I've been on a Frogwares binge lately, playing Sherlock Holmes vs. Arsene Lupin, Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened, Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper, and I'm getting pretty close to the end of Dracula: Origin...again. This morning it suddenly struck me what I like so much about their games aside from the great graphics, which just get better and better, and the really good story lines, and that's their irrepressible sense of humor.

It's sometimes a wry sense of humor, and sometimes it turns up in strange places, but even then it somehow fits. In Origin, for instance, when you've penetrated the abbey and gotten rid of some possessive rats, dealt with an animalistic monk in a pretty dreadful way, and recoiled with horror from the things hanging on hooks in a dank, stone passage, the sequence that follows actually makes you grin. Was it supposed to be funny or terrible? I don't know. It could have gone either way, and seeing the poor old monk locked in a cage makes it seem as if the monks' ritual should have been really frightening, but it was so ridiculous, so like the worst Ed Wood B-movie ever made, I keep thinking they meant it to be that way to relieve the tension of...oh, having to think. <g> At any rate, I couldn't help laughing and I could imagine the Frogwares team laughing, too, when they created that scene.

You can depend on Watson to take things seriously, but the Frogwares Holmes sometimes makes comments that crack the image of the inhuman thinking machine. When he indicated that he knew what some of those..um, parts...from the murdered women were for in Jack the Ripper, I laughed out loud, and grinned when he remarked that, despite what everyone thought, he almost never wore that deerstalker hat.

Frogwares is a pretty big studio, a successful one, and yet they seem to really enjoy what they're doing and they don't seem to have lost their zest for making games. I'm reminded of Ron Gilbert's remarks about working at Lucas Arts with Tim Schafer and someone else I can't recall at the moment (shame on me), talking about how they'd laugh themselves silly, not just once in a while, but every day as they hashed out what they'd be doing with a game. Well, of course, I can't be sure. Wael Amr may be glaring at the Frogwares team and cracking the whip incessantly. <g> But it sure doesn't feel like it when you're playing one of their games.

Their sense of humor, the inability to take anything too seriously for too long, is a big part of their attraction for me and one reason why I'll probably play Testament even if the Great Detective does seem to have lost his distinctive appearance in it. Maybe it's a disguise.

Gil.

I love Frogwares games. You can always count on a high quality production and you can tell the games are a labor of love. I have noticed the subtle humor also and they always make me smile.

Ana

"I love Frogwares games."

So do I !! Everything about them !!

I love Frogwares Games too!

..and me!

me too

But why? You guys must surely have some reason for liking Frogwares games so much...better than some other developers' games. What is it that makes you keep coming back for more?

I've already said I love their mischievous sense of humor. Frogwares has kept the faith with me with their ingenious puzzles, but not too many of them since I'm an inventory puzzle nut, and their (already noted) great graphics and story lines. What is it for you?

Gil.

THe atmosphere, the graphics, the story, the ease of gameplay, the way the clues are presented and the puzzles. Those are just a few of the things that keep me coming back.

Ana

How could I have forgotten the ease of gameplay! You're so right, Ana, that is a big part of what makes their games a treat to play.

Gil.

A lot of developers put great puzzles in but a very poor layout of clues. I may need MaG's walkthrough to get me through a spot in a Frogwares game but it's only because I wasn't paying attention. You always know it's there somewhere.

Ana

That goes for me, too !!

[Here we go again !!!! ]

One of my favorite jokes is in the awakened when Sherlock solves a puzzle box for a young boy and Watson tells him to use his little grey cells, then the conductor talks to the boys mother who's name is reveled to be Poirot.

Lol! I'd forgotten that, Gnabgib. That was funny.

I'd also forgotten, though, that The Awakened nearly drove me crazy as I tried to find my way around that rocky promontory after Holmes went down the hole.

Okay, Frogwares, strike one!

Gil.