Armchair Diplomat

For anyone of you folk who downloaded the latest Tales of Monkey Island episode the moment it came out, you may have noticed certain samples of poor qualty audio.  A lot of other players certainly have.  As a bit of quality control, Telltale has re-released Siege of Spinner Cay’s installer with higher quality audio sampling.

If you’re wondering if this applies to you, go to the conversation you have with Elaine in the Spinner Cay throne room, and listen to Elaine’s “s” sounds.  If you can hear crackle or hiss, it’s not just your computer, your install is one of those running with sub-par audio.

Head over to the Telltale website to redownload the installer!

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. Read 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!).

Do you remember all your swordfighting insults? You might need them

Great news out of Telltale Games today, who’ve announced that the second episode of Tales of Monkey Island, “The Siege of Spinner Cay”, will be available for download on the 20th of August.

Apparently the decision was reached after completing work on the Wallace and Gromit series, and several letters with “disarming emoticons and well-intentioned threats” (oh, they got my letter!).

If you haven’t had a chance to avail yourself of the new series, you should really check out the website.  Until then, for everyone like me who bought the series, it’s just a matter of waiting out the thirteen days.

You can also check out our review of the first episode, “Launch Of The Screaming Narwhal”, just in case you missed it!

Details on the next episode are a hard to find, but Telltale have also posted up a brilliant little flash movie made by one of their fans, Majus, with a few ideas of just what might happen.  I had a hearty chuckle, and it’s a nice piece of animation, so I suggest taking a look.

They didn't even lose the spirit of the original box art

LucasArts have been in overdrive lately attempting to get an adventure genre revival happening.  It’s a much loved genre that has been sadly missed during it’s long, though some may say necessary, absence.  But now, with the re-release of so many LucasArts classics like Loom and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis on Steam, furthered by the old IPs getting new life from the crew over at Telltale, you could say that adventure is really re-emerging on the gaming market.

No better time then to make everyone nostalgia as hard as they can with the re-release of what most people would agree was the greatest adventure title of all time: The Secret of Monkey Island.

Ron Gilbert’s original masterpiece was truly a milestone in computer entertainment.  A game full of challenge, humour, memorable PC speaker music (now there’s a feat you don’t see often) and just a fantastic experience for gamers everywhere.  I feel a little bit sorry for those people who will be discovering the game for the first time with the release of the Special Edition, simply because they have missed out on discovering this game with the rest of the world.

Read more

Your dialogue here?

Just began downloading my copy of Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition on Xbox Live, looking forward to playing it.

In other Monkey Island news, Telltale Games has begun a contest to get your dialogue in an upcoming episode of Tales of Monkey Island.  All you have to do is write an explanation of how you’ve been wronged by Guybrush Threepwood, and if your line is voted the best, it’ll be passed on to the voice actors for inclusion in a future ToMI episode.

Be sure to get your suggestion in!  I’ll drop a review of Special Edition after I’ve had a play.

Guybrush approves of your online purchase

“Ballsy” is a word that could be used when announcing to the world that you’re making a new sequel for one of the gaming community’s all time favourite games.  “Smart buisness sense” is also an applicable phrase.  Whichever way you look at it, the amount of excitement that has surrounded this title since it’s announcement has been palpable, and the game itself hasn’t disappointed.

In Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, players take control of Guybrush Threepwood once again.  It’s nice to see that not that much has changed.  We join Guybrush as he catches up to the dread pirate LeChuck, who has kidnapped Elaine and plans to sacrifice thirteen monkeys in a voodoo ritual.  After some voodoo that you do (that you do do so well), the boat explodes and sends Guybrush drifting alone to Flotsam Island.  Flotsam Island’s peculiar weather means that the wind is always blowing toward the centre of the island, meaning that no-one can sail away.  In Launch of the Screaming Narwhal you have to work out a way to get off the island.

Oh, and you’ll also discover that due to a little voodoo mis-cue, your hand is now possessed by the Pox of LeChuck, and has a mind of it’s own. Read more

So admit it, you're singing the theme music out loud to yourself

The wife woke me up this morning to give me this news, and it was worth the interruption of my slumber.  Two bits of news, in fact:

1. They’re remaking The Secret of Monkey Island
2. They’re creating NEW Monkey Island episodes

I can’t actually remember the last NEW adventure game I played, it was probably one of the “use random impractical solution 87″ Gabriel Knight series.  Never-the-less, adventure games were one of those genres that never seemed to make it past the early 90’s.  I think in the new millenium the only genre releases of note would be the new episodes of the brilliant Sam and Max series (which I’m yet to play, scolding reminder to self).

I’m happy to see that the genre hasn’t been forgotten, because for a long time it was the bastion of good writing in games.  Action games stuck to their guns and explosions, racing games to wheel-spin and big jumps, and adventure had the storylines and the jokes.  These days, of course, a game can’t (or sometimes really shouldn’t) leave the studio without having some epic nine-part storyline, take Cooking Mama 6: Death Throes of Time for example (coming this fall!).  But in the massive effort to cover every single base, a lot of games can actually miss the mark completely.

So it’s good to see that adventure hasn’t completely disappeared off the developer’s repetoire, because more often than not it’s the best genre to mix storyline, puzzles and humour.

What’s also nice to see is that the remake of The Secret of Monkey Island is stay true to it’s roots.  The updated version features handpainted backgrounds, full voice acting and a simplified menu/inventory system for those playing along on the consoles.  What sold it for me, however, is that with a push of a button you can revert the game back to it’s original state, in all it’s 8-bit pixelled glory.  It’s a nostagic touch, and a welcome one at that for those of us who grew up with the game.  You can see the trailer and promo video here.

So I’ll be buying the remake, because I know it’s a quality game and well worth playing through again.  As far as the new episodes go, well, those I might wait on the reviews for, but I’m certain they’re in good hands given that it’s under production by the original creators.