LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars Message Board

Finally, you can stop being jealous of your friends who waited until 2011 to buy a 360. The 320GB hard drive included in the Gears of War 3, Modern Warfare 3 and assorted other bundles will go on sale by itself later this month for $130.

We know what you're thinking. "Joystiq, isn't that roughly 200 percent more than I'd typically pay for a hard drive that size?" That's true, dear reader, but Microsoft's got an ace up its sleeve: The hard drive comes with an Xbox Live download code for Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, a $20 value!*

So now who's getting the great deal, huh? ... What's that? Still not you? You say a better pack-in would be a bottle of heinie lube? Well now that's just vulgar.

*Note, that deal doesn't go for Japan, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia and the UAE, because the Force is illegal there.

#esrb You know, video games will rot your brain. They're filled with nothing more than gratuitous fish abuse, LEGO toilet humor and references to pornographic cannonballs—or so this week's most potentially offensive video games might lead us to believe. More »

How did they make the Lego stop motion animation?

Yoda leads clone troopers into battle in this stop motion animation!

The precise impact of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment on big daddy Time Warner's bottom line is pretty obscured. WBIE is a division within a division of the media behemoth, which didn't bother to include a line for "video games" in its first-quarter earnings report. Though the company did manage to share a few positive words about its game-making sub-division.

Nestled somewhere underneath Time Warner's "Filmed Entertainment" umbrella (a.k.a. Warner Bros.), WBIE apparently performed admirably for a division that ultimately suffered declining revenues. Filmed Entertainment, which encompasses feature film, television, home video and "interactive game production and distribution" (that's video games!), saw its revenues slide 3 percent to $2.6 billion in the first three months of 2011, as compared to the prior-year first quarter. More noticeable is the division's 50 percent plunge to $155 million in "adjusted" operating income for the period.

However, Time Warner noted in its report that "declines were partly offset" by "higher video games revenues," in addition to other factors relating to television. While it's impossible to parse out video game sales from what's dubbed "other content" in the earnings breakdown, this category did show the biggest year-over-year percentage growth of all content in the Filmed Entertainment division, even if its dollar-amount revenues were a fraction of theatrical and television products' hauls.

Notably, Time Warner indicated that first-quarter game sales were "driven by Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars," which was developed by Traveller's Tales, part of WBIE subsidiary TT Games. The game is published by LucasArts.

As for Time Warner's outlook on Filmed Entertainment for the rest of the year, CEO Jeff Bewkes said during the earnings call, "With our strong film slate, the momentum in our TV business and several promising games, we continue to expect Warner will post record profits this year." Would it have killed him to namedrop Mortal Kombat and the next Batman? Jeez.

LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars is in stores and the marketing campaign is over...or is it? LucasArts has one more trick up their sleeves: A monumental stop-motion animation LEGO battle between Yoda and General Grievous. Enjoy! More »

Does Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars bring balance to the Force, or is it business as usual in Lego-land?

Crysis 2 and the Nintendo 3DS both disrupted the steady order of the UK all-formats charts last week, with Crytek's showcase shooter taking top spot in software. According to Chart-Track, the distribution of sales across formats for Crysis 2 gave 57 percent to Xbox 360, 29 percent to PS3 and 14 percent on PC -- of course, the company doesn't account for digital distribution, which would likely alter the PC figure.

Other chart-topping debuts last week included Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars in second and The Sims: Medieval in seventh. The 3DS premiere helped launch Super Street Fighter 4 3D Edition, Pilotwings Resort and Rayman 3D into the overall top ten, with Capcom's portable fighter winding up in fourth as the most popular launch title for the system. The 3DS version of Lego Star Wars 3 was the fifth most successful title for 3DS, just below Super Monkey Ball 3D.

Meanwhile, last week's chart-topper, Homefront, lost a little ground and fell back to third place. Check out the UK top ten after the break.

The latest Traveller’s Tales Lego game, Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars, came out yesterday. I’ve played the Story Mode through to completion, and fought against replaying the entire thing in Free Play in order to have time to write this review. Is it any good? Well, I’ve sort of given that away. Yes, it’s extremely good. Here’s Wot I Think to prove why.

(more…)

#video Did you love those original Star Wars movies? Were you horrified by the newer ones... or think they were at least a wee bit inferior? More »

#travelsnaps As thousands of copies of LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars begin appearing at retail locations across the country, LucasArts PR takes the opportunity to take pictures of tiny Star Wars figures in big San Francisco locations. More »

A portion of a Dtoid review… Still, that LEGO charm and humor is still throughout the gameplay, and if you haven’t tired of it yet, it still makes for a fun title. They haven’t strayed much from their formula, and as they say “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”…unless, you know, it’s made of LEGOs. Full [...]

Developer Traveller's Tales' LEGO games have never succeeded because they had the best puzzles or incredibly satisfying combat. In fact, in these regards, they were usually pretty mediocre. But they made up for the lack of awesome gameplay with adorable aesthetics and great use of the license. The l...

Developer Traveller's Tales' LEGO games have never succeeded because they had the best puzzles or incredibly satisfying combat. In fact, in these regards, they were usually pretty mediocre. But they made up for the lack of awesome gameplay with adorable aesthetics and great use of the license. The l...

Lego Star Wars III comes out, and I’m very happy about that. Except only in America, because it takes ages for the internet to travel to Europe, and I’m not happy about that. I do hope it’s good. And funny. Those are my informed, journalistic opinions about this matter. Below are the latest collection of cinematic trailers to accompany it. I am being efficient.

(more…)

#impressions Playing through a healthy chunk of LEGO Star Wars III on Nintendo's 3DS left me impressed. It also left me with a question: Should Nintendo require 3D on all 3DS games? More »

The girls of the Clone Wars spend some time appreciating the finer things in life in this clip from the third LEGO Star Wars game.

Even the genetically engineered troopers have to stay in shape.

Yoda and the clone troopers show off their resilience in this clip from the third LEGO Star Wars game.

What is LEGO Star Wars III? LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars is the next game in the LEGO Star Wars franchise. Unlike the previous games, which covered the films, III covers the Clone Wars cartoon...