Let's look back at the success and vision that kept LucasArts 30 years young this month.

Full Throttle. Day of the Tentacle. The Secret of Monkey Island. Grim Fandango. If you've played and enjoyed any of these fantastic games, then you've witnessed the magic of LucasArts, brought to fruition by George Lucas (yes, that George Lucas) in 1982. Though the company saw most of its colossal successes in the mid-'90s, it's been a mainstay in both the eyes of consumers and other prominent figures in the industry.

Miraculously, LucasArts is still alive and well, now thirty years after its inception, as a renowned developer and publisher -- an illustrious feat in an age of abrupt restructuring, dissemination, and departures of key company employees. From point-and-click adventure games to best-selling third-person action spectaculars, LucasArts has a varied background when it comes to making gaming history.

For 30 years of providing us with memorable characters, oddball stories, and plenty of incidental laughs along the way, we celebrate LucasArts: the games, the legacy, and the facts: it's absolutely remarkable we can celebrate a milestone such as this, and we think many kudos are in order.

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In honor of Men in Black III's theatrical release this Friday, we've got the top five alien races who want to kill us. It seems as though the human race (and Earth itself) is constantly under assault by malevolent alien races – at least, if movies and video games are to be believed. We'll admit to having done some particularly heinous things as a race, but just once it seems we should get a break from all these aliens looking to put us in the ground! At least we can look for the aid of organizations like the Men in Black when it comes to these very sticky situations...in the movies, anyway.

Get ready to paint some targets on these suckers for total annihilation.

5. The Covenant

Throughout the Halo trilogy (soon to include Halo 4) there's a veritable menagerie of alien goons out to clear us out – with ulterior motives, of course. All because they've deemed the whole of humanity offensive to their gods. The Covenant isn't an alien race itself, but a militaristic alliance of several species all united under a religious pretense – the Forerunner “ringworlds,” Halos as we know them, will supposedly lead them all to salvation. But humanity's completely in the way. The Covenant consists of several races: Elites (Sangheili), Jackals (Kig-Yar), Grunts (Unggoy) and others, all of whom aren't above slicing through Marines with energy swords, or slapping a grenade on your person for a messy finish. Oh, and they've got guns. The Covenant as a collective is dangerous, so we should thank our lucky stars Chief and the rest of the crew are on our side. And we didn't even mention the Flood!

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Our guide to Monster Traits will get you primed and ready for action for when you inevitably encounter one of these special monsters. It's pretty much a guarantee you'll run into some less than savory characters -- most of which, the beasts roaming the landscape. However, a select few of these monsters are special -- not meaning their mothers love them very much, but they have special traits that you'd do well to know about before you tangle with them.

• Diablo Guide: Your Guide of Guides

What are monsters with special traits?

You will often run into monsters roaming the land that can be classified Champion, Rare, and minion monsters. They're also known as non-Normal enemies. Usually they'll spawn with affixes (modifying terms you can see underneath their health bar) -- just like with the item system, that refers to their special traits. Each trait is different and imbues unique abilities upon the monster and the damage it may deal. Monsters you'll encounter with traits listed at level 14 or higher will come with more than one trait.

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What would a dungeon-crawler be without a sprawling menagerie of loot? Our guide to Diablo III's Loot System will aid you in quickly becoming an expert in which item yields what, how your brand new shinies can be identified, and how each is generated. You'll be an epic hoarder in no time, and we mean that in the nicest way possible.

What's a loot drop?

As you rampage through Sanctuary felling enemies or bashing any type of breakable object you're often rewarded with "loot drops," otherwise known as a pile of swag. Like you'd gather at E3 or another convention, but in-game. These randomly-generated collectible items will fall to the ground for you to squirrel away. For some, it's why they fight. For others, it's a steady stream of income-generating valuables that aid in the epic quest ahead. The items dropped can range from potions, weapons, armor, gold, and other types of equipment.

• Diablo 3 Guide: Beginner's Guide -- Welcome to Sanctuary

Of course, there is a system in place to determine at which interval specific items are available, and what they are. There are several variables by which loot is distributed: if it drops at all, how much of it, and what the properties of each item actually is. Anything from a monster's level to the type of breakable item destroyed can affect what type of drop you receive. For instance, a low-level enemy most likely isn't going to produce a top-tier item. Slay a more formidable foe, and the loot produced is much more valuable.

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This guide to Diablo 3's Follower system will explore each Follower class and function so that you can get the most out of the revamped system and NPCs you decide to enlist for battle. Taking on Followers isn't required, but trust us -- it's a good idea.

What are Followers?

Formerly known as Hirelings, Followers are NPCs that may be found throughout Sanctuary who are more than willing to accompany you into battle. Not only can they fight on your behalf, but they may also level up, acquire new abilities, and receive new and improved equipment should you choose to provide it. Think of them as aides that you can outfit and grow as you see fit. You may not be able to customize them as closely as your own Hero, but done correctly they can be molded into formidable assistants.

How do I hire a Follower?

Right-clicking on the Follower icon found at the upper-left corner of the screen will open a menu with four options: Talk, Hire, Dismiss, or Retrain. From here you may speak to potential candidates, hire one, retrain a current Follower, or dismiss your current ally. You may hire only one Follower at a time and you may choose from three different classes: the Templar, Scoundrel, and Enchantress.

You may choose to hire additional Followers, but your remaining hires will have to wait back at camp until you return. After you begin browsing through the available Followers, you are given 120 seconds to make your hiring decision. Once you've chosen a suitable companion, your new ally will automatically match your hero's level minus one. Say you've hit level 13 -- your Follower will be at level 12 upon hire. It's prudent to outfit your warrior with equipment that's suitable for their current level and location, as the items they spawn with are completely random.

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While you're waiting for the Avengers to assemble on the silver screen, why not save the world a few times over as some of the mightiest superheroes ever with their video game equivalents? Get in on some baddie-bashing practice with the best. Step into the shoes of the world's mightiest superhero team and take matters into your own hands with this powerful selection of games. Be careful, though -- you wouldn't want to make any new enemies.

Captain America and the Avengers

Avengers: Captain America, Hawkeye

Long before Captain America was the super soldier portrayed by Chris Evans, he appeared in an excellent Genesis brawler that could teach modern games a thing or two about team-based beat-'em-ups. Data East's challenging fighter featured Cap himself, Iron Man, Hawkeye, and Vision, each with their own special and ranged attacks, as well as a projectile that could be launched at enemies. Collecting specific power-ups would trigger additional Avengers, Quicksilver and Wonder Man, for example, to swoop in as temporary allies.

With your team assembled to take on the likes of Red Skull, you tear through waves of enemies to take apart any super villain that dares to stand in your way. This is a side-scrolling classic akin to the likes of X-Men Arcade or Double Dragon, and supported up to four players who could control their favorite heroes individually. Fighting back with Cap's shield was always a treat, even if you spend a lot more time tossing barrels of radioactive waste around. Vivid graphics and silly, mindless action combined with the ability to play as Captain America made this Genesis port a keeper -- much more than, dare we say, the Captain America: Super Soldier movie tie-in.

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Video game endings, like the culmination of most pieces of media, vary wildly from piece to piece. Forget, if you will, about Mass Effect 3 for just a moment. Try and erase it from your mind. Because as heinous as you think the ending may be, it's certainly not a unique beast.

And while it's a personal belief that a bizarre finale shouldn't wreck the complete experience, there have been some particularly jarring conclusions over the years. From unresolved cliffhangers to unsettling revelations, they run the gamut between confusing and just plain absurd.

In the interest of exploring options beyond BioWare's latest hot-button issue, we present five bizarre, shocking, and/or lame endings we could scrounge up.

Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy

Offense: Non-Closure/Cliffhanger Ending

Nick Scryer, an amnesiac sent to infiltrate the terrorist organization known as The Movement, was saddled with an impressive arsenal of telekinetic powers to aid in his mission. Squaring off against former PSI-Ops, he was able to paint the walls with their brains, set them on fire, and hijack their bodies to act as his own pawns. It wasn't a terribly deep game by any means, but it was fun in the way only some shooters can be. And after hours of cleaning house with Scryer's impressive powers, expecting some kind of thrilling and explanatory conclusion, players were greeted with the infamous trio of words “TO BE CONTINUED.”

After some particularly weighty content exploring the involvement of special artifacts in some of the world's biggest tragedies (World War II, for example), one would have assumed some sort of closure would have been a courtesy, not Midway's sequel-securing way out. Of course, a sequel at this point is all but out of the question since the company has closed its doors, leaving fans in the dark. What happened to Nick, Sara, and the artifacts so many agents scrambled to recover at the game's climax? The world may never know.

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Though Japanese RPGs have a firm template in place for how each release from that stable should be approached, Western RPGs have always been scattershot. Isometric visions of apocalyptic wastelands, sprawling high fantasy tales rife with warring factions, and even the gambles that mimic a J-RPG, right down to the party's mannerisms and four-disc spread of content – remember PlayStation's Shadow Madness?

All the different approaches, however, do not necessarily demonstrate that the genre has been moving forward. In fact, despite the staggering success of games like Skyrim, there are some building blocks that could surely be rearranged to compile a more ambitious role-playing game. I've rounded up three key components I believe would work swimmingly, and could improve upon player engagement and immersion factor – and in doing so, create a better RPG overall.

Getting To Know You

First, let's look at the factor of player interaction with that of the faithful battle party. An immediate example that comes to mind demonstrating a step in the right direction is BioWare's Mass Effect/Dragon Age stable. While both franchises aren't without their own respective flaws, they go to great lengths to offer aspiring party leads choices, back stories, and camaraderie. More specifically, character relationships – some that could obviously be expanded fully, but relationships nevertheless.

Both titles assign more than a face, class, and skill set to the faces that comprise your battle party – they give meaning to your conflicts and serve as a means to ignite that explorer's spark. You wan to see Tali for who she is beyond the mask. You're moved to sympathize with Thane Krios. Your underlings become treasured – such as you completely losing it at critical junctures of Mass Effect and its sequel, where one party member must be lost, and others' loyalties demolished.

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Love is a complex emotion that, unlike the many others explored in the forms of media we consume, some still can't quite grasp. Some attractions lack rational explanations, and others persist despise signals that point to destructive tendencies. Love is blind, love hurts, and love conquers all. The spectrum of emotions the seemingly simple idea conjures is mind numbing.

When particularly ambitious constructs like dating sims attempt to emulate that ephemeral, butterflies-in-your stomach roller coaster that is a crush or the lustful passion of a one-night stand, they're taking a leap of faith. Any genre that attempts to tackle such a tricky subject is in for a challenge. Can a game truly convey this emotion, “love,” in a convincing manner? We explored two ambitious dating sims and one intriguing indie platformer to find an answer to those questions. Can they show us what it means to be loved?

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The SoulCalibur series is a fighting franchise positively riddled with distinctive locales, quirky combatants, and addictive gameplay that serves as a refreshing alternative to the Street Fighter and Tekken camps looking for something a little different. From its varied cameos to its bizarre bits of lore, it's definitely the brawler for those with eccentric tastes. We've rounded up five of the weirder aspects of the SoulCalibur series: bizarre crossovers, fan-favorite character replacements, and more. Things are about to get a little kooky, SoulCalibur-style.

SoulCalibur Joins the Dark Side

A fighter that makes at least a reasonable attempt at keeping rooted in the real world (if you don't count the roster's varying nationalities and their corresponding fails) would stick to including only brawlers in line with its mythos, right? You would think. Imagine the surprise of SoulCalibur fans around the globe when Darth Vader and apprentice Starkiller were made available as console-exclusive offerings. Yoda followed up the pack as well. The Star Wars cameo was a jarring and bizarre one for Namco's famous competitive title, and one we're still trying to wrap our heads around. We understand, of course, Vader's nefarious plan to wield SoulCalibur and Soul Edge, but talk about a strange cross-promotion between brands. Of course, it's not any weirder than Ezio Auditore or Kratos making their appearances in other iterations, we suppose. Or Lloyd Irving. The list goes on.

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Even behind the brightest pixels, you can find some the darkest imagery in video games. Take for example the bubbly blonde cheerleader, Juliet Starling, of the upcoming Suda51 trip, Lollipop Chainsaw. She's also a chainsaw-wielding zombie slayer with a severed head for a boyfriend. The game is not even out yet, and it's teaching gamers a valuable lesson about judging an adorable book by its cover. Pretty packages can hide some particularly twisted imagery and gameplay. In the spirit of Lollipop Chainsaw, we've got five games that hide bloodshed, mayhem, or general depression and darkness behind a saccharine exterior – a bane to parents everywhere who don't know how to read ESRB ratings.

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Marketing gurus like to assume two things: that all gamers are heterosexual men, and that said heterosexual men will always be moved to purchase their products based on the chance that the scantily-clad woman pictured in their ads or commercials might proposition them. It's a sad truth of the advertising industry, at least when it comes to video games, and we know all about it. Just look at the latest SoulCalibur ad that found itself banned in the UK.

On the road to becoming a more inclusive art form, gaming has made great strides in terms of attempting to make appealing ads for members of both sexes and those of all sexual orientations, but those marketing geniuses haven't exactly given up on the notion just yet because sex will always sell. With that in mind, we've chosen five of the sexiest ad campaigns that, while were a little more than pandering, imbedded themselves into our brains like the Yeerk into an unsuspecting human. (Animorphs reference.) You might want to browse this list with the door closed.

Catherine

Catherine suffered from a case of mistaken identity when it came to pushing units, but you had to give it credit for trying – at least with the Japanese ads. Several foldout ads as seen in Japanese print media saw the titular vixen leaning back in cream lingerie, legs spread while the Catherine logo blocked out the supposed naughty bits. Another depicted Catherine slurping the cheese off of a particularly stringy piece of pepperoni pizza. Suggestive and delicious! Most ads didn't see fit to hype up the practical Katherine, and instead chose to market the more sexually liberated Catherine to anyone seeking out the brand new Atlus-published game. Most of this artwork could only be seen online via scans and in art books, with the American ad campaign relying more on the “secret” of Catherine's localization. Was it or wasn't to our shores, that was a recurring theme within the game media. These ads were certainly titillating enough to convince gamers otherwise uninterested in puzzlers to give it a try.

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The Resident Evil series is universally loved for its healthy mix of survival horror, puzzle-solving, and copious amounts of action to get your blood pumping. It's also responsible for more than a few instances of shocking, heart-stopping moments that linger long after you turn off the game...and creep right into your nightmares, for that matter. In honor of Resident Evil 6's official announcement last week, we've rounded up five of the most thrilling Resident Evil moments, guaranteed to keep you awake at night. Whether it's the first time you encountered a Licker or your first meeting with Nemesis, your skin's about to start crawling. Let's take you back to those very instances that stopped you in your tracks, shall we?

Need More Kibble

Don't you dare laugh. You know you jumped straight out of your chair during your first RE playthrough after some particularly menacing demonic dogs burst through that infamous window, glass shattering and flying everywhere, your heart jumping up in your throat. It was a cheap jump scare, thinking back now, but one of the most well-placed and easiest to spring on the player. When you remember your first Resident Evil, you know this is the first thing you think of – at least in the beginning, right? It may be an overused tactic in films and video games these days, but back then it was as effective as reaching out and grabbing you by the throat. Hey, for the right person, it still is. Excuse me while I put my mother on the game...

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Monopoly, Trouble, Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land...what's your poison? These were some of my favorite board games growing up, and for many of them, an electronic counterpart has risen to take the place of dragging out a raggedy old game box and all the accompanying pieces and finding someone willing to sit at the table with you for an hour or so of play. Luckily the video game industry understands my pain has released several electronic alternatives to the mainstays of youth. Board games you can actually play on a console that incorporate some of your favorite characters and concepts. And because of their whimsical and entertaining nature, they're usually a lot more fun than the third hour of Monopoly where Uncle Joe's getting ready to flip the board in the floor because he just landed on your Boardwalk and hotels. So in honor of the impending holiday get-togethers that are about to descend upon us, we've got the best video game board games ever. Play them, share them, but don't throw a tantrum when you come in last place.

Board Game Top Shop

This hidden PlayStation gem from A-1 Games is a colorful outing with plenty of mall space and department stores to purchase in lieu of properties and hotels to place on them. Stores like “Aesthetics Julia” (yes, Engrish runs rampant here) or “KISS”, typical mall fare, await. As you advance a designated amount of spaces as assigned via the random number given to you at the beginning of your turn, you’ll be given the opportunity to buy properties, upgrade, and pay other players for “shopping” at their store. A rousing soundtrack sometimes conjures remnants of George Clinton’s “We Want the Funk” – you know that one, right? So that’s definitely one legit reason to check it out. This forgotten classic is a rewarding multiplayer endeavor that you’d do well to see out from any eBay seller you can or your local game shop that still sells PlayStation games.

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Who says platformers are a dying genre? This year saw the rise of several epic installments to the library of platforming greats – some new face, some familiar, but all of them every bit of fun, like a great game should be. Below we've got a sampling of what we think are five of the year's best. Whether you’re simply curling up with a cozy old franchise or taking a chance on a newcomer, you can’t go wrong with these fantastic platformers of 2011.

Jetpack Joyride

There have been so many addictive mobile titles released this year, it’s hard to choose only one to represent them all (like Lord of the Rings of the mobile game world). But if hard-pressed to make a decision, we gravitated toward Jetpack Joyride, which isn’t a traditional platformer per se, but a delicious morsel of blue-sized fun perfect for that long commute to work. Your only real concern is keeping protagonist Barry Steakfries from harm as he hurtles through a seemingly neverending laboratory avoiding laser deathtraps and other malevolent speedbumps. This is all accomplished via touching and holding a spot on the screen to propel Barry upward or letting him fall to the ground, avoiding the hazards that would otherwise befall him. It’s insanely fun and the coins collected along the way work to make this 99 cent gem as rewarding as any triple-A title. It's a testament to the fact that spectacular graphics and explosions don't mean a thing if you don't have a solid premise, and Joyride has it.

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