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Star Wars: 1313, a 'Darker, Grittier' Star Wars Game
MojoKid writes "When it comes to Star Wars, the gaming industry has a long history of cranking out titles of uncertain quality. For every brilliant title like Knights of the Old Republic, we've seen several clunkers and a few outright failures like Republic Heroes. LucasArts demonstrated a new Star Wars game at E3 this week, Star Wars: 1313 and despite the brand's uneven history, folks are cautiously optimistic. The 1313 moniker refers to a specific level of Coruscant which is a haven for criminals, bounty hunters, and crime lords. You take on the role of a bounty hunter looking for information on an unspecified criminal conspiracy who descends to 1313 in search of data. This will likely be the first Star Wars game to be rated 'M' for mature, and it focuses on the seedy underbelly of the universe."
Hard to tell from what little it on display, but it looks like a Star Wars take on Uncharted - where the emphasis is on making it through set pieces, rather than proper game play. I hope to be pleasantly surprised, but this game looks like something you'd be just as well off checking out a few highlights on Youtube rather than playing.
And for every KOTOR there are far sight more than a few clunkers and failures.
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
Please show me some hardcore 18+ Star Wars with Nathalie Por ... heu, Chewbacca kinky X-mas explosions and stuff.
The 'interviewer' being overwhelmed that the scenes aren't pre-rendered seems pretty forced. Considering that pretty much every new title looks about that good/bad, disbelief around a scene being realtime seems silly. I do think it is part of a good trend of moving away from the pre-rendered scenes. So long as all graphics are done realtime, you can easily forget just how lacking the graphics are. In a modern title with cutscenes, they just serve to remind you that the lighting isn't quite right, reflections are bad, and textures just look not-quite-right. Stranger still are the obviously 'pre-rendered' cutscenes, but seemingly done in the game engine (e.g. the lighting and other stuff is still obviously off, but with the added mismatch of resolution and in some cases even encoding artifacts).
In terms of gameplay, who knows how it will be. I will say one of my first thoughts is the last scene looked like you were handed control, and within 5 seconds a cinematic sequence happens taking the control away for the scripted scene to play out. I hope that's the exception not the rule. Just because a cinematic, scripted scene isn't a 'prerendered' cutscene, doesn't mean it is any less intrusive on the gaming. At least with the cutscene scenario, you knew you weren't controlling it, nowadays it isn't uncommon that you will still be trying to control your character a few seconds before you realize control has been disabled.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Starwars Pumps and a Bump edition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsunEfZFG1Y
Good luck with that, the edgy card only works when you are not known for being soft
Seriously. Can we all move past the GOW cover based shooting formula already? It's been obnoxious for a long time now. The Dark Forces series was awesome back in the day. Noticeably absent were chest high walls.
It seems like everyone has as their go-to thing to reboot or add life into old material is to make them darker and grittier. Some cases this goes really well, like the Batman movies. Sometimes less so. I have to wonder what is going to be next? Darker and grittier Carebares where they fight actual drug dealers and pimps? Dark and gritty My Little Pony where Nightmare Moon stomps Twilight Sparkle to death? Maybe a darker and grittier Mario game where the koopahs die violent deaths and at the end you find out exactly what Bowser was doing to the Princess the whole time she was kidnapped? Maybe a dark and gritty live-action He-Man movie? Actually, I'd watch that last one probably. But this really feels like writers and producers have run out of ideas and think that "darker and grittier" are magic words which automatically revive franchises. Maybe instead they could try actually writing good plot lines?
Have I gone insane or did I actually hear the reviewer host guy say, "You'll be literally blown away"?
Egad.
Looks like a lot of button mashing, which means we'll most likely end up with a fucking dumbed down console port again that barely works on the PC (e.g., Force Unleashed 2, where the game's toughest enemies were the character controls, camera controls and other assorted bugs).
'But.....it just won't be Star Wars without child-friendly racist analogues and Galactic Dance-offs'
I've raised this young Padawan well.
The Old Republic had flaws, but if you haven't played five worse MMOs then your experience is limited.
The demo video they showed looks like it's entirely quick time events. Which means as pretty as this game may be, it'll be complete garbage.
Quick time events ruin everything they're put in and make the game suck. I cant think of any example where they actually add anything but frustration. You can't pay attention to the action that they trigger because you have to focus on hitting the combination it throws up on the screen.
The 1313 moniker refers to a specific level of Coruscant which is a haven for criminals, bounty hunters, and crime lords.
Well there's that but there was also 1313 Mockingbird lane, lest we forget! (Munster's street address)
That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
One thing that jumps out at us from watching the video is that the game clearly isn't running on legacy console hardware. Creative director Dominic Robilliard confirms this a little later in the interview, when he states that the demo is being powered by PCs using Nvidia hardware.
Obviously we can't say for certain, but there's some good circumstantial evidence that the game is built for DX11. Shadows are always the best thing to check -- DX10/DX11 shadows are softer and more realistic than their DX9 counterparts. Fog is another area where DX11 implementations tend to noticably improve on DX9, and the 1313 scenes are impressive on both counts.
There's no reason LucasArts couldn't develop the title for current consoles and cutting-edge PC hardware simultaneously, but this is good news for computer gamers -- games built on our platform tend to play better (and look nicer) than console ports that offer better textures but otherwise keep to the limits of six year-old hardware.
Nobody cares about PC gaming epeen. Really, nobody. Prettier shadows.. got it, that's one of those boxes we uncheck for consistent framerate when playing against other people.
These guys are as bad as the audiophiles that are made fun of on /. all the time. First it was frame rate, 200+ FPS with 85/75/60 display refresh rate... /eyeroll
Now that the average PC gamer has found vsync it's teh softer shadows and highlights. Lets be honest, if you can't do pretty with a moderately consistent frame rate, it gets turned off by any serious gamer.
I'm not saying your shadows _aren't_ super pretty, just that the money you have to spend for slightly prettier visuals at smooth not-disrupting-gameplay frame rates reminds me of $200 audio cables.
And... as nearly all of us are typing and reading this on a PC.. we most likely play/have played games on them. There is no us v them, just mostly people who already have played PC games and still don't give a damn about ridiculous epeen contests.
I'm always immediately sceptical of any game that tries to trade off a successful movie. If the game can't trade on its own merits, why should I bother? I wish the game companies would give up trying to franchise from Hollywood. I don't support it.
Jar jar Biggs
That's some really disturbing slashfic you've got going there, mate.
Republic Commando was a gritty look that for once nearly made Star Wars look like an actual war. It had casual senseless death and the tactics in it were pure military.
I'm pretty sure the reason why it wasn't all that well received was that it was so jarringly different from the cheesy "war-esque" melodrama that pervades Star Wars, and never got the idea playing it, that the clones were really finding their situation terribly fun.
It was, needless to say, the best Star Wars game I played, at least in terms of actual suspension of disbelief.
Why would anyone want to play in the SW universe, if you're not going to be a Jedi? Lightsabers are cool, using the Force to do stuff is cool - everything else in the SW universe is generic space fantasy. Nothing wrong with any of it per se, but no more or less interesting than any one of a dozen other 'realities' you might choose for your gaming experience. If I'm being a bounty hunter, running fetchquests, then is it going to make the game any better if it's using some of the SW names for things? Doesn't it just devolve into Shadowrun-lite?
Actually, I have to admit, I'd love to see them do a Clone Wars game - either in the Genndy Tartakovsky cel-shaded style or the CGI style - both had their merits and were largely superior to the second trilogy. Just as long as I get to name my astromech droid RU12.
Look, just give us a new TIE Fighter or X-wing vs TIE Fighter game already, okay? That is what the market has been demanding for years.
God I hate IP laws. With LucasArts sitting on the Star Wars IP, it's impossible for any competitors to come out and make a TIE Fighter game.
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
I think he means that first-person tie fighter sim that was very "Wing Commander". It was a lot of fun mid-90s.
I still have pretty fond memories of playing Dark Forces. It felt Star Warsy - back when the Star Wars IP lived off the good graces of the original trilogy.
These days? It's so tainted and diluted with an abundance of junk that it no longer represents any particular tone, style, or theme.
If you have all these great story's to tell, put them in movies, and stop making these half ass'ed shitty games that further destroy the franchise.
I played a lot of x wing but not tie fighter
Seriously, George needs an intervention because in any other social circle being obsessed with something for 30+ years would warrant some form of mental deficiency diagnosis.
What is most disappointing about Star Wars is just how much new and innovative concepts that COULD have come out of Lucasarts/film were stifled because of an all encompassing desire to increase the Star Wars Franchise payload. They don't even do special effects for other movies anymore (well, Red Tails, meh), they are just automatons pushing out more Star Wars related drivel.
How greedy and self-obsessed can one company be to shove a single franchise down the throats of 3+ generations of kids? I can only lump Walt Disney and Nintendo in that category.
The Human Centipede exists and George Lucas is at the front. There can be no self-respecting employee at Lucasarts/films these days, only people that love the taste of his shit.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Classic post. Love the time travel to-do list. Sorry about "Arkansas" - I'd go back and fix it, but my delorean was struck by lightning and disappeared to 1885.
Woah, slow your roll there, you're missing one vitally important difference: While the softer shadows might not be important to you (or even objectively important), they are an actual, measurable difference, that somebody can rationally decide is worth the money.
$200 digital cables do absolutely, positively nothing, and $200 analog cables either measurably don't do what's claimed, or the claims are unmeasurable nonsense--"It's a brighter soundstage, with a hint of orange peel tang."
<xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
Umm, how about a big monitor like 24" or something? Or a new MacBook pro with retina display? To be clear, the go was referring to computers vs console/tv, not fancy TVs like 4k or whTever.
FYI I just bought that festering turd SW:The Old Republic MMORPG, where Jedi wield wiffle bats as neutered tanks, unlike Star Wars but exactly like MMO design dictates, and I'm pissed.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
They should just redo the entire Star Wars series, and have Lawrence Kasdan (the guy who wrote the screenplay for Empire Strikes Back) write the entire thing.
Arent you supposed to be drinking natty ice and palying halo with your brahs?
It was a very long time ago, in the year two-oh-oh-oh. Humanity had just survived the Apocalypse, only to be confronted with a new one. No, not because it was the year of the Linux desktop, though that was seen as worse than the end of the world in the dark aisles of Microborg. Still, in a low level PSYOPs training facility, a group of fresh fish were dreaming past all and every doomsday, planning to create the ultimate space combat simulator, which would allow them to recruit an elite squadron to take over the world. Needless to say, the Borg didn't look at the results with good eyes, what with it being only interested in massive scale armies, so the ultimate space combat simulator was thrown down the drain... ...where it was of course picked up by the e-cophreeks, which never let a bone go by. One borg's recycle bin is another entity's best bytes, and all that. They lovingly patched up the scratches with whatever materials they had available, going as far as covering the thing in dotmeth --which they got, of course, from another trash can-- to quickly ease its pain. And so, it thrived, rooting itself in the shadows of the drain system, spawning new life forms and technologies, maintained by a hardened core of elite pilots, biding its time for the day it can finally unleash the ultimate squadron upon the world (and thanks to SpaceX and friends, that might just happen before the next Apocalypse!).
Enter Allegiance. Small but dedicated community (40-60 players in the main server most of the day), lots of teamwork, many races and tech trees give it plenty of variety, the RTS elements --perhaps inspired in Starsiege Tribes-- give it a complete new dimension, the radar system makes for very satisfactory mouse and cat encounters, games have this nice crescendo of intensity, first exploring, researching and setting the stage, then using better ships to hunt down enemy miners and cripple their economy, while defending your own, and finally launching all-out killer blows against the enemy's tech bases, with bomber runs escorted by swarms of repair scouts to buy the bomber a few more precious meters to be in firing range, the turret gunners screaming GEROOONIMO for as long as the ammo clips will last; or stealth ships coming out of nowhere and smoking a base before you can even teleport to it; or huge and clunky capital ships smashing their way through every sector, attack waves succeeding one another until one side is finally overpowered, left to limp back to their main base in their escape pods, and launch for one final, futile defense. Yes, it's old, rickety and damn hard to pick up, even if you are used to blowing up imperial destroyers in a single pass. It's also the most fun you'll ever have in space.
Adult themed Star Wars games? Meesa can't wait!
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
I know I'm talking about taking the food off developers' plates when I say it, but there is a time when a franchise should die, and that was the end of the Empire Strikes Back.
If that happened, we'd never have had the backstroke of the west, which in my opinion was the highlight of the star wars series of films.
If the better graphics lead to a better game, then I care. I understand what you're saying, but better graphics make a game better. Denying that is a luddite philosophy.
Of course, all the pretty in the world can't make a shit not a shit.
>backstroke of the west,
Who?
*google*
Wait, what is this, I don't even...
--
BMO
My list of good Star Wars games:
X-Wing
TIE Fighter
Dark Forces
Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast
Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (if only for the fantastic multiplayer)
Knights of the Old Republic
Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
LEGO Star Wars
LEGO Star Wars II
Apprentice of the Force
The rest are crap.
Competitive gamer != serious gamer. There's an intersect, but they are not identical. If I'm playing a single player game and I put all this fucking money into my hardware, I'm not going to fucking turn off shadows just so I can move from 60 fps to 65 fps. If it's a multiplayer online game and toggling that down can confer a strategic advantage, sure, but what part of this game and its description makes you think it will even have a multiplayer component? And even if it does, why the fuck would I lower my graphics settings when NOT playing in the multiplayer mode?