The venerable Adventure Gamers is counting down the top 100 adventure games of all time. They did, of course, do a top 20 way back when, and quite "controversial" it was (or "wrong" as most would say, seeing how it didn't include LeChuck's Revenge), but that was then and now is now and now they're doing a top 100.
Keep checking it out over the next few days to see who'll be the winner. The Dig has already hit #92.
CLONE2727 UPDATE: They've finished the list and apparently King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow is better than The Secret of Monkey Island and Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers now. Forget December 2012, this is the real apocalypse! Of course our buddy Tim still grabbed the top spot anyway.
2011 is almost over. How about that? Therefore we have posted our annual end of year article. Inane whining, poll results, Back to the Future-bashing, it's all in there.
Hell, don't read this, read that! It's good for you or something.
Looking for an inconvenient and expensive way to occupy your time next March, but your normally stratospheric excitement level for the Game Developers Conference hasn't quite hit critical mass yet? The ante may have just been upped now that Double Fine's Nathan Martz is scheduled to give a lecture at next year's GDC called "Fun for Everyone: Lessons in Accessible Design from Sesame Street: Once Upon A Monster."
Looking back on the studio's recent Kinect-based children's game, Martz will explore how to best introduce mechanics and teach players about a game, even if it's the first one they've ever played.
There is currently no word on how Jason intends to elegantly conclude this news post.
Hello everyone! Hope you all had a pleasant Christmas/Kwanzaa. To celebrate the festive period, and the forthcoming New Year, the Cookchase Gang flew to Lapland to record a Christmassy podcast! Listen to it below. Here are the highlights:
Dan excuses himself from podcasting duties to attend the Winter Solstice celebrations.
Gabriel introduces Nojan (who is from IRAN) to the idea of Christmas, and we pop a few crackers. We discuss the situation in Iran in a political discussion that lasts 0.4 seconds.
We talk about the most exciting stories of the year, and what we hope for next year. This includes the future of LucasArts.
And of course we mention
Jeepgate (how could we resist?) and revisit our regular subject, Paul Franzen.
Listen below, or go to our to download a higher quality copy. Listen to previous episodes here. Subscribe in iTunes here. Thanks to Roger 'Zaarin' Roger for editing and producing.
But no, seriously, it doesn't look too bad, actually. Check out TTG's write-up, and learn that it's hitting iOS first -- as an universal app, which is nice -- before making its way to PC and Mac.
Have you still not sent all your Christmas cards because you're looking for that perfect Monkey Island one? Look no more! Redbeard1973 over on the Monkey Island forums has redone Jake's old Monkey Island Christmas card in a higher resolution. Have a look.
To grab the high-res version, right-click the thumb and click "Save linked content" or your browser equivalent.
Though LucasArts did not develop the massively expensive online RPG and even relinquished publishing duties to EA/Bioware, Lucasfilm will be skimming 35% off the top after the game breaks even (a cut that Paulie from Goodfellas was quoted as calling "downright avaricious") as part of the licensing deal.
With the revenue they will derive from their rather envious "Do Absolutely Nothing But Manage To Fill The Coffers To Surfeit Anyway" business model, it goes without saying that the executives of the San Francisco based entertainment company will see fit to invest a little bit of that mailbox money in new and exciting interactive properties.
In his acceptance video for X-Play's Best Downloadable Game Award (Double Fine was nominated for both Stacking and Iron Brigade, with the former taking home the gold), Tim reveals that Stacking is coming to PC. No word on a release date, but surely Tim describing the PC version as a "seductive idea" while speaking for a doll is enough to hold you over until that information comes to light.
Now they just need to port Iron Brigade to PC so that I can play it. I reckon there will be a little bit of a struggle in putting Once Upon a Monster on Steam, though.
You may recall that a novelization of Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings penned by Rob MacGregor, author of seven previous Indy books, was supposed to accompany the game's release but was bizarrely cancelled despite having been long completed. In a blog post, MacGregor recalls the incident in detail.
Basically, the publisher (Del Rey) had set the release of the novel to coincide with the release date for the game that was slated at the time, but when LucasArts changed the release schedule for Staff of Kings to the tune of a year long delay in a harbinger of the whole We're Abandoning The Internal Version To Focus On Force Unleashed fiasco, they did not let Del Ray know. Despite MacGregor's attempts to communicate this development with his editor, the game came out with no book. Rather than release the book even slightly belatedly, it was decided that it wasn't worth releasing it at all (?!). At one point, Howard Roffman (Lucas Licensing exec and interim LEC president) told an inquiring fan the point-blank falsehood that the reason for the novel's mysterious absence was that MacGregor had "missed the deadline," despite the fact that the manuscript had been submitted an entire year before the game came out.
It's completely ridiculous and a little heartbreaking to think that a completed Indiana Jones novel will not see the light of day simply due to a communication failure and boneheaded business decision. I think I know what MacGuffin Indy should be searching for in the fifth movie. For his part, MacGregor seems more flummoxed than pissed off, noting that he was "paid quite well" for the adaptation, but the publisher lost money and us Indy fans are left to cry.
Think you can hold in the tears? MacGregor has this image of the novel's cover to help get you going:
Guest reviewer Max finally managed to get his iPad back from his pet edmontonia so he could finish his review of Jurassic Park: The Game Episode 1 for us!
Yesterday, EA announced that anyone who has pre-ordered Star Wars: The Old Republic gets in early. In keeping with the spirit of the border-destroying internet that lives on in this MMO, different regions get different activation times: North Americans, you can start playing on December 13th. Those of you who pre-ordered in Europe get in on December 15th. Pre-orders also get you a whole month of "free" playtime ("free" apart from buying the thing, obviously), after which a monthly subscription is required. The game goes on sale on December 20th.
Games-industry favourite Bobby Kotick gives his much-wanted opinion on the financial odds and ends of The Old Republichere. His objectivity on the issue allows him to provide some searing insights. I'm just glad Reuters quoted the one man in the industry who doesn't make money off of World of Warcraft, and who has nothing to lose should The Old Republic - supposedly the most expensive game ever made - should succeed in the highly-competitive, but notoriously exclusive world of MMOs.
Jurassic Park: The Game is spreading to European retail next year for Xbox 360 and Windows, courtesy of Kalypso Media:
Kalypso Media Group, a global apublisher of award-winning PC and console games, today announced an agreement with Telltale Games,the leading independent digital publisher and developer of episodic interactive entertainment, to distribute retail versions of Jurassic Park : The Game across European and many export territories such as Australia, South Africa and Far East Asia. Developed through a publishing agreement with Universal Partnerships & Licensing, Telltale's new game based on Jurassic Park will be available for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PC in Q1 2012.
The approving cries from Far East Asia are particularly deafening.
Ever wondered what the first post of 2003 was about but was too afraid to ask? Now you can see for yourself! Who posted that Bill Tiller left LEC? Now you can find out!
These and more nuggets of gold can be found in our relaunched news archive! There are a few months gone here and there, but what is Mojo without the downtime, eh? There's a second link to it at the bottom of the page, for those adventurous souls that scroll all the way.
In other news, clicking the category icons will finally show you news posts in that category again. It's like 2009!
