LucasArts and TT Games have more to tell about their recent development Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars.

Thats right, The Clone Wars will feature the best of the previous Lego games, as well as incorporating brand new game play to the mix!  The game will feature on all the Next Gen consoles; Wii, Playstation3, Xbox360, as well as the Nintendo DS, and the PC later this Fall.

Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars will include all the characters from both seasons of the hugely popular animated television series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, as well as some fan-favorite characters from the Star Wars movies!  The game will feature brand new battle modes, giving players unique, head-to-head combat and an upgraded level builder, allowing the creation of customized bases and in-game battlefields.  Play either as a Jedi or Separatist with all-new character abilities, such as squad command, lightsaber slicing, lightsaber jumps, long distance Jedi attacks and Grapple Tie-Ups, all within a new, easy-to-navigate hub.

So for all you Lego video game fans, or parents who enjoy a game “your kid can play” check this one out!  With all the new features this game will be sporting it sounds like it will be hours of family fun!

Source: Insider #116 (page 10)

It also appears that Lucasarts is doing another daily update at unleashed2010.com, where each day for about a week they add something to the background that ends up showing a teaser from the game. Last time it was Starkiller on top of the rancor killer from the premiere trailer. This time we can see some chains around Starkiller’s hands, which I wouldn’t recommend doing. So check daily to see what the next teaser is!

UPDATE:

Looks like a this was a false alarm. Eddie writes in to tell us that “I just received word from Frank Parisi (in charge of the Penguin Young Readers’ Division) that the Penguin catalog mention of a tv-movie lead-in to Season 3 of the Clone  Wars is incorrect. Bummer!!!

“That information is incorrect, and due to internal miscommunication, it slipped out without being properly vetted”

Thanks Eddie!

Original Story:

Did you know that the 2008 The Clone Wars movie was actually a collection of episodes?  The main part of the film was composed of three episodes with similar titles originally meant to form a trilogy: “Castle of Deception“, “Castle of Doom” and “Castle of Salvation“, while a standalone episode called “The New Padawan“, was developed later in the movies production as a flashback episode during the series, became the opening sequence of the movie, eventually leading to the introduction of Ahsoka Tano.

Well apparently that’s not going to be the only TCW episodes to be arranged as a movie feature.

Straight from our friends at Club Jade we have our first word of conformation that another Clone Wars movie is on its way, this one straight to television.  Club Jade had pondered a “TV movie event” earlier this year. Page 25 of the Penguin Young Reader catalog, lists The Clone Wars: Defenders of the Republic with this description:

Based on the TV movie event that will launch season 3 of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series in October 2010, this novel follows a group of clone troopers as they rise through the ranks from cadets, to rookies, and all the way to elite ARC troopers.

Season 3 should launch this fall, as Season 1 and 2 have before it.  So keep your eyes and ears tuned for more word on this and more breaking Star Wars news.

Source: Club Jade

This week we learn about the the prison world of Belsavis. Not much is known about this planet it’s only mentioned a handful of times in the expanded universe. Often times, the planets where there is little or no known information given than a few particular blurbs are the ones that give creators the most freedom to work with as they are open to be interpreted and open to the authors or artists imagination.

Belsavis located in the Outer Rim, recently discovered by the Galactic Republic. This world once occupied by the ancient race known as the Rakata, is now being used to house some of the most dangerous criminals of the Republic including Mandalorians, Sith Lords and Creatures born of Sith Alchemy.

Further attempts to take control of some of the deeper levels of the prison where thwarted by strange creatures and unstoppable droids. It would be safe to assume these were some kind of safety mechanisms or defenses left by the previous owners.

Realizing that it was only a matter of time before things got worse and possibly even some of the force fields would fail, the Republic sent a force to this planet to safeguard these prisoners and ensure they stayed imprisoned.

This in turn lead to an interesting turn of events as the Empire found out about this secret prison it sent it’s Imperial Agents to infiltrate Belsavis and unleash the carnage that was held within.

This particular planet has a few interesting concepts behind it. First off mentions in the expanded universe depict portions of it as a endless maze, giving the audience a great visual representation and a parallel to one of the most classic stories we know which is derived from ancient Greek Mythology, this would be Jason & the Minotaur.

Next the blurb we received this week about end game raiding being a mixture of classic raiding we are used to and with the inclusion of something we’ve never seen before leads to some great idea’s and theories here. This prison world makes for a very strong candidate in this realm as it can include both the Empire & Republic.

For the Republic, your goal would be to ensure the prisoners are kept where they belong, while for the Empre, it’s simple release the Sith Lords, Mandalorians, & Sith Creatures! The addition of the mention of the word ‘Tomb’ also leads the reader to believe this will be some sort of hive network of cells and labyrinths. This would lead for some exciting travels!

Now lets discuss the visuals on this planet, they are quite distinctive. They offer a blend of winter and temperate climate zones. There is a lot of inspiration here coming from Felucia, Hoth, and Kashyyyk. Most notable are the tree’s, they are very muck akin to Wroshyr tree’s, having the very gnarled roots and being used as roads. In addition the high contrast of colors brings the elements from Felucia as we see many exotic plants.

Also make sure to keep your eyes open as in the future a new web comic is being released known as Blood of the Empre!  It is set in the time before the Treaty of Coruscant, it will primarily focus on the interior designs of the Sith Emperor!

You can find more information about the web comic at the SW: The Old Republic website.

EUCantina.net is very excited to present to its readers an exclusive preview for tomorrow’s release of the fourth Fate of the Jedi novel, Backlash. Written by veteran Star Wars scribe Aaron Allston, Backlash can be picked up as a hardcover at any major book-seller tomorrow. Until then, enjoy the excerpt by clicking on the “Read More” button.

Many thanks to the great folks over at Del Rey for the excerpt.

Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Backlash

Page 36– Bottom

A short while later, when the two speeders had come within view ofeach other for the third time, Leia saw the cargo speeder halt. There was discussion among the four people aboard, then Tribeless Sha dropped over the side, landing nimbly on the forest floor four meters down. She looked right and left, then set off at a trot to the right, a course that would carry her past the red speeder’s current path. When she’d moved forty paces, the cargo speeder followed at a slow pace.

Leia activated her speeder’s comm. “What’s happening? Over.”

Yliri’s voice came back, “Sha spotted blood on a bush. Now she’s spotted rancor footprints. She’s tracking back to where the beast was injured. Over.”

“Thanks. Out.”

Within a few minutes, Sha had found the spot, ground that was charred everywhere as if by a broad-ranging but not very intense fire. Within a hundred meters of it were two wrecked speeder bikes. Tarth looked over the registration numbers engraved in their engine compartments and gave Han a nod.

Han sighed. “Luke and Ben are going to lose their deposits.”

Leia elbowed him in the ribs. “Not funny. Where are they?”

“Hard to track.” That was Sha, one of the few times she’d spoken since she’d been hired. She gestured to the northwest, at a distinct angle from their previous course. “That way. There’s another set of tracks. Dathomiri woman, I think.” Her hand transcribed an arc, then ended up pointing in the same direction. “Went off at an angle, then went that way, too.”

“Who was leading and who was following?” Leia frowned. While she didn’t like the idea of anyone tracking or trailing Luke and Ben, she knew that her brother might merely be allowing an enemy to do so.

Sha shrugged. “Impossible to tell. Too long ago.”

“Can you track them?”

Sha nodded. “Yes. But slow. Walking speed.”

“Let’s do it, then.”

“Electronics are fried.” That was Tarth, still rummaging around in the mechanical insides of one of the speeder bikes.

Han frowned. “How’s that again?”

“Electronics are fried. Both speeders. I also found a comlink by the other one. Burned clear through and discarded.”

“Char marks on the ground where they were?”

Tarth shook his head. “The same as all around, but nothing to suggest they were grounded when it happened.”

Sha said nothing, but the look she gave Han was a question.

“Electrical attack of some sort,” Han told her. “But electricity is most damaging when its target is in contact with the ground. If the two speeder bikes were shot out of the sky with an electrical attack while they were moving . . . well, that’s a lot of power.”

Sha nodded. “Lightning Storm. A spell cast by the Witches. Some Witches. All Nightsisters.”

Leia took a step forward before she’d realized she had. “Nightsisters? I thought-I was hoping they were all gone.”

Sha shook her head. “Never gone. They hide, they heal, they return. If their numbers are few, they come for your children.” For just a moment, her usually expressionless mask fell and she looked bleak. Then that look was gone, wiped away by a blankness any sabacc player would envy, and Sha turned away.

Han gripped Leia’s shoulder, gave it a reassuring squeeze. “The Nightsisters are their Sith.” His voice was a grim whisper.

The latest update received from Bioware’s highly anticipated MMO - The Old Republic (TOR) - gives the community a great introspective look at the mind set and potential applications of where the story may unfold for the Jedi Consular.

TOR writer Joanna Berry, in this developer blog, begins to explain to us some of what she finds fascinating about Star Wars; she discusses her favorite movie & moment. In turn, this gives the reader a direct reference as to what motivates her and her writing.

What does this means you may ask? To put it into development terms; when a writer puts a lot of personality and thought into a story, most of the time it’s something they can relate to or feel pretty passionate about. Here we are given direct examples of this, and I believe it is safe to assume we will be seeing the evolution of the Jedi Consular, through flash points involving these scenarios.

In addition, the writer infers that choice will have a very strong aspect in the story here, once again pushing the selling point of the 4th pillar - Story. We see elements of both dark & light side at play here as the Jedi Consular is stuck in a struggle of balancing for the thirst of knowledge.

Knowledge itself is a weapon, but how it is used whether through passion or through reason remains for the player to decide. There are a lot of choices to be made and many of them may fall in between what is moral and unmoral, hence leaving the player in the gray murky waters of trying to understand both sides of the Force. So now what will your ideology be and where will your allegiance lie towards?

Source: SWTOR.com

Source: TOS

Listen here.