SHODAN and Max

Maybe you’ve heard about Telltale’s Sam & Max games, and you’ve had your little mouse-clicker thing hovering over the “buy” button, but you’ve stopped yourself. “I’m tempted,” you say, “but I’m a strict adherent of post-modernism, and I would only play a game with self-referential humor about videogames and the burgeoning ‘internet’ phenomenon that all the kids are talking about.”

Well that excuse won’t work anymore, chump, because their latest episode, “Reality 2.0,” is available now. Here’s the trailer (higher quality version here):

What’s that? You’ve got more reservations?

But I hate adventure games!
Hey, so do I! But once you start playing these episodic games, it’ll be as if you’d rediscovered a long-dead part of yourself. “This… this is what adventure games are like?” you’ll stammer, a tear forming in your eye, “I’m sorry… I… I never knew.”

I’m recovering from recent surgery. Am I subjecting myself to physical harm from the non-stop side-splitting hilarity?
Calm down, you pansy. It’s still a videogame, and everybody knows they’re still not as well-written as TV sitcoms.

I hate Chuck Jordan and everything he stands for. His participation alone is enough to dissuade me from buying the product.
I told you to stop reading my website, Mom. But for Episode 5, all you have to do is grit your teeth and force your way through the first 15 minutes or so. Everything I wrote is at the beginning.

How do I know that Telltale, Inc. is a name I can trust? I’m wary of internet purchases and Digital Rights Management, and if I buy a game with my own money, I want to be sure that I can still play it ten years from now.
Dude, relax. It’s like nine dollars. I’ve spent that much on a copy of Wired magazine that ended up sitting in a recycle bin after a month. Plus, there are games that I’ve worked on that are less than 10 years old, and I can’t play them anymore. This is the information age! Stuff changes quickly! And the jokes aren’t going to be as funny 10 years from now, anyway.

I thought you were going to get me a free copy.
Yeah, and I thought I’d be married with a house and kids and my first published novel by this age. Life is full of disappointments. Get used to it.