I just hope that Sony doesn't screw it up by changing the controls...
I'm not sure I trust Tim Schafer not to make a botch of it but we'll see.
Wasn't it the controls that most people complained about? Tank controls as he calls them.
Not sure why he would botch it either:-)
Well, I just crawled out of bed so my answer may not be as coherent as I'd like but I'll give it a go.
Yes, it was the controls most people complained about.
You use the arrow keys rather than pointing and clicking your way through.
In minutes, you master them and there is no pointy little cursor on the screen reminding you that you are only playing a game.
You have to pay attention to Manny, to stop and look when he does instead of having important things to investigate pointed out to you.
It
immensely enhances the immersion so what on earth is the beef?
Isn't that what gamers want?
Immersion?
To feel as if they're
there?
I do not understand why gamers can't see that the "tank controls" are perfect for Grim Fandango and a part of why it is the great game that it is.
As far as my not trusting Tim Schafer, here's why and my answer is twofold.
First, there was a saying of sorts back when I studied art: it takes two to make a painting, the artist himself and one to hit him over the head when it's time to stop.
I witnessed the truth of that once when a friend who was wonderful with pen and ink, a difficult and unforgiving medium, drew a ship under full sail and was honestly done but he saw something he thought needed more work and he
overworked it.
From then on, the viewer's eye kept coming back to that inconsequential spot.
He realized it too late and tore up what would have been a beautiful example of work with ink and pen if he had just known when to stop.
Well, it's been years since Grim Fandango was released.
Tim Schafer has probably noticed many small details about it he'd like to change, so he's given permission to start tinkering...if Sony agrees.
He fixes this to his liking, he changes that, and suddenly the game loses its brilliance and is just another game because he tinkered too much.
The trouble is, you can't tear up a game, not when so much of other people's money has been thrown into it, so it gets released and the upshot is that gamers are suddenly asking themselves why
that is considered a classic and possibly the best adventure game ever made.
It can happen.
I hope not but I see that it easily could.
My second thought is this: if it ever gets into Tim Schafer's hands and is "remastered" for PC - its original platform, once they've finished making it right for Vita and the PS4, and what sense does that make? - I'll likely be pushing up daisies long before he finishes it, whatever kind of job Double Fine might do.
I backed Broken Age in the beginning of 2012.
Two and a half years later, only the first half of the game is finished and playable but he and his team are already working on another game and he had the temerity to say in an email to backers on January 28th: "We're already hard at word on Act 2.... We're not sure exactly when Act 2 will be out, but we promise to release it the second it's awesome."
Not awesome yet, it seems.
Gil.