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With a full coup to turn Mixnmojo into an Indiana Jones fansite underway, we've not had time to post about an ongoing Star Wars sale on GOG. Once the mortal enemy of LucasArts adventure games everywhere, a number of these Star Wars games are now considered classics, including Knights of the Old Republic and LEGO: Star Wars. Hell, even I've been tempted.

Speaking of Star Wars....

It's worth noting that actor Peter Mayhew passed away earlier this week. I don't know much about Mayhew, except that he played Chewbecca in four of the six George Lucas Star Wars films and was a "Chewbecca consultant" in Solo, but his Reddit account paints the portrait of a very kind man, which is a worthy legacy. Our condolences to his loved ones.

Source: GOG

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Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, an FPS game released by pre-Phantom Menace LucasArts in 1997, has gotten some HD textures. The game can be procured on both Steam and GOG.

What makes the story interesting is that the new textures were created by an AI. I can see the Black Mirror episode already.

Apologies to Scummbuddy for the delay on this, as they let us know about the news in an earlier story. I can only assume most other Mojo staff has perished in an ongoing, secretive, Snatcher-like murder campaign by these AIs.

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It feels like it is 2012 again. Disney has halted game production and will switch to a licensing model.

For those of you who have been waiting for more Lucasfilm figures for Disney Infinity, you're going to have to stop waiting as Disney Infinity will cease production as a result of this decision. Three characters from Alice Through the Looking Glass will release later this month, and a Finding Dory playset will be released in June. These will be the final figures released in the Disney Infinity line.

The primary developer of Disney Infinity, Avalanche Software, will also be closed. We at Mojo give our fondest well-wishes to the nearly 300 people who lost their jobs as a result of this decision.
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Update: This Star Wars Day also brings another GOG.com LucasArts re-release. Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire is now available on GOG.com, with a launch discount of 20% off.

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Today is Star Wars Day, and Lucasfilm is celebrating with a bunch of deals on Star Wars games. You can grab these deals on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, the Windows Store, Steam, Humble Bundle, GOG.com, the PlayStation Store, and the Xbox Marketplace.
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Knights of the Old Republic II has just received a major update on Steam as it's now available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Steam OS. The update brings 37 Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud saves. Steam Workshop mods (the Restored Content Mod is now available straight through Steamworks), native widescreen resolution support, resolution support up to 4k and 5K, and gamepad support.

An employee of Aspyr, the company responsible for the ports of the game, stated on the Steam forums that they are working with GOG and Disney to try to get these changes on GOG.com as well, and that they should know more after Gamescom.

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I always try to do a news post of Mojo related tidbits after our downtime. This one's going to be a long one. At least, with the new server, it'll likely be the last.

Christian Adam has found a solution to allow the people who have graphics hardware below the requirements of Grim Fandango Remastered to play the game in classic mode.

Double Fine is making games in conjunction with Adult Swim Games, as well as Zoink Games.

On the subject of Double Fine, Massive Chalice went out of early access and received it's full release, and Iron Brigade has had Game for Windows Live replaced with Steamworks, fixing matchmaking. The latter was possible thanks to the fact that Double Fine has regained the rights to Iron Brigade from Microsoft.

At E3, it was revealed that ex-Mojoer and former Telltale developer extraordinaire, Jake Rodkin's company Campo Santo will have the console debut of their first game Firewatch on PS4. It is also going to be released on PC, Mac, and Linux. No release date has been set, but Campo Santo is aiming for release by the end of 2015.

Telltale is making a three episode miniseries that will be DLC for The Walking Dead: Season Two called The Walking Dead: Michonne, set during the period of the comics when Michonne is absent from the group. They also finally showed a little bit of what their Minecraft: Story Mode will look like.

Lucasfilm is working on a fully interactive 3D virtual Star Wars world, via their ILM experience lab.

Humongous Entertainment games are starting to make their way to GOG.com. The Pajama Sam series made its way to the service earlier this month.

The co-creator of Maniac Mansion and Thimbleweed Park, Gary Winnick, had his best selling comic, Bad Dreams, released in trade paperback format on the 17th of June.

While we're on the subject of Thimbleweed Park, be sure to check out the Thimbleweed Park development blog, as lots of good inside information about the development process of that game is being posted regularly.
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So, if you hadn't noticed, Star Wars is happening. And part of that happening is a new Star Wars: Battlefront game that might not get cancelled before the release date of 17 November 2015.

From the gameplay footage that looks like pre-rendered cut scenes, Star Wars fans will FINALLY get what they've been asking for since 1983 - the chance to play The Battle of Hoth!

The embedded youtube clip below only works for three people, so for the other four of you, here's a direct link to the trailer.

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Source: EA

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The Humble Star Wars Bundle is going on. Pay what you want for Knights of the Old Republic, Jedi Academy, and Dark Forces. There are also 6 other Star Wars games if you pay $12 or more: Empire at War: Gold Pack, The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition, The Force Unleashed II, Battlefront II, Knights of the Old Republic II, and Republic Commando. The site says that there's more yet to be announced.

If Star Wars isn't your thing, the Humble Weekly Bundle is an adventure bundle this week. Pay whatever you like for Detective Grimoire, Broken Sword 1 & 2, and The Whispered World Special Edition. If you pay more than the average, you'll also get The Detail: Episode 1, A Golden Wake, and Cognition: Game of the Year Edition. If you pay $10 or more, you'll also get Broken Sword 5.

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Hold onto your hats, folks. "OzzieMonkey" in the comments reports that our sassy friends at Rock, Paper, Shotgun seem to know the next three LucasArts games that GOG will give a digital release. Behold what will arrive on the 27th:

- Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
- Star Wars: Starfighter
- Star Wars: Republic Commando

There was apparently a proper press release announcing GOG's latest LucasArts drops, by the way. This is supposed to continue "throughout 2015," so with any luck they'll accidentally include Outlaws or The Curse of Monkey Island at some point.


Source: Rock, Paper Shotgun

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And they are:

- Star Wars: Empire at War (Gold Pack)
- Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
- Star Wars: Rebellion (aka Star Wars: Supremacy)

Sorry I'm an asshole, but I'm sure enough of you are genuinely excited by these to balance it out.

Source: GOG.com

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The currently North American exclusive closed beta period for Area 52 Games and Disney Mobile's Star Wars space combat simulator Star Wars: Attack Squadrons has been going on from January 21st and will continue to January 28th. If you already signed up for the beta, you should be receiving a code soon, if you haven't already. I just received mine, but I can't comment on the game yet, as the beta currently runs from 11AM to 9PM PST, and I entered my code a little late.

If you didn't sign up for the beta (or didn't yet get a code), but are in North America and still would like to join, keep an eye on their Facebook page. They have posted first-come-first-serve beta codes on there in the past, so it's possible you could get lucky.

Note also that this is currently the second closed beta period (the first beta period started on January 14th). So if you missed this beta, if they do a third beta test, it's possible you'll receive a code then. If they do continue doing closed beta testing, hopefully they'll open it up to worldwide gamers the next go-around.
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Disney / LucasArts has surprised everyone by announcing a new Space Combat game. While it doesn't have the much loved single-player campaigns that made the X-Wing series so popular, it's a welcome return to the cockpit for Star Wars fans. Here's what we know;

Star Wars: Attack Squadrons isa free-to-play space combat game for PC, being developed by Area 52 Games, in conjunction with Disney Interactive and LucasArts. It allows players to customise and tune "popular Star Wars ships" like X-Wings and TIE fighters and will support dogfights of up to 16 players.


Signup for the Beta at the official website here.

So, lets hope this is a first, tentative step back into the Space Combat genre, and Larry Holland's number has been passed on to the Mouseketeers at Disney...
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Source: Star Wars Attack Squadrons

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Those who were waiting for Star Wars: Tiny Death Star to come out somewhere other than Australia don't have to wait any longer. As of November 8th, the game is available worldwide.

The freemium Star Wars themed Tiny Tower game is available now for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Windows 8. It will also be coming to the Amazon App store soon.

Source: Gamespot

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Update: Earlier I incorrectly stated that the game was released for iOS in New Zealand. It's only available in Australia for iOS for now, as pointed out by jp-30 in the comments.

After getting released on Android in Australia and New Zealand earlier this month, iOS gets a similar treatment, as Tiny Death Star was released exclusively on iTunes in Australia on the 15th of October.

This Star Wars themed Tiny Tower game will be released worldwide on Android and iOS soon.

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Update: Thanks to Shmargin for pointing out that it's not available for Android everywhere yet. It's currently an exclusive release in Australia and New Zealand.

Tiny Death Star, the Star Wars themed Tiny Tower game (complete with the series' signature 8-bit graphical style), is available now on Google Play for Android phones and tablets. It was developed by Disney Mobile (as was expected with casual Star Wars games after the Disney merger) and Tiny Tower developer Nimblebit.

Interestingly, LucasArts is listed as the publisher, so it would appear that the remodeled LucasArts has retained it's function as a publisher as well as a licensor.

Source: Shmargin

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Disney's LucasArts licensing house plods on, with their first release post-restructuring. Angry Birds Star Wars II was released yesterday for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.

This sequel actually is based on the Star Wars prequels, changing the titular birds into Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu, and Jar Jar Binks. This time you can also turn to the dark side in the pork side mode and play as a Tie Fighter pilot, Zam Wesell, and Emporer Palpatine. The Hasbro Telepod toys can also be scanned in to unlock characters, but they're not required to play.

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It seems there's more reason than a simple cash grab behind the fact that LucasArts is continuing to license Star Wars to outside casual game developers instead of having Disney Interactive develop them as the early press releases about Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm would suggest.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Disney Interactive has pulled back production in other areas in order to pour its resources into Disney Infinity, Disney's version of Activision's Skylanders (the game where you purchase toys that are then detected by the game, making the character available for play).

Disney is putting so much into this project that Disney Interactive stopped production on the Iron Man game they had in development and passed on the opportunity to make any Star Wars games. Strangely, Angry Birds Star Wars II will feature the debut of Hasbro's Telepods, which seem to be a direct competitor of both Skylanders and Disney Infinity. However, since the Telepods have a simple QR scan rather than saving the data in the toy like Skylanders, Disney must feel there is room for both products.

At the very least, at least this means the LucasArts licensing house still has a use, since it previously seemed kind of redundant after the announcement of the exclusive licensing deal with EA. Now we'll just have to wait to see if they realize that they have other intellectual property besides Star Wars that they can license out.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

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And not just one sequel... potentially three more Gungan Frontier games!

Fusible has found a few new domain names that Lucasfilm has registered. There's a few interesting ones in here besides Gungan Frontier:

Now Lucasfilm, which was acquired by Disney last year, has registered a slew of new domain names that include titles like: Star Wars Alliance, Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars Wolf Pack, Wolf Pack Adventures, Order 67, Bothan Spies, Gungan Frontier 2, Gungan Frontier 3, Gungan Frontier 4, and Wookie Hunters.

Source: Fusible

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Raven Software expresses their grief in the best way possible.

“Raven is sad to hear about the closing of LucasArts today, we respected them and enjoyed working with them over the years,” said the studio, in a statement sent to Kotaku Australia. “We wish the best for all the talented people who were let go and hope they find good work in studios in the industry.

“We loved and appreciated the experience of getting to make Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy for LucasArts. As a gift to the persistently loyal fanbase for our Jedi games and in memory of LucasArts, we are releasing the source code for both games for people to enjoy and play with.

Well, that's kind of neat! Grab Jedi Knight II here and Jedi Academy here.

Source: Kotaku

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Sources close to Kotaku, presumably the same ones that recently revealed Star Wars 1313 is on hold, are now claiming that Star Wars: First Assault, that Battlefront-sounding XBLA shooter that was never officially announced, is no longer assured an existence.

The real scoop is that First Assault was in fact intended to be a sort of proof of concept for a Star Wars shooter running on the Unreal Engine, the success of which will directly lead to Battlefront III. The story is that LEC intentionally kept that brand off of this downloadable multiplayer game, which is nearly finished, "so expectations wouldn't be too high," and would have followed up with the long-awaited sequel.

Well, that was once the idea, anyway. Despite intending to release a closed beta of First Assault in September (which ties in nicely with October's minimal leaked reveal of the game), it seems that LucasArts has pretty much halted all their projects in the wake of the Disney acquisition. The reasoning? Apparently, there may be a sense that the Lucasfilm slate needs cleaning, a theory that the recent cancellation of Clone Wars and a second planned Star Wars TV show certainly seems to support. I'll bet the powers-that-be want all the focus to be on the new film trilogy.

Meanwhile, amidst all this uncertainty and decisions pending, hiring has frozen at LEC and employees have apparently been departing the studio in droves, so what will become of First Assault, 1313, and I guess whatever the hell else LEC has allegedly been up before the last menstrual cycle is an unknown. The author and the commenters seem primarily concerned about the effect LEC's potential euthanasia would have on the integrity of the Star Wars game franchise, which I don't mind telling you is exactly the kind of laugh I needed today.

Oh, and Kotaku also has some leaked footage of Star Wars: First Assault if the prospect rings your chimes.

Source: Kotaku

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