Rahul Shirke

A KotOR-fanboy-ish analysis of the LucasArts-Bioware press release

Two days ago, LucasArts and Bioware released a press release announcing their newly-forged alliance and made a fancy domain address at www.lucasartsbioware.com as well. This has put all the internets on red alert, especially considering the recent rumour that Bioware’s top-secret MMORPG is based on Knights of the Old Republic. I, being the KotOR fanboy that I am, could not resist it.

Below, we have dissected the press release to try and guess its meaning, and build up some more hype for this unannounced game in hopes of being hired by the LucasArts marketing team. For the full press release in its unadulterated form, use the LA-Bioware link above. Hit the jump to read the analysis in all its glory.

Continue reading “A KotOR-fanboy-ish analysis of the LucasArts-Bioware press release”

Awesomest movie ever: The Gamer Trailer

We here at StuffWeLike have a certain sympathy towards people who create indie movies because we create some crappy ones ourselves. Well, in our brotherly search for more indie goodness, we came across this brilliant movie!

Alright folks, this isn’t a whole movie, it’s just a college film project, but whatever it is, it is one of the most awesomest things I’ve seen in a long, long while. This is really the sort of thing you need to see in Hollywood (then again, maybe not!) if it weren’t for all those pesky copyright issues.

I love the way that dude races in Mario Kart! :grin:’

Bioware’s top-secret MMORPG based on KotOR?

Good followers of gaming news will have known by now that Bioware’s Austin Studios have been working on an MMORPG project for quite a while. They still haven’t announced what the hell it really is, then again, they didn’t tell us the meaning of life when we asked them. But Primotech is reporting a rumour that this mysterious game is in fact based on Knights of the Old Republic franchise, owned by LucasArts.

KotOR, entirely developed by Bioware and published by LucasArts, quickly became an RPG masterpiece and yet another notch in Bioware’s worthy hat. It’s a really great game – you should go play it right now. It was followed by a very rushed sequel, developed by Obsidian. While Obsidian didn’t do a bad job on it, LA gave them an unreasonably small development time, which made for a hurried game. It could have been an epic game had it been given its time. Even then, it’s a decent game worth playing.

This is Bioware’s first MMORPG project, but it isn’t a first for LucasArts (that is, if the rumour is right). LA had earlier come out with Star Wars: Galaxies, whose popularity graph resembles Microsoft’s sales graph – in reverse. With a world so dense and rich to tap, there is no doubt that LA will persistently try open-world games in Star Wars, and another MMORPG, based on one of their best property’s – KotOR is rather predictable.

Now, I’m a KotOR fan and my response is mixed. First off, KotOR is LucasArt’s first singleplayer RPG in the Star Wars universe, which makes it an important game. It did not ship with a multiplayer, and hence was completely built on singleplayer (which ended up in one of the most richly-made singleplayer game I’ve ever played.

Taking KotOR straight into massive multiplayer is a bold, albeit predictable step. After all, the stories of both KotOR games were epic enough – it’ll be sort of silly to have a string of epic events within a span of fifty years. A MMORPG’s story will be considerably toned down and open. How that will fare for KotOR-style gameplay, I find it difficult to guess. But even then, I’m a little disappointed, because if the rumour is right, there is a good chance that a singleplayer KotOR III will not come not. (

But fear not, spacers. We will bring you more news and toilet paper as they become available.

Child’s Play being remade, promised to be “more terrifying”

David Kirschner spilled some beans when he was asked to spill some beans on his upcoming movie, Martian Child. But the beans he spilled had nothing to do with Mars, but lots to do with Child. To avoid further annoyance, I’ll put this straight – Kirschner is working on a Child’s Play sequel, but this one is going to be a remake of the original. That’s right, folks Chucky is coming back.

Before you start signing death threats, let me inform you that things can actually be good here. Kirschner has worked on every Child’s Play movie to date. Also, the screenwriter of the original Child’s Play is writing the script, which is supposedly very true to the original with a few twists here and there. No director has been attached yet. All the details above are subjective to change, however, as the movie is still very, very early in production. Kirschner has promised, though, that this one will actually be “more terrifying”. Sounds good, baby.

Considering the sort of horror we get these days, I’m thinking it’d be great to have some of that old-time horror again. Or perhaps a fusion of time, if they get a modern director on it. Also, I wonder if Chucky is going to be the same, classic red-haired, freckled doll or a new piece altogether. I suppose you can expect violence to be severely increased in this movie (as if it was any less in the original). Maybe a viral marketing campaign some time before the release? That’d be plain awesome. I can’t wait!

Titles revealed for next Rambo, next Harold & Kumar, Wolverine movie

It appears that Hollywood has been absorbed by an ugly orgy of revealing title names, hoping to make them as bold and imposing as possible. While we haven’t encountered anything that beats the next Indiana Jones movie (whose title is reportedly as long as the length of Russia), we have come across some interesting title revelations, which will now reveal before you and dissect with pristine beauty.

First, the next Rambo movie. It’s early title was “John Rambo” but that was too wimpy for an Italian roaming the jungles with a machinegun and a heart of vengeance. Next came Rambo: To Hell and Back, and that sucked too. Well, we’re ignoring the rest and giving you the dope straight on. Rambo 4’s title is: Rambo! Applaud, people!

Not only is this going to cause oodles of confusion when you want to watch all the Rambo films in order some 30 years later, it is also rather unoriginal. I mean, when people say a new Rambo movie is coming out, you don’t need an imposing “RAMBO” to tell them that. Sheesh.

They even came out with a poster, which in all its clichéed glory, captures the essence of post-2005 movie posters. Black and white? Check. Cool pose? Check. Sublime hints at violence without being overly graphic? Check. Mild deja vu? Check again. Here it is (click for larger pic):

Now, we’ll move on the next Harold & Kumar flick, something that will hopefully involve lesser machineguns, jungles and brawny muscles. This time, the two are locked in more trouble and the title reflects that. The title is (drum roll): Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay. Bold, satirical and it has the “zing” factor.

The movie’s earlier title was Harold & Kumar Go To Amsterdam, but they scrapped it when they realized that the two don’t go to Amsterdam anyways. Similar reasons were involved when they scrapped the title “Harold & Kumar Conduct Vegetable Slavery and Eat Carbonated Orangutans”.

In the movie, the duo are mistaken for terrorists and locked up in Guantanamo. They escape, Homeland Security chases them, blah blah. You don’t need more in a synopsis, believe me.

And last but not the least (*dodges abuse*), we have the title for the new Wolverine movie. The movie will focus on everyone’s favourite admantium-laced X-men member with a penchant for violence, Wolverine. The movie is dubbed X-Men Origins: Wolverine and that sounds decent to me. In fact, it hints at more X-men movies focusing on character histories, which isn’t an entirely bad thing. Just count me out when the Cyclops one comes out.

Also announced is that the movie will be released somewhere in May 2009. As we have reported before, the summer of ’09 (heh) is going to kick ass considering the awesome barrage of movies coming out. All we need to finish it off is a sequel to 300.

I’m, uh, going now.