{"title":"Episodic","description":"\u003cp\u003eEpisodic games are written, built and released in installments. Call them acts, chapters, seasons or volumes: each one is a self-contained stretch of play with its own arc, its own rising tension and a deliberate break at the end, while the whole set tells one continuing story. The form borrows the rhythm of serialized television rather than the novel, and it shapes everything from how a scene is paced to where a cliffhanger lands. An episode is meant to be finished in a sitting or two, put down with something resolved and something left open, and picked up again with the story exactly where you left it. This shelf gathers the games that work that way, for the player who wants a story delivered in shaped, finishable pieces rather than one long undifferentiated block.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe distinction matters because this collection sits beside several close neighbors. Story Rich measures how much story a game carries, and most episodic games qualify, but it says nothing about how that story is portioned out. Narrative describes games whose design exists to deliver the story; again, that is a property of the whole, not of how the whole is divided. Choices Matter covers decisions with consequence, and serialized games have leaned on it heavily, a choice made in one installment paying off in the next, yet plenty of episodic games are strictly linear and plenty of branching games ship as a single piece. Adventure is a genre of play, all exploration, inventory, puzzles and conversation, and an episodic game can just as easily be a shooter or a strategy title. Those tags describe what a story is or how it behaves. Episodic describes how it is delivered and how the work is cut up, which is a structural fact about the release and the thing a shopper filtering for it actually wants to know.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTwo strands belong here, and it is worth knowing which one you are looking at. The first is the serialized release: installments shipped over months or years, each playable on arrival, with the audience waiting and speculating between them. Telltale's seasons and the wave of episodic adventure series that followed through the 2010s are the version most people picture. The second is the chaptered game, authored and paced in named, self-contained parts but shipped complete, so the episodic shape lives on in how it is built and broken rather than in a release calendar. Broken Age is the collection's first member and an example of the first strand becoming the second: Double Fine released Act 1 in January 2014 and Act 2 in April 2015, and the game is now the complete two-act adventure. That is the normal case on this shelf. The titles here are the finished article with every installment included, so you get the whole story at once, and what the tag tells you is the structure: a game that knows where its chapters end and lets you stop, breathe and come back.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"back-to-the-future-the-game-pc-download","title":"Back to the Future: The Game","description":"\u003cp class=\"lead\"\u003eBack to the Future: The Game picks up six months after the trilogy ends. Doc Brown has left Hill Valley behind, until the DeLorean rolls back into 1986 with nobody at the wheel and only Einstein and a cryptic recording to explain why. Developed by Telltale Games in collaboration with trilogy co-creator and writer Bob Gale, this five-episode point-and-click adventure is a genuine fourth chapter for the series, with Christopher Lloyd back as Doc, Claudia Wells returning as Jennifer and a special appearance by Michael J. Fox.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eDoc Is in Trouble in 1931\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe trail leads Marty to Hill Valley in the Prohibition era, where Doc is sitting in a jail cell under a false name, accused of torching Kid Tannen's speakeasy. The Tannen gang has no intention of letting him reach trial. Marty's only hope of getting him out is a teenage Emmett Brown, a shy, rule-abiding kid living under the thumb of his father, Judge Brown, who has yet to discover the inventor inside himself. Add Marty's own grandfather Artie McFly, who happens to keep Kid Tannen's books, and Edna Strickland, the town's crusading young newspaper columnist, and the McFlys, Browns and Tannens are all in play from the first hour.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs with every trip in the DeLorean, changing 1931 changes everything after it. Each return to 1986 reveals a Hill Valley that has drifted further from the one Marty knows, culminating in a spotless, walled and tightly policed town run by a First Citizen Brown who never became Doc at all. Setting things right means understanding exactly which small moments in 1931 sent the town down that road.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eA Classic Point-and-Click Adventure\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a story-driven adventure in the Telltale tradition. You explore each scene, talk to the townsfolk of two very different eras, collect the items that catch Marty's eye and work out how to combine them. The puzzles are woven into the plot rather than bolted onto it: coaxing information out of a suspicious Tannen, staging a distraction so young Emmett can slip past his father, or figuring out which piece of 1931 needs to change so that 1986 comes out right. An optional hint system is there if a puzzle stalls, so the story keeps its momentum.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe writing carries the same warm, quick humor as the films, and the visuals use a stylized look that captures the cast without trying to photocopy them. Marty's sarcasm, Doc's rapid-fire explanations and Biff's whole family line of bullies all land the way they should.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eThe Voices Behind Hill Valley\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMarty McFly is voiced throughout by A.J. LoCascio, whose performance is close enough to the films that most players stop noticing the difference within minutes. Christopher Lloyd plays Doc Brown in every episode, and Claudia Wells returns as Jennifer Parker for the first time since the original film. Michael J. Fox himself appears in a guest voice role in the final episode. Behind the script, Bob Gale worked with Telltale to keep the time-travel logic, the family trees and the tone true to the trilogy he co-created.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eAll Five Episodes Included\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe complete season is included in this purchase, so the story runs start to finish without interruption.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdl\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eEpisode 1: It's About Time\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eMarty follows the DeLorean's clues to 1931 and finds Doc locked up under an alias, accused of burning down Kid Tannen's speakeasy. Getting him out means recruiting a teenage Emmett Brown who has never so much as bent a rule in his life.\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eEpisode 2: Get Tannen!\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eBack in 1986, the McFlys are running with the Tannen mob because Kid was never put away. Marty returns to 1931 to set history straight, and a chance meeting between young Emmett and Edna Strickland has consequences nobody sees coming.\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eEpisode 3: Citizen Brown\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eHill Valley in 1986 is now a walled, rule-bound town run by First Citizen Brown, and Marty is the only person who remembers it any other way. Winning over this very different version of Doc is the only route home.\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eEpisode 4: Double Visions\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eMarty and Citizen Brown travel back to 1931 to steer young Emmett away from Edna, and the Hill Valley Expo becomes the stage where every plan they make starts unraveling at once.\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eEpisode 5: OUTATIME\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eThe finale pulls every timeline together, with Hill Valley's future riding on one last run of the DeLorean. Michael J. Fox lends his voice in a special appearance that gives the season its send-off.\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003c\/dl\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eSet the Time Circuits\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf the trilogy left you wanting one more ride, this is the continuation the films never got, written by the man who co-created them and voiced by the cast you remember. Punch 1931 into the time circuits, ease the DeLorean up to 88 miles per hour and find out how far Marty will go to bring Doc home.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Telltale Games","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":34898009676,"sku":"PC_9789550412_DL_GL","price":54.29,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0875\/3268\/files\/card-back-to-the-future-the-game-pc-steam-game.jpg?v=1789690221"},{"product_id":"broken-age-pc-download","title":"Broken Age","description":"\u003cp class=\"lead\"\u003eBroken Age is Tim Schafer's hand-painted point-and-click adventure about two teenagers who have never met and whose lives are about to collide. Vella Tartine is being dressed up as a sacrifice to a monster; Shay Volta is being tucked into bed by a spaceship. Funded by the record-setting Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter and voiced by a cast led by Elijah Wood and Masasa Moyo, it is a coming-of-age story told with the wit Double Fine is known for, and this is the complete game, with both acts ready to play from the start.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eTwo Lives, One Adventure\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVella comes from Sugar Bunting, a village that has learned to keep the peace by offering up its daughters at the Maiden's Feast to a creature called Mog Chothra. Everyone around her treats the honor as a celebration. Vella would rather kill the thing. Shay, meanwhile, lives aboard a ship run by a motherly computer that fills his days with fake rescues and padded-room missions, and he is old enough to know he is being coddled. The first stranger who offers him a real mission is impossible to refuse.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou can switch between the two stories at almost any moment. Stuck on one of Vella's puzzles, jump to Shay for a while and come back with fresh eyes. The two threads are written to echo one another, and by the second act the connection between them turns from theme into mechanics: what you learn in one world is exactly what you need in the other.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eA Tim Schafer Story, Start to Finish\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSchafer's writing credits run from The Secret of Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle through Grim Fandango and Psychonauts, and Broken Age is his return to the genre he helped define. The humor is gentle rather than snide: barfing trees, talking spoons, a cloud colony run by a self-help guru, a lumberjack who has sworn off trees. Underneath the jokes is a story about growing up and deciding who gets to tell you what your life is for, and it lands as well for adults as for the family-friendly audience it was built for.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe game was announced in February 2012 as the Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter, which raised over 3.3 million dollars from more than 87,000 backers, at the time the largest crowdfunding total any video game had reached. It was renamed Broken Age before release, and Act 2 completed the story in April 2015. What you play here is that finished whole.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eHand-Painted, Fully Voiced\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery backdrop, character and animation frame was painted by hand, and the art moves between soft storybook pastels for Shay's ship and warmer, rougher textures for Vella's world, so you always know whose story you are in. Peter McConnell, Schafer's longtime composer, wrote the orchestral score. The voice cast is as strong as any in the genre:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdl\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eElijah Wood as Shay\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eWood plays a boy who has been told he is a hero every day of his life and has stopped believing it. His deadpan reading of the ship's daily routines carries a lot of the game's early comedy, and his lead vocal performance was nominated for both a BTVA award and a NAVGTR award.\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eMasasa Moyo as Vella\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eMoyo gives Vella the stubbornness the story needs: she is polite to the villagers, patient with her family, and completely unwilling to be eaten. The performance keeps Vella likable even when she is the only person in the room who thinks the ritual is insane.\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eJack Black as Harm'ny Lightbeard\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eBlack plays the beatific leader of Meriloft, a colony perched on the clouds, delivering guru platitudes with the total sincerity that makes them funny. It is one of the game's best-known scenes and a highlight of the first act.\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eJennifer Hale, Wil Wheaton and Pendleton Ward\u003c\/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003eHale voices Mom, the ship's overprotective computer. Wheaton is Curtis, the lumberjack with a conscience, and Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward plays Gus. David Kaufman's supporting turn earned a NAVGTR nomination of its own.\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003c\/dl\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003ePuzzles in the Classic Tradition\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eInventory-driven design in the LucasArts mold: pick up what you can, combine the unlikely, and talk to everyone twice. There is no fail state and no timer, so you are free to experiment without penalty.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePuzzles grow out of the story rather than being bolted onto it. Convincing a tree to vomit sap, escaping a bedroom that will not let you out, and talking a village out of its own traditions are all solved through the characters you meet.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe second act raises the difficulty and starts trading information across the two worlds, rewarding players who paid attention in the first. Keep your notes handy for the wiring.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFull controller support is official, so it plays as comfortably on the couch as at a desk.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eRecognized Across the Industry\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBroken Age won the NAVGTR awards for Game, Original Adventure and Writing in a Comedy, took the Aggie Awards for Best Music and Best Acting, and swept the Aggie Reader's Choice awards for Best Setting, Best Graphic Design and Best Acting. Act 1 was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Story and Act 2 for Best Performer, and the game picked up an Aggie nomination for Best Story as well.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIf you grew up on Monkey Island, or you want to hand a genuinely funny, genuinely clever adventure to someone who did not, Broken Age is the one to play. Pick a teenager, pick up the spoon, and see where their stories meet.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Double Fine Productions","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39558732364,"sku":"PC_10665867084_DL_GL","price":6.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0875\/3268\/files\/card-broken-age-pc-mac-linux-steam-game.jpg?v=1789530257"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.pjsgames.com\/en-ie\/collections\/episodic.oembed","provider":"PJ's Games","version":"1.0","type":"link"}