A quick fandom heads up!
I believe I said I'd make this post last night, but I was shamelessly procrastinating, as per usual. Anyway, I came to tell everyone here about Grim Fandango, a sumptuous adventure game by LucasArts made in 1998.
Grim Fandango is a game of goodness and wonder by LucasArts, but is the brainchild of Tim Schafer, who now has his own production company (does Psychonauts ring a bell?), Double Fine Productions. Made in 1998, it blends Mexican culture with film noir with such style I fell in love with the game as soon as I played it.
It's set over four years in the Land of the Dead, and you play a travel agent, Manuel 'Manny' Calavera. The idea is that when you die, your soul travels to the Land of the Dead, and is reaped by one of these travel agents, forced to work time for their misdemenours in life before they can travel to the Ninth Underworld. Manny is one of these reapers, although we never find out what he's done wrong previously. There are also a lot of people who find their place in the Land of the Dead and stay there, despite having no time to pay off. Flowers represent death, and you can be sprouted (hit with a bullet that will kill you, planting a plant in your ribcage; everyone's a skeleton).
However, there's also a lot of corruption, which Manny soon discovers. A client he stole from another reaper due to a lack of decent clientele on his part, who was basically a saint, didn't get her just reward (a ticket on a train to the Ninth Underworld, taking four minutes compared to the four years it would take normally). Hence, to find this client, Manny sets out on the four year journey, meeting with more corruption, a cast of wonderfully varied characters (Year Two, in Rubacava, is my favourite, simply for its characters and the whole, tragic storyline that goes into it), and a plot so great it's exhilarating to play.
The graphics on the game are timeless, really. They're cartoony, but 3D, with every skeleton different, and the environments you play in are great, too. The voices are all excellent, and fit perfectly to their characters. Throw in a wonderfully jazzy score by Pete McCorkel to tie everything together, and the mix is complete.
(Manny, in the starting location of the game; the Department of the Dead.)
Please note that I will probably never do the subject justice, but never mind.
We're a small fandom, with just over 50 fics, and we're based primarily on FF.Net, with probably no plans to move any time soon, I think. I'd like to rec VampireNaomi, who uses the same name on FF.Net, but my humour stuff's there too if you're interested. We're a nice bunch with a passion for our subject, and our forum on LucasForums always seems to be active, although they don't all write fic.
Thanks for listening!
Grim Fandango is a game of goodness and wonder by LucasArts, but is the brainchild of Tim Schafer, who now has his own production company (does Psychonauts ring a bell?), Double Fine Productions. Made in 1998, it blends Mexican culture with film noir with such style I fell in love with the game as soon as I played it.
It's set over four years in the Land of the Dead, and you play a travel agent, Manuel 'Manny' Calavera. The idea is that when you die, your soul travels to the Land of the Dead, and is reaped by one of these travel agents, forced to work time for their misdemenours in life before they can travel to the Ninth Underworld. Manny is one of these reapers, although we never find out what he's done wrong previously. There are also a lot of people who find their place in the Land of the Dead and stay there, despite having no time to pay off. Flowers represent death, and you can be sprouted (hit with a bullet that will kill you, planting a plant in your ribcage; everyone's a skeleton).
However, there's also a lot of corruption, which Manny soon discovers. A client he stole from another reaper due to a lack of decent clientele on his part, who was basically a saint, didn't get her just reward (a ticket on a train to the Ninth Underworld, taking four minutes compared to the four years it would take normally). Hence, to find this client, Manny sets out on the four year journey, meeting with more corruption, a cast of wonderfully varied characters (Year Two, in Rubacava, is my favourite, simply for its characters and the whole, tragic storyline that goes into it), and a plot so great it's exhilarating to play.
The graphics on the game are timeless, really. They're cartoony, but 3D, with every skeleton different, and the environments you play in are great, too. The voices are all excellent, and fit perfectly to their characters. Throw in a wonderfully jazzy score by Pete McCorkel to tie everything together, and the mix is complete.
(Manny, in the starting location of the game; the Department of the Dead.)
Please note that I will probably never do the subject justice, but never mind.
We're a small fandom, with just over 50 fics, and we're based primarily on FF.Net, with probably no plans to move any time soon, I think. I'd like to rec VampireNaomi, who uses the same name on FF.Net, but my humour stuff's there too if you're interested. We're a nice bunch with a passion for our subject, and our forum on LucasForums always seems to be active, although they don't all write fic.
Thanks for listening!