Adventure Heaven: Telltale Games http://www.telltalegames.com/
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Adventure Heaven: While some of the usual adventure suspects, like Jowood/Dreamcatcher, were noticeably absent, Telltale Games seemed more than happy to take up the slack. I spent a very happy chunk of my first day at E3 learning about their impressive slate of upcoming adventures. The energetic game studio behind the beautiful Monkey Island remakes and the episodic Sam & Max reboot (not to mention the popular Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures) are continuing their love affair with adventure games in a big way. Telltale’s Dave Grossman stated flatly to a room of us journalists: “At Telltale we are interested in making story-based games.” Go, Dave. So what is Telltale currently cooking up? Back to the Future . . . again! Well, there’s the continuation of their Back to the Future episodic series. The fifth episode has just been released, and it’s the end of the “season” that began in the first episode. This time around, Marty McFly and the Doc have opposing goals, which should spice up the dynamics of the gameplay. (The first episode is currently available as a free download). King’s Quest?! Telltale is also working on a King’s Quest game! Alas, it’s in the very early stages and they would tell us virtually nothing about it, beyond the fact that they consulted with Roberta Williams on the project. All Grossman would really say is “Remember, most of us used to work at LucasArts . . . not Sierra.” Hmmm. Hector Jurassic What?
The game will feature major dinosaurs from the film, as well as some brand-new ones. The dinos will arrive this fall! You Say Potato, I Say Zombie Apocalypse Nelson Tethers Returns! You may recall that the first game ended with, if not quite a cliffhanger, at least with some very open questions. Yes, Tethers got the Scoggins, Minnesota eraser factory back on line, but lingering questions remain. Specifically – just what the heck are those mysterious, elusive creatures that may be aliens and may be . . . garden gnomes?
Interview With A.J. LoCascio, the Voice of Marty McFly One of the things Telltale Games is most excited about is the performer they found (or, to be more accurate, found them) to provide the voice of Marty McFly for their Back to the Future games. When they received A.J. LoCascio’s MP3, their collective jaws dropped. It’s like he was channeling the young Michael J. Fox. Even Bob Gale, the producer and writer of the original films, was sold.
I first asked A.J. if he ended up sounding like Marty McFly accidentally or on purpose. He admits it was a little of both. “As a teenager, when my voice started to crack, people began commenting that I sounded like that dude from Back to the Future.” He then began cultivating it and honing it. I wondered if he had met any of the people from the films, and answered that he was thrilled to have met both Christopher Lloyd (who reprises his role as Doc for the games) and Bob Gale. Any other impressions? Why yes. A.J. does a mean Johnny Depp / Captain Jack Sparrow (and has been hired on numerous occasions to appear in this role) and he does not one but two versions of Ewan McGregor. Yes, I heard them both, and they were both spot on! As far as training goes, Mr. LoCascio has mostly learned by doing. I asked him if there was any other Michael J. Fox role he’d love to do the video game of. Doc Hollywood, he answered, with very little hesitation. Telltale . . . you should get busy on this one! Rayman Origins One of the most appealing games I saw at E3 was Ubisoft’s upcoming Rayman Origins. A co-op platformer for up to four players, it’s a return to classic 2D platforming with zippy co-op play and eye-melting graphic beauty. You can play the game solo, but it looks to be much more fun with a group. Among the many advantages to the co-op play is the fact that if even one of your team members is still alive, she can revive you so you can continue. I dropped my controller. “Is he here? Can I speak with him?” I tried to keep my voice calm. M. Ancel, you may remember, is not only the dude who created the Rayman franchise, but he also was behind one of my favorite games of all time, Beyond Good and Evil. “Oh, he was just here.” Yeah, right. I scoured the floor for him but no luck, and of course his dance card was utterly full for the whole show. So I apologize, dear readers, that I was not able to ask him personally about the Beyond sequel. Doggone it. RPG Heaven I was lucky enough to score a front row seat to the very first preview of the upcoming entry into Bethesda’s long-running Elder Scrolls series. Starting thirty minutes after E3 began, game director jokingly referred to us as “early adopters” there to beta test his presentation. And what a presentation it was. As with each main game that has come before it in the series, Skyrim will use a new engine. The game takes place in the northern-most area of the continent of Tamriel, which is mountainous and snowy. And this new engine is able to push graphics that are nothing short of jaw-dropping, breathtaking, and all those other superlative idioms you try to pull out of your vocabulary when faced with such preposterous eye candy in a game. Among other things, this new engine provides a staggering level of shadow detail and epic draw distance. It also handles weather effects in an impressive way. For example, if you see snow on the ground, it’s not “painted” or “tiled” in, it’s actually a dynamic particle effect created by the weather effect in the game engine. Impressive! Like the earlier games in the series, you develop your character by using skills. Or, as Howard put it, “you are what you play.” Use swords a lot, and you’ll get better at swords. Use healing magic a lot, and you’ll get better at healing magic. For the first time in the series, you can dual-wield both weapons and magic. You can even combine spells by having one in each hand. This pleases me. Continuing in the Elder Scrolls tradition, there is much lore to be uncovered, with over 300 readable books distributed across the game world. I also have to say the interface simply looks spectacular: useful, deep, yet facile. In a beautifully stylistic touch, the skill trees are actual constellations. And in a stunning display of the game engine’s musclepower, Howard showed us how, in order to see a map, you simply zoom the camera back. Waaaaay back. It’s like Google Tamriel. This bit brought out a collective gasp from the room full of journalists. Dungeons? The game has over 150 of them. Say good-bye to sleep! One more thing: The various dragons in the game are unscripted, meaning they can interrupt what you are doing at any time. This actually happened during a fight with a giant, and it was heart-stopping! And have I even mentioned the mammoths? Yeah, I’ll be pre-ordering. Independents Day I ran into my friend Myles Nye at the IndieCade booth, where he was moderating a rousing game of Twister Racing. Picture a classic vinyl Twister map, but greatly extended, and then picture a group of players trying to be the first person to successfully transverse the length of the map. Progress is made just like playing the original game (“Left foot RED!”). It was a riot to watch. What Would Jesus Play Perhaps the most curious organization I discovered at E3 was GameChurch. It’s a Christian outreach project dedicated to connecting with gamers of all stripes. They don’t make games and they don’t hand out moral ratings on games. They seemed like a very nice group with a clever marketing idea. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not a believer in ancient superstitions of any kind, but I figured if the US Army could use gaming to promote its goals, why shouldn’t The Army of Christ? All’s fair, etc.
They also came so very close to having the coolest single piece of swag at E3. It’s their Media Kit. These days all media kits are in the form of USB data sticks, and GameChurch’s is quite clever: It’s a wooden cross that you wear around your neck. Alas, the piece is so poorly designed that if you do wear it around your neck (which I totally would have), the bottom of the cross, which is the cover for the USB connector, promptly falls off. So what would have been a super cool and funny accessory became just another broken toy. Since I’m a giver, I sought out one of the main Jesus dudes at the booth, and showed them the problem. We tried a few other samples, but they all had the fatal flaw. “It’s a pity,” I said, “That these were not Intelligently Designed.” Eye Candy
Your intrepid reporter established that there were exactly two specimens of eye candy at the entire show. The other was Derek Opperman, who was demonstrating a UFC fighting game. Kudos to Eric and Derek, and shame on the gaming companies for this paltry procession of male pulchritude! Conclusion I look forward to another terrific year of gaming. What games are you most looking forward to? |
