Sam & Max

Opa-Opa · Post by **Opa-Opa** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 6:22 am

Am I the only one here who's been playing the new Sam & Max games? I think Telltale Games did a pretty good job on taking adventure games back.

Shadow Hog · Post by **Shadow Hog** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 2:39 pm

I won't say "Yes", since it sure looks like the games deserve playing - I'm just waiting for them to put the lot together at a premium price, so it'd be like buying a fully-fledged adventure game instead of several micro-ones.

That, and I never played <i>Hit the Road</i>, so I want to track that down ASAP. Old LucasArts games were sex.

Post by **Esrever** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 2:41 pm

They're really fantastic. The writing is solid (and hilarious) and the puzzles are clever, if not especially difficult to solve. The first episode had a couple of voice-acting woes, but Sam and Max themselves sound great, and from episode two on the supporting cast have all been well-cast too.

Like the old game, you spend more time listening and laughing than you do actually playing, but it's such an enjoyable experience that you won't care.

Plus the Telltale Games guys are super nice. When I plugged them on my site, they actually noticed I had done it and sent me an early review copy of the next episode to thank me for whatever insignificant amount of traffic I sent their way. How cool is that?

Light Speed · Post by **Light Speed** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 6:37 pm

I heard they were coming to Xbox Live Arcade so I'll probably get them three years from now when they finally hit.

Post by **Esrever** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 7:29 pm

Hey Shadow Hog, one really slick thing about the new Sam and Max is that you can buy what they call the "season subscription."

You pay a single fee of $34.99, and they send each one of the episodes to you as they are released. Then, when all the episodes are out, they'll mail you a physical copy of the whole game on a CD for nothing more than the price of shipping.

So in a couple months, you'll end up with a physical copy of all six episodes just like you would buy in a store... for less than the cost of a normal new game. And until then, you can download and play one of those episodes every month. It's pretty swanky. No one has got a better handle on how to do "episodic" distribution right than Telltale does.

Meanwhile, here's one of my favourite exchanges from the game.

Sam examines a single noose hanging on a coatrack.
Sam: "Hey, what happened to our noose collection?"
Max: "It's a surprise!"

Double-S- · Post by **Double-S-** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 8:34 pm

They're pretty good. I don't find the writing to be as consistently funny as Hit the Road's was.

Opa-Opa · Post by **Opa-Opa** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:30 pm

Esrever wrote:Plus the Telltale Games guys are super nice.

Yeah. I bought the Season 1 right before episode 2 came out. I had a few problems with activating and everything but they responded my emails quicker then I usaually check my inbox, and in a very nice humor (responding well to jokes and such).

The only thing that kinda bugs me is that by now I never got stuck. The puzzles are a bit too obvious for me, but the dialogue easily compensates it.

*Sam shoots at a pile of cheese -BANG BANG BANG!* "Take that!"
"No Sam! The cheese was innocent!"
"Innocent? I think not!"

Shadow Hog wrote:That, and I never played <i>Hit the Road</i>, so I want to track that down ASAP. Old LucasArts games were sex.

Can I post abandonware links here? Actually, I'm not even sure if it would be considered abandonware...

Post by **Esrever** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 1:02 am

The puzzles do get more elaborate in the later episodes, but yeah... they're never THAT elaborate.

The jokes aren't quite as laugh-out-loud as in the original, but they're shooting for a different sense of humour. By-and-large, the new game is more satirical and less absurdist. It wouldn't have been my first choice, but it works well within the context of the game.

cjmcray · Post by **cjmcray** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:46 am

I'd like to, but those are games you need to download and play on your PC, right?

My PC is stone-age.

And I don't have broadband. So, no. =(

I loved the Saturday morning cartoon though.

Opa-Opa · Post by **Opa-Opa** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 6:20 am

My PC is kinda stone-age too and it runs fine. And the games are, like, 70 to 100 megabytes.

j-man · Post by **j-man** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 7:13 am

Just in case anyone hasn't read Steve Purcell's interactive Sam & Max webcomic. Page 11 is out!

I've yet to buy, but I justed watched a trailer and it seems the original voice actors are back in action, which meaaaans... Sam is being played by none other than Bill Farmer, better known as Disney's Goofy? This makes me feel warm inside. A must buy! Can you get this shit in In-ger-land?

Post by **Esrever** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 4:07 pm

It's not actually the same voice actors, although Sam's actor in particular sounds very similar to Bill Farmer. Max's voice actor in episode one played him a bit squeakier than the original, but apparently he's come down with some kind of health problem. From episode two on Max has been voiced by a different actor who sounds a bit more like the original. Both actors did a good job, though.

Interestingly, Max's original voice actor now plays Russian president Suvarov on 24. No joke.

As far as I know, you can buy the games from any country in the world via the Telltale site. You can also play them for free if you have a Gametap subscription.

Smilie · Post by **Smilie** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 5:04 am

I just bought the original Hit the Road for nine dollars Australian. It's my first adventure game, and I'm having a lot of fun with it. I'm pretty insecure about money and the internet, and I'm a dirty cheapskate, so I'll probably end up picking Season One months after it gets realeased. What I've seen of Telltales efforts looks pretty good, though.

Arcade · Post by **Arcade** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 5:16 pm

IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m waiting for the Wii version...because I really hate Windows Xp and Vista...