Season 2, less calculated
(Forum or Max ate my first post, so here is a second try)
After listening the audio commentary, I was a bit puzzled by the worry of bowling ball joke. Lucasarts was willing to throw a lot heavier object and even have Max jump over the guy and yell "Why wont you just die!". To me Telltale feels to have been a lot more careful with Season 1, even if the guns are included (but not really used that much). Would for an example dipping Max in water and electrocuting him be too much for Telltale version? While I suppose it makes sense to be safe for young kids, surely real target audience of Sam & Max have already turned 20?
Secondly! More fine tuning and plot development could be had. The motivation of doing the certain choices wasn't always there. Why was statue of Lincoln animated, why can't doesn't using guns solve some issues isn't sporting and why does Sam & Max's car fly? I felt slightly cheated when it wasn't justified in any fashion.
Thirdly, having same character over and over again, without them really giving anything new to the story, for seeing them again, felt a bit too much of repetition (we get after a few times that Sybil keeps changing her job, and that Bosco is paranoid). For example, reusing the same characters like Soda Poppers as three governors felt more of reusing the art, than actually having real story reason for it. Reusing the characters saves art resources, but cutting corners isn't always the way.
Finally the audio quality could use improvement, less packing please.
I hope this does not sound too negative, as overall I did enjoy the season 1. I did finish all the six games, and now I am waiting for more. However I am expecting the Season 2 to be even better! So no Dallas dream season please!
After listening the audio commentary, I was a bit puzzled by the worry of bowling ball joke. Lucasarts was willing to throw a lot heavier object and even have Max jump over the guy and yell "Why wont you just die!". To me Telltale feels to have been a lot more careful with Season 1, even if the guns are included (but not really used that much). Would for an example dipping Max in water and electrocuting him be too much for Telltale version? While I suppose it makes sense to be safe for young kids, surely real target audience of Sam & Max have already turned 20?
Secondly! More fine tuning and plot development could be had. The motivation of doing the certain choices wasn't always there. Why was statue of Lincoln animated, why can't doesn't using guns solve some issues isn't sporting and why does Sam & Max's car fly? I felt slightly cheated when it wasn't justified in any fashion.
Thirdly, having same character over and over again, without them really giving anything new to the story, for seeing them again, felt a bit too much of repetition (we get after a few times that Sybil keeps changing her job, and that Bosco is paranoid). For example, reusing the same characters like Soda Poppers as three governors felt more of reusing the art, than actually having real story reason for it. Reusing the characters saves art resources, but cutting corners isn't always the way.
Finally the audio quality could use improvement, less packing please.
I hope this does not sound too negative, as overall I did enjoy the season 1. I did finish all the six games, and now I am waiting for more. However I am expecting the Season 2 to be even better! So no Dallas dream season please!
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(Based on the games I've never felt that Telltale veered far from the "violence factor" of the comics in either direction, so as far as I'm concerned there's no problem. I just found it interesting to hear the behind-the-scenes take on the gag.)
And in an interesting historical parallel, some of the most violent Max-talk is in one of the very first scenes. "Let me pry open his skull and look for a conscience, Sam!", "I'm thinking of shoving a lightbulb down your throat, perp!", "I've had mercy, it was unpleasantly gooey, like... well, like things that have fallen onto the pavement from a great height.". And episode 3 had the pretty violent exchange "Did he get the notes I sent him?", "Yes, but he said to stop carving them into the suspects. He can't read them without his bifocals.", "What if I just write bigger?".
The lincoln statue was
As for the car, that's a classic Sam & Max thing: in the classic comics, they could drive to any location and be there in the next panel with little or no explanation, even if it involved time travel or going to another continent. (And the first time they visited the moon (in the comic), they did something involving matchsticks.) I'll admit that for some reason it worked less well here; somehow it's less obviously satirical.
I actually liked the Soda Poppers in episode 4, though not so much in 2 and very glad they didn't show up in 3 and 5. And don't judge them too harshly for some re-use; it was a rather tight schedule to keep and episode 4 was quite stuffed.
Yes, this has come up a lot ever since the first episode came out. The good news: Emily mentioned a couple of times that they'll implement some changes in future games that will allow them to more easily swap out audio files, allowing them to put out alternate high-audio-quality versions and/or audio-quality-upgrade patches.
edit: Sorry for going on a rant here. I'm only now noticing how long and somewhat aggressive this post is...
1. Lincoln's statue was animated because Abe Lincoln is supposedly the most beloved president in US history, so naturally, people would be inclined to vote for him, and if he wins, those controlling him would gain power over the US.
2. Because if you shot those people, then they wouldn't be around to affect an important plot point later on in the game. Sequence breaking is best left to Metroid games.
3. They filled the fuel tank with "Generic-brand powdered orange drink", giving it enough propulsion to fly. Besides, the DeSoto flew to the moon in one of the original comics, yet no one questioned that.
I don't really know, since I had nothing to do with designing the games or anything like that, but I think with Culture Shock people were still trying to figure out where the line should be drawn. Also, I think the designers were being a little flip about that than you're giving them credit for. Myra got electrocuted, Chuckles was basically murdered by the Washington Monument which had been converted into a ballistic missile, and also would you like to rub my unicorn?
Gosh...
EDIT:
In my opinion.. you have plenty of room for the line to still go guys :P keep pushin! Its only getting better!
It popped in my head while reading all this.
I remember Lincoln said "damn", but I don't remember any other "words of ill repute".
A good eksample of this, is that some crazy holy people are getting offended because sony is using a church in a game, i mean comeon, its not sony's or any other problems that you got a insane belief in gods or a church being a holy place, religion is a private thing, and should be kept private. So please lets sam & max get ever more daring, insulting and so forth in the next games
Also if people go an do things the see in violent game, then they got a brain malfunction already, so still it isnt the game who make people do things, murder and what ever, its because they are fucked up already :P so please keep moral in the back and get to the sam & max universal line for humor.
Meanwhile, Manhunt 2 slips under the radar.
I was very surprised that the Manhunt 2 protests are so minimal. Rockstar knocked the gore up a few notches, made the story even more twisted, added a few new execution types, and Jack Thompson only frothed at the mouth for about a week upon finding out. Hopefully this means he's running out of steam...
(Speaking of Manhunt 2... about bloody time it was made!
Now if anything, THAT'S what I wondered if it would be the line-crossing.
I think the best part is, though, that it's always been a sort of Disney style of teen humor. It's hard to know what I mean; Disney often incorporates a zillion different really adult jokes into their kids' movies, but make sure they're so subtle (and never a visual joke) that the kids won't really even know what just happened. I'm betting there are some people out there who didn't notice anything in Jake's quote. Thus, it still makes the game safe, but appeal to everyone really well.
Actually, it looks like Thompson's at it again, and he may actually have reinforcement this time...
Yes; things like 'does the carpet match the drapes' mean nothing unless the player has already been exposed to that euphemism, by which time it's too late! Care should be taken not to get too crude, though - if people DO spot the innuendos (innuendi?) and they're not very tasteful, it'll make the game less satisfying on the whole. Swearing shouldn't be abused for the same reasons.
Incidentally, I think one of my (now) favourite and most shocking over-the-kids'-heads moments is a bit in the cartoon Two Stupid Dogs when the little dog goes 'why do people come to these [dragon movies] anyway?' and the camera pans out to show all the cars bouncing up and down rhythmically. As a young'un I never noticed; watching it on YouTube not long ago I was simply amazed to see they put it in!
Well, they were explanations, just entertaining explanations. It is a bit odd but I can stomach a car getting to the moon by shoving matches in the tailpipe a lot easier than it just appearing. It doesn't matter what the explanation is, as long as there is one. Saying 'it happened because it needed to happen' seems a it deux ex machina to me.
(At the presidential debate in ep 4)
Max: "I'd like to tell a funny story. Ok, so Chester A. Arthur and The Pope were kayaking down the Amazon River. All the sudden a *beep* *beep* *beep* and The Pope screams in pain, "*beep* help me *beep* *beep* *beep*!"
I think you get the point.
This part of the article really gets me... "He believes it is important to help protect children from influences which may introduce violence into their lives and stresses the importance of parental involvement in the efforts to keep these influences out of our homes and away from our families."
Ignoring the fact that unless your child lives in a cage 24/7, it's impossible to shield them from seeing violence (and the fact that sugar-coating the real world is a terrible idea), any parent with an eye and a brain cell can see that Manhunt 2 is not for children.
Instead of swinging the banhammer at every game with a red pixel, perhaps we should (shock and awe) read the ratings!
Sorry for going so far off-topic, but that last paragraph really grinds my gears.
"we can use this dimensional portal right here on the bar!"
"that's a beer stain knucklehead!"
"oh, well in that case..."
[page turn]
"... here we are in ancient egypt!"
I am seeing that puzzle right now and it involves Bosco and some ludicrous amount of money!
Plus Matches and Max could be used elsewhere, knowing the love for explosives and fire that our favorite rabbity-thing has (For instance, torturing Jimmy)
That being said, I also think that Telltale needs to up it a little bit. Not talking about explaining how they got to places--that's classic Sam and Max style--I'm talking about more swearing and violence, because that's ALSO classic Sam and Max style. Although I do agree that the later episodes got a little better on this front (Truth serum anyone?), they were still rather weak on the swearing and they were less...Sam and Maxy because of it.
Of course, I'll still be buying it no matter what you do, so go ahead and make the world made of fluffy pink chickens if you like
The comics had swearing in, but it didn't go overboard with it.
Besides, would you rather hear things like "Great steaming gouts of magma on a beeline for the orphanage" or a monotone "Holy s**t"? =P
As for the violence, one of the main things about Sam and Max is that the violence is just implied. You never see anything on screen, and it's all the more funny for it. It's funny hearing about Max knifing messages to the commisioner into criminals, but it's something a lot of people would rather go without seeing.
WHAT THE HELL? In the words of Gabe Newell, "C'mon people. You can't show the player a really big bomb and then not let them blow it up."
I think Max's presidential joke was good, but only because you don't fall back on that joke many times. The fact that swears have been avoided so many times usually indicates some good writing. When people are swearing all the time, you're not surprised by someone swearing at a turning point, so the writing staff needs to come up with new swears.
Marcus Fenix: Shit, that was f***ing intense...
Soldier: All right, HQ, we are in the compound. Awaiting further orders...........HQ??? DAMMIT. These f***ing radios.
Soldier: Hey, hey, cool it jackass. At least we're safe now. Let's just- *sniped*
Writer: Hmmm. Now I need a phrase that sounds relatively surprised.
Marcus Fenix: HOLY F*** ON A ******* SANDWICH WITH F****ING ***** ON TOP!!!!
Writer: Let's throw in an obligatory f***.
Marcus Fenix: AND AN EXTRA HELPING OF F***!!!
That's why I loved it in Half-Life 2...only f-bomb in the game is Barney's last line: "And if you see Dr. Breen, tell him I said F*** YOU!"
Sorry if my post is under-censored. I can tone it down if necessary.
Except when Max
I also recall
and one of my favorite Sam & Max lines ever, as Max is headed into a public bathroom in the road trip comic:
SAM: "Use these tongs if you have to touch anything in there."
MAX: "Anything?"
I forgot about the hideous junk one. Noooooo.