Posted January 28, 2015
Like the title says, this is *not* meant as a Double Fine hate thread. I'm happy with their work, some mistakes have been made along the way, but I honestly think that, ultimately, they have done way more good than bad. I don't think this remaster is an easy cash-grab move by them, I see it as a work of passion -- Disney wasn't going to do anything with the game, anyway, and the only way one could get a rare physical copy of it was to pay a whopping amount to get it from some auction site out of a greedy seller (how's that for a greedy cash-grab move?), and then has to meddle with tweaks and fixes and probably end up using ResidualVM to even *play* the game on most modern systems and machines. At least now a whole new generation of gamers has access to this wonderful game.
I understand the reasoning behind keeping the original aspect ratio (a remaster of a classic movie in 4:3 is still in 4:3, and video games don't get more classic than Grim Fandango, so I'm glad they kept it that way, and I'm not sorry in the least for all you 4K geeks out there), so that's not an issue for me, as well.
What I abhor, though, is the fact the video game industry is dependent of ever-evolving tech. This whole "PC MAZTAR RAISS" annoys me to no end. I understand that I'm the one at fault for "not having a decent gaming rig". Well, gaming rigs are expensive, and I'm going through a rough time, economically speaking, so, buying a computer good enough to run most new games is a big no-no, for me, right now. I'm using an (apparently) old mid-range laptop that barely runs The Witcher, Bioshock, Batman Arkham Asylum and a few more with medium to high settings, and those games aren't that old, to me. Plus, they look good, in my book. I don't understand why on earth does a game that should run on my system, with these specs, isn't allowed to do so just because my GPU is "ancient" (LOL?) and doesn't support OpenGL 3.3. No, I'm not savvy enough with regards to the technical side of gaming, but why should I? I love video games just as much as the next guy, and I don't think one needs to be a major tech-head to be able to enjoy a video game. I'm sorry if my GPU came out more than... 6, 7 years ago? I'm not exactly young, 7 years doesn't seem that long. Like I said before, I'm fortunate enough to own a disc copy of the game, and I would've still preordered this version all the same, even if I knew beforehand it wouldn't run on my machine -- I love the game *that* much, plus, supporting GOG and Double Fine is always nice --, but it sure would have been nice if I could actually play it. Maybe it's because the game was originally developed for a current-gen console and they couldn't get rid of this ridiculous requirement when they started working on the PC port, I don't know... but I do honestly hope they will get rid of it in a later patch. I don't know if that's feasible or not, but I, for one, and surely lots of others, too, would welcome that.
Until then, I guess I'll play it on my girlfriend's computer, which is good enough to run the game (even though it's worse than mine in almost every aspect, except for having a graphics card that supports said OpenGL 3.3), at least when I get to be with her.
This wasn't meant as an attack, a hate thread or a blind rant, I just needed to let off some steam and vent a bit.
P.S.: let's get this out of the way, now, shall we? Most of the people who say they own the original game in its physical format are flat-out lying. We're all aware of the less-than-legal ways most folks got their hands on Grim Fandango, it's just that it sounds hypocritical and stupid to come into a digital store forum and looking somewhat entitled when you say you downloaded Grim Fandango from a torrent site or copied the discs from a friend's original copy (which *all* of my friends did, by the way). Come on... this game was never in print for a long time and it didn't have that many copies even when it was. I believe some of the people who claim to own the game actually do so, but *all* of you?! Nope, definitely not.
I understand the reasoning behind keeping the original aspect ratio (a remaster of a classic movie in 4:3 is still in 4:3, and video games don't get more classic than Grim Fandango, so I'm glad they kept it that way, and I'm not sorry in the least for all you 4K geeks out there), so that's not an issue for me, as well.
What I abhor, though, is the fact the video game industry is dependent of ever-evolving tech. This whole "PC MAZTAR RAISS" annoys me to no end. I understand that I'm the one at fault for "not having a decent gaming rig". Well, gaming rigs are expensive, and I'm going through a rough time, economically speaking, so, buying a computer good enough to run most new games is a big no-no, for me, right now. I'm using an (apparently) old mid-range laptop that barely runs The Witcher, Bioshock, Batman Arkham Asylum and a few more with medium to high settings, and those games aren't that old, to me. Plus, they look good, in my book. I don't understand why on earth does a game that should run on my system, with these specs, isn't allowed to do so just because my GPU is "ancient" (LOL?) and doesn't support OpenGL 3.3. No, I'm not savvy enough with regards to the technical side of gaming, but why should I? I love video games just as much as the next guy, and I don't think one needs to be a major tech-head to be able to enjoy a video game. I'm sorry if my GPU came out more than... 6, 7 years ago? I'm not exactly young, 7 years doesn't seem that long. Like I said before, I'm fortunate enough to own a disc copy of the game, and I would've still preordered this version all the same, even if I knew beforehand it wouldn't run on my machine -- I love the game *that* much, plus, supporting GOG and Double Fine is always nice --, but it sure would have been nice if I could actually play it. Maybe it's because the game was originally developed for a current-gen console and they couldn't get rid of this ridiculous requirement when they started working on the PC port, I don't know... but I do honestly hope they will get rid of it in a later patch. I don't know if that's feasible or not, but I, for one, and surely lots of others, too, would welcome that.
Until then, I guess I'll play it on my girlfriend's computer, which is good enough to run the game (even though it's worse than mine in almost every aspect, except for having a graphics card that supports said OpenGL 3.3), at least when I get to be with her.
This wasn't meant as an attack, a hate thread or a blind rant, I just needed to let off some steam and vent a bit.
P.S.: let's get this out of the way, now, shall we? Most of the people who say they own the original game in its physical format are flat-out lying. We're all aware of the less-than-legal ways most folks got their hands on Grim Fandango, it's just that it sounds hypocritical and stupid to come into a digital store forum and looking somewhat entitled when you say you downloaded Grim Fandango from a torrent site or copied the discs from a friend's original copy (which *all* of my friends did, by the way). Come on... this game was never in print for a long time and it didn't have that many copies even when it was. I believe some of the people who claim to own the game actually do so, but *all* of you?! Nope, definitely not.