The International House of Mojo

It looks like the success of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has enticed LucasFilm and EA into furnishing Respawn Entertainment with more dollar than can be found in Big Whoop itself. A big press release from LucasFilm announces that three new Star Wars games are coming from the aforementioned developer. Three!

Now, Respawn Entertainment is the real deal, founded by key personnel involved with driving Call of Duty to monumental success. Titanfall 2 offered one of the best single-player first-person shooter experiences of the last generation, and Apex Legends was and is a refreshingly good take on the hit-and-miss battle royale concept. The studio’s Fallen Order effort was considered a solid experience for Star Wars aficionados.

I can’t help but be a little saddened, though. Respawn Entertainment has bags of potential as a powerhouse of original games, or at the very least it could continue carving out its own lovely little universe a la Arkane Studios. Instead, I fear it is just going to become ‘the Star Wars studio’, apparently taking on genres it doesn’t really have experience with and neglecting the original IPs that put it on the map. Hopefully its developers love them some Star Wars.

I also worry for the mental health of Vince Zampella, who is apparently overseeing this new effort in addition to having been announced last month as taking the helm of the Battlefield franchise. This follows and is likely because of the disastrous launch of Battlefield 2042, which was executed with about as much finesse as delivering a new Monkey Island title that is actually a disguised Candy Crush Saga. That franchise is handled by DICE, which funnily enough was primarily handling the Star Wars: Battlefront games beforehand. What a yarn this all is.

That most reliable of sources, the web, is contending that production on Indiana Jones 5 resumed this week from a holiday break for a final month of filming. There hasn’t been much leaked about the movie since it wrapped location shooting and moved exclusively to studio work at the hermetically-sealed Pinewood estate, but a casting rumor has recently emerged, and Mojo would be falling delinquent in its duties if it failed to accordingly service its readership’s legendary lust for gossip.

Anthony Ingruber, an actor who I’m told is oft-proposed as a Harrison Ford replacement by the sort of people who think that exercise is worthy of their time, is rumored to in fact be in the movie -- but not, the rumor holds, as a younger Indiana Jones.

I think that’s hilarious. In fact, I propose that every single actor who has ever been floated as Harrison Ford’s replacement should show up in the movie, preferably in the form of an unceremonious bit-part that ends grotesquely. Put the “fan” in fan service by feeding Chris Pratt into one. Have Bradley Cooper fall into a crocodile pit. Give the people what I want, and reap the box office rewards.

Source: TheRaider.net

A few years back I penned a dubiously-formatted article that pondered the art style of Maniac Mansion, its sequel and its promotional materials under the fraudulent pretext that I had insight to lend to the exercise of comparing them.

Along the way I made a point of highlighting the cover of Nintendo Power Issue #16, which advertised the game’s NES port in the form of a clay diorama depicting the mansion and some of the characters built very much not to scale. It’s a super-rad piece of work that I was always taken by, and I was bummed that we couldn’t track down the artist for their recollections.

But the web has a way of turning things up, and it appears that last year Comic Art Fans published a little stub about the diorama. It is revealed, unsurprisingly, to have been destroyed after being used for the magazine, but the artist apparently had it in their yard for a while, and some photographs survive which really show off the craft that went into the commission. You can check out the photos at the link. I’ve also thrown them in a gallery because after all, theft is the sincerest form of stealing things.

Source: Comic Art Fans

There’s not much more to say, really. Get it from GOG for $20 minus a cent. Need a trailer? There’s that, too.

A year after releasing his Full Throttle movie spec script, Duncan Jones is trying to drum up support for his movie to be made.

Has anyone checked The Rock's diary?

Source: Twitter

Max, the adorable anthropomorphic rabbity thing you may remember being featured in a comic once in 1987 has been stuffed with fluff and is available for you to purchase, specifically if you have been unable to acquire one in the last year or so as they come in and out of stock.

What was new to me this time around with them coming back in stock is perhaps a new comic done by Steve Purcell, whom you might remember being the screenplay writer for Pixar's Brave.

I love that they were able to pick on the scarcity of the Max plushie they've encountered. I hope no one has to ever give in to the high prices being asked for on eBay.

Source: Uncute

We didn’t do a “game of the year” for 2021, but I’m fairly certain Psychonauts 2 would have won had our laziness not prevented us from doing so. And what better way to celebrate that win-ish than by reading Alternative Magazine Online’s In Conversation With Peter McConnell? Questions are asked and promptly answered by the Psychonauts 2 composer, who amongst other things can share...

I can only agree. Now, read the whole thing!