Dirty_Brute on 19/6/2006 at 18:32
Quote Posted by Eye
i ended up on cthulhu forums and there were several tactics (including lowering the resolution on the game, jumping at the right moments) and from what i can tell, you have to do a combination of them to squeak out of the game. a lot of people had trouble with this.
I am at this part also and have not been able to get past this. I've tried different techniques and always ended up dying near the top of the cave. I'll keep trying because I want to finish the game and check out the ending but this is getting frustrating. I've done like 10 runs already.
I read that we could speed up Jack's running speed by using a Hex Editor. I'll do this as a last resort since I hate cheating but this might be a neccessity.
Overall, I really liked this game for it's immersion and atmosphere. Best Cthulhu based game so far but it's buggy as hell.
Para?noid on 19/6/2006 at 18:45
This game is fucking hard. I snapped my disc in half after a bug stopped me from progressing any further. It was great up till then, would have loved to have seen more effects of the sanity system.
Eye on 20/6/2006 at 03:20
Quote:
Originally posted by Dirty_BruteI am at this part also and have not been able to get past this. I've tried different techniques and always ended up dying near the top of the cave. I'll keep trying because I want to finish the game and check out the ending but this is getting frustrating. I've done like 10 runs already.
here's what ended up working for me:
[SPOILER]i was running perfectly (not getting hit or stopping) up to the point where you're talking about and failing repeatedly. and the things i changed that made the difference were: staying to the left hand side (the outside) of the ledge, jumping up stairs and up steep inclines, keep strafing to a minimum and here's the big one - as soon as you get out of the end of the tunnel where the rock bridge is (where you keep dying) start jumping repeatedly. i made it twice out of about five times. lowering the resolution i'm quite sure was useless for me. hope it works if you're still at it. (Btw, once you get through, go to the left, not the right. right's a dead end, which is why i had to do it twice.)[/SPOILER]
242 on 20/6/2006 at 08:06
Quote Posted by Stitch
I picked this game up recently. Great atmosphere, good story, unforgivable saving scheme.
Limiting saves is lazy design.
Nope. Limited number of saves doesn't make design 'lazy' in any sense. And in a survival horror games limited saves really help to maintain contstant tension.
Yes, the game is hard, and it's a big plus when compared with games of modern trend (like EA games f.e.).
NyquistLimit on 20/6/2006 at 11:20
I just completed the game recently too. It took me about 5 attempts to finish the last part so it wasnt too bad but I can see why some people would find this really frustrating.
If you goto the Headfirsts Call of Cthulhu forums there's a thread with a CotePatcher that does some hex edit hacks for you.
It also allows you to enable the alternate ending without having to get an A-Rating in the game, which seems fucking impossible judging by the criteria given by one of the devs.
Personally I thought the game was amazing, tons of atmosphere and genuinely scary. The save points didnt bother me coz they kinda added to the suspense. I really feel sorry for Headfirst. They've created such an awesome game and havn't received the kudos they deserve. I remember back in the old days when they used to be Adventuresoft and it sucks to see them go down like this.
Edit: Erm it looks like the callofcthulhu.com domain has expired =(
Mazian on 20/6/2006 at 15:37
You can also get the hacked executable (
http://www.sucklead.com/DCoTEPatch.exe) here.
Apparently you can also use this .exe to put the virtual hand--which was removed somewhere along the line during development--back into the game, but I haven't tried it yet.
Stitch on 20/6/2006 at 15:39
Quote Posted by 242
Nope. Limited number of saves doesn't make design 'lazy' in any sense. And in a survival horror games limited saves really help to maintain contstant tension.
Yes, the game is hard, and it's a big plus when compared with games of modern trend (like EA games f.e.).
But it makes the game hard in a bad way. It should be difficult because the game presents a challenge, and not because there's an arbitrary limitation you must play against.
Hell, (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=816235#post816235) I've said it before:
Quote Posted by Stitch
The problem I have with limited saves (and any of the save schemes suggested in this thread) is it mixes game structure/mechanics and gameplay. It confuses the vehicle created to make the game possible for the game itself.
Playing a game should be as fluid and intuitive as possible. The mechanics should ideally be transparent, allowing you to get truly lost in the gameplay itself. Awkward controls, imposing GUIs, and restricted saving schemes all remove you from the game and remind you that you are, in fact, sitting in front of a computer playing a game. When the developers put in design decisions that cause the structure to impact the gameplay, then you're really playing against them--instead of getting absorbed in the task at hand, you're fighting to reach the next designer-dictated save point. This is, in my book, inexcusable design.
Having said that, the temptation to constantly quicksave in a game with unrestricted saves can also shatter immersion by placing too much emphasis on the mechanics of saving. As such, the ideal saving scheme would probably run imperceptibly in the background, allowing you to only become conscious of it when you want to reload.
At any rate, in 2003 I find restricted saves about as appropriate as a keyboard-only control scheme.
The save game system may have killed this game for me. Forcing someone to replay a half hour of a game due to the retarded save scheme is unforgivable.
Stitch on 20/6/2006 at 15:44
What does the hacked executable change?
Mazian on 20/6/2006 at 15:56
It changes a lot of little things, I just downloaded it at work and ran it without the game installed. It has four tabs (General Settings, Player Settings, Weapons and Damage, Advanced XML Data), but I only have access to the General Settings tab--possibly a consequence of not having the game installed. Anyway, some of the more interesting settings under General Settings:
-Autoskip all Startup Videos
-Enable Reach Arm
-Always Show Extended End Movie
-Disable Film Grain/Letterbox on Cutscenes
-Enable Debug Mode
-Allow Choice of Start Map When Starting a New Game
-Unlock all Bonus Content (Requires Debug Mode to be Enabled)
-Start in Fly Mode
-God Mode
Stitch on 20/6/2006 at 16:31
Does it fix the broken save scheme?
Truth be told, I wouldn't mind limited saves in this game if the autosaves came more frequently.
