iPad release and initial impressions

[G.byrne]

I picked it up off the app store for the iPad. I've only had about 20 minutes with the game so far, but I think it is very good. A significant improvement performance-wise over Sam & Max The Penal Zone.

The graphics look excellent as well! If I notice anything worth mentioning, Ill be sure to post about it.

[G.byrne]

I've played it for over an hour and a half. I haven't beaten it yet, but I also haven't noticed any serious problems with it. There is one minor issue, Wallace's female neighbor... When she moves her head in the game, there are some graphical distortions with the flower in her hair. One moves with her head while a "second" remains stationary. It's hardly game breaking, but when it's the only noticeable "problem" it stands out distinctly.

[SaschaW]

The game slows down from time to time. its not that bad but you feel a little framerate issue f.e. in the garden. But i really like this game even with those little framerate issues.

But lets face it. I love Telltale and every ipad release from those guys. but they have to step up their game for upcoming games.

BTW: I really appreciate the german version.

[seron]

Just.. wow.. yeah I don't know what they've done with the engine, but it looks much better/smoother and feels much less sluggish compared to the first Sam&Max release.

Anyhoo.. To the higher ups that listen, THANK YOU!!! I really hope you can be successful in this market. I think it may take people time to realize that the iPad is immensely well suited to this type of game.

[SaschaW]

I recorded a short Video. Hope this will help you. I really enjoy this game. After a restart the game runs better. There are a few framerate issues but its not a big deal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX6P-SXCRp0

[akaimizu]

Sounds cool. I have this whole series on the computer already, but I've been willing to get iPad releases anyway because well....I kind of want all the graphic adventure games I can get on it.

If there's one type of gaming (other than RTS) that actually gives the iPad it true gaming worth, is Graphic Adventures. Maybe because it lends itself to interactive books better than just about any other hardware out there. Graphic Adventures are along the same idea.

So far, they've been a casual joy to play on that thing. Find a couch, start the game, and all of a sudden we're in some Harry Potter kind of experience. (Hey, things in this book move and react when we touch it)

[happycapy]

I agree with other posters that the graphics are a lot smoother and the audio a lot less glitchy than Sam and Max, yet there are a few things that are making me crazy that I didn't encounter with S&M:

Yeah, that flower glitch is present here as well. Weird and a little distracting.

There's a cabinet in which you pick outfits; most of the time it works as expected (you can exit the cabinet), but there have been a few times I've had to exit the game entirely.

Once you've picked up an item for the character who owns the aforementioned cabinet, if you try to enter the room with it to give it to her, the game completely crashes, even if you completely reset the iPad. Re-entering the game leaves you at a point a bit before where you picked up said item, which becomes a bit tedious, especially if the game just crashes again.

Finally, you cannot save the game in a location of your choosing, or so it seems: it saves when it wants to, which is fine, but there are times i want to save it in a specific state.

Overall, I like the game... Although I'm wondering if I'll be able to finish it! I really don't want to start it all over again, especially if I'm going to hit the same impassable bug!

[G.byrne]

Originally Posted by happycapy

I agree with other posters that the graphics are a lot smoother and the audio a lot less glitchy than Sam and Max, yet there are a few things that are making me crazy that I didn't encounter with S&M:

Yeah, that flower glitch is present here as well. Weird and a little distracting.

There's a cabinet in which you pick outfits; most of the time it works as expected (you can exit the cabinet), but there have been a few times I've had to exit the game entirely.

Once you've picked up an item for the character who owns the aforementioned cabinet, if you try to enter the room with it to give it to her, the game completely crashes, even if you completely reset the iPad. Re-entering the game leaves you at a point a bit before where you picked up said item, which becomes a bit tedious, especially if the game just crashes again.

Finally, you cannot save the game in a location of your choosing, or so it seems: it saves when it wants to, which is fine, but there are times i want to save it in a specific state.

Overall, I like the game... Although I'm wondering if I'll be able to finish it! I really don't want to start it all over again, especially if I'm going to hit the same impassable bug!

I've never encountered the crashing bug you mentioned, but there is a save system. In the menu (blueprints) select My Game and there are bookmarks. They allow you to save whenever you please. The autosave feature only saves periodically.

[ElWaster]

Noticeable bugs from my end was, the Next door neighbour and the flower in her hair glitches throughout the majority of the game, where as her head would move the flower would stay in place, or duplicate.

Upon the beginning of the second chapter wallace's face stayed in the expression until I spoke with somebody.

The main menu of the game shouldn't have been graphic heavy, I would have suggested Telltale change the menus to be more ipad friendly, just for a smoother quicker experience.

There was a few obvious things such as frame rate, when entering or exiting a room, or when there is a lot going on screen (final chapter particularly)

Finally, the dress up box for the two dogs, one time I used it to select an item, but the 'tap here to exit' menu was not available, causing me to have to restart the game from my last save point.

This isn't to say I did not enjoy the game. The game itself is very enjoyable, you so long as you can accept that the iPAD is NOT a PC, then you can understand why ports like this will never be perfect. This is a big improvement over the first Sam and Max episode from what I have been reading, so I would assume that the quality of episodes will only get better with time with more releases. It's just good to see TellTale adopt this platform early in it's release. It's certainly put a smile on my face.

Again though, my main bit of advice for future releases would be to simplify the main menu graphics, there aren't an important part of the game so better to make them smoother and easily accessible than current.

I look forward to other releases. I imagine Puzzle Agent will run fantastically on iPAD considering it's art style etc..

[ElWaster]

Sorry double post - stupid Chrome...

[Jeffro]

I just got an 64gb iPad this week. Saw that Wallace & Gromit was on sale in the app store so I bought it. I rebooted as per most people suggesting once it was done downloading. Now it goes to the start, continue, options menu and I can see my finger spot react when I put my finger on the iPad. But it does nothing. Is there a trick to start the game that I'm missing?

[ElWaster]

I never really had that problem, but the main page is quite heavy, just be persistent and try tapping ,just above the button, on the line maybe, or even holding ur finger down? it's best to wait for the screen to fully load first.

[Eagle2352]

I have the exact same problem. Will not move past the menu page regardless how long I wait. Hope you fix the problem in the next update.

[Lebostein]

It's available for iPad and not for Mac OS?
Why!?

[ElWaster]

iPad uses iPhone OS, not Mac OS. Probably easy for them to drop some functionality and GFX then convert to iPad, then to Keep everything and convert to mac.