Myst III: Exile

[Halloween Jack]

Moved thread from Riven discussions to Myst III: Exile discussions.

[TizerisT]

Originally posted by ugarth:

Myst 3 already has the 360 view which works in VR.
Myst 3 should be just upscaled and cleaned a bit. And the live action footage of the actors upscaled and recomposited.
Else the game was already perfect, but it was rendered in 640x480 resolution which really did not age well.

I wonder how much of the original resources from Presto that still exist ? Perhaps they could recreate the whole pipeline and re-render everything in 4k resolution ?

That Is still rather antiquated. 3D is the only real upgrade worth considering for me

[Konscience]

I agree, photo-spheres are nice for google maps and the occasional scenery pictures, but for a VR game it's nauseating and not quite immersive.
Only very early VR experience like cardboard and the like used those, and only were those "immersive" for the VR first-timers.

[vcatkiller]

It sounds nice, but it's not Cyan's creation. It's a Presto Studios game, published by Ubislop. I'm not sure Cyan can do it. Otherwise I'd love to be able to free roam around the ages. Also maybe controversial take but I actually rather liked Myst 4 too.

[Ahmazzan]

Myst III was the first in the series I completed (too young to manage my way through Myst... and playing the remaster will actually be my first exposure to Riven).
I was bought a big box version of Exile on a family holiday to America, that came with a pewter Squee, and a soundtrack CD included and it immediately captured my heart. As a little kid I'd play the soundtrack once a night when I went to bed, much to my younger brother's chagrin, since I shared a room with him. The beautiful graphics (especially Edana) also opened my mother's mind to video games and from then on she was keen to watch if I was playing games like Myst, and she'd use it as a benchmark from that point on to decide if she thought a game was worth her attention or not.
Given that Myst III is still very playable, I think a remaster would have to be done sensitively, but if that were the case it'd be a certain buy from me.
sorry for the blog post... but Myst III (and Homeworld 2, thanks to it's music) were probably the formative games of my young life

[Henry]

In 2003 after having played Myst in 1993 and not Riven, I found a discounted 10th anniversary big box with all 3.
Sadly Riven didn’t launch properly on Windows XP, so I moved on to Exile, and immediately fell in love with the aesthetics, Quicktime VR tech and approachable puzzles. Brad Dourif’s performance in the FMVs sealed the deal :)

[ShnitzelKiller]

Brad Douriff's intense and expressive monologues are one of his great strengths as an actor. It would be a real waste to replace that with a plastic 3D model like the ones we've seen so far from the remakes.

[Draaloff]

Originally posted by vcatkiller:

It sounds nice, but it's not Cyan's creation. It's a Presto Studios game, published by Ubislop. I'm not sure Cyan can do it. Otherwise I'd love to be able to free roam around the ages. Also maybe controversial take but I actually rather liked Myst 4 too.

Correct. Myst 3 and 4 are not Cyan's creations, and they may lack the rights or the motivation to make remakes (or in the case of Riven, re-imaginations) of them.

Originally posted by ShnitzelKiller:

Brad Douriff's intense and expressive monologues are one of his great strengths as an actor. It would be a real waste to replace that with a plastic 3D model like the ones we've seen so far from the remakes.

I fully agree. I've found every Myst game without green-screen actors less engaging.

[slider86]

Originally posted by ShnitzelKiller:

Brad Douriff's intense and expressive monologues are one of his great strengths as an actor. It would be a real waste to replace that with a plastic 3D model like the ones we've seen so far from the remakes.

No one in their right mind wants Douriff to be replaced with CGI.

Originally posted by Draaloff:

I fully agree. I've found every Myst game without green-screen actors less engaging.

The only worthwhile thing about these remakes is they can't actually make Uru and Myst V look any worse so a remake of those games will be an improvement by default.

[Draaloff]

Originally posted by slider86:

Originally posted by Draaloff:

I fully agree. I've found every Myst game without green-screen actors less engaging.

The only worthwhile thing about these remakes is they can't actually make Uru and Myst V look any worse so a remake of those games will be an improvement by default. :spycon:

You're not wrong. Even as a series fan, I must say that those two haven't aged well.

[Hellish Fiend]

Indeed. Since I'm still in sort of a lingering "Myst phase", I've been watching Let's Plays on Youtube (@charlieniner2gaming has a great little channel for Blind let's plays of adventure/puzzle games) and encountered that part of Uru where you can just keep glitching through the floor during a platforming section. Combine that with the tank controls for the movement, and early 2000s polygons/textures (and not exactly the nostalgic playstation kind..), and it does give off a "That one didnt age quite so well" vibe.

Still, I have to admire the raw ambition of the project. You can tell they were aiming for the moon with what they had in mind for Uru Live.

[Draaloff]

Originally posted by Hellish Fiend:

Still, I have to admire the raw ambition of the project. You can tell they were aiming for the moon with what they had in mind for Uru Live.

While I can appreciate what they were going for with Uru, it doesn't really work.
You've got very clunky platforming, hunting for hidden cloths and pages, and various puzzles that range from questionable to outright terrible.
However, it was nice getting to see certain areas like D'ni, and there were nice soundtracks.
Uru Live's community element was also interesting. I remember hosting a meeting once.

Edit: after a little thinking, Uru plays a lot like an ARG game designed to be solved by a community rather than individuals. I doubt that was intentional though.

[slider86]

Originally posted by Hellish Fiend:

Indeed. Since I'm still in sort of a lingering "Myst phase", I've been watching Let's Plays on Youtube (@charlieniner2gaming has a great little channel for Blind let's plays of adventure/puzzle games) and encountered that part of Uru where you can just keep glitching through the floor during a platforming section. Combine that with the tank controls for the movement, and early 2000s polygons/textures (and not exactly the nostalgic playstation kind..), and it does give off a "That one didnt age quite so well" vibe.

I don't remember the game having tank controls but the lack of people in a 3D environment along with having no clue what you're supposed to be doing didn't help.

[Draaloff]

Originally posted by slider86:

I don't remember the game having tank controls

If I remember correctly, you can only walk/run forwards and backwards and pressing left/right rotates you and the camera. The mouse doesn't control the camera and you can't sidestep.

[slider86]

Originally posted by Draaloff:

If I remember correctly, you can only walk/run forwards and backwards and pressing left/right rotates you and the camera. The mouse doesn't control the camera and you can't sidestep.

Actually I do remember the fixed camera.

[vcatkiller]

Originally posted by Draaloff:

Originally posted by slider86:

I don't remember the game having tank controls

If I remember correctly, you can only walk/run forwards and backwards and pressing left/right rotates you and the camera. The mouse doesn't control the camera and you can't sidestep.

You can reconfigure the controls and make it behave more like an fps. I do it every time I install the game.