Grim Fandango Remake - A revival for adventure games?

Soldato
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I know this is triggered from a piece of news from E3, but given the genre is firmly routed on the PC, this seemed the right place to put it.

For those of you that aren't aware, it was confirmed at E3 that Grim Fandango is being remastered and released on the PS4 (and Vita). I know there is hinting that it will also be on the PC, but we'll see if that happens.

Anyways, that's the background for my thread, not the topic.

In terms of the motive behind this, I'm wondering if this is maybe a sign that with all the graphical advancement in latest hardware, but arguably (in the majority of cases) little content revolution to grab interest, that publishers are maybe looking back at games where story is paramount.

I suspect most people could count on less than two hands the number of new titles they've played in the last 5 (10?) years that really grabbed them from a story perspective (ok, maybe an exaggeration, but you get my point).

So, I reckon that lays out the question broadly enough, what do you guys think? Any significance to the revival of something reknowned for its story rather than its gameplay or graphics?
 
I'd certainly like to see a revival of decent story led games, while Grim Fandango wasn't really my thing it certainly was intriguing and other games like Deus Ex drew me in due to the story.
 
forget older games, if more devs took a leaf out of naughty dog's books it'd be an improvement, i watched a set of playthroughs of the last of us [didnt even get the gameplay enjoyment] and the story was utterly fantastic.

there does need to be more games with long, decent single player campaigns though, multiplayer is ok but i refuse to basically train up just to be able to enjoy playing a game.

also, more co-op games, where you can both enjoy the game/plot and enjoy playing with mates.
 
Just as important as the story though is getting the control system right - nothing worse for breaking the immersion of an otherwise top game like when your struggling just to perform basic actions seamlessly.
 
Just as important as the story though is getting the control system right - nothing worse for breaking the immersion of an otherwise top game like when your struggling just to perform basic actions seamlessly.

i agree, arma series i am unashamedly calling you on being the definition of this issue.
 
I never got a chance to play Grim Fandango. I played the Monkey Island games, but this gem slipped me by back in the day. I bought a copy of it a while back, but I could never get it to run on my last PC. I don't know if I even still have the game or if it got lost somewhere.

Will be looking forward to it coming to the PC again, so I can finally give it a go :)
 
would be pretty silly not releasing it on pc since grim fandango was pc exclusive back in the day.
isn't this going to be a rather niche audience remake like most other adventure game come backs recently though? broken sword, tex murphy gabriel knight/monkey island remakes. it will be popular among fans of the genre but i doubt it will garner mass appeal.
 
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Adventure games have been enjoying a revival for the last 5 years now.
Unless you mean to truly break back into the mainstream. I would say only The Walking Dead can make that claim amongst the recent games.
Grim Fandango truly is a lovely game in terms of story, characters & setting, although the old controls & crazy difficulty of some puzzles work against it.
I'm sure the remaster will come to pc soon enough.
 
The controls make a lot more sense on a gamepad than they do on a keyboard (despite it being a pc title as the movement is relative to the character not the screen. The only puzzle I remember hating was the one where you're in the car and then have to use an object as a compass to locate the exit (kept vague to avoid spoilers).

I think where some mechanics might struggle now is the prescriptive nature of the use of some objects to fulfill puzzles, when logic might dictate there are other options. Gamers have become used to more freedom, so addressing that might be a challenge.
 
I love these kind of games, one that i just remembered the other day was Simon The Sorcerer

Ended up flipping through a 3 hour walk through video after that post - I'd forgotten how utterly bizarre that game was even down to the dancing demons at the end.

Sadly games like that, twin world, monkey island, etc. probably had something a bit stronger than coffee stimulating the game design.
 
Adventure games are still alive and well, just not as mainstream as they used to. The success of the Double Fine Kickstarter shows that there is an audience out there for a good adventure game.

One thing this has highlighted is the problem gaming has with accessing and playing older games. The very first CD you ever bought is still playable today, but games from the early 90's either are not available or very hard to run on newer hardware. We are in a danger of loosing the ability to play a lot of these classics as bringing them up to date is a costly affair.

I for one cannot wait to play Grim in its HD glory.
 
I hope they do as good a job as Lucas Arts did with the Monkey Island 1 and 2 remakes. I loved Grim Fandango back in the day and I would love to see a remake if they can improve the graphics and controls, and leave the soundtrack, voice acting and puzzles alone.
 
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