Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

[Techwright]

I'm pretty excited for the possibilities this presents.  Troy Baker appears to do a fine job as a spiritual heir to the voice of Indy, and whomever is channeling Denholm Elliot as Marcus Brody deserves a raise.

 

Something about the graphics and facial movements feels a little off, as if it's using technology from a few years back, but by and large I'm interested to see the final product.  That's saying something as I'm one of those unfortunate souls for whom first person perspective is the gateway to nausea.  I'd probably risk it for this one.

 

 

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

The movie nerd in me loves all the cinematic detail (down to the right title fonts for the credits, and a Wilhelm). And yes, Troy Baker nails Harrison's intonation, exasperation and breathy wonderment with aplomb. They also almost nail Denholm Elliott, (although whoever did his facial capture in this early FMV did my boy dirty - it looks like he's grown a second face on top of the first one), and we have Unbearable Weight's Alessa Mastronardi as second protagonist / team play character Gina. And our mysterious thief who kicks off the story is Tony "Candyman" Todd, who seems to have had the most luck with the mocap. 

 

On m'learned coll's note about facial expressions: it is weird that animators in this day and age have trouble figuring out where teeth should be and how they should be lit, which keeps giving uncanny valley moments. 

 

Found an extended interview with the MachineGames team. And while I'm not normally a fan of corporate EPKs, they do seem like genuinely passionate nerds who got lucky with this gig. I hope it plays out well for them.

 

Edited February 18 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[battlewraith]

On 2/18/2024 at 6:42 AM, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

Found an extended interview with the MachineGames team. And while I'm not normally a fan of corporate EPKs, they do seem like genuinely passionate nerds who got lucky with this gig. I hope it plays out well for them.

 

MachineGames did the most recent series of Wolfenstein Games, which features tons of nazis and different time periods. I think they would be a logical pick based on those games which were really well done except for the last installment which featured some very unpopular gameplay mechanics (I didn't actually play that one myself). 

[Dynamo-Joe]

Unfortunately, this game production is involved with the infamous Sweet Baby Inc. - you know those people who were involved with such flops as Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Starfield, Forspoken, Saints Row Reboot, Gotham Knights etc. 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13860172/companycredits/?ref_=tt_dt_co#production

Sweet Baby Inc basically is not in the business of providing good writing for games - but in consultation services that oversee writing points that involves making stories in games more "woke" so that these games can pass ESG quotas for investment firms like Blackrock etc. In other words - they make stories bad and cringe to satisfy evil corporate overlords who know NOTHING about the properties, lore or what gamers really want or care about. And in fact - they actively take note of what gamers want - and go in EXACTLY the opposite direction 9 times out of 10. 

Therefore expect that this game will be as terrible for the lore of Indiana Jones as "Dial of Destiny" was. Don't bother with this one, folks. It's Dead On Arrival. 

Edited March 1 by Dynamo-Joe

[battlewraith]

I went to Sweet Baby Inc.'s website and there is no reference to them being involved in this project. It's not listed anywhere. What's your source for this?

 

As a side note, there was some controversy when MachineGames released Wolfenstein The New Order. Apparently a game where you violently mangle nazis, in a franchise devoted to stomping out nazis, upset some gamers who were.....I dunno...sympathetic to nazis?

[Dynamo-Joe]

Apparently I broke the link above when I was editing it. Fixed now. I've double-checked it now and it works properly. That's my source above at the link. 

[TheOtherTed]

On 2/16/2024 at 3:18 PM, Techwright said:

Something about the graphics and facial movements feels a little off, as if it's using technology from a few years back,

Yeah, my second thought was that the character animations (except Indy) seem to be heavily based on the Half Life's G-Man.

 

My first thought, though, was that the title is at least as ripe for sophomoric humor as "Star Trek: Discovery."

[kanga]

pity about sweet baby. cant get it now, was looking forward to it.

Edited April 21 by kanga
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