News

The 75th Primetime Emmy Awards may be over, but complaining about the Emmy Awards is only just beginning.

It’s not uncommon for awards ceremonies’ In Memoriam segments, which honor deceased members of the industry, to tick off viewers. Such as how this year’s Oscars ceremony controversially lumped together a bunch of illegible names in the final moments of the In Memoriam, and also featured a “distracting” interpretive dance number.

Last night’s Emmys’ In Memoriam paid homage to late TV stars like Bob Newhart, Richard Simmons and Shannen Doherty, but it also omitted some major names. Some were confused as to why Matthew Perry didn’t appear, forgetting that this was actually the second Emmy ceremony of the year. Perry was honored during the delayed 74th Emmys, which aired back in January.

But the Emmys are now taking heat for leaving out some notable figures, including Erica Ash,...

Joe Flaherty, who got his start in Canadian sketch comedy show Sctv and was best known for his roles as Harold Weir in Freaks and Geeks, Donald in Happy Gilmore and Western Union Man in Back to the Future Part II, died on Tuesday after battling an undisclosed illness. He was 82.

His death was confirmed to the Canadian press by his daughter Gudrun Flaherty. As reported in February, Toronto’s Second City comedy troupe organized a fundraiser to facilitate with the late actor’s health.

The message on the fundraiser read, “Our beloved Sctv cast member, Joe Flaherty, is very ill. Joe is aware of the gravity of his failing health and would like to spend whatever time he has left at home rather than in a facility.”

Following the confirmation of his death, many of Flaherty’s co-stars and notable fans reacted to the news. His Freaks and Geeks co-star John Francis Daley,...

Joe Flaherty, a constant comic presence in film and TV, best known for his work on the sketch show Sctv and Freaks and Geeks, has died. He was 82.

Flaherty’s daughter, Gudrun, confirmed his death in a statement shared with the New York Times. No exact cause was given, but Gudrun said her father died on Monday, April 1, after “a brief illness.”

She continued: “Since then, I’ve been struggling to come to terms with this immense loss. Dad was an extraordinary man, known for his boundless heart and an...

Joe Flaherty, the two-time Emmy-winning writer and Second City alumnus who sparkled as Guy Caballero, Count Floyd, Big Jim McBob and Sammy Maudlin as an original castmember on the landmark Canadian sketch comedy series Sctv, has died. He was 82.

His daughter, Gudrun Flaherty, told the Canadian Press he died Monday after a brief illness.

“Dad was an extraordinary man, known for his boundless heart and an unwavering passion for movies from the ’40s and ’50s,” she said in a statement. “His insights into the golden age of cinema didn’t just shape his professional life; they were also a source of endless fascination for me. In these last few months, as he faced his health challenges, we had the precious opportunity to watch many of those classic movies together — moments I will forever hold dear.”

A native of Pittsburgh, Flaherty also was known for his stint as A-1 Sporting Goods...

The Sega Genesis/Mega Drive had a fantastic run from the late ’80s through much of the ’90s. The 16-bit era was the first time gamers got to experience a meaningful console war and while you can debate whether or not it was superior to the Snes, there were so many fantastic games out there worth playing. Gaming was evolving and kids were eating well.

With about a thousand titles in its library, not every Genesis game could be a hit. There were some titles that missed the mark more than others. Presents that ruined birthdays. Rentals that ruined weekends. Trades that ruined friendships. Buyer’s remorse that can stain one’s very soul. Let’s take a second to celebrate the Genesis titles that aspired to be an earl but ended up as lowly as toe jam.

15. The Simpsons: Bart vs. The Space Mutants

There was a special strangeness to early Simpsons games.

John Saavedra Mar 21, 2019

Despite earlier reports, Lucasfilm isn't taking game development in-house. Sorry, Star Wars fans...

Lucasfilm isn't bringing game development in-house despite recent reports that the company was reviving Lucasfilm Games, the studio that preceded the legendary LucasArts. The initial reports were based on a series of job listings on Disney's Careers page. Since then, Disney has clarified its position on game development. 

Lucasfilm Games, a team within Lucasfilm that supports third-party licensees on Star Wars titles, has actually existed in its current form for quite some time. While the job listings in question, including for a producer and brand art coordinator, do confirm that the team is expanding, Lucasfilm Games isn't actually shifting to game development in-house. 

Disney also confirmed that it's still committed to its licensed game development model, supporting the studios working on games based on its IP. Additionally, despite the rumors that Disney is...

In Digital Shorts we review some of the latest video games that are only available digitally (at least in the UK), in a short-form review format. In this edition we take a look at Her Majesty’s Spiffing, a new point-and-click adventure game now available on the Nintendo Switch.

Point and click adventures, a genre that exploded in the early days of PC gaming yet one that seemingly died out when the first-person shooter was born. Lucasarts made them their own, Maniac Mansion made them mainstream. The genre has stayed alive despite its ups and downs, reborn again during the age of the tablet – the touchscreen controls feeling made for this type of gaming. Which leads us to Her Majesty’s Spiffing…

Originally funded through a Kickstarter campaign, Her Majesy’s Spiffing is a quintessentially British adventure game, featuring what can only be described as stereotypical cliches of British people...

For years, viewers invited Chris Wiggins into their living rooms to hear his vast knowledge of all things occult on Friday the 13th: The Series, so it is with great sadness that we inform readers that the actor has passed away in Ontario at the age of 87 after a battle with Alzheimer's disease.

According to THR, the news of Wiggins' passing was recently shared in an obituary published in the Toronto Star. His family has requested that loved ones and fans donate to the Alzheimer Society in place of purchasing flowers for his memorial service in mid-March.

Wiggins is perhaps best remembered for his aforementioned role as Jack Marshak in Friday the 13th: The Series. As fans know, instead of Jason Voorhees, the series focused on cursed antiques that had to be tracked down, and Wiggins' character was absolutely vital in helping Micki Foster and Ryan Dallion on their quests,...

Last Week’S Review: ‘Mr. Robot’ Does Not Want To Say No To Us

In Elliot’s Head, Two’s A Crowd

The episode opens will Elliot attempting to induce a lucid dreaming state so he can switch places with Mr. Robot and discovers what he’s planning. This dream-like quality extends to the rest of the hour, a brief, fitful pause between the high-action end of last week and next week’s season finale. Elliot is so far from in control that when he trails Mr. Robot to a secret meeting, he temporarily forgets that they are the same person. When the rendezvous turns out to be a surprise meeting with the long-missing Tyrell, Elliot genuinely cannot tell if Wellick is real or another projection of his mind. And though Tyrell behaves as if he’s real, the show doesn’t give us confirmation; instead, we get a dreamy background rendition of “Earth Angel,...

facebook

twitter

google+

With Disney effectively out of the videogame business, designer Ron Gilbert has offered to buy back the rights to Monkey Island...

The cancellation of Disney Infinity meant not only the end of what was once hoped to be a multi million dollar franchise, but also the end of Disney's involvement in the games industry as a whole.

"After a thorough evaluation," Disney Interactive boss James Pitaro said earlier this month, "we have modified our approach to console gaming and will transition exclusively to a licensing model."

This means that Disney will be farming out its big-name properties to external companies from now on, just as it has with Star Wars and EA. What it also means is that older, smaller licenses held by Disney could wind up sitting on a shelf - which is where designer Ron Gilbert comes in.

During his time at LucasArts in the 80s and 90s,...

While adventure games are more popular than ever thanks to the success of Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones adaptations, many long-time fans feel like the genre peaked in the 90s. That was when two beloved companies, Sierra and LucasArts, put out many of their best titles. It really was the golden age for point-and-click adventure games on PC.

Thankfully for gamers, many of LucasArts’ classic titles have seen re-releases such as Grim Fandango and The Secret of Monkey Island. Yet, the game that many consider the epitome of the genre, Day of the Tentacle, hasn’t seen a release since 1997. Now, thanks to the archiving efforts of Double Fine Productions, it’s back in the spotlight as Day of the Tentacle Remastered.

While there have been many debates among video game enthusiasts on how archiving games should be handled, Double Fine has given us the best of both worlds.

Following immediately on from the announcement that Double Fine Productions has teamed up with Adult Swim Games to create the futuristic side-scrolling game HeadLander, Double Fine founder (and game designing legend) Tim Schafer took to the PlayStation Experience stage to talk about the upcoming remasters of two classic games by his studio.

First, audiences were treated to the debut trailer of Day Of The Tentacle Remastered. The classic point-and-click adventure, which Schafer co-designed while he was at LucasArts, was originally released in 1993 as a sequel to Maniac Mansion and is often considered among the best of its genre. The story follows the weedy-looking Bernard Bernoulli as he tries to stop a mutant tentacle from taking over the world.

The trailer shows a comparison between the graphics of the remaster to those of the original, with the new version promising players the ability to switch between the two as they please,...

Cooked up by the team behind the point and click trilogy Hector: Badge of Carnage and featuring the voice talent of the brilliant A.J. LoCascio (known for his role as Marty McFly in Telltale Games’ Back to the Future), Schrödinger’s Cat and the Raiders of the Lost Quark is set in The Particle Zoo, where a catastrophic event has caused all enclosures to open and all the primitive particles to escape! What used to be a cheery theme-park style environment is now utter chaos, and not in the mathematical sense of the word. The Zoo is put on lockdown, and the emergency services are called in to sort everything out. Those emergency services? Schrödinger’s Cat, of course! Thankfully he’s not alone; by collecting and commanding an army of cuddly quarks, Schrödinger’s Cat can combine and create a total of 14 unique abilities to solve any problems he may encounter.

From The Secret Of Monkey Island to Star Wars: Dark Forces, Simon looks back at some of the LucasArts' great early 90s games...

George Lucas has a lot to answer for. He gave us a sci-fi film franchise that fired our collective imaginations, and made us fantasise about flying amongst the stars in the Millennium Falcon. It was amazing, exciting and fun. And then he founded LucasArts - a studio responsible for some of the best games of the 80s and 90s.

No longer a game developer following the Disney buyout, LucasArts is now a publisher for other developers, which is a bit of a shame.

There once was a time, though, when they were one of the most exciting developers on the planet, and when the games they chose to publish didn’t rely solely on the bankable familiarity of a movie licence. I could spend many thousands...

Revolution Software

Like all great genres in gaming, the point and clicker came to life in relatively slow fashion, with players getting their first lateral workout around the time On-Line Systems – the artist soon to be known as Sierra – opened the doors to their Mystery House in 1980. This was soon followed up by the likes of Wizard And The Princess and Kings Quest.

By the time LucasArts joined the party at the end of the decade with their own spook house romp, Maniac Mansion, the typing command menu of yore had a new rival in the now familiar mouse-controlled interface.

The advent of the nineties saw the genre enter its halcyon phase, with LucasArts and Sierra launching a number of enduring franchises, along with other developers trying to emulate this success by creating their own bigger and better adventures. Be it by unleashing the dialogue-based adventure upon us (The Longest...

Besides confirming a release date for Grim Fandango Remastered at today’s PlayStation Experience keynote, Tim Schafer also revealed that his indie company Double Fine has another LucasArts classic being prepared for re-release, in the form of Day of the Tentacle: Special Edition. Though a release date has not been finalized, plans to bring the revamped game to PlayStation 4, Ps Vita, PC, Mac, and Linux have been confirmed.

Originally released for home computers in 1993, Day of the Tentacle served as a sequel to Maniac Mansion, another early LucasArts game, and chronicled the time-traveling adventures of Bernard, Hoagie, and Laverne, a trio of unlikely heroes out to save the day from a sentient tentacle with his eye on global domination. In a clever mechanic, players could switch between the three characters and their respective time periods to meet colorful characters, collect items, and solve puzzles.

We will continue to keep you...

Thimbledweed Park

Ron Gilbert & Gary Winnick

PC, Mac, iOS, Android

If you grew up in the 80s or 90s and played video games, you are likely familiar with LucasArts titles. The LucasArts team created classics like Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island, The Dig and Star Wars: Shadows Of The Empire. The company eventually went out of business and took a hiatus from game making. The game makers have now reunited to make a new game called Thimbleweed Park.

LucasArts shut down in April of 2013 after its video games weren’t living up to the standards previously set by the company’s blockbuster titles. Yet it wasn’t only the quality of the games that caused the company’s fall. Deals failed at the last minute, projects were canceled and developers had conflicting visions of what direction the developer should take. The situation made it nearly impossible for developers to steadily...

If there is one thing that geeks like it’s a reference to their favourite game, television show or film. Randal’s Monday is a new Point & Click adventure game that is full of them, everywhere you look you will see an Easter egg trying to get your attention. Taking an old fashioned style to the adventure game it isn’t exactly one that fits the Telltale Games model of being overly emotional about everything, this is one that looks for laughs and when Jeff Anderson and Jason Mewes are in it, fans of Clerks start to take notice.

Jeff Anderson voices the part of Randal Hicks, a man very much like his Clerks character and Mewes is of course, Jay. Silent Bob does make an appearance too but is not voiced by Kevin Smith (and yes, Bob does provide his sage like advice).

Back to the game though, Randal...

If there is one thing that geeks like it’s a reference to their favourite game, television show or film. Randal’s Monday is a new Point & Click adventure game that is full of them, everywhere you look you will see an Easter egg trying to get your attention. Taking an old fashioned style to the adventure game it isn’t exactly one that fits the Telltale Games model of being overly emotional about everything, this is one that looks for laughs and when Jeff Anderson and Jason Mewes are in it, fans of Clerks start to take notice.

Jeff Anderson voices the part of Randal Hicks, a man very much like his Clerks character and Mewes is of course, Jay. Silent Bob does make an appearance too but is not voiced by Kevin Smith (and yes, Bob does provide his sage like advice).

Back to the game though, Randal...

For the past few days, digital distributor Gog.com has been teasing the fact that a new publisher will be bringing their titles to the service. While the countdown isn’t set to end until tomorrow morning, users on the site have discovered that the dearly departed LucasArts is indeed that publisher.

In a post on the Gog forums, a user discovered threads that revealed certain specific titles from LucasArts that will be showing up on the service. While the threads confirming the leak have since been taken down, the cat is officially out of the bag in regards to the news. A separate thread additionally revealed that Gog.com partnered with Disney in order to make this happen, and that “about 30 classic titles” from the developer will be available. While we don’t know all of the titles coming at the moment, we do know that these six will...

Throughout the 80s and 90s, the video game industry witnessed a boon in point-and-click adventures games. Be it Maniac Mansion or LucasArts’ Monkey Island series, the genre was absolutely in vogue during that particular period in time. And of those iconic IPs in question is PC title Myst, which is set to return in the form of a TV show and an accompanying video game tie-in.

Rand and Robyn Miller — the creative minds behind the popular adventure series — sealed the deal with Legendary Entertainment, with plans to extend the Myst brand through an autonomous tablet experience along with the aforementioned video game release.

At this stage, it’s unclear whether Legendary will opt to distribute Myst through the more traditional method and broadcast it through TV or, in the vein of House of Cards, release it onto a digital platform like Netflix or Hulu.

Cyan Worlds, the studio belonging to...

It’s something of a given these days that gamers around their mid-twenties claim that adventure games were the ones that got them hooked on the hobby back in the day. Titles like Sam & Max Hit the Road, Day of the Tentacle and Maniac Mansion are responsible for shaping the futures of more than a few of us (myself included), but the adventure game hasn’t aged well with evolving technology. One of the more recent stabs at the genre, Anna: Extended Edition, has also been one of the more divisive titles, receiving praise and criticism in equal measure.

Two years after its initial release on PC and over a year after the extended rerelease, Anna: Extended Edition makes its way to the Xbox 360, marking its first console appearance. However, nothing has changed, making this a purchase that only the uninitiated should look into. Even then, the convoluted nature of...

Square Enix

Video game cutscenes can exist to serve a number of purposes. Beyond just being a convenient way of progressing the story, particularly impressive cutscenes can serve as a reward for player progress or even just to immerse them further into the atmosphere of the game.

While cutscenes have traditionally been pre-rendered, animated or live action, advances in graphics technology means that many modern video game cutscenes are rendered entirely in-game. Typically, a cutscene completely removes control from the player, although a select few grant a certain amount of interactivity. In particular, the God of War series became known for its use of cinematic cutscenes.

Pac-Man is the game most commonly cited as containing the first ever cutscene, in the form of its intermissions featuring the ghosts chasing Pac-Man and vice-versa. The term itself was originally coined by Ron Gilbert in reference to the cutscenes in his adventure game Maniac Mansion.

As a nostalgic child trapped in a man’s body, I confess my addiction to all things horror as a youngster and still, as an adult, today. By age 8 I craved the emotionless face of Michael Myers, the idea of what could potentially be at the end of his sharp kitchen knife tugging at my imagination.

I hung on Freddy Krueger’s every punchline, shook in anticipation of Jason Voorhees’ latest inventive means of murder. I loved it all... every bit of that sadistic shit that turned me into the unstable hound I am today.

But parents aren’t typically keen on allowing their young children to sit back and absorb gratuitous violence, excessive foul language and liberal fashion requirements. If a flick is too bloody, graphic, perverse, or politically incorrect, the youth are generally banned from any form of association. That’s what we do as parents in the...

The 90s were a great time for the video game industry. It saw the introduction of 3D graphics, and the rise of one of gaming’s biggest giant’s. As the technology grew, developers were able to infuse story into their games like they had never been able to before. Games had always had intros before, but now they could reach a more cinematic quality and be bigger than ever. Since we’re discussing some of the best cutscenes in gaming this month, I thought I’d revisit the best gaming intros from the 90s.

Each month the Cinelinx staff will write a handful of articles covering a specified video game-related topic. These articles will be notified by the Gamerlinx banner. Gamerlinx, like our Movielinx counterpart, is an exploration and discussion of our personal connections with the world of gaming. This month in Movielinx we're exploring the best performances, and...

LucasArts

Tim Schafer’s has just released the first part of his brand new adventure game Broken Age, and it marks his first return to the genre in over ten years. Over the years Schafer has, along with Ron Gilbert and LucasArts, produced some of the most popular and critically-acclaimed adventure games to have ever released.

Although the genre has seen something of a decline recently there are still some absolute gems from the past that are still hugely popular. You have examples such as The Secret of Monkey Island, Broken Sword and Maniac Mansion. All of these still have massive followings amongst fans, proving the genre still has plenty to offer.

This list will count down some of the less obvious adventure games that everyone still loves. These will include brilliant games that still have cult-followings, years after they released. We’ve tried not to include entries like the...

Anyone old enough to play "Maniac Mansion" on the original Nintendo console will get a kick out of this -- the demented geniuses over at 8 Bit Cinema (via Live for Films) have created an immersive, totally hilarious video game version of The Coens' cult classic "The Big Lebowski." And it is awesome.

What makes the old school video game rendering of "The Big Lebowski" so successful is that everything about it is so authentic -- the awkward, sort-of top down perspective that so many of those games chose, the subtle sound effects of the sprites walking around, and the cavernously empty stages. It's all perfect. In an eerie way that will take you back to your childhood home's shag-carpeted rumpus room (yes, shag survived until the eighties in some houses).

Of course, the other reason why this video is so much fun is that you get to watch classic sequences...

While those who have contributed to Broken Age‘s Kickstarter have already received their copies of the title, the rest of the gaming public only has a little longer to wait. Tim Schafer’s latest opus will be released on January 28th for Windows, Mac and Linux. iOs, Android and Ouya versions of the game will be coming at a later date.

Centering around two children, Vella and Shay, Broken Age is a point-and-click adventure title about breaking tradition and leading your own life. If that sounds a little vague, then don’t worry, Double Fine has released two new trailers that detail what each character is going through.

Although this release is officially listed as Broken Age: Act 1, purchasing the title will grant gamers access to the second act for free.

“For various logistical reasons, and because we believe Act 1 is a polished and satisfying piece of content in its own right,...

I.m not sure what it says about my personality, but my absolute favorite type of mash-up video currently running rampant on the Internet is when a movie or TV show is adapted into an 8-bit RPG video game. There.s something about the branched-off decision making that players go through that transfers so well to comically represent some of the core functions and logic that fictional worlds adhere to. And so while I.m a little disappointed that YouTube channel CineFix.s 8-bit tribute to The Shining doesn.t have more original flourishes within, it.s still a solid addition to your viewing in the countdown to Halloween. It.s a nice digestif to watching Stanley Kubrick.s masterpiece. Rather than using the structure from the Final Fantasy series that many of these spoofs utilize, The Shining is taken straight from Lucasfilm.s 1987 surreal classic Maniac Mansion, literally right...

Just so you know, this fan rap contains spoilers from "Alan Wake," in case you haven't played it yet.

The video is the work of nerdcore rapper John H. whose YouTube channel features homages to classic comic supervillains, "Maniac Mansion," and "Matlock." His latest, posted earlier this week, focuses on the story of "Alan Wake."

I'm not a huge nerdcore guy (at least, not anymore--is M.C. Chris still a thing) but I like John H.'s flow here matching voice actor Matthew Porretta's line reading somewhat, particularly at the "That's when he heard the chainsaw" bit. "Alan Wake" had one of the better (and more eclectic) licensed soundtracks of this generation, and while "The Writer" doesn't fit in with what Remedy made, I can imagine a hypothetical universe where this would play as kind of a fun bit at the back end of the long-ish credits.

Related posts:...

It's with a heavy heart and Rsi-riddled point-and-clicking fingers that we bring you the news of LucasArts' demise. Closed down by its new owners Disney, the much-loved video game developer is laying off all its staff and turning into a licensing entity. In other words, Star Wars: First Assault and Star Wars 1313 are no more.In this way, the Golden Guy will live on through other game designers picking up their previous creations, which include the Star Wars and Indiana Jones games, as well as Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion and Sam & Max, some of which are already in the safe hands of LucasArts' spiritual successor, TellTale games.Some of Lucasfilm Games' (as it was originally known) best-loved releases - notably the Monkey Island series - are still available on iPhones, iPads and elsewhere, but for the time being LucasArts' legacy lives on in the minds of its fans and...

News Ryan Lambie 3 Apr 2013 - 22:06

Disney has announced that LucasArts will close, meaning the end of its work-in-progress, Star Wars 2013...

Rescue On Fractalus. Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis. Monkey Island. Videogame developers may come and go, but few have enjoyed as long a lifetime, or released quite so many hit games, as LucasArts. Beginning life as Lucasfilm Games in 1982, the studio built on the early success of games such as Ballblazer and The Eidolon, before it became synonymous with the point and click adventure genre with hits including Maniac Mansion and the Monkey Island series.

Ever since Lucasfilm was purchased by Disney in late 2012, the fate of LucasArts has remained unclear - that is, until today, when it was announced that the studio would cease development on all its current projects, almost certainly meaning the end of its work-in-progress, Star Wars 1313. In an email to the website Game Informer,...

As part of the acquisition of LucasFilm back in October, Disney also picked up their revered gaming studio, LucasArts. It was a news story that pretty much melted the internet and one which raised more questions than answers. However, in a statement released today, some of those questions were unfortunately answered. The newly appointed parent company has shut down LucasArts and will instead licence out properties to third-party developers and Disney Interactive.

Here’s the press release reported by Kotaku:

“After evaluating our position in the games market, we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company’s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games,” LucasFilm said in a statement. “As a result of this change, we’ve had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles.

Legendary adventure game designer Ron Gilbert (the creator of the classic games Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion) announced last night that he has left Double Fine Productions “now that The Cave is done and unleashed on an unsuspecting world”.

Gilbert revealed his departure from the company on his personal blog, Grumpy Gamer, expressing his thanks to the both Tim Schafer and the entire team at Double Fine.

“I want to thank all the amazing people at Double Fine for all their hard work on The Cave. It was a true pleasure to work with every one of them over the past two years. So much fun. I will miss them all. And of course to Tim for creating the opportunity to come there and make The Cave.”

Tim Schafer offered his support to his long-time friend on his Twitter account, saying “Sad to say @grumpygamer feels like it’s time...

Nintendo adds new games and content to the Nintendo eShop for Wii U and 3Ds every week, and every week we grab all the info and put it right here, so you can stay up to speed on all of Nintendo's digital offerings.

This week Wii U owners can tilt their way through "Puddle," winner at the Independent Games Festival 2010. In addition, there's a demo for Double Fine's 'The Cave" in case you've been on the fence about that one. 3Ds owners are getting some love too, with "Fire Emblem Awakening" and several other games hitting the eShop. Head past the break for all the details!

From Nintendo:

Nintendo eShop on Wii U

Puddle – Winner at the Independent Games Festival 2010, Puddle is a game that finds players guiding a puddle of fluid through 49 challenging and diverse levels by tilting the environment left or right. Players must also take into account friction,...

Ron Gilbert's name has become synonymous with some of the most beloved games ever released. Games like Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, and DeathSpank have all sprung forth from his creative brain, and onto the screen in a fantastic manner. His latest title, The Cave, follows suit, changing up the overall format that he is known for, and bringing his unique brand of puzzles and humor to a platforming game. Teaming up the fine folks at Double Fine Productions, The Cave is Gilbert's first game in twenty years where both he and industry legend Tim Shafer can find their names in the credits... so you know there's some interesting things abound.

The Cave is a story of, well, a talking cave that plays host to seven different adventurers as they search for their hearts' one, true desire. At the start of the game players chose three...

Nintendo adds new games and content to the Nintendo eShop for Wii U and 3Ds every week, and every week we grab all the info and put it right here, so you can stay up to speed on all of Nintendo's digital offerings.

If you own a Wii U there's something you need to do right now -- download "Balloon Fight." It's the game that inspired "Nintendo Land's" "Balloon Trip Breeze" and it's available for a mere 30 cents right now via the eShop. Double Fine's "The Cave" is also available for download now, and 3Ds owners have a new "Brain Age: Concentration Training" demo and more to check out. Head past the break for details!

From Nintendo:

30 Year Anniversary. 30 Days Limited Discount. 30 Cents.

To help celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Famicom (which was known as the Nes™ in the United States), Wii U™ owners can purchase one select Virtual...

I awaited Ron Gilbert’s The Cave with childlike glee. Adventure games have never really been my thing, but they were a staple in my adolescent gaming. That genre use to be everywhere and thanks to people like Ron Gilbert and friends at Double Fine (though Gilbert was not always with them), we had quality, humorous games coming down the pipe for many years. That’s still the case, but in a different manner these days. Double Fine’s recent titles are looked at like something to be revered rather than pioneers in the gaming industry. They are now the grandfathers of gaming who continue to put out quality products year after year. Sure, they are smaller now, but there is something truly special about the company.

The Cave is a Double Fine game created by Ron Gilbert. Gilbert is the man behind such games as Maniac Mansion and The Secret of Monkey Island.

While we do cover sci-fi from time to time on Daily Dead, we don’t cover too much new related to Star Wars. However, this news is huge for all movie fans, not just because a new Star Wars movie was announced, but because Disney is acquiring Lucasfilm and its entire movie/gaming catalog:

Via Deadline: “Disney has just confirmed that it has agreed to acquire George Lucas’ Lucasfilm Ltd, and that includes rights to the Star Wars franchise. The companies have also targeted a 2015 release for Star Wars: Episode 7. The stock and cash transaction is worth an estimated $4.05 billion, and the companies have scheduled a conference call in a half-hour to discuss the deal.”

This is a breaking news story, and we’ll update this with the official press release and more details when they become available. The interesting bit for horror and gaming fans is that this...

Before sitting down with a very early build of The Cave, the most I had heard about the game was that it was being developed by Ron Gilbert, the creator of such incredible adventure games like Maniac Mansion and the Monkey Island series. That was about it. Being a gamer who cut his teeth with the original Nes, Maniac Mansion is the game that introduced me to what would become a love for click-and-point adventures. The Cave was shown off at E3 this year but it didn't really hit major on a lot of radars. Most gaming sites stuck to either posting stories about how the world was disappointed in the show or how the market is saturated with shooters.

I really wished they wouldn't have wasted my time with such editorials. Instead of whining about the “Fps'ing” of every game ever, I wish they would have spent more time...

Ron Gilbert's new spelunking adventure game is coming to PC's and consoles in early 2013.

The side-scrolling adventure game hopes to mix that Maniac Mansion vibe in a subterranean (and other) settings next year. And that makes sense because the mastermind behind the game is Ron Gilbert, whose last project was the downloadable action-rpg Deathspank. The Cave will be more in Gilbert's wheelhouse, having served as a designer and writer on the likes of Tales of Monkey Island and recently Penny Arcade Adventures.

Like that venerable classic Maniac Mansion, in The Cave, you'll select three playable characters to help you navigate the game's sure to be perilous (and possibly stocked with odd things) locations.

Here's the typically goofy, enigmatic synopsis from the Double Fine team:

If you enjoy rappelling, spelunking and dark rocky caverns then be prepared to be disappointed! And then intrigued. And then Amazed. And then disappointed again,...

Never heard of Telltale Games? They might be creating the blueprint for the future of videogames — and that might not be a good thing. The formula for a Telltale game is simple: Adapt a recognizable TV or movie, ideally a brand with a large fanbase, into a point-and-click adventure game. Sprinkle in obvious references to the original TV/movie to prove to fans that you care just enough to make obvious references. Cut the game into “episodes,” with a new segment of the game appearing like clockwork every month. Earn an inflated grade because your licensed game is not as...

There are too many sequels on store shelves, but that doesn’t stop us dreaming about the ones that got away. Here we check out 7 dead game series that we would like to see brought back from the abyss.

Maniac Mansion

Monkey Island, eh? It’s forever getting a new lick of HD paint, or wholly new sequels. Sam ‘N Max too – the continuing adventures of the furry dog detective and his psycho rabbit sidekick can be seen on Steam, iTunes, Psn and Xbla. Where oh where is the Maniac Mansion love? Maniac Mansion 2: Day of the Tentacle is widely regarded as one of the high points in adventure gaming, and then all of a sudden the trail went dead. What are Hoagie, Bernard and Laverne up to now? Did Purple Tentacle find another way to change the future? Get together and Kickstart us a sequel, Tim Schaeffer and...

Double Fine has announced platforms for its tentatively titled Double Fine Adventure. Tim Schafer announced in a video that due to the success of the game's Kickstarter campaign, it will be available on PC, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android. It will also feature full voice acting in English, along with localized text in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. Double Fine Adventure is a collaboration between Double Fine's Tim Schafer and developer Ron Gilbert on a new retro-styled point-and-click adventure game. The two worked together on classic games such as Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle and the Monkey Island series. Double Fine Adventure is being funded through Kickstarter, (more)...

Double Fine has set new records on Kickstarter with its Double Fine Adventure funding project. Kickstarter revealed on Twitter today that the project has set new records for both most funds raised in 24 hours and highest number of supporters. It reached these records after being up on the site for only 15 hours. The project, which launched yesterday, will fund a new retro-styled point-and-click adventure game by Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island creators Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert. Double Fine achieved its goal of $$400,000 (£252,942) within eight hours, and continues to gain support. It currently has raised $$818,037 (£516,823) with over 20,000 backers and 33 days remaining to receive donations. Schafer announced that the extra money will be used to translate the game into other languages and consider other platforms. (more)...

Double Fine has announced a new adventure game and is currently seeking funding for it through Kickstarter. The title, currently called Double Fine Adventure, will see a collaboration between Double Fine's Tim Schafer and developer Ron Gilbert on a new retro-styled point-and-click adventure game. The two worked together on classic games such as Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle and the Monkey Island series. Double Fine has achieved its goal of $$400,000 (£252,942) in less than 12 hours thanks to contributions from over 9,000 backers. Funds will continue to be accepted, with Schafer announcing that the extra money will be used to translate the game into other languages and consider other platforms. "All the money goes into making the game and (more)...

*full disclosure: a screener of this film was provided by Casey Walker.

Director: Casey Walker.

Writers: Trevor Martin and Christopher Bond.

Cast: Kristopher Turner, Kristen Hager, Crystal Lowe, Shawn Roberts, and Stephen McHattie.

First-time director Casey Walker may very well have a cult classic on his hands. With plenty of experience in the television front, and lots of training with his film making friends, he shows that he has the talent to work in the big leagues.

A Little Bit Zombie will make its world debut at the Victoria Film Festival on February 4th. This movie is a smart rom-com. It cleverly adds to the mythos of what the walking dead can represent on screen. And this motion picture can easily rank up there with other Canadian zombie products like Fido and Pontypool.

Viewers may remember Stephen McHattie from the latter product, and he shows that he is no stranger...

When DeathSpank first arrived in Xbox Live download queues, it was a refreshing reminder that videogames can occasionally crack not-terrible jokes. But with its novelty and the Ron Gilbert (Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion) pedigree now long gone, The Baconing is simply a third, sizzling slice of meta goofing wrapped around a hack ’n’ slash filet that’s gone a bit off. By unwisely donning all the thongs of virtue at once in the second DeathSpank game, DeathSpank summoned a villainous anti-Spank, who’s wreaking incredible destruction across Spanklandia, while also being almost entirely absent until the final two minutes of ...

This bit of A.M. Awesome will bring back fond memories for those of you who grew up playing the wonderful LucasArts adventure games like Maniac Mansion or Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. At the time these games were top notch graphics pieces but now the art is delightfully retro, and artists like Mads Herman use that to their advantage. The Danish graphic artist used the LucasArts Scumm guidelines to create his latest piece, which turns Duncan Jones. Moon into a LucasArts style adventure game. You can plainly see the style influence as long as you.re familiar with the genre. The action choices, the item list, and the art style are all indicative of those classic games many of us loved as kids. Herman also has some seriously awesome artwork on his website that I suggest checking out, but you can scope out the super rad Scumm...

One of our favorite collective pastimes as gamers is looking back on all of the great stuff we played in the before time, when "joystick" referred to the thing sticking out of the machine you shoved your quarters into. This year's Game Developer's Conference, which goes down in San Francisco between February 28 and March 4, will pay particular attention to that facet of our shared experience with 11 developer-hosted "classic" postmortems.

The idea is to put the developer of each of the 11 featured titles onto a stage and have him -- they're all dudes -- take questions on their work from the gathered attendees. It's a pretty all star lineup that the Gdc planners have put together, including several of the show's own past (and present) Lifetime Achievement Award winners. For those of us who won't be able to make it to San Francisco, the 11 lectures will be filmed and made available...