The International House of Mojo

How this gold has slipped by unnoticed by Mojo since October last year I'll never know. Huge thanks to Thunderpeel2001 in the forums for the tipoff.

Source: Thunderpeel2001

Mojo is never one to gossip, but linking to gossip is probably permissible when it's about Jim Ward and the current state of play at LucasArts.

Someone claiming to have insider knowledge, possibly a LucasArts employee, has been 'telling it like it is' on the gamasutra site. Better still GameSetWatch has a good roundup of the claims.

But one thing is for sure, Jim Ward was in a no win situation from the start, trying to meet unrealistic expectations - young team and some of the worst tools in the industry to work with. He chose kick ass games over selling out early on a game that was half done. It will be too bad that he will not be with LucasArts to reap the rewards of a job well done. The Force Unleashed will be a stellar success (aka won't suck) because of Jim Ward.

Bring us those games that will KICK. OUR. ASS... LukickAss games.

Source: Game Set Watch

Nuts, Kroms got there just before I did. Still, his post was more about the release date of Lego Indy than the Play.com Live event, so I'll leave this post up.

Do you live in the UK, fancy going to Wembley Stadium next weekend (15-16th), have six pounds and don't mind long waits and the duo of an irritating twat and a girl who doesn't know where the shoulder buttons are on a gamepad? Then good news! You can play Lego Indiana Jones next week!

UK store website Play.com are having a big gaming bash at London's Wembley Stadium next weekend, trying to give the UK their own equivalent of E3 (where so many have tried and failed). Tickets are £6 per person (£3 for children), but annoyingly are only valid for four hours. Although I don't know how they'll stop Morning patrons from staying. Maybe there are tracking devices in the tickets, or mini-explosives...

Besides Lego Indy, also on show (hopefully playable) will be Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Lego Batman, Soul Calibur IV, Ghostbusters: The Game and Tom Baker. Yes, I realise the last two don't have anything to do with Mojo and the last one isn't even a game, but it's Tom Baker! And Ghostbusters, guys!

If you're looking for a reason to get drunk but can't find one, be overjoyed that I'm reporting that Eurogamer is reporting that a Top Secret Source is reporting that the Golden Day On Which LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures gets released is indeed June 6th. Activision have yet to confirm or deny anything though, so don't drown yourself in champagne just yet.

All of this according to the Eurogamer article I shamelessly stole from.

Source: Eurogamer

Australian Gamer's 'Yug' has had a hands-on preview of the Wii version of The Force Unleashed. The game is being built from the ground up using a different engine to the LucasArts' Xbox360 & PS3 versions.

The wiimote motions control the swing of your lightsaber – horizontal movement makes a horizontal swing, vertical movement make a vertical slash, and thrusting the wiimote forward will make your onscreen character do likewise. Although it took a bit of calibration to get the stabbing motion down, the rest of it felt great, with your movements represented on the screen almost instantaneously.

The nunchuck controls your force powers, and this is where the real fun part of the game is. Swinging the nunchuck does a standard Force push, while holding C will shoot bolts of lightning out of your hands. When an object (or character) is highlighted, you can press Z and pick them up, then use the joystick to move them around. From this position you can either hammer the nunchuck down to slam the object into the ground, or let go of Z to send it flying off in whatever direction you were moving it in.

Check out the article & screenshots here.

Source: Australian Gamer

The Lego Indiana Jones box art is now available for your viewing pleasure at CVG, which explains the logo plastered over the bottom.



There's also a new preview up by NGamer magazine, which will presumably be in the next issue of the mag but was just so cool they couldn't wait to share it.

The Escapist magazine really has a thing for writing articles on the classic LucasArts Adventures, something we should do once in a while. Anyway, after their look at Monkey Island a couple of months ago, they've now posted a similar article about Grim Fandango.

The general theme of this month's issue is Why Great Games Sometimes Flop In Sales, something that GF and Psychonauts know all too well... sniff. Anyway, check it out.

Some highly dedicated Spaniards have been working on an impressive series of articles about canceled adventure games, and the latest installment (English version) details the history of Full Throttle 2, which as you may know involved two distinct attempts: Payback and Hell on Wheels.

The excellent article does a fantastic job of giving you some in-depth history of the failed project, including quotes from Bill Tiller and behind-the-scenes details that have not previously been talked about. On top of that, some newly unearthed concept art is included. Check it out.

Thanks to reader Diduz for the heads up!

Source: Adventure y CIA

IndyJones.net has been updated once again, and I'm particularly excited about this one. I'll do a list of all the updates once they're finished (which will be shortly), but this one is particularly interesting: the Soundtrack for the PC version of Indiana Jones & The Infernal Machine!

While Zaarin has posted instructions on how to rip the music from the game, it is a very time-consuming process. Luckily for you guys I had a lot of time on my hands recently (unemployment, laziness, etc)!

Unfortunately, due to the legal wrangling that lost the brilliant LucasArts Soundtracks the Indy soundtracks, IndyJones has omitted any tracks that contain the copyrighted Raiders March, aka Indy Theme. The same goes for the incredible Emperor's Tomb soundtrack, with the exception of one track that was released by LucasArts themselves. The MIDI stylings of Fate of Atlantis and Last Crusade however are unaffected. And I'll stop saying 'soundtrack' now.

Source: IndyJones

Gladius 2 is in development at LucasArts, or at least, it was at some point. Eurogamer is reporting that concept artist James Zhang, had entered both Gladius and "Gladius 2" on his "client list" of past and present projects, and uploaded some artwork to his website.

There were also some excellent character and spaceship sketches for Knights of the Old Republic 3, which have since been removed. You can probably find them archived elsewhere though.

Source: Eurogamer

Dateline Hollywood is reporting a fantastic new turn in the partnership between LEGO, TT Games and LucasArts, tapping into the AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) market.

Hollywood – Looking to expand its lineup of Lego-based videogames beyond those aimed at kids, LucasArts announced a series of new titles based on several of the year’s most acclaimed films, including numerous Oscar winners. "Lego There Will Be Blood," "Lego No County for Old Men," "Lego Juno" and "Lego Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days" will all come out later this year.

In addition, LucasArts announced it will be dipping into the Hollywood vaults to produce games with the adorable Lego aesthetic based on numerous classic films. They will include "Lego Fatal Attraction," "Lego Hotel Rwanda," "Lego Silence of the Lambs," and "Lego Annie Hall," which are in development for 2009 release.

Let's hope they also get the rights to "Lego Caligula".

Source: Dateline Hollywood

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed has been demoed again at GDC (that's the Game Developer's Conference, and yes, I know we haven't mentioned it so far), and producer Haden Blackman spoke about it again. Thankfully not using the words "kicking ass with the Force".

Instead he talked about the perils of multiplatform development, and used it as his excuse for the lateness of the game.

The problem was, once LucasArts finally had enough PS3 dev kits to supply the staff members that required them, 360 development of The Force Unleashed was months ahead. Worse still, the 360-optimized early version of the game "didn't translate well" when ported onto the PS3, given the differences between the hardware architecture of the two consoles and the complexity of PS3 development. This led to more complications and pushed the simultaneous launch of The Force Unleashed back further.

Frankly I think LucasArts should have done what everyone else is doing - just release the 360 version first.

(Considering Haden then goes on to apologise for bugs in the demo, I think it's a pretty feeble excuse - I'd much rather he'd said 'the game was delayed because we wanted to make it as good as we can' rather than 'PS3 programming made us late')

At the end he briefly mentions how LucasArts considered making it in the Knights of the Old Republic universe or even a Wookiee game, before George Lucas, the master of dialogue, gave possibly the most ironic comment ever:

"I tell you guys about the importance of dialogue, and you pitch me a game with a hero that can't talk?!"

Remember all those wonderful screenshots? That oh-so-eccentric video? In fact, even LucasArts' own website? Well, it was all a lie. Indiana Jones 2007 never existed.

At least, according to a LucasArts source who spilled the beans to Eurogamer. They've only just started production. The last two years have been spent with the game just in pre-production, where it was massively sidelined by Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Guess they shouldn't have fired all their employees, then.

Apparently it's not even coming out this year now. Indiana Jones 2009 anyone?

Pining because Edge magazine had a massive preview of Lego Indiana Jones but you don't live in the UK to read it? Now you know how us Brütal Legend/non-Game Informer fans feel.

Still, the internet is here to help. Edge probably had a feeling their exclusive preview would be ripped, scanned and read over the world - so happily they've done the sensible thing and just stuck it on their website instead. No eye-strain and badly folded pages here!

The Truth Will Be Revealed... Soon.

Last chance to send in your thoughts on Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders! Post them here... before it's too late!

There's a really interesting video over at EuroGamer, showing a trip to LucasArts and Skywalker Ranch, including interviews with employees and sneaky glimpses into the buildings themselves. Of the Star Wars games, we learn that Force Unleashed will contain plot revelations that will affect the Star Wars films (especially Episode IV), will also involve Princess Leia as a character, and that there will be a game based on the clone wars TV show, which made a grown man cry as well as swear. As for Indiana Jones: the story will be completely separate, but there will be a few nods and fore-shadowing between the (still untitled!) "2008 game" and the film.

There's a glimpse of all the LucasArts game boxes inside the ranch, alongside Indiana Jones and Star Wars props, including the Holy Grail, the original whip and some lightsabers. For more ranch snooping, take a gander at the time when we visited back in 2001. The memories last forever!!

Thanks to "That guy who used to make make a lot of MIDIs and stuff" for the news.

And in other Eurogamer Indy news, they've just released this little tidbit about Lego Indy. Four-player Co-op!!

It has been revealed today that Bioware, makers of the original KOTOR are presently working on game #3 in the franchise. And it's not an MMO as had been rumoured often in the past.

No official announcement yet of course (other than we know they are doing something together). This is all credited to an unnamed "EA Analyst", so no counting your Bogas before they hatch.

Update: LucasArts and IGN have once again ground our dreams into the dust. LucasArts said:

We are working with BioWare. We've announced that we're working with the developer on a project, but it has nothing to do with Knights of the Old Republic.

So what the hell are they doing then?

This is a bit of fun: a Facebook group for ex-Lucas employees called "I Bet I Can find 10,000 Ex-Lucas Employees."

The group information explains more: "There's a lot of us around. And we know it! If you worked at one of the Lucas companies (Lucasfilm, ILM, LucasArts, THX, Lucas Learning, GLEF, etc) we want YOU! Okay, okay. Current employees can join, too, since you are all future-ex-Lucas employees anyway. :-)"

It's also interesting for the rest of us to snoop around, seeing what kind of things ex-LucasArts people get up to. Double Fine Productions, ay? Who knew!

Also in the news: we've added a second opinion to our Sam & Max review. If you have your own thoughts on what we've said, then we'd love to hear from you in the forums.

There's a gigantic article in Vanity Fair, mostly about Force Unleashed. Indiana Jones gets the scantest mention.

Given the steep learning curve, Jim Ward is careful to downplay expectations about The Force Unleashed, but Hirschmann expects that the company?s growing understanding of Euphoria and D.M.M. will enable LucasArts to do even better work in subsequent games, such as the future Indiana Jones title.

There's already a rebuttal piece up on PCWorld.com.

That sort of narrowness or "asymmetric feature monomania" permeates gaming. Some hot new technology looks absolutely amazing, the design team hype is contagious, the media keeps the spin-top spinning, and then pfft...

The article was assembled pre-Ward resignation, obviously.

Source: Vanity Fair

It can only mean one thing... Monkey Island Online.

Or read the vague statement here and jump to your own outrageous conclusion!

Those Artistic Lucases already have a second online title planned that I've heard has nothing to do with Star Wars.

So you want to be a pirate, eh? You look more like a flooring inspector.


And even more recently,

Star Wars Galaxies will shut down within a year after the release of the new MMO. The Artistic Lucases think that they have the only IP that can pose a serious challenge World of Warcraft and find that the setting of KOTOR is too niche to be a threat. They apparently expect the new Star War MMO to have at least three million subscribers by the end of the first year.

Source: Surfer Girl