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PC Games (Games) Entertainment Games

Sam & Max in 3D 58

Posted by CowboyNeal from the carnivorous-rabbits dept.
Obiwan Kenobi writes "I know we see game announcements everyday (especially with E3 in full swing), but this is a biggie: The Sam & Max Sequel, Freelance Police has officially been announced. This fantastic (and hilarious) game finally gets its 3D-outing. Check out the nice trailer and stop by the official site for concept art and more." The original game is one of my fondest game memories, and this looks pretty promising.
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Sam & Max in 3D More

Sam & Max in 3D

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  • Why... Won't... You... Just... Die! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Rayonic ( 462789 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @01:29PM (#5946525) Homepage Journal
    Fantastic trailer, this has to be my most anticipated game right now. I almost forgot how scary little Max can be. Glad to see they're put the guns back into Sam and Max after that Fox cartoon fiasco.

  • "Holy cripes on toast!" (Score:3, Interesting)

    by saladpuncher ( 633633 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @01:31PM (#5946542) Homepage
    I don't see Steve Purcell's name anywhere on the press release. He was the original creator...anyone know if he is back on board this game? It looks sweet though and the trailer is pretty funny. Hopefully they won't make a bad sequal to my fave game.

    Sam and Max - "Oboy! It's the colorized version of Citizen Kane...oh, my mistake -- it's just the Flintstones."
  • Yeah! Another adventure game by Lucas Arts, I hope the game will be as good as Grim Fandango, the screenshots reminded me of those great days when I spent hours and hours trying to solve Grim Fandango's puzzles. Hopefully the game will put back life into the genre.

    • Re:I can't wait (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Dreetje ( 672686 )
      Agreed, I haven't seen much adventure games at all. And we had so many great ones in the past: day of the tentacle, monkey island and even the Sierra games were always good fun, police quest, kings quest, space quest and leisure suit larry of course!

      I wonder what happened to the genre at all? Were we all just so disappointed in the latest Monkey Island that they decided not to make anymore? (I know Grim Fandango was a notable exception)

      Please, give us more adventures. And if anyone knows of more upcom
      • I wonder if you have played Syberia before, the puzzles aren't that difficult, it took me 3 days to beat the game, but the story is great, I highly recommend it. http://www.syberia.info/

  • Lifeless 3D (Score:4, Insightful)

    by zsazsa ( 141679 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @01:44PM (#5946693) Homepage
    The 2D concept art drawings on the page have much more character and whimsy than the 3D screenshots. To quote max from the end of the trailer, "Eh, it's been done." It's as if they're making it 3D simply because 2D doesn't sell any more.

    Will there ever be a 2D adventure game ever again?

    (Prompted from discussion on a certain IRC channel...)
    • I think I'm on same line here.. imho the 2d comics are a lot nicer and makeing it in 3d just doesn't feel right. Not everything should be made in 3d. But I think that the 2d version would have sold the same amount, just because it's it :) A great sequel to come though.

    • Re:Lifeless 3D (Score:3, Interesting)

      by bitrott ( 232312 )
      I completely agree. Even when it done perfectly (toy story etc), 3d still lacks. Check out the art work in Monkey Island or the original Sam and Max. Loads more interesting than the plasticene baloons they look like in the screenshots. I do like the advances shows like futurama and games like the new zelda are making merging 3d and traditional animation. It looks seamless and captures the 'living cell' look of traditional.

    • Re:Lifeless 3D (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      >> Will there ever be a 2D adventure game ever again?

      Tony Tough and the Night of Roasted Moths. Just bought it recently.

    • Re:Lifeless 3D (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Rayonic ( 462789 )
      The trailer looked pretty lively to me. The notion that 3D graphics cannot convey emotion is a ridiculous farce. Ever play Grim Fandango?

      Posting on message boards about how you miss the days of 2D doesn't make you look cooler, BTW, just wistful.
      • But I don't think Grim Fandango is based on a comic like characters. If it is, I haven't seen anything about it, and that's good for me and the game, as GF is also awesome. :)

      • Re:Lifeless 3D (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        The 3D aspects of Grim Fandango were part of the design concept, not a marketplace necessity. Grim Fandango stands today as one of the finest, most complete pieces of interactive artwork that I've played, not a small part because the 3D was an integral part of the story and artistic concept. I was moved emotionally a number of times by Grim Fandango, so life is definitely possible in a 3D game, as long as the 3D aspects are not simply marketplace requirements.
      • I think I figured out what's missing from the 3D. Detail. There's so much detail in the 2D concept work and even the 320x200 graphics of the original game. It's very very hard to do 3D with that kind of detail.

        Grim Fandango was great, but I believe it was created with the 3D aesthetic from the start. This version of Sam & Max just seemed like it was slapped into a 3D engine.

        Anyway, I should stop passing judgement until I see the actual game, which probably won't come out for a long, long time.

    • Re:Lifeless 3D (Score:4, Insightful)

      by PurpleFloyd ( 149812 ) <zeno20@@@attbi...com> on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @06:16PM (#5949581) Homepage
      It seems to me this game is simply crying out for a cel shading 3D engine [gamedev.net]. It's a fairly simple technique to create "cartoony" graphics in a true 3D environment. I've always felt that the artwork in the original Sam & Max Hit The Road was almost as important as the characters, plot and dialouge in establishing the unique "feel" of the game; I hope Lucasarts can bring that artwork into 3D without losing its wacky charm.

    • Re:Lifeless 3D (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Dreetje ( 672686 )
      I agree mostly. The concept art looks great, but it does for so many games.

      Without looking at the pictures though, an adventure game can still be great. Look at the jokes sam & max make, the idiotic games in the game, the fun story line. It all makes a great game.

      So, yes 3D could be as good as 2D. Do we need it? Don't think we do.

      Will there ever be a 2D adventure game ever again?

      Sure, will it be produced by a big game/software company? I don't think so.
      Just as a side note, my little brother

  • Hope they have the mini-games in there! (Score:3, Informative)

    by xingix ( 601512 ) <xingix@NOsPam.hotmail.com> on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @01:46PM (#5946716)
    One of the best things about the original Sam n Max was the mini-games they had. There was the whack-a-mole, the alligator mini-golf, and the battleship game with cars to name a few. I just hope they keep the original spirit in the new game. Might be hard to do after 10 years! Let's hope they also do a new Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle sequel game as well. Perhaps a prequel?
  • If only we'd get new versions of The Dig and Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle...

    Still though, this is great. Sam and Max was one of my favorite games.

  • Let's hope it'll be more Grim Fandango [mobygames.com] than Money Island 4 [mobygames.com]. =)

  • I never did play the original Sam & Max, for whatever reason. Maybe this is my chance to make up for that failing as a gamer. Looking forward to it.
    • Why wait a year?
      I doubt the sequel will be better than the classic.
      There's a number of people who regard S&M as abandonware now, and it'll run on modern systems with this. [sourceforge.net]
  • great trailer. also a mirror at Linux-Screws [linux-screws.com]
    Here's to hoping the game release doesn't get pushed back...

  • Bring back the comics, too! (Score:3, Informative)

    by Saint Nobody ( 21391 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @02:22PM (#5947192) Homepage Journal

    with any luck, the comics will come back into print in a cross-promotion with the game. As great as the original game was, it had nothing on the comics.

    I have the color special, but I didn't know about the "surfin' the highway" collection until it was out of print, and I've never been able to find a copy.

    • Steve Purcell always wrote his Sam & Max stories few and far between. I noticed that they got even more infrequent once he started working for LucasArts...

      But yeah, a reissue of Surfin' The Highway (maybe with the one or two new Sam & Max one-pagers done since its initial publication) would rock.

    • yeah...i got lucky with Surfin' the Highway...it was out of print when i got it, but I lived in the same town as Steve Purcell, and the comic shop owner was friends with him so her shelves always had it in stock, autographed (no less), at normal cover price. Mine even has max sketched inside the cover...it rocks.

  • Who to contact? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by the_truk_stop ( 448393 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @02:42PM (#5947426)
    It's very sad that after 10 years, I can finally play the original Sam & Max: Hit the Road under Linux using an emulator that LucasArts doesn't approve of (ScummVM [sf.net]), yet now that they is releasing a new game and has the opportunity to support multiple platforms they're only offering it for Windows! *Sigh* I guess I'll just have to hope that someone at Icculus [icculus.org] ports it, or WineX [transgaming.com] supports it...Does anybody know of a way to let LucasArts know that I'd like a Linux port?
    • I guess that you would have to be one of thousands asking for a linux version. Couple of options: Buy lucasarts games and fill in the survey card if it comes with one. Probably wouldn't have an option for Linux though. Wait until they put an online survey up and fill that in. I filled in on those myself a month or so ago. My opinion on your chances.. Poor to nonexistant. After all, lucasarts were one of the first companies to drop the Amiga. The SCUMM engine already ran very well on Amiga, they had a us
    • You could always try out contacting webjedi@lucasarts.com , but read http://www.lucasarts.com/contact/ first. Not sure wheter this is an "unsolicited submission" - but quite frankly, it's the only contact address they actually list.
  • ...they got the voice actors from the original game to return!
  • At the end of the trailer, it states PC CD, wich I guess means the game is coming for PC, on a CD.

    But, do they really need to specify the CD part? I mean, are there still people out there releasing games on 42 floppies?
    • "are there still people out there releasing games on 42 floppies?"

      Nope, but there are people releasing games on DVD.
    • I think it's a joke--a little something for those of us playing games when Sam and Max Hit the Road came out and "PC CD" actually meant something.

  • Quotes (Score:4, Funny)

    by grasshoppah ( 319839 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @04:23PM (#5948576)
    Ohhhh soo many good quotes from the original game:
    max - "I'd crap my pants if i wore any"

    sam - "I'd just love to turn this little guy inside out.."
    max - "oh! That gives me an idea!"

    sam - "I don't indisciminately use people, except max"

    Sam - "I feel that we have tampered with the fragile inner mechanisms of this space ship we call Earth."
    Max - "If we have to destroy the entire west coast area just so some sweaty, quasi creatures can have a safe heaven for their disgusting lifestyles? So be it!!! "

    sam - "My little buddy needs to use the facilites"
    max - "facilities be damned! I need a bathroom!"

  • 3D? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by slux ( 632202 )
    Why does absolutely everything have to be in 3D these days? I didn't see what Monkey Island gained by going 3D and I don't see what Sam & Max will.

    They're freaking cartoon characters damnit!

    I'd settle for more detailed animation and higher resolution. That way, it wouldn't even need the latest Geforce 10. The result would even be only better than these 2D characters to 3D transformations.

    Now that I got that out of my system, I'm still really looking forward to this. Pity it won't be coming for Linux.
  • The old Sam and Max was so funny! I am glad that they decided to make a new one. It took me forever to figure out what to do at the big ball of yarn! I hope this one will be just as challenging and creative.
  • Why are so many of you disappointed about this being 3D? I can say it until I'm blue in the face. Play Gabriel Knight 3. Proof positive that adventure games are even better in 3D. So many more places to hide things. So much more to see. It's like watching a TV show where you have your own camera being able to move around in the scene. Trust me. It's great if done well.
  • First Full Throttle 2, now Sam and Max? 3d is great and all, but sometimes 2d really is better. A GREAT example is westwoods Bladerunner game.

    I guess the days of 2d are nearing their end save for the Gameboy... *sigh*
  • This is great news, same with Full Throttle 2, if they can capture what made the first so good. It was really quirky. I really regret not playing it all the way through when I had it when I was a kid, that damn ball of yarn got me mad and I stopped playing.
    They also are working on a new Prince of Persia, I recently downloaded(It's free) the original Prince of Persia, and man that game is insanely harder then I remember.
    So many good games coming out this year, wish I had more time to play them all...Well bac

  • Monkey Island, disproving 2-D vs. 3-D (Score:4, Insightful)

    by 2Flower ( 216318 ) on Wednesday May 14, 2003 @11:08AM (#5954850) Homepage

    I seem to be the only person on earth with this view, but:

    MI3 was worse than MI4, despite MI3 being 2-D and MI4 being 3-D.

    MI3: Rehashed jokes, rehashed puzzles, pitiful explanation of MI2's ending, very few puzzles or NPCs who remain in my memory after the game's over, truncated ending sequence, ugly sprite scaling.

    MI4: Fun 'commercialism' theme, new villian, more memorable characters, new twists on the series, better humor (albeit this is subjective).

    I don't care what dimension the game extends into as long as it's fun, and MI3 was boring and insulting compared to the much more entertaining MI4. If they want to do Sam 'n Max in 3-D so be it, and as long as it's SAM AND MAX and not a pale imitation (FT2, Action Game(tm)!) it'll be entertaining. Don't be a dimensional elitist.

  • 2D and 3D (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Krieger ( 7750 ) on Wednesday May 14, 2003 @12:01PM (#5955327) Homepage
    As others have lamented...

    Why 3D? Frequently it can come nowhere near the beauty of a 2D game. Look at all the beautiful art and scenery in old games, then consider the screen sizes they had to work with. It is amazing that many looked as good as they did.

    A game with a story and good 2D artwork will eclipse the vast majority of 3D games.

    Some of my favorite examples of failures (in my eyes at least). Railroad Tycoon, classic game... ultimate time waster. Railroad Tycoon II had much needed improvements, except for the fact that they adopted a 3D viewpoint, which made it nearly impossible to lay track well. In that case a psuedo 3D from overhead would have worked well, but due to the 3D craze...

    Damn. Guess I'll just have to start my own game company. ;)
  • Is LucasArts the only one making great adventure games now? I'd sure like to see more Monkey Islands, Sam and Maxes, and Grim Fandangos.

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