Sequoia,

You'll find the non on-line game (referred to as Uru Prime in the beta, vs "Uru Live" for the no-line) you'll find it very much like the other Myst experiences. You'll have fun posting here about the different puzzles and sharing the game experience. You'll be able to explore at least 6 different worlds and follow a very nice story.

What you'll miss is the ability to have a friend along in the same world solving problems together. You'll miss meeting with a group to chat or share ideas or inquire about puzzles, which is really quite fun! The avatars (your character's body) are customizable to make it look quite similar to yourself, so I found I could recognize friends quickly. Also, when you put your cursor over another's avatar, their name will appear. You'll even be able to press a button and speak audibly to other users close by using your PC microphone - very cool! They have even created a "Greeter's Guild" of experienced users that will be available on-line to advise and help you along the way. Kind of like D'Ni helpers.

We are not sure, yet, how much of this will be available in the beginnings of the game, since Uru Prime is what has been released and Uru Live will be gradually released in the coming months.

I say, give it a try without the broadband and see what you think. There were actually a number of Beta testers whom used dialup, but I don't know how successful they were.

I suspect you'll have trouble loading it on some Internet Cafe PCs since there are issues with firewalls and the like that may block your access. We shall see.

Hope you give it a try.

Dadguy (beta tester and Greeter On-Line)

One of thew other great things about the online experience is that you can chat with people over a device known as your Ki - even when they are in another age. It is something to have someone talking you through a puzzle or challange or vice versa.

There are also side games you can play with other people in public places such as the neighborhood and the city.

You have private ages where you are the only one there - but at any time you can "invite" someone to join you at any of those private ages or at your own house or home age - called Relto. You will find pages that are added to your personal linking book that will enhance your presonal living space. Books to varied ages and places are stored in your home library at your Relto. YOur personal linking book - links you out of a dangerous spot or just when you wish to link out and returns you to your Relto.

Obviously the invitations and such only exist in URU online. But the set up for your Relto, your personal link library and your book that you carry at all times on your waist band will be in URU Prime and URU Live.

The Greeters Guild is another great concept that arose and evolved during the beta. People have hours assigned. They will have a Greeters Guild shirt - so they can be readily identified. Those in the guild will be at the City entry point to help with questions and such. We will also trade Ki numbers with folks so that if they want a greeter to travel to an age with them for hints/help or just chat through something we can do that. It will be like a personal hints line - while online. Its like a solo/cultural gathering. It can be as personal or group oriented as you wish.

Someone asked earlier about the computer spec that you will need for "Uru, Ages Beyond Myst".

I downloaded the demo today. It is really very good. Along with it comes a readme file with the minimum and recommended specs for your PC. Here they are:

Minimum Requirements:
-------------------------------

- Windows XP/Me/2000/98SE
- 800Mhz Pentium III or AMD Athlon
- 256 Mb RAM
- 4x CD ROM Drive
- Video Card: 32 MB NVIDIA(r) GeForce(tm) 1, 2, 3, 4, or FX; ATI(r) Radeon(tm)
7000-9800 or better
- DirectX 8.1b or higher compatible Audio Card
- DirectX version: 8.1b or higher
- 2 GB Hard Disk space Free
- 800x600 16 bit display
- Mouse and keyboard


Recommended System:
----------------------------

- Windows XP
- 1.4Ghz Pentium IV or AMD Athlon
- 512 Mb RAM
- 4x CD ROM Drive or faster
- Nvidia GeForce 3 or ATI Radeon 8500 or higher Video Card
- DirectX 8.1b or higher compatible Audio Card, Sound Blaster Audigy 2
series, EAX Advanced HD
- 2 GB Hard Disk space free
- 1024 x 768 32 bit displays
- Mouse and keyboard

I believe the game itself recommends DirectX 9.0 which I am sure they will include on the CD.

Regards,

Dadguy

YIPPEE!!.....YAHOO!!!......WHOOPEE!!....WE'RE FREE!.....WE'RE FREE!

{{{{HUGS }}}} to all my other beta buddies!

Whew! So glad to get that off my chest. I have been beta testing Uru since mid January and it has been both the longest and the shortest period of my life! Long because it was so-o-o hard not to say anything while reading all the misconceptions- that NDA seemed to go on forever. Short because I have a whole new 'family' now from the beta and when the beta closed down Monday, I felt an emptiness that I never would have believed possible. It felt like there was so much left undone - so much more to be said.

My life has revolved around Uru for the past 11 months..(I honestly don't think I missed a single day, even if I was only there for 10 minutes). Now, I wait, oh so very IMPATIENTLY (Ya hear that, Ubisoft? ) for my disk to arrive, for the adventure to continue and to get back together with my new family.....AND to welcome all the soon-to-be newest members of that family!

The game itself is absolutely gorgeous. I spent as much time 'ooohing' and 'ahhhhing' as I did playing. Yes, it had it's moments - but those moments were always quickly forgiven as I rounded the next corner, or linked to the next Age.

What the Miller brothers, along with Cyan and Ubisoft, have managed to create is nothing short of extraordinary!

(........ Oh, and yeah. I loved the game! )

I was a beta tester, too. I LOVE this game! I don't know what I can add to what has already been said, except to say that whatever kind of adventure games you normally like, I urge you to give Uru a try, at least the demo. It's beautiful, it's large, and it's a lot of fun!

I just downloaded the demo and I have a couple of questions.

Can the controls be remapped?

How do you exit the game and get to the save screen.

I thought this game was supposed to be full 3d movement. I am unable to steer with the mouse. When I move the mouse left or right nothing happens.

Hi Zanthia!

1. Controls can be remapped: If you place your cursur near the bottom right of the screen, a ? and an X appear. Select the ? and a settings page appears. Choose KEY MAP and go from there. (It would be a good idea to familiarize your self with this Settings Menu.)

2. Uru autosaves. (See my comment to Jenny's post under the HINTS section.) The EXIT key is that X in the lower right corner.

3.) You should be able to steer with the mouse. While you are holding down the WALK key (left mouse button), drag it left or right and your avatar will move that way. When standing still in the 1st person view, you can hold the RIGHT-CLICK mouse button and drag to "look" around 360 degrees.

I should add that there are other features under GAME SETTINGS (ADVANCED) that allow you to move toward where your mouse is click (that is, click laft and she starts left). I didn't like this so I turned it off. You should experiment to find what you like!

Have fun,

Dadguy

I don't see any switch or whatever for subtitles (texts) in the demo.
**** Are there any subtitles in the demo?
******** Are there any subtitles in the actual game itself?

Nope, I don't think so. At least I never saw or used them in Beta.

However, there are websites that have full text of extended conversations (like Yeesha's speech in the demo).

Dadguy

Okay, these are some 'novice' non-myst player questions. I've never played any of the Myst games (started the 1st one and got bored quickly). Having said that, should i just avoid this one too, or is it quite different? Can it be played solo, or just online with other players? Would someone who nevre played any of the other Myst games be totaly lost? What kind of things can you do when interacting with online players? (besides chat and share strategy, etc).

Thanks
Louis

I liked this game much better than the first Myst. I loved Riven and Exile. But URU is here and now - while those were stories about one little area of the D'ni past. SOmeone explained if you had a big graph - the Myst stories would be a dot in the bottom right area - where as URU is a dot way up at the top left. This is about the "Restoration" of D'ni by us. Those who take the "journey" - who are called to the Cleft - We are the new D'ni.

Online activities are as varied as you want them to be.....

There are a few games involving marker tags (your Ki has a geo-positional mapping feature) there is also a game at the "neighborhood" that is the D'ni equivalent of "Rock , paper, scizzors" that is played at a table with a holo-imager".

We came up with some of our own, hide the cone, hide and seek, we gathered at a place and someone would use their mike to pipe in music and dance, hang out, socialize etc. I am sure there will be further surprises as the online portion gets further developed. It's hard to explain in many ways. You get into it - when you get there kind of thing. You can really push the limits of what your avatar can do.

Hi all,
Now that I did my part on the beta tester roundtable (sorry I was late Laura, but I sent it this morning!) I can reply to this.

What you buy in the store is the solo player game. You play it by yourself, just like any other game. The solo player came is not an online game. It's a huge game, so even though it's pricey (for an adventure game, not for a new first person shooter or a new RPG) you won't feel cheated. I like it. I don't like everything about it (more on that in other posts), but I like it. I would buy it. What I can say, unequivocally, is that it's insanely beautiful, and quite immersive.

On multiplayer play - see the above posts. When I first joined the beta there were multiplayer puzzles, but there are no multiplayer puzzles in the released game. I'd guess (no inside info, just a guess) that in the future, multiplayer puzzles might come back, for the online part only. We were told that there will be more to do in the multiplayer space, in the future. As I mentioned before, the Prologue (new online beta) is free and they are going to admit lots and lots of people. Broadband is still listed as required (for multiplayer play) but we had some people in the beta who played on dial-up. If you buy the game, and think you might want to try the online part - it would not hurt to apply and check it out. You can look for me in the game. After I get in (I don't have the game yet, we beta folks have to buy the game too, darn!), I'll post the character name I use, assuming I get it!

On the mapping of the controls, everyone else talked about it better than me. You can play with the keyboard, with the mouse or with a combo. The controls are mappable - you can change them around, quite a lot. This is particularly good for people who play FPS (first person shooter) games - they tend to like a certain keyboard format. For the rest of us, the standard keyboard mapping is the arrow keys. This was good for me because there was nothing to remember - after you glance at the arrows on your keyboard a couple of times, you know which way your avatar is going to move! Incidentally, we had some FPS gamers in the beta, and they provided excellent feedback to Cyan - they were very picky about the controls! On playing with the mouse only - that's very doable, but it's not a "point and click" game. You (1st person) or your avatar (3rd) don't move unless you are pressing something.

As for gameplay, like most adventure games, in the solo player game the story progresses through puzzle solving. There is a mix of puzzles, but some of the puzzles have action elements, though they aren't too hard. I'm not a fan of action elements, but I ended up making my peace with them. Uru is a game in the Myst game series, but it's not like any Myst series game that I've played.

Finally, if you have never played the Myst series games, it doesn't matter. You don't need to know anything about the game universe to play it. The best way to know if you are going to like it is to download and play the demo.

Hope this helps.

Are there special criteria for being chosen for the beta or the online game? I applied earlier this year for the Beta, but was not chosen.

On getting into the beta - we were told it was a random selection of everyone who applied - chance.

You sly beings! I felt quite lonely talking about Uru in August!

I downloaded the demo today, which looked as great (as the full version did in August) but now has much better direct connections with its prequels (in D'ni time and real time).

I'm still enjoying the ornithology aspect, which is great. (I am always distracted by ambient noises in the best FPS's. Which normally results in death, but I die happy.) Feel free to laugh.

However.

The one thing that I still find, and it does get me everytime, is that I feel like I should have a gun in my hand. Ridiculous as that sounds, in a Myst world, I can say that it has nothing to do with the games content itself, but the way it is presented. I'm playing Hidden&Dangerous2 ( HD2 ) at the moment, which also switches between 3rd and 1st person perspective with a single key press (as did HD1 and ALL the Jedi Knight games). Naturally, adventure fans with no experience of "shooters" won't feel that, but I feel potential "new" adventure fans may wonder where their arsenal has gone. Dumb I know, but it does happen on a subliminal level. Oh, it was also obvious on ledges. Small, tiny weeny, little ledges! But my little (avatar) legs just couldn't manage them. Maybe falling off ledges broke my "avatars" legs.

Dressing "myself" for my single player experience was easy and fun. It would be great to think that you could effectively re-create yourself for an online appearance. Future GB parties and developer interviews could be carried out in virtual beauty, somewhere in a Myst world. Now that is wonderful. Especially given that Myst is the granddaddy of graphic adventure games. Yes, the game is new and expensive, but given that the world is ever expanding (given interest) it may well be almost default as the alternative IM.

However, it isn't overly likely that a global online community would all dress in GAP casuals. Please no! Bizarrely, you can choose several different kinds of beard, but the "eye" settings are default. Huh? As for the shoe options! Trainers are great.... but sandals! Sandals + canyons + jumping + hiking.. argh! The adventure chiropodist is going to profit from this.

Lastly, there are a few ambient sounds from Riven being recycled. Which is never a bad thing. It almost makes up for the sandals...

Jonathan
xx

Good observations, Jonathan.

The avatar customization allows us to do a Style makeover, complete with liposuction! Some of the betas were cross dressing.

Eye settings aren't default... make them whatever fits. Put in some light blue contacts if the mood hits you. They even had a barefoot option in the beta. That will probably return...

Looking forward to Dark Fall 2!!!!

Dadguy

"cross dressing"

Wow, the potential GB parties (and also global implications) are looking even more interesting!

Jonathan

In some ways I'm jealous of those of you who haven't played it yet. It's been great being a beta tester but I'd love to relive all the firsts again

Yep we had some folks try out alternate identities. We had great fun for a few days with "evil avatars". Heh-heh

There is a strong wish for clothes that are androgenous - sort of a monks robe type outfit that many thought would be fun. WHo knows all the surprises that await in the real URU Live

"androgenous - sort of a monks robe"

What, like a burka?

We had quite a few betas who were asking for something 'genderless' for their wardrobes. They were even willing to settle for just a cape...I guess they figured they could expand from there. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Confused]" src="confused.gif" />

Just makes me wonder.......Why?

Hmmm, the wardrobe.

So, it's "weekend casuals" or medieval robes. Hmm.

Such depth.

Jonathan

Hi,
On the clothing options, we didn't get the "genderless" option that I asked for, either in the beta or the retail game. I wanted a choice where it wasn't immediately obvious if you were a man or a woman. A long coat would have worked, perhaps with a hood. I don't know if we'll ever get it. The clothing choices were a bit expanded at the end of the beta, but still basically the same as what you see in the retail game (I just fired it up). I think of the clothing choices as the look of a prep/outdoor clothing catalogue company, like Eddie Bauer perhaps. or (per Jonathan) clothes from the Gap (clothing company). The clothing choices are pretty boring and don't reflect a worldwide player base, in my opinion. Maybe we'll get more clothing choices later. We did try.

Some thought was given as to what you have on your hands (glove options), without what you actually look like.

J

thanks for the help. One thing I noticed on the key map page is that it looks like you can't remap the mouse. that is a bummer.

I also do not like the fact that you have to hold down the mouse button to steer. In 3d games in other genres this is not needed. ALl you need to do is move the mouse and this is what i am used to. Holding down one of the mouse buttons to steer makes it so awkward.