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• WTFriday: Silent Hill. Star Wars. No. Words.

  Note to readers: WTFriday is a weekly feature where we find something stupid about video games and get you to laugh until it goes away. Please try to forget this is what we normally do every day of the week. So. Fanart. Like cosplay, fan fiction, and an unwholesome love of tie-in knick knacks, fanart is a common pastime for media fanatics. Often times, as our own Nadia Oxford has noted recently, videogame fanart can be quite good. Talented artists love games too, dontcha know. Like koala bears, who appear to be adorable little ragamuffins until they reveal themselves to be heartless, savage killers of the most deranged kind, fanart has a hidden and terrible dark side. One most only type a scant few words into Google’s image search to discover it. This, though. This goes beyond anything else I’ve seen. Read More... Posted Mar 27 2009, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, star wars, silent hill, wtfriday, cosplay, freaktastic fanart, evil koalas

• 10 Years Ago This Week: X-Wing Alliance

  X-Wing Alliance (released March 24, 1999) was the last entry in Totally Games’ X-Wing series of space sims, and one of the last games in the genre to experience significant retail success. It thus represents a significant marker in the collapse of the space simulator as a market force, even if it’s not a particularly notable game on its own. Read More... Posted Mar 23 2009, 09:00 AM by Joe Keiser with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: star wars, joe keiser, 10 years ago, x-wing alliance, space sim, x-wing, tie fighter

• Star Wars: Battlefront III Refuses to Die, Heads Home

  Come on, everyone. No complaining. We’re going down the rumor road. I don’t like it, you don’t like it, but by gum, it’s going to happen. Reading up on rumors, hearsay, and general tittering about the net is like going to the dentist. You have to do it regularly, whether you like it or not, and you will most likely end up bleeding out the mouth afterward. So what’s the latest hubbub, bubs? Star Wars: Battlefront III, the last project running at Free Radical before the studio collapsed and had to start sleeping on Crytek’s couch, has found itself a new home. Read More... Posted Mar 05 2009, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, star wars, ea, free radical, lucasarts, rumor, the dark knight, aliens vs predator, pandemic, mercenaries 2, crytek, saboteur, star wars battlefront 3, star wars battlefront iii, rebellion

• Fami Star Wars: Just Because It’s In English Doesn’t Mean It Makes Sense

  You ever have that moment when you think about buying a game that you plain know you aren’t going to play that much, but you need to have it sitting on your shelf? You know, when you’re at the flea market and you drop fifteen bucks on a copy of Mega Man Soccer. Because it’s Mega Man Soccer, dag nab it, and that’s reason enough! This is sort of logic that’s been tempting me to spend forty dollars on this bad boy: The cartridge alone is an insane piece of pop art. It wants to sit on a mantle above a fire place, radiating weirdness, cultural otherness, and raw, unadulterated sweetness. Not nearly as much weirdness, otherness, and sweetness as the actual game inside the cartridge, that goes without saying. As I mentioned in a post just a few weeks back, the damn game’s first level ends with Darth Vader transforming into a giant, anime-eyed scorpion. Read More... Posted Feb 02 2009, 06:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, star wars, mega man, namco, bob mackey, nadia oxford, famicom, obi wan Kenobi, han solo, mega man soccer

• Videogames: Star Wars' Last Hope

  Around the time 61 Frames Per Second launched, George Lucas’ media empire started amassing its evil forces for a hype onslaught the likes of which hadn’t been seen since 2005. No free thinking nerd would escape its wrath across the summer of 2008. Everywhere you looked online, on television, or in print, there it was, assaulting your eyes with Harrison Ford’s dilapidated visage to hock Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull or choking your brain with the impossible geometry of The Clone Wars’ computer animated caricatures. It was a harrowing time for all. The third-leg of the Lucas media tripod of destruction was Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, a brand coating a veritable canyon of products, from books to Pez dispensers. Of course, the Force Unleashed flagship was a videogame. It was literally everywhere. Of the many things written and said about Force Unleashed during this period, the most intriguing and lamentable came from Hooksexup’s own Peter Smith. After reading one of the countless articles on the multiple physics engines running Force Unleashed, Pete said, “This game is so cool looking that I actually wish it wasn’t Star Wars.” He was saying that Star Wars was so sullied, so diluted by oversaturation and truly, inescapably terrible movies, that the mere presence of the universe could tarnish otherwise good entertainment. Star Wars, as a foundation for story, as anything, sucked. It was no longer cool. And I was terrified to find myself agreeing with the man. Of course I came to my senses, shortly thereafter. No matter what, Star Wars will always, in some small way, be cool. Simplistic morality plays, idiotically fleshed out science fiction universes, and over-fetishized metallic swimwear may all be lame as hell. But humming swords made of light will always be awesome. And it’s mostly videogames that have kept Star Wars cool in recent years. Read More... Posted Jan 15 2009, 06:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, star wars, indiana jones, factor 5, free radical, bioware, george lucas, rogue squadron, knights of the old republic, kingdom of the crystal skull, clone wars, battlefront, Harrison ford, battlefront 3

• Whatcha Playing: Persona, Fallout, and the Trans-Pacific RPG Ideal

  Somewhere, probably not too far from Hawaii, the perfect role-playing game is waiting to be discovered. A volatile, volcanic outcropping boiling over with an expert blend of relatable, colorful characters, deep, directed narrative, and open, exploration-rich adventuring, alongside intimidatingly deep avatar customization. Its game world is both fantastic and hyper-real, vast yet structured enough to inexplicitly guide the player along scaling challenges. Alright, I’m kidding. I know this game isn’t real. Of course it isn’t. But after the past couple of weeks, I sincerely wish it was. Read More... Posted Jan 05 2009, 07:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, whatcha playing, star wars, fallout 3, bioware, peter molyneux, mass effect, fable, jrpg, quest for glory ii, persona 4, wrpg, knights of the old republic, fable ii, quest for glory III

• Watcha Playing: The Palette Cleanser

  The past six weeks have been teeming with meaty, action games. I’ve been working through them slowly but surely, like an elegant seven course meal. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was thick, hot comfort fare, a brief appetizer of sloppy design coated in delicious Stormtrooper and rancor killing action. The game’s a buggy mess, really, the gaming equivalent of empty calories, but definitely satisfying. Then there was the dynamic horror duo of Dead Space and Silent Hill: Homecoming, a soup and salad combo built to terrify. They didn’t really scare, but instead delivered visceral body simulations. Both games succeeded by making you constantly aware of your avatar’s physical presence and the heft of their actions, and they achieved this through a careful synergy between atmosphere and play. Yakuza 2 was truly the main course, a game I had no expectations for whatsoever that turned into an all time favorite. Its broad adventure, pulp tale of cops and crooks, and simple but ceaselessly engaging fisticuffs were nourishing, more substantial than anything released on current gen consoles. For dessert, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. Another bonafide surprise, Ecclesia turned out to not be another retread through Igarashi’s decade-old formula, but a challenging successor to Castlevania 2 with fierce action whose variety and elegance was exceeded only by the game’s environments. Yes, it’s been a great month of big games, but it’s been the small things I’ve played in between them, games I’ve played for no more than a handful of minutes here and there, that have given the most *ahem* food for thought. Read More... Posted Oct 29 2008, 05:45 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, whatcha playing, playstation 3, nintendo, star wars, nintendo ds, microsoft, xbox 360, wii, silent hill, silent hill homecoming, castlevania, sony, playstation 2, mega man, katamari damacy, fable 2, mega man 9, dead space, castle crashers, star wars the force unleashed, castlevania order of ecclesia, yakuza 2, wipeout hd

• Yahtzee Kicks Star Wars in the Balls

  The best thing about being born in the early 80s--aside from all the street cred--is that I completely missed out on the Star Wars phenomenon, which has kep both my childhood and my nostalgia glands safe from a franchise that's been circling the drain for over 20 years. If I had been born a decade earlier, I'd probably go nuts over anything George Lucas farted out of his diseased mind; but, growing up in the decade that I did, I was aware of Spaceballs before I was aware of Star Wars--and to this day, Mel Brooks' parody remains the superior product. Let's not talk about the cartoon. It appears that The Escapist's Yahtzee may be of the same persuasion, what with this week's Zero Punctuation being a total evisceration of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.  While I'm not quite sure how he feels about Spaceballs, there's one thing we definitely agree on: the new trilogy was crap, and should be regarded as such.  TFU may do a fine job of connecting the old trilogy to the new one, but is this what we really want?  Shouldn't Episodes 1-3 be forgotten by the world until they become nostalgia for the Star Wars fans who were youngins during the late 90s/early 00s? Don't laugh; in 10 years, countless 30 year-old men will be paying big bucks for double-sided lightsabers on eBay. Read More... Posted Oct 09 2008, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: star wars, yahtzee, zero punctuation, lucasarts, george lucas, bob mackey, star wars: the force unleashed

• Star Wars, Lucasarts, Bioware: You’re Doing It Wrong.

  Come October 21st, the inevitable will finally happen. After years of hemming, hawing, clamoring, and speculating, Bioware and Lucasarts are going to announce an MMO based on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. This is not a guess. Bioware’s leash-holder, EA, already spoiled the surprise in July when chief executive John Riccitello flat-out admitted it existed. I couldn’t be more disappointed. Read More... Posted Oct 08 2008, 06:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, star wars, ea, lucasarts, bioware, mmo

• Whatcha Playing: Weight of the Stone

  Videogames are rich with memorable moments. Born of both play and story, there are those images, those brief passages of achievement, that are emblazoned in your memory: the first time you clear 100,000 points in Tetris, the dogs bursting through the window in Resident Evil, the booming march that begins to play after the baby metroid’s sacrifice during Super Metroid’s climactic battle with Mother Brain. We are tied to these events thanks not only to those games’ mechanical and artistic design but because of our agency in them. We facilitate these conclusions and, since the game is well-made, we feel them. Another classic: Solid Snake’s first fight with the cyborg ninja, Grey Fox. Like so much of the Metal Gear Solid series, this sequence is ludicrous: simplistic to play, overdramatic, over-everything. But when Grey Fox begins screaming, “Make me feel!” and your controller begins to shake in time with his uncontrollable gesticulations, the scene becomes something else. In 1998, rumble technology was still relatively new in home gaming, so having this drama reflected in the physical world made that much more of an impression. Every time Snake was kicked in the gut or when you landed a hit amidst this half-man’s yowling was tangible. I feel a lot like Grey Fox when I play videogames these days, particularly action fare. I want an action game to make me feel. Not necessarily a profound emotional reaction – though that’s always a plus – so much as a physical one. Read More... Posted Sep 29 2008, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, whatcha playing, metroid, star wars, resident evil, metal gear solid, sega, lucasarts, tetris, yakuza, die hard arcade

• Why Wasn’t The Clone Wars A Video Game?

  George Lucas’ latest good taste litmus test, Star Wars: The Clone Wars is somehow making money at the box office, even though it’s tied into the worst chapters of his “saga” and looks like cutscenes from a PS2 game. My faith in humanity would be further shaken if the man wasn’t such a pop culture rapist/media-savvy vulture. Or is he? Could George Lucas just be spinning his wheels in the medium of film when there’s much more money to be had and much less dignity to be lost? Read More... Posted Aug 21 2008, 04:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments Filed under: star wars, lucasarts, george lucas, bob mackey

• Star Wars: A New Halo

  Some people might consider this irrelevant, but The Escapist hosts more than Yahtzee and Zero Punctuation. Kung Fu Grip, a foul-mouthed theatre of action figure puppetry (think Robot Chicken) also nests on the site. Videos featuring game characters being violent, vulgar and nailing anything that moves isn't really new, but Kung Fu Grip has a few videos worth watching. Consider the series' latest, Star Wars: A New Halo, which replaces the bumbling Storm Troopers from Star Wars with the git-r-done good ol' Spartan boys from Halo. You won't be taking them down with Jedi mind tricks, nor will they waste time pounding on a locked door when they could be blowing it up. Read More... Posted Aug 01 2008, 04:32 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with no comments Filed under: star wars, yahtzee, the escapist, halo, video, kung fu grip, fan stuff

• DC Universe Online and the Console MMO Conundrum

  You’d think that people would be more excited about the reveal of Sony Online’s DC Universe given that it premiered a mere three days before The Dark Knight, but reactions have been decidedly mixed. It not too surprising to me. SOE doesn’t exactly have the best track record. The Untold Legends series is crap, they’ve been unable to recapture Everquest’s initial success, and Star Wars Galaxies was a complete nightmare. But even beyond SOE’s reputation and the wonky looking DC Universe trailer, there’s never been a truly successful MMO on home consoles. Read More... Posted Jul 22 2008, 03:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, star wars, final fantasy, untold legends, dc universe, mmo, sony online, the agency

• Screen Test: Star Wars – The Force Unleashed

  I’m not sure if you’ve realized this, but the entire crew here at 61 Frames Per Second are gigantic nerds. We’re geeks. Dweebs. Dorkwads, if you will. Yes, we’re the coolest nerds around, but that doesn’t change the facts. I might be worse than the rest of the team though. At risk of remaining a bachelor for the rest of my twenties, I’ll let you in on a little secret, dear reader. There are Star Wars dolls in my living room. That’s right. DOLLS. That might imply some kind of bias towards media related to Star Wars, but I’ll tell you right now, I can be objective about Star Wars. Indeed, I’m downright distrustful of anything bearing the name. Six years of god awful movies will do that to a person. That’s why I’m hesitant to say that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is looking downright fantastic. But just look at these screens. Somehow, LucasArts’ designers have taken the garish neon worlds of George Lucas’ prequels and made them beautiful, capturing a legitimate otherworldliness that’s appealing instead of repulsive. Who knows? Maybe Star Wars will be cool again. Nah. More screens after the jump. Read More... Posted Jun 10 2008, 10:00 AM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, star wars, screen test, george lucas

• Where Is the New Indiana Jones?

  Euphoria, a physics engine created by developer NaturalMotion, has been popping up all over the place lately. To clarify, a physics engine is a piece of software that simulates real-world physics in a game. Euphoria specifically creates realistic animation for game characters on the fly, as opposed to the hand crafted animations traditionally used for computer generated characters. Euphoria is used in Grand Theft Auto 4 - when you see Niko’s body getting thrown about in a sickeningly convincing way, it’s Euphoria at work. The engine is also featured prominently in the much publicized, poorly-titled upcoming Star Wars game, The Force Unleashed. It’s a little distressing, however, that Euphoria’s intended debut has gone AWOL. I’m referring of course to LucasArts’ untitled Indiana Jones project. Read More... Posted Jun 03 2008, 10:00 AM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, playstation 3, star wars, xbox 360, where is, PC, Grand theft auto 4, indiana jones, lucasarts, euphoria

• Video of the Day: Judah Friedlander Explains the Uncanny Valley

  Watch this 30 Rock clip quick before NBC yanks it: Judah Friedlander explaining the Uncanny Valley to Tracy Morgan, "in Star Wars." As readers probably know, the porn videogame that Morgan dreams of is actually all too real, but we appreciate Friedlander trying to talk him out of it anyway. Hit the jump to check it out. Read More... Posted May 09 2008, 11:15 AM by Peter Smith with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: peter smith, porn videogame, uncanny valley, tracy morgan, judah friedlander, star wars, 30 rock