Telltale-Games posts

Telltale Games' first "season" in its episodic adventure game Tales of Monkey Island is getting ready for its fifth and final chapter, Rise of the Pirate God. Today, Telltale announced the final chapter will be released for PC via download on December 8 and they hint that the game's lead character could meet with a nasty fate.

Yes, Guybrush Threepwood could be no more in this concluding chapter and even Telltale's Dave Grossman seems to think there's no hope for our pirate hero. In Telltale's press release announcing Rise of the Pirate God, he says, "It's a great tragedy to see such a productive life seemingly cut off prematurely. And I'm not just saying that because he owes me money." We won't have long to find out if he's correct. In the meantime the first four individual chapters in the series are now on sale at Telltale's web site.

Last week, in order to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first Wallace and Gromit cartoon, developer Telltale Games announced that their four episode adventure game series Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures would have a temporary price cut from $34.95 to just 20 bucks.

Welll if you missed out on the sale, don't fret because as it turns out you haven't missed a thing. Telltale has announced that the $20 sale on the Wallace and Gromit game series has in fact been extended. There's no word yet on how long this sale extension will last but if we were you (and trust us, that's a scary concept) we would act quickly before Telltale decides to pull the plug.

While everyone else is waiting for pre-Black Friday sales, PC gamers know that sales on downloadable PC games can be found all the time, especially on Thursdays.

• Steam has cut the price of the original Mass Effect to just $9.99 for the weekend
• Impulse has a number of weekend game sales going on including Flock for $7.49, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl for $9.99 and Mosby's Confederacy for $12.99.
• GamersGate has cut the prices of several of their games. That includes Painkiller, Painkiller Overdose and Painkiller Universe which are down 30 percent each. It has also put Grappling Hook (for PC and Mac) on sale for 50 percent off its normal price this weekend.
• Direct2Drive offers up $5 off Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising if you put in the promo code 5OFFOPFLASH at checkout.
• Telltale Games is offering full seasons of Sam and Max Seasons One and Two, Strong Bad and Wallace and Gromit for $20 each, a savings of $15 each from their original price.
  

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the release of A Grand Day Out!, the very first animated short subject starring Wallace and Gromit. To celebrate the folks at Telltale Games have decided to offer one of the four chapters in their recent episodic adventure game series Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures for free download. The chapter, Muzzled, will be free to download until 3 pm ET on Monday.

Also the entire four episode "season" of the series has been discounted to just $20 for the duration as well and part of the proceeds will go to either the UK-based with Wallace & Gromit Children's Foundation or the US-based Penny Arcade's Child's Play. Pre-orders for the DVD collector's version of the game series, with lots of extras, are being taken now and will ship out in December.
Download the Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures Demo (138 MB)

Telltale Games completed the four chapter adventure game Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures earlier this year and next month Telltale will collect the episodic series into a Collector's DVD with lots of extra features. One of those extra features will let people help two children's charities.

Telltale announced today that from November 4-8 part of the proceeds from the collector's DVD will go to either the Wallace & Gromit Children's Foundation in the UK or the Child's Play charity in the US. The $34.95 DVD will include image galleries, a behind-the-scenes video and the Cracking Contraption animated shorts that show off Wallace's crazy inventions. Telltale also states to look for more Wallace and Gromit news on November 3.

Last week we reported that Telltale Games was planning to release the fourth chapter in their LucasArts published adventure game Tales of Monkey Island this week. Now Telltale has narrowed that release date down, saying the fourth installment in the series will be released on Friday.

Telltale has also served up some advanced screenshots from the fourth chapter, titled The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood. In this Law and Order-ish episode our favorite ship captain has to defend himself in court against false charges and an "smooth-talking prosecutor". With just one more chapter left in the series, can Guybrush escape the long arm of the law? We have our money on him but we could be wrong . . .

It's getting near the end of October which means Telltale Games is also getting close to releasing their next chapter in the LucasArts published adventure game series Tales of Monkey Island. Today, Telltale revealed that the fourth chapter in the series, The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood, is due for its digital download release sometime next week.

As they always do, Telltale has posted up a Flash animation teaser for their next chapter on their web site. Actually, it's mostly a fun way for the developer to create some extra funny stuff that in reality has little to do with the real game that they will release next week. But it's still worth watching.

Gearbox Software's head man Randy Pitchford's statements in a recent Maximum PC magazine interview (recently reprinted on the mag's web site) about his objections to the PC game download service Steam continue to be commented on by in the game industry. Pitchford stated the he feels the ownership of Steam by game developer Valve is a big conflict of interest. He also felt that Valve was exploiting smaller game developers.

We've already reported on what Steam user Tripwire Interactive has said about the service (basically if there was no Steam there would be no Tripwire Interactive). Now Ars Technica has collected some more thoughts from some other smaller dev team. The main consensus is that while there could be conflict of interest, Valve has yet to abuse their power. 2D Boy rep Ron Carmel stated, "Quite the contrary, Valve offers the most developer-friendly terms for digital distribution in the industry." Dylan Fitterer, the creator of the hit indie rhythm game Audiosurf, launched the game via Steam last year and has had massive sales success. He states, "If this is exploitation, more please."

The third episode of the Tales of Monkey Island series, Lair of the Leviathan, released today and continues the adventure of Guybrush Threepwood in his quest to rid the world of the Pox of LeChuck... which he also happened to release onto it. Joining him this time is the Pirate Bounty Hunter Morgan La Flay, slightly crazed explorer Coronado De Cava, and a special guest that's made an appearance in previous Monkey Island games. Above is a brief gameplay trailer that gives the viewers a glimpse of what to expect. An extended version of the same sequence can be seen after the jump. Lair of the Leviathan is available for purchase from the TellTale Games website now and the Tales of Monkey Island demo can be downloaded here.

"In the third Tales of Monkey Island chapter, Guybrush gets in deep (literally!) as his quest for the voodoo exfoliating La Esponja Grande takes a scenic twist -- through the guts of a giant manatee!

Trapped in the belly of the beast, our hero encounters a surprising band of castaways, including the long-lost (and obsessive-compulsive) explorer Coronado De Cava. Can the Mighty Pirate win the suspicious De Cava's trust? Will sexy pirate hunter Morgan LeFlay prove to be a ruthless enemy, or an unlikely ally? Will the group find La Esponja Grande in time to save Elaine from the rampant Pox of LeChuck? And will the world be crushed by the gnashing teeth of a certain demonic skull?"

Download HD Tales of Monkey Island Ep. 3 Gameplay Trailer (86 MB)
Download HD Tales of Monkey Island Ep. 3 Extended Gameplay Trailer (123 MB)
Download the Tales of Monkey Island Demo (188 MB)
Check out all Tales of Monkey Island downloads

Gallery: Tales of Monkey Island

As promised, Telltale Games and LucasArts has made the first full chapter in their hit five part episodic adventure game Tales of Monkey Island available for free in celebration of tomorrow's Talk like a Pirate Day. The episode, Launch of the Screaming Narwal, will only be available for free until midnight PT Saturday (that's 3 am ET Sunday).

You can check out what we thought of the episode when it was first released in our review of the chapter. The second episode, The Siege of Spinner Cay, is already released. Telltale and LucasArts plans to release the third chapter, Lair of the Leviathan, on September 29.
Download Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal Demo (187 MB)