The Shrine

If so, please no spoilers, but I'm interested to hear if you think it's worth playing.

I think I already said I did.

Worth playing? Absolutely.

It's a great story-driven game (that loses a bit of cohesion towards the end) that deserves to be played.

Worth buying? Not unless you have the money to burn on a game you'll run through in 10ish hours.

There ya go, no spoilers.

Thanks much dude. I'll probably pick it up when life gets less crazy (e.g. our game is actually done or we realize we can't sell it).

I was gonna get Psychonauts, but I opted for this after reading about how ambitious it was. I'm still pretty early into it, but I'm very impressed so far. I don't think I mind too much that it's short. There are multiple endings, and I'm already planning how I'll play the game my second run through.

I went into a local EB games last Tuesday. "Nope, won't be in until tomorrow."

Called on Wednesday. "Nope, won't be in until the end of the week."

Checked websites, all said the game was delayed until next week.

Called Gamestop this morning - "It came out on Thursday, but we're sold out now."

I've called FIVE OTHER game stores, and they all said the same thing. All sold out, will have to wait a couple more days.

Mother fucker.




(BTW, Torgo, get Psychonauts anyway. It's not revolutionary like IP is supposed to be, but the writing, acting, and art direction are top-notch and very enjoyable.)

I intend to. It's just that after exhausting myself with God of War, Indigo Prophecy seemed like a nice change of pace.

Update to my struggle to actually obtain this game: I got it.

Here was the question I had to answer: when every specialty game store in the area is sold out of a new release of a revolutionary game, what do you do?

The answer...go to Wal-Mart. Lo and behold, they had multiple copies there.

Why am I not surprised?

Shit, when that happens, I stop wasting gas and just order it online.

Agent 57 wrote:The answer...go to Wal-Mart. Lo and behold, they had multiple copies there.

Why am I not surprised?

This is because Wal-Mart has the logistical hook-up. Shit, those fuckers can transport water faster than FEMA. Surely they can be in stock with your game. When the next generation consoles come out and Microsoft is like "Dude, we giving you 10 consoles!", Wal-Mart be like "Nigga, you be straight trippin! I want 50 million consoles in my warehouse tomorrow, bitch!"

They sell a lot of games. If I were a major publisher or hardware manufacturer, I have a feeling that I'd probably have to do what they wanted for the most part as well, or get a sobering lesson in free market economics.

Two things:

One, I was not wasting gas driving around to all my local game stores. As I said, I called them to find out they were sold out.

Two, my post was meant more as a dig on Wal-Mart than anything else. A game comes out that is so critically-acclaimed and is getting such good word of mouth among hardcore gamers that all of the game stores around sell out of the initial shipment, and <i>hey look at that</i> Wal-Mart still has copies. Not because of logistics, but because I doubt Indigo Prophecy is the type of game that appeals to your typical Wal-Mart shopper - which is the reason why I checked there in the first place.

So yes, I'm being both stereotypical AND snobby, but at least I was right.

I know how you feel. When Vice City first came out, the game was in such high demand that neither of the game stores around here had enough copies to sell to people who preordered them. That meant I had to wait until at least the next shipment to get a copy. Fine, I'll order it online and play it in a week. Then my friend told me that he saw three left at K-Mart. This was like two in the morning. I jumped in my car in mere seconds. I made that 35 minute journey in only 20, and I got pulled over doing it, but I ended up getting the game.

Torgo wrote:Then my friend told me that he saw three left at K-Mart. This was like two in the morning. I jumped in my car in mere seconds. I made that 35 minute journey in only 20, and I got pulled over doing it, but I ended up getting the game.

Did you steal the cop car?

Im playing the uncensored(European) version for the PC. This is a great game! Its very casual too. At first the "simon says" parts were really annoying for me to keep up with, but I got used to it.

Let us know if the interactive sex scenes are as lame as Hot Coffee...

Well...the one I encountered so far: you get an overhead view of the act, and you control the thrust. Theres some moans and whatnot, no genitals, but you get a view of his butt.


How censored is it in the regular version?

Dunno, haven't gotten there yet. My GF and I are "playing" it together, kinda - this time through, I'm going to play while she watches, and next time through she'll play while I watch.

well, I guess technically, you could each control a char (or 2). She could play the chick cop (forgot her name)

Wait a minute. Are we talking a new level of virtual cyber here?

Finished the game last night. Decent story, I wish the graphics were better though.

My own opinion? I was a little disappointed on a number of points:

Plot - The plot and concept seem to be very interesting, and they carry it well, until about 2/3rds of the way through. With most of the secrets revealed, it seems like a series of cliches all the way through. The 3 endings are just the same thing with different scenary and a few different sentences. Not all of the loose ends were tied up, and you don't know what happens with other major characters. Overall, the ending was rather anticlimatic.

Graphics - For a game that brags about the voice work and use of digital body suits, the graphics sure looks like crap. The game's critical element is story telling, but they never bothered with a focus on polygons and textures. It really doesn't make sense, as I was expecting something like Half-Life 2 or Doom 3's graphics. Instead, I get something that looks only slightly better than a PSX game.

Gameplay - If you like Simon Says, you'll love this game. You'll be playing it a LOT! The same goes for button mashing until your hand hurts. And this is on the Easy setting. It's a shame because there are a lot of unique ideas in this game, but they aren't well-executed, or extremely overused. But, most of the gameplay is not fun because of these elements. It's better to watch a victim go through this bullshit and pay attention to the actual storyline, while the victim mostly misses the show to pay attention to some fucking blinking lights.

Sex Scenes - Man, what a pointless plot device! There were a couple of them in the European version, and it seemed like they didn't really fit. It's like somebody from up above decided that Hot Coffee was getting so much attention and they should try to capitalize on that. It's polygons, people! At least if you're going to make sex scenes, make the graphics good and make sure the sex isn't pointless.