You know there's no reason for me to make these posts. You all are
probably checking Epic on a daily basis anyway. But that won't stop me
from making them anyway. So whether you like it or not, I'm going to
blather on daily 'announcing' to everybody what you all already know
;-)

Today Epic is giving away:
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/the-vanishing-of-ethan-carter

This is a Indie first-person adventure game focused almost entirely on
environmental story-telling and atmosphere, and very little on
puzzles. It's not quite a walking sim (it has a bit too much actual
gameplay for that), but it's very close, so if you're not into that
sort of thing, you'll have an awful time with this game. Even if you
do like walking-sims (a.k.a., narrative games), "Ethan Carter" isn't
very fulfilling. It's story isn't very well told and while the setting
is evocative the game does very little to use it to good effect.

What "Ethan Carter" does have is some beautiful visuals. When it was
released, it was one of the most gorgeous games available on PC and I
played it a number of times just to revel in its graphics. It's
probably not quite as cutting-edge today, but it's still a very good
looking game. It's not really enough to carry the entire game but if
you want to treat your eyes with some purty pictures, "Ethan Carter"
is worth playing... for a while, anyway.

There was a re-release of the game ("The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Redux") which slightly improved the visuals of the game. It's not
clear if the version on Epic is the original or this remastered
version. It doesn't really matter; I played both and had a hard time
spotting any differences between the two. If you're just going into
the game for its graphics, the first is as good as the second.

"Ethan Carter" isn't a game I'd recommend you buy, but if its being
given away for free, you might as well take it and give it a look.

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
> You know there's no reason for me to make these posts. You all are
> probably checking Epic on a daily basis anyway. But that won't stop me
> from making them anyway. So whether you like it or not, I'm going to
> blather on daily 'announcing' to everybody what you all already know
> ;-)

I'm not! I check here daily!

> Today Epic is giving away:
> The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
> https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/the-vanishing-of-ethan-carter

> This is a Indie first-person adventure game focused almost entirely on
> environmental story-telling and atmosphere, and very little on
> puzzles. It's not quite a walking sim (it has a bit too much actual
> gameplay for that), but it's very close, so if you're not into that
> sort of thing, you'll have an awful time with this game. Even if you
> do like walking-sims (a.k.a., narrative games), "Ethan Carter" isn't
> very fulfilling. It's story isn't very well told and while the setting
> is evocative the game does very little to use it to good effect.

> What "Ethan Carter" does have is some beautiful visuals. When it was
> released, it was one of the most gorgeous games available on PC and I
> played it a number of times just to revel in its graphics. It's
> probably not quite as cutting-edge today, but it's still a very good
> looking game. It's not really enough to carry the entire game but if
> you want to treat your eyes with some purty pictures, "Ethan Carter"
> is worth playing... for a while, anyway.

> There was a re-release of the game ("The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
> Redux") which slightly improved the visuals of the game. It's not
> clear if the version on Epic is the original or this remastered
> version. It doesn't really matter; I played both and had a hard time
> spotting any differences between the two. If you're just going into
> the game for its graphics, the first is as good as the second.

> "Ethan Carter" isn't a game I'd recommend you buy, but if its being
> given away for free, you might as well take it and give it a look.

Eh, I'll pass since it's not my genre. Thanks though!
--
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/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
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On 12/19/2021 9:15 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> You know there's no reason for me to make these posts. You all are
> probably checking Epic on a daily basis anyway.

Nope!

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

I have the same response as you; the gameplay is tepid, but even if all you
do is load it up and walk slowly through the prologue portion -- looking at
the lovely vistas, rocks and leaves fluttering in the trees, listening to
the wind -- it is worth downloading just for that experience. (I'm hearing
it does include Redux btw, not sure if that's a separate exe or what though)

rms

My review from back then:
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
This is a pretty stunning graphical experience, should you have a
highend system. Being able to walk and even run smoothly around the rural
forested environment of Carter's gameworld, while marvelling at the richly
colored rocks, waving branches of trees, and high resolution textures, is
worth paying money for. It reminds me of Real Myst in that respect. The
plot and mystery of this adventure game is a bonus: The star is the Engine
(which will be upgraded to UE4 for free at some point, though apparently not
DX12)

rms

On Sun, 19 Dec 2021 11:22:28 -0700, "rms"
<rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net> wrote:

>I have the same response as you; the gameplay is tepid, but even if all you
>do is load it up and walk slowly through the prologue portion -- looking at
>the lovely vistas, rocks and leaves fluttering in the trees, listening to
>the wind -- it is worth downloading just for that experience. (I'm hearing
>it does include Redux btw, not sure if that's a separate exe or what though)

I checked; the Epic version includes both the original and Redux,
which updated the game to Unreal Engine 4. So there's that.

Not much of a game, not much of a story, but very pretty. I've enjoyed
games that offer less.

On Sunday, December 19, 2021 at 9:15:43 AM UTC-8, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> You know there's no reason for me to make these posts. You all are
> probably checking Epic on a daily basis anyway. But that won't stop me
> from making them anyway. So whether you like it or not, I'm going to
> blather on daily 'announcing' to everybody what you all already know
> ;-)
>
> Today Epic is giving away:
> The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
> https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/the-vanishing-of-ethan-carter
>
> This is a Indie first-person adventure game focused almost entirely on
> environmental story-telling and atmosphere, and very little on
> puzzles. It's not quite a walking sim (it has a bit too much actual
> gameplay for that), but it's very close, so if you're not into that
> sort of thing, you'll have an awful time with this game. Even if you
> do like walking-sims (a.k.a., narrative games), "Ethan Carter" isn't
> very fulfilling. It's story isn't very well told and while the setting
> is evocative the game does very little to use it to good effect.
>
> What "Ethan Carter" does have is some beautiful visuals. When it was
> released, it was one of the most gorgeous games available on PC and I
> played it a number of times just to revel in its graphics. It's
> probably not quite as cutting-edge today, but it's still a very good
> looking game. It's not really enough to carry the entire game but if
> you want to treat your eyes with some purty pictures, "Ethan Carter"
> is worth playing... for a while, anyway.
>
> There was a re-release of the game ("The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
> Redux") which slightly improved the visuals of the game. It's not
> clear if the version on Epic is the original or this remastered
> version. It doesn't really matter; I played both and had a hard time
> spotting any differences between the two. If you're just going into
> the game for its graphics, the first is as good as the second.
>
> "Ethan Carter" isn't a game I'd recommend you buy, but if its being
> given away for free, you might as well take it and give it a look.

I have it in my Steam library but it isn't installed. I thought I
finished it but the cut scenes don't look familiar.

-pw

Wait, I have the Redux version installed. I am going to have to
restart it and see if I left off any where.