[HN Gopher] Planescape: Torment pitch document (1997) [pdf]
___________________________________________________________________
Planescape: Torment pitch document (1997) [pdf]
Author : podiki
Score : 150 points
Date : 2023-06-16 04:31 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (rpgwatch.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (rpgwatch.com)
| sedatk wrote:
| The document contains spoilers for anyone who's willing to play
| it today.
| ineedasername wrote:
| Technical limitations made it difficult to deliver on _every
| single_ aspect of the pitch, but I'd say it filled the spirit of
| the game intended by this doc.
|
| It goes a long way towards explaining how it so significantly
| differentiated itself from the more sterile (but battle focused--
| which was fun too) Icewinf Dale games or the Baldur's Gate games
| that had a bit more guardrails build into them.
|
| All of those stand out as exceptional classics, but Planescape
| was unique among them.
| podiki wrote:
| From this RPGWatch interview:
|
| https://rpgwatch.com/show/article?articleid=55 (part 1)
|
| https://rpgwatch.com/show/article?articleid=56 (part 2)
| v-erne wrote:
| >> Tons of Total Babes: This game will have lots of babes that
| make the player go "wow." >> There will be fiendish babes, human
| babes, angelic babes, asian babes, and even undead babes.
|
| Well, I did not expected this level of honesty about what target
| audience really want.
|
| It almost like finding "and its also addictive, in most
| profitable kind of way" in Marlboro brand pitch deck.
|
| Its kinda refrshing.
| watashiato wrote:
| For those who haven't played the game, it should be noted that
| the game is nothing like what the pitch implies.
|
| PS:T is a well written and introspective RPG and in this
| capacity it is rivaled by only a handful of contenders.
| User23 wrote:
| Disco Elysium, which I haven't gotten around to playing yet
| so I have no personal opinion, is the only contender I can
| think of.
|
| The only other game I can think of with that level of
| narrative craft is the Marathon series, which isn't an RPG,
| but rather an FPS.
|
| I'm kind of surprised Marathon 4 hasn't been kickstarted yet.
| There is definitely a whole lot of money on the table there,
| as the System Shock remake proves.
| chpatrick wrote:
| Disco Elysium is probably the best game I've ever played
| but I couldn't get into Planescape Torment.
| waveBidder wrote:
| I would love a modern recreation of planescape torment.
| the story seems excellent but I bounced off the actual
| experience of the game
| danielheath wrote:
| Even as someone who played it when it was a few years
| old, it's challenging to replay today. Definitely
| deserves a refresh.
| danielheath wrote:
| Tides of Torment, perhaps?
| ksaun wrote:
| (FWIW, the studio with which I'm affiliated
| (https://digimancygames.com) is focused on narrative-driven
| CRPGs in the vein of games like PS:T and Disco Elysium. We
| have assembled three of the Disco Elysium writers and other
| talent in this space. We have an internal project, but are
| seeking publishing partners or investors.)
| chc4 wrote:
| Bungie announced a new Marathon game a few weeks ago, in
| case you didn't know. It's going to be an extraction
| shooter (a la Escape from Tarkov) and not singleplayer FPS,
| though.
| throwaway173738 wrote:
| Having played both Disco Elysium and Planescape, this is
| very accurate. Depending on the choices you make you will
| find yourself with the same plot points accomplished in
| totally different ways in both games. And different choices
| will go off the rails too.
| [deleted]
| badsectoracula wrote:
| > Well, I did not expected this level of honesty about what
| target audience really want.
|
| IIRC it was the other way around, the pitch document went
| overboard with that because it was what the
| executives/publisher believed audiences would want :-)
|
| Remember this wasn't the design document but the document to
| convince those with money to spend that money to make the game.
| ksaun wrote:
| I believe your recollection to be accurate.
|
| The lead designer (Chris Avellone), who I think was the
| primary author of this document, is often playful and
| energetic/hyperbolic with his language, yet is extremely
| focused and professional in his approach to the actual game
| design. (I.e., this exact type of disconnect between the
| energy/tone of this document and the energy/tone of the game
| is consistent with what I know of him. The self depreciation,
| noted in the comment below by ricardobayes, is also on brand
| for him.)
|
| Source: I've worked with Chris very directly on three games
| and indirectly on several others. We've talked about this
| document in passing before (though I didn't know him until a
| few years later).
| sho_hn wrote:
| This might be widely inappropriate to bring up, but do you
| know how Chris' lawsuit against his cancellers is going?
| Like many players I used to look up to his work, and then
| was of course taken aback by the serious allegations
| against him; it's one of the messiest he said/she said
| cases I've encountered, though. Still very curious about
| the ultimate outcome.
|
| Edit: https://kotaku.com/fallout-new-vegas-avellone-sexual-
| miscond...
| Popeyes wrote:
| https://chrisavellone.medium.com/joint-statement-from-
| kariss...
|
| They completely recanted their allegations and paid him a
| sum of money.
| Delk wrote:
| IIRC the game does have a couple of female characters that
| could be seen as catering to that kind of a stereotype, at
| least in terms of appearance if not necessarily the story.
|
| But I also got the overall vibe that the pitch document goes
| overboard in terms of emphasizing that aspect as well as
| other kinds of shallow badassery such as the violence of the
| game.
|
| The pitch document also makes a big fuss about "ego
| masturbation" and the "player's power fantasy", and how the
| main character and his destiny are the centrepieces of
| everything. But that's not the vibe I got from the game at
| all. The main character _is_ obviously at the centre of a lot
| of things, and I think the games does allow you to play
| selfishly. But I don 't think the game really directs you
| towards that, let alone glorifying the character or the
| results of his past actions. Those parts of the pitch
| document read really weird to me.
|
| The game does of course make a point of being morbid and
| gruesome, even macabre. But I think the game does that with a
| lot less bravado than the pitch document suggests.
|
| But then, it _is_ a pitch document, and not even marketing
| for the finished product.
| the_af wrote:
| The disconnect between the look and the actual description
| of the two main female characters, Fall-from-Grace and
| Annah, is interesting.
|
| Annah looks like a bimbo in her 3D model, but in game most
| NPCs find her repulsive or at least off-putting. She's not
| sexualized in-game, but her portrait is that of a "sexy
| babe".
|
| Conversely, Fall-from-Grace is described in-game as a
| tempting succubus (though she doesn't behave like one) and
| is supposed to be extremely attractive, yet her 3D portrait
| is rendered in shadows, very skinny, with scary bat wings
| and no hint of "babe" characteristics. She is not "sexy".
|
| I wonder if the people who drew the character portraits
| were going by the early pitch draft, because the disconnect
| with the actual characters is extreme.
| ethbr0 wrote:
| For younger folks, I would suggest looking at E3 convention
| 1998 and 1999 galleries.
|
| That will tell you what you need to know about the state of
| the computer gaming industry and publishers at that point.
|
| This was circa-"John Romero's about to make you his bitch"
| [0] as acceptable copy for a full-page ad.
|
| [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daikatana#Promotion_and_r
| ele...
| Dwelve wrote:
| I never knew this game was so amazing. Guess I gotta play it
| after all
| hutzlibu wrote:
| It has a very special (morbid) humor.
| the_af wrote:
| The actual game is nothing like this at all.
|
| There are a couple of unfortunate character portraits of
| "babes", that don't match the actual character descriptions or
| behavior. It's the only juvenile aspect to the game, along with
| some of Morte's quips.
|
| The actual game is neither juvenile nor a power fantasy. It is
| an anti-power-fantasy. It is about atonement for past misdeeds.
| Killing is often not the solution, and in fact there is a
| "pacifist" walkthrough.
|
| Most of the characters you find are mentally and physically
| scarred by things done to them by [redacted].
| ajuc wrote:
| I think this is a common problem artists have to deal with.
| The art they want to make (and that fans want to get) vs the
| industry approval filter. You have to lie to at least one of
| these groups.
|
| See new Netflix shows for how idiotic and self-sabotaging it
| can get if you choose lying to fans (see Witcher).
| hn_go_brrrrr wrote:
| What's the problem with the Witcher?
| ajuc wrote:
| First season was mostly ok, there were some
| "representation" changes but not too bad. 2nd season they
| changed everything to the point that it's easier to list
| what didn't changed. And they changed it for worse...
| Third season is supposedly so far off that the main actor
| Henry Caville who is a big fan of the books resigned.
|
| Imagine Peter Jackson made Sam betray Frodo and sell him
| to Saruman, Gandalf was actually trying to turn Frodo
| into an orc, elves were actually going to the middle
| earth not escaping it, and the big bad wasn't Sauron but
| some new character invented by Jackson that makes no
| sense but sounds vaguely Icelandish because we want to
| keep the Nordic theme. Oh and half the party gets killed
| in Rivendale by the new villain mindfucking Frodo.
|
| And magic stops being unexplained and mythical. You just
| gather shiny rocks and you can cast spells.
|
| This is roughly equivalent to what has been changed in
| season 2. Characters and motivations are unrecognizable,
| the world is a mess.
|
| Season 3 is widely boycotted by fans.
| iamacyborg wrote:
| > Season 3 is widely boycotted by fans.
|
| This has strong "boycott Modern Warfare 2" energy.
| becquerel wrote:
| I was skeptical at first, but the babes are even undead? Truly
| this must be the RPG of a generation
| User23 wrote:
| Ahh Morte.
| throwaway173738 wrote:
| > Did you see the way she was looking at me boss?
|
| > You mean that slack-jawed beyond the grave look?
| smcl wrote:
| Then a few sections later
|
| > Babes: Think babes. Then think more babes.
|
| Slightly different times :)
| checkyoursudo wrote:
| It strikes me as not a little weird that the word for a hot,
| sexy member of either sex is the same as a word for a very,
| very small child.
|
| Like, "Why, hello there, infant." _dogwhistle_
| bourneavent wrote:
| That's because they call you "Daddy" in the bedroom.
|
| There's actually sort of a real reason for this. In the
| traditional monogamous or even polygamous relationship
| throughout human history it's usually the Male taking care
| of the female. Women when seeking a relationship are sort
| of searching for a caretaker that has sort of father like
| qualities of having enough resources to take care of them,
| taking a dominant role... etc.
|
| The relationship most similar to it is father and daughter
| I can sort of see why the linguistics have sort of merged.
|
| Obviously, in the last century, things have changed and the
| etiquette of relationship dynamics need to be spoken of in
| a way that's more egalitarian.
|
| But you can't completely deny millions of years of human
| anthropological behavior. If men usually played more
| dominant/caretaker roles in relationships in the majority
| of civilizations, then along that timescale certain
| behaviors become a bit ingrained biologically through
| natural selection. It's not surprising to see these
| attributes creep into language.
| waveBidder wrote:
| Poppycock. until recently, in agricultural societies,
| families (usually men) were choosing families to cement
| relationships with by trading children. what the woman
| (and frequently the men) wanted was mostly irrelevant.
| see https://scholars-stage.org/against-human-sexual-
| selection/
|
| If "daddy" is a thing, it's because of frequent age
| differences, since pregnancy is extremely hard on your
| body (fatality rates as high as being a soldier in a
| warzone until the advent of modern medicine).
| okasaki wrote:
| Are you also offended by the fact that "history" has "his"
| in it?
| checkyoursudo wrote:
| No? Why would I be?
| stavros wrote:
| Similarly to when people call their significant others
| "baby".
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| Wait til you find out people like to spank and be spanked
| in the bedroom. It's basically Jeff Epstein's island.
| bourneavent wrote:
| This language is unconventional for business even in the 90s.
| Additionally men wouldn't talk this way in front of women in
| Any time.
|
| The difference now is it's less culturally accepted to talk
| like this even in casual situations even when just among men.
|
| Plenty women objectify men by wealth and status and they
| refer to men this way even publicly. The cultural change is
| mostly one sided, skewed more towards not offending women.
|
| For example, referring to men as Hunks or Chads is just not
| offensive at all. In fact it's a compliment. I feel it's
| almost entitlement if a girl gets offended by being called a
| babe.
| badpun wrote:
| I don't think so. The language used in 2023 may be different,
| but the intent is the same: "Give them nudity, give them sex,
| give them violence. This is what will make us money".
| enkid wrote:
| Also, use of the word "babes" screams mid nineties.
| pavlov wrote:
| Both human and Asian? That's real representation.
| rogual wrote:
| Don't know why you're flagged, that's hilarious. The PDF
| literally lists "Asian" as a category of babe alongside
| "Undead" and separately from "human".
| arp242 wrote:
| Can't recall any Asian character from the game though.
|
| Time for an "Asian babes" mod I guess.
| throwaway173738 wrote:
| That's definitely pandering to the executives.
| ricardobayes wrote:
| Wow this reads so fresh, it's written beautifully. Even if you
| just skim it you get the point, and subjectively, it's very
| funny. I love the self-deprecating humor.
| markeibes wrote:
| Yeah objectively it's not very funny at all.
| klipklop wrote:
| Like others have said, the final game is different. One of the
| best games ever made with one of the most creative settings.
|
| Really loved the NPC companions. They were so deep and some of
| them you could make more powerful just by having a conversation
| with them. It's a rare D&D property where wisdom is a more
| important stat than strength.
| corysama wrote:
| I'll just leave this here ;)
|
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/466300/Planescape_Torment...
|
| BTW: 4K resolution support.
| fbdab103 wrote:
| GOG DRM free alternative [0]
|
| [0]
| https://www.gog.com/en/game/planescape_torment_enhanced_edit...
| j1elo wrote:
| What were the chances? I installed Planescape Torment last night,
| to play around a bit with it. It's been sitting in my "to-try"
| list for at least 15 years!
|
| I'm however not very fond of having to sit down on my desk to
| play games with keyboard and mouse, though... I already spend
| enough of my life sitting in the exact same position for work.
| That alone discourages me from playing several old games I own
| (and not so old, like the newer X-Com) and even the newer Monkey
| Island game (which of course is sitting in the same list for some
| years now too)
| tmoravec wrote:
| If it helps, I've played PS:T on an ipad and it was playable.
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| When I lived in a house with a treadmill, I hooked my Macbook
| up to a TV and used a gamepad mapped to mouse (move, click,
| scroll) input to play a lot of older games while walking. It's
| what inspired me to build my own remap software.
|
| Because yeah I can't sit at a computer to play games.
| cmcmcm wrote:
| Can you tell me more about the gamepad and software you used?
| I've been looking for a decent solution like this for ages.
| jaggederest wrote:
| Well, if there's one game worth your time, PS:T is probably it.
| Arguably one of the best cRPGs of all time.
| WastingMyTime89 wrote:
| People have rose tinted glasses when they talk about old
| games.
|
| PS:T was a cut above the other cRPGs of its time mainly
| because it had adequate writing and an engaging story when
| most other cRPGs were trite. Still everything after Raven's
| maze is just average until the ending where it gets good
| again and the gameplay outside of dialogue is frankly
| uninteresting. It's in a lot of way like the original Dark
| Soul whose last half is so aweful I'm not sure the awesome
| first one is enough to redeem the game.
|
| PS:T has now been bested by plenty of modern cRPGs. I'm not
| sure it's worth revisiting considering how long it is.
| xanathar wrote:
| I am a Planescape Torment extreme fanboy and... I have to
| agree.
|
| But it's still worth playing, it is still better than the
| median cRPG almost 25 years later, and it remains a
| milestone in cRPGs history: i.e. just like Sgt Peppers or
| Dark Side of the Moon are still worth listening today.
| pcthrowaway wrote:
| > Sgt Peppers
|
| Interesting.. I consider this one of the best albums of
| all time, unrelated to the "standards of the time" or
| whatever.
|
| I also don't think I've played a CRPG I enjoyed as much
| as Planescape. Some of the fallout games may have been
| pretty close, though I never finished any of them
| fbdab103 wrote:
| You do not get to lay down such criticism without
| offering alternative suggestions. What is your top-tier
| classic or modern cRPG?
|
| Edit: Not a fanboy defensiveness or anything. Just rare
| to see the contrarian opinion on this, and genuinely
| curious. Other than the trash combat, I really enjoyed my
| time with PST.
| xanathar wrote:
| I think all things considered BG2 aged better - it had
| less exciting plot, but it balanced better all the
| aspects.
|
| That said, I would nudge Pillars of Eternity and
| Pathfinder: Kingmaker above PST as they have an equally
| good amount of story, NPC interaction, they balance
| combat better. Pillars II, Wrath of the Righteous and
| Tides of Numenera, otoh, are below the PST bar in my
| opinion but ymmv depending on tastes. On the Divinity
| side, DOS:2 is also a good competitor in the list,
| although I find it the story tends to be too diluted by
| combat.
|
| Notably many of the titles I listed above have had
| Avellone involved at some point (I think he had been
| involved with Numenera, DOS:2, Pillars I and Kingmaker,
| maybe more).
|
| I was very skeptical about BG3, especially because even
| if I listed DOS:2 above, I didn't really like it too
| much, I'm no Larian fan. But I played the early access
| and it seems to be golden good so far.
|
| Otoh I replayed (for the billionth time?) all IE games
| recently and while I still consider PST to be the best IE
| game ever (only BG2 comes close) it's definitely not
| uniform. The plot weakens after leaving Sigil, and so do
| side quests and non-linearity (it's actually pretty
| linear overall, but after Sigil it doesn't even maintain
| the illusion). Even the interactions with NPCs are
| sometimes lackluster (e.g. I would have "pushed" Morte
| more on the "don't trust the skull" bit) I _felt_ (but it
| 's personal opinion I'd say) that many interactions in
| PoE went deeper than that.
|
| Anyway, these are opinions and I know of at least one PST
| fan who would trash the PoEs, Numenera and the
| Pathfinders (but loved DOS:2), so YMMV.
| pmoriarty wrote:
| _" People have rose tinted glasses when they talk about old
| games. PS:T was a cut above the other cRPGs of its time
| mainly because it had adequate writing and an engaging
| story when most other cRPGs were trite."_
|
| Adequate writing? The writing of 99.9% of games is simply
| atrocious, and PS:T was and still is miles above them.
|
| _" PS:T has now been bested by plenty of modern cRPGs"_
|
| It's been bested on the gameplay and graphics level, but
| I've yet to find a game with better writing.
| jaggederest wrote:
| I disagree. I'd be interested to hear which games you think
| are comparable or superior - I'd like to play them, if I
| haven't!
|
| I think the only comparable games recently have been mostly
| outside what I would consider the cRPG genre, taken
| strictly: Elden ring, horizon zero dawn / forbidden west,
| recent Zelda franchise entries, RDR/RDR2, I was a Teenage
| Exocolonist
|
| Witcher 3 is probably the strongest challenger, I think.
|
| I haven't played Disco Elysium but I hear good things. I
| don't think the Mass Effect series fully measures up,
| though it's definitely in the ballpark. Same for the Elder
| Scrolls series - suffers the opposite problem from PS:T,
| that the gameplay is solid but the plot fails.
| arp242 wrote:
| The "game" part isn't very good and arguably it's more
| "interactive fiction" than "game", but I don't think this
| has anything to do with the age of it - this is the case
| for quite a few RPGs that focus more on the story,
| including newer ones. These kind of games trailing off a
| bit towards the end is also somewhat common.
|
| There are also very few cRPGs of the same type; maybe about
| 20 in total? Note I don't consider all these first-person
| action-RPGs the same "type"; it's cool if you're in to
| that, but I'm not really.
|
| At any rate, I don't think it's a perfect game, but IMHO it
| holds up very well.
| danq_ wrote:
| >PS:T has now been bested by plenty of modern cRPGs. I'm
| not sure it's worth revisiting considering how long it is.
|
| I disagree. The story of PS:T is still superior in terms of
| depth, writing, plot and setting.
|
| The entire package is better than most fantasy or sci-fi
| novels.
|
| modern CRGPS are better in presentation and gameplay. But
| setting and story is what sets Torment apart. It still
| hasn't been bested.
|
| I'm not looking at this through rose colored glasses
| either. Like there are games I loved back then that I will
| willingly admit are pretty bad nowadays. Zelda OOT, for
| example. That game was revolutionary but it doesn't hold it
| up, it's crap nowadays.
|
| Planescape torment is not like that. There is literally
| nothing else like it in the gaming world even today.
| [deleted]
| valvar wrote:
| >It's in a lot of way like the original Dark Soul whose
| last half is so aweful I'm not sure the awesome first one
| is enough to redeem the game.
|
| What are you talking about? I've never heard this take
| before. I found it fantastic all the way through. Maybe
| introducing the lord vessel was a poor design choice, but
| it's a minor fault.
| WastingMyTime89 wrote:
| It's a fairly common opinion even amongst fans of the
| Soul games. Basically everything after Anor Londo was
| rushed through as the budget dwindled and the game had to
| be released.
|
| The catacombs are just a smudgy mess with a couple of
| uninteresting ennemies and a mid-boss without any
| worthwhile patterns. The depth is just reskinned old
| ennemies you have to plod through one after the other
| before what's probably the worst boss in the soul games.
| Even the better areas like Duke's Archive, Crystal Cave
| or New Londo are inferiorly designed retread of previous
| ideas. The true genius of the game - the looping-on-
| itself level design - is over and you spend your time in
| this very bland linear areas wishing it was over already.
|
| Honestly if the game stopped after fighting Orstein and
| Smough, it would be a better game overall.
|
| The DLC is good again however. You can tell FromSoft got
| additional budget for it.
| iamacyborg wrote:
| If you want to see what rushed looks like, compare
| Revenant[1] before and after the major underground
| section.
|
| [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenant_(video_game)
| tmtvl wrote:
| Yeah, East Ahkuilon is pretty decent, the caves kinda
| outstay their welcome, West Ahkuilon tries to hang in
| there, but after you defeat Teleporty McFireball things
| really take a nosedive.
| bee_rider wrote:
| There's lots of praise for the connected, looping level
| design, and I see claims that the lord vessel ruins
| that... but most of their subsequent games featured easy
| teleportation, right? Walking around gets old, IMO.
| tmtvl wrote:
| The original Souls game, Demon's Souls also featured easy
| teleportation. It's kinda like the difference between
| Morrowind and Oblivion: in one game you're running around
| everywhere until you get the means to fast travel and in
| the other you can zip to and from discovered locations
| from the start of the game.
| Certhas wrote:
| Talking about the gameplay outside the dialogue is a bit
| silly though. Why people still love it are writing and
| plot. The mechanics were simply the bog standard mechanics
| of the day and don't matter much.
|
| Which games would you say have bested it in terms of
| writing/plot? I see a few but not very many really. Disco
| Elysium would be the first but that also stands alone in
| terms of quality. (That said, don't get to game much
| anymore so could very well have missed a lot...).
| Arainach wrote:
| Dialog doesn't make it "one of the best cRPGs of all
| time" or even necessarily worth playing in 2023. That's
| the rose tinted glasses.
|
| The gameplay is absolutely an important part of "should I
| play this now".
|
| Plenty of games that were good when they came out aren't
| worth investing hours in today. Bioshock Infinite comes
| to mind.
| pcthrowaway wrote:
| I disagree, I want a game to have either passable
| gameplay or for its gameplay to just get out of the way.
|
| If a game is relatively linear (think Last of Us, To the
| Moon, Alan Wake), I'm actually inclined to just watch a
| lets play because I can skip the "gameplay" parts.
|
| Maybe that makes me the minority, but I don't think it
| invalidates the opinions of people saying PS:T was a
| phenomenal game even if the gameplay was nothing special
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| What are your other methods of playing besides keyboard and
| mouse?
|
| The newest monkey Island is steam Deck verified and also works
| with gamepad on your tv computer etc :)
|
| I think new x-com games are steam deck playable. And original
| xcom game is eminently playable on any old laptop :)
| NamTaf wrote:
| One of the steam deck's really underappreciated features is
| the trackpads. You can use them to play a whole heap of KB+M
| games that were otherwise off bounds for a handheld.
|
| I've been playing through the Sam & Max episodic games this
| way: trackpad for pointer, and buttons for clicks. It doesn't
| need fast-paced interactions so it's very forgiving there.
| When more speed is needed, I've heard others combine the
| trackpad with some minor gyro mouse input such that the
| touchpad does the coarse pointer manipulation and then gyro
| does the fine detail. Apparently you can get quite fast with
| this approach.
| VHRanger wrote:
| P:T is available on android as a beamdog port.
|
| It plays very nicely for that format.
| User23 wrote:
| The Torment enhanced edition plays great on the iPad. I assume
| there is an Android release too.
| pluijzer wrote:
| PS:T is also available for iOS, Android and Switch. The
| controls have been adapted for the platforms and play great.
|
| And ofcourse like others have pointed out the Steam Deck is
| amazing also older games.
|
| The new Monkey Island is also available for atleast the Switch
| btw.
| j1elo wrote:
| Sadly the deprecation of 32-bit Android apps has done a lot
| of damage to backwards compatibility...
|
| _Wonder what would have happened if Android was a Microsoft
| platform_ :-)
|
| https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/87197/pst-ee-on-
| androi...
|
| Basically, the game doesn't work any more on my Android 13
| device, because devs need to go back to it and recompile the
| sources for 64-bit ARM.
|
| Naturally with a change like that with no compatibility layer
| available, there will be tons of apps and games left behind
| as abandonware, because their devs have better things to do
| (if they are even still around, at all!) than going back and
| recompiling all their source code. We'll see if BeamDog ever
| gets to it for PS:T!
| axus wrote:
| I purchased "Planescape: Torment: Enhanced" in Google Play on
| my Amazon Fire tablet a couple years ago. Probably missed out
| on a few keyboard shortcuts, but like you I don't sit at the
| computer for gaming much anymore.
| channel_t wrote:
| I definitely feel this ever since switching primarily to remote
| work. I buy PC games periodically that are often amazing but I
| struggle to find myself able to dedicate much time to them
| because I already spend way too much time in the room taking
| care of work stuff. Console games are more doable because I can
| play them on the couch.
|
| Does this make me want to go back into the office full time?
| Not sure. The quick commute from my bed to my desk might be
| worth the sacrifice, but part of me definitely longs for the
| work of the before times.
| modeless wrote:
| Seems like this is the problem Steam Deck solves.
| hutzlibu wrote:
| How do you replace a mouse with it?
|
| Is it with a touchscreen or knobs on the side?
|
| I think I would still miss a mouse for precision and speed
| with that ..
| mateuszf wrote:
| It has a touchscreen, two joysticks and two touchpad likes
| surfaces, you can configure them how you like.
|
| However the screen is 7 inches and text in games like this
| or early Fallouts is too small for me, so I planned to use
| SD for them but resigned.
| WillAdams wrote:
| Most of the Infinity Engine games play very well on a
| Windows tablet with an active stylus.
|
| Unfortunately, PST is an early iteration of the engine and
| I had problems with inventory manipulation --- not sure if
| that was ever addressed.
| IggleSniggle wrote:
| There are capacitive touchpads on both sides of the deck,
| but calling them that really sells them short. It has an
| extensive controller mapping system. I play a lot of
| strategy and RTS games, and they can be set up with a wide
| variety of customizable overlays and haptics, that you can
| mix with button-chording as desired
| NamTaf wrote:
| It's worth also emphasising that they can be combined, so
| that you can combine the touchpads with the gyro such
| that the touchpads do coarse mouse movement and the gyro
| does the fine tweaking. This is apparently surprisingly
| effective, though I've not tried it myself.
|
| Similarly, for FPS the gyro can be used for additional
| aiming and even set such that it's only enabled when one
| of the joysticks is touched (via the capacitive
| receiver).
| j1elo wrote:
| The Steam Deck came to completely replace my gaming on PC
| precisely because of this, but mouse+keyboard type games are
| a mixed bag of experiences... depends a lot on each game.
|
| This one seems to run great, touch screen probably helps a
| lot. Only complaints seem to be small text on screen:
|
| https://www.protondb.com/app/466300
|
| I also wasn't able to adapt to first person shooters, after a
| life of playing with mouse, it is almost impossible for me to
| not feel that gamepad controls are clunky.
| gilbetron wrote:
| My gaming group had a big ole Planescape campaign in 1995/1996,
| and the DM, myself and my then-girlfriend, now wife, went to
| Gencon. We met the creators, and did some fun little Planescape
| sessions they had set up. In our campaign, my wife was playing a
| red-headed tiefling with a devil's tail named Lilah. Being nerds,
| we of course told the Planescape devs all about our campaign. My
| wife even has a sketch of Lilah from Tony D in the (then, just
| released) Planewalker's Handbook.
|
| In 1997, Planescape Torment came out, and we loved it. However,
| it was a bit shocking to find they had an NPC named Annah, that
| was a red-headed tiefling with a devil's tail. We still think
| Annah was heavily drawn from Lilah!
| Waterluvian wrote:
| While the redhead devil tiefling" motif is very common due to
| the horns and core concept behind the race, that's a really
| warming story nevertheless.
| gilbetron wrote:
| This was actually before the 3rd edition take on tieflings
| with the horns, although we agree it isn't an uncommon motif,
| except almost no one knew much about Planescape in 1996 - the
| events were really sparse because it was considered a really
| "weird" setting by the core attendees of Gencon. It was
| literally the three of us, one or two other people, and most
| of the Planescape devs. Which was fun hanging out with them,
| including Tony D, Monte Cook, Colin and several others. The
| next year, in 1997, the three of us went again, and there was
| a trivia contest for Planescape lore. They had to stop
| letting us answer questions because we were ringers :)
| NelsonMinar wrote:
| Not mentioned: "over 800,000 words of dialogue, our game will be
| remembered as the best eight D&D visual novels ever written".
| It's interesting how much of this pitch focusses on the gameplay
| when it's the extensive writing that ends up being memorable.
| pmoriarty wrote:
| That's probably because the last thing studio execs (and
| gamers, who eat up so much shoddily written garbage) care about
| is writing.
|
| If gamers rewarded well-written games, and avoided poorly
| written ones, pitches would focus a lot more on writing.
| sn41 wrote:
| I played Planescape back around 2015 or so, for the first time. I
| felt an uncanny similarity to the movie "Memento" by Christopher
| Nolan, which, coincidentally, was filmed around the same time,
| developing on themes from the earlier movie "Following" (that
| came out in 1998).
|
| Then I came to know that this was actually a major point of
| discussion, with various theories swirling around it.
| sametmax wrote:
| I often wish they make this game a TV show or even a series of
| movies, because the scenario, beyond the fact it's amazingly
| good, has potential for a lot of new arcs, thanks to the very
| concept of the game.
|
| Characters scream for a bigger screen, with colorful
| personalities and back stories, plus they got a design made to
| scale to awesomeness.
|
| And with the world building, you got a solid base plus endless
| possibilities.
|
| I enjoyed the game very much, but let's face it, it's too old for
| most new gamers to appreciate.
| anthk wrote:
| I remind you all that GemRB runs BG 1/2 and Planescape Torment
| under GNU/Linux, OSX, Windows, Mac, Android... with ease.
| GartzenDeHaes wrote:
| > 1 security vendor flagged this URL as malicious (Phishing)
|
| https://www.virustotal.com/gui/url/9ed70fc608cd35117a0079556...
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