The International House of Mojo

Gladius
by DJG

Gladius. Gladius. Gladius. Despite all the flack that we may or may have not have given this game, I had never actually seen the game myself. So I took the controller and my biased opinion and sat down to the world that is Gladius. I was already at a location in the game and I was setting up for a battle. And who did I fight in my first Gladius battle. ever? Yetis of course. With my team of Gladiators I plunged into a handicap match of 3 good guys versus 2 giant-ass hairy things. Although it took a while to get the hang of combat, I was eventually victorious in battle. ("He's the coder, of course he sucks at video games." - Jake)

The combat system really is like Dance Dance Revolution. This is not necessarily a bad thing, especially because it gives it a little more control of the fight as opposted to the random number/dice roll generators in RPGs like KOTOR. Here, you're given a little horizontal bar on which a slider moves along. If you hit the attack button while the slider is in a special spot on the bar, you inflict more damage. For combos, you have to do this repeatedly, with different buttons on the controller, just like doing a dance combo in DDR. You can also do some long range attacks in which you have to press buttons which pop up on the screen as fast as you can.

Now keep in mind my RPG experience consists of Mario RPG (which I'm told actually inspired certain parts of this game), so I'm no expert. However it seems no one at Mojo really is so you'll just have deal with it. :-) I found Gladius to be strangely addictive, so beware. My cohorts returned from playing Secret Weapons Over Normandy to find me still battling yetis. This looks to be a decent RPG game, though honestly I'd still rather play Mario. My advice? Rent it first. You might just like it.

Gladius has a release date of September 24, 2003 for the Xbox, Gamecube, and Playstation 2.

Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
by Doug Tabacco

To some, Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy might look more like an expansion pack for Jedi Outcast than a whole new game. The fact that Jedi Academy, like its predecessor, runs on the Quake III: Arena engine is probably the chief cause of any confusion. Even the engine, though, has been retooled for this new installment in the Jedi Knight series.

Most of the features from Jedi Outcast that people enjoyed have been left in place. You still wield a lightsaber, force powers, and an impressive arsenal of assorted non-Jedi weaponry. But instead of just a boring lightsaber, the player now gets to pick one of three : A single saber, as in the previous game, double sabers, one in each hand, or a saber staff, made popular by Darth Maul from The Phantom Menace. Each saber includes its own advantages and disadvantages, as well as its own set of special moves and combos. One of the coolest is a move where the player sets his double sabers in orbit around himself to form a shield which also happens to take care of any inconveniently close enemies. In addition to the choice of sabers, one of the most common complaints about the first game has been addressed. No longer is the entire first half of the game a force-free experience. You begin the game at the Jedi Academy and learn your basic force powers first thing.

Graphically, the game has some subtle but nifty improvements as well. Characters have gained a rag doll animation system, environments have been improved, and, according to a LucasArts representative, the game should have about 25% more polygons than Jedi Outcast. Not only have the game environments been improved graphically, several have been made much more dynamic. For example, in one level you must navigate your way up the length of a ship as it flies through a city. Buildings whiz by at high speed on either side the whole time. It's disorienting and faintly nauseating, but it looks incredible.

Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy ships in mid-September for the PC people and right before Thanksgiving for the Xbox crowd. Xbox gamers, by the way, will be glad to know that Jedi Academy is fully Xbox Live enabled.

Knights of the Old Republic PC Edition
by Andrew "telarium" Langley

Knights of the Old Republic is coming out for the PC in the fall.

Bittersweet Wrap-Up Part
as recounted by Andrew "telarium" Langley

Following a hard day of playing upcoming video games, it was time to kick back and have some real fun. An old fashion trolley car picked us up from the ultra modern hotel and took our party to the AsiaSF restaurant in downtown San Francisco for dinner. Our group also consisted of various legitimate journalists (pfft) as well as the entire LucasArts PR staff. Sadly, our attempt to get the Lucas people drunk didn’t ever come to fruition, so we weren’t able to find out anything about the rumored Loom 2: Electric Boogaloo.

AsiaSF was a crazy, hip restaurant with some rather tasty food. In between the entrée courses, the attractive waitresses ("Or should we say waiters..." - DJG) would get up on a stage in the middle of the restaurant and do near-strip tease dances while lip singing to anything from Chicago musical numbers to “Groove is in the Heart” by the Dee Lites. We accused LucasArts of trying to “buy us off” with sexy dancers ("Or should we say 'illusionists'..." - DJG), but then we realized that we’re just a bunch of internet geeks, and nobody cares what we think.

Sadly, the end of the evening came and it was time to say goodbye. Not only that, but it was time to say farewell to Tom Sarris, who we found out had just turned in his resignation at LucasArts. I think it was because I spilled my sweet ‘n sour sauce all over his Members Only jacket, but he kept maintaining that he just needed “some time off.” Best of luck to Tom in the future and hopefully we’ll have more crazy Summer Press Days in the coming years.