As I posted earlier, I am a fan of the game The Force Unleashed and am excited about the new game.  This brilliant story for the first game takes place in some of the gaps of the original Star Wars movies.  One year after Count Dooku and his Separatist army were defeated, Darth Vader is hunting the last of the Jedi.  On the Wookie homeworld of Kashyyyk, Vader discovers a child so strong in the Force that he chooses to hide him away and train him as his secret apprentice.  Vader plans to use this secret apprentice to overthrow the Emperor, but he is discovered and the Emperor orders Vader to Kill his apprentice.

So Vader stabs the apprentice in the back, uses a force grip to throw him around the room, and then tosses him through a window into the vacuum of space.  Umm, I think he’s pretty dead.  Qui Gon Jin was stabbed through the gut by Darth Maul and died from that singular saber wound.  So the idea of surviving the stabbing, AND the hurling about the room, AND the vacuum of space is pretty incredible.  But in the game you see a Droid come flying in and take away the body of the apprentice.

Six months later the apprentice awakes aboard Vader’s personal science vessel.  I didn’t really get this from the game, but this ship is supposed to be Vader’s secret lab for all kinds of experiments and tinkering.  The apprentice (code named Starkiller) awakes and he’s, well, he’s pretty upset.  He yells at Vader, “YOU KILLED ME!”  To which Vader replied, “NO!  The Emperor wanted you dead.  I salvaged your body and brought you here to be rebuilt.”  (italics added for emphasis).  Starkiller is ordered to help build the rebel alliance so that he and Vader will have an army to take down the Emperor.  As he is escaping from Vader’s ship, some of the troopers try and stop him and shout that “Experiment 1138 has escaped.”

Now we fast forward to the end of the story for this first game and “SPOILER ALERT”, Starkiller is betrayed and killed… again.  In the advertisements for the second game we see that Starkiller is alive, but how is this possible?  Wait, how did he survive the first time around?  Well, through the website for the new game we learn that the main character in the Force Unleashed II is a clone designated subject 1157.

So here’s the theory, Starkiller died and was cloned IN THE FIRST GAME!  In an the video interview below, LucasArts Exec. Producer Haden Blackman tells G4 that Vader tells Starkiller that he’s a clone, but very early on in the game the cast doubts on that statement.  I can’t wait to find out the rest of the story! The second game takes place 6 months after the ending of the first game, so I think that the “SIX MONTHS” also plays and important part of this story.

I got to thinking about the Staff of Kings game and how it made me really want to be Indiana Jones, but it wasn’t quite living up to it.  Then I remembered Uncharted:Drake’s Fortune.  That game IS Indiana Jones except where Indy was not seeking fortune a glory, Nathan Drake is a treasure hunter.  Anybody who wants an Indy adventure check out Drake’s Fortune.  The sequel to the game is coming out soon and there’s even talk of making a feature film.

I LOVE Indiana Jones.  Truth be told I want to be Indiana Jones.  I was 8 going on 9 when Raiders of the Lost Ark hit the big screen.  My childhood home had huge boulders and trees in the backyard that were constantly being used to recreate scenes from the movies.  When I was preparing for my trip to Australia I found out that the original Indy hat was made from an Australian Akubra.  So I made sure to track down a shop and buy a hat there.

Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings is a new game for the Wii and the Playstation 2.  My wife bought it for me for Fathers Day and double checked with the store clerk to confirm that the game was NOT available for the Playstation 3.  The PS2 game looks like they made the game for the Wii and then just ported it to the PS2 so they could sell a few more copies.  The game runs pretty linear and keeps you from fully exploring the pixilated environments.  When ever you get into a situation that you don’t know what to do to continue, you just wander for a moment and in the right location the Action button will appear leading you to continue on your quest.  The camera angles and character animations are set to remind you of Indiana Jones, but really, the only reason that I’m still playing the game is so I can get through the story. This Trailer looks good, but I’m not loving the game…yet.

The new update to the Force Unleashed video game has some very interesting playable characters.  They may have gone too far by givng 3PO a lightsaber. 

Flash 9 support for the PS3’s web browser is now available in the latest update.  I’ll be testing this as soon as it’s done dowloading, but this means that HULU and other online video sites will now be available.  Goodbye cable, hello internet TV!