After reading repeatedly about "3 unique story paths and 5 endings", I'm not sure what to do with the ending I received.

You were warned about spoilers...

I picked chelsea every time. I assume that is the only way to affect the path? The ending specifically stated if I had picked a different path it might have turned out better in direct context of NOT getting Chelsea.

So what else affects the endings? I'm going to assume dialogue options do not since they are extremely arbitrary in their wording. My P.I. score was the highest... but my ending felt like one of the losing variety.

In my first (so far) playthrough, I also stayed true to Chelsee without payoff. I was busted by the cop for a confrontation on top of Coit Tower, and then a few months later Tex calls Chelsee's voicemail to say goodbye. Then a freaky-weird scene of a standoff between Tex and Dalton (with Saffyre in the background) in a black&white diner.

I was hoping the game would have a post-credit debrief on the names of the other paths and a high-level concept of how to follow them. No such luck.

wow. If the Steam guide is accurate, it appears the arbitrary dialogue options do have an effect.

That is a shame. The game was mostly fun until I realize that the path's are an exercise in developer mind reading during completely unrelated conversations.

I had the highest detective rating, found all the collectibles, and chose Chelsea every time... so I get the "loser" ending? I'm really hoping the guide is wrong and there is more logic than, guess what we mean by these 3 random words.

Hucklebarry,

Did you ask Louie about Chelsee in your first conversation with him? Did you ask Danwicz about Chelsee in your first conversation with him? Did you choose Chelsee every time you were tempted by one of the other women? Are you checking the pause menu to see what path you are on (because it clearly shows you) throughout the game, so you may check when and where you change paths after a conversation or choice? If you have not done one of the above, you will find you would have been kicked off the Chelsee Path.

When the game reaches a path determinate conversation choice, it is often made clear in that choice's contents (.i.e "Tell me about Chelsee" of "What happened to Chelsee" or "Go With Taylor, Go With Ariel, Stay True to your girl" etc). The guide somebody wrote does not reflect this, because it simply says "pick choice 2". In summary: the points where there are choices in which the game decides which path to put you on are far from being "unrelated", "illogical" or "random".

Can I add a friendly suggestion you may want to take into consideration: allow yourself (and others) the time find the correct solution and reasoning behind these "issues" (in this case: the choices and pathing) before coming to the conclusion that the developers may have gotten something wrong? I started to see this trend from you on the BFG forums, so just a friendly heads up, that's all. Otherwise I am happy to help you out!

Thank you, and good luck sticking to the A path.

Yes to all. I most certainly disagree with "clearly". Its lists A path. what that path is called has no assigned value that the player has been provided with. For example, when I load a random save, it says "Current path - A double life". Well, if you don't tell me what "a double life" means, I have no way of discerning what path I'm actually on. Also, I shouldn't need to check my path after a conversation to see if I went down a different path... I should be able to tell by the options in the conversation. That right there is the point I'm making... if I can't tell from the options I have to click as to what path it will lead me on... the you didn't word the options correctly. As mentioned above, when it was clear to choose chelsee, I did. The issues on your forums were pretty straight forward in my book. You made a promise. You broke the promise. Then you fulfilled the promise while chastising the fans for reacting to the broken promise. Then, in at least one of the official responses, backed up that you planned on breaking the promise because you had no idea keys were even coming. Now you are continuing to correct the fan base for holding opinions about the game (as you did with me in another thread here). I'm not an avid griper. I spoke out on your forums because your company did something they shouldn't have. Just because you changed your mind doesn't mean that all of a sudden everyone who called you out was wrong.

As I said before in my friendly suggestion... you desperately need some PR work. If you can't afford it, you need to be able to take criticism for the product you sell and the actions that you take.

as for the topic at hand... I simply asked a question hoping that I was wrong in my interpretation. Did you not see that in my post? Why are assuming I didn't? THEN, when I received a confirming answer both here and in other forums, I made the claim that the paths as I understand are illogical. They may make sense to you as the developer, they may make sense to some who follow a walkthough... but that isn't good enough. As an adventure gamer I expect there to be clues and logic provided to help me make an educated decision. And unless you can help me understand which (non-chelsea) dialog caused me to get the ending I did, then I'm going to continue to believe and claim that your logic is disconnected from reality.

Your game is pretty good. But it has its flaws. This is its biggest in my opinion. The arbitrary dialogue was VERY frustrating when it affects the ending (or score). If you want to ignore my feedback that it is, that is within your right. I am certain others will disagree with me as well since this is the internet. But I'm also offering this friendly advice (and I do sincerely mean friendly) that you should just ignore my posts, rather than tell me my opinion is wrong. (or constructively tell me WHY you think it is logical that I chose all chelsea all the way, and still got the ending I did).

Just like the other issue you bring up... "stop jumping to conclusions" sounds very different from "we are working on this and will get back to you". Same here... instead of telling me I'm wrong for not agreeing with your game design, why don't show me how I picked Chelsea every time and still got the bad ending? I suspect, based on the ending's guide I've seen that its because some conversations that DON'T clearly mention chelsea also played a part... and if so, THAT is my gripe.

The name of the A path is "Somewhere I'll find you". What that means should be obvious enough. I agree with Mat, I had no problem getting to the good ending on the first run, doing essentially what he says in his post.

QFT.

And hucklebarry, as I said previously: best of luck getting to the Chelsee path!

If all else fails and don't feel like playing the game over and over again, you could just check out the videos directly.

Indeed, and one of the moves we made to ensure players were aware of what path they were on was including the path title in the pause menu. We did not want to make it TOO obvious by saying "PATH A, B, C... etc.", so that you still had SOME detective work in you ;)

That said, you are right: it is very clear where the distinctions are made, as Chelsee's name pops up in almost every choice to need to make to get closer to her. As for the other women, it is very obvious with them too... if you want to sleep with Taylor or Ariel, you won't get Chelsee, you might get either one of them. Make them both angry, and you won't get either. ;)

Then something is clearly not working as intended. As I said in both my posts, I was 100% Chelsea. Other sites are reporting that you have to pick dialogue options that do NOT reference her. It will be a while before I replay this, I'm just offering the feedback as I see it. If you gave me the option to pick Chelsea... I picked it. If you gave me 3 options like, "tell a joke", "ask a question", or "turn the tables" (which is what I'm referring to when I say its arbitrary), then I can't tell you what I picked, because there was no system in place to help me know what I was picking.

Huck... "clearly not working as intended" is a very presumptuous statement to make, considering we are currently trying to GIVE you the solution here and everybody in this thread is clearly trying to tell you it does work as intended. Where are the other sites "telling you that the choices are arbitrary" that you speak of? Can you link them to me here so I can see what you are talking about? I can tell you right now that none of the arbitrary choices you mentioned above post of yours relate to a path dependent choice with regards to Chelsee. I can guarantee that in all instances where you want to follow the Chelsee path, Chelsee's name is mentioned in the dialogue choice (or she is referred to as "your girl"). Please just try it. Here what you should do:

Pick the dialogue option that says something along the lines about: "About Chelsee" or "Push for information about Chelsee" in BOTH your first conversation with Louie AND your first conversation with Danwicz. You will know you have done it with Danwicz if a LONG cinematic plays, where Danwicz explains the whole speeder incident (and has music over the top of it). Also after getting the decrypted memory stick from Mojo, and you are in Tex's office with Taylor, pick the dialogue choice which says something like: "Mention your girl" or "mention there is somebody else". If you were successful here, Taylor will give you a key to a special room at the Ritz which contains Chelsee memorabilia. Then in the Beach House encounter with Ariel and Taylor, you make the choice "Stay True to your girl". In ALL cases where users have reported following these steps, they have achieved the A path. I repeat: in ALL cases where users, testers and the general public have made these choices they have gotten the Chelsee path. If you did not do one of the above, you will not remain in the Chelsee path. As you can see, there is nothing arbitrary about it.

I appreciate you are trying to possibly identify there may be something wrong... but at this current point, literally 100% of others are telling you there is something wrong in the way you are approaching this, so please take the above suggestions into consideration first, try it out, and then we can go from there. By the same logic you are expressing by saying "I am just offering feedback as I see it", we are trying to do the same here for you. Best of luck!

Hucklebarry, you are starting to come across as somebody who refuses to admit they are wrong on the internet. It's really counter productive for all the people trying to help you here. If you just follow the instructions Cubase has tried to tell you several times - you will get to the Chelsee path. It worked for me, and has worked for many others (including those in this thread.) The choices were very clear to me, so I don't know what you are trying to get at, but please try your best to follow the suggestions instead of getting irate. And most importantly, enjoy the game we've waited 16 years for. I know I am!

If you would read my posts, you would see that I did follow those instructions. I said it 3 times. If you feel I'm irate, or causing problems for stating the facts I've seen, you should ignore my posts.

hucklebarry, one of your complaints is that the dialog choices are not clear about what paths they lead you to. I'm not sure being clear is a good thing there. Being vague is better in conveying the uncertainties in life, which is the whole point of Tex's story. Names like "A Double Life", "To Have or Have Not", etc. are, of course, references to film noir, which is a big part of the Tex universe, so those names had to be used. Vague but tongue-in-cheek descriptions for dialog choices are also a trademark of Tex Murphy games so they cannot be anything else. I think the developers just want you to experience the unpredictability in life. They did the same thing two games ago, in The Pandora Directive. Asking them for the exact ways to go a certain path is like asking them for the solution to the game. You just have to wait for someone to write a complete walkthrough. In short, vague dialog choices and path descriptions are not shortcomings, but strengths, of the game

As many others have said, it is not overly difficult to reunite Tex and Chelsee. I was on the "To Have or Have Not" path (the "not quite Chelsee" path) for a while before getting on the "Somewhere I'll Find Her" path that took me to Chelsee. So it seems it's possible to change path mid-game also.