Expanded Universe newsbits: Zahn, KOTOR, TFU

  • Conventions: Timothy Zahn is Guest of Honor at UberCon X in New Jersey later this month. Among his events are a Q&A and a panel on writing in someone else’s universe with Star Trek author Josepha Sherman. There will also be a charity RPG game where he’ll play one of his most famous SW characters, Grand Admiral Thrawn. (Also among the guests: our old pal Peter Schweighofer!)
  • Comics: The preview for Knights of the Old Republic #27, aka the third part of Vector; A new Omnibus appears on Amazon.
  • Gaming: The Force Unleashed site has had a bit of a makeover. Check out the fan toolkit (in the media gallery, under downloads) for wallpapers, screenshots, icons and more.

Second Indy trailer, IGN builds on LEGO Indiana Jones.. and other news from the Indy-world

News from ShoWest: A second Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull trailer is on its way in April – most likely coming out on Iron Man. So sayeth ComingSoon.net.

IGN takes an in-depth look at the upcoming LEGO Indiana Jones game, guided by Nick Ricks of the game studio Traveller’s Tales. “There’s much more emphasis on discovery and creation in LEGO Indy, with appropriate puzzles now taking the place of some of the character-based challenges of the Star Wars games.”

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull spoilers can be found by going to Jail.. or Free Parking or Boardwalk… at least by checking out the new Indiana Jones-themed Monopoly board game. Ain’t It Cool News covers the scoop.

And StarWars.com continues the tour of the upcoming Young Indiana Jones, Volume 3 DVD set with

  • a tour of disc two: Masks of Evil, where Indy faces the dangers of leading a double life in Istanbul – getting engaged and dealing with a double agent while trying to convince the Turks to switch over to the Allies, and then faces a more sinister and supernatural threat on a mission to Transylvania. Documentaries include coverage of the Mustafa Kemal and the his revolution, Halide Edib, the Ottoman Empire, and Dracula.
  • Swinging back into treasure-seeking adventure, the tour hops onto disc three: Treasure of the Peacock’s Eye – where Indy and Remy go from London to Alexandria to New Guinea in search of a lost treasure of Alexander the Great. On the way, Indy meets E. M. Forster and Bronislaw Malinowski. Companion documentaries cover Malinowski, Anthropology and New Guinea.

The DVD box set is schedule to be released on April 29th.

Stargate MMORPG looks likely to blow fans away

By now everyone that’s any kind of gaming type has heard World of Warcraft referred to as “Warcrack” and knows how addicting an MMORPG can be; well, there’s a new drug coming in the Fall of 2008.

Stargate Worlds.

Yep, Stargate. A Stargate MMORPG. Let that roll around your tongue for a minute…savor it. Ok, you can swallow now. Really. That’s just getting disturbing.

According to the “About” site at Stargateworlds.com, the game is going to be using the Unreal 3 engine, if I read it right. Having never played Unreal Tournament, I can only guess that’s what they’re referring to. I can’t believe I’m actually more stoked about this than I was for Star Wars Galaxies (poodoo!) The ad on the new Stargate: The Ark of Truth DVD looked really good, but there’s no solid indication that it was representative of the actual game; it might have just been some animation to advertise. If it WAS representative, then oh YEAH this is going to be fun!