Star Wars

EA Admits Games Can Do Better For The LGBT Community

Yesterday in New York City, Electronic Arts held a special event focused on queer issues in gaming. And it happened mostly because the company itself was willing to face its own stumbles in presenting gay characters in its video games. The impetus for Thursday’s Full Spectrum event—co-sponsored by the Entertainment Software Association and the Human…

The Noisiest, Dirtiest Bars and Taverns in Video Games

Bars, clubs and noisy taverns are always crucial locations in a story-driven game. They are save points, places where we can sell useless stuff from our inventory, gather information, meet a key character, or just simply get into trouble. We have selected bars and inns that look the grittiest. Bars that are perhaps most memorable…

Giving Up Control Of The New Star Wars Films Was Tough For George Lucas

We like to hold the things we make near and dear, treating them as if they were our babies. It’s no different with George Lucas and Star Wars. As you might know, Lucasfilm was acquired by Disney in 2012—and so was Star Wars. Right now, a third trilogy in the Star Wars film series is…

X-Wing Bed Gives Boy The Coolest Childhood On Record

When I was a kid, I dreamed of flying an X-Wing. Somehow. I would have pretended to turn my bed into one, but my bed was rectangular and made of wood. Not good enough. This kid’s bed is good enough. While the actual bed part sits on the ground, suspended above it—for both playing and…

The Strange Status of Star Wars: 1313, A Hot Game With an Uncertain Future

It’s not unusual for a newly-revealed video game to disappear for eight months. It’s not weird to be amazed by a game and then neither see nor hear anything about it for a while. The silence around Star Wars 1313, LucasArts’ seemingly next-gen game that wowed onlookers at last June’s E3 show, is nevertheless unusual.…

Somebody, Please Make A Star Wars Game Look This Cool, Thanks

A group of stunt performers has made a video that will instantly have anyone who’s ever played a Star Wars video game clutching at their hearts and whimpering “pleeeease” through clenched teeth. It’s a first-person lightsaber duel, shown from both the perspective of Darth Vader and a Jedi. We’ve had games try and do this…

This Star Wars Pinball Adaptation is a Tour de Force

E3 is never a time for social calls. It’s nonstop work. Last June, the only developer I met with outside the walls of the L.A. Convention Center was over drinks with Zen Studios’ U.S. staff at the J.W. Marriott. They’d built a great name for themselves with Pinball FX2, and their profile shot through the…

For $10, You Can Get Lightsaber Training

For two years now, a pair of fencing aficionados have been running Golden Gate Knights, a service that “offers experienced instruction in saber choreography.” In other words, they teach you how to sword fight like you were in a Star Wars movie. One of the ones where people actually fight, too, not the old man…

True Story: Darth Vader Got Wicket The Ewok Into Video Games

I was reading the latest issue of Edge on my iPad yesterday when I came across an interview with Warwick Davis, who you may know as the star of Life’s Too Short, but who you’ll probably know for his roles as Wicket W Warrick in Return of the Jedi and Willow in… Willow And in…

Star Wars Pinball Launches Next Week on Five Different Platforms

Star Wars Pinball‘s first three tables—The Empire Strikes Back, Boba Fett and The Clone Wars—will release next week on a slew of mobile and console platforms. Pricing and release dates are different for all of them, so pay close attention. First, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita gamers may also buy the set of three for…

Giant LEGO X-Wing Might Be The Coolest LEGO Set Ever Made

Normally when we post something LEGO-related on this site, it tends to be a custom build, because that’s where the really amazing stuff happens. Today, though, my hat is off to LEGO’s designers, because this new X-Wing model is fantastic. Replacing the older, weird-looking version (I never liked the nose), this Ultimate Collectors Series “Red…

See the Star Wars Lightsaber-Fighting Game That Never Made It

It never went anywhere, and maybe that’s a good thing, but this is a demonstration Studio Gigante put together for a Star Wars fighting game on the original Xbox. Josh Tsui, currently of Robomodo, co-founded the studio and for some reason tweeted out this video on Valentine’s Day It’s somewhat better than the trainwreck that…

Grown Man Turns Living Room Into Enormous, Incredible Battle Of Hoth Diorama

So, Barry here likes Star Wars. A lot. So much so that he’s sacrificed an entire room of his house to recreate Empire Strikes Back’s Battle of Hoth, in a diorama that would make even Industrial Light & Magic proud. It’s a completely static piece; the explosions and smoke you see don’t move, despite how…

12 out of 15 video game creators would make a new Star Wars game, Wired discovers. (Prepare for a twist ending.)

Gabe Newell and JJ Abrams’ Wonderful, Unprecedented Talk Has An R2D2 Easter Egg

A week after it happened, you can now watch the DICE Summit’s kick-off talk between Star Trek/Star Wars‘ JJ Abrams and Steam/Half-Life 3‘s Gabe Newell. It was a fun talk that ended with Abrams and Newell talking about making games and movies together. That’s the news you probably saw last week. But watch everything that…

Why The Empire’s Most “Spectacular Military Fiasco” Was The Battle Of Hoth

It’s one thing to pick apart plot holes in a film, but to do so while at the same time cross-examining the military strategy of fictional protagonists? That’s about as far up my alley as you can get without things getting adults-only. Wired’s military column, Danger Room, has written a fantastic piece putting Darth Vader’s…

Knights of the Old Republic II Studio Has an Idea for Another Star Wars RPG, if Disney is Listening

If you enjoyed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II and hate Electronic Arts, then this next sentence should make your heart flutter: Obsidian Entertainment, the studio that gave us Fallout: New Vegas and an unfinished KOTOR II have pitched another Star Wars role-playing game set between Episodes III and IV Even with the…

RIP, The Man Who Made Yoda & Chewbacca

Legendary British special effects wizard Stuart Freeborn, who is responsible for some of science fiction’s most memorable on-screen characters, has passed away at the age of 98. Freeborn, who made the ape-men from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, will be remembered most for his contributions in the Star Wars franchise, where his puppet-building and make-up skills led…

Sounds Like Young Han Solo And Boba Fett Will Get Their Own Star Wars Movies

“Boba Fett? BOBA Fett?? Where?” Yesterday, Disney’s CEO confirmed that in addition to the upcoming Star Wars trilogy, there will be all kinds of single-character spin-off films Today, Entertainment Weekly is reporting that one of those films will feature young Han Solo, and another will star Boba Fett. According to EW, the Han story will…

We’re Liveblogging Gabe Newell and J.J. Abrams’ Talk at D.I.C.E. Summit

Gabe Newell, the president and cofounder of Valve Corporation, and J.J. Abrams, the newly minted director of the next Star Wars film, are together for a keynote talk kicking off the D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas. The talk isn’t being livestreamed, but Kotaku editor-in-chief Stephen Totilo is in the room, and will be liveblogging what…