back-to-the-future posts

Tomorrow we will have an important announcement concerning the future of Big Download. Stay tuned.

• Steam has released a new automatic patch for Portal 2 that's has a number of bug fixes and improvements.
• As promised the fourth episode of Telltale's Back to the Future game series has been announced.
• The family oriented super hero MMO Marvel Super Heroes Squad Online has officially launched.
• It looks like we will get a reveal of the next Assassin's Creed game soon via its official Facebook page.
• Will you be in Plano, Texas on May 7? Then you might be able to check out a demo of Rage.

The final week in April will see an action-RPG spin-off from an already established game franchise, along with two new entries in two episodic adventure games.

Darkspore - Electronic Arts releases this game that's loosely based on the 2008 released alien evolution game Spore. Darkspore is a sci-fi action-RPG that uses a version of Spore's Creature Creature to help improve and add to your player creatures as the battles enemies across several different planets. The game has a persistent multiplayer mode and also has support for up to four players in co-op. It also has an MMO-like player vs player mode.

Telltale Games will have at least two downloadable PC game releases next week. We have already reported that the first episode of Hector: Badge of Carnage will be out on April 27. Now the developer's Twitter page has revealed that episode four of its Back to the Future continuation will be released for the PC and Mac next week as well.

The episode, Double Visions, has Marty McFly teaming up with "First Citizen Brown" in an alternate 1986 to create an invention that is suppose to keep a younger version of Doc Brown from making a huge mistake. We assume that things won't be going according to plan as there is still one more episode left in Back to the Future's "season".

This could be considered to be an April Fool's joke but Telltale Games assures us that this deal is indeed for real. The first chapter of the developer's five part Back to the Future downloadable adventure game series has now been released for free.

Yes, now you can check out the first episode of this unofficial sequel to the beloved movie trilogy as Marty Mcfly goes time traveling again, this time to the 1930's where he meets up with a younger version of Doc Brown. You will have to sign up for a free Telltale Games announce to download the first episode but aside from that the chapter is totally free and there's no time limit on this offer either. You can still order the entire five part series (chapter three was just released this week) for $24.99.

As promised earlier this week, Telltale Games has now released the third episode for Back to the Future for the PC and Mac as the developer continues its "sequel" to the classic sci-fi movie trilogy. This third episode is titled Citizen Brown and as you can see in the above screenshot Marty McFly has traveled to an alternate 1986 where Hill Valley has been taken over by a fascist version of his long time friend Doc Brown.

As we reported last week this episode also sees the return of Marty's girlfriend Jennifer Brown, voiced by Claudia Wells, who portrayed the character in the first Back to the Future movie.

The third chapter of Telltale Games's movie-based adventure game Back To The Future is due out via download for the PC and Mac next week and it shows our time traveling hero Marty McFly entering into yet another altered 1986 time line. However a new behind-the-scenes video for Episode 3, Citizen Brown, shows that another member from the movie's original cast is back voicing her role for the game, joining Christopher Lloyd's Doc Brown.

That happens to be Claudia Wells, who played Marty's girlfriend Jennifer Brown in the first movie in the trilogy (Elizabeth Shue took over the role for the final two films). In Citizen Brown, Jennifer is no longer Marty's girlfriend and indeed has a new look and attitude compared to her movie counterpart. You can check out the trailer after the jump:

Download the Back To The Future "How We Got Jennifer" Trailer at Big Download

Back To The Future's third episode from developer Telltale Games has taken a little while to get here (the last episode was released via download on February 16) but in the company's latest online newsletter Telltale has announced that the third chapter of its movie-based adventure game will in fact be released next week for the PC and Mac.

The chapter is called Citizen Brown and has Marty heading back to an time altered 1986 where Doc Brown now rules over everything as, well, First Citizen Brown. It looks like Back to the Future's "season" will overlap with another Telltale movie based game as Jurassic Park's first episode is due for release in April.

In a very late announcement, developer Telltale Games has revealed that the second chapter of its five part Back to the Future adventure game series is now available for PC and Mac users. The second chapter is only available for folks who have purchased the full five episodes on the developer's official web site.

The second chapter is titled Get Tannen and deals with the consequences of the first episode where the timeline has been changed and the Tannen family is making things hard on the McFly family. Marty and Doc Brown have to back to 1931 to set things right. You can check out a trailer for the second chapter after the jump:

There nothing that says "good times" more than going over a game publisher's financial numbers in its press release. What fun!

• Steam has posted up the sixth patch for Magicka along with updates for Gratuitous Space Battles and Mafia II.
• Steam has also added Myst: Masterpiece Edition and is selling it and the related Cyan Complete Pack for 25 percent off their normal price for the next week.
• Telltale Games has revealed two new characters that will appear in the second chapter of Back to the Future: Officier Parker (Jennifer's dad) and Trixie Trotter.
• This week is the 20th anniversary of the founding of id Software. We suddenly feel old.

While developer Telltale Games' newly launched episodic adventure game series Back to the Future is only available via download for now that won't be the case forever. MCV reports that the company plans to offer the continuation of the beloved movie trilogy in a retail store version that will collect all five episodes (at the moment just the first chapter has been released via download). There's no word on when the retail version will be released.

Telltale's episodic games have had some retail releases before, most notably the first two "seasons" of its Sam and Max series. People who purchase the downloadable seasons of Telltale's games can also get a boxed DVD collection of the episode via mail order. These collections always have lots of extras and behind-the-scenes content.