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Insects, on the other hand, can apparently be killed quite easily (Update: Mike and Larry comment) 18 Feb, 2009, 23:45 / 16 comments


Reader diduz, who like many of us has been wondering about the status of the super-delayed second episode of the PC version of Insecticide, decided to send an e-mail to Crackpot for some answers.
Baaaaaaaaaaaaad news, guys.
I've sent an e-mail to Crackpot Entertainment and Mike Levine told me Insecticide PC has been cancelled by Southpeak.
They're angry.
I am too.
I guess this isn't very surprising, but it's certainly depressing. (Southpeak, for those who don't remember, bought out Gamecock several months back.) This, of course, totally sucks, because even though the full game does exist in DS form, the proper PC version was clearly the one to have, since it included all the cutscenes, full voice acting, and for obvious reasons looked a good deal better than its handheld counterpart. Although the first half of the "Bisodic" game was released last summer, the promised second part never showed up. There was some hope that a retail version of the whole game would be coming out, but alas.

Keep your fingers crossed that Part 2 isn't dead for good. With a game that's presumably finished or close to it, maybe Mike and Larry can find somebody willing to put it out. I sure hope so, because Insecticide is a nice little story game with a great visual style, and more people really ought to play it.

Update: Mike Levine and Larry Ahern have commented on the situation below, saying "Never say never about finding a new publisher," but that in the meantime they intend to put the FMV cutscenes from the second episode (obviously spoiler-ridden) on Youtube in an attempt to complete the story as best they can in lieu of the actual game.

Mike also wants to direct your attention to Planet Cazmo, a Pileated Pictures web-based game project that involves some ex-LEC guys and apparently has some graphic adventure elements to it.
16

16 Comments

  • YTtheMighty on 20 Feb, 2009, 18:52…
    http://www.gametap.com/play/gameDetails/000620950
    Gametap saves the day again. Or at least it seems that way...
  • YTtheMighty on 20 Feb, 2009, 19:01…
    hopefully they will want to pick up part 2...
  • Udvarnoky on 20 Feb, 2009, 21:58…
    That's old news, and Gametap wasn't publishing the game, they were simply a distributor like Steam and direct2drive. There's no evidence that they're here to save Part 2 unfortunately.
  • larryahern on 18 Feb, 2009, 19:53…
    It's legally...complicated. Never say never about finding a new publisher, but we wanted to post the rest of the PC version of the storyline in the meantime for those that have been waiting so long.

    We're still looking at the FMVs to see if they even make sense out of context of the game. And, we'll label the material as spoilers, in case you see it and would rather wait for this to get sorted out.
  • hierohero on 20 Feb, 2009, 06:32…
    I had such high hopes for this.. and I was actually waiting for both parts to be available to download. Sad news.
  • Diduz on 19 Feb, 2009, 10:58…
    Hi, guys!
    Why don't you try with European publishers?
  • Ascovel on 18 Feb, 2009, 23:22…
    It's great that there's still some hope. I was afraid you were blocked by the legal stuff altogether.
  • Mike Levine on 18 Feb, 2009, 12:01…
    check out:
    www.youtube.com/InsecticideCrackpot

    We will post Ep2 movies here soon!
    Also, if you are still a kid at heart, check out PLANETCAZMO.COM.
    Many Ex-Lucas people are working on it and there IS adventure game like quests in there ... if you look around!
    --Mike
  • Ascovel on 18 Feb, 2009, 14:12…
    Good that at least the majority of the remaining storyline will be possible to see.

    Are there any chances left for a new publisher?
  • Shmargin on 17 Feb, 2009, 19:28…
    I guess I'm a jerk, because I got the first episode of Insecticide and thought it was horrible.

    A below average clunky shooter with outdated graphics, and no memorable gameplay moments.
  • WorldMaker on 16 Feb, 2009, 18:39…
    I feel a little bit worse for waiting for the second part to appear before buying the first part. But only a little.
  • Scummbuddy on 16 Feb, 2009, 20:49…
    I was waiting for the second part to get both at once, or a retail version.
  • neon_git on 17 Feb, 2009, 13:26…
    Me too :(

    I feel a bit guilty now.
  • Kroms on 16 Feb, 2009, 17:08…
    Don't you really just need a bunch of programmers to port it? Then release on Steam.
  • Ascovel on 16 Feb, 2009, 16:57…
    Damn... and I liked the first part so much.

    If its only a question of finding a publisher for a finished product, then I'm still hopeful Crackpot will manage to cook something up.
  • Capn_Nacho on 16 Feb, 2009, 16:33…
    God damn it. Maybe there's still hope for the retail version I was waiting for, but this is really dreadful news.

    Sorry to all the guys at Crackpot-- really hope things work out for you there. Already bought your DS version!