The International House of Mojo

Bgbennyboy, of Quick and Easy fame, has released a new program of awesomeness for you to download - Psychonauts Explorer. Having used his magic fingers on the game, the result of his love-filled labours is this impressive list of features:

Opens lots of different files from the game! It can also dump those files, whatever that means!

It can preview images and then rip them for your wallpaper related pleasure!

You can apply filters to images! No using Photoshop for you!

You can extract and save music and speech! (But buy the soundtrack anyway!)

...And much much more!

Coming soon: Psychonauts Quick and Easy, for when the game refuses to run on Windows 3000 machines.

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Looks like Psychonauts isn't doing all too well saleswise. According to GameSpot Majesco shares fell by 15% due to "lackluster sales of Psychonauts and Advent Rising," which they apparently spent "millions" on promoting.

Too bad, but that's how it goes I guess.

Weeeeeeeee! Read today's regular staff interview blog entry at telltale.com and who's up for discussion? None other than ex-LucasArts Adventure legend Dave Grossman.

Also, Telltale is a company where characters and story are the foundations of a game, instead of being the wrapping paper on yet another boring run-around-and-shoot-and-don?t-do-anything-else title. The bulk of the games industry is, sadly, a place where people think having a conversation about "character" means trying to think of a cool weapon for the protagonist to use. (You think I?m exaggerating, but that really happens all the time.) Not so Telltale. It?s very refreshing to be here. And it?s a small company where people enjoy their jobs ? like LucasFilm was in 1989, but without the mountain lions.

Also, their recent TELLTALE NOW press release smallprint mentions "Telltale is also finalizing an agreement to work on one of the most popular television franchises which it will announce shortly" which lends some weight to the rumoured pickup of the CSI franchise license.

Source: Telltale

We know a lot of Mojoers are sick of Star Wars games, but just saying that they're bad isn't going to do much. That's why this week's article is all about why a lot of Star Wars games suck, and what can be done about it. Don't forget to drop a comment if agree and want to cuss Star Wars games up, or even if you disagree and think we're being too harsh.

Whatever the case, leave your thoughts and maybe LucasArts will read them and bring back Sam & Max!!!!11

What is going on? Good lord. Okay, this one's kind of hilarious.

Telltale Games has announced a new distribution system for awesome games. Called "Telltale Now," the system is billed as a "new model for delivering graphically rich, engaging, interactive stories direct to consumers." The press release says the following:

• Immediate delivery. Customers get titles quickly by downloading them over the Internet, eliminating trips to local retail stores.
  
  
• Free passports. Visit new worlds, meet characters and explore interactive stories free of charge. Customers then gain instant access to full stories with a simple mouse-click and secure online transaction.
  
  
• Engaging, ongoing stories. For most titles, Telltale will release new episodes at regular intervals. While each release will offer a complete, self-contained adventure, customers will also be able to continue the stories as new installments become available throughout the year.

"We've identified a void, which lies between long-form games for hard core gamers at one end of the spectrum and casual online parlor diversions at the other," says Dan Connors, Chief Executive Officer of Telltale. "We see an opportunity to offer rich, interactive stories that anyone can quickly download and play ? which are simply not available today. This is an exciting new way to get great adventures out to the world."

Mike Stemmle, veteran interactive writer and designer, says "Telltale's new format makes me all a-tingly with storytelling and design possibilities. It's nice to see a company with the huevos to try something different."

"Telltale Now fills a unique place in the digital entertainment world," says CEO Dan Connors. "These titles provide affordable, shorter-form online programming, analogous to TV shows. Contrast this with traditional longer-form titles available at retail, which are comparable to feature films."

Of course, Bone will be featured on the Telltale Now service, along with other games (presumably) which have yet to be announced.

What? Okay so this is only very vaguely relevant, but I thought some people might be interested.

Here's an interview with the creator of Turner Enterprises' upcoming GameTap service, and some other information about it. GameTap is an online store similar to the iTunes Music Store, but instead of songs, obviously, they sell you downloadable games, including some modern titles, and an allegedly large back library.

I'm only posting about this because I have heard murmerings that some old Lucas titles will be appearing on the service. So, look out for that (maybe). If not, I guess GameTap also has Space Invaders.

Any of you out there looking to get your hands on the PS2 version of Psychonauts, Majesco just sent out a reminder that the game has shipped to stores, meaning you should be seeing it trickle into retailers over the coming week.

They also included a little quote from Official Playstation Magazine, which gave the game 9 out of 10: "Psychonauts is hands-down the most refreshing, must-play, re-invention of the platform action game since at least the first Ratchet & Clank."

The Summer of Mojo continues with our review of Lego Star Wars: the video game!

No doubt most of you are pretty sick of Star Wars games right now, especially ones that look like cheap spin-offs for children. But wait, don?t throw on the sceptical specs just yet; Lego Star Wars is actually worth a second look. More than a second look, in fact - but to find out more you?ll have to read our review. Remember, you do like Star Wars games... you can go about your business... move along now...

You wouldn't think it from reading Mojo the last week, but things are actually happening out there. Like!

Double Fine is hiring. In fact, a bunch of different jobs were posted to their website last week. Does this mean a new project is in production? Who knows, but one can assume that something must be going on. Make sure to check out the Action Comics too, recently they've been updated almost daily.

IGN has posted a Psychonauts PS2 preview. No shocking new details are revealed, but worth a look anyway.

LucasArts is committing to support all new platforms. Does this mean we'll see the new Indy game on the Xbox360, PS2, and Revolution? It certainly sounds like it, though who knows what it'll mean for the PC.

With a nice graphical tweak across the whole Telltale website, the company have also been kind enough to post some new content in the BONE section. This includes the first screenshots of the Dragon's Stair location and a nifty little overview of the comic and game for the uninitiated.

Source: Telltale Games

You?ve seen the film now play the game - but read our review first!

To kickstart the Summer of Mojo we?ve taken a look at the official Star Wars Episode III game from The Collective. Sure, it looks pretty, but can it live up the hype? Find out be reading the review here, and may the force be with you.

Looks like Majesco did well this financial quarter, and they've cited Psychonauts sales (woo!) and their TV plug-in retro arcade controller things as two major reasons why. Gamespot reports:

Majesco Entertainment today reported an almost $3 million increase in sales recorded for the quarter ending April 30, 2005. Citing the release of the Tim Schafer-designed Psychonauts (for the Xbox, released just 10 days before books closed on the quarter) as well as brisk sales of the $19.95 TV Arcade product line of plug-and-play games, the company took its quarter-on-quarter financials from a net loss of $49 million last year to a profit of $189,000 this year.

Good to hear Majesco listing Psychonauts as one of the reasons they had a good quarter. Many fans were (and still are) wondering what Psychonauts is doing sales-wise, after receiving a few different mixed signals. Sounds like Majesco is happy enough, whatever's going on number-wise.

Ah, the games buzzword of the year; "Storytelling". Jim Ward, president of LucasArts, gets in on the action in this interview at Boomtown

Right now there is no story in games. Gaming right now is about button management, basically. Take for instance Grand Theft Auto, a great game, I love it and play it, a fantastic game. But the story of that is just simply a broad context, you drive around some places and shoot people. But there is no real compelling story telling, very rarely you see this in good games.

In Half-Life, there was an attempt. But we need to infuse story into those games and make them compelling because every kind of entertainment, if it's a movie, a play, whatever it is, is all based on story and characters.

// Cue obligatory Sam & Max reference //

Source: Boomtown

In a rather unexpected turn of events music-snob site Pitchfork has published an article about game music. There are a lot of interesting points, many coming from Peter McConnell of Grim Fandango and Psychonauts fame (among others).

"My experience with the iMuse system is we thought we'd invented this wonderful thing, and we rolled it out, and nobody really noticed," laughs McConnell. "The main point of adaptive audio is that you shouldn't know it's there anyway."

There's a lot more good stuff over at Pitchfork.

Fatten up the paycheck that is. In the ongoing dispute over voice actors rights to get residuals for their VO work in games, some programmers are starting to feel they should get their share of the pie.

"Why should we pay actors royalties when programmers and artists don't (get any)?" asked game designer and programmer Ron Gilbert. "Hollywood is driven by the 'points' that everyone gets, (but) the games industry is not. It's a very different economic model."

For more, go to Wired.

Razputin's Domain reports that the people at Amazon are dirty liars, and that the European release date of Psychonauts is indeed some time in Q4 2005. So yes, it might be released six months after the US version. I'm sure it'll make a nice Christmas present though.

Also, a rather bitter Shanty reports that the Double Fine Shop now offers a free DVD containing all the cut-scenes from the excellent game free of charge with all $50+ orders. Hey, can't beat that can you?