Another grab during the sales over Thanksgiving was Telltale Games' first season of The Walking Dead. After hearing and reading so much praise and excitement around the episodes, I couldn't pass on playing the game for myself. I completed the game twice in 22 hours of play time. The nominations and awards the game is receiving are well deserved.

I have never played many adventure games mostly because the horror stories of pixel hunts and obtuse solutions made the genre unappealing. The Walking Dead remedies those issues by highlighting usable objects and having simple puzzles. This lets the great story of people dying and surviving a zombie apocalypse shine through. The bulk of game is playing through a choose-your-adventure book in video game form and it is very effective in putting the player in an engaging and dramatic world and story. The count down mechanic to many of the game's decisions greatly adds to the tension and stress of the narrative's situations. With how the scenarios play out, it is just as entertaining to watch the game being played as it is to play it.

There are some missteps such as the first-person shooting action sequences and problems with save files. Despite that, the quality of the story telling intertwined with the game makes The Walking Dead one of this year's best video game experiences.