Aye, 'tis a saaad time for us PC Adventure gamers

*sigh*

Well, one of my most anticipated game that was coming soon has been cancelled by those buggers we call LucasArts. These guys once were the forerunners of all games that were good, but now they can't see past the end of their lightsabres.

Do any of you remember the game "Sam & Max Hit the Road"? I'm sure a few of you would... *cough*Peefy*cough*. Or better yet, did you hear of the incredibly awesome and cool sequel that was in production called "Sam & Max: Freelance Police".

This is the trailer for the game, for your info:
http://www.gametrailers.com/gt_vault...andmax_fp.html

Did you like that trailer? I did. But what is saddening about watching that trailer is knowing what has gone to terrible terrible waste, as LucasArts decided to pull the plug on the whole thing, because since they have their hands on their lightsabres too much, they can not really see the point in releasing this highly anticipated game.

Official LucasArts Press Release
"After careful evaluation of current market place realities and underlying economic considerations, we've decided that this was not the appropriate time to launch a graphic adventure on the PC" says Mike Nelson, Acting General Manager and VP of Finance and Operations.

AHHH! This annoys me to no end. I was anticipating this game just as much as, if not more than the next Zelda game! And I'm sure it will a few of you that are old skool PC Adventurers.

So what can we do?

Well ANYONE who is interested email LucasArts:
pr@lucasarts.com

They are currently collecting all the emails sent here to send to the heads.

And, yeah, I know online petitions are relatively useless, but these are desperate times... so the link to the petition:

www.petitiononline.com/LACOSAM/petition.html

I AM quite overwhelmed to see almost 10,000 signatures on there already, and only in the past few days. So sign it.

Bah, I am soooo pissed off. I wonder if it would've been released if it was called "C3P0 & R2D2: Freelance Droids".... erg.




Max: This is so degrading...
Sam: Just shut up and dance!


*grumbles off*

ha, i thought lucasarts were specilising in star was now anyway? i was trying to listen out for a monkey island game but no news.

They actually promised us 50/50 original games to Star Wars game... then the president Simon Jeffrey left, so all the decisions are now made by the guys that only see figures flying through their brains. And I'm pretty sure they wouldn't even have that right, as they just threw 2 million bucks down the drain in production costs, and also I reckon it would have made a good profit. There are TONNES of peeps that have the original that will buy it alone.

Grrr... again.

it's buisness, if a ccompany switches hands then old francise gets dumped and new ones introduced. i suspect another sam+max game will be out , the same with monkey island. after all a series rarely stops especialy one which has been going on for so long.

Bah, its their business choice if they want to lose dedicated customers. I mean, the game was almost finished for crying out loud!!

The point is that they used to be a top-notch company, and now they are just mediocre. They think the key to success is slapping a stupid Star Wars label on half-assed attempts at games. The only gem in recent years apparently is KOTOR, which wasn't even developed by them.

Ahhh! I really have to cool down. I mean, it must be a huge slap in the face to the creative team, apparently the game was coming along really well and going to schedule.

Do not forget Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy. Those weren't exactly failures, and they used the Quake 3 engine decently. Anyway, LucasArts have done this before, I think... I seem to recall a similar case... hmm...

Of course they weren't failures, they are Star Wars. I'm not saying LucasArts doesn't make any good games, but they aren't anything most people are going to remember as a highlight ten or so years later. LucasArts used to have that effect on people, all the games back then were truly top-class. I just hope that something happens, because I don't want to hate a company that has done so much.

And yes, LucasArts cancelled the sequel to Full Throttle, but it was cancelled for completely different reasons to Sam and Max, plus the game wasn't looking too hot either.

The trailer seems pretty decent (I haven't played the first one so don't mind me if I don't have shuch high opinion on it) the trailer was very comical, Its a shame they didn't release it. Is it by Lucas Arts or can anybody use those characters?

Steve Purcell is the guy that made the original comics of Sam & Max, so he pretty much owns it... but methinks LucasArts has exclusive rights to develop and publish the game. The sad thing is that I wouldn't want anyone BUT LucasArts to develop the game, because I know that there are one heck of a lot of talented people in there, that also worked on some of the original gems.

Anyway, for more info on Sam & Max:
www.samandmax.net - Unnofficial Sam & Max page
www.mixnmojo.com - LucasArts news based website, has tonnes of coverage and ab editorial of the cancellation.

And yes, LucasArts cancelled the sequel to Full Throttle, but it was cancelled for completely different reasons to Sam and Max, plus the game wasn't looking too hot either.

How so?

Adventure games aren't selling well. If all their other games have been "half-assed," why would you want them to release yet another half-assed game? Particularly when classic PC adventure titles don't pay the bills any more? And particularly when you obviously had high hopes for it? Remember why they cancelled Full Throttle 2? Claiming they didn't want to disappoint their fans? If LucasArts is releasing "half-assed" games, imagine what the games even they're embarassed of must be turning out like.

There are lots of reasons LucasArts could have bowed out of this. Most of these reasons are justifiable. If we're to believe their press release, they did their research. And consider for a moment that perhaps it does correlate to the cancellation of Full Throttle 2. In that case, there's a good chance they held on this long out of a desire to do right by the fans.

I had high hopes for Sam & Max, but what can we do? C'est la vie. LucasArts obviously has their justification.

Bah... Sam & Max wasn't looking half-assed at all. There were reports from this dude who actually went to the voice acting session and got to read the script, and it was apparently it was very well done. Steve Purcell and the developing team were happy with its production. Sure we didn't see enough of it to make a proper judgement, but everyone seemed to adore what little there was shown of it.

Full Throttle 2 was cancelled because it wasn't living up to expectations in the development phase, and was receiving generally poor to okay reception at last year's E3... and on top of that was the death of some dude.

Lots of the original games made by LucasArts were potentially quite good also. I think one of the main reasons is the heads rushing it out before it could be polished. RTX Red Rock...rushed. Hidden & Dangerous... pushed forward for the Christmas season, but instead got drowned out...

They just aren't what they used to be, thats all. I myself have somewhat grown out of adventure gaming, and think there is much more room for original ideas. But this was a sequel to an absolute classic, man... everyone who knew about it was pumped. I think its just a slap in the face to loyal and long-time fans.

I, and others, can only hope that something might happen after the swarm of Star Wars Episode III games.