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What MacGyver Taught Me. (and lots of other people probably)

Sarah Byrne
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What MacGyver Taught Me. (and lots of other people probably)

Angus MacGyver is one of my all time heroes. He has had a huge influence on the way I have lived my life and how I treat people. He is the reason I wore a bomber jacket as a teenager, the reason I had a Swiss Army Knife, and the reason I have never killed anybody.

I have a lot to thank him for. Here are some other things I learned from him.

 Mullets CAN be cool.

I actually never realised that Mac’s haircut was a mullet until a few years ago. I know some of you might wonder how on Earth I could have been so very silly, but just read on ok, and I shall try to make you understand.

 MacGyver was, and still is, the coolest cat that the late eighties/early nineties ever saw. Now, how could someone so very cool have such an uncool haircut? He couldn’t possibly, could he?

 I was a very young human when MacGyver first graced our television screens to show off his amazing magical science skills. I wouldn’t have even known what a mullet was back then. And as I grew older and from time to time noticed real life people wearing mullets, how could I have connected those crazy hill-billies with the coolest guy on TV?

How could I have thought, ‘oh wow, that guys dreadful haircut looks very much like MacGyvers’?

 Well obviously I couldn’t, and I know that at least some of you will know where I’m coming from with this. MacGyver had hair like Riggs from Lethal Weapon, and David from The Lost Boys. Cool hair. Not horrible hair that made him look like a crazy hobo.

So if someone mentioned mullets to me now (I don’t know why anybody would) I would probably first say something like, “ew, the laughing stock of the haircut world, haha, mullets are so silly”… but then, I would think of Mac and his way cool hair and I would say, “wait a minute, you know, mullets CAN be cool after all.”

And then I would nod wisely.


Runner boots are the best footwear.

When we saw MacGyver wearing those snazzy runner boots, we all wanted runner boots. And when we got them… Oh my word, all that lovely ankle support. And the comfort! Putting your new runner boots on was like shoving your feet inside two marshmallows.

And remeber how cool you looked when you wore them with your denim jeans and your denim jacket? Yeah. You know you rocked that look.

 

Always, ALWAYS carry a knife.

And a bottle opener, and a screwdriver, and a corkscrew, maybe a tweezers, a toothpick, a reamer, and probably lots of other useful things as well. You never know when one of these will come in handy to make a bomb or grow some vegetables, or even fashion a fancy new ballgown from some old dog food bags and baked bean tins.

I always carried a knife growing up. I had a really cool penknife for a few years but I eventually got a Swiss Army Knife, and I was always opening screws or trying to open tins and bottles with it. I don’t think it worked very well for anything. But it was still awesome.

 

Science is a good life skill.

Everybody likes science, right? What’s not to like? When you do science you get to experiment, mix ingredients together and make all sorts of things happen. Chemical reactions are the best kinds of reactions. There are exciting smells, and smoke, and sometimes there are explosions, some minor burns, the loss of a digit or two. Brilliant.

But who knew you could use science in everyday life? If you’re on a fishing trip with your old grandpappy and assassins come to kill you, what do you do? Use science of course!

And what about when you’re in the jungle and killer ants are coming to get you? Science again? Yep.

Need to battle local drugdealers in your old hometown? You know what to do by now.

Go science, you rock!

 

Everybody needs an arch enemy. A nemesis if you will.

We don’t want the world getting all out of whack now do we? For every yin, there must be a yang. To have light, we must have darkness… Fire, ice. Male, female. High, low. You get it, right? Opposites.

Murdoc was MacGyvers opposite. He was the evil genius who tried and failed so many times to outwit MacGyver. My favourite episodes were the ones with Murdoc in them, he just made everything so exciting. You never knew if he was going to win this time and actually kill Mac. He never did of course, but he always had me on the edge of my seat.

 

Killing people is bad.

 Beat people up, knock them out, just don’t kill them. There is always another way, murder is never the answer, especially not when you know how to do science.

When MacGyver was a kid, one of his friends was killed in a gun related accident, and that’s why he never, never uses guns. Never.

 Except for in the pilot episode.

 

Have You Tried Forcing An Unexpected Reboot? IT Crowd To Return!

James Buckingham
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Have You Tried Forcing An Unexpected Reboot? IT Crowd To Return!

Graham Linehan, the creator of the cult BBC series The IT Crowd has confirmed that there will be one more episode created for the fans… Quick! What was that emergency number again? Oh yes… 0118999881999119725….3.

The IT Crowd

Yes, geeks – Roy, Moss, Jen & Douglas (Chris O’Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson & Matt Berry respectively) are all set to return to your TV screens in a specially-created one-off fan episode. Linehan confirmed the details at the German re:publica digital conference in a Q&A session, and also told us that the episode will clock in at around 40 minutes long – roughly double the usual episode length.

The four main cast members are assured to return, with the possiblity of other special appearances also hinted.

The 2006 comedy series is absolute genius, and ran for 4 seasons (they’re all available on Netflix if you’ve not seen it before). Chris Morris of The Brass Eye fame appeared in the first season too, which is enough of an incentive in itself to go and watch it, but Moss always stole the show in my opinion – from his invention of the ultimate bra, to dealing with a fire by emailing someone… he’s total comedic genius.

Lineham advised that the script for this one-off episode has been in the pipeline for about a year, but has been delayed for several reasons – however according to Bleeding Cool it’s due to start filming in about three weeks.

So not only will you see O’Dowd cameoing in Thor: The Dark World, but he’ll be returning to sarcastically drone “Hello IT? Have you tried turning it off and on again?”

Ender’s Game Trailer

MrBoxChatter
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Ender’s Game Trailer

Ender's Game PosterFollowing the success of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Twilight, it seems Hollywood is forever in search of the next big literary franchise to adapt and extort. As the sequel to The Hunger Games releases in November, it will be accompanied by another first in a potential series.

Ender’s Game is based on the 1985 sci-fi novel of the same name, as well as the later written parallel novel Ender’s Shadow; both part of a long running and highly successful series by American author Orson Scott Card. The trailer released yesterday and can be seen below.

Set in the distant future, mankind struggles to survive constant onslaught by an alien race known as the ‘Formics’. As the next invasion approaches talented children from across the globe are drafted into an advanced military school in the hopes of finding the next great fleet commander. We follow Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a tactical genius set to follow in the footsteps of legendary hero Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley). Ender and other potentials must compete in various games that could well dictate the fate of humanity.

With a striking look, solid cast, intriguing characters, and an epic sci-fi story, Ender’s Game is promising. If X-Men Origins: Wolverine director Gavin Hood pulls off this first film, we could have a blockbuster franchise with long-term substance and wide appeal.

Ender’s Game hits US cinemas on 1st November.

Epic Trailer For The World’s End

James Buckingham
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Epic Trailer For The World’s End

The third and final part of The Cornetto Trilogy finally has a trailer, and it is awesome! The saga that started with Shaun Of The Dead culminates in The World’s End, a movie about five mates attempting to relive their misspent youth and undertaking a pub crawl of epic proportions… with dire consequences.

The World's End

I’ve been waiting for a trailer for this movie for months, and when I went past a pub the other day called The World’s End (funnily enough as I’d left Sandford heading for Swindon) I wondered when we’d see it, as I’d been having Cornetto withdrawal… and today I’m definitely not disappointed.

Starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, Paddy Considine and Rosamund Pike, and directed by the always awesome Edgar Wright, The World’s End trailer (below) appears to have a certain Attack The Block feel to it. I’m sure that’s just the effects of Edgar hanging out with Joe Cornish, but I’m definitely not complaining!

The trailer even has little nods to the other movies in the trilogy – the fence hopping of Shaun and Hot Fuzz… I wonder if we’ll hear a varient of the line “What’s the matter, Danny? Never taken a shortcut before?”

Anyway check out the trailer below, courtesy of MSN, and see what you think.

The World’s End comes out in the UK on August 14th, and in the US on October 25th.

Another D&D Movie On The Way

James Buckingham
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Another D&D Movie On The Way

Warner Bros. announced yesterday that they had acquired the rights to make a movie based on Dungeons & Dragons… but will it be as cheesy & crap as it’s predecessors? Lets hope not.D&D

Depending on your age, when someone refers to Dungeons & Dragons or D&D, you’ll have one of three, maybe four things in your head: The epic tabletop roleplaying game, the awesome 80’s cartoon series, the song by Stephen Lynch or if you’re one of the unlucky ones – the 2000 movie starring Justin Whalin & Jeremy Irons.

Now I’m a mix of the cartoon series and the Stephen Lynch track (which is hilarious by the way), but unfortunately I remember the god-awful movie as well. Directed by Courtney Solomon (who later directed An American Haunting in 2005, and is in post production on Getaway, due this year) who’d never directed anything before… the movie was made out to be an FX-laden buddy comedy. It was awful, though at the time the special effects weren’t bad.

It was followed by straight-to-DVD suckfest Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath Of The Dragon God in 2005… which had it’s only redeeming factor as not being directed by Uwe Boll. Lets just say that D&D movies have been somewhat lacking of late, and the spate of straight to DVD spin offs and TV movies that followed the movie in 2000 just made matters worse.

So… with series like Game Of Thrones  revitalising the fantasy genre and giving it a gritty & brutal edge, along with movies like Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit, is now the time to reboot D&D and give it the movie it deserves? WB think so, and they’ve purchased a script that they’re adapting to fit the genre.

Game of Thrones has made fantasy appeal to the masses
Game of Thrones has made fantasy appeal to the masses

David Leslie Johnson (Wrath of the Titans, Red Riding Hood) is the scribe that’s penned the script in question, dubbed Chainmail – based on a medieval miniatures wargame, that also involved D&D creator Gary Gygax.

Unfortunately it looks like the original director of the 2000 movie (Solomon) is on board with the new project as a producer along with Roy Lee (who’s currently producing The Lego Movie, but also produced one of my favourite movies, The Departed)… hmmm I’m not sure if I like that or not – I’m fine with Lee, but please leave Courtney Solomon out of it!

We can only hope that should WB push forward with a D&D movie (and I’m fairly sure they will given LOTR & Game of Thrones’ success), that they’ll make sure it’s given the production time it deserves, and that they ideally bring on one of the game’s creators like Gary Gygax, Jeff Perren or Dave Arneson to consult.

At the present time, there’s no word on a prospective release window, but you can be sure that as soon as we have any news, you’ll be the first to find out.

Source: Deadline

 

Will Grayson, Will Grayson – John Green/David Levithan

Cristina Bogdan
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Will Grayson, Will Grayson – John Green/David Levithan

John Green has made a name for himself in the young adult genre, most of his books receiving that label, something that I personally find slightly off-putting, given that in my opinion a lot of people past the age of 25 could benefit from reading one of his books, preferably without being judged as immature by others with different preferences.

Now, Will Grayson, Will Grayson is somewhat different than John Green’s other works (Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns or The Fault in our Stars come to mind). For one, despite making you sympathise with its characters, the overpowering need to rip your heart out while you bawl, curled up in a ball on the floor is distinctly lacking. It’s the tale of two people, of the same age, born in the same year with different problems, that have spent their lives completely unaware of the other’s existence. Their paths cross due to what might seem like an absurd turn of events and changes start piling up one after the other, the snowball effect altering everything in its path.

The writing style is different for the two characters, one of them being written by John Green (you’ll definitely recognize  his style) and the other is written by David Levithan, giving us two very different people, something that would’ve been a little harder to pull of if a single person would’ve been the voice between the both of them. I think it would’ve had a very Gilmore Girls feel to it in that case, everyone would’ve had the same wit and speech pattern. Thankfully, it was not the case here.

The whole purpose of the book is to be a lesson, funny enough, it’s not the usual poignant lesson about how we’re all perfect and how everyone could and should love us just the way we are. While ultimately that seems to be the message that comes across, on the journey to its peak, we actually learn how flawed, self-centred and selfish everyone is, no matter the image they project of themselves outwardly and inwardly. Still, the heroes aren’t unsympathetic, they are more or less avatars of the readers, teenage, young adults or pushing eighty, they are characters that strive to represent each type of person: the perpetually frightened of life, of making choices, the eternally depressed, the doom and gloom type, the cheerful one that hides behind his mask of smiles and joy and even the type of person that loves to watch the world burn. Okay, perhaps that kind is particularly poorly represented, but Will Grayson, Will Grayson still tries to spin the story to show off the small glimpses of each person that at one point or another each of us becomes as life happens around us, or the type of person that we meet at least in our lives.

The story centres around two Will Graysons, each one living in his own worlds, riddled with problems that seem impossible to surpass, at least to them, worlds populated with colourful characters such as Tiny Cooper who manages to crossover from one Will to the other and change everything in his path.  To be honest, when I bought the book I wasn’t sure it could be as good as the other books of his I’d read. I was afraid that it will follow a certain pattern I’d noticed, when boy meets girl, falls in love and spends the whole book chasing after her. It was a bit of a variation to the theme and personally it’s one of my favourite on my John Green list. It’s funny and quirky and even when it’s sad it manages to insert one sentence that changes the feel of the whole chapter. I laughed more reading it than I had in weeks while I was struggling to “get a life” and for that alone it gets a 10+ in my own personal black book of books. 

It brought us such gems as: 

“dating you would be like a series of unnecessary root canals interspersed with occasional makeout sessions.”

or, one of my personal favourites:

“i can’t help thinking that ‘getting a life’ is something only a complete idiot could believe. like you can just drive to a store and get a life. see it in its shiny box and look inside the plastic window and catch a glimpse of yourself in a new life and say, ‘wow, i look much happier – i think this is the life i need to get!’ take it to the counter, ring it up, put it on your credit card. if getting a life was that easy, we’d be one blissed-out race. but we’re not. so it’s like, mom, your life isn’t out there waiting, so don’t think all you have to do is find it and get it. no, your life is right here. and, yeah, it sucks. lives usually do. so if you want things to change, you don’t need to get a life. you need to get off your ass.”

Bottom line? Read the book, take the time to try and understand it and don’t get hung-up on the fact that supposedly it’s only aimed at younger people. The lessons are universal and sometimes they are just the swift kick in the butt we all need. And when no one around us would give it to us, I suppose it falls to the authors we like to do just that. Have a little of John Green’s self-pimping of Will Grayson, Will Grayson and start reading and in the immortal words of all nerdfighters and all the other geeky/nerdy types: dftba!

New Wolfenstein Game Due Later This Year

James Buckingham
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New Wolfenstein Game Due Later This Year

Bethesda have announced that the FPS classic Wolfenstein is set to return later this year in a new game titled “Wolfenstein: The New Order“.

Wolfenstein: New Order

Gamespot announced the news this morning, with a shiny new trailer to go with it.

Developed by Swedish studio MachineGames, The New Order is set in 1960, in an alternate history where the Nazis won World War 2 and became the primary global superpower in the world. Players will again take on the guise of B.J. Blazkowicz, who must once again take up the mantle of infiltrating Nazi strongholds in Europe and take control of new weapons and scupper the plans of the enemy.

Jens Matthies, creative director at MachineGames said “We are excited to bring a new chapter of Wolfenstein to gamers everywhere. As fans of the series, working on this game is an honor, and our team is driven to create an unforgettable action-adventure experience that will make FPS fans proud.”

Check out the trailer below:

Wolfenstein: The New Order will be released for Xbox 360, PS3 and Next-Gen consoles towards the end of the year.

Geeks on Film: 5/5/13

Hani Fearon
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Geeks on Film: 5/5/13

Geeks on Film returns this week with the latest top stories and updates. We’ll look at Star Trek: Into Darkness which hits our screens in a few days and I’ll tell you why I’m excited about Pacific Rim.

This Week’s Top Stories

transformers-4-logo1We’re going to kick off this week with news on upcoming Michael Bay projects, Transformers 4 and his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot. Kelsey Grammer has been cast as the villain in Transformers 4, set to be released in June 2014. Details are scarce at the moment, but it has been confirmed that he will not merely be lending his voice as a Decepticon, but this bad guy is going to be a human. Grammer will play counter-intelligence operative Harold Attinger, and that’s all we seem to know so far.

Next up, Michael Bay has finally confirmed that the rumours of his TMNTs being aliens in the upcoming reboot is a load of bollocks. He was apparently misquoted a while back and failed to respond to the rumours, but has confirmed that he will be sticking close to the original material. Set for release in May next year, a Summer of Michael Bay blockbusters is on the cards. Whoopee. Yes, that is sarcasm you sense. Bay certainly has some gems under his belt, but his work over the past ten years has failed to grab my attention. I’m a big cinematography nerd, and the guy uses the same bloody colour palette on every film. Okay, so that’s very nerdy, but everything always looks like it’s had a green wash over it. Anyway, moving on…

Live Action TMNT

Next we’ve got news on the upcoming Ant-Man movie set for a 2015 release. Due to changes in the Marvel Universe brought on by Iron Man 3 with Avengers 2 following suit, director Edgar Wright (yay) has had to do a bit of a rewrite. However, Marvel head Kevin Feige is confident it will be a success. I’d love to hear from my lovely readers what you think about the Ant-Man movie, will it work?

A little less geeky now, with confirmation of an Inbetweeners Movie sequel where the boys will head Down Under, cue the innuendos. In other news, the Die Hard sequel might have been given a name – Die Hardest. If you ask me, that’s fucking awful. Then again, it’s the sixth movie, I’m not exactly expecting a cinematic masterpiece.brandon-lee-the-crow

Finally, some Hollywood gossip I’m not sure whether or not to be excited about is further speculation on the casting of Eric Draven for Warner Bros’ remake of The Crow. Tom Hiddleson was rumoured for a while, but attention has turned to Alexander Skarsgard, with the role apparently being his to turn down.

Now, I’m all in favour of Skarsgard getting such an awesome lead role, but I’m really not sold on the idea of a remake. The Crow is a great cult film, and Brandon Lee was superb, with his death from an injury sustained during filming making this piece of cinema ever more iconic. Keep posted for more news on this one folks. Let’s just hope that they get Trent Reznor back on board for the soundtrack.


New Releases

Star Trek: Into DarknessHitting the big screen next week is the much anticipated sequel, Star Trek: Into Darkness. Directed by J.J. Abrams and starring Chris Pine, Zachery Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch, Simon Pegg and many many more, I can’t wait for it’s release. I’m not the biggest Star Trek geek, but I’ve recently become much more interested and I think that Benedict Cumberbatch will really play a superb villain.

I saw a fantastic trailer for this at the cinema over the weekend, and this is going to be a great 3D release. I’m not sure I’m confident it will knock Iron Man 3 off the top spot, but it’ll definitely give it a good shove. Released on Thursday 9th May with much of the footage kept under wraps until very recently, this really will be one to watch.

Little else happening this week since Iron Man 3 is leading the box office, asides from a new release from one of my favourite directors, Pedro Almovodar. Sadly, his Spanish film I’m So Excited, which was released earlier this week, seems to have been universally panned. Set on a plane and full of outrageous and hilarious situations, the film seems to follow his usual formula but just hasn’t hit the spot.

I’m Excited About…

Pacific RimI’m a huge Guillermo del Toro fan, the man has made some seriously beautiful pieces of cinema and it looks like his upcoming English language sci-fi flick will be no different.

Pacific Rim is set in a near distant future where giant monster have started mysteriously rising from the sea. Armies of soldiers pilot giant robots in order to battle these alien creatures, so we’re set for some serious action.

In fact, a few days a go a new banner style poster was released for Pacific Rim and it’s absolutely enormous. Most websites have cut it up into individual posters because it’s that huge, and boy, is it epic. The latest tagline for the movie is ‘Go Big or Go Extinct’ and everything about this film really is massive.

I can’t possibly post the new banner poster, but you can check it out at the following link: http://www.empireonline.com/news/image/pacificrimsuperposter.asp.

Meanwhile, check out the new trailer below for Pacific Rim which hits cinema on July 12. I honestly can’t think of anything else that would be this epic to see in 3D, a film that will really do the technology justice. I’ll stop gushing about the film now and let you watch the trailer, but I’ll just say this (excuse the language, but it’s necessary) – it looks fucking awesome.

Want a Mjölnir Replica… Complete With Lightning?

James Buckingham
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Want a Mjölnir Replica… Complete With Lightning?

So, you saw 2011’s Brannagh-directed Thor movie, yes? If yes, and you’re female you prettymuch swooned over Chris Hemsworth in the title role (some guys would too of course!)… and if you were a guy, you thought it was pretty cool (admit it… you want the armour and everything right? Yeah you do!)

Thor

Well, I wasn’t one of those guys… honest… >_<

This was me prior to the costume finishing... but even with it finished I looked like a pillock!
This was me prior to the costume finishing… but even with it finished I looked like a pillock!

Ok so maybe I was – and this was me in a completely terrible Thor costume for a friend’s birthday, looking like a total prat. But… there are some clever/insane people over at Hackaday.com that decided they weren’t going to stand for some cheap plastic knock-off, and wanted a proper Mjölnir replica.

This is where Caleb Kraft comes in… and this guy is truly dedicated. He’s the Senior Editor & Manager over at Hackaday, and has done some impressive builds in his time – from a Portal gun complete with a spinning, levitating companion cube to hacking the forthcoming Oculus Rift gaming peripheral.

Now Thor’s hammer is the stuff of legend – only he can wield it (even The Hulk can’t pick it up… much to my amusement in The Avengers), he can spin it around and propel himself great distances as though he’s flying and he can also use it to conduct and direct lightning.

Of course using it to fly isn’t really going to be possible, but conducting “lightning”? Well there may be something in that… and if there’s anyone that’s going to manage it, it’s Caleb. Firstoff… just check out the guy I’m talking about:

Caleb Kraft from Hackaday - looks a little mental, but the guy knows his stuff!
Caleb Kraft from Hackaday – looks a little mental, but the guy knows his stuff!

See what I mean? This guy is dedicated – and even has a great home-made Thor outfit that looks pretty decent if I’m honest… to quote Natalie Portman from the movie – “It’s a good look!”

Now when I mentioned lightning… of course I didn’t mean actual lightning – however Caleb has made his Mjölnir capable of discharging 80,000 volts of electricity! (see what I mean about insane?)

Anyway here’s the man himself showing you his work:

It’s definitely impressive (and frickin’ huge!), and if you’re interested in creating your very own Thunder God-worthy weapon, then head over to Hackaday to see how he made it!

Now I’m gonna go and get into costume, and ask all my local pet shops for a horse.

Can you say “Star Wars: Battlefront 3”?

TheSlasherJunkie
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Can you say “Star Wars: Battlefront 3”?

If you’re a fan of “Knights of the Old Republic” or “Battlefront“, then you’ll want to read this. Like many journos these days, I get my news via Facebook. While scrolling through, one of my gamer pages posted a link from CNN by way of WIRED.  In the headline, they gave us an update about the Lucasarts deal.

A mercenary-focused game with no force-using characters, it was supposed to compensate with increased violence.
A mercenary-focused game with no force-using characters, it was supposed to compensate with increased violence.

When Disney bought Lucasfilm last year, it came with their video game branch Lucasarts. A few months ago, they cancelled development on all projects (including the much anticipated Star Wars games “1313” and “First Assault“), officially shifting from development to publishing. In a statement released to industry magazine GameInformer, a representative said “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…. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles.”

This much-beloved game is what set the bar for open-world RPG's, and carved out Bioware's name in the industry.
This much-beloved game is what set the bar for open-world RPG’s, and carved out Bioware’s name in the industry.

Essentially, they wanted other developers to make their mark on a franchise as influential as Star Wars. This seemed like a nice guy move on their part, giving us hope for the franchise, while letting us down about these titles and their possible consequences, bringing back “Knights of the Old Republic” and “Battlefront”. Today’s update has given this same feeling all over again.

Today, Lucasarts and Electronic Arts (EA) jointly announced that EA has been awarded exclusive development for Star Wars titles, stating that in-house companies Visceral, DICE and Bioware will be the primary developers for these games.

On the one hand, this brings in a new ray of hope – Visceral is best known for it’s third person action/horror “Dead Space” trilogy, giving us hope for 1313 and other mercenary-focused Star Wars titles. DICE is an industry tyrant in the genre of military FPS’, so they’ll be most likely to put the finishing touches on “First Assault”, designed to test the waters to see if there’s still a market for “Battlefront 3”. Bioware has always been a tyrant for RPG’s, having already worked on Star Wars with both of the much loved “Knights of the Old Republic” games, and the subsequent MMO “The Old Republic”, before doing the also-loved “Mass Effect” trilogy and both “Dragon Age” games.

As someone who spent God-only-knows how many Saturdays playing “Battlefront 2” with my brother, and said-brother’s adoration for KOTOR, I can say that many fans are going to be thrilled to hear this. However, there is an industry drawback.

When development was cancelled, it was to allow developers to make their mark on a franchise they love. By giving exclusive rights to the notoriously-capitalistic EA, they’ve limited that pool to anyone owned by, or affiliated with, EA. This is a major let-down for many, but I guess it’s the price we pay for having such qualified companies taking over such adored series. On that note, it’s been shown that handing the title’s reins to another developer can have positive repercussions.

Quirky as it was, it had a multiplayer that simply couldn't be beat.
Quirky as it was, it had a multiplayer that simply couldn’t be beaten.

Both “Red Dead Redemption” and “Max Payne” were initially developed by different companies, but they’re latest (and most successful) installments were developed by another industry tyrant – Rockstar, best known for their controversial “Grand Theft Auto” series. While they weren’t known for slow-motion combat mechanics, they showed a knack for it in both Red Dead and Max Payne 3. The cinematic and open world elements of GTA found themselves at home in the spaghetti western setting of Red Dead, and the cultural aspects of GTA blended in beautifully with the Brazilian setting of Max Payne.

If Rockstar can pull a long-dead series out of the mud, I have no doubt that EA can do the same thing. We may not be getting the creative input that we were promised, but this is probably for the best. Only time will tell. Stay classy, junkies.

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