The International House of Mojo

LucasArts.com has updated their Gladius product spotlight to include lots of new concept art, featuring some cool environments and some not-so-friendly-looking characters.

Additionally, LucasArts has put up a new poll on the main page in which you all must participate. The new poll asks, "What is your favorite genre?" The adventure game genre is currently leading the race, but it will be interesting to see which one ends up winning at the end of the week. Go vote! Vote for adventure games! This subliminal message was brought to you by Visa: It's Everywhere You Wanna Be.?

According to a very reliable source, the upcoming action/adventure Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb may feature original music after all. As you may recall in our E3 preview of this game, we were told that the music would consist of the original score from the first three films. Now it seems as though there might have been some kind of miscommunication on our part or on behalf of the man demonstrating the game.

The music is allegedly being composed by Clint Bajakian, who has written the music for the previous two Indy games as well as Outlaws and Escape From Monkey Island. Clint, as you may also know, went on to help form his own sound company called The Sound Department and has been doing freelance sound work for LucasArts. Hopefully we'll be able to get a confirmation on this in the near future.

Psychonauts has been named "runner up" by Gamespy's Best of E3 article for Xbox Winners. GameSpy concludes that "Psychonauts really needs to be seen for complete understanding ? it?s that wacky, that innovative." Well said. Be sure to read their preview of this game as well.

The Kickstand, one of our hosted Full Throttle fan pages, has relaunched with a brand new design. You may want to keep a close eye on this page in the future, due to the recent announcement of Full Throttle 2.

In addition to the redesign, the site features new content. Most noteable is the fan art page, although the webmaster is asking for people's help to fill in the gaps on who created some of the art. If you can help in any way, drop Ben_Whatshisname a line.

Are you excited about Tim Schafer's new game, Psychonauts? Or, do you hate the game but dig the art style? Then check out two of our Psychonauts desktop wallpapers that we whipped up from the E3 asset CD-ROM.

Each wallpaper is at a size of 1024x768. Just click on one of the images below. When it loads, do a right-click and "save as". That is, unless you're using a crazy Mac.

The SCUMM Bar has put up a great new article by community bigwig Remi Olsen. This feature details the whereabouts of some of the people who made the Monkey Island series happen. It's a great read, and highly informative, so check it out!

As we conclude Mojo's coverage of E3 2002, we present our exclusive interview with LucasArts President Simon Jeffery. In our interview, we discuss such topics as Star Wars, original games, the 50/50 balance, Monkey Island, graphic adventures, former employees, and much more. Give it a read, won't you?

In our latest E3 article, I take a look at the return of an old hero. Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb is the latest game to feature our favorite archeologist, but how does the game live up to previous Indy titles? Check it out.

LucasArts have released a collection of new screenshots from the new Indiana Jones game, Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb. Our E3 preview of this game will be up in the next couple of days, look forward to that, folks!

LucasArts.com is running a new poll that is very similar to one Mojo ran a few days ago: Which of the following games announced for E3 are you most excited about? You can pick from the four original titles that have been announced at E3 this year, so go vote now! (You must register an account first.)

Source: Blondebeard

Well, Mojo was down for a few hours, along with much of the LFNetwork, and we apologize for not being able to bring this to you sooner.

Italian Gaming site Multiplayer.it snagged some footage from the upcoming Full Throttle trailer. Check it out here!

For those who cannot access FTP servers for any reason, check out our mirror here. Make sure you've got the newest version of DivX 5 to view this clip.

Mirrors:

• 6mb Avi - Multipayer.it - DivX5 required
• 6mb Avi - The Scummbar.com - DivX5 required
• 5mb Mpeg - Mixnmojo.com

Source: DeepThought2k

Israeli Vgamers magazine has managed to get some pictures of Full Throttle II taken at the special LucasArts screening last night. There are 3 in total, and you can see them here, here and here

The game looks pretty crazy in 3D, but it's nice to see familiar faces!

Source: ViduAyte

Last night, Mixnmojo had the privilege of attending a private screening hosted by LucasArts. The event, which was attended by a wide variety of industry professionals and media, began with a slide show demonstrating some LucasArts trivia. Of course, we knew all the answers, despite all the trivia being Star Wars related. The large theater was virtually filled to capacity, and there were a few familiar faces scattered around the room. We saw Tom Sarris, being his usual friendly self, and Tim Schafer was at the screening, which was a pleasant surprise.<:MORENEWS:>

Simon Jeffrey, president of LucasArts, started off the show by talking about the current focus of the company. ?At a time when the industry is standardizing,? Simon began, ?we?re aiming to go back to our roots. Highly creative, original, edgy, and thought provoking games.? After discussing the critical success of last year?s E3 lineup, he reflected on the challenges ahead. ?Our positioning is somewhat in conflict with itself in that we are striving for innovation and creative achievement, while at the same time managing one of the biggest intellectual properties in gaming.?

So what about original gaming? ?We?re showcasing eight games at E3 this year,? Simon continued. ?Four Star Wars games, and four games that aren?t Star Wars. This marks our return to original gaming; part of our legacy, part of our heritage.?

The highlight of the show for Mixnmojo was hearing the crowd reaction to different games mentioned by Jeffery. While the other games were met with half-hearted clapping, once it was revealed that Ben from Full Throttle was returning in a sequel, the crowd erupted with applause. We were then treated to projected game trailers on the movie screen for each of the new titles. Some trailers ended with enthusiastic responses from the audience, while others resulted in quiet reflection.

After the 10-minute presentation, the Episode II screening began. The crowd wasn?t nearly as enthusiastic about the movie as they were the game trailers, but it?s likely that everyone at the screening has already seen the movie. Of course, it didn?t help that the sound broke near the beginning of the movie. Oops.

We?ll be at E3 all day today and tomorrow, so expect more news directly from Los Angeles soon.

Up over at EuroGamer are a few screenshots of the X-box game "Psychonauts" and from the information on the site, it says that the developer is Double Fine Productions, Tim Schafer's company. There's no word of this on the official Double Fine site but keep checking back for possible updates. In any case, the shots are cool-looking, so check them out. :) Thanks to Kingzjester for the news.

Today is certainly a big news day. LucasArts has updated their E3 2002 page with trailers from their upcoming titles! We also get our first glimpse of 3D Ben from Full Throttle II on the main page. Enjoy!

LucasArts has published the official press release for Full Throttle II.

A CLASSIC RETURNS - LUCASARTS REVS UP FULL THROTTLE FOR LONG AWAITED SEQUEL

Acclaimed Classic Adventure Roars Back to Action on Next Generation Consoles and PC in 2003

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. -- May 21, 2002 -- Full Throttle, one of the most loved classic adventures from LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC, returns in a long awaited action packed sequel for next generation consoles and PC in 2003. The follow up to the award winning game from 1995 will once again feature one of LucasArts' most popular and enduring characters, the swaggering outlaw biker Ben, leader of a renegade motorcycle gang called the Polecats. The free wheeling action-adventure will offer a humorous original story, furious bare knuckle fighting, and the thrill of high speed biking.

"Full Throttle is one of LucasArts' greatest and most beloved original games," says Simon Jeffery, president of LucasArts. "We can't think of a better brand or character to lead LucasArts' charge into a new era of original game development. Ben so perfectly symbolizes our legacy and yet has just the right mix of attitude and edge to appeal to a new generation of game players."

Looks like Simon Jeffrey stayed true to his 50/50 policy after all!

Looks like the people at LucasArts still have a few tricks up their collective sleeve, judging from the site's headlines script.

The latest update says: Ben Returns in Full Throttle II, and links to the E3 page. However, the site itself has not updated yet. Mojo will keep you posted on any developments, though!

Update: This is official. The press release is now available for all to see. Now all that's left is for the site to update :). Thanks to SirPsycho for the heads up.

That's right, your favorite adventure games site, (and mine) Adventure Gamers (formerly Adventure Gamer) has reopened its doors. After competing with Mojo for the longest downtime ever in a website, AG is back with a whole new look and several opening features. Up now are reviews of Shivers 1 & 2, Starship Titanic, and a Coming Attractions feature. Make sure to check all of these out as well as the welcoming post at AdventureGamers.com. Welcome back AG!

Version 0.2.0 of the popular tool ScummVM has been released. For those of you who don't know, ScummVM allows you to run the old LucasArts adventure games on a variety of platforms like Windows, Linux, PocketPCs, and even Dreamcast. Here's a quote about this version:

The 0.2.0 release of scummvm includes the usual bugfixes and new features, as well as support for the rare 256 color fmTowns version of Zak McKracken, the CD version of Loom and (although it's not from LucasArts), Simon The Sorcerer. The ScummVM team now plans to complete the (currently experimental in 0.2.0) support for Full Throttle and The Dig, before moving on to games like Maniac Mansion.

ScummVM is availiable at scummvm.sourceforge.net.

Though a bit old, you might get a kick out of this article, called "An Adventurer's Guide to Seeking Hints," which ran on JustAdventure+ back in April. It hits a little too close to home. For other people I mean, of course. I've never looked up a hint.