Indiana Jones leads spent "countless hours" watching the two movies The Great Circle is the "closest to": Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is "closest to" Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade.

That's according to game director Jerk Gustafsson, speaking to Xbox Wire recently following the new trailer for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle as part of the Xbox Games Showcase. "We spent countless hours just re-watching the films – especially the two movies that are closest to the game, which are Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Last Crusade," Gustafsson said.

The MachineGames director also spoke about the "invaluable" partnership the studio has had with Lucasfilm Games over the course of making The Great Circle, hailing it as a "cave of knowledge" about Indy himself. Production director John Jennings added that it's been "great" having to access to "people who worked with the Indiana Jones property for decades."

"Having their input – I mean, some of these people know everything that has ever been written about Indy – and having them to bounce ideas off, and get some of their own input has been hugely, hugely invaluable," Jennings continued. "We managed to get access into some of the Lucasfilm archives as well, which for Indy fans has been an absolute dream come true, to get access to some of these things that perhaps not so many people have seen."

I think I can guess why The Great Circle is "closest to" Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade: it's from an era where Harrison Ford was still young. We're not exactly playing as an 80-year-old iteration of Indy in the new game, so that puts The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Dial of Destiny firmly out of consideration. This is probably good news for anyone who wasn't too fond of The Temple of Doom.

The Great Circle is also deliberately set between Raiders and The Last Crusade, and it's worth mentioning that, for anyone not intimately familiar with the Indy movies, The Temple of Doom is set years prior to Raiders, which explains why MachineGames has omitted it from mention. 

Take a look at our upcoming Bethesda games guide for an overview of all the new titles the umbrella company is beavering away on.