Welcome to the latest edition of The RPS Time Capsule, where members of the RPS Treehouse each pick one game from a given year to save from extinction while all other games fizzle and die on the big digital griddle in the sky before blinking out of existence. This time, we're turning our preservation mitts on the year 2012, a year absolutely stacked with some pretty stellar releases. But which ones will make the cut and be safely ensconced inside our cosy capsule for future generations? Come on down to find out.
]]>It’s episode four of RPS’ indie podcast Indiescovery and this week the team got into the Valentine's Day spirit and had a long chat about our favourite indie game romances (any excuse to gush about how hot the characters are in Hades, really). We get gabbing about our favourite game OTPs, the fabulous representation of queer romances in indies, and then finish with a cursed (not horny) Cosmo-style dating quiz.
]]>I was already a reader of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comics when I picked up Telltale’s version on Steam in 2012. I came for the game’s resemblance to the art style from the funny books, but stayed because of its similarity to Kirkman’s excellent characterisation and shocking brutality. We are the Walking Dead, indeed. Telltale demonstrated they understood that from the start of this series.
]]>Post-apocalyptic videogames, the ultimate escape. How wonderful to venture to a strange land, so different from our own, and see what the world may look like an entire week from now. Well, today the PlayStation clan secluded themselves behind their barricades with The Last Of Us Part 2, leaving the PC tribe to suffer in the harsh elements of reality alone. But never fear, wanderer. Here are some similar games to play if you want to leave your austere existence behind, and indulge in a grim struggle instead. Pull up a plastic bucket, break open a tin of Pedigree Chum, here are the 8 bleakest post-apocalypses in PC gaming. A post-apocalyst.
]]>Those of you chained to the churning wheel of the internet might have seen this facial recognition algorithm thingo doing the rounds. It's called ImageNet Roulette, and it's basically a website where you feed in a photo of your human face and see what the cybergods of our terrible future make of you. But it's probably not safe to show the neurohive your real face. So we showed it 13 pictures of videogame characters instead, to see if the machine lords of the net realm can tell who they are and what they are all about. The short answer: not really, but sometimes. The neural net, it turns out, is a dangerous idiot.
]]>Telltale's complete run of Walking Dead story-o-adventures is now available bundled up The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series, with a few bonus bits and pieces too. That's 23 episodes across four seasons, a miniseries, and one interstitial, stuffed into one digital bag with a load concept art, a music player, and the option to play the whole series with the comic book-y "graphic black" art style introduced late in the run. With no upgrade discount for owning any of the originals, The Definitive Series is probably more for newcomers and completionists - but maybe you're one of those?
]]>The sad saga of Telltale's fall is due one last tragic chapter. GOG have just announced that all of the defunct choose-your-own-adventure studio's games will be de-listed next Monday, May 27th at 11am BST. That includes Telltale's own games like Puzzle Agent, and all three seasons of Sam & Max adventures, as well as licensed games like The Wolf Among Us, Guardians Of The Galaxy, Batman, and the excellent Tales From The Borderlands. The last of which has already been removed from Steam, though publisher 2K Games are working to bring it (and it alone) back, as reported by Eurogamer.
]]>Zombie choose-o-drama The Walking Dead: The Final Season released its third episode this week, after a short delay as Telltale sadly closed its doors and Skybound took over development (thankfully with at least some of the former workers on board).
I haven’t finished it yet, because who has time to finish video games nowadays, even episodic ones that are only a few hours long. But I did play and enjoy the second episode close to its release, and a combination of choices – and mistakes – I made stood out to me, so: here is a story of how I messed up.
Spoilers for episode two below!
]]>Life in a post-zombaplocalyptic world has never been easy for Clem, and judging from the new trailer for The Walking Dead: The Final Season's next episode - Broken Toys - she's preparing for war. Produced under new studio Skybound Games (thankfully using former Telltale talent), the third of four episodes will be available to all existing season owners on January 15th on all stores. Those late to the party won't be able to pick it up on Steam or GOG anymore as the game has become an Epic Games Store exclusive. The end is nigh, give or take one more episode - give it a peek below.
]]>The third episode of The Walking Dead: The Final Season will finally arrive on January 15th, 2019, Skybound Games have announced. Episode three, 'Broken Toys', was initially due to launch on November 6th but it was somewhat held up by developers Telltale Games shutting down and all. Skybound, the owners of The Walking Dead, have rounded up some former Telltale folks under their own games division to finish the four-episode finale, and now they're rolling again.
]]>In the wake of Telltale Games laying off 250-odd employees with no notice or (reportedly) severance pay, former Taletellers have been sharing warm memories and silly goofs from working there. They've explained the secret rules of a running joke started in Sam & Max, revealed daft scenes they made to amuse themselves in The Walking Dead with bananas and eyebeams, explained a serendipitous sweary accident in Tales From The Borderlands, and even gushed a bit about good times. The situation sucks but the moments and memories being shared are at least bittersweet.
]]>Following yesterday's initial reports that Telltale Games were effectively shutting down, the studio behind licensed story 'em ups including The Walking Dead and Batman: The Enemy Within have confirmed the bad news. All but 25 Telltale employees have been let go (that's 250-ish people gone, former members report), cut down to a skeleton crew to "fulfil the company's obligations to its board and partners." The studio say they've had "a year marked by insurmountable challenges." Telltale haven't yet confirmed quite what will happen to their past, present, and future games, saying they'll talk about their portfolio "in the coming weeks", but I wouldn't expect much more from them. What a sorry mess.
]]>Update: Telltale have officially confirmed the bad news that they've closed most the studio and only 25 employees remain.
As reported by Gamasutra, it seems that prolific choose-your-own-adventure studio Telltale Games is shutting down. This is backed up by media posts from developers at and close to the studio, such as Outerloop's Chandana Ekanayake.
The Verge report that a skeleton crew of around 25 will remain at the studio, down from around 250. A source tells USGamer the upcoming The Wolf Among Us 2 and a Stranger Things adventure series have been cancelled. Telltale Games have released no official statement yet.
]]>I’m not usually one for in-game collectables, but Telltale’s The Walking Dead: The Final Season has me on board. For starters, assuming the first episode sets a reliable precedent, there are only six of them per episode, so it won’t take hours to track them all down. But more importantly, items that Clem and AJ can find and use to decorate their room are equal parts fascinating and deeply, deeply creepy.
Spoilers ahead, obviously, though nothing especially story-based.
]]>After four seasons of mental and physical anguish, plucky orphan Clementine is nearing the end of her story. The first episode of The Walking Dead: The Final Season is out now, with three more to follow over the coming months. Telltale say that this is the end of the story of Clementine, who's now found herself an orphan of her own to look after, though I don't know if I'd also take that to mean this is their final Walking Dead game. Either way, the first episode is out now, and has a demo already out so you can play the beginning of the beginning of the beginning of the end for yourself.
]]>As anyone who stayed up last night to watch the Evo 2018 finals can tell you, fighting games are wild right now. Massive upsets, big comebacks and surprise announcements abound, and few as surprising as Tekken 7's second season pass. Announced during the game's finals last night, there's another six characters headed to Bandai Namco's fighter, three of which have been confirmed. Returning from earlier games are stylish assassin Anna Williams, Hong Kong super-cop Lei Wulong and - fresh from The Walking Dead - baseball-bat swinging warlord Negan.
]]>With The Walking Dead: The Final Season on the horizon, players are gearing up to import their saves from the previous episodes and give Clementine’s story their own personalised ending. But if you lost your saves, are thinking about your previous decisions in horror, or just plain haven’t played the earlier seasons, worry not. With Telltale’s new browser-based Story Builder, you can recap the story so far and create your ideal scenario for moving forward into the final stretch. You’ll still feel like a monster for making some of the decisions, but at least it’ll be a time saver!
]]>Telltale have been very busy lately, in-between signing deals with Netflix and tussling with their former CEO. The studio that (gradually) popularised episodic games has a lot on their plate, and now they've got a pretty heavy dessert lined up for once they've finished the upcoming fourth and final Walking Dead game season. According to anonymous sources speaking to Variety (and somewhat supported by job listings), the studio are retiring their long-lasting but occasionally wonky in-house Telltale Tool engine and moving over to Unity.
]]>Might not be the most exciting story today, but this feels like a bit we need to cover. Last month, Telltale delayed The Wolf Among Us 2 until 2019 due to vague "we're making it better we promise" reasons. This comes at the end of a year or two of reports that life at Telltale is not going well, and that the internal operations have become increasingly toxic. Kevin Bruner, who helped launch the company in 2004, started as chief technology officer before becoming CEO in January 2015, and was forced out last year. Now he's suing Telltale for how his removal was handled. It's pretty complicated.
]]>With the final season of Telltale's The Walking Dead kicking off soon, there's no shortage of good interactive experiences from that fictional universe. Hell, I'm impressed if you've managed to stay caught up. I'm pretty sure I've still got at least half a season in my cue, just like the show itself. Meanwhile, serving as the Fear The Walking Dead to Telltale's series, there's the impending release of Overkill's The Walking Dead. I'm already tired of typing The Walking Dead and we're still in the intro paragraph. Oooof. Anyway, there are character trailers for this game now! Which means it is probably happening for real this time!
]]>Clementine's long and tragic journey will begin to draw to its end (one way or another?) on August 14, Telltale Games announced today, when the first episode of The Walking Dead: The Final Season arrives. We're revisiting Clem as she begins to shoulder even more of the burdens of surviving the zombie apocalypse, trying to build a safe home and protect people - including a little orphan of her own. They grow up so fast. Here, catch a glimpse in this new trailer.
]]>Sit down at the boiling pot, stranger. Let me tell you a tale. A sordid tale, full of fascinating lands and captivating characters. A story of wonder and flame, strangeness and warmth. Would you like to hear it? Great. Just play this rubbish cover shooter for a half hour. I’ll start the introduction when you hit the first checkpoint.
Welcome to the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. This week we’re discussing some great stories that come packaged with terrible games.
]]>Telltale Games have laid off 90 people today, shrinking the company's workforce by around 25%. The company says it won't affect any of their currently announced projects, which includes The Walking Dead's fourth season, Batman: The Enemy Within, and a second season for Wolf Among Us.
]]>Veteran The Walking Dead storyman Gary Whitta will return to the episodic zombie apocalypse story 'em up for its fourth and final season, Telltale Games announced today. Whitta was story consultant on the first season and wrote its fourth episode, as well as contributing to add-on episode 400 Days, but hasn't been involved with it for years. The series has declined over the years so hopefully he might help reverse this.
Telltale have also announced they're working on prettied-up versions of their earlier Walking Dead games for a big console collection, though they haven't confirmed if those will come to PC too. (Update: doesn't look like it.)
]]>Oh boy, have we got sales news for you, vast gaping maw of collective consumerism. Isn’t it a beautiful day for buying things? The Humbler Bundlers have put together a bunch of Telltale’s better games for $15. Yes, everyone has probably already got their critically acclaimed zombies ‘n’ conversation games based on the Walking Dead. But has everybody got Batman? Has everybody got Game of Thrones? Has everybody got…
*squints at notes*
“Bone: The Great Cow Race”?
]]>Another comic from Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead, is getting the video game treatment. Thief of Thieves, his comic about a Thief, will next year spawn an episodic heist game. Named simply Thief of Thieves [official site], it'll let us rob all sorts of colourful places as Celia, the apprentice of the comic's protagonist. It's leaning on those comic book stylings for its art, as you can see in this here announcement trailer I've whipped out a PR person's pocket:
]]>If you've been itching to tie up all the loose ends in The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series – A New Frontier [official site], then you won't have to wait much longer. Telltale Games have announced that the conclusion of season three of their point-and-click zombie 'em up will shuffle onto screens on 30 May and will be called From the Gallows, which sounds pretty ominous.
They're keeping their cards very close to their chest on this one. There's not even a trailer to look at yet – that won't arrive until next week.
]]>Co-op brain-busting FPS Overkill's The Walking Dead [official site] is now due in the second half of 2018, following yet another delay. It was previously due some time in 2017, and 2016 before that. Made by Payday developers Overkill Software, the game's still a bit of a mystery, beyond being a co-op zombie-killing FPS with L4D-sounding dynamic levels and new characters and stories in the world of Robert Kirkman's zombie comics. Given how vague everything we know is, a delay is little surprise.
]]>April 20th is shaping up to be a big day for 'Deadheads', as fans of The Walking Dead call themselves. You'll have seen Deadheads today talking about "blazing it" and "lighting up a 720 kickflip" at 16:20, presumably anticipating Telltale Games' announcement of a release date for episode 4 of The Walking Dead season 3 [official site]. Well, Deadheads, I'm sorry to say Telltale have jumped the gun and rolled into the party a few hours early. Telltale today announced that Episode 4, named 'Thicker Than Water', will arrive on Tuesday the 25th of April. Here, chill out with this trailer:
]]>After kicking off with a two-parter in December, Telltale's shambling story 'em up The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series - A New Frontier [official site] will continue with Episode 3: Above The Law on Tuesday. If you're expecting a cheery episode with Clem riding around on the shoulders of police officers and judges, you might be disappointed. Going by the trailer announcing this launch date, Above the Law is all drama and distrust. See:
]]>Telltale's The Walking Dead [official site] comes back into our lives after just over two years away, but is it a welcome return with fresh water and bandages, or a shambling wreck of fetid corpse. It's the second one. It's fucking awful. Here's wot I think:
]]>The third season of Telltale's The Walking Dead is coming soon, and it'll be premiering with two episodes instead of the usual one. The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series - A New Frontier [official site] will continue to follow Clementine, who featured prominently in season one, and was the main character of season two.
]]>The third season of Telltale's episodic The Walking Dead story-o-adventures will kick off on December 20th, the developers announced today. Clementine will return once more with new pals/future corpses and oh gosh is the world still full of wandering zombies? You'd think that rotten mob would've settled down by now. The third season continues Telltale's wacky new policy of superlong names, bearing the official title The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series - A New Frontier [official site]. Nailed it.
]]>A lot has changed since the first season of Telltale's The Walking Dead, and the development team has been taking some time to reflect on the course of the franchise as the release of Season 3 draws ever closer. Telltale Games' Dennis Lenart and Melissa Hutchison (the voice of Clementine) took to the stage at San Diego Comic Con this week to share some new screenshots, a poster, and a few new tidbits on what the next chapter has in store.
]]>With their hands tucked into so many narrative pies these days, it's almost easy to forget about the series that both put Telltale Games on the map and revitalised the otherwise faltering point and click genre. Having first been hinted at almost two years ago, The Walking Dead [official site] Season 3 now has its first teaser trailer and a new supporting character who goes by the name of Javier. What'll they get up to, I hear you ask. Let's have a little look, shall we?
]]>The Walking Dead: Michonne [official site], a miniseries in Telltale's episodic choose-your-own-disaster line, wraps up today with the release of its third episode. This closes a gap in the comic book story, a point where Michonne had vanished off for a few issues. And Telltale will be dipping into the comic book world a bit more, according to comic creator Robert Kirkman. He's opened up a wee bit about Season Three of Telltale's The Walking Dead, which is due this year, and will once again visit Clementine.
]]>Having never read the comic book series, I mostly know The Walking Dead's Michonne as the samurai sword-wielding walker-whacker that's played by Danai Gurira in the television series. Courtesy of Telltale's point-and-click spin-off, though, I now also know her as the equally bad ass serial choice maker-er who's about to embark on her third and final miniseries episode. Named "What We Deserve", the last outing of The Walking Dead: Michonne [official site] will launch on April 26.
]]>As first hinted back in 2014, there's definitely going to be a Season 3 of Telltale's The Walking Dead - because The Walking Dead in all its forms is a story specifically designed to never, ever end. Telltale promise that the endings of Season 2 will be respected, and claim what they're doing is "not from the bag of tricks that that we've ever shown anybody before."
]]>The Walking Dead: Michonne [official site] Episode 2, called "Give No Shelter," is coming out on March 29th. To announce the release, Telltale have done something slightly different than the usual trailer, something quite cool and also quite creepy. They've published one of those recaps that remind you of the choices you made in past episodes, basing it on what the majority of players decided to do.
It's a bit like "Twitch plays", except these are the decisions of our collective hivemind.
]]>One of the commonly used phrases in tech and games to describe a foolproof ease of use is ‘even your mom’. “So simple even your mom could do it”. That’s where this article starts. ‘Even your mom’ could play this game. But what do we mean by that beyond touch-based or click-only interfaces, and games produced for the often dismissed ‘casual’ market? And, actually, how hard is it to learn to play a game? I decided to run a small experiment: let’s be ambitious, let’s introduce my mother to 6 PC games – and not just ‘easy’ games – a mixed bag of different genres, control systems and approaches. Let’s actually sidestep those assumptions about a huge part of our (Western) world communities, and see what it is for a mother, my mother, to play popular independent PC games.
]]>I've only a passing familiarity with Michonne from seeing a bit of the Walking Dead TV show, where she is one of the few competent characters, but I broadly understand she is, as the kids say, 'pretty dang cool'. Cool enough to get her own spin-off game and be voiced by Orange Is the New Black's Poussey, certainly.
The Walking Dead: Michonne [official site] will begin on Tuesday, February 23rd, Telltale announced today. All three episodes will run you $15 together.
]]>Telltale's resume has grown enormously over the last few years, spurred on by the success of their Walking Dead franchise. They've always had a number of franchises on their run at any time, from the mediocre Sam & Max to their truly dreadful Law & Order games, before finding some comedic feet with Strong Bad. But those were the olden days when their games were cartoonish point and click adventures. Now they are choose-your-own adventures with SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES. Currently we concurrently have The Wolf Among Us, Tales From The Borderlands, Game Of Thrones, Minecraft: Story Mode, and The Walking Dead. Recently they announced they're adding Batman and a Marvel title. But I've uncovered even more, exclusively revealed below.
]]>Now that Telltale have wrapped up the first series of Tales From the Borderlands and Game of Thrones, it's time to show a little more of what's coming next. Last night they announced a Batman series, but also showed off something sooner. A wee trailer for The Walking Dead: Michonne [official site] shows that the three-episode miniseries, which fills in the story during a gap in the comics, will start in February 2016. Oh, and Michonne won't be voiced by her TV actor, but is having words put in her mouth by the excellent Samira Wiley - Poussey from Orange Is the New Black.
]]>On this week's episode of Whoa What Wait You've Licensed What To Make a Spin-off of Your Game? comes word that prison-escaping craft-o-RPG The Escapists [official site] has been romancing zombie world comic book The Walking Dead and is expecting a bouncy baby in less than nine months. They plan to give the wholly uncreative name The Escapists The Walking Dead. No, really. Just the two names smashed together. Yeesh, parents these days.
The spin-off will see Rick Grimes trying to keep his pals alive while escaping scary places.
]]>Telltale Games have announced a new three-part The Walking Dead miniseries, starting this autumn. The Walking Dead: Michonne, as the name suggests, focuses on Michonne, one of the longest surviving characters in the comics. Across the three episodes, you'll explore her whereabouts and actions between issues 126 -139 of the comics.
]]>You know that there are adventure games, and you know that some of those adventure games are better than others. But do you know which one is best, and which one is twenty-fifth best? Well, at last you can find out, with our definitive, unimpeachable breakdown of adventure gaming's best moments.
]]>I haven't been entirely sure what to make of Firewatch [official site], the upcoming great outdoors adventure/exploration title from a mini-supergroup of ex-Double Fine/ Telltale/ Lucasarts/ Klei/ Lionhead devs, because I wasn't entirely sure what it was. Having just watched a quarter of an hour of it, I still don't entirely know what it's going to become, but I really, really like it. It seems to have this laid-back pace and tone and tons of slow-burn character-building while still being very, well, gamey. I really hope that pace and tone can be maintained throughout. Also it looks like somewhere I'd really love to go and live in for a while.
The footage and my own assorted as-they-happened thoughts, including observations on underwear, caves and wedding rings, are below.
]]>Telltale's Walking Dead has always been Clementine's story. From the moment she appears in the first episode of the first season, the player may be controlling Lee but Clem is the character that they're guiding and constructing. I've mostly enjoyed the second season, even when the pacing has been a little too Romero-zombie, and I'm looking forward to the joyous showtune that will mark the final episode. Except...the trailer below, which recaps season one and two with spoilers aplenty, suggests things might not turn out particularly well for Clem and the gang no matter what her choices have been. Gulp.
]]>I've only played the first two episodes of season one of The Walking Dead, before one of Telltale's notorious savegame corruption bugs cost me my progress, so I'm the worst person in the world to even watch this trailer for episode 4 of season 2, let alone write about it. YOU THINK THAT'S GONNA STOP ME, PUNK?
]]>Season two of the The Walking Dead has started strong, taking on the task of switching to a new player character confidently. Clementine is a complex character, capable of carrying the narrative while also reacting to the player's input in a believable fashion. With the third episode, the story enters a new phase, one that shifts the setting and tone somewhat, and places the focus on a smaller cast, with Michael Madsen's Bill Carver at the fore. It's bleak and brutal, but that's nothing new. It's also a bit underwhelming. Here's wot I think, with spoilers carefully avoided.
]]>Campo Santo is a new studio made up of top tier talent from - DEEP BREATH - Double Fine, Klei, Telltale, and 2K Marin. OK, that didn't require much air to say out loud at all and I can type without breathing for probably, like, hours, but you get the idea. With the powers of Mark of the Ninja lead Nels Anderson, Walking Dead: Season One leads Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin, ex-Irrational and Double Fine man Chris Remo, and artist Olly Moss (among others) combined, we get a story-based mystery about isolation, the creeping unknown, and human relationships set in... rural Wyoming. Huh. It's called Firewatch, and it seems interesting. I think. Also incredibly orange. Scant first details below.
]]>It’s good to see Clementine again, even if I’m not particularly keen on the new company she's keeping. I’ve just finished playing the first two episodes of The Walking Dead season two and I’m feeling a mixture of grief, frustration and relief. The latter is due to the strength of the second episode in particular. After a wobbly first episode, the transition to Clementine’s time is showing a great deal of care and craft. Here’s wot I think.
]]>TOO MANY TWOS IN THAT HEADLINE. 2 Episode 2 Furious. Live Free (Walking) Die Epi2odic. I don't know anymore. I'm having a strange day. But anyway, The Walking Dead Season Two Episode Two has been trailerfied, and it's looking as brooding and dramatic as ever. I see potential for plot twists, revelations, and the very real possibility that the walkingest dead of all... is man. I am interested to see where this one goes, especially given that it seems to be addressing some of my concerns after season two's slightly lukewarm first episode. Watch below, but beware of minor spoilers.
]]>It's finally time. The Walking Dead season one had its share of ups and downs, but its tale of broken hearts and busted skulls turned eyeballs into waterfalls and put Telltale on the map. Can season two live up to the incredibly high expectations surrounding it? Could lessons learned on the first season and new "shows" like The Wolf Among Us allow it to surpass all that's come before? Or is this promising undead upstart already out of juice? Here's wot I think of The Walking Dead Season Two Episode One: All That Remains. Warning: big spoilers for season one ahead.
]]>When last we left The Walking Dead's Clementine, things were, er, not going well. And now, as they so often do in Telltale's heart-wrenching game of choice and zombie brain-(the other kind of)-wrenching, they've gone from bad to worse. And then worse to worst, and then worst to worst-er-erest-er-blarghcry. Give your cringing muscles a warm up by watching the full Walking Dead season two episode one trailer below. Something tells me you're gonna need them.
]]>Yes, "the" Borderlands. The relentlessly silly blast-fest from Gearbox, as opposed to, um, that other Borderlands. Telltale might not seem like the most natural fit for a spinoff of the action-heavy RPG (which is less conversational and more often gunversational), but it's happening, per Spike's abysmally awkward VGX "award" show over the weekend. Also fired from the dudebro-centric network's Big Fucking Announcement Gun: a Telltale Game of Thrones series, which was first rumored last month. Scant details on both below.
]]>YOU GUYS, YOU GUYS, you're not going to believe this: there are already wolves among us. Right now. They're called "dogs," and we bred them into blind subservience over the course of a few generations. Many of them, however, are capable of reducing humans to blubbering piles of incoherent baby babble with a simple wag of the tail or awkward pawing attempt at a handshake. Who, in this equation, is really man, and who is beast? It's a chilling thou-- oh man look at this puppy! Was I talking about something? Oh hm, episode two of Telltale's Fables series, The Wolf Among Us, won't be out until sometime early next year. Bummer.
]]>If you haven't finished Telltale's wildly acclaimed tragedy'n'conversation sim The Walking Dead but do want to know when season two will be released, I'll tell you right now. December 17th! That's when you can buy the season pass and play episode 1, for about 18 quid.
If you have finished it and want to know a plot synopsis too, I'll tell you below, hopefully safe from the innocent, spoiler-averse eyes of the non-finishers.
]]>Were you aware that there had been a The Walking Dead All Out Game Jam? 120 teams were, competing in the official event over two weeks, back in September/October. Ten finalists have recently been picked, with the winner chosen by TWD creator Robert Kirkman on the 5th December. Those finalists have gained some decent loot, not least a full Unity Pro license, and a free Greenlight application. So yes, you can expect to see another ten zombie games vying for your attention on there. Blame memetics.
Amongst those finalists were Beavl, with The Narrow Path, that takes an approach that immediately grabs my attention. Yes, you're killing zombies. But you're also killing the humans too. And you're in a minivan.
]]>Well, this all seems sort of inevitable in hindsight, doesn't it? Telltale has more or less perfected its episodic storytelling formula, and bounteous riches are beginning to flow. And from among those glittering prizes and sparkling gem clusters, the Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us dev has - if a report from IGN is to be believed - plucked a veritable holy grail. It now allegedly has some sort of Game of Thrones game in the oven, though exact details are still hazy. This does, however, link up pretty well with my Dan Connors interview from earlier this year, so I am cautiously optimistic about the (for now) rumor's veracity.
]]>Here it is, the moment you've been waiting for. Ever since [SAD THING] and [OTHER SAD THING] and [MORE VERY, VERY SAD THINGS] closed out The Walking Dead's first season, everyone's been reinforcing their ramshackle post-apocalyptic emotion shelters - bolting on more kleenex boxes and widening gaps so they can claim it's "just the rain" - in preparation for a second go-'round. And so, finally, here we are. In the wake WOLFAMONGOUS' successful launch, Telltale's seen fit to remove Walking Dead season two from its incubation coffin. Video and details below.
]]>Comic-Con has probably created lots of news but, until this morning, the only information that had lodged in my brain was the announcement of some sort of Superman vs Batman film. I haven't seen Man of Steel because my brain tries to run away from Zack Snyder films, leaving it shuddering and heaving against the back of my skull if one of those films happens to be in front of me. Actually, I quite liked his Dawn of the Dead and didn't suffer any nosebleeds at all when I saw it. Forget about me being snidey about Snyder though - more news from Comic-Con! This time about The Walking Dead Season Two. If you don't want any spoilers at all, don't look below.
]]>Game Informer have done a lovely thing and put Sean Vanaman (the creative lead and author of Telltale's The Walking Dead games) in the same room as famed promiser-of-worlds, 22Cans' Peter Molyneux. The consequence of this gentlemanly meet was an extended discussion of how Telltale have tried to up stakes on the adventure genre, writing for games in general, and some stuff about zombies: a topic on which all developers now have to pass a three-stage exam if they want to be allowed to continue developing videogames.
Watch it below.
]]>The last time we saw The Walking Dead it was lying in a pool of blood, waiting to rise again as some sort of brain-hungry second season. The bastard game hadn't so much jerked the tears from my eyes as attached wild horses to the ducts and had the muscular beasts run toward the horizon for a couple of hours. It's still not clear precisely how the two seasons will be connected but the announcement of 400 Days, a new episode that will act as a bridge between the two seasons, will surely provide some answers. That's what bridges do. There are probably some clues in the trailer below, which contains at least one character who has appeared previously.
]]>Yesterday, I put on my fuzzy-eared detective hat and grilled Telltale president Kevin Bruner about his company's next big, hopefully not bad thing, The Wolf Among Us. The Fables-based caper sounds like a worthy (though unexpected) follow-up to The Walking Dead, but it's hardly the only story being writ large by Telltale's ostentatiously oversized quill pens. The developer also regularly creates experimental prototypes involving AI, story structures, the way players communicate with characters, and tons more. Fittingly - given the developer's love of episodic stories - they call it the Pilot Program. Some of these "weird" ideas make it into games, but many of them don't. Ultimately, though, this is Telltale's way of paving a path to its own future. I quizzed Bruner about the good, the bad, and the ugly of his company's experiments, as well as a couple other loose ends like King's Quest. It's all after the break.
]]>To hear Telltale tell the tale, The Walking Dead wasn't built to be a wildly acclaimed game of the year award magnet. A good game? Yes. A great story? Clearly. But not a bowling ball catapult into zombified super stardom. With all eyes suddenly on the once-unassuming developer, "that Fables game" has an incredibly tough act to follow. But The Wolf Among Us is a) about a gruff, nicotine-addicted werewolf detective and b) not about gazing sullenly out the window while protesting, "No, it's just the rain/my allergies/this waterfall we're standing under." It takes place in a mad fantasy reality where anything can happen - except, um, the undead apocalypse. It's maybe a bit different. So, where does Walking Dead's DNA end and Wolf Among Us begin? What about Fables-specific issues like mystery-solving, a pre-established main character, wolfed-out combat, and a somewhat controversial creator? I spoke with Telltale president Kevin Bruner about all of that and more.
]]>I wonder if Telltale are worrying about Difficult Second Album Syndrome, despite Fables: The Wolf Among Us actually being about their dozenth adventure game series. The rapture their Walking Dead series was met with puts them, if not actually on the A-list then at least on the waiting list for the A-list. By which I mean they're on the list of developers who I'd say are on the list to be on the list. Maybe I should do a list of all of them., but to be honest I feel a bit too listless to bother.
The Wolf Among Us, then. It's an episodic adventure game based on the modern-day fairy tales, Big Bad (were)Wolf-starring DC comic series Fables.
]]>Edit: Telltale have sent a correction to Game Informer. "The current estimated release window for Season Two of The Walking Dead is for fall of this year (2013), and not next year (2014) as has been reported after a recent interview."
TV is evil. No, no, not because it drains our brains, turns all children into devil-worshiping miscreants, and won't let Gordon Ramsay host everything, but because it taught me to expect that the very TV-like Walking Dead season two would arrive only a year after its pioneering predecessor. But alas, tearing out the reigning Emotion King's decaying guts and replacing them with state-of-the-art new ones takes time. So then, when do you think Walking Dead season two is kicking off? 30 years from now? Tomorrow? Half-Life? Nope. Try late next year. Besides, everyone knows Half-Life 3's been out for years. Valve's just doing a timed exclusive with the actual Combine dimension to ensure this one's safety. I mean, obviously.
]]>Telltale's pretty much synonymous with The Walking Dead these days, but it has plans. Big plans. Maybe it'll build a rocketship to Mars. Or perhaps it'll make the world's tallest ice cream sandwich. Also to Mars. Or I guess it could be making some more videogames, but that's kinda reaching a bit. Regardless, I asked Telltale CEO Dan Connors what lies beyond his studio's tear-blurred vision of the apocalypse, and he laid out quite the roadmap. Click past the break for updates on Fables, King's Quest (sorta), potential plans for an entirely original multimedia universe, and a discussion of why JJ Abrams and Valve are hardly the only ones building bridges between entertainment's many scattered islands.
]]>You probably haven't heard, but Telltale's The Walking Dead is kind of a big deal. It maybe won some awards or something and also made its players weep so much that their ducts now cough out specks of sand and the occasional cactus. There is, in other words, something to be said for using games to spin crushingly compelling yarns, and Telltale knows it has something very special on its hands. Season one, however, was just the beginning. The only envelope's had its shoulder bumped. Now it's time to give it a good, hard push. I sat down with Telltale CEO Dan Connors to discuss how he plans to go about doing that, what he's taking away from reactions to the first season, and how his company plans to squash some of Walking Dead's more glaring flaws - for instance, those awful game-wrecking save bugs.
]]>Inexplicably finding themselves in conversation with an energy drink manufacturer, Telltale mentioned that they were working on season two of The Walking Dead. We already knew that but what we didn't know is that the sequel to last year's most efficient jerker of tears will most likely carry over saves from the ending of the original episodes. That surprises me, considering that the season ended with the zombie virus cured by a broth containing Basset Hound saliva and pixie tears. Wouldn't it be more sensible to go back to the dark days of the decaying dead and follow a separate group of survivors rather than continuing with the Little House on the Prairie set-up suggested by that ending? Actual spoilers below.
]]>There's a still a certain resistance in myself I have to battle when mentioning The Walking Dead games. I'd allowed myself to become so prejudiced against Telltale's games after their patchy resurrections of franchises that meant a great deal to me as a child, and it doesn't help that the Walking Dead comics have often demonstrated attitudes I find to be highly unsavoury. But TT's Walking Dead games are deftly done slices of tension and humanity, reimaginging adventure games' abstract puzzles as gut-punch moral dilemmas. Tada! My prejudice is defeated.
I imagine a second series of these episodes is all but guaranteed at this point, but the final episode of the current one approaches fast. Will it resolve Lee and Clementine's tale once and for all, or pull a Homeland and delay much-needed denouements and resolutions until a second series? All we can do for now is watch the finale trailer and comb it for clues.
]]>Are you ready to be sad? Probably sadder than you've ever been in your whole, entire life? Do you have a reliable donor lined up for a full-blown tear transfusion? Because Telltale's brilliant The Walking Dead series is headed for its absurdly heavy season finale, and - if previous events are anything to go on - it will probably crush you. Like a pancake. A really, really sad pancake. Like, someone tried to draw a smiley face on it with whipped cream and chocolate chips, but it came out looking like this.
]]>Here's an interesting notion: Telltale have put out a "stats" trailer for The Walking Dead: Episode Four, which details the choices folks made, making for a sort of post-mortem breakdown of people's morality within the game. While I won't explode any details here, it's interesting that The Walking Dead players are by and large good guys. If you've played the game already, I think you will want to take a look to compare with your own choices.
It should go without saying that there are SERIOUS SPOILERS down there. Episode Five should shamble into the crosshairs of our morality math in a few weeks.
]]>No doubt there are big things yet to come from the last quarter of 2012, but even by October it feels like it's been an uncommonly important, even vital, year for games. The hit rate of great things, expected and unexpected, has been pretty steady, but on top of that there have been major emerging trends as gaming starts to move out of the awkward transitional phase between olde worlde boxed sales and anything-goes online existence.
I'm really just ruminating on a truly fascinating 10-ish months to myself here, but see if you agree with - or better still can add to - any of these arguably defining aspects of the year nearly gone.
]]>Have you finally regained the ability to speak in something other than live studio audience collective gasps after the last Walking Dead episode? Well then, prepare to lose it again, because the next episode, Around Every Corner, is - yes - right around the corner. (I swear, they come up with these titles using some kind of make-headline-writing-incredibly-easy machine.) But just how close is it? Could it be right behind you? Or maybe... maybe it is you. Or maybe it'll be out on Wednesday. Whichever of those seems most plausible to you.
]]>I'll put most of this after the jump so that people who aren't up to date don't get spoilers in their afternoon tea. The Walking Dead: Episode Four sees the survivors entering "the worst kind" of place. Anyone following the series will know that all the places so far have been far from "the best kind" of places. The trailer below contains piles of zombies and malicious use of a walkie talkie.
]]>Three episodes into its run and more than half way to the presumably bitter end, the first series of The Walking Dead from Telltale has touched a lot of people with its rotten old hands. Tears have been shed, shocks have been administered and the weighty grimness is becoming unbearably tragic. I’ve tried to be light on specific spoilers but I do talk about how ‘orrible it all is, and also why I have my doubts about the walk and the talk.
]]>Well, relative to right now, anyway. Originally, Telltale was dead set on a "mid-August" date for its next helping of zombie-driven drama, but time - the fickle, obstinate beast - had other ideas. Time ideas. But now, in the darkest, most hopeless reaches of late August, there is hope. You may have had to wait an extra between-five-and-fifteen days, but here it is: The Walking Dead Episode 3 - Long Road Ahead will be out later today. But why wait until midweek of late August when you can watch a (slightly spoilery) trailer in Q1 of early now?
]]>I almost reached the point at which it seemed prudent to board up every possible data point through which new zombie media might break into my computer or television. Zombies were dead to me. Things have changed. The most surprisingly engrossing corpse to shamble into sight has been Telltale’s Walking Dead series. The first episode was bleak, character-driven drama and I found myself unblocking the entry points and actually waiting for more ghoulish guests to arrive. It took a while but the second course is here and so is wot I think.
]]>So, those comic-based Walking Dead games from Telltale are pretty great, huh? Well, if you're worried about some "There ain't enough room in this town for the two of uuuuuuh [jaw falls off]" showdown, don't be. Activision's take on the one zombie franchise to rule them all is an entirely different animal - by which I mean it's the same animal as a lot of other animals: a first-person shooter. Also, it's based on AMC's Walking Dead television show instead of the comics. Terminal Reality, they of the recent Ghost Busters game and, er, Kinect Star Wars, is on development duty, promising an emphasis on scarce supplies and survival over all-out action.
]]>At the end of the day, zombie hordes are unstoppable, but they can be impeded - for instance, by tricky doorknobs, flamethrowers, and their most well-known nemesis of all: the pulse-pounding perils of game development. So it was with Walking Dead Episode Two, which managed to stumble and moan its way into the very end of June. Telltale assures, however, that the wait for Episode Three won't be quite so lengthy. Well, kinda.
]]>Oh the ways in which life imitates art - although I suppose, in this case, it's un-life. The zombie fad constantly verges on down-for-the-count, only to spring back onto its feet and take a toothy lunge at your clavicle with hits like Day Z and, of course, Telltale's surprisingly fantastic take on The Walking Dead. The latter, I suppose, is relevant to this discussion, but honestly, I don't feel like we've discussed Day Z enough. Maybe I should just tell you about this one time I... oh fine. Walking Dead. It's getting a second episode, because it'd be a pretty miserable episodic game if it didn't.
]]>Telltale's first episode of their adaptation of The Walking Dead has a lot of work to do. After the terrible Jurassic Park provided an exclamation point at the end of a series of increasingly disappointing releases, reputations need rescuing here. So can the zombie thriller adventure redeem the adventure veterans? I've decided Wot I Think.
]]>Have you spent the entire weekend asking everyone you've met the two same questions over and over? These questions? "Why does The Walking Dead game not tell Rick's story again? Reading it and watching it wasn't enough." "Could you show me some actual video footage of a person playing The Walking Dead game?"
Unless you happened to be talking to comic book writer person Robert Kirkman or you work at Telltale, you probably didn't receive a satisfactory response. In fact, people probably became uncomfortable after the second time of asking and have now blocked your number in an effort to erase you from their lives. You should have just asked this video.
]]>I have significant unease about 1) the Walking Dead TV show b) the Walking Dead comics and c) many of Telltale's episodic adventure games, which makes me spectacularly ill-qualified to be posting about Telltale's Walking Dead game. All that said, I do really like the art approach they've chosen for it. It's a new adaptation of Robert Kirkman's impressively dark but unevenly-flowing, occasionally exploitative comics rather than being based on the recent, glacially-paced (or at least it was at the point I stopped watching it) TV show, so Telltale have elected to depict it in a striking comics-come-to-life style.
]]>Like that one ankle-biting zombie that can hear and you know is out there, but you don't see until it's molar deep into your favourite tendon (that's the right for me), the Telltale Walking Dead game has just leapt out from the dark. Except: Aha! I was standing behind a window of invisible zombie proof glass, you stupid dead jerk. In this little scenario, the leap is the release month announcement, and the zombie proof glass is the time between them telling us "early April", and the dead-head eventually breaking through the glass and consuming my flesh, that bit being the actual release.
]]>Telltale have begun the process of explaining their take on The Walking Dead, which you may know as a brilliant but at times excessively brutal comic, or a tellybox show that I find strangely unappealing. There are three screenshots, all of which can be embiggened below, and a developer diary that the game will not be an episodic escort mission. Sorry, I'm mistaken, it's not a developer diary at all. It's the first episode of "an online talk show...hosted by AJ LoCascio (the voice of Marty McFly in Telltale’s Back to the Future: The Game series)". The talk show guests (developers) don't go on to say that the game won't make Alec weep in frustration, as Jurassic Park did, but let's hope not.
]]>Not only is episode 2 of Telltale's Back To The Future out today, but there's also confirmation that they are indeed working on a game based on the comic/TV show The Walking Dead. The super-glum series focuses on the lives of a group of survivors post-zombie apocalypse, and seems like yet another unlikely choice for the episodic point-n-clickers. Telltale have confirmed a multi-year, multi-platform development deal, made in collaboration with Robert Kirkman. The first installment is due by the end of the year. A brief interview with Kirkman on IGN yields no other information about the game, other than that it will be episodic. Meanwhile, you can find the new BTTF trailer below.
]]>Nothing ever goes wrong with speculative posts! In the drafts folder at the moment we have:
Are Codemasters Planning To Blow Up The Sun?
Is EA Powered By The Deaths Of Puppies?
Was Activision Jack The Ripper?
But let's try this more gentle one for now. It does look likely that amongst the five new projects Telltale will announcing in a month, one will be the comic-turned-TV show.
]]>
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