If you have an old sound card, you may get better performance from the game by lowering the number of sounds and setting sound to Normal rather than High Quality (on PCs, this tends to try and use the Creative EAX drivers if you have them, otherwise I think it emulates them, and that could be a cause of slowing down). About all you lose there is some of the echo and reverb dynamics.

As far as the timeline goes, the game are published out of chronological order, but given that the games were made by three different companies, it's not all that surprising. Chronologically, the games play Myst, Riven, Exile, Revelation, Uru, End of Ages (though just where EoA falls on the timeline and whether you're playing the Myst "stranger" or your Uru self is a subject of much debate and discussion). Uru was in development at Cyan before development of Exile was started by Presto Studios, but came out later, while Revelation was in development at UbiSoft for 3 years during Uru's development by Cyan. End of Ages was commissioned by UbiSoft from Cyan following the release of the Path of the Shell expansion pack for Uru, and was in development during the year in which Revelation was completed.

Alahmnat, good point, I did forget that these were produced by different companies. Don't get me wrong here, I did like EoA mainly because it was a Myst series. I just believe it could have been much better. I didn't get that feeling of excitement that I did with the other installments. It seemed like something was missing or just assembled to quickly. After MystI I was eager to lay down the coins for Riven, not so with this installment.
As for the time line, yea I can see where URU could be played last,and yes I really liked URU.

Went to DPWR and I like that site, kudos

I only got to about page 3 of this discussion, and I'm sorry, but I have to agree with Neo. Not that it's necessarily right or wrong, but that's the side I fall on.

Both sides have made strong arguments, but the fact of the matter remains MYST, Riven, Exile, and Revelation were all more popular to the core MYST fanbase than Uru. Sure everyone thought that Cyan would pull off another mega-hit by upgrading to 3D and online gaming, but it just didn't pan out.

Sadly, the book on MYST is about closed. As we all get older, the luster fades, and it IS time for Cyan to move on. But why change things before closing the door? Did the marketing people who thought it would be "market suicide" to stay with 2D happen to think that there would probably be no difference in sales by going to 3D and losing a portion of their fanbase? And don't kid yourselves, if you are not a MYST fan already and you are simply a gaming fan, you ain't gonna buy this. There are more popular games with more buzz in the market.

Truth is, I didn't buy Uru. I took one look at the box and saw that CG person standing there, and said "No way". It just isn't the same. Rand Miller with his dedicated monopoly to MYST and the worlds of the D'Ni, has ended up changing that world. The world we have become accustomed to. Come on, how does Yeesha go from a real breathing girl to a CG androidish woman?

And that is the difference. 2D or 3D I could care less. For the most part, the scenery looks fine in EoA. Those sickly looking characters though are part of a different game if not a TOTALLY different gaming genre.

The two arguments basically boil down to what you feel is "realistic". Is freedom of movement realistic or is visual stimuli? I think MYST while putting a tremendous story around the series made it's mark in the beginning with visuals, but with CG characters, it just doesn't feel right.

I understand technology upgrades itself continuously, you saw the progression of that from MYST through to Revelation, but the where you cross the line is when the original feel (not feel of pointing and clicking, not feel of waiting to load, but the psychological feel) of the game is lost. That is what happened here.

Being a realist as well as a businessman, I have to wonder. I know Cyan has had its troubles. Did Rand finally decide to move on, close the book on MYST and basically "throw us a bone" to generate capital for their next endeavors? Considering the fact that they used previous ages slated for Uru and the speed with which it hit the market, I would sadly have to assume so.

I've watched the in-game videos to give it a shot, but it won't work. I hate to say it since the MYST series will always hold a special place in my heart, but Revelation was the last one for me. Unless of course, Rand gets a windfall and does a pet project to please us loyal fans who are disappointed by this.

Hi all!

Since I've only recently joined these Myst forums, and because of lack of time, I haven't been reading all of this thread. I sort of switched between earlier and later posts to get a good idea. Still, I would like to add something to the discussion. Some points to favor realtime to pre-rendered. (is this good English? )

In pre-rendered you know something is going to happen as soon as the gameview on your screen sort of freezes, and from that point on you can't do anything but wait for the movie concerned to start. Personally I found that boring, everytime it happened. Playing games I'm not the most patient person and having to wait, time and time again, for a movie to start was annoying. For the same reason I hated those waiting-games within POTS. Boring man, really. While in realtime things just happen on the spot. Much more thrilling and surprising, to me anyway. And it adds significantly to the feeling of actually being there in the world you're exploring. In that aspect it felt like a step back to me playing Myst IV after I had been playing Uru & POTS. And in Myst V I've sorely missed the sounds of my footsteps and such a thing as the soft splash of the stone Esher threw in the water.

Does this mean I'm totally in the camp of the 3D lovers? No. Therefore I've loved the realistic view in pre-rendered too much. In Riven those sumbeam-splashed overviews, and the details when I looked as close to stuff as I could get, gave me the strong feeling of beeing on vacation on those isles. I expected to feel the warmth of the sun on my skin anytime. Riven was splendid that way.

But, as said, waiting for the movies was boring, every time again, not to mention the vacuumcleanernoice going with it in my dvd-drive. Irritating sound.

Concluding: both ways have there pro's and contra's, like has been mentioned in this thread before. And in the end it's a matter of personal favor and... money, of course, again. For example I couldn't play the newest of Fable when I tried to a few weeks ago, because of my "outdated" hardware. Ridiculous. Myst V ran smoothly. In that aspect Cyan has always been user-friendly, and I appreciate that very much.

Alahmnat, thank you for the link to Ryan's forum. I've been reading the discussion there about pre-rendered versus 3D and I've found it very interesting. I'm planning a comment there, but I'll have to take a Blogger-acount first, and that takes away my eagerness a bit. But I'll see.

Neo, it was nice to meet you there as well. Never mind what people may think about wasting time and energie to write so frequently and so much on forums, I like reading your posts. You make good points, you've got humor, you try to stay open-minded to anyone, and you're willing to learn. Wish more forumwriters would be like that. And for those 'get a life!' calling types: who is anyone to judge what's important to someone? Looking down on people like that (yes, even from Ryan, when I've been interpreting his little bookshop-story right) should be ignored. Totally. That's my holy opinion.

Greetings,
Vera

quote:

Originally posted by strokerace_555:
Being a realist as well as a businessman, I have to wonder. I know Cyan has had its troubles. Did Rand finally decide to move on, close the book on MYST and basically "throw us a bone" to generate capital for their next endeavors? Considering the fact that they used previous ages slated for Uru and the speed with which it hit the market, I would sadly have to assume so.

End of Ages was commissioned by UbiSoft with an extremely short timeframe from the beginning. The shortened timeframe, coupled with the desire to wrap up as much of the story as they could, is what led to the reconditioning and rebuilding of Uru Age concepts. On top of that, the short timeframe virtually demanded a realtime development, as pre-rendered graphics require longer to build, texture, render, and assemble (Exile, great as it was, suffered in many places from lack of time to put into rendering sequences because of their 18-month timeline). Additionally, Cyan's pipeline over the past 6 years has been streamlined towards realtime development, and their staff has been tailored to that end as well, so revamping the whole system for a year-long development cycle would have been chaotic at best and suicidal at worst. Cyan also has no capital left over... everything the company had made on the sales of Myst and Riven, plus royalties from Exile, went into the development of Uru. The company actually almost shut down for two weeks shortly after EoA came out because there was no way to maintain payroll. Adventure games are not good titles to make if you want to generate some fast capital, because they don't sell well anymore (especially not in the US), and they devalue very quickly (case in point: Revelation is already on the $20 threshold in some stores).

I think the decision was made to officially wrap up Myst for two reasons: one, their publishing contract for UbiSoft ended with End of Ages, so new titles would have to be shopped around, and finding a publisher for adventure games is pretty difficult these days, as I understand it. Secondly, EoA was an opportunity to wrap up the series Cyan's way, instead of letting it fall into the abyss of "no more games" or having another developer possibly come along and try to wrap it up for them later. Besides, after working on the same story for 13 years, I think you'd want to take a break too .

Ultimately, though, Myst (especially as a pre-rendered concept) is no longer very bankable, and odds are you're going to spend a lot more money than you make back. 4-year-long projects like Riven are no longer profitable, sadly, and without a steady cash flow and the ability to push back your deadlines (which is really only possible if you make the game on your own money and *then* find a buyer), you can't hold onto the project. Would EoA have been better if it had been developed for two, three, or even four years? Almost certainly. In any game development, the longer you can hold onto it, the better the odds that it will be more stable, more well-rounded, and better-detailed. Unfortunately, that wasn't in the cards this time, nor do I think that circumstances would have been different for any other potential developer.

TO Dimensions:

I appreciate and share similar views with you on MYST V. You touched on your distaste for the Bahro...and I couldn't agree more with you there. They're supposed to come across as powerful and possibly wise...but they came across to me as borderline moronic and completely out of place. As a side note...if you were fortunate enough to not have any problems with slate "pattern" recognition...playing fetch grew irritating/tiring (YAAAWN) enough as it was.

TO Strokerace:

Nice post! Straight to the point and another summary of similar feelings that I undoubtedly share. I also strongly feel that REVELATION was my "Grand Finale" rather than MYST V.

TO VBRvdA:

The "English" is just fine!

To your impatience...the pre-rendered versions almost always offer you the ability to skip ahead of a movie segment if you don't want to watch it. I'd take that ANYDAY over being forced to listen to a shpeel from Esher or Yeesha or whomever within the 3-D context of MYST V nevermind URU. Talk about boring. You're not even able to skip these once they happen! So I'm not really seeing much of a difference and if anything... the ability to skip ahead makes it better. Also..I'd be curious as to how you define "things happening on the spot" - if anything... Esher's constant re-appearences (which you were locked into watching) became more than easily predictable (nevermind annoying)...and once you found yourself with the tablet...I think seeing Yeesha again...is quite an easy thing to anticipate. Speaking of which...I think MYST V as someone else had mentioned before...was very predictable in that it was clear from the start what you needed to do. This to me is also a sign of weakness in story. Also the "movies" of "pre-rendered" in my opinion of course...are of considerably higher and more substantial quality than anything seen in URU or MYST V....so I'll take pre-rendered movies or non-movies all day long in a MYST game.

I can't help but see REVELATION as a considerable step forward in 2-D pre-rendering and in comparison to URU/POTS whatever...there just is no comparison. As this gets back to...some people enjoy the freedom of 3-D but some people also experience this navigational "freedom" in a pre-rendered game. What's more convincing to me in navigating an Age freely...is that the worlds/characters/creatures encountered promote a strong sense of realism & immersion.

I enjoyed reading your compliments on RIVEN...RIVEN truly was splendid in sooo many ways! I pointed out a couple "enlightening moments in your other thread!

Per MYST V running smoothly...take a gander over in the Technical Help Advice section if you want... to get a glimpse into how well MYST V has been running on people's computers. Have you heard how some people just put in a random sketch on the tablet only to find themselves having completed the entire age accidentally? I'm really surprised to hear you say you have dated hardware and did not have any problems! Lucky lucky! If anything MYST V has been less than user friendly for way too many people. One of the complaints/disappointments about this game has been how "buggy" it is....and knowing what you do about MYST V being rushed...it should come as no surprise.

Lastly...thank you for the kind words of encouragment! I also have enjoyed "meeting" you and reading your posts!

See you soon!

quote:

Originally posted by neo...1:To your impatience...the pre-rendered versions almost always offer you the ability to skip ahead of a movie segment if you don't want to watch it.

I didn't know that! You're telling me something new here. Gosh... wish I would have known at the time I played Riven. As it was, I had to watch those movies time and time again because of my numerous attempts solving the puzzles.
Oh and, now that that you've mentioned this: how do I do it, technically, skip those movies in Riven, for example?

quote:

I'd take that ANYDAY over being forced to listen to a shpeel from Esher or Yeesha or whomever within the 3-D context of MYST V nevermind URU. Talk about boring. You're not even able to skip these once they happen!

Yeah. I totally agree. At those moments I felt a strong urge to throw Myst V out of the window.

quote:

So I'm not really seeing much of a difference and if anything... the ability to skip ahead makes it better.

I agree. Absolutely, now that I know this.

quote:

Also..I'd be curious as to how you define "things happening on the spot"

(Take care folks! Spoiler Myst IV)Take, for example, the earthquake in Tomahna. Man! I never expected a thing like that to happen. Surprising that was. And thrilling.

quote:

- if anything... Esher's constant re-appearences (which you were locked into watching) became more than easily predictable (nevermind annoying)...and once you found yourself with the tablet...I think seeing Yeesha again...is quite an easy thing to anticipate.

Yes. But I was comparing the movies in pre-rendered and realtime more technically, and with the knowledge I had while I was writing my post (not enough knowledge, I know that now And what you're talking about now, that is, the way I'm interpreting your words, is more a design thing. A matter of how the creators wanted Myst V to be. Boringly predictable indeed to MHO (and yours as it looks like).

quote:

I can't help but see REVELATION as a considerable step forward in 2-D pre-rendering and in comparison to URU/POTS whatever...there just is no comparison. As this gets back to...some people enjoy the freedom of 3-D but some people also experience this navigational "freedom" in a pre-rendered game. What's more convincing to me in navigating an Age freely...is that the worlds/characters/creatures encountered promote a strong sense of realism & immersion.

Yes. That's why I'm so horrified by those stiffy moving and stupidly lookin' figures in Myst V that are supposed to replace the real people acting Yeesha esf. Meeting real people in a game like in Myst IV certainly contributes to my idea of that game being one of quality.

quote:

I enjoyed reading your compliments on RIVEN...RIVEN truly was splendid in sooo many ways! I pointed out a couple "enlightening moments in your other thread!

Yes, and if it were up to me: keep them coming! I love being taken back to Riven. To the whole package of feelings I had at the time I was first playing it. From sheer happiness to deep frustration and back again to sheer happiness. It was an event, Riven.

quote:

Per MYST V running smoothly...take a gander over in the Technical Help Advice section if you want... to get a glimpse into how well MYST V has been running on people's computers. Have you heard how some people just put in a random sketch on the tablet only to find themselves having completed the entire age accidentally? I'm really surprised to hear you say you have dated hardware and did not have any problems! Lucky lucky! If anything MYST V has been less than user friendly for way too many people. One of the complaints/disappointments about this game has been how "buggy" it is....and knowing what you do about MYST V being rushed...it should come as no surprise.

Yea, well, what can I say... Myst V really ran smoothly on my 'dated' machine AMD Athlon(tm)XP 2200+ 1.81GHz 512 MB plus NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX 440 (so, not so dated at all, I'ld say )really, it ran like a train, as I was used to with all the Mystgames before, and I've been really amazed reading about all those problems other people had and still have. I can't help it, but I had no problems at all. Nothing, nada, niente. I certainly felt not disappointed in that direction. (pity it was the only direction in case of Myst V )

quote:

See you soon!

Looking forward,
Vera

Hey VBRvdA & Happy Thanksgiving to you and everyone else!

1) To skip a movie sequence...pressing the spacebar should do the trick for you. Also (in case you didn't know already) I believe if you press CTRL + SPACEBAR in RIVEN you should also see a "task bar" across the top of the screen giving you some options to play with.

2) When you mentioned "realtime" and things happening on the spot...I thought you were referring to these moments in favor of 3-D realtime/URU/MYST V etc. I definitely prefer the 2-D/prerendered experiences! Love the "Bomb" in REVELATION that you mention. In case you didn't know...the "earthquake" is actually one of those green grenade specials that causes you to fall!

3) I misread your "step back" quote thinking you were saying that MYST IV was a step back from MYST V/URU!!!!OHHH shudder to think! My apologies and got it straight now... we both certainly agree MYST IV was a step forward.

4) Per your comment:

"For example I couldn't play the newest of Fable when I tried to a few weeks ago, because of my "outdated" hardware. Ridiculous. Myst V ran smoothly. In that aspect Cyan has always been user-friendly, and I appreciate that very much."

The response was thinking you had dated hardware...so > back at cha! Knowing your specs...those aren't bad at all...and for goodness sake...it better run smoothly. Nice to hear SOMETHING positive came out of MYST V for ya!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: neo...1,

Before anything else, THANK YOU for the good wishes and YES, HAPPY THANKSGIVING YOURSELF!

Mods, I am sorry that I am bringing an old topic to the floor. I believe that I have to emphasize my disappointment in this game in the series. Why CGI? That was the essence that made the games real to me. Myst's graphics frankly stunk, but it still felt real because we had real people in the world, you could see them. In fact that is what made the fist four so real! Uru i allowed to have CGI, it was an off tangent, more thrown together for our interest. Why kill the entire series with a poor ending? Shur CGI can be more interactive, but who cares. The game is no longer the same. To have such beautiful environments, music, puzzles and interface it is a shame to kill them all over one thing. I am asking myself, when will Real Myst V: End of Ages comes out. If anything needs improvement, I have already emphasized it. Anyone would be better than a nobody for me. I am deeply disappointed in the creators. My apologies that so much time in creation have become a waste.

My regards,
~Ti'ana
(on behalf of Nathan)

(mods, please move if needed, please do not delete)

Hi Godlvall2.

Mayby you should make a post on the Ubisoft forum and tell them about some of your feelings (second section in the Ubisoft page)...click here

Hey Godlvall2,

Great post and thanks for sharing. I haven't been on this forum for quite some time but I check it every now and again. You nailed all the points well with great questions that I too both found & continue to find myself asking repeatedly with regards to this unsettling and disappointing ending to an otherwise incredible series. I'd be curious to "hear" your thoughts/feelings on URU... although my hunch...based on your CGI comments... is that it was also disappointing for you. I really think the move to URU is what ruined what was great about MYST and it's just sad. MYST IV was a great return after URU...and as I mentioned many times in the past... MYST IV for me is the Grand Finale case closed. MYST V is just a bad taste I would rather not have in my mouth so I try to wash it out with MYST IV antiseptic for personal closure of the series.

Hello, My name is Dean Burk, and I love the 5 Myst games. I came to this forum and saw the posting by neo 1. I think I agree. URU was a strange cousin from out of town as far as I was concerned. I then played Myst Four and enjoyed it, but the original Myst and Riven and Myst 3 Exile were still in the back of my mind. I just finished Myst 5 last week. My cheeks are still sore form smiling so much ! As a matter of fact, I am playing Myst 5 again as I write this on my other computer. The question I have is there, or are there any other games similar to the Myst games I can buy ? I am not familiar with the RPG and Puzzle games in the stores these days. If you know of any please send the names to me at my email address: deanb@c2i2.com P.S. I heard a rumor from a friend that Rand Miller was making another series similar to Myst, no release date was mentioned, any truth to this rumor?
Thanks for your help. A friend in the Myst, Dean

The only thing Rand and Cyan are working on is the return of Uru Live... if you didn't care for it last time, but were okay with the graphics (which you seem to be based on your reaction to End of Ages), might I suggest taking a second look at it when it comes back this Christmas time (no solid date set, but "holiday season" is a bit too vague these days )... I know a lot of people thought the story - or lack thereof - was clunky, and I've regularly maintained that it ended up that way because of the transition to a single-player game, which wasn't the original intention of the developers. http://www.urulive.com (and tell your friends... seriously...)

Unfortunately, I personally don't have any other recommendations for games like Myst, because I've been rather disappointed with the ones I've come across since then. However, there is a big-honking list here if you're looking for somewhere to start .

For a similar list of Aventures games, in alphabitical order with cover pictures, check this thread (older and newer games)...click here

Is Rand still working on the Latus game?

Not actively, though Cyan does have a *massive* back burner .

ok ive spent ten minuts just to reply to this but i agree with both alahmnat and neo 1 with the game it is kinda disapointing that it isnt like the other myst games but it does look a little cool at the same time also does anyone know if youl beable to visit the other worlds form the previos myst games?

Alahmnat,

In response to your recommendation to join Gametap through your link, I did go there. On the signup page is this statement:

"Got What It Takes?
We recommend a broadband connected PC with at least an 800 MHz processor, 32 MB of Video Memory, and Windows 2000 or XP."

Broadband I have. 2.7 GHz dual CPU I have. 256 MB of Video Memory I have. Windows I have not.

How does the Power (non-Intel) Mac fit into all this?

Unfortunately, it doesn't... trust me, I don't like it either, but GameTap is currently a Windows-only system (which makes sense, since most of the games are also Windows-only).

For those wanting to join GameTap in support of Live but can't because you're on the Mac (IOW, you want Uru, and you want it on the Mac as well), I'll talk to Ron the next time I see him online and see if we can set something up, like another "official" petition similar to the international users one currently making the rounds.