So you want a Lost adventure game made by LucasArts alumni eh? Sadly this isn't an actual game, but marvel at some enterprising young soul's gallery of pictures that imagines 'If LucasArts makes a Lost game in 1987'.
My favourite's Locke trying to open the hatch and commenting 'that doesn't seem to open'. After that point I don't get any of them.
Source: Kotaku
Gamepro has posted a rather extensive preview of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2, a game whose predecessor's absurdly high sales made necessary, but is also probably going to be objectively awesome if you're a Star Wars fan (a species who I'm told accounts for a fair portion of the gene pool). My claim that the preview is "extensive" is justified by the fact that it's a two-page look at the game's development, replete with lots of quotes from the team and some scattered concept art, so do away with that leash altogether.
In other Star Wars game news, that other monolithic project, The Old Republic, which you probably don't need to be reminded is the Stars Wars MMO set in the KOTOR universe under development by Bioware that LEC is jointly producing with EA, is also in the news. For the second time, in this instance over at Gamasutra, the game is being touted as the most expensive project EA has ever funded. Apparently it's something they're really proud of.
Source: Gamepro
It's been a while, but by the looks of things the wait has been well worth it. In their latest blog post, Telltale has announced that some of their more anticipated store items that have been available for pre-order, like the Tales of Monkey Island collector's DVD and that booty-licious boatload of various Monkey Island and Sam & Max paraphernalia, are either in stock now or are soon to be dispatched from the warehouse. View the blog entry for some images of the plunder as well as the shipping status of each item in question. Kiss all your pieces o' eight goodbye.
Source: Telltale blog
Sadly, it appears that Plunder Island's citizens will no longer be able to buy the very latest in vaporware beverages or piratical weapons technology, at least not from little Kenny's shop. Er, I mean...
Gary Coleman, the voice of Kenny Falmouth in The Curse of Monkey Island, has just died of a cranial hemorrhage, brought on by a head injury he suffered at his home. He was 42.
Coleman was most famous for his role as a child star on the American TV sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. His character's catchphrase on the show was "What'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis?" Notably, the CMI team tried and failed to get the line "What'chu talkin' 'bout, Guybrush?" into the game.
A trailer for the upcoming Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge Special Edition has been released leaked let out into the wild by someone. You get to see a lot of things - it's a full seven minutes - including a little bit of the commentary. If I had to guess, it's the trailer that was supposed to debut the game at E3 in June.
Source: YouTube
Avid Kotaku reader Threepwood4life has pointed us in the direction of a new interview with LucasArts' Craig Derrick, where he talks about the potential for new adventure games in the wake of the success of the Monkey Island revival.
You can read it for yourself of course, but the jist of it seems to be: 'if we make new adventure games, they will be a mixture of action and adventure.' Which I am cool with.
If we were to truly get back into the "adventure" business then I would say we need to take some of what we've learned from the "action" side of the business a little bit, look at today's audience sensibilities and reinvent the genre just as we did with Maniac Mansion 23 years ago.
There's some more of the usual guff about Monkey Island 2: Special Edition in there too, so get your fill and make merry with delight.
Source: Kotaku
Source: Unleashed2010.com
Still fresh out the womb, the blog Cultural Zest becomes the source of another Mojo news post by making its second article ever another interview with a Telltale name. This time it's designer Mark Darin, who's heading the upcoming Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent, and you should read the interview to learn what Darin is up to sharing about his current and prior projects.
Source: Culture Zest
LucasArts continues re-releasing their old classics on Steam today with the best Star Wars strategy game - Empire At War, plus expansion pack Forces of Corruption. You can buy it here. While it's not an adventure game, it's still one of the best Star Wars games of recent years.
Perhaps less good is the price. £14.99/$19.99 for a 4-year-old game? Even with the expansion and the Steam convenience, that's a bit of a rip in my opinion.
Source: Steam
The LucasArts Adventure Pack, a collection of four classic LucasArts adventure games (Loom, The Dig, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), is now available for $4.99 from Steam, and will remain so for the next 24 hours until the weekend begins. At that point, the price will go back up to $9.99.
(Edit: Thanks to TestType for pointing-out the mistake earlier. This campaign of misinformation is all part of my plan to become a pundit on Fox News. Pretend you believe me.)
Source: Steam
Source: Snugglecakes on the forums
Telltale is making it easier than ever to purchase all three seasons of Sam and Max: Season 1 (Save the World), Season 2 (Beyond Time and Space), and the currently ongoing season, The Devil's Playhouse.
They've already offered a Complete Collection bundle of the three seasons in their online store (priced at $49.95 until June 2), but it gets better. If you've bought an episode of Sam and Max at some point in the past, check your email now--you should find a coupon from Telltale, allowing you to purchase the Collection for just $29.95.
Again, if you have a partial collection of Sam and Max episodes, this email coupon is the offer for you. And if you're unlucky enough not to have bought any episodes in the series (how could you?!) the price difference will be only an extra $10 $20. Both discounts are only valid until June 2, however, so act fast.
Fans can be pretty crazy. Check any forum if you don't believe me. But like all crazies, fans can sometimes shine, like diamonds.
This one person created a very, very short Bone cartoon, as to practise their animation skills. They used sound clips from Telltale's "The Great Cow Race". Here's the finished version, in all its 24 second glory, and here's the work-in-progress cut.
It's all pretty nifty. If you've made a nifty thing yourself, send her in (see the Mail News button at the top right there?). You never know: we could steal it stick it up on the site if you're OK with that. It'll be the exposure you always dreamed of in your nightmares.
Update by ATMachine: In a similar vein, check out this Monkey Island tribute song/video by SilverWolfPet. It's even got Nikki Rapp and Alexandra Boyd (the voices of Morgan LeFlay and Elaine Marley-Threepwood, respectively) singing along for part of it!
Source: YouTube
So far, what has been your favourite project that you worked on?
That’s a really tough one to answer. I feel I’ve been really fortunate to work on a lot of great projects over the years so it’s hard to single one out. A couple that are up there are the Coraline feature and the unreleased Sam & Max: Freelance Police game. Both experiences were amazing in terms of the teams I worked with and the knowledge gained artistically.
Source: Cultural Zest
So our erstwhile staff member Kroms has found a brand new DeathSpank trailer. However, someone else had to post about it, because the other staffers unanimously voted to exile him forever from our Ultra Tippity Top Secret Mojo Newsroom after the incident with the giraffe, three melons, and a snorkel.
UPDATE: Kroms says, "Be sure to check out these four gameplay videos on the same site. Plus this video, and this other one, and this one too, on 1UP."
To which I say, "Man, we never should've exiled you. More work for us."
LucasArts continues to offer a behind-the-scenes peek at the Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge: Special Edition updating process by releasing some more character concept art, this time for Governor Elaine Marley's re-imagined look. Here is the version one sketch, and here is version two.
Edit by ATMachine: Fixed the link to version two. Sorry about that.
Update by ATMachine: LucasArts have since posted version three, version four, and version five of their Elaine MI2:SE concepts.
Source: Monkey Island Facebook page
Source: Now Gamer
In another one of his rare but revealing tweets, Autumn Moon CEO and background artist extraordinaire Bill Tiller shares the following bit of enticing info:
I think we are going to do an iPad game. Can't tell you which IP yet, but as soon as the details are worked I will let you know.
Given that all of Autumn Moon's titles so far have been pure point 'n click, the iPad would make a great platform for the studio (as would the Wii, but I'll refrain). Let's just hope that any project that's targeted at the iPad would release on it in addition to the PC. Still, any development at all from Autumn Moon is exciting stuff in my book.
Bill later followed-up with this tweet:
"To make episodic or not to" is the question.
With the possible combined support of Telltale and Autumn Moon, the iPad is sure shaping up to have strong, bite-sized graphic adventures well represented in its games library. And so early in its lifespan!
Source: Bill Tiller's twitter feed
Telltale is now selling a new adventure game bundle: the Sam and Max Complete Collection, which includes all three game seasons produced so far (Save the World, Beyond Time and Space, and the currently-ongoing The Devil's Playhouse).
The bundle is selling at $49.95 until midnight PDT on June 2, when its price will go up, likely to $95. So if you haven't played a single episode of Sam and Max (you crazy person), be sure to remedy this deficiency right now while you have the chance to save a good chunk of change.
Source: Telltale's blog
Mac users rejoice! The Macintosh port of Sam and Max Season Two, AKA Sam and Max Beyond Time and Space, is now available for download from Telltale's website. If you've already purchased the PC version, the Mac port is free, and if not, it'll cost you $29.95, for which you get both the PC and Mac releases.
When you head over to Telltale, don't forget to take advantage of their pre-order offer on Puzzle Agent, if you haven't already: buying it in advance will save you 50% off the price of just about everything else in the store, including Beyond Time and Space.
Stealing yet another of Monkey Island's ideas, the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film has been confirmed to embrace the latest craze and will be presented in Disney Digital 3D. As the film isn't yet shooting, hopefully this means it will be the good kind of 3D designed "from the ground up" as opposed to the retroactively converted 3D such features as Clash of the Titans and Alice and Wonderland suffered exhibited.
Source: Heat Vision blog
Having already graced the stage while proudly wearing a Whispering Rock T-shirt (more than once, even), Jack Black proves that he knows quality clothing when he sees it by last being publicly seen in a Space Wolf shirt. You know, the shirt designed by Grickle creator Graham Annable that is available through Telltale's store?
Source: Telltale
That's right. If you happen to be a seasoned adventurer (or a novice one, either will do) seeking to test your swashbuckling mettle against a new and perilous challenge, ask yourself: Do you have the stomach to enter the legendary long-lost Tomb of Sammun-Mak? Do you dare risk the curse of the ancient Pharaohs? Do you possess the sheer courage and nerves of steel required to plumb its deadly horrors and reach the fabled treasure within?
Well wonder no more! Now you can find out what you're made of, as Telltale have just released Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse episode 2, The Tomb of Sammun-Mak, now available for PC and Mac! Grab it here.
Here's the obligatory second link. Don't let the ancient mummy's curse befall you in your mad dash to the download page.
Episode two of Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse will be out later today is out and wouldn’t you know it, we’ve actually got a review of it written, almost as if publishing reviews for a game in conjunction with its actual release date is becoming some sort of new habit that we can’t manage to shake. Given that the Mojo engineers have still got a few switches to throw and circuits to rewire before we can go back to posting features proper, you’ll find our full review entombed in this very news post below the cut.
There's big news in Star Wars fandom: it seems the first-draft script of The Empire Strikes Back has been circulating online for over a month now. (Another timely Mojo news item!)
A history lesson is in order: Shortly after the colossal success of the original Star Wars, George Lucas hired noted pulp SF novel author and Hollywood screenwriter Leigh Brackett to write the script for Empire. She duly turned in a first draft, but sadly died of cancer before she could make any revisions.
Without a co-author, Lucas wrote the next couple of drafts himself, before handing his drafts over to Lawrence Kasdan (the man who also wrote Raiders of the Lost Ark and would go on to script Return of the Jedi) for a polish. But it seems that during the period after Brackett's death, Lucas made some major changes to the story of Empire.
Brackett's script would have created an entirely different series from the Star Wars saga we know today. Most notably, the draft envisions a world where Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker are two separate people: Luke meets his father's Force ghost while training as a Jedi knight, and then goes on to duel Vader in Cloud City.
Also, Luke has a twin sister who is referred to--but it's not Leia. Instead a girl named "Nellith" is said to have been separated from Luke at birth. Although spoken of, she is never actually seen in the film, setting up a plot thread for future sequels.
(I guess old George really was making it up as he went along.)
The script is available here. Do note that the site is experiencing heavy traffic at the moment, and is periodically shutting itself down to recuperate. So it may be a while before you can access the download page. Nonetheless, you'll likely want to download it before the Lucas Legal lawyers pounce.
EDIT: Mojo now has its own mirror of the script, just in case.
Source: Cinematical
The reviews for The Tomb of Sammun-Mak are emerging all over the internet. Here's a list, which we'll update with new reviews as we spot 'em:
Of course, you could always just skip to the definitive take on the game by checking out our own review.
Although I'd find it hard to believe that Steve Purcell's cover art for the Telltale collector's disc of Sam & Max: Season 2 left anyone unsatisfied, Purcell seems to make a habit of sketching multiple concepts for his covers, and today he shares the alternate idea in his latest blog post, depicting Sam and Max munching away in Stinky's Diner, presumably on duty.
Purcell even suggests that he may go ahead and realize the concept and make it available in print form. Such a development would, of course, be awesome.
Source: Spudvision
Gamasutra has posted an interview with Gio Corsi, the executive producer of LucasArts' Singapore studio. As you may know, LEC's Asian division is also the home of production of the Clone Wars animated series, and thus far the game development work has mostly been on Clone Wars spin-offs and handheld title - the iPhone port of The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition was handled there. The interview is a bit of a dry read by my estimation, but it is a read nonetheless.
Source: Gamasutra
Source: CNN
Gamasutra have put up excerpts from Game Developer's Tales of Monkey Island postmortem, penned by former Telltale marketing coordinator Emily "fov" Morganti. It explores What Went Right and What Went Wrong during the development of Tales, and is a good read all around.
This particular bit caught my eye:
Spending time perfecting the story’s important moments is easy to justify. It’s devoting too much time to smaller bits and throwaway gags that can get us into trouble. For example, when Guybrush dives down to the ocean floor in the third episode, we had a perfect opportunity to reference a similar scene in Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. Doing so wasn’t necessary for the story, but it made the game a richer experience for Monkey Island fans who would understand the reference.
Later:
Of course we’re going to keep creating the best games we can, but we need to get better about prioritizing and ensuring that any last-minute additions are really important 'need to have' changes as opposed to tweaks that would be nice to have.
For what it's worth, it's the little things like that which make a game special.
Source: Gamasutra
The 'Screen Play' blog in this week's Brisbane times recalls the heydey of the critically acclaimed and much-loved LucasArts / Totally Games X-Wing series.
In the 11 years since [X-Wing Alliance], there has been nothing more from LucasArts in that vein, and the genre itself has faded to little more than a memory. Wing Commander's final gasp was the long-delayed and ultimately disappointing Freelancer, released in 2003 after more than four years of development. The last bastion of the space combat sim is the venerable X series, which reached its fifth release in 2008 with X3: Terran Conflict, a flawed game that failed to set the world on fire, let alone the whole galaxy.
D-Rod's teaser from last year is also recalled.
The X-Wing fan / Modding community is very much still alive and well.
Source: Brisbane Times
That's right. In a nigh-undisturbed, dusty GameSpot warehouse, diligent archivists have recently unearthed tantalizing clips of footage from a long thought-to-be-lost silent video game, Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse, Episode 2: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak! Makes that Metropolis restoration look like peanuts in comparison.
Well, go and check it out. It's only so often such a priceless piece of video game history is rediscovered.
(Actually, the trailer is hardly long-lost, but who cares? It makes a good news post, and admirably sets the mood for the game. Which looks awesomely old-timey, don't you know.)
Source: Telltale Forums
Legendary rock god, err, fantasy/SF artist Frank Frazetta died on Monday. Frazetta's work, full of savage ur-beasts, highly be-muscled heroes and scantily-clad ladies, was one of the major influences behind the art style of Double Fine's Bru(e)tal Legend.
So what did Double Fine's posse of artists do to pay their respects? Why, draw bitchin' Frazetta-style art in tribute to him, of course!
Kotaku has established a gallery of Frazetta memorial art sent in by various developer studios. The first three submissions in the gallery are from Double Fine.
Source: Kotaku
On the official Monkey Island Facebook page, LEC has followed up their gradual releases of MI2: Special Edition screenshots (by the way, I don't think we mentioned the last two on the front page) with some gradually released character concepts. You can see Herman Toothrot's transformation from 1991 sprite to 2010 sketch, but you'll no doubt be most interested in the various passes they made at Guybrush's revamp (v1, v2, v3, v4) before landing on the final version, especially with regard to his age and similarities to his CMI counterpart.
Update by ATMachine: V5 Guybrush can now be found at Kotaku. For those who've been having trouble viewing the previous Guybrush concepts, the link also contains color-corrected versions of those, which should alleviate the problem. Be sure to right-click on and "View" the images to see them full size!
Source: Monkey Island Facebook
Who says you have to play adventure games to experience great writing and fascinating characters? Not Valve, whose 2007 first-person-puzzle-em-up Portal featured a malevolent robot and some of the best writing the medium has ever seen.
"First person? **** you elTee! This is Mixnmojo!"
Oh shush. It's free until the 24th of May - so if you haven't played it yet, why not give it a try? There's more to life than pointing and clicking, you know*.
And, as usual when I make rambling posts outside of Mojo's remit, I've attached a bonus LucasArts-related fact in order to satisfy the LFN's strict rules: Portal was co-written by Erik Wolpaw, who, as Kroms will relentlessly tell you, co-wrote Psychonauts.
*Disclaimer: Portal does, in fact, feature pointing and clicking. It's kind of integral...
Source: Steam
To go with the release of Steam on Mac and timed nicely with the announcement of The Tomb of Sammun-Mak's release date, those who don't own either Tales of Monkey Island or Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse can pick up both together in the Telltale Steam Pack for a ridiculous £19.99/$29.99.
Separately these two are £49.98, more than twice that. It's definitely worth picking up if you haven't already got both, with the new series of Sam & Max alone being worth that.
Source: Steam
In their latest blog post, Telltale has revealed that the second episode of The Devil's Playhouse, The Tomb of Sammun-Mak, will be released for PC/Mac and the North American PSN on May 18th, with European PS3 players getting it on May 26th. Four new screenshots for the episode are included with the announcement, so check those out.
Source: Telltale
Steam is launching for the Mac platform today and among the first batch of games are four LucasArts adventures: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Loom, and The Dig.
Each game will be available for $4.99 though you can also buy all four in a bundle at $9.99 for a limited time.
Thanks to Mac enthusiast clone2727 for the tip.
Source: Shacknews
There are not one but two new interviews with Craig Derrick to report, Derrick being the LEC producer who you know from any media coverage on the titles as the guy who shepherded The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition as well as the upcoming remake of LeChuck's Revenge. The first interview being by NXT Gamer and the second by SuperHappyFunTimeShow, they both contain info you'll likely find valuable. Case in point: Wally's voice actor was secured for the remake.
What voice actors from the original game have been drafted in to work on the remake and how much new voice over work has been created for the game, assuming that part of the development is complete?
The original voice cast from The Secret of Monkey Island: SE has been brought back for Monkey Island 2: SE. We have Dominic Armato as Guybrush Threepwood, Earl Boen as LeChuck, Alexandra Boyd as Governor Elaine Marley and Lelani Jones as The Voodoo Lady all returning, plus we got Neil Ross to return for the voice of Wally B. Feed, a role he played in the original Curse of Monkey Island back in 1997!
Broaden your mind by reading both interviews in their entirety at NXT Gamer and SuperHappyFunTimeShow.
The second episode of The Devil's Playhouse, The Tomb of Sammun-Mak, must be getting close, as Telltale seems to be talking about it a bit more lately. Those who are subscribed to the Telltale newsletter (that's all of you, right?) probably already noted this bit from the latest issue:
The second episode, The Tomb of Sammun-Mak, will release in just a few short weeks, and the Freelance Police face even more bizarre and dangerous new characters (and some familiar faces). The game's designer calls this episode Sam & Max's "trippiest trip yet", as it features new psychic powers, peculiar foes, a journey on the Disorient Express and an ancient mysterious riddle from across the ages.
Today Telltale continues to ramp things up for Sam & Max 302 with a blog post that contains an interview with episode director Andy Hartzell, features some brand new concept art worthy of your speculation, and concludes with the promise that the finalized release date for The Tomb of Sammun-Mak is soon to be public knowledge.
Source: Telltale
Telltale CEO Dan Connors takes time to discuss the Telltale Pilot Program with G4TV, especially where it could head in the future.
Connors: Right now, I would say there's four products in development at Telltale. This is one (Puzzle Agent), with another three, all at different stages.
"One thing we might do...there's a lot of talk around here about lawyering types of games".</p></div>Sam & Max & Puzzle Agent we know of. What else is in development right now I wonder?
Source: G4TV
Mamba Games, the UK publisher of Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island, has finally made the game available digitally through their web site for £19.99. I know a lot of you have been waiting for the English version to become available via download, so now's the time to buy Autumn Moon's second game if you haven't already.
Unfortunately, there remains no word on a North American publisher, so there's no indication on when or even if the game will ever make it to US shelves, but if you want a physical copy of the game and don't live in Europe, remember that many Amazon.com vendors ship internationally, with the game being listed for as low as £14.99. Otherwise, get it conveniently this very moment.
Source: Mamba Games
The May 2010 issue of Game Developer magazine, the superb sister print publication to Gamasutra, contains as its feature story a post-mortem for Tales of Monkey Island, which apparently includes some "crunch horrors" as well as an interview with Ron Gilbert, and by virtue of the fact that you're browsing Mixnmojo.com, will probably make for a fascinating read for you.
The issue is available for purchase both at magazine retail and in digital form. If you're still short on cash after placing your mandatory pre-order of Telltale's first pilot, you could wait six months and hope that Gamasutra publishes the whole post-mortem online as they did with Brutal Legend.
Source: Gamasutra
Now this is a shock. Darrell Rodriguez, former President of the company, has left LucasArts today along with several members of his executive team. Kotaku reported the news, along with this note:
The moves, announced earlier today at a Lucasarts staff meeting, do not impact the company's development teams, or other aspects of its publishing business outside of the top brass.
I'll believe that when I see it. Traditionally a LucasArts president leaving coincides with a massive shift in their business plan, and a lot of cancellations and "staff reorganization".
Should we be afraid for Monkey Island 2: Special Edition? I wouldn't have thought so as that's pretty much in the can, doesn't cost anything in shipping materials and the first did really well. Other Special Editions though or re-releases we'll have to wait and see.
While the reasons for his departure are not known, like whether it was his choice or not, we can speculate. Since The Force Unleashed in 2008 LucasArts have not had a really killer game despite several in production, and have instead focused on "smaller" titles. Were the top brass at LucasArts annoyed at this? I bet they were. This is a real shame though, as those "smaller" titles included such things as an excellent new Monkey Island, long-wanted re-releases of old games, a new original game, and Special Editions of two games that have been crying out for SEs for years.
More as we get it. Despite messing up with Indiana Jones at the start, we'll miss you Darrell.
UPDATE 1: Apparently Darrell resigned, although there's not yet a reason why. Lucasfilm board member Jerry Bowerman (who has been high up at both EA and Sierra) will sit in the Emperor's chair until Grand Admiral Thrawn arrives to take over.
Source: Kotaku
It seems Disney is starting to lose faith in those meddling Pirates of the Caribbean, with a number of troubles hitting the fourth installment On Stranger Tides like a Kraken against a ship with Orlando Bloom in it.
A number of major details have been given the axe apparently, most notably Pirates 1-3 director Gore Verbinski, a third of the budget and the, um, Caribbean. The titular Caribbean will be replicated using Hawaii and that other famous tropical island paradise, England.
Now we know why the rum's always gone.
Source: Yahoo Movies
This afternoon the full "Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent" website went live at Telltale Games.
www.telltalegames.com/scogginserasers
It features a youtube interview with Mark Darin and Graham Annable, a pre-order link ($9.95), screenshots, an audio track to download, and a whole host of other goodies.
Source: Telltale Games
Source: Twitter
Attention Sam and Max fans who have enjoyed "The Penal Zone": It seems that Telltale have actually set-up a Toys of Power hotline for you to call. I'm not sure what's the point, but if you're feeling up to it, call 1-516-vis-ion-1 (aka 1-516-847-466-1). Telltale forumer Jennifer was nice enough to record the message you hear when you call, and she (I assume) put the recording up on YouTube.
If you do end-up calling, tell us what you say. And if someone figures out the point of this thing (besides having a bit of fun, I suppose), let us know. You'll get thanked in the appropriate newspost and get totally famous, like Jennifer or George Lucas.
Update: According to the now-even-more-famous Jennifer, the point of this telephone thingamabob is to promote this. I guess that's somehow related to The Devil's Playhouse page being updated. Or not. Maybe. I'm sure I got the correct answer somewhere in this post.
Source: Telltale Forums
Ron Gilbert and EA Games have been going around the offices of various game websites that are not Mixnmojo and giving them forty minutes to goof around with Deathspank, which is being released this summer. Here is a preview from Gamepro; here is one from IGN; and finally, here is one from Joystiq.
Update: There's game footage, plus an interview with Ron, on Gamespot. Thanks to tenochtitlan and, indirectly, Death-spank.de, for the link.
Update II: Here are a couple of extra previews, courtesy of GamesRadar and A+E Interactive. As always, thanks to Death-Spank.de for the links. You can also look at this this interview, which shows a bit more of the game, but also has some spoilers. You get to see the main menu though.
It's probably worth mentioning that the game has multiplayer. Probably. Nah, forget it.
Source: OXM