This week's episode looks at one of my favorite science fiction adventure games, LucasArts' 1995 masterpiece The Dig. Widely poo-poohed by critics and dismissed even by some fans of Lucasfilm/Lucasarts adventures, The Dig is nevertheless a must-play game with a brilliant story and very memorable characters. I love it! I tried not to include any spoilers, but as always with an adventure game review, you should consider playing it before watching the video.

P.S. Special thanks to Bill Loguidice for the t-shirt! What a great way to celebrate turning 33!

Edge Magazine has just posted The Making Of: Maniac Mansion. The three-page article features comments from Ron Gilbert, David Fox (author of Rescue on Fractalus) and Gary Winnick.

The popular indie title Machinarium is now available for only $5 as part of a "pirate amnesty" sale. Apparently, the Czech developers are convinced that only a tiny fraction of the people who enjoyed this game actually paid for it, but here's their chance (as well as a good chance for the rest of us) to grab this highly praised game for cheap. There's no excuse to pirate a $5 game, folks. They even released a cool song for the occasion. Grab it while you can!

Al Lowe, creator of Leisure Suit Larry (and Freddy Pharkas!), chats with Matt this week about comedy in games, focusing on his fabulous work with Sierra On-Line in the 80s and 90s. Note that it's broken into two parts for your inconvenience.
Part I:

Part II:

Here's this week's Matt Chat featuring Jessica Chiang of Her Interactive. I talk to her about the history of the company, Nancy Drew, and what kind of games appeal to women. Enjoy!

The Void is a new game developed by a Russian team named Ice-Pick Lodge and imported by Mamba Games, a small publisher dedicated to expanding the genre with truly innovative and distinctive games. The game is set for release on October 16th, 2009, and I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy to review.

Here's the "Matt Chat" you've all been waiting for! Lucasfilm Games' 1987 masterpiece, Maniac Mansion!

Still Life 2If you're into adventures, skip over to Adventure Classic Gaming to read my review of Still Life 2, just published today. Overall, I thought it was a good but not great game, but a clever patch could change that situation. Lots of screens, too!

P.S. Please leave a comment over at ACG if you get the chance.

When I first about Rob Smith's new book Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts, I knew almost instantly that it'd be a valuable book for those of us concerned with videogame history. LucasArts (known earlier as LucasFilm Games) is one of the most important and influential of all videogame developers. While many, many people fell in love with classic graphic adventures like The Secret of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max, Full Throttle, and my personal favorite, The Dig, earlier aficionados will remember the equally revolutionary Koronis Rift and Ballblazer. The task Rob Smith set for himself with Rogue Leaders was to give us an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at how all these games got made--and, without question, the man succeeded brilliantly. The only way you could immerse yourself more deeply in this topic would be to jump in a time machine and get a job at LucasArts Games yourself!

"When you want to publish the first announcement of a new LucasArts game, you pull out all the stops," writes the author in his introduction. One might very well apply that to "the first book about LucasArts." Smith has pulled out all the stops to create one of the best books I've seen yet on my favorite topic: videogames!