[Toru-chan]

A video has been 'leaked' in the same sense that your wife might 'leak' a list of chores she wants you to do around the house.

Don't get too excited. It's best summed up by these comments:

lumpenprole: I'm looking forward to this, but a playable ewok? Who the hell wants that?

sholsinger: Oh, look, a Storm Trooper. Lets throw rocks at him!

Here's the blogger who 'leaked' it:

I received an intriguing e-mail today from an anonymous tipster (and presumably now redundant Free Radical Design employee), lets call him Freegate, linking to a YouTube video which appears to be real footage of Star Wars Battlefront III. The Lucasarts game was rumoured to have been under development by Nottingham-based Free Radical Design, who have recently lost the majority of its team and gone into administration.

In the five minute clip, posted today on YouTube features gameplay of Stormtroopers, Ewoks, Tauntauns, The Millennium Falcom, TIE Fighters, A-Wings and what looks to be Boba Fett’s ship, Slave I–as well as a prominent FRD logo watermark throughout. According to YouTube user naughtydude1999, who posted the video, “this video was taken in an internal show and tell Alpha meeting back in November.”

This isn’t the first time Battlefront III assets have leaked from Free Radical with a number of character renders appearing on the personal site of Richard Smith, a 3D Artist for Free Radical, and later German site swbf3.de after they were removed from Smith’s site. With this latest piece of evidence it looks almost certain that the team was working on the latest instalment in the series.

http://www.lukeando....nt-iii-footage/

More Slashdot comments. This guy is one of us:

Yay, another Hoth simulator!
by Fallingcow (213461) http://games.slashdo...mp;cid=26482021

I can't be the only one who used the first game for nothing but playing the battle of Hoth over and over. Single-player, because I wasn't dedicated enough to the game to want to play it online.

The second one was horrible for that. There were slight improvements to the Hoth map, but far more harm was done to it than good.

Also, I found single-player mode in II to be nearly impossible. Not the campaign, but the "conquer the galaxy"-type single-player thing, or individual maps played with bots. Even on its easiest setting my bots were incapable of holding two of the victory locations while I went after a third. They were too far apart for me to be always bouncing around defending the ones we already had, and the moment I left a point it came under dispute again. This happened over and over. The time it took me to run to a nearly-undefended enemy point, blast the 2-3 guys who tried to defend it, then stand there while it transfered to my side let the enemy take at least one of my other points. I never managed to win a single one of those maps, and while I'm not a god at FPS games, I'm pretty damn far from being bad. The only exception was Hoth, but I'd played it a ton of times and it's a mostly linear map.

Supposedly this is a direct link to the video. If it doesn't work, try Slashsnot:
http://au.youtube.co...h?v=b5Zb0iSWGTM
http://games.slashdo...9/01/16/0845205

Wow. Just once I would like to announce something from Lucasfilm that isn't crap.

[J m HofMarN]

You have two minutes to get to the game store and buy battlefront 3. If you get there in under 1:30 you may be able to play as vader for half a mission.







...


You now have 1 minute 45 seconds to capture the command post and gamestop and buy battlefront 3.

This post has been edited by J m HofMarN: 16 January 2009 - 08:21 PM

[Toru-chan]

You are in the desert. You have two minutes to find the Jawa Sandcrawler.

[Just your average movie goer]

Too late. You lose. Guess you shouldn't have wasted all that time trying to defend yourself from the limitless horde of attackers who were swarming you from all sides.

So you can play as an ewok? That's... that's... I've always wanted to do that. Now if only I could play as a jawa or a hutt. Yeah, that'd be cool. I could sit around on a concrete slab and wait for enemy soldiers to come and stand on a rather specific area of my floor...


Here's some thoughts on how I'd make Battlefront III if it were up to me:

- Faster moving AT-ATs with lasers that move at something resembling normal speed (as opposed to a snail pace)

- Fewer command posts. That way, there'd be less running around trying to cover for the inadequacies of your teammates.

- Limit on how many people can spawn in a command post at a time. I realised in the original Battlefront, soldiers would spawn more rapidly if they were being killed off too fast in other areas of the battlefield but sometimes it was just plain ridiculous. You'd be taking a command post when suddenly ten rebels would spawn at once. I say if one side's losing soldiers left, right and centre, tough. If you're doing well at wiping out your opponents, your efficiency should be rewarded.

- Local reinforcements for the rebels should only supplement their regular forces. They shouldn't give them extra soldiers on top of their existing numbers. Because, let's face it, if the rebels can muster up local assistance, the Empire can easily muster up legions and legions of additional stormtroopers to crush them into the dust.

- Do something about overpowered characters. The rebel pilots need to be severely neutered. Their instant-kill flak thingy seems to wipe out anyone in a 50 square metre cone. It should be a short range weapon only. Those guys need to be taken down a notch. The other offenders are the sand people. Someone designing Battlefront forgot that they're scavengers from a backwater hole. They shouldn't have more advanced weapons than everyone else in the game.

- The grenades should be fixed. Anyone in range of them should be blasted. It's annoying when you lob one into a group of enemies and it only kills one of them. They should also be faster acting.

- Wookies need to be taken down a notch. I admire the fact that they're making them strong but when one gets up after being blasted with a rocket, it's a bit much.

- Have some cheat modes or simply put in the option of some fun settings. It'd be nice to be able to unwind by turning on invincibility, making all your opponents hobbit sized or something else like that.

- Have a speeder bike mayhem mode. In this mode, all your teammates can have limitless speeder bikes and your opponents will just be on the ground with their normal weapons. The whole map will be flat and then you and your buddies can line them up and let the mayhem begin.

- For the AI of your buddies, a simple solution would be to fix the command functions so that your troops will continue to follow a command without needing to be told again. For instance, if your tell your guys to hold their positions, then they should remain there until you tell them otherwise. If you tell someone to come with you, they should continue to follow you until you tell them to spread out. Oh, and when you shout "Move! Move! Move!", then rather than standing around looking like twits, your teammates should move like hell.

- Oh, and since it's a game, perhaps you could have maps that ... um... don't depict locations from the films. You could have variety!

- Lastly, have a completely prequel-free game. Only include the Empire and the Rebels. Also, include an awesome story mode where, as the Empire, you can wipe out the Rebels.


Yes, you probably noticed that these suggestions are for improving what was given to us in Battlefront I. I just ignored Battlefront II because the only way you could improve that game would be to use it as a drinks coaster.

[Toru-chan]

In BF1 I like to play the Endor scenario; I hop onto a speeder bike and mow down ewoks and rebels.

One thing that BF misses is a feel that you're doing something vaguely meaningful. Would be far more fun IMHO if the battle came in phases. The enemy should attack in waves, throw their full force at your weakest point, conduct decoy approaches, etc. The suspense would be awesome. Alfred Hitchcock: "Suspense isn't a bomb going off under a table. Suspense is a bomb not going off."

But, guess it's not that kind of game. Just a FPS.

Personally I don't care for multiplayer games. I prefer immersive games, and "Frag your ass LOL pwned!" tends to break that.

Pandemic (people who did BF) recently released "Lord of the Rings: Conquest." It looked awesome - uses the WETA digital models and sounded great - play the footsoldiers of those big battles in the movies. But the reviews have been extremely negative. What a shame.

Someday someone will do an excellent battle game rather than just another FPS.

- Limit on how many people can spawn in a command post at a time.

The whole command post thing ruins the immersiveness of the game, but that might just be me.

- Do something about overpowered characters. The rebel pilots need to be severely neutered.

Yes, they're pilots for crying out loud. Not infantry.

- Wookies need to be taken down a notch. I admire the fact that they're making them strong but when one gets up after being blasted with a rocket, it's a bit much.

Most fun to play characters for me are dark trooper and regular stormtrooper. The others are so slow or their weapons so ineffective they're just not worth it, including Wookies. The AT-ATs are slow and boring.

- Have some cheat modes or simply put in the option of some fun settings. It'd be nice to be able to unwind by turning on invincibility, making all your opponents hobbit sized or something else like that.

A chibi mode would be cool.

- For the AI of your buddies, a simple solution would be to fix the command functions so that your troops will continue to follow a command without needing to be told again.

Yeah, they always wander off on me. I try and get a group together to hit something, and they disperse so in the end its me and one dude if that.

Lastly, have a completely prequel-free game. Only include the Empire and the Rebels. Also, include an awesome story mode where, as the Empire, you can wipe out the Rebels.

Akin to the comments about battles having no structure, the lack of story sucks too - although neatly fits with the quality of Lucas' latter movies anyway. They did a half decent attempt of this in BF2, only to ruin it with the "get to the library in 30 seconds!" That phrase should go into gamelore the same way "nuked the fridge" went into movie lore.

[Just your average movie goer]

One thing that BF misses is a feel that you're doing something vaguely meaningful. Would be far more fun IMHO if the battle came in phases.

I sort of agree but disagree at the same time. Having things happen in phases could feel quite forced. However, I understand your point. I always laugh at the voice over in Hoth going "We MUST destroy the shield generator." Perhaps they should rephrase it as "Hey guys, let's destroy the shield generator. I reckon it'd be a hoot."

Still though, the idea that you're wiping the floor with your opponents is meaningful enough for my purposes.

One thing that could improve matters is to allow you to keep fighting after you've captured all the command posts. Sometimes I feel denied when I don't get the option of chasing down the last of the enemies.

I had a thought about how command posts could be improved and came up with the idea of making them landing platforms. They could actually have ships coming and going and that if you control a landing platform, obviously it's more difficult for the enemy to get their troops to the battlefield. Maybe you could even have the option of blasting enemy landing ships with some of the turrets.*

*Oh, speaking of turrets, I discovered another example of the computer cheating recently. In the Bespin Platforms level, when I take the central rebel command post, there are always a couple of rebels in the turrets above it. I have to take them out before my command post is safe because they can turn them around and fire into the command post if I don't. Then one time, I had the idea of taking a turret before I took the command post. That way, I could just blast the crap out of the rebels as they spawned. However, I noticed an interesting thing. When I was in the turret, it couldn't be angled down far enough to fire into the command post. Rather interesting, I thought.

On a slightly separate note, I remembered another modification I would make. In the original Battlefront, there seems to be a complete disregard for the collateral damage that's inherent in bringing a vehicle down. Sometimes, I'll steal one of those awesome armoured speeders the rebels use and have my joy-ride ended by running over a rebel mine. Then there'll be this massive explosion... and as the dust clears, I'll often see the rebel vangard responsible for ruining my fun standing proudly over his handiwork. That always annoys me. I reckon if you bring a vehicle down on your head then you should have to wear it as a hat. It's a high price to pay but if soldiers use their brains in taking down enemy vehicles then it shouldn't be a problem. Also, I think if you're in a flying vehicle and you're going down, then you should be given the option of taking out some enemies with you.

Also, on vehicles. I just thought of another modification - make the AT-STs controllable by removing that little idiosyncracy of theirs where they always walk sideways into walls or trees no matter which way you're steering them.

Pandemic (people who did BF) recently released "Lord of the Rings: Conquest." It looked awesome - uses the WETA digital models and sounded great - play the footsoldiers of those big battles in the movies. But the reviews have been extremely negative. What a shame.

It's hard to tell with reviewers though. A lot of reviewers said Battlefront II was excellent and it was because of those idiots that I tried it out. Also, I recall some (though not all) saying that Jedi Academy was a good game. I mean, have you ever played Jedi Academy? It's truly crap. Talk about meaningless. You're basically an apprentice getting sent on pointless mission after pointless mission, repeatedly doing menial tasks. It feels like you're just doing chores or worse, jumping through hoops for the twisted amusement of your jedi masters who treat you with about as much respect as one would for a guinea pig. **

**However, owning the game does allow you to run a very cool mod of the first six levels of the original Dark Forces game. This was the reason why I bought it in the first place so whether it was good or not in itself was kinda immaterial. I just thought it would have been nice if it was good, that's all.

But, guess it's not that kind of game. Just a FPS.

That's cool with me.

Personally I don't care for multiplayer games. I prefer immersive games, and "Frag your ass LOL pwned!" tends to break that.

I couldn't agree more. There are a lot of gits on the world wide web and a lot of them like to play online games (a lot of them like to lurk about forums as well but thankfully I haven't seen any here recently). Actually, I think because I'm just a casual gamer, I'd get my ass kicked in online games anyway. For some people out there, it seems that gaming is more than just a hobby. And I don't know if anyone would believe me but in Asia, gamers compete internationally in things like Star Craft and can actually win serious, serious money (I'm talking about prizes like a million dollars here). I saw one such competition with my own eyes once. Scary. I had to beat a hasty retreat for the sake of my sanity.

Most fun to play characters for me are dark trooper and regular stormtrooper. The others are so slow or their weapons so ineffective they're just not worth it, including Wookies. The AT-ATs are slow and boring.

Oh, I like those guys too. However, I'm also partial to the pilots (imperial pilots, that is. I never play on the rebel thugs' side) and the shock troopers. I like how I can repair vehicles as a pilot and their instant detonating grenade launcher is fantastic. Also, because you can carry additional health and ammo packs, it makes the pilot a good choice for taking out large groups of opponents or taking a command post. And when the frustration of screwey gameplay gets you down, there's nothing like unwinding with a shock trooper. They're also great for taking out turrets and it's such fun to blast rebel pilots with rockets. "This time you're gonna come off second best, sucker!" (I don't actually say this out loud because then people would think I was crazy. I do however on occasions adopt Treebeard's voice and go "Rebel pilots! Ba-hruumph!")

Yeah, they always wander off on me. I try and get a group together to hit something, and they disperse so in the end its me and one dude if that.

I did an experiment on this a while ago and I found that seven seconds is the time it takes before they forget what you just told them. So if I want one to follow me, I give him a reminder every seven seconds. Sometimes, it works but I can't move too fast or they fall behind (their range of hearing can't be that good either).

"get to the library in 30 seconds!" That phrase should go into gamelore the same way "nuked the fridge" went into movie lore.

Love it. Maybe it could be used like "Yeah, I hate that. It's one of those damn 'get to the library in 30 second' games."

Although, I was really annoyed in the game when I (by I, I mean my brother with me watching) got past the prequel stuff, only to discover that our first mission in the post-Episode III half was "Go to Naboo and mop up some more prequel elements". I mean the game designers seem entirely disinterested in the Empire and the Rebellion. Then they have a level on the Death Star where you have to hunt down an escaped Jedi. By the time it looks like you're getting back into classic Star Wars fun, the game's over.

The other thing they stuffed up was the campaign. One of the things I love about Battlefront I is that you can conquer the galaxy in one sitting. Short and sweet. In Battlefront II, it's something that takes forever.

I'm all for long games if they are conventional level games, following a story (like Dark Forces for instance) but not if they're an arcade-like shooter. That's just silly.

Anyway...

[Just your average movie goer]

Sorry for the double post. I was thinking of starting a new thread for this one but I thought that since it's in line with all this gaming stuff, it'd probably be right at home here.

I've worked out something about the deterioration of good Star Wars game series. The freakin' Jedi fanboys are trashing them all.

Let's look at the evidence:

Take Dark Forces. A great game where you are a mercenary who uses his knowledge of imperial methods and his blaster to infiltrate Empire facilities and shut down the production of a new robotic trooper.

Numerous people like myself are having a blast (yeah, bad pun, I know) but then the guys who wanted to be Jedis when they grew up whine that there's no lightsabers and force powers in it. What to do? Create another series about a Jedi, right?

No. What the game manufacturers do instead is take our mercenary hero from Dark Forces, make him a Jedi and pitch him against annoying Dark Jedi who can only be killed with lightsabers and force powers, rendering all his awesome weaponry redundant. Bad luck, those who were liked our mercenary hero the way he was. But at least the Jedi fan boys are happy.

Now, let's have a look at Battlefront. We have had more or less the same thing, except this time, it's a game that's supposedly all about military combat. But now, we can have Darth Vader with a lightsaber, the Emperor with his force lightning... what part about military combat involving soldiers don't these game manufacturers understand?

Let's get one thing straight here. I have no wish to deny the Jedi fans their chance to play with their lightsabers and force powers. I think they should have games that cater to them. I'm just tired of them hijacking game series from everyone else.

[Vesuvius]

Hmmm, I like your second post JYAMG.

I was used to games that involved lightsaber combat such as Super Empire Strikes Back on the SNES and when Shadows of the Empire came out for the N64, at first I was dissapointed to not have a lightsaber. Yeah... that all changed after playing the game and loving every bit of it.

Back to Battlefront though, I didn't mind once in a while playing as a Jedi/Sith, it was cool a few times, but I took more of a liking to using Scout Troopers. The only problem with sniping with them though is when I'v got a hostile in my crosshair, he'll move again then start shooting ONLY at me! I never gave my possition away and I'd say I'm over 30 meters away from the guy. I don't get how they know that I'm always there, and know when to move only when I've got a clear shot of their heads. However, sniping Jedi/Sith was actually a lot easier.

That there's some bad programin'.

[Just your average movie goer]

Hey Vesuvius. Glad you liked the post. I can certainly understand the attraction to Star Wars games with lightsabers and force powers. I got a bit of that in Jedi Outcast (which should have been labelled as Dark Forces III but instead it was labelled as Jedi Knight II, go figure).

I guess with a name like that, it'd be a bit strange if there weren't any force powers and whatnot... and although I was much more interested in the parts of the game where I could use my wits and my blasters, I did find that the lightsaber and force power parts of the game were pretty fun.

I never did get into the fights with the Dark Jedi though, I'm afraid. Whenever one of those situations popped up, I just set up the invincibility cheat so I could get it out of the way and get on with the rest of the game.

Anyway, it just puzzles me that Lucasarts don't start new lines of games for the Jedi stuff. It's funny actually. When they first got started, they did use seperate categories. If you wanted all round arcade action, there were the two Rebel Assault games. If you were into space combat, there were all those games like X-Wing and Tie Fighter. So they could very easily just run a few game series concurrently - a first person shooter game series, a Jedi game series and a space combat game series. Mixing these categories up in my experience though seems to work to the detriment of all of them. What's the point of a rocket launcher if some dark jedi is going to deflect your shots back at you?

Still, far be it from me to derail Toru Chan's thread... back to Battlefront, as you said.

I'm glad you mentioned the sniper programming glitch. That explains a lot. I could never understand how quickly the shots come when I get myself into a good position. I'd climb to the top of the tower on Rhen Var for instance, far far above the battlefield below, where the enemy soldiers are engaged in heavy close quarter combat and before I even started zooming in on the scope, half my health is blasted away.

It's a shame Lucasarts never got around to making a patch for all the issues for these games. There are a number that really detract from the game. I particularly dislike these two:

1. An enemy soldier is in a wall. You can't see him or hit him but he can somehow move about completely freely and blast you and your teammates to pieces with near impunity (and unlimited ammo as well).

2. Your rocket launcher locks up. You've got rockets. You haven't just fired it so you're not going through the normal two second delay as you ready the next rocket... yet for some reason, you can't fire your weapon at all for ages.

Last time that happened, I had my full quota of seven rockets and though I clicked and clicked, it would not fire. That really sucked. Perhaps they don't put these games through enough testing before they put them on discs and ship them out.

[Toru-chan]

Still, far be it from me to derail Toru Chan's thread... back to Battlefront, as you said.

Not at all, JYAMG. These threads go where they go. There's nothing wrong with that. Can you imagine enjoying a chat with some of your mates in the pub and some bouncer comes up to you and snarls "You have strayed off topic. You must end this topic, and declare a new one."

Agreed with your comments on BF* and took note of them. I didn't post a response immediately because I like to give others a chance to hop in.

I found in BF2 the light sabres to be boring as hell. Whenever I "power pilled" into Jedi "you gave 30 seconds to press F1" thing, I'd close my eyes and button mash wildly and kill hundreds of enemy. IT WAS BORING! There was/is some new Wii game with light sabres coming out. I think it'll be a short lived thrill. If you really want to fence, join a fencing club. It'll be much more fun. To be honest the whole Jedi/light sabre thing is overrated. It's just one aspect of the movies, and the roleplaying, games and prequels over-emphasized it. All they do is force-choke, force-push and deflect laser bolts. Big deal. Besdides that the're just regular soldiers except with the automatic 'General' title. The nuances of the ANH script makes the Jedis seem a far more mystical. That's totally lost in all this light-sabre BS.

Your rocket launcher locks up. You've got rockets. You haven't just fired it so you're not going through the normal two second delay as you ready the next rocket... yet for some reason, you can't fire your weapon at all for ages.

The rocket launcher is a pretty lame weapon really. Sure, it gives nice firey booms but it mostly only affects one target at a time. Reloads are so slow... And you need so many shots from it to knock out a big vehicle... I just leave it and play the more exciting parts of the battle.

JYAMG, you note all the different types of games, but they still miss a "realistic" battle game. Ever played Operation Flashpoint? A bit dated now and like everything has its faults, but it's the best thing like that I have ever played.

[Just your average movie goer]

Can you imagine enjoying a chat with some of your mates in the pub and some bouncer comes up to you and snarls "You have strayed off topic. You must end this topic, and declare a new one."

I couldn't imagine that before but after reading this, I did. It's quite an amusing mental image actually.

I'm glad to see that I'm not alone on the whole obsession with lightsabers. Lightsabers and swords in general really don't make sense in video games. Whether you are using a console, a keyboard, a joystick or a mouse, the only real game weapons that make sense are blasters. You know, point and click. The fire button doesn't really allow for much control with anything else.... not unless you want controls such as "Hold P + L" for parry left, "Hold F + R" for feint to the right, "Hold E down to step back into an en guarde position" or "Press W" to allow your character to utter a line of witty banter.

Also, as far as I know, most Star Wars fans wanted to be Han Solo when they grew up*, not Luke Skywalker. So the obsession with lightsabers and Jedi knights is doubly puzzling.

*Until they saw The Empire Strikes Back, from which time, they wanted to be Lando Calrissian.


Regarding the rocket launcher, it is rather lame but sometimes, as I said, it can be a hoot. I do find it puzzling however that when it explodes half a foot in front of a rebel, it does them no harm whatsover. Now I'm no expert on physics but I imagine if some exploding device was propelled at great speed into a surface just in front of you, you'd probably feel a little under the weather afterwards.

JYAMG, you note all the different types of games, but they still miss a "realistic" battle game. Ever played Operation Flashpoint? A bit dated now and like everything has its faults, but it's the best thing like that I have ever played.

I can't say I have but I agree, they don't really have any battle games. Or certainly, they don't have any first person battle games (I'm not interested in real time strategy games. They could be the most boring types of games ever designed. I'd rather watch grass grow than play one of them).

It wouldn't be hard really. It's like you said, you'd just need some points in the form of worthwhile objectives that would lend themselves to a combat strike. And no, "Get to the library" doesn't really qualify.

[Vesuvius]

Also, as far as I know, most Star Wars fans wanted to be Han Solo when they grew up*, not Luke Skywalker. So the obsession with lightsabers and Jedi knights is doubly puzzling.

Ah, that key word of yours is *most*. I didn't care for Solo when growing up, I favored Luke because he was a swordsman. I enjoy SW for the whole "intergalactic Samurai/Ronin" aspect. Eh, what can I say, it's a rare gift to want to be a swordsman.

I just hope these kids with their Wii consoles don't think that swinging a remote around is going to qualify for actually using a sword.

This post has been edited by Vesuvius: 26 January 2009 - 12:06 AM

[ion eon]

but it'd still kick some ass
i love the wii and the interactivity it offers

[Just your average movie goer]

You're quite right, Vesuvius, about the most part. I admire your individuality, wanting to be a swordsman.

Actually, there are times when taking up fencing looks pretty cool to me, I have to say. Well, when I say there are times, I mean when I watch The Princess Bride, I want to find the nearest fencing school and sign up.

Although, having said that, I realised something else in the whole onslaught of lightsabers and force stuff in the Star Wars games. You see, I'd been thinking of people my age or older (or slightly younger) when I made that comment. I had forgotten something crucial. People like us don't really make up much of LucasArts' market. The new kiddies who like the prequels are the ones they'd be mainly targeting... and they all probably wanna be Darth Maul, Samuel L. Windu or Anakin Jerk-face Skywalker.

Actually, the whole lightsaber obsession could easily be a run-off effect from one of the most major flaws of the prequels: that they were far too Jedi-centric and the lack of diversity made them uniform and dull. There were no loveable rogue types or interesting three dimensional characters and there was bugger all in terms of space dogfights, blaster fights and genuine old-school swashbuckling.

And now for a slight deviation before I finish off this post, I just realised that Battlefront II needed some more kicking while it was down. I had neglected to mention this in the other thread on the topic and I thought it really deserves mentioning:

The PC version of Battlefront II is the least stable PC game in the history of everything ever.

I have never seen a game that crashes to the desktop more frequently, with less warning or as quickly.

It would crash when loading levels. It would always crash during a space battle (100% of the time, I kid you not) and it would crash at other times at random. It is also in fact the only game where I spent more time trying to get it to run than actually playing it...

... although in hindsight, that was probably a good thing.

[Toru-chan]

Actually, there are times when taking up fencing looks pretty cool to me, I have to say. Well, when I say there are times, I mean when I watch The Princess Bride, I want to find the nearest fencing school and sign up.

There are fencing schools in BNE. That could be fun to try. It's all nancy boy swords though. Not a broadsword or axe to be seen. Now *that* could be fun!

Although, having said that, I realised something else in the whole onslaught of lightsabers and force stuff in the Star Wars games. You see, I'd been thinking of people my age or older (or slightly younger) when I made that comment. I had forgotten something crucial. People like us don't really make up much of LucasArts' market. The new kiddies who like the prequels are the ones they'd be mainly targeting... and they all probably wanna be Darth Maul, Samuel L. Windu or Anakin Jerk-face Skywalker.

But that's the funny thing: I'm not sure they do. So far as pop-culture goes, is Star Wars a blip on the radar of the younger generation? There is so much other stuff out there. Difficult now perhaps but if I try and imagine I'm a kid, there's no one in the PT I'd care for. In the OT when it was a kid there was I guess Luke when I was younger, but Han when I was older. But in the PT, who is there? Anakin? Not much to aspire to or identify with. Obi-won? Not a bad character, but I think Ewan played him as a bit of a fool. Mace Windu? All scowls and stupid decisions. Even Yoda is a bore. Dooku? Who the hell would aspire to be Dooku? Palpatine? Very unlikely. Padme? Too whiny. There's just no one there to identify with, or act as a protagonist. Plus the fact we knew how the PT ended anyway took out any rooting we may have had for the characters.

Actually, the whole lightsaber obsession could easily be a run-off effect from one of the most major flaws of the prequels: that they were far too Jedi-centric and the lack of diversity made them uniform and dull. There were no loveable rogue types or interesting three dimensional characters and there was bugger all in terms of space dogfights, blaster fights and genuine old-school swashbuckling.

Good point. If you saw the old 'Making of Star Wars' where they traced what Lucas claimed (at the time) were his influences, it was the latter which loomed large. But there was none of that in the prequel. It was stuck-up snooty Jedis (who looked straight out of Weird Science) who kept making dumb decisions before our eyes, who by their own code weren't allowed to have fun.

The PC version of Battlefront II is the least stable PC game in the history of everything ever. I have never seen a game that crashes to the desktop more frequently, with less warning or as quickly.

I never played it for that long. After the "30 seconds to the library" ended my campaign ambitions, I played the Rebel Blockade Runner and Deathstar and thought "Is that it?" Now if I need a quick fix, I'll play BF1. Can you imagine the incredible interactive story they could have played out if they'd put their mind to it? Oh what might have been.