Unofficial Tex Murphy

In Pandora, there was technically enough money to repay everybody and buy everything in the game. If you chose not to repay Louie or return Nilo's wallet or the orphanage money, it was pretty easy to get through the game without running out of money. If you didn't have sufficient funds, you could convert some of your points into money. The game would ask you if you would like to do this when you attempted to buy something you couldn't afford.

Some purchasable items weren't necessary, either. For example, Yucatec Made Easy and the black dagger at Rook's were optional buys. Yucatec Made Easy helped with the background of the Oliver Edsen character, while the black dagger could be found in the dagger room at the Mayan temple if you didn't purchase it from Rook.

Cubase wrote:A lot of people are picking Jazz club.

Have you all forgotten about the Fuchsia Flamingo!? lol

-Cub. =o)

This has come up in chats, Fuchsia Flamingo is more of a private members club and is more like a cocktail lounge with entertainment . Would anyone classify Emily Sues performance as Jazz?

Matthew Buckstein wrote:If you chose not to repay Louie or return Nilo's wallet or the orphanage money, it was pretty easy to get through the game without running out of money. If you didn't have sufficient funds, you could convert some of your points into money. The game would ask you if you would like to do this when you attempted to buy something you couldn't afford.

Oh I haven't replayed in a long time but I probably did do all those things... even though its just a game I find it tough to not play the 'good guy' path
I also kinda sucked at difficult puzzles and used the hint system which I think reduces your points or gives you less points overall
So I suppose on my playthroughs I just had enough cash to get through without as much excess, but again been holding off replaying so could be wrong on that.

@Sai, Tim Curry was in "Rocky Horror Picture Show" as well as being "Pennywise" (thanks) in It! RHPS is a cult classic; the longest continuous-running film in history! Highly recommend watching if you havn't caught it yet. TC can be scary without even putting the clown make-up on, just knowing he could and what he'd turn into is creepy enough...(shivers) lol

I have seen Tim Curry in Rocky Horror The Time Warp song was hugely popular in the UK here for a long time. It's probably still a favourite at Butlins holiday camps everywhere And yeah I think it is what many people remember him for (I also think of him in Home Alone 2 and Muppet's Treasure Island). But I figure his role as a demented homicidal clown may be more obscure so thought I'd re-paste the link incase it was missed. It was the first time I had heard of his role in that personally until you mentioned it, I have seen him play many comedy villains but not really so much real horror where he is talking about eating children ... Pretty bizarre. Might be a bit much for a Tex game (they still want that teen rating I think haha). But certainly wouldn't mind seeing him in his usual form as a comedic yet sinister villain at Rusty's. I still like the idea of Rusty's remaining abandoned and exploring a hidden basement as well as other areas in it for bits and bobs to pick up, but if it were to be re-opened having Tim Curry running it would make it so worth it

There were always a few touches of horror/suspense in the games, at least for PD and UAKM. I still think it adds this much of an extra layer to an already great atmosphere. Much like Batman Begins integrated some horror movie techniques here and there the first few times we see Batman in action.

Roswell is still one of the most memorable scenes I've played, along with the Chateau Duclare in Deus Ex. Brilliant levels in both cases. Definitely want to see something to that effect in PF.

What about Tim Curry AS Rusty? in a flashback?

Matthew Buckstein wrote: I'm particularly upset with the idea of getting stuck simply because you run out of money. That is not fun. It's just infuriating. Inventory management is one of the absolute worst things about modern RPGs. It always just amounts to picking up a bunch of useless crap that you sell to make money you don't need. If Tex goes this route, this is precisely what will happen. Gamer mode should be about tougher puzzles without the benefit of hints, not screwing up to the point where you have to restart the game.

And forget realism. Games are an escape. If the Tex Murphy series were realistic, all Tex would be doing is spying on cheating spouses. I don't need or want to deal with real-life issues like managing Tex's bank account. I do enough of that in REAL-LIFE.

Some great points Matthew. Worrying about your money, or how much you can realistically carry would take away from my enjoyment of the game. (I can't see CJ/AC doing anything like this, anyway.) When I've watched my husband play Skyrim, I would ask why is he just standing there and getting attacked? Apparently is was to build up your armor. How boring is that? And also resting and waiting for stores to open or for your character to heal. And then the length of time for skill building - ugh! Tex can certainly be a leisurely pace, but what you typically are doing during that time is not a waste of time nor holding you back just to lengthen the game play.

@Sai Yeah it was the Radio Theater that made me aware Louie had a living area above the Brew and Stew. If you look at the Brew and Stew in VR mode you can even see structure above it. I know Tex stayed there but I don't know for how long. It would be cool to see what the inside looks like in a game.

For those who are worried I'd say Pandora handled the money well. There was more than you needed to complete the game.

@Bjyman: Yeah I was kinda surprised to hear we wouldn't really get to "play" those bits in the Radio Theater. Some of them sound like they would of been pretty interesting to go through.

Anyway I guess that just means the game itself will have so much more since I honestly thought for a long time the Radio Theater was just going to be the start of the next game in terms of gameplay and then a flash forward to "some years later" maybe. But wow all that is "in the past" as Aaron put it and there'll still be a full Tex Murphy game beyond that? Plus they are making 6 more Radio Theater episodes and they also seem to be taking place *before* the next game...! Goes to show how much they must have planned for the game itself!

As to Louie's home would be interesting to see it in a flashback. I also think it'd be cool if instead of walking into the door and it cutting straight to dialogue interaction with Louie, you could actually walk around the Brew & Stew. Same with Rook's etc. Again its intentionally been awhile since I replayed the games but I don't seem to recall being able to explore those places and get Tex to comment on stuff in there.

redcat72 wrote:

Matthew Buckstein wrote: I'm particularly upset with the idea of getting stuck simply because you run out of money. That is not fun. It's just infuriating. Inventory management is one of the absolute worst things about modern RPGs. It always just amounts to picking up a bunch of useless crap that you sell to make money you don't need. If Tex goes this route, this is precisely what will happen. Gamer mode should be about tougher puzzles without the benefit of hints, not screwing up to the point where you have to restart the game.

And forget realism. Games are an escape. If the Tex Murphy series were realistic, all Tex would be doing is spying on cheating spouses. I don't need or want to deal with real-life issues like managing Tex's bank account. I do enough of that in REAL-LIFE.

Some great points Matthew. Worrying about your money, or how much you can realistically carry would take away from my enjoyment of the game. (I can't see CJ/AC doing anything like this, anyway.) When I've watched my husband play Skyrim, I would ask why is he just standing there and getting attacked? Apparently is was to build up your armor. How boring is that? And also resting and waiting for stores to open or for your character to heal. And then the length of time for skill building - ugh! Tex can certainly be a leisurely pace, but what you typically are doing during that time is not a waste of time nor holding you back just to lengthen the game play.

I've yet to play Skyrim, but having played two of its predecessors (Morrowind and Oblivion), the Elder Scrolls games do inventory management a bit better than most. There are plenty of useful items to pick up to build spells and enchant items. If you're more into the warrior-style gameplay then you can always sell or not pick up those items. The money system is just as broken as most games though. You tend to end up selling so much stuff, because you ultimately can only use so much of what you pick up, that you end up with way more money then you could ever need to spend.

Standing around letting enemies attack you to improve your armor is boring, though, but technically you're supposed to let it happen more organically as you get into battles throughout the course of the game. Standing around is just a form of grinding and takes the fun out of leveling up.

Currently, I'm playing Dragon Age II, and that's a game with horrible inventory management, as has been the case with most Bioware RPGs of late. Most stuff I find lying around are weapons or armor that is inferior to what I already have, so if I pick it up, all I'll end up doing is selling it. Few of the items I pick up can be used in any meaningful way. And I'm already picking up tons of money that I'll ultimately never use. I was a bit disappointed after an interesting opening to the game, that I spent the next ten hours performing meaningless sidequests to build up the fifty gold I needed to progress the story.

@Sai Oh yeah I'm glad you mentioned that. I always wondered what it would be like to see some of those character based retail locations in VR mode. Especially more of the Golden Gate Hotel and the Fuchsia Flamingo because of the size.

redcat72 wrote:When I've watched my husband play Skyrim, I would ask why is he just standing there and getting attacked? Apparently is was to build up your armor. How boring is that? And also resting and waiting for stores to open or for your character to heal. And then the length of time for skill building - ugh!

That whole "grinding" thing (as Matthew mentioned) can be really addictive in certain games. I am avoiding playing Torchlight for that reason... its wandering around randomnly generated dungeons and clicking to kill monsters and then clicking to pick up loot, but even the demo dragged me in ...! And I still have that "multiplayer monkey on my back" as The Big Bang Theory tv show put it. I reccomend watching the episode where Penny gets addicted to an online game, funny but so true

Here's some clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oomZt4-p ... page#t=93s