f13.net

I don't remember who, but somebody in the Soul Caliber thread was bitching about how Soul Caliber IV is the only game evah that has gotten lightsaber combat right, etc... I dunno about anybody else, but about thirty minutes with the Force Unleashed demo this morning was enough to convince me otherwise. Though it's the non-saber powers that I really enjoyed, coupled with the game engine--throwing stormtroopers around was such pure pleasure that I was giggling with delight. I don't have a lot of expectations any more about anything Star Wars, game or otherwise, but honestly, this looks like it's going to be a lot of fun.

You just gave me a huge nerd boner.  Is this a 360 demo or PS3?  Or both?

Ooooohhh...it's out? The demo I mean. Niiice. I know what I'm doing after work!

360 for me. I think there's a PS3 demo too.

From what I can see, a lot of the bragging they've been doing about the game's engine and AI is pretty well deserved. At one point I was playing around with a stormtrooper that I had force-lifted, swinging him around before throwing him. He got close to a railing and grabbed at it, holding on for dear life. That kind of astonished me. The Empire troopers also do some interesting things--they're just chaff, of course, but they fall back or take cover, or try to circle around.

Throwing stuff you've force-lifted at a particular target takes a while to get the hang of, but I was starting to get fairly accurate with it by the end of my second run-through of the demo.

I do wish they hadn't gone for the boss-fight convention of "hit the right button at the right time" thing. About the only time I've sort of liked that style is God of War, and even there it got pretty old. It's like Dragon's Lair suddenly briefly comes and infects your nice shooter. Somebody's got to think of a better way to do it. And there's no way to know from the demo what an actual saber fight with another saber user is going to be like.

Suggesting QTEs for your game in a meeting should be grounds to immediately nail your dick to the table. Shit like that completely ruins really fun games.

Yeah. I can't say for sure how often it's used, and I'm really hoping there aren't QTEs for when you're dealing with other Force users. But there is one at the end of the demo when a little AT-PT comes after you. You have to saber it down but the finisher is a short QTE.

I was giggling incessantly the entire way through the demo.  It was that awesome.

I probably want to play through it again but focus on Saber moves, as I didn't really do a whole lot of that.  More along the lines of slamming STs into other STs... and the giggling.

On the next difficulty level up, you have to be a lot smarter about using saber moves, not just wading into crowds, etc.

I can't say this is a great game. And somehow, it's the best Star Wars game ever made. Truly, the bar for quality is shit.

JK2, Battlefront 2 and KOTOR were all quite decent games.

And Rogue Squadrom on N64.

Not to split hairs, but there's a canyon between 'quite decent' and 'great.'

I'll allow for differing opinions on JK2 and KOTOR.  The Battlefront games aren't bad but they don't really belong on a list of great SW games either.  The X-Wing and TIE Fighter games were great though, as was the original Star Wars arcade game, and I really liked the Star Wars Trilogy arcade game as well.

Hell yes - one of my favorite games ever.  I agree with the rest of your post too, but particularly this part.

Played the FU demo on PS3...not sure what I think.  Potential for awesomeness, but I really want to play this on a mouse and keyboard - unless one of you clever people is going to tell me that it is m/k compatible on PS3?  Please?

Um, Super Empire Strikes Back, Super Return of the Jedi, Rogue Squadron, KOTOR all great games. You may have not liked them, or they may not tickle the fancy, but they were good.

I would say that Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight would be the best Star Wars game made thus far. Honorable mention to the original Dark Forces, as well.

Not sure what to think about The Force Unleashed. It's fun to raise hell with the light saber and powers, but...it seems to be lacking something. Of course, it's just a demo, but I'd like to see more. More stuff blowing up, if nothing else.

JK2 is probably my favorite SW game made.  It pretty much did everything it needed to do.  JK3 would have been good as well if they hadn't of messed with the combat so much.

Plug in your USB M/K and try the demo?

The original SW arcade game was indeed great for it's time. I think KOTOR is one of the best CPRGs released, but then I don't like the JRPG aesthetic style that much either. SWBattlefront 1 was unfinished but playable. SWBF2 was a much more complete game, and falls into "quite good" but not great. JK2 was very good, JK2:JA didn't hold my interest. The Super Star Wars franchise were exciting, but not especially great as games.

Actually, I'd say Lego SW is easily the best of the recent SW games.

Downloaded the FU demo overnight. I'll give it a whirl after I finish my soup.

Meh.  Too much God of War, not enough Jedi Knight.  Where's force speed (beyond the stupid little dash), etc?  I had high hopes for the game, so this is a let down.

Ditto.

I was, uh, not impressed.  One saber attack button?  Mash-mash-mash-throw-mash-mash-throw.  Meh.

JK2 was far superior.

It was ...okay.

I'm not expecting it to be JK2, it's a console game, and a different beast, but even allowing for that I remain unexcited.
Like I said, okay. Not nerd-boner-inducing at all though. And enough with the fucking GoW boss fights in games.

I'll buy it when it drops in price to about half of the release price. Maybe from play-asia whenb they have a sale.

I had pretty much the exact same reaction to the Soul Calibur 3 demo as well, actually.

See now, you probably would have more fun with the Soul Calibur 4 demo.

ok, ha ha. I meant SC4.

I too was unimpressed with the demo. If it's going to be an Action game, I want more variety and control over my moves.

As was said above, 1-button saber moves = suck.

There was obviously not enough Stormtrooper chucking going on in your play throughs.

There's some fun interactions between your powers and the saber attacks. While the basic Saber attack was on one button it's not just all "Mash X" for your saber'ing needs.

I got that; the moves seemed superfluous though. And I thought I could be funny and chuck exploding objects at the Walker boss, but that was before I realized that all it takes to kill the thing is a few quick buttons presses. Lame.

This.

I downloaded and played this game last night and I was fairly unimpressed. It is going to stay in my game rental que but I will not be buying it.

The good has been hyped non stop since the game was announced.
1. It's Star Wars and you get to do cool shit with the force.
2. The NPC's seem to actually think which is amazing. They grab on to bars and each other, but they aren't smart enough to run away from the Jedi with the lightsaber mowing down their buddies. Not a complaint just an observation.
3. It's Star Wars and you get a light saber force powers and you're a bad guy.

The bad just makes the game more of the same.
1. The game doesn't look that amazing.
2. The Demo gives me the impression that the game will be a cakewalk as long as you can press buttons when they pop up on screen.
3. In a room full of bad guys I didn't feel worried or challenged at all, I was just trying to get a feel for throwing things not even paying attention to the bad guys.
4. I would have enjoyed Boss battles that actually felt like a battle.

Why do light sabers still not chop storm troopers in half?

This hero is apparently not as powerful as he thinks he is. And Vader knighting him... that should have removed those pesky shoulders.

I'm going with "Meh" as my take on the game.

So would you say that the reason they gave for not making a PC version is complete bullshit, then?

When they fired the entire staff that worked on this that seemed like evidence they thought the game was mediocre.

Pretty damn meh.   I don't see myself being desperate enough in the coming months to even consider buying this.

As a broad observation about where Star Wars seems to be headed, it seems like the current best idea the IP holders can come up with is "give the character a secret apprentice who no-one has ever heard of before".

I'll wait for the reviews of the full game, but Force Unleashed (or Star Wars: FU) seems more like fanboi wank than a good idea for a title.

They probably gave some bullshit reason, because they don't want to say there isn't much money to be made on the PC because most people pirate computer games.

More like the most (only) successful SW games are on consoles, like, lego starwars. ETC. My friends son will eat this game up, because its starwars, and nothing more.

So, you're saying PC gamers are more discerning than console gamers?

I'd have thought that this was self-evident.  And I say this as someone who isn't a console hater.

I personally thought the demo was trash all around. From Vader's voice, to the "knighting" to the look of surprise on the apprentice, (that should have gotten his ass force choked) to the cruddy  controls. How did Psy-ops get this better than this game did? You should be able to walk and move things, the fighting is trash, the movement is trash, really, I was expecting at least some decent game play out of this, but it failed at that and can't even stand as a believable Star-Wars game.

Successful as in sell or successful as in playable? Because apart from Lego Star Wars (and perhaps Rogue Squadron), I am failing to think of any entertaining SW game on a console.

The SNES games were pretty fun. Super Empire Strikes Back being the best IIRC.

Your also (Guessing) not a kid.

The N64 title was plenty fun.

There was a Dark Forces port to the PSX. Although technically not as good as the PC version (320x240...), it still captured the game's essence well enough and it was fun.

I loved this on the XBLA. I thought it'd translate well to the Wii. I was only partially right.

The controls are ok, but here again is the overuse of gimmicky crap that doesn't do anything for the enthusiast gamer. Just let me play with a game pad.

The graphics are REALLY weak. Even though I thought the endless CoH-instance-style of repetitiveness that was No More Heroes zones was annoying, at least the graphics didn't highlight just how not-tech the Wii is. And unlike most times with console games, the graphics DID get in the way for me. For one the vibrancy of some colors on Kashyyyk made for too high a contrast in the environments. For another, the depth of field was not nearly enough for me to discern what awaited, even though it was firing at me.

Finally, boss fights. I lost my patience with this crap twenty years ago. I gave up on this title the moment I was tempted to go online to get the answer on how to get past one of thm. These endurance fights always devolve into having to puzzle out the exact one thing the designer intended you to do. If I want that shit, I'll go back to raiding.

And this was a game I LOVED on the XBLA. I'll probably go pick up that version just to see if the different control system a) makes it as fun as the demo I played; and, b) makes it more intuitive during boss matches.

Lil bump.

The brother and I picked this up a couple days ago, most of the game is pretty great, the boss fights make you want to pull your fucking hair out and throw the controller at the screen.  Worth a rental at the very least though, it's definitely entertaining.

Boss fights are better after you get some levels.

I've already got quite a few levels, and we ran through the first level like 3 times getting all the holocrons, so that helped as well.

What irks me about is that the bosses don't have to follow the same rules that you do.  When I've landed 3 hits in a row and get nailed in the middle of the final hit of the combo, it's just bullshit.  When the bosses block 90% of my force powers and take 0 damage, while I can't block theirs effectively at all, it's bullshit.

I am playing on the Jedi lord or whatever difficulty though (the hardest one available from the start, you have to unlock the hardest) so that may have something to do with how cockstabbingly difficult it is.

Oh also, those stupid fucking fellucians and their red-aura generating shamans.  Fuck those.

You either are saying that you have never played a game before or that you are getting too old for this shit.

Tick-tock Clarice.


Props to Ironwood.

I've had it for a few days and I am just about to rescue Bail, but I really have no idea how far into the game I am.

I have to say that I am glad I rented it. It's good as a rental, but I would be very disappointed if I bought this game.

I got about what I expected from playing the demo.

That is fair enough. Just the basic gameplay was worth admission for me. Of course, if people are going to sell a game for X amount, it should have X amount of gameplay. Free Market and whatnot.

Yeah, but for 60 bucks, I think this has more fun packed in it than most games these days, so I call that a win.

I have gotten more than $60 out of it. And nerf is a girl.

 After the "oooh I can throw things with the force" excitement wore off there wasn't much left in this game for me.

I would give it a 6 out of 10. They could have done so much more with it.

NECRO!

PC version of this coming later this year. (http://comic-con.gamespot.com/story/6214122/force-unleashed-unleashing-more-dlc-sith-edition) Only a year after it was released.