Telltale has lived up to their promise of a June release for their first "pilot" game, Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent, which is now available for PC and Mac. Folks who pre-ordered should have their email by now, and while waiting for your download to complete you can check out the corresponding blog entry where Telltale has rounded up some additional reviews so we don't have to.
The WiiWare, iPad and iPhone versions of the game will be released in the near future.
Source: Telltale
Today is evidently the day that the review embargo for Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent is lifted, as a number of reviews have been popping up all over the 'net (a popular shorthand for "internet"). Here's a few write-ups; the consensus, as you might expect for a Telltale title, is predominantly positive:
As usual, we'll try to do a half-hearted job at updating this list as the day goes on. Stay tuned for the all-important Mojo review, or you can just skip reading reviews altogether and get your own damned opinion. It's not like you didn't buy the game already.
Yesterday, Universal Home Video issued a press release announcing the 25th anniversary release of the Back to the Future trilogy on Blu-ray and DVD. The content of this new set is, as you might expect, absurdly voluminous, and looks to include everything from the 2002 DVDs plus brand new bonus material, such as glimpses of the infamous Eric Stoltz footage from the first movie. The release date for this bad boy is October 26th. This is certainly an occasion for Back to the Future fans (which last I checked includes: everyone) to be stoked. See the full specs here, at BTTF.com.
So that's awesome and all, but what does it have to do with Mojo? Well, if Universal is preparing to launch a gigantic Back to the Future re-release on October 26th, it isn't the biggest leap to assume that somewhere around that time is when Telltale's games will start rolling out. Or maybe my speculation makes about as much sense as a screen door on a battleship.
Source: BTTF.com
If you still have a number of Telltale Games to play, and you don't mind them being linked to your Steam Account rather than your Telltale Games one, Steam have a sale on right now with the 'Telltale Everything*' bundle at just $49.99.
It usually costs $99.99. If you bought all the games individually, they would cost you $236.83.
Update: Thanks to tipoffs in the discussion thread below, other deals of interest to Mojoers include Mata Hari ($4.99), Insecticide Part 1 ($4.99), and CSI: Hard Evidence ($6.69).
Source: Telltale Forums
Yes, apparently Telltale has launched a new viral marketing campaign for its upcoming horror/puzzle-solving adventure Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent, due out later this month.
Check out www.whoarethehiddenpeople.com to see it in action. Spoooooky!
Also, an article on Fidgit claims that, according to Telltale, more information about Puzzle Agent will be released this coming Friday.
You may officially begin speculating on the release date now.
Source: Telltale's Twitter
This is kind of late, but here it is: Mixnmojo's review of the third episode of the third season of Sam and Max: "They Stole Max's Brain!"
Is it as good as episodes one and two? Better? Worse?
There was a lot to say about this episode, but to cut a long story short I thought it was really good, somewhat flawed, and worth the long review I gave it. If you're willing to read that review - keeping in mind it has spoilers so major they do things a rotten apple could never dream of, as it was written for people who've already finished the game - click on the "Read More" link below.
Internet personality James Rolfe, best known as the foul-mouthed Angry Video Nerd, the host of the long-running web series of the same name (check out an episode where he takes on some old Indiana Jones games), went to E3 and had a less than gainful interview with Telltale Design Director and graphic adventure legend Dave Grossman about the Universal licenses. Even though Rolfe is clearly in on the joke, it's still pretty amusing.
Source: ScrewAttack
When I heard the astonishing news that Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse episode 3, They Stole Max's Brain!, was available to play on Mac and PC, I couldn't believe my ears. I had to make certain.
"Well? Is it out yet? Talk, or I'll pump you so full of lead that you could serve as an X-ray apron in a dentist's office!" I yelled at a specimen of the local human refuse, punctuating my point with a few well-timed open-hand slaps.
The poor sap was so afraid of me he spontaneously developed a stutter. He also sang better than a trained canary. "I-i-it's out! R-r-r-right n-now, in fact! J-just visit T-t-t-Telltale's website, w-w-w-where you can get it! F-f-for Mac and PC! J-just p-p-please don't hurt me!"
I let him be after that. I had more important cases to solve, after all. Like finding a missing lagomorph brain.
And if that weren't true and I was just hanging noodles over your ears, you'd hardly be able to click this.
Source: Adventure Gamers
Twitter is a place where you can stalk people you don't know and sometimes ask them questions. Take, for example, the following interview with Sean Vanaman, writer, designer, and bearded wonder at Telltale Games:
jaybyron: can you hook us up with any cool art or info from the
Back to the Future or Jurassic Park Telltale games? Can't wait for
them!
seanovanaman: not a whole lot to share yet - i'm actually just doing
design/story support on them right now.
jaybyron: you know I'm a huge fan if I got one of these!
seanovanaman: hahaha, awesome! we have some crazy fans at ttg. cinematic
artist dennis built a hoverboard for a marty costume
jaybyron: awesome! I'm begging you to go and play Day of the
Tentacle for an example of a great time travel adventure game!
jaybyron: and also, Telltale MUST GET the Maniac Mansion license
from Lucasarts! That would be so cool to revisit that story again.
seanovanaman: i'm a BIG DOTT fan. i would do a game with bernard and
hoagie in a heartbeat.
IGN may not have paid attention when talking to Telltale about their future titles, but it seems that may be because its reporters were too busy staring at the demo of Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent. The editors at IGN have revealed their picks for the site's annual Best of E3 awards, and it looks like Puzzle Agent got the nod for Best iPhone Game. Take that, Sonic the Hedgehog!
Only just listened to it now, but last week's PC Gamer US Podcast had an interview with Dave Grossman regarding Back To The Future, Jurassic Park, Puzzle Agent, Sam & Max: They Stole Max's Brain, and Monkey Island 2: Special Edition. Phew! That's all kinds of aceness right there.
Also, we get the answer to the question on everyone's mind: will we get to see dinosaurs on hoverboards?
Edit by ATMachine: Unfortunately, the site that the podcast is hosted on contains some rather nasty malware. I've removed the link so that unwary Mojo readers won't fall victim.
So if you want to listen to Dave Grossman talking about Telltale's future games, while simultaneously having your PC infected and crippled by a virus, you'll have to do it without any help from us.
Update: Oops, sorry about that. They've now changed sites, so you can find the podcast Malware-free at the new PCGamer.com.
Yesterday, IGN posted a quick skim-through of an interview they did with Telltale Games CTO and co-founder Kevin Bruner, in which he clarified something about the upcoming Back to the Future and Jurassic Park games: they are pilot episodes. This means that the possibility of more episodes being made is directly proportional to how much money you give Telltale interested you are in either series.
(BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: Proving the wisdom of Kroms' aspersions cast on Levi Buchanan's journalistic skills, Telltale designer Sean Vanaman has informed us (and the world) via Twitter that Jurassic Park and Back to the Future will NOT be part of Telltale's Pilot Program, but instead full-length Sam and Max-style episodic seasons.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled news post...)
Interestingly, the preview mentions that "[Telltale] recognize that shoehorning [the games] into an established point-and-clicker was the wrong way to go – but that's also one reason they wanted at them." This sentence could mean one of three things: that Telltale tried and failed at making the games traditional point-n-clickers, and are thus switching genres (possible); that Telltale tried working Jurassic Park or Back to the Future into something already "established" like Sam and Max (wishful); or that IGN scribe Levi Buchanan's grammar is worse than a Babelfish translation of Romance of the Three Kingdoms (probable), and what he means to say is that Telltale decided to pick-up the franchises because they were likely to not work as point-n-clickers/draggers, and would thus open-up new gameplay channels for Telltale.
Read more grammatical nuggets, or about Levi's hope to be called a "butthead" by the Biff Tannen, by clicking here.
Source: IGN
The episode hits PC, Mac and the PSN on June 22nd. And a reminder: today is the day that Tales of Monkey Island is available on the PSN.
Source: Telltale
Telltale have just put up some screenshots from the Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent pilot. You should look at them here, but only because we haven't resurrected our galleries from the dead quite yet.
Source: Telltale Site
Just prior to announcing that they're bringing Tales of Monkey Island to the PS3, Telltale issued an earlier press release stating that they would be porting Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures to the iPad - specifically, the second episode, The Last Resort. The episode will cost $4.99, £2.99 or €3.99 depending on what currency corresponds to your territory.
It is unclear if the remaining games in the four episode season will follow, although judging by the fact that The Last Resort is leading the way on both the iPad platform and the German retail market, it must have been the most successful of the pack.
Source: Telltale
