Along with the cartoony yet curiously compelling Clone Wars and the innovative Fracture that is hovering at the very edge of my interest, LucasArts presented one more game at E3 2008, and this one is truly going to be epic. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a game I have been secretly drooling over since it was first announced, from both a technical perspective as well as the story standpoint. Sure, die hard Star Wars fans complain about continuity, but what else is Vader going to do during the gap between movies? Kick back and eat some Hot Pockets? Sure, but that only takes like five to ten minutes.

Between the LucasArts presentation of the game and my brief hands-on, I walked away feeling confident that this could not only be one of the most exciting Star Wars video games of all time, it could very well provide moments more epic than anything we saw in the three prequel films.

There's a new Star Wars movie coming out next month, bringing with it a fighting game that pits the best and the glowiest against each other in an all-out, drag-down lightsaber duel to the finish. Star Wars: The Clone Wars is a fighting game for the Wii that focuses on the Jedi side of things. Each character in the game is a lightsaber wielding bad ass of varying degrees, from the single saber of Obi-Wan to the quad-wielding General Grievous. Is the the lightsaber combat game fans have been demanding since the Wii's motion controls were first revealed, or is it just another fighting game using licensed characters?

The house that Lucas built has filed for a handful of new trademarks, all Star Wars related, all potentially new names for the oft-rumored Knights of the Old Republic 3, the one that continues to pop up as a new BioWare developed MMO. LucasFilm recently filed trademark applications for Star Wars The Old Republic, The Old Republic, Star Wars Sagas and Star Wars Legends, all of are described as "video game software" and "entertainment services provided on-line by means of global and local area networks."

While that certainly sounds like a new Star Wars MMO and it all matches up nicely with what we've heard from former LucasArts employees, we'll call it rumor for now.

Thanks to BearThing for the pointer!

Entertainment Weekly got their hands on a new Star Wars: The Force Unleashed trailer that delves into the story of the upcoming Sith-centric game. I wouldn't go and watch if you want your knowledge of the game and its story to remain virginal. Otherwise you absolutely have to go check it out because it's got some amazing gameplay shown off, including walkers being cut in half and some blistering combo attacks by the apprentice. Makes me want to play it some more.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed [EW]

Retailer Amazon has listed tentative dates and platforms for Star Wars Battlefront III, long rumored to be in development at Free Radical, developers of Haze and Timesplitters. While we've been under the impression that the UK based dev was hard at work we didn't know how hard at work they are. According to Amazon, Battlefront III is coming to everything — Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, DS, PSP, PlayStation 2. OK, not everything, since it doesn't list a PC version, but if these listings are accurate, anyone and everyone will have access to a version of the game come March 2009. We await more news at E3 next week.

Star Wars Battlefront III [Amazon via GoNintendo]

Check Out SoulCalibur IV's Darth Vader Stage In Action

Soul Caliber IV’s Starwars Stage [Aeropause]

Hands-On The Force Unleashed Impressions

Going in to my time with Star Wars The Force Unleashed, I figured the best the game could do was recapture the fun of playing Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II on a console.

While The Force Unleashed pushes the graphics and, to some degree, the AI, forward, the experience of playing Unleashed was, as I had hoped, fairly similar to the hours of time I sank into Dark Forces II.

The game was enjoyable, at times a blast to play, but nothing that is going to shake the rock solid formula crafted by Dark Forces II.

Never one to give up on a dead horse, Sony Online Entertainment today announced that they are launching an online trading card game version of Star Wars Galaxies.

Following in the footsteps of Legends of Norrath: Oathbound, Champions of the Force will be playable through your SOE online account. Playing the virtual trading card game will require a "fully-paid subscription" to Star Wars Galaxies.

The game will let you play on either the light or the dark sides and play on your own or against other players. Hit up the jump for the full run down of the card game as well as some of the other things SOE and LucasArts are doing to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the MMO.

Champions of the Force [Star Wars Galaxies]

Say what you will about the quality of recent Star Wars games, you'll be hard pressed finding a bad word to say about these. They're official Nintendo DS styli, only with a bonus Star Wars license thrown in, meaning, yes, these are proper DS lightsabers. What's better is that they come in two variants: you can get a three-pack of regular, plastic ones ($8), or you can get a two-pack where the sabers/styli actually light up ($17).

Lightsaber styli [View From Heaven, via Go Nintendo]

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]

The Force Unleashed Team Unleashed? [Updated]

Unconfirmed, but word has it that LucasArts just axed the team responsible for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. If this true, this rumor is reminiscent of rumblings we heard earlier this month that once The Force Unleashed ships, LucasArts will pinkslip 100 employees and cease internal development. All of this comes as LucasArts recently saw massive layouts. These latest, rumored layoffs were long-time staffers who had worked on big titles like X-Wing, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango. If The Force Unleashed proves successful, LucasArts might find itself at a disadvantage if it plans on doing the game internally.

Eds Note: We were contacted by a LucasArts staffer who was part of the Force Unleashed team, stating these layoffs mentioned in the original Joystiq post were not recent and that there have been no additional layoffs since what we reported earlier this month.

LucasArts Cuts Hit [Joystiq via CVG]

We'd heard Star Wars: Clone Wars for Wii and DS would be hitting this Fall, but it looks like that meant fiscal Fall? A recent announcement's dated both titles for "Holiday 2008." Nothing says Christmas like lightsaber battles - or, as my colleague Luke called it, "yet another third-party action game based on a Star Wars story, only this time with waggle."

The Wii version is officially titled Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels.Was Luke being a little harsh, or is a true "lightsaber simulator" (which Ken Fox of developer Krome Studios says this game is not) the only avenue to the hearts of Star Wars fans?

Waggle-fatigued? There's also a DS version, Clone Wars: Jedi Alliance, being developed by LucasArts Singapore and promising "innovative stylus-based input," and, we're told, partner-based gameplay.

Trailers for both titles will premiere on Spike TV's GameTrailers TV With Geoff Keighley on Friday, so we can see for ourselves. Full announcement follows the jump.

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]

Shacknews is reporting, via "a reliable source," that once Star Wars: The Force Unleashed drops in mid-September, LucasArts will pinkslip another 100 employees and quit internal development.

Force Unleashed is the first internally developed 360 and PS3 title for LA, and the first LA-developed title since Republic Commando for the Xbox in 2005. There is, as Yoda might say, another ...

That would be the untitled Indiana Jones third-person actioner, and according to Shacknews, the remainder of its work, left after The Force Unleashed hits the street, will be outsourced. Shacknews notes that past and present development partners include TT Games, Day 1, BioWare, Pandemic and, reaching way back, Totally Games (X-Wing, TIE Fighter).

Source: LucasArts to Halt Internal Development [Shacknews]

Analyst: LucasArts Layoffs About EA, Studio Politics

LucasArts may be saying publicly that its recent mass layoffs were due to development cycles, but at least one analyst says the decision may be more about film studio politics and a new connection with Electronic Arts.

Analyst Michael Pachter estimated that prior to the layoffs, LucasArts had approximately 200 employees, the balance of whom were tasked essentially with liaising between George Lucas' intellectual properties and the only three development studios ever to build games on those properties: BioWare, Pandemic and UK-based Traveller's Tales.

Their primary role, Pachter said, was to ensure proper treatment of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones IP, manage business relationships with the studios, and handle marketing of the properties.

In April, former Electronic Arts LA COO Darrell Rodriguez took over for the recently-departed Jim Ward as LucasArts' president. We can assume Rodriguez still has close liaisons with EA, or at least a confident familiarity with EA's business practices, said Pachter. And with EA now owning two out of three Lucas IP development studios in BioWare and Pandemic, it would appear there is no further need for such a large staff while Rodriguez is on board at LucasArts.

"If I'm Rodriguez and I know that I'm going to do most of my games with EA going forward, then I'm a lot less anal about double-checking everything EA is up to," said Pachter.

Yesterday it was revealed that Darth Vader's secret apprentice from the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed would be appearing as a character in Namco Bandai's Soulcalibur IV, and now we've got pictures of the Mr. Secret himself in action, taking on the Soulcalibur regulars as well as the lean, green lightsaber machine Yoda himself. If this were a Star Wars game the screenshot up top would be immediately followed by a rolling Sith apprentice head, but who knows how things will go in the Soulcalibverse?

Check out the full gallery below, and hit the jump for the full video reveal, that promises, "New Powers Will Be Unleashed By A Secret Apprentice." Ooooo.

A brand new character is joining the cast of Soulcalibur IV and, surprisingly enough, this one isn't sporting Jabba the Hutt sized breasts. Darth Vader's "secret apprentice" Starkiller, star of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, will join Yoda and Vader in pitting lightsaber against blade when the game hits the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 next month. Yes, Starkiller is coming to both versions of Soulcalibur IV, making your decision that much easier.

Soulcalibur IV Unleashed [GameSpot]

Clone Wars Title For Wii, DS In The Fall

Anyone picking up a copy of Lego Indiana Jones when it ships will find this ad on the back of the game's instruction booklet. Yes, a Lucasarts game based on an upcoming Star Wars property. SHOCKING. Perhaps surprising, though, is the fact that the game hasn't been shown yet. And is due in the Fall. And is due for Nintendo consoles (at least this version is, there's probably a shinier 360/PS3 one). Guess we'll see more on this at E3. Where I'm sure Lucasarts will surprise is with a game of true quality, not just some bare-bones 3D action-adventure that's cashing in on a Star Wars movie. Because they wouldn't do that. Would they?

Clone Wars Coming to Wii and DS [IGN]