And there's the rub: Is it possible to create a game on an episodic timeline that has enjoyable gameplay alongside the topical humor?
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Mark Sanford et al has been played more than 700,000 times.īut regardless of the name of the gamemaker, these titles often aren't very much fun to play. The company is known for such gems as Where's the Naughty Governor? As of this writing, AddictingGames' Where's Waldo?-style lampoon of cheating South Carolina Gov. "If you want to make fun of something in politics or culture, games are now a great way to do it," AddictingGames VP Kate Connally told the Los Angeles Times earlier this year. The closest thing to South Park-style relevance in videogames is the work of companies like AddictingGames, a San Francisco-based developer that fills its web portal with time-waster Flash games churned out in a matter of weeks to capitalize on news stories. But with cartoonish titles like Sam & Max and Monkey Island, Telltale is telling standalone stories rather than reacting to the news. The only publisher that has thrown itself feet-first into producing episodic games on a reliable schedule is Telltale Games. Videogames' accelerating shift from discs to downloads should enable gamemakers to achieve similarly topical results, but it hasn't happened yet. "With everything that was going on at the time, that was one of the most uncomfortable things I ever had to do in a videogame."Ī teaser trailer (embedded right) that talks of swine flu and socialism, the games are still not quite as up-to-the-second as South Park. "You had to go rescue some corrupt CEOs from the FBI and take them to a waiting helicopter, which would take them to a country without extradition treaties," said Reparaz. ( Gay Tony is downloadable from Xbox Live or available on an Xbox 360 disc called Episodes From Liberty City that bundles the new chapter with Lost and Damned.) Similarly, Rockstar nailed current economic problems as a ripe target for satire with The Lost and Damned, the February episode of GTA IV.
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South Park's just-in-time production process turned headlines into punchlines with remarkable speed.