The International House of Mojo

Following in the footsteps of their recent Zak McKracken retrospective, Eurogamer now have revisited another LucasArts classic: Day of the Tentacle. Read it and try and remember your favourite quote.

Try as you might Eurogamer, you still can't beat our effort. So nyeh.

Source: Eurogamer

Well, they did. I think posting Star Wars news every now and again looks good on our tax return or something.

It's like the Seinfeld of Games stories, three pages of article about nothing.

Earlier this week, we interviewed Chris Taylor, the creator of the Supreme Commander games. He asked us point blank if we'd been yet to see Lucasarts. When we told him we hadn't, but that we had an appointment, he told us to beware.

"You think you're going into NORAD or something," he said. "You think 'God, you make movies and games. You don't make nuclear missile guidance systems.'"

It's a fair point. Lucasarts makes games. These days mainly games based on an existing franchise, Star Wars. What could they possibly be hiding?

There's also a sister article that DOES discuss The Old Republic's gameplay here, as was the point of the visit.

Source: The Escapist

The Onion A.V. Club interviewed Steve Purcell while at GDC for his thoughts on the announcements of Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse and LeChuck's Revenge: Special Edition, and related topics. When Purcell opens his mouth, you would do well to listen. A taste:

AVC: Has the reprint of your comics bred any new interest?

SP: I have no idea. I haven't checked with the sales figures for that, but I'd imagine there must be a saturation point for the same set of comics that that reprint has been. I'm not sure I can milk any more readers out of that one. I always tell people I have this story at home that's half-finished, and a quarter of it is inked and it's the story I feel I should sit down and finish and get it off my plate once and for all. It's a story where Max is shot in the ear and has to go to the hospital, and Sam recruits a new partner: a white-handed gibbon.

By the way, where were all you rumor mongerers when this was going on, anyway?

Source: A.V. Club

Monkey Island 2: Special Edition is now announced, packed-in with promised "developer commentary". People have been wondering: who, exactly, will provide the "developer commentary"? Someone called xgfx told us about a MI2:SE preview (Gamespot video, YouTube video), which includes an interview with SE leader Craig Derrick. While there's no footage of the game in action, Derrick does clarify that it is the original designers who are providing the commentary. Might this photo supply some basis for the next round of rumors?

(Note to any rabid Monkey fanboys/girls, especially those in Europe and/or Germany: that photo does not mean a new full-length Monkey game is in the works.)

Source: Gamespot

Various blogs and news sites are sure making it sound that way.

Source: Eurogamer

It pales in comparison to our previous announcements, but at some point in last night's exciting press conference, LucasArts announced that the clothing of various Monkey Island characters would soon be available for your PlayStation Home avatar to wear.

This Joystiq article includes a photo. It appears that most of the costumes are taken from the Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition.

Sadly, it would seem that Stan's coat features a realistic plaid pattern! Shocking, we know.

Source: Joystiq

"LeChucks Revenge: Special Edition is official! New puzzles, new enemies, new hair!"

New Puzzles? What?

And... is there an announcement Three?

Update by Jason: While clarification of the features will no doubt come in the morning in the form of a press release and an official site launch, it's been confirmed that, like with Monkey Island 1, there will be full voice acting, and the original game will be included. "Developer commentary" has bizarrely been alluded to as a bonus feature - who knows what that means, but Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert were on-site for the announcement. Also, here's the cover art.

Further Update by ATMachine: According to LucasArts' Twitter feed, MI2:SE will feature voice acting both in the high-resolution updated-graphics mode and in the low-res, original-graphics mode. Plus, Guybrush's hairstyle has been changed, so hopefully there will be fewer complaints about that this time round.

Update 3: According to LucasArts, MI2:SE will be available for PSN, XBLA, Mac, iPhone, and PC.

Update 4: This Joystiq article suggests that the game will be released "this summer." Also, there will be a new direct control scheme implemented in addition to the previously used point-and-click method.

Finally, it notes this about the extra content:

"They've also added never-before-seen art from Peter Chan and Steve Purcell and developer commentary (!) for you Monkey Island fanboys out there (that's you)."

Update 5 by Jason: Official site launched and here's the press release.

Source: Twitter

LucasArts has revealed via its Twitter account that The Secret of Monkey Island (Special Edition) is heading to the Playstation Network and to Mac. That's "Announcement One", apparently.

Expect more details in the coming hours from the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco.

And bring on "Announcement Two"!

Update by ATMachine: Reports trickling out from the LucasArts press conference suggest that SOMI:SE will soon become available for purchase from Telltale's website. However, this has not been confirmed yet.

Update 2: In addition to the earlier Twitter report, Kotaku has now picked up the news of Telltale selling SOMI:SE in their online store, so it seems pretty official.

Source: Twitter

As reader BillieJoe86 informs us, Michael Giacchino picked up a golden statuette at last night's Academy Awards for his musical score for Disney/Pixar's Up. In addition to his movie and TV credits, Giacchino is an experienced game composer, having worked on such LucasArts titles as Secret Weapons Over Normandy, Mercenaries, and Thrillville.

Though I'm guessing he wasn't at the ceremony, also worth noting is the fact that Best Animated Feature Film nominee Coraline featured the storyboarding talents of Graham Annable, former LucasArts animator and Telltale Creative Director, not to mention the father of Dank/Dunk.

Eurogamer have put-up a retrospective on the LucasArts classic Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, with special emphasis on how difficult the game was. Alternatively, read Mixnmojo's own retrospective, written a full two years ago - back when Jim Ward was alive!

Source: Eurogamer

Turns out that following someone's twitter feed benefits more than serial killers. For example, the twitter page of Alexandra Boyd, voice of Elaine Marley, reveals the following February 21st tweet:

Alexandras ep of New Tricks on BBC1 mon 9pm. FROM PARIS WITH LOVE opens fri & new series of Monkey Island starts recording on Tuesday!!

Which would certainly gel with the existence of the all-but-announced Monkey Island 2 special edition. (She probably means "series" of recording sessions - it seems a wee early for this to be Telltale-related.)

Of course, Boyd isn't the only one sharing things best kept behind closed doors. Take David Boyll, voice of Hugh Bliss and Philo Pennyworth (not to mention D'oro the Explorer in Tales), who reveals a disquieting openness about the frequency of his bathroom visits in the latest interview snagged by samandmax.co.uk.

Blogger Alex Remington at Huffington Post shows his love for Steve Purcell, Sam and Max and in particular "Hit the Road".

So, Purcell's done lots and lots of cool things. But nothing's cooler than Hit the Road. A private school principal once told me that in the history of literature, the greatest translation of all time was the English translation of Waiting for Godot, because Samuel Beckett had personally translated it from French, in which he'd originally written it, into English, his mother tongue. Well, Steve Purcell just might be the Samuel Beckett of comic book video games.

Read it. Read it all.

Source: Huffington Post

At long bloody last, Lego Indiana Jones II: The Adventure Continues is now available on Steam and Direct2Drive for the reasonable sum of £19.95/$29.99.

Go buy! Y'know, if you haven't got it already.

Update by Kroms: This is marginally relevant, but if you're going to be on Steam anyways: the Penny Arcade games, which are notable for Ron Gilbert's involvement, have had their prices reduced to $4.99 each. However, it is worth mentioning that - as seems to be traditional with Ron Gilbert - there might not be an Episode Three; the games' story is, so far, incomplete. If you can handle that, the games are recommended.

You can now do what you normally do in Playstation Home (??) but with Star Wars and Indiana Jones costumes / avatars.

If you want more info, read this Kotaku article.

Source: Kotaku

Star Wars Galaxies: The Complete Online Adventures, a Star Wars based MMO developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts in 2003, has been given a 50% discount on Steam, its price reduced to $9.99 from $19.99. (A Star Wars MMO: just like it says in the title!) The package includes the original game, bundled in with the first three expansion packs: Jump to Lightspeed, Rage of the Wookiees, and Trials of Obi-Wan. A monthly fee to play the game is required. The offer ends on Friday.

On the other hand, it seems that the Steam version of Insecticide: Part One has been region-locked. This may or may not be a move by South Peak to stop themselves from getting some of my money.

Source: Steam

You may have noticed it on the side, you may not have cared. Nevertheless, please find enclosed our timely Knights of the Old Republic review, meatbags. End Statement.

Following the success of Rob Smith's Rogue Leaders, a second LucasArts-based book is now available.

Discarding the image-rich and archival based esoteria of the first book, LucasArts is a text-heavy expose featuring essays on a variety of topics:

• Graphic Adventure Game
  
• Star Wars
  
• LucasArts Adventure Games
  
• List of LucasArts Games
  
• List of Star Wars Video Games
  
• iMUSE
  

And if you're worried it won't be well-researched, then here's the best part: this is High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles!™

Buy it here. Or read it here.

Source: Amazon

I don't know what it is about Razor from Maniac Mansion that makes her such a magnet for fan artists, but the leather-clad singer's latest unofficial interpretation comes today from Tony Andruss:



She just seems to really have an effect on people.

Well, not exactly. Lego Star Wars III has just been announced by LucasArts, and a good educated guess could probably discern what it's covering...

The Clone Wars. Since all the characters in the (now getting pretty good actually) TV cartoon series already look like they're made of Lego this shouldn't be a problem, although whether the game will follow any particular episodes or doing their own a la Lego Batman is anyone's guess. The press release reads:

"LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars will combine the best elements of all previous LEGO games while adding brand new gameplay to make it the most action-packed LEGO videogame to date. Developed by the same team at Traveller’s Tales that created the critically acclaimed LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Indiana Jones series, the game will ship on the Wii, Nintendo DS, PS3, PSP , Xbox 360, and Windows in the Autumn of 2010.

“LucasArts is an amazing partner, and working with them on the next iteration of the LEGO Star Wars series continues to be a great experience,” said Tom Stone, director at TT Games. “The team at TT is working hard at making this simply the best LEGO game ever with all new gameplay and features never before seen in a LEGO game.”

This'll be Traveller's Tales' sixth collaboration with LucasArts, and the second since Warner Bros bought them (not sure how that works, but someone's obviously flexible). Let's hope it's better than all the other Clone Wars games, which were so bad even I didn't buy them.

Source: GameTrailers/LucasArts