Penny Arcade push Fahrenheit ... and Bone ... and Adventure Gamers!

[After a brisk nap]

Penny Arcade (http://www.penny-arcade.com/) is an extremely popular video-game oriented webcomic. They also do an article for each comic strip, like a blog. Today's article is all about Indigo Prophecy. Tycho talks about how he played the demo, how great it plays, how the concept is cool, how it's got good reviews, and that he's pre-ordered it. A pretty glowing recommendation, in other words.

Ensconced by monitors, with an awareness of gaming news that borders on omniscience, I can't express how exciting it has been to stumble upon a genuine surprise.PA has a huge readership, and a lot of credibility with gamers. I don't know that this will secure big sale figures (they've also been quietly hyping Psychonauts, and that doesn't seem to have had much of an effect), but it certainly can't hurt.

Having finally got around to playing the demo, I have to agree with them. Fahrenheit looks neat. I like the fact that the game takes advantage of the rumble thingy in my game pad. Good work, quantic dudes!

[Owskie]

if people dont know what penny arcade is...
they have indeed been living under a rock
and we definatley under no circumstances should disturb them
they are probably playing *myst*
eww, just let them be... ok?

as for penny arcade, they were my inspiration for writing comics, now just to find a person who can draw, or at least scribble...

[After a brisk nap]

Heheh. The careful explanation of PA was maybe a bit patronizing, but I wouldn't assume that everyone on AG Forums are gamers. Penny Arcade continued hyping the game today:

On Wednesday, I was fairly circumspect in my discussion of Indigo Prophecy, because while I wanted you to try it, I wanted you to experience it as cleanly as possible in every other respect. So, I didn't go into how the director introduces the game himself, or how when you hide the murder weapon the camera dramatically pans into the next room so when you come back as the detective there's actually a mystery, or how Indigo Prophecy has the most robust blood-mopping engine available today. Their demo had the intended effect, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Look for it on PC, Xbox, and PS2 come the 21st.

I could go on like this for a couple days. I might, in fact.(My emphasis.)

Very cool! Even some good promotional quotes. Do they put reviewers' quotes on game boxes?

When I played the demo, mopping the floor didn't seem to have any effect. Did I miss something?

[Fop]

You can't expect to get ahead in this life without making an effort, kid. (scrub some more).

[Boneho Chane]

I hope it sells and well and everything, but I also hope that it's third-person shooter diguise doesn't throw new-comers off about the genre.

[Fop]

What third person shooter disguise?

[Legolas813]

I don't think anyone is mistaking this game for a shooter. Why would you think that?

[insane_cobra]

I don't think anyone is mistaking this game for a shooter. Why would you think that? Maybe because of this? (http://forums.adventuregamers.com/showpost.php?p=181857&postcount=4)

I didn't know Fahrenheit was an adventure game? I thought it was a shooter with a story like Half Life...

[Catbert]

That's nice. Pity that Penny Arcade isn't funny, but nice nonetheless.

[Legolas813]

No, not all of them, but I get a good laugh from time to time.

[FuriousDonut]

Im at the part where u are in the sleazy motel and u have to call your brother. But when I call I lose 60 points from my mood and I die. Is the only way to pass this is to have enough mood so that when you lose 60 points you wont die? or is there another way? Thanks in advance.

[Richard]

Im at the part where u are in the sleazy motel and u have to call your brother. But when I call I lose 60 points from my mood and I die. Is the only way to pass this is to have enough mood so that when you lose 60 points you wont die? or is there another way? Thanks in advance.

You are rescuing him, right? You have to send him to go and answer the phone, as opposed to getting him killed by the Oracle

[After a brisk nap]

I don't know. Penny Arcade often makes me smile, and on occasion I've been known to guffaw.

A few days ago (http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php?date=2005-09-26), Penny Arcade's Tycho provided a bookend to their Indigo Promo campaign:

I've beaten Indigo Prophecy now, I have a couple endings under my belt, and on the whole the game is something I can recommend without discomfort.

I know people who have obtained an overseas version because they can't do without the interactive sex scenes that were flensed from our localized offering. I'm okay without it. I don't have faith that I could make such a scene endure for longer than a couple minutes, anyway. I don't need to haul that kind of anxiety into the digital realm.

Short of two very specific "stealth" scenes which feature "gameplay" that is far, far outside the charter described by the rest of the experience, and indeed may be far outside the developer's ability to execute it, there's a lot of what one might call juice in this game. Unfortunately, the storytelling near the end is terribly abrupt, which is only brought into greater relief against the sure-footed delivery of the earlier chapters. The writing could have been tighter in places, and tense scenes are sometimes made frustrating when the camera angle shifts but the controls don't follow.

Note that I still emerged from the experience satisfied: I say these things in the hope that, should their efforts be rewarded by Indigo Prophecy, we can see something else from them that pushes their cinteractive media experiments forward. They can use that word on the box if they want. Or I can make up another one. It's easy for me, I'm a writer.So are they done providing free publicity to adventure games? No they're not! From today's post (http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php?date=2005-09-30):

Bone (http://www.boneville.com/whatisbone/) is a fairly well-known comic from what I understand, which is to say that every person I know is familiar with it but me. It's a worrisome deficiency I'm told, and many people have offered to resolve it. In any case, it's being turned into a series of adventure games by a company called Telltale (http://www.telltalegames.com/home), with the first available now and the next one maybe five months out. It's one of those games you "unlock," but you can download it (http://www.telltalegames.com/products?pc=bn0102) and get a feel for it before they hit you up. There is a great sort of interview/article thing on it here (http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,555/), at Adventure Gamers.With a neat-o link to Adventure Gamers!

[After a brisk nap]

Damn, why can't I edit the thread title? It's my thread, dammit!

[pinkgothic]

Damn, why can't I edit the thread title? It's my thread, dammit!

I'm not sure - maybe because people have already replied? :) Just a guess, though. Or did it end up working?

[fov]

Damn, why can't I edit the thread title? It's my thread, dammit!

That option becomes unavailable after a certain amount of time, I think. Not sure why.

I'll rename it. What do you want it to say?

[After a brisk nap]

Something like "Penny Arcade push Fahrenheit ... and Bone ... and Adventure Gamers!"

[fov]

Something like "Penny Arcade push Fahrenheit ... and Bone ... and Adventure Gamers!"

Can't argue with that! (And not just because I have a vested interest in the article they linked to... :P)

[pleto4_ryan]

Actually Gabe has also made a remark, some week prior, of why people don't buy Psychonauts a lot. Not adventure...but i sure liked it. :)

[Marek]

I think Psychonauts was referenced only once on PA before that, along the lines of "oh yeah I like this game" and that was it. PA hasn't hyped that game really :) But it's good they approve of Fahrenheit.

[After a brisk nap]

I think it's been mentioned a few times in passing. I remember Tycho pointed out that Gabe was playing it, and mentioned how he himself tends to get obsessive about collecting absolutely every single "treasure" in games like this.

[mszv]

I appreciate the careful description of Penny Arcade - thanks.

When I read it I enjoy it, but most of the time I forget to go to it. I sometimes find their grumpiness to be rather endearing.