There's a great editorial over at The Digital Bits concerning the upcoming HD-DVD versus BluRay format war. Bottom line: with competing next generation formats, another DVD-style success story is highly unlikely - and we, the consumers, will suffer.

Here's another mail from my long-neglected inbox, dating back to pre-E3 times:

Hi,

I just wanted to remind you that lengthy dialogues, interesting puzzles (more people said they were too easy then too hard), and of course the music, story, and gameplay. I just wanted you to sort out a contradiction for me. In the french game magazine (I forget the name) you said Dreamfall would have a mouse-only interface, but in the IGN article you said direct control. Also, will you be including plenty of side quests and non-essential dialogue to flesh out the story for the many among us who DO want to play for 30-40 hours, with plenty of dialogue and harder puzzles? Maybe a difficulty setting like Monkey Island 3? Also, will those high-res models we see on the front page be used in the actual game at any point, will Bjorn Arve Lagim be returning for the music, and will many of the original cast reprise their roles?

Thanks,
Pirateguybrush

PS. When do we get some hi-res desktop backgrounds?

I'm with you on the hi-res wallpapers: I'll keep bugging the marketing guys until we get some.

That's a "yes" on the mouse-only interface and the direct control: there's no contradiction there. We have a prototype up and running, and it's looking good.

I don't like difficulty settings (I feel like I'm missing out on something if I pick 'easy', but then I usually don't make it through a game on 'normal'), and you won't find them in Dreamfall. There will be opportunities to explore outside the linear structure of the game, certainly, although I think most players will be propelled along by the storyline.

Finally: Those hi-res models are in-game models, believe it or not; Bjørn Arve no longer works for Funcom; and we are definitely asking the original cast back - where appropriate - to reprise their roles.

(And if anyone wonders why I'm still commenting on content, David asked these questions so long ago that I figured they deserved an answer.)  ¶ 22:05