Police Quest 4 Playthrough.

[Tawmis]

Phew. This game is... rough.

It doesn't at all feel like a "Sierra" game to me.

Also, the guy narrating "You press the 4th floor", "You shouldn't touch that", etc., quickly gets on my nerves.

I like how there's a part where you're poking around at jackets in your partner's closet - but if you click the top shelf it tells you to have some decency. WHAT?

Although - I do love the travel on PQ4. "Click MAP then on the dot you want to go to."

ZERO driving.

Quite nice.

[Tawmis]

I do wonder why they brought the interface options from the top to the bottom?
GK did this as well. (As a matter of fact both GK and PQ4 have a similar interface at the bottom)
I can't count how many times in my play through I've moved my mouse to the top of the screen to save - and puzzled for a good 3 seconds as to why no menu is appearing.

[Rath Darkblade]

I'm not sure why they did that (I mean, move the menu from top to bottom).

As for the "roughness" of the game ... just the year before this game, the LA Riots and the Rodney King trial happened -- and then Sierra got the LA Police Chief (who resigned after the riots) to write this game. Obviously it hasn't aged well.

[Tawmis]

I'm not sure why they did that (I mean, move the menu from top to bottom).
As for the "roughness" of the game ... just the year before this game, the LA Riots and the Rodney King trial happened -- and then Sierra got the LA Police Chief (who resigned after the riots) to write this game. Obviously it hasn't aged well.

Ironically, said Police chief isn't responsible for the lingo that's used (in regards to some aspects of "not aging well").

Although credited as the game's author, Daryl F. Gates did not write the game's story line, he renounced the inclusion of aforementioned dialogue in the game insisting they were not his idea. He said "I told [Sierra] that these people use the same language as you and I use. A lot of that was changed. It is not intended to offend anyone". Instead, Gates claimed that the story had been penned by Sierra's Tammy Dargan, a former segment producer for America's Most Wanted. Dargan in turn, claimed that the lingo was inspired by Fab Five Freddy's "Fresh Fly Flavor".

Which is the part that is probably the most clearly... "not aging well" aspect of the game, in terms of real life.

But the roughness I was referring to - was how clunky the game feels.

[notbobsmith]

I do wonder why they brought the interface options from the top to the bottom?
GK did this as well. (As a matter of fact both GK and PQ4 have a similar interface at the bottom)
I can't count how many times in my play through I've moved my mouse to the top of the screen to save - and puzzled for a good 3 seconds as to why no menu is appearing.

Didn't most games do this around this time? KQ7, SQ6, Torin's Passage, Phantasmagoria 1&2. I'm probably missing a few others.

I never cared much for the tone of PQ4. Not just the lingo, but that is part of it. The attempt to make everything feel "gritty" which results in the dialog feeling forced. The harsh language. I don't generally mind it, but it just doesn't feel like it belongs in a PQ game. And while I appreciate the effort that went into depicting a realistic homicide investigation (e.g discussing lividity with the coroner), that kind of goes away toward the end. And how you reach the end is kind of ridiculous.

[Tawmis]

Didn't most games do this around this time? KQ7, SQ6, Torin's Passage, Phantasmagoria 1&2. I'm probably missing a few others.

Torin's and Phantasmagoria, I can see. New game entirely, new interface.
KQ7 I think wasn't as bad - because the Inventory items are always visible. (Also pretty easy)
SQ6, I remember complaining about.

I never cared much for the tone of PQ4. Not just the lingo, but that is part of it. The attempt to make everything feel "gritty" which results in the dialog feeling forced. The harsh language. I don't generally mind it, but it just doesn't feel like it belongs in a PQ game. And while I appreciate the effort that went into depicting a realistic homicide investigation (e.g discussing lividity with the coroner), that kind of goes away toward the end. And how you reach the end is kind of ridiculous.

Yeah, I know the (speculated to be based on) killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who was a gruesome serial killer.

[Tawmis]

Managed to find, what I am pretty sure is a bug.

First time you meet the owner of Bitty Kitty - I showed her the shoe (and she says "It's too big for me", etc) - and I didn't hear the "bling!" like I got points - but thought nothing of it. Showing some stuff doesn't award points (like showing the Record Store guy the newspaper clipping - he talks about both places - Bitty Kitty and Third Eye Theater - but you get no points). So I moved on - and revisted all the places - and nothing seemed to move forward. People weren't there (no one responding to doors), people just repeating the same thing, etc. (this is on Weds). So I ended up looping all the way around to each place and retracing my steps (where possible) - and suddenly the second showing of the show - I hear the "bling" - and she repeats the same thing. Suddenly when I went to the coroner - the newspaper reporter is there - and it finally progressed.

Something similar (seems - I need to rewatch my play) happened Thurs - when I was talking to the theater worker about the social worker. I don't recall a menu opening for "it was so sad" or whatever (I may not have clicked about the social worker, but I thought I did) - and I was again stuck on a loop on Thurs - until I retraced all my steps and that option became available.

The WEDS one I know I did before. So that was a bug - perhaps in the order I presented it. Thurs, I need to rewatch - because I may have not clicked about the social worker (or may have gone there before visiting the social worker place).

Anyway, converting the videos now so I can throw it into my video editor.

[Tawmis]

Yeesh. Converted and put into the editor - it comes just shy of almost 8 hours of game play.

[Tawmis]

So when someone asks, "Does it take awhile to make these?"

The answer is yes.

As you can see, PQ4 has been rendering now for over 12 hours (almost done). lol

I upload that - which takes awhile, because of the sheer size (probably around 7 to 10GB, guessing). EDIT: I grossly misjudged the size; turned out to be 39GB.


And that's the non commentary version.

Then I take that - speed it up (usually once). Re-render.

If it's still too long, I will typically speed it up again. Re-render.

Watch and comment.

Save as the commentary version. Re-render.

Then upload.

[Rath Darkblade]

Wow. I knew it takes a looooooong time to make a video -- it took me several hours (in my off-time) to make one 6-minute video. The size would've been about 100-200 MB, which is big enough. I can't imagine how long it would take to make an 8-hour one.

And yes, some people think it's all fun and games ... and then start asking "Aren't you done yet?" over and over. *head-desk*

I hope you don't have to deal with any of that, Tawm.

[Tawmis]

Wow. I knew it takes a looooooong time to make a video -- it took me several hours (in my off-time) to make one 6-minute video. The size would've been about 100-200 MB, which is big enough. I can't imagine how long it would take to make an 8-hour one.

And yes, some people think it's all fun and games ... and then start asking "Aren't you done yet?" over and over. *head-desk*

I hope you don't have to deal with any of that, Tawm.

No, not at all (in terms of dealing with that) with my Let's Play Sierra Games channel. It's entirely too small to have people who care.

When I was doing Neverending Nights, I had a phpbb forum where people were frequently asking about new episodes (when the show was still going on).

It's nice, when you know people are interested in your content and you're not just releasing stuff into the ether that no one ever sees.

As long as folks are respectful and not demanding.

[Tawmis]

Non Commentary version (as of me posting this it's still processing the "HD" version which may take awhile considering the length of the video)...

[notbobsmith]

Skimmed through it briefly. A few things I remember from my own time playing through:

In the beginning, Det. Carey seems oddly accusatory to one of the officers (~13:00). "That's it?" "You've never seen him before and this is your regular district?" The tone just seems off.

During the City Council scene (3:36:00) it is actually possible to respond to each of the questions. I forget how to do it exactly. I think after the first city councilor (the one that moves), the subsequent people you respond to are the ones further back from left to right.

Two things that always bugged me about the scoring. First, there is no max score shown. The second is that I've not found a definitive point list. The ones that I've found are all missing something from one of the other ones.

[Tawmis]

Skimmed through it briefly. A few things I remember from my own time playing through:
In the beginning, Det. Carey seems oddly accusatory to one of the officers (~13:00). "That's it?" "You've never seen him before and this is your regular district?" The tone just seems off.
During the City Council scene (3:36:00) it is actually possible to respond to each of the questions. I forget how to do it exactly. I think after the first city councilor (the one that moves), the subsequent people you respond to are the ones further back from left to right.
Two things that always bugged me about the scoring. First, there is no max score shown. The second is that I've not found a definitive point list. The ones that I've found are all missing something from one of the other ones.

Yeah the commentary will be easier to swallow than an almost 8 hour video.

Something I thought was weird - was the leap to the murderer - this, seemingly timid, stuttering individual took down TWO cops at least?

Granted could have been with the spiked tea - but one officer goes as far as talking about how good the tea is. So it's reasonable he did it with the spiked tea.

But then - why not give some clues? Officer XYZ was last seen, on his day off headed to 3rd Eye Theater.

So you can as a player - see "Wait, two officers were both seen there?"

Also - the poison used.

It's NEVER identified.

Only that it's natural and not synthetic?

There just seems like SO many different things you investigate that you NEVER get a satisfying answer to.

[Tawmis]

Police Quest 4 Commentary version (as of this posting moment it's still processing the HD version of the video - so it only has the low resolution processed - at the time of posting this)