Sam and Max

[adfegg]

So this should be out today, right? Pre-ordered mine so with any luck I can download it when I get home.

[brkl]

It's out now.

[David]

It's up. Go get it!

Edit: Wow, sniped

[brkl]

I've never been so baffled and annoyed by an online ordering & activation system as I am by Telltale's. The only thing that seems to work is charging me.

[vimes]

I bought the whole season on the account that it's very cheap...

I'm downloading it right now at a speed so amazing that it isn't without reminding me of the velocity at which IdleThumbs updates their front page.

OhHO Zing!

[JoeX111]

I've been playing a review copy off and on for a few days now.

Everything seems pretty ace, with the except of Sam himself. Since when is Sam just the straight man to Max's wackiness? Most of the jokes seem to revolve around Sam describing something, then Max saying something humorous in response. It isn't all bad, but the guy voicing Sam also doesn't deter from his deadpan monologue delivery much, making most of his few jokes fall flat.

[manny_c44]

I played the demo for five seconds and then just bought the season, the feel was good.

Unfortunately it's crashing all over the place, more and more as I progress further into the game. I guess I should try the whole driver update regimen before I really start complaining

[vimes]

Because proxies are hating me, I could only played the demo which is pure genious in terms of dialog. Far better than the original one, in my opnion.

[Marek]

Sam and Max, More Like Sam and Minus

lololololoool.

[brkl]

Sam & Min, Marek. God damnit, get it right.

[BooJaka]

I am so torn on this one. I was going to wait until they all came out and get them all in what I would imagine would be a bundle by then but today I somewhat foolishly downloaded the demo and loved every second of it. Should I just go and get it anyway or still wait?

[Jayel]

I ordered the first season last night. Yippeee!

I like what I see so far.

I've never been so baffled and annoyed by an online ordering & activation system as I am by Telltale's. The only thing that seems to work is charging me.

Activation? How? I just downloaded, installed, and played without going through any activation process.

[BigJKO]

I am so torn on this one. I was going to wait until they all came out and get them all in what I would imagine would be a bundle by then but today I somewhat foolishly downloaded the demo and loved every second of it. Should I just go and get it anyway or still wait?

You should just get the whole season now. That way, you get to play all the episodes as they come out, and then end up getting a free of charge Season Box Set when they're all out.

[BooJaka]

Oh I see... Something to look into tomorrow I think

[Moosferatu]

Oh man, Culture Shock kicks some serious ass. :tup:

[brkl]

There's no reason to wait for the entire season. It's a silly idea.

[Moosferatu]

I just finished it. To be honest, I hadn't expected it to be as amazing as it turned out to be. I can't really think of anything bad to say about it. The 3d graphics work surprisingly well, and Sam & Max have some of the best 3d animation that I've seen. If only the characters in Dreamfall had been this expressive... You know, this is probably one of the advantages of making episodic games. The developers spend more time on each individual part of the game so in the end the game ends up more detailed as a whole. They're able to spend the time to do things like make sure that each scene is animated properly instead of inserting boring generic animations. Also, I love the red and black title sequences and the dream sequences were top notch. :tup:

Too bad we have to wait till January for the next episode. Has anything been announced about when the next Bone game is coming out? Oh, and what's the deal with the updated editions of Bone? Can you get them if you've already bought the game, or do you have to buy it again? I don't own a physical copy of either of them, so I'm tempted to buy them again now, but I don't want to buy a second time only for Telltale to release yet another updated edition in a year or two. Telltale should have multiple versions available on their site, so people with crappy computers and slow internet connections can play their games and people with good computers and fast internet connections can get a higher quality version of the game. Then they wouldn't have to bother with re-releases.

[Karimi]

Well I thought the download/activation thing was top notch, had the game downloaded and installed in around 15 mins. Played a bit so far, its good but I feel they're trying too hard with the jokes sometimes, its hit and miss with the jokes. Only played 5 mins of the game so far tho.

[miffy495]

You should just get the whole season now. That way, you get to play all the episodes as they come out, and then end up getting a free of charge Season Box Set when they're all out.

They'll send you the box set if you buy the season online? Sweet shit, I'll be doing that tonight then.

[baconian]

Far better than the original one, in my opnion.

I agree.

And the buying process was short and sweet, and also featured big, friendly buttons. Got the season and laughed my ass off last night.

And I like the way they have so many negatives in the checkbox contact message at the bottom of the buying page - Would you not like to refuse any more contact messages that may or may not be sent to you regarding telltale? If not, do not check this box.

[vimes]

Just finished it and it is suprinsgly good : I have some stuff to bitch about in terms of loading times and small freezes when characters enter the scene but on the content it is nearly flawless... which suprises me 'cause I really couldn't get into Hit the Road.

On the whole, I feel like it is the first truly episodic game in the sense that it takes a great deal of advantages from the format and plays with it quite smartly. I'm surprised and happy that Telltale is the first to get that right.

What pleases me most about Telltale and Culture Shock is to see them strip the adventure genre from the superficial : nearly everything revolves around dialogs and story, making most of the puzzles just a deal of understanding the circumstances and playing like the character would. I'm really greatful for the disappearance of object combinations and object chase.

And then, obviously, the dialog : god, I usually smile at funny games, but this one made me laugh out loud ... and this something even Pyshonauts couldn't do. What's even greater is that they really got the animations right this time, it's really a huge leap from the Bone games : I'd even say I can't remember a game in which 3D animation looked as handcrafted as this, like 2D animation oftenly does. Meaning, even outside the dialogs, the SodaPoppers and the Inconvenicence store guy really exists as living characters.

Jeez...I'm really surprised I responded so well to it!

[BigJKO]

Absolutely loved it! Agree with everything said here, that it's the most solid episodic adventure yet. Really had the feeling that I'd finished something, when it ended (Unlike Out from Boneville) And it actually felt lengthy, because I wasn't expecting much after

getting rid of the Soda Poppers.

And while I thought Sam's voice acting wasn't up to par with Max's, I did get used to him and started laughing out loud at some of the things he said.

And yes, the animations were awesome. And the camera system was flawless, it seems. Always showing you some funny background detail when the characters were talking or you were loading in between scenes.

I did encounter a bug where the whole screen went black, but I was still able to hear everything going on in the scene. Got around that by going out of full screen, though.

Yeah, awesome game! Best adventure game I've played for a long time..

[Karimi]

Well, I finished it, I'd say play time was an hour, maybe two with a break. Overall I think it was excellent, a bit short and the puzzles not varied enough but fantastic overall. I think it terms of delivery it was superb, took around 15 mins to buy/download/install , really quick. The game itself was great, good start.

Now to look at it in comparison to other episodes.

Sam and Max. 1 season. 6 episodes. Each episode around 6 dollars and each episode around 1 hour and a half.

Family guy. 1 season. 22 episodes. Each episode approx 2 dollars and each episode roughly 21 mins.

So if we were to equate them in terms of time its 1 sm episode for every 4 fg episodes. Making them almost equal in terms of time , but this depends on how long the player takes to finish the game.

To cut things short : Sam and Max 35 dollars for 9 hours of play. Family guy 37 for 7.9. Seems pretty fair to me.

(Info from Amazon and Tell Tale Games.)

Great job Telltale , welcome back Sam and Max.

[Moosferatu]

If you played through the game in an hour and a half you missed at least half of it.

[Karimi]

I doubt it , I think I started it around 8 and finished 10 so it might have been more than 1 hour and a half. I wasn't really stumped by any puzzles, knocked out the toughest ones in 5 mins or so.