A new site has popped up over on Telltale's domain, teased at the conclusion of the fifth and final Monkey Island episode. It's got Sam, Max and a prominent 2010 all over it, along with some concept art showing a heavy dose of sci-fi and just a hint of time travel, given Sam's rather dapper attire.

In addition to the visual clues, there's also some audio playing over the art, suggesting that Telltale's next Sam & Max may not be your average point-and-click adventure game, instead featuring gameplay where you're given a lot more direct control over events.

[Sam & Max 2010]

The story starts off with Guybrush klepto-ing his way out of his own grave ("What's all this dirt doing here? Maybe I'll just hang on to some..."). How he got there is covered in the previous four episodes, which we won't spoil for you here. After passing by a Grog vending machine and some other promising-looking puzzle pieces, he encounters the Boatman — that infamous character out of legend who ferries the dead on to whatever awaits them.

In Guybrush's case, this is Crossroads — where Pirates go to die or be half-dead. With a Shred of Life in his pocket and a thin hope that he can get back to his body to be reunited with his wife Elaine, our hero goes on questing in Crossroads essentially the same way he did when he was alive.

Things don't get interesting 'til Guybrush actually discovers the way to return to his body. The demo master behind our tiny sample of Episode 5 didn't reveal how this comes about exactly (something to do with a locket) — but rather jumped ahead to a point in time when Guybrush's ghost was able to communicate to some buddies about why his corpse was being used as a dartboard. Strangely, the pirates were glad to see Guybrush in his corporeal form, but when he somehow got back into his own body, they freaked out and attacked him.

Clearly, this whole life after death thing is more complicated than zombie movies have led us to believe. If Guybrush being back in his body doesn't make his body undead, does that make him a standard zombie or some other iteration of undead? And where does this put his relationship with Elaine because pirates probably have laws about necrophilia.

Our demo ended with one final attempt to repossess Guybrush's body — which landed us in jail this time — where Guybrush got kicked out of his corpse after spending too long in the land of the living. Because the game was in its early days of development, there were no fight scenes to see. But we were told to expect a "good, classic boss fight" at the end of Episode 5.

As for the future of series, Telltale isn't telling. They do intend on releasing the full box copy for PC relatively soon after Episode 5 goes live and they said we can expect that we'll "be hearing from" Telltale "very soon" about their next big project. Also, they did say they were "committed to getting as many things on as many platforms as possible" in response to a question about an Xbox Live release for Tales of Monkey episodes. But again, nothing definite.

And for all you Wii fans out there still waiting for 1) a box copy of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People and 2) a release date on the WiiWare version of Episode 5, Telltale says 1) blame Nintendocomplicated circumstances and 2) it'll be out whenever Nintendo approves it.

Tales of Monkey Island Episode 5: Rise of the Pirate God is out for PC December 8.

ETA: Telltale's Will Armstrong wants to clarify that the situation is not about Nintendo being slow, but rather that the timing of completing the game and getting it to Nintendo for their submission process is complicated. Hence why they can't guarantee same-day releases between PC and WiiWare episodes.

The third chapter of Telltale Games' episodic adventure game hit the Nintendo Wii on Monday, and the PC version of chapter four is coming out on Friday? What a difference the WiiWare approval and scheduling process makes! I suppose Wii players should stop reading to avoid spoiling the fact that Guybrush finds himself trapped back on chapter two's Flotsam Island, now riddled with the pox that he brought there. Before he can progress to the series' epic conclusion he must avoid being executed for his heinous crimes - though when your wife looks like Elaine does right now, it might be for the best to just let nature take its course.

Tales of Monkey Island: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood will be available for PC purchase this Friday.

Indie devs 2D Boy, Dylan Fitterer, Amanita Design and small but not indie dev Telltale Games all lent their voices to the "Valve's not so bad/Steam is awesome" tune when Ars asked if anybody was feeling exploited.

For some developers, Steam is actually quite the opposite of exploitation:

Ron Carmel, 2D Boy
"...Valve offers the most developer-friendly terms for digital distribution in the industry. Do you know the saying 'there's nothing better than a good king and nothing worse than a bad one'? I think it applies here, and Steam has clearly been a good king so far."

So, really, Pitchford — what's got you on edge? Is your Borderlands promotional slot not high enough on Steam's marquee queue?

Game devs speak out on Valve, Steam and conflict of interest [Ars Technica]

The giveaway goes on all day on the 19th, but through the 21st of September, they're also giving gamers %50 off on the iPhone, Steam and Direct2Drive special editions of The Secret of Monkey Island. Hit 'em up here come Talk Like a Pirate Day for the free stuff.

And for the record, I did try to write this entire post in pirate speak, but it caused me physical pain. If you want to take a crack at it below, I'll award 10 to the would-be pirate translator who doesn't make my head explode.

Tales of Monkey Island, Episode Three is on the way September 29.

Sure, Nintendo Wii players have had to wait a couple of weeks longer than PC gamers to take the next step on Guybrush Threepwood's journey to find redemption and salvation in a world that doesn't understand him, but look at it this way: it gives Telltale a chance to quickly fix anything that might not have been 100% in the PC version. In a way, the PC gamers are beta testing your game for you, and for the most part they have to sit in uncomfortable office chairs to play it. Wii are the champions, my friends.

Look for Chapter 2 to hit the North American WiiWare service on Monday for 1,000 Wii points.

The Siege of Spinner Cay coming to WiiWare this Monday! [Telltale]

"The one I always think about these days is Loom actually", Grossman says, "and how ahead of its time it was".

"I think the problem with it at the time was that it was only two and a half hours long and now I find myself deliberately trying to design games that are only two and a half hours long. So I think… well, why not do that?"

No reason we can see, Dave. Loom's been largely forgotten about for a while now, but in a world that thinks Nintendo invented the musical instrument as a means of solving puzzles, now's as good a time as ever for the game to make a comeback.

So long as the remake is purple. All I remember about the game (I haven't played it in over 10 years) are music, hoods and the colour purple. It was everywhere.

Something Loom-ing at Telltale? [Total PC Gaming]

When we last left our intrepid pirate friend, he had found himself stranded on Flotsam Island, a strange place where the wind always blows inward, leaving him little hope of escaping and rescuing his wife Elaine from the vile (and suddenly human) clutches of his arch-nemesis LeChuck.

"Launch of the Screaming Narwhal" has received universal acclaim for its gameplay and story that strands Guybrush on Flotsam Island, where in the tradition of the great old movie serials with cliffhanger endings, Guybrush must rout an array of eccentric characters and unravel a myriad of pirate adventures – before he can escape the perplexing island and battle the villainous LeChuck again in Chapter 2, "Siege of Spinner Cay."

Look for the Wii version of chapter 2 to hit shortly after the PC version's Thursday, August 20th debut.

It's called "Siege of Spinner Cay", and will be out on August 20, keeping with the publisher's plans of releasing one episode per month. Be interesting to see how it goes down, actually, as I thought I liked the first episode, but then went and played Monkey Island: Special Edition and realised these new games are just like Telltale's Sam & Max titles; facsimiles of earlier work, which do an admirable job of colouring between the lines but just never quite capture the same feel as the original games.

Telltale Games has launched a contest that could see your words immortalized in the final episode of the five-part Tales of Monkey Island adventure game serial. Fans have between now and August 10th to submit short line about how Guybrush done them wrong at the Game Designer for a Day contest page. Entries are then voted for by fans, with the top vote getter each week eligible to win the grand prize - infamy! The winning entry will have their line voiced by Telltale talent, and score a game writing credit in the process.

Looking at the page right now, the top entry this week is "He sunk my battleship!", so I'd say there's still plenty of room for improvement.

Man, are game writers lazy this month or what?

For fans of the original PC adventure games, the setting, situation and characters will be immediately familiar. Elaine Marley has apparently been captured by ghostly pirate, LeChuck (again) and Guybrush Threepwood – Elaine's husband of some years – has apparently gone on a quest to find voodoo ingredients to defeat him and is only just now arriving to save the day.

For the uninitiated folks, the game will still seem familiar: tits go up and things get wacky, just like you'd expect them to in a Telltale game.

What Is It?
Tales of Monkey Island is a new adventure told in five parts that picks up where the Monkey Island adventure game series left off. A ton of LucasArts alumni who worked on the original games evidently wound up at Telltale and convinced LucasArts to let them develop a fifth game in a five-part episodic format typical of other Telltale games.

What We Saw
I played through the beginning of the first episode to the point where Guybrush washes up on Flotsam Island, determines that he needs to defeat a pirate called Deep Gut to obtain the only ship on the island and for some reason, his hand is glowing green and randomly punches him.

How Far Along Is It?
The PC version ships July 7, but Telltale's tendency is to work all the way up until the day before they roll an episode out; so this build definitely didn't look done. They're still hammering out a mouse control scheme and graphics were missing or broken.

What Needs Improvement?
The mouse control scheme: There's a divide among PC adventure gamers between those that like W, A, S, D plus mouse and space bar and those that only want to use the mouse. Telltale has experience with both in their point-and-click adventures work—and a keyboard-only control scheme in Wallace and Gromit—but for Monkey Island, they're looking for a compromise. Right now, you can use the keyboard to move around, but you still need the mouse to click stuff and manipulate your inventory. The alternative is to click and hold the left mouse button to bring up a red direction arrow over Guybrush. Dragging the mouse in this mode will make Guybrush walk steadily in whatever direction the mouse is moving toward. It's still a bit twitchy, and it would be nice if you didn't have to hold the left button down; but there's still plenty of time for the development team to figure it out.

What Should Stay The Same?
It's Monkey Island, Not Sam & Max: People are skeptical of Telltale's take on Monkey Island because it looks cartoony –- like Sam & Max. Based on what I've seen, however, Telltale hasn't forgotten what it is that made Monkey Island a great series. For example, they've worked very hard to keep the wide-roaming adventure feel of the original games intact. Most Telltale games work with a centralized location that the characters keep going back to in every game; this allows the artists to reuse the same assets in every episode. Tales of Monkey Island scraps the hub, however, and sets each adventure in a different location. Even when Guybrush gets a ship, says Telltale, it won't become a permanent fixture – this is a Monkey Island adventure and anything can happen.

Final Thoughts
Personally, I'm the type to wait for compilations like Sam & Max Save The World instead of shelling out for monthly installments. However, I'm told that the adventure-ness of Monkey Island –- complete with episode cliffhangers -– will turn the game into one of those things you have to keep up with. Like the TV show Lost, only infinitely funnier.

Dave Grossman of Telltale tells Eurogamer that the developer "wouldn't rule it out," but would simply have to wait for the already announced versions, some of which we got a peek at during E3, to ship.

"We didn't so much decide not to put it on Xbox Live Arcade as we decided not to put it on XBLA now," Grossman said to Eurogamer. "Normally what we do is PC and one of the other platforms, and we've been bouncing back and forth between them.

Telltale certainly has experience with this whole episodic thing, as well as WiiWare, PC and XBLA development, thanks to its Sam & Max and Wallace and Grommit adventures. The only digital distribution platform that still seems to be missing is the PlayStation Network, something Grossman sounds positive on, if not committal.

XBLA Tales of Monkey Island possible [Eurogamer]

The six-episode collection of Sam & Max's 2006/2007 adventures features Achievements, tweaked gameplay controls and HD graphic support. The compilation used to be called Sam & Max: Season One, but I guess "Save the World" sounds better. The actual saving of said world in these six episodes occurs I think in the last episode, Bright Side of the Moon.

Now's a good chance to check out the games if you haven't had a chance already. The Xbox Live game goes for 1600 Microsoft points and for a limited time, the PC version of Save the World is going for $19.95 on Telltale's online store.

Because if you don't have kids, this game is largely pointless. It's Rock Band, except with a more pedestrian songlist, and no real changes to the way the game is structured, or plays.

But that's if you don't have kids. If you do have kids around, and want a game to play with them, well. This looks pretty damn good.

What Is It?

It's Rock Band, only with LEGO. Meaning those sultry rock stars are replaced with LEGO characters (including the "themed" ones like pirates and vikings), and the coloured note blocks are replaced by, yes, coloured LEGO blocks.

What We Saw

I saw a few tracks being played by Telltale staff, before jumping on stage and playing a Foo Fighters track myself (on guitar).

How Far Along Is It?

Aside from a few bits of unfinished graphics in the background, the game looks mostly done. It's due out this holiday season.

What Needs Improvement?

LEGO Feedback: The one area that LEGO Rock Band tries to actually change the game, instead of just its characters and display, is in a new "challenge" mode, where bands must successfully complete sections of a song in order to accomplish a single goal.

For example, everyone passes a section of a song and part of a building in the background is knocked down. Complete the whole song and the building comes down.

It's a nice progress meter for kids, but you're concentrating so hard on the notes that you barely notice what's happening in the background. It could do with being shown a little more prominently.

What Should Stay The Same?

LEGO Sliding Difficulty: While this is a kids game, adults are going to want to play it too, whether they're parents or just hardcore LEGO fans. So the game features an ever wider variety of difficulties than regular Rock Band, from expert for the adults all the way down to LEGO Easy, which will let kids keep playing even if they're smashing on the drums (though they'll have to be doing it with some kind of timing; the game will measure their beat, not the colour they're hitting).

There's also the standard "no fail" mode in there as well.

Final Thoughts

With its cute aesthetic, LEGO brand, Rock Band brand and an excellent scaling difficulty system for all ages, it's hard not to see LEGO Rock Band as one of the better family gaming options this Christmas.

Telltale's latest episodic adventure title, Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures, is also a grad adventure for the developer, marking their first foray onto Xbox Live Arcade. Primarily developing titles for the PC, Telltale first made the leap to consoles with their last game series, Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People, which was also released on the Nintendo Wii.

"Our episodic series focus on story, character, humor, and cinematic presentation—very much like a television or film production. This all makes for a great living room experience through the gaming console," says Telltale CEO Dan Connors. "We're looking forward to expanding our catalog onto Xbox LIVE Arcade."

In honor of the announcement Telltale has delivered new screenshots of the upcoming dog and inventor show for your viewing pleasure.

Dangerdeque is a small slice of point and click adventureering that takes place entirely in loose cannon cop Dangeresque's office, where he must solve a crime or risk going to jail himself. Oddly enough, it puts Videlectrix in direct competition with Telltale games, who recently released Dangeresque 3 for the Wii and PC.

"We've seen other gaming formats come and go - punch cards, 5.25" floppy discs, SyQuest discs, you name it," says Videlectrix's CEO, who we think is the one with the blond mustache. "Now we're on the cutting edge with roomisodic, a model that's here to stay!"

This rivalry can only end in tears.

Videlectrix Announces Innovative "Roomisodic" Gaming Model

"Roomisode 1: Behind the Dangerdesque" available now at www.videlectrix.com

ATLANTA, GA, December 5, 2008 - In this age of calculator wristwatches, who has time to play a game for hours at a time? Videlectrix™, leading developer and publisher of 8-bit games with good graphics, is announcing their plan to twist the industry sideways and otherways with the introduction of their groundbreaking "roomisodic" gaming model. Unlike so-called episodic gaming, roomisodic gaming allows the player to explore an entire room, guaranteeing at least several minutes of quality entertainment!

With multi-pixel graphics, an innovative WASD control scheme, and looping midi music, each Videlectrix roomisode promises to take the player one screen deeper into a somewhat intriguing story. The first roomisode, "Behind the Dangerdesque," is now available for free at www.videlectrix.com. Filling out paperwork has never been so action-packed!

"We've seen other gaming formats come and go - punch cards, 5.25" floppy discs, SyQuest discs, you name it," says Videlectrix's CEO, who we think is the one with the blond mustache. "Now we're on the cutting edge with roomisodic, a model that's here to stay!"

Against legal advice, he went on: "And don't believe anything you hear about the integrity of our 8-bit containment field breaking down and spewing radiation out on innocent players. That's a load of tall 'tales' perpetuated by some other -sodic gaming company." Videlectrix's other employee could not be reached for comment.

Videlectrix are already famous for using computers to make video games such as the Trogdor arcade classic, the next-gen text adventure Peasant's Quest, the side-scrolling platformer Stinkoman 20X6, and the unforgettable Color Television Calibration Cartridge. The Big V (as Videlectrix sometimes likes to be called) is pleased that the roomisodic model will equip them to break free of their supposed corporate partner Telltale Games, who occasionally claimed to listen to their input on Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People.

About Videlectrix
Since the beginning of organized time, or shortly thereafter, the 'Trix, as they are sometimes known, has been at all four fronts of the electronic video gaming industry, providing lo-res entertainment to parents and children alike. In the early years, The Big V got their start by typing numbers into calculators and then turning the calculators upside down to form words. In 2003, they partnered with Homestarrunner.com to release the arcade peasant-masher Trogdor!, followed by several other 8-bit hits. To learn more, visit their Internet-style webpage at http://www.videlectrix.com.

The tried & trusted investigative journalism technique of 'lets look on the GameStop website and see when they will start selling it' (Woodward & Bernstein used the same method to crack the Watergate scandal wide open) points to a November 3rd release, meaning that the game should appear in people's actual hands the following day.

The game sees our detective heroes (one an anthropomorphic dog, the other a.. thing that looks a bit like a rabbit, only wrong) investigating a mysterious cult.

Sam & Max Season One Dated for Wii? [Gamervision]