The Secret History of LucasArts

George Lucas’s studio has built some of the best PC games in existence. But what of the ones they never finished? By Rick Lane

Monkey Island, X-Wing, Day of Tentacle, Grim Fandango are each worthy of a chapter in the virtual history books. But for every game that LucasArts has released, there were another two or three that never made it onto the shelves. Some of these unfinished works were near-complete productions that almost made it out of the door. Others only ever existed as a few pages of concept outlines, the errant ideas of creative minds. Together, they form a secret history of the studio that, until now, has never been revealed in its entirety.

Hellraisers

The Ninja Theory team on Hellblade, and how they’re reinventing the way they make games. By Samuel Roberts

Ninja Theory is motion-capturing the cutscenes for Hellblade in its boardroom. I feel this is worth pointing out because I’ve never even heard of it being done before.

This DIY method of creating something that’s usually professionally outsourced is Hellblade all over. Ninja Theory wants to make a third-person actionadventure that’s as accomplished as its previous games without getting a publisher to pay for it.

Gigabyte Force M63

The end result of Gigabyte’s Make It Real mouse design competition (a Taiwan-only affair, just in case you’re wondering what happened to your entry form), the Force M63 is the brainchild of three amateur gamers that’s been made into a real product.

Aimed squarely at right-handed claw and finger-grip FPS gamers, the mouse is a strange-looking beast, thanks to its bulbous, flared-out rear and contrasting, skinny, low-slung nose. Indeed, at its slimmest point (which is roughly where the mouse wheel lies), it’s only 50mm wide, making the whole mouse feel rather small.

Galax GeForce GTX 970 OC Silent Infinity Black Edition

Galax’s new GTX 970 OC Silent Infinity Black Edition isn’t just any old overclocked GTX 970 card; it sports a few extra modifications courtesy of UK etailer www.overclockers.co.uk. The build quality is great – there’s a thick metal backplate and the cooler shroud is also made of metal. The card has an aggressive, angular design and the shroud, backplate and PCB are all clad in black, while the I/O plate, heatpipes and heatsink are nickel-plated for contrast.

XFX Type-01 Series Bravo Edition

Best known for its AMD graphics cards, XFX has just made a debut in the chassis market with the Type-01 Series, an ATX tower chassis. The Bravo Edition retails for £69, which is an attractive price for such a case, being not quite what we’d consider a budget chassis, but it certainly sits towards the lower end of mid-range.

Standing out anew in the case market is difficult, but it would be hard to argue that the Type-01 Bravo doesn’t look unique. The entire front panel has a corrugated mesh effect, the lines of which hide the power and reset buttons, as well as the three 5.25in bay covers. The effect is continued in the cutaway sections of the roof and side panel too – it’s a wellventilated case. Plastic top and bottom sections add further visual interest, but also contribute to the case’s large diameters – it’s over 560mm tall.

Synology DS215J

A relentless launch schedule sees Synology releasing new NAS boxes regularly, and if you wondered where the dual-bay DS214j went, the answer is that you’re looking at it. The DS215j is the successor to the DS213j, with Synology focusing on the budget-friendly DS214SE instead of releasing a new mid-range NAS box. The DS215j is quite an upgrade too.

Tesoro Excalibur RGB Edition

A keyboard that would probably draw an envious glance from King Arthur himself

We reviewed the core Tesoro Excalibur some months back and found it to be an excellent, competitively priced, mechanical gaming keyboard. Indeed, there didn’t seem much else that could be added to enhance it, but Tesoro have tried to do just that – and now we have the Excalibur RGB Edition.

As with the previously reviewed Excalibur, the RGB Edition is still named after King Arthur’s legendary sword, and still offers full N-Key Rollover and antighosting, with a six-key Rollover for the USB version. The Tesoro preferred Kailh switches this time though come in a choice of four colours: Blue, Brown, Black or Red, with each having a slightly different feel, be that clickly or non-clicky tactile, silent or low actuation force.

Building A HDTV Media Centre

Leo Maxwell decides to increase his resolution for the New Year

Many of us are interested in the versatility of a media PC (sometimes called a home theatre PC, or HTPC for short), but is it worth building your own? If you only want a comparatively simple PVR, there are many hardware based solutions, some more accomplished than others. If you just want to watch the odd TV program on your PC, then you just need a simple media player. What we are talking about, though, is a dedicated PC to supply all of your home entertainment requirements.