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• Play Tim Schafer's New Point-and-Click Adventure Game for Free

  Tim Schafer, the legendary (and hilarious) developer behind awesome titles like Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, and the upcoming Brutal Legend, has a new old-school point-and-click adventure game available to play for free at Double Fine's website. Titled Host Master and the Conquest of Humor, this throwback to those LucasArts adventure games of yore puts you in the shoes of Schafer himself as he desperately scrambles to come up with good jokes before the GDC Awards Ceremony. Read More... Posted Mar 24 2009, 03:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: lucasarts, bob mackey, point and click adventure games, tim schafer, double fine, gdc 2009

• Wallace and Gromit Demo Now Available

  I got a little tired of Telltale Games' Sam and Max games, to the point where I never even bothered to try the last episode of the second season; the novelty of playing new point-and-click adventure games wasn't enough to get me past the lukewarm, dated humor that the series desperately needed to improve upon. So I was more than a little happy to hear the news that the developer was working on a series of games featuring the cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his put-upon dog Gromit. As a fan of the duo since their very beginning, I've always felt like there was something very video-gamey about all of the brilliant setpieces Wallace and Gromit would find themselves in throughout the course of their various adventures. And now that Telltale games has just released the demo for the first episode of their newest video game adventure, we can see if my theory is true. Yes, I know there have been a few Wallace and Gromit games in the past. They just weren't very good. Read More... Posted Mar 20 2009, 03:30 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments Filed under: telltale games, bob mackey, pc games, point and click adventure games, wallace and gromit

• Worth Reading: The International House of Mojo's Retrospectives

  About a year ago, I had the crazy idea that I'd write a series of articles about the LucasArts PC adventure gaming catalog (chronologically, of course) for GameSpite, one of the many sites I freelance for. Unfortunately (for me), it was around this same time that The International House of Mojo started their LucasArts' Secret History series, which was basically the same idea I had, albeit with a staff of writers and access to resources and people unavailable to me. At first, I didn't let the competition get me down, but after seeing the tremendous amount of work TIHM put into their retrospectives, I threw in the towel by the time I got to Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. I realize that more than one person can write about a game--hell, on 61FPS I think we blog about Earthbound a dozen times a week--but there's something about TIHM's LucasArts' Secret History series that makes it seem... definitive. Read More... Posted Mar 12 2009, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: lucasarts, bob mackey, pc games, point and click adventure games, the dig, worth reading

• Leisure Suit Larry to Exist in 2009

  In a move that will delight dozens and leave millions feeling completely ambivalent, CodeMasters announced over the weekend that they would publish Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust for the XBox 360, PS3, and PC this April (thanks Big Download). The title fell into what can best be described as a mericful limbo during the Activision-Blizzard merger, but most people were justifiably more concerned with the future of Ghostbusters than playing as the progeny of a washed-up PC adventure gaming celebrity. With a main character who doesn't even wear the titular leisure suit (how many people still know what the hell this is and what it signifies) and looks like he fell out of an anime, Box Office Bust is sure to garner attention from no one except old-school Larry fans who'd love nothing more than to see this game wiped from existence. Read More... Posted Feb 24 2009, 12:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: sierra, leisure suit larry, point and click adventure games

• Unimportant News: The Imposter Wallace

  We all know (and should be excited that) Telltale Games is bringing out a series of episodic Wallace and Gromit adventures later this year. But what you might not know is that the Wallace in this new series of games is an... *thunderclap* IMPOSTER!!! That's right; longtime voice of Wallace, Peter Sallis, will not be returning to voice the lovable bald and British inventor in Telltale's new games, according to this tip from The International House of Mojo: However, the bad news is the PCZone have confirmed that Peter Sallis will not be playing Wallace. However, his voice will instead be played by Aardman's official back-up actor for Sallis, "you know, the bloke who did his voice on that rubbish novelty alarm clock you got for Christmas". I realize that it's a little much to ask an 88 year-old man to reprise his most-famous role for a series of video games, but there's something about sound-alikes that I find intensely creepy, like the original actor was replaced with a pod person of something. And even if I get even slightly used to the understudy, I can't help but experience a sort of audio aftertaste, like when you accidentally gulp down a diet Coke and quickly realize that something terribly wrong is going on in your mouth area. But maybe this is just a personal problem. Related Links: Quickies: Homestar Ruiner Whatcha Playing: The Thirst For Adventure, Pointing At Things, and Not Knowing What to Say Will Games Ever Be Funny? Read More... Posted Feb 16 2009, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: telltale games, bob mackey, point and click adventure games, wallace and gromit

• The Abandoning of a LucasArts Legacy

  So there's going to be a new Indiana Jones game--whoop de friggin' doo. You'll have to pardon my general surliness; the chip I have on my shoulder for George Lucas' gaming company is big, bold, and immovable. Now, I'm open to the possibility that Indiana Jones and the Staff of the Kings will be an excellent game--and I'll even admit that some of LucasArts' major franchise titles in the not-too-distant past have been worth playing. My problem lies in the fact that--despite demand--LucasArts continues to churn out the big-name games without absolutely any recognition of their previous gaming legacy. Currently, the company has about ten years' worth of games that they're currently holding hostage; and so far, we gamers haven't gotten so much as a big toe in the mail. Read More... Posted Feb 04 2009, 12:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: lucasarts, retro, bob mackey, pc games, point and click adventure games

• Whatcha Playing: Myst III: Exile

  So, I'm still home for the holidays and I found this 4-disc baby lying around. Since I never actually played it after picking it up for $3 at a used bookstore, and since it's the only thing around that will run on my mom's Compaq Presario, I've "linked" back into the world of D'ni. Read More... Posted Jan 06 2009, 08:00 AM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: whatcha playing, adventure games, cole stryker, point and click adventure games, myst iii

• A Peek Into Tim Schafer's Brain

  Grim Fandango, the swan song of the LucasArts PC adventure genre, was released a little over a decade ago. Yes, I know Escape From Monkey Island came out afterwards; and all I have to say about that game is that when a bug stopped me about halfway through, I was grateful.  That being said, we really don't get many games like Fandango anymore.  Sure, creativity in the industry still exists, but there's just something so damned idiosyncratic about a mix of film noir and the Mexican Day of the Dead (the holiday, not the Spanish-dubbed Romero movie) that outshines even Fandango creator Tim Schafer's later projects. When talking about old LucasArts games, it's pretty easy to get down in the dumps upon realizing what a Star Wars factory the company's become. But Tim Schafer has the cure for what ails you; in honor of the 10th anniversary of Grim Fandango, he's made the official 72-page design document for the game available to the public.  Since I found out about this through The International House of Mojo, I'll let them explain a little more through the wonders of quoting: Written in 1996, this mostly-complete document details the cut-scenes and puzzles in the game. What makes this particularly fascinating is that it's packed with concept art and descriptions of scenes/puzzles that were cut from the game, giving us an insight into a slightly different Grim Fandango. Apparently, Tim doesn't exactly own this document, so there is some question as to how long it'll stay online. So grab it now before you end up living a life of inconsolable regret. Read More... Posted Nov 11 2008, 08:30 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: lucasarts, bob mackey, point and click adventure games, tim schafer, design document

• Life of D. Duck: Freeware on Acid

  This post is going to require a little background info, so let me get that out of the way first. Bjørnar B. is an Internet-meme type thing that started in the early 00s; he's a fictional Norwegian teen who creates childish-yet-nightmarish drawings of Donald Duck and his family with bizarre, barely-English captions. Don't feel too out of the loop if you don't know about him; Bjørnar B. is pretty obscure unless you've been reading Something Awful (who originally hosted his site) for a long time. That being said, if you enjoy Bjørnar's very specific and strange sense of humor, you may also enjoy his series of point-and-click adventures games that are best described as a fever dream version of Duckburg.  The sequel to the original Life of D. Duck just came out, and Bjørnar was nice enough to provide the world with a trailer: And if you're still confused and bewildered, perhaps Bjørnar's own breakdown of the story might help? Help D. Duck in his quest to get Dasy to marry him. D Duck must get rid of Uncle Jubalon who is eating him out of his house, also ooie lui and devie escapes and D. Duck must save them. The game is HERE. You will download it. Read More... Posted Nov 03 2008, 11:00 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: indie dev moment, freeware, bob mackey, indie games, pc games, meme, point and click adventure games, life of d. duck, independent games