Grim Fandango

[Lemonio]

In the time that i have to wait for Mass Effect i was looking for some small fun game, and i found, Grim Fandango.
Its still in the mail, but by the reviews and trailers it looks very fun.
Have you played it and what do you think about it?

[Aku]

Grim Fandango is easily in my top ten games of all time. I still have my copy, and maybe one day I'll see if I can run the thing on Vista just so I can enjoy the story again. I've never played a game where I enjoyed the story or the characters more than this one. After awhile, it wasn't so much a game anymore, but a great movie. But there is a game in there too, and there are a lot of fun puzzles to solve. And some of them are outright hilarious. Nothing tops Manny (main character) doing beat poetry at a nightclub. The voice acting is awesome, the jokes and one-liners in the game are hysterical, and in the end - truthfully - this was one of the few games I was ever sad was over.

[Intangir]

A good buy. Grim Fandango is probably my favorite adventure game of all time and in my top ten of games in general also. You'll laugh! You'll cry! You'll understand the ambivalence we all shared when we first heard that Tim-Burton-To-Direct-Grim-Fandango-The-Movie rumor!

[Lara]

I agree with Aku and Intangir. It's one of my favorite adventure games. Lot's of laughs and well done! Enjoy..

[silversparrow]

Grim Fandango, now that's a classic. It's too bad we don't see games like that anymore.

As for Mass Effect, unfortunately I've lost interest in it ever since I heard about the 10-day SecuROM phone home validation scheme. Now that stuff is just wack. I appreciate developers trying to protect their IP, but when we crossover in to the realm of having to constantly get their permission to play something we bought, well that's just going too far. It's a shame too, I really wanted to play this game. Now it looks like I never will.

[PapaSmurf]

Grim Fandango, now that's a classic. It's too bad we don't see games like that anymore.

As for Mass Effect, unfortunately I've lost interest in it ever since I heard about the 10-day SecuROM phone home validation scheme. Now that stuff is just wack. I appreciate developers trying to protect their IP, but when we crossover in to the realm of having to constantly get their permission to play something we bought, well that's just going too far. It's a shame too, I really wanted to play this game. Now it looks like I never will.

Didn't this happen with Bioshock? I'll need to read up on this before I get the game cuz I don't want to buy something with limited installs like MS office or something. Perhaps you can educate me?

[Intangir]

BioShock required internet activation, but it didn't need to be validated after that. Of course the launch was far from perfect; their servers went down for a time and a lot of people couldn't play their shiny new game for some time. BioShock also had a limit to simultaneous installations (I think it was 2 or 3), which was later patched to allow a little more headroom (up to 5 IIRC). The SecuROM on BioShock also refused to run the game if you had ran Process Explorer/FileMon beforehand (I use PE daily) and required you to reboot your computer before it'd let you play the game.

In short, it was a mess and Mass Effect's SecuROM implementation sounds even worse. I uncharacteristically bought BioShock the day it hit stores without the knowledge of the copy protection and I paid for it. I'm not making that mistake with Mass Effect, and the news of its DRM really deflated what interest I had left for buying the game. I may still pick it up down the road, but I'll be watching from the sidelines this launch and await a crack.

[silversparrow]

Didn't this happen with Bioshock? I'll need to read up on this before I get the game cuz I don't want to buy something with limited installs like MS office or something. Perhaps you can educate me?

The new SecuROM scheme works as follows: every 10 days a validation check must be made over the web in order for the game to continue working (and this goes on forever). This draconian DRM scheme is being implemented in both Mass Effect and Spore for the PC. In fact, this would appear to be EA's policy towards all their new franchises on the PC.

[ilnadmy]

Wait for the crack. Problem solved.

As far as Grim Fandango, I have yet to play it. Really want to though.

[Aku]

You'll understand the ambivalence we all shared when we first heard that Tim-Burton-To-Direct-Grim-Fandango-The-Movie rumor!

I didn't remember the Tim Burton rumour so I looked it up, and in his quote he described Grim Fandango along the lines of Corpse Bride and Nightmare Before Christmas. Good god, the only thing Grim Fandango has in common with those movies is that the characters are all dead. That would be like saying Blade of Glory is similar to Michael Clayton because the characters are alive! If Tim Burton ever does pursue this movie I would hope he plays the game first, and also watch a few 40s film noirs and old comedies like the Thin Man and Marx Brothers movies. I really don't want to see Manny running around the land of the dead with Beetlejuice in tow.

[Lemonio]

what's this whole "securom" thingimajig?
Explanation? Linky?

[ceevee]

Grim Fandango Quotes:

Manuel Calavera: Buenos días.
Mercedes Colomar: You're not the nurse.
Manuel Calavera: No.
Mercedes Colomar: You're not here to give me my medication?
Manuel Calavera: No, but I am here to ease your pain.
Mercedes Colomar: Guess they couldn't save me, eh?
Manuel Calavera: No, but there's still a chance you could save me.

Manuel Calavera: I'm the Grim Reaper, Lardass, and you're my next customer.

[Intangir]

Dammit.

*puts Grim Fandango on the Replay Soon list*

[Intangir]

I customarily casted out for some 'new' Grim Fandango developments/tips/misc and came back with a few things.

Residual -- ScummVM subproject (http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Residual)
Residual is a ScummVM sub-project to play LucasArts' LUA-based 3D adventures, such as Grim Fandango. Residual is an OpenGL program, and requires a 3D card with working OpenGL support for the best experience.

A software renderer is also available, but is less tested.

The main ScummVM program can run LucasArts 2D SCUMM adventures (among others). Residual is named such as it aims to do the same for the residual (remaining) games. It is also a word pun, as the engine used in these LUA-based adventure is called GrimE (as opposed to SCUMM). Grime is a type of residue.
The Good -- This will/would be great once it's completed since it'd solve a lot of compatibility issues, be playable on multiple platforms, and have a lot of new features--like support for modern resolutions greater than 800x600 and/or in-game anti-aliasing support.

The Bad -- As a subproject, progress has been slow on Residual. I encountered a thread (http://forums.scummvm.org/viewtopic.php?t=688&highlight=residual&sid=141f75e54ba784b191bb3b520fe6292a) that somewhat tracked Residual's progress over the course of a few years and it doesn't sound like a whole lot has been accomplished. So unless they throw some more bodies on the project, it might not be done any time (or year) soon. According to the Wiki, it's still glitchy and is only playable to sometime in Year 2 of the game.

The Ugly -- Apparently Grim Fandango (with or without Residual) doesn't play well with "newer nVidia" video cards--specifically the 8x00 series. In order to run it correctly, you may have to run the game in software mode--not by any convenient game option or INI editing, but by disabling DirectDraw acceleration via dxdiag. Double whammy if you're on a multi-core processor, another thing GF dislikes. You'll have to set affinity to keep it happy.

Anti-Aliasing in Grim Fandango -- The ol' fashioned way (http://lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=160387).

This technique doesn't help if you have to run it in software mode, obviously, but if you still have an older nvidia video card and want to iron out some of those jaggies (remember, 800x600) you might want to give it a try.

Last but not least,

Grim Fandango Launcher (http://quick.mixnmojo.com/grim-fandango-launcher)
An improved version of the launcher program that LucasArts shipped with Grim Fandango, it has a number of features not present in the original launcher:

* Can run Grim Fandango from hard drive (play without the cd’s) and can automatically copy the required files to the hard drive.
* Can run Grim Fandango in windowed mode.
* Automatically enables Grim Fandango’s developer/debug mode. (The good_times registry key).
* Provides a synopsis of debug features and debug keys.
* Can download and install the official Grim Fandango patch if its not applied.
* Supports all recent versions of Windows (XP, XP64, XP MCE, Vista, Vista64).
- Windows 98, ME and 2000 are not officially supported but should work correctly.

[Aku]

I customarily casted out for some 'new' Grim Fandango developments/tips/misc and came back with a few things.
The Ugly -- Apparently Grim Fandango (with or without Residual) doesn't play well with "newer nVidia" video cards--specifically the 8x00 series. In order to run it correctly, you may have to run the game in software mode--not by any convenient game option or INI editing, but by disabling DirectDraw acceleration via dxdiag. Double whammy if you're on a multi-core processor, another thing GF dislikes. You'll have to set affinity to keep it happy.

Good thing I have a laptop I can stick it on if I want to play it again.

[Lemonio]

i have finally gotten grim fandango and installed it. I bought the two disc set w/e it is, so do i need to download the launcher, or is included in this set?

[Aku]

I don't remember. But you can always just download it.

[Lemonio]

hmmm. i'm having a ****load of problems getting it to run, but when it does, its very fun lol

[Aku]

Are ou on XP or Vista? What's your video card?

[Lemonio]

well i'm on XP and i have an ATI, so problems not from that. My problems are more like hyper-threading except the solution doesn't fix it. Kind of like stuttering cut scenes because my computer is too fast, or losing sound at random points in the game. I found a way to play it though.
"Nope. Not Vanity. Not Greed. Not Boxing. Domino likes boxing though." lol

[Intangir]

Yep, sounds like that multi-core / HT issue. If you haven't already you could try setting affinity in TaskManager while running it, or use imagecfg which seems to have worked for at least two people (http://64.20.36.211/showpost.php?p=2416475&postcount=7).

[Aku]

I have to play this game again just for all the great dialogue. My favorite part of the game is when Manny runs a nightclub. It was a riot.

[Lemonio]

Yep, sounds like that multi-core / HT issue. If you haven't already you could try setting affinity in TaskManager while running it, or use imagecfg which seems to have worked for at least two people (http://64.20.36.211/showpost.php?p=2416475&postcount=7).
no i tried that already, didn't work. however running the exe file in compatbility mode for windows 2000, and loading the game before the first cutscene starts playing is working for now.