Retrospective: Grim Fandango

Neil79

Neil79

Neil79

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It's only fitting that Grim Fandango takes place in the Land of the Dead, because in hindsight it represents something of a eulogy for the declining adventure genre. LucasArts' penultimate adventure game (its swansong was the anticlimactic Escape From Monkey Island) may well be its best. It helped cement director Tim Schafer as something of a superstar, prone to appear on late-night talk shows and host awards ceremonies despite Grim Fandango and his biggest games (Psychonauts, Brutal Legend) being commercial failures. Before we were all swayed by open worlds, 3D combat, and an influx of shooters, Grim Fandango proved that there's still some life left in those dusty bones.
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http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-05-retrospective-grim-fandango
 
Grim Fandango is my my favourite game ever. I love it and I don't think a better, more original and unique story has been seen in gaming since.

I'm sure it's relatively unheard of by many of the young people here, but it was good enough to be crowned 1998 game of the year by gamespot. Against Half-Life and StarCraft.

http://uk.gamespot.com/features/awards1998/gameofyear.html (Old page that doesn't draw properly, highlight the text to read it).
 
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I'm a big fan too, played it many times over the years. I'm sure every now and then they consider making a movie - given the right people behind it it would be superb.
 
I've just worked my way through Monkey Island 1 & 2 and now on 3, 'The Curse of Monkey Island'. Its the same era as Grim Fandango and in my opinion a stunning game.

Loved Grim when I played it the first time round. Always thought about giving it another go.

The Monkey Island games have gone through a resurgence the past few years with Special Edition remakes and the new Tales of Monkey Island, I only hope Grim has similar interest coming its way.
 
started it once but never finished it, same with the Sam and Max episodes.

I do love these sorts of games, proper value for money. No finishing them in 4-5 hours like the latest CoD games.

Original monkey island on the amiga 1200 took a good 4-5 months to finish.
 
Always flirted with the idea of playing it, but never got around to it. So I agree with this:

the biggest crime of all is that it isn't available on Steam or GOG. Just because Grim Fandango is about the dead, that doesn't mean it should stay buried.
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Really been meaning to pick this up for ages but never got round to it. Just found a place selling it for £1.99. I take it that it is unlikely to work on Win7 64?
 
PapaLazaru said:
Really been meaning to pick this up for ages but never got round to it. Just found a place selling it for £1.99. I take it that it is unlikely to work on Win7 64?
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Actually it does, you can get fixes/launchers for it:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/239339/how_to_play_grim_fandango_on_your_windows_7_pc.html
http://www.gaminglives.com/forums/showthread.php/710-How-To-Run-Grim-Fandango-In-Windows-7

So it can be done.

Can I ask where you saw it for that price?
 
PapaLazaru said:
Sent you a trust message. Website looks a little low-budget but for £1.99 payable through Paypal I am thinking it is worth the risk.
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Thanks very much sir, seems OK, I got all the emails saying order placed/paid for. But as you say for that price who cares, defo worth a punt.

Thanks :D
 
Such a great game. I still have my original copy - big box edition with cardboard disc sleeves - and I tried playing it again last year. Got it installed with a 3rd party launcher but it just wouldn't respond once loaded. Gutted.
 
It's a tremendous game, has to be in my top 5 easily. The graphics really haven't aged well unfortunately but the gameplay is as brilliant as it always was.

Sadly the comment about it being the end of the adventure genre is very true. Whilst the recent Monkey Island games seem to have been well received, they're an extension of an existing concept, and there hasn't been anything quite on the GF scale since then - most new titles seem to exist only in the indie sector.

I haven't paid more than £18 for a new release game for as many years as I can remember. If GF was released now, remastered, would I pay full whack for it? You bet, and then some.
 
I remember this game caused my Diamond Viper TNT graphics card to overheat and prompted me to fix a 40mm fan to the passive heat sink just to get it to play without locking up. This was my first ever instance of "modding" something. Fond memories all round.
 
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