Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Well apparently it’s Trogday. If you’re a fan of Homestar Runner, you’re probably as sad about the lack of new content on the site as me. Just because one of the Bros. Chaps had a baby doesn’t mean they can miss a Decemberween cartoon, the lazy buggers. If you’re not a fan, you’ve no idea what this is about and you’re thinking of clicking away. But wait! A great way to find out would be to get a free episode of Telltale’s really fantastic Strong Bad adventures. For today only they’re giving away episode 5 (the last in the series, oddly) for free. And it’s well worth getting hold of.

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This isn’t a Gillen Special Graphic Annotation. I swear to you those words are in the game’s opening scenes. There’s a demo out for an adventure called Green Moon. I have a challenge for you: Tell me what’s going on?

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I look forward to new TV-tie-in games like a child looks forward to a visit to the world’s angriest dentist. Over the oh-so many years I’ve been doing this job, I’ve played a lot of them, and they’ve been universally terrible. Oh, with one sort-of exception – the extraordinary ER The Game, which managed to be a mix of Theme Hospital and a lunatic’s fever dream. That game had ninjas and ghost American footballers. Anyway, sidetrack. Perhaps the most consistently awful are the CSI games, whether developed by 369 Interactive or Telltale. (Telltale’s first, 3 Dimensions of Murder, holds a place in history. It has a plot about a developer who may have murdered a former publisher, for screwing him over for his rights to a game based on his two wacky cartoon characters. This was before they regained the rights to Sam & Max…) Anyway, this latest, CSI: Deadly Intent, also by Telltale, has recently had a demo appear. Despite being two months old. And while it’s not nearly as bad as previous games in the series, it’s not that great.

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You know what some people are wrong about? The Tex Murphy games. Some people are way wrong about them, because they incorrectly think that the inclusion of FMV and old fashioned adventure gaming means something is automatically bad. In fairness it’s not a poor rule to live by – it’s pretty much true otherwise. But not for Tex. The Tex Murphy games managed to both mock the corniness of the genre, while carrying a surprising emotional weight. However, what I always forget is that the series began before them. It began with Mean Streets and Martians Memorandum. I admit I’ve never played them, so in light of the news that both games are completely free on Good Old Games until 24th December I turned to adventure games uber-expert Mr Richard Cobbett to ask about them. “They’re rubbish.” So there we go. But they’re also free. And more importantly, you can get the later games, Overseer, Pandora Directive and Under A Killing Moon from GoG too.

Here’s my theory for how Telltale works out their pricing structures for their episodic adventures: They get a big wheel, almost as big as the one on Wheel Of Fortune, and they label each segment with things like, “$8.95 a month” or “$34.95 for the whole season only”, or “Sell the first four chapters individually, then at the last moment change it so you have to buy all five to get the last chapter, then realise that’s insane.” When first launched the new Tales of Monkey Island adventures had landed on the second choice, somewhat questioning the purpose of episodes. Fortunately a month or so later someone at the company must have given the wheel a nudge, clicking it over to the first option, with all five episodes now available individually from Telltale’s site (but not on Steam). With the final episode five coming out on the 8th December anything could happen with that crazy wheel. But whichever way it goes this time, they’ve put together a fun trailer reminding people of the story so far, in case people lost track over the last five months. Do I really need to point out it therefore contains spoilers? No? Good.

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A while back I was ranting about how the indie developers creating AGS adventure games have a great deal to teach those currently making the games professionally. If you look in other areas of development this truth is beginning to emerge – major development studios are taking notice of indie teams, mimicking them, or even hiring them to creating games of a similar vibe (Dragon Age: Journeys being the most recent example of this). But adventure development still seems to be sticking to its non-indie guns. Which makes a couple of articles on A Hardy Developer’s Journal well worth reading for anyone making the genre professionally.

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Kieron spotted this in the 2010 IGF list. Called 78641, it purports to be an English translation of the classic Esperanto game, Pato Viro Simulilo. It’s, um, sort of an adventure game, but mostly an exercise in surrealism. And unlike most things that people label “surreal”, this isn’t just “silly” or saying “fish” a lot – it’s a genuinely surreal and often unsettling experience. In the game you play Doug Beachez, a frying pan. Who sells dildos.

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It seems there’s going to be another Art Of Murder game. After the original was so dodgy I was a little surprised to see a sequel earlier this year. I never did go on to play the full game after the demo. Some other people must have though, as there’s now to be a third in this series, Art of Murder: Cards of Destiny.

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I’m pretty surprised that there’s another Runaway game coming. The previous two, while extremely pretty, I found horrible. The point and click adventures were remarkably charmless, and sometimes even offensively so. Which makes the news of a third one not the best news I’ve heard. But hey, you might disagree – clearly enough people do – and this one could be different. There’s a trailer below.

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Talking of demos I can’t understand, the gorgeous point and click adventure The Whispered World has a demo out. In German. Which I don’t speak a word of. Which makes me sad, because it looks fantastic. However, I’m aware that people reading this site can speak German! Especially the ones in Germany. So it’s good news for you. And for the rest of us, it’s a chance to remember that The Whispered World is coming, and will be translated.

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