Lucasarts joins Steam

[Mr Bean]

Good news everyone!

A bevy of classic LucasArts games are coming to Steam over the next month, LucasArts Games announced this morning.

First news of the announcement came from LucasArts' Twitter feed: "So lets see who will be happy: LucasArts has partnered with Steam. Digital adventurey goodness."

The back-catalog hitting Steam's PC on-demand gaming service includes LOOM, The Dig, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and Star Wars Battlefront II.

"This effort is going to make it possible to introduce a whole new generation of gamers to LucasArts' classic games," said Darrell Rodriguez, president of LucasArts. "It also gives more people a chance to play our games by making them available long after they've disappeared from store shelves. We hope our fans are as excited as we are about our plans and we can't wait to share what's coming next. This is just the beginning."

The first round of releases will hit Steam on July 8 and includes these titles:

• Armed and Dangerous
• Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
• LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure
• LOOM
• Star Wars Battlefront II
• Star Wars Republic Commando
• Star Wars Starfighter
• The Dig
• Thrillville: Off the Rails

The partnership is the latest in LucasArts' push to revitalize their older portfolio of games.

Tomorrow, Telltale's Tales of Monkey Island game series hits the PC, delivering a new storyline that will unfold across five monthly episodes. On July 15 LucasArts publishes The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, a re-imagined version of the first game in the series that adds updated high definition graphics, a re-mastered musical score, and full voiceover to the classic adventure game originally launched in 1990.

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition will be released on Xbox LIVE Arcade and PC via Steam and "other online distribution channels."

LucasArts teased the announcement late last week on Twitter saying that "amazing news" was coming Monday and that they were "super excited." "You have no idea how tough it is not to start yelling about it! But it's secret! Until Monday!"

The news, they say, will be "awesome news for old school fans." They later said that the news wouldn't be tied to a specific IP.

I hope some-time down the line when they re-release or even better re-do TIE Fighter or X-wing. In the mean time I think I'll pick up Republic Commando which I never got for the PC but had a blast with on the Xbox.

[Lagmonster]

I really enjoyed Republic Commando as well, but I spent the entire game wishing I had a blaster which actually killed things. It was annoying to pepper Geonosians with weapons fire and watch their skin withstand multiple direct hits. If there was a 'boost the goddamn damage' mod I could append onto Republic Commando, I'd gladly purchase it for PC.

[CaptHawkeye]

Oh man, Republic Commando. Their was a game that was fun for all of one playthrough.

What somebody needs to do is just up and make a "Call of Duty: Star Wars" already. Who doesn't want to mod their E-11 with a Star Wars equivalent silencer and red dot sight? Fuck the Jedi and Sith bullshit in the storyline. You can call in a Jedi after 7 kills.

I don't see Jedi Academy on that list.

[Vympel]

Bah, all the good Star Wars blasters are already tacticool.

But yeah, they should just make Call of Duty: Star Wars. That'd rock.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Bah, all the good Star Wars blasters are already tacticool.

But yeah, they should just make Call of Duty: Star Wars. That'd rock.

I thought STar Wars Battlefronts was essentially Call of Duty.

That aside, the list is not too bad, but I'd wish it were more extensive.

[Starglider]

I hope Day of the Tentacle is coming soon. I would totally play through that again if it was on XBL Arcade. Grim Fandango also. Better, those old LucasArts games are the kind of thing my wife can happily play through as long as I am in the room to give her hints when she gets stuck.

[Commander 598]

Bah, all the good Star Wars blasters are already tacticool.

But yeah, they should just make Call of Duty: Star Wars. That'd rock.

I thought STar Wars Battlefronts was essentially Call of Duty.

That aside, the list is not too bad, but I'd wish it were more extensive.

You've either never played CoD or you've never played any of the Battlefronts, I'm not sure which.

[Executor32]

Yeah, the Battlefront games were more along the lines of Star Wars: 1942 than anything else.

I'm hoping they add some more of the classic adventure games like Full Throttle, or maybe Dark Forces and X-Wing series packs with all the games or something. If they could add proper support for newer hardware for the X-Wing series especially, I'd buy it in a heartbeat, even though I already own every game in the series.

[Commander 598]

Yeah, the Battlefront games were more along the lines of Star Wars: 1942 than anything else.

Yes, complete with all of it's terrible canonical/historical accuracy, terrible balance, and AI that makes crappy MP bots NOT from Battlefield look amazing. tl;dr - Crappy MP game with an even worse excuse for single player.

RC would be far closer to a SW CoD given that it actually has a noticeable story and includes tacticool things like Trandoshan mercenaries rappeling out of ceiling ducts and iron sights, however it's still only a generic FPS and not a "war FPS" despite this. Given the nature of CW era warfare, CoD game mechanics actually kind of make sense: A seemingly endless stream of faceless nobody grunts killing each other.

[DPDarkPrimus]

The prices are really quite nice.

[eyexist]

Bah, all the good Star Wars blasters are already tacticool.

But yeah, they should just make Call of Duty: Star Wars. That'd rock.

Well there's First Strike. It's a total conversion mod for Battlefield 2142.

[Molyneux]

I would like to see two things: new X-Wing-series games, and a PC port or even remake of Metal Warriors. Damn, that was a fun game, with some really good potential for a franchise. A 3D version of it would be even better.

[Stark]

How is that relelvant to this at all? Even though the genre is stone-dead, I'd like to see another TIE game, but it'll never happen and if it did it'd be full of stupid story shit, stupid morality shit, stupid EU shit, etc etc.

And it STILL woudln't be relevatn to Lucasarts 'joining' Steam. Because Steam is a cult or something? Distribution deals = ASSIMILATION. Fucking nerds.

[Molyneux]

How is that relelvant to this at all? Even though the genre is stone-dead, I'd like to see another TIE game, but it'll never happen and if it did it'd be full of stupid story shit, stupid morality shit, stupid EU shit, etc etc.

And it STILL woudln't be relevatn to Lucasarts 'joining' Steam. Because Steam is a cult or something? Distribution deals = ASSIMILATION. Fucking nerds.

Er...because if old games suddenly sell well, it might spike a neuron in somebody's brain that continuing the series might be worthwhile?

And as far as I know, there has never been a non-SNES version of Metal Warriors. A port would probably sell quite well on Steam. And it is a LucasArts game.

[Executor32]

To get back to the original topic, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is out today. No idea on the price, though, as there is no prepurchasing.

[Steel]

Wait are they rereleasing the original monkey island games at the same time as the remakes which include them?

[General Zod]

To get back to the original topic, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is out today. No idea on the price, though, as there is no prepurchasing.

It's going for $10 on Steam, same as what it goes for on XBL (800 MS Points).

[Executor32]

Wait are they rereleasing the original monkey island games at the same time as the remakes which include them?

The Special Edition lets you switch on-the-fly between classic and new graphics/interfaces/sounds/music by pressing F10. It's pretty sweet, actually.