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CAPTURING A GALAXY: AN INTERVIEW WITH ANNIE LEIBOVITZ – EXCLUSIVE Han Solo lounges in the cockpit of the Falcon. His head is tilted, his smile is sly, and his eyes betray an ever-youthful bravado. To his right are two new faces — Rey and Finn. They look confident, excited, cool. In the background is BB-8, the ball-shaped droid. He could be powered off, he could be on. He appears curious and innocent all the same. Above them all is Chewbacca, towering as always, but with a grin and welcoming demeanor. Suddenly, Han’s eyes suggest a here-we-go-again wariness, and he now seems almost protective of his younger companions. We’re home. That’s what you get from an Annie Leibovitz Star Wars photo — the cover photo, in fact, from Vanity Fair’s blowout on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. You get a story, you get character. You get Star Wars. And you get it packaged in Leibovitz’s arresting style of moment-in-time clarity, allowing you to take in expressions, fashions, and attitudes. It’s a...

Battlefront Third Person POV Distinction Star Wars; Battlefront veterans are happy about the inclusion of third person POV but many are concerned with the customization options of this. It seems very few vets actually played the game from a first person POV (if you were one of them, we want to hear from you in the comments) but there are some possible issues with the default perspective of the third person POV, at least for many players. Check out this image: You can see the difference above. Battlefront vets: what say you on this? Do you want to see changes made to the third person POV? Did you play in first person mode and plan to do so again? What is the benefit or potential downside to each? Some fans are concerned that DICE will not listen to player complaints and concerns and that they are taking a “we know best” approach to the game elements and play settings. However, if past examples are any indication, we can expect DICE will listen to the fans, especi...

9 Awesome Things To Do at Star Wars Weekends Star Wars has had a presence in Disney Parks since Star Tours opened at Disneyland in 1987. The attraction spread to other parks, and eventually, Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando added Star Wars Weekends to the calendar. The event takes places on weekends in the spring (it runs through June 14 this year) and brings Star Wars celebrities, a parade, a fireworks show, and so much more the park. Yes, it is hot and humid in Florida, but you can beat it — just pretend you’re on Tatooine. I went to Star Wars Weekends for the first time ever this year, and it felt like attending Celebration. I spotted Star Wars T-shirts and homemade costumes all over the park and gushed about favorite Jedi and Palpatine’s intelligence while waiting in line for shows. Meeting fellow fans is just one of many reasons why I now consider Star Wars Weekends a can’t-miss event. If (when) you take your first step into a larger world and go to Star Wars Weekends...

Revenge of Revan Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II Mod Here’s something really cool that’s ready (in beta) for you to download now and check it out. RevengeofRevan.com Developer Blog asks, “Can a mod be created that won’t disrupt KOTOR canon and still allow players to continue their stories from KOTOR1 and KOTOR2? Ever since the MMO was announced along with the Revan book, this has been on my mind. The short answer is: yes, it can be done. But the next part is, how you can do this without putting yourself in a corner and hurting your creative freedom?” Revenge of Revan (RoR) does exactlly that. It will allow fans to continue their story based on the choices they make in the last two games so they can continue while still fitting the KoTOR canon. Even with the non-strict canon choice the story for the mod will still fit nicely between KOTOR2 and SWTOR in the large grand scheme of events, but finer details will be different. The developer explains more here: F...

Will Shroud of the Avatar live up to the hype? There are only a handful of people that can send gamers into a frothing frenzy at the mere mention of their name. Richard Garriott, aka Lord British, is one of those people. He's responsible for the Ultima series of games, including the revolutionary Ultima Online. His latest effort is Shroud of the Avatar, and a large number of mmo gamers have banded together to back the project. The game offers to bring back old school excitement in a sandbox setting with modern features, not to mention lore by renowned author Tracy Hickman (Dragonlance!). The game is still a few years away from launch, but players have been drawn to the game, either to praise or to criticize it. Will Shroud of the Avatar live up to the hype? There's no denying that the Shroud of the Avatar hype has been steadily building. What else would you expect from a game headed by a legendary developer? In this era of casual gaming that requires little effort, old schoo...

Blizzard just banned over 100,000 World of Warcraft accounts in the name of stopping cheaters. But did it work? Massive Ban Wave Hopefully Fixes World of Warcraft PvP Blizzard unleashed its ban hammer again, this time kicking out more than 100,000 World of Warcraft… Read more It’s doubtful that all cheaters and botters are gone from WoW forever, but it sounds like Blizzard latest huff and puff succeeded in blowing them down. Bossland, creator of WoW’s most notorious bot, the PVP-centric Honorbuddy, admitted that they’re pretty much beat—at least, for now: “With Honorbuddy you thought that we are unbeateable, we never thought that, we’ve succeeded since 2010—Honorbuddy had not a single software detection. It seems there is one now.” “We are sorry for all your lost WOW Accounts, hopefully you can use them again after the 6 months ban is lifted. I have read here in the forums a bit, a lot of the accounts where 10 years old. This is a pity. We always say, do not use your valuable...

Rare is responsible for some of our most fondly remembered games--but what year did the developer hit its peak? And what is the essence of a Rare game? by Daniel Hindes on May 22, 2015 Today marks the 15th anniversary of the release of Perfect Dark--Rare's spiritual sequel to GoldenEye 007--considered to be one of the best games released on the Nintendo 64. At the time, its scope and depth was astounding, and even now we're only just seeing some of its ideas return to modern first-person shooters. But 2000 wasn't just a year about Perfect Dark for Rare; the developer also released Banjo-Tooie--the sequel to its colourful mascot platformer, Banjo Kazooie, which expanded upon the Super Mario 64 formula in interesting and creative ways. For me, both Perfect Dark and Banjo-Tooie represent the core of what made a great Rare game, and that they both released in 2000 makes it, in my opinion, Rare's best year. With the Kickstarter campaign for Yooka-Laylee--a Banjo...

In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, some of the most important tools you have at your disposal are Geralt's special Witcher potions. While they are not necessary for your survival in the beginning of the game, they definitely become more vital as the game progresses. This is why it's a good idea to start farming items in the game's first area, which is filled with an abundance of ingredients you can find and use to craft the game's earlier potions. So What are Witcher Potions? Witcher potions are items that can grant you enhancements to your statistics, give you special abilities, and even nullify the effects of status ailments. They can be bought or found in the world of The Witcher, but you ideally want to craft them yourself. In order to craft Witcher potions, you need each of a potion's required ingredients. These are specified in the game's crafting screen and mainly consist of herbs and other assorted items, such as alcohol and monster body parts. Witcher p...

With Chaos Theory, its most recent episode, Life is Strange is beginning to straddle the line between the predictable and the unexpected. I felt like I knew what was going on, but after two hours of sifting through puzzles and dialogues, after I was so sure about what was coming next, Life is Strange flipped everything it has established on its head, making me think the next episode will introduce a radically different game. It's hard to critique what happens in Chaos Theory without spoiling some significant plot points, for both this episode and the previous one, Out of Time. How others interact with protagonist Max Caulfield and what she sees as she wanders Blackwell campus will differ drastically depending on the ending you achieved in Episode Two. The tone is either heartbreakingly somber or surreally uplifting as Max is treated like the town hero. There's a moment where she's allowed to reflect on all that, free from the squiggly hand-written arrows indicating enviro...

OF WATERCOLOR WOOKIEES AND DEATH STAR COOKIES: STAR WARS BOOKS IN THE ’70S LOOK BACK AT VINTAGE STAR WARS ACTIVITY AND STORY BOOKS THAT WERE MORE FUN THAN BULL'S-EYEING WOMP RATS. Back in the ’70s, there was merely a trickle of Star Wars merchandise compared to the cornucopia of content fans have to enjoy nowadays. So instead of video games and animated fare and comics you have today, we fans subsisted on bubble gum cards, a few action figures, and whatever else we could find. But ask anyone from my generation and they have fond memories of those rare treats. The ones that stand out in my mind to this day were the books from Random House. Published in 1979 by Black Falcon Ltd. under the Random House label, they were soft cover books for younglings that featured either stories or activities. The three I still own to this day are Darth Vader’s Activity Book, Chewbacca’s Activity Book, and the story book titled The Mystery of the Rebellious Robot. The Myster...

COLLECTIBLES FROM THE OUTER RIM: BATTLE AT SARLACC’S PIT! PRESENTING A LITTLE-KNOWN RETURN OF THE JEDI TABLETOP THAT SLOWLY DIGESTS GAME PIECES OVER A THOUSAND YEARS! Perhaps the most egregious omission from Kenner’s vintage Star Wars collection was a Great Pit of Carkoon playset. As the crux of what was arguably the most action-packed scene in the entire original trilogy, I never understood why Kenner didn’t release some kind of plastic Sarlacc toy for kids to play with. (Kenner wasn’t wholly oblivious to the problem, either. In one old Return of the Jedi action figure commercial, a pair of kids created a makeshift Sarlacc out of a sandcastle bucket!) Still, for kids who dreamed of sending effigial Star Wars characters plunging to their doom, hope was not lost! In 1983, Parker Brothers released Battle at Sarlacc’s Pit, a multiplayer board game — “board” in the broadest sense — that wasn’t so much “fun to play” as fun to play with. The three-dimen...