Star Wars, Geek Culture, and Power Converters
GOG.com wasn’t finished with the six games they added yesterday.
Joining the growing LucasArts library are three more titles. Empire at War and Rebellion are a pair of popular strategy game titles. Meanwhile, Rogue Squadron 3D was the arcade combat flight simulator enjoyed by gamers in the 90s with access to a PC or a Nintendo 64.
Head over to GOG to see the complete collection from LucasArts
Certainly this won’t generate any sort of controversy. In an interview with Cinemablend to promote Strange Magic, Nick Rimando asked the Maker himself what details he could reveal about The Force Awakens. The answer, unsurprisingly, was nothing. As for why Lucas couldn’t say anything, well:
The ones that I sold to Disney, they came up to the decision that they didn’t really want to do those. So they made up their own. So it’s not the ones that I originally wrote [on screen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens].
There’s no doubt those two sentences are going to cause all sorts of reactions, all of which will follow the usual post-Disney sale outrage scripts from all sides. It’s important to keep in mind that story treatments often get tossed aside or are heavily modified by the time the final scripts are being put in front of cameras.
The reasoning for Disney going their own path is likely simple. It’s better to start fresh with a new braintrust in place from the beginning than to try and not fumble a handoff of someone else’s plan meant to stretch nearly a decade of development.
Available starting today at Good Old Games are six more LucasArts titles that have been optimized to play on your modern PC.
The titles available feature combat flight simulators X-Wing Alliance and its multiplayer predecessor X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter. If you’re picking up X-Wing Alliance, be sure to check out the XWA Upgrade Project, which replaces the default ship and background textures int he game with re-designed high res packages.
Dark Forces brings you back to the height of the PC FPS era by putting you in the shoes of Kyle Katarn and a giant arsenal of blasters from the Galaxy Far, Far Away.
Galactic Battlegrounds was an isometric strategy game ala Civilization and Age of Empires. Battlefront II featured a bit of everything for Star Wars fans. Ship combat, third-person shooter fun, and a level of fun that had fans clamoring for a sequel for ages.
Finally there’s Knights of the Old Republic II. The ambitious sequel to Knights of the Old Republic was maligned for bugs, a very rushed second half, and an ending that was probably too vague for its own good, but it was still a very fun and thought provoking game. If you pick this one up, you may want to also look at The Sith Lords Restoration Project, which adds back in a bunch of content that were cut from the game due to production time restraints.
Some of these games are currently on sale, so go check it out!
The era of Star Wars Marvel has begun (okay; returned) and they’re leaping forth from the gate with blasters blazing. Star Wars #1 by Jason Aaron and with art by John Cassaday comes out on Wednesday, January 14th and picks up shortly after A New Hope. The question of the day though isn’t “Will our heroes survive?” but rather “How does this new series hold up?” and it is in response to that question that I have some good news for Star Wars fans.
Right from the start, Aaron and Cassaday make the book feel like Original Trilogy Star Wars. (Let me suggest queuing up the main title as you open the book. It put a huge smile on my face as I began to read.) This gives readers a chance to pick up a book that can be enjoyed whether they’ve only watched the films or if they obsessively read every Legends story. It’s also clear from the get-go that this is a labor of love from all involved. The basic premise of the story is something that will feel familiar to Star Wars readers (Rebels have a chance to move against the Empire and Han somehow gets roped into helping) but Jason Aaron writes in a way that will keep readers intrigued and flipping the page for more. He also strikes a nice balance between action and non-action scenes and knows the right moment to interject a bit of levity, something that’s crucial when it comes to Star Wars.
Another strength of the book is that Aaron certainly has a great grasp on all of the main characters. At times, it was difficult to NOT hear the actors’ voices inside my head reading the lines. I was particularly happy with his portrayal of Leia especially since he didn’t fall back on the Action Girl ™ method like some writers have in the past. Even Luke seems to be pretty spot on during this odd transitional phase from farmboy to Jedi Rebel.
Cassaday’s artwork on the book is solid as expected. My only issue was with one very fast costume change between pages. In the interest of staying spoiler free, I’ll leave it there but it just felt rather abrupt especially on the first read through. For those familiar with his art, Cassaday’s usual facial expressions are in full force here which, when you’re drawing Leia Organa dealing with Han Solo, are perfect. Cassaday also has a neat way of drawing lightsaber action which I haven’t previously seen in a Star Wars comic. And, of course, we the internet will be forever grateful to him for the panel of Leia punching an Imperial panel that made its way on line several weeks ago. That alone is worth the cost of admission.
Overall, this first oversized issue does a great job of setting the stage and establishing how this comic series will go. Within moments of finishing reading it, I immediately wanted the next one. I’m extremely interested to see how the first arc progresses and then where Jason Aaron takes the story beyond that. For me, that will be the real deciding factor about how much I’ll ultimately enjoy the series but they are certainly off to a good start.
I give Star Wars #1 a 4/5 along with a recommendation to go pick it up. You can pick up a copy of Star Wars #1 from your local comic store or online here from Marvel.
Thank you to Marvel for providing us with an advanced copy of the comic for review purposes.
January 4th, 2015 and I’m already tired. Why? Because I am sick of it. Because I’m sick of death of having to constantly fight and ask for female representation in merchandise when there’s absolutely no good reason not to include it. Are you a fan of Star Wars Rebels and love the ENTIRE team? Well good luck finding merchandise that includes Hera or Sabine let alone both.
If this is sounding familiar, it’s because we’ve been through this before. We wondered where Black Widow was in all the Avengers gear after the film came out in May 2012 and then we asked again in August 2014 when Gamora was almost nowhere to be found. (Amy Ratcliffe detailed the latter over at her blog.) At this point, it’s an easy choice to call it a pattern of marketing (especially Disney in this situation) purposefully eliminating female characters from their products. This is hardly also a new battle for Star Wars. Those in the fandom will likely recall the uproar when Daisy Ridley was originally the only new woman in the Episode VII cast and then again when Hera and Sabine were not announced with the first wave of Rebels action figures. (And hey, that’s just the highlights from 2014.) Unfortunately, it looks like it’s time to start up a hashtag for #WheresHera.
Let’s take a look at some of the Star Wars Rebels merchandise out there. Over the weekend, I found myself at the Disney Store, a calendar mall stand, and Jo-Ann Fabrics. While this is not a comprehensive listing of places that sell Star Wars gear, I found the products there to be fairly representative of what I’ve seen other times.
I found this set of kids’ PJs in the Disney Store. Notice who’s missing?
I don’t recall seeing anything with either lady on anything in the store but I DID see a girl of perhaps five eagerly grabbing for a Star Wars lunch box. Much of the rest of the items featured Darth Vader, clone troopers, and the Inquisitor. (It took effort not to explain the Inquisitor’s lightsaber to the confused dad holding it.)
The latest issue of Star Wars Insider reveals that there will be 3D screenings of the entire Prequel Trilogy, as well as standard screenings of the Original Trilogy, at Celebration Anaheim. These screenings will include the long-delayed 3D premiere of Revenge of the Sith, so if you’ve been waiting to see it you will now have a chance.
(via Yakface)
While none of the actors are able to tell us much about The Force Awakens yet, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly Andy Serkis shared a few things that he can tell us about the movie and his work on it. His answers to EW’s questions, unsurprisingly, don’t give us a lot of detail about the story or characters, but he does reveal that he plays only one character in the film and that his voice in the teaser is unaltered.
One question that he’s not able to give an answer to is whether or not his character is performance capture, which is unsurprising, given the amount of information one could likely draw from the answer.
“Gathering Forces,” which aired November 24 on Disney XD, marked the mid-season finale of Star Wars Rebels. We’ve already reviewed the individual episodes, but we wanted to recap the season so far and offer our thoughts on what we liked, what we didn’t like, and what we’re looking forward to as the season goes on. To the cut!
The bad part about having finished the Hyllyard City scenes is that the Hyllyard City scenes are finished. No more Luke and Mara. Sad face.
Time for another confession. I really don’t care for the end of Heir to the Empire. The battle of Sluis Van, even though it features Wedge being awesome, seems very tacked on. And it’s very convenient that Luke, Han, Lando, and Wedge all manage to wind up there. Maybe that’s just my bias coming through, because I’ve been so focused on Luke and Mara and Karrde over the past several chapters. I know that Thrawn’s been preoccupied with Sluis Van and there’s still a lot of mystery over what the plan entails. Still, it does seems like a bit of a letdown after the book moves off Myrkr.
Which is exactly where Chapter 00 begins. Karrde is amazed that one man, without the Force, managed to defeat so many stormtroopers. Get used to it, Karrde my dear. We learn that Lando needs medical attention, and that Aves was close to shooting him for his supposed betrayal, but he’ll be okay.
J.J. Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy have given us all an early Christmas present via Entertainment Weekly: several of Star Wars: The Force Awakens character names!
Revealed via eight retro-style trading cards, the character names are as follows (cut for spoilers): Continue reading