Mark your dates: March 2004. By then, the Syberia II's demo should have been released. Since the full game is slated for a Q1 2004 release... there's not much wait left!!!
A-T: "Tell our readers in three words why they should buy Syberia II."
Cédric: "Magical - Jaw-dropping-graphics (1 word) - Emotions"
full article here
Perhaps (and I hope), that's why Syberia will work for me. If it even lives up to it's predecessor's totally awe-inspiring scenery and that little sense of magic captured in a game, it'll already be quite a good game. I do know some people complained the previous game was a little too lonely: all you had to talk to were automatons and perhaps a person here and there, many of which do appear kinda out of nowhere. People as plot devices. But somehow that loneliness echoed what Kate Walker would have felt: being totally alone in a strange land, surrounded by machines she didn't even know could exist, and the subsequent *spoiler removed*.
What makes it even more fantastic for the little fans of the adventure gaming genre is
Sam and Max: Freelance Police, returning in Q3 2004 and looking absolutely great. I think I'll go buy pc gamer just to hold that page in my hands and know that it is a top10 game of 2004. Well, I hope it will be, but at the very least, it's LOOKING great. It looks way better than the next Larry Laffer game, and I'm not so looking forward to that, but I think I'll give it a shot.
Of course, my gaming timetable for the moment is filled with Prince of Persia (if I get it to run on my fanless video card) and Beyond Good and Evil, but I also will be accompanying George and Nico around various locations, discovering greater secrets, and then latter following Gabriel Knight, one of the
Schattenjagers, or basically a hunter of shadows. I like that word. :)
Things are looking great, if not in the general front, at least at my front. I shall be surrounded by adventure games for a long time, and I like that. Yes, it's all about feeling that little bit of magic, suspending that little bit of disbelief (that you have to drop flower pots to get stuff from mud in Runaways) or just being caught up in that adventure yourself. I know nowadays that rpgs and even FPSs have very engaging storylines, but something is just different about the adventure genre that sets it apart in my eyes.
I hope it will go on. If anything I know I love the feeling of wide-eyed wonder each time I step into a new screen in Syberia or Arcadia, and the great big fat laughs I get tripping into the mystery vortex or bumping into Largo LeGrande. Maybe it's how I save the rainforest, or even the world. Sometimes it's also the smaller, littler journeys, one man's quest to save his girl or to get the girl. It's finding a new metal, or a whole new alien civilisation. It's all magic. Mostly.
