Joystiq

It's been thirteen years since Sam and Max hit the road in the case of the missing sasquatch and another four since we first caught wind of a sequel. After several failed attempts to return our favorite dog and rabbity-thing duo back to the world of crime-fighting video games, the fine folks at episodic game dev Telltale want the world to know that Sam & Max: Culture Shock is almost here.

The "season premiere" of their highly anticipated point n' click is coming to subscription-based gaming service GameTap on October 17th, with the worldwide release (read: no subscription necessary) some two weeks after that. Telltale is still mum on the cost of the direct download, but did say it would weight in at a svelte 75MB. Considering that Bone's 4-6 hours of gameplay goes for $13, we imagine Sam & Max's estimated 1.5 hours will go for considerably, but not proportionally, less.* The other option, of course, is signing up for GameTap's free two week trial. We imagine that, like any free trial, they're counting on enough people wanting Sam & Max two weeks early, that they'll trudge through the sign-up process, play the game, and then either decide the $10 monthly fee is entirely fair or just neglect to cancel it out of sheer laziness.

Depending on Telltale's S&M release schedule (designed to be shorter installments, released more frequently), the GameTap subscription may work out to being only marginally more expensive than downloading each episode individually. Add a couple more episodic series (Penny Arcade, anyone?) or some MMO content (Uru Live) and you've got yourselves a really compelling package; the HBO of the episodic gaming scene.

*We've just called our bookie, our money's on $7.