The Neighbourhood

edited February 2010 in Sam & Max
When I think of Telltale's Sam & Max series, I immediately think of that neighbourhood. Frankly, I've grown quite tired of it. Changing it a bit in Season 2 was nice; the important places were stuffed tighter together.
But I still thought it grew kinda tedious to keep checking old places for new differences every episode.

I preferred ToMI's layout, where you only revisited areas several episodes later (like that island being in ch. 1 and 4, or the sea bottom in 3 and 5), and I'd like it if Telltale pulled that off again.

But hey, my opinion is totally uninteresting. What do YOU think?

Comments

  • edited January 2010
    I dunno, I kinda liked the Neighbourhood hub zone. Clicking on everything in every episode was kinda hypnotic, but they may well have to change it simply to get new jokes in.

    Still if they can bring in new jokes and keep the neighbourhood... well that would be good too.
  • edited January 2010
    I enjoyed the neighbourhood throughout season 1 immensely

    Very good depiction of a 90s street and I enjoyed the constant updates (the night setting in BSOTM was wonderful!)

    Then the shocking revamp of the neighbourhood came, it sure was easier to get around places without the bookstore and I liked the additions of restaurant (until NOTRD) and the garage. But dumping Sybil's in the road although humourous, kind of ruins the idea of a street. Furthermore, the whole rubble scene is just badly done (to me it just looks little white mush), and is quite offputting.

    So right now, I'm getting bored of the neighbourhood for losing its real life street appeal - now it just reminds me of fantasy because of the bad look of rubble and dumping a store in a road.

    That said, it was weird not having the neighbourhood in 204, which might be one of the reasons I don't completely adore COTD that much.


    I personally think the actual neighbourhood needs to make less appearances like you said; Sybil and Bosco are used excessively enough as it is.

    But the office needs to be at least once in every episode, preferably in the beginning of the episode to gain some familarity and aftermarth feedback from the previous episode.


    And don't worry your opinion is actually interesting. ;)
  • edited January 2010
    I found in both seasons the fact that you had to come back to the street, ruined the momentum. It became less 'Out of the frying pan into the fire'. I think they should leave the office and only have it at the start of episodes.
  • edited January 2010
    I'm indifferent, really. I do like being able to explore their office and see the stuff they've acquired over each episode, but as far as the neighborhood is concerned, I'm wholly confident in Telltale's ability to design good games and am not hung up on having it either way.
  • edited January 2010
    I like having the familiar neighbourhood each episode. You can go off to all kinds of destinations like in Bright Side of the Moon or Moai Better Blues, but you could always come back to your office and see the differences each month, like the Chia Brady Culture or check the closet.

    I didn't mind Sybil's place being in the middle of the street. They probably need to put it somewhere else in Season 3 and rebuild the street a bit - maybe some new stores in the rubble bit and maybe have something new where Pimp Le Car was.

    It would be interesting if they decided to switch perspective and show the other side of the street for a change - what exactly is across the street from Sam and Max's office?
  • edited February 2010
    I like having the Neighbourhood here and click at everything to get new jokes, but, at the same time, I liked the fact to return once in a while. One of the Stuff I liked of CotD was watch some of the locations of the street in diferent times, so, I'll totally love see diferent versions of the Neighbourhood, for some reason.
  • edited February 2010
    Personally I like seeing the Neighborhood. It is interesting to see how the antics of the adventures of Sam & Max messes up the Neighborhood. Also I like the point and click at everything to see the new jokes, and look in the closet and have Sam comment about their past adventures.

    Also since they are detections you would assume that when they are not out on the beat that they would be at their office.
  • edited February 2010
    Like Chyron8472, I'm rather indifferent of whether or not the 'hood is explored in the 3rd season. As much as I loved shooting--I mean, examining, everything in the area for the hilarious commentary, I loved doing the same thing on Easter Island, the North Pole, Hell, etc. So really, as long as the hilarious commentary and twisted storyline remains intact, I couldn't care less where we go from here :)

    Though I will admit I'm fond of the office and will be somewhat disappointed if we can't explore that in the 3rd season. Won't stop me from enjoying the game though :D
  • edited February 2010
    Psst- Submitted for your approval, Chariot of the Dogs. You never once visit the street, yet you do. Case closed.
  • edited February 2010
    Chariots of the Dogs is pretty much stuffed with old locations anyway, in a more interesting way. I liked that chapter, but I remember being a bit fuzzed out about what I had to do next a couple of times...

    I agree that the office should be back at least. It's their icon area. : P
  • edited February 2010
    I believe they'll show it only once or twice, in the beginning and at the end of the season. Well, most likely the whole season gonna take place in the outer space, so unless they build a particle transporter into their office, it seems unlikely to walk around in our 'hood in this season.
  • edited February 2010
    Falanca wrote: »
    I believe they'll show it only once or twice, in the beginning and at the end of the season. Well, most likely the whole season gonna take place in the outer space, so unless they build a particle transporter into their office, it seems unlikely to walk around in our 'hood in this season.
    The transporter to their office would be excellent and quite a humourous idea on why they keep going back there.

    However, the state of clutter in the office is quite annoying, they're going to have to do a serious re-vamp of all these loads of mementos from the past two seasons and Hit the Road scattered around. Replacing some of the stuff lying around would be fine I suppose, but I still wonder what they would do with the closet - it's jammed pack with stuff, and I don't remember a memento for COTD being in there, so I'm implying that there wasn't enough room/or they can't be bothered to do it anymore and therefore they might ditch in season 3.

    And although Sam and Max's comments about the mementos in the closet are getting a-bit tedious and tiresome, it's still nice to look back on the past cases...
  • edited February 2010
    The transporter to their office would be excellent and quite a humourous idea on why they keep going back there.

    However, the state of clutter in the office is quite annoying, they're going to have to do a serious re-vamp of all these loads of mementos from the past two seasons and Hit the Road scattered around. Replacing some of the stuff lying around would be fine I suppose, but I still wonder what they would do with the closet - it's jammed pack with stuff, and I don't remember a memento for COTD being in there, so I'm implying that there wasn't enough room/or they can't be bothered to do it anymore and therefore they might ditch in season 3.

    And although Sam and Max's comments about the mementos in the closet are getting a-bit tedious and tiresome, it's still nice to look back on the past cases...

    Couldn't agree more.

    Well, I hope they ditch the idea. Because of all the tie-ins and et cetera, Season 2 only feels like an addition to Season 1, and still storing the souvenirs of Season 1 (or the idea of storing souvenirs from previous cases) just adds to it.

    As I mentioned in other threads, what I want from Season 3 to be is a fresh game without repetitions of the running gags and even secondary characters of previous seasons (or to a lesser extent, you know, compared to Season 2). The recent updates makes me feel like I'm getting what I want this year (although one question in the survey bugged me a little, you know, the one about the comeback of characters from previous seasons).
  • edited February 2010
    It would feel strange not to have the office building in every episode, but I guess, it could work. Of course, either, the DeSoto isn't available as well, or there has to be a good explanation why the street isn't a target to drive to with. Or they only make the inside of the office available. And give us some nice fights for the phone.

    Talking about the street, how about to be able to drive that train which was only there as decoration for two seasons? There must be a train station somewhere in the neighborhood (in addition to the train to hell).
  • edited February 2010
    I don't think so. In at least one of the episodes, Sam says that of course the train doesn't stop anywhere around here.
  • edited February 2010
    I don't mind the neighbourhood so much, just the constant traipsing between office -> street -> Sybil/Stinky and Bosco. I'm hoping the new game will have less of that, though I doubt it.
  • edited February 2010
    it's jammed pack with stuff, and I don't remember a memento for COTD being in there, so I'm implying that there wasn't enough room/or they can't be bothered to do it anymore and therefore they might ditch in season 3.

    They didn't get anything from COTD because WNB took place right after it, so they hadn't had a chance to get back to the office. : P

    I'd like them to keep the mementos inside the closet, though. Remove the stuff trashing about outside it.
  • edited February 2010
    Or they could just find a way to make the closet bigger on the inside than on the outside.
  • edited February 2010
    They didn't get anything from COTD because WNB took place right after it, so they hadn't had a chance to get back to the office. : P

    ...yet the volcano was there?
  • edited February 2010
    Avistew wrote: »
    ...yet the volcano was there?

    Oh yeah.

    Huh.
  • edited February 2010
    Avistew wrote: »
    ...yet the volcano was there?

    That stupid volcano here has no sense. My theory is Superball put it here. And since Sam has no way to know he cannot enter to their office in the future, he just asume was their souvenir.
  • edited February 2010
    While I like many of the characters of the street, like Bosco and Stinky. At the end of the second season I thought that we could see bit more other places too. I hope that season three has plenty of new unexplored areas with new interesting characters, but I wouldn't mind occasional return to the street. Although I don't think that it's necessary in every episode.

    Maybe the middle ground between Hit the Road (where you don't visit again in the street again, unless you have missed some things you could do at start) and Season 1 (where some episodes mostly happened on the street) would be a good solution.
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