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Sam and Max Hit the GameTap
Gamespot reports that the episodic sequels to the original Sam and Max title will be available on GameTap starting next month. Sam & Max Episode 1: Culture Shock will be available starting on October 17th for subscribers to the PC-download service. Non-subscribers will be able to download the game at some future point. From the article: "Just under a year ago, indie studio Telltale Games acquired the rights to make games based on the underground comic Sam & Max: Freelance Police. The news was a godsend to many old-school gamers who loved the first game the comic inspired, 1993's Sam & Max Hit the Road, and lamented the 2004 cancellation of its sequel, Sam & Max: Freelance Police." Update: 09/08 19:24 GMT by Z : Jake Rodkin from TellTale wrote to make sure we pointed out the copious details that didn't make it into the Gamespot piece. For those of us without GameTap, we can look forward to the non-subscription release on November 1st.
From the faq:
TFA says that the title will be exclusive on GameTap for an unknown length of time. Looking quickly at Telltale's site shows that the game will be downloadable from the developer's site starting November 1st.
Dewey, you fool! Your decimal system has played right into my hands!
Also there's a little error in that Gamespot article - they say GameTap's exclusivity is for an undisclosed period. It's actually 15 days (hence the release on Telltale's site Nov. 1). Also the article says the games will only be available through digital distribution... this is true initially, but there will most likely be a box set of Season 1 for sale once all the episodes are out.
More info here.
Personally I enjoy it. There are a lot of old school games on there that I have played but lost the disk to, never got a chance to try, or didn't realize were so fun. Variety of games is nice too, from strategy, to action, to fighter, to educational games. The downloads seem slow sometimes while it loads the resources for your game but other then that I'm happy with it. They also offer a free trial period of a couple weeks. Last time I payed attention they were over 600 games and counting. New games every week so far too.
I found the two Bone games from Telltale pretty underwhelming, although the second was an improvement over the first. I hope they do a better job with Sam & Max.
If you're into old-school games, yes. The nostalgia is shocking when you browse through the selection of titles. Reminiscent of Blockbuster's game section circa 1993. There's certainly an enormous selection, and the price isn't too bad. But I have two warnings for you: 1. Many of the games did not port to PC very well. There will be crashes/bugs. Said bugs prevented me from completing the last level of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. 2. Canceling your account is torture. You have to call the company in order to axe your account, at which point they will bribe you with a free month's subscription and plead with you to be patient as they fix/add games. You've been warned. But overall I applaud GameTap. I'd recommend trying out the free two-week trial to give yourself a full scope of the pros/cons of GameTap.
Telltale "bought the rights to the name 'Sam and Max'?"
Actually, no. Telltale is working on these Sam & Max games with Steve Purcell, the guy who created Sam & Max as comic book characters in the 80s and brought them to LucasArts in the first place. Sam & Max aren't LucasArts' characters, they're Purcell's, and Purcell is working with Telltale on this game. The team at Telltale worked with Purcell at LucasArts on Sam & Max Freelance Police, which was cancelled. The Freelance Police team left LucasArts and started their own studio. Purcell trusted them enough with his characters that came to Telltale and asked to work with them on making the next Sam & Max game.
Also, as far as "untrustworthy" goes, yeah Telltale's website is a bit crusty right now, but they've released four games in the last two years - a casual game, two independently developed episodic titles, and a full retail game for Ubisoft - which is something that very few, uh, "untrustworhty looking startups" can claim. Telltale also employs Dave Grossman, one of the writers and game designers behind Monkey Island 1 and 2 as well as Day of the Tentacle, as their senior writer and designer.
Basically, despite all your smarm and textual smirking, you have no idea what you're talking about.
"Look at this Max, it's a new game starring us. Why do you suppose it's Windows only?"
"I keep telling you Sam, my name isn't an abbreviation for the plural of Macintosh. It's Max with an X. The X makes me more appealing to those miscreants on soda commercials. After all, they're our demographic."
"You need to watch less TV Max."