Category Archives: Star Wars
Video Game Trailer Extravaganza!
The video game industry had their huge E3 convention thingy this past weekend, and a flood of news and trailers has come pouring out. I don’t want to cover every single one, or each one individually, so I thought I’d just share with you all some games I am definitely looking forward to, thanks to E3.
No reports yet on the X-Box 720 or the Playstation 4, but I’m in no rush. I’m still very happy with my X-Box 360, except for the disc reading error it’s suddenly suffering from. Anyway, on with the games!
South Park: The Stick of Truth
A South Park sword & sorcery role-playing game, in which you get to design your own character. How awesome is this? Fully voiced by the guys from South Park, with the gameplay that looks like the actual show. This makes me giddy all over.
Watch Dogs
Those are some of the best graphics I’ve ever seen, and everyone was saying the exact same thing when Grand Theft Auto IV came out several years ago. But guess what happens after several years? Developers learn to use the hardware better! Since GTA4 set the stage for a beautifully-rendered New York City, Watch Dogs by Ubisoft is apparently going to take that baton and run it even further. This might be one of those games were it’s just as much fun to play as it is just to walk around the city. Not that I really have any idea what it’s about, other than what that trailer tells us. Still, awesome trailer. Watch until the end, the action picks up nicely.
Lego City Undercover
Oddly, Grand Theft Auto 5 didn’t make an appearance at E3. But who needs it when you’ve got a Lego version of GTA! This appears to be a free roaming city where you play some kind of Lego cop, who can change into different costumes to accomplish different tasks. Neat. Sadly, it’s for WiiU only, and I’m not a Nintendo guy. But still, it looks neat.
Star Wars 1313
I’m not the biggest Star Wars fan in the world, so it doesn’t knock my socks off that there’s going to be a new Star Wars video game franchise. There are already like a million of them, after all. But maybe this one will be different. It’s supposed to be a gritty, mature take on the Star Wars universe, putting you in the shoes of a brand new bounty hunter character fighting organized crime in the depths of Coruscant. I’ve hard of worse premises. The graphics again look pretty cool, but the gameplay does not impress, especially not compared to some of these other trailers. Plus no familiar faces, so poop on that!
So any games I’ve missed that you’re excited about? Let me know in the comments!
My 6 Favorite Star Wars Expanded Universe Characters
Have you ever wondered what kind of power vacuum there must have been in the Empire after the Rebels blew up the second Death Star, killing Darth Vader and the Emperor? Or who were the first Jedi who discovered the Force and built the first lightsabers? Did Han Solo and Princess Leia ever settle down and have kids? Or if Luke Skywalker heralded the ‘Return of Jedi’, who were the rest? Well wonder no more, because pop culture has you covered. Welcome to the Star Wars Expanded Universe, a collection of books, comics, video games and cartoons that tell the rest of the story.
For the saga of Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Alliance is only a fraction of the larger, grander Star Wars Universe. Dedicated fans, geeks and professional writers have expanded beyond the movies to tell more and more stories. The Expanded Universe is the greatest, geekiest bit of fandom there’s every been – and what’s more, it’s all A-OK’d by George Lucas himself. It’s all licensed and approved!
We're talking Jedi Wookies with lightsabers, people!
I love the Expanded Universe. I think it’s gloriously geeky and riveting. I love that for every single minor or background character that appears in the six main movies, the fans and professional writers have created full and rich backstories. I once read a book called Death Star, about the building of the first Death Star (bad book, don’t read it). Several times in the first Star Wars film, A New Hope, Darth Vader meets with other Imperial agents aboard the Death Star. Well one of the armed guards standing at the door in the background of those scenes is a main character in the book Death Star. So every time I watch A New Hope, I can point to the guard and say ‘that’s Atour Riten!’ Weird name.
But that’s the glory of the Expanded Universe, filling in the cracks and telling the stories beyond the six movies. Allow me to introduce you to My 6 Favorite Star Wars Expanded Universe Characters.
Darth Maul is Coming Back Baby!
It doesn’t take a genius to realize that Darth Maul was the best freakin’ thing about the Star Wars prequels. So the producers of the Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon have decided that they’ll mess with continuity all they want to bring that ultimate Sith badass back to life! Behold the badass trailer!
I am a huge Darth Maul fan. So huge, in fact, that I bought both the Darth Maul comic book series and the Darth Maul tie-in novel around the time that Episode 1 came out. I think I even have a first edition Darth Maul action figure still in its original packaging somewhere back in my old bedroom.
I might have to start watching Star Wars: Clone Wars just to see this badass Sith back in action!
6 of My Own Creative Ideas
X-Factor-scribe Peter David once wrote, “One doesn’t decide to become a writer and then go scavenging for ideas. One becomes a writer because the ideas keep coming to you, whether you want them or not. It’s just how your mind is wired.”
And for me, that’s exactly what it’s like to be a creative writer.
Now if only I could find somebody to pay me for my ideas. It’s no secret that I want to be a professional writer someday. I have so many ideas for stories, characters, moments, dialogue and more that it would be a crime against humanity for me to never get discovered. Or it would be a crime against me, at least. But making it big in the world of comic books or novels is just as difficult as becoming a movie star. It doesn’t help that most of my writing these days is just recreational, that I haven’t completed a novel or a script or anything else I can shop around.
If I didn’t have a day job, I’d definitely be a starving artist.
For my 300th blog post, I’ve decided to give my readers a peek behind the curtain that is my mind. What are these stories that I’m so excited about? What wild ideas do I hope to bank my future on? What were the tales I doodled into my notebook in middle school? I’m not going to tell you every single story I’m working on – and definitely not the super important ones I hope to publish someday – but here are 6 different ideas I’ve had and cultivated over the years. Some of them are from my childhood, and only ever existed in my fevered mind. Some are actually stories I’ve written and published online, and you can read for yourself if you’re so interested.
Some are wholly original, and some are based around my favorite movies and video games from pop culture. I hope you enjoy the visit.
Henchman-4-Hire 