In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day this Saturday (9/19), Telltale Games is making the complete first episode of Tales of Monkey Island free from 4:01pm PT Friday through midnight Saturday.

Head to http://www.playlikeapirate.com for your free copy.

If you haven’t experienced Monkey Island yet, well… shame on you. And here’s your chance to ditch that badge of shame. The adventure game is a new take on one of the industry’s classic titles.

Meanwhile, the company and LucasARRts (sorry) is offering 50 percent off the iPhone and iPod touch version of The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition via Apple’s App Store and 50 percent off The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition on Steam and Direct2Drive, the two leading PC digital distribution systems.

Not so coincidentally, Telltale will release the game’s third chapter on Sept. 29. 

LucasArts, which has resisted the digital distribution movement in gaming for the past several years, is jumping on board. The company today unveiled a partnership with Valve’s Steam distribution service to sell back-catalogue games online.

Ten titles will be part of the initial round, which will go on sale this Wednesday, July 8. The games, listed below, are a mix of older adventure games and more recent 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

LucasArts has made a recent vow to revitalize its portfolio of games. In addition to the distribution deal with Steam, it is also working with Telltale Games to create content revolving around its popular “Monkey Island” franchise for the Wii, Xbox 360 and PC.

Expect more titles to be added to Steam (and possibly other digital distribution services) in the coming weeks and months.

Personally, I’m gonna hold out for “Grim Fandango”.

The favorite (according to, ummm, me) too home the second annual videogame writing trophy from the Writers Guild of America awards last night. Despite the fact that many of the year's highest profile games weren't submitted for consideration, I think "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" was not only the best  of the five nominees, but probably the best written videogame in 2008, period. Even reviewers who didn't like the game almost universally praised the story. So, despite a flawed process, good for the WGA, I say.

The specific winners for writing "The Force Unleashed" are Haden Blackman, Shawn Pitman, John Stafford and Cameron Suey.

IGN is reporting that LucasArts long-in-development "Indiana Jones" game really is, as many of us have speculated, dead and gone.

It's not a surprise in the sense that we haven't heard anything about it in so long, but perhaps it is a surprise in the sense that the success of last summer's film (despite its many flaws), as well as "Lego Indiana Jones" (despite its flaws) prove the franchise is still very viable.

LucasArts did release a statement to Kotaku, amongst others, stating the following:

Like Kotaku's Brian Crecente, I think the fact that the PR folks used the word "franchise" and didn't deny IGN's report means that this particular title indeed ain't happening, at least in the form it was previously shown. Given how commercially viable it would have been, development must have gone really badly.

It also brings up the bigger question: Is LucasArts planning to do much or any internal development? I don't believe they have any announced games being developed in-house anymore. A sequel to "The Force Unleashed" is a virtual certainty, but will it be produced internally? And will LucasArts do future Indy games, or anything else for that matter, internally? Or, as some have been buzzing, will it all be farmed out?

(Part of our series counting down the top ten videogames of 2008 -- with interruptions for the most disappointing and most overrated -- according to Variety critics Leigh Alexander, Tom Chick, Chris Dahlen and Ben Fritz. Full details are here. To check out the rest of the list, click here. Most importantly, vote for your favorite games of 2008 in the Cut Scene reader awards here.)

"Most disappointing" does not necessarily mean the worst (after all, we don't want to shower Brash with too many prizes). Rather, these are the games that Variety's critics believe fell the furthest short of our expectations and their potential.

Ben Fritz

Wii Music (Nintendo / Nintendo)

Finally, an accessible social videogame that uses peripherals to let anyone play music. Oh wait, I’m thinking of “Guitar Hero. And “Rock Band.” And even “Ultimate Band.” "Wii Music" is an unnecessary, cacophonous mess of a game (if it even is one, not that it matters) in which most attempts at making music sound worse than an elementary school orchestra. Though I can’t say I’ll ever forget the David Lynch-esque experience of watching a cheerleader, a sitar player, and a man in a dog suit performing “Daydream Believer.”

Wall-E (THQ / Heavy Iron)

To a certain extent, this choice is a stand-in for the many lame licensed titles (“Lost: Via Domus,” “Iron Man,” everything from Brash, and on and on) that show Hollywood and game publishers still don’t really have their act together. But “Wall-E” was the most disappointing of them all because it took source material overflowing with romantic spirit and devolved it into a product so unimaginative and formulaic (Wall-E shooting a gun? Really?) it could have come straight from the film’s corporate overlords at Buy n Large.

Spore (EA / Maxis)

Perhaps I didn’t read the marketing materials right, but wasn’t "Spore" supposed to be about evolution? Nothing in this awkward mash-up of “flow,” “Civilization,” and a space rpg resembles real physical or cultural evolution, in which inherited traits and competition inescapably define a species’ fate. The irony is that the “creature creator,” which EA released for free a few months early to whet gamers’ appetite, is far and away the best part of this disappointing package.

Leigh Alexander

Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft / Ubisoft Montreal)

So gorgeous, so technically excellent, so intriguing at first -- which makes it especially crushing that under all that richly-realized Africa is yet another first-person shooter, and endless litanies of the same ambush mission over and over.

Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar / Rockstar North)

In many ways, it's the wildest and most poignant video game ever made -- but in most ways, it's over-weighted, illogical and emotionally manipulative, so that its ploddingly earnest storyline, its precious character tropes and its over-pretension nearly suffocate its fun and sharp cleverness

Tom Chick

Too Human (Microsoft / Silicon Knights)

Although it's an action RPG that misses the point of action RPGs, it's one of the year's only games about cyber-Vikings.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (LucasArts / LucasArts)

Great story. Shame about the game. 

Haze (Ubisoft / Free Radical)

The guys who made "Goldeneye" and "Timesplitters" have come to this?

Chris Dahlen

Spore (EA / Maxis)

Like everybody, I read all the advance hype for the game. And I don’t think my disappointment in the final release stems from backlash, so much as confusion: playing through one full campaign and a couple restarts, I never felt like I saw the point, never had an intuitive understanding of any of the decisions I was making, never felt the urge to go back and try a different path, and never believed that the three key parts of the game - play, create, and share - worked together in any but the most simplistic ways. Instead of revolutionizing user generated content, it trivialized it: Yes, your hermaphrodite alligator man has very spiky eyebrows, but if they don’t impact gameplay, who cares?

Mirror's Edge (EA / Dice)

" Mirror’s Edge" frustrated and annoyed a lot of players. Its soothing aesthetic didn’t match its difficulty: imagine trying to play a game of "Rock Band," except the song stops cold every time you miss a note. Combat should’ve been truly optional, and the cheapest deaths should’ve been caught in playtesting. And yet in spite of it all, I keep coming back to it – for the almost sensual pleasures of sliding down a sheer glass wall or riding the top of a subway train, or feeling the “oomph” as Faith slings herself over yet another ledge. 

Fracture (LucasArts / Day 1 Studios)

...and a dozen other shooters with high production values, elaborate cinematics, ample headshots, and nothing else to offer. I slogged through a lot of these this year, but "Fracture" saw the biggest boost from LucasArts and the most hype for its supposedly innovative “make a pile of dirt almost anywhere you want” mechanic. So I’ll honor it as one of the year’s highest-profile duds.

Coming Monday morning: The fifth best videogame(s) of 2008

(Part of our series counting down the top ten videogames of 2008 -- with interruptions for the most disappointing and most overrated -- according to Variety critics Leigh Alexander, Tom Chick, Chris Dahlen and Ben Fritz. Full details are here. To check out the rest of the list, click here. Most importantly, vote for your favorite games of 2008 in the Cut Scene reader awards here.)

Chris Dahlen

Everybody Dies (Jim Munroe and Michael Cho)

The best-written games this year worked in plain old text: the winners of the Interactive Fiction Competition, the ultra-profane meta-Internet game "ForumWarz," and the fascinating one-move game "Aisle," all provided gripping scripts and memorable characters. It took time to settle on "Everybody Dies" as my favorite. A surreal story set in a mundane suburb outside Toronto, it’s told from the perspective of three memorable characters, one of whom introduced me to the phrase “Moustache Brotherhood.”

Ben Fritz

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (LucasArts / LucasArts)

I know, I know, the controls are a little wonky and that star destroyer sequence should be grounds for a class action lawsuit against LucasArts. But by giving us the power to throw objects with our minds, shoot lightning from our fingers, and generally tear sh*t up with a lightsaber, “The Force Unleashed” successful merges “God of War”-esque action with the childhood dreams of every red blooded American geek. Add a story that puts all other videogames in 2008, not to mention Lucas’ last three films, to shame and you’ve got a game that more than overcomes its flaws. 

Leigh Alexander

Braid (Number None)

Much discussion surrounded "Braid"'s decidedly opaque narrative, and the blogosphere still wonders what the ending was "about." "It's art," many decided; "It means what you want it to mean." And it was definitely thought-provoking, admirably so. Yet, perhaps ironically, the greatest thing about the year's indie ambassador to profundity in games was the actuality of its stellar time-bending, brain-teasing gameplay. Puzzles that looked infuriatingly simple were truly meaty, and "Braid"'s transcendence was assisted not by its obfuscated "meaning," but by its perfectly-chosen music and arresting, dreamlike art style.

Tom Chick

Multiwinia (Introversion)

"Multiwinia" is one of the year's most subversive real time strategy games (the more subversive one is later in my list). It's also the most visually stunning, but not for the reason that real time strategy games are usually visually stunning (see "Red Alert 3" for the worst case example of that). As they did with Defcon, developer Introversion demonstrates game design at its most economical, with muscular gameplay, perfect pacing, and ice-cool haunting production design.

Coming this afternoon: The seventh best videogame(s) of 2008

If you've read much about "Fracture" or played the demo, it's not hard to see what the game's major fault is: It bassicaly has one great idea -- weapons that can raise or lower the terrain -- and nothing else. It's an uninspired, derivative sci-fi shooter that doesn't do anything wrong technically speaking, but doesn't have anything you haven't seen before in the gameplay. You shoot hundreds of anonymous, kinda stupid enemies in bland settings over and over and over until you're done. It would have been a better experience to offer "Fracture's" entrencher weapon as DLC for "Gears of War" or "Halo." Which is exactly the fear I and, I'm guessing, many others had in seeing a game marketed so heavily on a single concept.

There is one thing that surprised me, though. I didn't expect great writing, but "Fracture's" script is truly godawful. It's a terribly hacky, underdeveloped, and cliched sci-fi morality (and I use the word generously) tale. The United States splits in two and one side believes in cybernetics and the other genetic engineering -- it's the kind of sci-fi story a high schooler might come up with. Actually, my more exact thought as a member of the entertainment industry is it's the kind of idea that would end up on the defunct Query Letters I Love blog for terrible ideas sent unsolicited to producers.

Not to belabor the point, but really, what can you say about a game in which the protagonist is named "Jet Brody?" Even by the standards of LucasFilm, the company that brought us Jar Jar Binks and atomic bomb-proof refrigerators, that's bad. (On the other hand, LucasArts just brought us the best written videogame of the year in "The Force Unleashed," so we know they can do better.)

And the dialogue? It's full of zingers like "Is this a bad time to request a transfer?" and "So he's a genius with advanced weapon systems and a grudge. This'll end well." However the real howler (minor spoiler alert) comes at the end of act 2 when Jet finally rescues the mysterious woman who has been begging him telepathically to rescue her (very original idea; nothing like that in "Halo" at all).

"You're telepathic?" he asks her. "Don't be silly, nobody is telepathic," she replies. "Some animals like dolphins or bats can communicate sub-sonically. The Pacificans have been conducting experiments to do the same thing with humans."

(Quotes aren't exact since I had to take notes quickly.)

Regular readers know I'm a big proponent of improved storytelling that's better integrated with gameplay. But scripts like "Fracture" make me think that some games would be better off just going without a plot and trying to make some good levels.

But other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln? Not all that bad. Terrain deformation is compelling for a while before you get used to it. Technically, "Fracture" works and looks great. If you skip all the cut scenes and ignore your character's name, you'll find a competent shooter with level design that's mostly average and only occasionally bad.

Here's an excerpt from my review that is running in today's Daily Variety:

"Fracture" is a feature in search of a videogame. LucasFilm division LucasArts’ latest attempt to establish a new intellectual property beyond Star Wars and Indiana Jones takes one compelling innovation -- weapons that can raise or lower the terrain -- and plugs it into a standard "Halo-esque" sci-fi shooter with no other original ideas. Add an embarrassing script that feels like it was pulled from the bottom of a studio's slush pile and the result is a game that’s merely competent -- and has little chance of succeeding against the holiday season’s big action games or establishing the franchise LucasArts desires.

And you can read the whole thing here.

It would be nice if videogame blogs didn't act like it's a big deal when one person says a videogame-to-movie adaptation is "not impossible." Most such adaptations are "not impossible." In fact, the vast majority of videogames that have come out in the past few years and enjoyed even a modicum of success have been looked at by some Hollywood producers and/or executives as a potential movie.

The fact that project director Haden Blackman said "never say never" about that becoming the next "Star Wars" movie doesn't mean much of anything, but of course lots of blogs got worked up anyway. Trust me, I could write daily on this blog about how somebody in the film business is thinking about maybe optioning some videogame. It's only worth even raising an eyebrow (or leaving a comment with your thoughts on how they "better not f*** this one up") if there is at least an option deal (as with "Mass Effect"), or better yet it's actually set up at a studio (like "Bioshock"). Then there is at least a better chance of it turning into a movie than pretty much every other videogame on Earth has.

LucasArts just announced that "The Force Unleashed" has exploded out of the gates, selling 1.5 million units worldwide in its first five days. While not exactly "Grand Theft Auto IV" or "Halo 3" numbers, that's a pretty fantastic launch, even given the gigantic marketing push LucasArts put behind it.

Given the very disparate reviews for the game (I really liked it; others did not), I think the interesting question now is how players will react and whether word of mouth will be good enough to make this a strong holiday seller and give LucasArts a solid 4 or 5 or even more million units. Or whether the buzz will be bad enough that parents and girlfriends will be getting recommendations not to buy this game as a Christmas present.

There are times while playing "The Force Unleashed" that I literally banged my controller on the couch and wrote in my notebook "BAD LEVEL DESIGN!!!" out of sheer frustration. But luckily for LucasArts, and more importantly us gamers, there were way more moments when I wrote things like "Slicing through an At-At is AWESOME" or was too busy watching the compelling drama and kick ass action on screen to even write anything.

I've seen the negative comments. Some, like the inconsistent, sometimes just plain bad level design, I agree with. That sequence where you bring down the star destroyer is the first time I have ever realized that a videogame isn't just giving me bad instructions, it's giving me wrong instructions. It's not some obscure glitch that may be hard to replicate (of which "Force Unleashed" has a few, but not a lot). It's right there on the screen. How it got through QA is mind boggling.

But at its best, "The Force Unleashed" is like "God of War" with a lightsaber. Even if you're just a modest "Star Wars" geek like me, I don't see how you don't love that. All the force powers we've seen only briefly in the movies, like lightning bolts, throwing stuff with your mind, and tossing a lightsaber, are finally utilized for their best potential -- destroying waves of storm troopers, bringing down At-AtsAT-STs and Rancors, and taking on fellow Jedi in epic set pieces that put the hand-to-hand combat in the movies to shame. The best one is against a silent Jedi master whose name starts with Darth but doesn't end with Vader (What's that? He's dead long before "The Force Unleashed" takes places? Don't worry, LucasArts came up with a very clever and believable way to revive him).

Plus -- and here's a real shocker given the last three "Star Wars" movies and the general state of videogame writing -- it's a well done story. Not exactly Oscar-worthy, but it very nicely fills in an important bit of "Star Wars" lore between episodes three and four by showing how the Rebel Alliance was founded. In the process, the game puts the combat into a compelling context where I actually cared what was going to happen next. Plus there's a satisfyingly tragic undertone given that (and I'm not giving much away here if you have a basic sense of logic) we all know Darth Vader doesn't have an apprentice in the original "Star Wars."

As well acted via motion capture and brilliantly animated as the cut scenes are, though, I'm surprised more people weren't annoyed like I was by the lack of integration of story into actual gameplay. Case in point: Since when can Jedi's gain new powers by collecting orbs? That's a lazy old videogame cliche just inserted in here. Surely there's a smarter way to let the Apprentice gain new powers in a way that fits into the story and general "Star Wars" lore.

But enough summary. If you're interested in my full review, it just posted online and will be in tomorrow's Daily Variety. Go read it already, please.

Today's schwag giveaway... an Aerosmith faceplate for your Guitar Hero controller and "The Art and Making of Star Wars: Force Unleashed" coffee table book, complete with a foreword by Hayden Christensen, who had nothing to do with the game at all but starred in two movies set in the same universe, so you're probably all dying to know what he thinks (hint: his feelings about the game and the book are pretty positive). That aside, there is some pretty amazing art and a few "character cards" as well.

As always, the rules are simple. Each product goes to the first person who leaves a comment:

-Requesting the item

-Leaving your e-mail address so I can contact you

-Expressing genuine interest ("sure, I'll take it" does not compel me to send it to you)

You're not eligible if:

-You won a previous schwag giveaway

-You ask for both items

This is a bit of an embarassing admission for someone who's supposed to be a gamer, but for the sake of full disclosure, I've got to admit it: I couldn't finish "Lego Indiana Jones." 95% of the game is very easy for adults, as it should be, but there are a few places where lights don't shine on the places you have to go to solve the puzzle and you're constantly being attacked and I just had no idea what I was supposed to do. In particular, the final battle on the bridge against Mola-Ram in "Temple of Doom" is completely indecipherable. I know I'm supposed to use Indy's whip to destroy the bridge's anchor points somehow, but I have no idea how to do it and Mola and his goons keep killing me before I can take any time to figure it out. It's intensely frustrating and while it's possible that I'm just a total idiot, I find it hard to imagine that it would be a breeze for a seven year-old.

However, as I wrote in my review in today's Daily Variety, that's far from "Lego Indiana Jones'" only problems. Yes, the game works fine and has its amusing moments. But  "Indiana Jones" just fundamentally isn't suited for the Lego world the way that "Star Wars" was. There aren't many cute characters, there are barely any interesting settings, and the storyline is too detail-driven to make sense (if you care) when it's being acted out by Lego characters muttering their version of Simlish. The whole experience feels more like LucasArts trying to mix their other huge internal property with the successful Lego formula that's already gone as far as it can in "Star Wars."

As I wrote in today's review:

Fundamentally, Indiana Jones and his pals are just poorly suited for the Lego videogame world, which depends on breadth and cuteness. “Star Wars” has the advantage of dozens of identifiable characters and settings, many of which already look like they could be built out of blocks. “Indy,” on the other hand, has barely a handful of memorable characters and few locations of particular note or that could be classified as “adorable.” Indy, Short Round, Marion and Henry Sr. hardly stack up as Lego characters to Luke, Chewie, R2-D2 and the Ewoks, nor are deserts, jungles and libraries nearly as fun as the Death Star, Hoth and Jabba’s cruiser.

You can read the whole thing here.

As I was reporting on the departure of LucasArts President Jim Ward today (and a tip of the hat to Kotaku for that one), the execs up there were sure to boast about their fantastic line-up for the rest of this year. And they've got some potentially big ones: "Fracture" (about which I have mixed feelings based on what I've seen), "The Force Unleashed" (which looks like endless fun), and "Lego Indiana Jones" (who knows if it'll be good, but God knows it'll sell). But... no next-gen Indiana Jones. And still no word when it'll come out.

When LucasArts first unveiled the game at E3 2005, they said it would come out in 2007. That didn't quite happen, but by last year, when the fourth Indy movie came together, a summer 2008 release along with the film looked like a no-brainer. And, indeed, last June, LucasFilm said the May '08 release of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" will be supported by "breakthrough Indiana Jones video games that will allow players to “live” all-new Indy adventures." At last summer's E3, LucasArts didn't have anything from the game to show off, but maintained it was still on the sked for summer '08.

Well folks, it's now February, and still no next-gen Indy.  IGN apparently still thinks it's coming out this year, but given that it's February and there have been absolutely no trailers, new screenshots, or press demo's, I'd call that doubtful. And there's literally no chance it'll be coming out in May along with the film. Given the tremendous synergies LucasArts would get from the likely $100 million marketing blitz LucasFilm and Paramount will create for the movie release, there have got to be some major development problems.

Assuming the film's a hit, "Lego Indiana Jones" will probably still benefit when it comes out this summer. And Indy is a well enough known property that the game has a shot at doing well no matter when it comes out.  But the lessons about movie tie-in games are pretty clear. If your game's a piece of crap and it comes out day-and-date with the hit movie, you have a good chance of doing well -- case in point, Activision's awful "Transformers: the Game," which sold well enough that a sequel is in the works. Meanwhile EA's mediocre "Superman Returns" came out five months after the movie and was a bomb.

So LucasArts had better hope that when (if?) it's next-gen "Indiana Jones" game comes out, it's really good.