Lucasarts is dead long live Lucasarts

yes Lucasarts is dead as we know it staff where informed this morning  of the news but it come as no surprise as disney had put on hold 1313 and first assault Disney will still use the Lucasarts name to license games so it could not be the end of 1313 and first assault but it could all so mean that other developers can now potentially pitch new star wars games.

they also issued this statement

“After evaluating our position in the games market, we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company’s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games," 

its a shame to see such an iconic studio go but all good things must come to an end but that will all ways be remembered for there amazing point and click games like the monkey island games and grim fandango.

but when you think about it it was bound to happen the most successful star wars games of the past years have been the kotor games and the battlefront and that where not made by the studio LucasArts last title to see any sort of success was  Star Wars The Force Unleashed. The sequel didn't live up to expectations. The last game published by LucasArts was Kinect Star Wars and the less about that the better.

it is a shame as 1313 looked very promising and i hope another studio takes over it as it sounds close to completion as well.

Lucasarts forgotten game Gladius

how many of you remember this one ?



















yes its is a forgotten lucasarts game but its more of a game that just did not leave a big impact on the game playing public at the time, The game was rated as one of the "best Xbox games most people never played" by Official Xbox Magazine but first a bit about the game. 

the focus of the game is to build a school of gladiators and take them on the road in a quest to become the the best in the world, at the start of the game you could pick between Ursula or Valens the only difference in the choice between the two is where you start Valens starts in imperium the Roman theamd land and Ursula who starts in Nordagh, Ursula is who you pick if its your first time playing as this is the beginners path and has more of a gentle lerning curve to it. As for the story i will not say too much about it but it is a pretty standerd fantasy affair ancient god gets stopped and his followers are trying to bring him back and you are the only one who can stop them the bad side to it it ends on a cliffhanger for a sequel that was never made.   
the game play its self is comes down to a rock-paper-scissors combat your gladiators are split in to three different types light medium and heavy so in combat would work out like this light ≥ heavy ≥ medium ≥ light so you have to work out a balance in your team and work on how well you position your gladiators sounds simple right ? well not really there are numerous game modes witch force you to constantly adapted that are not just a straight up fight as well as the magic mechanic so not only could a medium gladiator beet a heavy if he used fire attacks so there the elemental damage to factor in as well as the crowd bonus eatch crowd reacts differently so using a elemental attack may get you the kill but you will loose the crowd favor and the bonus that it gives you.

One of the things i think that put people of the game despite it gaining really good critical reviews at the time was the difficulty curve if you starts by picking Valens the game throws you no easy balls this is a game where you will find your self restarting a lot this game is difficult to master but its never not fun when you are fighting its all about learning the mechanics and how to stack them in your favor.

but unfortunately no one played it much like psychonauts the people who played it remember it and word spreads slowly maybe one day it will get rereleased but in the mean time if you get the chance to play this grate gem give it a go.