GalaxyFarAway.com » Games

Star Wars Title Announced For Kinect

darthrand — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:11:35 +0000

At E3 this weekend, Kinect for Xbox 360 (formally known as Project Natal) announced that one of their first games will be a Star Wars title. For those who don’t know, Kinect is the 360’s camera based motion-sensing add-on, to be released in November.

Very little information was given about the game, though the demo video was said to look very much like The Force Unleashed. The video showed a male Jedi fighting waves of droids and stormtroopers using a lightsaber and the Force. The Jedi deflected blaster shots, used power-slides to move, and even used the environment to his advantage before Darth Vader showed up. The video ended in a duel between the two.

Kinect uses bodily motions rather than remote motions like the Wii. The player, or “actor”, uses movements to control what the character does, using their arms, legs, and whole body. Despite the lack of hard facts thus far, the game shows a lot of promise. The game is said to be released sometime in 2011.

Seven Star Wars Villains You Don’t Know

darthrand — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:58:03 +0000

We all know the big guys; Darth Vader, the Emperor, Jabba the Hutt, Exar Kun, Grand Admiral Thrawn, and so on. But what about the others, the ones who might have only been in one book, the ones few know or think about? I’d like to take a moment of your time to discuss just a few lesser known (yet just as devastating) evil, low-down, no good bad guys.

Gethzerion

(first appeared in The Courtship of Princess Leia by Dave Wolverton)

Gethzerion was a leader of the Nightsisters on Dathomir during the events of The Courtship of Princess Leia. The first line of The Essential Guide To Characters is “If the term ‘witch’ ever truly applied to anyone, it certainly applied to Gethzerion”. The Nightsisters are a race of women who use the Force as magic, i.e. casting spells, chanting, and the like. Gethzerion possessed the knowledge that there was no need for these rituals, and decided to withhold this information so as to intimidate and control others. Han Solo had a bounty placed on his head by the Hapans (refer to #2 on this list), and when he crashed the Falcon on Dathomir, Gethzerion was contacted by Imperial Commander Zsinj, requesting a trade: Han Solo for a ship so that the witch could leave Dathomir. Gethzerion agreed, and even offered the service of the Nightsisters in her clan and Princess Leia. She was of course defeated by Luke Skywalker, but not before wreaking havoc on our heroes, other Nightsister clans, and even the planet itself. Gethzerion used the Dark Side of the Force to conjure up Force storms to attack the Nightsisters of the Light Side, Luke Skywalker, and his companions. When she sensed her defeat, Gethzerion tried to escape on one of the carriers leaving for Zsinj’s ship. But Han Solo followed her in the Falcon, and blew up the carrier carrying Gethzerion and the other evil Nightsisters.

Ta’a Chume

(first appeared in The Courtship of Princess Leia by Dave Wolverton)

Queen Mother Ta’a Chume was the ruler of the Hapes Cluster, a cluster of planets ruled by women. So you can imagine how she felt about both her children being male! The first, she had assassinated! The second, Prince Isolder, was expected to find a wife that could bare him many daughters. The first woman Prince Isolder loved was “mysteriously” killed. The second was Princess Leia, who Ta’a Chume saw as a weak pacifist, and was convinced that if she were to be queen the Hapan dynasty would collapse within a year. Even so, they traveled to Coruscant to shower Princess Leia with gifts. While the Prince tried to snatch Leia away from Han, the queen hired assassins to take care of Leia. But Isolder himself foiled his mother’s assassins! Eventually Luke got involved and he and Isolder found Ta’a Chume out and confronted her. Eventually, Isolder chose another bride: Tenenial Djo, a Dathomir witch! Ta’a Chume was furious, but Isolder and Tenenial went and got married anyway. Eventually they had a daughter, and Grandmother Ta’a Chume doted on the child as much as she could.

Kueller

(first appeared in The New Rebellion by Kristine Kathryn Rusch)

Formally known as Dolph, Kueller was one of Luke Skywalker’s students at the Jedi Praxeum. After the government, known as the Je’har, on his home planet of Almania killed Kueller’s parents (along with anyone else who opposed them), he fell to the Dark Side. He then formed a resistance, massacred the Je’har and their sympathizers, took another of Luke’s failed students as an apprentice, and wiped out the populace of one of Almania’s moons. His next task was to get revenge on Luke and the New Republic for not aiding the Almanian people against the Je’har. He sent his new apprentice, Brakiss, to a droid factory to start manufacturing explosive-rigged droids which were then sold to the New Republic. Some of those droids ended up in the Senate Hall, and then were activated, sending a series of explosions throughout the senate. Many were injured, including Princess Leia. After that Luke, Leia, and a New Republic fleet went to Almania to stop Kueller once and for all. A battle commenced which almost ended in the death of Luke Skywalker, but Mara Jade and Han Solo came to his rescue carrying Force-restricting ysalamir. Realizing he had lost the upper hand, he prepared to activate another set of explosive-droids, but C3P0 and R2D2 had already deactivated the bombs. Kueller was shot dead by Princess Leia.

Hethrir

(first appeared in The Crystal Star by Vonda McIntyre)

Hethrir could have been considered a “mad scientist” of sorts. After the fall of the Empire (which he had been loyal to), Hethrir set up a mobile research center called Crseih Station to test the limits of realspace, hyperspace, and otherspace. At one point Crseih Station relocated to the Crseih system, where it orbited a black hole and a crystallizing white dwarf star. The combination of the disturbances in the Force caused by the crystallization of a star and Hethrir’s torturing of his prisoners, Waru was brought in to the galaxy. Waru was a strange, hideous, and mystifying alien from another dimension. It was a Force-sensitive mass of flesh that claimed to be a healer. Waru also claimed that it needed to feed on Force-sensitive victims in order to use their Force essence to open up a new black hole back to it’s own dimension. Hethrir agreed in exchange for power over the Force. Hethrir was also one of many to attempt to rebuild the Empire. After gathering an army of well-armed gangsters, former Imperial lords, Force-sensitive youths that were “purified” by Waru, and Deep Core warlords, funded by slave trade, the Empire Reborn had become a force to be reckoned with. But neither him nor Waru was satisfied. Waru needed a person exceptionally strong in the Force, and Hethrir wanted Waru’s knowledge and power. Hethrir kidnapped Anakin Solo and brought him to Waru with plans to sacrifice him to the horrific alien. Waru had great respect for Darth Vader and knew the Skywalker heritage, and believed that this sacrifice would finally get it home. Luke attempted to save infant Anakin by diving in to Waru’s mass, and Leia and Han followed to retrieve him. After losing both sacrifices, Waru became infuriated that Hethrir had not fulfilled his end of the bargain, and then consumed Hethrir himself. Using Hethrir’s Force power the being returned to it’s own dimension.

Waru

(first appeared in The Crystal Star by Vonda McIntyre)

See “Hethrir”.

Joruus C’Baoth

(first appeared in Heir To The Empire by Timothy Zahn)

This one may be more well known than some of the others on this list, but he’s definitely a doozy. Joruus C’Baoth was a clone of Jedi Master Jorus C’Baoth that was created by the Emperor. He was used as a guardian of an Imperial storehouse at Mount Tantiss on Wayland. When he was discovered by Grand Admiral Thrawn, he joined forces with him to fight against the New Republic after being promised a few new Jedi Apprentices; Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and her unborn twins. C’Baoth’s plan was to create an army of Dark Jedi to take over the galaxy. As you can tell by his plans, Joruus was…well, insane. He sent a message to Luke to come to him on Wayland. Luke was skeptical about finding a Jedi that hadn’t been hunted down, but he went to meet C’Baoth anyway. There he was trained by Joruus under the guise of a Jedi Master. Luke soon realized that C’Baoth was an insane Dark Side wielder. The lessons he had been teaching Luke were contrary to what Yoda had taught. C’Baoth believed that non-Force users were inferior to them, and that they should be controlled by superior beings such as themselves. But Luke decided to try to turn him to the Light Side in order to gain a powerful ally. Eventually, Joruus sensed Mara Jade on the planet, who had been imprisoned by her boss, Talon Karde. While C’Baoth tried to kill her, Luke (with the help of R2) helped her escape. After Joruus was injured by R2, he went to Thrawn, whom he blamed for Luke’s escape, and demanded that “his” Jedi be given to him as promised. Finally Thrawn decided that the Jedi clone was too powerful, and too insane, and locked him inside Mount Tantiss. There, after a long, grueling showdown, he was killed by Mara Jade’s lightsaber.

Darth Traya

(first appeared in Knights of the Old Republic II)

Darth Traya was a pre-Mandalorian Wars historian who turned to the Dark Side after being exiled from the Jedi Council. She was eventually (and inevitably) betrayed by her Sith apprentices, which in turn caused her abhorrence of both the Jedi and the Sith. She then sought to rid the galaxy of both Orders. A Jedi Exile she had tried to take under her wing defeated her in her own academy of evil. Thus, she is known as the Lord of Betrayal.

There are, of course, many others. Far too many for this list I’m sure. Perhaps a part II is in the future? But for now, the Jedi have plenty to do!

Video: Lucas at D- All Things Digital

DevanJedi — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 14:59:02 +0000

George Lucas speaks with Walt Mossberg at the D: All Things Digital Conference. Watch out for Lucas Arts’ Jim Ward give a presentation on next year’s Force Unleashed and new AI technologies being developed.

Running Tie Fighter Collector’s CD on Windows XP

DevanJedi — Mon, 22 May 2006 13:28:08 +0000

FlickrGaming.net has a ‘how-to’ on getting the old Tie Fighter Collector’s CD edition game to work on Windows XP.

The miracle answer to all of this is an OpenSource DOS emulation tool called The VDMSound Project. It works with Windows XP (SP2 – not sure about SP1), 2000, and NT, but not Windows 95. Unlike most DOS emulators, this one also includes a complete emulation package for sound – so you don’t have to mess with crazy extra configurations just to get some audio going.

Lucas Arts at E3: Indiana Jones, LEGO and more

DevanJedi — Tue, 09 May 2006 22:28:30 +0000

Lucas Arts announced their upcoming products in a pre-E3 press release [via VE3d]. While familiar titles surrounding the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises are presents, a few interesting titles have sprung up with as Lucas Arts looks to a future with less dependence on its past.

Indiana Jones 2007 (working title) – PS3/XBOX360

Indiana Jones returns in 2007 for his most incredible interactive expedition ever. Set in 1939, this epic, original story – written for the first time under the direction of George Lucas – puts you in the fedora of the legendary adventure hero as he unravels the clues found in ancient artifacts spanning the globe. From San Francisco’s Chinatown to the world’s most sacred ground, Indy must use his fists, whip and trusty revolver to fight through ruthless opposition and piece together a mystery of biblical proportions. Indiana Jones 2007 is LucasArts’ first internally developed project for PlayStation®3 and Xbox 360. [...] Indiana Jones 2007 debuts the revolutionary new euphoria technology from NaturalMotion, which delivers never-before-seen lifelike action and awareness to every character in real time – so you’ll never see the same thing twice.

LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy – XBOX/XBOX360/PS2/PSP /GameCube/PC/GameBoyAdvance/NintendoDS/

LEGO Star Wars II takes the fun and endless customization ability of the LEGO play pattern and combines it with the epic story, characters and action from the revolutionary Star Wars: Episodes IV, V and VI. With a unique tongue-in-cheek take on the Original Trilogy, LEGO Star Wars II lets you build and battle your way through your favorite film moments. From Darth Vader’s pursuit of Princess Leia aboard her Blockade Runner to Luke’s final confrontation with Emperor Palpatine, the game includes even more of the family-friendly LEGO action, puzzles and humor that earned the original LEGO Star Wars its ranking as the 10th best-selling video game in 2005.

Star Wars Empire at War: Forces of Corruption – PC
There is an expansion pack in the pipeline for Star Wars Empire at War titled Forces of Corruption.

The Rebels have just destroyed the Death Star, and the galaxy is in turmoil. As an aspiring Underworld figure named Tyber Zann, spread corruption throughout the galaxy using new strategic gameplay elements to influence other factions, steal their funds, slow their production, spy on them and more, all en route to becoming the most notorious criminal leader since Jabba the Hutt. Exciting new land-tactical options like customizable, upgradeable bases and guerilla warfare allow for innovative battlefield tactics. Take command of and confront new fighting units for all factions (Rebel B-wings, Imperial TIE interceptors, Darth Vader’s Executor Super Star Destroyer and more), and take down anyone who stands in your way of ruling the Underworld, be they new battlefield heroes like Luke Skywalker and Yoda or the forces of your most bitter rival – Jabba.

Which brings us to the non-franchise announcements from Lucas Arts. Thrillville sounds novel and fun while Traxion targets a demographic that Lucas Arts has not reached for before.

Thrillville – PS2/PSP/XBOX

Visit Thrillville for a nonstop party in a theme park you create. An all-access pass to adventure and fun, Thrillville lets you experience a fully interactive and customizable amusement park where you can play dozens of midway minigames, interact with your park guests, and even build and ride roller coasters and over 100 attractions. [...] You can also tour the park on foot – a first for theme-park titles – chatting and joking with all the guests to help them out and make sure they’re enjoying themselves. Slated for a fall release, Thrillville is being developed by Frontier Development for PlayStation 2, Xbox and PSP.

Traxion – PSP

Gaming and music combine like never before on your PSP in Traxion – where your tracks drive the action. Loaded with dozens of minigames and a variety of music from leading artists – and fully compatible with every MP3 file on your memory stick – Traxion sucks you in as the music not only provides the soundtrack, but also changes the way the games are played! Imagine the rocking guitar chords of heavy metal, the strong beats of rap, the smooth tones of jazz, or even the crazy pace of polka – all impact gameplay in a different way.

Lucas Arts will be at Booth 152 in the Concourse Hall at E3. All tours are by appointment only until the booth is open to all attendees after 12:00 p.m. on Friday, May 12.

Classic Games for Download

DevanJedi — Wed, 25 May 2005 19:00:27 +0000

We have brought back some of the classic games we had on the site for download! If anyone knows of any others we should include or any compelling reason (legal, moral) that we should remove the ones we have, let us know.

Available Downloads (click on the title for game, download and installation instructions)

Star Wars Arcade Games: probably the oldest Star Wars game ever made for the PC

Star Wars Betting Game: made by a fan, for the fans..

Star Wars on the Game Boy: three Star Wars games for the GameBoy..

Star Wars Text RPG: completely text-based, and completely unknown..

Sabacc: is the ultimate card game in the Star Wars universe..

Star Wars on the SNES: advanced games for the SNES by LucasArts..

Super Star Wars (SNES)

Episode III Game in Stores

DevanJedi — Sun, 15 May 2005 04:15:23 +0000

UPDATE: Very cool deal on the game this week at Toys R’ Us. You get a $10 gift card if you buy the game for the PS2 or XBox or if you buy the Episode III controller pack for either console. The offer is valid until the 21st of May.

For all you Episode III spoiler junkies, go get the game so you can play the movie before it comes out! For those of you avoiding spoilers, treat anything with the phrase ‘episode three’ in it as kryptonite. Must resist at all costs… you’ve done well so far- just 12 days to go.

The game, by the way, seems quite good from what I’ve heard; more accessible for those who aren’t superfans and still fun for those who are. It’s out on the PS2 and the XBox.

No Episode II Insiders Guide

DevanJedi — Tue, 02 Jul 2002 03:20:09 +0000

Remember the great CD-ROM Encyclopedia’s Behind the Magic and Episode I Insider’s Guide? Unfortunately there is no version scheduled for Attack of the Clones. This was confirmed by LucasArts itself. Hopefully someone will soon change his or her mind and give the order for a fourth version of the Magic series.

LucasArts 20th Birthday

DevanJedi — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 02:19:46 +0000

Today, LucasArts Entertainment Company celebrates its 20th birthday. Expect some interesting movies and articles from them the coming weeks. You can go to the special celebration page here.

Back in 1982 LucasFilm Games (the company’s previous name) produced several Star Wars games for platforms as the Atari and the Commodore. From 1993, LucasArts began designing games for the PC, starting with the world-famous X-Wing.

Imagine: without LucasArts this very section would never have existed. Happy birthday, guys.

Attack of the Clones on Game Boy Advance

DevanJedi — Fri, 31 May 2002 03:22:47 +0000

Today THQ released the Attack of the Clones game for the GameBoy Advance. The game closely follows Episode II’s story and brings you to under more Tatooine, Coruscant, and Geonosis. Read the full article here.

With the power of the Force, players assume the role of three different “Attack of the Clones” heroes: Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu and Obi-Wan Kenobi. “Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones” is now available at major retailers nationwide.

“Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones” closely follows the storyline of the film and allows players to command Republic gunships, Speeders and Jedi Starfighters in space combat. Players must wield their lightsabers in side-scrolling lightsaber action combat against the mysterious Jango Fett, evil Count Dooku and various other enemies from the “Star Wars” universe. Eleven unique levels take gamers to various “Attack of the Clones” locations, such as Tatooine, Geonosis and the streets of Coruscant.