The International House of Mojo

Okay, so it's time to fill in the news gap with another one of our Whenever-We-Feel-Like-It Indiana Jones 4 updates. Enjoy the following outdated coverage that you could have easily found elsewhere:

First off, the production has recently left Hawaii, which was apparently the setting of the film's opener as well as some out of control action sequences. The tropical state was standing in for South America, as was also the case for the opening sequence of Raider of the Lost Ark. Hmmm. This marks the end of the film's location shooting (which included New Mexico and Connecticut), and the rest of principle photography will take place on sets in LA.

As revealed at the Comic-Con (and leaked everywhere else in the weeks leading up to it), Karen Allen will be reprising her role from Raiders as Indy's old flame, Marion Ravenwood. Expect to see some other Ravenwoods make an appearance too, much to the chagrin of anyone who dislikes Shia LaBeouf or the resurrection of characters previously said to be dead. It is pretty great to see some of these guys together again though.

Finally, as JP mentioned earlier, the official Indiana Jones web site has experienced a complete overhaul to accommodate the influx of news courtesy of the new film, and there's a bunch of stuff there for you to fiddle around with, such as wallpapers and new videos. You can find tons more, spoiler-y information about Indiana Jones 4 floating around the internet, but if you intend to completely ruin the movie for yourself, you're doing it without my help.

Incidentally, Autumn Moon is hiring! Why not be their Lead Programmer?

But the fact that these children were Comic-Con attendees makes it OK, since that's pretty much the kind of thing you'd expect. Telltale wrote all about their world-shaking excursion to this year's convention, including lots of amusing anecdotes and photos, and even a new render and some concept art for Sam & Max: Season 2. Steve Purcell won a much deserved Eisner Award for the Sam & Max web comic, and yes, a human being was convinced to don the giant Sam & Max costume, which ranks only behind this in ill-conceived geek dedication.

In the midst of it all, Telltale somehow managed to honor its scheduled engagement to appear in the Episodic Gaming panel with fellow episodic developer Hot Head Games (Penny Arcade Adventures), which was moderated by Shacknews editor-in-chief and friend of Mojo Chris Remo. You should show off your intelligence by reading this recap of the panel by the folks at TenTonHammer.

Telltale has posted this week's update, it being the fourth and final part of their wicked cool History of Sam & Max feature: "After Darkness Comes the Light."

Be warned that this chapter of the freelance police backstory is the one with all the scary stuff in it, and so may be unsuitable for any who can't face a cancellation laden past. Included are rare details and concept art from the largely mysterious Infinite Machine game, including insight by Chuck Jordan, former team member of that game and currently on the team of Sam & Max: Season 2. And of course, for the real masochist, there's a bit of insider divulging on the more widely mourned Freelance Police.

But those who brave through it will reach a very uplifting conclusion...the duo's unending success in the here and now! When summer was first invented, there's no way anyone could have known that it would lead to this.

Oh, and do yourself a favor and read this little exchange of questions and answers between 1up and Dave Grossman about Season 2. Don't miss it, or else you will!

The speculation turned out to be correct, there is a LEGO Indiana Jones game in the works (as indeed are physical LEGO Indiana Jones sets).

Reported by theforce.net:
Probably the biggest new to come from the Lucasfilm presentation is that we can expect a Lego: Indiana Jones video game in the summer of 2008. Comic-Con fans in attendance were then treated to the first ever glimpse of the trailer for the game.

Considering the LEGO sets will be Nazi-less according to inside info, it will be interesting to see what enemies the game uses in the Raiders & Last Crusade levels. Strange it's only covering the first 3 movies, and not the new one.

New minisite with trailer here

Update by Jason: Just in case this is significant to anybody, the press release for the LEGO game confirms that the, erm, live action Indy game will take place "a year after The Last Crusade." You know, for any of you who were waiting to peg it in the appropriate place on the Indy timeline, or something.

Source: theforce.net

At this weekend's Comic-Con in San Deigo, guests were treated to a live link to the set of Indiana Jones. Due to the magic of the internet, you tube too can view the footage.

Update: The newly redesigned official indianajones.com site has some footage screened at Comic-Con of the IJ4 movie shoot. Lovely to see a portrait of an old face in the first few seconds.

Source: YouTube

Kotaku has a lovely picture of the LucasArts cabinet being displayed at Comic-Con. Possibly holding a copy of every LucasArts / LucasFilm Games game ever made.

I guess if you haven't really got anything new to show at a nerd convention, old (albiet lovely) boxes will probably do the trick. At the least it shows LucasArts know their old IP actually exists. Here's that link again.

Source: Kotaku

This past January Gamasutra held a huge and wonderful interview with former LucasArts artist Mike Ebert that you should really check out. Ebert did art work on such graphic adventures as the NES version of Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. But he is best known as the project leader of Zombies Ate My Neighbors, the extremely fun top-down co-op game for SNES and Genesis.

Among the article's wealth of previously unknown tidbits and general goodness is that Ebert and fellow LucasArts employee Kalani Streicher were on the team of the Loom sequel before its cancellation. Who knew?! Also, apparently one of Zombies' bonus levels features Steve Purcell dressed up as Indy. I really need to look for that.

?I don?t think we were actually supposed to put George Lucas in the game,? muses Ebert, ?but we did, and just didn?t tell anyone. It was so easy to make levels for Z.A.M.N. that one day for fun, I just made the floor plan of our offices. The credit level then grew out of that. Originally it was a little more gory, but Nintendo didn?t like severed heads in the game.?

?In the end the design worked very pretty well,? Ebert says. ?We managed to get just about everything into that game that we could squeeze onto the cartridge. Looking back I wish we hadn?t hidden the flamethrower so well. Most people don?t even know there is one in the game. I wish we had more focus testing on the product too. Most of all I wish Lucasfilm had published the game themselves. The publishing deal Lucas had with Konami earned us very little royalties.?

The game was released on SNES and Genesis in 1993 to rave reviews. ?I think it?s the best reviewed game I?ve ever worked on,? Ebert notes. ?The project went so smoothly we were green lighted for Metal Warriors almost immediately. I?d like to see a DS or Wii downloadable version of Z.A.M.N, but last time someone talked to LucasArts about it, they were like ?We made that game???

It's funny Ebert should mention the game for a Virtual Console release, since that was supposedly going to happen at some point in the future. Anyway, the interview contains tons of great info about Ebert's time at LucasArts and what he's up to now, and there's really no help for you if you don't decide to read it.

Source: Gamasutra

In what is totally not just another excuse for me to point out another Insecticide preview from pseudo-E3, I noticed that Destructoid wrote something intriguing at the end of their impressions. They say that the PC version will have a "new story line," separate from the DS version.

This forces one to question just how different the two versions will be. Seeing as the DS version will feature an exclusive multiplayer mode, and is, let's face it, an unlikely system to port a PC game to (especially when it's the only one), one might surmise that the two releases of Insecticide will be rather different beasts in more than just graphical capability. It will certainly be interesting to hear more details on the PC version, due out in early 2008, to see if there's any truth to this theory.

Anyway, be sure to read the full article while you're here. The author wasn't very enthused by what he saw as he was expecting an action game and got something more akin to an adventure, but that revelation is likely to have the opposite effect on you.

Comic book publisher Dark Horse has announced plans to release new and old Indiana Jones comics early next year.

Lucasfilm's celebrated action/adventure hero, Indiana Jones, the forerunner of popular characters such as Lara Croft, will be making a triumphant return in 2008 with the yet-to-be-titled fourth installment of the Indiana Jones film series. Starring Harrison Ford and directed by Steven Spielberg, the film is slated for release in May 2008. Dark Horse Comics is excited to announce that it has acquired the comic book rights to the world's most famous adventurer and will launch a new series in 2008. Fans can plunge themselves into the adventures of the fedora-wearing archaeologist well before then. In February 2008, Dark Horse Comics will publish the first of two Indiana Jones Omnibuses collecting Dark Horse's previous entries in the saga. Then April sees the release of volume one of Indiana Jones Adventures--a digest-sized graphic novel designed for the enjoyment of young readers as well as adults. The Indiana Jones Adventures volumes and the Omnibuses will continue on a quarterly basis--including Omnibuses for the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and the original Marvel run of Indiana Jones comics.

A comics adaptation of the film will be released simultaneously with the motion picture, followed immediately by an all-new Indiana Jones comics series.

If these releases truly do include the entirety of Indy's graphic novel back catalog, then it should mean the availability of the Iron Phoenix and Spear of Destiny volumes which were based (albeit extremely loosely) on the canceled adventure games of the same name. While these hand drawn works sadly do not benefit from Euphoria technology, those who've read them do claim that they were quite enjoyable.

Nothing shocking here, but Sam & Max Season Two was just officially announced by Telltale for release this fall. Not much information yet, other than GameTap will again be utilized and more information will be given at Comic-Con tomorrow. Also, the episodes will be available from Telltale a day after GameTap now too. Which is sweet. More here.

Oh, and here's an early pre-render! Looks like the diner will be a location.

There's a new interview with LucasArts president Jim Ward up the San Jose Mercury News site.

"George is always on us about this,""It's like, `Guys, you're showing me great technology, and then you go and try to wrap a story around it. And the story's really thin, and then it's not fun. Forget the tech for a second. I assume you'll be able to figure out the tech. Come in with a great story.' "

And why is George on about this after all these years?

Update: Keith Stuart, a UK Guardian Games blogger has also commented on these utterances from Big Jim, and severely laid the smack down. Well worth a read, in fact, one wonders if Keith is a Mojo reader himself...

Source: San Jose Mercury News

Oh man, it's all coming out now! Telltale and Ubisoft have totally re-announced CSI: Hard Evidence for a simultaneous release on PC, Xbox 360, and Wii this Fall! What's more, it's confirmed that Telltale themselves are the ones handling the ports, meaning those Wii and 360 programmers that they hired not long ago have been put to good use! Telltale's got a few screenshots to tide you over 'til tommorow, when they'll dazzle us with "another CSI goodie."

As you may know, CSI: Hard Evidence marks Telltale's second title in the series, the first being CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder, which was released last year to much acclaim. So what exactly are the selling points of the sequel?

• More Crime-Solving Action
  Break down the evidence and bring suspects to justice in five all-new, bizarre crimes. Unravel longer cases, search bigger crime scenes and uncover hidden evidence in unique locations like never before.
  
  
• Go Deeper into the Evidence
  Master new forensic tools and find more evidence than ever. Use the new Garage Lab to examine large pieces of evidence like cars and trucks. Recreate gunfights with ballistic lasers, uncover shocking secrets with video analysis, and much more.
  
  
• The Ultimate CSI Experience
  Experience your very own CSI episodes as you piece together clues with the real CSI actors. Take part in dramatic interrogations, create grisly crime reenactments and explore atmospheric crime scenes inspired by the show.

No one who's read the full press release while jumping into an active volcano has lived to tell the tale.

Almost as if the world is starting to recognize that the game may actually exist, a trailer for CSI: Hard Evidence is now up over at WorthPlaying for your ocular gratification.

The 45 second video features some intriguing glimpses of one of the cases amongst the extreme close-ups of turpentine cans. Also, apparently Bridget the Fire Goddess has got a real pyro jones. Give it a look.

After months of frustrating silence from the publisher, Dutch site Xbox 360 Only has apparently gotten Ubisoft to "confess" to a few details regarding CSI: Hard Evidence, now confirmed to be coming to the PC, Wii and Xbox 360 this September and probably going to be re-announced very soon.

Enjoy this Babelfish version of the site's writeup which has a Ubisoft-issued list of some of the game's new features, as well as five new, great looking screenshots (unethically archived in Mojo's gallery for your convenience) that show off the game's new streamlined interface. Not sure which version of the game is on display here, but visually things are looking good.

Stay tuned for the actual press release from Ubisoft, which will hopefully be appearing in the near future.

Update: You may also want to check out this new, unrelated description of the game from Ubisoft's web site, listing some of the game's improvements from 3 Dimensions of Murder. "Mid-case quizzes" sure sounds interesting.

As Benny notes on the forums, the UK PC version of Psychonauts is being sold by Play.com for a paltry ?5. I mean really, come on. Even if you already own the game, at that rate it's cheaper than conventional roofing material.

I forgot about this one other preview for Insecticide by the web site GameAlmighty. They offer their thoughts on what they saw of the game, and mention that the PC version will feature full voice acting, while the DS version won't (obviously).

Anyway, I'm sure this is the last of 'em.

Well, mine did. If you ordered Telltale's disc, check your inbox, because yours ought to be as well. Telltale also predicts that the soundtrack should be available for shipping in a few days, and that mysterious Case File at the beginning of August.

In other Sam & Max-on-a-disc news, Telltale has put up a list of what stores you can expect to find the retail release in on their blog. You might notice that EB Games/Gamestop aren't listed here, and you also might have noticed that the Sam & Max product pages simply disappeared from their respective web sites awhile back, so I'm not exactly sure what became of that crazy strategy guide offer. In any case, you should have no trouble finding the game once it's out on store shelves in just a few weeks! (And really, when's the last time you could say that about Sam & Max?)

Semi-recently it was announced that veteran LucasArts adventure designers Noah Falstein and Hal Barwood (the former best known for Last Crusade and Fate of Atlantis, the latter best known for Fate of Atlantis and Infernal Machine), were collaborating with German developer 4Head Studios on an upcoming adventure game, Mata Hari.

Well, fan site Adventure-Treff recently tracked down Hal to talk about what his role will be on the project as well as his past work. Some interesting details on the new game are revealed, some fun LucasArts stories are recounted, and even some rare concept art for one of the canceled sequels to Atlantis is shared. There really is tons of great stuff here. But mostly, the living legend just spreads his awesome. The following quote says it all, really:

During the development of The Infernal Machine you said in several interviews that you don't find the classic adventure genre very interesting anymore. How do you think about this statement now that you are working on one of those?

Hal Barwood: I take it all back.

Read all of Hal's thoughts, and be happy.

Source: Adventure-Treff

With this week comes commentary tracks for the cutscenes of Abe Lincoln Must Die! by our own Jake! Well, him and some awkward sounding hacks who purport to have designed or otherwise worked on the game, but whatever. Also included in this week's update are loads of concept art for the episode, as well as some other good stuff that has been previously available, but which time can't diminish the awesomeness of.

Summer: It's now for more than just breaking your neck on a slip 'n slide soaked in dishwashing fluid.

In a recent article MediaRights explores the marketing aspect of all types of digital distribution, and the importance of companies to maintain an active relationship with the communities built around online delivered products. Naturally, Telltale Games was a focus of the article, and Emily Morganti describes for them some of the ways the company keeps fans close:

Telltale Games creates an identity around the video game character Max from their popular serial game Sam & Max. The character, originating in comic books created by Steve Purcell, is an amusingly sarcastic and opinionated rabbit. Telltale has created an entire website around this character called Max for President, which follows from the plot of the game as the character Max becomes president in the first season. Morganti made it very clear that to keep the character authentic, they worked very closely with Purcell to see to it that his vision for the character remained in tact. In fact, she says the content on the Max for President website is "a lot funnier and more genuine than it would have been if it were just written by the marketing team."

Find out exactly how you were manipulated by reading the rest of the article.

A set of giant, high-resolution icons for ScummVM/Lucasarts games have been released. Author Thanius offers them for download as both png's and standard windows icons. Further icons are still being added so keep an eye on this forum thread for future updates.

Vista users will also want to check out the Sam and Max icons offered on the Telltale forums.

Source: ScummVM Forums

And yes, you heard right: winners it is; though I said at the start that there will only be one winner, I decided to split the prizes in the end. This was partly because both winners made excellent entries, and it was a pain to decide between them; and partly because they were both, I thought, more interested in different prizes from each other.

I take pleasure in saying that GloKidd and v4MP1r3 are our two winners. GloKidd submitted five entries: an imaginative piece of Sam & Max fan-art; a Sam & Max/A Vampyre Story crossover comic panel; and the rest shown in a web-site he created (which itself counts as a submission): a clay model of Max, and a tiny tiny MixnMojo code wheel badge. To GloKidd goes the Telltale goodies.

v4MP1r3, meanwhile, put a lot of effort into making a blog for A Vampyre Story, which has an archive of the game's information, images and related articles, and the author intends to keep updating the blog, charting the game's maturing until its release day. The signed A Vampyre Story concept art will be flying off to v4MP1r3 shortly.

Well done to our winners, thanks again to TellTale and Autumn Moon for donating the prizes, and thanks also for all the Mojo readers who took part.

I trust you all enjoyed our summer competition. It wasn?t quite the Triwizard Tournament, but I hope it was fun nevertheless.

It would appear that JoWood is pulling out all the stops for the German localization of Sam & Max: Season 1. It was previously reported that the German dub would reprise celebrity voice actor Sandra Schwittau as Max, and now it's confirmed that the voice of Sam from the German version of Hit the Road, Hans-Gerd Kilbinger, will also be lending his talents to the voice overs. In addition, the supporting characters will be voiced by a cast of well-known German voice talent (a list of which can be found here), in what is apparently the most expensive localization project in the publisher's history. (No surprise there for anyone who knows how popular adventure games are in Germany.)

Read the positive things that GameStar.de has to say on the matter here (that's in German, click here for the Google translated version) which includes some details on JoWood's translation process, an interview the German Sam, and an interview with Dave Grossman in which the veteran designer is told he answers interview questions like a dairy farmer.

The European release of Sam & Max: Season 1 is due out August 31, and will feature English, German, and French voice overs in addition to subtitles in those languages as well as Italian and...I'm not exactly sure what else beyond that. It will include the same extras as Dreamcatcher/TAC's North American release.

Thanks to Harald B who pointed this out over at Telltale's forums.

Source: Telltale forums

Suggesting that I probably should have given Gamespot a chance to cobble together all of their Insecticide E3 coverage before reporting about it, the site has put up a well worth watching video interview with Mike Levine of Crackpot Entertainment to discuss the nuts and bolts of this increasingly intriguing action/adventure game.

A good deal of never-before-seen gameplay is presented, and Mike reveals that the game includes "20 plus" levels - half of them full action levels with platforming, shooting, and gun finding, and the other half focused on more of the deliberate, detective based stuff. All in all it sounds like the gameplay is going to be unique, well balanced, and true to the genre of its story. Mike also mentions two of the game's collectible weapons, the pollinator gun and the "amberizer," the usage of which I'll let you listen about for yourself.

This is without a doubt the most promising and exciting look I've seen of Insecticide so far, and you really get the sense that the guys making it have their priorities straight and are going to give us a really interesting and most of all, fun, game. The downloadable, PC version of the title is confirmed to be released in early 2008 (I believe that prior to this it was said that the first of the two-part download would be out by the year's end), and the DS version is reiterated to come out in November. Also, all gameplay in the DS footage shown is designated to be in pre-alpha stages, which may make you feel a bit better about how the screenshots look so far. Mojo will be keeping you up-to-date on all things Insecticide, so no worries there.

As the removal of my garish competition advertisement has no doubt alerted you: the Mojo summer competition has now drawn to a close.

It will, however, take a few days for us to sort through the numerous entries everyone sent in. If you just missed the deadline, but had prepared something, if you send it in right now, you might just make it in time.

1up took a look at the game at E3. As with the others, there's little concrete information here but they do praise the art style and the dialog that they heard as very much in the LucasArts adventure game vein. They also reveal that the DS port, scheduled for a November release, is significantly further along in development than the PC version, which I find interesting. Anywho, see the whole thing.

Let's play a game: Pretend like it's June 27th. Then I won't have to explain why I never noticed this excellent interview that IGN had with Jared Emerson-Johnson about the amazing Sam & Max soundtrack. Jared lets us in on the secrets of his inspirations for scoring the episodes and also plugs the awesome two-disc soundtrack that Telltale's putting out soon. (You did order it, right?)

And if you haven't seen it yet on Telltale's site, the article has the track listing for the album - an outrageously extensive 73 compositions altogether. Jared also offers some thoughts on one of his favorite tracks from each episode (in which Jake is credited as the man behind the provocative lyrics of "Midtown Cowboys"), and reveals that he's already hard at work on Season 2's tuneage. Grab your flugelhorn and get to reading.

Not sure how much you guys will care about this, but Amazon has an updated, and probably final, version of the cover art for Dreamcatcher's boxed release of Season 1 next month. It's mostly the same as the placeholder but with some interesting tweaks including a slightly revised package design, a badge added to Max's left hand, and the fly swatter in his right hand replaced by a bat. There's also a little black silver emblem now commemorating the characters' 20th year of existence.

Anyway, it's obviously not as good as the Steve Purcell drawing that graces the cover of Telltale's version, but it's definitely really nice. And since you're getting both versions, that's a good thing to know.

Gamespot has put up their impressions of Insecticide from what they saw at Gamecock's expo. The write-up is quite short and details are scarce, but they do include a new screenshot. Give it your best perusal.

IGN has posted their own preview as well, this one coming with a few more screenshots and a bit of detail as to how the action and detective elements seem to work together. Give it a read as well. IGN also notes that the PC display was having problems on the show floor, so all screenshots and impressions from the event come from the DS version.

Gamespot has just put up an assortment of seven Insecticide screens. It looks to me like some concept art with two DS screenshots mixed in for good measure, but join in on the fun and guess the origins for yourself.

For those still interested in LucasArts games, GameTrailers has kindly given us a look at the new E3 trailer and a video interview for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which you can see right here in both SD and HD forms. It seems very Jedi Knight, and as much as it pains me to admit it, it is actually looking quite good. But then again, so did Bounty Hunter. And Force Commander. And Sam & Max Freelance Police. Still, they can't screw this one up... can they?

If that's not your thing, maybe Thrillville 2: Off The Rails might prove to be diverting. Find the videos here.

Still no more Indy videos unfortunately, save perhaps this one here. I've got a bet on with Gabez that LucasArts are going to forget about making an original Indy story and instead make the official Indy IV film tie-in game. Anyone with me?

Source: GameTrailers

It never had a chance, really, not with this interview Wii60 had with Dave Grossman a few days ago. Grossman discusses Sam & Max, episodic gaming, the adventure genre, and all that other good stuff in a Q&A for the ages.

But Telltale's not stopping with interviews. In two weeks they'll be heading to the San Diego Comic-Con, and their presence there, which includes a panel with the Hothead Games guys (of the Penny Arcade episodes), a booth with new Steve Purcell merchandise, and a signing session with Purcell, Grossman, and Mike Stemmle is all detailed on their blog.

And finally, just when you thought Vivendi was plain donating their money to Double Fine, the third set of Double Fine Action Buttons has been released! Based on the world renowned web comic by Nathan Stapley, this collection of four buttons is entitled, "My Buttons About Me" and the product page comes complete with an interview with the man himself.

And this week brings us the next nail-biting chapter in the Freelance Police biography, "Sam & Max Hit it Big." This third segment of the duo's history predominantly deals with the short-lived television series, which to remind you is supposedly due out on DVD next year.

If you took everything that preceding summers didn't have, and subtracted the volume of Sam & Max content that it would take to end world hunger, you'd be left with nothing.

As you may remember, the new and downsized E3 is imminent...this week, in fact, and while certain publishers are taking a pass on the expo's successor (or just plain making their own damn event, in the case of Insecticide's publisher Gamecock), the majority of the heavy hitters will still be there.

As the venerable "Incognito79" notes in the forums, Sierra has issued a list of games they'll be displaying, including a conspicuous "To Be Announced" title. As you know, Sierra/Vivendi is the publisher of Double Fine's new game. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but could it be?

In any event, we should at least be hearing stuff about some of our other games this week. Insecticide for sure. Maybe Ubisoft will finally re-announce CSI and set us straight on a release date. And E3 is as good a time as any for LucasArts to rip the duct tape from their mouths about the new Indiana Jones, which has literally been nowhere to be seen since E3 2006. Time will tell!

Update: Well, the expo's over and there was no Double Fine presence at all. But hey, it can't be too many more years, right? Also, while CSI: Hard Evidence wasn't mentioned by Ubisoft at the event either, Emily at Telltale does offer some comfort.

This is a little late, but you may not have seen this yet anyway (at least, I hadn?t).

The second trailer for the Penny Arcade game On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One has been released. You can see it here, on Game Trailers.

If you?ve been following this game before, I think you?ll agree that the game has made huge improvements since we last saw it, and the segments of game play footage look extremely promising.

The game should appeal to LucasArts fans for the art-style, the adventure elements, and the fact that Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert is hovering in the background of the development, giving advice and comments like The Ghost of Christmas Past.

Source: The Adventuress

It seems like there's always a Sam & Max contest going on somewhere, and the latest is being held by The Adventure Company which, as you should recall, will be publishing the boxed, retail release of the game this August. Anyway, answer a couple of easy questions for your umpteenth chance to win a free copy of Season 1!

And when you're done with that, please remember to enter our own, totally awesome contest as well. And even if you did already, go ahead and send something else in. You still have ten days left, after all. You have any idea how long ten days is? You could make up so many recipes in that time. We should also point out that bribes are accepted.

Freshly stolen from Telltale's news panel are two new links relevant to the company which deserve your attention. The first offering is from the guys at GameSetWatch who have put up a video of Telltale's lecture from this year's Independent Games Summit. To refresh your memory, the talk was by Telltale CTO Kevin Bruner and Senior Designer Dave Grossman. They speak about episodic gaming, with lots of fine nuggets of info on how the production of Sam & Max episodes moves forward with a minimal of madness.

Telltale was also recently assaulted by Marin County newspaper Pacific Sun, which ran an article about local game developers. Be sure to read it for the prevalent quotes from noteworthy Telltalers. The article also mentions that Telltale "has a new CSI game coming out this October," which you can choose to believe or not.

When the LucasArts/Day 1 Studios collaborative effort Fracture was officially announced a few months ago, LucasArts showed off an early demo to all the major game sites (except Mojo). Now, they've give Gamespot an exclusive, more in-depth look at the title, with potentially interesting results. I'm not sure why they'd give a lightweight like Gamespot an exclusive over their longtime loyal fan site, but on an unrelated note you may want to check out our old preview of Gladius, recently restored by Gabez.

Long story short, the piece offers a bit more detail on the whole civil war backstory, some hints at how the ability to alter terrain may be used to solve puzzles, and a glimpse at the game's array of explosive weapons. Try not to get too excited.

As predicted by Telltale's schedule, today they offer cutscene commentaries for The Mole, the Mob, and the Meatball by the Designer, Production, and Sound crews respectively, not to mention a plethora of concept art. As usual, the tracks are informative and entertaining - in particular those who deep down wanted to know why the color of the episode 3 credits was purple but were afraid to ask will find these illuminating.

Here's the thing about this summer. It's not what you think it is. It's the opposite of not the Summer of Sam & Max.

What's the geekiest thing you've ever done?

Answers on a postcard, please.

Or, alternatively, to gabez@mixnmojo.com.

Gametrailers has put up a brief gameplay video of the DS version of the action/adventure Insecticide, showing Chrys gunning and platforming it up while wacky things happen on the lower screen.

Definitely an interesting peak that makes me want to see more. It also makes me wonder how similar the PC and DS versions (the latter exclusively featuring a multiplayer mode) will be.

Jim Ward, with hey hey, my, my EA vice president Neil Young discuss movies and games in this gamasutra interview.

[Newsweek's N'Gai] Croal asked Ward if, because it's important for film games to hit the movie's day and date, if it doesn't make them a "second-class citizen to the movie", to which he disagreed.

"Our company looks at it from an integrated media perspective," he said, "We have revenue coming from the movie, from the game, from VFX, from sound ? so all of that matters to us, and all of it?s got to happen."

"What you?re suggesting is the wrong way to look at it, because that?s a very siloed approach. Going over budget and coming out later isn?t going to help me, it?ll diminish the return! We do shift games and push them back. But when you have a game tied to a media event across an entire company, that?s really important.

Read the rest at the link above.

Source: Gamasutra

I got nothing. The Man Room does.

Update: You could also check out the press release.

That loveable wizard ATMachine has updated his web-site with a possible Pirates of the Caribbean reference found in The Curse of Monkey Island. If you?ve played the game, you may remember that there is a portrait of a women in the Goodsoup Hotel bar. Well, that?s almost probably perhaps a take on a similar portrait in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Read more on this forum thread, or see extra pictures, plus evidence of another reference the picture has to Marcel Duchamp and Dadaism, on ATMachine?s excellent website.

Source: A.G. Forums