And possibly insulted his momma!

Another month, and we’re once again back on the trail of the Devil’s Playbox in Sam and Max: They Stole Max’s Brain! And with a title like that, the plot should be somewhat self-explanatory.  Sam, having left to go to the bathroom at the end of the last episode, returns to find Max’s head swinging open and his brain gone.  Consumed by rage and noir internal monologue, it’s up to Sam to discover exactly what happened to his friend and dole out some justice in the best tradition of the Freelance Police.

Telltale have obviously been having a lot of fun with genre this season, and They Stole Max’s Brain is no exception.  The first section of the game is spent with a hard boiled cop-on-the-edge version of Sam, helping him shake down witnesses and uncover the identity of the parietal purloiner.  To this end the game plays around with the typical conversation structure, introducing a new “interrupt” system where Sam can threaten, accuse or press his suspects for important information.  While it sounds kinda cool, there isn’t actually much change to the game’s usual mechanics, as witnesses will tell you the important parts of their testimony in uninterruptable segments, then leave you to choose which interruption to use while they babble for a while afterward.

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I get the feeling the name was just to throw you off the scent last episode

Do you ever have those heavy gaming months? You know, those months that leave you feeling bloated, tired and irritable for no reason after spending extended amounts of time in front of your screen? The months where you’ll find yourself uncontrollably weeping at the worst scripted cut-scenes, wearing white pants as you scoff Malteasers off your pregnant friend?

Well with the exception of that last item (my pregnant friend won’t visit) it’s been one of those months for me, and with a great bevy of AAA titles to work my way through it’s taken me this long to get around to playing the newest installment of Telltale Games’ new Sam and Max series: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak.

And after I’d blown the dust off my neglected PC and fired up the new episode (coal-operated computer), I had to curse my own foolish procrastination.

Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse – Episode 2: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak is probably the finest piece of work Telltale Games have created since Chariots of the Dogs last season, and really manages to capture what we all love in an adventure game: puzzles, puns and … is there a ‘p’ word for time-travel?  I’ll get back to you on that one.

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Curse that Ripper and his snappy dress sense!

Take the greatest detective known to fiction and have him investigate one of history’s most famous unsolved crimes.  A great adventure game should come effortlessly, right?  Unfortunately, things aren’t quite that … elementary.

A few weeks ago I picked up a copy of Frogwares’ latest adventure offering Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper.  No, I hadn’t been hurtled a year back in time to when the game was actually released, more I was looking for a modern adventure game that hadn’t been brought to us via Telltale Games.

The premise is relatively simple:  Sherlock Holmes (rumoured pipe enthusiast and master of deduction) hears the news about the murder of a prostitute in Whitechapel, and decides to  “unofficially” assist the authorities in their investigations.  This lands him and his companion Dr. Watson right in the middle of the famous serial killings of Jack the Ripper.

See? Fiction and history are so easy to combine!

If you read about Jack the Ripper in school, then you’ll notice a whole cast of real life Ripper suspects crop up during Watson and Holmes’ investigation, although most of them are discredited as actual suspects quite quickly.  A few are most likely only mentioned to bolster the suspects board on the Baker Street wall (artist Walter Sickert, for example), but it’s nice to see that Frogwares had no qualms with setting up a host of era specific character for players to enjoy.

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Those Telltale types certainly know style

It’s a brand new year, and Telltale has turned loose a brand new season of everybody’s favourite dog and rabbit crime fighting duo.  The newest addition to the adventure library is entitled Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, and the first episode The Penal Zone was released mid-April.

My inner-child loves the fact that adventure games are making a slow but steady return to the gaming landscape, but Telltale Games faces the same challenge every time they release a new game: keeping things fresh.  After all, we can gush all we like about a game’s writing and sense of humour, but if it turns out it’s just the same old game repackaged then interest is sure to dwindle.  Even for someone with their nostalgia goggles strapped on as hard as I do.

So it’s nice to see that, with a certain level of respect for the format, Telltale Games has begun to experiment with their usual gameplay style.

From the get go, The Penal Zone aims to show off these new elements.  Our heroes begin the game trapped in a cell by interstellar outlaw General Skun’ka’pe, a militant baboon with dreams of galactic conquest.  To achieve this end he’s scouring Earth for the Toys of Power, objects of terrifying psychic power, two of which just happen to have fallen into Max’s possession.

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Machinarium: A Robot Love Story

I like point and click adventures. They’re the kind of game I enjoyed when I was younger and continue to be the kind of game I feel most comfortable playing. I think what I like about them is the idea that everything on the screen is what you need to complete the task. If not, there are clues to get you through. You’re in safe territory, able to move through the game and enjoy the plot or the scenery, or both.

What a shame Machinarium, visually impressive as it is, doesn’t tick all of those boxes.

The game was developed by Czech company Amanita Designs, who put their own time and savings into making it. That alone impressed me when I first came across it. The beautiful thing about Machinarium is obviously the world they created. In a lovely sepia tone, Amanita has set up a junk planet populated by cute little robots. They frolick in oil, play music and go out their funny little lives. But there are some bad guys too, notably three bullies who are the reason for this adventure. They’ve separated two lovebots and the … well, I assume it’s the boy robot, is left in pieces on a junk heap.

From there it’s a matter of getting your bot back together and getting back into the city. In creating such a rich backdrop for the story, Amanita have decided to make only the useable items on the screen clickable and this makes sense in the first screen. It seems intuitive, with finding the pieces of the little bot easy. (more…)

Pirates with the Pox of LeChuck just love to do Bishop impressions

Just a quick update (I’m damagingly hungover) to remind everyone that Tales of Monkey Island Episode 4: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood is out today, ready for download.  The execution part obviously can’t end up being too permanent, given Guybrush’s unkillable nature and the fact that there’s still another episode to go after this one.

A few more classic characters have obviously been re-introduced, including boat/coffin/life-insurance salesman Stan who’s been featured in one of the game’s teaser screenshots.

We’ll have a full write-up some time in the coming week (there’s quite a backlog around here all of a sudden).

Head on over to the Telltale Games website to get your copy, and if you haven’t yet taken a look, be sure to check out Magnus’ “I Wonder What Happens In…” animation for the most recent episode.  Always pure gold!

OH, THE HUGE-MANATEE

With less than a fortnight until the next Tales of Monkey Island episode, Lair of the Leviathan, Telltale Games has posted up three screenshots to tease the title.

At the end of the last episode, Guybrush had managed to get himself eaten by a gigantic sea cow while on the search for Esponge Grande. Lair of the Leviathan would appear to place Guybrush, at least temporarily, trapped inside the creature.

I suppose it’s not the first time he’s found himself trapped in a giant animal.

We’ve all got our fingers crossed for the next ToMI episode, as the last one ended up a little short and unchallenging. Head on over and take a look at teaser screens. They’ve also posted up some concept art to ogle. Why aren’t you ogling yet?

And of course, as the new tradition dictates, you can also check out Flash artist Majus’ thoughts on what’s going to happen in the upcoming episode.

"I'm selling these fine leather space jackets"

You’ll have to excuse me while I restrain my wife and one of my friends over this one, they probably couldn’t be more excited … even if Jeff Goldbum was involved.

So an intrepid programmer called Stacy Davidson has begun a fan project called Han Solo Adventures. We’re talking all the classic 2D adventure action of a SCUMM adventure game, blended with the antics of everyone’s favourite nerf-herder Han Solo. Here’s a snippet from the game’s FAQ section:

If you enjoyed Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and you are at heart a Star Wars fan, then do I have a treat for you. This game was born out of my frustration that LucasArts seemed to throw everything but the kitchen sink into their adventure game lineup, with the exception of their flagship property: Star Wars. As awesome as Fate of Atlantis was, it always rubbed salt into the wound for me. I felt like, “OK, Indy’s awesome… now where’s Han?!?” For me, that’s what it’s all about, so if I am going to properly bring one of my life dreams into reality, I want it to look and feel as authentic as possible. The idea is, you just suspend disbelief and play the game as if it’s that one, long lost LucasArts adventure title you never got around to playing.

-Stacy, we love you (but of course, “you know”)

Has anyone ever heard of nobler sentiments? I know I haven’t in a long while. Now while I’m actually really excited to see where this project could be leading, you’ve got to be wary with things like this (especially when they begin gaining publicity!). LucasArts as a whole has never looked too favourably on people touching their stuff, even if it’s for free distribution (or maybe even because it’s for free distribution!). I remember back when I used to cover the Half-Life/Quake modding community, there were bundles and bundles of Star Wars mods that used to have cease-and-desist notices served to them.

With any luck, hopefully Uncle George will view this little project favourably, and we can all look forward to giving it a go. Maybe given that Ron Gilbert seems to have given the project some love, Stacy can look forward to a little leniency from the legal departments.

Either way, head on over to the game’s home page and show a little support. There’s even a video showing Han shooting first … this time in SCUMM format!

Wait no longer, adventure enthusiasts!

Has it really been six weeks since we got our hands on Launch of the Screaming Narwhal? It seems like the time has positively flown by. It was just a short month and a half ago that we were wandering around Flotsam Island, desperately attempting to figure out how to change the winds, and what the hell was happening to our hand.

Well the new installment is here. Episode 2 of Tales of Monkey Island, titled The Siege of Spinner Cay, continues Guybrush’s adventures in the Gulf of Melange as he attempts to reunite with his wife. We rejoin Guybrush where we left him in the last episode: about to get his head chopped off by an unknown female assailant.

The sinister sword-swinging assassin turns out to be Morgan LeFlay, one of the Carribean’s top pirate hunters, who has been retained by the Marquis DeSinge to return Guybrush to Flotsam Island for scientific experiments on his poxed hand. Settling for simply chopping off his hand instead, Guybrush is left to singlehandedly (badumching) defeat LeFlay and reclaim his ship.

This leaves Guybrush to replace his lost hand with a hook, something which he (as a pirate) has no problems with, and sail on to the Jerkbait Islands to find Elaine. (more…)

Have a nice trip!

Those of you Monkey Island fans who are eagerly anticipating the release of The Siege of Spinner Cay, wait no more!

True to their promise, Episode 2 of the new Tales of Monkey Island series is now available for download from the Telltale Games site.

What mysterious character holds Guybrush at swordpoint?  Is the Pox of LeChuck still floating around the Carribean?  What are the newly human LeChuck’s intentions?

Be damned if I know, I’m in the capped period of my broadband month, so I’m going to have to leave my computer on overnight to download it.  I suggest everyone else do the same (only much quicker!).