A few gaming sites, including WorthPlaying got a load of screenshots from the new LucasArts new Indiana Jones game, Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings. This game has had its ups and its downs, with many people believing that the game would never see the light of day. Would we be surprised if it didn’t, though? No, not really, because LucasArts tends to focus on their mega cash cow to fund its gaming department.

Even the story to the game sounds pretty sweet:

Step into the shoes of the legendary hero, Indiana Jones, in an epic adventure! Set in the year 1939, Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings follows the rogue archaeologist on an globe-trotting quest. From San Francisco’s Chinatown to the lush jungles of Panama, Indy must use his whip, fists and wits to fight through ruthless opposition as he spars with his nemesis, Magnus Völler, in a race for a relic of biblical proportions — the Staff of Moses.

Holy archeology, Indy!

If you’re interested in seeing some new screencaps, head on over to this page at WorthPlaying.

[Image courtesy of LucasArts.]

Post from: EveryJoe

New Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings screenshots

Is the new Indiana Jones game going to get cancelled by LucasFarts? Well, many signs would point to yes. And not just a small “yes”, but a big, fat, resounding yes that will make many an Indiana Jones fan cry. So, where’s the proof? Well, let’s start with the fact that the last movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was released last May in theaters and we still have no sign of a game. Why put out a game about a movie if there is no movie to hype the game? And then there’s the fact that IGN is reporting that they’ve heard rumors that the game has been cancelled.

Joystiq got a quote, however, that said basically that LucasArts is still committed to the franchise and there are no plans on stopping production of the game.

With LucasArts record, I would not be at all surprised that they passed up the Indiana Jones game to work on another ridiculous Star Wars game.

Post from: EveryJoe

New Indiana Jones game to be cancelled?

So, today, LucasArts and Bioware announced a new MMO that they’re putting together… well, together. And I bet you can’t guess what it’ll be about, can you? Other than the fact I’ve already revealed the answer in the title of my post, the two companies will be putting bringing the MMO loving masses Star Wars: The Old Republic. To say I am shocked is an understatement.

Star Wars? Honestly?! How much more boring could an MMO get?

What I find so funny about this move is that there is already a Star Wars MMO called Star Wars Galaxies, which has one of the crappiest websites in the world. Hey, maybe that’s why they’re making a new Star Wars MMO! To make a cooler website!

And after reading through the description of when the game takes place, I have to admit I know nothing about Star Wars. I have no idea between which movie or game series or cartoon that the game’s time frame falls in. Just read the press release:

In Star Wars: The Old Republic, players will explore an age thousands of years before the rise of Darth Vader when war between the Old Republic and the Sith Empire divides the galaxy. Players can choose to play as Jedi, Sith, or a variety of other classic Star Wars roles, defining their personal story and determining their path down the light or dark side of the Force. Along the way, players will befriend courageous companions who will fight at their side or possibly betray them, based on the players’ actions. Players can also choose to team up with friends to battle enemies and overcome incredible challenges using dynamic Star Wars combat.

So, there you have it. Another mindless Star Wars game being put out by LucasArts. How incredibly boring. And sad.

[LucasArts guy courtesy of LucasArts.]

Post from: EveryJoe

BORING: LucasArts and Bioware reveal Star Wars MMO

Those lovely people over at The International House of Mojo have yet again accomplished the seemingly impossible: they’ve written the next edition of what they like to call LucasArts’ Secret History! Doesn’t the name by itself sound wonderfully mysterious? As though the earth would have shattered had they not written another secret history?!

In this edition of LucasArts’ Secret History (part VIII), we get to learn all the nitty gritty details of one of my favorite LucasArts games, Day of the Tentacle, in which a purple tentacle tries to take over the world.

What? A PURPLE TENTACLE COULD take over the world. It could happen, damnit!

And here, you were probably thinking that my favorite game from LucasArts would be their new game Fracture. Well, you would be wrong! While I am proud that LucasArts has finally stepped away from their StarWars obsession, I’m still saddened that it is not an adventure game. AND IT SHOULD BE.

Anyways, back to the tast on hand. Secret History VIII. Learning about Day of the Tentacle. Yadda yadda yadda. In the article, we learn of some pretty interesting facts about the game. Like, Maniac Mansion, the prequel to Day of the Tentacle (DotT) was suppose to be like a horror movie you get to play (which is hard to believe, because that shiz was funny). When Tim Schafer (DoubleFine) and Dave Grossman (TellTale) began production on DotT, they wanted to make the game feel like a Saturday morning cartoon. From the article:

If Maniac Mansion is like playing through a cheesy horror movie, Day of the Tentacle is like playing through a Saturday morning cartoon, and everything from the brand of humor to the puzzle design reflects this.

Speaking of Saturday morning cartoons: What happened to all of them? I remember waking up on a Saturday morning, turning on the tv to any local station and BLAM. There were cartoons everywhere! Now, you turn on the tv to a local station on Saturday, there is just boring old news on. Isn’t that a bunch of crap?

My favorite part of the article is the section entitled Trivia! Secrets! Sex! (Not sex). The title seems misleading, as there isn’t any mention of “sex” in this part of the article. But if you look closely at the parenthesis in the title, you’ll also notice it says “not sex”. Which means, there really isn’t sex in the article. They just like to say the word sex. And what person with a 12 year old’s brain doesn’t? I mean, I’ve probably said sex at least sex… erm six times in this article. And it gets funnier every time I say it! I like learning trivia about games and I also like secrets. This is the meat and potatoes of the article, in my book.

[Image courtesy of Amazon.]

Post from: EveryJoe

LucasArts’ Secret History VIII

Is it me, or is LucasArts just a lazy bunch? In a recent interview that Eurogamer did with the PR Manager of LucasArts, Chris Norris, and assistant producer, Jeffrey Gullett, LucasArts was asked if any new adventure games would be headed our way. Chris Norris said they’re looking into it. Then Eurogamer asked why they don’t just re-release old games to new platforms? Lots of people have done it. Take Myst for example. They’ve re-released Myst on about 100 different consoles.

Jeffrey Gullett’s response to putting old LucasArts games on the DS? The DS carts are far too small memory wise to put an adventure game on it. REALLY?! Because some of those really old LucasArts games like Monkey Island 1 and Maniac Mansion are TINY in comparison to the games that are on the DS today.

These LucasArts characters need to come over into the real world, dangit! We want classic adventures on the DS! Dangit!

To read more about the silliness that is LucasArts, check out the Eurogamer interview here.

[LucasArts logo courtesy of LucasArts Entertainment Company.]

Post from: EveryJoe

LucasArts:Brain Damage

The new game is an action game – yes the type of games with guns and slaughtering and killing – but it’s STILL NOT A STAR WARS GAME! The game is called Fracture and the website has just opened for business.

Sound interesting? Well, it is. Want to know how interesting? Take a look at this:

Now that they’ve got their first original title in what seems like FOREVER, maybe they’ll become more open minded about adventure games! I’m not holding my breath, though.

Post from: EveryJoe

Get Fractured

So, someone took the time to put up a website, create a bunch of fake images and excited tons of people into thinking a new Indiana Jones game was just around the corner and they’ve barely dove into the creation of the game?! Oh, I knew that Lucasarts company was fishy.

According to the Eurogamer article, the new Indy game has been in pre-production for about 2 years, but guess what? All their freaking Star Wars games pushed back the creation of Indy. Star Wars is crap! Indy 4TW!

Post from: EveryJoe

New Lucasarts Indiana Jones Game all a SHAM!

You know what happens when you put together archeology and Legos? Well, you get two of my favorite pass times besides gaming. Yes, I love the archeology… that stuff is awesome and if you throw in some anthropology, this Adventuress is in heaven. And my favorite toys to play with as a child? No, not Barbies. Barbies suck ass. No, I liked me some Legos. Legos + Kid Imagination = The Most Awesome Toy EVER!

But, really, only one thing besides my nostalgia comes to mind and that would be the new Lego Indiana Jones game being created by our “friends” at LucasArts. I’m just relieved that they’re not producing another Star Wars game. I mean, I’m sure they are. You can never have enough Star Wars games. I mean, there is only like 50.

What’s really great about big games like this is that they get all sorts of magazine coverage, so that we may see the beauty of the game. Recently Game Informer Magazine did an entire article on our favorite archeologist in his Lego form. And being the cool people that they are, TheRaider.net has put up a few scans to wet your whistle until you can get to a bookstore and pick it up… if you’re into that sort of thing.

What’s really awesome about the new Lego Indiana Jones is that it’s coming out for 7 different gaming platforms so that the entire WORLD may be sucked into it. It will be coming out for the PS2, PS3, XBox 360, PC, PSP, Nintendo Wii and the Nintendo DS. So, you don’t even need to have a new console to play it. That’s pretty awesome.

[found via the international house of mojo]

Post from: EveryJoe

Que the Indiana Jones music and bring out your legos!

I found a pretty funny article while searching the depths of Kotaku that has to do with early Nintendo games and their censorship of one of the most classic adventure games EVER, Maniac Mansion. According to Douglas Crockford, the guy who managed the conversion from the PC edition of Maniac Mansion over to the Nintendo basically said that there was a TON of stuff that LucasArts had to do before Nintendo even though about putting the game out for the hipper, younger audience they would get, as opposed to all the old fuddy duddies who would play it on the old school PCs of the day.

Here is a list of just some of the crazy and mundane changes they had to make:

• All the graphics had to change to work on the Nintendo. That’s a lot of changin’
• Bad words such as, “The meteor is going to be pissed” was changed to “The meteor is going to be mad”.
• A arcade game contained within Maniac Mansion called “Kill Thrill” had to have a name change. Because “Kill” was a bad word in Nintendo world. The new suggested name was “MUFF DIVER”.
• The name “MUFF DIVER” could not be used as a game name, because Nintendo didn’t approve of sexually explicit names. So MUFF DIVER had to be changed to something else. That something else? Muff Tuna. That makes way more sense!
• The words “For a good time EDNA 3444″ was also offensive to Nintendo, but it couldn’t be completely erased from the game, because you have to call Edna at some point. So, that was changed to “Call Edna 3444″.
• “Getting your brains sucked out” – also offensive. Man, Nintendo makes a job hard! This was changed to “Getting your brains removed”. Because that’s not as graphic. I guess.
• Because of the “brains sucked out”, a poster was removed from Green Tentacle’s room that said “Disco Sucks”. Can’t anything suck?!
• “He hasn’t eaten in 5 years.” made Dr. Ed sound like a cannibal in the world of Nintendo. Well, in the context that this was spoken from Weird Ed to Nurse Edna… it did kind of make Dr. Ed sound like a cannibal. So, they changed the “eaten” to “sleep” and everything was right with the world again.
• There was too much nudity for Nintendo’s tastes. Which nudity? This was in the form of posters that were hung on the walls in Cousin Ted’s room and in the gym. One of the posters that was offensive was a mummy that was in a playboy pose. This mummy was completely wrapped up and no skin was showing. Just to be safe, it was taken out.
• A statue also was taken out, because it was naked. Even though it was a classic re-creation of a Michelangelo statue. Nintendo has no taste in fine games.
• The words NES SCUMM was taken out of the game. As you may know, SCUMM is the name of the gaming engine that LucasArts used to create many an adventure game. Nintendo thought the words NES and SCUMM put together were offensive and may be looked upon badly.

So, all in all, you’d better stick with the PC version of Maniac Mansion, because the Nintendo version is just… boring. Though, Nintendo didn’t have a problem with putting hamsters in a microwave and letting them explode. I guess that’s cool. You can read about all the craziness in detail right here.

Post from: EveryJoe

Nintendo censors an adventure gaming classic!

Anyways, the following picture was taken by I’m assuming Michael McWhertor, who posted the picture to this article:

As you can see, it’s every game that LucasArts has ever made. You can almost count all 73 Star Wars games they have created! But what’s better is the fact that there are a bunch of classic LucasArts adventure games in there. Bad ass. Despite my utter hatred for the fact LucasArts has sold out, I’m still pretty impressed by the sheer number of games they’ve published. Not bad… not bad at all.

Post from: EveryJoe

Comic Con Find: LucasArts booth