Force Feedback - Star Wars Games Analyzed

Thanks to TotalGames.net for their article discussing the history of Star Wars-based videogames, in which they air the fan-voiced complaint that "LucasArts used to be a seal of quality on a game, but it's become totally devalued by so many third-rate titles." However, the article notes the upsurge in buzz over expansive titles like Knights Of The Old Republic, commenting: "Rather than divide their fanbase into original trilogy and prequel fans, LucasArts seem to want to bring them together", before suggesting some unlikely license uses along the lines of Super Bombad Racing: "Jedi Set Radio and Dance Dance Rebellion, anyone? Maybe Grand Theft Jawa?"

Comments

I remember lucasfilm games

[SmallFurryCreature]

Battle of britain and Secret weapons of the luftwaffe were solid flight sims coming with thick clear manuals that even gave several run downs on the war the games were set in. Good solid manuals that told you everthing thing you need to know and a lot more.

Their adventures based on the excellent scumm engine were topnotch. X-wing was amazing.

Then something happened. I don't know what but I will give you the clues. Maybe you can figure it out.

• Afterlife. If you never seen it be thankfull.
• X-wing vs Tie-fighter. I am not 100% sure but around this time a logo started to spring up when you loaded the game. It was amazing bright and cheerfull. It also was glaringly out of place. What is it with all these fucking logos? Why did they outsource the development or something? I buy a lucasarts game. Not just something rebadged.

  Missles in later x-wing games. X-wing is a dogfighter. Laser against laser with the odd protontorpedo against heavy targets. Later on in the game however you couldn't start a run on a capital ship without dodging endless missles. What joy.

  Minefield in x-wing games. Clear 1 gazillion tiny mines. Whee. Are you having fun yet?

  Monkey Island 4 control system. (it may have been grim fandango that did it first don't know) UGH. One of the bad points of click and play adventures has always been pixel hunting. Now you had to pixel hunt by moving an other pixel across the screen with cursor keys. Yikes. Whoever made this one is an enemy greater then Gates and McBride put together.

• Manuals. Anyone notice manuals and general goodies like keycards have becoming rarer and rarer these days? From the thick binders (handy for putting the manual open on a certain page) to the well the sheets of copy paper you get now. Yet the price of games has gone up, but the media price, floppies vs cd's has come down. Rip off?
• First episode. Ugh, what did they do to star wars. All the games based upon it have been total dogshit.
• Consoles. Lucasarts made it big on the PC. It has made good money from a loyal fanbase. So what does it do to reward us and continue the good relations? Develop console only games. Grrr.
• Crap buggy games like rebellion and what was that RTS called again? Ewh.

Mmmm, I just don't know what happened at lucasarts. Did someone quit? they were once the greats. Then again there was time when sierra was know for quality as well. Oh well. I guess that certain things just pass away. Spam free email. Usefull usenet. Perhaps it is like dementia in humans. Once great minds doomed to become like drooling 2yr olds.

Let us remember the Lucasarts we once knew and loved. And hope that this demented old driveling shell of a company passes away peacefully in its sleep.

Re:I remember lucasfilm games

[ScorpiusFan]

I agree there was a time period where the quality of Lucasarts games declined, which seemed to happen around the time XWing vs Tie Fighter was released.

I was amazed by the quality of older titles like Strike Fleet (modern-day naval simulator), and Tie Fighter, and Dark Forces.

But once they started to contract out the work to other companies the quality was very erratic.

It was if key personnel were no longer working on the games, and instead just licensing out the Star Wars content to other companies, hoping they could build good products.

And thanks to the rising sales of home computers a few years ago, I guess Lucasarts was able to make money from these mediocre titles, which gave them no reason to make quality a high priority.

What was the last game that Lucasarts made inhouse? Are the older employees even there anymore?

The begining of the decline

[stryck9]

This article neglects the adventure games that LucasArts published which were also really high quality. The decline of LucasArts on the PC side started with the release of the game: The Dig, but the straw that broke the camels back was: Rebelion. I don't know how they were able to release that game but you could look at it and wonder what had gone wrong at LEC. For a long-time LEC produced all of their games in house (with the exception of the Xwing games made by Totally Games, Larry Holland's shop). At some point they decided they didn't want to foot dev. bills, and farmed out most of it to companies like Factor 5, and Raven which results in mostly crap. Of the games that are produced in house you get garbage like Indiana Jones, and the Infernal Machine made by sacred cows at LEC like Hal Barwood (also EP on RTX Red Rock).
Like Microprose, for a while you could buy anything from LucasArts and it was going to be a good game, sadly that is no longer the case.