Articles
While it's been hinted at several times before, more confirmation that Telltale intends bringing Sam & Max to the Wii (and are fairly close to signing the deal that will allow them to begin development) was posted today on the Telltale Forums by Emily Morganti.
Though obvioulsy Telltale are still not ready to 'officially announce anything' at this stage.
Source: Telltale Games
Telltale has just put up a gameplay video from Chariots of the Dogs where Sam & Max find a familiar secret service agent guarding their closet.
You can also check out Gametap's trailer for the episode, which may contain mild spoilers, right here.
If by 204 I mean three, but still, that's a lot. First one's from IGN who have the most to say about the game including some descriptions of the beginning.
GameDaily also has a few things to say, but not much. The same goes for the first look by Gametap, the game's co-publisher.
And that's all I got.
With the release of Chariots of the Dogs imminent, Telltale has put up a page for the episode which includes a trailer. There's also eight screenshots, and do enjoy the plot summary:
Bosco's vanished from the face of the Earth - literally! When Sam & Max manage to track him down, what they find is so mind boggling, you'll have to see it to believe it. Can the Freelance Police set things right, or will life as they know it fall victim to the capricious whims of T-H-E-M?Watch the trailer!
More from GDC: While hanging out on the show floor, Destructoid made it their business to interview Telltale's CTO Kevin Bruner. The interviewer had to summarize the conversation after the fact due to a tape recorder mishap (Nice going, Gabez), but the results are still quite great:
Can you give us any hints about the two new episodic franchises you'll be announcing in the near future?Aw yeah.
The're big franchises, even bigger than Sam and Max. One will be on WiiWare. It's been great to start with relatively small licenses like Bone, then move up to Max, then to these two new ones.
At a GDC panel, the music and sound team behind Sam & Max talked about what the audio side of production is like on an episodic series. IGN wrote a little something on it, so go read it or you'll have ruined my birthday.
Yes, yes, yes, I know, CSI:Hard Evidence got there first. But downloadable Telltale games via Nintendo's WiiWare service? That's news!
Unfortunately this isn't Sam & Max, according to Telltale. Will it be one of their mysterious new licenses? Or will it just be more CSI? Stay tuned!
Adventure Gamers reports from GDC that Telltale has been hiring up a storm as of late, including such big-name new employees as Mike Stemmle, Justin Chin, and Brett Tosti. Chin and Tosti will serve as Executive Producers for the company, and you actually already knew about them if you're one to keep a sharp eye on Telltale's team page.
Mike Stemmle, as you surely know, was co-project leader on Sam & Max Hit the Road and that dead game that never seems to get forgotten Sam & Max Freelance Police, among others back at LucasArts. This addition is a highly welcome and long overdue one (one can't help but wonder if the recent scale-down at Perpetual Entertainment, Mike's previous employer, had something to do with this), and Adventure Gamers confirms that he will be working as a designer on the Sam & Max series.
While this epic reunion is sure to excite you, AG also reports that Telltale's expansion will soon yield at least "two announced series" in the near future on multiple platforms. Full press release here. Finally, AG promises a brand new interview with Mike Stemmle of TelltaleArts very soon. Watch them closely.
Update: In other GDC news, check out the blog of "citizenmike" to learn about his experience at Telltale's Sam & Max party. More photos are available care of Joystiq.
The dead are raving and it's up to Sam & Max to stop them! In other words, episode 3, Night of the Raving Dead, is now available for everyone!
Go on, shoo! Download it now!
Source: Telltale blog
The first review is up for Sam & Max: Night of the Raving Dead at Eurogamer, so check it out. Unless of course like me you want to remain totally unspoiled. Only tomorrow for us non-GameTappers!
Update: There's also a nice spoiler-laden review over at CHUD.
And a spoiler-free review at Talking About Games, a site we of course check daily.
Adventure Gamers has also posted their review.
The Norwegian site gamer.no has also posted a rather positive review here. In Norwegian.
A few Telltale related things you should probably know about, and would have by now if I'd felt like typing them before:
- A limited edition Sam & Max statue figure will be coming out courtesy of Symbiote Studios. For some mouth-watering concept drawings of what the final product will look like, check out their blog. No word yet on a release date.
- Telltale's going to WonderCon next week! If you plan on attending, or if you just like making yourself miserable, check out their extensive show plans.
- Telltale's been the feature of a few recent internet articles, including "Games Changers" in which Dan Connors is honored as a reshaper of the games business, a new interview with Steve Purcell from Finalboss, and a Q&A with Brendan Ferguson by Gametap about Night of the Raving Dead, out in two to three days!
- As the lovable Zaarin recently pointed out, Telltale's reprint of Surfin' the Highway is finally upon us. The paperback version is shipping now, whereas the limited edition hardcover is sadly due out "Spring 2008." Also, Steve Purcell seems to approve of the book.
Telltale has released a new video for Sam & Max Episode 203 - Night of the Raving Dead (which I'm avoiding as I want to be as least spoiled as possible, so I can't tell you how undoubtedly great it is) as well as some excellent MP3s from the soundtrack (which I can listen to because music can't spoil anything - or can it?).
Check them out right here.
Telltale has put up the page for the next Sam & Max episode Night of the Raving Dead here so what are you reading this for? There be trailer and screenshots for everyone!
Update! It also turns out they've moved the release date up two days to February 12th. for GameTap subscribers and to the 13th. for everyone else!
Telltale and Ubisoft have put out a PC demo of CSI: Hard Evidence, giving you a taste of the game's first case, "Burning for You," which tasks you with figuring out who set a bald cabbie on fire. So if you're still on the fence about this game, why not check it out? As previously noted, all versions of the game are now available: PC, Xbox 360, and Wii. Since I was able to get my hands on a copy of the Wii version over the weekend, I'll probably go ahead and add some impressions to our review soon.
Telltale also reports that the Sam & Max: Season 1 case file, aka that envelope of worthless goodies you can slide inside your DVD case, is being discontinued, so get on that if you're interested.
I know what you're thinking. "Why was Moai Better Blues so short? Normally I can play these episodes again and again and that usually tides me over until the next episode! But 202 was so particularly short I've already finished it twelve times!"
I hear you brother. But why did Moai Better Blues ended feeling so much more brief than the rest of the episodes?
Well, if you were one of the unlucky/lucky folk who downloaded the Early Gametap Version, such as this fella here, you found the answer.
Simply, the episode was longer, until very late in the day (later than the first Beta released but just before the Final version) some major puzzles got cut out. Also wondering why the babies at Tiny Tiki don't do more? Well, they did! The "waitress guild" puzzle was a lot more complicated before, and they all took part.
According to Tanukitsune on the Telltale forum who noticed the differences, the main reason this was cut out was simply because it was extremely irritating. So the final version is shorter, but more fun. Interesting, right?
Hey, remember when everybody in the world wanted Sam & Max: Season 1 to be ported to the Wii? Well, it seems that JoWood, publisher of the retail version of the season, will be doing just that in the near future. The proof? This press release. It's in German (and also primarily about Agatha Christie), but the tiny part about Sam & Max on Wii is somehow in some sort of universal tongue.
The next question you'll have is, "When's it coming out?" followed by "Is Telltale developing it?" Don't know yet; stay tuned!
Update: It might be wisest to wait for Telltale to say something about this before believing it.