The International House of Mojo

Netflix is setting itself up as a gaming platform of sorts. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details myself, but one of the launch titles will be Minecraft: Story Mode -- indubitably a Mojo reader favorite -- and it sounds . . . Well, I never played the original, but anything that's "delivered via video files and will accept commands via any remote equipped with directional and select buttons" seems suspiciously close to the Dragon's Lairs of yore. The game will be released later this year.

Additionally, Telltale is working on a Stranger Things game which is what it is, I suppose.

Source: The Verge

Telltale announced on their website that, due to the "fundamental changes" (likely referring to the restructuring after a round of layoffs that happened due to a toxic environment that cultivated in the studio after the surprise success of the first season of The Walking Dead), The Wolf Among Us Season Two has been delayed until 2019.

They've stated that the reason for the delay is because they are "committed to exploring new ways to tell our stories. Taking this extra time will allow [them] not only to focus on quality but also to experiment and iterate in order to craft something truly special".

If this means that the gameplay will be significantly different than the cut-and-paste style gameplay that's been in Telltale's games since The Walking Dead, then the delay is certainly most welcome.

Most of us here at Mojo are fans of Telltale's formative years. Those years were interesting to follow, especially the amusing posts by their first blogmaster, Brandon Q. Furguson, the creator of gems of blogging such as Blades of Stenchtar and Blades of Stenchtar II, and his parting wisdom in Blades of Stenchtar III.

He also created a homepage, as his alter-ego, Ted "Theodore" Dudebrough, co-star of Telltale's first game, which provided an amusing peek into the mind of his character, complete with all of the humorously bad page design decisions so common in personal pages of the early internet.

I noticed that the original website, dudebrough.com, was available to purchase so I scooped it up and brought it back in all of its original splendor.

I'd like to give a special thanks to Telltale's community media manager, Caroline Liddick, who gave me permission to bring back this site through the archival efforts of my WE Computers Museum.

She's also graciously given me permission to bring back other gems from Telltale's early years, which should be returning sometime this summer.

Also, Jake is named one of Telltale’s heroes, which pretty much means this article is a celebration of Mojo. As well as a damning slap in the face of Telltale’s leadership. Kevin Bruner does not come away from it unscathed.

Look, we don’t need to repeat ourselves -- we’ve talked about Telltale losing its way for a while now, enough times I won’t even bother linking to any of it. That the company bleeds talent is well-known. I don’t think anyone from Mojo is left, and if somebody from Mojo gets fed up by a company, you know things are bad. Conversely, Andrew "Telarium" Langley is quoted in the article.

The whole thing is worth a read, even though it glosses over some of the true Telltale classics. Many of us maintain Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse was the company’s pinnacle. I’m currently replaying Tales of Monkey Island as part of a soon to be released Mojo feature. It’s excellent. The game. Probably not the feature.

Oh, and if you wonder who came up with “[X] will remember that”, give Bruner a thank-you.

Source: The Verge

You know, it’s been quiet on the news-front lately. Therefore, just for fun, have some minor, inconsequential news. A Batman: The Enemy Within trailer!

The "epic finale" (their words, not mine) will hit your favorite device on March 27th.

There's not too much to say at this point. If you've liked the previous episodes, you'll like this, and if you haven't... Well, you know. Read the short review if you so will, though!

Looking for a long interview with Bay Area Sound, the production company behind the sound of games like Firewatch and every Telltale game ever? Alternative Magazine Online has you covered with their conversation with the outfit. Firefox's Reader View has it clocked in at between "38-49 minutes", so yeah. Make sure you got some time.

Source: Alternative Magazine Online

Chances are you have a PS Plus subscription if you own a PS4, and thus you will be able to download the much-maligned first season of Batman for free this January. Hey, it might be worth a look at that price? Feel free to read our review if you need more info.

Conversely, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (which I wholeheartedly recommend) and Uncanny Valley (which looks interesting) round out the offering. So yeah, might not be much time to play Batman.

Hey, why not publish a review on time? Just don't get used to it. Run and read the write-up on The Walking Dead Collection and then go on with your day, safe in the knowledge that Mojo loves you.

(Read.)

Oi, well, once again I’m liking Batman, this time “Fractured Mask”.

But as these things go, contemplation about Telltale’s future sets in. So, yeah, it all is what it is. Just read the damn review so I feel like I’m doing my (and Jason’s) job, damnit!

In the midst of the truly soul-sucking Telltale layoff situation, some interesting auxiliary stuff is happening.

DC will release a limited time series named on TTG’s Batman seasons. So far the second season has been good, and one could hope DC would focus on that, though maybe they’ll try to salvage the final pieces from the downright awful first season.

We’ll know in February. Writer Chris Gage has a good rap sheet, so this might be a glass half full situation.

Well, we saw this one coming.

Polygon reports 25% -- twenty-five percent -- of Telltale's workforce is being laid off. The reason, according to CEO Pete Hawley who apparently has no qualms emulating LucasArts at its worst, is "the realities of the environment we face moving forward". That is a somewhat familiar sentiment...

We wish those laid-off the best of luck moving forward themselves, and for those who are left... Run!

Source: Benzo

So here's a bizarre one: The PS4 and Xbox One are getting a collection of The Walking Dead featuring all 19 episodes. That in itself isn't strange, of course, nor is the fact they get enhanced graphics. What is strange is how stylistically different the update is. To wit...

... we don't only get a completely overhauled color palette, but also actually altered details like the ceiling light.

Own yet another version of the games on December 5th, for a mere $50-¢1.

Update by Jennifer: Tales from the Borderlands is also free (and DRM-free), for Windows and macOS if you purchase $15 or more worth of games during the GOG.com Halloween Sale.

As long as you have an Xbox One. And wait until November. And have a Gold membership.

Caveats aside, Tales from the Borderlands is underrated and you should play it.

And that's all I got. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

When was the last time we actually reviewed the second episode of a Telltale game? Years ago. Years! But here we are, and we check out the second episode of Batman: The Enemy Within, "The Pact".

Run and read!

So here's one I didn't see coming, probably because I wasn't looking: Dan Connors is following in co-founder Kevin Bruner's footsteps, right out the door from his current CEO seat. Bruner resigned a few months ago, with Connors stepping in to temporarily (as I just learned) fill the position. He will now stay on as an "advisor", much like when he stepped down the last time, in 2015.

The new president and CEO is Pete Hawley, the former GM and a senior VP at Zynga.

What does it all mean? Who knows, but with Zynga's reputation -- their Wikipedia page reads like a crime blotter -- my head isn't exactly spinning with excitement.

Godspeed, Dan!

Update: I assumed you would know we were talking about Telltale here, but as Twitter is ABLAZE pointing out the omission… well, now you know!

Source: IGN

I actually started reading this Eurogamer interview with Telltale's Job Stauffer when it was published. "Started" being the operative word -- how many "laughs" can you take in an article after all?

@fantasticleak16 is clearly a smarter person than I, as (s)he dug up some interesting information toward the end. Asked about doing another Monkey Island or Sam & Max, Stauffer gave a firm no, an explanation...

... before he killed your puppy.

Dumping Monkey Island is not really much of a surprise -- I have no clue what DisneyArts's intentions are with the property -- but I'm surprised Sam & Max is off the table. The property pretty much launched Telltale (with all respect to Texas Hold'em and Bone).

The question now, I suppose, is if anybody else is circling around the Sam & Max property.

Tales from the Borderlands ranks well in my top five TTG games list, and this oral history of it is… Well, it‘s great, and probably something we should be doing, but whatever. Read it over at Campo “Jake used to work here” Santo‘s Quarterly Review, and learn how the game never was a commercial hit, and how Mike Stemmle was involved with an early version of it. And more!

(There are also a few snippets about The Wolf Among Us which are interesting.)

Let's get right to it!

First, Batman: The Enemy Within will be hitting computer and console platforms on August 8th, with iOS and Android to follow "later this year". The first game made Batman v Superman look like a laugh riot, so yeah... (I'll still play it, like the tool I am.)

Meanwhile, the franchise has finally been bled dry: The Walking Dead: The Final Season is scheduled for a 2018 release. Odds of Clementine surviving the season is if TTG's history is anything to go by, slim.

More importantly, The Wolf Among Us's sequel is also slated for 2018. I personally consider the Fables based game to be TTG's second best after Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse so hooray for that.

And, a video:

Telltale’s loss is Ubisoft’s gain, as they poach no less than four high-profile names from the X will remember that-company.

Making a run for it is Pierre Shorette (Tales from the Borderlands), Nick Herman (Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse), Dennis Lenart (The Wolf Among Us and Back to the Future, but we won’t hold that against him), and Adam Sarasohn (I’m not entirely sure who he is). The foursome will apparently be expanding Ubisoft’s “narrative creative pool”, which is good for them, but probably not so good for Telltale.

This also means I now likely do not recognize more than one or two names on Telltale’s roster, but I suppose that’s neither here nor there.

Source: IGN