Dear Esther drops trailer and release date

Technology and Gaming
#1

Looks god damn gorgeous as expected.

Feb 14 2012. Damn close too.

#2

FUCK YEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

That is all.

#3

Source is as old as Betty White, but just like her it keeps on kickin’.

#4

Trailer is extremely beautiful but that release date has been known for more than a month :slight_smile:

Valentine’s Day seems to be a good choice for this kind of game.

#5

Anyone want to inform me on the plot in this game? Can’t seem to find a decent link to an outline.

I watched the play-throughs of the original and can’t really grasp the incoherence – seems quite elegant.

#6

Edit: Double post – wtf.

#7

pretty sure the synopsis is on the main page of the website.

but for your pleasure.

A deserted island… a lost man… memories of a fatal crash… a book written by a dying explorer.

https://www.desura.com/mods/dear-esther/downloads
[i]Dear Esther is a ghost story told using first-person gaming technologies. Rather than traditional gameplay, the focus here is on exploration, uncovering the mystery of the island, of who you are and why you are here. Fragments of story are randomly triggered by moving around the environments, making every telling unique. Features a stunning, specially commissioned soundtrack. Forget the normal rules of play; if nothing seems real here, it’s because it may just be all a delusion.

What is the significance of the aerial - What happened on the motorway - is the island real or imagined - who is Esther and why has she chosen to summon you here?

The answers are out there, on the lost beach and the tunnels under the island. Or then again, they may just not be, after all…[/i]

https://www.fileplanet.com/196430/190000/fileinfo/Half-Life-2—Dear-Esther-Mod-v1.1
Dear Esther is part of a research project, creating experimental game mods, based at the University of Portsmouth, UK. The aim was to use Source to create something radically different from normal: an interactive story that dispensed with traditional gameplay and focused instead on an open-ended, semi-random narrative.

#8

I don’t know man, just a 2 minute trailer and already the lack of creatures in a world like that was starting to bother me, gnaw on me…

#9

Why? Have you played the original mod? The whole thing is about isolation and loneliness, and having creatures or other people in the mod would take away from that.

#10

Thanks for that, but it still leaves me questioning what parts of those stories he is talking about. Are they all connected? He narrates all of the stories and I can never tell which one he is talking about.

Oh well, maybe a second play through when it comes out will refresh me.

#11

Really looking forward to this. It reminds me a little of Myst when it first arrived. No one to shoot, no one to run away from and no fear of dying or being killed.

Just live the story and immerse yourself in another world and another time.

#12

I never played the original cause I was waiting for this.

#13

^

this

#14

Unfortunately I played the original but at least I don’t remember the text anymore.

Edit: The trailer :jizz:

#15

^ same

Although, now I can get a better sense as to how much has been improved since the original.

#16

Looks very pretty.

And that’s probably all that needs to be said about the “game”.

#17

I’ll play the original to compare after I play this one.

#18

Played the original, loved.

This is going to be an amazing experience D:

#19

This game shows the limitless potential of Source engine imagine the HL3 graphic…Dear Esther will look outdated and old then :slight_smile:

#20

The store page has a painful lack of pre-order button > :frowning:

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.