Topic: Aquaria 1.1.1 for Windows is out! New version now only $20!

[idolminds]

Exciting!

EDIT by thread-hijacking mod who shall remain nameless -

My review is up.  It just isn't at Overwritten.net.  Check my site there for the links, and do discuss.

[scottws]

Oh cool.  It's soon.

[Cobra951]

Link not working right now.

Edit:  Now it is.  Oh yeah, I remember seeing this before.

[sirean_syan]

Yays and joys.

[Ghandi]

[Quemaqua]

Hell.  I have two huge games to finish before then.  That's not going to happen.

 ... I'm calling in sick on Monday.

[TheOtherBelmont]

I will definitely have to give the demo a shot when it comes out so I can see if I want it, it does look cool though.

[Quemaqua]

Go ahead, Belmont.  If I'd had any reservations about the game (and I didn't), the demo would have dispelled them.  This is absolutely brilliant and amazing and I'm so in love right now.  I can't wait to play more.  There's no CD version yet, so you can't have a CD shipped to you (sadly), but the guys are working tirelessly to fix a bug that's cropped up for some users already.  They're on the boards and responding to people.  Kudos to them.

People, try the demo.  If it doesn't sell you on the possibilities this game has, you're fucking insane.  I've paid my money and will grab my full download as soon as I finish fixing up my OS tonight.

[Ghandi]

Nice. *downloads*

Unfortunately I probably won't be able to download the full thing, since my connection can't stay connected long enough to download files over 100 mb. I'll have to wait for the CD version.

[Quemaqua]

Fortunately for those who can't afford or can't download the game, the demo is no slouch.  For a paltry 65MB you get an awful lot of area to run around in compared to the 10 minute affairs we're used to seeing these days.  I wasted a half hour on it and didn't even run into any limitations as of yet.

Anyway, off to fix the computer for real now.  Must stop playing demo...

[gpw11]

I decided to give this a quick go while waiting for a cab.  No go.  As soon as the game starts up  it's instant graphical gibberish.  Lame.

I even installed twice.

[Cobra951]

It's working fine for me, nice and smooth, except it locks up for the better part of a minute after saves.  It just sits there with nothing happening and no icons or text showing, just the game graphics and the music.  Weird.  I brought up the task manager the 1st time it happened, and was about to kill it when it came back.

It's very pretty and relaxing.  I got to her house, tried the kitchen, then I quit.  I'm tired.  More tomorrow.

[Quemaqua]

I got that same issue, actually, and had the same result.  Funny.  Also, Alec has patched the first bug that cropped up preventing a few people from playing the game.  He works fast.  Working with community members, I think it took him like 45 minutes to fix it or something like that.

[Ghandi]

The game is a little slow on my machine, and the load times are maybe 10 seconds or so, but other than that I love it so far. It took me a few minutes to get used to the controls - jumping from wall to wall, quickly using songs, etc - but now I am fairly proficient, at least up to this point. I do tend to swim around aimlessly, though. I'm easily lost.

[TheOtherBelmont]

I played it for about an hour and half and the demo didn't end, which is why I'm here.  Is there an actual end to the demo or is it free roaming after a certain point?  It seems I've covered every square inch of the maps and even found some hidden stuff but I'm just making sure I haven't missed something.  Anyways, I will definitely be getting this game when I have the money.

[Quemaqua]

I believe there is an actual end, but I don't know because I didn't play up to it.  People are saying there's about 2 hours you can get out of the demo all total, but apparently there is a place where it ends.  You can check out the Bit Blot forums for more if you want specifics. 

Game runs great on my machine, and looks beautiful.  This is seriously some of the best 2D art I've ever seen, and the special effects are often gorgeous so far.  It isn't excessive at all, but what's there is rather sumptuous.  The music is wonderful too.

[idolminds]

This game rocks.

[Quemaqua]

Well, I hope those who wanted it got it, because Bit-Blot appears to not exist for the moment.  It's like they took the page down or something.  Not sure what the deal is, and I'm sure they'll be back up at some point in the near future, but it seems something bad must have happened.  Why else would you take down your page right when your game releases?

[Quemaqua]

I checked out the TIG Source forums and it turns out that yes, their site is down unexpectedly.  Apparently Alec can't do shit to fix it and Derek is nowhere to found.  Damn!

However, there are two things worth noting!  Firstly, somebody captured links where the demo is available, which are as follows:

http://zaphire.ca/aqdemo/AquariaDemo.2007.12.07.exe
http://derekyu.com/aqdemo/AquariaDemo.2007.12.07.exe
http://www.flashbangstudios.com/mirror/AquariaDemo.2007.12.07.exe
http://www.ninj4comic.com/aquaria/AquariaDemo.2007.12.07.exe
http://www.battleforthecity.com/aquaria/AquariaDemo.2007.12.07.exe
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SP8R2O0K

Secondly, you can still buy the game from this link to Plimus, their ecommerce site, even though the rest of the stuff is down.

So don't despair!  Options are still available.

[gpw11]

Messed around with it a bit more this morning.  This is what I'm dealing with:



I've tried playing with every graphical option possible and all that.  The only other option I can think of is maybe to redownload the demo and hope something got corrupted the first time.

[idolminds]

This game is so awesome. I have to get it soon. And this demo is great! Forget those stupid demos with time limits or nothing more than the opening tutorial stuff and quits. You can really explore this one, for as long as you want. I've found a big sea turtle, some armor for myself, a little pet...weee!

Though I'm currently stuck.

(click to show/hide)

I killed the big beasty in the tunnel. In the area after it I found a path that is blocked, so I need a pearl to open the gate. I'm guessing the pearl is inside this big red flower/plant in the same general area, but I can't seem to open it. Am I barking up the wrong tree? I've swam around all over and dont see anywhere else to go.

There are some gripes. I wish the map was better. The world is split into areas. These areas are grey when you enter, and then turn white as you explore. This is cool. The rest of the world is shown, darkened out so you get some idea where you are in the world overall. Also cool. The problem is there is no real way to tell which part of the world you haven't explored yet since they are all darkened out in the same manner (and are a little too dark, makes it hard to see where things are). If they had show where you have and have not been in the world it would make exploring a little easier. It's hard to figure out where that locked door or whatever is and how to get back to it when each area has like 3+ exits...who knows which one youve already been to or not.

Other than that I love it. Mouse only controls work well, but I tried playing with the 360 pad and it works just as well, if not better. It seems you lose the ability to lock onto one specific target, but you can rapid fire so fast it hardly matters. Give it a try. Its a little more relaxing to play that way to me.

[Quemaqua]

I agree that there are a few areas where it's a little deficient (there's a "nitpicking Aquaria" thread at TIG Source, I posted a bunch of stuff there), but these are extremely minor gripes in the scope of things.  Also, people have reportedly gotten over 4 hours out of the demo and still found stuff to do.  There's a lot to love if you really look hard and explore everything.  I haven't even found any armor, and I'm in the full game with a number of hours logged!

[scottws]

It doesn't run on Vista unless you right-click and do "Run as an administrator."  I only got to play with it for less than two minutes.  It seems interesting, I guess.

[gpw11]

well, downloading a new .exe for the demo didn't work, so I won't be playing this unless their site comes back up and someone has a solution there. 

I suppose it's very likely that this is a driver issue, but I'm not even going to get into fucking with drivers right now.

[Quemaqua]

Hard to say what your issue is.  There have been a few graphical problems, but I think those were mostly related to widescreen users (there's no widescreen support as of yet) and it was a whole different kind of error (I've seen nothing unplayable yet, only some glitches... nothing like what you've got).  Once the site comes back up I say post about it.  Alec has been extremely hands-on with assisting people thus far and will probably do whatever he can to help you out.

[gpw11]

Yeah, I checked out the support forums quickly last night, but it didn't seem like anyone else was experiencing this.  I would have made a post then, but was waiting for a taxi, and those motherfuckers will take off in about 2 min if you don't get into the car.

I'll do what you said if the site comes back up soon.  If not I might just have to update drivers.

[Quemaqua]

Why is it troublesome to update your drivers anyway?  I mean, that's generally the first thing one should do, and the first thing anyone will suggest to you.  These days getting updates from nvidia is even easier since they redesigned the previous stupid system they had on their website.

[gpw11]

It might be carried over from having an ati card, but I don't like updating drivers when I don't NEED to.  I know things are working fine now in Bioshock, GoW, and all Source games, god knows what will happen if I update. 

But yeah, you're right.  It's really not that much of a bitch.

[Quemaqua]

I can understand the stress having come from ATi, but nvidia's latest set seem quite solid, and you should most likely get whatever's current because they often seem to have slight speed increases for newer games.

I'll even link you.

[scottws]

When I selected 1400x900 or something like that, the play area was over on the left side of my screen w/ a thick black bar on the right.  Almost like letterboxing but with the screen sitting on one side and both bars on the right.

And it took me forever to figure out how to exit the game because the mouse was activating stuff to the right, not stuff under the pointer.  Seems ok on 1280x1024 though.

[gpw11]

haha.  Thanks for the link.  Looking at that, my drivers are actually higher in number so I guess there is that chance they aren't compatible because they haven't been tested and they aren't windows verified.  I should probably roll them back in that case.

[Cobra951]

My drivers are ancient.  I have a GF5900 and it makes little sense to me to update to drivers you know are all about the new cards and feature sets.  If anything, they may neglect something in legacy support.  I have no problem with the game display or speed.

Scott, the readme says only 4:3 resolutions are supported now.

[gpw11]

Yeah, apparently I was using beta drivers.  Problem solved.

[TheOtherBelmont]

I finished the demo, I had missed one of those white orbs to the upper right of Nadja's(sp?) home.  Good stuff, I really want to buy this now but its probably going to have to wait till next paycheck.

[Quemaqua]

This game is pure joy.  Also, it's pretty damned dark.  It had hints of it in the beginning, but there's some really heavy stuff here, which isn't that big of a surprise considering some of what was in Eternal Daughter.  The demo is nice, but it really doesn't show you everything the game has to offer.  It shows the basic gameplay, but you can multiply that by a hell of a lot in many regards when you're talking about the full version.

[gpw11]

You know what kills this game for me?  Lack of a save anywhere feature.  Actually, I don't even need that, but when I die I'd like to go back to the last save crystal or something and just have at least my map reflect where I've been. 

[Quemaqua]

I'm pretty used to that.  Every action/adventure I've ever loved has been like that.  Though this game is a bit tough, so there are a few times when it was a little rough.  Hasn't bothered me much, though.

[gpw11]

That's the thing really, I've died a few times just swimming around exploring, and when I go back to play again totally can't remember which way I went.

In reality I probably just need to get into cooking a bit more so that I can always make sure I have enough life to get back to a crystal.

[Quemaqua]

You'll get the hang of it.  Yeah, cooking is the best way to avoid instant death, and some areas are definitely harder to get through than others until you learn how the enemies operate and stuff.  Don't sweat it too much.  I found the game more difficult initially than I do now... it's gotten to be second nature for the most part now.  Death isn't reserved for bosses, but I generally try to keep stocked with at least a few decent healing items to ensure I don't get myself into something stupid that I can't get out of.

[gpw11]

Nice, I just entered the kelp forest.  We'll see how that goes, but I strongly recommend everyone at least try the demo, and if you like it buy the full game. 


Just one question Que: What are those little green 'barbell' looking things that show up on the map?