Another thread ruined by OB1 and ABF! (a.k.a. 2004 Goron Game Awards!)

[A Black Falcon]

I do believe gothic is a word that described the style of old world cathedrals with gargoyles camped on them.

Yes, and that is what the term should be used for... Medieval cathedral architecture. That is, big and ornate...

Actually, Syberia, while having more interaction than the demo, does have less interaction than in, say, Monkey Island 3 (which also uses "pre-rendered" (if you count hand drawings as rendering ) backgrounds). It would be nice to be able to examine stuff. Rather they focused on interacting with stuff. Still, it's a full world that really feels fleshed out. I'll take some pics with the character in them. The characters fit into the scenes pretty well considering. I will say the least artistically inspired character is the MAIN one... She's the only one from America though, so I suspect, given the game's story, that her whole look was actually intended to be in stark contrast and look more like an American game character. The second game has a LOT more animation in the backgrounds than the first, which is great.

Interaction = good. It makes games better. Interaction and looking at things for definitions. I know it sure made, for instance, Eternal Darkness a whole lot better... Myst dropped that from the genre. Syberia's demo had almost none. Hence my comment that Syberia felt a lot like Myst, between the not-really-seeming-like-they-were-really-there people and the non-interactive nature of the environment...

I'll certainly admit that the graphics are beautiful though.

That last one made me think a little of Grim Fandango... now Lucasarts adventure games, those often had great artwork. And Grim was possibly the best of the lot. ... okay, the 3d wasn't that great, but still.. the backgrounds! The artwork! And with such style... if I didn't have to go now I'd go find some screenshots to post. :D