Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Telltale Games are the Top Cheese

I know you don't come here for gaming news, BUT this is just way too cool. So what was the wickedest news from Comic-Con 2008? THIS:

An episodic series of adventure games based on Wallace & Gromit! The fact that this is from Telltale Games rather than any other gaming company is even more exciting. Started in 2004 by former LucasArts employees, they nearly single-handedly revived the Sam & Max franchise with their brilliant games, which eventually led to the publishing of the long out-of-print original comic series and indirectly (possibly directly?) the DVD release of the short-lived animated TV series. Telltale Games seem to be harnessing my psychic impulses because they originally started off with a game adaptation of Jeff Smith's Bone, though the games were somewhat flawed and the series apparently abandoned after two episodes. Also, a Strong Bad/Homestar Runner game is soon to be released, though honestly that's something I never really got into though I know people who swear by the web series. Anyway, this Wallace & Gromit announcement has me thrilled because I know the care they'll take with the franchise (obviously Aardman Animation was impressed by their pitch). The game will obviously not be stop-motion animated because of the painstaking and time-consuming process, but that shouldn't put you off since they're clearly going out of their way to replicate the look, feel, and humour of the animated shorts and feature film. A good comparison is Flushed Away, the all-CGI film that retained the trademark Aardman look, and more importantly, charm.

The biggest mark against TellTale is that their games don't work on Macs without something like Boot Camp or Parallels. Even though I've bought all their Sam & Max games and will buy their Wallace & Gromit games, I haven't had a computer capable of playing them in over 3 years and my iMac is showing no signs of quitting anytime soon. That means I have to resort to playing these on other people's computers, which is kinda weird.

Read about the game and watch the teaser trailer here. Also, a completely new Wallace & Gromit animated short A Matter of Loaf and Death is due by the end of the year! Can't wait!

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