All of a sudden, July is Lucasarts month.

Fancy spending some cash? Of course you do. And what better way to do that but on awesome old and new Lucasarts games which seem to all be dropping all within the next week. Dropping right into your hands like a big pile of...um...something...I don't know. Something good.

Firstly, you've got the brand new Monkey Island game from Telltale. The episodic extravaganza that is Tales of Monkey Island starts off with episode one entitled Launch of The Screaming Narwhal. And that's released on PC today July 7. So if you have any brains, you'll be playing it rather than reading this. But hold on, keep reading.

Next, being released tomorrow (July 8) is a fat stack of old Lucasarts titles on Steam. Apparently this will be a continuing thing for Lucasarts but to begin with, they're releasing on PC:

- LOOM

- Indiana Jones and The Fate Of Atlantis

- Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure

- The Dig

- Armed And Dangerous

- LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure

- Star Wars Battlefront II

- Star Wars Starfighter

- Star Wars Republic Commando

- Thrillville: Off The Rails

And last but not least, they've announced a release date for Secret Of Monkey Island: Special Edition for Xbox Live Arcade and PC. IT'S JULY 15TH WHICH IS NEXT WEDNESDAY OH MY GOD...

And remember, if you buy this newfangled HD version of the game, Lucasarts have publicly stated they would love to do more. Save your weekly wages, head down to Cash Converters, betray your blood relatives - just do ANYTHING do get some money because you need to be buying this good stuff. Go now! For the good of video games everywhere!

And go buy a pair of these while you're at it.

A perfect storm of point-and-click.

Life is pretty funny. Just when you start thinking about something, sometimes that thing becomes...a thing...I don't know, something.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is there's been a sudden resurgence in classic adventure games recently. In more ways than one. For those of you who don't remember, the games I'm talking about are of the point-and-click variety. Great writing, engaging characters and long-lasting nostalgia make these games absolute classics. They were big years ago, back in the eighties and nineties. And then they died off for seemingly no apparent reason. 

Just in the last couple of months, it seems they may be making a comeback. There's a select few that are beginning to return to the forefront of the video games for an all-new group of people to discover. And here are the reasons they're coming back...

1) The Secret Of Monkey Island

Coming to Xbox Live Arcade and PC, this classic point-and-click features the adventure of one Guybrush Threepwood, a young boy with dreams of being a pirate.

It won an ass-load of awards when it was released in 1990 and people talk about it nowadays in hushed tones that's usually only reserved for John F Kennedy and the spaghetti pizza. Well, it's coming back - in a High Definition version.

With an all new widescreen paintbrush art-style, this Monkey Island remake looks to be amazing and it will retain the original script, style and even some of the voice actors from the original.

Pictured: The most awesome thing you saw today.

On top of all that, Lucasarts (the developer) have flat-out stated that if this sells well, they will make more. SO ANYONE OUT THERE WHO EVEN REMOTELY LIKES VIDEO GAMES, BUY THIS GAME.

Release date: Hmm, no official date has been announced as yet. But it looks to be in the next month or two.

2) Tales of Monkey Island

In addition to a remake of the original, little Californian development house Telltale are making a whole new Monkey Island game. Tales of Monkey Island will be a 5 episode game released on PC and Wiiware (with a rumored Xbox Live Arcade version to follow).

Telltale already have form in this regard. A couple of years ago they did an all-new Sam & Max game in the same episodic form. Two whole seasons of it, in fact. So they know what they are doing. If you don't know who Sam & Max are, look here:

That's Max on the left. He's some kind of hyperkinetic rabbity-thing. Both him and Sam are freelance police. Oh yeah.

Sorry, got a little off topic here. Here's some shots of the new Monkey Island game...

Release date: July 7 for PC. It will then come later for download on the Wii.

                                      ^

                                      ^

                                      ^

                    (Hey Yuri, look here!)

3) A book clearance centre broke my fucking mind.

Here's what I mean when I said life is funny. I was all jazzed up by the possibility of playing Monkey Island and possibly other games of that types all over again right? Walking along minding my own business, when I was suddenly drawn into one of those book clearance centres like a moth to a flame...

Y'know, one of these places. But with dollars. Thanks for nothing Google Image Search.

A saw a sign that something about video games, so I went in and came out with Sam & Max Hit The Road and Full Throttle. Two of best of these games. One cost $15, the other $10.

Pardon me, I have to leave you now, dear reader. Two slices of awesome await.

P.S. Buy Monkey Island.

OH SNAP! Part One.

For those of you who regularly read this blog (hey dude, I'm going to call you this weekend), you'd no doubt realise it has evolved somewhat. While I've skewed into talking about video games, it's never really been a news site. Just a place for my mind to pour out on the subject of something awesome like video games.

Well, fuck that! Over the next few weeks, exciting video game news will be spewing forth from the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles taking place from June 2-4 and I cannot help but report on some of the happenings from this event. Because mark my words, there are going to be some jump-up-and-down type stuff coming out of it. And I'm so damn excited I will not be able to restrain myself.

These posts reporting on these news stories will be part of my OH SNAP! series of stories. Mainly because it's a catchy title and the upcoming announcements will most likely make you want to yell OH SNAP! Okay, I will be the only one saying OH SNAP! but if anyone wants to join me in an OH SNAP! then that would be fine. So that works, huh?

Already there has been some rumours and speculation flying around. Some true, some implied. Let's get a handle on the first round of snaps...

OH SNAP! Mass Effect 2 will be the Empire Strikes Back of the series.

Bioware producer Casey Hudson talked recently about the sequel to the best space-opera-RPG-ever-made which is scheduled to make a major appearance at E3. As it turns out, shit is going to go down. "As a trilogy we have our three acts. So Mass Effect 2 is the dark act. It's an opportunity to really explore the tougher, more brutal parts of the universe." In addition, Hudson teased at the complete story arc for the series..."In the first act you put a guy in the tree, in the second act you throw rocks at him, in the third act you get him down."  Hmm, take from that what you want. Also, there's been a video released explaining a few things and preluding what they will be showing at E3. Check it...

OH SNAP! Secret Of Monkey Island could be coming to Xbox Live Arcade.

Holy Christ, you didn't see this one coming did you? Legendary 1990 point-and-click adventure Secret Of Monkey Island  has long been called for to be readily available for the mass public of 2009. And even though bringing it to Microsoft's download service was always a pipe dream of mine (seeing that classic stuff on HDTV and all that), I never thought in a billion years Lucasarts would ever do it. Now, it's leaning to towards actually happening. A listing for SECRET OF MONKEY ISLAND SPECIAL EDITION FOR XBOX 360 has been found on the German Ratings Board, which is apparently a reliable source. But if we'll find out any more information, it will be closer to June.

Stay tuned to here for further snaps, kids...