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The word is out! The eagerly awaited second episode of Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead is coming to PSN this Friday, June 29th. To mark the occasion, we put Director Dennis Lenart and Lead Cinematic Artist Nick Herman from Telltale on the hotseat: We talk new (old?) characters, unresolved tensions, the game’s expanding scale, and the challenges of episodic game development. If you’re wondering what dark terrain this five-part series will explore in coming episodes, don’t miss our in-depth discussion.

We also share first details on PSN’s upcoming Summer Sale, which grants deep discounts to a collection of PlayStation Store favorites starting Tuesday. And, of course, the first details on next week’s PSN game lineup, a slew of new user questions and tips, and what Nick promises to be a frightfully hard new Mystery Theme. Listen in and let us know what you think!

Stuff We Talked About The Walking Dead: Episode Two – Starved for Help Spec Ops: The Line The Pinball Arcade PixelJunk Eden Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut

The Cast Sid Shuman – PlayStation Sr. Social Media Specialist Jeff Rubenstein – PlayStation Sr. Social Media Manager Nick Suttner – PlayStation Sr. Product Evaluator Dennis Lenart – Director, The Walking Dead: Episode Two – Starved for Help Nick Herman, Lead Cinematic Artist, The Walking Dead: Episode Two – Starved for Help

Bonus: Dormilón (composer of PlayStation Blogcast’s fabulous theme song and segment music) is DJing a PixelJunk 4am set at 8pm Pacific Time this Friday, 6/29/12! Tune in at PSN ID SXEZSKOZ, and follow @dormilonmusic!

[Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game
details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating
descriptions.]

• Thanks to Cory Schmitz for our beautiful logo and Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music. Special thanks to Astro Gaming headsets for providing audio gear.

#thewalkingdead Episode two of The Walking Dead hit Xbox Live yesterday, with the PlayStation 3, PC and Mac versions shambling along tomorrow. I can honestly say I've not been this excited for a Telltale Games release since they brought Sam and Max back from the dead. More »

I guess spoilers here too, maybe. I mean, insomuch as any game trailer is a bunch of spoilers taken out of context.

Hey. Hey. Hey, spoilers. There are spoilers here. Lots of spoilers. Oodles upon oodles of spoilers. Just sayin'.

Spoiler warning: The clip features what the majority of players chose in Telltale's The Walking Dead: Episode 1 for every fork in the zombie-infested road. Episode 2 will be available this week. Also, you heartless monsters... poor Doug!

Oh the ways in which life imitates art – although I suppose, in this case, it’s un-life. The zombie fad constantly verges on down-for-the-count, only to spring back onto its feet and take a toothy lunge at your clavicle with hits like Day Z and, of course, Telltale’s surprisingly fantastic take on The Walking Dead. The latter, I suppose, is relevant to this discussion, but honestly, I don’t feel like we’ve discussed Day Z enough. Maybe I should just tell you about this one time I… oh fine. Walking Dead. It’s getting a second episode, because it’d be a pretty miserable episodic game if it didn’t.

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Zombie-and-depression lovers rejoice: The second, promising-looking episode of Telltale's The Walking Dead series will launch Wednesday, June 27th on Xbox 360 and Friday, June 29th on PS3 and PC. More »

The second episode of Telltale's The Walking Dead adventure series will arrive tomorrow, June 27, on XBLA. The PC and PS3 version will be available Friday, June 29, except in Europe, where the date is still to be announced.

Episode 2: Starving for Help picks up right where the surprisingly intense opener left us hungering for more. Having already made some tough decisions, Lee Everett and his post-apocalypse adopted daughter are in for a harder time now, with both humans and zombies succumbing to rumbly tummies.

The Walking Dead, Telltale Games’ continuing story of adventure horror based on Robert Kirkman’s Eisner Award-winning comic book series, continues this week for PS3! Episode Two – Starved for Help tears through flesh and bone and onto the PlayStation Network this Friday for $4.99 or will be available as a download from within the game’s menu for existing season pass owners!

We’re really excited to continue the story of Lee Everett; players will have to deal with the repercussions of the choices they made in Episode One and they’ll be confronted by more difficult and sometimes gut-wrenching choices in Episode Two. Remember, the decisions you make means that your story of The Walking Dead could be substantially different from someone else’s – this is what we call ‘tailored narrative’.Our game engine has been tracking every choice players made in Episode One – A New Day. From course-altering life-and-death decisions to seemingly banal actions and conversations, we’re keeping tabs on all of it.

**(Spoilers: Don’t watch this if you haven’t played Episode One!)**

This video is just a sampling of some of the choices players made in Episode One. Those choices might have an effect in the scene you’re playing, later in the episode, later in the season or not at all. Think about what you do and say — the game and the characters in the game are watching! The information recorded by the game helps the team devise aspects of the ongoing story of The Walking Dead, making this episodic gaming at its best!

Hopefully by now, you’re hungry for more information about Episode Two – Starved for Help. Let’s just say that if you thought Episode One – ‘A New Day’ had some nasty, stomach-churning moments, you’re probably going to need a bucket at hand (and perhaps a box of tissues for tears; this episode made our PR manager cry) for episode two!

The Telltale team is thrilled that you’re getting your hands on The Walking Dead: Episode Two – Starved for Help soon, and we can’t wait to see all the choices you make as you sink your teeth into it!

The second episode of Telltale's The Walking Dead cinematic adventure series will arrive tomorrow, June 27, on XBLA. The PC and PS3 version will be available Friday, June 29, except in Europe, where the date is still to be announced.

Episode 2: Starving for Help picks up right where the surprisingly intense opener left us hungering for more. Having already made some tough decisions, Lee Everett and his post-apocalypse adopted daughter aren't in for an easier time now, surrounded by the hunger of survivors and that of zombies for flesh.

#watchthis If this DayZ video proves anything, it's that watching TV most certainly impacts your actions. At least your virtual, inconsequential ones, anyway. More »

#thewalkingdead Last week at E3, I had a chance to sit with the folks at Telltale and watch the first 20 minutes of episode 2 of The Walking Dead, their 5-part episodic game series based on the comic series of the same name. More »

#thewalkingdead Telltale's Walking Dead video game has been great so far; better and truer to the source material than the less-than-great TV show. More »

The first episode in Telltale's game based on The Walking Dead comics has sold more than 1 Million copies across all platforms. Good news, since I really liked it! More »

I don't think I'm overstating things when I say that Clementine is the first child character in a video game I actually WANTED to save in, like, ever.

For as much as some people may want to bemoan the deluge of zombies running roughshod over popular culture, the fact remains that many people still enjoy bludgeoning, shooting, stabbing, and otherwise maiming the fetid creatures any chance they get--or, at the very least, take morbid pleasure in watching other people get eaten by said fetid creatures. Case in point: The Walking Dead, Telltale's episodic adventure game adaptation of Robert Kirkman's much-loved comic series. Not only was the game one of 2012's big surprises in terms of quality, it also managed to exceed expectations on the sales charts.

Telltale today announced that The Walking Dead has sold over a million episodes across all available platforms (PC, Mac, Xbox Live, and PSN), making it Telltale's fastest selling game of all time. Though it's somewhat unclear as to whether that million episode number pertains to multiple episodes sold as part of the full season pass or not (which would include episodes not yet released), the number is nonetheless impressive.

And frankly, it couldn't have happened to a more deserving game. I didn't really know what to expect going into it, and I was frankly pretty blown away by how well it integrated the morally ambiguous tone of the comics' human story with the looming dread of perpetual zombie peril. Episode 2, "Starved for Help", is scheduled for release next month, and I for one can't wait.

The Walking Dead's critically acclaimed game adaptation has sold over a million episodes across platfoms in its first two weeks. The game takes Heavy Rain-inspired mechanics and weaves them into an intense and morally ambiguous experience.

"The most exciting aspect of getting off to such a great start is that this is just the beginning of the five episode series. The Walking Dead fans are going to experience some really great moments in the months ahead that are uniquely influenced by the choices they make throughout the season," said Telltale Games CEO Dan Connors.

The second episode of the five-part series will be available in June. We are currently following up with the developer to find out if having "sold over one million episodes" means the first episode sold a million units or if those who bought a season pass of five episodes were counted five times.

As it turns out, "point-and-click adventure game" and "horrible traumatic zombie apocalypse" go together like chocolate and peanut butter, or peanut butter and waffles, or chicken and waffles, or waffles and waffles. Look, this analogy is falling apart and we haven't had breakfast yet, but the point is that a lot of people bought The Walking Dead on XBLA.

In fact, Telltale's tumultuous title was the number one game on XBLA for the week of April 30, beating out Trials Evolution, Fable Heroes and Fez, among others. Peep the full list of the week's top-selling games after the break, and be astounded by the fact that Castle Crashers is still in the top 20, one million years after its original release in 2008.

#episodicgaming When casting about for media to compare gaming to, most minds land on film. Action movies and action games still draw inspiration from each other, and when game budgets and incomes draw comparisons, it's always to Hollywood. More »

#thewalkingdead I wanted to like the television adaptation of The Walking Dead when it premiered on AMC back in 2010. I like zombies; I like Frank Darabont. I'd heard nothing but good things about the comics the show was based on. More »

Australian and Kiwi zombie enthusiasts looking forward to the first episode of Telltale's The Walking Dead have been infected with something even more dangerous than a dead-raising mutagen: Disappointment.

While a listing for the title reportedly exists on the Australian PSN, The Walking Dead cannot actually be purchased or accessed in any fashion, according to a thread on the official Telltale forums. As it turns out, things are a bit worse than a broken listing: "Due to the OFLC ratings laws in Australia and New Zealand, and the fact that this is a mature game, we do not currently have plans to release the game there on consoles," so sayeth Telltale forums rep Mike.

For those of you not mired in the intricacies of Australian censorship politics, "OFLC" stands for the Office of Film and Literature Classification, which was the Australian Classification Board's parent agency until it was dissolved in 2006. Currently, the Classification Board belongs to the Attorney-General's Department, where it is responsible for assigning ratings to movies and video games.

At any rate, it must be reassuring to our friends down under that their island nations are apparently completely immune to zombie invasion.

Patrick, Ryan, and the world's clumsiest protagonist navigate Telltale's canonical, zombie-infested Atlanta.

Hey everyone! Hoping you’re all enjoying the zombified fruits of our labor now that the first episode of The Walking Dead arrived just yesterday on PlayStation Network. We’re insanely busy already getting the next episode ready for all of you, but I wanted to pass along this sneak peek at a video that will help explain why all of the choices you make in the first episode will matter from episode to episode, and also all season long.

Sit back and watch as my good friend Harrison Pink explains how different each outcome can be for each individual player throughout the season. There are more juicy The Walking Dead details to come, so stay tuned here and look (listen?) for me later this week on the Official PlayStation Blogcast! On behalf of the whole team here at Telltale Games, thanks again for all of your support, and we hope you enjoy the first episode!

Much like the lumbering, rotted corpses of your former friends and/or family members, some things in life just can't be rushed. The Walking Dead: Episode 1, for instance, came out on PSN last Tuesday, but won't be coming out on XBLA until this Friday, according to Major Nelson.

See, the trek from PSN to XBLA takes a couple days longer than usual when most of your nervous system has disintegrated and your skeletal structure has been ravaged by necrosis. When it does show up, it'll set you back a paltry 500 MS Points, which ain't half bad for four stars.

Telltale’s first episode of their adaptation of The Walking Dead has a lot of work to do. After the terrible Jurassic Park provided an exclamation point at the end of a series of increasingly disappointing releases, reputations need rescuing here. So can the zombie thriller adventure redeem the adventure veterans? I’ve decided Wot I Think.

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The Walking Dead is now available on Steam!

The Walking Dead is a five-part game series set in the same universe as Robert Kirkmans award-winning comic book series. Play as Lee Everett, a convicted criminal, who has been given a second chance at life in a world devastated by the undead. With corpses returning to life and survivors stopping at nothing to maintain their own safety, protecting an orphaned girl named Clementine may offer him redemption in a world gone to hell.

In the zombie apocalypse, we'll all be human resources managers. It's true - we'll all need to make harsh critiques on the value of one human against another in a post-apocalyptic scenario. At least, that's what the first episode of Telltale's The Walking Dead adaptation has taught me.

As someone who's mapped out his strategy for the zombie apocalypse countless times, I always told myself I'd keep my humanity; I wouldn't become the monster I was trying to survive. And then I chose to rescue a grown man over a helpless child.

Hoard up your supplies and board up your windows, walkers are coming. More specifically, the first episode of Telltale's The Walking Dead, titled "A New Day," will be shuffling its way over to PC, Mac and PlayStation Network (for PS3) tomorrow.

PC and Mac users can still pre-order the entire season for $22.49 - 10% off the usual price. As a bonus of sorts, PC and Mac users can bundle The Walking Dead with Telltale's "Almost Everything Pack" - which includes nearly every game in the Telltale catalog and normally sells for $90 - for a total of $42.99. PSN users, meanwhile, can grab the first episode for $4.99, or pre-purchase the entire season for $24.99, shaving $5 off the normal price and receiving a premium PS3 theme to boot.

Just remember, if you must point and click zombies, be sure you click them in the head.

I’m Jake from Telltale Games and I’m clawing my way onto PlayStation.Blog to bring you up to speed with our latest game series. While some of our previous games like Back to the Future: The Game have been pretty light-hearted, we couldn’t have gone darker than our next project, a five part episodic series based on Robert Kirkman’s Eisner award-winning comic book series, The Walking Dead.

First, the good news: The first episode of The Walking Dead, ‘A New Day,’ will arrive on PSN this Tuesday, April 24th. Each episode will cost $4.99 on the PlayStation Store, and you’ll be able to pre-purchase the entire five-episode season for $19.99 to save $4.99 off of the total season price and nab an exclusive PS3 premium theme (head to the bottom of the post for more details).

Not only is The Walking Dead game darker and more violent than anything the studio has done before, but it also provides a very different gameplay experience compared to our previous games. One major way that the game differs from previous Telltale offerings is that your decisions, through action and dialog that you choose, will have huge repercussions on how you experience the story of the game, but more on that later.

Chances are that you’ve either read the original The Walking Dead comic books (if you haven’t, what are you waiting for?!) or you’ve seen the TV show. One thing you should know from the start is that our game series is based strictly on the world seen in the comics; in fact, the story seen in our game is officially canon to the comic books. That means you’ll find out more about characters and locations seen in the comic book and have a better understanding of their lives at the outset of the zombie apocalypse. Fans of Glenn (seen in the picture above) will get to know his backstory before he heads to Atlanta. And, for a certain character in particular (one who goes on to have a huge impact on Rick Grimes’ life) you’ll get an understanding of what drove them to become the person you’ll see in the comics.

However, rather than retelling the story of Deputy Sheriff Rick Grimes, the game tells the story of a new character – Lee Everett – who exists in the same world and roughly the same geographical location as Rick. In terms of comic book timeline, our story begins when Rick is still in a coma. The decision to tell a new story was made by Telltale and Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead. We felt that re-telling Rick’s story didn’t make much sense because most people will know what would come next. Beyond that, it wouldn’t make sense to create a new story for Rick because we’d be off into new territory, making stuff up that really has nothing to do with The Walking Dead. A new story, with a new lead character, means that we’re free to create new and exciting scenarios and that we can add to the backstory of characters and locations seen in the comics.

You’ll play as Lee Everett (holding the axe in the image above), who has been sentenced to life in prison for killing a man who was “romantically” involved with his wife. Whether Lee killed in cold blood or perhaps in self-defense is something we’ll let you decide.

If you’ve never played a game from Telltale before, you should know that we don’t make open-world shooters; that’s not our thing. While we love and admire games like that, we come from an adventure game background where storytelling and sympathetic characters are the most important thing. It’s for these reasons that Robert Kirkman chose us to make a game based on The Walking Dead. Robert (and Telltale) wanted to use the videogame medium to focus on the characters and the emotions of The Walking Dead universe, allowing players to experience the horror and tension of the walker-infested world. It’s a much more personal experience than many other zombie-based games have offered. Taking down a gigantic zombie horde with ridiculous firepower is not what The Walking Dead is about. In fact, we want you to be repulsed by the true horror of killing a walker. The zombies in our game are not just fleshy targets for your high-powered weapon, and you might be forced to finish someone who was a friend or a relative before they turned. On top of that, resources in our world are limited and noise attracts the wrong kind of attention, so you’ll have to get up close and use hand tools and weapons. We want people who think they’re desensitized to zombie violence to find that, in truth, they’re not.

Unlike any other previous Telltale game, The Walking Dead tailors the story based on the decisions that you make. Your decisions or actions might have an effect in the episode you’re playing or might affect the entire season. You could answer a question in a certain way and have a character become suspicious of your motives, or you could be forced to choose who to save when two people are in mortal peril but only one can be yanked back from the zombie horde. Your decisions will stay with you throughout the series, and their repercussions could mean that you and a friend have a very different game experience. Writing for a game with content that “branches” in this way certainly has its challenges. Instead of a normal linear script, we have to take into account each possible branch and how it affects the game you’ll play. It’ll be fun to backtrack when playing to see what would happen if you’d made a different decision and our save system supports that with our rewind feature.

Beyond the huge impact of choice and the tailored experience, we’re giving players full control of Lee to explore the environment and think their way through both action sequences and survival-oriented puzzle arcs that are signature to a Telltale gaming experience. Unlike Monkey Island style games, we won’t be ‘using the pie on the gerbil to open the trapdoor’ or anything remotely comedic or illogical; instead, we’ve implemented much more serious concepts that are both logical and completely in-keeping with figuring out how to survive in a zombie apocalypse.

Given that this game is episodic, players can expect a summer-long continuing story of adventure horror that will begin with our first episode ‘A New Day’, followed by four additional episodes, each landing about each month after the previous one. Each episode will cost $4.99 on the PlayStation Store – but fans can also pre-purchase the entire five episode season for $19.99 to save $4.99 off of the total season price and nab an exclusive PlayStation 3 premium theme (images below).

There’s much more to talk about, and aside from more frequent posts here on the PlayStation Blog, fans can also stay tuned to our site or our Facebook page for episodes of ‘Playing Dead,’ a web series dedicated to covering the production of The Walking Dead, with special guests including Robert Kirkman and the writer of episode four, Gary Whitta (whom you might recognize as the screenwriter of post-apocalyptic story The Book of Eli).

Working with Robert, Gary and everyone involved has been awesome, and as a fan, it’s completely unreal to work on hugely collaborative projects like this.

We can’t wait for you to play the game and we aim to bring you news and updates all summer long. Look for me here again, or with any luck… maybe on an upcoming Official PlayStation Blogcast! If you have any questions or comments – feel free to fire away in the section below.

Have you spent the entire weekend asking everyone you’ve met the two same questions over and over? These questions? “Why does The Walking Dead game not tell Rick’s story again? Reading it and watching it wasn’t enough.” “Could you show me some actual video footage of a person playing The Walking Dead game?”

Unless you happened to be talking to comic book writer person Robert Kirkman or you work at Telltale, you probably didn’t receive a satisfactory response. In fact, people probably became uncomfortable after the second time of asking and have now blocked your number in an effort to erase you from their lives. You should have just asked this video.

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The third installment of Telltale's The Walking Dead behind-the-scenes interview series, Playing Dead, features Robert Kirkman, writer of The Walking Dead comic series. Kirkman and the guy who voiced Marty McFly in Back to the Future talk art style, writing the game and why it isn't an open-world shooter, among other interesting tidbits.

This episode also features a good chunk of gameplay footage (7:02 and 11:50) involving batteries, why there aren't more female mechanical engineers, and of course, zombies.