LucasArts, creators of classic games such as the Monkey Island series and Full Throttle (which gave me an excuse to post the glorious gif above), believes that the increase in developers using digital distribution to release games has also increased consumer interest in retro games.

Craig Derrick, producer on the upcoming download only Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, told Destructoid that LucasArts decided to update the title due to fan demand, and also because making new IP is “very difficult”.

“We’re experiencing a remarkable increase in retro gaming and nostalgia thanks in part to the digital distribution of games on Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, Wiiware, Steam and iTunes, he said. “We’re seeing that gamers are looking for new experiences, even if they’re found in classic games.

“The age range of the average gamer has significantly broadened and people are open now more than ever to different types of game genres.” - Destructoid

The beauty of releasing old games on any digital distribution platform means that not only those that grew up playing them can relive the good old days, but it also means that quality games are exposed to a new generation. Some gamers may like hunting down dusty copies of old games, but I just prefer easy access on modern platforms. That doesn’t mean I think they should be updated though, and to be honest I prefer the original visuals in Secret of Monkey Island rather than the new HD update on PC and Xbox Live Arcade (thankfully you can switch between the two). However, there are other options available such as the excellent Good Old Games website. Not only does GoG provide a large stable of classic games, but it’s also extremely cheap to boot!

Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition lands 7 July on PC and Xbox Live.

Bioware - a company well known to Star Wars fans due to the excellent Knights of the Old Republic series - has announced that the new Star Wars MMO rumored a few months back will be called Star Wars: The Old Republic. The game will be set three centuries after the events of KOTOR II and will feature two opposing factions - the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire. You won’t be forced to pick good or evil right from the start though as, like KOTR and Mass Effect, your good or evil status will evolve through the choices you make.

“Players get to come in and take the roles of heroes–or villains–at this pivotal moment where we’re starting to go back into a big galactic war,” promised Erickson. - Gamespot

There’s not much more we know yet, aside from the basic information about the story (which is apparently going to be pretty important to the game, and each class will have its own unique story). The game’s art direction will not be realistic (as you can obviously see from the screenshot above) but it will not be overly cartoon-y either. The big reason for not having spectacular realistic graphics is similar to the approach that Blizzard took with World of Warcraft. Having more simple colourful graphics means that the game will be able to work on a wide range of systems, which is part of why WoW is so popular.

Star Wars: The Old Republic will be the second attempt at creating a Star Wars MMO. Star Wars Galaxies was certainly ambitious but never quite managed to fully grasp the attention of the extensive Star Wars fanbase. Then there was the complete change to the way the game played that angered most of those still playing the game, and while the game still exists today its playerbase is tiny compared to what it could have been.

Hopefully it will be a better game than its former attempt, especially as it’s being made by the rather excellent Bioware. The game is only in development for the PC at the moment but Bioware aren’t ruling out a console release just yet.

More information:

Star Wars: The Old Republic Revealed - Gamespot.
Star Wars: The Old Republic - What we Know so Far - Kotaku.
BioWare Compares ‘Star Wars’ MMO Combat To ‘WoW,’ ‘Age of Conan’ And ‘The Force Unleashed’ - MTV Multiplayer.

Fracture is Lucas Arts attempt to create a popular franchise other than the Star Wars games that they’ve continually churned out. It’s also not just another futuristic third-person shooter as its big pull is in its unique terrain deformation weapons, some of which you get to play with in the demo. The demo itself opens with some futuristic airplanes flying over the Golden Gate Bridge, which is now over hilly land instead of a stretch of water. This gives you some idea of the story, but the basic gist of it is that two factions (Atlantic Alliance and Republic of Pacifica) are fighting against each other due to conflicting ideologies in a world completely transformed by the effects of global warming and the damage done attempting to combat it. Both sides have access to terrain deformation weapons, so you have to wonder why they don’t just create their own land or sink the enemy into the sea like this Penny Arcade comic points out.

Anyway, forget the wider story for now as it’s not really that important in the context of this demo. After being dropped off on the ground (just outside the famous Alcatraz Island prison) the Colonel explains how your Entrencher tool works. With this weapon you can raise and lower terrain, as long as you’re aiming at dirt of course, and will most likely be your must used tool in the game. Firing it at the ground either pops up a great mound of dirt or sinks it into the ground, both of which can be used in puzzles and as a means of cover as I will explain later. I know this first part of the demo is intended to be a tutorial but it still has some pretty idiotic moments. For example, after Jet Brody (the awful name of the character you play in Fracture) has been taught how to use the Entrencher you come across a tunnel blocked by a pile of dirt. While it’s pretty obvious what you’re supposed to do Jet goes ahead and states the obvious anyway; ‘the path is blocked’ and then a short while later ‘Colonel, the wall is to high to jump over’. Well, duh, you have a tool in your hand that will remove the blockage or create a hill to hop over the wall, what the hell do you think you have to do?

After these basic ‘puzzles’ you’ll come across the freighter crash you’re supposed to investigate and you’re first weapon (apart from the machine gun you carry). In the weapons cache that the colonel helpfully pointed to you’ll find subsonic grenades, which the colonel cheerfully recommends you waste by throwing at two piles of crates (thankfully there’s an infinite amount of the things in the cache anyway). These subsonic grenades are actually pretty cool, as they’ll blast a big crater in the ground that flings rocks and objects (in this case, the crates) up in the air. Next you have to toss one of the grenades through a window, which blows out the wall and allows you to use the Entrencher to create a ramp of dirt up to the newly created hole in the wall. Up here is your next weapon.

The Bangalore is effectively a rocket launcher that packs a pretty hefty punch. To test it out you’re tasked with firing it at a small shed, which gleefully explodes in a shower of metal. Unsurprisingly Jet is unimpressed by this display so the colonel suggests he tries firing it at a nearby water tower. As the supports buckle and the water tower collapses to the ground there’s a nice little attention to detail as the ground deforms as it realistically would when a heavy object hits it.

The next weapon you’ll find it the Black Widow - which is a sticky bomb launcher.  You can fire up to six at a time and then detonate them by hitting the ‘x’ button (I was playing the 360 version, by the way). The colonel tells you to test them out by destroying the column supports holding up another freighter on a landing pod. With this done another cache drops down and you now have access to the spike grenades. Spike grenades create a column of molten rock that launches up from the ground, which can create an instant platform for you if you throw one underneath you. This time, however, you have to throw one under a piece of metal to create a ramp up to  a window. Up there is the sniper rifle, but that doesn’t really need to be explained to you as it’s your standard video game issue. If you want you can stay in this area before moving on to the next (such as messing around with an infinite ammo supply of each weapon you’ve found).

Annoyingly you’ll be reverted to the standard issue Entrencher and machine gun when you enter the next area. General Sheridan revolts and quickly kills off most of the troops surrounding you and the colonel. What follows is a chase through the prison, but all you’ll be able to pick up for the meantime is the subsonic grenades. Eventually you’ll come across a gun emplacement where you have to employ the use of your Entrencher to create cover for allied troops pinned down by the emplacement. Once you go through a nearby door your faced with nothing but an open stretch of dirt between you and the gun emplacement, so it’s pretty obvious what to do. This is your run-and-gun style play, running along creating cover for yourself while you advance towards the emplacement. Then you can either get behind the emplacement to take out the enemy soldier controlling it or simply do what I did and raise the terrain, stand on top of the new mound and toss a subsonic grenade at the emplacement. It’s worth nothing that the emplacements bullets are powerful enough to lower the terrain you raised to use as cover.

Upon climbing up to the roof you’ll come across some explosive barrels, a staple of pretty much any video game that involves a gun or two. Shooting them will create a huge hole in the roof, which you can then drop through on to the battle below. You’re troops are pinned down behind the columns of a nearby building and, unfortunately, the only thing between you, your allies and a new weapon are a number of enemy troops. Thankfully you can hit ‘Y’ to sprint across Gears of War style to the other side of the battlefield. Unfortunately General Sheridan manages to escape, no doubt setting up the rest of the games story but who cares when you now have access to the torpedo launcher?

“Torpedo? But we aren’t on water Tom!!!’

Ah, but we are playing a game that has everything to do with the terrain below your feet. At this point of the demo you have to hold out while waiting for extraction, and you’re holding out against a constant flood of enemy troops. Thankfully all you have to do is fire your infinite supply of torpedo launcher ammo at the oncoming enemy. The torpedo will go underground and zoom towards your enemy (you can see the ripple on moving across the ground, kind of like the film Tremors) and detonate when you hit ‘X’,. It’s incredibly satisfying to see enemy troops go flying into the air, their last thoughts being ‘Where the hell did that come from?’. It’s kind of both disappointing and gratifying to have an infinite supply of the ammo right next to you, hopefully the full game won’t be so easy. After your extraction arrives you hop into it and so ends the demo.

Fracture has some pretty nice elements, but it all depends on whether or not they extend the terrain deformation elements beyond what we can see in the demo. Of course, for a developer to put everything in a demo would be incredibly stupid but the simple terrain lowering and raising puzzles, plus the original but eventually tiresome cover system doesn’t exactly impress me past the first ten minutes of play. It’s a demo in the end, and it’s a fun 15 minutes regardless of whether or not the full game will turn out to be far more complicated. Right now the freedom that’s supposed to be granted by the terrain deformation feels terribly linear but I suppose there’s always the multiplayer (which does look incredibly fun) if the singleplayer game doesn’t live up to expectations.

You can check the demo out now on Xbox Live and the Playstation Network. The full game will hit our shores on October 10th.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is one of my games to buy in September. Thankfully, for those unwilling to splash the cash to buy the game on release Lucas Arts has gone and released a demo on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. I had a play through the Xbox 360 demo and here are my impressions.

I’ve always been looking forward to a Star Wars game which effectively makes use of the force powers that mark both the Star Wars films and the Expanded Universe (such as the novels). In previous Star Wars games it never really seemed like you controlled the most powerful force in the universe, but I’ll put this one down to the lack of technology rather than the shortcomings of the developers. In Star Wars: The Force Unleashed you have all the power of the force at your hands, and we all know that it’s far more fun using the force on the dark side. The demo is pretty short but extremely sweet, and it gives you enough time to get to grips with the new spectacular ways of using the force while easily leaving you wanting more.

After a short cinematic featuring the great Darth Vader himself - and where you learn that Starkiller’s (the character you play) father, a Jedi, was killed and Vader took him as his apprentice - you’re thrown straight into an Imperial shipyard with the task of hunting down a Jedi and killing everyone abroad (including Imperials). The first few corridors let you get to grips with your force powers (although there is a short tutorial as well). They’re packed full of droids and crates that you can throw around to your leisure using the force grip. To use your force grip you select your target (Starkiller auto targets when you look at something) and press the right trigger. Once it’s up in the air you can control it by moving the right and left sticks up and down to move the object up and down or forward and back. You can throw the object by pointing the left stick in the direction you want to throw and hitting the left trigger. There’s an especially cool moment in this first area where you can pick up an object with your force grip and throw it through a window, sucking everything in the immediate area out into space before the bulkhead shield slams down.

Your force grip comes into better play when you’re faced with a group of soldiers, be them rebel or imperial.  In the demo you usually approach them from a distance, such as in one of the TIE Fighter (which, incidentally, you can pick up and throw with the force grip) hangers, so you have ample time to grab something with your force grip. For instance, you can grab an explosive barrel and launch it into a group of soldiers, the resulting explosion killing some of the group while knocking the others to the ground. If you’re brave enough you can approach and take them out with a lightsabre (see next paragraph) but I much prefer grabbing hold of one with the force grip and tossing him across the room, possibly into a set of explosive barrels. When floating a guy through the air there’s neat little touches such as him grabbing hold to a handhold on the ground, or grabbing old of a comrade as he floats past so they both go flying around. You can also use the force push that will send anyone in the way flying, and as Starkiller increases in level this is one of the moves that will get more powerful. In the demo you can also use the force push to rip through heavy bulkhead doors, while the force grip allows you to bend support struts into the oncoming path of TIE Fighters. The force grip controls can take some getting used to, especially in the heat of battle where it’s easy to target the wrong thing. Also, you have to be quick as a laser bolt can make you drop whatever you have in your invisible grasp.

Starkiller is a pretty athletic guy and has a set of fluid movements in his arsenal. You can jump fairly high, especially combined with the double jump, and slam down with the lightsabre - which is perfect for landing in the centre of a group. You can also execute the force push in mid-air, which also lets you extend the blast downwards. You can combine lightsabre attacks with the force grip, such as dragging a person towards you with the force grip, slashing them with the lightsabre and sending them flying with your lightsabre still impaled in them. Your lightsabre then returns to you, spinning through the air like a boomerang. If all else fails you can just hit ‘y’ and execute a lightning bolt - which has the ability to take down a few guys if they’re standing close together.

The end of the demo - which comes far too early in my opinion - see’s you fighting an AT-ST Walker. Large enemies like these are where the double jump comes in handy as you can jump up and slash at it in the air - which comes in handy for avoiding the laser fire. While you’re on the ground you can avoid the rapid laser fire from the walker (and the storm troopers around it) by using the dash skill. When you get the walker down to a certain level of health a QTE (Quick Time Event) will activate, which means you have to press the button that pops up on screen with perfect timing. If you do this correctly Starkiller will slash the walker in two from the bottom up, which ends the demo.

Flinging storm troopers around is pretty fun, but it’s hard to see how this can get you through the entire game. If Lucas Arts manages to put out a decent storyline and also manages to expand on the innovative force powers seen in the demo then Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will be a pretty wild ride. From the variety of settings and moves seen in the media released so far it just may turn out to be one of the finest Star Wars games yet, and a very action packed one at that.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is released for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Playstation 2, Wii, Nintendo DS, PSP, N-Gage and the iPhone on September 19 (UK).

With August nearly out of the way (for which I will be forever thankful for) it’s time to take a look at some of the games that will be hitting the shelves in September. Autumn is always a great time for games and this years end-of-year line-up is no exception.

Spore.

Release Date: September 5th (UK)
Platforms: PC, Mac

Spore is by far the game I’ve been looking forward to the most over the past few years. While I’ve been keeping up with every little bit of news about Spore events this month have took my mind of things so it was, to my utter surprise, that I realised we’re less than two weeks away from the game that will destroy my life.

If you’re not familiar with Spore (where have you been?) it allows you to control the evolution of a creature of your own design from cell stage through to civilisation and space stages. You can customise your creatures to your hearts extent, along with buildings and vehicles. Plus, your universe will be populated by the creations of other players across the world.

You can view the over two million creations already created by players here, and you can have your own shot at it before the full release with the free version of the Spore creature creator available here. While you’re at it take a quick look at my own creations.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.

Release Date: September 5th (UK)
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 2, Playstation 3

As you can see from the video above it’s pretty much all ‘BOOM BOOM BOOM’ in a sandbox arena. There’s nothing wrong with this though, nothing at all. It’s pure incredible fun and that’s what video games were originally invented for. While it does have a plot who really cares when you can nuke the hell out of something?

Unfortunately it comes out on the same day as Spore and my pockets aren’t exactly crammed with cash at the moment. I guess I’ll just have to wait a little while long to blind myself with the sheer awesomeness of the explosions.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Release Date: September 19th (UK)
Platforms: Xbox 360, Wii, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Nintendo DS, N-Gage, PSP, iPhone

What can be better than flinging a Tie Fighter into a Storm Trooper? When it looks as good as this it’s apparently not much.

You’ll play the part of Darth Vader’s apprentice tasked with destroying the last of the Jedi. You’ll soon become more powerful than even Vader himself and your actions will determine which ending you get. The story fits pretty nicely into the Star Wars universe so you’ll want to get it if you’re a hardcore fan. For the rest of those who aren’t hardcore fans but still like a bit of Star Wars then you’ll probably love the amazing physics effects that occur when using the force. These effects are helped along by the Euphoria engine - the same engine that controlled the physics effects in Grand Theft Auto IV.

A lot of Star Wars games are pretty poor, but this one just may change that trend.