Mark your calendars you Star Wars gaming fans and Xbox Jedi wannabes as we now have the date that we will finally be able to get our hands on the much touted Kinect Star Wars.

April 3, 2012.

That’s it, that’s the date, and Microsoft had already announced that they would be shipping it also as part of a Star Wars Xbox 360 and Kinect theme bundle, and it is available for pre-order for $449. The bundle comes with a white Kinect sensor (regular one is black) along with with a C3-PO themed wireless controller and an R2-D2 finished Xbox 360 console.

This game has been a very long time coming having been touted as a premier example of what the game play using the Kinect could be like when it came down to the ‘serious’ games for the hardcore console gamers. Now finally after more than a few delays the new game will be available for around $50, depending on where you buy it I imagine.

Microsoft’s gaming spokesperson Major Nelson also let us know that there will be a s “Jedi Destiny Mode” that will let gamers duel with Count Dooku and Darth Vader.

via SlashGear

April 3 is the drop date for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Kinect Star Wars bundle is a post from: The Inquisitr

Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council has publicly taken action against Bioware’s Star Wars: The Old Republic, a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game because of what he calls strong support for gay and bisexual themes.

During his daily radio commentary Perkins noted:

“In a new Star Wars game, the biggest threat to the empire may be homosexual activists!”

He goes on to note:

“In a galaxy not so far far away, Star Wars gamers have already gone to the dark side. The new video game, Star Wars: The Old Republic, has added a special feature: gay relationships.”

He goes on to add:

 “That surprised a lot of gamers, since Bioware had made it clear in 2009 that ‘gay’ and ‘lesbian’ don’t exist in the Star Wars universe. Since the announcement, homosexuals have been celebrating the news, but parents sure aren’t.”

Perkins then continued:

“On the game’s website, there are more than 300 pages of comments–a lot of them expressing anger that their kids will be exposed to this Star Warped way of thinking. You can join them by logging on and speaking up. It’s time to show companies who the Force is really with!”

News of the assault came as a surprise to Bioware who explained that same sex relationships are not currently activated in the game:

“Same gender romances with companion characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic will be a post-launch feature. Because The Old Republic is an MMO, the game will live on through content expansions which allow us to include content and features that could not be included at launch, including the addition of more companion characters who will have additional romance options.”

It should be noted that the Southern Poverty Law Center has named the Family Research Council as nothing more than a hate group bent on attacking gay, lesbian and other human rights.

As for Perkins’ comments about “300 pages of comments” a quick search of Bioware’s forums shows nothing near that number of complaints from parents. In fact most comments that were made did not come from “angry” parents in almost every single case.

Do you have a problem with Star Wars: The Old Republic containing gay and bisexual relationships?

Star Wars: The Old Republic Deemed Too Gay By Evangelical Hatemonger is a post from: The Inquisitr

The year long beta test for Star Wars; The Old Republic came to a successful conclusion on Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 11:59 PM CST. The final weekend of beta testing drew over 2 million participants, according to figures released by the MMO’s developer, Bioware. The long anticipated game began its now legendary development cycle way back in 2006 and it is rumored to have run up $135 million dollars in development costs, easily making it the most expensive video game of all time. Judging by the reactions of the final weekend’s beta testers, the money has been well spent and millions of gamers are chomping at the bit to get into the game when it starts its official general release on December 20th, 2011.

Those of us who pre-ordered the game, when it became available for purchase on July 20, 2011, will be able to gain early access to Star Wars; The Old Republic starting on Tuesday, December 13, 2011. Due to the incredible demand, Bioware sent out the following statement on how it will handle the multitude of players who are eligible for early access. “Early Game Access will begin on December 13th at 7:00AM EST, 2011 and ends on December 19th, 2011 at 10:01PM EST. During this time, we will be emailing invitations to join Early Game Access based on the order in which you redeemed your Pre-Order Code. Pre-load the game client now, so you’re ready to play when your Early Game Access invitation arrives.” Players with the foresight to pre-order the game on its first day of availability back in July, will probably be checking their email inbox quite often in the early hours leading up to 7:00AM, this coming Tuesday.

This writer was able to participate in the closed beta for several months and I must say, I am really looking forward to playing Star Wars; the Old Republic. I intend to make SW;TOR my primary online game and expect to dedicate long hours, playing along side my fellow guild members from the guild Star Forge. As with many other great MMO’s, SW;TOR has a well developed guild system in place that encourages players to group together and team up regularly to enjoy every aspect of the game.

To give you a good idea of just how much I enjoy playing SW;TOR, I will tell you that during my time in beta testing, I actually cancelled my accounts to all the other online games that I was playing. What really made everything clear to me was the downtime between SW;TOR beta builds. During the week or 2 between builds, I would log in to other games and after a few minutes of aimless play, I realized that in comparison to SW;TOR, I no longer enjoyed the other games. All I wanted to do was get back into SW;TOR and kill more Jedi with my Sith Character. The instant I got the email for the next beta build, my face lit up in a broad smile and I rushed to the SW;TOR website to re-install the game.

During the beta, I tried every class available on the Sith side and two classes on the Jedi side. I concentrated on the Sith Sorcerer, which is the class I intend to play at launch. Over the course of several beta builds, I leveled 4 different Sith Sorcerers to the level cap of 50 in order to learn all I could about the class. Although every class is fully fleshed out, offers a wide ranging set of skills and has it’s own story based quest line, I found that the Sith Sorcerer is the one I enjoy the most. The class is well balanced, wonderfully powerful and feels the most “Star Wars-ish” of all the different classes. Every single class, no matter if Jedi or Sith, is well designed and offers a totally unique play style. Players may find themselves trying all the different classes before they decide on their favorite or rolling several alternate characters, so they can enjoy even more of the richness SW;TOR has to offer.

The game itself looks great and plays smoothly, with all the bells and whistles you would expect from a top of the line MMO. The graphics are excellent and finely detailed. Bioware made a decision not to go for a hyper realistic look and the characters in the game have a painterly feel instead of a real world appearance. The backgrounds, buildings, vehicles, props, weapons, furnishings and landscapes are all meticulously drawn, right down to proper shadows and clouds that move in sync with the prevailing winds. Every world in the galaxy has its own climate, look and flavor along with its own set of flora and fauna. Those players who expect an MMO to look great in addition to playing great will not be disappointed. SW;TOR certainly looks great and it plays great as well.

One aspect that really sets this game apart from other MMOs is the incredibly rich dialogue system that Bioware has built into SW;TOR. Gamers who played Mass Effect 2 will have a basic idea of the conversation system that Bioware developed for SW;TOR. Working from this solid foundation, Bioware expanded the system used in Mass Effect 2 exponentially. It would be like comparing a 2 story house (Mass Effect 2) to the Empire State Building. (SW;TOR) Recording the voices for SW;TOR involved hundreds of well known voice actors and the script they used is the equivalent in length of 40 good sized novels. Bioware has taken in-game voice acting to an entirely new level with SW;TOR.

Every time a player stops to interact with an npc as part of a quest, the player will activate a fully voiced dialogue system that allows the player and the npc to participate in a multi-part, back and forth conversation. At each stage of the conversation, the player is able to choose one of several possible responses. Each choice may directly affect the quest and even change the player’s level of dark side or light side influence.  When in a group, each player chooses a response and the games decides which player’s response to use based on a system of behind the scenes rolls. By selecting group responses with rolls, the game opens itself up to some very funny moments. There were many occasions where the answer coming out of a player’s mouth had everyone in my group rolling on the floor in laughter or shaking their heads at the sheer ruthlessness of the response.

The game is set in a time period that is more than 3,500 years before the events in the Star Wars films. The Jedi and the Sith are holding to a shaky peace treaty called the “Treaty of Coruscant”, which was negotiated after the Sith launched a surprise attack and sacked the Republic capitol of Coruscant. The badly beaten Jedi lost a great deal of prestige and have fallen out of favor due to this disaster. They have been forced to relocate to the planet of Tython, where they are trying to rebuild and find new strength in the force. The victorious Sith have returned, at long last, to their home world of Korriban and re-established the infamous Sith Academy to turn out new and more powerful users of the dark side. The Republic remains mystified as to why the Sith chose to accept the Republic’s desperate pleas for peace and players will be anxious to find out the real motivation behind the actions of the Sith Empire.

The pieces are in place for a massive conflict between the Jedi, users of light and the Sith, wielders of the dark side. The tenuous peace is on the verge of crumbling into a planet shattering, galaxy wide, all out war between the two opposing factions. All that remains is for you to log in to the game and become one of the millions of lucky players who will be able to experience all the Star Wars universe has to offer. Star Wars, The Old Republic has been six years in the making and it is about to explode into every gamers life. With all the hype and anticipation, Bioware has a big job ahead to continue to develop end game content and turn out regular updates to keep the game growing and vital. Judging by the effort that Bioware made to develop this game, they are more than capable of doing what it takes to make Star Wars; The Old Republic a major success. Enjoy yourself and may the force be with you.

Do you plan to be one of the millions who will be joining the Star Wars; The Old Republic universe? Are you excited by this new MMO or are you a dedicated player of another game with no plans to try SW;TOR?

Star Wars; The Old Republic Wraps Up Beta Testing; Millions Anxiously Await December 20, 2011 Release Date is a post from: The Inquisitr

Can we say ooppps.

It seems that Walmart has decided that it’s going to be an early Christmas Grinch this year as we get word of them losing, or deleting, an “unspecified amount” of pre-orders for the Star Wars: The Old Republic game. Apparently some customers have been getting emails from the retail giant letting them know about the issue using the old “temporary shipping issue” excuse.

BioWare has stepped in to let purchasers know that this will not effect Early Access to the game, except that players don’t have any guarantee that their pre-order will still be available to them. As well, according to a report over at the PikiGeek blog there are reports popping up on a lot of forums of players who are just a tad upset about the sudden disappearance of their pre-orders.

A quick look at the threads also show a large number of customers who are stating that Walmart has erroneously claimed to have refunded the amount currently paid off for the game. The automated messages says one thing, but their bank statement says another.

Senior Online Community Manager Stephen Reid from Bioware did issue a brief statement in the thread. Unfortunately, since he can’t speak for a distributor, all he was able to assure was players’ Early Access status.

via PikiGeek

Oh Walmart don’t you know that it’s never a good idea to mess with a geek’s pre-order, especially just before Christmas. Tsk tsk.

image courtesy of PikiGeek

Walmart loses “unspecified amount” of Star Wars: Old Republic pre-orders is a post from: The Inquisitr

George Lucas loves releasing new editions of “Star Wars.” For his latest masterpiece, “The Sith Who Stole Christmas,” Lucas combines the Star Wars trilogy with the classic Dr. Seuss story.

OK, so maybe it’s not an officially licensed Star Wars movie and maybe it wasn’t created by George Lucas. It’s still a pretty cool mash-up.

Darth Vader plays the Grinch who has a grudge against Christmas. He watches all the Whos down in Whoville (the Ewoks) from the Death Star and decides that it’s time he steals Christmas.

As Thurl Ravenscroft croons “You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch,” Vader (the Grinch) goes on a Christmas ruining rampage. But even the Dark Lord eventually realizes the meaning of Christmas.

Here’s “The Sith Who Stole Christmas.”

Do you think Darth Vader made a good Grinch? Who was more evil, Darth Vader or the Grinch?

Star Wars: The Grinch Who Stole Christmas Edition [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Remember how you felt the first time you saw Star Wars and found out this twist? This adorable child reminds you.

[via]

[Video] Adorable Kid Reacts to ‘Star Wars’ Twist is a post from: The Inquisitr

Happy birthday, Mark Hamill. Yeah, so I’m a couple of hours late with this, but hell, I couldn’t ignore the 60th birthday of the original Jedi Knight. That’s right: Luke Skywalker hit the big six-oh on Sunday. In other news, OH GOD I’M FREAKIN’ OLD.

It’s blaringly obvious that Hamill is known best for his role in the Star Wars trilogy. Since then, the work has rolled in steadily for the actor, even if it’s not quite as high profile.

Hamill is widely known as a voice actor nowadays. He’s lent his dulcet tones to various animated features (he’s played Turtle from My Friends Tigger & Pooh, Stickybeard from Codename: Kids Next Door, Seth Green’s Robot Chicken) and videogames (he played ‘The Joker’ in the Batman: Arkham Asylum games, and did a damn fine job).

From next month, we’ll be seeing him in the final season premiere for NBC’s Chuck, where he plays Jean-Claude, a wealthy thief who clashes with Zachary Levi’s title character. Says Chuck executive producer Chris Fedak:

“It was a blast! We couldn’t be more excited to have Mark join us. He’s the perfect combination of funny and villainous to get us started with Season 5.”

Hamill makes his share of appearances at many big geek conventions, and by all accounts comes across as a jolly decent sort. So happy birthday, Mark. May you catch Yoda up one day.

See also: William Shatner: Star Trek Better Than Star Wars [Video]

Mark Hamill Turns 60 is a post from: The Inquisitr

In a startling turn of events, William Shatner, the man who made his name playing Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek, prefers Star Trek to Star Wars.

In a video (below) released last week by the actor, he dismisses the Star Wars movies as “special effects, ILM [Lucasfilm visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic] at its best.” He went on to call Star Wars “derivative” of Star Trek, which he argued dealt with human principles and philosophical questions.

In a slightly less serious part of his argument, Shatner also claimed Star Trek had prettier actresses. He did admit, however, that he’d have run off with Princess Leia, a sentiment every red-blooded male born in the last century would agree with.

From 1966, Shatner played Kirk in the Star Trek TV series, the animated series, and numerous films, returning to act in the franchise again and again before the character’s death in 1994′s Star Trek Generations. His loyalties are perhaps understandable.

Personally, I’m going to sit on the fence for this one, because (a) fanboys and fangirls scare me and (b) I feel pretty lukewarm about both franchises. I know, I know, as an ’80s child (just) I’m supposed to say Star Wars made me the person I am today, but I was always indifferent. But hey, which do you prefer, dear reader?

In other news, can you believe Shatner turned 80 this year? Looking at this video, the dude ages well.

William Shatner: Star Trek Better Than Star Wars [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

We see a lot of Star Wars based parodies online but it’s not everyday that a group of A-List stars get together to work on a parody of the popular science fiction series put together by George Lucas’ own team at Lucasfilm.

Among actors features in the parody are:

Emma Stone, Seth Rogen, Aziz Ansari, Bill Hader, Ed Helms, Ken Jeong, Zach Galifianakis, Jaime King and Andy Samberg.

The video was created in support of the group “Stand Up to Cancer” and is also part of the Use the Force for Good Campaign that launched in early September with the goal of raising awareness about cancer researcher through the use of videos and the sale of Star Wars themed t-shirts.

The release also coincides with the release of the Star Wars: The Complete Saga blu-ray.

In the video each actor listed above re-enacts some of the most famous scenes from the series.

Here’s the video:

What do you think of the LucasFilms created project? Just remember to be nice, after all it was made to help fight cancer.

Andy Samberg, Emma Stone, Seth Rogen and Others Appears In Star Wars Parody For Charity is a post from: The Inquisitr

A planet with two suns? NASA has just discovered a new planet similar to Tatooine, the fictional planet in “Star Wars.” The new planet, called Kepler 16b, orbits two stars at a distance of about 65 million miles.

The New York Times reports that one star burns orange while the other burns yellow, and that they do not always rise and set in the same order.

Alan P. Boss of the Carnegie Institution, said:

“Reality has finally caught up with science fiction.”

The planet, which was discovered by NASA’s Kepler planet-hunting spacecraft, was announced on Thursday in a paper published online in the journal Science.

Here’s a look at this bizarre new planet.

NASA says that this is the first planet ever discovered to definitively have two suns. Planets were believed to have two suns in the past, but Kepler 16b is the first to have twin suns officially confirmed.

Alan Boss, one of the researchers who made the discovery, told FoxNews.com:

“This is the first definitive case. People in the past have thought they saw instances like this. But there are other ways of explaining them. This is the first one where it’s absolutely, quantitatively sure that this is what the explanation is.”

Kepler 16b, which has already earned the unofficial name of Tatooine, is undoubtedly cool to look at, but scientists say that the new planet is much more than just a cool sight. Kepler 16b debunks a theory about how stars are formed. Scientists previously believed that in order for a planet to orbit two stars, it would have to be seven times as far from the stars as the stars were from each other. Kepler 16b orbits its suns at a much closer range than previously thought possible.

Sara Seager, a planetary expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said:

“People don’t really know how to form this planet. This planet broke the rule.”

Here’s a look at Tatooine from “Star Wars.”

Do you think George Lucas will sue Kepler 16b for copyright infringement?

NASA Discovers ‘Star Wars’ Planet Tatooine is a post from: The Inquisitr

George Lucas’ epic space odyssey Star Wars is about to make its debut on Blu-ray for the first time, and fanatics couldn’t be more eager to pluck down $140 for the set that includes both the original and prequel trilogies.Lucas has become notorious for re-releasing his lightsaber-wielding series numerous times with various amounts of changes and additions to the original material throughout the years.  Some changes have led many fans to scoff at the fact that they may never see Star Wars: A New Hope the way they remembered it as kids – you know, as plain-old Star Wars.  Few would even charge Lucas with ruining his own property with the added special effects/images to the original films.

Fans will most undoubtedly usher in the Star Wars’ Blu-ray era with open arms and wallets, regardless of which side of the fence they reside on regarding Lucas’ mad-professor skills with the editing tools at Industrial Light & Magic.  As for what changes Lucas has up his sleeve for the new Blu-ray editions, fans will most-likely be pleased with what has been revealed.

For starters, no changes have been made that affect the story this time around (i.e. Greedo shooting at Han Solo first at the Mos Eisley Cantina in the special edition).  It appears each modification this time around is to address technical gaffs in the prequel series or in the subsequent editions of the original trilogy.

Take, for instance, the lack of vibrancy seen in the lightsabers once the original trilogy was transferred to DVD.  For whatever reason, the glow-swords-of-awesomeness lacked the original flare and were out-right dull.  That will not be the case in the new release; Lucas has brought back the lightsabers’ traditional vibrant colors and white-glowing core.

Other tweaks to the Blu-ray editions include digitally replacing the “younger” Yoda Muppet used in The Phantom Menace with a more recognizable, age-appropriate CGI version.  Additionally, The Empire Strikes Back scene in which viewers mistakenly see the puppeteer bar controlling the Wompa’s arm as it strikes Luke Skywalker has been digitally corrected for the first time in 30 years.

Besides the digital corrections, Star Wars: The Complete Saga will contain over 40 hours of bonus material to surely whet the appetite of any member of Star Wars fandom.  There are two discs in the set dedicated to deleted and alternative scenes.  The crème de la crème of the Blu-ray collection may very well be the disc dedicated to making-of documentaries and spoofs of the galactic saga from other shows and movies.

The Blu-ray set (Full Trailer) is scheduled for release on September 16.

Star Wars Ready for Blu-ray Release is a post from: The Inquisitr

Tiny Pacific Island of Niue Announces Star Wars Currency is a post from: The Inquisitr

Perhaps best to keep the whole Star Wars fanboy thing under wraps when you’re dating.

[here via here]

When to Show Off Your Chewbacca Impression is a post from: The Inquisitr

Back in 2009, German modding group BlackMonkeys teased a Star Wars-themed total conversion mod for Call of Duty 4 called ‘Galactic Warfare‘. Just under three years later, the mod has now been let loose to the public, free of charge.

Galactic Warfare is about as close to Battlefront 3 as we’re going to get – like Battlefront, the total conversion mod is a first-person shooter with Star Wars characters, weapons and even killstreaks. This is a Call of Duty 4 conversion, after all.

There are no vehicles to play around with, but there are vehicles you can call on by way of the Star Wars-themed killstreaks. Ever wanted to call in an airstrike from a Y-Wing to rain death on Imperial scum? Well, now you can!

The mod features seven maps: Mos Eisly, Bespin, Bestine, Not A Cave, Jundland, Jundland Dusk, and Anchorhead. Players can shoot it out as a soldier from either the Imperial Forces or, of course, the Rebel Alliance.

If you’re interested in seeing it in motion, check out the mod’s launch trailer right below. If you want to download it for yourself, you can do so for free over at ModDB. You will, of course, need Call of Duty 4 to install the mod.

via GameFront

COD4 total conversion mod Star Wars ‘Galactic Warfare’ out now is a post from: The Inquisitr

Operation was one of my favorite games growing up, I would play it for hours on end until the batteries wore out and Star Wars is also one of my favorite movie series, so needless to say I was excited today to find out that Hasbro has team up with George Lucas to offer an R2-D2 Star Wars Operation game.

Priced at just $27 the game will begin shipping this September.

It will be interesting to see what “parts” of R2-D2 will be removable.

[via SlipperyBrick]

Star Wars Operation Game Coming Soon. Does R2-D2 Have A Funny Bone? is a post from: The Inquisitr

I am obviously not one for noticing the little details that often get slid into movies so excuse me if this is old news but did you know that R2-D2 and C-3PO from Star Wars fame were snuck into some of the scenes of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark movie?

Apparently so if you look closely at the hieroglyphs that were a part of the movie scenes.

via an awesome find by Geeks are Sexy

How geeky is this? R2-D2 and C-3PO discovered in Raiders of the Lost Ark is a post from: The Inquisitr

Never mind that Harley. Forget that Kawasaki. Throw that Yamaha Shadow to the curb because the time of the Landspeeder has arrived.

Okay so it isn’t exactly the Landspeeder from Star Wars but damn folks it’s the closest thing we have yet to that iconic vehicle of the future all thanks to Australian Chris Malloy.

Right now it is just a prototype and restricted to hovering while tied up but as far as Chris is concerned the future of his hoverbike is full of awesomeness.

Chris Malloy’s prototype hoverbike has so far not done anything but hover while tied to the ground, but that is in no way stopping its designer from making all kinds of wildly optimistic projections about its performance and availability. Expect this thing to be able to travel at upwards of 170 mph, and you can take it to 10,000 feet (or even higher, with oxygen), although you’ll probably have more fun whipping around trees down low, just make sure and look out for hooligans wielding light sabers.

via DVICE

The cost of this beauty: estimated to be around $40,000 each by the time that Malloy goes into production. In the meantime here’s some images of your future ride.

OMFG! A Hoverbike. Seriously, a hoverbike. is a post from: The Inquisitr

When you think back on the Star Wars: The Old Republic trailers released so far, the ones most likely to stand out in your mind are those pretty CG trailers. The title was announced way back in 2008, but it feels like we’ve been seeing more cinematics than we have gameplay. Fortunately, that has now changed. The following E3 trailer doesn’t simply show us gameplay – it assaults us with it.

Most of the footage is quick cuts of the game’s various gameplay mechanics, but there’s still quite a lot to take in. We have brief looks at the game’s narrative, combat, space battles (and personal ships!), PvP and, of course, raids.

EA’s E3 press conference is scheduled to kick off tomorrow evening, so it’s possible we’ll have even more information to share after the press conference wraps up. Until then, go ahead and check out the E3 trailer for yourself below.

Star Wars: The Old Republic E3 Trailer Shows Gameplay Mechanics is a post from: The Inquisitr

I can not believe some of the things that people do with LEGO. As a kid I was lucky enough if I could put together a freaking brick house without it falling apart.

Then there is MarshallBanana who took 9 months and put together an incredible mini-fig scale version of the Star Wars Sandcrawler with a working ramp, working crane, interior lighting all in three decks. Oh and yes it moves by remote control.

via Geeks are Sexy

Some serious LEGO chops: a working Star Wars Sandcrawler [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Ladies and Gentlemen, we provide for your enjoyment…ChewBarka. I wonder what his barks and growls sound like.

If Chewbacca Had A Pet… is a post from: The Inquisitr