sam-and-max posts

Since its formation Telltale Games has mostly worked in the downloadable humorous episodic game genre with two seasons of Sam and Max, Wallace and Gromit, Tales of Monkey Island and others. They have also done a few CSI-based adventure games for Ubisoft. Now it looks like Telltale may be expanding their reach to include other types of games.

In a chat with VG247.com, Telltale CEO Dan Connors says to expect new game announcements from the developer "around October". While it sounds like some of the game announcements will be sequels to previous Telltale game titles, Conners adds, " . . . we'll be announcing some new franchises, probably in some new genres as well, not just comedy." We hope to get more info fron Conners when we attend PAX 2009 this weekend.

As we mentioned earlier today, Telltale Games turns five years old this week and the game development studio made up of former LucasArts adventure game developers has been highly successful with its series of downloadable episodic adventure games. It's released two "seasons" of Sam and Max, plus a season of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. Right now they are in the middle of its Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures series. Telltale states they have sold over one million PC game episodes since their launch.

While Telltale is running a new promotion designed to get new people to try out their games, they also revealed that a new game announcement will be made at this year's E3 event. There's no word yet on if the game will be a return to a past series or an all new game.

Turning five years old for a kid usually means a big birthday and a chance to go to school for kindergarten for the first time.For Telltale Games, turning five years old means that they have some celebrating to do and you get some of the benefits.

From now until May 18, Steam users will be able to download the first and second seasons of Telltale's Sam and Max episodic game series for $14.99 (Season One) and $17.49 (Season 2). That's a 50 percent savings from its normal Steam price. The entire first season of Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People is also on sale for just $17.49, another 50 percent savings.

Telltale Games' season season of their episodic adventure series Sam and Max will be getting a new lease on life soon, courtesy of Atari. The publisher announced today that they will release the entire six episode season to stores in a retail box collection sometime in 2009.

Of course, Telltale has already released all six episodes of the dog and rabbit detective team's adventures via direct PC download and have also released a DVD collection of the second season (shown on the right) on their own though mail order. Atari will also release Season 2 of Sam and Max for the Wii console as well.

Valve is usually pretty generous about the games it puts in its regular weekend sale on its Steam service and this weekend's deal is no exception. For the next few days, the entire first six episode season of Telltale Games' Sam and Max adventure series (based on the Steve Purcell's comic book series) has a special price.

Folks who haven't had the pleasure of trying out this terrific (and funny) series can get all six episodes for just $14.99 via Steam this weekend. Individually each episode is $8.99 each and the regular package price for all six chapters is $29.99 so there is savings all around in this case.

On Wednesday we reported that Turner Broadcasting was selling off its Gametap online game download service to Metaboli, a European company that has a similar business model (Turner will have a minority stake in the new business arrangement, however). Variety chatted with Metaboi CEO Pierre Gaudet about the deal and it looks like one of Gametap's unique features may be going by the wayside.

That feature is launching original games on Gametap such as Telltale's Sam and Max series and more recently American McGee's Grimm. There hasn't been any announcements on new titles coming from the service and it looks like Gaudet might put that aspect of Gametap to bed, saying, "We are not doing that in Metaboli and for the time being it's not in our plans." Telltale Games might decide to simply release future episodes of Sam and Max on their own for the PC as they have done for their second epiodic series Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People.

It's been expected for a little while now but today Turner Broadcasting has announced that it is now selling its Gametap PC game download/subscription service over to European based Metaboli, the owners of their own game download provider. Gametap will continue to use its name and web site for its US operations while Metaboli's name will be used for their European business. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Turner Broadcasting launched Gametap in 2005 allowing folks to play older PC games and even old console games under PC emulation for a monthly fee. Later the company allowed folks to play a number of their games for free (with ad support) and also offered permanent paid downloads of games. They also released new and original titles like the Sam and Max series and more recently American McGee's Grimm. Turner will continue to support and maintain the Gametap web site until early 2009 when Metaboli will take over completely. Gametap's US offices in Atlanta will still remain under the new Metaboli ownership deal and Turner will be an equity investor in the business.

PC gaming as we know it is dead. That's right, dead. Don't worry though, it's long since been reborn. Now worry again, because it's here for your brains! This week I'll explore the undead realm of gaming. Meaning everything from games literally featuring the undead, to stuff everyone assumed was gone, but has since returned. Click through for the juicy brai- I mean, feature.

If you haven't downloaded the five-chapter "Season 2" of Telltale Games' Sam and Max episodic adventure series, you can now get all five chapters plus a ton of extra content in a newly announced DVD collection. Telltale has announced that the Sam and Max Season 2 DVD set will be released in August directly from the developer's web site.

In addition to the five games, the DVD collection will have hours of video that can be played on any DVD player or PC with a DVD drive. Those videos include game footage with commentary from the Telltale dev team, the 20-minute holiday video feature "Sam & Max Nearly Save Christmas, promo trailers, outtakes, concept art, desktop wallpapers, and an MP3 soundtrack sampler. The DVD collection costs $34.95 with shipping and handling; people who have already purchased all five downloadable chapters can get the DVD for free with just the shipping and handling costs. Telltale has also released new Sam and Max merchandise at their web site as well.including the full Season 2 soundtrack, a new poster and a "limited edition case file stuffed with "evidence" from each Season Two episode"

With E3 going on, it's possible that the Big Download staff has spent more time watching videos of upcoming games than playing current ones. But the weekend is finally here, and we're looking forward to getting some time that's hands-on instead of just eyes-on with our favorite hobby.

Lead blogger David Craddock will be taking a break from almost single-handedly holding the site together while John Callaham has been at E3 to play Final DOOM (a classic!) on his PC and Civilization Revolution on his Xbox 360. James Murff will be taking a break from his usual indie fare to play Team Fortress 2 and Company of Heroes with his buddies. When they're not around, he'll be laying the SMACdown with Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Eli Shayotovich is going to be lopping off limbs in Age of Conan.

Lastly, I'm in the middle of moving halfway across the continent, and I had to ship my desktop via UPS ground, so only my notebook is gonna be accessible over the next few days. Therefore low spec games are the flavor of the weekend -- Sam & Max Episode 4 and Fallout. I'm also going to be playing a bit of Rule of Rose on the PS2 (well, technically PS3). But that's us. How about you? What aRe yoU Playing?