The Darth Maul Game That Could Have Been

It looks like there was a Star Wars game in production before Lucas Arts was sold off that could have rivaled the much anticipated bounty hunter adventure, Star Wars: 1313. I was reading an article on GameInformer yesterday about such a game that had been being developed at Red Fly studios that focuses on one of Star Wars' most badass characters, Darth Maul. Yeah just let that sink in for a moment. I know, it's incredibly depressing because this looks like it truly had potential to be an awesome game worthy of Darth Maul and we won't ever get to play it. You can see some gameplay for yourself in the video below, courtesy of GameInformer.

What's even more surprising is this is all prototype and concept stage material. (I posted some concept art below) Red Fly didn't have a script or a clear idea of where they were going with this game. I feel that doesn't even matter though, just looking at how beautiful Maul looks slashing through Mandalorians with that double bladed lightsaber feels so satisfying. There would be no shortage of possible plot-lines the studio could have chosen to follow as well and with a team of writers, a script would have been a cinch. While I would have preferred an origin type story line that takes place before Maul's appearance in Phantom Menace, I wouldn't mind taking control of a cyborg Maul as he rises from the ashes.

This Twi'lek appears here and in the art above. She may have been some kind of companion

Unfortunately, since Disney's acquisition of Lucas Arts, we may never see games featuring Darth Maul or something similar to Star Wars: 1313. EA still holds the rights to Lucas Arts video game properties though and Battlefront III is definitely a step in the right direction. Hopefully they step up their game and take cues from concepts like this in the future. Check out some of the concept art below (again, courtesy of GameInformer) and feel free to let me know just how bad you would have loved to play this game.

It looks like Red Fly was planning a story after Phantom Menace due to the robotic legs

New Concept Art for Dragon Age: Inquisition

Bioware has been dropping screenshots and concept art on the web for the past month. A new batch of concept art showing off a variety of landscapes and locations hit the their website earlier today. The art depicts some beautiful scenes and impressive mountainscapes which players will be able to explore along their quests.

There are also a couple of scenes that depict some rather grim looking areas of the game, one of which looks like a murky lake in an underground cavern! It's good to see some variety and that Bioware is interested in keeping things fresh in the upcoming game. The vastness of these scenes should also be taken into account and assure us that there will be plenty of exploring to do when Dragon Age: Inquisition is released later this year!

New screen shots of Black Mesa Source unveiled

Black Mesa Source is the ambitious project of a third party developer to modify the first Half-Life game using more advanced capabilities of Valve's source engine. Essentially the team is recreating the first Half-Life game with all new voice acting, sound effects, AI, improved graphics and much more. The game was planned to be distributed as free-to-play but the 2009 spring release date window came and went with no release. No definitive release date was rescheduled nor was then any kind of time frame; the team simply said, "when it's done."

Black Mesa Source seems to have come out of the dark now and the team has been drip feeding tidbits of info and media on their Facebook page since March of 2012. On June 9, they announced to their Facebook fans that once the hit 20,000 likes that they will release new media. The likes on their page soared over 20,000 before the end of Sunday and they treated fans to some new screen-shots featuring some familiar environments from the Black Mesa research facility. The newly rendered environments, enemies and characters all look amazing and will surely provide an entertaining experience.

The update was also posted with the promise of more content to come in the future. This seems to indicate Black Mesa Source is back on track and that the release of the game may be imminent if the team is ready to show off their work. Hopefully, in the coming weeks, we can expect more information and possibly a trailer for this long awaited game. Check out the screen-shots below and head over to the Black Mesa Facebook page and give them a like to get more updates on the game.