The International House of Mojo

... for the PS2 that is. It is expected to be in stores around June 21st.

And yes, that's all.

Razputin's Domain brings word that Amazon.co.uk has June 17th set as the UK release date for Psychonauts. Amazon has made some mistakes before when it comes to release dates, so time will tell if this is really it or not.

Also, make sure to check out all of Raz.net's updated sections, full of Psychonauts goodness.

Apparently Psychonauts for the PS2 was shown off at E3, and IGN has the pictures to prove it.

Judging by the screenshots, it looks like the graphics are in a whole other - and I do not mean better - league than the PC and Xbox version. Judge for yourself over at IGN.

Benzo, known as a hacker of anything LucasArts related, has released two new versions of his Psychonauts hacking tools.

First there's the PKG Dumper that enables you to dump the contents of .pkg files as found in both the full and demo version of the game. (PC and Xbox.) This will allow you to view textures and other... stuff... Anyway! Read more.

Secondly there's an update to the Psychonauts Audio Ripper which has some Xbox fixes among other things. Check it out.

Should you happen to check out this week's Entertainment Weekly, you might get a surprise reading "The Must List". For those not familiar with it, it's basically a "Top 10 Cool Things" list of anything related to pop-culture. Anyway! Right on top, on the #1 spot you can read:

Psychonauts - Game designer extraordinaire Tim Schafer is at it again with a trippy Xbox/PC title about a youngster with an ability to enter the minds of others.

Granted, you might not be surprised after reading this. It's sure nice to see the game getting some mainstream lovin' though.

Mojo is on some sort of roll - we just can't stop writing articles! Well, Remi can't, as he's just filed a review for Psychonauts. What does he have to say for himself?

I know many of you will not take the time to read this review, and I honestly can't say I blame you. We've been covering Psychonauts for so long that you probably have already made up your mind about getting the game or not. In fact, I bet most of you will just glance up at the score, snicker "I knew it" sarcastically, and go on with your lives. And I'm ok with that.

But don't let that stop you. Read it anyway!

Or rather, team Los Angeles has won this part of the Psycho-Portal madness by solving the final question about two seconds before any other city did. There will be a different phase called the Brain Tumbler Sweepstakes where the real prizes will be given out. This is, presumably, a random drawing of sort among registrants of the Psychoportals website. LA team members will get bonus entries for winning, though (woo!). Here's the official word:

In the end, we're all winners here. So, check back here on Thursday, April 28th. We'll have some information on how you can receive some great Psychonauts propaganda including t-shirts, posters and demos. Some of you may end up with a free copy of the game! Once again, thanks for playing in the Psycho-Portal Challenge? we'll see you on the 28th!

Oh, and also: Oblongata. Depending on where you live, that is.

If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the news page at GameSpot, there's a chart with a list of the top-selling games for last week. I'm making you look at this because under the 'US Console Sales' category, one can plainly see that the Explicated Semaphore Psychonauts is charted at #10 for the week of April 18th through April 24th. Hooray! These statistics are based on sales at EBGames.com, but hopefully this is is a sign of good things for Raz and co. across the board.

In a somewhat related story, it appears that the PC version of Psychonauts is finally shipping, for real.

Source: Idle Forums

Smack-dab on the mainpage of G4TV, there's a Video interview of Tim Schafer, once again, on the subject of the Exasperated Scimitar Psychonauts. Wha??

Oh yes! Majesco has released patches fixing bugs in both the PC demo and PC retail versions of Psychonauts. You can grab the patch files here. It doesn't seem like the PC version of Psychonauts is actually in stores yet, but when it is, you know where to go if you run into a funky bug. More on this can be found in Majesco's troubleshooting forum.

Also: If you haven't downloaded the PC demo yet, Majesco is offering an updated version of the demo which already has the patch applied, so you should probably get it from them. To get the pre-patched demo visit Psychonauts.com, go to the Gray Matter section, and start downloading. Note: you probably have to register to get it.

So, The Announcement has come at last: Double Fine has opened a company store. Or, more specifically, a company Shop, containing tons and tons of goodies for you to buy. Most importantly: the Psychonauts soundtrack by Peter McConnell, and Psychonauts, the game, for all 3 platforms, available for shipping to a gigantic unfathomably long list of countries.

But there's more: Basically any clothing item or accessory you could ever desire has been stylishly adorned with the Two-Headed Baby, or some sort of Psychonauts-ish thing. Shirts, hoodies, posters, artwork, postcards, floaty pens, stickers, patches: it is good.<:MORENEWS:> From the mouth of Tim Schafer:

Is there any part of your life that wouldn't be better with the official Double Fine Two-headed Baby slapped on it, sewn to it, or zipped all around it? We have things in this store to keep you warm, to make beautiful music, to write with, to wear tightly and attract mates... Basically, to help you find love and happiness in this world.

And we also have the Excellent Game Psychonauts in many, many forms. If you steal a credit card with a high enough limit, you could buy enough copies to play it simultaneously on every appliance in your house, except for your toaster. Or Gamecube.

So, why are you still here? Go buy things.

What probably is the first major league review (with all respect to Play, OXM and Playboy) of Psychonauts is in from GameSpot. The result? A very respectable 8.8 score for the Xbox and 8.4 for the PC.

It doesn't get a whole lot more mainstream than GameSpot, and it might come as a pleasant surprise to many that they give such a high score to a rather off-the-beaten-path game.

Look at those happy people.

Is it out today? Probably not, but we updated the news anyway.

Bgbennyboy of Quick & Easy fame has developed a Psychonauts Audio Ripper, which -- you guessed it -- rips audio from the game Psychonauts. Set it to work on either the Xbox or PC demo and you?ll have Razputin and Co.?s vocals playing on your iPod in no time.

Get the ripper here, and read up on all the necessary information in this thread.

Diligent readers in the Mojo forums have decoded what is probably a clue on Double Fine Action News about the pant-crappingly cool announcement coming Tuesday. Posted on the Double Fine news page late Friday:

Now, here is another clue about the exciting ANNOUNCEMENT that I will be making soon:

Foist celery upon abdomen!

The Mojo forumites assumed it was probably an anagram and went to work. Some potential decodings tossed around include:

Doublefine try some on a PC
Doublefine stop on my acre
A mercy, Doublefine's on top
Yet more Doublefine on PCs
Doublefine art pony comes
Post Doublefine car money
Doublefine: No ESP. Cry moat.

But finally, stumbled upon by readers TyraaRayne and ThorsonWelles, comes the answer most people are leaning towards for the exciting pant-crap announcement set to hit Double Fine's website on Tuesday:

"Double Fine company store."

The mental madness of the Psychoportals contest begins Saturday, April 16 (Tomorrow, or today depending on where you are)! Better sign up now for your chance to win some entirely not-crap prizes and probably have some amount of fun in the process. Good luck to everyone involved!

Get your magic pants ready, because something is up at Double Fine.

When you read this announcement, not only will you crap your pants, but you will crap your neighbors pants. You will crap your neighbor's pants so hard, that your neighbor will have to repaint his whole house. But he will be laughing the whole time because this announcement is as good as a million pairs of pants.

What is it? Who knows, but lots of communal pant crapping works into it somehow. Is this related to the recent Double Fine hiring news, or is it something about Psychonauts, or is it both? We'll find out -- and crap our pants -- soon.

Update: Double Fine have left some clues on their site. Apparently it?s going to cost money, be something that we can "mess with" and be out this Tuesday (the same day Psychonauts is released). Let the speculations commence!

Update: (by Jake) I wonder who posted that last update. It wasn't me. I wonder if the announcement is Psychonauts?

Gabzo update: Er, I wonder who posted that last update too. It wasn?t me! Anyway, Double Fine Action News has been updated once more with another teaser. Is the announcement just Psychonauts, or is something else planned? Who knows, but it's fun trying to guess! Well, it kills time before the game release anyway. Oh, and while I?m here I might as well mention that the illustrious Benzo has ripped the Psychonauts demo music. Check it out here.

Now that Psychonauts is days away (or weeks away, in the case of the PS2 port) from being out the door and in the hands of gamers everywhere, is Double Fine Productions already starting to fiddle with their next project? It sure looks like it! They have recently posted three job listings on game industry site Gamasutra - it seems Double Fine is looking for a Senior Producer and a Senior Technical Artist.

Most curiously, though, is their posting in search of a Network Programmer - someone to "architect the company?s next-generation networking infrastructure, define programming policies and guidelines for the creation of networking-compatible software, and develop a networking system for online play."

What is up over there? Will we learn anything at E3? Discuss!

If you, like me, haven't been able to play the Psychonauts demo because of its rather steep hardware requirements you'll be happy to know that the Official Xbox Magazine is now in stores. It includes both the playable demo and the fabled 9.5 review.

Of course, it does also cost $9.99 so it might be a steep price seeing that the game will be out next week.

Or it might just be worth the price. I think it is, anyway. ?