Yesterday morning, the news broke the news that Disney would be shutting down LucasArts, which they got as a part of their acquisition of the Star Wars purchase last October for $4.05 Billion dollars. Back when the sale took place, LucasArts immediately put a freeze on all hiring and announcements.

There were also reports that both Star Wars: First Assault and Star Wars 1313 would be canceled with the closure of the studio. It is estimated that about 150 people would be affected by the layoffs.

Later in the day, gaming magazine Game Informer got the following statement from Disney regarding LucasArts:

“After evaluating our position in the games market, we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company’s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games.

Right about now, it seems like there are a few companies that have been given the license to print money. LucasArts, the men holding the rights to all things Star Wars, and Rovio, the creators of the Angry Birds franchise, are two such companies. You can’t go into a mall in America and not see something Star Wars or Angry Birds in your line of site. Imagine the power if the two were to team up. Well, on November 8th, we will get to see what that’s like with Angry Birds Star Wars.

Below, catch the teaser trailer which shows a shrouded bird holding a very special lightsaber in what is sure to be one of the fastest selling apps on iOS and the Android marketplace as soon as it launches. This will be the second time Angry Birds will tie in with another franchise, after the success of Angry Birds Rio (which was actually a logical fit considering the movie was all about birds). Instead of just adding a new set of levels though, Angry Birds Star Wars will be getting what appears to be a visual makeover like we have seen with Angry Birds Space with some teaser images of a Obi-Wan black bird, Luke Skywalker red bird or the big Chewbacca bird.

Look for the game to arrive on November 8th. Check out a trailer for it after the break.

One of the very first booths I hit on the show floor this year was Bioware’s SWTOR – or Star Wars: The Old Republic – the company’s massively multi-player game set in the Star Wars universe. In development for the last five years, I was excited to learn there would finally be hands-on demos of the game both at the Con as well as off-site at the Hilton Gaslamp across the street.

To coincide with Comic-Con this year, Bioware announced pre-orders for the game on Thursday, which would allow players early access to the game as well as spiffy in-game bonuses. Given that the game’s release window is set for Holidays 2011, it made sense for the SWTOR team to leverage Comic-Con to start showing off their shiny new MMORPG.

After a roughly 45-minute wait, myself and a dozen other eager players were ushered into the booth and each seated at one of the high-end Alienware gaming rigs running SWTOR. We slipped on our headphones and were given 15-minutes on the clock to put the game through its paces. I decided to play a Sith Warrior, went through a brief intro and my character was jumped into a desert-like world ripe for the exploring.

The Flickcast’s very own Cortney Zamm has been covering the amazing video game previews and news hot from the show floor at PAX East 2011 like nobody’s business. And yet, there is one game in particular that I felt deserved a bit of extra coverage.

That game is BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic, a story-driven MMO developed in conjunction with LucasArts. There’s a whole lot of anticipation for this game and with good reason: SWTOR will be the WoW of the Star Wars Universe. And the story will be deeper and more personal to each character. If you’re familiar with BioWare’s previous titles, you know how important story is to their game developers.

I’ve been following the developer’s blogs and various updates on this soon-to-be released title and recently, I was excited to hear that Bioware made a big showing at PAX East 2011 in Boston, offering fans a few new glimpses at this ambitious project.

Be sure to hit the jump to watch the developer’s walk-through video showcasing some of  SWTOR’s flash-points with tons of developer commentary and some amazing in-game footage.

Last year, we took a more traditional approach with our Best Video Games of 2009 article with categories such as Best Music Game or Best Action Platformer. This year we are going to depart from the traditional and give what we think are categories that truly deserve to be rewarded their due.

Best Use of Zombies / Best Downloadable Content – Red Dead Redemption “Undead Nightmare”

The ultimate “What If” scenario brought forth to one of the best games of 2010, “What if the undead invaded the old west?” And the answer doesn’t just involve a lot of people dying. There are horses of the apocalypse, big foot, some hard choices to be made and people turning on or abandoning their fellow man left and right.

This awesome story told over the revamped look of Red Dead Redemption using characters players have already grown to know, love or despise makes Undead Nightmare not only the best zombie game of 2010 but also the best exmple of DLC for the entire year as well.