Why are French games such a mindfuck?

[La vie sexuelle]

My experience with Ishar I:

1. Make a team.
2. Get lost in the first city.
3. Get angry.
4. Remove Ishar I (GOG version).
5. Install Ishar I.
1. Make a team...

Break the loop by playing Ishar II

Wouldn't this be the same loop except substituting in 5a: Install Ishar II?

One of these days I'll start, and I'll start with a prequel. I will read the instructions, watch videos on YouTube, and consult with a walktrough. These graphics are worth playing for.

The French are a bit like us Finns. We also like to make unorthodox games.

Remedy Entertainment not included.

Maybe it's a generally European feature? Old British games, like Russian ones, have a unique strangeness to them.

Or isn't that weird? Maybe Americans call anything weird that doesn't look like their games.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Baba Is You and UnReal World are two Finnish games that are better than anything the French have collectively ever produced

You should have at least specified Legend of Grimrock I & II.

 

[Alex]

Little Big Adventure 1 and 2, gentlemen. There was a remaster where Twinsen was suddenly black for REASONS, (...)

Is it weird that a main character in a french game would look french?

 

[JarlFrank]

Ring, on the other hand, reminded me of perhaps Cyro's most forgotten game, Salammbô: Battle for Carthage. Perhaps it is the most French, although not the best, game in history, because it is based on a comic book version of the novel drawn by Philippe Druillet, in the style of Metal Hurlant, a unique French style of fantasy.

Oh shit, they actually made a Druillet comic into a game?!

I have to check this out, Druillet's work is amazing.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Yes, yes it is:

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

They did several BDs into games. None of them were very good, though. Salammbo doesn't seem like an exception to that rule. There's a mediocre FPP point and click adventure based on Bilal's Nikopol and also a third person perspective game based on Druuna, but it has no nudity nor porn.

 

[JarlFrank]

Yeah from the video it reminds me of those mediocre first person adventures Cryo shat out by the dozen back in the day.

 

[toro]

I cannot believe I forgot about this one.



edit: maybe this version is better

 

[Darkozric]

Yeah from the video it reminds me of those mediocre first person adventures Cryo shat out by the dozen back in the day.

Even their mediocre games are better than the modern shit.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

I cannot believe I forgot about this one.



edit: maybe this version is better

Ha! I nevel played this, but I remember when they did review:



Old good Canal+ and their CGI boobs...

 

[gabel]

That's a tranny.

 

[Turbo normie]

Back in the days, in my headcanon, Cléo, was Twisen's (from LBA) mistress.
But if you want we can just assume it's Twisen doing some crossdressing, I'm openminded gabel.

 

[gabel]

Suddenly reminds me of a character from Micro Machines V3.
Edit: Nah, not really.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Back in the days, in my headcanon, Cléo, was Twisen's (from LBA) mistress.
But if you want we can just assume it's Twisen doing some crossdressing, I'm openminded gabel.

Cléo ix Xuxa (Delterius knows) - she did porn first and then went on to do a children's show while still retaining all her sluttiness.

 

[Vic]

Baba Is You and UnReal World are two Finnish games that are better than anything the French have collectively ever produced

You should have at least specified Legend of Grimrock I & II.

nothing special, though I like this avatar from LoG II. The puzzles in Baba Is You are highly creative, one of the better puzzlers I've played, compared to that the puzzles in LoG are child's play, albeit an unfair comparison with the latter being a dungeon crawler after all.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

The French are a bit like us Finns. We also like to make unorthodox games.

Remedy Entertainment not included.

I feel like every time I've discovered a game was Finnish I never had any inkling of anything unusual to it until then. Maybe occasionally Eurojank, but Finnish games seem to lack a distinct national character. Even in the '90s games I've played from there I've never played anything that made me think something was different than the usual American game. Of course, there are probably various minor cultural elements I miss since I don't quite have the same understanding of the national character the same way I would for a British or a Japanese game.

Maybe it's a generally European feature? Old British games, like Russian ones, have a unique strangeness to them.

Or isn't that weird? Maybe Americans call anything weird that doesn't look like their games.

Don't take it from me as the guy who represents all Americans since I know a lot more about games in general; But I think that depends. British games especially. Some games you could never tell until you notice it, others just have Britishness as part of the game's character. Tomb Raider, for instance, despite having a British lead, doesn't seem British otherwise unless you pay close attention to the game design. Others, like Lemmings, Elvira and Bloodwych don't seem especially British either. Strangeness in them just feels like a general strangeness that any game of that era could have. Then there are ones with a very distinct British character to them like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Ecstatica and (IIRC) Kingdom o' Magic. Where the cultural element is just something that's expected. Then the very, very British category in all those Spectrum platformers nobody outside of Europe talks about like Dizzy and that mole dude. Which feel impenetratable to the foreigner.
This is also applicable to most other nations. Even Russia, because I remember the early Sea Dogs games were basically indistinguishable from any other Bethesda title at the time and only finding out later that they were Russian. But the difference between France* and other European nations is that it's distinct character was actually translated into every region, so that character remained. The other big country English-speakers got from, Japan, tried to keep it's cultural weirdness to a minimum, even if it failed. Other European countries like Spain, Germany and Italy had weird games that felt like those countries, but they rarely got translated. The weird Spanish games remained in Spain; Nobody outside of Germany/Austria played a game made by a bank; No one remembers Italy's attempt at episodic games. Any that did get into America could be filled in the general "eurogame" thing. Pizza Tycoon, Albion, Perihelion and In the Dead of Night, all those weird games you can't quite put your finger on. All published by companies who usually weren't connected to the original developers and might even overwhelm whatever character they had, like Microprose. Meanwhile, I know you had at least 6 French publishers who published their games outside of France. I hope that the wiser people made the necessary mental connections.
*Franco-Belgian or whatever. I'm not even sure the Dutch have something that makes their media unique considering how readily they take to English and how readily their media lands outside their borders.

 

[Erebus]

My experience with Ishar I:
1. Make a team.
2. Get lost in the first city.

I can understand getting lost in the first city of Ishar II. But Ishar I ? From what I remember, even the biggest "city" in it is just a small town, and the others are small villages with more than half a dozen buildings.

 

[Cohesion]

Possibly the worst PSX game on the platform, by Cryo Interactive.

Ubik by Philip Dick is great, as most of his books. It's a pity that game adaptations suck.

 

[Ash]

Best French game I ever played was Arx Fatalis.

The French have an aptitude or cultural responsibility to the arts, I thought this was widely known? That answers your question on a surface level.

 

[Hagashager]

Because frogs are a strange and esoteric creature.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Because frogs are a strange and esoteric creature.

 

[Vic]

frogs are gay

 

[luj1]

Examples that come to mind:





You don't have to watch far, the intros alone do the fuckery justice.

Yes, both examples are 90s games, which were odd in and of themselves (like Immercenary), but the French have a knack for taking it to whole 'nother level.

Don't forget Another World and Atlantis IP. Seems the French of that era loved graphic adventure games.

 

[Charles-cgr]

 

[Beastro]

Maybe it's a generally European feature? Old British games, like Russian ones, have a unique strangeness to them.

Or isn't that weird? Maybe Americans call anything weird that doesn't look like their games.

No, those just have a foreign vibe to them, especially Russian ones, since I'm British on one side of my family so their vibe is familar to me.

Russia games have a different feel to them, yes, but it's an odd one, not fucked up like the French repeatedly exude.

And I'm not American.