Season's greetings are coming in from Telltale Games, as they present us with Sam & Max Season Two Episode One. This latest installment to Sam and Max's adventures will be a retake of Christmas, with homicidal Santas and killer robots being just part of the package PC owners out there can enjoy with their download.

Join us as we give you a quick first impressions of the game, and why you stand to be laughing all the way for this December.

In anticipation of the release of the first episode in Sam & Max: Season Two, Telltale Games announced that  Sam & Max: Season One - Episode 4 'Abe Lincoln Must Die' is now free for download. Hellzyeah. And the good thing about it is that there's no catch at all!

Here we come, mandated hugs and embargoed pudding! The cherry on the cake though? Their Season One bundle has gotten a price cut; it's now going to retail for US$ 29.95.

Some of you may remember the sadistic, but comedic, antics of the gumshoe duo of Sam and Max in the first season of the episodic series of games by Telltale Games. Six months later, the developers are back with an all new season of downloadable content with Sam & Max Season Two.

In an interview with the CEO and Co-Founder of Telltale Games, Dan Connors, Connors talks about the advantages of the episodic style of delivery that the new Sam & Max series has been known for.

Connors explains how he wanted gamers to view the new series similar to how people who catch a regular weekly program on the boob tube. With the relatively successful reception from the first season of downloadable episodic content from co-publisher GameTap.

The next season is scheduled to begin this November 8 and will run through all the way until May 8, 2008 with five episodes spread across that period. The first episode is entitled "Ice Station Santa" and was revealed to be a tribute to the upcoming holiday season. Rest assured, the new season will be as crazy and as satirical as the previous season was and more.

If you want to watch the entire video interview below, you know what to do. Enjoy!

With witty dialogue, a twisted sense of humor and quirky animation, the unlikely duo of Sam & Max captured our hearts when we first saw them in their point-and-click adventure debut, Sam & Max Hit the Road. Now, after a bevy of comic books, an animated TV series, and a season of their own game remade with next-gen bells and whistles, the insane couple is back with yet another season of gaming joy, thanks to Telltale Games - and we get a taste of that in this trailer video of Season Two.

In this video, we see the duo up to their old criminal-chasing hijinks, with complete and total disregard of their own safety and others - much to the annoyance of their employers, and much to the amusement of us Sam & Max fans. Sam is still the trigger-happy, six-foot anthropomorphic dog in a suit, and Max is still the hyperkinetic rabbity thing we all know and love. Of course, a new season also means new criminals to track down and arrest - and by the looks of things, Sam & Max may be in for their biggest collar yet.

The video embed's below,you know what to do. Enjoy!

Everyone knows that a pilot season for a TV series is crucial for its survival. Success usually means that there will be a green light for a second season. That's exactly what's happening to episodic game Sam & Max by Telltale Games and GameTap as they announce the upcoming second season.

In its first run on the PC platform, Sam & Max won the hearts of critics with its cleverness and genre-busting presentation. With creative missions, weird humor and fun mechanics spread across several episodes, the game prospered and the demand for a second season became evident.

GameTap Vice President and Creative Director Ricardo Sanchez says "GameTap and Telltale successfully proved the idea that games can work in a TV show format."  He adds "The Sam & Max episodes continue to be among the top titles played at GameTap and we expect that Season Two will be an even bigger draw."

Season Two will have Sam and his partner Max visit areas previously unavailable in the game's first season. This includes the mysterious diner Stinky's which was unavailable throughout the initial season. It's hard to wait while imagining what's cooking in there.

Though the second season has been confirmed, there's no specific launch date revealed by the developers. We'll update you for more on this quirky prospect.

Halfway between a "Batman & Robin" tandem and a "Cheech & Chong" duo is Telltale Games' Sam & Max. For those who have been following the pair of detective's adventures and are waiting for the release of the Season One bundle, then listen up.

The official retail site for the compilation just went live. And while the actual release will hit next month, in the mean time, you can participate in the trivia contest they've got lined up. Answer five questions to test your Sam & Max skills and you've got yourself a chance to win one out of three prizes.

You can also check out some trailers, screenshots, and videos from all six episodes in Season One via the official site, as linked in the Read link below.

Fans of the Sam & Max webisodes are in for quite a treat. The dynamic detective duo are just about to blow off some steam Steam. Take a gander: all six episodes of the series are now available on Steam for US$ 8.95 each. If you get them before June 22, they'll even shave off 10% of the price.

Previously, the episodes were only available on GameTap, and now, they're expanding their viewership to other audiences online. Season 1 may have already ended, but things just might be heating up - Steaming up, if you will - for TellTale Games' Dog-and-Rabbit team.

What say you take that magnifying glass and head on over the Read link below.

For those of us who can remember the strangely-effective misfit duo of Sam, the canine detective, and Max, the white fluffy wrecking ball with the toothy grin, here's something to get you packing for a copy of their latest game: the fact that it'll have a truckload of extra goodies wrapped up nicely with the game disk itself.

The swag included with the purchase of the duo's latest three-dimensional adventure are as follows:

• An all-new "Making Sam & Max" Behind-the-scenes video
• Full-sized printed poster of the duo in action, featuring artwork by none other than Sam & Max creator Steve Purcell
• Trailers for all six episodes
• Previously unreleased character bios
• Loads of concept artwork
• Desktop wallpapers
• MP3 Soundtrack sampler

That's a whole lot of extras - and with Sam & Max: Episode 1 for Windows going for a mere pittance of US$ 29.99, it's a steal. So you'd better camp out for this one come the game's August worldwide release, or the only place you'll be seeing these extras is in some eBay auction somewhere. In the meantime, check out these neat screenshots of the game!

More screenshots after the jump!

GameTap members will be able to get exclusive access to the highly-anticipated Sam & Max: Season 1 finale, "Bright Side of the Moon". Yep, six months and six episodes later, the first season of the game that "truly defined episodic gaming" draws to a close.

"Before we embarked on this experiment with Telltale, 'episodic gaming' was a concept that no one had ever put terms around," said Ricardo Sanchez, GameTap's vice president of content. "We structured Sam & Max: Season 1 in the TV model because it’s a form that people are already familiar with. In the end, it has been a phenomenal success for us both."

In the final episode of Season 1, Sam & Max head to the moon on a mission to save the earth from a horrifying fate: an eternity of perpetual bliss. For the past five episodes, Sam & Max have been fighting a wave of bizarre hypnoses that infiltrated the media, the mafia, the United States government, and even the Internet. Now, Sam & Max must destroy the mastermind behind these mind-control schemes once and for all.

Straight from the guys who brought you Season 1 of Sam & Max's adventures, senior designer Dave Grossman and CEO Dan Connors revealed in an interview with 4 Color Rebellion that the Season 1 finale episode will most definitely end the entire season. The final word is "no cliffhanger." Period.

 

So no worries about the first season should crop up over to the next, because for sure TellTale Games are probably at work on the next season's first episodes.  But Connors left us speculators a little note, full of hugs and kisses, saying, "We have a few things in the works, but nothing we’re ready to talk about just yet. Sometimes it’s fun to go online and see what the internet says we’re working on." Note to self: do not speculate TellTale games in the works...

It's sure now, however, that TellTale Games is targeting the consoles for their games, as their episodic, online digital distribution scheme seems to fit right into the Xbox Live and Virtual Console mechanics. Yep, you heard it right: not only could the games come on the Xbox 360, but also on the Wii. Could it be safe to say that the PlayStation 3 could get a port, too? Yes, but not just yet.

Connors revealed that they are still at work for getting their games onto the console platforms, explicitly stating, "Each of the consoles brings something a little different to the table. Since our tools are for the PC, the first step is porting our tools over to the consoles, which is something we’re working on."

And boy, you can't even begin to imagine the ideas they have in the works. For the Wii especially, TellTale Games are trying to bring out the best control scheme they can from the Wiimote. Banking on the Wiimote's versatility as a controller, Connors had this to say:

I had this great idea where you strap the controllers to your legs and walk around. Which we’re not doing, unfortunately, but we are doing more than just using the pointer like a mouse. That would be a waste of an opportunity. Designing for the Wii is pretty interesting, by the way – it forces you to think in a different way than you’re used to.

A DS version may not come out anytime soon, since TellTale Games isn't at work on a tool for porting their PC title to the DS. But they are eyeing Deck13's own DS port of their PC title Ankh, and they're interested how it all turns out. Sam & Max on the DS? That's a keeper.