The Blackwell Convergence (2009)

I didn't realise when playing the previous one, but apparently it was originally going to be in this game as playable flashbacks, which would have been really cool. Dave said something in the commentary about budget, so I guess he needed to sell it for $10 separately to justify the scope.

Anyway, this game has a character from that one (which was set in the 70s and featured Rosa's aunt and her time with Joey) show up, which is still cool.

It looks really nice, the art is great. It has rain effects too, though they're not half as nice as TGP's (which came out on the exact same day)!

It's gone back to having portraits, unfortunately, though they feel a little less jarring here, perhaps because they're bigger and maybe have more animation to them. Also, the cursor doesn't flip to an egg-timer when stuff's happening, but it doesn't get hidden either.  The VO technical quality seems a little better, though there's still the occasional rough edge. The music is as impressive as ever, and at its best it feels like an Angelo Badalamenti score, but there's some hissing on at least one track, and it's often slips a bit far into muzak for my taste - it doesn't quite have the bluesy feel or the modern slickness to it of the previous two entries. It might be exacerbated by the fact that there's no volume controls and the music is a little too loud in the mix.

It also has the same issue of starting off pretty slow - the first things you do are push a paperclip under a door, pick a lock with a paperclip, find some papers in a desk drawer, save a ghost, look at your calendar, look up an address on your computer, go to an art gallery and chat with people. After that it starts to pick up, but as a start to a game, it's hardly breaking into a warehouse then finding a time-stick then getting into an argument with Hitler...

Joey remains an utter prick. I genuinely do not like him and I hope he starts to warm up fairly soon! 

Finished! Seems like there's some 'Joey is evil' plotline brewing, but I wish he'd be a bit more charming in the meantime. Loved the Evanescence style credits song! Now to watch a video of the dev commentary...