The Testament of Sherlock Holmes unveils its Official Website and a Video!

The Official Website of The Testament of Sherlock Holmes, the new game from Frowares, has been launched today, and to celebrate the occasion Frogwares released a new Teaser Trailer.



About The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes:



enjoy!

Carla

Ahhhhhh!!

Ok, so that excited me a trifle more than greatly. I wrote that speech of Watson's.

Thanks, Carla!

RUSHES!!!!!!

That speech gave me goose bumps!
You did a very good job of scriptwriting!
I am so proud of you.

I can't hardly wait to play this new Sherlock. The Hood says it is frogwares best and most innovative.

Holmes, Watson and frogwares!

Thanks, Carla!

Thank you Carla, I'm so excited. Can't wait to play!

Ooooooh !! Rushes !!

And this latest Sherlock sounds absolutely fanTAStic !!
Thanks for the news, Carla

This does look good ! Have any system requirements been confirmed or released ? I could not find any in my research , other than "predicted" requirements .

Rushes -- a shocking speech (in all the right ways)!

There's a confrontation in the teaser that I certainly thought I'd never see.

I thought this info about the gameplay is especially intriguing:

Rushes!

I can't wait for the game. WooHoo Frogwares!

Ana

Rushes!

Looking forward to playing this game, thanks for the information.

Well done Rushes!

Creeping_Doom, I just asked Frogwares about the technical specs and they are not confirmed yet.
They will let us know as soon as they can

Thank you Carla !

Thanks Carla and bravo Rushes.

Chief

Rushes: WOW!! double WOW!! I just can't wait for this game, I just love the Sherlock games. Judy

The sight, sound, feel of the trailer is awesome. Sold on this one, as with all SH games. How long must one wait? And, kudos to Rushes for a great speech.

This hurts. I really don't like the change in Holmes or Watson. And the idea of Holmes on the run from the law irks me, too. It's just not in keeping with the canon. I love the stories Conan Doyle wrote and so far, I've liked the games I've played (haven't played Ripper) even if they were a little far fetched (Holmes accepting the supernatural without a blink?) but I may have to give this one a pass.

Movement looks odd, too. Is that because it was made for Xbox...or is it just me?

Gil.

I can see where you are coming from traveler . I had read in a couple of forums , where this particular chapter in the Sherlock Holmes saga was going to be a console port to pc . An all to frequent happening , unfortunately . All too often , elements of the games UI , the character controls for example , end up making the UI difficult to navigate . More difficult than is needed . As for the graphics , based on the screenshots I have viewed , the game looks great !

As for Holmes being on the run from the law , I don't know , I personally think it could add an element of excitement to the game !

Really neat...I hope we get it soon.

All of our Sherlock Holmes games are different, from the Mummy to the Testament.

Everytime we propose a new story and a new environment for Sherlock Holmes, facing Arsene Lupin or HP Lovecraft writings can't be set in the same mood or atmosphere.

Every game is a different experience, and we believe this is where Sherlock Holmes character is interesting, proposing different realities and point of views, still keeping this unique look and irony of the great detective.

Therefore one can hardly be in phase with all of our games, and you are not supposed to.

Now, maybe it's prematurate to judge a 25 hours game story on a 60 seconds trailer that reveals almost nothing of it :), also being under the (false) assumption that the game will be of lower quality because it will be on consoles too, and other games didn't do the job of being faithful to PC, while in the Testament you have 3 possible cameras (1st, 3rd and Point and click), can push your resolution far beyond 1900*1200. The game is fully playable with mouse or pad. And the consoles bring you a bigger budget for the game,higher quality of entertainment of 30 months of production instead of the usual 9-12...

If you have any questions we always reply them and it's a pleasure to discuss with fellow players for constructive critics, we are reading gameboomers, and other forums. We are not corporations that plan the best profits at lower possible cost, we are just humans, loving to do games and sharing with gamers that are willing to do it

Interesting , thehood !


In the Sherlock games I have played , from Mummy , to Jack the Ripper , I have experienced different facets that have made each game quite enjoyable ! I am quite sure that it will be no different this time around ! I think Sherlock vs Jack the Ripper has been my favorite so far !

The one area where I would differ somewhat , is your assessment of Testament's console port to pc . I have a somewhat difficult time in understanding , how three different camera pov's , can quantify pushing resolutions to 1080p resolutions or better , when resolution is dependent on the gpu and monitor , at least in pc gaming . The gpu's in current consoles are at least 2 generations behind current pc gpu's , and therefore , not as effective at graphics rendering as current pc graphics cards . I would venture to say that optimization for consoles is maybe not quite as difficult as it is for pc gaming . Therefore , not as much gpu power is needed to make the game as playable . I would further add , that , and this is no disrespect to anyone , that adventure games do not require the graphic "muscle" that other games , such as a rpg or fps game . It is the story that makes an adventure game ! Make no mistake , I love adventure games ! I would not be a part of this excellent site if I did not !

Consoles do bring a bigger budget . That I will readily agree with , due to a larger market share at this point in time . My father , for example , has an Xbox 360 , mostly , I think , because it is easier for him . A higher quality of entertainment ? I would wager that to be open to individual interpretation .

Hi thehood!

It's wonderful to see you stopping by! We know that Frogwares is unusually responsive to PC adventure gamers, especially in terms of the flexibility of the interface. I believe you are the only developer who responded to adventure gamers' concerns by revamping previous games to allow both first person and third person perspectives.

It's easy to be anxious about PC ports because of past experience with other games -- Dreamfall, for instance, where the interface and frequent loading screens (in the PC version) were clearly a result of the game having been developed for consoles.

I think we PC adventure gamers suffer from PTXS (post-traumatic-Xbox-syndrome).

PXTS Becky ? That's funny !!

"Every game is a different experience, and we believe this is where Sherlock Holmes character is interesting, proposing different realities and point of views, still keeping this unique look and irony of the great detective."

YES !!

I really enjoy your Sherlock games and am very much looking forward to this next one - and am also very appreciative of the way in which you take account of player opinions

Thanks for the links, Carla! Looks fantastic!

Rushes, great job on the speech!!

Thehood, thanks so much for the info! I look forward to playing your game!!

I would agree ! It seems as though it is not too often that developers take account of player opinion !

I guess anything is fair game with Holmes considering Arthur Conan Doyle's attitude towards his character. He once told a playwrite who asked if he could have Holmes get married that he could marry him or murder him, he didn't care which. . Though if you follow Doyle's stories Holmes is supposed to retire to bee keeping and later have one last case just prior to WWI.

Agatha Christie got tired of Hercule Poirot too. Hmm I should do a google search see they ever made Curtain for television.

Carla, thanks so much for sharing! Cannot wait..
Rushes, Congratulations to you! Well done, friend.

After looking at this new trailer I find I like the new Holmes all right. The last shot looked a lot like Brett.
Interesting teaser!

It's natural that it is hard to understand. Here is the trick: doing adventure games for PC only, you are doing 19.99 USD product for people that have computer that are average 5-7 years old and even that old, they were mostly budget PC (you won't find more than a handful of adventure gamers spending 400 USD on their video card alone) therefore the theory that PC is more powerful than console is theoritically true, in theory:). The reality is that adventure games on PC (or casual games for that matter) have to be played on a series of 20 crappy PC which has the reputation of being the worst machine around, because of their complete inadequation between poor hardware and software. For this, you cannot have good graphics. Not that it is not necessary, you simply cannot hardwarly speaking (sorry for the strange word, being a foreigner my English is naturally limited).
Doing a game on the newest console (even if they are old now) you have to have excellent graphics and ergonomy that is replying to higher standards (MS and sony don't accept the games otherwise and their players too), therefore you end up with a nicer game made for an older platform. that is for the technics.

Now the business :you have to know that the publishers that were selling adventure games in the US were/are all crooks, (I won't name them, Mag won't be happy) and they therefore arrange that the minimum possible of royalties get to the developer or better nothing so it dies and publisher keep all the cash, then you'll understand that what we saw during 10 years was just the distribution system abusing creators on one end and gamers on the other. but games are no exception, tomatoes or underwear is just the same...
Doing games on console is the best way, today, to leverage more budget and propose better quality games, in almost all fields : graphics, gameplay,ergonomy, animations, scenery, QA and polish.

I agree with you, the good quality of a story has nothing to do with the budget of the game (Hollywood proves it every year with huge budget movies being totally boring).

I hope to prove with The testament, that Adventure games can be multimillion budget and for more people than nostalgic of lucasart titles as the "gaming industry" seem to see adventure players.

Becky I love your new syndrom, you need to patent it

To begin , thank you for coming to the forums ! It's not very often , that a developer will take the time to personally visit a forum to talk to the players themselves , or care one iota what the gamers think . Besides yourself , I can think of only a couple of developers who practice this .

Now , on to other things . I would like to know where you ascertained your information about how you need to base the graphics of an adventure game on an average five to seven year old mostly budget pc . I would wager that you are likely correct , but at the same time , I see that as a blanket statement to a degree , and also something done by choice , instead of necessity . I would also agree that there are not many adventure gamers spending large sums of money on their graphics cards , and likely will never , until they need to . As long as their older system can play the game , there is not much point in upgrading . Not that there is anything wrong with an older system . This goes back to your statement earlier , about older pc's . The gamers spending large sums on graphics cards , generally play other games besides adventures (fps & rpg games come to mind) . I am looking to upgrade my graphics card ( the card , or cards , I have in mind , are between $279 to $359 usd) , because I am in that section of gamers that play other games besides adventures , but that is just my preference . Am I saying that you have to cater to my whims ? Of course not , that would be completely silly ! To try to cater to a large spectrum , or the largest possible , must be a nightmare , & for that , I will tip my hat to you !

From what I understand , the Xbox 360 uses an ATI/AMD graphics solution , based on the X series . Several generations old , but still capable , & Sony uses , from what I understand , an Nvidia 7 series graphics solution . Again , several generations old (5 if I am not mistaken in my math) , but still capable . Catering to Sony & MS standards , another nightmare ! Again , I take my hat off to you !

I do like the analogy , about tomatoes and underwear ! Quite funny actually . Naming names of crooks , yes , Mag likely would not be too happy . As for what publishers are doing today , as opposed to ten years ago , things have likely not changed , not one iota . A couple of publishers come to mind . There is one publisher however , that seems to break that mold somewhat . Every business is in business to make money ,and those that don't make money are soon out of business . In that regard , I totally understand you wanting to bring your game to the console market ! It makes good financial sense ! On the other hand , holding a game to console standards , at least in graphics , is just wrong .

Don't even get me started on the garbage that Hollywood tries to push on us every year ! There are a few shining lights , but for the larges part , those lights are quite dim ! I suppose that what I am trying to convey , is that , there is , more often than not , so much lost in translation when porting a console game to pc standards , that it makes the game difficult to play , in some instances , to the point of the game being unplayable . I sincerely hope that , with Testament , you can show what you are capable of ! I am , very much , looking forward to playing Testament !

On a side note , is Testament far enough along in development , that any system requirements can be shared ?

TheHood,

There are still adventure gamers having the old video cards as stated by you but I believe they are dwindling in number though - especially with the changeover of the OS.
I understand the problems you have faced with publishing games here and also the piracy problems.
I hope and pray that the future holds an outstanding success for this major endeavor you have taken with Testament.
Thanks for posting


Creeping_Doom,

Additional food for thought statements.
Hope you're doing well. Thanks and

Thank you MaG ! I am doing well , and I hope that you are as well !

Well, we sold around 3 millions games, and 3-4 times more were pirated, that gives you the population of players that played our games.

Now around 1% of them write us because of technical/walkthrough problems, giving us their DXDIAG for some of them. Through the years is dozens of thousands of legitimate and non legitimate players that wrote us (we reply everyone)and we end up with players in 2011, playing with comps using Geforce4Mx from...2000. That's the museum part

The price comparison you are talking about represents the tiny part of the market (card of 279 USD... I even don't spend that myself...)
70% of the NEW PCs sold are sold with integrated video cards that have less capacities than Nvidia or Ati cards of...5 years ago. so theoritically PC are better, in practice, the PC population is weak, and weaker today than consoles, that are 5 years old....Laptops have the life cycle of a mobile phone, they are not supported with newer drivers and become from weak to obsolete in 18 months.
The spectrum between weak and powerful machines today is somehow 15 times bigger (and it already existed) than 15 years ago.


Bringing the Testament to consoles is not making sense financially, it wasn't made before to bring successful adventure games on console, so it's risky and financial people don't like to take risks (at least not with their own money), it's just what we want to make better a game and bring more players to a game that have the standard of quality they would expect.

The simple fact that one want to sell quality mature entertainment with deep interactions like hardcore games with mostly money in mind, doesn't make any sense, otherwise games would have become the industry big publishers wanted and it already failed...


About the specs, the game is not going to be playable on very weak comps, unlike our previous titles.

Congratulations on your sales figures ! A sad part though , is the amount of pirated games . i could list several reasons for pirating , but perhaps that is a discussion best left for another thread posting .

Geforce4mx ? That is old ! Ancient in the pc world to be exact . The price comparison I listed was indeed a small part of the graphics card market . As a matter of fact , what I quoted , was what I am comfortable in spending on a graphics card . My absolute limit is $400 , and even then , my credit card is crying! The figure you quoted (70% of new pc's with integrated video cards) , where did you ascertain that from ? I do not dispute that figure at all . That figure likely comes from pre manufactured pc's sold in stores . As to the onboard graphics being weak , or having less capacities , I totally agree ! I would also state that , the reason that those that buy "out of the box" pc's , either lack the understanding on how to build a custom pc , or they don't care , or see the benefits of a custom pc . To cater to that market is mind daunting I'm sure .

I found a couple of articles about console versus pc . While this may be non standard , it does make for rather interesting reading

1) Article 1
2) Article 2

I would agree on the spectrum between weak and powerful machines . Technology has come a long way in fifteen years !

While adventure games coming to consoles may not have been for financial gain in the beginning , I would state that it now does make sense to release an adventure game to console . The more people that are able to play the game , on whatever platform , the better . Not to mention , the better the financial picture . A better financial picture will make any "financial person" smile , especially the nervous type . I can only imaging attempting to acquire the financial means to develop and market a game . It must be a major headache !

I totally understand and respect your desire to bring your game to as many players as possible , with the highest quality possible . That makes total sense ! Have you thought of making Testament available on the digital platform , such as Steam or Direct2Drive ? Those are only a couple of examples that I listed . The benefit of a digital distribution , would be less production costs , and as a result , better return on investment .

Please make no mistake thehood , I am 100 percent behind you and your studio wanting to deliver the best possible game (Testament in this particular case) ! I have a difference of opinion on why you would base this game on the console platform instead of the pc platform this particular time around is all .

About the specs for Testament . What you listed is vague , but understandable I think . Would this be due to Testament not being fully developed as yet ?

Two intriguing articles -- thanks for the links. Isn't it strange that so much of the PC sales data is still "just guessing"? You'd think that computers and online distribution would make data easier to track, not harder.

No problem at all Becky ! As to why pc sales data is not tracked more closely , or not at all , I've no idea . I would only be guessing .

Well, you'd be in good company then!

Phew !!

After all that, I'm just hoping my "video card twice upgraded, 8 year old machine, running WinXP" will cope with this next Sherlock ....

Otherwise it will be

Mad , I would venture to say that , if you can run The Witcher decently , then running Testament will pose no problem ! The Witcher was the first game I thought of , so that is why I used it as a basis .

Is this turning into a thread on digital distribution? I suspect not. If it is, I'd have a reply for you about your opinion and Gameblogger's on using a client to activate a game.

Gil.

Of course not ! It was only suggested as a possible alternate form of distribution . I am not sure on what you would surmise it is my opinion ?

Frogwares' Sherlock Holmes games are already being digitally distributed. Frogwares sells them that way from their website, which links to http://frogwaresus.nexway.com/ They're also sold ***Here at The Adventure Shop***. Some of them are also at Big Fish. As far as I know, the Remastered version of Sherlock vs Arsene Lupin (with options for both 1st and 3rd person gameplay) is ONLY distributed digitally. At least I haven't been able to find a DVD version in English.

Of course Frogwares games are sold online, on Steam, BFG, gamesplanet, GoG, and dozens of other services,

But, the facts are so complex, that it's not what we can develop on this forum, it would take 3 hours of conference to begin to explain something, and then 18 more hours to go deep in the subtetly and the dark waters of the digital world

I don't think digital distribution is the panacea that certain web articles would have us believe. There are extra costs for hosting and support, you cut off any gamers without a fast Internet connection or who are charged extra by their ISP when they do large downloads, etc. Also any middleman, whether an online distributor or a hard copy publisher, is going to add their own costs and restrictions.

"Mad , I would venture to say that , if you can run The Witcher decently , then running Testament will pose no problem ! The Witcher was the first game I thought of , so that is why I used it as a basis."

I can run The Witcher - no problem - but not the Witcher II

Looks like another winner! Dr. Watson looks the same but Holmes looks different from the way he looked in previous games. Anyone else notice this or is just me?

Oh, yeah, I've noticed. And Watson looks very different in the video.

Gil.

They both look a bit different . Not that it is a negative !

Also, there's a new voice actor for Holmes. He's great. The same actor as for all the previous games continues as Watson.

I'm really disappointed to read that Rick Simmonds is not the voice actor for Holmes now. I hope I find the new actor 'great' too Rushes.

Teaser Trailer #2 is up!

Teaser Trailer #2

I can't wait for this game! Rushes

"Gentlemen, I don't wish you a good day." Holmes is choosing to be rude? Murder, I could maybe understand, but losing track of the importance of good manners?

Shuddering graemlin.

I believe that's another character saying that line, Becky.

Thank you Rushes, the game looks great & I can't wait for its release!

Thanks for the link, Rushes! Looking forward to this one!

Sure looks as if Holmes is being rude, Becky. I watched that bit 3 or 4 times and while there's no lip movement, who else could it be? He's the one who walked away...alone, after addressing 'gentlemen', plural.

Glad Watson is still Watson. Though who knows, they may send him off to darkest Africa in the next one and give murderous Holmes a sidekick like Mrs. Peel. Ah, those tight motorcycle leathers!

Gil.

Yes indeed! If anyone knows it would be Rushes!

If you watch & listen to the clip again, it's the chappie in the glasses who says the line. It's the way the dialogue is cut in with the action that makes it seem as though Holmes is saying the line.

Whew! At least Holmes is staying in character when it comes to the niceties! I'm really curious about how this all will end.