The second episode of Sam and Max Season 2, Moai Better Blues, takes our heroes to Easter Island, where they must stop the "Volcano God" from destroying the Moai civilization.  Ancient prophesy has predicted a dog in a suit and a giant horrible mouth coming to save them all... uncanny prophesies of doom including Max... does that make an even dozen?  But the question... how does this installment stack up to the series so far?

Telltale Games continued their Sam and Max series in late 2007 with Ice Station Santa, beginning their second season of the game.  I'd always meant to pick up season two, but with work and life and specifically Team Fortress 2, I hadn't found the time.  Imagine my squee when I noticed that not only had Season 3 begun, but Telltale and Valve were providing Sam and Max items and hats for Team Fortress 2!

Sam and Max Episode 6 of Season One, Dark Side of the Moon is a great continuation of the series.  And it's got a really need puzzle solving boss battle that harkens back to the former days of glory for the Adventure game market.

However, this game doesn't really stand on it's own.  It depends heavily on previous chunks of the game being well known to the players, and it's a bit of a letdown on the writing side of things.  It's still great... but it's not the best of the series.

Episode 5 of the first season of Sam and Max is my second favorite of the series, behind Abe Lincoln Must Die.  This one takes place in that zany world, Reality 2.0 which is taking over the Internet and only you can save everyone from becoming hypnotized online game addicts!

Full of wit and references to gaming culture, this game is incredibly awesome.  It's a bit lacking in the graphics department;  Telltale shortcut a bit to get this game out.

So, I finally have my grubby mitts on Star Trek Online… I’ve been waiting so long for this.

This post will contain first impressions, a bug and recommended update thread, and some stuff I’ve really enjoyed seeing in the game.

I downloaded the game, installed it, then went to work!

Really.

Good Old Games is selling Sierra's The Incredible Machine series for $10.  Having enjoyed the game in the past, I decided to buy it and give it a shot again.  It's just as fun as I remember it... with some caveats.

The game pack comes with The Even More Incredible Machine (includes The Incredible Machine with extra puzzles), The Incredible Machine 3 (Windows version of The Incredible Machine 2), Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions and The Incredible Machine - Even More Contraptions.

I'm reviewing specifically the upgrade process, as well as first impressions of Windows 7. Once I use it more, I'll be able to give a more complete rundown of how it works. Through some finagling of an old EDU email address, I was able to score a student copy of Windows 7 Home Premium. I upgraded from XP Pro, and the process was...as smooth as I'd expect from Microsoft.

So you've read The Hunt For Red October and you think that makes you a submarine captain?  Well, you've got lots to learn, grasshopper, but luckily you will have plenty of chances to make mistakes in Silent Hunter II, a submarine simulation game that's fun and educational to boot.

I played the original Silent Hunter in my Junior High computer lab years and years ago.  I was impressed with the feeling of majesty, the feeling of depth, the feeling of getting nothing done that goes along with driving a submarine.

The developers of World of Goo had an interesting promotion: download the game and you set the price! Always the cheapskate, I bought the game for only $4.99 (couldn't make myself only pay $0.01, no matter what my shoulder devil encouraged me to do). This game more than paid for itself at $4.99, and could easily go for $14.99. Although I enjoyed the game, there were some serious wallbanger parts, where I was glad I'd spent the extra money a year ago on the heavy duty mouse. The game is based on a physics simulator, and this is both the game's charm... and the reverse "blessing" which will cause you to curse like a sailor.

So my wife has been asking me to play WoW for a long time now, according to her anyway. I don't really have a memory, so for all I know she could have said "let's get WoW" instead of "good morning" every day and I wouldn't have a clue. Either way, we got it last weekend. Here's the summary: I started a new class, we played around for a while, and I said to myself "mneh, I guess this is ok, but I don't see how people find it so engaging." Then I looked at the clock and it was 6 hours later.