Articles

Somebody likes Fracture 01 Jul, 2008, 20:44 / Comments: 1

By jp-30


An MTV reviewer who was initially anti-Fracture has had his opinion changed after a hands-on play test.
What you do with a skeptic like me is put me in the tutorial. And the tutorial level of “Fracture” is good, one of the more fun first levels I’ve played of a game in a while. The tutorial is a training ground that leads into a fight in and outside a prison (that conveniently has exposed patches of dirt!). The earth-moving weapons are introduced one at a time. You’re encouraged to use each one in grand fashion. You’re raising mounds of dirt that lift massive turrets into energy shields that destroy them. You’re blowing up large towers. You’re creating deep ditches to let you walk under a wall...

You basically do nothing in “Fracture”’s tutorial level that feels subtle, and that’s why it feels so good.
Read the rest here.

Source: MTV

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Friday News Round-Up! 27 Jun, 2008, 23:00 / Comments: 24

By The Tingler


Some interesting pieces of news today, so instead of dividing them and risking you missing one of themwe I thoughtwe'd I'd put them together!
  • Insecticide has been released for the PC... maybe. Well, on GamersGate anyway. None of the other download sites that were supposed to have it like GameTap, Direct2Drive and even the game's website make no mention of it. Also not mentioned on GamersGate is that it's the first of two episodes. It also seems to be rather expensive for just one episode.

    According to Crackpot, they're still working on Episode Two, so it can't be both episodes together. Something may be wrong here. Thanks to Diduz for the heads-up though, and we'll keep you informed as to what's going on.

  • LucasArts fire even more staff. Reports at Joystiq, who have interviewed an ex-employee, say that key members of The Force Unleashed's team have now been laid off. If LucasArts want to make another game in the series, they would have to either outsource or pointlessly hire new staff and train them. LucasArts maintains that they're committed to internal development and the next Indy game is not affected.

    What is most surprising about this is that several of the staff laid off were long-term members of the team who survived the previous culling and walkouts and actually worked on titles like X-Wing, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango.

  • Simon Pegg has written a new Spaced sketch spoofing the American remake unaffectionately dubbed 'McSpaced'. See it at his blogsite here. While this really has nothing to do with us (aside from the "TFU" gags we often use to accompany Force Unleashed posts), more proper British Spaced means the world is a slightly happier place. And that's always worth posting about.
NON-SPACED UPDATE:

The Secret Will Be Revealed... Soon! 26 Jun, 2008, 22:32 / Comments: 7

By The Tingler


The next part of our Secret History series is coming soon...

Monkey Island Awaits!
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Read the Indy games that were never meant to be... 22 Jun, 2008, 21:34 / Comments: 0

By The Tingler


The long-awaited (well, by me at least) Indiana Jones Comics Omnibus Volume 2 is now available in stores, online or off, a few days earlier than expected.

All of these comics have been out-of-print for years and are very hard to come by, but they're mostly of interest to us because this volume contains the two stories that could have been Fate of Atlantis 2 - Iron Phoenix and Spear of Destiny.

While Spear of Destiny most likely bears little relation to the intended story for the cancelled game, Iron Phoenix is very game-like in its structure, and contains several elements that ended up in the true sequel - Infernal Machine. The artifacts being scattered across remote points of the world, including one at Shambala Sanctuary, and Russians being in it for example.
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First Nintendo Clone Wars details... and don't hope for much at E3 19 Jun, 2008, 20:24 / Comments: 3

By jp-30


In an article at Venture Beat, the first details on the Clone Wars games for Wii and DS were revealed;
...two additional Star Wars titles will ship this November based on “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” the new Warner Bros. computer-generated (CG) animated movie and TNT/Cartoon Network TV series.

“Star Wars The Clone Wars: Jedi Alliance” on Nintendo DS is the first game developed at the LucasFilm Animation Studio in Singapore, which is where the new Clone Wars TV series is being animated.

Krome Studios is behind “Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels” for the Wii, which will deliver lightsaber battles via the Wii’s remote control. Although Star Wars The Force Unleashed is being released on Wii, Lightsaber Duels marks the first original Star Wars game for Nintendo’s best-selling console. Both of these new Clone Wars games will be playable at E3 and the Comic-Con convention in July.

Also it was confirmed that Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings is still in production, "a source inside the company confirmed that the original Indiana Jones game, which was first shown at E3 2006, is still moving forward with some of the development team from The Force Unleashed."

Update: There's a lot more info, including screenshots at this IGN interview.

Update by Tingler: The same article at Venture Beat also mentions that LucasArts will not be unveiling any new games at E3 this year. While this could hopefully mean Indiana Jones might make an appearance, I wouldn't hold your breath. Force Unleashed and Fracture are the only confirmed games appearing.

Source: Venture Beat

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I'm not...quite dead 09 Jun, 2008, 17:26 / Comments: 6

By Jason


It appears that rumors of LucasArts' death ("death" here having the meaning of an absence of game development) may have been somewhat exaggerated. Despite the most recent reports indicating that "all other partially-completed internal projects will be outsourced," it seems that at least the upcoming Indiana Jones game will remain an in-house production. From Joystiq:
The "next-gen" console adventures of Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. will continue ... and not just in LEGO form. LucasArts has confirmed to Joystiq that the Indiana Jones title first revealed in 2006 is still in development internally at the company's San Francisco offices. Despite yesterday's staff downsizing, there are "no plans to outsource its development to an external studio."
An update on the previously mentioned Shacknews piece confirms this. So, good news for Indiana Jones at least. But what about after that?

Well, we're also of course aware of LucasArts' claim that "We are definitely committed to the internal studio," though the more cynical of us may be more swayed by the thoughts shared by "MonkeyCoder," who in the comments section of the aforementioned Shacknews article says he's a LucasArts programmer and that the company is not in any way abandoning internal development.

So, what to think? Certainly things don't look as resolutely grim on the LucasArts' internal production front as they perhaps seemed based on the last few reports. Only time will tell, of course, but at least for now we can confirm that the Indiana Jones game (titled Staff of Kings by all accounts besides official announcement) is still in active production and in the hands of LucasArts developers, for better or for worse.

Thanks to JP for the heads up regarding the "MonkeyCoder" stuff.

100 more LucasArts jobs, all internal production to go 09 Jun, 2008, 00:20 / Comments: 19

By jp-30


According to this (unconfirmed) report on Shacknews, the STFU team will be let go after production wraps and all works-in-progress outsourced.
Following word of routine terminations at develolper LucasArts, a reliable source has informed Shacknews that the company plans to cease internal development and fire roughly 100 more employees after the completion of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

LucasArts is known to have at least one other title, an Indiana Jones game, in development. Shacknews was told that, following the team's termination, all other partially-completed internal projects will be outsourced, a move that fits with earlier rumblings.

Why not just let LucasLicensing take over and shut (what's left of) the whole place down?

Source: Shacknews

"If I were EA, I would go in to George Lucas and try to buy LucasArts," says analyst 06 Jun, 2008, 21:02 / Comments: 9

By Jason


Once again over at Kotaku there's a rather interesting and depressing bit of speculation about the present and future of LucasArts on the part of Analyst Michael Pachter in the wake of this week's substantial layoffs:
"If I'm Rodriguez and I know that I'm going to do most of my games with EA going forward, then I'm a lot less anal about double-checking everything EA is up to," said Pachter.

An anonymous former LucasArts employee had the same speculation: "My guess: EA cut a deal and is already making Star Wars games! That's just a guess, but on the heels of the Bioware/EA thing and the hiring of EALA's COO as Lucasarts' new President... that math ain't hard to figure."

Film studio politics could be playing a role here too, said Pachter. Traveller's Tales is owned by Warner Bros., and can be expected to focus on making games based on WB properties like Harry Potter in the future. It would be highly unlikely, said Pachter, that WB would allow Traveller's to work on future Indiana Jones games when rival studio Paramount (Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull) would reap the benefits.

Lovely. Pretty sad that what once could accurately be called the most innovative and creatively vital developer on the planet is now mere steps from being "Star Wars and Indiana Jones licensor," but I would think (hope) that being bought out by EA is a future that's less than probable. The fate suggested by this article is one we've all suspected for years, and I'm sure to many people here the company in question has been dead for some time, but it would be still somewhat saddening to see what the quoted parties hypothesize start to really come true.

Source: Kotaku

New Prez gets Old LucasArts' broom out 06 Jun, 2008, 15:28 / Comments: 26

By jp-30


As is tradition at LucasArts, the new President Darrell Rodriguez has seen fit to turn over the company staff.

Industry sites are reporting mass layoffs. From Fragland;
We've heard from multiple sources today that LucasArts has laid off approximately 50-100 of its employees, including a handful of higher profile names like VP of Product Development Peter Hirschmann.

While LucasArts public relations did not get back to us today, several former LucasArts staffers did, with one telling us that 75-100 employees were laid off from the company, including the producer of LEGO Indiana Jones and LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Shawn Storc.

According to another source, up to 80% of staff has been laid off in departments such as Production Services, which includes QA and Compliance, with jobs planned to be outsourced overseas. Cuts were also said to be made in development, with art and programming staffers being laid off


It's like déjà vu all over again... Indiana Jones 2007 2008 2015 2020?

Update: Keep your eye on the ex-LucasArts employee Facebook group. Some interesting stuff being posted in the comments.<:MORENEWS:>

Update by The Tingler: Kotaku have the news reports, and the bitter employees have spilled the beans on all the secret projects in the works (Mojo comments in italics):
- KOTOR 3 (They say it's an MMO: most likely a joint project between Lucasarts and BioWare)
- Battlefront 3 (which we've already heard about)
- "The Official Indiana Jones" game (hopefully Staff of Kings, although doesn't that 'official' make it sound like a film tie-in?)
- "another LEGO game based on the Indy universe" (Almost certainly The Complete Adventures)
- "a lightsaber game for the wii (sorry, no lightsaber peripherals)" (Could this be the Clone Wars game? If not, it's strange that it's not mentioned otherwise.)

Two internally-developed games apparently far enough along to be unaffected by the sackings are The Force Unleashed (which they say has already "passed approval with SCEA and is ready to ship") and Fracture, which they say is described by team members as "an absolute piece of garbage".
Although Kotaku does make it clear that that comment on Fracture is by an angry ex-employee so probably biased, I can certainly believe it.

Source: Google News

Lego Indy is out (In the US)! 03 Jun, 2008, 21:25 / Comments: 19

By Webmonkey


The good news is that Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures has finally been released for pretty much any platform on the planet!

The bad news is that it's only in the United States of America, which I know no one lives in. Us poor folk in 'Not America' will have to wait until slightly later - this Friday, June 6th to be precise.

While it may be a bit quieter on the Indy front for a long long while, it's not total silence. We've got a review of the game coming up soon, and of course our Fate of Atlantis feature in a few months, plus the vague possibility that LucasArts may actually give some info about that other game they're supposedly working on. Stay tuned, and be happy that there will be a lot less at least!

IGN reviews Lego Indy, discovers new LucasArts game 30 May, 2008, 15:40 / Comments: 4

By The Tingler


IGN is now the first proper site to review Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures. It's a pretty favourable review altogether.

However, a surprise was apparently included with the game: an advertisement for an as-yet unannounced LucasArts game. Don't get too excited - it's a Star Wars game, the long-rumoured game based on the new Clone Wars series and movie coming out this Autumn/Fall.

The game will come out the same time. Of most interest is that it will apparently be exclusive to Nintendo's two consoles - Wii and DS. What the game will be like is anyone's guess, but as it's not even been announced properly yet and is out in a few months, I'm not holding my breath.

Rescue on Fracture-us 20 May, 2008, 21:05 / Comments: 3

By Jason


LucasArts' "OMG we need a new franchise to replace Mercenaries since EA grabbed it" upcoming Fracture, the 3rd person shooter being developed by Day 1 Studios and at the moment the only original game LucasArts has in the pipeline, hasn't been mentioned by us in awhile, so now's as good a time as any to play catch up. Take, for instance, this recent preview by IGN. Is a PC version for the so far Xbox 360 and PS3-only title not unfathomable?
Currently planned for 360 and PS3, Fracture has considerable potential for pushing the next-gen action genre. Denny also said to expect some truly crazy terrain-inspired achievements in the Xbox 360 version, although he wasn't willing to go into specifics. While the games should mostly be the same content-wise on each system, we only saw the Xbox 360 build in our demo. As Denny put it, "We're not going to comment on specific PS3 features at this time, but it is definitely coming to PS3." When asked about a PC version of the game, Denny Thorley didn't deny it, and only said, "We're not prepared to talk about PC at this time."
There are a bunch of other previews (the game was shown off at a San Francisco media event earlier in the month and at GDC in February), by Joystiq, 1up, Team Xbox, OrlandoSentinel, and Game Informer. In these you'll find lots of new screenshots and information should you care enough to see it. At the moment Fracture is still scheduled for release sometime this Fall.

LucasArts to ESA: Get bent 17 May, 2008, 04:04 / Comments: 9

By Jason


According to Gamespot, LucasArts has opted to discontinue its membership to the Entertainment Software Association. Regarding the matter Gamespot got the following response from what they (rather accurately) call "the all-things-Star Wars publisher":
"We can confirm that LucasArts is no longer a member of the ESA," said LucasArts public relations director Margaret Grohne. "As a company we are still committed to bringing consumers the best interactive experience possible and support the ESA's mission in the industry. LucasArts will be participating in E3."
The news comes in the wake of Activision and Vivendi also ending their ESA memberships. Other than that LucasArts is making Monkey Island 5, this news doesn't actually mean anything specifically (except that maybe publishers don't feel like wasting money), but there ya go.

Source: Gamespot

The History of LucasArts 16 May, 2008, 16:03 / Comments: 12

By The Tingler


In what can only be described as Underpant-Wettingly Awesome News (unfortunately that's not a real category, so I just chose LucasArts News instead), website CartoonBrew has revealed that publisher Chronicle are going to be releasing Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts in December '08!

Here's a picture. Looks frickin' awesome doesn't it? There's loads of art just in that advert that I've not seen before!

Thanks to SyntheticGerbil for finding this out!

Dig this! 14 May, 2008, 12:06 / Comments: 5

By jp-30


According to this Guardian article, NASA is on the Brink of planning a manned mission to land on and study a great big asteroid (not Miles in diameter, only 40 metres, but one that was once thought to be heading on a Low probability collision course for Earth).
Nasa engineers have identified the 1.1m tonne asteroid, which in 2000 was given a significant chance of slamming into Earth, as a potential landing site for astronauts, ahead of the Bush administration's plans to venture deeper into the solar system with a crewed voyage to Mars.

The mission - the first to what officials call a Near Earth Object (NEO) - is being floated within the US space agency as a crucial stepping stone to future space exploration.


Tune in next week when we reveal Stephen Hawking has proven it is indeed possible to travel through time using chron-o-johns and a big-ass diamond.

Source: The Guardian

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