goldenlion
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I played through this game again recently. How do I love this game?

I listen to the soundtrack in my car. Almost daily.

I researched the Internet rumor about Tim Burton being interested in making a movie (false, unfortunately.)

I enjoy talking in Salvador Limones' accent from time to time.

I also like whipping out "We'll soar like eagles. Eagles on POGO STICKS!!!" in everyday conversation. (There are more good quotes in this game than in Monty Python's Holy Grail. Seriously.)

I'm going to start looking for each and every one of Tim Schafer's games because of Grim Fandango. (I don't know why I haven't done this sooner.)

I try and get anyone who has a marginal interest in computer games to play this. Seriously, LucasArts produced some great games over the years... however, this game beat out Half-Life for '98 Game of the Year in a lot of gaming publications, and most of you are familiar with that one. Grim Fandango is fantastic. If you haven't played it yet, well -- you know what to do.

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zex20913
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For a Tim Schafer game...PLAY PSYCHONAUTS. Own this game. You will not regret it.

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eytanz
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Both Grim Fandango and Psychonauts are among my favourite games, ever.

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NiroZ
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goldenlion says
I try and get anyone who has a marginal interest in computer games to play this. Seriously, LucasArts produced some great games over the years... however, this game beat out Half-Life for '98 Game of the Year in a lot of gaming publications, and most of you are familiar with that one. Grim Fandango is fantastic. If you haven't played it yet, well -- you know what to do.

WHAT! WOW!
Didn't Half Life recive over 50 GOTY's? how many did Grim Fandago get?

eytanz
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I don't think that's actually true - with the exception of Gamespot's GOTY, which it won over Half Life, I think it mostly won "Adventure game of the year" awards.

Still, that doesn't diminish its brilliance.

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goldenlion
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NiroZ wrote:
WHAT! WOW!
Didn't Half Life recive over 50 GOTY's? how many did Grim Fandango get?

Well, I doubt it was over 50; Half-Life was very popular. Don't forget that Baldur's Gate, Starcraft and Thief: Dark Project all came out in 1998 as well. Probably the best year in PC game history, honestly. In other words, "a lot" may be creative license.

Anyway, the most prominent award Grim Fandango won was the Gamespot Game of the Year award. I also remember seeing GotY awards for the game in some magazines way back in the day, although I couldn't tell you which those were right off hand.

Anyway, it's definitely a fantastic game.

____________________________
'Remember what the poet Shakespeare said, Jeeves.'
'What was that, sir?'
'"Exit hurriedly, pursued by a bear." You'll find it in one of his plays.'

---

[Last edited by goldenlion at 10-24-2006 04:59 AM]

Kargach
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NiroZ wrote:
WHAT! WOW!
Didn't Half Life recive over 50 GOTY's? how many did Grim Fandago get?

I know Gamespot gave it GOTY, but I don't know of anyone else who did. (Besides me personally of course. >8)

Oneiromancer
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Grim Fandango is probably my favorite adventure game, although Loom is very very close. I usually play Grim over again every few years, but I don't have Loom anymore, sadly.

And I wholeheartedly agree that Psychonauts is one of the most underrated games, ever. As a platformer it is above average (collecting things increases your power instead of just unlocking the way forward, which is nice) but the writing and humor is unbeatable. And the Lungfishopolis and Milkman levels are more than worth the price of admission...sheer genius and nonstop hilarity! If only the final circus level wasn't so stupidly frustrating I wouldn't have anything to complain about.

Game on,

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Mattcrampy
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The problem with Psychonauts is that it is two acts, divided by Lungfishopolis, and the first act is good but not great.

Thorney Towers, however, is sheer unmitigated awesome. Black Velvetopia is my favourite game space ever, even over Hillys from BG&E, just in the way the level design is used to tell Edgar's story. There's moments of greatness before Lungfishopolis, but that's the point where they get the 'teach you how to play' out of the way and start going after the concept they started the game with, which is really too bad. And they really did need more than three enemies - I think DROD is a model in enemy diversity in many ways, as there's very few games that manage to give all their enemies a purpose other than graphics diversity.

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Krissan
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I might make myself impopular by saying this, but I don't really feel that Grim Fandango is that great. I think part of the problem was that I didn't play it till very recently, and the reason I played it was that I'd heard so extremely much good about it.

Sure enough, it's a very good game, quite easily in the top ten list of adventure games, but I don't find it as the be all end all of electronic gaming as fans of the game often try to paint it as.

I'll give it this though;


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goldenlion
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Krissan wrote:
I might make myself impopular by saying this, but I don't really feel that Grim Fandango is that great.

I'm curious -- what are your favorite games in Grim Fandango's genre?

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'What was that, sir?'
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NiroZ
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goldenlion wrote:

Krissan wrote:
I might make myself impopular by saying this, but I don't really feel that Grim Fandango is that great.

I'm curious -- what are your favorite games in Grim Fandango's genre?

Well I don't know about Krissan, but I quite enjoyed the Monkey Island series(and the Legend of Kyrandia), but Grim Fandango never really grabbed me. The control scheme was too wonky and I had no clue how to find that form. Normally I would have persisted, but the two combined just threw me off.

eytanz
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Yeah, the interface in Grim Fandango was really irritating. And unfortunately, the plot builds up pretty slowly for a while; it's really on the first chapter transition that the game really became engrossing to me (the end-of-chapter movie is still probably one of my top 3 computer-game related moments ever).

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Krissan
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goldenlion wrote:

Krissan wrote:
I might make myself impopular by saying this, but I don't really feel that Grim Fandango is that great.

I'm curious -- what are your favorite games in Grim Fandango's genre?

I like most of LucasArts games, especially Monkey Island (I & II in particular), Sam & Max, Day of the Tentacle, The Dig, etc. Including other companies, I'll have to mention Simon the Sorcerer, Police Quest series and Dreamweb.

If I'd have to choose one single adventure game that's my favourite, I think I'd go with the original Police Quest I, but that is merely based on personal memories (english isn't my native language, and I basically learned english with the help of a dictionnary and the will to beat the game when I was about 8-9 years old).


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Jatopian
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I've never played Monkey Island... I have the demo somewhere, but that's it. The way you all speak of it makes me feel somehow... bereft.

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Oneiromancer
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Monkey Island is also amazingly awesome, but Grim Fandango feels much more alive to me. It doesn't break the 4th wall nearly as much, which is fine sometimes, but kind of lowers the "quality" slider for me.

I played all 3 Kyrandia games and I thought that they were okay, but most of the puzzles (especially in the 1st and 3rd ones) were just too unfair. Worse than King's Quest, even. I'd definitely rate Space Quest higher, although I'm sure they could be said to be unfair too. I just didn't mind as much then.

Game on,

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"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Krissan
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Oneiromancer wrote:
but Grim Fandango feels much more alive

Have a rank point

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[Last edited by Krissan at 10-24-2006 11:52 PM]

Oneiromancer
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Haha, I didn't even realize the inherent contradiction there at first. But I still stand by it.

Game on,

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Banjooie
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Worse than King's Quest, even.

this cannot be possible

no puzzles are more obscure or ridiculous than anything you find in a king's quest game

details sir

Mattcrampy
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I played an adventure game once where you had to use a fish as a key. In an otherwise ordinary door.

It was made by Cliff Blezinski, too, so he hasn't always been a rockstar game designer.

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DiMono
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Grim Fandango is easily my favourite adventure game. I was actually talking to my girlfriend about it the other day. I want to play through it again with her on Hallowe'en, but I don't think it's going to happen.

I really like the game's concept, too, and the way it handles the appearance of the world of the living. Someone also turned the computer in the game in to a BSoD display, but I can't find it online right now. I'll upload it to my server when I get home and link it.

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DiMono
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Blondbeard
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Heh! Cool! Just when I'm sitting and listening to the Grim Fandango soundtrack I find this thread I too love this game, but for some reason I like Monkey Island 3 even more. It might be partly due to nostalgic resons, but I also really, really enjoy the graphics there (and the story, and the puzzles).

MartianInvader
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I love both Grim Fandango and Curse of Monkey Island. They have very different atmospheres (one's silly and entertaining while the other has a more serious, world-exploring kind of feel). The puzzles in the two games are about the same in terms of cleverness, fun, and difficulty. But I've got to say I like Monkey Island a little more, just because of the awkward control scheme in Grim Fandango. They put that system into Secret of Monkey Island, too, making (in my opinion) a way worse game. I wish that when they went 3D they had just changed the graphics but kept the old mouse-based interface.

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DiMono
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I actually didn't mind the controls for Grim Fandango at all. As soon as I found out how to switch from camera perspective movement to Manny perspective movement, it was pretty easy for me.

I'm re-installing this tonight to play tomorrow. I am also conveniently working from home tomorrow. Imagine that...

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Mattcrampy
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DiMono wrote:
I'm re-installing this tonight to play tomorrow. I am also conveniently working from home tomorrow. Imagine that...

You're working from home tonight? I find that hard to believe!

I'm tempted to do the same thing though. The reinstalling Grim Fandango, not the working from home thing.

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Stephen4Louise
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I've DRODed worked from home quite a lot recently, but as I am usually in an office on my own it's actually not that different from being at work.

I have my daughter playing through my Monkey Island collection at the minute. She loved the first two and fourth one, but she can't get into MI3. Once she gets though it, I'll try her on Grim Fandango. All great games by the way.

Steve

DiMono
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I've discovered that Grim Fandango isn't a fan of Windows XP. When I tried to run it, it refused to go beyond the initial load page and then crapped back out to my desktop. Here's what I had to do to fix it:

Edit the registry.

I went to HKLM\Software\LucasArts Entertainment\Grim\1.0 (some items in that path may be slightly incorrect, I don't have regedit open right now) and added the following string value:

good_times - TRUE

It actually lets you run the game in debug mode, but for some reason it also allowed me to ...run the game. I'm still experiencing random crashes, but I haven't turned on Compatibility mode yet. If there's interest I'll let you know the result.

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Mattcrampy
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I think I'm running MI3 through ScummVM.

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NiroZ
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Mattcrampy wrote:
I think I'm running MI3 through ScummVM.

huh? I didn't need scummvm to run MI3. For 1 and 2 yes, but not 3 i didn't think.