I don’t know about the rest of you, but the announcement that LucasArts was reviving some of their back catalog got me excited. After all, who didn’t love games like Star Wars Republic Commando and Battlefront II? In addition, there’s Tales of Monkey Island as a brand new title from Telltale Games.

If reading Eva’s impressions of Monkey Island got your interest up, I’ve got some good news for you.

FileFront now has the playable demo of Guybrush Threepwood’s triumphant return for you to download and try out. Simply click this link to head over and download the demo from FileFront’s fast, free servers.

I fully expect you all to come back here and tell us what you think of the demo. After all, that’s why we have the comments section.

Telltale is bringing a new generation of gamers fresh Tales of Monkey Island. The new episodic adventure games plays like Sam & Max or Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People. That is to say it plays like the original classic point-and-click adventure game, the Secret of Monkey Island. For the maiden voyage of Tales of Monkey Island, Telltale presents the first of five monthly episodes, Launch of the Screaming Narwhal available today for the PC or as WiiWare..

I’m a veteran of the Monkey Island series. Although I’m really looking forward to the re-imagined Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition coming out later this summer, I was very excited about new stories featuring Guybrush Threepwood, and those mysterious monkeys. I can honestly tell you that Telltale has done an excellent job retaining the bumbling, yet witty and sarcastic Guybrush Threepwood and the ensemble of characters that keep this setting fresh almost 20 years after the first game launched.

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While Guybrush Threepwood is returning in a new title and a relaunched classic later this week from Telltale Games and Lucasarts as Eva mentioned, today the big news was regarding the return of a number of classic Lucasarts Adventure games (The Dig and LOOM being the best news) and more than a few of their not-quite-as-old franchise action titles like Star Wars: Republic Commando, Star Wars Battlefront II and the various Indiana Jones titles are making their way to Valve’s digital distribution system, Steam on July 8th.

The complete annotated list includes:

• Armed and Dangerous™
• Indiana Jones® and the Fate of Atlantis
• Indiana Jones® and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
• LEGO® Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure
• LOOM™
• Star Wars Battlefront® II
• Star Wars Republic Commando®
• Star Wars Starfighter™
• The Dig®
• Thrillville®: Off the Rails™

It definitely looks like Lucasarts is trying to recapture the the glory days of the company before it became the “bad” Star Wars game and LEGO tie-in company. The games will be released on the Xbox 360 via Live! as well.

There are a few more games I’d love to see make this list like the Maniac Mansion games, or Grim Fandango – by Tim Schafer – lately the mind behind Psychonauts and Brutal Legend.  Till then however I think I might just consider picking up another copy of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and LOOM.

Tuesday July 7th, Guybrush Threepwood is back with the first episode of the new Tales of Monkey Island series, Launch of the Screaming Narwhal. Telltale has released a video, screenshots and concept art for the first Monkey Island adventure in a decade. The gameplay footage gives you the look and feel of the new episodes and should assure you that the Guybrush Threepwood we all know and love, or at least tolerate, is indeed back.

Check out more graphic goodness from Telltale or soon you’ll be wearing my sword like a shish kebab!

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Genuine Star Wars Clone Trooper Blasters and Light-up Lightsabers are headed to the Wii this fall. Bensussen Deutsch & Associates are bringing out these fully licensed peripherals for their Power A line.

The Clone Trooper Blasters are made to work with the upcoming Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes game. It uses both the Wii Remote and Nunchuk for a duel trigger action, one the barrel and one on the nunchuck. You can customize each blaster with a nice variety of stickers that are included.

The Light-up Lightsabers aren’t designed for any specific game. They’re sculpted replicas of Yoda and Anakin Skywalker’s lightsabers. The Wii-mote fits right in the hilt. You can turn the light up feature on and off to conserve battery power.

Pictures of all three Power A Clone Trooper Blasters and both Light-up Lightsabers follow the break.
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The Star Wars SAGA RPG is officially one of my favorite games to read lining right up there next to the old West End Star Wars D6 RPG, Pinnacles’ Deadlands and Kenzer’s Aces & Eights. While I’m currently buried in fantasy mayhem in my two ongoing RPG games every new SAGA release not only entertains me and enriches my Star Wars fanboyish knowledge of the galaxy far, far away, but it also demonstrates that if I ever get the opportunity to play in a game rather than run it I’m going to insist it be Star Wars SAGA.

Every time I begin a discussion of Star Wars with a game group I seem to have the same frustrating results.. “Star Wars would be great if I didn’t already know how it ended.” Is the most common response I get.

It seems a lot of gamers have their impressions of what adventuring in Star Wars can be locked into the films they enjoyed. I’ve even had the “Star wars is a generational saga about the Skywalker family and their impact on the universe” George Lucas paraphrase thrown back a few times.

Well guess what folks, that may be true of the George Lucas story and his cinematic campaign, but this is an entire galaxy full of folks. Lots of planets to explore, many cultures to experience and lately even, thanks to Dark Horse Comics and Bioware/Obsidian lots of time to play within. I professed my love of the Knights of the Old Republic setting in a previous column, and with the reveal trailer for the upcoming Bioware Old Republic MMO making fanboys lose it, I think the resistance to playing in that setting may start waning.

Getting away from the 800lb. Gorilla in Star Wars: The Rebellion, Darth Vader and even the later Expanded Universe canon of the Yuuzhan Vong and New Republic can be a challenge.

How do you tell your own tale in a world so universally loved?
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LucasArts has gamers setting sale for Monkey Island in two new updates of this classic adventure series. Guybrush Threepwood is coming at you in new episodic adventures from the creative team behind Sam & Max and Strong Bad, Telltale. Gamers can enjoy Tales of Monkey Island in five months of brand new swashbuckling adventures for the PC and WiiWare

The word on the web on the Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition has turned out great for Money Island fans. gamers will get to meet all their favorite characters from the Secret of Money Island in there-imagined first adventure of Guybrush Threepwood with HD graphics and full voiceovers. Learn the art of insult sword fighting with Guybrush to a new musical score. The game will be out for the Xbox 360 and PC.

Get the full details on Tales of Monkey Island and the Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition from the press release following the break. There’s also word of an easter egg included on the upcoming Wii version of Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings.

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It seems that gamers are on a course to rediscover the long lost Secret of Monkey Island on the Xbox 360. This classic LucasArts point and click adventure game has recently been rated by the The German USK rating board for the console. There’s no indication of what makes this a Special Edition. Hopefully it involves some kind of voice or enhanced sound track.

Most likely the Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition will be an XBL Arcade title but if we’re lucky it’ll be packaged for retail. Here’s an old TV spot from the Sega CD version.

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BioWare and Lucas Arts have offered up a video documentary on the upcoming Star Wars the Old Republic MMORPG. This seems to be the first in a series as it is titled Video Documentary #1. Hopefully we can look forward to more in the future.

Members of the Old Republic development team including James Ohlen, creative director and lead designer, Daniel Erickson, principal lead writer, and Jeff Dobson, art director, show players new concept art and screenshots. There’s also plenty of footage from preproduction gameplay. You can view the SWTOR Video Documentary #1 on the Star Wars the Old Republic website.

After a renewed start we had an interruption these last few weeks but rest assured Filefront is still hosting and promoting all the great user created and hosted content contributed to us. We return with a double length post highlighting some great mods and files for quite a few outstanding games including usual suspects like Half-Life 2, the Battlefield games and of course one of my favorite series “that I am really no good at yet still enjoy” – Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War

Highlights from this week’s column include mods for:

• Doom III – Wrathchild Act I (not ROE compatible), Revised Alphalabs
• Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – A Provost of the Nine Divines, More Nord Beards
• Battlefield 2 – Operation Peacekeeper, Allies Intent Extended
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R – Ballistics Mod
• Far Cry 2 – new maps: MP_Surf & Gold Rush

There are also links to other maps, mods and patches for many of your favorite PC modifiable games. Be sure to check it all out after the jump.

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