Star Wars Millennium Falcon - Hide it from your kids!

Enlarged View Here

Definitely not for the kids, Hasbro's new Millennium Falcon model is bigger and better than any that's gone before.  With authentic lights and sound effects from the movie, this new toy is sure to become a favorite among collectors and enthusiasts.

The iconic Corellian freighter, The Millennium Falcon was won by Han Solo from his buddy and fellow scoundrel Lando Calrissan in a game of sabaac and was used to smuggle Obi-Wan and Luke off the desert world Tatooine.  There are many differences between this model and those of the past but most notably is it's size. This new model is pretty damn big as you can see form the image below!

Director of Marketing for Star Wars at Hasbro, Derryl Depriest had this to say about the over sized ship:

"We've always wanted to make a bigger MILLENNIUM FALCON. When we literally "broke the mold" we seized the opportunity to fulfill ours wishes as well as the fans. Legions of young STAR WARS fans have grown up playing with the original MILLENNIUM FALCON toy. In designing the new MILLENNIUM FALCON for a new generation of fans, Hasbro's design team succeeded in adding new features that will both excite kids and thrill our devoted collectors."

Now before you go rushing out to get one, you might want to check your bank balance first! Like many of the new collector edition star wars models, this one aint cheap at £150!  I have to say, no matter how much I love this ship, I'm afraid £150 is simply too much for me even for the fastest ship in the galaxy!  

Features:

- Approximate Size (LxWxH): 32”x23”x8” 
- Includes 3.75-inch Han Solo & Chewbacca action figures
- 3.75-inch action figure capacity: 18 
- Light-up headlights
- Light-up engines
- Authentic movie sound effects: engine boost, cruise mode, fly-by, firing cannons, etc.
- Authentic movie phrases
- Light-up cockpit
- Medical bay
- Auto-opening boarding ramp w/ sounds
- Secret smuggling compartments
- Pivoting gunner station
- Rotating radar dish
- Light-up, "holographic" Dejarik game table
- Electronic, rotating laser turret w/ sounds
- Electronic, 3-missile launcher w/ sounds
- Electronic docking bay
- Electronic Jedi training probe w/ sounds

Former SWG Lead Designer, Jeff Freeman, Takes Own Life

The former Star Wars Galaxies Lead Designer, Jeff Freeman, and man who took a huge deal of flak over the controversial New Game Enhancement (NGE) has taken his own life.

Freeman drew a torrent of abuse and criticism from disgruntled SWG fans and became the fall guy for the disastrous NGE after admitting in an online post [See article here] he was the man who said "Yes we can do that" even though in the same post he states that when originally discussing the proposal, it was very much a case of "There's no way we can do that, there's no way we should do that, the man will never let us get away with doing that."

Here's a quote from the article:

"When the NGE launched and the fiasco became apparent, Freeman deleted this post - but not before the Betrayed found it. A name! At last, a name for all their grief!

The Betrayed descended like maenads. On "refugee" forums like MMORPG.com's "SWG Veterans Refuge," dozens of bitter young males, unfamiliar with the collaborative design of MMOGs, heaped daily scorn upon this water-carrier, this flunky, as the unstoppable mastermind of the entire NGE. Though his original blog post was unclear, Freeman was in fact discussing just one aspect of the NGE: its "Fast Action Combat," the only part he designed. (He still believes it improved the game.) In late 2006, after he left SOE - he now has a design position at Spacetime Studios - Freeman ventured, perhaps unwisely, onto the MMORPG.com refugee forum to clarify this."

However, Freeman's Brother has stated that Jeff's suicide had nothing to do with Star Wars Galaxies stating, "I want everyone to know that it was not SWG that led him to take his life. He has been troubled for some time. There were a lot of personal issues that tore at him"

New Unseen SWTOR Screenshots and Concept Art

Here are some additional screenshots for the recently announced MMO from BioWare. Star Wars The Old Repubic. These screens and concept art images are not available on the official website www.swtor.com

Please click the thumbnails to view the full size images..

Screenshots

Concept Art

One Man a capella Tribute to John Williams

There's a ton of Star Wars related videos on YouTube but some stand out more than others.  This video is really quite unique in that it's one guy doing an a capella.  Why's that unique? Oh come on people! You need more than one person to do an a capella!  Anyway, check out the video for youself.

Note: It starts of rather poorly but gets very good.  

Oh and incase you didnt know, John Williams is the dude who did the music for Star Wars.

Cool Star Wars Stuff : TIE Fighter Mod Case / Desk

Whilst still on the topic of cool Star Wars Stuff, I couldn't leave this amazing PC Case mod out. Not only is it a PC case, it also doubles as a computer desk!

This case mod from David Barry of Brooklin, New York, won him the Extreme Tech Science Fiction Case Mod Contest back in 2005. As you can see it's a replica model of a TIE Fighter housing the computer within the central cockpit.  Here's what Barry had to say about it:

"As a die-hard Star Wars fan, I knew my first mod would have to incorporate something from Star Wars, and I could think of nothing cooler than a TIE Fighter. I got the blueprints online and got to work. I started with the side panels (wings), which were cut from plywood. The cockpit of the TIE Fighter was most problematic part to build. After several failed attempts to create a ball out of Bondo, I finally found the perfect sphere—a Jolly Ball (a pet store item). A plywood cutout that I installed inside the ball holds all the computer components, and PVC piping connects the cockpit to the wings. Accurate detailing was created using wood filler, wood strips, glues, paints, and caulking. The whole thing was painted, and the desktop surface (Plexiglas) was attached."

Now if only you could buy em, even if it was just the desk!

Cool Star Wars Stuff : R2D2 DVD Projector

I'm always on the look out for cool Star Wars gadgets and other paraphernalia.  Along the way, somethings really stand out from the crowd.

Take the R2-D2 DVD / CD Projector for example.  Not only would this be a cool thing to have in your house even if it just sat there doing nothing, but this bad boy will play your DVD's in an 80" viewing area. Not only that but you can plug your PS3, 360 or Wii into it for the ultimate High Definition gaming experience.  With a 5.1 optical output you can hook it up to your surround system or simply use the 20 watt built in virtual surround speakers.  Included in the unit there's multiple USB slots and card readers so you can show of your photos with ease.  If that's still not enough for you, push a little button on the back of the unit and out pops a docking port for your iPod turning R2 into a fantastic music system! If you don't fancy listening to the tracks on your iPod, simply switch to the built in FM radio.

All features are controlled from the sleek looking Millennium Falcon Remote Control and by features I don't just mean the media features!  No, you can actually use the control to move R2 around your home.  When he's in motion he'll beep and whistle one of his 11 R2-D2 sound effects.

So that's the good news.  Before you rush out to buy one however, here's the bad news.  It will set you back just under £2000 putting this fantastic gadget out of reach for most fans.  Oh well, there's always next year!

Links:

Official Nikko Promo Video [on YouTube]

Specification [PDF Format] 

Purchase: Play.com [I do not receive any commission and you should shop around for the best deal!]

Manufacturer : Nikko

Star Wars the Old Republic : Fans React to Cartoon graphics!

I don’t envy BioWare for taking on the SWTOR project. I mean I’m thrilled, but one thing we’ve learned over the years is that us Star Wars fans are exceptionally, well, fanatical about our beloved IP. Though the announcement by BioWare last week has been generally well received by the fans, criticism of the games ‘cartoon like’ and ‘over the top’ graphics seems to be dominating the official community forums. Things are getting pretty heated with the fanboys complaining about everything from lightsaber sizes to superhero skin type costumes, and the general gamers wondering what all the fuss is about.

Here is a quote from one gamer on the website in response to the overwhelming criticism..

“I’ve never seen so many people whine about graphics. When did video games become all about graphics? I would much rather have something that’s cartoony than nothing.”



So what *is* all the fuss about, why don’t the general gamers get it, and is it really that important how the graphics look?

Speaking as a hard core Fan Boy myself, and a long term player of SOE’s SWG, I have to say I totally understand why this criticism has surfaced. You see what the average Joe doesn’t understand about us Fan Boys, is that Star Wars is much much more than just a set of films. It’s a passion, a way of life, and something we take VERY seriously. A lot of us have grown up with Star Wars spending years pouring over the masses of Star Wars content out there, hungry to learn all we can about this wonderful fictional galaxy. We immerse ourselves in that galaxy and we want that immersion to be as realistic an experience to the Star Wars IP as it possibly can. The size of the lightsaber IS important to us because when we log in and play our characters, we want to put ourselves in their shoes, feel like the character, and not feel like we’re simply playing a video game. A lightsaber the size of a log breaks the immersion and it’s hard to feel as though you’re in the gritty Star Wars galaxy when everyone is running around in multi coloured spandex.

In a recent interview with SWTOR’s Art Director, Jeff Dobson’s is quoted as saying “We definitely think that Star Wars is all about that "lived in" and "gritty" feeling that you get with the original trilogy. It's a dirty sci-fi; it's not a polished and clean sci-fi. It definitely draws people into the world.”

[Full Article Here]



I have to say, those screenshots certainly don’t look dirty, gritty or lived in to me! To be fair though, these are the first screenshots to be published and it’s perhaps a little too early to be so critical.

When asked about the over sized lightsabers, Dobson’s had this to say..

“We're actually still tweaking that. That said, we do want the weapons to feel just a little bit oversized. We're always trying to think about that "show off" factor. We definitely don't want to make them too small and miss out on that show-off factor.

For those that are concerned about the screenshots, I think the lightsabers look bigger in those pictures than they actually are. But without a doubt we want to have that "oversized" weapon feel in the game for the guns and the lightsabers both. By making the weapons a little bit oversized, it makes you feel cool to have that giant gun in your hands.”

[Full Article Here]

I have to confess, this comment made my heart sink a little, confirming that they were indeed going for an ‘over the top’ feel for SWTOR. The good news however is that in response to the overwhelming feedback from the community that was getting a little out of hand, BioWare’s Rob Chestney, Senior Writer responded by posting this on their forums:

"BioWare is strongly committed to its community and we look at all the issues brought up consistently in the forums, including the size of the lightsabers. At this point, the screenshots are a really limited representation of both the characters and the weapons in the game, so if you keep checking back you'll get a better idea of what the game looks like.

Again, we are reading these forums, and your concerns will be discussed, but I should point out that the blog this thread refers to twisted Jeff Dobson's words a bit. Jeff did say lightsabers would be customizable and that higher level weapons should look cooler than lower level weapons, but nowhere did he suggest that the paradigm for how to make lightsabers look cooler was as simple as making them larger.

The spirit of the Star Wars movies is important to us, and we're not going to just ignore that. Arguably, one of the coolest lightsabers in the movies was Count Dooku's with the curved hilt. I'm not sure if it was smaller than average, but it certainly wasn't larger. We want higher level lightsabers to look better aesthetically. We'll make an effort to show you what we're talking about as soon as we can."

[Link to forum post]

This at least demonstrates they’re listening to the community and hopefully willing to make changes if there’s an overwhelming demand. Knowing us Fanboys though, there’s going to be many more ‘overwhelming demands’ along the way, as well as lots of blood, sweat and tears. What have BioWare let themselves in for?

So to conclude I have to say I’m glad the community will play a part in shaping this game before its release. I know it’s hard for general gamers to comprehend just why we fanboys get all hot under the collar about what seem minor things to them, but at the end of the day, if the Fanboys get their way, we’ll be happy, and they'll still get the opportunity to play an excellent game! We want an MMO that’s Star Wars, not Clone Wars.

3D Star Wars Art

My game character in SWG is called Jinli Coedi. In the SWG timeline, he is a fallen Jedi Knight who has turned to the dark side and though in hiding after order 66, he seeks out force sensitives and attempts to turn them also to the dark side.

In this piece shows Jinli Coedi in the past when (as the story goes) he was still a Jedi Knight and General during the clone wars...... Here you see him with his young apprentice.

The Sketch

The Render

The Inspiration - General Kenobi Outfit - Clone Wars Era

Star Wars Babe of the Week

Just for fun, I thought I'd do a 'Star Wars babe of the Week' feature. Since I spend a lot of time browsing Star Wars sites and Images, I thought it would be fun to post about some of the hotties I've come across. So, here's this week's Star Wars Babe..

Check out the entire shoot at www.sithvixen.com

Don't underestimate the power of the darkside!

According to the Telegraph, Ian McDiarmid who plays Senator / Emperor Palpatine in all the Star Wars movies recently told an ambulance crew to wait until the end of his West End Play before alowing them to examining him after he experienced dizzy spells during the play.

Apparently staff became worried about McDiarmid, 64, and called an ambulance concerned he was suffering from a heart attack. Using the Dark Side of the Force (ok, not really!), McDiarmid managed to continue his performance to the end,ignoring the dizzy spells before getting in the Ambulance.

I really hope he's ok! Palpatine is one of my favorite characters in the saga, and Ian, a fellow Scotsman is an exceptionally talented actor. The good news is that it looks like it wasn't a heart attack after all and Ian went on to continue his role as the Father in Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author just a week later.

Star Wars : The Old Republic : NERDGASM!

So it's finally official and there was an all mighty disturbance in the force as millions of Star Wars fans simultaneously nerdgasmed with BioWare and LucasArt's announcement that the 'not so' secret project they've been working on for the past few years is in fact Star Wars : The Old Republic

Nerdgasm Nerdgasm Nerdgasm Nerdgasm Nerdgasm..

Sorry, I couldn't contain myself!

So you may have guessed by now that I am super excited about this game. In fact that's an understatement! As someone who wasted thousands of hours in Star Wars Galaxies creating a Jedi character only to have Sony Online Entertainment heartlessly and viciously wipe out my hard earned investment in a single day with the NGE in what can only be described as a greedy attempt to pull in more subscribers at the expense of it's current player base, I, like many other bitter SWG players have been crying out for a company like BioWare to finally put SOE and SWG out of their misery and show these amateurs how it SHOULD be done!

Of course LucasArts have announced that SWTOR isn't designed to replace SWG, but many, like me (who still reluctantly play SWG simply because it's Star Wars) suspect that it's the long over due and final nail in SWG's coffin. And though the initial press release from BioWare indicates that STWOR will be quite a different experience from SWG, I still don't think it's going to be enough to save SWG! (Muhahahaha).

Ok with my SOE rant out the way (I'll save that for another blog), lets talk about Star Wars : The Old Republic.

The first thing that's really exciting as I've already mentioned is that it's being developed by none other than BioWare, a company which has a solid reputation for highly polished and quality games and responsible for KOTOR I & II. We can be confident that SWTOR is in good hands!

Reading through the material on the official website and the many news articles that have been published, it's clear that the game is going to be heavily story driven, something that will please a lot of fans. Players will be able to play as Jedi, Sith or a 'variety of other classic Star Wars roles' picking up NPC (Non Player Character) companions as they go. The companion system is definitely going to be interesting and although they have a similar system in Guild Wars, it sounds as though there's going to be much more interaction between player and companion in SWTOR which will hopefully lead to an emotional connection, something that Guild Wars fails to do. It looks as though you'll have to work hard at the relationships too as they may betray you depending on your actions. This kind of detail is likely to please the minority of players who actually prefer to role play in MMO's as lets face it, your NPC companion isn't going to turn round and say "OMGZ, N00BZ!" when you interact with them. Quite how these NPC companions will work in relation to other players will be interesting to see.

Another thing that interests me is the fact that although some of the stories / quests can only be completed with help from other players, the majority of them will be achievable alone. Now I know the age old argument that MMO's are supposed to be about players joining forces, but for someone who holds down a 9 till 5 job and has kids, being able to play the game at my own pace and not having to wait around for help definitely appeals and is something SWG's seriously lacks, something that's even more apparent now the servers are almost empty! An MMO were advancement doesn't mean killing thousands of bugs in a mindless grind is something I'm really looking forward to. Are you listening SOE??

There's still a great deal we don't know about SWTOR and it's hard not to wonder just how this game will compare to SWG. Will there be player cities, vehicles, space combat? Will the worlds be giant sandboxes or linier in design? Will I need a new PC to play the thing? Who knows?!

These and many more questions are yet to be answered and I personally cant wait to find out.

The Force Unleashed - 3rd Play Through

Believe it or not, I’m now on my third play through of The Force Unleashed on the PS3, so despite the critics saying its crap, I’m obviously enjoying it. 

I managed to complete it first time round over two evenings. Some of the criticism of the game is aimed at the fact it’s just too short, and although that is true given how long it took me to play the game, the fact I’m on my 3rd play through and still enjoying it means I’ve certainly got my money’s worth.

So why am I playing through it again? 

Well after playing it through the second time I read an article that said to unlock the Sith Stalker Armor, you have to choose the Dark Side ending. ‘Dark Side ending?’ I thought to myself. I didn’t realise there was more than one ending. So I read on and learned that **spoiler alert** to get the Dark Side ending, just after you’ve defeated Lord Vader for the first time, you can jump down and finish him of instead off going after the Emperor. I’ll talk about this later.

So I selected the final mission (Death Star) and completed the game getting the Dark Side ending. This of course unlocked the awesome Sith Stalker Armor and this is the reason I’m playing through the game again. Another reason for playing it again is because I get to keep my current level so now I really am a bad ass mother f*cker!

There’s just so much I like about this game. I’m not usually a hack and slash person, but because it’s star wars and because it’s a lightsaber, I love the game play. That said, there are a few things that get on my nerves, one being the obvious laziness of the developers.

The main thing that annoys me is how the customizable upgrades, i.e. clothing and lightsaber colours, are not reflected in the cut scenes. For example, when I chose to have a crimson lightsaber, the cut scene shows the character with a blue blade. It’s the same with clothing. No matter what you select to wear the cut scene shows you in the outfit you were wearing at the start of the level. This to me is extremely immersion breaking. BioWare can get it right in Mass Effect, so why cant Lucas Arts do it in The Force Unleashed? That reminds me. At the start of the game Starkiller has a crimson blade, but that magically changes to a blue one half way through the game with no explanation.. Grrrr! 

Flaws aside, The Force Unleashed is a must have game for Star Wars fanatics, even if it’s just for the story line.

Watch the official trailer below: