Friday, March 30, 2012

Hollywood Monsters Unofficial English Translation

Hollywood Monsters, the 1997 adventure game by Pendulo Studios (of Runaway fame) which received a spiritual sequel titled The Next BIG Thing, was never released outside of Spain and never received an English translation.

The latter is no longer true, as two fans have released an unofficial fan translation of Hollywood Monsters into English.

The patch works with both the CD and the digital download versions of Hollywood Monsters. The latter of which is great news, as Hollywood Monsters is free for a limited time from the FX Interactive store.

All Law & Order Legacies Episodes Out Everywhere

All episodes of Law & Order: Legacies are now out, as Episode 7: Resolution has been released for iOS and Episode 6: Side Effects and Episode 7 has been released on PC/Mac. The episodes are available to download from within the Law & Order App, which can be purchased on Steam or the Telltale Store for PC and Mac and at iTunes as a universal app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

New Enter the Story Games Streamlined For Flash

Enter the Story, Chris Tolworthy's ambitious project to bring classic literature to video game form, has received a change that means good news to it's fans: the gameplay has been streamlined so that a new story can be added each week.

The first five games were simplified adventure games using the AGS (adventure game studio) engine. You point and clicked your way through a black and white interpretation of each book's world, communicating with characters and advancing the story. The approach was novel, and it worked well. But it required a lot of time to make each book into a game.

Starting on February 21st, Chris premiered the new Enter the Story format: choose-your-own-adventure style browser games. The new games feature a comic style illustration, complete with speech balloons, and links underneath with choices that take you to the next part of the puzzle. It's a much simplified version of what the games used to be, but it works well. There are four new books available: The Picture of Dorian Gray, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The First Men in the Moon, and Romeo and Juliet. Macbeth and a Midsummer Night's Dream are listed as coming soon. The old games are still available and still use AGS. The new games are free for the first half of the story, are playable in most internet browsers, and are updated almost daily.  For $14.99 USD, you can purchase the complete version of every online browser game, as well as the five original AGS games.

Nintendo Versions of Captain Morgane Out in Europe

The Nintendo DS and Wii versions of Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle, the spin-off of So Blonde which follows Captain Morgane from when she was an 8 year old girl to when she became a fearsome pirate of the Carribean, are now available to purchase in Europe. The Amazon UK product pages can be found here.

The game is also scheduled to be released on PC and PS3 on March 30, 2012. There is no release scheduled for territories outside of Europe.

Preorder The Walking Dead And Possibly Be Undead

Preorders are now being taken for Telltale's The Walking Dead. Preordering will get you 10% off the usual price, as well as access to an exclusive forum where you can discuss the game directly with the developers before the game is released.

That's all par for the course for Telltale, but they're doing something special with this game. Any preorder of the PC version of the Walking Dead from Telltale's site will automatically enter you into a chance to become a character in The Walking Dead game. One winner will show up in episode four as a human character who will become undead. Up to four more people will be part of the zombie horde, shambling around or possibly chewing on a victim. No purchase is necessary to enter this contest, you can also submit a postcard (details are available from the FAQ section linked from the preorder page.

The first episode of the five episode series is scheduled to be released at the end of April.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Double Fine Adventure: Only a Few More Hours Left

The Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter is almost over. There are just a few hours left, and the game has raised over $3 million so far!

There's been a lot happening since I last updated on this project. $60 will get you a digital copy of the art book, plus everything from the previous tiers. $100 now includes everything in the previous tiers (including the digital art book) plus the game in an old-style big box (like the ones the LucasArts adventure games came in) and an Adventure backer T-shirt. If you have the money to spare, a $500 tier is also available with a hardcover version of the art book, signed by Tim Schafer, plus all previous tiers (except for the signed poster).

At 3PM PDT, there will be a celebration with Double Fine as they countdown the final minutes of the kickstarter campaign at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/double-fine-adventure (Tim urges that you don't refresh the kickstarter page in the last few minutes and view the video instead).

Stacking is Available on PC

Stacking, Double Fine's puzzle adventure game featuring Russian stacking dolls in a silent-film era environment, is now available on the PC through Steam.

The PC version of the game costs $14.99US and includes the DLC quest The Lost Hobo King.

Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space Episode 3 on iOS

The iTunes Store now has Sam & Max Beyond Time & Space Episode 3: Night of the Raving Dead available as a universal app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.