The Shoggoths and Yog-Sothoth are entities that were created by H.P.Lovecraft, a writer that was writing in the 1920's.

If you are referring to Reality 2.0, the Paladin and the various RPG elements, are terms known since the 1970's when Dungeons and Dragons first came out.

As Shal just said, it's most definitely a homage to Lovecraft. In fact, many works which people believe are original are derivative or in homage to Lovecraft.

I agree, the balance between those various elements is near-perfect, and it really makes the game feel like so much more than a sum of its parts. There are still puzzles and jokes that just fail to amuse me, yet everything clicks so well together that I tend not to notice. And while it's a bit preemptive to say that before the finale, from the twists and turns so far I get the feeling the season was planned ahead much more carefully than in Tales of Monkey Island, which is funny, because Sam & Max would've been able to get away with much more random and "out there" plot.

My only serious disappointment about 304 is that, kinda like with hard-boiled-cop-film in the previous episode, the potentially fun zombie-invasion premise is abandoned way too early. (I want someone to develop a Shaun of the Dead adventure game, like, now!) And the ever-more noticeable technical glitches, especially in the Future Visions carrying over present elements they shouldn't - I think Telltale might be too ambitious with with their schedule maybe? On the plus side, I don't know how they've done it, but 303 and 304 were noticeably faster and more stable on my aging laptop than the first two episodes of the season.

How freaky was that? On the 'pharaoh ending puzzle' I did on the first two replies accidentally.

Though granted, not the hardest adventure games ever these ones.

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edit: BTW, these games set the bar for next games technologically.

Yog-Soggoth = a reference to Yog Sototh from H P Lovecraft. Probably what Blizzard is referencing too.

As I implied in another thread, I finished The City... the other day and liked it a lot indeed, even though I can't shake off the feeling that ending an episode earlier (either after a four-episode season, or dividing They Stole Max's Brain into two separate outings) would make a lot more sense.

However, while the series never perhaps reached the highs of Tales of Monkey Island at its best, it was much more consistent. And the finale was worthy, even though controlling beastly Max (while super fun in and on itself) was yet another underused mechanic. But I'd forgive much more for the scenes such as the narrator reveal (I have predicted it since the couple of episodes, but how it was done is what matters!), Satan trying to fix his tarnished image or the post-credits sequence. Hoping a fourth season, if comissioned, picks up the premise of that ending for added hilarity and complexity in both plot and puzzles! (Although it probably won't, for where would that leave the upcoming Back to the Future?)