What do you guys think of the game so far?

How do I change the controls?

You can change the controls by pressing escape, and going to the options menu. There's a controls area, where you can also invert the mouse camera (which I found immensely helpful).

Anyway, I'm very impressed. The atmosphere of Whispering Rock is truly great, and I've just spent ages randomly looking around and exploring the area, interacting with anyone and anything. The music is similarly great, and really adds to the feel of the location.

Raz himself handles awesomely, too. Everything about how he moves just feels fluid and natural, and he behaves exactly how I want him to. Often in other platform games I grow incredibly frustrated from ridiculous mistakes caused by the character just not stopping when I want him to. This isn't the case in Psychonauts.

The graphics are just glorious too, although seemingly, too glorious for me. Even though my computer is fairly powerful and can for the most part run the game smoothly on the highest settings, there are times when you can see a lot of the scene at once where it'll crawl slightly. I'd suspect I can cure that by turning some stuff down, although it'll be painful not seeing Psychonauts in its full glory. :~

Yeah, I can go into the options/ controls menu, but it won't let me alter any of the controls.

I can't use my mouse, because I can't change any of the look buttons.

Help anyone?

If I hear that "Punch Punch Punch" line again, I am going mental!

Just spent two hours before the gate trying to pass that blasted test to no avail. I wish there was an option to lower the arcade difficulty after failing N times. As it is, I might have to pass this one up, as it is likely to only get harder as things progress. Pity, as the game seems to have some excellent qualities (art/sound/humour/dialogue/setting..) Oh well...maybe someone comes up with a hack for us "lazy-finger" types.

I think after I realized that I needed to fully invert the mouse, and bumped up the brightness a little bit, I really liked the demo. It's cool because after you learn the moves on basic training, you can go back and play the demo again except that you can mess around more at the camp...

Now I worry whether I'm biased because I haven't really played any 3d platformers. I really never got a chance to play with Mario 64 or Sunshine that much and other games like Rachet and Clank or whatever. Though, I do remember as I tried out some of these games (Crash Bandicoot, an oldie), and there was no story motivation for me to go on. The last game that really got me motivated to play was Zelda: The Wind Waker (and Ocarina of Time, of course!)

Anyway, things that I liked:
- Puzzle-inspired levels, which leads to:
- No worries about messing up. You "die", and you just restart right before you screwed up (full throttle, anyone?)
- The characters are just fun. I really like Dogen!
- Tim Schaferness. ie, the way raz goes inside the mind is very reminiscent of travelling through time in DOTT, or the thing about repeating screw ups, or the way the game just starts right in the middle of the action.
- The music. I like the coach's mind music specially.
- The way the game changes. This is the most amazing part of it all. You get to the end of the level and you really don't expect what happens.
- Replayability.

Things that might get tiring:
- The intro cutscene was kind of long. Um.. well, I have seen it like a million times, maybe that's the reason.
- Where's the title screen? I love that stuff!
- Sometimes I felt overwhelmed with the things happening on the screen. There is a point where you talk to a kid and he starts saying something, but then a projection of the coach starts talking above him and it's chaotic. This might not be too bad, it's just that I wasn't expecting to pay this much attention, which is good!

Originally posted by netmonkey
- Where's the title screen? I love that stuff!

There's a cool one.

So I take it you guys were able to pass that infernal punching ground test? Any pointers, as I really want to see what happens next. The highest number of points I managed to get was 16 (though I usually end up with under 11) I guess there is a reason why I tend to shy away from platformers :)

You only need to punch the ground to start the game. You can just use regular punch to knock the wooden guys down.

Eh.. it's no use, I am incurably bad at arcade stuff..hmm maybe if I slow the thing down with using higher resolutios...

that's one of the only things like that in the entire game (straight "punching a bunch of targets"), so hopefully you can get past it and over your fear of it and enjoy the rest of the game when the real one comes out in a few days :D

Thanks for the encouragement :)
BTW I am happy to report that my method worked and I managed to move past that point. If anyone finds that area too difficult to manage, just use the highest resolution/level of detail and things will get much easier (unless you are unfortunate enough to have a very hi-end machine :) )

Okay, the emotional baggage? So damn cute!
The animals all over the campground are a really nice touch too. And the architecture! Makes me want to roast some marshmallows, man.
The kids are awesome, cute voice-acting, hilarious conversations. There were a couple of repeated phrases that got old quite fast, though I never actually minded the "Punch punchy punch-punch!" one, personally.
All in all, I want this game so bad.
Also: I notice someone's in the Special Thanks section of the credits. (Some ones, really. Whatever.)

It is awesome reading your posts on this. If the demo is doing it for you, the full version is gonna knock your socks off! Dogen is one of my favorites too, but there's so many cool characters it's hard to pick a favorite. I hope you all continue to enjoy the Excellent Game Psychonauts!

Overall, I was impressed. The voiceacting was amazing and Raz turned out to be a lot more interesting than I had thought of him, having previously judged by movies only.

However, I was a bit disappointed that some of the kids' facial textures were so obviously less detailed than that of Raz. His entire character was so razor sharp but several of the kids looked a bit botchy in the face close up.

Oh, and I loved the music in the campgrounds! And the trapeze!

Anyway. I can hardly wait to play the real thing, I hope EB Games ship to Sweden quickly. :)

I'm a strong Tim Shaffer fan.

The animation is excellent, the graphics are great, the voice acting is interessting, the music kickass and the ambiance is a success...

But I felt like some stuff was quicklyh done, or too much cartoon stylish looking, and bad done because it's in 3D (when we free up emotional baggage, that's so strange don,t you think ?) or I felt like the entering in the coach's mind was cheap. I don,t know... i'm kind of dissapointed...

the Mario 64 background is there, but i know and i'm conivnced that as long as the game go trought, the level will have deeper contain.... and what about that day were my RAZ will be doing kynestesis....

That a great game, but with that demo, i'm kind of dissapointed a little bit ... (catching figment to get new psychic power.... hey ? )

I can't say that I agree with you, but you're entitled to your opinion.

I've also just noticed the funky subtitles which you can turn on in the sound options. The characters have cute little avatars and everything. Man.

I just signed up on this forum to say how how I enjoyed the demo. I had never even heard of the game, but I downloaded the demo on a whim (file size isn't an issue with a cable modem) anyway.

I just love the whole feel of the world - it's like being in a surreal lucid dream! The characters are wacky, the voice acting is very professional, and the music is very unique and quite relaxing. I like the attention to detail too. For instance, try punching the kid looking through the peephole.

As someone else already mentioned, the controls are just perfect. I'm using a PS2 Dualshock 2 gamepad (USB adaptor) and I didn't have to change any of the default buttons. The left analogue stick gives you more control over Raz's moves, while the right controls the camera.

I didn't find the demo particularly challenging, but I'm still young and pretty good at reflex games. :D It looks like the game will have a lot to explore though, and trying to collect all the tags, etc., should be fun.

This game is definitely a winner!

I had no problem with the arcade section, I wasn't able to do the bonus round though. The game was great, and I think I'll enjoy it much better on XBOX since I don't have a gamepad for PC.

Awsome game.

I had a little bit of a control problem with the swinging part, though. You know, that part with the fire shooting out of the wall.

The problem is that, at some point, you have to turn around (with the F key) and then you also have to use the opposite key to swing (I mean, both a and d work to swing, but only one of them enables you to actually jump). It turned me nuts! I had to hit d, space, d, space, d, space, f, a, space, f, d space. Maybe I was doing something wrong, though.

Other than that, I'm thrilled.

--Erwin

Well, I've just played through the Xbox demo, and I'm impressed. No slowdowns and perfect controls right out of the box is something the Remi enjoys a whole lot, and Psychonauts+Xbox=:D in that department.

Other than that I can only echo the praise being expressed about the PC demo. Top stuff.

Originally posted by Erwin_Br
Awsome game.

I had a little bit of a control problem with the swinging part, though. You know, that part with the fire shooting out of the wall.

The problem is that, at some point, you have to turn around (with the F key) and then you also have to use the opposite key to swing (I mean, both a and d work to swing, but only one of them enables you to actually jump). It turned me nuts! I had to hit d, space, d, space, d, space, f, a, space, f, d space. Maybe I was doing something wrong, though.

Other than that, I'm thrilled.

--Erwin

don't know if this is helpful but you can just hold the direction you want to jump and raz will swing back and forth... you don't even need to be swinging as far as a full circle to make complete jumps - far as I can tell, the full circle swing around is just to look cool (and to allow you to change directions at the top of your swing if you want)

Just wanted to say that I didn't have a problem with the demo. No trouble with the technical side, no trouble completing the demo. Controls are OK once you switched both axes. Using the mouse is just fine.

The demo itself was great, too. So far you didn't have the impression that you did the same thing over and over again. Lots of diversity.

MDK meets Prince Of Persia 4 meets Grim Fandango meets Beyond Good And Evil.

The art, dialogue and atmosphere are superb. The story has to remind most people of Harry Potter, but the theme of "a kid that doesn't fit in anywhere else, then goes into a training and its potential is finally recognized and even impresses the teachers while other students are jealous" has been used before (Ender's Game for example). Doesn't matter.

The demo was great. I too didn't have any problems setting it up and playing it (except clearing 3.5 gb to install it ;)).

The story, gameplay and graphics are all great, and the controls were really good and smooth once I'd inverted the horizontal mouse movements :)

But:

1) How do you save/load?
2) If you die while you are in the coach's mind (happened to me once while i being machine-gunned) does anything happen to you? Do you have 'lives' which limit the amounts of time you can die? And if so, where does it tell you?

Originally posted by Jake
don't know if this is helpful but you can just hold the direction you want to jump and raz will swing back and forth... you don't even need to be swinging as far as a full circle to make complete jumps - far as I can tell, the full circle swing around is just to look cool (and to allow you to change directions at the top of your swing if you want)

Really? Because when I tried, it didn't work. I could only jump when making the full circle swing. I'll try it out again today, to be sure.

--Erwin

I died a few times in the coach's mind and you just respawn at nearby location. I think there are a certain amount of lives, but maybe the training mission doesn't take away from them. As for saves, I hope there will be save points in certain locations, because I find that the ability to save at any point in the game can be a temptation to save too often.

As this is a consoleish platformer, I would really recommend picking up an analogue joypad because Raz is soooo much easier to control with one. Swinging and jumping feels natural. Make sure it has two analogue sticks - one for movement, one for camera control.

Hey, I collected all 5 of the emotional baggages and I unlock a new memory reel. It's called Primal Memories, and it shows some nice concept art. Get all 5 lost baggages and see it for yourself ;)

Maybe there's something similar for collecting all the figments or arrowheads...

Edit - Nah, I got all of the figments in the game and got nothing :(

Love the demo, completed it three times.

The swinging thing got me though, I didn't know that F turned you around, I was convinced you simply couldn't do it and ended up jumping and then changing direction mid jump in order to grab the pole facing the direction i just jumped from. Very confusing up until I accidentally hit F.

Apart from that, I have to say, I loved it. The graphics were great and the voice acting, inspired. the music was awsome and there's a hint of a great storyline.

But the thing that really did it for me was simply the gameplay. There is so much to do, every stage is something different and the demo builds up your abilities so well that you walk into them with confidense. The final log spinning thing was inspired, it was hard and yet not too hard and still something completely different.

Overall, looking forward to it.

Jake, I can only jump while swinging a 'full circle'. I played it for the third time now, and I definitely have to use a specific key (either -a- or -d-), which changes to the opposite key when I hit -f- to turn around.

But I'm getting better at it. (I hope it won't get too difficult in the full game, though)

--Erwin

Spoiler-warning!!



Did anyone figure out how to reach the nets and wire-stuff that was ABOVE the small cave (the one with the sandwhich in the ice in it) at the campgrounds? Is it even possible in the demo?

I think you need the levitation badge to get over there (which happens elsewhere in the game beyond the demo).

edit: You definitely need levitation, but once you get there, well, at least there's a pretty view as a reward if not much else :).

http://jake.idlethumbs.net/view.jpg)
(taken with a press build of the first couple of levels, care of Majesco)

I haven't played it, yet, but I'm interested to know what the Mojo/Idle Thumbs staffers think of it...

Jake? Spaff?

What the overall consensus? Slight disapointment? Total satisfaction? Fears your hopes were too high?

Let us all know! :D

Originally posted by Erwin_Br
Jake, I can only jump while swinging a 'full circle'. I played it for the third time now, and I definitely have to use a specific key (either -a- or -d-), which changes to the opposite key when I hit -f- to turn around.

But I'm getting better at it. (I hope it won't get too difficult in the full game, though)

--Erwin

Basically, you can only jump when you're swining in the direction your facing. So if you're facing right, you press d (right) to swing and then jump (doesn't have to be full circle, but it helps to verify that you have enough momentum to jump at this point). And of course, you can only jump to the right if facing right, or the left if facing left)

And of course, if your facing the wrong way, then just press F and you'll face the other way.

On the part where there are 4 poles which you have to go up that are in a diagonal line, you can start swinging on the first one, then just tap space repeatedly, and Raz will zoom through them all, without having to swing on each bar.

Also, has anyone noticed how Raz can slide up rails too ;)

I got an AC97 sond cart (Advance Logic, crap) and the osund is skipping... I read the read me (at the end so far) telling to change the value of the sound conifg file... I did it, i changed the value many time making different twinning, but it still skip... anyone knows anything ?

I'm impressed! The game certainlyh looks interesting and plays very well. I've pretty much ignored the hype, but I think I may buy into it a bit more now.

Mouse controls needed inverting and desensitising, and I think I'll be happier to buy a pad. Still, very impressive when you consider this is a console port with platform elements. I only had a small problem jumping between tight-ropes after I got used to everything.

Hopefully it'll do better than Beyond Good & Evil, which is probably the closest thing to it.

I love the Demo I just cant get these last damn baggages, I need the handbag and last first from the right ion the list, WHERE THE HELL ARE THEY???

One is behind the first giant trampoline, the other you have to jump on the airplane parts to get to. (Just after you get the "Use [whatever button you use on the PC] to look around." message)

At least I assume those are the ones you're missing, as they're the only ones hidden away.

no those are the ones, thanks, but you know, it kinda wasnt worth it but IT KICKS ASS ANYWAY

Well, it does give you access to some concept art at least.

Absolutely loved it.

I thought it was going to be one of those games that I could hold off purchasing for a while. But immediately after I finished the demo (the first time), I logged on and bought the darn thing. Why is there a $20 difference between the price for the PC version and the XBox version - does anyone know?

Anyway, I was able to break down the door to the outhouse once, but I haven't been able to do it again, even though I've collected enough doohickeys to go up to Level 2 - anyone know how to do this?

You just need to open the door by pressing "Y" on the Xbox or "F" on the PC (I think).

DOH!

You're so right. How embarrassing - after spending 10 minutes straight retracing my steps looking for every PSI card, and wailing on the outhouse door......

Wonder why my default solution there was the violent one....

Has everyone done everything in camp that's possible. I actually managed to get onto the large trampoline from the outhouse. Don't ask me how because I can't seem to do it again.

Other than that, I really don't get how you get all of the baggage, one of them was behind a spiderweb for me and as far as I know, I have nothing toget past the web.

And also, I'm having troubles with gamestop and as far as I know, EB won't ship to the UK. Any other places I can get psychonauts?

Which large trampoline is that?


The bag I had some trouble finding at first, until I stopped to hear it cry, was among the trapezes and plane parts. After jumping the first few trapezes you come to a wire that you can walk, from it you can jump onto a plane part and then onto another plane part - the bag is inside the plane.

Also, I think it's a safe behind the web.


I live in Sweden and have ordered from EB Games in the US. I got a mail from them, asking me what bank I have and after that I have heard nothing so I hope they could confirm what they had to with the bank and that it means there is no trouble. :)

Before basic braining, in the actual camp, there are 2 trampolines, one next to the guy with the protective hat (I forget his name, he's talking to squirrels) that helps you get onto the roof of the building next to it, and then another on the other side of that building that is much higher up. i managed to jump from the roof of the outhouse onto it and bounce onto a ladder which went up and then i acquired some PSI thing, that's about it.

Oh, that one. I got onto that one via the trapeze hanging in the tree beside it. Swinging is so much fun! :D

I thought the one behind the trampoline was blocked off by a Mental Cobweb?

Yeah I guess that IS kinda cool

Originally posted by Joshi
Before basic braining, in the actual camp, there are 2 trampolines, one next to the guy with the protective hat (I forget his name, he's talking to squirrels) that helps you get onto the roof of the building next to it, and then another on the other side of that building that is much higher up. i managed to jump from the roof of the outhouse onto it and bounce onto a ladder which went up and then i acquired some PSI thing, that's about it.

You just have to get a good forward jump, and you go straight through the bottom of it and start bouncing on it.