I didn't run into serious problems beside of a few stoppers like with the deamon song, getting jimmy's boxing hand and getting rid of the bugs. Actually i solved this more or less via try and error. I didn't get why it should have been this way.
I think those puzzles (the Demon song and the bug ones in particular) had to be solved more through remembering little details, like the snowballs being bleached and the bugs not liking cleaning products, and there were details like the box of goo and the label on it which gave a few subtle clues).
As for the boxing, the only different I saw between the second rat and Jimmy was that Jimmy could knock you out with one punch with the big boxing glove).
When the evil demon came out of the box, I thought - "yeah, this is the end of the game now"... but the three Christmas spirits? Oh man, that's just sweet!
He didn't come out of the box after the exorcism, he came out of the recently promoted Elf. (ie not the one that had to water th tree)
Hell yeah, great episode.
I think the Sam and Max spirit is coming out strong in that one... damn great.
It sure lacks some craziness (like human-size lobsters), but heh the whole Christmas thing, giant
Technically the game runs great, it looks fantastic in widescreen 1680x1050 (feared i would have aspect ratio issues) and the "Run there and do the action" double click prevents boredom when going back and forth to try puzzle solutions. Great musical score as well.
I don't regret a bit to have bought the whole season at once :P
I also ran it at 1680x1050 with maximum details, it looks great (pity it still doesnt capture the mouse, i have to avoid the right edge of the screen still)
Regarding the boxing: You mean that the round was completey over then or just one heart? I can't remember exactly if he hit me at all because he boxed like the rat before and so it was easy to beat him with the first try.
Regarding the boxing: You mean that the round was completey over then or just one heart? I can't remember exactly if he hit me at all because he boxed like the rat before and so it was easy to beat him with the first try.
The round finished if he hit you with the big boxing glove. I know this because for some reason I kept moving the wrong way even though I knew what I was meant to be doing.
The round finished if he hit you with the big boxing glove. I know this because for some reason I kept moving the wrong way even though I knew what I was meant to be doing.
Yeah, I did too. That's why I can't play Punch Out!
That being said, I did like the Punch Out! refferance I spotted with Jimmy's Lucky Glove being like Tyson's sucker punch. Ah, it feels good to be a nerd at times like these.
So, who else is starting on next year's Halloween contest by
constructing, to scale, the Four Horsemen Action figure set from wood?
I'd do it, but I can't see the round as well as everyone else.
Hmm, just finished this episode, and I have to say I was more than pleased. Not too difficult, and I finished it in two-three hours of gameplay without any hints turned on, but I had a wonderful time. If the first episode augurs the quality of the four remaining episodes, I am really looking forward to playing them.:cool:
Is there going to be a Did-you-do-list anytime soon? Because I'd like to find some of the more hidden funny things in my third playthrough. (Going to start my second now) Also on the side: Great Game, first time in months that I had a grin on my face for 6 straight hours.
A truly excellent start to the season, almost up there with 1-4 and 1-5 (high praise indeed!). I'm going to use a list (and check it twice) to go through my pros and cons. I can't be bothered to right a review...
- Gave me the hardest longest laugh I've had out of all the episodes with the conclusion to the scene where Jimmy and Mary are reunited. Honestly, I nearly choked to death.
- Story was nicely twisty.
- The opening was just superb. More robots!
- Timmy's Terminal Tourettes.
- Good, they hate the Soda Poppers too.
- Torture Me Elmer. Jesus, guys!
- The generally more lowbrow, adult feel of the humour.
- The hint system is spot on, I think.
- Run function? Keyboard boxing and car controls? Hell yeah!
- Flint Paper!
And the cons?
- Flint Paper! So cool I almost ignored the fact that Sam & Max treated him like a celebrity cameo and forgot to make jokes. And what exactly was the point of having him if he's not going to do anything?
- Soda Poppers. Why were they in it again? What did they do?
- No reaction to sending the Giant Moai head to Abe Lincoln? Come on! They even look alike!
- Stinky is annoying, but not particularly funny.
- Even I struggled with those minigames. Surely there must be many players who play adventure games because they don't require quick reactions like most games? Is there a difficulty slider for them?
- The three Spirits of Christmas, in particular where they take you. Notice that NONE of them actually take you to Xmas for a start. Secondly, the Past was a bit of a cop out. Couldn't think of anywhere more interesting? Thirdly, why does nothing you do in the past affect the present? It's like Day of the Tentacle never happened.
- Too many recurring characters, not enough new ones.
- Flint Paper! So cool I almost ignored the fact that Sam & Max treated him like a celebrity cameo and forgot to make jokes. And what exactly was the point of having him if he's not going to do anything?
I'm pretty sure that
Flint
will have a bigger role in the games as the season goes on. Just class this episode as an introduction to him.
Thirdly, why does nothing you do in the past affect the present? It's like Day of the Tentacle never happened.
Actually it does. It just already happened, so to speak. An important reason Jimmy is about to commit suicide is because Mary left him, which only happened because you abduct her in the past. And Jimmy would never have been boxing champ without the glove you give him (nice free lunch-paradox there, btw).
The history-changing influence works through an eerie predestination you have to contemplate for a while, but it's definitely there. I admit it wasn't as brilliant as some of the puzzles in dott, but it didn't really have the scope for that anyway.
- Even I struggled with those minigames. Surely there must be many players who play adventure games because they don't require quick reactions like most games? Is there a difficulty slider for them?
I'm fairly sure if there were a difficulty slider, you'd already be playing it pretty close to the left. The games actually could have gotten harder a lot more easily than they could have gotten easier.
- The three Spirits of Christmas, in particular where they take you. Notice that NONE of them actually take you to Xmas for a start.
All of them probably take you as close to Christmas as the entire episode. Mole, Mob, Meatball was released in January. This episode is November. Equally close, really.
All of them probably take you as close to Christmas as the entire episode. Mole, Mob, Meatball was released in January. This episode is November. Equally close, really.
Also, to my knowledge,
it's never revealed exactly when Season One took place, so maybe the episode 103 actually landed square on christmas 2006...
it's never revealed exactly when Season One took place, so maybe the episode 103 actually landed square on christmas 2006...
you never know.
That's not entirely true.
The (initial) date on the white house calender was correct by definition, and it was implied on various occasions that about a month passed between consecutive episodes.
Myra is on the TV in the closing cutscene in Brady's asylum holding her audience captive, and in episode two it's revealed that she's had her audience there for three days.
Different audience is possible, and when you talk to Bosco about the weenies, he eventually says "Are you the same two guys who were in here a month ago?"
Shows how good my memory is then... so did nothing come out of the box?
Well I'm sure
that's where he originally came from. The elf was probably possessed because he was the one that opened the box in the first place.
But the closest thing I saw of something coming out of the box was at the end
when Santa popped out real quick after the Soda Poppers revealed their theory that the box was supposed to go to Satan but there was a typo. When he said "That sounds right!"
Different audience is possible, and when you talk to Bosco about the weenies, he eventually says "Are you the same two guys who were in here a month ago?"
Which implies it was a month.
And of course, neither of these matches the fact that the donuts evolve from "last month's donuts" in 101 to "these donuts must be three months old" in 102... Oh dear, looks like we're overanalyzing things a bit again.
Up until very recently, I was in the hate group, poisoned by too many obtuse and frankly sucky P&C games that were billed as the next big thing because they used a CD to store the enormous volume of data on. The late 90s were full of them, may they rot in.....
@TTG
One question i was asking myself is: Is TTG aiming with Sam&Max at a 9 or 10 at all and did it just not happen till today or is this something which TTG isn't interested in due to some production reasons/limitations?
9 and 10 pm are nice, prime-time TV slots. Well, 10 is a bit after prime-time, but that just means it's okay to have content aimed at more mature audiences. So that's probably what he meant.
@tabacoo
I've meant score for a game like Sam&Max, 1/10=awful up to 10/10=perfect. As far as i remember Sam&Max epsiodes were in 7-8 ranges so far.
Look. If they have any sense at all, they're not aiming for a good review score.
They're aiming for a good game. If the game is good, that's all that matters, not whether or not some random person on the Internet who fancies themselves important, objective, and perceptive decided to choose to describe the game with the arbitrary number "9" instead of the equally arbitrary number "8".
Ultimately, you should be reading the TEXT of the review. Not the metrics. Because good games are qualitative, not quantitative.
@tabacoo
I've meant score for a game like Sam&Max, 1/10=awful up to 10/10=perfect. As far as i remember Sam&Max epsiodes were in 7-8 ranges so far.
We're trying to make something fun that we ourselves would like to play. If the press reviews it well, that's all the better, since better reviews will inevitably translate to a bump in sales (to whatever degree, small or large), which will mean that we'll have more resources to keep doing what we're doing, but the games aren't designed with how a handful of journalists will score the them in mind.
@Maratanos
I think you've missed the point of my question.
Back in the good old adventure days LucasArts published a couple of excellent adventures which ranged in a 9 and 10 area. Then after some silence a couple of years ago there were more adventures popping up again but they were mostly lurking i an 4-7 area. Since 1-2 years adventure have improved again and you can play adventures which are in a solid 7 to 8 range. Whilst this is an improvement there are still no adventures with the spirit, the quality and the fun the old adventures once had around.
Making something excellent instead of good, most of the time involves more work, and/or more talent, more ressources, and so on. And so it could be a business question if aiming for a 9 or 10 is on the radar or not. If it does make sense from the investment. Such things and as there are a lot of people on board who once made those great adventures it's a question popping up.
This wasn't meant as an offence, it's just something i and others are asking us with each new adventure (not only Sam&Max) coming out.
And i also wouldn't say that just the reviews are voting this way as for instance with Ice Station Santa i came to a compareable result as others who were reviewing the episode. I'm enjoying Sam&Max much more than adventures the years before, but it's not sucking me as much into the game like with these old games due to different reasons.
Back in the good old adventure days LucasArts published a couple of excellent adventures which ranged in a 9 and 10 area. Then after some silence a couple of years ago there were more adventures popping up again but they were mostly lurking i an 4-7 area. Since 1-2 years adventure have improved again and you can play adventures which may be in a 7 to 8 range. TWhilst this is an improvement there are still no adventures which have the spirit, the quality the fun the old adventures once had.
Making something excellent instead of good most of the time involves more work, and/or more talent, more ressources, blabla. And so it could be a business question if aiming for a 9 or 10 is on the radar or not.
No, YOU'RE missing the point. Maniac mansion scored in the 8-9 range and yet it's still a VERY SUCKY GAME INDEED. Mojo hits closer with a 2/5.
Why is this? Because games have changed, gamers have changed, the entire industry has changed. The mainstream gaming media simply is not likely to be giving Sam & Max games as high scores as they once did. It does not reflect on the quality of the games or Telltale's quality as a game developer. It just means that games are being rated differently these days.
The problem is, you're still thinking of game ratings as an accurate measurement of the quality of a game. Well guess what. They're not. Many people agree the PS3 game "Lair" sucks very badly, but it's still gotten 9/10 reviews.
Quit dragging your feet in nostalgia and recognize that as long as you idolize old adventure games as the pinnacle of greatness, you'll never find another game that you think lives up to the standard, because you'll always be comparing the two and your memory excises the bad parts of an old game that you loved. It's like getting dumped in a relationship. If you still get hung up on how awesome your ex is, you'll never see a great opportunity for another relationship if it slaps you in the face, because of nostalgia. Wake up, and get on with life.
Game's are what YOU make of them. If you liked the game, that's more important than an arbitrary 9 versus an arbitrary 8. Quit taking other people's words for granted and decide for YOURSELF if Sam & Max is a great game.
Comments
As for the boxing, the only different I saw between the second rat and Jimmy was that Jimmy could knock you out with one punch with the big boxing glove).
I think the Sam and Max spirit is coming out strong in that one... damn great.
It sure lacks some craziness (like human-size lobsters), but heh the whole Christmas thing, giant
Technically the game runs great, it looks fantastic in widescreen 1680x1050 (feared i would have aspect ratio issues) and the "Run there and do the action" double click prevents boredom when going back and forth to try puzzle solutions. Great musical score as well.
I don't regret a bit to have bought the whole season at once :P
Shows how good my memory is then... so did nothing come out of the box?
The round finished if he hit you with the big boxing glove. I know this because for some reason I kept moving the wrong way even though I knew what I was meant to be doing.
Yeah, I did too. That's why I can't play Punch Out!
That being said, I did like the Punch Out! refferance I spotted with Jimmy's Lucky Glove being like Tyson's sucker punch. Ah, it feels good to be a nerd at times like these.
So, who else is starting on next year's Halloween contest by
- Story was nicely twisty.
- The opening was just superb. More robots!
- Timmy's Terminal Tourettes.
- Good, they hate the Soda Poppers too.
- Torture Me Elmer. Jesus, guys!
- The generally more lowbrow, adult feel of the humour.
- The hint system is spot on, I think.
- Run function? Keyboard boxing and car controls? Hell yeah!
- Flint Paper!
And the cons?
- Soda Poppers. Why were they in it again? What did they do?
- No reaction to sending the Giant Moai head to Abe Lincoln? Come on! They even look alike!
- Stinky is annoying, but not particularly funny.
- Even I struggled with those minigames. Surely there must be many players who play adventure games because they don't require quick reactions like most games? Is there a difficulty slider for them?
- The three Spirits of Christmas, in particular where they take you. Notice that NONE of them actually take you to Xmas for a start. Secondly, the Past was a bit of a cop out. Couldn't think of anywhere more interesting? Thirdly, why does nothing you do in the past affect the present? It's like Day of the Tentacle never happened.
- Too many recurring characters, not enough new ones.
Come on guys, knock the next one out of the park.
I'm pretty sure that
The history-changing influence works through an eerie predestination you have to contemplate for a while, but it's definitely there. I admit it wasn't as brilliant as some of the puzzles in dott, but it didn't really have the scope for that anyway.
Also, to my knowledge,
Different audience is possible, and when you talk to Bosco about the weenies, he eventually says "Are you the same two guys who were in here a month ago?"
Which implies it was a month.
Well I'm sure
This is the correct answer
(very obscure quote)
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/11/10/sam-max-starts-season
One question i was asking myself is: Is TTG aiming with Sam&Max at a 9 or 10 at all and did it just not happen till today or is this something which TTG isn't interested in due to some production reasons/limitations?
Average review score, maybe?
I've meant score for a game like Sam&Max, 1/10=awful up to 10/10=perfect. As far as i remember Sam&Max epsiodes were in 7-8 ranges so far.
Look. If they have any sense at all, they're not aiming for a good review score.
They're aiming for a good game. If the game is good, that's all that matters, not whether or not some random person on the Internet who fancies themselves important, objective, and perceptive decided to choose to describe the game with the arbitrary number "9" instead of the equally arbitrary number "8".
Ultimately, you should be reading the TEXT of the review. Not the metrics. Because good games are qualitative, not quantitative.
We're trying to make something fun that we ourselves would like to play. If the press reviews it well, that's all the better, since better reviews will inevitably translate to a bump in sales (to whatever degree, small or large), which will mean that we'll have more resources to keep doing what we're doing, but the games aren't designed with how a handful of journalists will score the them in mind.
@Maratanos
I think you've missed the point of my question.
Back in the good old adventure days LucasArts published a couple of excellent adventures which ranged in a 9 and 10 area. Then after some silence a couple of years ago there were more adventures popping up again but they were mostly lurking i an 4-7 area. Since 1-2 years adventure have improved again and you can play adventures which are in a solid 7 to 8 range. Whilst this is an improvement there are still no adventures with the spirit, the quality and the fun the old adventures once had around.
Making something excellent instead of good, most of the time involves more work, and/or more talent, more ressources, and so on. And so it could be a business question if aiming for a 9 or 10 is on the radar or not. If it does make sense from the investment. Such things and as there are a lot of people on board who once made those great adventures it's a question popping up.
This wasn't meant as an offence, it's just something i and others are asking us with each new adventure (not only Sam&Max) coming out.
And i also wouldn't say that just the reviews are voting this way as for instance with Ice Station Santa i came to a compareable result as others who were reviewing the episode. I'm enjoying Sam&Max much more than adventures the years before, but it's not sucking me as much into the game like with these old games due to different reasons.
No, YOU'RE missing the point. Maniac mansion scored in the 8-9 range and yet it's still a VERY SUCKY GAME INDEED. Mojo hits closer with a 2/5.
Why is this? Because games have changed, gamers have changed, the entire industry has changed. The mainstream gaming media simply is not likely to be giving Sam & Max games as high scores as they once did. It does not reflect on the quality of the games or Telltale's quality as a game developer. It just means that games are being rated differently these days.
The problem is, you're still thinking of game ratings as an accurate measurement of the quality of a game. Well guess what. They're not. Many people agree the PS3 game "Lair" sucks very badly, but it's still gotten 9/10 reviews.
Quit dragging your feet in nostalgia and recognize that as long as you idolize old adventure games as the pinnacle of greatness, you'll never find another game that you think lives up to the standard, because you'll always be comparing the two and your memory excises the bad parts of an old game that you loved. It's like getting dumped in a relationship. If you still get hung up on how awesome your ex is, you'll never see a great opportunity for another relationship if it slaps you in the face, because of nostalgia. Wake up, and get on with life.
Game's are what YOU make of them. If you liked the game, that's more important than an arbitrary 9 versus an arbitrary 8. Quit taking other people's words for granted and decide for YOURSELF if Sam & Max is a great game.
Sorry. I read your post again. Now read my post again, because it's been heavily edited. Then we can talk.