I just wanted to comment briefly on Runaway.. one thing I was really impressed with, was the manual. In so many games we are left to "figure out the interface", sometimes stumbling through the first few puzzles figuring out what we are allowed to do with the inventory, combining things, etc etc. But the Runaway manual outlined gameplay very well. And it was also funny! Which made it worthwhile to read. Very impressive for a company for who English is a second language.

Anyway, I just started Ch. 3, I was stuck on Ch.2 for a while until I learned to turn up the brightness control in the game! Doesn't seem too difficult so far, which is the way I like 'em.

I finished the game and did like it. But it wasnt until I got to Chapter 3 that things starting looking up for me. I thought the puzzles were sort of hard. Maybe I was just having a bad week while I was playing it. But everyone should have it in their collection. And dont trade it. I think it may be one of those that may be better the second time around.

I'm still in chapter 3 myself, and so far I'm enjoying it. I only needed one hint so far, and if I had looked harder I would have solved it on my own. (I missed an inventory item).

I'd be a lot further along by now, but weekend company kept me away from my computer!

I agree, John, this is a 'keeper'

Louis

I'm on Chapter 5, and I think it's great! My only complaint is that I've had some serious trouble locating items to interact with...not so much pixel hunting as not having the cursor change when I move over things. Otherwise, this is good fun!!!

Excellent game! Instant classic. I wouldn't want to change a thing except maybe make it so it would never end...
Rusty

I finished it over the weekend. Loved every minute of it (well except for trying to find one item that I knew I needed but had a devil of a time locating). Just a terrific, fun, pleasure to play game.

Doesn't anybody think that the pixel hunting is too difficult? I do. Love the game otherwise.
Here's me looking at a walkthrough: "What? There's a crowbar in that room?"

That is my only complaint actually - there were a couple of items that I had a horrible time finding.

one more comment... I found out last night that I can't leave CD#2 (where my saved game lies, in terms of gameplay) in the drive to start the game. I have to put in CD#1, start the game, load my save, then put in CD#2 to continue. If I try to start the game with CD#2 in the drive I get a "wrong CD" pop up message.

MAJOR pet peeve of mine, I should be able to start the game with any Runaway CD in the drive.

I remember reading that if you had more than one CD drive, you could use both of them - leave CD1 in one drive and play from CD2 in the other one.

My Runaway game has not arrived yet so I can't test this myself.

That's what I did when I played the game - worked fine.

I only have one CD drive... I always wanted one of those virtual CD programs but I can't justify buying one just to cure this little pet peeve of mine. I would rather BAAG another game, you know?

Daemon-Tools is free, if you don't mind reading how to install it. It isn't as automatic as the commercial CD emulation programs.

thanks! I will definitely check this out later.

well the first thing i would change is the insane insert disk one requirement especially with a full install. because of that i cannot fully recommend this title to anyone. that takes so much away from a game. if it wasn't for that i would rate this game very highly. And yes i have 2 cd drives. but i still had to swap needlessly.

That's strange, I used both my drives and didn't have to do the swapping thing. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Confused]" src="confused.gif" />
Rusty

Jenny100 -
Do you know of a free program to create ISO's for use with that software (Daemon Tools)?

This post is likely to be somewhat lengthy. It is quite likely to be controversial. I hope not so controversial that it has to be deleted … BUT !?!? Since the subject has cropped up on 2 threads I’m copying this to both of them.

I do not like contradicting Boomers and especially moderators, but it pains me to let statements such as ............. go by without any rebuttal.


Personal subjective opinions are as varied as people ... and as such, all are acceptable. I personally found Runaway: A Road Adventure to be amongst the 3 or 4 most enjoyable and satisfying games of the past couple of years.
Sure it has its faults … what game hasn’t? But (after quite a bit of experience of game-beta-testing) I did not find a single game stopper. It’s certainly QUITE VALID to dislike 3rd person, cartoon style, non 3-D, mouse point & click, voice acting, graphics, music, whatever! I happen to think that all these were extremely well done and to my taste … but almost certainly not to everybody’s.
Some folk found the game rather short. I didn’t. I was held up several times for well over an hour trying to figure out what to accomplish next (without referring to ANY outside assistance) … and according to various Forums, I was far from the only one. But some gamers are MUCH quicker than me (and many others)!

But to downgrade a game, or to recommend not buying it (… at present) due to a complete triviality is IMHO doing a great disservice to the whole genre of Quest/Adventures. To say nothing of disparaging the colossal labor of a very talented and dedicated group of Developers! <img border="0" alt="" title="" src="graemlins/pacify.gif" />

On my setup I can either reload (Runaway) saves using ANY (appropriate) CD; or be FORCED to load CD1 before (during the last 85% of the game) using CD2 or CD3. I’ve timed it with a stopper … several times. The latter catastrophe takes me exactly 29½ seconds longer.
Some people claim to have finished the game in 12 to 15 hours (not me ). But even assuming that it takes 20 hours, and assuming the unlikely situation that the player takes a break every one of those hours, this causes the player the severe aggravation of having to waste 20 x ½ = 10 minutes during the whole game.

***** Sorry! --- IMO ...not only do I not think this is sufficient to condemn a particularly good game, but not even enough to downgrade it! *****

I meant to add more ………. But I think I’ve made my point --- acceptable or not.

P.S. ~~~~ Later:-
I just remembered:- I think the game was originally released in Europe nearly 2 years ago. Around that time, several games companies understandably incorporated a 'coded' key in CD1, FORCING players to first boot CD1 before proceeding. This was an attempt to stop the enormous amount of online piracy which was going on at the time. To the best of my limited knowledge, the youngsters manufactured 'cracks' in no time ... and since then piracy has not been reduced, but due to the speed of broadband probably even increased!

Well said LenG. I am still waiting for this gem and I am quite excited about. So much so that when I leave here from work, I am going to the mall to see if EB Games has it yet so I can cancel my order with Chums. Without even playing it yet, I know I will enjoy it once I play it.
Again, well said.

I found it on the shelf at our local EB. I'm still not too sure about getting it - I'm not a big fan of cartoony, 3rd person type games. However, BAAGS may overule .

Len,

Since you felt the need to attack my opinions in calling them trivial, I felt the need to respond. Its fine if you don't agree with me but you have no right to say my opinions are trivial. Since you posted in two threads, I will do the same.

First of all I love 3rd person adventures and especially cartoon games. I have been waiting for a long time for this game and had high hopes I could put it in my top ten or twenty of all time.

Tthe game is not entirely glitch free. After I installed it I had to download an alpha version of a video codec because I had the upside down video problem which was widely reported on the official forum. Outside of that the games production was very well done. Had a great story and good voice acting. Puzzles weren't too reasonably tough. I thought the length was possibly a bit short but nothing I would hold against it. The interface was good and I never ran out of save slots.

Just because you think disc swapping is trivial doesn't mean others do not. To me this is a very important issue. If the game just had you go from disk 1 to 2 to 3 that would not be an issue. But it doesn't. if you have only 1 drive, you start with disk one. Then with chapter 3 you go to disk 2. now you stop playing. Disk 2 is in the drive. Can I start the game--- NO!!!! I have to put back disk 1 than disk 2 again . That is 2 pointless disk swaps in succession. The time it takes is meaningless. This is 2 more times I have to handle the cd which I shouldn't have to. And multiply that by the number of play sessions and that makes an awful lot of disk swaps.

This has absolutely nothing to do with copy protection. If you want the game protected, all you have to do is require any disk to be in the drive. But when someone in the company is too lazy to put a tiny batch file on the other cd's so you can launch from any cd that is pure laziness and I will not support and endorse games that do that no matter how good the game is. Adventure games are the only genre that do this. I have played many rpg's and action games that are on multi disks and not once had I ever had to start with disk one in the drive when I was on another disk.

On the plus side at least the game does allow you to use multiple drives and that helped a bit but if there is a full install there should be no disk swapping at all. This is the first game I have ever played where a full install I had to swap. Why should I have to dedicate both drives to one game. By having this insert disk one business, I have to time my playing based on the disk swaps to cut it down to a minimum. I like to play more than one game at a time thus one drive is used for one game and the other drive is used for another. And I can freely go back and forth between the games. With runaway I could not go freely back and forth.

Oh I disagree. If I thought I would have to spend a whole 10 minutes swapping CD's, I wouldn't buy the game.

Luckily Runaway should let me use two drives to play - and (I assume) a CD emulation program, at least for CD's 2 and 3.

I also don't like irritating disc swapping in my games. Punish the abusers and not the customers. If I pay good money for a game I am entitled to be angry against the disc swapping because it will ruin the overall experience in the game. Ridiculous to have a game fully install onto your computer and still have to put so many discs in the drive to run. This should not be allowed in games as it is not allowed in other media, like movies at the theater.

Imagine going to the theater to see a movie but there were frequent breaks throughout it because they had to stop it due to some copyright measures that had been put in place before they could start it up again. People would demand their money right away if they were treated in this way. This is inexcusable no matter the quality of a game as the overall gaming experience must not be undervauled by copyright schemes that hurt the customer more than those it is intended for.

Hey, I thought the arguments on both sides were very nicely written up. It also looks like LenG really thought about the decision to write the thread. Trust me on this, it's hard sometimes to get up the courage to object to something a mod says, since mods speak for both themselves and for gameboomers. Zanthia's reply was also very well written, as was the opinion of everyone else. Perhaps the word "trivial" was the hot button here.

Just my thoughts. I enjoyed reading the thread, if it means anything.

~~ mszv ~~

Nice sentiments!

P.S. ........ Later ........

I thought it was clear that I MEANT
"Nice *closing* equitable sentiments".