<![CDATA[Kotaku: indiana jones]]> http://tags.kotaku.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/kotaku.com.png <![CDATA[Kotaku: indiana jones]]> http://kotaku.com/tag/indianajones http://kotaku.com/tag/indianajones <![CDATA[Damnit, Lucasarts, THIS Is The Indiana Jones Game We Wanted]]> Back at GDC in 2006, Lucasarts showed off some footage of a "next-gen" Indiana Jones game. It looked great! Fast forward three years, however, and all we ended up with was Staff of Kings on Wii. Great.

No, Lucasarts! We wanted the 360/PS3 version, the one with the Euphoria animation technology and the ability to give us a rousing John Williams score and passable Harrison Ford likeness. Not Staff of Kings. Nobody, anywhere wanted what Staff of Kings ended up as.

To help get you over the pain - or, really, to sadistically increase that pain - Unseen64 have dug up some assets for the cancelled "next-gen" project. There are some screenshots (some of which we've seen before), and some rough gameplay videos. Enjoy! Or, be tortured by it. One or the other.

Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings [X360/PS3 - Cancelled] [Unseen64, via Joystiq]

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<![CDATA[Thanks, Hollywood, For These "Summer Blockbusters"]]> Summer means sun. Weeks off school, days off work, Coronas under a palm tree as a sea breeze washes over you. But it also means it's time for Hollywood's big shebang: the summer blockbusters.

And since we're in the midst of celebrating all things summer and all things gaming, what better time to honour – and shame – the games of the biggest summer blockbusters of all time.

The Star Wars Series (1977, 1980, 1983, 1999, 2002, 2005)

The Movies: Star Wars needs no introduction. The most powerful force in popular culture of the past generation, its six movies were released across four decades, the first in 1977, the last in 2005. Some of them are great! Some of them, not so great.

The Games: There are just too many Star Wars games to mention here. Though, remarkably, for all the franchise's success, very few have been directly related to the events of the movies. And the best of those by far were Lucasarts Super Star Wars series, released in the mid-1990's for the Super Nintendo. Re-telling the events of the original trilogy through a combination of 2D platforming and vehicle sections, they stand as an example of movie licenses done right (even if they were a little late).
The Dark Knight (2008)

The Movie: The Dark Knight sits at #4 on the all-time box office charts, having taken in a whopping $1,001,921,825. It also holds the all-time record for the biggest opening weekend in cinema history, making $155,340,000.

The Game: Despite the immense interest in both the film and the franchise brought about by this movie (and, admittedly, the death of co-star Heath Ledger), in a rare showing there was never a console Dark Knight game. Well, there was never one released.

Pandemic's Australian studio were working on a tie-in game, which was destined to be an open-world title (GTA meets Splinter Cell), but publisher mismanagement and quality concerns led to the game's (and the studio's) demise.
Jurassic Park (1993)

The Movie: Just squeaking into the top 10-grossing movies of all time, Jurassic Park saw Steven Spielberg bring Michael Crichton's novel about dinosaur cloning gone mad to the big screen. With spectacular results. Sure, it wasn't as gritty as the source material, and those kids were annoying, but it still ranks as one of the most visually impressive films of all time.

The Games: While there have been many games based on the franchise over the years, at the time of the original film's release, only two tie-in titles were put out, one for the Super Nintendo, one for the Genesis. And in a rare move, both games were completely different. The Mega Drive game was a woeful platformer, while the SNES game was a surprisingly brilliant title, blending top-down exploration with first-person combat sections.
The Lion King (1994)

The Movie: Many would argue that The Lion King was Disney's last truly great in-house movie, and it's box office takings bear that out, as at #24 it's the highest-ranked Disney cartoon on the list of the top-grossing films of all time. A simple tale of a cub's difficult journey to adulthood, it's given surprising depth and maturity from some excellent casting and bleak visuals.

The Game: Lion King had a lot to live up to, following Shiny's amazing Aladdin title, but for the most part it lived up to those lofty expectations. The art and animation was handled by Disney, while the game was worked on by none other than Westwood Studios, of Command & Conquer fame.
ET: The Extra Terrestrial (1982)

The Movie: Spielberg's film about an alien that comes to spread love, and not destruction, is still fondly-remembered, even if that fondness is restricted to a silly catchphrase about phones and the fact Drew Barrymore was in it.

The Game: Oh boy. When you want to talk about crummy games based on movies, they don't get much worse than ET. Rushed out in a matter of weeks so it could cash in on the film, the game bore little resemblance to the movie, and was a sales disaster. Things were so bad, in fact, that in 1983 Atari - reeling from the video game market crash it helped create with games like ET - filled a truck full of ET cartridges and buried them in a hole somewhere in the New Mexico desert.
The Back To The Future Series (1985, 1989, 1990)

The Movies: Marty McFly. Awesome Nike sneakers. Time-travelling locomotives. The Back to the Future series was perhaps the best example of the feel-good 80's blockbuster, with Michael J Fox and his time-travelling companion, the bonkers Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) managing to screw with the space-time continuum not once, not twice, but thrice.

The Games: For a movie trilogy that wasn't exactly big on action, Back to the Future somehow spawned around half a dozen games. Here, we're paying tribute to the worst, a vertically-scrolling game for the NES where you, as Marty McFly (apparently) have to run up a street collecting clocks, all the while avoiding men carrying panes of glass. And...that's about it.
The Pirates Of The Caribbean Series (2003, 2006, 2007)

The Movies: Based on a theme park ride of all things, Pirates of the Caribbean was one of the surprise hits of 2003, so much so that two further movies were released in 2006 and 2007. A fourth film is in pre-production. Johnny Depp steals the show as slightly camp pirate Captain Jack Sparrow, though we're equally fond of Bill Nighy's portrayal of fish-faced Davey Jones, partly because he's Bill Nighy, and partly because he's Bill Nighy with a giant pet squid.

The Games: Not much to speak of here. A game based on the third film, At World's End, came and went without troubling many people. More interesting is the game based on the first film. Or shall we say, "based on", since it has absolutely nothing to do with the events of the movie. It was, in fact, the sequel to PC Pirates! clone Sea Dogs, and was hastily repackaged to cash in on the first movie. And was about as successful as you'd expect such a venture to be.
The Transformers (2007, 2009)

The Movies: Michael Bay & Steven Spielberg (we're seeing that name a lot in here) team up to bring the most beloved cartoon series of the 1980s to life. Despite both being poor films - the second especially so - they're cashing in on 80's nostalgia and feature giant robots fighting, so it's no surprise the two films have already grossed over $1 billion combined.

The Games: The Transformers franchise has always been marred by poor video game adaptations, and these two films are no exception. Both tie-ins have been sub-par, generic action titles, only notable for the fact they managed to get the original Megatron voice actor to reprise his role, rather than Hugo Weaving, who voices the Decepticon leader in the films. Our advice? Go play the 2004 Transformers game, based on the Armada universe and developed by Melbourne House. It's actually good.
Independence Day (1996)

The Movie: One of the biggest summer blockbusters of the 1990's, ID4 may have featured silly characters and a silly plot by aliens to destroy humanity, but it had a memorable scene involving the White House, alien face-punching and a drunk Randy Quaid as the hero, so shut up. It's a great flick.

The Game: Sadly, the same can't be said of the adaptation, which appeared on the PS1 and Saturn. You fly an F-18 around shooting aliens, your view constrained by a technical cop-out squishing the playing area between an alien mothership and the ground, and...that's it. No face-punching. No smoky alien body snatching. No motivational speeches. Shame.
The Indiana Jones Series (1981, 1984, 1989, 2008)

The Movies: Ah, the Indiana Jones trilogy (there was never a fourth movie, got it?)!! Harrison Ford plays an adventurous archaeologist who has to stop Nazis (and creepy Indians) from taking over the world. While opinions are divided on the second film, the first and third go down as all-time classics, with Last Crusade also known as "the last good thing George Lucas ever did".

The Games: There have been a ton of Indy games released over the years, but like many older film franchises, not many dealt directly with the plot of the movies (LEGO Indy doesn't count as it was released so long after the fact). Lucasart's adventure game take on Last Crusade did, however, and being a Lucasarts adventure game, is pretty damn good. For some reason Last Crusade always gets forgotten in the wake of the later, superior Fate of Atlantis (also a Lucasarts adventure game), but it's worth checking out regardless.
The Jaws Series (1975, 1978, 1983, 1987)

The Movie: Jaws is remembered not just for the fact it made whole generations afraid to go near the water, but also because it was the very first "summer blockbuster." Spielberg's story of a giant shark terrorising a seaside community was so successful it spawned three sequels, which contrary to popular belief, are all good, Jaws 3 for the dream team of Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett Jr., Jaws 4 for teaming Oscar-winner Michael Caine with...Mario Van Peebles.

The Games: There have only been a few Jaws games, one on the PS2 which was terrible, and one for the NES, pictured above. Which was also terrible. Though terrible in a good way, as it's based loosely on the events of Jaws 4, meaning you can play the game narrating the events in your best Michael Caine accent. It would have helped if either of the games was even remotely scary.
The Spider-Man Series (2002, 2004, 2007)

The Movies: Spider-Man is the king of the summer blockbuster this decade, and held the record for the biggest opening weekend of all time until beaten last year by The Dark Knight. A modern depiction of Marvel's classic comic character, the Spider-Man movies have benefited from not only amazing special effects, but a sexy, memorable cast as well. Who could ever forget the way James Franco eats that pie?

The Games
: Each modern Spider-Man flick has spawned adaptations, but these for the most part have been terrible. With the exception of Spider-Man 2, on the Xbox, PS2 and GameCube. It took the key appeal of Spider-Man - his web-slinging - and applied it to an open city, giving us a watered down version of Grand Theft Peter Parker. Successive titles have failed to strike the same balance between action and exploration that this game managed so well.

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<![CDATA[They Remember Jedi, Jaws and Indiana Jones]]>

1975, Jaws — "It was the Village East theater in Birmingham, Alabama. And we rode in my sister's husband's Trans Am…I have certain flashes of scenes, like the scene where Roy Scheider pulls the license plate out of the stomach of the shark. I remember that. They're just flashes. I remember it being very scary. My brother was traumatized, to this day. I loved it." — Twisted Metal and God of War creator David Jaffe, born in 1971

Video games all but smell of popcorn. They have been influenced by the movies, arguably more so than they have been by any other art form, save for other games. And the movies that influence them most appear to be the biggest, the summer blockbusters.

Play a game or simply visit a game development studio — watch for the posters, the action figures or listen to the mentions in casual conversation — and the influence of summer movies is apparent. A week can't go by without noticing the sway big movies have on creators. Last Wednesday, while showing Kotaku his game The Saboteur, Pandemic designer Tom French cited Indiana Jones' bigness and coolness of action as an influence on his game's anti-Nazi adventure. Over the weekend as I neared the end of Ghostbusters: The Video Game — itself an offspring of summer movies — I saw a late-game scene in which one of the heroes flees from a massive rolling boulder.

"[Summer movies] are touchstones in a sense they are generational touchstones," Stephen Alexander, veteran gaming artist at 2K Boston told Kotaku. "Games tend to reference them a lot, because the people who are making them are making them for people who are like themselves. Or they make the assumption, that because I like this, the audience will like this."

Prints of Aliens and Star Wars can be lifted from Gears of War and Halo, Star Fox and Final Fantasy. Also, the Indiana Jones films and Predator. T2 and Tron. Jaws. Top Gun. Independence Day.

1981, Raiders of the Lost Ark — "Indiana Jones meant nothing to me. It looked like a boring Western. I had no interest in it. I remember watching the review on Siskel and Ebert in the house with my parents — the whole family was over — and I was like, ah that seems kind of cool, whatever. My dad said, 'Yeah let's go see that.' …It was sold out, so we sat in the car, which I think was this 1970s-era brown Cadillac. And we just sat there for two hours, hanging out as a family, waiting for the next show to start. Eventually we got in, and, I'm not shitting you, it changed my life. It changed my fucking life. This is what I want to do. To live in that world and to be in that world, not so much Indiana Jones' world — though that would be great — but the world of creativity and escapism and summer excitement in terms of film and video games… It just opened the world of geekdom and film-loving and it affects me to this day." — David Jaffe

Summer movies touch everyone, not just game creators. But they may have a stronger grip in a community where it's not uncommon for a development studio to shut down for the afternoon so the team can catch the latest summer flick at a rented theater. That was a mandatory outing just a few Fridays ago, for 2K Boston, when they went to see Up.

"The great thing about the blockbusters is having the common vocabulary," 2K Boston designer Bill Gardner said. "Who doesn't talk about the Predator's cloaking device, whatever the hell it's called? And the T1000 and all that stuff, constantly touching on these reference points."

In the lingua franca of video games, George Lucas is king. "Star Wars pops up all the time," Gardner's colleague at 2K Boston, Stephen Alexander, said. "And that's where a lot of games draw from because it is such an iconic journey to go on and it has such emotional resonance and pays off so well."

But game creators don't borrow from all the summer hits of the '80s and '90s. Alexander may see some Goonies in Zelda, but he guesses that's just him. Ferris Bueller's Day Off doesn't seem to have informed many games. Back to the Future's influence, if it exists, is subtle.

1982, E.T. — "I remember seeing it at the Brooklyn Mall theater and [film company people] handing out the buttons and I was just like, 'Oh my god, I got a button.' And now the PR department is like, 'Big fucking deal, we made a million buttons.' But to a kid in Alabama who was in love with the movies, especially Spielberg and Spielberg's movies, this was like the Holy Grail." — David Jaffe

For all the love E.T. gets, it's had only a light touch on games. Alexander has a theory why. "The real power of E.T. was that emotional bond between E.T. and Elliott," he argued. "Emotional resonance is something that games are still wrestling with… I haven't seen too many games that have managed to pull that off." Ico is the only game he can think of that fits.

The more bombastic, escapist summer movies exert the most influence. They are, according to developers like Alexander and Gardner, parallel works to video games: They share the goal of escapism. The best blockbuster movies and the best blockbuster games take you out of yourself, on a ride.

1983, Return of the Jedi — "[My mom] had come to check me and my neighbor out of sixth grade. We were going to go to like the first show at one o'clock. …I was so excited, I couldn't keep my mouth shut. The word got out and my math teacher, Mrs. Vance, who to this day I don't forgive, basically had a shit fit about it and ended up calling my mom and stuff. It became this big deal and she wasn't going to let me — whatever the fuck — graduate sixth grade. Ultimately, I ended up going to the movie, and I remember waiting in line. It was all the people who show up for a summer movie the first day. It was a big deal. …And I remember, after that point, really trying to recreate that for the rest of my junior high and high school experience. I remember hoping — hoping so bad — that Willow would have this huge line and it never really did." — David Jaffe

Some developers bristle at this or at least laugh off the overwhelming influence that summer movies have. Alexander and Gardner's boss, Ken Levine, said as much to me in January 2007: "Most video game people have read one book and seen one movie in their life, which is Lord of the Rings and Aliens or variations of that. There's great things in that, but you need some variety… Look, I just steal from other sources."

Aliens is the one that gets the eye-rolls a lot. Another drop-ship? Another group of space marines? Another tough-talking black sergeant? Another drab color palette? "When it came out, Aliens' visual design was so amazingly fresh and almost mind-blowing, it's not surprising that so many people have taken it and used it to make their space game," Alexander said. "It is a rich ground to place a game in, but it seems like people have gotten a little bit lazy in using this visual language at this point."

But don't blame the summer movies alone for this, Alexander said. "A game creator has a brilliant flash of inspiration and they mimic something from Aliens, for example, and it's incredibly successful and then other creators mimic that game. I don't know that it's everybody drawing from the same source. I think games are maybe borrowing too much from each other in some ways. You fall into the 'it worked once — let's not be risky — and do it again.'"

1989, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade — "When Last Crusade opened I was such a total fucking geek. I didn't care. I was in high school. The cement had dried on what kind of geek I was going to be. My brother, with me and a couple of my buddies, we all had logos of Last Crusade painted on the back of our cars like it was homecoming." — David Jaffe

There's another draw the summer films have for game creators and the publishers they work for: Bigness.

There's spectacle that surrounds the release of the film expressed in long lines, big ads, talk-show guest appearances, commercials, souvenir cups, national — international — media attention. It's natural to want that.
"The spectacle around the summer blockbusters is something to envy," Gardner said. "You want to break into the mainstream and get people talking, but when you come down to it, as envious as I may be, I try to focus on what we're doing right more than anything else. When it comes down to it, I don't know if we'll every be able to emulate that type of hype."

Still, while the siren song of summer movie status can be hard to resist, it can cause problems when game companies misuse the model. Taking the rate of explosions from a Michael Bay movie and injecting it into a game won't make the game as exciting as the Bay movie. Even a summer movie fanatic like David Jaffe knows this. Borrowing a key scene — the visuals, the audio — doesn't play to gaming's core strength, interactivity. So developers should best bear their influence with caution. A little nod here or there can be a nice touch, of course.

2005, God of War — "God of War is the game I always wanted to make. And there's a huge influence of Raiders of the Lost Ark in God of War. Pandora's Box is the Greek mythology version of the Ark of the Covenant. Actual moves that Kratos does in God of War are directly an homage to what Indy does in Raiders of the Lost Ark. When Indy kicks over that statue when he's in the Well of the Souls, it's the exact same animation — obviously Harrison Ford or the stuntman did it for real — we had Kratos mimic what he did with his body with the giant column when he first gets to Athens." - David Jaffe

So maybe the summer movie blockbusters are safe from video games ripping them off wholesale. And maybe games will continue to find their own way to develop as a unique medium. In fact, games have already been seen to be exerting their own influence on the summer films: see the sidescrolling action sequence in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones or the increasingly video-game-like action scenes and car chases in so many other summer films, like Terminator Salvation and The Bourne Ultimatum.

That doesn't mean some creators won't want you to feel that summer movie feeling when you settle down in front of one of their games.

2009, Eat Sleep Play — "There is a literal aspect to the influence these things have had. But then, more importantly, there is a philosophical impact that the summer movies have had from a standpoint of wanting to provide, for my audience — look I understand that we don't make movies, we don't reach as big of an audience — but I still take the responsibility of the audience we do speak to very seriously. And, as much as I look at the works of [Flow and Flower development studio] That Game Company or [Ico creator Fumito] Ueda when he does Shadow of the Colossus, I'm so okay leaving that level of emotion and that level of meaning to someone else. I want to be the guy who provides the escape. I want to be the guy who provides the video game equivalent of the summer blockbuster." — David Jaffe, co-founder of game development studio Eat Sleep Play

(Movie poster images via the Internet Movie Poster Awards site.)

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<![CDATA[Han Solo in Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings]]> New footage on StarWars.com shows Millenium Falcon pilot Han Solo as a playable/unlockable character in upcoming title Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings.

Sure, the same actor played both Han Solo and Indiana Jones, and yes, George Lucas created both characters. But really?

Seems a tad on the gimmicky side — like putting Yoda in SoulCalibur or something.

Oh wait. Never mind. Carry on, LucasArts!

Exclusive Footage [StarWars.com Thanks, Alex!]

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<![CDATA[Unlock Classic Fate of Atlantis Title in New Indy Game]]> The official site for Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings now includes a nice selection of screens and some new gameplay details.

In Staff of Kings, Indiana Jones will be racing from San Francisco to Panama on a quest for the Staff of Moses.

Most importantly, you will be able to wield your Wii Remote like a whip to work your way through the game's combat and puzzles. The game will also feature some gunplay, the ability to ride vehicles including a biplane, a raft and an elephant and a cooperative gameplay mode featuring a character from the Indie lexicon never playable in a game before.

The game will include a four-player versus mode that features biplane and tank combat. More than 20 artifacts and unlockables, and, get this, the ability to unlock the classic Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis game.

The DS version will have you using your stylus to use the whip and the PSP version will include six types of gameplay like combat, physics challenges, puzzles and chase sequences.



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<![CDATA[Indiana Jones And The Staff Of Kings Revealed In New Nintendo Power]]> We've already seen the trailer and been properly prepared by Nintendo Power's own teasing, so the cover treatment given to Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings isn't exactly a shocker. But we'll take it!

The March issue of Nintendo Power promises the first (print, we assume) look at LucasArts' next Indy adventure, in which we'll crack whips, solve puzzles, dodge traps and... throw octopuses.

We don't know much about the game other than LucasArts' alleged plans to publish it on the Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2 and PSP.

Nintendo Power is also promising new details on The Conduit's online multiplayer mode, plus a look at Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor — which would make its English language existence all but official, I suppose — for the Nintendo DS as well as the recently announced Boom Blox: Bash Party. Watch for it! In fact, sleep with one eye open tonight.

Thanks for the heads up, Irfaan!

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<![CDATA[Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings Hits Wii In Spring, Says New Trailer]]> Looks like Indiana Jones' video game adventures might not be completely canceled, at least according to a newly (and unofficially) released trailer for Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings for the Wii.

Wait, the Wii? Yes, it looks like rumors about Indy's demise on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms were pretty accurate — and probably foretold by this post — and that LucasArts' commitment to the "franchise" is genuine.

Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings will arrive on the Wii, Nintendo DS and at least one PlayStation platform starting this Spring. Both the ESRB and PEGI say that PlayStation platform is the PSP, but it may also mean the PlayStation 2.

If the trailer is indicative of gameplay settings, it looks like Indiana Jones' adventures will span familiar territories in Staff of Kings. We just can't wait to see how much whip-waggling we'll do.

Thanks to Irfaan for the pointer.

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<![CDATA[Indiana Jones Canned [Update]]]> The last time we heard about the Indiana Jones game was back in March when Vanity Fair mentioned it would use the same engine as The Force Unleashed. There's probably a good reason for that.

IGN is reporting that multiple sources both inside and out of LucasArts have told them that the game has been canceled. The site writes that the team has already been reallocated to other projects.

No official confirmation from LucasArts, which isn't surprising. It also wouldn't be too surprising if this rumor were true. The game hasn't really had any official press in years and skipped the last E3 all together.

Rumor: Next Indy Game Canned [IGN]

Update: LucasArts responded to our questions about whether the new game had been canned with this response:

LucasArts remains absolutely committed to the Indiana Jones franchise. While we are aware that fans have been eagerly awaiting additional information on the upcoming game, they can rest assured that details are forthcoming.

You'll notice that LucasArts remains committed to the "franchise" and not to the game. You'll also notice that they only promise details about the game, but don't say whether those details will be a release date or a cancellation.

LucasArts did not reply to our request for clarification about whether the game was still being developed.

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<![CDATA[Lucasarts To Announce New Indiana Jones Game Next Week?]]> Yup, it's more from the GameStop Expo showroom floor! Latest whispers to drift out of Vegas and float across the internet's trade winds involve the MIA Indiana Jones game from Lucasarts, the one that first showed us how Euphoria was going to revolutionise the way we punched bad guys in the face. While it's been mentioned a few times in the past, word from the expo is that the game will finally be unveiled next week (remember, up til now it was just a "tech demo"), is based on the Force Unleashed engine, is due for 360 and PS3 and will be out in 2009.

Plenty Of Rumors To Go Around At GameStop Expo [1UP]

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<![CDATA[Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings Rated for Portables]]> European video game content rater PEGI has just, well, rated what looks like a new Indiana Jones game for the DS and PSP. With the questionable title Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings (woah!), the title is 16 and up, and Activision is publishing. We don't have any other information about it other than that, but game site Siliconera wonders if this Staff of Kings game is that other "next-gen" Indiana Jones title that was shown a few years back — and then disappeared into the ether.

Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings [PEGI via Siliconera]

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<![CDATA[Scream From 1951 Echoes Into Today's Games]]>
The Wilhelm Scream. Cinephiles recognize it instantly (you only need to hear it once in the above video). It's been reused so many times since it was first recorded in 1951 that its inclusion today is almost beyond cliche, easter egg, or inside joke, and has become a combination of the three. (It's been in every Star Wars and Indiana Jones title thanks to sound engineer Ben Burtt, who resurrected its use.)

But did you know that it's been featured in at least 48 video games? From Ant City to Timesplitters 2, Mr. Juandrful at Kezins has gleaned the full list. It's longer than Wikipedia's list of games using the scream, and includes titles not yet released (where the scream is used in a trailer), so he seems to have done his homework. We had a little something on this back in 2006, but not a full list of games. So check it out. And booby prize goes to whomever comes up with the best onomatopoeic spelling of the scream, in the comments.

We've All Heard it: The Wilhelm Scream [kezins.com]

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<![CDATA[Five LEGO Video Games That Will Never Be]]> With LEGO adding a delicious layer of licensing to properties like Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Batman to generally welcome results, we won't be surprised when LEGO Halo becomes a real project or once proud properties like Tomb Raider resort to the LEGO treatment to win new fans.

The Minus World gang put together a list of five LEGO video games that will never ever happen, though we're not 100% sure that LEGO Juno is completely off the table. Our favorite is above, but heretics may find LEGO The Passion of the Christ more to their liking.

5 LEGO Video Games That Will Never Happen [The Minus-World]

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<![CDATA[Summer Blockbuster Maximize Licensed Crap Profit]]> Summer blockbusters don't just line the pockets of film studio executives and actors working on a percentage of the gross, it looks like they help resellers of licensed games too. According to a bit of research from the Video Game Price Charts blog—I've used them in the past when selling my unwanted games via eBay—the time to strike when selling your copy of Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine or Iron Man / X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal is when the movie adaptations hit theaters.

Yes, there's even a market for the terrible PlayStation Speed Racer game! Plenty of interesting charts and graphs await hopeful auctioneers at VGPC. I'm off to put a spit shine on my copy of The X-Files for PSone in anticipation!

Summer Movies Increase Game Prices. Go Speed Racer! [VGPC]

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<![CDATA[The History of Indiana Jones Video Games]]> So, if seeing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull left you a little disappointed, and you're twiddling your thumbs until Friday's Tuesday's release of Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures, fire up your emulators, British Gaming Blog has a chronology of every video game tied to the high-adventure series.

The list details the 10 and upcoming 11th (Lego Indiana Jones on June 6) and 12th (a TBA action title later) games featuring Dr. Jones. Ahhhhh but they left one out!!! Neener-neener this is why I posted it, to make myself look smart! Midscape released "Indiana Jones in the Lost Kingdom" for Commodore 64 in 1984 — and it deliberately did not include an instruction manual. "No one told Indiana Jones the rules. And no one will tell you."

It was a puzzle game, and definitely not rendered with the kind of appeal the Lego games have. Death consisted largely of being hit by a bird or falling from a great height, then running off the screen in a panic as a funeral dirge played. It was hard and stupid. But because it was Indiana Jones, I felt compelled to play it.

That hooks back into my feeling about Crystal Skull. I was gonna see it no matter how badly it was reviewed, and pretty much everyone except Roger Ebert put a butt-hurting on it. I felt very much like I did during the Star Wars Prequels. After coming out of Attack of the Clones, I told a friend: "George Lucas has created a new moviegoing experience. The Joyless Obligation." And now it's infiltrated the Indiana Jones franchise.

Hey, we're not the only ones. Sex and the City fans probably know what I'm talking about after this weekend, too.

Indiana Jones and the History of his Video Games [British Gaming Blog]

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<![CDATA[Indiana Jones and the Giant Lego Boulder]]> Reader cashius22 spotted this and I can't resist. It's Lego, and it's Indiana Jones and therefore, it is on-topic.

And it's quite possible that this is viral marketing for the upcoming title (out in June), if not the movie (this week). They roll this sucker in San Francisco, and LucasArts is around the block in the Presidio. Five million Legos is not something you buy or assemble that quick — if it is a solid 5 mil Legos. I don't really see them flaking off as it tumbles, so it may be a bunch of big pieces- parts made by Lego and assembled by this team. Also, it's S.F. in the middle of the day, no moving cars in the shot, very few parked, so they probably got a filming permit. And the big flatbed truck too ... good bet this is marketing.

But it's clever, and I admire any creative impulse that gets you to roll a Lego boulder down a big hill into a parked van. Plus it has a guy dressed as Sallah, and fezzes are awesome. But if this was Boston, they'd all be arrested for terrorism.

LEGO Boulder [YouTube, thanks cashius22]

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<![CDATA[Verne Troyer Calls Out Indiana Jones]]> postalverne.jpg I'm not sure if I pity Verne Troyer or envy him. Here is a tiny little man who makes a living being a smaller, more abrasive version of other people. People dress him up as say, Indiana Jones, and then film him saying things like, "This is a message for Indiana Jones. I'll fuck you up!" in his little tiny voice. It's all part of a contest over at the Postal movie's MovieSet web page, which plays up the "hopelessly outclassed" marketing angle Uwe Boll's people have cooked up. After watching the clip you are challenged to guess what's in Verne's sack for a chance to win the contents, but I don't think any of us really want to know what Verne is carrying around in his sack. Best just to hit the link, view the clip, and leave such questions unpondered.

Mini Indy Calls Out Big Indy [Postal MovieSet]

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<![CDATA[Alleged LucasArts Staffer Gets Gossipy On Ward, ILM & More]]> JIMMYWhen LucasArts president Jim Ward surprised us by resigning from the company he'd been with for more than a decade, we didn't have any insight into the reasons why. LucasArts reps chalked it up to "personal reasons." However, a recent and lengthy comment on the matter at Gamasutra, picked up by GameSetWatch, may reveal more about the departure, which may have been the result of internal strife.

According to the anonymous comment, "Mich (& company) was unhappy with his delaying of the Force Unleashed and Indiana Jones titles." The commenter implies that Ward was more interested in delivering "kick ass" games more so than games that shipped on time, on budget and with, we assume, an acceptable level of ass kicking.

Anonymous then goes on to write that interim president Howard Roffman's replacement of Ward "could spell trouble for the LucasArts division" if he aligns with those who feel that properties such as Indiana Jones and Star Wars should be more often handed off to third-party developers.

He or she then rips into the working relationship with ILM, calling Zeno, the pipeline that LucasArts' internal game engine Zed runs upon, "garbage" and "one of the worst first party developement tools out there." That certainly inspires some confidence.

The full comment is definitely worth a read, regardless of whether it's 100% factual or not. At the very least, it provides interesting insight into the (possible) inner workings at LucasArts. let's just hope someone doesn't get Force-choked to death because of it.

GameSetInsight: Disgruntled Of Presidio Writes... [GameSetWatch]

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<![CDATA[LEGO Indiana Jones Demo Shipping with New Indy DVDs]]> ijlg.bmp All three special editions DVDs of the Indiana Jones trilogy will be shipping with both a demo and trailer for the upcoming LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures game, Ars Technica reports.

Fantastic, now I have two excuses to buy Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I wonder when I can start showing my son the flicks? I'll have to rewatch them to make sure they're not too racy first, I guess.

Special Indiana Jones DVD to Ship with Lego Indy Demo [Ars Technica]

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<![CDATA[LEGO Indiana Jones]]> For the last part of my three part coverage of the Lucas Arts presentation, we'll talk a little about LEGO Indiana Jones. The portion we saw dealt with the iconic scenes from the beginning of the first movie: running from giant boulders, stealing golden idol heads and the like. We were also introduced to some of the game mechanics. Indy will of course make much use of his whip to destroy things, grab objects and swing his way through his adventures. He will also have an ally who will help him through each of the various levels of the game and each ally will have a special skill such as excavation that will come in handy. These helpers can also be controlled by another player in the co-op mode. Players can look forward to Lego versions of all their favorite characters including Dr. Henry Jones Sr., Sala and everyone's favorite little screaming Asian kid, Short Round. Each characters phobias, such as Indy's famus aversion to snakes will come into play as you progress through the game. As in the other LEGO Star Wars titles, humor plays a huge part in the game and the few little cut scenes we saw were quite funny and had the gathered crowd laughing aloud quite a bit. We even got a special appearance by the golden head of a certain Star Wars robot that was used to great effect. All three movies will be covered in the game with each film being made up of six levels.

The DS version will be making use of the microphone to solve puzzles by blowing out torches and also included will be a cooking mini-game featuring the infamous monkey brains scene. Something tells me you won't be seeing THAT in Cooking Mama 3.

With all it's various in-jokes and trademark LEGO humor, I think that LEGO Indiana Jones will be a sure fire hit with fans of the genre and kids alike. I wasn't really on the LEGO Star Wars tip when it came out, but there is no doubt that LEGO Indy will be a permanent part of my game collection when it comes out this summer.

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<![CDATA[Lego Indiana Jones The Flash Game]]> Hungry for some Lego Indiana Jones action but don't want to wait for the console game to come out? Head over to Lego.com and try out the new Lego Indiana Jones flash game! Developed by advergaming company Three Melons, the game features Indy on the run from a giant killer boulder after the classic idol-swapping scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. While you don't control Indy directly, you do click on flashing obstacles to get him to duck, whip, and jump his way towards the temple exit, collecting treasures with your mouse pointer along the way. Filled with secrets and hidden areas to discover, it's an excellent way to look busy as you wait for the week to officially end.

Lego Indiana Jones Flash Game [Lego.com - Thanks Fyren!]

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