X-Play to Review Sam & Max Eps. 1- 3

[Zeek]

http://www.g4tv.com/xplay/episodes/6507/The_Sam_Max_Hammers_and_Cracks_Episode.html

The episode airs tomorrow at 8 PM EST.

Knowing that the X-Play crew are fans of the series and have long been looking for a game to revive the Adventure Game genre, it should be interesting what kind of scarcastic banter they have to offer for those that only care about Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, or blowing holes in generic faceless soilders.

I'LL BE TUNING IN!!:D
Will you?

[AdamG]

Interesting... Yes, I will try to remember. :)

[Emily]

Hey, cool!

Unfortunately I don't think I get this channel. :(

[Udvarnoky]

That's really not very unfortunate.

[numble]

Any hope for some Youtube-like capture?

[Udvarnoky]

Don't they put the video up on the web site after it's aired? I know I watched the Xplay review of the 3 Dimensions of Murder that way.

[Jake]

I'll tape it... with my computer.

[Zeek]

I'll tape it... with my computer.

And then put it on the TTG Blog?;)

[ShaggE]

I'm a big fan of X-Play, (No, not just because of Morgan Webb :P) let's hope their coverage will get more people playing Sam n' Max :D

[Zeek]

Just a reminder before showtime!

[pixelat3d]

lol, I can see it now
"4 out of 5"
Most useless game rating system ever.

[Zeek]

In their defence, it isn't useless so much as it is a simpler version of the whole 100% or "out of 10" scale. I mean, movies are rated out of four stars, with 2.5 stars being an average film.

[ShaggE]

X-Play shouldn't be trusted for serious gaming advice, though. There's been a couple times where they've downrated or uprated a game to make a joke work.

[Zeek]

How do you know that they didn't really hate it? That's like saying you can't trust certain movie critics because they work for the company of the movie they are reviewing.

[Zeek]

lol, I can see it now
"4 out of 5"
Most useless game rating system ever.
You win! Just finished watching the review, and that's what they gave it.

X-Play pretty much said the following inbetween showing a boat load of clips:

PROS:

Excellent writing that never gets boring and makes every character worth talking to
Developers were able to revive a franchise nobody has seen since the '90s without compromising their trademark humor*
Top-notch production

CONS:

Length**


* = debatable
** = In the Host segement, they went on to say that TTG seems to be making up for the problem by being able to release the episodes on time at a fairly rabid rate. They even cited the whole debockle with Half-Life Episode 2 as an example.

[Hero1]

I find those hosts to be quite annoying and unfunny but yay on the exposure and review :)

[Jake]

I think 'an hour a pop' was a bit extreme, but that was a nicec review. They spoiled some puzzles but really hilighted the writing and ccharacters and made it look pretty appealing.

[pixelat3d]

The best thing they could have done was send Morgan Webb out on camera, topless, with Sam & Max Pasties ... but they didn't.

...
** = In the Host segement, they went on to say that TTG seems to be making up for the problem by being able to release the episodes on time at a fairly rabid rate. They even cited the whole debockle with Half-Life Episode 2 as an example.

QFT, All of the Telltale people deserve overly silly and equally awesome hats. Maybe cake too ... or pie ... or cake and pie.

[ShaggE]

The best thing they could have done was send Morgan Webb out on camera, topless, with Sam & Max Pasties ... but they didn't.

QFT, All of the Telltale people deserve overly silly and equally awesome hats. Maybe cake too ... or pie ... or cake and pie.

Amen, brother. (To both suggestions :P)

[numble]

And here's the G4 review (http://www.g4tv.com/xplay/reviews/1411/Sam__Max_Episodes_13_.html) (Both video and print reviews).

[Hero1]

That review really showed off how funny these games are. :D :D

[Zeek]

That review really showed off how funny these games are. :D :D

While spoiling about four or five puzzles in the process!:D

[Mel]

Their comment about archaic dialogue trees was interesting. I've only played adventure games and seen the many permutations of dialogue trees there so I don't know how they compare to other genres (if that was a possible comparison they were making).

[Zeek]

I was wondering that as well. I mean, what other kind of dialouge tree is there to follow for a game like this?

[numble]

Well he did mention Mindmapper and Microsoft Project, so I think one issue he has is with the way the dialog tree (and its branches) is displayed on the screen. Imagine the dialog options as a tree--in the current setup, you aren't allowed to say things on a certain branch unless you back out of your current branch, get back to the "trunk" and climb back to the branch you want to say. If you want to exit a conversation, for example, you can't always just say "goodbye"--sometimes you have to back out of your current branch, get to the "trunk" options, and then say goodbye.

Yeah--minor issue for me, but his quibbles are interesting.

[Jake]

I don't know if that's what he meant... I can think of next to no adventure game or RPG dialog trees that work differently from the ones in Sam & Max Season 1 (except for very short-winded dialog systems like the one in Hit the Road, which are only one level deep, but therefore don't offer much interactivity).

[numble]

I don't know if that's what he meant... I can think of next to no adventure game or RPG dialog trees that work differently from the ones in Sam & Max Season 1 (except for very short-winded dialog systems like the one in Hit the Road, which are only one level deep, but therefore don't offer much interactivity).

I think his complaint was about ALL dialog trees in games however, not just the Sam and Max episodes--and he was just using the review as an excuse to vent on his pet peeve about dialog trees:

Nostalgia’s well and good, and adventure games in general stick to pretty safe conventions (talk, point-and-click explore, solve puzzles). But one thing that’s guaranteed to annoy is a poorly conceived dialogue tree, which is pretty much all of them since the genre was invented.

Aren't you watching Lost right about now? She's going to be executed marked!

[matan]

Actually, I also has something against the "classic" use of the dialog tree, but not in the same way the X-play review said it. I actually don't like conversations where I know all I'm doing is exhaust all available dialog options until I get all the information from the character. A much better dialog tree, in my opinion, is one where you actually get to choose what the character will say, and make the other character respond accordingly.

Sometimes, in Sam&Max (and other dialog-tree games) I feel like I don't really have a choice over what the character will eventually say, but only over the order in which he's going to say it.

[pixelat3d]

The only thing that bothers me about dialog trees:

| Do you have a hat?
---| Yes, but it's feisty and full of Non-sequiturs.

That bothers me ... if there's only one option just say it, i don't need to click it.

[Harald B]

Sometimes, in Sam&Max (and other dialog-tree games) I feel like I don't really have a choice over what the character will eventually say, but only over the order in which he's going to say it.I think that's because you insist on eventually exhausting the entire dialog tree. Not that I can blame you for that (I'm like that myself :) ), but in the interest of perspective I'll point out that almost none of the options need to be said; in fact almost none of the dialogs really need to be entered into in the first place, dialogs are chiefly flavor and hints.
So you do have a choice, you're just choosing to go through it all.:)

[Zeek]

^Point well stated. There have been several times when I would just select the "exit" option in Dialouge screens or avoid character conversations entirely!

Example, the puzzle with Peepers in Episode 1. You don't have to do the steps that lead to the hint with how to deal with him if you already know how to deal with him. Same goes for Specs. You don't even need to talk to Specs in order to solve his problem in Episode 1!

[matan]

I don't exactly agree. Saying everything to a character is a very basic law in adventure games. It's like picking up everything you see. If I have a dialog option available which I haven't yet exhausted, and I'm not trying it because I don't think it will help me solve a puzzle, it's like not picking up some item (say, a card) you see lying around in the office, just because you don't need it yet.

Moreso, conversations are part of the story, so by not saying anything I risk not "getting" a part of the story. (for example, maybe if I won't say everything to peepers I would not know that he's an ex-child star or something like that).

I think some games exploit dialog trees better, by not letting the user exhaust the entire tree - for example, allowing the user choose only one funny reply to a remark done by the other character. The user can't hear the other funny replies and would have to try them the next time she plays the game. This is done a few times in Sam&Max, but I think it should be done more.

[ShaggE]

A dialogue tree is best done when your choice of responses affect the outcome of the conversation. Say your choices are this:

1. Can I help you?
2. What's wrong?
3. What the hell is your problem?

The first choice would make the NPC more willing to give information than the second choice, and the third choice would start an entirely seperate dialogue tree, which gives you no information whatsoever.

Little choices like that can make the entire game feel more open ended. Like when you talk to Max in various rooms, and completely different responses show up. It gives the feeling that he's not just a non-sequitur machine, and that he's picking up on all the events right along with you. A simple design element, but it goes a long way towards the fun factor.

[Mel]

There is something kind of similar to that in both The Black Mirror and Secrets of DaVinci. There are some instances in Black Mirror where you can choose a more nasty response vs. a nice response. I think it was a red herring because in the end you ended up in the same place. In Secrets of DaVinci, how you chose to respond to people affected your nice vs. nasty meter and affected how you could proceed. There was a place that depending on how you talked to the female lead character would result in you potentially seducing her. :p

[Zeek]

Uhm, this isn't Fable. This is Sam & Max. We are kind of dictated by their own personas.

Although, I do like the reaction you get when you use the shaving cream on Myra and Sybil in Episode 2.

[ShaggE]

Don't get me wrong, Sam and Max wouldn't benefit from that type of tree. I like it just the way it is. I was just talking about dialogue trees in general.