Star Wars 1313….. interesting actually. Granted its a cover shooter, but it looks like it will be quite a showcase. They apparently worked with ILM on all the effects, and it shows. I can get behind the whole ‘Mature Star Wars’ vibe. Its different.

Blood Money, $2.50, go get it. The demo is not a good indicator for the game overall.

Also, just like with every other Steam sale, these damn Star Wars collections keep looking right back at me. I’m currently downloading a Jedi Outcast demo, but some advice would be nice.

EDIT: Just realized that Command & Conquer deal is actually for all of the recent games. I need some advice on Kane’s Wrath and Command & Conquer 4.

Battlefront has the sights and sounds, but it’s a shallow pool. Fun for a short while.

@feenwager On the subject of Star Wars games, I just had a thought:

Why the hell is there not a game starring Boba Fett?

I know we got Star Wars Bounty Hunter starring Jango Fett and I actually enjoyed that game, but my point still stands that Star Wars games have focused a bit too much on the Jedi and Clones. I can think of maybe a handful of games that either star a bounty hunter or otherwise let you play as one. Other than Bounty Hunter the last notable one I can think of is Shadows of the Empire.

Where the hell is my dedicated Han Solo game? My Boba Fett game? It’d be perfect in today’s Gears generation.

I could see that shit now. BioWare already laid out the general framework for galaxy exploration in Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect. You have a ship, you fly to planets, you take bounties and/or smuggling jobs as quests, you fight like in a third person shooter only with a jetpack and grappling hook. In the Solo case It could be co-op with Chewbaca, or have him as a party member with others coming in and out. The quests could be for cash for upgrades and the story could cover how Solo acquired and upgraded his ship to the current Millennium Falcon.

Was this already done and I just didn’t know about it (there are A LOT of Star Wars games)? Does Battlefront fill the Star Wars shooter niche that I’ve been looking for?

@RedSwirl the closest thing you get to what you are describing in KOTOR is usually using a pursuasion skill in conversations to get people to do what you want. I think you are describing a game with more diverse scenario’s where force powers can be used to influence more factors than ‘how to kill a stormtrooper’.
KOTOR doesn’t really have gameplay elements that allow you to throw force powers into the mix whenever you want, but I could see that being really awesome. I think as things are we are still stuck with more linear impacts on people and environments in our Star Wars games.

@unmanneddrone To be honest I probably don’t even want a Jedi pure action game to begin with. Like I said, the whole concept inevitably leads to what we see with Force Unleashed.

The situation I described below with Luke as he first appears in Return of the Jedi would probably end up being more of an an adventure game where you spend a lot of time negotiating with people or solving “puzzles” with proper application of the force the force and occasionally a lightsaber. Maybe even a Mass Effect-like thing, but like I said, I still haven’t played KOTOR, so someone should probably tell me if those games actually provide this.

@RedSwirl I can agree in part, but I think you’re wanting to have your cake and eat it too, in regards to essentially creating an even more powerful Jedi experience within an action game by simply removing the actual, er, action? What’d be left once you strip a lot of the flinging things around and force-lightning the Bejeezus outta everything? Platforming and puzzle-solving ultra-lite? Walking through linear levels with nary a worry in the world? I know what you mean, though. Subtle but immense power.

I think a conventional fighting system with Jedi slotted in, ala the Soul Calibur suggestion, would be an incredibly underwhelming affair if it wasn’t a multi-tiered and environmentally intricate. If you want a true Jedi battle experience, get online with Jedi Outcast and Academy. The lightsaber battling offers a deep combat system with three distinct stances and subsequent move set. The force powers aren’t overblown, and to see some high-level players leap, flip and gouge each out apart with sabers is incredibe.

Do you mind if we talk about The Force Unleashed for a few posts? Despite how utterly decent the franchise may be, I still have one major disagreement with it: the broad strokes with which it paints the force.

To put it simply, the way you use the force while playing the game looks almost nothing like how Luke or even Darth Vader use it in the movies. Vader and the Jedi in the films all use the force to skillfully negotiate situations whether that be tricking someone or with deft and quick lightsaber use. It all looks cool partly because of some subtlety.

The Force Unleashed however sees it fit to display the force as little else than raw power. Starkiller is really just fucking shit up with the force, and his lightsaber(s) just rips through everything. In the Star Wars canon (Force Unleashed is official Lucas canon) he is technically the most powerful force user ever which in my mind really offsets some things.

Because of the “Force Unleashed” though and the first game’s catch line “May the Force Blow Your Mind,” maybe I just disagree with the whole product at the very concept level. I don’t want to pick up Tie Fighters and fling them at things, I want to cooly walk into Jabbas’ palace and force choke his guards to the ground before mind tricking Jabba’s aide all the way into the throne room.

I should state here that I still haven’t played KOTOR (it’s buried somewhere on my Steam list), so I have no idea if that game actually lets you do those things. On the subject of just the lightsaber action though, to me it just seems like another faulty attempt at a character action game.

My brother has often imagined a Star Wars fighter from the Soul Calibur studio. I would just say that it would be best if a lightsaber action game were put into the hands of a studio experienced with weapon-based action. Capcom, Team Ninja, Platinum Games, take your pick.

@bowlisimo True dat. Don’t forget those bitchin’ Rambo figs from back in the day. Force of Freedom forever.

@RedSwirl The ’77 action figures are in no way superior to the ’95 resculpts…except for that first Luke Skywalker one where they made him look like Mr. Olympia. Sadly, your brother is just smitten with nostalgia.

@RocGaude Kenner figures for life. still got most of mine, including the Millennium Falcon, the Slave I, and the special edition Han and Boba Fett. Though I might be talking about the 1995 Kenner figures – that’s where my brother would storm in all about how the 1977 figures were better or some crap. Whatever.

Oh I had some GI-Joes too. Lost them all one-by-one though. Still got the fold-out fort though.

I’ve generally just played all the Star Wars games that appeared on Nintendo systems, but out of all those the only one you probably really should play is Rogue Leader. It’s amazing how good that game looked back in 2001. Hell, it still looks serviceable today!

For some reason the PC demo to Republic Commando just didn’t jive with me. Something about the gameplay just didn’t click the way it should. I’m pretty sure I talked about it here previously.

@feenwager I was even more partial to just playing with my action figures.

I’m still partial to the original, vector-based Star Wars arcade.

@RedSwirl Off the top of my head: for the Star Wars FPS experience, you’d do well to play Jedi Knight Outcast (you can safely skip Dark Forces 1+2 by playing this) as well as Republic Commando. I think it goes without saying that the original KOTOR covers the RPG side of things, and Empire at War for strategy, although it fell far short of being great (unless you like space battles). If you’ve got testicles, I’d like to amend Star Wars Rebellion to that list. For as badly as that game got panned, you won’t find a deeper strategy game that covers management of the entire galaxy (Empire or Rebellion) and still have EVERYTHING you love about the trilogy in it. Unfortunately it looks like ass and as one reviewer put it succinctly, “it dies the death of a thousand clicks”.

TIE Fighter is definitely as good as everyone says it is. However, I might hesitate to go and fire up those twin ion engines had I never played it before. Mainly because it’s a real motherfucker. Not having any shields whatsoever for half the game will put hair on your chest. But, if you liked Freespace, and you can stomach the old tricks of the space sim genre (escort missions, power levels, speed matching, dodging missiles) then you might find TIE Fighter to be home. Not to mention, you fight for the Empire, there’s a crazy twisting plot throughout (secret mission objectives from the Emperor!), it’s voiced, you fly alongside Vader (who chokes bitches), and I would say it’s the pinnacle of the iMuse music system (best themes outside of the John Williams originals).

There’s nothing better than desperately hanging in there against a swarm of rebels long enough for a Star Destroyer to come in from hyperspace and save the day.

In fact can we just put up some kind of “must play” list for Star Wars games? Can we do that? Games like the Jedi series and Battlefront just keep staring me in the face without me really knowing what they are.

Every Star Wars game discussion I see pop up has people in it proclaiming that Tie Fighter is really “the only one.” I mean people are giving it “best game ever” recommendations which kinda rings the alarm when it comes to personal pile of shame territory.

Is it?

Is it even worth trying to run on modern versions of Windows?