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KOTOR Will Rise Again

Posted by Zonk on Wed Nov 29, 2006 05:03 PM
from the sith-like-even dept.
Role Playing (Games) Media Movies Star Wars Prequels
Via Joystiq, an article on the Next Generation site profiling the future of LucasArts. Aside from the corporate vision on the whole, LucasArts VP of global sales and marketing Nancy MacIntyre discusses the much-drooled over 'Star Wars 07' (you may have already seen the tech demo online). She also goes on record as saying that successful franchises like BattleFront and KOTOR will return on next-gen systems. "We typically work on these games about eighteen months out. We really treat these games like they are a theatrical release from the perspective of mapping everything out. We know that we need to be out there talking early and often and so you will see us handling the basic things like [fan] websites, but we'll also do web-docs and developer diaries and behind the scenes and all the kinds of information that these core fans really want to know."
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[+] Square Enix and LucasArts Talk Next-Gen Positioning 40 comments
A number of companies have released some small details about their plans for next generation gaming. This week, Gamespot has new information from Square Enix and Lucasarts about their upcoming plans. Square, it's reported, sees the need for dramatic change in the industry; a physical game device or something for the DS might be in the offing. Lucasarts, on the other hand, has partnered with MechAssault developer Day 1 studios for an unnamed title with signature multiplayer elements and episodic content. From that article: "However, while the Day 1/LucasArts mystery project will feature downloadable content, Thorley would not say if it would adopt an episodic model a la Half-Life 2: Episode One and its two models. 'With the way [console certification works] the challenge is the economics of [episodic content],' he said. 'While we're not prepared to say whether we'll have episodic content for this new title, under certain circumstances it makes a lot of sense.'"
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  • Wii (Score:4, Interesting)

    by From A Far Away Land (930780) on Wednesday November 29 2006, @05:07PM (#17040708) Homepage Journal
    How long until the Wii has lightsabre modifications [if it doesn't already]? I don't really keep my finger to the pulse of gaming, but it seems like a natural for the controls you can wave around.
    • Seems like a natural fit. I loved playing Jedi Knight with my flightstick, a Wii-mote making lightsabre noises in my hand might be enough to make me actually play another Star Wars game.
      • It is for exactly that reason that I would be really careful about buying the first star wars game to come out. There is a good change the first one will be that gimmick and nothing else. I don't want to play a game that is entirely swinging a lightsaber and nothing else. The idea certainly holds great potential for a part of a well thought out and interesting game, but there could be enough profit in just the gimmick to not be a motivation for a real game the first time.

        I'll hold out for a few weeks aft
    • It doesn't yet, but LucasArts has expressed an interest in doing something along these lines. It's odd because several people I've described the Wii to have specifically mentioned lightsabers.
      • It's odd because several people I've described the Wii to have specifically mentioned lightsabers.

        hehe, it's the first thing my older brother said (who was a kid when Star Wars burned it's story into his head). With the remote speaker, I can see the 'wooh wooh' of the lightsaber to be a great fit... now if they could just make the batteries last longer! =)

        Cheers,
        Fozzy

    • One problem, though, is that there's no force-feedback. Sword-swinging action might be good for fighting games or something like Morrowind / Oblivion in that you always follow through completely before starting your next attack. For light-sabre type stuff that would sorta suck because if your attack was blocked in the game but you followed through IRL, the resulting movements of your light-sabre would be unpredictably wild, but if you paid attention to make sure you didn't let your arm get out of sync wit
      • Play WiiSports, specifically the baseball game. Get up to bat, tell Player2 not to pitch. Wave the baseball bat around at the plate and observe the 1:1 motion. Imagine this is your sword/lightsaber/etc. It works pretty well.

        I understand what you are saying about the "follow through" disconnect but I don't think it's as big of an issue as I thought before I saw WiiSports. In baseball, the bat hits the ball, slows a bit and the disconnect really isn't there because the time passed on impact is super shor
        • baseball is not the same as a sword block like you are saying, by that I mean blocks in a KOTOR type game would be often and rapid compared to the one-shot nature of a baseball hit.

          Push a Hot Wheels car around on your desk. Now go out and play in traffic and get pushed around by a car going 60 mph.

          The former can be simulated with a force feedback mouse. The latter cannot.

          Perhaps that's not the sort of empirical experiment you would be happy with. Try this:

          Get a baseball, a baseball bat and a T-ball tee. Wha
          • I'm not talking about force feedback at all. Is this flamebait, wtf is going on here. The OP was talking about the disconnect between the Wiimote and the sword getting blocked. See my mouse+edge of the screen bits.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by jackbird (721605)
        Picture this (stolen from a previous, inspiring, slashdot comment):

        When your lightsaber collides with your opponents', the onscreen avatar's lightsaber stops, while a ghosted version reflecting the controller position is displayed. What happens next is determined by the spatial relationship between the ghosted lightsaber and the real one, by rules TBD in playtesting.

      • I didn't follow your train of thought 100%, but like the poster above me stated, Wii Sports and it's Basebase (bat) work really well for how close the bat mimics the remote.

        As for your concerns of blocking and such, it's simple, just design the game mechanics to take this into effect. For example, if you're going to block with your lightsaber, then you hold the A+B buttons down, which will put the lightsaber into the 'block' position. As for the animation regarding this, they can chose to 'instantly' mo

      • If I were to guess, I'd say that they'd simply use force feedback to indicate when your lightsaber was being blocked/was blocking. Give the player a bit of 'grace' for over-swing and force them to learn some control of their movements. Now admittedly, I've never been involved in a real sword fight, but in swinging wooden practice swords around with my friends, we quickly learned that the two wooden swords will bounce off each other when someone blocked a very strong swing. There was more than one incident w
      • I can't recall the name of it, but there's an arcade game at my local Dave & Buster's which gives you a small foam replica of a samurai sword that you wave around inside a sensor area. On screen, you see the game sword moving in the same way. In the game you play a samurai who has to fight feudal-era demons and zombies - essentially Onimusha with a better controller, or Samurai Jack vs. House Of The Dead.

        Anyways, the only control you have is how you swing or hold the sword. And yes, the monsters can
    • My god, that would be awesome. Left hand motions execute force powers, right hand swings the saber. Or dual sabers.
    • That video clips has Wii written all over it. If it can pull of Metroid Prime 3, that tech demo should be possible on a Wii.

  • Finish the job, please... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Randolpho (628485) on Wednesday November 29 2006, @05:09PM (#17040756) Homepage Journal
    KOTOR was amazing. KOTOR2 was..... unsatisfying. It had a lot of potential, but was not finished. Please, Lucasarts, finish the job. Follow the KOTOR paradigm, not the KOTOR2 paradigm.
    • Someone needs to convince Bioware to make their own sequels.

      • Re:Finish the job, please... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Enderandrew (866215) <enderandrew@gmail . c om> on Wednesday November 29 2006, @05:34PM (#17041118) Homepage Journal
        No, someone needs to convince LucasArts not to ship a game 3 months early and then completely cut off the ending.

        KOTOR:2 was superior to KOTOR:1 in all regards, save for the fact that it was unfinished.

        Bioware made Baldur's Gate, and then the Obsidian crew (when they were Black Isle) made a FAR SUPERIOR game using the same engine called Planescape: Torment.

        Their NWN:2 shines head and shoulders over NWN. Obsidian has arguably the most talented staff around.

        They need a publisher who will support them. Obsidian didn't have that when they did KOTOR:2.
        • Seconded. Black Isle/Obsidian are a damn fine developer. PS:T and Icewind Dale are every bit as good as the Bioware games made using the same engine, which is saying something.

          Plus, if you look at the stuff that was cut from KOTOR 2 at the last minute, you begin to see the potential it had. I think it would have been head and shoulders above the first game, had they been given the time to get it right. Of course, "developer makes good game, publisher forces early release (usually for Christmas)" is an o
          • They tweaked the rules to make all the attributes more important, added combat/lightsaber styles, more Force powers, Prestige Classes, etc. So from a pure mechanics standpoint they really improved the game.

            They added Influence, and allowed you to alter the members of your party. My wife played Dark Side, and I watched her pry Atton's secrets from him, and use them to twist him to the Dark Side. It was a great moment. Truly that was an improvement over the original.

            All of the characters had depth, includ
            • Prestige Classes were a nice touch, as were the new force powers...they needed work though (Restriction of powers at some levels to certain classes, or restriction by dark/light not just a penalty point system).

              The lightsaber forms were next to useless though. I have now done two run throughs of the game, lightside I used the forms once and then never bothered again. Second time through as darkside I never bothered using them.

              I think the issue with KOTOR 2 is that it added too much in one go. The new wor
        • No matter what they will do, Obsidian's reputation is now tainted by the debacle that is KOTOR 2. The good games released previously was under the name of Black Isle not Obsidian. Hence people who do not keep up with the industry will not know what Obsidian is capable of given a good publisher. In any event, Locust Arts owns the rights to the SW franchise and will more than likely be interfering in KOTOR 3 just like they did with KOTOR 2. I will not waste my money like that again.
    • .. such as a branching plot where Kreia could be saved, the factory making HK47 clones and more. There's apparently a project in the offing to restore some stuff which can be found in the game's files. But I doubt it'll be able to raise KOTOR 2 to the point where it's actually a worthy sequel to KOTOR.

  • Cue Kenobi Voice (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 29 2006, @05:21PM (#17040942)
    "Which reminds me...I have something for you..."

    *unzip*

    Your father wanted you to have THIS when you were old enough...
    • > "Which reminds me...I have something for you..."
      > *unzip*
      > Your father wanted you to have THIS when you were old enough...

      I think we've solved a mystery here.

      In the original, as we all know, Han shoots first, and all Leia has to say to Han (5 minutes after kissing her brother "for luck") is "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!"

      A couple of re-imaginings later, when Han doesn't shoot first, and Leia's all ga-ga over him, and won't have anything to do with her brother.

      I'

    • The way your dad looked at it, this LIGHT SABER was your birthright. He'd be damned if any of the SITH were gonna get their greasy GREY hands on his boy's birthright. So he hid it in the one place he knew he could hide something: TATTOINE. Five long years, he wore this watch ON TATTOINE. Then when he died of dysentery, he gave me the LIGHT SABER. I hid this uncomfortable piece of metal ON TATTOINE for two years. Then, after seven years, I was sent home to my family. And now, little man, I give the LIGHT SAB
  • If they make number three, number ten won't be that far off.
    • If they make number three, number ten won't be that far off.

      I believe George Lucas already covered this with "Attack of the Clones"
  • This just screams for a special wiimote that looks, feels, and sounds like a lightsaber. Of course, it'll be a $100 add-on, but how bad-ass would it be to see your on-screen character swinging around a lightsaber, matching every one of your real movements. Of course, you'd still be able to play with the regular controls, but having a functional lightsaber remote as a limited-edition add on would probably generate a lot of interest. Of course, methinks a lot of people in the target demographic would get w

    • how bad-ass would it be to see your on-screen character swinging around a lightsaber, matching every one of your real movements.


      Sorry, but LucasArts has to protect the integrity of their intellectual property, and it simply would not do for their Jedi characters to show all the lightsaber prowess of the Star Wars Kid.
    • I have to echo this, imagine what you could do in a Star Wars game on the Wii. You could mimic the force powers for really intuitive gameplay. A thrust would send a force push, a yank would pull them forward, a 45 degree forward thrust would choke someone, a double thrust could shoot lightning, a completely verticle thrust could send people flying up, a swirling motion could confuse them, etc and then of course the light sabre. Special attachment, controller, etc not withstanding, even using the wii mote it

  • Pictured: Star Wars Empires at War (Score:4, Funny)

    by StikyPad (445176) on Wednesday November 29 2006, @05:25PM (#17040998) Homepage
    Holy crap, the stormtroopers have no feet! He cut off their feet! What kind of sick bastard would do something like that? That's just despicable. I can't believe they would even put something like that in a game.
  • This is the same person that said there was "too much reading" in Star Wars Galaxies which is why they had to rip the game apart and target the ADD crowd. I would go on another SWG rant, but it's been said. Just a reminder that she's the PR person that helped kill the game.
  • Maybe they'll actually finish the next one.
    Probably too much to hope for...

  • Love and hate the KOTOR games. The storyline really sucks me in. (maybe I'm prone to it, hence the nickname) However, there are a couple major problems that need to be addressed.

    BUGS!!!

    Do not release another bug filled KOTOR game, please! KOTOR 2 had so much going for it until you hit bugs that completely ruin the game.

    The second complaint is that as soon as you become a Jedi with all the cool moves and gear, the game is done. I don't mind the progression, but give the player more time to be a Jedi.

  • This can be a good thing if they finish it, and bring HK47 back again, i loved KOTOR and liked KOTOR 2, as far as i see, finishing it up properly and giving us a bit more of the KOTOR story should at least keep hopeless addicts like me quiet for a while.
    • Personally, I like this idea. I think that bringing back both the droids would be the smart thing to do since the "Star Wars" saga is supposed to be from the droids' point of view anyway. Not having HK-47 and T3-M4 would be dumb.
  • if it's half-finished like KOTOR2 was.

    Would it be too much to ask for Obsidian to actually go and fix the bugs/add the missing content as a game update/patch? That would satisfy me..

    As it is, maybe I'll pick up KOTOR3 when it's in the bargain bin. But I won't be going out on release day to pick it up like I did with KOTOR2.

    • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Well, when the publisher won't pay for you to finish the game -- much less fix the bugs -- why should you the developer pay out of pocket? You get a lot of ill will going beneath the surface between you and the publisher after you've been screwed over. I also think the NWN2 / Atari bullshit was pretty bad too. Developers shouldn't have to fight tooth and nail just to do their job. How would you like it if I told you to add a feature, but then forced you legally not to be able to work on said feature unt
  • My wife loves the Knights of the Old Republic games (despite not being a Star Wars fan), so it'd be great to see them continue. The depth of plot and attention to detail is amazing on the Xbox, so I'll be expecting at least as much from the next gen consoles. :)
  • From memory, the two KotOR games used a heavily modified Neverwinter Nights engine. If they do a new one, I really, really hope they can use a new engine. Not because the graphics began to look a bit dated, but because of the ludicrously high loading times. Compare them against most PS2 RPGs and the loading times are an order of magnitude slower in KotOR, and that's without taking into account the auto-save time. It was really frustrating when you'd need to walk through two or three areas to get somewhere,
  • KOTOR == Knights of the Old Republic We shouldn't have to google this. Put it in the summary.

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