bigjko
I liked it, but not from the "adventure" position. It was nice and funny interactive cartoon. But everything that makes adventure an adventure game is missed from here. Story and puzzle are main components, and there are hardly any in S&M. It is casual, and "casual" was never a synonym of "great game".

http://www.gwn.com/reviews/gamereview.php/id/1043/

I think 65% is a pretty low score for a game.


Great to hear you're back at least for now, Evan. :)

Has Telltale said anything about releasing this series on the Mac? I know Bone
(first episode) was converted to the Mac platform, so I was just curious as to the probability that Sam and Max would be as well.

From the sounds of it the chances of Sam & Max getting ported depend directly on how well the Mac Bone does.

While I really enjoyed Sam & Max for the price, I can't help but agree with some of your points. I was also surprised to see that at Game Rankings, Culture Shock is averaging 85% right now, compared to 77% for Dreamfall. I personally enjoyed Dreamfall more. However, when I really thought about it, I realized Dreamfall isn't that much different than Culture Shock in some ways. Yes it's longer and has a better story, but the puzzles were even easier and less original than those in Culture Shock. I think modern AGs tend to forget the puzzles and go for more of an interactive movie type thing...

I wouldn't say they depend directly on the Bone sales, but good sales of the Mac version of Out from Boneville certainly wouldn't hurt. ;)

The difference, my friends, is that if they respond to the feedback and make episode 2 harder..we will have a flawless game. They got a lot of things right..

I've got a feeling the content of episode 2 and maybe even 3 is locked down. The last few episodes could be affected by feedback I'm sure.

the content maybe.. but with episode 2 coming out in december.. they could still make the puzzles more difficult I think..

I have nothing wrong with chiding them for making it too easy in places, even I'll admit that it was rather easy. However, consider this ...

A DVD with three or four to eight cartoon episodes (and discounting commercials, intro and end credits, those things are usually only just under 15 minutes each) in the UK costs anywhere between £9.99 and £14.99 on average. With a pretty entertaining cartoon, that can be decent value, especially if one wishes to collect all the volumes of something (I'm a collector of old cartoon series on DVD, I know these things).

Let's also consider that the price of Sam & Max: Culture Shock when it's released will be $8.95 and that, in UK pounds is £4.71.

I leave the math up to whomever is reading.

For £4.71, I got an interactive cartoon, which was actually better written (dialogue-wise, yes) than the Sam & Max cartoons and lasted me a good three hours. I laughed a lot, there were memorable pieces that I'll be quoting a lot and generally, when I come away from a game feeling like that, I don't honestly feel like I've been ripped off. I feel like it'll stay in my memory for some time to come and that I'll likely play it a few more times yet.

What many are discounting is that if you take it as an interactive cartoon instead of an adventure game (which is where they might be going with this, considering the machinima), then it's nothing short of some of the best entertainment I've experienced in years. So much so that even though I have access to GameTap, I'll be buying the season when they're done.

So yes, ask them to make it harder but I honestly don't feel it deserves any real negativity because for what I got at that price, I felt was worth every penny. I didn't feel the game was lacking anything (except more difficulty but considering what I've just said, that might seem out of place, I don't know). What I did feel is that the entire proceedings were a labour of love by a team that really understood Sam & Max.

For me, it's not a second coming of Freelance Police, it's a second coming of a grand cartoon series that was criminally cancelled and for that I am very grateful indeed.

You can't do that without redesigning at some level, and I don't know if that's possible if you're at the polishing stage. Maybe Jake or Emily could clarify that...I know the engine is supposed to make changes really easy, but that seems kind of fundamental. The release date for episode 2 may be December but that doesn't mean that's what the internal deadline for it is.

By the way, was I the only one who thought Brady Culture sounded very much like Doug the Moleman from Hit the Road? I can't locate an extensive cast list for Hit the Road but I'd love for someone to tell me I'm not insane for noticing more than a similarity.

Well, for the most part I enjoyed it. Humor-wise, I found it even more enjoyable than the first game, mostly because they just went with too much abstract humor. I like a bit more of a mix, like the comics.

As for Voice acting... Honestly, I didn't find anything too horrible, just not necessarily anything to write home about. Despite myself, I honestly like Max. He had the voice, and he delivered his lines fine. The only bad part about Max's voice, was that his voice can somewhat crack at times.

Sam, well he was played just a bit too low key. No real enthusiasm or emotion. And I wanted to throttle his Voice Actor when he bastardized the 'You crack me up little buddy' line.

Everyone else was okay, except for Sybil & Bosco who I thought were exceptional.

And I agree, the music does add a bit to the whole experience.

SWB

heres my full review of the game:

http://www.savesamandmax.com/culture-shock-review.html

Episodes 2 and 3 will be out Telltale's door several weeks before that December release date. Plus, voice recording for episode 2 has already taken place, and I think parts of episode 3 as well.

That said, there are ways that puzzles can be tweaked to make them harder or easier near the end of production. It happened with Culture Shock, based on player feedback at playtesting, and I'm sure it'll happen with these episodes too. But it's probably true that if the team wanted to majorly change the game design based on what people are saying about Culture Shock it probably wouldn't happen until ep4.

Luckily most of the reviews I've read (which is all of them!) don't suggest that huge, major, massive redesigns are necessary. :D

Reading the reviews the only theme I see running through them is people want it to be more difficult. Most people agree its very funny, and a good game. And at a price of $9 I don't see why any adventure gamer should not buy it.

Wow I can't believe this 1up guy didn't think the game was very funny ;(

http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3154466

New York Times says some nice things:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/19/te...ref=technology

The Last Express was mentioned in that NY Times article. Nice.

http://www.theboxset.com/images/revi...e_apes0102.jpg
Kill them all.

Eh. Some people like big explosions and obvious jokes, some people like subtle wordplay and underlying subtexts. Luckily, Sam & Max has all of these things, usually (not Culture Shock perhaps but the cartoons did and upcoming episodes will probably fill in the lack of explosions) but it takes a special individual to be able to appreciate all of these things with one mind. Usually, the human mind can only take one or two of the above with full appreciation, hence not as funny.

Though we adventure gamers, we're a special breed. A breed that knows doors are not handled by turning doorknobs but instead levvied through use of a system of levers and pulleys constructed purely from household objects, stolen items and things found lying around in dumpsters. Therefore, having practiced the grand art of mindbending and being able to think outside the box, we usually can appreciate all of the above.

The average gamer, however, isn't going to see Sam & Max: Culture Shock from as many sides. Comic book fans should get by though, as should anyone who loved the cartoon.

Does anybody know what Warp Drive does (from the options menu)?