Just Cause 2, a Top Gear machinima. A homage/parody of the motoring show Top Gear, involving a race across Panau. And since Jeremy Clarkson has just been sacked, this may very well be his last appearance on Top Gear!

In what now looks like Jeremy Clarkson’s final appearance on Top Gear, the trio travels to Panau in South-East Asia for a race. Things quickly get out of hand.

By Tanner Productions

Fraps is a Windows application that can be used with games, but not limited to, using DirectX or OpenGL graphic technology. To capture real-time gameplay, screenshots and also provide some benchmarking.

I recently downloaded Fraps and while i have not used the screen capture or benchmarking options I have made very good use of the real-time video capture. All movies are recorded in outstanding quality and are saved slightly compressed in the AVI format. Fraps can capture audio and video up to 7680×4800 with custom frame rates from 1 to 120 frames per second.

Fraps in not just limited to game capture.  You can also capture your desktop, this opens up a whole world of possibilities, just use your imagination.

If you want to edit your movies with Vegas Pro, Windows Movie Maker or one of the many other video editing software titles available i recommend running the original  AVI through a converter and saving it as a WMV. Remember if you want to share the video with anyone in the original AVI format they will have to have Fraps loaded on their computer because it uses a custom codec.

I highly recommend this software, you can download the free version at www.fraps.com wich only records 30 seconds of video or pay $37 for a single user license, well worth every penny.

Sadface. Another classic game developer, LucasArts, the video game branch of LucasFilm, has shut down only 154 days (approximately 5 months) after being aquired by Disney for approximately $4 billion dollars. EDIT: LucasFilm was also bought by Disney. Their current projects have also been cancelled – like “Star Wars 1313”.

But, for people who were anticipating “Star Wars 1313”, I predict that they could make a deal with another development company to continue on the project. Why would they fork out $4 billon dollars for a large game development company, only to shut it down 5 months later? Maybe, their idea was, buy the company, make a bit of money off of it for a few months, and shut it down and sell the highest paying and most popular games/game series rights to other companies. Think how many companies would pay to buy some of the LucasArts game franchises – Disney would probably at least break even on that, if it worked at all.

LucasArts also created the “Monkey Island” series, as well as ScummVM, and Grim Fandango – along with many other classics. I don’t see why Disney would shut them down – why not just sell the company for even more that they paid Lucasfilm for it? Even if the buyer would catch on that they didn’t pay that much for the company when Disney bought it – it’s LucasArts we’re talking about here. In a buyer’s eyes, it would be worth it.

Disney should have kept open LucasArts. The company still could have made money – they came out with “The Force Unleashed” Star Wars series – and they made money from it. They could still have made money, they just needed some fresh ideas. But, I’m sure Disney has their reasons.

I personally think that Lucasfilm shouldn’t have made that deal with Disney in the first place unless if LucasArts was going bankrupt. If that was the case, then why would Disney want it? Lucasfilm should have kept the company, I think. Look at it this way – other than from merchandise, how much money does Lucasfilm make from other things? LucasArts was one of their main money makers, if I’m correct. Maybe it’s just me, though.

Farewell, LucasArts. The gaming community will miss you.

–by Gavin Trutzenbach, Owner