Club Jade

May 4th stuff was a busy Friday, Saturday wasn’t much better, and a whole bunch of stuff got lost in the shuffle. As we nurse our Avengers hangover, here it is.

MTV has wondered why Luke Skywalker got no love from the famous folks, asking our pal Bryan Young why not.

Geekmom is throwing a Star Wars week. So far, they’ve highlighted a video on the 501st and the Rebel Legion, are giving away a GPS and interviewed the Wampug.

The Hollywood Reporter looked at where the stars of Star Wars are now. You probably know that already.

There was a couple at Kotaku: A look at Masters of Teräs Käsi, which they call ‘possibly the worst Star Wars video game ever made,’ as well as great moments of Star Wars gaming. And, finally, why Battlefront III was cancelled.

Entertainment Weekly highlight ten things ‘worth celebrating,’ mostly EU stuff.

And finally, Chris Hardwick pimped Course of the Force on Today. He also revealed that they’ve build a sail barge that we’ll see at Celebration VI.

LucasArts announced via Twitter that they are going to be releasing many of their older PC game titles for direct download. The first batch of ten classic games, including Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, LOOM, Star Wars: Battlefront II and The Dig will be re-released on July 8 via Steam, the online delivery system from Valve Entertainment. Steam will also be the download system for the PC version for the upcoming Monkey Island remake The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, coming out July 15.

The full list of games being released on July 8 contains some classic graphic adventures, and some more recent action titles:

• Armed and Dangerous
• Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
• LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure
• LOOM
• Star Wars Battlefront II
• Star Wars Republic Commando
• Star Wars Starfighter
• The Dig
• Thrillville: Off the Rails

This is only the first batch of classic LucasArts games to be released – and noticeably some popular game franchises are absent, possibly to be re-released in future batches: Maniac Mansion, X-Wing, Dark Forces, and Grim Fandango. No pricing information is yet available.

Meanwhile, the new Monkey Island game from Telltale Games, has its first episode coming out tomorrow, Tales of Monkey Island – Chapter 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal for PC. The Wii version will be released in the coming weeks.

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis was also included as a bonus game in the Wii version of Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings, released in June 2009.

Lots of big video game announcements coming during E3, happening this week in Los Angeles, besides the cinematic trailer for The Old Republic MMO:

• Monkey Island is coming back! LucasArts and Telltale Games are teaming up to make Tales of Monkey Island, a five part episodic adventure coming out later this summer (for PC and Wii). Also, they are releasing an updated version of the first Monkey Island game – The Secrets of Monkey Island: Special Edition, with updated graphics and sound (but allowing players to swap back to the originals for old school adventuring).
• IGN previews Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes, where players can play different Jedi or clonetroopers in an action-packed storyline set in between seasons 1 and 2 of “The Clone Wars”. One highlighted gameplay action is the ability for Jedi to hijack battle droids and ride them in battle.
• 1UP previews Star Wars: Battlefront: Elite Squadron for PSP and DS — now combining the roles of ground battles and space battles!
• and for those LEGO Video game fans: LEGO Harry Potter, Years 1 – 4, was announced. Will the later films’ darker content mean that the second part of Harry’s years at Hogwarts never seen LEGO gameplay?

Nonfiction. Here we have the cover for Star Wars: 1,000 Collectibles. Steve Sansweet and Anne Neumann take us into the depths of Rancho Obi-Wan… Okay, maybe not the depths. Look for it October 1st.

Random. TheForce.Net has some random updates on upcoming books, mostly The Clone Wars kids stuff, which honestly I’m not even trying to keep track of. There is an episode guide that might be of interest to some.

A Padawan’s Journal. Bohnhoff on Plotting the Wily Star Wars Novel and First Impressions.

Games. Another Battlefront on the way. On that note, here’s the Threat of Peace web comic is now on #7.

Star Wars: People seemed really excited about the Battlefront III Sith Obi-Wan concept. I’m underwhelmed. Slightly more interesting is this Vader gas mask, which is the first piece revealed from a new round of The Vader Project.

• Battlestar Galactica: Interviews with the final cylon and Friday night’s decoy/casualty.

• Star Trek: Sci Fi Wire has 15 things you might now know about Khan Noonien Singh.
• Trivia: The day jobs of science fiction writers.
• Lists: The 15 greatest science fiction movies of the 70′s.

EUC spotted a news item from PALGN that Battlefront III for the Nintendo DS received a PG rating earlier this month… Though it hasn’t even been announced yet.

It contains all the lightsaber-wracking we’ve come to expect, but is
actually fairly plotty.

And while I’m posting gaming news, something something Battlefront III?

Battlefront: Renegade Squadron will be available only on the PSP this fall.

Revenge of the Sith did well at the Saturn Awards – Best Science Fiction Film and Best Music. Battlefront II won the Best Science Fiction Video Game Release.

Batman Begins won Best Fantasy Film, and Lost and Battlestar Galactica both won for Best TV series in their respective catagories. Christian Bale, Matthew Fox, James Callis, Katee Sackhoff and Serenity’s Summer Glau all took home actor awards.

The double-punch of the Revenge of the Sith DVD and Battlefront II have generated $210 million dollars so far.

ETA: Records! Shattered!