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Hello CVG'sketeers and a warm welcome to the Rumour Mill - a new name for an old show,
that sees us mashing together bowls of gaming speculation, into a smooth, palatable paste.
This week, we're feeding you Star Wars 1313.
Let's kick things off straight away with the name: 1313 refers to a level on the infamous
criminal underground of Coruscant - a typically wretched hive of *** and villainy - through
which players will guide an as-yet unnamed bounty hunter - but we'll come back to that
later.
Thematically, it's looking a bit like Indonesian action film The Raid, or if you haven't seen
that, the chintastic Dredd 3D. What does that mean? Well, numerous floors of ne'er do wells,
a beleaguered hero and Rancor-size portions of *** to kick. The game takes place one
thousand one hundred and thirteen levels up from the surface of the planet, but there
are thousands of levels above you as well. In the claustrophobia stakes, it's like being
the unfortunate filling in a criminal sandwich.
Given the gritty subject matter, you can rest assured that there won't be a Jar-Jar Binks
in sight. And, quite frankly, tired as we are of games constantly getting darker and
fightier, a Star Wars title aimed at a mature audience has us licking our lips like Jabba
the Hutt. And if you don't like that, there's always Star Wars Kinect. Click here to watch
Han Solo dancing! [Cheesy] Han danced first.
It's being developed in-house by LucasArts, but the team are collaborating with LucasFilm
Animation, Skywalker Sound and Industrial Light and Magic. As those names suggest, it's
pretty big deal - ILM have worked on just about every special effect extravaganza worth
mentioning, including recent titles like The Avengers, Iron Man 2 and Pirates of the Caribbean.
As if the stunning trailer wasn't enough of a clue, this is going to be a triple-A experience
on a whole new scale.
Seeing 1313 in action is like bridging the gap between game and cinema, but don't expect
Quantic Dream's QTEs and frowning faces. This is all action, all the way - cover driven
combat that most closely resembles Uncharted.
Moving on to release platforms, we initially thought this could be solidly next-gen, but
it's been revealed that 1313 will also see release on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC next year.
No Wii U release has been announced.
Right then, lets go back to the hero - or anti-hero, to be more specific. When LucasArts
first registered the numerous domain names, it was practically nerdgeddon. The Star Wars
massive jumped to the conclusion that Lord Lucas was making a movie about Mandarlorian
bounty hunter Boba Fett - who, despite falling into a spiky sand-*** in Return of the Jedi,
is still one of the coolest characters in the universe. Captain America director Joe
Johnson even stated that he was calling Lucas every day, begging to direct the spin-off.
Does this mean that we'll see Boba in the game? It's possible, but we don't know. The
character we've seen was confirmed as being 'Luke Placeholder', by creative director Dominic
Robilliard, and LucasArts are refusing to reveal specific weapons as it will give the
character away.
There are two other telling nuggets of info: the first is that Boba Fett uses the alias
CT-1313 in the Clone Wars novel Boba Fett: Maze of Deception. The second is that it looks
like he has a jetpack on his back. Keep those fingers crossed.
Delving deeper into the lore, the presence of tie fighters in the concept art suggests
that this will be set in the time of the rebellion, possibly taking place before or during the
first three films. If the protagonist is Mr Fett, it could nevertheless be set after Jedi.
How? Thanks to that Mandalorian armour and his trusty jetpack, he survives digestion
by the Sarlaac ***-monster.
That's all we've got for you for now, but we're using our Jedi mind tricks right now
to make you rate, comment and subscribe - and don't forget to join us again next week for
another Rumour Mill.