Would-Be Jedis Find Game Treasure at E3
LucasArts dominates gaming convention with promotions and previews of Star Wars and other sci-fi titles.Andrew Brandt, PCWorld.com
LOS ANGELES-- The Force is strong at the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) conference here this week.
It was easily foreseen, as the Jedi Master Yoda would say. Episode II: Attack of the Clones has just opened, and LucasArts' Star Wars franchise is readying a selection of games for PCs and consoles.
As if an Imperial Battlecruiser had landed in the massive L.A. Convention Center, in every direction the well-known logo greets the eye and snippets of familiar theme music play. Attendees queueing to enter the convention hall crowd around a 50-foot-tall video wall displaying game footage from several of the themed games.
Titles Announced
LucasArts announced Star Wars Galaxies, a massively multiplayer online game. It is scheduled to ship late this year in a PC version, and later for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 consoles. Microsoft announced broadband support for the Xbox this week, and Sony revealed its plans for online gaming as well.
GameCube and PlayStation 2 owners can also look forward to the fall release of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a third-person action game set in the period of the current movie. Prices will be announced upon release.
For those thirsting for first- and third-person combat, LucasArts is preparing a pair of new titles. In Star Wars Bounty Hunter, due to ship this fall, players take on the role of Jango Fett, the jetpack-enhanced privateer who gains prominence in Episode II. Also scheduled for a fall release for the Xbox platform is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, a story set 4000 years before the Episode I film, when the Jedi and Sith numbered in the thousands and were at war. A version for the PC is scheduled to ship next spring; pricing will be announced upon release, according to LucasArts representatives.
Among the Star Wars games already shipping and shown here are Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter for the Xbox, Star Wars: Rogue Leader for the Nintendo GameCube, and Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast for the PC. LucasArts also announced it will release a version of Jedi Outcast for both the Xbox and GameCube. Prices range from $30 to $50 depending on the platform.
Homeland Adventures
But LucasArts isn't putting all its faith into the Force. Also previewed was a sequel to the popular, campy motorcycle-rider adventure game Full Throttle, starring the klutzy but lovable biker-gang leader Ben.
Swashbuckling gamers with an Xbox, PlayStation 2, or PC will also have a chance to play a LucasArts adventure set not long ago in a very near galaxy: Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, which creates another episode to follow the tales told in Steven Spielberg's three movies. This adventure takes the screen hero to Asian locales such as Ceylon and Hong Kong. Pricing will be announced when the game ships in fall 2003, according to LucasArts.
And fans of another early-eighties, technological-breakthrough sci-fi film, Tron, will also get a new game. Disney Interactive is preparing Tron 2.0, a first-person game based on the film's storyline, set 20 years later in an Internet-oriented dataverse. LucasArts may have a bit of competition from Disney's game, judging from audience reaction to the previews, although it's not expected to ship for about a year. But gamers at E3 got a chance to fight in the disc arena and claim a Tron 2.0 T-shirt. A lucky few met the original conceptual artist, Syd Mead, who signed photos.
"There are actually fewer Star Wars games released now than in past E3s," says Mary Dihr, LucasArts' vice president of worldwide sales and marketing. "We're trying to have a balanced portfolio with half original and half Star Wars-themed games," she adds.
Of the Star Wars titles, LucasArts is aiming games to particular niches, she says. Though the games vastly outnumber the films, "the movies will always lead and inspire our games, but I don't think it's going the other way," Dihr says. Still, sci-fi game fans won't have to wait for the next Star Wars movie to experience another adventure.