Unofficial Tex Murphy

Which is another reason why I think this is the perfect time to reintroduce Tex Murphy to the new Generations... With all the Shoot It, Blow It Up games out there, I think Tex would be turning everyone's head...


Sad... You don't see kids playing outside much anymore... The worse punishment my parents could do to me, when I was a kid, was make me stay inside... Nowadays, sending your kids outside is the punishment...
And just about everything they play is either sports or KAABBOOOOM.. lol

The sad truth behind that is that's what sells most. Most gamers will put story and character development as second to graphics and sound. That's just the way it's headed which is real shame. Games have so much more potential than that. I'm beginning to think that maybe in another 10 years, the 2000-2010 era will be looked upon as "well, they made some great advances, but they still had a lot to learn."

It sells most because there aren't a whole lot of other choices out there... You've got kids games, then you've got sports, then you've got Blow 'Em Up... There isn't much in the middle to choose from anymore... Sure there are a few here and there, but not many...

Very true also! In fact, if ever there is a detailed story, it seems to just imitate other games. At the moment there seems to be a trend to set games in post-apocalyptic worlds or alternate universes which have poor lighting. But your point (Bafitis) about the lack of variety is spot on. Lets rewind 10 years:

In 1998, I could have purchased:

- The Last Express
- Quake 2
- Unreal
- Need for SPeed
- Blade Runner
- Grim Fandango

We were spoiled for choice in the 90's. That was the epitome of computer gaming in the same way that the music industry in the 1960's was such a prolific beast.

It's not just Computer games, I'm referring to all consoles, be it Playstation, Wii/Nintendo, Xbox, and PC... But I see your point about the 90s, those were the years... lol

I remember Unreal... I worked for a company far enough away to make rush hour horrible... So a few of us would hang out after work and play for an hour or 2 until we were sure traffic had died down... We rocked online, there weren't many players on back then with a T-1 Connection, we would run circles around people...

Gaming was gaming back then...

Gaming is gaming now, too...just shorter. I'm tired of shelling out 60 bucks for a game that I play for five or six hours, as if I'm spending 10 dollars for every hour of game time. And as for the shooting things until they blow up genre, I happen to like that genre. Especially if you can do it in slow motion.

That said, it's always nice to see developers pulling new tricks from their sleeves.

I just like Story Lines... Sure if you have an explosion now and then it's okay, but they shoot 'em, blow 'em up games don't normally have a story line behind them that is any good... I want to feel like I'm working towards a good goal... Not just save the planet from a warlord... I like the chance of Multi-Endings as well...

Usually I say if you want story, go buy a book. They tend to have better stories than games with excellent stories, or at least excellent stories for games. One example I'd bring up is The 7th Guest. The game was terrible, the acting painful to watch, the book wasn't bad at all. Maybe it helped that you didn't have Stauf screaming at you to "Coooooome baaaaack!" every time you decided to stop reading.

I enjoy books to a degree, but I'm not much of a reader... I like to be involved, which is why I enjoy games with good story lines... Tex for example, pulls you in and doesn't let go... Hence why we are all here over a decade later wanting more... lol

The only times I'll really read a book is before going to sleep at night... I can't just sit in a chair and read, I feel unproductive if I do that... Unless it's for learning purposes...

My problem is I just don't have the time to read a book because when I read, I want to just keep going till the book is finished. But with my job and my daughter and this and that...there's no time to enjoy a good book. But it doesn't stop me from still buying books...I have a huge collection and I'd say about 60% of the them I haven't read. The last book that I read all the way through was "I am Jackie Chan: The Biography of..." Very good read I might add.

Reading's a good pastime but you don't really have to think to read (unless you're trying to decipher the cryptic mental wanderings of James Joyce...) whereas with games like the Tex Murphy and Gabriel Knight series you actually had to work stuff out to progress the story.

Vive la revolution, I say. Adventure games are sorely overdue for a big comeback!

Indeed they are... I've been saying that pretty much since I joined this forum... The only problem is, they aren't making a comeback... A couple get made here and there, but they need to bombard the market like the Sports games or the Blow 'Em games...

Reading is all fine and good, I just can't get into it... I feel so unproductive if I'm just sitting/laying there reading... Like I said above, I have no problem cracking a book to learn things, like psychology or physics or engineering... But I can't just sit there and read Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn for no reason...
I've done my share of reading though... I've read Lord Of The Rings, 3 times... I've read over 150 Star Trek Novels, dozens of Star Wars Novels, I've read numerous books on things like Oak Island {aka The Money Pit}, Roswell, deep sea science, Many History Books, etc, just to name a few... My biggest reading times come just before bed, sometimes if I'm in the mood I'll read to tire my eyes so I can get to sleep a bit faster... And of course I have a small Library in the Bathroom...

But to just sit around for hours on end and read, that's not for me... But sometimes it does take awhile for my eyes to get tired to fall asleep, so sometimes I do put a lot of time in reading before bed...


Now my wife on the other hand can sit around and read those romance books for hours and it doesn't bother her...

Reading is all fine and good, I just can't get into it... I feel so unproductive if I'm just sitting/laying there reading... Like I said above, I have no problem cracking a book to learn things, like psychology or physics or engineering...

Often, when the days are just too short to do everything we need to do, I develop the same attitude towards reading as you have suggested. However, let me say this in defense of reading:

Reading for learning purposes need not be confined to text-book-style books.

Each of us learn from our own life experiences. But each of us have only one life from which to learn. A good writer can transport us into other lives and other worlds from which we can can learn and grow beyond the limits of our own life experience.

Many writers of pure fiction possess knowledge and insights of great value which they convey through the wonderful medium of fictional literature. Oftentimes fiction is the only practical or most effective means through which to convey these ideas. Science fiction, romantic fiction, historical fiction, military, espionage, etc.

Fictions can broaden your experience in ways you can't do in real-life. How many broken hearts do you need to bear to learn what one good Jane Austen story could teach you? Or consider all that Shakespeare can teach about the timeless nature of Man? Or how else can you experience the Brave New World that Huxley can show you? The possibilities limitless.

As someone who is rather highly educated in the 'formal' and technical sense, I would argue that there is very much (and perhaps more) to be gained by being well-read in great fiction - and I admire the talents of those who can write it.

That's very true Doc... All of my days seem short lately... lol Never seems like there is enough time...

I'm Hoping that cloning becomes available soon, then I can make another of me for those tedious tasks that seem to take so much time, but need to be done...

Don't know about other people, but i find entertainment can be the best way to actually learn things (example being that there are high school text books in Japan that are manga).

As for videogames, i'm all for a great story in a videogame, but it does have to be tied to great gameplay, because that's what the medium is all about. Most adventure games did have good gameplay, with a healthy mix of exploration and non-frustrating puzzle solving to allow the player to enjoy working their way through the story.

The problem arises when you impede progress with increased difficulty or challenge (which is what fans of any game genre generally cry out for as the genre matures). Then you have the larger populations of gamers lose interest and the fans turn into a small niche group.

I don't see our community born out of what i just wrote, but definitely the adventure game genre in general went down this road. I see the Tex Murphy community as fans of a cult video game series (i'm writing a paper on the idea at the moment and if you'll indulge me in the next couple weeks, i have some questions i would like to ask you fine people)

Kinda off topic though, so let me end by saying...

Mirror's Edge looks good. As Edge magazine put it, it could introduce the greatest innovation in the FPS genre since free look mouse was introduced in Marathon.