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GameSpot has published a preview of the newly announced RPG from LucasArts, Gladius. The preview doesn't offer any new screenshots, but it does give some insight into the gameplay. From the looks of things, it seems that the storytelling power of LucasArts will remain intact. Thanks to Remi for the news.
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If you've been reading our E3 Forum, you might have seen this thread which contains a message from someone claiming to be a producer on the recently announced RTX Red Rock. While we haven't confirmed yet that Reeve is actually a producer, he does seem to certainly know what he's talking about. In his post, he talks a bit about the engine. Here's a quote:
RTX Red Rock is built on the Ares game engine, LucasArts' own brand new internal technology for making cutting-edge third person games. The Ares engine provides very high quality character animation, smooth gameplay, and some fantastic new graphics features. One of the rendering effects actually won the programmer the top prize in Sony's first VU coding competition.
Very cool. Check out the thread to read more of what he had to say.

Update: It has been confirmed that Reeve is indeed the producer of this game. Hopefully he'll stop by the forum every now and then to give us an update.
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More crazy game rumors have been popping up, this time on the MILegend Forums, proclaiming the existence of a sequel to Maniac Mansion/DOTT. This image, scanned from some Ziff Davis magazine, says that there are Full Throttle and Maniac Mansion games headed for PS2 (and possibly other platforms) to be announced/released at an unkonwn time.
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This just in: A trailer for the newly revealed Indiana Jones game: Emperor's Tomb, has been discovered on IGN along with this preview type thing

The Trailer shows elements of the gameplay and combat system, both of which look to behave exactly how an Indy game should.

Source: LucasForums (Queztone)

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According to this post on LucasForums, IGN has posted an 'unnoficial' line up for all the games LucasArts will be pimping at E3
RTX Red Rock
Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb
Gladius
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars Bounty Hunter
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Star Wars Galaxies
Full Throttle
So... Another small piece of evidence to add to the growing collection that Full Throttle 2 is under production. Another thing I notice about these games is that only half of them are Star Wars.. infact you could say they were 50/50 Star Wars to non Star Wars...
You can discuss this, along with all things E3 in our E3 Forums

Update: After Finally locating the E3 list page on IGN it only lists 6 of those games, missing out Gladius and FT2. Either I'm looking in the wrong place, the forum poster was wrong or they removed the entries... oh well. Anyone?

Further Update: The actual page has been found with the 8 games listed above. IGN spoke with a representative from LucasArts, and they, suprisingly enough, were "unable to comment on Full Throttle and Gladius". Thanks ronaldfw.
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LucasArts has unveiled their second E3 title: Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, co-developed by LucasArts and The Collective. Indy is back, obviously, this time in 1935 China after a relic called "Heart of the Dragon."

The game uses a 3rd person view like its predecessor Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, but this new title is allegedly based more around the action than block-pushing, jumping, and other "puzzles." Here's a bit from the press release:
Indy's latest adventure plays out in dramatic fashion thanks to new gameplay features such as brawling combat. This time, in addition to using his trademark whip and pistol, Indy can engage in fierce hand-to-hand combat against foes, many of whom are well-versed in martial arts. Improvised weapons such as shovels, chairs and table legs also can be used to fend off adversaries. The result is a more immersive and more Indy-like gameplay experience, set amidst spine-tingling movie-like action sequences, such as a rickshaw chase in Hong Kong and a spectacular battle atop moving gondolas in the South China Sea area.
The new Indy game is expected Fall 2002 for XBox, Playstation 2, and ... wait for it... the PC. More game info and some screenshots are available at the Emperor's Tomb site. Talk about it in the E3 Forums.
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The Grim Fandango Network has put up its first ever featured article (well, in recent years, that is). Charles Frederick, better known as MeddlingMonk around the GF community, has submitted four of his works of fiction, including the popular full-size Grim Fandango novel, as well as three other short stories. Check them out here!

Also be sure to look for more features from the GFN coming your way soon(ish)!
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According to reader Sloth, there is a writup in this months Official Playstation Magazine which mentions some interesting goings-on with a particular beloved LEC game:
New games are announced for the future as LucasArts moves away from its Star Wars-heavy roster: Gladius and RTX: Red Rock (see Previews this month), along with a reinvention of the excellent Full Throttle franchise from 1995. Massively multiplayer Star Wars: Galaxies has everyone excited, while the world of Star Wars bounty hunters finally gets a game in the shape of the Jango-inspired Star Wars: Bounty Hunter.
NOTE: They don't mention any release dates for anything at all so please trust Captain Mystery and stay calm.
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This is the first news out of these guys in a while: The Kickstand, one of Mojo's Full Throttle sites, has put up two new interviews.

The first is an incredibly short one with Bill Tiller (who is better known as the lead background artist on the Curse of Monkey Island), and the other is with Keith Karloff of The Gone Jackals. The Gone Jackals provided most of the lyrical music in Full Throttle, including the tune that plays during the game's opening credits.
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The SCUMM Bar's Captain Mystery is back with a new colum called "You People Really Need To Shut Up - Why Jumping To Conclusions Ain?t Useful". In this, his third article, the Captain talks about the excessive speculation that occurs around E3 time, and goes on some side-trips to "discuss" Star Wars-haters and other smaller sects of the LEC fan world.
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LucasArts.com has redesigned its E3 2002 Warm-Up page. While it doesn't give us any new concept art or announcements, it does feature a headline graphic with silhouettes of characters that will be in the new titles. I can already recognize Jango/Boba Fett and probably Indiana Jones.

From the look of the side bar and the existing concept art, it appears that LucasArts will announce five new titles and showcase two additional titles that have already been revealed. These two titles are most likely Star Wars Galaxies and Knights of the Old Republic.

The site also links to LucasForum's "E3 - 2002" message board where you can further discuss the pending madness. LucasArts promises that they will begin formally announcing their titles "very soon."
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GameCube Europe has posted this scan from an E3 brochure. The scan gives us a first and small glimpse into such new LucasArts titles as Star Wars: The Clone Wars (pictured third row, far right), Star Wars Bounty Hunter (middle screen, fourth row from the bottom), and Gladius (bottom row, second from the right).

There are also many more screenshots from other interesting games that will appear at E3. Check it out! If that gets pulled there is an alternate available.

Source: TheForce.net

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Our own Monkey Island fan site, The SCUMM Bar, has posted an article about cel-shading and how it could possibly be used in the next Monkey Island game. In case you are unfamiliar with it, cel-shading is a method of processing 3D graphics so that they look more like 2D cartoons while still maintaining the same flexibility. While no one knows what kind of art style will be used for any possible Monkey Island sequel, it's a very interesting article that explores the possibilities.
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GameSpot.com, continuing in their "Games That Should Be Remade" series, has written an article about Grim Fandango. While GameSpot doesn't claim that they'd like to see the original game recreated, they do plead for another story set in this world. Here's a quote:
Sadly, Grim Fandango was Schafer's last project for the company, as he left LucasArts shortly after the game was completed. So the chances of seeing the return of Manny Calavera, Glottis, and the Bone Wagon are pretty slim, to say the least. But we'd still like to see another Grim Fandango game--one that would have the kind of beautiful artistic design and hilarious writing of the original game. And even though it's unlikely, we would like to see some continuation of the story, or at least have one more chance to visit with Manny, Glottis, Meche, Sal, and the rest of Grim Fandango's great cast.
Thanks to Tomas for the news!
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The SCUMM Bar has a new fun "game" by our own Andrew "telarium" Langley. In this fantastic flash-based time-waster you can dress Monkey Island 1's Guybrush up in various silly outfits.

The game and art used is by Steve Purcell and appeared in Adventurer #2 in Spring of 1991. You can also print your creations. Play!
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Trapezoid of Animutation fame has put together a Sam and Max Sound Board for use with phone pranks and any other sort of mischief you can think of. That's right, phrases like "Goodbye you nutsy manbeast, you" are now at your fingertips! For evilness on the run you can also download the standalone .exe version. Enjoy!
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In addition to the one mentioned in the previous news post, another elusive easter egg has now been discovered in The Curse of Monkey Island. This easter egg provides an interesting look at a scene we last saw in another LucasArts graphic adventure, The Dig.

After Serge and I did some more searching through decompiled SCUMM scripts, Serge discovered that if you enter Stan's crypt around 35 to 36 times, a spider web will appear in the upper left hand corner of the screen with Maggie stuck in it. Then, the famous alien spider enters the screen and consumes Maggie. I guess she was out of life crystals.

Click on the image below to see a screenshot of this gruesome yet humorous easter egg in action. Also check out this thread for any other information.
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The legendary but elusive lightsaber easter egg in The Curse of Monkey Island has finally been exposed. As some of you may know, a few gamers claimed that they experienced lightsaber sound effects while insult sword fighting. However, no one had the slightest idea how to activate it at will.

After some extensive decompiling and searching through the SCUMM scripts by Serge and myself, the trick to this easter egg has finally been exposed. During the ship combat sequence (prior to the insult sword fighting), press Shift+J. After that, you should hear the lightsaber sounds during insult sword fighting.

For more information, check out this thread on our own Mojo forum and enjoy!
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In response to the recent article up at The SCUMM Bar entitled Why your Fan Game Ain't Legit, Yorick Kingzjester has put up A Lesson on Legal Anarchy 2 over at Adventure Developer. Here's a clip:
The law is not set in stone nor is it made by clairvoyant people -- in fact, most of the legislators possess virtually no foresight -- they act on popular belief. Sir, if you think there is virtue in the folly of the masses that is your god-given right. You can keelhaul me, if so you desire -- I find the water quite pleasant.
You can check out the full article here.
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DOTTcom has a new section of their site entirely dedicated to Day of the Tentacle and Maniac Mansion add-ons for The Sims. While not all of the pages seem to be working yet, they offer floors, walls, new characters and more for you to toy with.

Now you too can starve Bernard and then set him on fire while Nurse Edna, trapped in a 3x3 tile room with nothing but a coffee pot, soils the floor. Fun!
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