anacapri the dream - is it good?

i browse around a lot but only post here, least so far
i read a thread for anacapri the dream on the 4 fat chick forum and a very long one on just adventures.

they say you really need a excellent walkthuogh to play unless you have very much time.
the only walkthuogh i find on the net is the one on gameboomer by mag so they must mean that one so it must be marvellous

what do you others think?

LindaMarion,
I was so fortunate to be the winner of the give away of this game. I really enjoyed the wonderful and beautiful actual photos of the city and the countryside. I enjoyed the story, which was a little hokey but it was fun talking to "real people". I got stuck a few times, but the walkthrough was great from MaG. Just make sure you check that you did ALL the steps and not skip anything if you are stuck. I started all over halfway through thinking the game was corrupted, but it was just one little step I didn't see the first time around. I loved it and the first one cause I really loved the real photos. I am working through the Carol Reed series and it has real photos and people too from their city. I enjoy these kind of games.


Koalanut

I agree the photography was wonderful ( as are the Carol Reed games) but I just could not get into this one. Just too much walking around thinking what to do next
Thank heavens we are not all alike as life would be very boring.

I like the surrounding areas and the mystery that is hidden throughout the area. I wait to be released in Greece....

I absolutely loved this game. The photography was stunning, it was a pleasure in itself just to walk around and explore. (There is an added feature of a guided tour, which is quite separate from the game itself.)

I thought the storyline was interesting, and the puzzles fun to solve, too. Some of the challenges were difficult, but the game has a bypass feature for a few of the harder puzzles. It's good to take notes while playing!

I would definitely recommend this game.

I bought the game because I enjoyed playing A Quiet Weekend. Don't know what happened between Weekend and Anicapri, but....
While the scenery is beautiful, there's waaay too much walking. Some of the conversations are okay, but most are inane to the point where I muted. And excessively long. Not to mention the Greek? statue with the Brooklyn accent? I found the game boring and only finished it because of the money I'd spent on it. Unlike most of my other games, I won't replay it.

bkrytr,

You are not alone.

I think it is magnificient! Yes, I agree about some of the voice actors but that does not lessen the interesting storyline or engrossing puzzles. As for the walking, I guess it depends on how much you enjoy looking at the beautiful surroundings as you mosey along. I wasn't in any rush to get through this game and thorougly enjoyed it.

bkrytr, and MrLipid I totally agree way too much walking and not as involving as the other one

You are not alone.

i think you mrlipid wrote the review 4 fat chick forum and you did not like the game much

so it seems it is 1 of those games you love or hate
Some 1 way and others the other way

It's the gaming equivalent of Marmite.

gameboomer review gave it A- which is very good not negetive

That's me! And you are right. I felt it was ambitious but not very successful. The core story (the love triangle) was too thin to support a 50 hour game. The other stories (the history and the quest for the obsidian disk) felt like filler. Or perhaps I should say Adventure Game Helper.

And all the clicking down all the dusty paths, streets, caves and stairways got very old.

That said, I couldn't be happier for all those who enjoyed it.

The Capri games aren't really my type of game but I did enjoy them.

Hear, hear!

A game can still be good and not your cup of tea. There are no rights and wrongs here.

Ana

Somehow, not being alone on this particular game is not surprising.

I've got both games yet to be played & have been following this thread with interest. It seems to be 'love or hate'! I can't glean from either the positive or negative comments whether I'm going to like this game or not!

chrissie,

What, other than loading up all 7GB of Anacapri and clicking about, would be helpful for you to know?

Chrissie,

You can watch the trailer here. I have not seen a demo yet.

I'm inbetween games at the moment, & was not sure about what I wanted to play next. Seems a good opportunity MrLipid, to load up the '7GB of Anacapri' & just see for myself.

No better way than that!

It's the perfect game to relax with, chrissie, it's so laid back it's horizontal.

One unintentionally(?) funny moment while playing this game -

This is exactly what keeps this genre so exciting and alive for me. Different opinions --- one hates it -- one loves it; yet all valid when you truly consider thier point of view. I guess it depends on one's frame of mind, one's predispositions and expectations.

Reading reviews from both ends of the spectrum is a good thing. It makes the gamer consider and ponder, aiding the decision whether or not to play. I've always considered Mr Lipid a great colleague and good "BOOMER BUDDY" --- even when we disagree --

Mr. Lipid

inferno

yes wow what differences

jenny100 gameboomers A-
mr.lipid 4 fat chick forum 2 of a scale of 5 --- not very good
lots of post critics on just adventures thread

inferno your very very experience in games
did you like anacapri or were u 1 of those who didnt?

I agree with who talk that is have much walking and not have involving in game. Is a good game but sometimes i bored with walking walking.

Love Maria

I neither liked it nor disliked it Just slotted it between okay and ho hum.

mag made the only walkthruogh which is teriffic
is it ok to ask you if you thought if the game was good or very bad?
and inferno also.sorry if i nag but i really would like to know what the experience players think on it.

Ah, shucks. How can I play the role of the big indie game hating meany with comments like this floating around?

The level of emotion in some of the other forums regarding this particular title makes it clear that people are passionate about playing games. With passion comes heat.

I know that I approach each game wanting to fall in love. I want to be delighted. I want to be enchanted.

And when it doesn't happen, I want to see if I can figure out why. What didn't connect? Could something have been done differently to produce a more positive response?

My sense, based on comments from the game's developer in another foruma about not wanting to sacrifice the story, is that the story was too long and too complex to be effectively realized with the available budget. This meant scrimping on both voice and audio recording. It also meant overusing a relatively inexpensive resource -- digital photos. Rather than ask whether a shorter story could be presented with more polish, the production offered the whole story as best it could.

As my review indicates, I didn't find that decision and what flowed from it particularly engaging. Other reviewers disagreed.

We'll know the genre is dead when we lose interest in having discussions like this.

LindaMarion,

I purposely try not to comment about games since my taste is different from others.
My feelings and study of the game is also affected whether I am writing a walkthrough, beta testing, for fun only or on a time pressure. I was given time to do the first 3 of them.

I have been to Capri but not the AnaCapri side. I am familiar with the waters around the island since we took boat rides and tours. It was very nice to see the island again.

I had to do a lot of backtracking to learn the intricacies of the puzzles, learn the continuity of the game and some hair pulling.
Silvio was a great help and I appreciate his patience and humor. He was gracious about my comments on the walking, puzzles, voice overs and other comments. At that stage of the game production, he can only do so much as well as budgetary concerns.

The game was made to highlight an interesting place with a tour of specific spots, a great story and original puzzles. In my opinion, with the limitations they have - they succeeded.

To answer your question: there are no good or bad in adventure gaming - it depends on the adventurer's taste.
This adventurer liked the game, enjoyed the puzzles and the experience of seeing a wonder spot of Mother Earth.

Whether you like the game or not depends on what you buy the game for. What things do you expect out of a game? What do you want from this particular game?

If you look at the ***box of the US version***, you see Anacapri in big letters. The pictures on the game box are of scenic vistas that you will see in the game. There isn't a single person in any of the pictures. There is a picture of a postcard to Nico inside the foldout cover and a bit of text mentioning the mystery of the obsidian disk, but the impression you get from the game box is mostly that it is about exploring the beautiful scenery, and that impression is accurate. If you can enjoy that aspect, you'll enjoy the game. Not that the story is bad or anything, but where the game really shines is in the excellent photography of one of the most beautiful places in the world. The game is named "Anacapri: The Dream" and not "The Mystery of the Obsidian Disk" or "The Adventures of Nico N."

MaG, you've intrigued me. Now I really want to know what your Top 10 favourite games are.

Let's put it this way - I am not a Myst fan.
Let's not divert from the subject matter. <sneaking away>

Well, I'm with you on that one.

Back to the subject matter. I'm wondering if chrissie installed AnaCapri (all 7GB of it) and if she is enjoying it so far.

Inquiring minds and all that...

Hi Rushes, I installed the game this morning when I had 20 minutes to spare before setting off to work! No kidding 'this will take several minutes'! I ended up getting a later bus! I haven't started playing yet - perhaps later or tomorrow evening.

Thanks MaG for the link to the trailer, I missed your post earlier! I tried it but since the trailer was a dowmload I thought I might as well just install the game. I had to tiptoe into work this morning hoping no-one noticed I was late.

Ah, yes. The 'long install' effect. All of us who've played it know what you're talking about.

To be fair MrLipid, it does say in the manual 'the game may take 15 minutes or more to install.....' Just wish I'd read that beforehand!

I would love to see the machine which only takes 15 minutes.

While I don't remember how long my install took -- not the hours that some have reported -- that may be an effect of copying the entire disk to my hard drive first and then installing from the hard drive. Worked like a charm.

For me it took about 25 mins.

Now that it's on your system, we await impressions....

Hi MrLipid, to give me time to give the game a fair shot & in view of other arrangements, I don't think I'll be able to do that before Sunday. Watch this space!

What!? Life intervenes?! This a game we're talking about here!

It's a bit of a nuisance I know, but life keeps doing that - interrupting my games!

Well, this is an excellent thread! From what you write I will definetely play it. From one hand we have the boring long, long walking and on the other hand the beautiful sightseeing and the interesting story. I will totally agree that each one of us according to his general experience (not only in games but in the real life, too!) will like/dislike any game that it's installed in the pc. The truth remains that in general some aspects of the game will be beloved when some others will be discussed for further conclusions throughout the good and experienced members of GameBoomers. Thanks for sharing your thoughts here.

Taurnil,

By all means, pick up a copy, load it up, and perhaps you and chrissie can share your impressions with those of us who've already played it.

I think this game has the most bang for the buck of any game out there.

im thinking that mrlipid is thinking more of cents than bucks for this game cos he does not like anacapri at all i guess

From reading all the reviews and comments, does it sound like your kind of game, Linda? If so, then go for it. You'll only find out by actually playing the game.

rushes. jenny100 review here on game boomer gave it A- , and quandary gave it 4 stars of 5 maxim
but len green wrote that 4 well known sites gave it very horrible marks and descriptions and the makers were terrible hurt and upset.so who knows?

LindaMarion,

I agree with Rushes. Who knows? You do, but only if you actually play it.

What did the reviewers you usually read say? If you have reviewers you usually agree with, the odds are that their reviews of Anacapri should reflect your tastes and interests. If they've given you good guidance in the past, they most likely will give you good guidance now.

Cut loose! Go nuts! Open your wallet and blow twenty bucks! Anacapri could be the game you have been waiting for.

(Just don't let anybody know that I suggested it. I have a reputation as a meany to keep alive. )

o dear.i hope i wont go nuts or blow 20 dollars.
what do others not reviewing think of anacapri.is it really so terrible like several reviews write?

There's a whole heap of ayes to the left and nays to the right if you read back over the last 4 pages. We've opinioned our socks off. If you're unsure about wanting to spend 20 dollars then you could check out the Trading Post, you never know, there might be one there for less $$$.

It's getting close to half price on Amazon. New copies can be had for $ 8.99 ($ 3.99 shipping) and used for $ 7.49 ($ 3.99 shipping). And it's showing up on ebay for even less. Or take Rushes's suggestion and go for the Trading Post.

I've now had quite a few hours to devote to playing this & up until now I have enjoyed wandering around, truly impressed with the stunning photography that almost makes you feel that you are on vacation in a beautiful place. As far as this goes there seems to be a lot of hard work invested on the part of the developers so I really hate to say that I'm now bored to tears with the game.

I didn't mind the simple launch screen & I wouldn't normally have minded the less than par voice acting if there had been a better script & the story wasn't so lacking in context to the amount of wandering round you need to do. I really wanted to like this game but there is really not enough 'game' in it to engage me & right now I've got a stack of other games that seem so much more appealing.

Hi Rushes, I agree that it is perfect to relax with if you don't want to play a game!.

...and now we have impressions.

Thanks for checking back, chrissie.

I have wondered if I should purchase this game or not - after reading everyone's comments, I'm still not sure. Since I'm retired I probably have more time than most to download this game, but like most, I don't enjoy the walking, walking, etc. in a game. I have appreciated it when you can double click and the person runs to get there. So, since I've never been to Capri, this might be a good time to just take a chance and play the game. Think I'll look in a clearance rack tho.

Butterfly

Butterfly,

Couple points.

To the best of my knowledge, it is not available as a legal download.

As for walking, you don't. This is a first person game where you click to move from one still image to the next. This is also true (clicking from one frame to the next) when you are riding the bus. Once you have reached certain points, you can teleport back to other select points on the map.

Butterfly, if you're not fond of lots of in-game walking, then AnaCapri might drive you absolutely bananas! Even with the map, which moves you around a little faster, you'll still be clicking until your finger drops off.

But the game is so beautiful it's worth the loss of a finger.

As I'm abandoning the 'game' (with the thought of pursuing another time) I've tried to uninstall it the normal way, as it takes up a lot of space, via >all programs >set programs >change or remove programs & clicked on 'Anacapri uninstall' to get an immediate message that it was already uninstalled. Well, just like that? On looking in my hard disc program files I see that this is not the case & I'm having to delete this game manually. I'm now not impressed at all - there are only umpteen thousand files - I will never install this game again or anything else produced by the same developers.

Ouch, chrissie.

I don't usually uninstall from Change or Remove Programs. I go straight to the shortcut from All Programs where there's an uninstall option alongside the launch icon. Have you tried that too?

Well, sorry Rushes, the game wasn't listed in All Programs & when I looked there was no uninstall facility either in the program files or on the disc itself (incidentally, bought legitimately from Interact). There seems to be something called Scopa?

Scopa is a card game that one can play or not within the game.

Thanks for the info Mr Lipid, that was one particularly stubborn set of files that prompted a prompt to tell me another program was using them when I tried to delete them!

You can't just delete the game folder?

Jenny 100 is rhetorical question

of course you can delete whole folder and every single thing in it in one click of mouse and just few seconds no sweat

Not necessarily. If Windows has reason to believe some file is in use, the file will keep the folder from being deleted. It's actually a precaution, not a bug.

So, LindaMarion, made up your mind yet on Anacapri?

You mean an illegal download Mr. Lipid????? Just kidding. It might be a game, I could play once in a while to let the finger have a rest.

Butterfly

I opened all the folders Jenny & deleted the contents!

I've just done a search to see if there are any files left & discovered where the uninstall program had been hiding! Any folders remaining are now empty!



An over-reaction on my part, I was tired & frustrated at the time! I may go back to it sometime in the future when I'm more in the mood to amble around.

For anyone else wishing to uninstall, just go to the "Start" menu, "All Programs," highlight "Anacapri the Dream," and the uninstall icon should pop up -- then just click on the icon.