Tingler's fought hordes of Lego bricks to bring you Mojo's review of Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars.
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We're not the greatest around here to report on news regarding Star Wars: The Old Republic, but here's a couple of titbits:
Senior Environment Artist Robby Lamb has posted a new Studio Insider where he talks about polishing the game environment. Unlike a bad game critic, he goes into details on what polishing entails and what he does as a part of that process. Like a bad game critic, he really loves to use that word. A lot.
Continuing the tradition of peddling as much Star Wars merchandise as possible, two spin-off novels have already been released with a third in development. It's title has finally been revealed and it's Revan. There's a Q&A with the author and things on the official page.
Source: SWTOR.com News
Well, it's about damn time! Someone wants to go out and make a real life AT-AT.
This means only one thing: We need to create a donation button on Mojo so we can begin to save up for our Death Star. We have to stay one step ahead in the quickly growing field of building Star Wars technology!
Source: AT-AT for America
No doubt because we were all that excited, we flat-out forgot to trumpet the fact that LucasArts released LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars this week for these platforms. Of course, the notable thing here is that this game is a Nintendo 3DS launch title, probably. You might think that with the stress of watching Traveller's Tales make this game over, LEC could surely find the time to upload Day of the Tentacle to Steam, or announce a new Indiana Jones game or something. That's just where you're confused.
In what is to my knowledge the most Mojo-relevant session to take place at this year's GDC thus far, folks from Bioware discuss The Old Republic's localization process which, like everything else relating to this game, is enormous, expensive, and also costs a lot. Don't take my word for it, though - reading Gamasutra's write-up reveals that the effort being mounted is so considerable, it could very well take more than an Excel spreadsheet to accomplish:
"Excel sheets don't work for us very well because they're so big, so we have to build very robust processes," Mitchell said. "The more specific you are about your process, the better the tools you're going to get out of it. You're going to build a better GUI and better cinematics design tools if you're specific about what you need for localization up front."
Better news: Tim Schafer is currently exploiting a well-deserved invite to host the GDC for the second year in a row. There's probably already some good footage on the net somewhere, and maybe we can be bothered to find it for you once the show's finished.
*Figure may have been confused with the population of Chicago
Source: Gamasutra
The next Lego game from our friends at TT Games is once again relevant to our news and is looking quite superb, so we can happily say that Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars is coming out 25th March. It was originally due out 18th February, but has been delayed for some unexplained reason.
I personally think that it's more than coincidence that this new release date coincides with the launch of the Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo's brand new handheld console. Being one of the only good games in a short launch line-up for an inevitably popular console will mean that people will flock to it (I know I will), but not if they've already bought it on other systems.
The game will be on every platform barring the dead PS2 (so PC, PS3, Xbox 360, PSP, Wii, DS and 3DS), and I'm still waiting for them to notice that an iPhone version would be incredibly popular too. We'll try to have a review up around then.
Source: Gamershell
In a move that will likely invite the consternation of actual LEGO blocks, the upcoming LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars will apparently be receiving a version for Nintendo's hotly anticipated 3DS platform, release details for which were not-so-incidentally announced today. The third installment of Traveler's Tales block-building take on the Star Wars franchise appeared in this list of confirmed 3DS games, but I have no idea whether or not it's a launch title.
And you naysayers thought LucasArts wasn't up to anything.
Source: Gamasutra
The folks at GameSpy have put up a nice little preview of them playing The Old Republic as Jedi. Just enough to make you water at the mouth. I'm not really an MMO player, but this game has me genuinely interested. Even if it is just World of Warcraft with HK-47 a Star Wars touch...
I'm torn between the different classes available to take. My mind tells me one of the Jedi classes, but I fear too many will flock to that. Maybe I should be a smuggler. Hopefully will end up better than Han.
I'm torn between the different classes available to take. My mind tells me one of the Jedi classes, but I fear too many will flock to that. Maybe I should be a smuggler. Hopefully will end up better than Han.
Source: GameSpy
Remember that DLC for STFU2 (aka Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 to those who haven't followed Mojo much)? Well, here's a clip from it. I wished Jar Jar was really in that AT-ST.
Source: Kotaku
Today we have lost the director of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Let us all take a moment of silence to reflect upon the excellence that is that movie.
Source: Yahoo! News
One of the mainstays of MOMOMOROGAPAs has been to hack away at resource nodes to gather materials. For The Old Republic, Bioware has changed this to let your crew do all the dirty work while you gallivant around the galaxy.
Your crew can specialize in gathering, crafting, and mission skills in order to open up a host of options to get better items and more credits.
Clicky here for the new crew skills page revealing some of the things your crew can get up to as well as a video.
Source: swtor.com
We've always been suspicious that LEC's actual involvement with the bigger-than-something-big MMORPG Stars Wars: The Old Republic was minor, but it turns out it's actually less:
Electronic Arts announced that it is taking over all publishing, marketing, and distribution responsibilities previously held by LucasArts Ltd. for upcoming MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic.
EA says it updated its global publishing agreement with LucasArts in order to have these publishing duties "centralized for efficiency", claiming that this will benefit customer service and other operations. LucasArts, as the licensor of the Star Wars property, will continue to collaborate on the online game's design and marketing.
So what exactly is LEC doing right now besides publishing LEGO Star Wars III? Well, it seems that they're working on a Star Wars Kinect title that will be available for the 360 Christmas 2011. "I've seen a bunch of the game and it's super compelling," declares a source.
Source: Gamasutra
Well, The Force Unleashed II is now out, which means that The Critics are Unleashed Too. Here's a few:
Eurogamer: 5/10
Whatever went down behind the scenes, the result is a game that sometimes resembles a flavorless tech demo for The Force Unleashed – not a worthy successor. While there are certainly pleasures to be had in The Force Unleashed II, they come off as the dregs of a concept that has run its course. The series was bound to exhaust itself someday, but the fact that it happened this early is a brutal disappointment.
The story I found so captivating in The Force Unleashed, is dragged back into life for the sequel, undermining much of that epic tale's original take. The level design, while not broken, is something far worse: Bland. Even the voice acting, which I loved in the original game, started to grate on my nerves halfway through the surprisingly short jaunt.
GamesRadar: 8/10
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II takes nearly every complaint we had about the original and fixes it or gives us something better. We finally feel like a proper, force-wielding one-man army. It’s still short and doesn’t take us on a truly grand tour of the Star Wars universe, but the storytelling holds up in quality and fits right in to the existing mythology.
I kid, of course, but when it comes to Star Wars and CSI, one has to be an ass to validate their Mojoness to the public. After much ballyhooing over the last year and a half, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II ships today for, well, pretty much everything except that NES you converted your toaster oven into (Well, and PSP, but that hardly counts now - Tingler). Percentage of the considerable revenue which will be used by LEC to fund re-releases of legacy titles: 0.0%. Oh, and if you're planning on buying the game and you frequent this place, chances are one of the main selling points is the Guybursh Threepwood skin, so you'll no doubt appreciate Kotaku's cheat sheet for unlocking it.
Also in stores today is Ubisoft's CSI: Fatal Conspiracy, the fourth game in the series developed by Telltale. You can find it for PC, Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3. Mojo's review copy came in the mail today, so you won't have to wait too long with breath of the bated variety for our ever-valuable thoughts.
It's been reported today that George Lucas is working on some new Star Wars movies. The trilogy would be put into production after the re-release of the existing six movies in 3D, or 'Fadvision™'.
This would, presumably, have the same effect that the prequel trilogy did upon LucasArts - which is to say, they would make a whole bunch of Star Wars games. So if this Renaissance really gets going, don't hold your breath...
Of course, I might just be being needlessly negative. And it's just a rumour. George Lucas has done this kind of thing before, after all.
Source: io9
Is EA the new George Lucas?
A soon-to-be laid off artist from EA, one EA Louse ("Lou" to his friends), has detailed, I suppose in a moment of frustration, some of the shabby things going on in their game development - things that may involve Star Wars: The Old Republic. It's a fascinating read, and there's more fascination to be found in the comments section.
Obligatory second link not here.
Source: EALouse
You might recall us mentioning something about that Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures MMORPG that the Lucas house and Sony Online (but really only Sony Online) jointly produced. Now Gamasutra informs us that the "family-friendly virtual world" has hit an impressive milestone - its first million registered users. And what's more,
To celebrate this milestone, SOE and LucasArts will reward all current Clone Wars Adventures users with a limited edition Golden Mouse Droid pet. The MMO will also host a virtual party at 3PM PDT, the first in a series of weekly live events, where players can gather to chat, duel, and show off their gear.
Surely with this sort of success, LucasArts can, maybe, spare a few farthings of the licensing fee to up the amount of classic adventures they have on Steam to greater than four? I know I'm asking a lot here.
Source: Gamasutra
September 12th to September 19th, it's Star Wars Week over at Steam. Star Wars games are on sale. That means the entire Steam Star Wars catalogue goes for $49.99, and, as of the the time of writing, The Force Unleashed goes for $7.50. Might as well check-out pirate adventure game Jolly Rover while you're there, since it's now on sale and going at $4.99.
So, do or don't, there is no try, yada yada yoda. It's not every week that it's Star Wars week, unless you're this guy, where it's Star Wars week every minute, especially in the shower.
Source: Steam