all of the puzzles in the game. I don't remember the Old Many Murray puzzle though?

http://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/77.html

Oh yeah, that one.    Meh...I didn't have much trouble with it, but that's probably because I'm a Canadian and we know lots about Maple Syrup, eh?

[CeeKay]

today we got Empire Earth 2.