Footage from Free Radical's cancelled game Star Wars: Battlefront 3 continues to surface. This time, more pre-alpha gameplay appeared on Twitch over the weekend in a "May the Fourth be with you" celebration.
Disney has closed LucasArts, and with that closure goes several of the projects. But a look back at the last few months of the developer's life reveals that cancellations and shelved projects were already ongoing at the developer, and Disney seems to have simply accelerated the process.
Read more: Five games in development, most canceled before Disney »
Before it was put on hold and then unceremoniously canceled with the closure of LucasArts, Star Wars 1313 was a promising, albeit mysterious, game. LucasArts was notably cagey about it, only noting that the hero's character model was a placeholder without acknowledging who it would be. Now that such secrets no longer matter, sources have confirmed suspicions that the game was meant to star fan favorite character Boba Fett.
In the wake of LucasArts closing, various luminaries of the studio have started to pay their respects. Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert, who both made their names on Lucas adventure games, have been among the old hands speaking fondly about their experiences.
Read more: 'I never thought Lucas would actually shut down' »
While Star Wars games have become increasingly shoddy over the years, they were once consistently pleasing. In memory of the late, great LucasArts, shut down by Disney, Raven has released the source code of two such games from the Jedi Knight series, Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy. If you missed them in the early noughties, they were the first solid ways to have decent multiplayer lightsaber battles.
Disney has shut down LucasArts and canceled all current projects, as part of a move toward licensing out the Star Wars brand to other publishers. This would impact Star Wars 1313 and Star Wars: First Assault.
Last year, LucasArts seemed prepped to release Star Wars: First Assault. With trademarks registered, XBLA art leaked, LucasArts looked gung-ho about the game's release.
And then it disappeared.
When Disney acquired LucasArts, the company stated that "all projects are business as usual." That seemed to indicate Star Wars 1313 was still on-track, but sources state that the game has been put on hold.
December 21 brought a lot of good news, including the fact that the world somehow didn't end after all, but the real revelation to celebrate was that the classic Grim Fandango is now playable on modern PCs. The first stable release of ResidualVM hit on that fateful day, doing a similar sort of thing for LucasArts' later adventure games what ScummVM does for the earlier classics.
"DId they fix the controls? Holy crap that game is hard to play"
- ForcedEvolutionaryVirus
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The Walt Disney Company has acquired Lucasfilm and its subsidiaries, including its LucasArts video gaming division, in a deal that's valued at $4.05 billion.
"For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next," George Lucas said in the announcement. "It's now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I've always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime."
We may have a better idea of what the mysterious Star Wars: First Assault trademarks were about, thanks to a purported leak from Microsoft. A collection of Xbox Live Arcade box art shows one sample box by the name with the familiar "Arcade" stripe across the top.
Another new Star Wars video game franchise may be on the way. Domain registrations and trademarks filed by LucasArts point to the existence of "Star Wars: First Assault." The trademarks cover their bases for associated merchandise, but the main trust of them is "interactive entertainment software."
Star Wars 1313 is still largely a mystery, despite its impressive showing at E3. LucasArts is playing very close to the vest with the plot and gameplay footage is scarce. Even the newest trailer sticks to cutscenes and concept art, but it does have plenty of detail about the titular setting.
If you read our E3 preview of Star Wars 1313, then you'll get a pretty good feel for what's in this trailer just released for Gamescom 2012. The footage is taken almost entirely from the showing we had behind closed doors back in June.
There are some good battle scenes, and great graphics, but not much actual gameplay. If you want gameplay, then this video would probably be more appropriate. Either way, the action is still pretty intense.
Hey Meatbags! You knew the HK-51 Assassination droid was going to become available as a new companion in Star Wars: The Old Republic, but now we get an even closer look at the galaxy's most dangerous machines.
BioWare revealed the new trailer, showing the army buried on the ice world of Belsavis. There's something a bit chilling when it greets you as Master.
"i'm surprised they even started work on a battlefront 3. didn't 2 have lackluster sales?"
- RikiTiki2 See all 5 comments