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Here we go then:

Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge out now in New Zealand for iPhone and iPad.

It's out in the UK at midnight, and it's likely to cost £5.99 / $9.99 on iPad and £4.99 / $7.99 on iPhone.

Thanks, Pocket Gamer.

Update: The game should be available from 9am GMT - that's in about 11 hours from now - but LucasArts tell us 'things go live when they go live' - so no promises!

And again: Live on the US PSN store, as well as a free demo. Download now! More to come in the morning....

Source: Pocket Gamer

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With only a day to go before Monkey Island 2 is re-unleashed on the world and DeathSpank is but a week away, Eurogamer spoke to Ron Gilbert and asked the pressing questions that we would've done if we actually had anything but news up right now (they're coming, they're coming!).

And of course the most important question was asked:

Eurogamer: What's the latest on the PC version of DeathSpank? Will it actually be released?

Ron Gilbert: We're not really talking about the PC version right now. We're focusing on the Xbox and the PSN versions.

So at least there IS a PC version.

Source: Eurogamer

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Never been on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, Temple of the Forbidden Eye? If you own Valve's Left 4 Dead 2 I've got good news for you - someone's just recreated it. You can either tour the ride normally... or go inside it and fight zombies. It's even got John Rhys-Davies in there.

Also from the same author is a recreation of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Both include accurate sound effects and are near-perfect recreations. Anyone want to kill some zombies tonight?

Source: L4DMaps

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Ever wanted to own something cool and exclusive to Monkey Island? A Guybrush Threepwood Voodoo Doll perhaps? Well, now you can - but you can't buy it in the shops (WHAT?!). A limited edition number of these dolls (there's only 500 made) have been sent out to various places as prizes, so that's the only way to win one.

Here's a pic.

I only know of two places to get one right now:

  1. The Monkey Island Facebook page.

  2. The Official Xbox Magazine Podcast.

From the latest episode of that podcast, there will be two competitions each week ('Guess That Sound Effect' and 'Stick It To The Dandy') to win. They've got about 22 still left, so it'll be going for a few weeks. Get going!

Source: OXM Podcast

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The latest LucasArts tweet reads as follows:

Playing with the new LucasArts forums. Love the new features, can't wait to get it live soon for all of you!

LucasArts has had an online presence for a long time - I know I can recall placing many an order from the company store in the 90s - but few would debate the assessment that the "online community" aspect of their web site has been sort of pathetic at best. The launch of new and improved forums, combined with their recent embrace of things like Steam, Twitter, Facebook, and maybe even social gaming, might be evidence of LEC seeing the value of what can happen when you properly lay the foundation for an active relationship with the fan base. Just don't leave us behind. :~

Source: LucasArts Twitter

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Desperate to somehow top the pulse-pounding interview we had with her last year, Gamasutra bent the ear of Mary Bihr, LucasArts VP of Global Publishing (and an exec who's been with the company since Zak McKracken, for God's sake), and the things she shares about the company's future, while vague, suggest a continued willingness from the studio to go beyond Star Wars and sure-fire sequels:

When it comes to the company's self-image, she says, "We see ourselves as continuing a longstanding tradition we've had of being storytellers... Both original stories and original franchises, and then how we've even evolved Star Wars with story, through the games we've created."



Perhaps LEC's new, intriguing direction didn't depart with Rodriguez. Read the whole thing.

Source: Gamasutra

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fter a warm reception to The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, it was a no-brainer for LucasArts to give the second (and best) game in the series the special edition treatment. This time though, they had plenty of fan feedback to use when reworking the game. Lucky for all fans of the series, LucasArts has taken that fan feedback to heart and added several new features to the game this time around. Combined with what appears to be a more faithful and polished representation of the original game in hand painted, high definition backgrounds, should mean a great experience for fans of the series both old and new.

I was shown the Xbox 360 version of the game at this year's E3, while producer Craig Derrick (who loves Mixnmojo) talked me through it. While the game noticeably had the smallest area in LucasArts's room, it was no less impressive-looking on its high definition screen.
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Guybrush demonstrates the cool new sport: treasure hanging.


The first feature that was new to me was the ability to directly control Guybrush. For newcomers to adventure games, this should be a much more natural control scheme, especially on consoles, where the cursor-based movement in the first Special Edition was a little clunky. Luckily for old time players, this is purely optional and the traditional point and click method is still available in both the original and Special Edition versions of the game.

Another new feature the game is sporting is a streamlined verb system for the Special Edition version. Rather than showing players all possible options for interacting with an object or person in the environment, it will only show those that will give a useful response. This is another feature that makes the game easier to control on the console versions. Once again, the original edition remains unaffected.

Going with the theme of making the game more accessible to as wide an audience as possible, LucasArts has made the game's hint system even more extensive. While it is hard to believe, apparently the giant arrows pointing towards objectives in the first Special Edition were not enough for some players new to adventure games. So to help out these players, separate from the hint system, a button can be pressed to highlight all objects on the screen that players are able to be interact with.

“You can consider me excited.”


LucasArts certainly hasn't catered the game completely towards new players to the series: the game features developer commentary, Mystery Science Theater 3000 style. Mojo readers will recognize the voices and silhouettes of none other than Dave Grossman, Tim Schafer, and Ron Gilbert when this feature is enabled, which is done seamlessly during gameplay with the press of a button. Not only is it exciting to hear what they have to say about the game 20 years later, but it is great that they are on good enough terms with LucasArts these days to collaborate on something like this.

Perhaps the most demanded feature from the first Special Edition was the ability to play the original version of the game, but with the new voiceovers. Well LucasArts has heeded this request, and now the original game can be played with or without voiceover. While it is a very simple feature to add to the game, it is great to see LucasArts give their longtime fans what they want.
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Guybrush is welcomed to the neighbourhood, Scabb Island style.


The last bit of the game that must be commented on is the updated visuals. It can be debated to the end of time how faithful they are to the original artwork, but there is no question that LucasArts has seen some of the complaints about the first Special Edition's artwork and made sure that those problems do not exist in this one. While I have not seen this game from start to finish, and so cannot say with absolute certainty whether there will be complaints made of it or not, the look I was given appeared to be very polished. If you're still not convinced, just check out some of the screenshots dotted through this article.

Even if none of the new features interest you, the game can of course be played in its completely original state. It really has something for all types of fans. While it seemed to have the least interest from other media out of the games LucasArts was showing, I was still very impressed by what I was shown, and you can consider me excited to get my hands on it.

The game is being released on July 7 for Mac, PC, Xbox Live Arcade, and PSN, as well as "other platforms" hinted at by Craig Derrick, likely meaning an iPhone and iPad release shortly after the game's initial release.

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Our man in Havana:
Jeff "The Mole" Moeller
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Dedicated Monkey Island fan and amateur shark wrangler* Threepwood4life, one of the colorful denizens of the Mojo forums, has provided us with some information which we've shamelessly stolen another timely news item.

With the impending release of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Special Edition scheduled for July 7, Steam is now allowing its users to pre-order (or, in Valve-speak, "pre-purchase") the game. For US residents the price is $9.99, the same amount as the Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition costs, while in the United Kingdom MI2:SE is selling for £6.99.

Plus, if you pre-order now, you'll get MI1:SE thrown in for the low, low price of free. Yes, free. Although, I imagine few of our readers really need the added incentive.

EDIT: In the comments, AlfredJ has written in to remind me of something. Unlike the Steam version of the Monkey Island 1 Special Edition, the Monkey Island 2 SE Steam release will feature achievements, the same as those available on the game's console ports.

*Note: he really is an amateur shark wrangler**

**Note: The preceding footnote is not actually true***

***Note: This is surely one too many footnote jokes

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With the special edition of Monkey Island 2 only two weeks away (Woo!), some of us have already begun to ponder the possibility of LEC taking on The Curse of Monkey Island next. The question seems to be on the mind of the game's original lead background artist as well. Earlier today, Bill Tiller tweeted:

I put in a request to redo the art for a special edition of CMI to the producer in charge a few days ago. No reply yet. I'll keep you posted

Although any enhanced edition of the third Monkey Island game wouldn't require an entirely new re-imagining of the original backgrounds since they were pencil-drawn on paper, Bill's follow-up tweet suggests that converting it to high definition wouldn't be a snap either, as the actual painting was done in Photoshop at a resolution of 640x480 and would therefore have to be re-done. Clearly, if such a project was ever planned by LEC, they'd be fools not to take up Tiller on his offer. I wonder how busy Ahern and Eaken are?

Source: Bill Tiller's twitter feed

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Facebook is a place where people can join groups and have David Fox, project leader of classic LucasArts game Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, respond to their comments.

"We want Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders: Special Edition" is once such group. It currently has 106 members, and contains freindly support from the Fox, who revealed more about the famous "I'm selling these fine leather jackets" joke:

It was because all of the LucasArts employees were given the chance to buy one of these fine 'stressed leather bomber jackets' with an "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" leather label on the pocket... this was just before the film (or the game) came out. In fact, I think anyone could buy one -- they may have been for sale in the LucasArts online company store. Anyway, I still have mine :-)

Source: Our forums

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Only just listened to it now, but last week's PC Gamer US Podcast had an interview with Dave Grossman regarding Back To The Future, Jurassic Park, Puzzle Agent, Sam & Max: They Stole Max's Brain, and Monkey Island 2: Special Edition. Phew! That's all kinds of aceness right there.

Also, we get the answer to the question on everyone's mind: will we get to see dinosaurs on hoverboards?

Edit by ATMachine: Unfortunately, the site that the podcast is hosted on contains some rather nasty malware. I've removed the link so that unwary Mojo readers won't fall victim.

So if you want to listen to Dave Grossman talking about Telltale's future games, while simultaneously having your PC infected and crippled by a virus, you'll have to do it without any help from us.

Update: Oops, sorry about that. They've now changed sites, so you can find the podcast Malware-free at the new PCGamer.com.

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We promised it to you earlier, Mojo readers, and here it is. As brought to our attention by professional Mojo forum member/zombie hunter* Threepwood4life, IGN has finally uploaded the video from yesterday's Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Special Edition stage demo.

Cool Special Edition features include dynamic lighting on the character sprites, the ability to highlight all usable objects on the screen, and the presence of a three-tiered hint system. We can also see some all-new idle animations that Guybrush now has, and there's a demonstration of how the developer commentary works.

Plus, we finally get a good look at the new Verb Coin-style radial interface, which tailors itself to fit the object you've selected. I'd say it's sort of like the icon interface used in Gabriel Knight 3.

Also there's a glimpse of the art gallery, of which the recent 1UP video has a much more detailed look.

The video is embedded below for the benefit of slackers who can't be bothered to click a link. But we both know you're better than that. You DO read Mojo, after all.

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*(Note: he may or may not actually be a zombie hunter)
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LucasArts is currently showing off Monkey Island 2, LeChuck's Revenge, Special Edition at their E3 booth, and 1UP has posted a video of their visit. Or maybe at a bigger size for you people who need to fill up more space on your monitors. It covers basically the same ground as the IGN live video demo streamed earlier today, which we'll also provide for you just as soon as it gets archived online.

This video contains further evidence that the Concept Art gallery is going to be really neat. I'd say more, but I daren't spoil the surprise.

Source: Telltale Forums

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Source: YouTube

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So much news, all in one day?! And you thought we were a bunch of slackers.

It aired live on GameSpot and IGN earlier in the day, but in case you missed it, here is an E3 stage demo video demonstrating the first level of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 (2 Force 2 Unleashed).

Go forth and.... watch the darn video, already. (This is the GameSpot version, which has a bit more footage than the IGN feed.)

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It's E3, and that means here are some brand spanking new Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Special Edition screenshots, sure to get you whining about how the whole game is being spoiled or whatever.

Of especial note is this particular screenshot, which gives us our first glimpse of the concept art gallery included within the game. Visible in the image-selection menu are not one but two unused Peter Chan backgrounds from the original game, which happen to be eerie close-ups of the skeletal throne in LeChuck's office.

(Wow, now I finally know what those extra background-image filenames in the MI2 rolling demo meant...)

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So. If you're interested in Star Wars: The Old Republic (and why wouldn't you be, it's going to be one of the most expensive games ever made), then check out this stage demo for the game, as shown at the recent EA press conference at E3. Or see it here in HD.

Or check out the trailer from that stage demo, which was really the whole point of the thing. Also, here's a GameSpot hands-on preview of the game, and another from IGN.

Also check out some screenshot galleries: Star Wars: The Old Republic (at Gamespot and IGN; Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 (Force Unleasheder (GameSpot Xbox 360, GameSpot PS3); LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (at GameSpot); and the new LucasArts/Sony Online MMO Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures (again, see Gamespot).

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Just in case you hadn't surmised as much from the (rather numerous) previous news reports, LucasArts has finally confirmed that the release date for Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Special Edition will be July 7.

The news comes in the form of a short but funny new trailer released by LucasArts on Facebook. Also it's viewable (in somewhat smaller form) on the MI2:SE official LucasArts website.

There's no new gameplay footage, I'm afraid, but then again, many of our readers were recently complaining that too much had been revealed already. So no harm done.

Also apparently it's rated E-10+ by the ESRB? And EMI got rated Teen, of all things.

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Source: Mojo Forums

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So now that we know LucasArts is making a Star Wars game for the Xbox 360's Kinect body-sensing apparatus, Microsoft's E3 press conference has helpfully provided us with some clearer footage of the game in question.

It's buried in this GameSpot video beginning at the 1 hour, 19:30 mark. Basically it's the same footage as leaked from the now-infamous Cirque du Soleil E3 pre-show, but now in higher quality and with the beginning of the trailer included. (Which would confirm that, yes, the Kinect demo at the pre-show was in fact faked.)

According to the video, this Star Wars mystery-title game is scheduled to ship in 2011. It appears it will be an Xbox 360 and Kinect exclusive.

Update: Here's the same SW game trailer, now watchable separately from the massive Microsoft press conference. (And here's an HD version for those of you who are interested.)

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Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge Special Edition will be shown on E3 Live feeds on Wednesday, 16th of June, at 11:20 PM (GMT), aka when it's still Wednesday for part of the world. You can see it here or here in this much time.

Thanks to Threepwood4Life from the forums for the tip-off.

Source: Mojo Forums

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