The last of Double Fine's four "Amnesia Fortnight" games, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, is out. It's been out for for four days, actually, as Jason notes in this other news-post about Costume Quest hitting the PC.
What the hey? Did Costume Quest, Double Fine's formerly console-exclusive RPG gem, suddenly become available on Steam out of nowhere as some sort of Halloween surprise? It sure seems that way! Grubbins on Ice comes included, and so terminates the complaints that the game isn't on PC. Go buy now and show why your voice was worth listening to!
In other Double Fines news, Once Upon a Monster was released earlier this week, and we totally forgot to mention it. Anyone play it?
Source: Steam
As noted by Benny on the forums, some enterprising fellow has adapted the recent Psychonauts Steam update into a patch for all other PC versions of the games (meaning retail and digital versions from non-Steam vendors) so that we too may enjoy the enhancements.
Download the patch, which may or may not blow up your computer, here.
Source: GOG Forums
So, what has Ronzo "Ron" Gilbert been up to since he hooked up with Double Fine? Apparently he has co-create the "Psychonauts Vault Viewer!" for iOS, together with Lee Petty.
This is exactly what it says it is: It's a vault viewer running either on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. Which is, you know, really quite awesome, particularly since it features commentary from Scott Campbell and Tim Schafer.
And as it's free you're still only out $75!
Double Fine: All about Apple! (Jason: All about posting about this in the comments as he's too lazy to create a news post!)
Speaking of Double Fine, they've just introduced the "Brutal Legend Bundle Pack of Brütality" to their shop. For a mere $65 you get:
• A copy of the game in either Xbox 360 or Playstaion 3 platform
• The strategy guide
• The Brutal Legend 3/4 Raglan Tee
• Never before released promotional record
• 3 differnt Brutal Legend stickers
• 5 different Brutal Legend notecards
• Brutal Legend Onsie
• Mini-poster signed by Tim!
• Brutal Legend Zippo Lighter
Add the $10 you just spent on Psychonauts for the Mac and you're only $75 down!
Hey, what do you know? Europeans will be allowed to play Trenched too. Sort of. It'll be called Iron Brigade but should otherwise remain identical. Look for it "this September".
What do we think about it? It probably depends on who you ask, but read the Mojo review all the same.
And finally, we ask, in our new poll, Which of Double Fine's Amnesia Fortnight games is your favorite? It's just a Double Fine day today!
As for where you'd rather live...
| Where would you like to live? | ||
|---|---|---|
| Rubacava. Kill me now! | 13 | |
| America, Sam and Max style! | 11 | |
| I need my rest. Puerto Pollo it is. | 8 | |
| Scabb, where a pirate can be a pirate. | 7 | |
| The island of the Weavers in Loom. | 2 | |
| Other (leave a comment) | 2 | |
| Wherever Full Throttle is set looks like fun. | 1 | |
| Inside people's minds. | 1 | |
| Cocytus, the planet in The Dig, looked good to me! | 0 | |
| The mansion in Maniac Mansion. | 0 | |
| Total votes | 45 | |
This week's selection is sort of a sequel to last week's: Tim Schafer's second appearance on Gamespot's web show "On the Spot" in March 2005, only a month and some change after the previous appearance and sans beard. With the imminent release of Psychonauts even more imminent, the hosts interrogate Tim about the game, Tim betrays murderous intentions for anyone who would dare to make a Full Throttle sequel, and footage of Tim's dad from the Psychonauts launch party is unspooled.
Note that this is the Edited for Mojo version of the episode, meaning we lopped off the parts that didn't have Tim in it,
This week's selection is another beefy one: Tim Schafer's first appearance on the web show "On the Spot" in February 2005. Observing that the studio where Gamespot taped the show was "really close to where I get my coffee," Tim dropped by unannounced and armed with a demo of Psychonauts. His beard was still in play at this point.
Note that this is the Edited for Mojo version of the episode, meaning we lopped off the parts that didn't have Tim in it, and also all the hardcore sex scenes. Boy, did we have our work cut out for us in deleting those.
That's the Spanish board game called 'Trench', which is a trademark. According to Eurogamer that trademark covers both board games and video games in Europe. Consequently unless Microsoft either finds a way around the trademark, retitles the game, or points out "look they're completely separate words, you wouldn't ban Nancy Drew: The Mystery of the Clue Bender Society because it has the word 'Clue' in it would you?" the game will remain unreleased.
I just want to play a tower assault game with mechanized trenches against a race of vicious TV monsters in a World War One scenario, is that so much to ask??
Source: Eurogamer
So even though we acknowledged the release of Double Fine's latest game purely by pointing out its delay in European territories, the fact is that Trenched has been out since Tuesday for at least one subset of the populace. They are quite grateful, or at least that's the conclusion I've arrived at after viewing the influx of positive reviews.
Those who, like me, are waiting for an Xbox to drop from the sky can still pass the time by checking out Tim's Twitter. Where else would I have learned about such things as the Trenched newsletter, the photographic proof of the team's launch day revelries, and the E3 Game Critics nominations that Double Fine has earned?
Double Fine's latest exciting-looking digital title, mech/tower assault game Trenched, was supposed to come out in Europe today but has been delayed.
A Microsoft spokesperson told Eurogamer: "Distribution of Trenched in select European regions will be slightly delayed. We're working to resolve the matter as soon as possible."
However, on Twitter Daniel Maher of Xbox UK said: "Official line on Trenched's delay is, 'Unexpected challenges with distribution in some European regions.' Shouldn't take long!"
"Challenges with distribution"? What, has the Big Red Release Button got some dirt stuck underneath it? I didn't realise non-physical items could be distributed.
Probably the Vile Hun's fault.
Source: Eurogamer (via Twitter)
Here's a story I'm surprised to see Gamasutra pick up on - the publishing rights to Psychonauts have reverted from Majesco to Double Fine. Since Double Fine always owned the IP itself, all this really means is that the studio will eventually be able to reap the full financial benefit from all future sales of the game. Nonetheless, Tim said this:
"It’s true the publishing rights have reverted to Double Fine, but there are some more deals that need to be worked out and contracts that need signing before that actually means anything, financially. After that’s all squared away, we will have some fun stuff to announce! (And no, it’s not Psychonauts 2.)"
There's really very little Tim can be referring to here other than a re-release of some sort. Since the game's already available from Steam, XBLA, and other digital outlets, are we looking at Psychonauts Kinect, Psychonauts Wii, or perhaps some sort of deluxe edition that actually includes a place to find rebrained Benny? We'll know as soon as the necessary dotted lines are stained, I guess.
Source: Gamasutra
Enough about the Star Wars Kinect game that Craig Derrick's producing just to confuse the management while secretly advancing that lofty goal of rejuvenating adventure games...let's talk about Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, the Double Fine Kinect game headed by Nathan Martz. There was a demo on display at E3 and a bit more info on how the game is going to play.
Like any other E3 story, a write-up can be found on like 500 game sites, but let's go with VentureBeat since they did a video interview with Nathan Martz and Tim that you can watch. And below from Youtube is the live presentation of the demo by guided by Schafer and co-played by some kid followed by a new trailer featuring gameplay:
Source: VentureBEat
(Thanks to SurplusGamer for this new update.)
Are you looking forward to Double Fine's Trenched? The always-lovely folks at Giant Bomb sat down with Double Fine's Brad Muir and did a Quick Look video of the game, showing off a full 45 minutes of gameplay and a dozen or so reasons to buy it.
Trenched, for those of you who don't know, is a tower defense by-way of third person shooter game about the brave soldiers of World War I, those young, forgotten souls who fought for liberty and freedom with nothing more than their wits and mecha tanks. The game comes to XBLA on June 22nd. Here's the same 45 minutes of reasons you should buy the game.
Source: GiantBomb
I'll cut the suspense: despite what the headline may or may not have indicated, Tim Schafer - Grim Fandango creator and Mojo BFF - has not joined Telltale Games. This news story is about Tim Schafer wanting to tell you a tale, one presented by a floating mouse cursor (see the video) and narrated by Timothy himself. It centers on a strappin' feller with a strange haircut making his way through the cesspool collectively known as "the games industry". You ought to check it out.
I should probably mention that the original name for the first Monkey Island game gets revealed. Ya know. Just in case you needed another reason to click.
Source: Gamespot
Source: Bitmob
Adventure Gamers reports that the first DLC for Double Fine's Stacking is now out and about. The expansion is called The Lost Hobo King, and here's the synopsis:
In The Lost Hobo King, Charlie travels to the kingdom of Camelfoot to help his hobo friend Levi with an important family matter. Levi’s uncle Rufus, heir to the throne, may only take his rightful place if the lost crown can be found. To recover the fragmented crown, Charlie must use his unique talents to overcome several tests of valor left by the ancient hobo mystics. It is only then that the ancient crown can be re-forged, Rufus crowned, and the fractured hobo people united under one sardine can.
The Lost Hobo King of course features the same gameplay you're familiar with, and offers one new level (with a new, self-contained narrative) along with fifteen new dolls. The percentage of new content in relation to the original game seems pretty comparable to Grubbin's on Ice and Costume Quest, with a price that reflects. You can get it on XBLA and PSN right this moment for $4.99.
Source: Adventure Gamers
