Disable GC entirely

[H. S. Teoh]

On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 07:35:27PM +0200, Paulo Pinto wrote:
> Am 10.04.2013 19:14, schrieb Nick Sabalausky:
[...]
> >Keep in mind, I'm using "interactive movie" largely for lack of a
> >better term. "Videogame" definitely isn't the right word for them.
> >But at the same time, these "interactive movie" things tend to swing
> >back and forth (within the very same game) between "more of a game
> >than a *true* interactive movie" and "literally *less* interactive
> >than a Hollywood movie, because you can't interact with a cuscene
> >*and* you can rarely fast-forward past it". (And then
> >there's...dumb...shits like Nintendo that *do* put in a skip feature,
> >for *some* cutscenes, and then deliberately *disable* it on any
> >save-game that hasn't gotten at least that far. Seriously, they could
> >write a book on how to be an asshole developer.) And for the record,
> >in case anyone at Valve, Irrational, or Human Head ever reads this: A
> >cutscene that you can walk around in while you wait is still a
> >f&*@#*$ cutscene.
> >
> 
> This is what makes me happy while travelling on the bus and train:
> 
> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.larvalabs.gurk
[...]

Yeah!!! I recently played Gurk II (which according to reviews is even
better than the original Gurk), and totally loved it!! It was so
nostalgic that it inspired me to fire up my trusty old dosbox and relive
the good ole ultima 4&5 days. :-)

Granted, I *did* discover to my dismay that the pixel graphics and tinny
sounds of the *original* ultima 4&5 are a lot worse than how my memory
recalls they were (the pain was somewhat relieved upon installing the
graphics upgrade patch) -- but man, the gameplay was excellent. The NPC
dialogues were obviously trivial, monster AI was trivially predictable,
and there are tons of loopholes that you can exploit -- but the
important thing was, it was FUN. I could totally immerse myself in the
virtual world and forget about the pixels and loopholes.  I'm afraid I
can't say the same for most modern games with their fancy 3D graphics,
CD-quality sound, superior AI, etc.. The fun factor is just missing,
even though all the superficial elements -- graphics, sounds, AIs,
storylines -- are all far more developed.

Gurk II captures some of the fun gameplay of the original (pre-7)
ultimas, and proves that a modern game without 3D graphics and a
multimillion budget *can* be fun (and, judging from the reviews, it's
selling pretty well too).


T

-- 
INTEL = Only half of "intelligence".