The 11% of you that really really want The Force Unleashed should probably check out the latest issue of Playstation magazine. Along with your standard gaming detris of screenshots and such, there’s a 6-page preview of the game’s comic adaption.
In the News: LFL’s Richard Kerris, Zazzle, 3-D, Canada Spectacular, Blame Society Productions, Portman ponders politics, and Grand Moff Artkin
- Interview: VFXWorld talks to Richard Kerris, Lucasfilm’s Chief Technology Officer, about technology, The Force Unleashed, and The Clone Wars.
- Licensees: Zazzle featured in USA Today, which can’t tell the difference between Padme and Leia.
- From the ‘WE KNOW’ files: James Cameron ‘confirms’ that Star Wars will be rereleased in 3-D.
- Fandom: Chad Vader folks in The Badger Herald.
- Events: Star Wars Spectacular returning to Welland, Canada.
- People: Natalie Portman considers politics as a future career option. If she got elected, would that up the collectible value of those Padme Senatorial Gown figures?
- More People: Peter Cushing, artist? If you were hoping for something all creepy and Hammer-inspired, sorry: The art looks like something my grandmother would have a bad print of on her wall.
Upcoming release dates: Delayed gratification
Three books have had their release dates pushed back recently. Making room for the mystery book? Clone Wars stuff? (Or both?)
- The Force Unleashed adaption by Sean Williams is now set for August 19, back (again!) from June 24.
- Republic Commando: Order 66 was previously on for August 5; now September 16.
- And Matthew Stover’s Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor has been pushed from September 30 to October 21.
Our Star Wars book schedule has been updated.
On the TOS: Japan, Gaming, Clone Wars
StarWars.com celebrates the Celebration Japan announcement with a ‘Star Wars‘ in Japan checklist, a comparison of manga and American comic adaptions, and ten items they beat us to.
- The Clone Wars: Captain Rex concept art, Plo Kooned and all.
- Gaming: TFU miniatures.
- Source Archive: Neile Janna Returns to Adarlon for New Holo and Smuggler’s Roster: Random Rumors.
In the News: TFU, People, Merchandise
San Francisco Chronicle on The Force Unleashed. They also feature Ray Harryhausen, who is awesome. (Star Wars content, not that you should care: Quotes from Dennis Muren, lots of ILM mentions.)
- People: MSNBC counts down Natalie Portman’s coolness, Seth Green talks about Robot Chicken: Star Wars.
- What? We hate Moby? Apparently he got a lot of flack from Star Wars fans while dating Natalie Portman. But he’s the only person I’ve ever seen on Cribs with actual books! (Okay, him and Hanson. I know, right?)
- Toy Fair leftovers: Variety looks at high-end toys.
There was Star Wars stuff at WonderCon, too!
The official blog has a roundup/transcript of Steve Sansweet’s panel, which started off with the Celebration Japan announcement (CJ? HA!) The rest of the first part is Steve talking to The Force Unleashed assistant producer Brett Rector, who confirms a few pesky rumors… Including one about the big dude himself. (Vader, not George. Sorry.) The second part skims a bit to an appearance by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, who talk Robot Chicken. And part three, with all the juicy Clone Wars goodness!
The Force Unleashed at GDC
It’s time for the 2008 Game Developers Conference, and Cnet’s Daniel Terdiman gets a peek at The Force Unleashed. There’s some new pics as well. (Or at least some concept art I haven’t seen before.) Meanwhile, Kotaku has a demo that uses a simple lightsaber-esque game to demo a Wiimote challenger. And Haden Blackman reveals the journey to the game at Shack News.
This publicity machine goes to 11
Even Vanity Fair is getting in on the The Force Unleashed action. I didn’t think video games existed in VF’s world. Alas, there’s no Annie Leibovitz delving into the halls of LucasArts here, but they do have exclusive images and a video.
Are you ready for Vaporator Commando?
Penny Arcade on The Force Unleashed and Star Wars gaming:
I’m sure the Force Unleashed will be fine. The time period around the original trilogy is just getting so crowded. Now Vader has a secret apprentice? I mean, it makes sense canonically to me. The Emperor had Mara Jade out there doing his dirty work. It’s not unreasonable to think Vader had a similar arrangement. Also the very nature of Sith rule makes covering your ass a necessity. The hook for the game is fine and I don’t mind the 3rd person action stuff. There are a few games I’d much rather see them make though. The fact that they have not made a sequel to Republic Commando is fucking criminal. That’s not a joke either. I mean that someone over there should be put in jail for the rest of their life. RepCom was an incredible squad based shooter, and unlike most games in that genre it was packed with awesome characters. This games deserves a next gen sequel. The other game that needs a next gen installment is Tie Fighter. Seriously that game came out in 1994 and it’s one of the best space shooters ever. And for fucks sake stop setting things during the movies. There’s nearly sixty years worth of incredible content (minus the dark nest series) extending out past Return of the Jedi. You don’t have to keep trying to cram stories into the same 20 year period. They’re milking so much content out of that period that eventually we’ll be playing a game as Luke where the goal is to repair vaporators on the south ridge. Hurry up you’ve only got ’till mid day!
I don’t necessarily agree – the fact that games actually count in continuity has always mildly annoyed me – but he has a point. Hell, I’m already a bit sick of The Clone Wars and it hasn’t even started yet.
And dude, Dark Nest might not be the best trilogy ever but at least it didn’t plague us for five years. For that alone, I can’t hate it.
Also, check out the latest comic. Teehee.
Force Unleashed toy spoilers!
TFN discovered a Hasbro Evolutions 3-pack that reveals the ‘Secret Apprentice’ (if we don’t get a real name soon I’m just going to settle for Crashdown) in the guises of a Sith Lord and a Jedi. Rebelscum has more pics of what looks to be a large chunk of the TFU line.
Though really, seeing how many secret apprentices Anakin/Vader had, they could probably stand to diversify the field a bit. You know that someone somewhere is chomping at the bit for a Hethrir figure.