Despite the rumor to the contrary, it appears that Star Wars: Battlefront III is not in development at Pandemic, the studio responsible for the first two games. Just last week an employee from Rebellion — where Battlefront III development moved after its initial stint at Free Radical — reportedly stated that development had shifted to Pandemic. According to Mathew Everett, community manager at Pandemic, the game “is not currently” with the studio. He added that only LucasArts would know the fate of the title at this point.

Depending on your point of view, this news is either a terrible blow or a tremendous relief (unless you’re just middlin’, of course). Given the popularity of the most recent Star Wars title, The Force Unleashed, we imagine Battlefront III will find a home somewhere. Here’s hoping Jabba is finally playable.

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Two popular iPhone games, Zombieville USA and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, got the free, lite versions in the AppStore. And while we see this as a good thing — now when every iPhone/iPod Touch user will be able to try these games out before spending some money — I must say I was disappointed with both titles. The problem is that both demo versions are super short. It takes about 5 minutes to complete the Star Wars demo level and even less for the Zombieville USA. However, I must be fair to add that both games seem quite entertaining and that I’ll probably push the button and acquire full versions. Still, even though we’re talking about “lite” versions, I did expect to see something that could be played for at least 15 minutes. This way it’s kinda ridiculous. Sure the idea is to make money and push free version downloaders into buying full-blown apps, but folks – give us just a little bit more (like 2 more levels) and we’ll love you even more. People who don’t want to buy your games, won’t buy them even if you provided 3 free levels, and showing some respect to the regular folks, which I believe are a majority of iPhone users, could be certainly beneficial in the long run.

Here’s a link to the free Zombieville USA version and here’s the link to free Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

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The competition was tough, but in the end, writers Haden Blackman, Cameron Suey, John Staffor and Shawn Pitman took home the second Video Game Writing Award bestowed by the Writers Guild of America.

The writers won the award for their work on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed in a ceremony held over the weekend. They went up against the writing teams working on Fallout 3, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Tomb Raider: Underworld, Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble.

As of now, to be eligible for the WGA award, the game writers must be a member of the WGA’s Videogame Writers Caucus, which some see as a fledgling writers union for game writers. Some of criticized this practice, saying that the award ceremony is a membership drive used to recruit people into the Writers Caucas, and that WGA awards should be given out to writers not in the guild.

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During the 2008 holiday season, U.S. retailers reported the strongest sales for STAR WARS toys and products in the 31 years since the first STAR WARS movie was released theatrically, even as the overall retail economy faced significant challenges. Sales of STAR WARS video games also reached new heights in 2008, driven by the huge success of STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED. Following its release in September, STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASED became the fastest selling STAR WARS video game in history with sales now exceeding 5.7M units worldwide.

In addition, STAR WARS books topped the charts with 14 titles appearing on the New York Times best sellers list, with both STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED novelization, and STAR WARS: LEGACY OF THE FORCE: REVELATION, reaching the number one spot. The smash-hit, animated STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS will return to Cartoon Network the fall of 2009 for a second season, continuing the adventures of Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano, and the heroic Jedi Knights.

The October 3, 2008 premiere of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS scored as the most-watched series debut in Cartoon Network history, according to Nielsen Media Research. Since its premiere, STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (Friday 9 p.m.) has ranked #1 in its time period on all television with boys 2-11, boys 6-11, and tween boys 9-14 through January 2009. It is also a worldwide hit, airing in 166 countries around the globe. Cartoon Network is scheduled to air the final first-season episode of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS at 9 p.m. Friday, March 20.

As the series has continued its popularity, the official STAR WARS website WWW.STARWARS.COM has seen a 30 percent jump in site traffic with millions of fans now viewing free full video episodes of the animated series, playing new STAR WARS games, reading the latest news and online web comic, or just watching some of the hundreds of exclusive STAR WARS fan films and videos on the site. Produced by Lucasfilm Animation, STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS features the voices of Matt Lanter (Heroes) as Anakin Skywalker, Ashley Eckstein (That’s So Raven) as Ahsoka Tano, James Arnold Taylor (Celebrity Deathmatch) as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Tom Kane (Wolverine & the X-Men) as Yoda.

Dave Filoni is the supervising director of the series and Cary Silver is producer. George Lucas serves as executive producer and creator of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS.

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One of the more interesting aspects of Star Wars Battlefront III, one of the games left in limbo after the closing of Free Radical, was its “what if?” scenarios, which would retell some of the more important stories of the Star Wars mythos in different ways. Some new concept art unearthed by Kotaku has revealed just how awesome this concept had the potential to be, by asking one question: What if Obi-Wan Kenobi turned to the dark side?

The new images show a decidedly evil Kenobi, complete with yellow eyes, tattered black robes, and a red lightsaber in hand. Accompanying the art is this brief description of the new Obi-Wan: “An old man, gnarled by the corruption of the dark side. Mostly a hermit, he wanders searching for places and things with strong connections to the dark side. Any artifacts he finds (e.g. force crystals, talismans, bones) he keeps about his person in pouches or threaded through his clothes. Currently found in the swamps of Dagobah.”

Development of the game has now been shifted to Rebellion Developments, and we can only pray that they decide to include Dark Obi-Wan as a character. Seeing one of the most upstanding characters in the Star Wars universe turned bad is undeniably cool, and now that it’s been teased, to have not have it in the game will be extremely disappointing.

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From the moment the theme music kicks and the titles roll slowly up screen, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is true to the real Star Wars – and by that we mean anything from Episode IV onwards. Sure, the music is a little tinny and the characters are poorly sketched but the atmosphere and action are superb.

As an apprentice to Darth Vadar at his most wicked, your mission starts with you slaughtering a Jedi Knight – plus a host of Imperial witnesses lest the Emperor get wind of Vadar’s machinations. The weapons at your disposal are your trusty light sabre (no skimping on the sound effects here, thankfully) plus some handy Force abilities. These include chucking stuff around, healing yourself and the ever-useful mind trick: apparently, this is THE mobile Star Wars game you’ve been waiting for.

The Force Unleashed uses an innovative system called CellWeaver that requires you to ‘weave’ patterns on a three-by-three grid using the control button or number keys. Successfully complete a pattern and you can deploy an offensive power or block an attack. It sounds complicated but you soon pick it up, with skimming your thumb around the control button feeling as close to waving a light sabre as you’re likely to get on a mobile phone.

If you don’t fancy the Story mode, you can revisit unlocked Chapters or just enjoy a kill fest in Survival Battle, where you’ll keep having baddies, er, we mean goodies, thrown against you until you die.
There’s plenty of enjoy in The Force Unleashed, from lovingly crafted cut scenes to some great battles in familiar (and not so familiar) locations. We’re happy to report that the Force is indeed strong in this one.

Details
Price: £8
Rating: 12+
Size: 22MB
Download: N-Gage

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No, you’re not tapping into some “all-powerful force controlling everything,” as Han Solo said in the movies. But you are reaching out with mind power via one of the first mass-market brain-to-computer products. “It’s been a fantasy everyone has had, using The Force,” says Howard Roffman, president of Lucas Licensing.

Mind-control games may be the coming thing: Mattel plans to demonstrate a Mind Flex game (also due this fall), which uses brain-wave activity to move a ball through a tabletop obstacle course, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Thursday.

In the Force Trainer, a wireless headset reads your brain activity, in a simplified version of EEG medical tests, and the circuitry translates it to physical action. If you focus well enough, the training sphere, which looks like a ping-pong ball, will rise in the tower.

A state of deep concentration is needed to achieve a Force-full effect. “When you concentrate, it activates the training remote,” says Frank Adler of toymaker Uncle Milton Industries, which is creating the Trainer. “There is a flow of air that will move the (ball). You can actually feel like you are in a zone.”

Star Wars sound effects and audio clips emitted from the base unit “cue you in to progress to the next level (from Padawan to Jedi) or when to move the sphere up or down to keep challenging yourself,” Adler says.

“Until today, EEG technology has been designed for rigorous medical and clinical applications with little regard to price (and) ease of use,” says Greg Hyver of NeuroSky, which developed the brain-wave technology for both games. “We are putting this exciting technology into everyone’s living room.”

Source: USA Today

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Playable Test Center

In order to thoroughly test out all aspects of the game, we feel that we are finally at a point in development where we can announce our intentions for a “playable” test center.

What is going to happen to the current TC (Nova)?

The current Test Center (TC:Nova) will run much like it does now. Blue Frogs will still be present to give items and train professions that are in need of immediate testing. New features will be added straight from the SVN to TC:Nova. This saves you the time of having to grind your profession and allows you to test new content immediately. Testers who want to test out new features and play around in a less serious atmosphere will still want to play on TC:Nova. On occasion, TC:Nova may experience database wipes in order to ensure testing and stability.

What is going to be on the new TC (Sun Crusher)?

The new “playable” Test Center (TC:SC) will be a separate and new server. TC:SC will only be updated with new features once we are fairly certain they are 100% stable and tested on TC:Nova. TC:SC will have no blue frogs or @GM commands for players. You are meant to grind your profession, much as you will in the final release of the game. This helps ensure that there will be fewer bugs on TC:SC, and that all levels of game play are tested equally. Since testers will no doubt spend a lot of time leveling their characters on TC:SC, we will make every effort to ensure that we do not wipe the database, unless it is absolutely needed. Testers who want a feel of what the final game will be like, and are looking for something to simply “play” will want to play on TC:SC.

When can we expect these changes to go live?

As long as we continue to receive enough community support and donations to support two servers, while still saving enough for future goals, you should see the server go live sometime in Q1 2009. In order to ensure the best game play possible, we still have a few features that we would like to finish up before starting the playable server. These features, such as crafting and player housing, are in their finishing stages and should be ready and stable in the coming months.

Official Server Plans

We have been bombarded with this question as long as the project has existed. “Is SWGEmu going to host an official server?” We have always deflected this question with non-committal responses. Today we make the official announcement that SWGEmu WILL be hosting a server called “Sun Crusher“. Sun Crusher will start out as the “Playable Test Center” and when the official release is ready, then it will be wiped and become the SWGEmu LIVE Server.

After long discussions and debates, we want to make sure that the community can count on SWGEmu to be a pillar in the SWG Emulation scene. Does this mean that SWGEmu wants to force out or hurt the communities? Absolutely not! In fact, we will be setting up numerical standards for servers to become “Official” sponsored servers. Standards would include things such as user base, server hardware, server bandwidth and connection, so we can ensure the entire user base a central place to come and see reliable servers with their specialties. Each server will have their own play style and new features, and keeping information about them in a central location will benefit everyone’s population.

Knowing what inquiries will abound from this post, an ambiguous statement will be the answer for the inevitable onslaught of the question “Will SWGEmu implement X new feature, or balance X something”. The answer to this is maybe. Our #1 commitment is releasing a fully functional, identical SWG (with bug fixes) emulator. This “vanilla” release will be maintained by SWGEmu for the foreseeable future. That said, the majority, if not all, of the SWGEmu developers are excited to take pre-cu and fulfill the potential that SOE never got around to doing.

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The campy 1978 show with Harrison Ford, wookiees and (gasp) Bea Arthur holds a special place in fans' hearts.

Reporting from Chicago — On Nov. 17, 1978, the “Star Wars” universe was rocked by a disturbance in the Force more calamitous than the destruction of Alderon, more catastrophic than the Clone Wars, and more devastating than the introduction of Jar Jar Binks. It was “The Star Wars Holiday Special” (or “TSWHS”), a two-hour prime-time special on CBS, in which two worlds collided: “Star Wars” and the traditional television variety show. If you have a bad feeling about this, you aren’t alone.

“TSWHS” was broadcast only once, but that was enough to secure its place as both “Star Wars’ ” and television’s guiltiest of pleasures. George Lucas (who declined to be interviewed for this story) has disavowed it. David Hofstede ranked it No. 1 in his book “What Were They Thinking: The 100 Dumbest Events in Television History.” A seemingly mortified Harrison Ford, appearing last February on “Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” tried to evade his host’s questions about “TSWHS” by stating he had no recollection of it. Then, to freshen up the aging action star’s memory, O’Brien played the clip in which Ford’s Han Solo tells Chewbacca’s clan, “You’re like family to me.”

Even “TSWHS” co-producer Gary Smith, whose more than 40-year Emmy-winning career includes some of television’s most acclaimed variety specials, concedes “TSWHS” was not one (or two) of his finest hours. Never released on home video, “TSWHS” does survive on bootleg videocassettes and on the Internet. A special five-minute version posted on YouTube has received more than 580,400 hits.

The plot of “TSWHS” plays like a demented “SCTV” sketch: A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Han Solo and Chewbacca are racing to Kashyyyk, Chewie’s home planet, in time for them to be with Chewie’s family for the annual Life Day celebration. Chewie’s wife, Malla, his son, Lumpy, and his father, Itchy, anxiously await his arrival, while Imperial Stormtroopers, under direction from Darth Vader, exhibit very un-Life Day behavior, ransacking homes, imposing curfews and shutting down the cantina.

But here’s where it gets weird. Mixed in with all the principals from the original “Star Wars” movie are Bea Arthur singing a Brechtian tune in the cantina; Diahann Carroll entrancing Lumpy as his virtual reality fantasy; and Harvey Korman cooking up an alien Julia Child impersonation.

This is what OMG looked like in 1978.

“Weird Al” Yankovic, who affectionately needled “Star Wars” with his popular Lucas-approved song parodies “Yoda” and “The Saga Begins,” included a sight gag in his “White and Nerdy” video in which the title character makes a back alley purchase of “TSWHS.” In a phone interview, the comedian could not make it through the list of the show’s guest stars without cracking up. “Nobody evokes the gravitas of the ‘Star Wars’ universe more than those people,” he said.

“TSWHS” is awful, but to quote the title of Carrie Fisher’s 2003 novel, it is “The Best Awful.”

“I think it’s one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen,” marveled Mike Nelson, who, with his former “Mystery Science Theatre 3000″ costars, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, recorded heckling audio commentary to accompany the special that can be downloaded from Rifftrax.com. “It makes you want to reach behind the scenes and imagine how it all happened,” he said in a phone interview. “You have to ask, ‘Who approved it? Where was the fail-safe point?’ ”

Put in historical context, “TSWHS” was not all that out of the ordinary, points out Bruce Vilanch, who co-wrote the script. ” ‘Star Wars’ was just so hot, and in those days, television specials were all about taking the hottest movie phenomenon and capitalizing on the audience,” he said. “There were all kinds of specials. The year before, I worked on ‘The Paul Lynde Halloween Special’ with Margaret Hamilton, KISS, Florence Henderson and Witchy Poo from ‘H.R. Pufnstuf.’ So a ‘Star Wars Holiday Special’ made perfect sense.”

Some fans believe it was television philistines who trashed Lucas’ vision. But according to several people involved in the production, Lucas, whose name is conspicuously absent from the credits, did supply the story and creative blueprint. He then focused his attention on “The Empire Strikes Back,” leaving the screenwriters with formidable challenges.

For starters, Vilanch pointed out, wookiees do not speak. They make noises “that sound like fat people having orgasms.” (The first 10 minutes of “TSWHS” take place in the wookiee household. None of the grunts, groans or howls is subtitled or translated. It goes downhill from there.)

Co-producer Smith brought in Steve Binder to replace director David Acomba. Smith and Binder had first worked together on the 1965 rock music series “Hullabaloo.” Binder had since directed some of television’s most memorable specials, including Elvis Presley’s 1968 “Comeback Special.” Smith laughed at his own unintentional pun when he said, “Unlike any of the shows we had done, we were more executioners [on this project]. Once we got the outline from George, it was up to us to find a way to put it on paper.”

Binder never met Lucas, but he said he was given a 25-page back story about the wookiee planet and Chewbacca’s family. He had only a week to prep before taking control. “You were really dealing with apples and oranges,” he said. “One of the problems with the ‘Special,’ I think, is with the anticipation of George Lucas coming to television with the ‘Star Wars’ brand — the expectations were way out of line with what the reality was. ‘Star Wars’ fans were expecting to see [the grand scale of] the ‘Star Wars’ movies.”

They certainly weren’t expecting musical numbers and comedy. But according to Vilanch, the entertainers had fun making “TSWHS.” “Harvey was in hog heaven,” he said. “Bea too. This was something she wouldn’t have gotten to do on ‘Maude.’ And Diahann was sexy and gorgeous.”

Never rebroadcast, “TSWHS” has become something of a Holy Grail for “Star Wars” devotees. The Internet has made it accessible, and for those seeing it for the first time, Yankovic suggests it is probably best to watch it in five- to 10-minute segments. “Your brain melts if you have to watch all two hours,” he cautioned.

For those who want to learn more without all the snark and bile, starwarsholidayspecial.com is a labor of love that Scott Kirkwood, 38, launched five years ago. Visitors can view prototype “TSWHS” toys and the official original press kit. There is also a transcript of the script and audio downloads of the musical numbers.

But at the heart of the site is its Feedback section, in which visitors post their memories of watching “TSWHS” when it originally aired. Most are touching tales of adolescent wonder and disappointment. “I still have a soft spot for the damn thing,” writes Kevin K. “Unless you were a kid at the time, you have absolutely no idea how momentous this occasion was.”

Momentous or not, there are no current plans for a “TSWHS” home video release. “I seriously doubt [it] will see any kind of official release, although I could be proven wrong,” Yankovic mused. Lucas “could be working on a special edition right now in which Bea Arthur actually shoots Greedo first in the cantina scene.”

Source: Donald Liebenson

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Last July I managed to get my hands on a Nintendo Wii for my girlfriend’s birthday gift. We both love it, but I must confess that I got a little bored with it after a while-primarily because we played the same games over and over.

I can only bowl so many times…

Now, if you’ve read any other stuff in my blog, you know that I’m a ridiculous over-the-top Star Wars junkie. You can’t look in any direction in my office without encountering some sort of Star Wars toy
, book, comic, or statue.

So when I heard that LucasArts and Krome Studios were releasing the new Star Wars game, The Force Unleashed, for the Wii… well, let’s just say I got a tad bit excited.

I awaited its release in the same way that Ralphie yearned for that Red Rider B-B gun in “A Christmas
Story.” And my girlfriend, being the cool person that she is, noticed. In a surprise maneuver, she purchased not only the game, but also lightsaber attachments for the Wii controllers.

And now my arms hurt-in a good way. This game does not disappoint.

The story is quite intriguing and slides comfortably into the Star Wars continuity. You play Darth Vader’s secret apprentice. In a gambit to overthrow the Emperor, you are sent on training missions to not only gain strength in the Dark Side of the Force, but also to destroy the few rogue Jedi left alive after Order 66 wiped them out at the end of the Clone Wars. On the way you travel all across the Star Wars universe and battle many different creatures and machines-including a Star Destroyer. And, as with all morality plays, you come to a crossroads and have to decide between turning to the side of light or brandishing the powers of evil.

While the Wii doesn’t sport the same graphics quality as the Playstation 3 and the X-Box 360, the innovative gameplay makes for quite an immersive experience.

Though movement of the player (i.e. running, walking, and turning) are controlled via the thumb stick on the Wii nunchuck, the rest of the game is almost all physical. You control your lightsaber like… well, a lightsaber. You swing the controller, the lightsaber acts accordingly.

Want to slam bad guys against a wall? Simply push forward with your arm; the nunchuck transmits this movement to the Wii and enemies go flying-as well as crates, broken glass, explosives, and whatever else is in your path. Want to shoot lightning? Simply hit a button.

The sheer delight of destruction reigns supreme in this game. Things blow up-a lot of things. Glass shards fly everywhere. Huge metal beams get ripped from walls (and hopefully thrown to pummel bad guys). Electricity arcs between destroyed computer conduits. It’s quite impressive.

There are three physics engines employed by the game:

The Havok Engine: Controls the movement of objects.

The Digital Molecular Matter (DMM) Engine: Regulates which substances an object is made of (i.e. metal, rock, plant, glass, etc.).

The Euphoria Engine: Ascertains how enemies interact with the environment. This is particularly interesting in that it means that no enemy will act the same way twice. Their actions are contingent on the destruction you choose to wreak around them.

One of the downsides of the Wii is that it is not graphically advanced enough to utilize all of these engines to their greatest effect. But that’s where the unique control systems of the Wii come to play-as well as a bonus.

A mode exclusive to the Wii is the Two-player Duel. Wanna open up a can of whoop-ass on a buddy? This is a pretty good way to do it without really coming to fisticuffs.

This mode is made even more fun if you have a lightsaber atttachment for your Wii controller.

In my case, the “lightsabers” are actually Wii Glo Swords from Nintendo. Apparently LucasArts is developing a lightsaber attachment of their own that will be more true to the designs seen in the films-but a release date has yet to be announced.

The Wii controller clicks into a slot on the sword. While a bit top-heavy, due to the location of the three AA batteries needed to power the LED illuminated “blade,” they still add another level of immersion to the gaming experience. Thanks to the tiny speaker in the Wii controller, they sound real as well. The controller also vibrates in sync with the actions performed on screen.

Plus they also look way-cool if you’re drunk and messing around with your camera:

One complaint I have about The Force Unleashed experience is the in-game camera. Perspective is everything when you’re in a lightsaber duel and it simply maneuvers too slow; this can result in your character being attacked without you knowing what’s happening. The Wii controls take a bit of practice to get used to; it would help if you could always see what was going on.

It would be nice if this game somehow integrated with the Wii Fit to incorporate balance into the mix. Or if Nintendo and the various software companies could come up with another controller that you put in your pocket that would emulate walking and running. That way you could truly get a workout
.

But ya know… This is one of the more entertaining experiences I’ve had while destroying evil minions of the Galactic Empire.

May the Force Be With You. Or is it… May the Wii Be With You? Either way, you’re in for something special.

Source: Inventor Spot

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