The Leather-Bound Book

To Dilly Star: Hmmm...That's so crazy it might just....actually, I've already done one: War Never Changes by Ciphered, on the first page as part of Hatred, Nuclear Fallout and Cake. But I'm sure there are more around here.

Have you got one in mind then?

And sort of...Sheep don't tend to work like paint but it does make collecting a certain colour of wool easier. Actually, we've got two new updates to Minecraft coming. I might have to update the review.

To Chocolate Chip: No idea. I can only imagine its because the mods think the threads harmless enough. Mind if I take a look at yours actually?

And if you'd like, you more than welcome to post reviews here too. I've never insisted this be a one-pony show. I only insist that they be done in a clear format similar to mine. It just makes things a tad neater.

 

Absolutely, totall-lutely, 200% guaranteed, with sprinkles, cherries, brandy and candles on top I'll review it.

So...Where is it? I can only see one thing posted here and it's your Lord of the Rings sort of thing. No Skyrim influence as far as I can see.

 

Dear Esther

Well....I'm still yet to get a reply out of Dilly Star...Hmm...Let's do something else then till we do.

[size=+1]Dear Esther[/size]​

Welcome to a game you have all likely hood to hate. Where to begin? If you like COD or something with lots of shooting like Jamestown perhaps then this is not for you. If you like carving people up Shank style then this might not be your night. If you like the audio-visual joy of Audiosurf or Beat Hazzard then your out of luck. If you like - Ah, Sod this!


Every single review you can find on this glorious piece of code will compare Dear Esther to everything it's not. The bottom line is that you will have never played a game like this. In fact, you probably would struggle to call it a game. It's much closer to a 'Interactive Story-Telling Experience'. However, I'd sound like a tosser if I spouted that every few seconds so I'm going to call it a '3D Book' because it's shorter and there isn't all that much interaction with what's going on either.

But this little mod is a favourite of mine. It appeals to a side of myself I strive to indulge; that which loves the moment when I am lost in a world. As though bathing in bubbling sweet shandy. The words tickle and tease my head with the next point of inebriation, sinking ever lower into a point of unity. My mind drinks greedily at the liquid, the synapses exploding like Catherine Wheels. Every cell is both buzzing and numb to my bedroom. I have drowned in the drink willingly, guzzling it's contents until only the drops I could not reach are left.

Zen has arrived to set up yet another nest for yet another influence on my works. It will come and settle me when roused, reminding me of the first time I was enthralled by the men who sought to travel in boats without bottoms.

Dear Esther is arguably one of the best written games you can find. The narrator is perfect for this material and, from a more technical stand point, is allowed to weave a story with a lessened emphasis on narrative building blocks. I mean the basics of a story like setting, characters, time and so on. They are all dealt with by the game itself. The location, the feel and the time is dealt with the map that you explore. It's not pretty here and that's the point, it would seem. It's an abandoned Hebredian island, not Skyrim.

There I go again; telling you what it's not.

My point is that the world you wonder and explore is connected to the wonderfully written sound bites your hearing. Your job is to understand what the narrator is talking about. To piece together his words and gain a greater understanding as you wonder through this small map. I implore you to explore every nook and cranny here in order to find every piece of the story you can find. The bizarre, haunting music will add layers of mysticism and magic to the jagged rocks, to the misty sea and to the strange symbols scrawled over the rock. It is a sublime way to spend around thirty minutes.

Now, this is not the perfect experience, of course. Little things are off, as are all source mods. Some will deliberately embrace them as part of the world like The Stanley Parable but they are mostly well covered here. The game lacks a little bit of occasional spit and polish, for whatever reason. Possibly to keep file size down but maybe the night time skybox could have used a higher resolution image. Maybe some of the images on the cliffs could have been updated to a clearer image. Nit-picks really.

One puzzling aspect is how the game occasionally whispers "Come back!" at you. This is confusing as you, a person trained by computer games to look for all the collectables, would likely turn around and see what you can find, believing you've left something. Except that you often haven't. Furthermore, you can occasionally see people standing around. They are ghostly silhouettes that just stand there, ignoring you. It brakes the magic when they suddenly ping out of existence. Lastly, you will need to mess with the sound on this game before playing. While both the narration and the music set the scene of this little island perfectly, the volume of the music can overwhelm the narration. I was wondering up a hill, struggling to hear the narration someone hitting a synthesiser with a hammer. I'd turn the music down to just enough to hear it and the game noises to maximum. That seems to work.

Something has to be said of the narrator. His voice is able to bring the material to life, adding to the already fairy-like world here. The story has a central theme of grief, if you listen carefully, and a world of pain, loneliness and forgiveness. But you have to listen. I will admit that his language may be impenetrable to some people. But, you are allowed to try then declare your distaste. That's fine by me. Dear Esther appears to be an acquired taste that needs an inherent love of books. For what you see here is not the emulation of that paper based story, but the first glimpse of their evolution.

I can see why other reviewers are likely to compare this mod to everything it is not because it appears to diminish the reputation of it when you discuss what this is. And it is a book you can walk around in. An epistolary of a man's loss and his attempt at over coming it. If you are the type who thinks that computer games can never be an art form then look at this. If you love books and just got a copy of The Orange Box (as you will need Source games to play this) to go with your new laptop, look this up. If you are looking to create a game, delve into this little world The Chinese Room has created and learn how you too might create the sense of mystery and fantasy in your own work.

That same sense of inebriated floating....



Tyro's Wish List for the other, larger version of Dear Esther.

1. A slightly longer play time (but not too long so that the world gets boring).
2. Graphical touches to make the world even more believable. And readable, in some cases.
3. Any silhouetted people should not vanish out of nowhere.
4. Tweaks to the sound balance between the narration and the music.

 

Chocolate, three things:

1) It's not just me. There is a good friend of mine, JJWCool, who is here and I have mentioned repeatedly that anyone is allowed to post their own articles here too. You are more than welcome, in fact, I feverishly insist that you join in. I only ask that you attempt to write it in a similar style for the sake of neatness.

2) We're on the general threads because we're of no harm to the forum, as far as I can tell.

3) We have a variety of reviews, not just games here. Granted, I should get back to looking at more Fan Fics but games reviews have been the only ones I have found the time to write. The point is that the variety is keeping us here. There's games, movies, Youtube and fan fiction here. We cannot be placed anywhere else respectively.

Please join me and JJ. We'd love to have you and I'll even check any articles before they go up to make sure they look neat and professional.

All right? I mean, getting different angles on the same game/fan fiction/movie/Youtube thing that JJ keeps finding is interesting right? Especially when they're conflicting.

The invitation goes to anyone else. There's a lot of Fan Fiction to go through...


Review requests seem to be getting quite popular and I'll have to devote Wednesday afternoon to doing that. 51m0nm and Valor, I'll look at what you have posted here on Everypony ASAP but if your referring to any fan fiction works that are elsewhere you definitely need to post a link to them. It's all well and go asking me and I'll 99.99% of the time say "Yes, yes, yes!" with a chance of either four or five 'yes's but pointing me in the right direction helps get the article written faster.

So, please give me a link to what you want me to look through. Especially you Valor as you have no Fan Fics posted on this site at all. Please give me a link.

Thanks.

 

Thank ya kindly. I'll get on that Wednesday. You two might have to have articles to yourselves. It's just me on the ol' Fan Fics and yours, Valor, is quite long.

 

Like I said, it's the filing system of the forums, not mods being vindictive towards you. I'm sure of it. Please go and talk to the mods because protesting to me is useless. I have no power here in regards to where your review is placed. I respect your desire to be an individual but you and your reviews are welcome here any time if you change your mind. See you around.

Dilly Star! Thank you, I'll get on that ASAP.

On another note, I'm glad they got the server issues fixed. The pony deficit symptoms were setting in....