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Star Wars - The Force Unleashed
Posted by
Zonk
on Tue Feb 13, '07 09:17 AM
from the khhhhhhh-shhhhhhhh-khhhhhh-shhhhhhh dept.
from the khhhhhhh-shhhhhhhh-khhhhhh-shhhhhhh dept.
CVG has the news from the front cover of Game Informer's March edition: the next-gen Star Wars title LucasArts has been working on is called Force Unleashed. Set in the relatively unexplored time period between Episodes III and IV, you'll be taking on the role of a dark side agent assisting Darth Vader to hunt down the remainder of the Jedi. The game will use the much-touted Eurphoria physics engine LucasArts has been working on, and will feature a number of elaborate force-using effects. Highlights from the game may include (spoilers ... feel free to look away ...) a fight with Shaak-Ti in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and assisting Vader in an attempt on the Emperor's life. There's even talk of allowing you to play out 'alternate paths', in which the dark side ultimately wins the Galactic Civil War. No word on a release date, but the game will come primarily to 360 and PC. PSP, PS2, and DS ports are being farmed out to another developer.
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Wow...?
(Score:2)(http://www.numbski.net/ | Last Journal: Thursday May 26, @10:44PM)
Didn't have much to say about it, was interested to see what everyone else had to say. Apparently nothing.
Great another
(Score:2)No Wii?
(Score:5, Insightful)On the plus side, it is refreshing to be the bad guys. Just let us Wii owners (there are alot of us, possibly more than you thought would be)
Re:No Force Feedback OH PALEEEZE
(Score:5, Insightful)(Last Journal: Tuesday February 20, @08:36AM)
Just think about what happens when you swing your lightsaber, in this theoretical game, at your opponent and he parries. On the screen, he catches your blade with his and, to all intents and purposes, it stops moving. In the living room, meanwhile, there is no such physical impediment for you to encounter. Your momentum carries through your swing, even if the Wii-mote gives you a buzz of force-feedback. The result is that you are now positioned completely differently to your on-screen avatar. Even if the game has some code to tell it what to do when this happens (which would be difficult - probably impossible - to implement to everybody's satisfaction), the illusion of being in an actual lightsaber duel is lost. With eps 4-6 style "slow" duels, this is bad enough. The moment you try to simulate an eps 1-3 style fast-moving duel this way, the whole thing becomes a soggy mess.
OOhh! oohhh!
(Score:2, Funny)(http://www.gokugone.com/)
Well now...
(Score:2, Interesting)I remember wishing, back in the day when I used to watch cartoons like GI Joe, Transformers, and Thundercats - I believe this was last Thursday, that the bad guys would win one - if only to mix things up a bit.
I like being given a choice to be good or evil, a la the Knights of the Old Republic series, but sometimes it's just so much more fun to be straight up evil. The idea alone has me wanting to see/hear more - if the game play lives up to the theory, I may even buy this 350,001st Star Wars title.
That said, I do agree that seeing some of the older lines brought back to life would be wonderful. Guybrush Threepwood for Emperor.
I've had trouble...
(Score:2)(http://www.enderandrew.com/)
I'm shocked that Lucas of all people would allow a game that caters to the Dark Side fan-base so much.
I'm light-side for life, but my wife's panties will no doubt get wet when she sees this.
Re:I've had trouble...
(Score:4, Funny)(http://www.hyperlogos.org/ | Last Journal: Thursday February 22, @05:39PM)
If any of us had any doubts about your ability to attract women before this comment, we have none now.
360 and PS3, not PC
(Score:3, Insightful)(http://www.xboxtopic.com/)
full article text
(Score:1, Informative)The first details of LucasArts' PS3 and Xbox 360 Star Wars project have finally emerged, from the latest issue of US mag Game Informer.
It's called Star Wars: Force Unleashed and takes place between Episode III and Episode IV, when new Sith on the block Darth Vader is out to wipe the galaxy clean of runaway Jedi.
As Vader's apprentice, you're on a secret mission to dive head-first into the forbidden Dark Side of the force, take out the emperor and rule the galaxy as master and apprentice. Awww.
Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are being developed in-house at Lucasarts, while PS2, PSP and DS duties have been outsourced to another, unnamed developer.
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George Lucas reportedly has a lot of input in the project, and even helped design some of the characters.
Force Unleashed uses LucasArts' much-touted Eurphoria engine, which calculates environmental damage such as smashing crates in real-time. One given example of the tech is how a tree will either break in two or splinter realistically depending on how you hit it. Likewise, steel will dent appropriately when damaged your fancy Force powers.
And speaking of Force powers, many of the world-bending tricks from the E3 tech demo are present in Force Unleashed, including the "cannon ball"-like force push, with controls presented in a similar vein to the excellent Psi-Ops.
One scene reportedly has you battling Jedi Knight Shaak Ti in the Jedi Temple, after the galaxy-wide order to exterminate of the Jedi. There's also the suggestion of being able to control your own pack of Rancors, the gigantic beasties that Jabba the Hutt likes to keep under his gaff.
But we all know how Star Wars ends so it's going to be a very predictable cock-up for Vadar's Palpatine-trouncing plans, right? LucasArts promises to shake up the Star Wars lore with alternate endings in Unleashed, where the bad guys really can win.
We'll bring you more details - and hopefully media - as it arrives. Where's the Wii version though? Perfect for the Wii Remote...
Vader attacks Palpatine?
(Score:3, Interesting)(http://matoushin.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday May 24, @09:28AM)
Well... not that anything else that happened in 1-3 was in character...
Re:Vader attacks Palpatine?
(Score:4, Insightful)Re:Vader attacks Palpatine?
(Score:4, Interesting)(Last Journal: Monday October 02, @05:18AM)
Regardless, this isn't the first time they've tried this. Play through the Episode III videogame, and check out the alternate ending if you play as Annakin. (Spoiler: Annakin does not become robo-Vader (since he wins the fight with Obi-Wan), returns to his master Palpatine and kills him easily.) Indeed, if Obi-Wan hadn't burned away most of Annie's body, he'd be much more terrifying as Vader -- which does provide an explanation for how much worse a fighter Vader is in Episodes IV-VI.
SWG
(Score:2)From TFA: There's also the suggestion of being able to control your own pack of Rancors, the gigantic beasties that Jabba the Hutt likes to keep under his gaff.
Take heart, fellow Creature Handlers!
Lucasarts...Please get it right...
(Score:1)(http://slashdot.org/)
Not that THAT has ever happened before on a Star Wars game. On a Nintendo platform. Or any other platform.
Finally!
(Score:3, Funny)X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter
(Score:2, Interesting)(http://slashdot.org/)
Euphoria-physics-engine
(Score:4, Informative)(http://www.mrcopilot.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday August 02, @10:10AM)
http://www.videosift.com/video/Euphoria-physics-en gine-GC-2006-demo [videosift.com]
Looking Good.
Still waiting for Wii-enabled light saber duels
(Score:1)(http://www.users.qwest.net/~waffleck-asch/ | Last Journal: Monday February 26, @08:26PM)
No, the cat does not "got my tongue."
(Score:1)(Last Journal: Friday January 05, @12:57PM)
And please make the light sabers power-uppable with crystals and whatnot like KoToR. That, too, is sweet.
Whatever happened to playing the Good Guy?
(Score:1)Watch me be right!
(Score:1)Official website
(Score:1)They have some good looking concept art there, but I'd like to see in-game stills.
Also, this looks interesting:
Digital Molecular Matter (DMM) by Pixelux Entertainment
What is DMM? DMM -- exclusive to LucasArts for any game releases through September 2008 -- brings an unprecedented level of realism to the new generation of consoles by making completely interactive environments that react as they would in real life. From crumbling walls to shattering glass and even swaying organic plant life, in-game objects have material properties that behave realistically all in real time and without using a single frame of animation.
Re:What?
(Score:2)(http://matoushin.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday May 24, @09:28AM)
Secondly, what's the point in claiming the Wii might not have the power to cope with it when you follow it up with mention of the PS2 port?
Lastly, most gamers I've seen who are concerned about lightsaber dueling on the Wii are not concerned as much with the accuracy as they are with the issues of resistance. Specifically, there is none. If your lightsaber collides with another, you're still swinging even though the on screen character is now locked saber against saber.
It's entirely possible to make arguments against the Wii, which seems to be your MO. However, if you're going to do so there are far better arguments than those you're using.
Re:A Linux native version?
(Score:3, Insightful)(Last Journal: Monday October 02, @05:18AM)
I mean, I do wish they did a native Linux verison. In fact, with most of the Jedi games (using the Quake 3 engine), it would've been a simple recompile. Then again, the Quake3 engine does REALLY well under Wine (better than native Windows), so I guess it's not all bad...
And by the way, the game+Linux DVD has been tried before, but they couldn't market the concept to anyone. One big problem with that is that on a console, you have the native console kernel/BIOS available for drivers, and even if you roll your own, the hardware is all identical. However, on a desktop, a bootable game makes no sense, because it's a hassle to reboot, and you can't then do driver updates. Plus, it makes patching and savegames kind of difficult, unless you assume one giant NTFS partition on the hard drive, which means the Linux bootable DVD wouldn't play nice with actual Linux installations...
It does mean you're immune to spyware, I suppose. But, for many Windows users, it's better to clean out the spyware and have all your games run faster than have to reboot for one of them in order to have just the one run faster.
Re:Enough Already!
(Score:1)Re:Enough Already!
(Score:2)