Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

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pbpb33
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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#51 Post by pbpb33 » Thu Oct 21, 2010 10:52 am

The game's release has been pushed back to 2011: http://electronictheatre.co.uk/index.ph ... -till-2011

By the way, I think it's great if people have low expectations for the game. That way, when the game turns out to be amazing, it will blow away people even more. :p

Here's a quote from the article:
Jason Codd of Lace Mamba Global explains in more detail the decision “I understand that this is very frustrating for consumers who have pre-ordered the game and we are very disappointed also as we have been building up to the release, started our marketing and PR but due to the tight time frames, and the need for more polishing of the game we had no alternative but to make a quick decision and delay the product until February. This will give the development team more time in ensuring that the game measures up to the standards that have been set, and we now know for certain that the date we have is the date Gray Matter will be available”.

After saying "we now know for certain" it's going to be a little embarrassing if they have to push it back again! :o

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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#52 Post by Brainiac » Thu Oct 21, 2010 12:19 pm

Yeah, I heard about this about a week ago. I've been rather annoyed for several days as a result. However, the German release is still supposed to come out around Halloween and their Collector's Edition is a dual-language release...

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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#53 Post by Blackthorne519 » Thu Oct 21, 2010 1:15 pm

I'm going to laugh heartily when this game sucks balls.


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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#54 Post by pbpb33 » Fri Oct 22, 2010 2:07 pm

Blackthorne519 wrote:I'm going to laugh heartily when this game sucks balls.
Gee, how nice. Did Gray Matter's game designer run over your dog, or something? :p

Here's a new video with some more gameplay shots:


Hmm, I don't know if I like how the graphic novel-like cutscenes look SO different from the interactive parts. The two do not blend together well at all, and I wonder if that clash of visual styles will hurt the atmosphere the game is trying to create, since the graphic novel parts look like they are set in a totally different world than the rest of the game. Also, the 3D animation in the interactive parts makes the characters look so dull and doll-like with faces that don't have much character... and the character movements are definitely better, but not THAT much more realistic than, the character animation from GK3, which came out 11 years ago. 8o I also don't know if I like those big black text boxes that keep popping up on the screen. But, yes, I'm still a believer and am looking forward to the release. 8))

I wonder why the English language version is coming out several months after the German version. If they are still polishing the game, why would they send out a not-totally-polished German version?

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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#55 Post by DrJones » Fri Oct 22, 2010 4:18 pm

They finished the german version much earlier than the rest because they didn't have to include the blood, nazis and child-killing parts. :p

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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#56 Post by MusicallyInspired » Sat Oct 23, 2010 3:23 am

Bt just doesn't cave in to everyone praising a certain writer simply for their notoriety without any firsthand experience with their products or when they're last release was in the 90's.. Although, he really needs to give Gabriel Knight (at least the first one) a try from start to finish.

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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#57 Post by Blackthorne519 » Sat Oct 23, 2010 6:48 am

MusicallyInspired wrote:Bt just doesn't cave in to everyone praising a certain writer simply for their notoriety without any firsthand experience with their products or when they're last release was in the 90's.. Although, he really needs to give Gabriel Knight (at least the first one) a try from start to finish.

I did play the first Gabriel Knight - I liked it, but I didn't LOVE it. I mean, it was enjoyable - but it was a little too convoluted at times. As if it was TRYING to hard to be clever and mysterious.

Gray Matter just looks so pretentious, I can't stand it.


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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#58 Post by pbpb33 » Sat Oct 23, 2010 8:04 am

MusicallyInspired wrote:Bt just doesn't cave in to everyone praising a certain writer simply for their notoriety without any firsthand experience with their products or when they're last release was in the 90's...
That's perfectly fine. There is room for all kinds of views, even sourpuss contrarian ones. ;) The more the merrier.

By the way, I don't think that "notorious" is the best way to describe Jensen. I would call her someone with a proven track record of designing excellent games. It's obvious when playing her games that SOO much thought and care was put into the details, characters, story, themes, puzzles, atmosphere, etc. for the benefit of the player. This kind of ambitious effort to include a large amount of scene-setting details and deeper characterization doesn't always perfectly succeed (ahem, The Silver Lining Ep.1, ahem), but Jensen has shown an impressive ability to create believable, fleshed out game characters and worlds, something that I think has made her work stand out from the pack. Jensen really does not have to prove herself at this point. Also, technically speaking, she has published work since the 1990's Gabriel Knight series; she published a novel and designed casual games.

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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#59 Post by MusicallyInspired » Sat Oct 23, 2010 3:15 pm

Yeah, notoriety was the wrong word. I meant notability.

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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#60 Post by Quest For Glory Fan » Sat Oct 23, 2010 4:05 pm

pbpb33 wrote:
That's perfectly fine. There is room for all kinds of views, even sourpuss contrarian ones. ;) The more the merrier.
Did anyone else find this unintentionally funny?

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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#61 Post by Brainiac » Sat Nov 13, 2010 2:15 am

It's out...in Germany. However, Amazon.de is usable for import and the current version of the game can be set to English language.

EDIT: Amazon.de has now decided not to ship any version of Gray Matter to the US. This is not good business.

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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#62 Post by Quest For Glory Fan » Tue Nov 16, 2010 8:18 pm

available now at a pirate website near you. only 5 gigs.

I usually don't support piracy and especially not when it comes to adventure games but the only time I really do is when things are made intentionally unavailable to me. Being Canadian this actually happens quite often (I'm looking at you Hulu). In this case I'm not even sure this merits the bandwith though. I'll have to wait and see.

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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#63 Post by Quest For Glory Fan » Wed Nov 17, 2010 8:00 pm

Some anonymous jerkwad had the audacity to write this!
So I took a quick drive into Germany yesterday, and I picked up a copy of "Gray Matter".

This game is pretty much everything I expected it to be. Which means my reaction should be no surprise. It's a solid, SOLID, "meh".

I mean, the thing plays like it's from 1997. On a Playstation. It's clunky. The intro "movie".... isn't even really animated. It's like.... moving picture panels. Which was cool in 1995.... now, the effect looks dated instead of stylistic.

The cursor and interaction system, thankfully, is pretty intuitive and easy to use. Basically, you can interact with "hotspots" around the room, and you access your inventory by moving the cursor to the top of the screen. A pop up overlay menu comes up, and you can access your items.

For me, the story is so cliched and lame.... I felt like I was watching a bad SyFy channel movie. In addition, the animation is really piss poor. Maybe I'm harsh, but I just noticed the little things. Like, she has a pet rabbit, and she picks him up- and pets him. Her hand doesn't even touch his body, and she ends up stroking the air like she's Lenny from Of Mice and Men. Later, she hands him a carrot - the animation goes from her having a carrot in her hand to it suddenly appearing in his cage. I know that even for US, Lambo made sure we had the inbetween actions animated and placed in game. (For instance, when Roger hops out of the water in SQ2, there's a specific animation of him climbing in and out..... originally, he just kinda appeared IN the water and out of the water.) Also, her hands are very odd - it's the uncanny valley effect of 3D character rendering. Sam, the protagonist, really suffers from it to me. She looks like she stepped out of "poser" and it's very unsettling. I have a hard time relating to her.

The Character voices are okay - I don't hold video game acting to the same standards as other mediums, but it's passable here. The "character" portraits, though, are frightening. Take a look at the bottom left corner. This thing "speaks" whenever she talks....

Image

So far, I'm really, really unimpressed. I know many gamers will love it, merely because they have a fetish for the designer. But it's really an average game, and if this is the "future" of adventure gaming, we're all screwed.

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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#64 Post by Brainiac » Sun Nov 28, 2010 3:40 am

Apparently, dtp Entertainment (the primary publisher) has decided that since the game is already out (in Germany), it's smart to release a demo.

Do I really have to restate how horribly mismanaged this game has been?

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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#65 Post by MusicallyInspired » Mon Nov 29, 2010 2:46 am

This reminds me of that whole AdventureCon fiasco.

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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#66 Post by pbpb33 » Mon Nov 29, 2010 12:01 pm

[quote=""Some Anonymous Jerkwad" according to Quest for Glory Fan"]
This game is pretty much everything I expected it to be. Which means my reaction should be no surprise. It's a solid, SOLID, "meh".
[/quote]
The person who wrote those comments sounds almost gleeful in their criticism, as if they had been looking forward to putting down the game. Oh, well. I haven't played the game, but, based on the game previews that I've seen, I would probably have to agree with the negative comments about the not-perfectly-lifelike animation and the text box dialogue/character portraits; I think adventure games generally play better without the unnecessary character portraits drawing the player's eye away from the action in the main window (see LSL7 or Monkey 3).

Still, those issues are not huge deals for me. I think we all knew not to expect "Heavy Rain"-caliber animation. Also, I think the background art of the bedroom with the bunny cage looks beautiful. The lighting (especially through the window and above the bedroom door) and room detail give the scene a dramatic, moody feel.

What I'm most interested in is whether the game is fun to play, not whether the animation is of the highest level. Will I enjoy the mystery? Are there many clever, original puzzles? Is the dialogue/story engaging? Are the characters interesting, believable? How much opportunity for exploration is there? Will I be rewarded with fun, unexpected plot twists after solving puzzles? Is there a large amount of gameplay?
Quest for Glory Fan wrote:Some anonymous jerkwad had the audacity to write this!
I think you like baiting people and stirring the pot. Very naughty. :p

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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#67 Post by Blackthorne519 » Mon Nov 29, 2010 6:33 pm

Yeah, I was gleeful in my criticism, but only because I felt my reservations about the game, which I'd voiced for a long time, were vindicated when I played "Gray Matter".

Yes, I did criticize the laziness of the animation - I feel that attention to detail IS important, and Gray Matter lacks that. On to the story, I found it to be cliched and bland. However, I know some people love what Jane Jensen does, and she certainly delivers on what I would consider to be her style. I find her style to be worse than pulp and harlequin, though - and it's certainly that. Alterno-Goth Chick who reads "tres gothic lit"? Check. Damaged, tragedy ridden mad scientist? Check. Creepy Mansion? Check.

I just found it corny. The game did have some nice pre-rendered backgrounds, but overall - as I said - the game is a solid "meh". It's not a shining example of adventure gaming, but it's not a total turd either.


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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#68 Post by Brainiac » Tue Nov 30, 2010 1:58 am

So much for being Some Anonymous Jerkwad, eh Bt? :p

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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#69 Post by Blackthorne519 » Tue Nov 30, 2010 4:17 am

Brainiac wrote:So much for being Some Anonymous Jerkwad, eh Bt? :p
Doesn't anybody know when QFGFan is joking around?? I'm pretty sure it's apparent to most that it was from me.


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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#70 Post by Quest For Glory Fan » Tue Nov 30, 2010 2:56 pm

I thought this was a dead giveaway
I know that even for US, Lambo made sure we had the inbetween actions animated and placed in game.
But traditionally no, most people don't get it when I "troll" I'm not sure who that reflects on. However, I did ask BT when he posted this at IA if I could cross post it because I figured people here wanted to see it. On the same notion Brainiac was also joking.

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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#71 Post by Brainiac » Wed Dec 01, 2010 7:45 pm

Quest For Glory Fan wrote:On the same notion Brainiac was also joking.
Eeeyup. Is it just me, or all of us over at IA suffering from odd senses of humor? :D

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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#72 Post by Lambonius » Thu Dec 02, 2010 3:32 am

Brainiac wrote:
Quest For Glory Fan wrote:On the same notion Brainiac was also joking.
Eeeyup. Is it just me, or all of us over at IA suffering from odd senses of humor? :D
Nah, it's just that for some reason, we seem to be the only ones that "get" each other. Oh well.

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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#73 Post by Quest For Glory Fan » Thu Dec 02, 2010 4:58 pm

I think it's just from corresponding for so many years with little stopping in combination of so many cultures. I've had skype conversations with Broomie where he'll tell me a great joke he's heard recently and I feel like I get it but have no idea why it would be funny and vice-versa too. Of all that have stuck around we all have pretty unique senses of humor. Probably jarring for new members of the community and probably part of why so few new people stick around. Back on topic I still have not seen or played this game.

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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#74 Post by Brainiac » Fri Dec 31, 2010 6:20 pm

Emily Morganti, once of Telltale Games, has weighed in with her thoughts about Gray Matter over at Adventure Gamers.

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Re: Gray Matter Cover Art. Thoughts? Game coming this fall!!

#75 Post by pbpb33 » Sat Jan 01, 2011 1:05 pm

Quest For Glory Fan wrote:I think it's just from corresponding for so many years with little stopping in combination of so many cultures. I've had skype conversations with Broomie where he'll tell me a great joke he's heard recently and I feel like I get it but have no idea why it would be funny and vice-versa too. Of all that have stuck around we all have pretty unique senses of humor. Probably jarring for new members of the community and probably part of why so few new people stick around. Back on topic I still have not seen or played this game.
Yeah, it's cool. I was just teasing.
Emily Morganti, once of Telltale Games, has weighed in with her thoughts about Gray Matter over at Adventure Gamers.
I just took a quick peak at that article. I personally don't want to read TOO much of it or other reviews until I play the game. However, before I looked at that review I checked out a few parts of a YouTube English language "let's play" of the game because I wanted to see what the dialogue was like. (note: the scene I watched was one set outside in a university courtyard where Sam uses the topic of Homer as an "in" to get a shy "momma's boy" to open up to her and as a way to persuade him to participate in some experiment... it was clever, well-written and made me smile.) Anyway, I definitely agree with Morganti's points about the dialogue scenes. The writing seems good, but the visual presentation during these scenes doesn't really measure up. I think the previous poster in this thread was right when he/she criticized the little character portraits in the text boxes during the dialogue portions. I'm sorry, but the portraits do look a bit ridiculous. The little portraits don't even change expressions or convey any feeling... they just look dopey. And I don't like how the characters on the main screen just stand there like robotic dolts or puppets while they're carrying on with their conversations. Close-ups would have been so much better! It doesn't even feel like the on-screen characters are speaking those words. This shortcoming seems particularly unfortunate in a dialogue-heavy game whose success depends on players being able to believe the characters and care about the story. I think a little more emphasis should have been placed on trying to make those scenes more believable and engaging. As it is now, it feels like watching a movie with a colorful, dramatic audio track of recorded dialogue playing at the same time actors are shown on screen (and shot from FAR away, no less) simply standing and facing each other with no movements to coincide with what's being said. Ugh, even the classic LucasArts bobbing head effect was better than this! I know a lot of older games had dialogue scenes like Gray Matter's, but, rather than fix known problems of those older games and offer some improvements so the dialogue sequences feel more alive/visually less dull, it seems like Gray Matter just tries to copy exactly how it was done way back when. Maybe they had a reason for doing it that way or were constrained by certain limitations, though. But, then I remember LSL7, which had great, believable close-ups during a lot of the dialogue... and that game was released more than a decade ago. If this were an AGS game or a remake, I would easily be able to overlook this, but it isn't.

Despite this, I'm holding out hope for when I play it all the way through!! I've waited a long time to play this game. Hopefully there will be a lot of great stuff to outweigh any bad. It may yet be the instant classic I hope it will be. That's what I'm telling myself. Maybe I'll just settle for enjoyable game experience and not hope for instant classic material. Is the official English language version even available now?

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