Games

Tales of Monkey Island
Chapter 2 The Siege of Spinner Cay

Uncharted waters — a Monkey Island game I've never played! I don't know if it's just in my head, because I know how the game was released, but Tales feels like a Monkey Island 'TV series' vs the 'movies' that were the first four games. It's not a scale or graphics thing either, because, if anything, this is the slickest and most cinematic MI has ever looked. I guess it's partly the way the story is paced (there's clearly an overarching narrative, but also it seems as if each episode is a self-contained chunk), and also textural things, like episode 1 ending with "to be continued" and episode 2 beginning with a kind of recap, plus opening credits playing over the early scenes — much more like TV than a movie. None of which really matters, it's just a feeling.

And, for the sake of keeping track, I've played this chapter for two-and-a-half hours so far. I think I'm near the end of it now, but there are surprisingly long cutscenes and whatnot sometimes — that "near the end" might translate to another half-hour yet, hence why I stopped for the evening.