Harrison Ford visited Jimmy Kimmel last night to promote his new movie, 42, and like any interview these days with the actor, the conversation switched to the new Star Wars movies. Ford was evasive, but decided to answer some audience questions as long as they were not about Star Wars. Well, things did not go according to plan especially when Jimmy tried to reunite Ford and Chewbacca, things went to hell in a handbasket quickly.
I never took Chewie for the back stabbing kind.
And by a lot of Star Wars, I mean a metric shit ton of Star Wars.
Disney announced today at CinemaCon that they plan on releasing a Star Wars film every year beginning with Episode VII in 2015. They would alternate years with a movie in the new trilogy and one of the standalone films the next summer.
J.J. Abrams is hard at work with pre-production of Episode VII which we will just call The Phantom Nerfherder for now and screenwriters Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinburg are rumored to be working on one or more of the stand alone films which are shrouded in even more mystery than Episode VII.
Now I love me some Star Wars, but damn Disney. Every year? No matter how big the property is there is going to be a saturation point and people will stop caring. The prequels did enough damage to the legacy of Star Wars so let’s pull back the reins a bit. Star Wars movies are an event. If we get one every year for at the very least next six years beginning in 2015, people (like me) could get very tired, very quickly.
Honestly I would rather get to play 1313 and get a new trilogy.
Previously on Retro Achievement List:
We here at Nerd Rating love achievements and trophies. We are admitted whores for them, but when you think about it, the practice of gamerscores is only seven years old with the introduction of the Xbox 360. We have 30 years of backlogged video games that need to be updated! So that is what we are venturing to do. Our new feature called Retro Achievement List will look back at games of the past and give them a set of achievements to strive for even if they may not seem serious.
With the news that Disney is shutting down LucasArts as a game developer it has made us look back at the great games the developer gave us over the past 20 years. I have picked Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire because of the sheer amount of time I spent in this game. You see kids, way back in the ancient year of 1996, games for the just released Nintendo 64 were hard to find. I had already collected all 120 stars two times over on Super Mario 64 and shot rockets at every mountainside in Pilotwings 64, so when Shadows hit the system 3 months after the N64 launch, I was clamoring for it like Casey Anthony for another kid. And it was glorious! I mean if you go back and play it today it looks and plays like absolute shit, but back then….my mind was blown. Ship combat and a FPS with a game that bridged Episode 4 and 5, sign me up! But there are no achievements for the game….until now.
*Achievement #1
After taking down your first AT-AT with a tow cable, go change your pants because you shit them.
*Achievement #2
Spend more than thirty minutes floating up and down the same hallway after figuring out the skating trick on Hoth.
*Achievement #3
Wait for every enemy to get near a cliff so you can watch them fall off after shooting them.
*Achievement #4
Have no regrets when your friends are out having fun and you are trying to shoot every red asteroid for challenge points.
*Achievement #5
Ask your mother what she is doing as she walks in front of you with a laundry basket making you fall off the train in Ord Mantell. Not like she is taking care of you or anything, dickhead (I am speaking to my past self here).
*Achievement #6
Say “how long is this level” ten times while playing through Gall Spaceport. (Hint: It’s fucking long.)
*Achievement #7
Mention how awesome the prequels to Star Wars are going to be to your friends on a daily basis while you play.
*Achievement #8
Kick out anyone in your house that questions how you got $70 to pay for your game because you have a job and their mother is a welfare whore.
*Achievement #9
Uncontrollably laugh at how funny the name Xixor is as you play with a good amount of pot.
*Achievement #10
Buy game again six years later as your girlfriend wonders why you are paying $25 for a game without a box and covered with cigarette burns and a old Jolly Rancher wrapper.
We want to hear from all of you also! What achievements would you add to Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire? Leave us a comment below or tweet us your responses on Twitter (@nerdrating) and use the hashtag #RetroAchievement
In the wake of Disney shutting down LucasArts, Raven Software has gone and done the fans a solid by releasing the source code for both Star Wars: Jedi Knight games, Jedi Academy and Jedi Outcast. In the hands of the internet community I am excited to see what will come from so many people having access to this code. This is not to be confused with the Jake Gyllenhaal movie on a train.
Raven released an official statement about this via Kotaku:
“Raven is sad to hear about the closing of LucasArts today, we respected them and enjoyed working with them over the years. We wish the best for all the talented people who were let go and hope they find good work in studios in the industry.
We loved and appreciated the experience of getting to make Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy for LucasArts. As a gift to the persistently loyal fanbase for our Jedi games and in memory of LucasArts, we are releasing the source code for both games for people to enjoy and play with.”
Well it appears the honeymoon is over for Lucas and Disney. Shit got business real today when Disney laid off 150 employees at LucasArts and said that it would become a “licensing model” and stop internal development and publishing. Effectively this means that Disney just killed LucasArts, makers of games like Rebel Assault, Rogue Squadron, Jedi Knight, Shadows of the Empire and Battlefront.
Here is the official statement from Disney:
“After evaluating our position in the games market, we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company’s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games,” LucasArts parent company LucasFilm said in a statement. “As a result of this change, we’ve had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles.”
This news especially sucks for Star Wars: 1313 and First Assault which were essentially cancelled. Since LucasArts will be used in name only for future Disney/Star Wars releases these two in house games will most likely never see the light of day.
It has been a joy ride so far between Disney, Star Wars and fans with high hopes of the new trilogy directed by J.J. Abrams, but this is not going to go over well in the already cynical nerd community. I know Disney is a business and honestly will not give two shits about how fat guys like myself feel about this, but I know that I was looking forward to 1313, more so than any Star Wars game in a very long time and have a little bitterness that it may never surface. I also feel bad for those 150 people that lost their jobs today. Hell, you would think that LucasArts would be a safe place to work after the Disney acquisition. Your job is the job of making Star Wars for a digital medium. If that is not safe, what is?
One of the best things about [amazon_link id=”B001KVZ6HK” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Avengers[/amazon_link] becoming a massive hit last year is that more people than just nerd culture want to know what Joss Whedon thinks about other Hollywood features. And true to form, he does not mind giving his blatantly honest opinion about things.
Take Star Wars for instance. In a recent interview with Digital Spy, Whedon was asked about J.J. Abrams’ upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII and what he would do with the universe were he in the director’s chair.
“You know, I wouldn’t go back, I’d go forward. I would want to create characters that would resonate the way that they did. I mean not that I don’t want to see the new movies, I would be excited to, but I also feel like I would want to explore a very different part of that universe.”
Whedon also gave his thoughts on the supposed Han Solo standalone film in the works (spoiler: no).
I am of two minds with Episode VII. On one hand it would be a true nerd moment to see Luke, Han and Leia on the big screen again, but the Star Wars universe is a vast place and to have new characters take over and be fleshed out in a new trilogy could bring back some of that old Star Wars magic.
Or they could just cast Olivia Wilde and put her in a slave outfit for 90 minutes and I will be there at midnight throwing my money at the glass.
In a recent interview with IGN, Robert Downey Jr. revealed that at one point in the production of Iron Man 3 they turned to Star Trek and Star Wars director J.J. Abrams for some advice on the film’s third act.
“There were a couple times in Iron Man 3 where our lifeline was we’d call Jon Favreau. ‘What do we do?’ He’d be like, ‘Stick with this. Stick with the love story,’ or whatever. Then he’d say, ‘Wait, didn’t we used to do this same thing with Shane?’ Because we reached out to Shane a bunch, particularly in the first Iron Man.
Then I think we reached out to J.J. Abrams at one point when we were really confused in Act III, and he helped us, too. It’s just interesting. Usually you think, in the legacy of filmmakers that come and go, there’s something so evocative about how strange it is that this particular strain of the Marvel universe was so successful, so what are the reasons for that and how do we keep that vital and just have fun?”
Seriously?! Is there nothing that Abrams has his hand in now?? First Star Trek, then Star Wars and now Marvel?
Well…now that I think about it there is no guarantee that Joss Whedon would return for The Avengers 3.
Smooth move J.J. You sir, are thinking ahead of the curve.
It looks like Star Wars Episode VII is going to be a full blown reunion. Mark Hamill has already talked about his possible involvement and Latino Review has reported that Harrison Ford is set to return as Han Solo (insert shot first joke here). Now Carrie Fisher is confirming that she will be returning to the galaxy far, far away. She is the first of the three stars to announce this themselves.
Now we just have to keep her off the crazy train for three more years so this movie can get made. That is easier said than done, but where there is a will, there is a high priced Disney employee whose job it will be to follow her around 24-7 to make sure she doesn’t go off on a Wookie sized bender.
And let’s put all of our fanboy expectations into perspective. When Episode VII releases in a few years this is not the Leia of you childhood dreams when you would go hide in a closet.
Example:
We won’t be getting this.
We will be getting this.
Perspective.
Way back when at E3 2012, Lucasarts showed off amazing looking footage for a brand new Star Wars game titled Star Wars: 1313. It was dark and gritty and it was beautiful. So much so that when the show was over debate began on whether this was actually our first look at a true next-gen game. Then….nothing. No developers talking up how hard they were working on it, no hints on what systems or possible releases dates. It went off the radar.
So what gives?
Seems Kotaku may have turned over the right rock and figured out where the game has been hiding. It appears that the game has been put on hold since the Disney acquisition of Lucasfilm last year to focus completely on getting J.J. Abrams’ Episode VII going into production. There is no word on if the game will be moving forward after a certain amount of time or if it will simply fall onto Disney/Lucas’ immense back burner.
I do hope that the higher ups at Disney do not just think of one avenue of media to make money off of Star Wars. The Lucasarts game history is a checkered one, yes, but also one that is filled with classic games and I hope that Star Wars 1313 is given a chance to be fully realized and see the light of day.
Doing a bit of trolling on the web today and came across three of the better fan made posters I have seen for the next Star Wars adventure. I am sure that this is only the beginning of this with Episode VII being three or more years away from release, but it is nice to imagine what could be.
If you have come across some more fan made posters for Star Wars Episode VII leave a link in the comments below so everyone can have the opportunity to see them.
