Gameplay Differences

[Siren Drake]

Watching the E3 footage to see what Syberia 3 is going to look like and play like.

Kate doesn't look the same. There are similarities, and with a transfer to 3D models, some differences are only to be expected, but it's going to be an adjustment.

Because it's still in development, temporaray voice recordings are being used. It is to be hoped that Microids will get the same voice actress for Kate. She has done an excellent job so far.

The game opens one month after the end of Syberia 2. After Hans rode away, the Youkol villagers found Kate and brought her to a nearby town. That's where she awakens at the beginning of the game. I don't believe we'll be seeing any more of Hans.

Kate is wearing Oscar's heart as a pendant. If she can find an appropriate body for him, he might get brought back.

The interface for talking, examining, and interacting is different, but it's hard to tell from the footage how much of the differences are functional and how much are merely cosmetic.

The backgrounds look detailed and realistic, but I sincerely hope the remaining locations are prettier than the ones in the opening sequence.

I love good graphics, but far too many game designers think that good graphics just means high resolution and a high degree of realism. If your subject is zombies being shot to bits, I'd probably prefer lower resolution and less realism. Not that I saw any signs of zombies in Syberia 3, but having high resolution, ultra-realistic 3D graphics isn't much of a selling point with me if nothing in the graphics is pretty. I'd rather have lower resolution cartoon graphics that don't make me nauseous.

I did see a few seconds of what looked like a Voralberg automaton, so perhaps there will be some in the game.

The game designer being interviewed indicated that this was a brand new story that could be followed by players who hadn't played the first two games. There are tie-ins such as the Youkols and Oscar's heart, but newcomers should get enough exposition to get caught up on the important story events.

[Siren Drake]

Forgot to mention something. It was a little hard to understand the Microids guy because he had a strong French accent, but it sounded like he was saying that the story was going to focus on the Youkols and a special pilgrimage taken every ten years with snow ostriches.

So much for my hopes of getting more of that elegant European scenery like Validilene. It's getting harder to work up enthusiasm for this new installment.

[Siren Drake]

Read an article today about Syberia 3. Based on the gameplay described in this article, Syberia 3 will have more mechanical puzzles instead of being nearly all talk with a few arbitrary inventory puzzles thrown in.

That's encouraging to me. I enjoyed the scenery in Syberia 2 (up until the Youkol village), but I was sorely disappointed by the "puzzles". So even if all the scenery in Syberia 3 is horrifically ugly (Let's hope not.), if the puzzles and the story are engaging enough, the game can still be decent overall.

It sounds as though conversations now include choices that can affect things later in the game. If that works, it will give the game a lot more replay value.

[Oscar_ModelloXZ2000]

Watching the E3 footage to see what Syberia 3 is going to look like and play like.

Kate doesn't look the same. There are similarities, and with a transfer to 3D models, some differences are only to be expected, but it's going to be an adjustment.

I noticed this. In my opinion, concept arts are closer than 3D models to the "old" Kate, but I think the reason is quite obvius. Is it going to be an adjustment? Well, very good.

Because it's still in development, temporaray voice recordings are being used. It is to be hoped that Microids will get the same voice actress for Kate. She has done an excellent job so far.

I heard Kate's voice actress in Syberia and Syberia 2 (Shannon Mann, isn't she?). She's not bad, she did a good job, but, of course, I prefer our Italian voice.

Kate is wearing Oscar's heart as a pendant. If she can find an appropriate body for him, he might get brought back.

Oh, that's Oscar's heart? I thought it was a water bottle (like that one we took in Youkols' village, in Syberia 2). I remember that Sokal told about Oscar in Syberia 3 in an interview. I hope to see him again... maybe in his old body!

The interface for talking, examining, and interacting is different, but it's hard to tell from the footage how much of the differences are functional and how much are merely cosmetic.

I don't mind it. We'll see...

I did see a few seconds of what looked like a Voralberg automaton, so perhaps there will be some in the game.

Where did you see them?

[Siren Drake]

Watching the E3 footage to see what Syberia 3 is going to look like and play like.

Kate doesn't look the same. There are similarities, and with a transfer to 3D models, some differences are only to be expected, but it's going to be an adjustment.

I noticed this. In my opinion, concept arts are closer than 3D models to the "old" Kate, but I think the reason is quite obvius. Is it going to be an adjustment? Well, very good.

Because it's still in development, temporaray voice recordings are being used. It is to be hoped that Microids will get the same voice actress for Kate. She has done an excellent job so far.

I heard Kate's voice actress in Syberia and Syberia 2 (Shannon Mann, isn't she?). She's not bad, she did a good job, but, of course, I prefer our Italian voice.

Kate is wearing Oscar's heart as a pendant. If she can find an appropriate body for him, he might get brought back.

Oh, that's Oscar's heart? I thought it was a water bottle (like that one we took in Youkols' village, in Syberia 2). I remember that Sokal told about Oscar in Syberia 3 in an interview. I hope to see him again... maybe in his old body!

The interface for talking, examining, and interacting is different, but it's hard to tell from the footage how much of the differences are functional and how much are merely cosmetic.

I don't mind it. We'll see...

I did see a few seconds of what looked like a Voralberg automaton, so perhaps there will be some in the game.

Where did you see them?

When I said that Kate's new look is going to be an adjustment, what I meant was that it is going to take some time to get used to it. Although I have a sinking feeling that I'm never quite going to lose the thought that she now looks like a Lara Croft wannabe.

If you aren't an English speaker, then I don't imagine it makes a lot of difference to you whether the English language voice acting is any good. And even if someone does speak English but as a second language, it's probably more difficult to pick up on the nuances of the performance.

Yes, that's Oscar's heart. Cyril Berrebi said so explicitly in the E3 video.

I rewatched the video, and it looks like the player will no longer be doing point and click, but will actually have to move and manipulate each and every object through a 3D space in order to interact with it. This is being touted as a whole new level of immersion, but I'm skeptical. Ever play a point and click adventure game with an inventory puzzle, i.e. apply object X to spot Y? Ever notice how often you have to hit exactly the right spot? Sometimes, even when you KNOW you're applying the correct object to the correct spot, it can take multiple tries to get the action to "take". Once you introduce 3D manipulation of every object in the game, dial that up to eleven, not to mention the possibility of a whole new host of bugs due to the additional complications.

And will it be more immersive? Probably not. It's the kind of gimmick that seems really cool for about two minutes until it dawns on you that it's a lot more finicky to twist open a doorknob using a mouse or a trackpad or even a controller than it is to open a door in real life, and you're going to have to do this kind of interaction CONSTANTLY in order to do anything at all in the game, and a lot of it will be repetitive. Think about a puzzle with a lot of complicated mechanisms that you have to move around in order to test a possible solution. Now try to imagine doing so again and again while you test various possibilities. Still sound fun? Instead of focusing on the story or the puzzles, this kind of interaction is going to keep you constantly aware that you are playing a video game. It seems to me that it's a lot more likely to destroy immersion than to foster it.

The automaton glimpse that I saw turned out to have been in a different video. It's a "making of" video for Syberia 3.

http://youtu.be/QxoFH02M0Zk

[Oscar_ModelloXZ2000]

Watching the E3 footage to see what Syberia 3 is going to look like and play like.

Kate doesn't look the same. There are similarities, and with a transfer to 3D models, some differences are only to be expected, but it's going to be an adjustment.

I noticed this. In my opinion, concept arts are closer than 3D models to the "old" Kate, but I think the reason is quite obvius. Is it going to be an adjustment? Well, very good.

Because it's still in development, temporaray voice recordings are being used. It is to be hoped that Microids will get the same voice actress for Kate. She has done an excellent job so far.

I heard Kate's voice actress in Syberia and Syberia 2 (Shannon Mann, isn't she?). She's not bad, she did a good job, but, of course, I prefer our Italian voice.

Kate is wearing Oscar's heart as a pendant. If she can find an appropriate body for him, he might get brought back.

Oh, that's Oscar's heart? I thought it was a water bottle (like that one we took in Youkols' village, in Syberia 2). I remember that Sokal told about Oscar in Syberia 3 in an interview. I hope to see him again... maybe in his old body!

The interface for talking, examining, and interacting is different, but it's hard to tell from the footage how much of the differences are functional and how much are merely cosmetic.

I don't mind it. We'll see...

I did see a few seconds of what looked like a Voralberg automaton, so perhaps there will be some in the game.

Where did you see them?

When I said that Kate's new look is going to be an adjustment, what I meant was that it is going to take some time to get used to it. Although I have a sinking feeling that I'm never quite going to lose the thought that she now looks like a Lara Croft wannabe.

If you aren't an English speaker, then I don't imagine it makes a lot of difference to you whether the English language voice acting is any good. And even if someone does speak English but as a second language, it's probably more difficult to pick up on the nuances of the performance.

Yes, that's Oscar's heart. Cyril Berrebi said so explicitly in the E3 video.

I rewatched the video, and it looks like the player will no longer be doing point and click, but will actually have to move and manipulate each and every object through a 3D space in order to interact with it. This is being touted as a whole new level of immersion, but I'm skeptical. Ever play a point and click adventure game with an inventory puzzle, i.e. apply object X to spot Y? Ever notice how often you have to hit exactly the right spot? Sometimes, even when you KNOW you're applying the correct object to the correct spot, it can take multiple tries to get the action to "take". Once you introduce 3D manipulation of every object in the game, dial that up to eleven, not to mention the possibility of a whole new host of bugs due to the additional complications.

And will it be more immersive? Probably not. It's the kind of gimmick that seems really cool for about two minutes until it dawns on you that it's a lot more finicky to twist open a doorknob using a mouse or a trackpad or even a controller than it is to open a door in real life, and you're going to have to do this kind of interaction CONSTANTLY in order to do anything at all in the game, and a lot of it will be repetitive. Think about a puzzle with a lot of complicated mechanisms that you have to move around in order to test a possible solution. Now try to imagine doing so again and again while you test various possibilities. Still sound fun? Instead of focusing on the story or the puzzles, this kind of interaction is going to keep you constantly aware that you are playing a video game. It seems to me that it's a lot more likely to destroy immersion than to foster it.

The automaton glimpse that I saw turned out to have been in a different video. It's a "making of" video for Syberia 3.

http://youtu.be/QxoFH02M0Zk

Thanks for the clarifications! As I said, I agree that Kate is quite similar to Lara. Regarding Oscar's heart, I didn't listen to Cyril Berrebi or the others, I cared about the gameplay !