Back in the good old days, Lucasarts used to put their talents to proper use and made excellent games like “Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis”, “Day of the Tentacle” and “Monkey Island.” In particular, they made some stonkingly excellent Star Wars games like “Tie Fighter” and “Dark Forces.” However, let’s be brutally honest, they have constantly and disappointingly produced nothing but total crap for most of the last ten years or so, which is why these latest images have me salivating at the mouth! Currently in production, “The Force Unleashed” is Lucasarts’ next-gen Star Wars game and all reports to date seem to be very encouraging. Not only do you get to play as a particularly nasty Sith badass tasked with carrying out Darth Vader’s rather nefarious bidding, Lucasarts have added some new next-gen technologies into their game engine that should result in a far more rewarding experience.

First up is Digital Molecular Matter (DMM), which when heaped on the top of the by now passé Havok Physics allows you to break and destroy things like never before in a gaming environment, basically allowing you to be a totally psychotic destructive bastard, particularly when combined with your Force powers. Break things, smash things, telekinetically rip things apart and throw other characters through walls and generally cause sheer mayhem. Also on offer is Euphoria, a new behavioural simulation engine that allows in game characters to react and behave in a non-scripted, non-predetermined manner, thus allowing them to respond more naturally to your actions. What this essentially means is that when you act like a scary badass motherfucker, like suspending someone in mid-air while simultaneously crushing and electrocuting them before exploding them into a million little pieces, other in game characters will quite quickly get the message and practically wet themselves if you even look in their general direction.

Make believe that your victims are your really annoying boss and I’m sure you’ll enjoy developing many strange and gruesome ways of terminating their in-game existence after a stressful day at work. Of course not my boss you understand as he’s actually pretty decent and might quite possibly be reading this.

Lucasarts Star Wars

Labels: Video Games

Star Wars... LEGO... video games... put them altogether and what have you got??? LEGO Star Wars of course!

After the nerdish joy that was the first LEGO Star Wars game, which recreated episodes one to three, now we have the mounting excitement associated with the imminent arrival of LEGO Star Wars 2, which is going to recreate episodes three to six of the original Star Wars trilogy. Kids of all ages and adults, who probably should know better but just can’t help themselves, rejoice!!!

What do ya mean you aren’t excited, that’s just plain bizarre. Hmmm, maybe these are not the droids you are looking for! (chuckle :-)

Labels: Humour, Video Games

I also recently finished an xbox game called Fahrenheit. Heh, it was Christmas, I had time off and I had to do something! I know that opinion is divided across the gaming community about this game but personally I thought it was brilliant. This is the future of adventure gaming and the developer, Quantic Dream, should be given loads of support for trying to take this genre to the next level.

Gruesome murders, cool characters, a great story, mature sexual content (these French developers just love breaking all of the rules) and superb Matrix style fights - what the Hell more could you want in a game???

Labels: Video Games