Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Path: gmd.de!Germany.EU.net!mcsun!uknet!pavo.csi.cam.ac.uk!gdr11
From: gdr11@cl.cam.ac.uk (G.D. Rees)
Subject: Re: Sierra and Interactive Fiction
Message-ID: <1993May7.025647.23965@infodev.cam.ac.uk>
Sender: news@infodev.cam.ac.uk (USENET news)
Nntp-Posting-Host: grange.cl.cam.ac.uk
Organization: U of Cambridge Computer Lab, UK
References: <736575420snx@hinrg.starconn.com>
Date: Fri, 7 May 1993 02:56:47 GMT
Lines: 31

In article <736575420snx@hinrg.starconn.com>, mroberts@hinrg.starconn.com (Mike Roberts) writes:
|> sgranade@obu.arknet.edu (Stephen R. Granade) writes:
|> 
|> > It seems to me that what Sierra has done by making the new "graphical"
|> > interface is turn their games into a flashy combination lock.  I have
|> > watched several people play these games and solve them by dint of
|> > trying every combination of possible action with object.
|> 
|> The problem is that a graphical game must represent everything graphically.
|> This means that almost every single legal command must have a custom-drawn
|> animation sequence.  This is the real limiting factor in how complicated
|> the commands can be.

I haven't played any Sierra Games, but I have played Interplay's "Startrek" and
what I noticed about it was how shoddy it all was.  Yes, the game had vast
numbers of pretty coloured pictures, but the animated crew of the Enterprise
didn't look remotely like the real actors and the animation was completely
unrealistic.

What was worse, it became apparant that no attention had been paid to the text;
there were large numbers of typos and lots of occasions when an inappropriate
piece of text appeared.  It was as though having spent so much money on artists
and graphics there was no time to spend on the game itself.

On the other hand, Legend's "Gateway" is excellent.  The game is essentially a
text adventure with pictures, and the pictures make no attempt to show everything
that happens; instead they add a lot of atmosphere and are a very useful
subsititute for lengthy (and boring) room descriptions).

-- 
Gareth Rees <gdr11@phx.cam.ac.uk>
