GREY MATTER (News and Potential Spoilers Within!)

[DeadPoolX]

That does suck, the distribution of the game in general appears to me to have been somewhat of a disaster.

That said, $29.99 isn't really *that* bad of a price, in my opinion... I'd say it's definitely worth that.

No, it's not a BAD price, but it's still annoying that it's not available here.

[laffer]

Yes, obviously, I'm not trying to defend the horrible way this game has been published.
It's a shame, too... obviously they must have lost quite a few potential sales by the lousy way this has been handled, and should this mean the end of adventure games designed by Jane Jensen, then that would make it quite the disaster.

I'm pretty certain it isn't available here in Norway either, pretty unlikely considering it not being available in so much bigger countries.

I got it on Amazon.de (German Amazon), the CE they sold there... and I think I was lucky with that one, I seem to remember I didn't have to pay much extra... Germany being relatively close to Norway.
Wouldn't be a good choice for you though, obviously.

[DeadPoolX]

I got it on Amazon.de (German Amazon), the CE they sold there... and I think I was lucky with that one, I seem to remember I didn't have to pay much extra... Germany being relatively close to Norway.
Wouldn't be a good choice for you though, obviously.

Want to know what's odd? Amazon.ca is now selling from the UK. Hell, it makes more sense to buy it from the US than the UK!

[dotkel50]

I just finishes Gray Matter. Pretty darn good....wasn't sure I'd like it but I did.

[Tawmis]

I just finishes Gray Matter. Pretty darn good....wasn't sure I'd like it but I did.

I need to get around to playing it...

[Collector]

I just finishes Gray Matter. Pretty darn good....wasn't sure I'd like it but I did.

I need to get around to playing it...

Ditto, if I can find the time, but I have several projects going on right now.

[AndreaDraco]

I just finishes Gray Matter. Pretty darn good....wasn't sure I'd like it but I did.

I'm curious, dot!

Please, share yor opinions on the gameplay, the characters, the plot, the ending... Anything you find worth mentioning!

I also have a question for you: what did you think of the cinematic feeling of the game, especially during in-game dialogues? Did you find it lacking or did you enjoy it? Do you like the style of the cutscenes?

Inquisitive minds want to know!

[dotkel50]

I wasn't sure if I was going to like this game but hey, it's Jane Jensen. But I really enjoyed it. It wasn't scare you silly kind of spooky ot gross you out scary. It was more eerily atmospheric. Gameplay was of moderate difficulty. I loved the main character, she's what interested me most. I love feisty women characters, probably because I am one myself. When I played as the scientist, I wasn't quite as invested in the story. I liked the cutscenes, they moved the story along well.

p.s. The graphics and the music were outstanding.

[AndreaDraco]

When I played as the scientist, I wasn't quite as invested in the story.

I, on the other hand, connected more with David than with Sam. She's a great character, sure, and I like her very much but David was... more thoughtful, reflective, and the pace of his chapter more slow, more pensive. Moreover, the whole sequence in that strange tub whose proper name I can't remember, where he has all these visions of Laura, with the ominous warning at the end... that was perhaps my favorite sequence of the entire game.

I liked the cutscenes, they moved the story along well.

While I moderately liked them myself, I would have really preferred something more dynamic. For example, GK1 cutscenes were vastly superior to these ones because they managed to convey a real sense of movement and the passing of time. And what's worse, in GM cutscenes is often painfully evident that there were two entirely different team at work on the game (Tonuzaba first and then Wizarbox), with the character design chancing drastically between cutscenes (Wizarbox) and in-game sequences (Tonuzaba's design). And the dialogues could have done with a more cinematic feeling: I'm thinking, for example, at the first meeting with Charles. The camera stays always pretty distant from Charles and Sam and we never get a chance to see him up close, to see his expressions, to see Sam's magic actions and his reactions to them. The same can be said for almost any other conversation in the game, unfortunately.

p.s. The graphics and the music were outstanding.

I agree. Especially during Chapter 8, which is, in my opinion, the diamond point of the game!

[BBP]

At chapter 4 already without any outsider help, and after I restarted my game this morning. Either my gaming skills have improved significantly since my playing of Toonstruck last week, or this game has a difficulty level at the height of Putt-Putt Saves The Zoo.

I'll make a review once I've completed it, but before that: did anyone else notice some parallels between the David music of chapter 3 and the GK3 theme?

[DeadPoolX]

At chapter 4 already without any outsider help, and after I restarted my game this morning. Either my gaming skills have improved significantly since my playing of Toonstruck last week, or this game has a difficulty level at the height of Putt-Putt Saves The Zoo.

From the reviews I've read, GM's puzzles are extremely simple. What's considered simple is subjective, of course, but if this simplicity reduces or eliminates the need for convoluted puzzles, I won't be too upset.

[BBP]

So I've just completed the game in under 13 hours. I needed a marginal amount of help in the end because I got stuck with the chapter 6 riddle, with that painting. Very sneaky.

I haven't really played any games this recent, besides some flash-things online and the Windows freebies. As such, spending at least half an hour installing a game suddenly seems very, very long.

Mastering the controls is pretty nasty, particularly since they are so spread out in the manual. One particular issue is running, also because the animations don't match the actual event at that time. Unfortunately in many cases you have to wait for the protagonist to walk to a certain spot before (s)he can say something about a certain object, and you'lll have to do a lot of walking and some side-scrolling as well. You can cut the walk time by double-clicking, so your character will start to run. In many places, the character will only run a few paces and then start walking again, but the game thinks he's running and will cut to a new scene before the character has arrived. It took me a while to figure that out, since it's not in the manual. Also, the whole magic thing wasn't easy to master.

There's the occasional bug. Samantha sometimes got stuck behind people. A nasty one occurred in chapter 8, when I had saved the game in the spade room, did something I wasn't happy with and loaded it. Samantha started this sort of moonwalk, while I was trying to let her go to the right, she went to the left. When she was close to the left door I let her leave the scene, and that did the trick.

I heard a very weird audio blurb that hurt my ears when early on someone said I'll call (BLURP) and let them know you're coming. Should try playing again, see if it happens.

I'd have loved it if they could have made the game in such a way that the characters don't walk the grass.

I couldn't help but notice the spelling discussion earlier in this topic. Spelling is important. It is particularly embarrassing when you make such an error in someone's name, at a painfully visible spot (such as a newspaper header), repeatedly, or causing the meaning of a word to change. (There is a story I couldn't confirm about a newspaper or magazine mis-typing the first letter of Buckingham Palace.)
I only found one spelling snafu, in a name: Deren Brown. I love Derren, was great to see him being honoured in such a way, but misspelling his first name so that it changes into the Dutch word for "to hurt", that's... ahem... painful.

One of the nastiest bugs happens in... I think it is chapter 4... when you meet Angela in the church. After you've drained the conversation, she'll say she wants to be left alone, and then the last topic appears in screen again and you have to click it, and then you get the same discussion again.

If you accidentally enter the map while you're at the meadow, and the controls are clumsy so I had it a few times, the looking glass disappears. Can be countervened by leaving the location and returning.

Many Chapter 8 sections go too slow. Ruins it a bit.

My biggest I Rule moment was in Chapter 6, finding the key to the tower. A similar puzzle (Rusty shop key) had stumped me in Under A Killing Moon just a few weeks ago.

The game is lacking in the humour department, probably this was intentional, but in the David chapters there were definitely points where I was about to burst into tears with the whole tragic thing. One laugh was scored by David though, when he calls foster care

The rotoscoping of the characters is incredible, though it is of little use if you use such still cutscenes. Plus most of it is in the walking, and you really have seen enough walking after a while. It's good to see much has changed since Estelle Stiles's low low knees.
The motion capture was also used for other movements, but one painful but captivating moment comes when, was it after the vote? both Chris and Malik stand up at exactly the same time in perfect sync.

I loved seeing quite a few of my personal hobbies in the game: knitting (in fact, I was knitting while playing this game as soon as things became a tad tedious), juggling, and of course conjuring.

The Scarlet Furies aren't my cup of tea. Not that the music is bad, but I really don't like the lead singing.
The game music is good though. David's music reminded me strongly of the GK3 theme, and the Chapter 8 music is very much GK2. Not a bad thing, of course.

Bunnies should never be lifted by the ears. Both Sam and David do this.

One of the Dutch cafe fire (severe fire on New Year's Eve 2000/2001) victims was on TV recently. He had severe burns in his face. He had had great treatment though. He had to wear a special mask full-time, for a year and a half. It was a hideous and clumsy mask, but since the effect was that he had next to no visible scars, he got many of his fellow victims to use it too. In other words, the technique to strongly diminish scar tissue from burns was already available in 2002, and Dr Styles would very probably have had access to it.

Someone leaving Frankenstein partially read THAT long? No way! It's 200 pages, but I couldn't put it down and nearly missed my train stop.

I loved the name board at St Edward Hall. I hope it won't be the last we see of Grace. Or Tim Curry.

Story line is top notch, pure class, and a brilliant piece of writing. Voice acting of David is excellent. I didn't like Sam's voice that much. I loved most of the other characters, particularly Angela's Scotch accent. The game sorely lacks close-ups. C'mon! I wanna look at Chris!

In short, I had a great time playing this, although with the game length and easy puzzles, the difficulty level is between Putt Putt Saves The Zoo and Phantasmagoria. Jane sets an excellent athmosphere and gives an enthralling story, which is the most important feature.

[Collector]

I'll have to reread your post after I've had time to play.

[BBP]

Replaying Gray Matter and re-discovered I have a totally bad memory for names... Chris = Charles and St Edward = St Edmond.

[Tawmis]

Only just started playing GRAY MATTER during some down time at work... and immediately it reminds me of THE LONGEST JOURNEY. (I have just barely done the rabbit thing...)