Telltale Games: Sam n' Max 1.1: Culture Shock

The first game in Telltale Games revitalisation scheme of the classical adventure couple "Sam & Max" is a pleasant re-acquaintance. The pairing of the eloquent and super sarcastic Sam with the hyper violent and primitive Max works better than ever. Especially Max has some hilarious comments during the game.
For example:
Sam: "Remember our motorcycle trip through the midwest?"
Max: "Just you, me and the authorities from seven states. But those were quieter times."
and:
Sam: "2002 was a great year for calendars."
Max: "I'm glad we stocked up. We've been going through them at a rate of about one a year since then."
The terrific interplay between the two main characters creates a sarcastic and silly ambience, which works very well.
The introductory puzzle is very good too and so is the presentation of the first secondary character, the criminal rat, that lives in the appartment rat hole; Jimmy Two-Teeth ("I ain't tellin' you nothin'! I ain't no rat... or... eehh... well, I ain't tellin'!").
Unfortunately the next (and main) part is hampered by a main villain lacking personality and his extremely annoying sidekicks. The villain Brady Culture lacks character, a proper motive and good voice acting and his sidekicks have annoying voices and highly stupid catchphrases that they seem to repeat endlessly. Fortunately you get to knock them all out. Also it helps that the two main characters find them as annoying as you do. The puzzles of the main part are okay, but not that original. The final part however offers some puzzles of great originality and variation including fooling a psychiatrist into thinking you have "artificial personality disorder" by navigating through a Rorschach test, a free association test and a dream interpretation and breaking out of hypnosis by entering your own head and destroying the intruding hypnotizer. Both are quite challenging and satisfying.

Verdict: Good - very funny at times, varied and original puzzles, but a bit tedious in the middle part

Arthur Conan Doyle: A Study in Scarlet

Generally well written. Very original idea to divide the novel in two parts - one in which the murderer is found and another in which his motives are explained through a (very) thorough back story. The first part of the story is not that memorable. Doctor Watson lacks personality and the story of his encounter and aquintance with Sherlock Holmes is too scarcely described. Sherlock Holmes is an interesting character and his habits and relations with other people are queer and not without charm. He is however too fantasticly great a detective and this is actually one of the major drawbacks of the book as it simply does not seem credible that Sherlock can decipher absolutely everything from completely random things like the type of mud on someones boots to the way a certain floor board is bent. He is simply too superhuman. The second part of the book is quite original and is probably the highlight of the book. The back story gives an insight into the mormon religion and the founding of the mormon colony of salt lake city told from a personal point of view. This story simultaneously gives us s view of the murderers motives of vengeance and lost love. It integrates well with what we know already from the first part of the book.

Verdict: Quite good - okay crime story, although Sherlock is too superior, very good second part