al-lowe posts

Last week, we reported that a revival of the once canceled action-adventure game Sam Suede would go on, at least for now, without any involvement from the game's original writer Al Lowe. Lowe's most famous game creation, the highly funny and adult Leisure Suit Larry series, was one of the most popular adventure game series of all time when Lowe was in charge but after 1996's seventh game Leisure Suit Larry: Love For Sail (pictured to the right) he was never directly involved in the game future incarnations which were critical and sales bombs.

However Lowe just recently updated his personal web site with his basic idea for his planned follow up to Love For Sail. In a nutshell, "Larry 8" would have seen the goofy Lothario in outer space with women who wanted to . . you know . . .to him. However they turn out to be aliens who want to use Larry to propagate a species that looks human and would try to infiltrate and take over the Earth. Naturally only Larry could stop this plot.

Lowe states that the new owners of the game's publisher Sierra Online tried to get him to work on the game without signing a contract. He states, "I refused to flesh out the design until we reached an agreement on terms. They didn't want to negotiate, so I left." Our loss indeed.

[Via Blue's News]

Earlier today we reported that publisher Apogee and Icarus Studios were planning to revive Sam Suede in Undercover Exposure, the comedy themed action-adventure game that was first announced in 2006 as the big gaming comeback of Leisure Suit Larry creator Al Lowe. The game's original creator iBase Entertainment went under less than a year after the game's official announcement.

So is Al Lowe involved in any way with the new version of Sam Suede? Big Download contacted Lowe via his web site for comment and he emailed us back this statement: "This is the first I've heard of it. It's been four years since I was involved. I wonder who's going to finish the design and add the humor?" The last game Lowe was directly involved with that was actually released was Leisure Suit Larry: Love For Sail! back in 1996. Two revivals of that game franchise (Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude and Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust) were done without Lowe's involvement and both were critical and sales bombs. Big Download has attempted to contact the game's new PR contact for more info but so far we have not received any response to our inquires.

Games, it seems, don't die off . . they just stay in the fridge until someone thaws them out. Last week, we heard that a once canceled MMO, Gods and Heroes, was going back into production. Today we got word that another title that was once thought to be lost is making a comeback.

That game is Sam Suede in Undercover Exposure, a PC humor-themed action-adventure title that was first announced in 2006 by iBase Entertainment. The game was promoted as the return to gaming of Al Lowe, the creator of the original Leisure Suit Larry series. However only a few months later word came out that the game was being put on hold due to financial issues. Today it was announced that the game is being brought back by developer Icarus Studios, the makers of the MMO Fallen Earth, and publisher Apogee.

The press release makes no mention of the game's previous history or Al Lowe's involvement nor does it reveal a platform for the game. We hope to get more info on the title soon.