The International House of Mojo

GameSpot has taken its crack at the long string of Best of E3 awards. This time, LucasArts grabbed more recognition as Star Wars Galaxies earned the #3 spot in "Top PC Games" as well as #8 in the "Top 10 Overall Best in Show" category.

However, this time Gladius earned some recognition as well in the "Honorable Mentions" section. Here's a quote:

Gladius is a game about gladiator combat and promises to be a deep, character-driven game with plenty of variety and lots of depth. It reminds me a lot of one of my PlayStation favorites, Final Fantasy Tactics--and I can only hope that Gladius has a similarly rewarding story and equally sophisticated mechanics. The flat, empty environments in which the battles take place seem a little simple, but it looks like the actual gameplay will be plenty complex. It's great to see LucasArts branching out again like it did in the old days. Hey, how about a sequel to Outlaws?

Good point. Check out GameSpot.com for more.

CNET.com has posted their E3 best of show awards. Again, Star Wars Galaxies was recognized, winning the award for "Most Anticipated of 2002." Star Wars: The Clone Wars was also recognized as a runner up for the "Dark Horse" award while Knights of the Old Republic was runner up for "Best in Show."

This isn't directly related to LucasArts or Star Wars, but Tim Schafer's new game Psychonauts was runner up for "Best Bet Before Next E3." Congrats to everyone who got the great free press! Unless you bribed somebody. In which case, shame on you.

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.

In summarizing the madness of E3, a few sites have begun to roll out their "Best of E3" awards. While LucasArts hasn't won any so far, Star Wars Galaxies was awarded "runner up" status from GameSpy's best PC MMOG (oh the acronyms!).

Additionally, Galaxies won runner up awards from IGN for Biggest Xbox Announcement as well as PC Game of Show. Congrats to both LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment for this honor... or runner up honor, if you will.

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.

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.

I've tried to gather up previews other sites have written of the original titles LucasArts announced at E3 this year, as well as some coverage of Double Fine's Psychonauts. If you find any others which are actual demo or hands-on reports (not merely a paste of the official press release), leave them in the comments and we'll add them to the list.

Psychonauts
GameSpy
Games Domain
IGN XBox
GameSpot
Gamers.com

RTX Red Rock
EuroGamer
GameSpot

Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb
Gamers.com

Gladius
GameSpot
IGN
Gamers.com
Penny Arcade

Full Throttle II
Game Trailer
(FTII wasn't playable at E3)

Some of these you've probably seen before, and it's likely that some will beg you for money to get past page one of the story. Sadly we can't give anyone GameSpot Complete? subscriptions because we have none, but at least you can tell who is writing about the games and who isn't.

Continuing with the E3 impressions, we have Andrew's views on Hal Barwood's RTX Red Rock, an action/adventure headed for next-gen consoles. In the preview Andrew talks to Reeve Thompson, RTX's producer, and discusses how RTX might (and might not) appeal to classic adventure fans.

In what will likely be my last ever article for Mojo (because I hate writing feature stories), I've written my impressions of the upcoming vehicle-based Star Wars action game, The Clone Wars.

Though I'm obviously not the best person to write about this (or about anything at all, really), I tried to compare the demo we saw of The Clone Wars to my experiences with past LEC vehicle-based action games like Rogue Leader and Battle for Naboo. Whether or not I succeeded is unknown, but you can certainly leave a comment and let me know what you think.

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!

Though the expo itself was last week, the Mojo coverage starts today. Over the next few days we'll be running previews and our impressions of the games shown this year both by LucasArts, and by Double Fine (Tim Schafer's company).

To start it off, we have a preview of Double Fine's XBox-bound adventure/platformer, Psychonauts written by Andrew "telarium" Langley. The preview includes screenshots and concept art you may or may not have already seen before, and quotes from Tim Schafer himself that we may or may not be sharing with Gamespot. Enjoy!

Hot on the heels (or something) of the Psychonauts preview is Sarah "invisibelle" McKeever's take on Gladius. Hilights of this preview include a vague description of the turn-based combat system, and something about the story.

Though she wasn't terribly excited by Gladius, she admits to knowing absolutely nothing about RPG's (none of us do!), so if you'd like to come to Gladius' defense, please feel free. I personally have mixed feelings about Gladius but I'm very curious nontheless.

Our next E3 preview is of LucasArts' upcoming 100% action, 100% Star Wars, Bounty Hunter. Here's a bit from the preview:

"The game's not about inventory management," the man at the Bounty Hunter display said. "It's not about finding the red, blue, and green card in order to get through the level. It's not about finding keys." And indeed that's what it appears to be. If you encounter a door, you simply use a laser cutter to weaken the door and then kick it down.

While it may be fun, it's probably not every Mojo reader's cup of tea. Read if you like action games, shooting things, and kicking down doors while shooting things.

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.

I'm a day or three late reporting on this, but at least now I have enough spare time to make this a decent update, so here goes...

Double Fine Productions, Tim Schafer's game company, has updated their site with "information" about their top-secret title, as well as up-to-date "news" about the goings-on in the company. Have a listen:

I'm actually writing this news update on Saturday and pretending it's Friday. The problem is, I can't remember anything that happened yesterday. I don't think anything did. Oh, wait! There was a big fire in the next alley over. Lots of smoke and firetrucks and-- wait, no, that was Thursday. Yesterday I don't think I did much. Possibly, I overslept.

In addition to these latest developments, Team X-Box has revealed the title of Double Fine's new slam-bang title: Psychonauts. Here's the description pulled from their site:

?Psychonauts? (Microsoft Game Studios). ?Psychonauts? is a wildly surreal action adventure game from Double Fine Productions developer Tim Schafer. It?s a game in which characters? personal paranormal powers are unlocked to plunge players into the minds of bizarre characters. Gamers journey deep into crazy worlds of infinite possibility to thwart the secret plan of an evil madman and realize the ultimate dream of joining an elite force of psychic superheroes, the Psychonauts. The game will be available spring 2003.

Sounds very promising.

Source: SCUMM Bar