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General discussionRelease: Simon the Sorcerer 4: Chaos Happens(84 posts)(84 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted June 23, 2015
Zinger!

Simon the Sorcerer 4: Chaos Happens, a third-person puzzling adventure developed by Silver Style Entertainment, is a freshly added DRM-free GOG.com exclusive available for Windows with English, French, German, Italian and Spanish localizations.

Imagine that you are arguing with your sibling. How does this normally end? Do you throw a punch and get sent to your room without dessert, or does your mind get sucked into another dimension? If you picked option B just to see what happens, you will feel right at home in this game - and that’s just the start of it.

In this instalment of the Simon the Sorcerer series, you will have to save a parallel world from impending doom in the midst of many an absurd event. Instantly zip across the map to any discovered location, solve many a fascinating puzzle, and listen to some great in-game sounds while at it courtesy of Thomas Herrmann - and enjoy the characters’ banter (including some funnies from Hades the Bureaucrat, overlord of the Underworld) while you’re at it!

If Monkey Island or Day of the Tentacle are your thing and you appreciate when a game does not take itself too seriously, Simon the Sorcerer 4: Chaos Happens will most definitely be your thing. Give this DRM-free GOG.com exclusive a go for a modern experience of classic point-and-click adventuring!

What does the press say?

“It is a real winner, and it has the potential to bring in other gamers to the adventure genre who may prefer more action based games.” -- Adventure Classic Gaming
Posted June 24, 2015
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OlausPetrus: That's true. Translating jokes is very difficult and while I can occasionally figure out what the joke was in the original German version that joke simply doesn't work in English language. However it's possible to make funny translations if you have enough interest and resources. Unfortunately in this case it seems that they hired the cheapest translators and voice actors.

Luckily Irish studio StoryBeasts doesn't have that language problem. They are currently making (together with the Adventure Soft) sixth Simon the Sorcerer game. Simon the Sorcerer: Between Worlds is supposed to be 2D point and click adventure with similar graphic style as the first two games. In this game Simon has grown up and there are alternative versions of him (dimension jumping is part of the theme). This new Simon game doesn't consider German Simon games as part of the canon. It doesn't ignore them, but explains that events of those games happened to alternative version of Simon in another dimension.
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kris.saether: If this is true then I can't wait, I'll be snapping it up as early as possible :)
It is supposed to come out later this year.

Here's a screen shot from it. The style reminds me of the first games. Voice acting should be similar as in the first game as well, because I have read that Chris Barrie will be Simon.
Attachments:
simon.jpg (61 Kb)
Post edited June 24, 2015 by OlausPetrus
Posted June 24, 2015
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kris.saether: If this is true then I can't wait, I'll be snapping it up as early as possible :)
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OlausPetrus: It is supposed to come out later this year.

Here's a screen shot from it. The style reminds me of the first games. Voice acting should be similar as in the first game as well, because I have read that Chris Barrie will be Simon.
Excellent... That would be from the docks in Simon II. Where he meets Goldilocks. Hope you're not trolling me! Because if Barrie is back, that's a couple of new Red Dwarf series upcoming and his return to Simon all rolled nicely into a fun few years in the making. I will of course be double-checking from other sources anyway but fun to think about. Thanks for the gen.
Posted June 24, 2015
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kris.saether: I see a lot of slating of Simon 3 here. In my opinion, yes Simon 3 had many faults, but the writing was hilarious and the puzzles sufficiently difficult to keep an old-school gamer like me going at it for weeks. I've replayed it a few times. As for Simon 4, it was created by Germans. I have several really cool German friends don't get me wrong, but their humour just simply doesn't translate well into English, and the voice acting in Simon 4 is truly appalling. These same problems are echoed in Simon 5 (again by Germans). Simon 3? WAY better than Simon 4 purely for the story, the humour, and the better puzzles. But Simon 4 is quite a fun game in terms of the puzzles and characters... If only it had the wit and charm of the first three games, which for me is the cornerstone of the Simon franchise.
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OlausPetrus: That's true. Translating jokes is very difficult and while I can occasionally figure out what the joke was in the original German version that joke simply doesn't work in English language. However it's possible to make funny translations if you have enough interest and resources. Unfortunately in this case it seems that they hired the cheapest translators and voice actors.

Luckily Irish studio StoryBeasts doesn't have that language problem. They are currently making (together with the Adventure Soft) sixth Simon the Sorcerer game. Simon the Sorcerer: Between Worlds is supposed to be 2D point and click adventure with similar graphic style as the first two games. In this game Simon has grown up and there are alternative versions of him (dimension jumping is part of the theme). This new Simon game doesn't consider German Simon games as part of the canon. It doesn't ignore them, but explains that events of those games happened to alternative version of Simon in another dimension.
Will this be on PC i.e GOG? Or it is exclusive to mobile phones? I thought I heard somewhere about Mobile Phone exclusivity, but I may be thinking of a port of the original.
Posted June 24, 2015
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kris.saether: If this is true then I can't wait, I'll be snapping it up as early as possible :)
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OlausPetrus: It is supposed to come out later this year.
I seriously doubt it.

They were supposed to launch their Kickstarter last September/October. It's almost a year later now, and they still haven't even managed to get their KS campaign up.

Now, unless they have managed to get some funding from other sources (their blog posts seem to indicate otherwise), then I think there won't be a game release any time soon. Although to their credit, they seem to be pushing their KS to avoid repeating the same mistakes as other campaigns have done.

"So, for the sake of transparency, you should know that our resources are tight and we’ve hit some bumps in the way that have required us to take a couple of time offs, go back to what we have and keep reworking it to elevate its quality. Something that keeps pushing the estimated launch date further and further.

This is clearly not going to be the case if (when ;-) ) we’re funded, but for the time being you’ll have to trust me when I say we need to launch when we’re ready and not a moment before. We don’t want to rush this out the door too early.

Kickstarter projects are infamous for time promises that ultimately can’t be delivered on and it’s always a hard lesson for developers. Personally, I’m glad that we’re learning this before the campaign."

http://www.storybeasts.com/
Posted June 24, 2015
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OlausPetrus: That's true. Translating jokes is very difficult and while I can occasionally figure out what the joke was in the original German version that joke simply doesn't work in English language. However it's possible to make funny translations if you have enough interest and resources. Unfortunately in this case it seems that they hired the cheapest translators and voice actors.

Luckily Irish studio StoryBeasts doesn't have that language problem. They are currently making (together with the Adventure Soft) sixth Simon the Sorcerer game. Simon the Sorcerer: Between Worlds is supposed to be 2D point and click adventure with similar graphic style as the first two games. In this game Simon has grown up and there are alternative versions of him (dimension jumping is part of the theme). This new Simon game doesn't consider German Simon games as part of the canon. It doesn't ignore them, but explains that events of those games happened to alternative version of Simon in another dimension.
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Dartpaw86: Will this be on PC i.e GOG? Or it is exclusive to mobile phones? I thought I heard somewhere about Mobile Phone exclusivity, but I may be thinking of a port of the original.
It should come to PC. Where and when it will be available is a different question.

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OlausPetrus: It is supposed to come out later this year.
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PixelBoy: I seriously doubt it.

They were supposed to launch their Kickstarter last September/October. It's almost a year later now, and they still haven't even managed to get their KS campaign up.

Now, unless they have managed to get some funding from other sources (their blog posts seem to indicate otherwise), then I think there won't be a game release any time soon. Although to their credit, they seem to be pushing their KS to avoid repeating the same mistakes as other campaigns have done.

"So, for the sake of transparency, you should know that our resources are tight and we’ve hit some bumps in the way that have required us to take a couple of time offs, go back to what we have and keep reworking it to elevate its quality. Something that keeps pushing the estimated launch date further and further.

This is clearly not going to be the case if (when ;-) ) we’re funded, but for the time being you’ll have to trust me when I say we need to launch when we’re ready and not a moment before. We don’t want to rush this out the door too early.

Kickstarter projects are infamous for time promises that ultimately can’t be delivered on and it’s always a hard lesson for developers. Personally, I’m glad that we’re learning this before the campaign."

http://www.storybeasts.com/
Thanks for the latest information. I did read few articles about this project from the adventure gaming sites soon after they announced this project and those articles claimed that it would come out this year. But apparently this information is now outdated.
Post edited June 24, 2015 by OlausPetrus
Posted June 25, 2015
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gamesfreak64: so 4 is better then 3? i read the reviews of 4 and they were not happy.

4 times 1 star

A Miserable Load of Rubbish
Terrible adventure game
Not a worthy addition to the series
Tedious

only one seemed satisfied
Simon returns

so thats why i assumed simon4 was bad.
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Pond86: I'd say 4 was better. 3D (3) they tried to copy a certain popular franchise and failed. Also it has the worst hands i've ever seen in a game!
Another game series that in my opinion have been messed up:

Fallout : the classic 2d flat bimapped versions were wonderful and had that magical touch
later the 3d messed up ugly graphics, common 3d anims with blocky heads
same happend to jagged alliance the 3d messes up big time

Even monkey island has a few of these 3d fpp/ 3pp games, it has lost the magical bitmapped characters and hand drawn backgrounds.

Gabriel knight sins o/t father : the old pixel one has more magic then the new one where people 'skate' along the streets and seem to floot when the walk up/down stairs.
Funniest things are the hands its like they dont know where to put them, best option would be to put the hands in the pockets this way the animations wont look akward like old sims versions.

COD and the likes those are meant to be FPP, those online co-ops they are brilliant to be played with a 3d engine
but games like fallout jagged and the likes that started out as bitmapped like games, should stay that way.
Imagine wadjet eye games with 3d simslike characters, that would be a waste of these excellent bitmapped games.
Some games need to stay pixelised:

wadjet eye games, jagged alliance, fallout,monkey island, indian jones (adventures games)

rocket ranger remake is also 3d....
Posted June 25, 2015
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Pond86: I'd say 4 was better. 3D (3) they tried to copy a certain popular franchise and failed. Also it has the worst hands i've ever seen in a game!
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gamesfreak64: Another game series that in my opinion have been messed up:

Fallout : the classic 2d flat bimapped versions were wonderful and had that magical touch
later the 3d messed up ugly graphics, common 3d anims with blocky heads
same happend to jagged alliance the 3d messes up big time

Even monkey island has a few of these 3d fpp/ 3pp games, it has lost the magical bitmapped characters and hand drawn backgrounds.

Gabriel knight sins o/t father : the old pixel one has more magic then the new one where people 'skate' along the streets and seem to floot when the walk up/down stairs.
Funniest things are the hands its like they dont know where to put them, best option would be to put the hands in the pockets this way the animations wont look akward like old sims versions.

COD and the likes those are meant to be FPP, those online co-ops they are brilliant to be played with a 3d engine
but games like fallout jagged and the likes that started out as bitmapped like games, should stay that way.
Imagine wadjet eye games with 3d simslike characters, that would be a waste of these excellent bitmapped games.
Some games need to stay pixelised:

wadjet eye games, jagged alliance, fallout,monkey island, indian jones (adventures games)

rocket ranger remake is also 3d....
You may not like Fallout 3. But please consider what you're saying before you post. It's not that you're not entitled to your opinion. The issue is that the series is infamous for the fanbases of older and newer Fallout games to endlessly wage war on each-other, so people WILL defend it. Turning this tame Simon the Sorcerer 4 thread, into a massive Fallout series flamewar. >_< This is the internet after all.
Post edited June 25, 2015 by Dartpaw86
Posted June 25, 2015
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gamesfreak64: Another game series that in my opinion have been messed up:

Fallout : the classic 2d flat bimapped versions were wonderful and had that magical touch
later the 3d messed up ugly graphics, common 3d anims with blocky heads
same happend to jagged alliance the 3d messes up big time

Even monkey island has a few of these 3d fpp/ 3pp games, it has lost the magical bitmapped characters and hand drawn backgrounds.

Gabriel knight sins o/t father : the old pixel one has more magic then the new one where people 'skate' along the streets and seem to floot when the walk up/down stairs.
Funniest things are the hands its like they dont know where to put them, best option would be to put the hands in the pockets this way the animations wont look akward like old sims versions.

COD and the likes those are meant to be FPP, those online co-ops they are brilliant to be played with a 3d engine
but games like fallout jagged and the likes that started out as bitmapped like games, should stay that way.
Imagine wadjet eye games with 3d simslike characters, that would be a waste of these excellent bitmapped games.
Some games need to stay pixelised:

wadjet eye games, jagged alliance, fallout,monkey island, indian jones (adventures games)

rocket ranger remake is also 3d....
avatar
Dartpaw86: You may not like Fallout 3. But please consider what you're saying before you post. It's not that you're not entitled to your opinion. The issue is that the series is infamous for the fanbases of older and newer Fallout games to endlessly wage war on each-other, so people WILL defend it. Turning this tame Simon the Sorcerer 4 thread, into a massive Fallout series flamewar. >_< This is the internet after all.
thanks for the reply, this reply was not intended as flaming, its just how i personally feel about some games, besides i am not the only one on the internet who thinks that some old classics were done wrong by the 3d versions.
I read PC Gameplay sins 1991 or 1993 its a belgian/dutch magazine full with reviews and they also say what they think about games, sometimes their reviews are quite hard on games but thats logical cause anyone is entitled to say what he/she thinks.

There will always be lots of people who like it but also dislike it, and unless freedom of speech will be forbidden by law, anyone can say what he /she feels about some changes, be it with games , movie remakes or other things.

I did not use any abusive words:

mess up, simslike animations, floating down or up stairs animations are just common words on the internet, there are tons of reviews , and i know for sure some of them are reviewing it much harder.

Afterall people cant be forced to say only good things about products, games. movies (check rotten tomatoes and see what i mean)if all people would agree on anything it be quite dull on the internet.
Posted June 25, 2015
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Dartpaw86: You may not like Fallout 3. But please consider what you're saying before you post. It's not that you're not entitled to your opinion. The issue is that the series is infamous for the fanbases of older and newer Fallout games to endlessly wage war on each-other, so people WILL defend it. Turning this tame Simon the Sorcerer 4 thread, into a massive Fallout series flamewar. >_< This is the internet after all.
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gamesfreak64: thanks for the reply, this reply was not intended as flaming, its just how i personally feel about some games, besides i am not the only one on the internet who thinks that some old classics were done wrong by the 3d versions.
I read PC Gameplay sins 1991 or 1993 its a belgian/dutch magazine full with reviews and they also say what they think about games, sometimes their reviews are quite hard on games but thats logical cause anyone is entitled to say what he/she thinks.

There will always be lots of people who like it but also dislike it, and unless freedom of speech will be forbidden by law, anyone can say what he /she feels about some changes, be it with games , movie remakes or other things.

I did not use any abusive words:

mess up, simslike animations, floating down or up stairs animations are just common words on the internet, there are tons of reviews , and i know for sure some of them are reviewing it much harder.

Afterall people cant be forced to say only good things about products, games. movies (check rotten tomatoes and see what i mean)if all people would agree on anything it be quite dull on the internet.
Yeah, I am aware you tried to be as nice as you could about it, and didn't say stuff like "FALLOUT 3 SUX!"

I was just worried that anyone could go on the defensive and start yet another massive flamewar about which is better.
Post edited June 25, 2015 by Dartpaw86
Posted June 25, 2015
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gamesfreak64: thanks for the reply, this reply was not intended as flaming, its just how i personally feel about some games, besides i am not the only one on the internet who thinks that some old classics were done wrong by the 3d versions.
I read PC Gameplay sins 1991 or 1993 its a belgian/dutch magazine full with reviews and they also say what they think about games, sometimes their reviews are quite hard on games but thats logical cause anyone is entitled to say what he/she thinks.

There will always be lots of people who like it but also dislike it, and unless freedom of speech will be forbidden by law, anyone can say what he /she feels about some changes, be it with games , movie remakes or other things.

I did not use any abusive words:

mess up, simslike animations, floating down or up stairs animations are just common words on the internet, there are tons of reviews , and i know for sure some of them are reviewing it much harder.

Afterall people cant be forced to say only good things about products, games. movies (check rotten tomatoes and see what i mean)if all people would agree on anything it be quite dull on the internet.
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Dartpaw86: Yeah, I am aware you tried to be as nice as you could about it, and didn't say stuff like "FALLOUT 3 SUX!"

I was just worried that anyone could go on the defensive and start yet another massive flamewar about which is better.
Ah flamewars? i dont respond to those cause when a user replies in a normal way without using foul, obscene or bad language, and another user takes that as an opportunity to start a flamewar, then it will be without me taking part of it.

As for reviews, i found an interesting small 'preview' in my dutch pcgameplay magazine, dec 2014
i scanned it, its dutch only so a dutch/belgium can translate it.

Just used an free online OCR to scan the image and turn it into readable text, after that i used google to translate it, and i made some adjustments, cause they didn't get the dutch right.


here it is:
-------------------
Jagged Alliance Our ultimate nightmare has become reality. Full Control, after Space Hulk also wrung Jagged Alliance its neck. Jagged Alliance: Flashback is such a big disappointment and your better off playing free Jagged Alliance Online. We hope these Danes will never get their hands on another turn-based franchise . (PC, € 29.99)
-------------------

Well as you can see thats an answer of an official magazine, so my replies about games arent half that bad since i am a gamer who plays merely for fun.
Attachments:
screenshotquickr.jpg (314 Kb)
Posted June 25, 2015
Just watched some simon 4 walkthroughs its 3PP allright ;D
its a pity that the scene scrolls along with him, normally the character would just walk to an object without the entire street following him like a sidescroller thats a thing that makes it flawed (motionsickness)

if the 3d guy just walked to the object or end of scene without scrolling the entire screen with him, i would have bought it.
i mean if i walk outside its me who does the walking the street stays where it is, buidlings dont scroll out of sight.

A pity cause the rest looks nice and the price is right, a little shame about the scrolling.

If there ever will be a simon 5 without walkingstreets then i am in :D
Post edited June 25, 2015 by gamesfreak64
Posted June 25, 2015
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Dartpaw86: I LOVED the first. But, to me playing the game was an experiment, to see if this was a series I could get into. Seeing the "hatred" for 3 and 4, I decided to not play 2 as I don't want to get too invested into the series, knowing I'll be set up for disappointment.
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OlausPetrus: Third game actually has a decent story and puzzles. It was originally supposed to be 2D game like the two earlier games, but unfortunately it was made during the era of the 3D craze. It has awful graphics and controls, but if you can get past those, it's a decent adventure game. 4th game is the worst of the entire series, because it's not funny and the story is an uninspired mess. It has it's moments and it's not the worst game there is. I would call it very mediocre, but because it's part of a series which has much better games, people are more critical towards it's shortcomings.
The third had potential but became a mess as the move to 3D made the gameplay frustrating and buggy. Making at least 1 puzzle/minigame winnable (for me anyway as the cursor was too imprecise) and others winnable but at random (playing concors (sp?) where the camera is outside the scene so you can't see anything.

The story had its moments but also had a massive annoying plot hole due to them abandoning a plot line. I emailed the devs in case I'd somehow missed something. I hadn't. They'd just not bothered finishing it.

I played it at the time so I'm not judging it compared to current graphics but how it felt playing through the whole game (with the exception of the skipped unwinnable puzzle bypassed via a savegame). It had funny moments here and there but was overall a negative experience because the good moments were overshadowed by the unfinished/buggy/poorly thought out ones.

Looking back the biggest problems I have all leads to one thing: the game wasn't ready for release.
Posted June 25, 2015
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OlausPetrus: Third game actually has a decent story and puzzles. It was originally supposed to be 2D game like the two earlier games, but unfortunately it was made during the era of the 3D craze. It has awful graphics and controls, but if you can get past those, it's a decent adventure game. 4th game is the worst of the entire series, because it's not funny and the story is an uninspired mess. It has it's moments and it's not the worst game there is. I would call it very mediocre, but because it's part of a series which has much better games, people are more critical towards it's shortcomings.
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amcdermo: The third had potential but became a mess as the move to 3D made the gameplay frustrating and buggy. Making at least 1 puzzle/minigame winnable (for me anyway as the cursor was too imprecise) and others winnable but at random (playing concors (sp?) where the camera is outside the scene so you can't see anything.

The story had its moments but also had a massive annoying plot hole due to them abandoning a plot line. I emailed the devs in case I'd somehow missed something. I hadn't. They'd just not bothered finishing it.

I played it at the time so I'm not judging it compared to current graphics but how it felt playing through the whole game (with the exception of the skipped unwinnable puzzle bypassed via a savegame). It had funny moments here and there but was overall a negative experience because the good moments were overshadowed by the unfinished/buggy/poorly thought out ones.

Looking back the biggest problems I have all leads to one thing: the game wasn't ready for release.
Also with a very devious puzzle in 3D

**SPOILER**

You have to open a CD drive, but there is no button to do so. (You have to open the drive of "your" real world computer)

This is going to be a very serious problem 10-15 years down the road, when everything is digital and disk drives are no longer being made. But then again, the puzzle will probably be patched out or something.
Post edited June 25, 2015 by Dartpaw86
Posted June 25, 2015
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Dartpaw86: [...]
You really think the game will be compatible with any OS in 15 years?

Besides, as far as I know, that puzzle already had technical difficulties back when the game was new, caused by certain configurations in PCs.
Posted June 25, 2015
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Dartpaw86: [...]
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InfraSuperman: You really think the game will be compatible with any OS in 15 years?
We are still able to play games like Might and Magic 1 and King's Quest 1 both from 1984, and Ultima 1 from 1981 so why not?
Post edited June 25, 2015 by Dartpaw86
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionRelease: Simon the Sorcerer 4: Chaos Happens(84 posts)(84 posts)
(84 posts)