『 Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway 』

Finally, it arrived! It's been ages since Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway was first published and since then, it became a holy grail for Sam & Max fans all over the world. This rare gem could be obtained only through eBay, at a mindblowing price of $100+, depending on the overall book condition.


Telltale Games, the company responsible for reviving the Sam & Max game series, aswell as bringing a ton of related merchandise, had decided it was about time to give Surfin' the Highway a new run. The work on the new edition began some time ago and after some significant delays it's finally out.


There are two versions of Surfin' the Highway avalable. A regular paperback and the limited hardcover. The hardcover edition had a limited run of 2500 copies [Or 2502 to be exact - The 2501st copy went to Steve Purcell and the 2502nd went to Telltale Games office], all numbered and autographed by the Sam & Max creator himself.


When I finally picked up the package I thought it was quite heavy. The box containing the book and some packaging paper weighed a ton. Main reason for that is the hard cover and the thick high quality paper the book is printed on. This is how a good comic book should look like. The quality of this edition is just superb.


What about the material? All of you who know and love Sam & Max will get more than a few laughs out of Sufrin' the Highway, but what about those who never read the comic? Luckily, Steve Purcell's humor works just as well today, as it did in '95, when the compilation first saw the light of day.


If you're not sure whether or not to buy the book, you can always choose the cheaper paperback, but then you won't be getting an autograph! If you decide to get a hardcover though, there's a fair chance of scoring a high number on the edition, since Telltale's warehouse are a bunch of idiots and they send out books by random.


The warehouse mess resulted in me getting a book No.1225, even though I was one of the first people to order it. Warehouse nimrods also thought it would be amusing to label the package with "Software made in U.S.", even though the package contained a book. This may result in high customs fees if you live outside the U.S. Just because Telltale's warehouse people are a bunch of morons, I got slapped with a fee that equalled one third of the initial book price.


But hey, it's a numbered edition, no matter how you look at it. There's only one person in the world that owns Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway number 1225, and that person is me. 2500 books is still a pretty limited run and I'm sure that if you don't score one of these now, you're looking at eBay and really high prices.


So, are you in the mood for some crazy and uncensored Sam & Max action? Go for it! Get this book and you will be pleased with yourself. It has love, lust, girls, guns and granades. It has kidnapped manatees, pirates, plastic dinosaurs, and who knows, if you read carefully you might just find the meaning of life somewhere between the lines.


Those of you who have played Sam & Max: Hit the Road and the Telltale episodes and seen the TV series [also sold by Telltale] might find the material a bit too familiar but it was this book that started it all and if you miss out on it, you're going to regret it big time.


For me the total cost of this book came down to about $83. This includes the book, shipping and the customs tax fees. It's alot of money for a comic book, but you're getting an exceptionally entertaining compilation of all Sam & Max comics out there, you get it on a top notch quality paper with a hard cover, an autograph by Steve Purcell and guess what. It even has a red bookmark ribbon. The only thing I thought was missing was the dust jacket, but you can make your own, right?

『 Outlaws / アウトロー 』

Raise your hand if you remember or have played Outlaws, the awsome and oh so wonderfully wild wild western game. If you have played it, you know that it's one of the best designed first person shooting games out there and it's by far the best wild west themed one [or maybe the very next best, right after the amazing Silverload].


Nowdays we don't expect much from LucasArts. They have their Star Wars and Indiana Jones Lego games. And let's not forget the Star Wars Lego to make the Lego experience complete. Lately LucasArts sacked hundreds of people just because the company can't be bothered to make decent games and to make crappy ones you need only so many employees.


Back to the point. In the good old days when adventure games still rocked the PC world side by side with first person shooters, someone at LucasArts [Daron Stinnett, along with Stephen R. Shaw and Adam Schnitzerhad to be exact] had the idea of creating a wild west themed game. Based on the Jedi engine, previously used in Star Wars: Dark Forces, Outlaws offered an impressive set of massive 3D levels to explore, complete with an amazing western soundtrack stored on CD as audio tracks.


Despite its greatness, perfect feel and spot on design, the game didn't achieve any higher status. The reviews were quite enthusiastic, as were the opinions of gamers, but the glory of Outlaws has since the day of its premiere faded, almost into nothingness.


The decreased popularity might be caused by some massive compatibility issues the game has suffered. Originally released for Windows 95, it had some compatibility issues already on Windows 98 and things didn't get any better when Windows XP finally came along. LucasArts did release some patches, but they were quite dodgy and the game still suffers from a few issues, mainly from animated textures ocasionally going white in hardware accelerated mode.


Outlaws also got a mission pack, which became a part of the main package in later editions. "Historical Missions" were a set of five quest levels giving the player some back story on the game's main protagonist and him achieving the rank of a U.S. Marshal. To complete the experience, Outlaws got equipped with a multiplayer mode which became quite popular thanks to, now mostly dead, Kali. Many clans formed and tons of multiplayer maps got created. These can still be found on the internet, even though it's hard to find someone to play the game with.


I recently got this 2007 edition of Outlaws, a part of LucasArts Classic collection, just because of it's alleged compatibility with Windows XP. My old '97 edition refused to load levels from the disc in between CDs. This basically means I couldn't load the first level off the second disc. That, plus the game being a crash waiting to happend, even after patching, made me buy this little package.


Nowdays we usually pick up another Half Life 2 episode, or one of the next gen smash hits like Gears of War or Bioshock. Ocasionally a game like Portal comes along to show us what "simple" fun is all about. Outlaws is fun for me. Maybe I'm a bit nostalgic or maybe the game is just so good, but there is something about LucasArts' design and the wild west feel. If you haven't played it, I'm not even sure if it's right for me to recommend it. Let me put it this way. If you still enjoy Doom while playing it, you should enjoy Outlaws. It's one of the first full 3D games with small surprises like the first ever scope rifle in an fpp. If you like the oldies, get it. If you played it and liked it but you don't own it, get it. Run it in the accelerated mode, turn off the smooth textures and enjoy the adventure in all of it's pixly glory. It will be worth it.


Lastly, I would like to direct some words to LucasArts: If you can't the upgrading of your own software, release the source code for Jedi engine and I'm sure that homebrew scene will take care of the problem for you. Unless you really did reverse engineer the Doom engine [which I highly doubt] and you don't want that to come out in the process.

Sadly, LucasArts is not planning on making a sequel to this great game. I guess we're all stuck with the half assed patches and the '98 build of the game. That's right. When you install the newest 2007 edition of Outlaws, the game is still the same build with some of the patches, the latest one dated to 2001. LucasArts didn't listen to thousands of people petitioning for a Sam & Max sequel, so I don't think they will listen to anyone who wants a fix or a sequel to Outlaws. They just don't give a shit.

『 メトロイドプライム3 コラプション 』

I have waited for quite a while before I picked this title up. Not because I hesitated. I simply wanted the price to drop. When it did, I immediately grabbed it.


I'm sure you all know what the game is about so I won't bore you nor spoil the story for you. What I will mention is that at first I approached this game thinking "Will this really work on the Wii, with its peculiar controls?".


It does. It works so well in fact, that right now I think the GameCube controls from previous two games feel dated and not up to par. Wiimote allows you to aim and act instantly, beating even the keyboard and mouse setup.


Do you own a Wii? Did you like previous games? Do you enjoy FPP puzzle solving wrapped in a ton of action and innovation? Grab this game today because it's totally worth it. I got it for cheap but it sure is worth the full retail price, so if you can spare the cash, do it, and do it today.


So what's been changed or improved gameplay wise since the GameCube games? Most notably, the weapon system. While the visor system is mostly the same, aside from how you change the visor modes, weapon system has been revised. When you acquire power ups, the new abilities and characteristics of the beam add. This means you always have one shot, instead of several to choose between.


This, plus some minor control changes made to adapt to the Wii, make Metroid Prime 3 a somewhat new experience while it still has all the previous titles had to offer. The polygon count is slightly higher than on GameCube but it's the superb design that captivates me. This is worth so much more than raw console power.

While I was playing Halo 3, I ripped through the game without thinking too much about the world I found myself in. Here however, you can't stop thinking about the ancient civilisations that once inhabited the planets you visit. This is pure magic and I'd choose Metroid Prime 3 over Halo 3 any day.

『 Nintendo Wii Freebies 』

Since I've purchased my Wii and the additional Wiimotes at the time of the launch, I never got the silicone jackets for the controllers and I have the old style wrist straps [supposedly weaker and without the lock clip].


I have emailed Nintendo, requesting the jackets and replacement wrist straps, since they are a standard issue now and are sold with every new console. After nearly two months and a remainder I sent few weeks back I got the jackets.


It's all good, right? No, it's not. Not only I had to wait for ages, but I never got the wrist straps. I guess Nintendo figured I should be pleased with what I got and that should shut me up. Screw you Nintendo, you cheap assholes.


Tomorrow I'll mail their asses again, and again, and again, untill I get the bloody straps. So know this boys and girls. If you have purchased your console before the protective jackets became a standard and before Nintendo started making new straps, mail or call your local Nintendo distributor [or Nintendo themselves, if they have an office in your country] and demand those items.

『 Grand Theftendo - Still In Development! 』

It's been in development for about six years and lately there has been no news on the project. Many have abandoned all hope and various internet sites have declaired the project dead or inactive. It is the most ambicious Famicom / NES project in history and people are wondering what happend to this great title. I have the answers, or at least some information that eager gamers might find interesting.


Before I lay the new information on you, let's take a quick look at what's been said and done so far. The author of the Grand Theftendo project, Brian Provinciano, has revealed quite a bit about his work, the overall concept of the game and provided us with some "making of" type of information. What we know today is that the game will run on the standard Famicom / NES hardware [if you can flash it onto your own cart, since the title will be released as a free of charge ROM image] or emulator.


Grand Theftendo is based on Grand Theft Auto III and the story plays out in the city of Portland. The game map is quite large, unlike anything that's been previously done on the 8Bit Nintendo platform. The map is 7168x4672 pixels in size. This corresponds to 30x24 game screens, and can be walked or driven though without any load times. This beats any previous NES game hands down not only in size but also in the amount of detail. All this was possible thanks to Brian Provinciano's careful planning and skill.


Being a one man show, Brian has created a full set of tools to aid him on his quest. He created the NESHLA [Nintendo Entertainment System High Level Assembler] and various editing programs that include map editor, road editor, dialogue editor, item placement tool, graphic converters and other applications that made the development easier. He even drew the whole city map on graph paper to get a better feel for what the map should look and play like.


The amount of work that was put into this game says it all. A project like that takes time and skill to complete. While Brian Provinciano pbviously has the skill, time will always be a problem. After all most homebrew developers have regular jobs and families to take care of. Things have been too quiet lately so I have decided to contact Brian and ask him about the game.


I asked him about how things were progressing and if they were progressing at all. This is what he had to say: "Over the years it's been on hiatus off and on due to work, but it's under steady development now, has been again for about 9 months.". So there you have it. It's confirmed and it's still in the works. Brian is a full time game developer and I can understand the problems he is facing. After all, nobody likes sitting in front of a computer 24/7 doing the same thing. When you come home from work last thing you feel like doing is more work.

I wish Brian all the best and hope that the finishing result will be worth all the work and all the wait. Good luck!