Sam and Max pricing revealed!

dave2k2005 · 4 Oct 2006 at 20:35

Well, the prices of each episode for Sam and Max has been revealed! There will be 3 ways to buy the Sam and Max episodes:

1. Download individual Sam & Max episodes for $8.95 each from Telltale.
2. Buy the entire season for $34.95 from Telltale.
3. Subscribe to GameTap for $9.95/month to get exclusive early access to Sam & Max episodes, along with over 600 other games.

Looks like I will be buying all of them together, considering it works out cheaper

http://www.telltalegames.com/pr/?permalink=222D4D4B0AE3AF3D750001CCB023B4BA.txt&smm=y

DaveyD · 4 Oct 2006 at 20:37

I'll wait til some reviews come out first, as I'm a little wary that this may end up being a load of pants, because I loved Sam and Max: Hit the Road, and don't want my precious little mind ruined by it.

Cronox · 4 Oct 2006 at 20:41

I'm really tempted to try out gametap for a month or two now that they have this deal. Has anybody used them?

Ugley_Matt · 4 Oct 2006 at 21:17

DaveyD said:
I'll wait til some reviews come out first, as I'm a little wary that this may end up being a load of pants, because I loved Sam and Max: Hit the Road, and don't want my precious little mind ruined by it.

Same here, was made up when they said they were doing sequel, slightly nervous that its not from the same people and a "true" sequel but i live in hope.

StixxUK · 4 Oct 2006 at 21:42

Why not wait until they're all out then subscribe to Gametap and play them all in a month for $9.95

I know, I'm a *****

KennyBhoy · 4 Oct 2006 at 21:56

Class Sig Ugley_Matt

May give the first Episode a bash and see if it wets the appetite!

caff · 5 Oct 2006 at 10:23

DaveyD said:
I'll wait til some reviews come out first, as I'm a little wary that this may end up being a load of pants, because I loved Sam and Max: Hit the Road, and don't want my precious little mind ruined by it.

Yep, I'm worried Telltale will make a complete pig's rear behind of this sequel. Have you tried Bone? Really wasn't impressed, totally unimmersive game, pale and uninteresting characters. Didn't have anything like the magic of the original Lucasarts adventures.

The trailer doesn't look very exciting, and the voices don't sound as as lively or wild as the original.

I would have preferred a sharp witted, crazy and funny company to work on this sequel - for example Tim Schafer's Double Fine who made Psychonauts. But apparently Schafer doesn't like doing sequels

I'm cautiously unoptimistic.

xyphic · 5 Oct 2006 at 19:13

I doubt that Steve Purcell would have given the go-ahead if he didn't think Telltale could come up with the goods. By all accounts he's been involved with the game every step of the way, so this is all 'official' Sam and Max.

The voices are different to the originals, but I don't have any issues with them. Sam sounds good -- very noir, and although Max doesn't sound quite as manic as the original voice actor, his voice is definitely growing on me.

The guys at Telltale split from Lucasarts when it became clear they weren't going to be doing any more adventure games. Some of the team worked on Grim Fandango (amongst other things), so I'm not worried that they won't be able to pull off a good game. The thing I'm most worried about is how well the episodic format will work -- a couple of hours isn't a long time in adventure games, so it might be hard to get truly immersed in the game.

Also annoying is that Gametap is only available in the US. There are ways around it, but most of us will have to wait until it's available from Telltale.

FrankJH · 5 Oct 2006 at 19:19

xyphic said:
I doubt that Steve Purcell would have given the go-ahead if he didn't think Telltale could come up with the goods. By all accounts he's been involved with the game every step of the way, so this is all 'official' Sam and Max.

The voices are different to the originals, but I don't have any issues with them. Sam sounds good -- very noir, and although Max doesn't sound quite as manic as the original voice actor, his voice is definitely growing on me.

The guys at Telltale split from Lucasarts when it became clear they weren't going to be doing any more adventure games. Some of the team worked on Grim Fandango (amongst other things), so I'm not worried that they won't be able to pull off a good game. The thing I'm most worried about is how well the episodic format will work -- a couple of hours isn't a long time in adventure games, so it might be hard to get truly immersed in the game.

Also annoying is that Gametap is only available in the US. There are ways around it, but most of us will have to wait until it's available from Telltale.

Until I read this I was hoping that there was some "real" collaboration between telltale and LucasArts, as I was not a fan of Sam and Max - even though I appreciated the quality etc - but was hoping for more old LucasArts games being revamped - still live in hope but less likely

xyphic · 6 Oct 2006 at 00:13

FrankJH said:
Until I read this I was hoping that there was some "real" collaboration between telltale and LucasArts, as I was not a fan of Sam and Max - even though I appreciated the quality etc - but was hoping for more old LucasArts games being revamped - still live in hope but less likely

There are a couple of other companies out there that were formed by ex-Lucasarts employees. The problem is that Lucasarts are unlikely to let go of the rights to any of their more popular adventures (Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, etc.) so these companies would need major investment to make it happen. Sam and Max was different I think because the rights to it weren't owned by Lucasarts but by Steve Purcell. I may be talking out of my rear here, but at least I think that's the way it worked!

At one point Lucasarts were developing a sequel to Sam and Max, and a lot of the Telltale team were working on it. It got canned seemingly a significant way into development. By all accounts Full Throttle 2 was just about complete (including voices) when Lucasarts canned that one.

I keep hearing about possibilities of a Grim Fandango 2 (and there are always rumours of plans for Monkey Island 5) but nothing concrete. It seems unlikely now that the major adventure game devs from Lucas have moved on.

DaveyD · 6 Oct 2006 at 00:18

xyphic said:
There are a couple of other companies out there that were formed by ex-Lucasarts employees. The problem is that Lucasarts are unlikely to let go of the rights to any of their more popular adventures (Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, etc.) so these companies would need major investment to make it happen. Sam and Max was different I think because the rights to it weren't owned by Lucasarts but by Steve Purcell. I may be talking out of my rear here, but at least I think that's the way it worked!

At one point Lucasarts were developing a sequel to Sam and Max, and a lot of the Telltale team were working on it. It got canned seemingly a significant way into development. By all accounts Full Throttle 2 was just about complete (including voices) when Lucasarts canned that one.

I keep hearing about possibilities of a Grim Fandango 2 (and there are always rumours of plans for Monkey Island 5) but nothing concrete. It seems unlikely now that the major adventure game devs from Lucas have moved on.

Full Throttle 2 looked pretty rubbish anyway, though I'd love a Grim Fandango 2, but don't want to see a Monkey 5 if it's anything like the last two.

Ugley_Matt · 6 Oct 2006 at 00:29

in two minds about GF2. GF is probably the most complete game i have ever played, style, story, music, characters plot etc. Second only to Mafia.

I would doubt a sequel would match it in my eyes, would like to be proved wrong but I'd rather have my perfect game kept perfect, if that makes sense.

xyphic · 6 Oct 2006 at 01:26

It does make sense -- but I don't share that particular standpoint. To me, a perfect game remains perfect even if a sequel isn't as good. Grim Fandango is an awesome game, and an example of how an adventure game should be done. (Which makes me wonder why there aren't more to match it, but that's another discussion...)

I wouldn't want to see GF2 simply for the reason that it didn't lend itself to becoming a series. It was a stand-alone story, and it should stay that way. Any sequel would likely end up just being contrived. The same with Full Throttle -- it doesn't *need* a sequel. What's needed are new ideas, but that scares publishers who would rather stick with a tried and tested formula.

You can see this in games like Simon 3D which was entirely pointless. It simply wasn't necessary (and nor is Simon 4, but I'll probably end up getting it anyway). The only game that has really stood being strung out into a series is Broken Sword. The plot in all four games has been strong (even if the game engines in 3 and 4 were a letdown). Some of the character development was a bit odd, but it never felt like things were happening just for the sake of it.

Back to the original subject of the thread, Sam and Max is one of those oddities that really does lend itself to being serialised. It's based on comics, and there have been TV series and all sorts so there are plenty of stories to be told. It's just amazing that it's taken this long for another game to appear.