What's with the sudden influx of assholes? Is it a holiday weekend that I didn't know about?

So they seriously expect people to buy this game for US$ 19.99 when it's going to sell for US$ 4.99 around Halloween or Christmas at the very latest (knowing Valve's history of fucking people in the ass who buy early)? Really? Well, anyone that dumb deserves to go out of business. I'm not buying this shit until it's part of a Steam sale cuz I'm not into anal and all outta lube, too!

I really enjoyed Amnesia, as well as the Penumbra games before it.

The control scheme is one of my favorite things about it - it allows for a level of control that I wish all games had. Like, in Crysis, you could pick up all kinds of stuff, but you couldn't do much with that stuff. You could hit with it, throw it or drop it. You couldn't stack it, or rotate it, or pose it, or gently nudge it off a cliff. Garry's Mod and Trespasser are the only comparisons.


But yeah, great stuff. A lot of fun and some good scares! I did a playthrough of it and thoroughly enjoyed the time spent. :3

If the game was good enough it would sell well...this one is not. Reminds me of that horrible movie loved by internet geeks called Pilgrim. It bombed because it blows.

Well, when one of the best PC games to come out in years gets released, PC gamers go buy console ports then bitch about said ports and not having real PC gamers, all the while Amnesia is right next to them begging to be bought as one of the few real PC games to come out in years.

I often feel PC gamers do get what they deserve, and that is all the shit in the world when all they do is whine and bitch but when it comes to actually put the money where their mouth is they simply don't care.

yuastnav wrote on Sep 19, 2010, 14:40:
Hah, I completely disagree.
Those games had decent, in fact very good interfaces.
It took some getting used to but it wasn't very hard or challenging, just took a little bit of time.

Well, you are entitled to your opinion.

I thought they were unresponsive kludge-fests.

IMO, there should be no "You have to get used to it" when there are hundreds of standardized FPS / FPRPG games that you "don't have to get used to the controls".

I'm talking basic movement and/or combat controls, here... not individualized things in games like "which key opens your inventory". I'm also not talking about UI as far as the graphical representation of how "the inventory" looks. But I may be referring to how you interact with said inventory (depending on the game).

This is one of the best releases all year. This thing is a piece of art... though I feel that if the developer goes bankrupt - it is on their shoulders. Five guys who I would believe are making some profit off of this game at this point, if they aren't reinvesting in themselves might go bankrupt - on purpose. But, still... this game is worth buying. It's truly amazing.

[VG]Reagle wrote on Sep 19, 2010, 14:03:
Another sob story by a publisher making a crap game. Wahhhhaaaaaahha, my dark game where you cant even shoot someone in and have to sneak around like a little bitch ... no one will buy. I wonder why?

Out of BUSINESS is where your going. ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!

BTW wheres the free torrent ??

I feel you're holding back. Be open, show us your true feelings. This can't be all of it. Don't hold back!

@topic
It's just not my genre. I've posted it before in another thread: I just cannot accept that once I brought down one of the dogs in "Penumbra", I would not be allowed to smash its head. Why wasn't I allowed to do it? Because the developers wouldn't let me. That's where I got so angry that I uninstalled the game and never looked back. Yes, it's no shooter, I know, but at least give the player the chance to finish off the "unconscious" zombie dog. Therefore: no buy for me, but I do understand that this "survival horror genre" has its fans, but there are only a few, as the sales numbers show.

I've always intended to buy this but I have too many other games going at the moment, including Penumbra (I'm a bit late to the party).

I'd hate to see Frictional go out of business. I guess I might pick it up sooner rather than later now, which may or may not be the reason for the post-mortem.

If they decided to raise the price I'd still be happy to pay unless it was outrageous.

wtf_man wrote on Sep 19, 2010, 14:31:
I've played the Penumbra Demo. Although it was a bit interesting, I didn't buy it because of the control scheme, but I may change my mind due to the bundled pricing... not a bad deal, even if I can't stand the controls.

I also have the Amnesia demo, but I haven't had a chance to install it yet. Although people say it's a good game, if the control scheme sucks again... then I don't know what I'll do.

I really want to support Indie Devs... it seems to be our last bastion for non-consolized crap. But Damn... learn how to make an interface that is worth a shit, PLEASE!

It seems like Indies and Europeans can't make a UI to save their lives! (Euro titles being things like Aquanox, Arx, Gothic Series, etc. etc. - All have shit controls - Arx being the least messed up)

Hah, I completely disagree.
Those games had decent, in fact very good interfaces.
It took some getting used to but it wasn't very hard or challenging, just took a little bit of time.

tony wrote on Sep 19, 2010, 14:33:

[VG]Reagle wrote on Sep 19, 2010, 14:03:
Another sob story by a publisher making a crap game. Wahhhhaaaaaahha, my dark game where you cant even shoot someone in and have to sneak around like a little bitch ... no one will buy. I wonder why?

Out of BUSINESS is where your going. ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!

BTW wheres the free torrent ??

Wow.

Well, obvious troll is obvious. :\

[VG]Reagle wrote on Sep 19, 2010, 14:03:
Another sob story by a publisher making a crap game. Wahhhhaaaaaahha, my dark game where you cant even shoot someone in and have to sneak around like a little bitch ... no one will buy. I wonder why?

Out of BUSINESS is where your going. ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!

BTW wheres the free torrent ??

Wow.

I've played the Penumbra Demo. Although it was a bit interesting, I didn't buy it because of the control scheme, but I may change my mind due to the bundled pricing... not a bad deal, even if I can't stand the controls.

I also have the Amnesia demo, but I haven't had a chance to install it yet. Although people say it's a good game, if the control scheme sucks again... then I don't know what I'll do.

I really want to support Indie Devs... it seems to be our last bastion for non-consolized crap. But Damn... learn how to make an interface that is worth a shit, PLEASE!

It seems like Indies and Europeans can't make a UI to save their lives! (Euro titles being things like Aquanox, Arx, Gothic Series, etc. etc. - All have shit controls - Arx being the least messed up)

I downloaded the demo and definitely felt like I was playing Trespasser. It took me a few minutes to realize that the door I was clicking on wasn't locked. I started having to swing the mouse in a wide arc to open doors. Unnecessary. It serves zero purpose.

I played the demo up until the invisible water monster. Really dug the atmosphere, wasn't so much into how much the camera wobbles around (I know it's part of the atmosphere, but it was making me dizzy), and just didn't like this part of the game. Jumping from crate to crate wasn't much fun.

Overall I think it's one of the best examples of a genre I'm just not overly huge into. Without having come across a reason to actually require the Trespasser-esque controls, it was enough to turn me away from the full version. I'd highly recommend it to anyone into this kind of game, though.

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Sep 19, 2010, 13:05:
I played Penumbra: Overture, one of their earlier games, and I was really, really pissed off at the control scheme for moving objects in 3d.

Amnesia looked graphically much improved, but very similar to the Penumbra series, so I didn't buy it or even try the demo yet. I was hoping to get used to the 3d control scheme enough in Penumbra to not totally cloud my opinion of Amnesia.

To me, the manipulation system feels more responsive than Overture - I don't think I've found it to be frustrating in Amnesia at all. You also don't need to rotate many objects to complete puzzles or try to kill dogs with a hammer, so it's mostly tossing crates around, opening doors and drawers, etc.

As far as graphics go, the textures can be a bit cartoonish and the poly counts low, but the lighting effects (EDIT: which are much improved over their past games) are where the engine excels, so it sort of balances out in the middle.

Yes, it IS a similar style of game to Overture and uses a similar control system, but much more effort has been put into the storyline and presentation. They really ramp up the disturbing factor in this one! You should at least give the demo a shot to see if if feels any better to you (especially before lecturing Frictional about it).

Personally, while i enjoyed Frictional's earlier releases, I found the Amnesia demo to be OK but not mind blowing or anything, also it was very short. I just didn't feel compelled this time to pick up the full game, probably in part due to being burnt recently with release day purchases.

Another sob story by a publisher making a crap game. Wahhhhaaaaaahha, my dark game where you cant even shoot someone in and have to sneak around like a little bitch ... no one will buy. I wonder why?

Out of BUSINESS is where your going. ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!

BTW wheres the free torrent ??

I don't know what 3D Realms has to do with it. They basically remade DNF from scratch around 5 times. Indie or not, that's bankruptcy.

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Sep 19, 2010, 13:05:
I am still debating whether or not to get it, but I have to ask, is EVERY company aside from Blizzard basically about to fail if their game doesn't sell X million copies the first week? What is wrong with this industry?

Yes, if they aren't huge companies like EA/activision, generally game companies live release to release (just like most people live paycheck to paycheck). Even companies that release successful titles like Looking Glass (system shock and thief among others) went out of business. Look at introversion, they released the game darwinia and a few others and they nearly went under. This is also one reason why games are often rushed out. The dev has spent nearly all of their money, and can't afford to hold it back another month or two for polish. Its either release now, or close down. Another reason is the publisher is pressuring the devs because they are jerks.

3drealms went under since they put all their eggs in 1 basket, DNF. If they would have put a few people into casual game programming and made another few commander keen games (even if they didn't have the best graphics), and perhaps a few more side scrollers for duke, I bet they could have survived. I'm a fan of the keen games, I would have paid money for that. I mean look at popcap, I love the plants vs zombies game, but its not like its the latest graphics (max res is a paltry 800x600 as I recall), and they were raking in millions even before that game.

Indie companies where the devs have other jobs, and they are mostly doing it as a hobbie usually survive since they have another job just in case.

Frictional should do what Introversion did: partner with Steam for a big promotional event. Yes, I know Amnesia is already available on Steam...I'm talking about a specific marketing push designed to beef up sales. Like Introversion did with Darwinia and Defcon.

I mean, you'd think you can't go wrong with a $20 game but who knows? Maybe a higher price point would have provided a different psychological effect:

"for $20, I must not be getting very much"

versus

"$30 is 20 bucks cheaper than most other games, so maybe I'll give it a try."

As for myself, I do not enjoy survival horror games much at all, so I'm the wrong market altogether.

I think a console port would be very difficult given the need to quickly manipulate objects in the environment. That kind of fast accuracy can only really be accomplished with the mouse. They would need to make some potentially unacceptable design changes to accommodate gamepads.

In terms of the sales, its a niche title. I'm not sure what exactly they were hoping for from an extremely disturbing horror game without any traditional advertising behind it. I bought my copy on Steam and I'm happy with it but I won't pretend this is the kind of game my little cousin can play like say TF2 or something.