The International House of Mojo

LucasArts' official website has been updated today, kicking off the celebration of the company's 20th anniversary. At the 20th anniversary site, you will find a video montage of all the LEC logo uses through the years, an article about how the LEC logo "Gold Guy" was created, and a Shockwave trivia game.

Additionally, the Ask LucasArts section includes the question, "What was the first game developed by LucasArts?" Stop by the site for all of the fun! Weeeee! Thanks to QueZTone for the notice.

Update: You can look at the entire 3D Gallery by heading over here. Sadly no 3d rendered ghost galleons, but plenty of spiffy SW thingies and the dude from RTX :)

The winners of the Game Critics Awards: Best of E3 2002 were announced today, which are voted on by editors from nearly 40 leading outlets that cover games. Star Wars Galaxies walked away with the award for Best Online Multiplayer. Here's a quote:

With all of the depth and trappings of the Lucas legend at their disposal, the developers could easily have thrust a rush job online and the faithful would have come. But based on the demonstration witnessed, it appears that the project is getting plenty of TLC -- evident from the fine tuning allowed in the character customization options to the realism of settings such as Jabba?s Palace. Whether gamers are searching for combat or they want to explore the eight or more planets expected initially, this is a Star Wars episode that has plenty of Force behind it.

Congrats to LucasArts and Sony!

Continuing our comprehensive coverage of Monday Money Madness? (yawn), The PR Newswire has released this report from Activision on the success of Raven's recent titles. Of course, Jedi Outcast was a major part of this, and here's what the article had to say about all that:

Additionally, LucasArts Entertainment Company's Star Wars? Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast(TM), which was also developed by Activision's Raven Software, and is published by Activision internationally, continues to be a top-10 selling title in the U.S., U.K. and Australia since its initial launch in late March. Star Wars [Dark Forces III] Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast was the #3 best-selling PC game in the U.S. in revenue for the week of May 26 - June 1, 2002, the #7 selling PC game in the U.K. for the week of June 8, 2002 and the #5 PC title in Australia for the week ending June 6, 2002.

Yes, this is the most exciting news we have today. You can go about your business.

Source: TheForce.net

According to BusinessWire.com, the PlayStation 2 sequel Jedi Starfighter was number three on the chart for Top 10 Renting Game Titles For the Week Ending June 9, 2002. For that week, Jedi Starfighter earned $130,000 giving a total earning of more than $2 million. More money to help fund original and/or adventure games, I hope. Be sure to read our Jedi Starfighter review while you're at it.

Source: TheForce.net

Lycos has published an interesting article entitled, "Online Gaming: The Future is When?" This news item discusses the status of online gaming, the successes, the failures, the problems, and the potential. LucasArts' first online adventure, Star Wars Galaxies is mentioned. Here's a quote from the article:

Online gaming is far more difficult than just slapping together a cool world. In the mid-'90s, 150 games were put into production, according to DFC analysts. Of those, only a tiny fraction ever made it to retail, and only one, Ultima Online, made a dent in the commercial marketplace.

About $300 million was essentially thrown out the window in the grand pursuit of the mighty online game at the end of the '90s.

While Galaxies is only mentioned in passing, it's a very interesting read and reminds us why game publishers are so apprehensive about making something original and risky. There's a lot of money to be lost. Take a look.

Sometimes things go wrong and the day just owns you. Seems like something like that was up at LucasArts yesterday, as the E3 "game trailer mix" video, along with the rest of Friday's update, came out in the middle of the night. Regardless, the E3 game montage video is up in two different sizes at LucasArts.com.

Of special note are the first bits of direct-feed video from Full Throttle II and RTX Red Rock, though all the footage looks pretty nice! Music... possibly questionable.

The E3 page also contains the good press and awards that each new LEC game got at the show this year.

Also of note in the Friday update is the beginning of LucasArts' 20th Anniversary celebration. The zaniness starts June 20th with "a special video celebrating the LucasArts logo animations through the years."

Computer-making giant Gateway has put together sponsored by LucasArts, nVidia, and Intel, which tests your skill at Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. They are boasting over $60,000 in cash and prizes(!!!) to the winners, so those elite JK2 players among us should really look into this.

Aspyr Media released an announcement yesterday stating that the Macintosh port of Galactic Battlegrounds has shipped to retailers. However, it is interesting to note that according to the site, network play for this port is Mac only. Thanks to Lord Savage for the heads up.

Source: Business Wire

PolyCount has put up a spectacular model of the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader, for use in Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast multiplayer. Check it out here. It comes complete with all the extras: Custom sounds, bot support, and CTF skins. What are you waiting for--go download it. It is your destiny.

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.

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.

Just read on JKII.net that Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast is headed for the Mac, care of Aspyr Media. Aspyr also handled the Mac ports of Escape from Monkey Island and Galactic Battlegrounds. Aspyr's Jedi Knight II page is located here.

Source: JediKnightII.net

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 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.

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.

The sixth Star Wars: Galaxies developer's chat event will take place on Tuesday, the 28th of May. Here are the details pulled from the official site.

Join us Tuesday, May 28th for Dev Chat #6. Guests Raph Koster, Kevin O'Hara, Rich Vogel and Haden Blackman will talk about E3 and answer your questions about the event!

If you're curious about this highly-anticipated title, you'll definitely want to stop by!

IGN have posted some lovely new Star Wars Galaxies Screenshots and an 8mb Movie. Not only that but if you are a member of the IGN insider, you can check out This preview

We of course tried to prod any information we could out of Raph on the role of the Jedi in the game, but his lips were pretty tight on the subject. He did tell us that Jedi will be extremely, extremely rare, and each path to obtaining Jedi enlightenment will be different for every player, but he wouldn't give us any clues as to what that path may be. However, he was willing to spill the beans and let us know that, although powerful, Jedi will be hunted down by Darth Vader, who may even send the famous bounty hunter Boba Fett after your ass.

They Also have a preview of Bounty Hunter, this time thankfully not as part of their subscription service, and Gamespot have a write up of Knights of the old Republic. Alternativley you could check out He-Man for GBA.... or my hero Mr. T!

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.

JediKnightII.net just got a sweet set of skins: Boba and Jango Fett, the infamous mandalorian bounty hunters. Included in the package is an original model, skin pack (featuring CTF skins), bot files, and custom sounds. They look great, so check them out here!