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Mod Community Fixing KOTOR 2

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the what-the-company-couldn't dept.

Joystiq reports on an effort by fans of the Knights of the Old Republic series to actually finish the second game in the series, something developer Obsidian was unwilling or unable to do. The prodigious amount of deleted content towards the end of the game is being put back in, with more solid endings being offered for the diligent gameplayer. From the article: "You can check the Restoration Project web site for weekly updates as they near completion of a PC patch that should give fans a more complete KoTOR2 experience than the standalone retail edition. Team Gizka is also considering an Xbox patch, but a decision won't be made until after the PC update is released."

52 comments

  1. Link to actual restoration project websiteh by Zarhan · · Score: 4, Informative

    Would have been nice if this would have been included in the article summary, but anyway...

    http://team-gizka.org/

    I have been putting off playing KOTOR 2 for a long time waiting for them to actually release. Hopefully it'll be soon.

  2. haha!! by genrader · · Score: 1

    Yeah, couldn't they have done this a year and a half ago instead of when I don't want to play the game again?

    --
    the Political Inquirer
    1. Re:haha!! by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 3, Informative

      I recall hearing about this project that time ago or longer, I think. It's been in the works for some time now.

  3. Why is this even news? by MrChom · · Score: 1

    This project has been in the pipeline for months, why have a news update about it now, it's not like there's been some massive update about the whole thing.

    I was as happy to hear about this project as anyone else, but I heard about it 4-6 months ago on wikipedia!

    1. Re:Why is this even news? by urbanriot · · Score: 1

      I'm certainly glad it is news... Kotor 2 is on my list of games to come back and play, after having enjoyed Kotor 1 immensely. Knowing this, I might wait until this restoration project is completely finished.

    2. Re:Why is this even news? by Rydia · · Score: 1

      Some of us don't randomly search for games we own on wikipedia.

      Games we don't own, however, are fair game.

  4. Hot jabba mod. . . by AcidLacedPenguiN · · Score: 3, Funny

    All I can say is that its a good thing Obsidian didn't leave in a deleted Revan and Bastila sex minigame. . .

    --
    disclaimer: I've been known to store numbers in my ass for which to dig out when quantities are required.
  5. If you haven't played, WAIT FOR THIS UPDATE! by volpone · · Score: 1
    If you have not played KOTOR2 yet, please do yourself a favor and wait for this update.

    I didn't wait, and ended up with the incredibly unsatisfying ending that KOTOR2 shipped with. Waiting will be worth it, trust me.

    I don't know whether to be sad that today's companies ship unfinished games or happy that today's games seem to be designed with fan mods in mind.

    1. Re:If you haven't played, WAIT FOR THIS UPDATE! by revlayle · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I actually finished KOTOR2, and after that I have no desire to play it again, unlike KOTOR1, which I have played through in different ways about 4 times. KOTOR2 seemed unfinished (as mentioned here many a time), had some really disjointed cut-scenes, a plot that I went "WTF??" most of the way through, and seemingly a lot of unnecessary combat (there was a lot in KOTOR1 also, at least it was bearable and almost paced decently).

      KOTOR2's updated influence/dialog model was pretty cool at least... if a KOTOR3 is made, I hope they keep that aspect.

    2. Re:If you haven't played, WAIT FOR THIS UPDATE! by Wilson_6500 · · Score: 1

      It's lucky for me, I guess, that I never actually finished KOTOR2; now I have a reason to do it.

      Or not. Go go Gadget-gaming-apathy! You saved me from FFVII, Chrono Cross, and the entire series of Disgaea and the slew of similar-looking console games that I'm constantly confusing it with. I'm more partial these days to games that start up in four seconds, anyhow--like Cave Story.

  6. Title of comment by Control+Group · · Score: 4, Funny

    Condescending question: do you meatbags really believe you can successfully complete a quest where the opponents are HK units?

    --

    Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
    1. Re:Title of comment by jdigriz · · Score: 1

      Bah! These aren't the droids we're looking for.

  7. Re:Link to actual restoration project websiteh by chrismcdirty · · Score: 1

    It's good to know. I got KOTOR2 for Christmas last year and have just been procrastinating playing not, never knowing that it was an incomplete game. Now I'll just have to procrastinate a little longer.

    --
    It's like sex, except I'm having it!
  8. I was so excited about this too... by bteeter · · Score: 1

    I bought KOTOR 2 pre-order. Played it through in 2 weeks or so after I got it. Great game until you reach the level of being about 85% through the game. Then it just goes to hell.

    I was SO SO SO excited about this project. I figured 6 months or so, they'd release a patch "fixing" as much of the end game story as could be done. I checked back daily for a while, then weekly, then monthly...

    While they talk a lot about progress, and show some screenshots, etc - there is no download available. Hell I'd PAY for a download of it. But there isn't one. There hasn't been anything but a couple minor patch downloads available for more than a year.

    By the time they release it no one will care anymore because KOTOR 3 will be out. Its a shame that KOTOR 2 was butchered at the end. Its a double shame that the ones who seem to have fixed most of it won't share it with the world. (Not that I'm saying they have to - its their work - but why do the work to keep it to yourself?)

    Take care,

    Brian
    --
    SiteChanged.com - Monitor web sites for changes in content

    1. Re:I was so excited about this too... by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      Assuming KOTOR:3 gets made. Obsidian says they want to make it, but LucasArts has also said they are afraid of over-saturating the Star Wars market. Clearly that was the problem, not releasing crap titles like Bounty Hunter, Clone Wars, and Super Bom-Bad Racing.

      Titles like Lego Star Wars cost less money to make, and sell more copies.

      I sure hope Obsidian gets to finish what they started, but I'm not sure it will happen.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    2. Re:I was so excited about this too... by cptgrudge · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Titles like Lego Star Wars cost less money to make, and sell more copies.

      And the Lego SW games are Fun, as well. Someone should probably mention that.

      There's nothing quite like busting Lego bricks with a lightsaber wielding Lego Jedi.

      --
      Qualitas edurus commercium, nullus penitus net rimor, nullus deus beneficium
    3. Re:I was so excited about this too... by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      I played the first one and enjoyed it. I'm not knocking it, just noting that KOTOR:3 is likely not a priority for LA at the moment.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    4. Re:I was so excited about this too... by grahamwest · · Score: 1

      Lego Star Wars is certainly more commercially viable but I bet it's not that much cheaper to make. It's a bit smaller and of course it has basically no voice acting but it still has 18 levels, most of which are fairly large. It took me 35 hours to get 100% completion on the game.

      The big difference is the accessibility of the gameplay and the polish of it. From things like the humour in the cutscenes (Stormtroopers giving each other noogies when you escape Mos Eisley!) to technical matters like supporting 16:9 and 480p on Gamecube (which really show off the art quality) to the game's stability (no crashes and I only found one logic bug - you can activate the 6-switch platform in the Endor bounty hunter level causing you to fall out of the world). These things combine to make the sales difference and when you're talking about millions of dollars to make and sell a game it's hard to gamble very often.

      --
      Graham
  9. Re:Link to actual restoration project websiteh by Control+Group · · Score: 2, Interesting

    To be fair, it's not that incomplete. I felt a lot better when I finished KOTOR2 than I did when I encountered the end of (note that I don't say "finished") Halo2.

    There's at least one major plotline, however, which is frustratingly incomplete.

    --

    Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
  10. KOTOR3 by nmosfet · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can see it now, KOTOR 3 will ship with 50 wav and two text files. Let the community sort it out.

  11. Obsidian or LucasArts by Enderandrew · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I was the biggest Obsidian forum junkie back in the day. Chris Avellone wrote a dark ending, only to have LucasArts axe it. They planned for a longer development cycle, only to have LucasArts demand they ship early, and LucasArts didn't want to pony up money for patches, even after LucasArts initally promised they would.

    LucasArts was really hurting for money at the time. I'm not sure if anyone recalls, but LucasArts was folded, they closed shop and reopened in name within the ILM offices, but almost everyone was fired, and all their current projects (including KOTOR:3) were scrapped.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    1. Re:Obsidian or LucasArts by TychoCelchuuu · · Score: 2, Informative

      You're half right; they did fire tons of people and axe lots of projects, but they moved into the new ILM offices just because Lucasfilm was consolidating everything. They would probably have fired the people and scrapped the projects regardless of any location shifting.

      Sure is a shame, too. I loved KOTOR2 so much more than KOTOR, but I tell my friends that if they play it, they might as well just quit when they get to the last planet. It's about as satisfying as actually playing the game, and it's actually a little less frustrating.

      --
      Against stupidity the Gods themselves contend in vain.
    2. Re:Obsidian or LucasArts by grahamwest · · Score: 1

      If the LucasArts biz guys were smart they would've greenlit an Xbox360 version of the game as a lunch title with the art uprezzed a bit, the original stuff finished up, the bugs fixed and some new stuff to do (add a hidden planet with some Jedi-only tasks perhaps, or a flying minigame or two). An extra nine months or so of development with a small team plus outsourcing the art tasks would've been cheap and it would've been a great seller (450k+ easily as a big name license plus being the only RPG).

      --
      Graham
    3. Re:Obsidian or LucasArts by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      The graphics aren't great, and it wouldn't stand up as a 360 title unless they redid all the models, animations and textures in the whole game.

      There was an entire planet and major plot cut from the game (the droid planet) but redoing all the art assets is no small feat.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    4. Re:Obsidian or LucasArts by grahamwest · · Score: 1

      Full disclosure: I've been platform lead on PS2 and Xbox games and am now working on a next-gen title. You'd be surprised actually at what can be done to uprez art at a much lesser cost than redoing it from scratch. It doesn't come out looking as good as art (and a rendering pipeline) designed from scratch for next-gen but it would've been good enough for a launch title. Assets are often made at better quality than a console can handle and automatically downsampled as part of the art build (lower res and bit depth/compression) or just used as reference to make the low-poly versions or for cutscene/marketing renders (character models). The hardware itself can help somewhat when you enable anisotropic filtering, better antialiasing and a better lighting model. Redoing character heads with more polys helps enormously and doesn't take that long.

      The biggest kicker is that you can outsource 90% of this work (either to dedicated companies in the west, or to eastern Europe or to China) so it can be done cheaply and with much less creative risk than creating new elements from scratch.

      --
      Graham
  12. Text KotOR3? Sign me up! by wuie · · Score: 3, Funny

    You are standing on the outskirts of the Sith Temple on Korriban.
    Bastila is here.
    > kill Bastila
    You kill Bastila.
    You gain 2000 experience points.
    You gain 30 Dark Side points.
    You have gained a level!

    1. Re:Text KotOR3? Sign me up! by ringbarer · · Score: 0

      And that's STILL more playability than Sony managed with Star Wars Galaxies.

      --
      "Why did they cancel my favorite Sci-Fi show? I downloaded ALL the episodes!"
  13. This should have made front page.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    definitely over WoW expansion delay. This is better news, shows how people are teaming together to do something FREE for people who bought this game and were dissapointed. Who cares Burning Crusade is delayed, you can still do Molten Core!

    1. Re:This should have made front page.... by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      No I can't! My main is a L18 Gnomette mage.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  14. on choking and lightning by stargazerAD · · Score: 1

    now if they can just fix the whole bit where you basically choke and electrocute *everyone* for the last third of the game...i'm not too sure about the rest of you, but that game was too damn easy. the terrible ending wasn't much of a surprise by the time i got there.

    1. Re:on choking and lightning by Enderandrew · · Score: 2, Funny

      Choke? Electrocute?

      No way dude! Light side for life, dog!

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    2. Re:on choking and lightning by stargazerAD · · Score: 2, Informative

      see, therein lies the problem. i was lightside, and still had enough force to electrocute and choke the dark acolytes and apprentices. something is wrong!

    3. Re:on choking and lightning by compwizrd · · Score: 1

      I just did the upgraded flurry and a lightsaber that did 100+ damage each swing.. nothing could stand in my way.

    4. Re:on choking and lightning by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      I was big on Str and Dex and wasn't big on Wis. Hell, I could have beat most battles without ever using Force Powers. Just hitting Master Flurry was enough, but if I did spam a force power, it was most often Force Wave.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    5. Re:on choking and lightning by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      Loved the Guardian class -- all lightsaber, baby!

      Loved the mentat class, whatever was the force power main class. Force lightning group attack. Fotz! Fotz! Move on.

      Couldn't stand the half-and-half class. Jack (well, Jill) of all trades, mistress of none, doesn't suit my minimax personality.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  15. Re:Link to actual restoration project websiteh by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    It would have been nice if the link had been included in the article.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  16. Necessity of the prequel (slightly OT) by Goose42 · · Score: 1

    Here's a question I've had rolling around in my head for a while, but never had a good chance to ask it to a bunch of people actually paying attention.

    How necessary is playing through KOTOR1 to understanding what's happening in KOTOR2? I ask because I bought the PC version of KOTOR1, and was enjoying it immensely until some nasty bugs cropped up on the second planet in the game and made it impossible for me to play further (all attempts at reporting the bug or getting tech support went completely unanswered).

    I've heard KOTOR2 is six different kinds of w00t, but I'm always hesitant to burst into sequels without knowing what's going on.

    1. Re:Necessity of the prequel (slightly OT) by SDF-7 · · Score: 1

      Are you talking about the graphics problem on Dantooine where out in the fields the games suddenly goes so sluggish as to be unplayable?

      If so, make sure you have patch 1.03 and add Disable Vertex Buffer Objects = 1 under [Graphics Options] in the swkotor.ini file in the game root directory.
      Worked like a charm for me (not sure where I read about it, and this was a year ago.. so I don't have a URL for you) -- the only other major bug I can think of is that God-awful corruption/crash when you go to save (including the auto-save when you enter/exit areas). Only solution for that I know of is to save to 2 different savefiles early and often....

    2. Re:Necessity of the prequel (slightly OT) by wolfing · · Score: 1

      Well, considering that KoToR 1 is 1000 times better than KoToR 2, you should probably just play the first anyway. There are some things in 2 that refer to 1 (not necessary to understand, but makes those moments more enjoyable if you did play the 1 first)

    3. Re:Necessity of the prequel (slightly OT) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't have to have played KOTOR1; I had, but it was like 2 years before I played KOTOR 2 so I forgot a lot of it. The storyline tangentially touches on KOTOR 1 and everything you have to know about the first game they tell you in the game.

    4. Re:Necessity of the prequel (slightly OT) by despisethesun · · Score: 1

      You don't really need to have played the first KOTOR, but it certainly helps give you background. KOTOR 2 follows a different bunch of characters (save for a couple) and all the events of the first game (ie: the Jedi Civil War) sort of colour the events in the second, but the main PC is an ex-Jedi who didn't fight in the war and was in regions distant from those events as the happened. In effect, though you may lose out on some of the game's background, the unfamiliarity might help you get "in character".

      Unlike a few people here, I thought KOTOR 2 was a pretty good game, though I agree that the ending was garbage. It's worth a playthrough if you're a Star Wars fan or an RPG fan, regardless of whether this ending patch ever comes.

      --
      This poo is cold.
    5. Re:Necessity of the prequel (slightly OT) by Goose42 · · Score: 1

      Yep, that's the bug alright. I had the patch in place, and I did a whole bunch of googling but never came up with that fix. I might even still have the game installed, so I'll have to give it a shot. Thanks for your help!

    6. Re:Necessity of the prequel (slightly OT) by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      KOTOR:2 is improved over the original in every possible way. The only major advantage that KOTOR:1 has is the love affair people had with the main character after the main plot twist was revealed. I found the main character in the second game to be more interesting however.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    7. Re:Necessity of the prequel (slightly OT) by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      > after the main plot twist was revealed

      Yeah, I couldn't believe it myself when I found out HK-47's brain would, 4000 years later, be used by Anakin for 3PO's brain. I was like FTW!

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    8. Re:Necessity of the prequel (slightly OT) by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      I don't play Star Wars Galaxies, but apparently HK-47 does in fact appear 4,000 years later in Galaxies.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  17. oi by revxul · · Score: 1

    Oh sure great yeah thanks. Right after I uninstall it.

    --
    Truth, Just Us, And Hatred For All Mankind!
  18. I might have to buy this now ... finally by PaulMorel · · Score: 1

    I was kind of a noob to RPGs at the time that KOTOR1 was released, so I didn't buy it right away. I had been playing Diablo 2 for years, had played some BG2 and a little bit of old school D&D, but had never really finished a real RPG (I hadn't finished BG2 at the time). Then, a friend came to me absolutely gushing about KOTOR1. To him, it was the best game ever, combining RPG and action elements in a way that no other game had done.

    For me, KOTOR1 was a great game because it opened the gates of RPGs to me. It made formerly inaccessible, arcane gameplay elements transparent to my FPS-addicted brain. After finishing KOTOR1, I replayed diablo, diablo 2, FFVII, BG2, ... etc

    Anyway, the point is, when KOTOR2 came out, the same friend of mine ran out and bought it on release day. THE VERY NEXT DAY, he warned me off of it, and that was very disappointing.

    So, I can't say how glad I am that this project is nearing completion!

    --
    burrocrisy
    and that would be what? Ruling by jackasses? Never has a slashdot misspelling been more apropos
  19. I was actually about to replay it anyway... by payndz · · Score: 1

    ...unfortunately, on Xbox. No proper endings for me, I guess!

    So frustrating, because it was a genuinely enthralling game - right up until the final world, when it all fell apart and offered up a feeble 'was that it?' ending. Yet another example, along with Tomb Raider: Angel Of Darkness, of why games and quarterly earnings targets just don't mix.

    --
    You must think in Russian.
    1. Re:I was actually about to replay it anyway... by Dev59 · · Score: 1

      You can get it REAL cheap on PC now though. Probably for less money than people who already own the game would be willing to pay to get the completion patch.

  20. No wonder KOTOR 2 was released early by chris411 · · Score: 1

    If they had to put up with half the belly-aching about how this mod isn't going to be released soon enough, then I don't blame them.