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LucasArts Officially Announces KOTOR II

Posted by simoniker on from the sith-down-next-to-me dept.

Ares Halcyon writes "Today LucasArts officially announced Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, the next chapter for 2003's award-winning Xbox/PC RPG. Set in the unique timeframe of the Old Republic, 4,000 years before Star Wars Episode I, KOTOR II: The Sith Lords features an all-new more perilous storyline, new character, classes, locations and force powers. As previously covered on Slashdot Games, the title is published by LucasArts and developed by Obsidian Entertainment, Inc. and is planned to be released for the Xbox and PC in February 2005." There's also a first preview of the sequel over at GameSpot, noting gleefully: "The array of Jedi powers available to you will be broader--you'll now have more than 30 which will include force confusion and force sight."

51 comments

  1. Yeesh. by mikedaisey · · Score: 4, Funny

    From the GameSpot preview:

    "Looking back, the game's impact is probably close to the gaming equivalent of the first time one of our prehistoric ancestors discovered the benefits of fire. While this may sound like hyperbole, KOTOR can be seen as an impressive achievement on two levels."

    That doesn't sound like hyperbole--it *is* hyperbole, and a ridiculous one at that. Does GameSpot pay so little that it can't find someone who writes better than that?

    1. Re:Yeesh. by TrueBuckeye · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Especially when you look at the fact that it is just a Neverwinter Nights Star Wars Mod. I am not faulting it, it is an amazing game, but still let's not go overboard on the "great invention" thing. You can clearly see its roots in NWN and then back to the Baldur's Gate series.

      --
      Was that night on the marge of Lake LaBarge I cremated Sam McGee...
    2. Re:Yeesh. by moonbender · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Um, where exactly are those NWN and BG roots you speak of, apart from the fact that all these games use the same basic ruleset and are (vaguely) in the same genre? KOTOR most certainly is nothing even remotely like a NWN Star Wars mod.

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      Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
    3. Re:Yeesh. by TrueBuckeye · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I disagree. The graphic engine was updated from the old tileset method, but the game engine is directly ported. It uses the exact same underlying d20 ruleset with feats, spells, skills, ability scores, armor class, and hitpoints. You can still have up to 2 henchmen, but in KOTOR you do have direct control over them. Even the seemingly-realtime-but-actually-turnbased-with-pau se combat engine is the same. This isn't meant to be an insult of KOTOR, just an observation that it isn't as revolutionary as some say. Perhaps calling it a mod is a bit of an exaggeration since modders wouldn't rebuild the graphics engine, but it certainly borrows far more from NWN than not.

      --
      Was that night on the marge of Lake LaBarge I cremated Sam McGee...
    4. Re:Yeesh. by Xner · · Score: 1

      You can even open some of the game resources with the NWN GFF explorer. QED.

      --
      Pathman, Free (as in GPL) 3D Pac Man
    5. Re:Yeesh. by moonbender · · Score: 1

      You can open some of the resources of (the first Java app that comes to my mind:) Borland Together with any fucking ZIP program, therefore Borland Together is just a derivate of Winzip. QED. Jesus. I bet both use linked lists as an internal data structure, too - amazing!

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      Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
    6. Re:Yeesh. by Xner · · Score: 1

      I gather you have not looked at the the way the two products are installed on disk. There is absolutely no doubt that the KOTOR engine is an evolution of NWN's Aurora engine, with updated geometry and DX rendering.
      Besides, if you open the script resources, you'll see a striking similarity between the scripting done on KOTOR and nwnscript.

      So much for your winzip fallacy. Now you can invoke the name of your religion's saviour again and make some pityfully inadequate jab, or you can look at the bloody games.

      --
      Pathman, Free (as in GPL) 3D Pac Man
    7. Re:Yeesh. by moonbender · · Score: 1

      I've played through both. One is a classic AD&D role-playing game heavily focused on multiplayer gaming, set in the Forgotten Realms. The other is a strictly single-player action/adventure RPG. If KOTOR is a NWN mod, then nearly all FPS games are simply mods of Wolf3d, Doom (which could then actually be considered a Wolf3d mod), Quake and the original Unreal. If that's your definition of mod, so be it.

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    8. Re:Yeesh. by Xner · · Score: 1

      Damn man, don't you READ what I post? It's not a mod, but their engine shares close evolutionary relationship. If you look inside the game files (as opposed to playing) it's blindingly obvious. Take off your consumer hat for a second and think for yourself.
      Since we are talkign FPSs, it's not unlike the relationship shared by Unreal Tounement 2003 and Raven Shield. Are they the same game? Heavens, no. Do they share the same family of game engines? Hell, yes.

      Now please, before you reply, take a moment to see what I wrote, instead of what you think i did.

      --
      Pathman, Free (as in GPL) 3D Pac Man
    9. Re:Yeesh. by moonbender · · Score: 1

      My apologies, the original post said "look at the fact that it is just a Neverwinter Nights Star Wars Mod". I disagreed, he re-stated his claim, and you backed him up (or so it seemed to me).

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      Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
  2. Good but repetetive by DrDoombender · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Am I the only one who gets tired of hearing about jedi vs. Sith lords? Why don't they try Red vs. Blue for a change, geez.

    Also, once again. Its a jedi (or potential jedi) who is torn between light and dark and can go either way. Good idea, but its becoming cliche.

    Well in any case, I won't judge it till its near completion. I liked KOTOR, but I hope they improve your options for making choices. Also, I would like to see a higher capacity for a romantic relationship in the game (it was pretty lame in KOTOR). Finally, more choices in locations to visit/ more in depth areas to explore. I felt somewhat caged in KOTOR.

    I don't want to have to say, "this isn't the game your looking for" *waves hand* to people.

    1. Re:Good but repetetive by prockcore · · Score: 4, Funny

      Also, once again. Its a jedi (or potential jedi) who is torn between light and dark and can go either way. Good idea, but its becoming cliche.

      Becoming? It's been cliche since 1977.

    2. Re:Good but repetetive by ctr2sprt · · Score: 3, Interesting
      KOTOR is a great game when you take it as what it is: an adventure/RPG very much like the old Sierra Quest for Glory games. If you play it hoping to get a traditional RPG in the style of Baldur's Gate, you're of course going to be disappointed, because that's not what it's supposed to be like.

      Most scripted romances, whether in books, games, or movies, are pretty lame. It's really a function of the storyline. Most real-life romances don't just magically appear, they form from tons of little stuff that goes on all the time. But in a 2-hour movie you just don't have time to show enough of them for the romance to make sense. The very best movies show enough of those little things to suggest that others are going on offscreen, which can sometimes be enough to suspend your disbelief. But really, the only way to do it is to devote big parts of the plot to the romance, and it's tough to do that in the context of the greater story (saving the world, usually).

    3. Re:Good but repetetive by TrueBuckeye · · Score: 0

      Also, I would like to see a higher capacity for a romantic relationship in the game (it was pretty lame in KOTOR). How exactly do you have d20 sex?

      --
      Was that night on the marge of Lake LaBarge I cremated Sam McGee...
    4. Re:Good but repetetive by Matrix272 · · Score: 1

      How exactly do you have d20 sex?

      It's my turn! I roll the dice... only got a 4, guess that means no orgasm. Your turn!

      --
      "It's better to have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it." ~ Christian Slater, True Romance
    5. Re:Good but repetetive by DavidBrown · · Score: 1

      Also, once again. Its a jedi (or potential jedi) who is torn between light and dark and can go either way. Good idea, but its becoming cliche.

      Sure, it's cliche, but because of this, you actually get to play KOTOR, and presumably KOTOR II as an evil bastard, which is a refreshing option in games. Why play as the good guy all the time?

      --
      144l. ph34r my 133t l3g4l 5k1lz!
    6. Re:Good but repetetive by WormholeFiend · · Score: 3, Funny

      the only thing that would make it more cliche is the appearance of a member of the Mon Calamari race proclaiming "IT'S A TRAP!"

  3. KOTR and Jedi Knight should lead a SWG redesign by linzeal · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Lucasarts is brillant in some respects esp in the KOTR and JK franchises and should use that knowledge for SWG.

    I don't know about you but I'm an old school FPS from Wolf-3d onward and would like some skill to be involved in any gaming situation I involve myself in. If I wanted a game of chance I would go down to the Greyhound bus stop and pick up a transient hippy whore to sleep with. Star Wars Galaxies is something I enjoy on a rare occasion when I'm not neck deep in schoolwork but it lacks satisfaction when I kill something as it has a RPG combat system. Now that the lightspeed expansion is on preorder and it is rumored to have "real dogfighting" I wonder if there will be that sense of accomplishment I got from Tie Fighter when I destroyed an allied bomber squadron, sigh.

    --
    An Education is the Font of All Liberty
    1. Re:KOTR and Jedi Knight should lead a SWG redesign by RotJ · · Score: 1

      The funny thing is, LucasArts didn't develop KOTOR or any of the JK games beyond Dark Forces II:Jedi Knight. If you look at the list of games LucasArts has developed in-house, you'll notice that there hasn't been any great games coming out of them for a while. Mostly, cashcow prequel tie-ins.

  4. A lesser power by Call+Me+Black+Cloud · · Score: 1, Funny

    The array of Jedi powers available to you will be broader--you'll now have more than 30 which will include force confusion and force sight

    There's also Force Kin. Not used too often, it reverses the effects of circumcision.

    1. Re:A lesser power by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah it stings a bit when the Sith do that with their lightsabre.

    2. Re:A lesser power by kokaubeam · · Score: 1

      [Waves hand] This is not the power you are looking for. . . .

      --
      Do androids dream of electric sheep?
    3. Re:A lesser power by liminality · · Score: 1

      "...force confusion and force sight..."

      its so funny how they tout as a wonderful new feature what are effectively just D&D spells like daze or true sight. put a "force" in front of it and its cause for a litany of sequels, when in reality you've just got a multiclassed fighter / wizard with a couple more spells.

      unless they prove to me otherwise that the engine has been made a whole lot better, they should be selling this game as an "expansion pack" and at an appropriately discounted rate.

    4. Re:A lesser power by Matrix272 · · Score: 1, Funny

      unless they prove to me otherwise that the engine has been made a whole lot better, they should be selling this game as an "expansion pack" and at an appropriately discounted rate.

      I love it when I hear people say things like that. "Oh, it's just the same old game from 10 years ago, with new spells, characters, plot, backstory, graphics, sounds, and gameplay. I've seen it all before."

      --
      "It's better to have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it." ~ Christian Slater, True Romance
  5. Bioware by gtshafted · · Score: 4, Interesting
    All Bioware made games have been some of the best games I've ever played - very deep / good gameplay with good story... the only common bad thing is that all Bioware games is that the endings (except for Baldur's Gate II) seem too short. Given the size and depth of most their games, you get the feeling of "all this work for nothing". This includes the 1st KOTOR (for ex. there is no mention of the end result of your relationship with your love interest in the story... this is a lot like the 1st Neverwinter stand alone game...)

    Hopefully giving development to former members of Black Isle will change this. I definitely enjoyed the endings to the Fallout Series and Planetscape Torment.

    1. Re:Bioware by mr.capaneus · · Score: 1

      I would have to agree for the most part. Baldur's Gate 2 is one of my all-time favorites. I've played throught that game at least 6 times. I have to say, though, I was a little disappointed with KOTOR. Don't get me wrong, the game was awesome but it could have been so much better if it was designed for the PC from the ground up instead of being a console port. It just doesn't have the same depth as the Baldur's Gate series. Having said that, I'm sure I'll buy KOTOR 2, I am just waiting for Bioware to make another PC rpg in the same vein as Baldur's Gate.

    2. Re:Bioware by chrisqeld · · Score: 1

      You should check out Hordes of the Underdark, the second NWN expansion. Great game with a great story, and a very impressive ending (well, OK, slightly less impressive after finishing it several different ways and noting that a good bit does stay the same...). It does mention your love interest if you play your cards right in the final moments...

  6. Yes but... by MMaestro · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Any news about multiplayer? True theres always Jedi Knight II, but I like the idea of being able to customize (at least to an extent) a character and bring him online for some online fighting.

    1. Re:Yes but... by Zed2K · · Score: 1

      Have you played any of the jedi knight multiplayer? Its just all jedi's running round with light sabers pushing and pulling you off ledges. That was the bulk of my experience with it. Very boring.

    2. Re:Yes but... by Matrix272 · · Score: 1

      Have you played any of the jedi knight multiplayer? Its just all jedi's running round with light sabers pushing and pulling you off ledges. That was the bulk of my experience with it. Very boring.

      Then obviously YOU haven't gotten pushed off the right ledge!

      --
      "It's better to have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it." ~ Christian Slater, True Romance
  7. funny by gmhowell · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Funny. I bought the game yesterday, and was cruising some KOTOR sites. If I hit 'back' in my browser window, immediately before the /. frontpage is the LucasArts official announcement of KOTOR II.

    Really should have picked this up and waited for Deus Ex: IW. Live and learn.

    OTOH, having just finished Icewind Dale, KOTOR is very, VERY obviously cut from the same cloth. With the same pattern. But with pinking shears instead of regular ones.

    --
    Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
  8. Oh Good by cubicledrone · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Another sequel.

    How original.

    --
    Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
    1. Re:Oh Good by KeeperS · · Score: 1

      Will it be original? No. Will it probably be fun to play? Yes.

      Innovation is good and all, but sometimes people just want an improved version of a game they already liked.

    2. Re:Oh Good by Matrix272 · · Score: 1

      How original.

      Just like your post.

      --
      "It's better to have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it." ~ Christian Slater, True Romance
  9. Dogfighting in Galaxies? Not the droid you're..... by Song+for+the+Deaf · · Score: 3, Funny

    I wonder if there will be that sense of accomplishment I got from Tie Fighter when I destroyed an allied bomber squadron, sigh.

    The visceral thrills you're looking for are likeley to be found here

    Is Star Wars is doomed to be the christian rock of video games, i.e. pale imitations of already successful genres?

  10. I will never be buying a lucasarts game again. by bludstone · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My star wars fandom is old, dead, and buried. I thank mediocre writing, cliched storylines, and blantant consumerism. It just sucks now.

    Frankly, after they cancelled sam and max 2, and fired their most brilliant set of (non-starwars) creative staff, I see no reason to buy a lucasarts game ever again. There was a very high artistic merit in the earlier lucasarts adventure games. I feel like this is lost in the constant re-hashing of starwars titles.

    These days, the entire star wars universe seem to only be about milking the consumer.

    Hell, they wont even sell me the stuff they own that I _want_ to buy! (read: friggin SE-only original trilogy starwars dvds) Im going to be forced to buy a bootleg, thanks to them.

    --

    no .sig
    1. Re:I will never be buying a lucasarts game again. by bluemeep · · Score: 1

      Took the words right out of my mouth.

  11. Who the fuck is Obsidian ... by arhar · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    ... and why didn't I see FRICKIN' mentioned anywhere in the article ?!??!?! [stupid lameness filter won't let me yell... what if I FEEL LIKE yelling?]

    1. Re:Who the fuck is Obsidian ... by rpillala · · Score: 3, Informative

      Obsidian's not Bioware, but was instead founded by some people from Black Isle. Black Isle is the studio recently cancelled by Interplay. BI produced the greatest CRPG of all time - Planescape: Torment.

      Hope that helps :)

      Ravi
      --
      When the axe came to the forest, the trees said, "Look out - the handle was once one of us."
  12. Um that would be "Frickin' Bioware" by arhar · · Score: 1

    .. um, yeah. I wish I could edit posts.

  13. Great by dyefade · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm so glad they cancelled Sam and Max 2. Now they can get on with more important projects.

    Seriously, this really sucks. They cancel a great game, lay off a load of people. But not to worry, there's always room for more Star Wars.

    1. Re:Great by Alkaiser · · Score: 1

      Exactly, they were talking about 30 powers, and I was thinking is any of those "Summon Sam and/or Max"? If not, count me as still boycotting.

      --
      Netjak.com independent reviews of domestic & import video ga
    2. Re:Great by Hassman · · Score: 1

      Huh? LucasArts isn't making the game...they are publishing it.

      Wasn't LucasArts doing Sam and Max all themselves?

      There is a huge difference between creating a game and publishing it.

      --
      -Mark
      Dovie'andi se tovya sagain.
    3. Re:Great by dyefade · · Score: 1

      Ah, yes... on inspection you would be correct.

      But still, it seems to be that they're more comfortable dealing with Star Wars-related stuff than creating innovation in the game marketplace.

      I can't believe that they're listening to the critics who shout "adventure games are dead!", because people shouted that, then Grim Fandango was a big success, then, a couple of years later we heard it again, and Escape From Monkey Island was a big hit. It just doesn't seem to make sense.

    4. Re:Great by Hassman · · Score: 1

      You are totally right. I could take a bunch of my used clothes, package it and put a Star Wars name on it and they would go ape-shit for it...

      I wish they would stick to their guns and finish what they start. Sam and Max would have been an awesome game. So would another installment of Monkey Island...those will never get old. If it wasn't for the horrible graphics of the original, I'd still play that once and a while.

      --
      -Mark
      Dovie'andi se tovya sagain.
  14. Fun is key, not newness. by Vermifax · · Score: 1

    Just because a game has a sequel doesn't mean there are new and different things in it.

    But irregardless, if the game is fun, it is fun even if there is nothing new.

    --

    Vermifax

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