Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will be released on September 16th so be sure to mark it on your calenders – in case you haven’t already. Between the cool screens and the trailers this looks like it is going to be a fun romp through the galaxy. Plus, if the screens are correct, it looks like it will be loads of fun tossing Storm Troopers around should they “disappoint you”.

Enjoy the new screens.

SOE has released the Attendees List for Fan Faire 2008. The event will take place in Las Vegas August 14th to the 17th. Players can check out which of their friends or rivals will be at Fan Faire using a simple game and server search. Only the name of the avatar is listed so there’s no worry about personal privacy issues.

Check out the growing Attendees List and the emerging details on this year’s Fan Faire at the official SOE Fan Faire registration site.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will be hitting the PS3 and Xbox 360 around September 16th and gamers who own a PSP, PS2, DS, and Wii will not be left out of the mix either.We got these screens in today, and they really do not show us anything more than what we already knew. Yes, Darth Vader is a badass, but the rest of the game looks pretty cool too. But being able to play as Darth Vader’s “Secret Apprentice” set during the largely unexplored era between “Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” and “Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope” is a dream game for a Star Wars geek like me and, well, the rest of the globe.

In it, players will assist the iconic villain in his quest to rid the universe of Jedi – WOO HOO – and face decisions that could change the course of their destiny. I can’t wait!

You know what they say about payback, and the now-official LucasArts layoffs has led to Kotaku getting all sorts of email from  former LucasArts staff revealing all kinda of details on future games — including Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 3.

The information claims that, with the layoffs, the company will be left shorthanded with all of the games they have in the works, which include KOTOR 3, which is apparently an MMO being worked on by BioWare, Star Wars Battlefront 3, “The Official Indiana Jones” game, “another LEGO game based on the Indy universe,” and “a lightsaber game for the wii (sorry, no lighsaber peripherals).”

Talk about juicy rumors.

The person also said that the layoffs shouldn’t impact The Force Unleashed or Fracture. The Force Unleashed has “passed approval with SCEA and is ready to ship,” while Fracture, on the other hand, is “an absolute piece of garbage.” Of course, I’d probably hate anything being made by the company that just fired me, so his or her word might not be the best to go on in that regard.

The rumored news that LucasArts had laid off as many as 100 employees — including the Peter Hirschmann, VP of product development — have been confirmed by the company today, Kotaku reports. Spokesperson Margaret Grohne said the decision to let Hirschmann go was a “mutual decision” and claimed that things are still in good shape.

“I can confirm we had layoffs yesterday they were in the studio,” said Grohne. “They had to do with where we are in our product life cycles.”

LucasArts underwent a change at president recently when former prez Jim Ward resigned. He was replaced by former Electronic Arts COO Darrell Rodriguez shortly thereafter. It’s unclear if those moves led to the layoffs, but it’s certainly a fact worth keeping in mind.

“We are healthy,” Grohne continued. “LEGO Indie was launched on seven platforms to positive reviews, The Force Unleashed and Fracture are on track for this fall. We have a good slate of games and we have some good stuff going on in production.

“We are definitely committed to the internal studio.”

But with so much of the company’s staff getting the boot, is the company really in a position to continue internal development? We’ll have more on the story as it develops.

Those of you who plan on picking up the new LEGO Indiana Jones game from LucasArts this coming Tuesday (June 3rd) will be in for a surprise when you check out the back of the booklet that comes with the game.

Ok, maybe not so much a surprise because I am telling you about it now, but you know what I mean – ANYWAY, an advert for Star Wars: Clone Wars is on the back of it.

The most surprising thing about Clone Wars for the DS and Wii is that it was never announced by LucasArts. I guess they can be really tight lipped when they want to be – that or the game is going to be sub-par which would never happen to any game bearing the illustrious Star Wars moniker.

I guess we will just have to wait until E3 to find out more, but at this point, I am just not very thrilled over the prospect of a Star Wars DS game. Why you ask? Because I just know that our evil lovely News Manager Ron will make me review it as his way of taking the piss.

Thanks: Kotaku

Most of us here at Gaming Today are pretty excited about Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. So imagine my delight when I opened an email from a gamer buddy of mine who had enough brotherly love for me to send in some awesome Vader pics. Not all of these are screenshots, some are artwork, but they are still pretty cool, and two of them are indeed actual screens from the game.

You can view all there is to know about the upcoming game from LucasArts by clicking here, and there are more screens via that link as well.The game is expected to hit shelves on September 16 for multiple platforms.

Enjoy.

Force Unleashed producer Cameron Suey claims that the game will leave PS3 and Xbox 360 fanboys nothing to argue about. Players should see no difference between the PS3 and 360 versions of the game.

“Between the Xbox 360 and the PS3, if we’ve done our job right, they’ll be indistinguishable,” Suey told Eurogamer during a recent press event to showcase progress on the next-generation versions.

“We really wanted to make the same sort of polished, high-end next-gen experience on both those versions.”

Suey also attempted to explain why gamers won’t have multiplayer as an option on the PS3 or the Xbox 360 for the latest Star Wars title.

We knew that to really make the fully polished story experience that we wanted to make, we had to focus on that single-player experience. It definitely was a good choice, I think. It’s easy to have a game that’s just okay, with a multiplayer that’s just okay – but we really preferred to have that powerful single-player experience,” he said.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is due out on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2 , DS, PSP and the N-Gage in North America on September 16, 2008; in Australia on September 17, 2008; and in Europe on September 19, 2008.

via Eurogamer

Its been a few weeks since we’ve had a regular installment but this week I thought it would be interesting to talk about a few random news items along with a quick review of the Wizards of the Coast produced card and dice game – Inn-Fighting.

Inn-Fighting
Price: $14.99
Release Date: October 2007

Not sure what you want to do tonight? Maybe one of your regular players has decided not to show up and you’re left holding the game on their account. Well I can heartily recommend Inn-Fighting as a great way to keep the game group focused on the fantasy RPG elements without having to break your back on story and plotting.

Inn-Fighting is a dice and card game that is meant to simulate the wildest bar fight in the world. Players draw from a small selection of adventurer cards and then abruptly begin to bash and beat the other players at the table with the table. The goal of the game is to defeat enough opponents in the brawl that you accumulate 20 victory points. Points are gained by defeating bystanders or opponents and the game does an excellent job of introducing unique characters with often humorous special abilities into the fray.

Read the full article »

John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment, is the next big name in the games industry to be interviewed as MMO Week continues over on Games Industry.biz.

Smedley talks in depth about SOE’s strategy in the MMO market. The most important lesson SOE has learned along the way is to listen to its customers. He cites the reaction of the Star Wars Galaxy community over changes to the game a few years back.

I think we were a little too arrogant as a company. We thought we knew what was best as a company, and we should have listened more. That’s really the biggest lesson we’ve learned as a company in the last eight years. Listening to our customers is everything.

The lessons we’ve learned from our community have just been extraordinary. For years now we’ve been running something called the Influencer Summit, where we pull 100 people, and 50 of those people will be our worst critics.

So one of the things we’re trying to do is listen better as a company, and over the past few years I think we’ve done that – I’m really proud of the strides we’ve taken in that direction. Listening is a very important skill.

This interview will give you information on SOE’s portfolio of MMOs including EverQuest and EverQuest2, the troubled Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. The article also covers new titles in development such as The Agency for the PS3 and another title for the Indian market based on the Ramayan 3392 AD comic.

via GamesIndustry.biz