Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Once upon a time this platform game came out that no one cared about. Mark Donald was the editor of PC Gamer at the time, and it was given to me because it came from that guy who used to do adventure games, and I’m the adventure game guy. It was down on the magazine’s flatplan for a page. Psychonauts or something. Not knowing anything about it, and with absolutely no PR foretelling us about it, I installed it with confused expectations. Within a couple of hours I called Donald and said, “This needs more than a page.” By the next day I had bargained it up to four pages. Which was all the space they had left. Psychonauts was something special. And is now available for $10 on Good Old Games.

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Which is something I seem to saying quite a lot lately. Seeing that Psychonauts has just appeared for free (until Dec 31) on Gametap, but only to US folks, makes my urge to emigrate keener than ever. Anyone in New York or San Francisco want to hire a scruffy, bitter games hack? Bah. Anyway, go play one of the best electric videogames of the last few years for absolutely nothing, you spoilt bunch of bastards.

If any of our European readers are yet to sample the unique wonders of ex-Lucasarts genuishead Tim Schafer’s most recent game, then you should turn your eyes Steamwards right now. Yes, it costs money. In this case though, money can buy you happiness. Possibly even a rarefied form of love, too. Oh, and if you do want to install Gametap in the futile hope that a magical, wonderful error will occur and let you play Psychonauts, you will at least find that you can play the first three Hitman games, Tomb Raider: Legend and Cannon Fodder for no-groats (but ad-supported no-groats).

Update – hopes cruelly dashed. See bottom of post for more.

Eagle eyes have spotted this image on the Double Fine upcoming projects page:

While this is indeed glad tidings for any fan of games possessing character, humour, grand variety and adept storytelling (let’s not mention the irksome platforming emphasis during this time of celebration), we don’t have any idea what this is. It could be a sequel, it could be a DS or PSP remake, it could just be a graphically-tweaked rerelease to cash in on the original game’s ever-swelling cred. But it is more Psychonauts. (Note to self – bloody get around to writing up that bloody Psychonauts retrospective at some point).

Thank you Tim Schafer, thank you.

That said, damn you Tim Schafer, damn you, for making your next game, Brutal Legend, console only. Given it was PC guys that sang Psychonauts’ praises the loudest, it’s a sad decision.

Update – as has been snootily pointed out in comments, it’s since been revealed that the pic’s just a teaser for an eventual About page on Psychonauts. The image on the site has been fully-colourised to reflect this. Boo. I would say that Double Fine probably shouldn’t have stuck a mysteriously darkened image on a page previously only containing a link to a press release about an upcoming game, however.

(Tinfoil hat)Either that it or it was a secret experiment to gauge interest in another Psychonauts game…(/Tinfoil hat)