The International House of Mojo

LucasArts.com updated again this Friday. This weekly update included a few PC screenshots for Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, information on how the Gladius combat system works, and a look at the Sith troopers found in Knights of the Old Republic. Unfortunately, it looks like we didn't get to see any Indy orchestral score clips in January after all...

LucasArts' recent console release, Star Wars: The Clone Wars was initially released on the GameCube and PlayStation 2, with no indication that it would be ported any other systems. However, after searching for 'Lucasarts' on Amazon.com, I found an entry for an Xbox version of Clone Wars, which is, according to the page, slated for release on March 27th of this year. Is it true? I guess we'll have to wait and see what the official-types have to say.

The official Gladius homepage has been updated with some new additions to the equipment section. The FAQ on the site has also been updated, and here's a quote:

Q: What makes Gladius different than other games of its type?
A: Gladius is unique because it is a hybrid between real-time and turn-based combat. There are two parts to a turn. The second turn portion takes place while other units can move. This means turns will overlap, and the wise player will learn to account for characters that may rarely stand still.

I can't think of a line to close this news post with.

TheForce.net points out that both EBGames and GameStop have set the release date for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox version) to May 1, 2003.

I don't know if this can actually be considered a recent delay, since the official site stated that the game would come out in spring of 2003. Of course, the release date given at last year's E3 was the fourth quarter of 2002... but hey, good things come to those who wait.

LucasArts.com pointed out today that many of their employees will be speaking at the Game Developers Conference March 4-8 in San Jose, California. Among the highlights of the conference, the following seminars should peak your interest:

Art and Science of Brainstorming, a full day tutorial led in part by Ron Gilbert, Dave Grossman, and Tim Schafer.

How to Write Good "Bad Dialogue": Cramming Storytelling Into an Action Game, an hour long lecture by Sean Clark and Ryan Kaufman (Full Throttle 2 co-designer).

What Producers Should Know About Audio, a panel discussion led by Clint Bajakian and members of the LucasArts sound department.

Now I know, you're probably not qualified to go or unable to afford the travel expenses. Not to fret. Recordings of the conference are usually made available on audio tapes and CD's. Pretty neat, eh?

Lots of cool stuff up on LucasArts.com today. First, the Gladius site has been updated with a new character class called Berserker. This new screenshot has also been released.

Next, there is a renovated and slightly annoying Flash site for RTX Red Rock which includes a screensaver, information on the characters, an FAQ, and more.

Finally, the Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb site has also been updated with a new screensaver, featuring some really cool gameplay video of Indy smacking people around. I really recommend checking that one out, even though it's a bit brief.

Time for more LucasArts.com updates. The Gladius product spotlight has been updated to include new concept art and information on a new arena. I would type more, but I can't think of anything else to say.

LucasArts has updated the RTX Red Rock product spotlight with a QuickTime movie of the game's opening cutscene (in two different sizes no less), and an image of the game's box art.

Updated! Now contains the opinions of two jerks, so beware.<:MORENEWS:>

Jake says: My feelings are mixed about both the trailer and the box art. The visuals in the opening cutscene are pretty slick, especially for a 3D game designed in-house at LEC... but the contents of said opening cutscene is a little bit funky. I can't tell if it's a little on the corny side, or if its genuinely trying to be campy. The RTX box art isn't too bad, but it's nowhere near the quality of the KOTOR box.

Now I'm really curious to see how this game measures up in its full version. The visuals are nice, and I played it a bit at a recent LucasArts press event and it was pretty fun. Moderately corny opening though, eh? Better wait for the Mojo review.

Spaff says: Ok so Jake asked me to post another jerks' opinion... Personally I like the intro. Based on what I know about the gameplay, it's going to be an action game as opposed to a deep plot RPG type wotsit. This intro reminds me of things like Evil dead, Duke Nukem, Serious Sam and even Starship troopers, all of which were great! Just look at the bit when he puts his fake arm on.. Army of Darknes anyone? Grooooovy!

So yeah, if the gameplay continues that theme, with tongue in cheek comments, and an overly blatant cheesey story, it should prove to be of amusement. :)

It's nice to see LEC making a game that will probably be unlike anything they have ever made before. P.S the CGI is a vast improvement on anything they have ever put out. G'night!

GameSpy is running a feature called "Most Wanted Games of 2003," and what's opening their day 1 list of anticipated games? First off is Psychonauts, followed by Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, and a little after that comes Knights of the Old Republic. Here's a snip from the Psychonauts entry:

It was a shocking defection when Schafer decided to ply his trade on a console. He even commented in interviews that PC games are losing their magic, stating that consoles are where it's at. With the backing of Microsoft, his newest game is a psychotropic adventure of style, atmosphere, and -- best of all -- solid, console-style gameplay influenced by the likes of Mario and Zelda.

Up tomorrow in their countdown is the first list of anticipated PC games, followed later in the week by the "top 10" anticipated console and PC games.

Source: Marek

Marek points out that IGN has posted an Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb Development Report written by Art Director Brian Horton from The Collective. In the report, Brian discusses the elaborate consideration and work put into creating the Indy model. Here's a quote which clearly suggests that Brian is in love with Harrison Ford:

Usually, when modeling a face or body, I only model one side and mirror the face when I'm done, not the case with Indy. The greatest thing about Harrison's face is the asymmetry, his nose turns slightly to the left, his top lip is higher on the right than the left, and of course you can't forget the scar on the left side of his chin and the mole to the left of it. His eyes were very difficult to capture, the lids are buried under his brow and turn down slightly. On either side of his nose are heavy laugh lines that I modeled into the form as they make for another important landmark.

The report has some interesting screenshots of the work in progress on the model, so click here and read this thing.

Source: VE3D

More LucasArts.com updates. The official box art has been posted on the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic product spotlight. Several new screenshots have also been added, and judging from these new screens, it seems that the game might actually have some funny dialogue.

It has also been revealed that an Xbox demo of Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb will be released in the March issue of the Official Xbox Magazine. Sadly, no word on a PC demo, but this new screenshot may help to dry up those tears of disappointment.

Star Wars Galaxies Warcry has conducted an interview with Haden Blackman, producer of Star Wars Galaxies. In the interview, Haden gives us a bit of a rundown for one of his days at work. Here's a clip:

2 AM: Stop working on the manual and go to bed.

9 AM: Roll into the office, starting answering e-mail. I typically have several dozen unread e-mails in my inbox by the time I get in because the Development team is in Austin and has two to three hours to send me e-mail before I can respond. :) I also take a few minutes to draft a description of Keren, one of the cities on Naboo.

10 AM: Meet with Marketing folks to go over proposals for an "Art of..." book. The layout looks great; now, we just have to organize all the assets...

11 AM: I spend the next hour jumping between finishing up e-mails, a phone conference call re: some press opportunities, and actually playing game (fortunately, I have two machines that I can flip between).

12 PM: A lunch meeting with other Producers.

12:30 PM: Interview with a potential company hire.

Unfortunately, I was not that potential company hire... but I digress. It's a good interview, so make sure you read the whole thing.

Music 4 Games has published an interview with Skywalker Sound. The interview discusses the company's work on Star Wars Bounty Hunter as well as the possibility of doing more video games in the future. Here's a clip from the interview:

M4G: Skywalker Sound doing games? Why video games?

AG: At Skywalker Sound we feel that video games are at an exciting point technology wise, and as the technology improves the sound in video games will only become better. The experience of playing a video game will become more like watching a movie in the coming years, and as the world's best feature film sound facility we feel that we're in an excellent position to provide cutting edge sound for games, now and into the future.

Be sure to check out the full interview.

The official Gladius homepage at LucasArts.com has been updated. On the webpage, you can now find five new screenshots, new character models, updated character classes, and an update of the game's progress from the production team. Here is a highlight from the team notes:

Focus on the art side is now turning toward telling the story of Gladius? in hand painted and real time animated cutscenes. In December '02 we finished voice recording for the two storylines and we are quite happy with the results. We managed to get great talent all around especially for our lead heroes, Valens and Ursula.

Also, QueZTone points out that Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb is now available for pre-order along with some kind of free crazy pen. You can also buy some new Indiana Jones Boxer Shorts (???) from the official company store as well. Enjoy!

boeffl points out that the official PC requirements for Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb are now up on LucasArts.com.

According to these specs, you'll need at least a Pentium III 733mhz, 128 megs of RAM, and a GeForce 1 video card to play this game. Oh, and at least a 4x CD-ROM... but really, if you have anything less than a 16x CD drive at this point, you really need to get with the times and live a little.

Check out the full detailed requirements here.

IGN has published another Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic interview with BioWare producer Casey Hudson. Here's a highlight from the interview concerning the game's *gasp* story:

The game is set 4000 years before the Galactic Empire. Two charismatic young Jedi have led the Republic to victory in a distant war against the Mandalorians. When they returned however, they came not as saviours, but as conquerors, at the helm of an unimaginably large fleet of Sith warships. Something had twisted them to the Dark Side, and the Republic has little hope of defending itself. Though the Republic was able to kill one of the Dark Lords, his powerful apprentice Darth Malak still survives, and is focused on his war of conquest.

Sounds promising. Read the full interview here.

Lots of LucasArts.com updates this past Friday, so let's get right to it. The RTX Red Rock page has been updated with six new screenshots, four desktop wallpaper images, and some new concept art featuring some kind of weird box office.

The Gladius page has also been updated. There, you can find a new arena map, part two of The Lost Scrolls which tells about about the story's background, and information on the battle equipment.

And finally, the Knights of the Old Republic page has posted some information about the world of Tatooine and one new screenshot.

Okay, I'm done.

LucasArts have kindly pointed out that there is an upcoming chat session with the folks behind Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic:

Come and join BioWare?s art director, Derek Watts and producers, Casey Hudson (BioWare) and Mike Gallo (LucasArts) for a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic chat, at Stratics on Jan. 16th. [snip]

In addition, fans can post questions ahead of time, at the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic official forums forums.bioware.com, and the developers will answer these questions at the chat on Jan. 16th.

If you fancy heading along, you can fire up your favourite irc client on Thursday, Jan. 16th at 6:00 pm Pacific Time and connect to one of the following servers:

• irc.frws.com port 6667 USA - Colorado
• irc2.frws.com port 6667 USA - Colorado
• irc.glowfish.de port 6667 EU - Germany
  

#StarwarsHOC is the channel!

More information can be found here. Nice to see that they're using IRC this time instead of that wacky Java client from past chats.

Update: As pointed out by Ronda Scott from LucasArts in the comments, this chat is art-specific - focusing on the graphics and visual design of the game - as they've already done a general Knights chat.

Reeve Thompson, producer of Hal Barwood's RTX Red Rock, fields questions from the Mixnmojo community in our new interview. Here, Reeve answers questions about the story, the gameplay, the characters, and why E.Z. Wheeler's pants are now a different color. Fascinating, eh? Check it out!

Mixnmojo's own iMuse Island music community website has posted an extensive review of The Best of LucasArts Original Soundtracks CD. The review tells you exactly what to expect from the soundtrack, so if you can't decide on whether or not you want to buy it... then you really should stop being so cheap. Live a little, man. But be sure to read the review regardless.

Source: The SCUMM Bar