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Star Wars: the Force Unleashed Demo Sets Xbox Download Record
The demo version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was released a few weeks ago for download through Xbox Live and the Playstation Network. Now, LucasArts has announced that the game shattered records for the number of downloads on Xbox Live, taking only eight days to reach 1 million. The full version is due out next Tuesday, and LucasArts will be holding a launch party in San Fransisco on Monday night to celebrate. The game is part of a multimedia project which includes a best-selling book, a comic, action figures, and other tie-ins. According to Eurogamer's interview with producer Cameron Suey, previous Star Wars games suffered from a "lack of ambition." Suey also shows off some of the gameplay in a video. A video walkthrough of the PS2 and PSP versions is available at Kotaku. The game will not be available for PC. Early reviews for the game are good, but not great, and developers recently mentioned that George Lucas himself provided input on the project.
Bringing down a whole star destroyer?
Maybe it was bad if you expected an action game, but as a turn-based d20 system presented in realtime, I found it excellent. My only complaint with kotor is they managed to squeeze framerate problems (xbox version) into a game that certainly didn't seem to be pushing any graphical limits.
That said, the story overshadowed all.
I miss Jedi Knight II... whatever happened to that storyline, anyway? Kyle Katarn was awesome. Jedi Academy was really fun too. The dual-sided lightsaber was so powerful, I loved it. This is bringing back a lot of memories, of the days when Lucasarts didn't suck.
All your base are belong to Wii.
Hell yeah.
Forcing Bastila to accept that you are, in fact, the rightful Dark Lord of the Sith is probably the most satisfying moment in gaming history.
KotOR's gameplay was bad because:
a) It was massively imbalanced. Pick up the right combination of feats (Master Flurry, Master Speed, Master Two Weapon Fighting) and you could drop even Malak in one round. Pick up the wrong set of feats (a caster build without Force Breach, for example) and you could breeze through the entire game and then get completely fucked on the boss fights at the end.
b) Half of the mechanics in the game were useless. There was no reason to be a techie or a stealth class because while both had gimmicky moments where they could do something cool, the game was chock full of full-on frontal assaults you couldn't avoid. The gimmicks never paid off as well as going head on anyway. Besides, you could never be as good at those things as the droid, because in the end you had to make your character combat able as well.
c) Ranged combat was horrible. You could abuse the hell out of force powers and plink away at mobs that were permanently stunned with your pistols, but in and of themselves blasters weren't a decent weapon choice.
d) Levelling was fucked up. By allowing you to bank levels until you switched to your jedi class, you could completely break the difficulty of the game. Staying level 2 until the first planet was completely made the first planet way too hard, but having an extra 4-5 jedi levels made the rest of the game way too easy.
e) You could cheese half the fights in the game with grenades and shields. That's how you get to being a jedi at level 2, but it works just as well for the rest of the game. There are very few fights that shield spam and grenades can't win.
KotOR is one of my favorite games of all time. The story is great, there's tons of stuff you can do off the beaten path, and it has a ton of replay value. The actual gameplay is subpar, though. KotOR 2 is one of my biggest disappointments of all time because it fixed the gameplay of KotOR but was so buggy and had so much cut content you couldn't actually enjoy it. A bastard child hybrid of the two might be the best game never made.
Game... blouses.
My only problems with the game so far are the horribly implemented Force Throw. How the hell many of those objects manage to go off into complete tangents is beyond me. The other - QTEs. They do absolutely nothing for the gameplay - they stick out like a sore thumb and remove the player from the game. Could the devs really find no other way to have you bisect the AT-ST? Here's hoping they're used sparingly.
Aside from those two complaints, it felt like a decent hack-and-slasher.
I prefer turn-based RPGs to action games actually. Each character was largely going to focus on a set path of feats (Critical Strike, Flurry, etc), so you just spammed your feat attack, or an over-powering Force power like Force Wave. Combat was never difficult, nor was strategy ever a factor.
Final Fantasy games get blasted for encouraging button-mashing, when in reality each character plays different enough to warrant some attention when selecting items.
In KOTOR, I can have every character just focus on Flurry and basically spam the same button for everyone.
Even on replays when I intentionally don't level my character until I become a Jedi, I find all the early areas frightfully easy, even with a level 2 character.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
So glad they are going to put out a Wii version. Sure the graphics and the physics won't be as impressive on Wii but the gameplay is going to r0x0r your b0x0rz.
This also means I can get my lighsabre combat fix without dealing with the crapulous CGI style of the Clone Wars movie/TV series. Besides, being Sithy for a change might be spiffy.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
Citation needed. I certaintly don't remember hearing this, and I can't find it on LA website, wikipedia, google, etc. There were rumors of this following a series of layoffs, but it turned out that LucasArts had abandoned much of its internal development and would farm everything out to 3rd parties from then on. At least that's what I heard, I admit that my memory is fuzzy on that point.
That said, I agree that it's a crime we get crap like Adventures of Obi-wan but no continuation of the X-Wing/Tie-Fighter franchise.
Seriously. When do I get my next item/puzzle-based single player game?
Day of the Tentacle is still one of my favorite games of all time. Did anyone else have that LA variety pack? Had Sam and Max, DOTT, Fate of Atlantis. Several others as well.
Maybe I'm just nostalgic, but I remember having a lot of fun with these titles. Not to mention Dark Forces. That was the FPS yeah?
Mostly I think new technology is becoming a burden to games. So much is focused on being visually and operationally stunning that much is lost in actual story and gameplay.
"By the time they had diminished from 50 to 8, the other dwarves began to suspect 'Hungry.'" -Gary Larson
Maybe LucasArts are mistaking the raw download numbers for secured sales while it's obvious that anything labeled 'SW' will generate some hype. As for me, I downloaded the PS3 demo last week, found it incredibly dull, deleted it. Disclaimer: I've always been more of a Star Trek fan, anyway.
A World in a Grain of Sand / Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Infinity in the Palm of your Hand / And Eternity in an Hour.
I, for over 20 years, have supported LucasArts and Lucasfilm.
no more.
Their decision not to build a PC version has crossed a line.
the producer in charge of TFU Cameron Suey stated that the game would be a "watered down experience" on anything less than a $4,000 PC. couldn't be more watered down than ps2 or psp or DS! a $699 pc can play crysis warhead on high @30fps, so it ought to be able to smoke the pants off an xbox360 or ps3 running in low resolution.
so I have chosen not to consume lucas made goods or services. I decided not to see the new clone wars movies, and I can say definitively, I won't be buying my son any lucas toys over the next 15 years. I was a loyal fan and customer. It's no surprise they have chosen payday over their fans. They are a business at the end of the day.
They're using their grammar skills there.
KotOR is one of my favorite games of all time. The story is great, there's tons of stuff you can do off the beaten path, and it has a ton of replay value. The actual gameplay is subpar, though. KotOR 2 is one of my biggest disappointments of all time because it fixed the gameplay of KotOR but was so buggy and had so much cut content you couldn't actually enjoy it. A bastard child hybrid of the two might be the best game never made.
You know about the Sith Lords restoration project I hope? They are still active, but I'm starting to lose hope that they will ever finish, since new bugs pop up all the time. Perhaps they are in the final phase of playtesting, but... I have been waiting for many years now.
Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die
Seriously. When do I get my next item/puzzle-based single player game?
Seriously, you can't have been looking very hard? There are oodles of current and upcoming classic adventure, puzzle, action/adventure/rpg games, even if they don't get much attention on mainstream sites:
Two whole Sam and Max seasons by Telltale games, their upcoming Wallace and Gromit game, Deus Ex 3 hopefully, Braid for PS3 or PC, DeathSpank by Ron Gilbert (Monkey Island, Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle), Machinarium, World of Goo by 2D Boy, "realistic physics horror puzzler" Penumbra:Black Plague, the two classics Vampire:Bloodlines and Psychonauts (available on Steam), the horror adventure game Three Cards To Midnight by the people who made the Tex Murphy games (Under a Killing Moon etc).
There is also the Dracula, Sherlock Holmes games, though I hesitate to recommend them because didn't really connect with them when I played the demos.
Best site to keep track of good indie games and good PC games for the thinking man/woman- here.
Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die
note that in the demo you play with all force powers at level 1 (you evolve force push to lvl 2 during the demo, allowing you to charge up).
Im fully expecting that when you level up force grab, you wont only be able to pick up bigger stuff, but also to move while doing so. Thats the way it worked in jedi academy iirc (lv1: static grip, cant even move the object, lv2: move the object while gripping, lv3, move everything).
i thought the demo was a bit dull as well, but coming back to it a few days later was a hell of a lot of fun. i enjoyed JA a lot, and TFU allows more ease when using/switching force powers, so ill pick it up, if only to try and make the longest storm trooper chain hanging from the cealing