Roderick

I just love the marketing campaign for this game. Now they're playfully mocking other games like Starcraft and Dead Space =) How can you say no to this face? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0dqrhRbsJo

Cherish it, and never let it go!

And here I am having to swallow at least a bit of the gloss of my previous post. Though I still like the game and insist that it's not mediocre (only if you take the average of the great ups and great downs it has, and that poorly reflects the game -but hey, that's what's wrong with the entire industry's grading system), having finished it throws some hindsight perspective on the case. It may also be the disappointing final confrontation. Should I use spoiler tags here? Let's. The graphical glitches seem to increase slightly in later levels, and there it also feels more rushed. As has been lamented everywhere; pulling down the Star Destroyer is a frustrating, shit sequence that could've blown everyone's mind if they had done it right. But I will grant them, I wouldn't know how they should've done it, and so far I haven't heard any other ideas either, so it might just have been really impossible in the first place. Also, the camera rivals that of GTAIV in terms of me having to adjust it absolutely ALL THE TIME. It manages to always frame the action in just the wrong way, with no overview, no sense of dramatics, making me look at drab ground instead of the often breathtaking skies and landscape. But all these things aside, I STILL enjoyed the game. Superficially as it sounds; because it's STAR WARS. And it does some amazing things with the story and characters which I won't even hint at. And sometimes... that's enough.

That's the name I was looking for. A bit less awkward than 'Brazil-guy'. Or 'Tomorrow Never Dies-villain'.

I will love the believable, fractured dog. I love Peter Molyneux =)

Hmm, I'm now about 3/4ths along the way. When is this thing supposed to get shit? Because I'm still enjoying myself hugely. So far I've stumbled upon a few graphical glitches (terrain popping op or blacking out, which would never last for more than a second) and some mediocre gameplay (sloshy controls, stupid AI, repetetive bosses). But the art design is never less than breathtaking, the worlds well realized, the writing and acting amazing and the story pushing all the right buttons. I'm coming to the conclusion that most of the naysayer journalists must've had their expectations way too high, which is exclusively their own fault (you really can't blame a publisher for hyping their game; it's up to the reporter to be able to judge a game objectively, that's the fucking job). Force Unleashed getting sixes? That's amazing bullshit. It only proves that the particular journalist really doesn't get what FU's about. Hell, what Lucasarts' about. Jesus Christ, how many more decades before some people realize that the studio had never been about gameplay, but all about story and atmosphere. Sure, they did fine when they were making adventures, which didn't require a lot of gameplay tweaking and movement controls. But almost everything they did with action in it was terrible or mediocre. I thought this was well known by now. But really, Force Unleashed is great when you go into it with the right mindset: seeing the next Star Wars movie. The game's littered with excellent cutscenes and characters. And it's never too hard on easy mode, so you won't get stuck often. But actually, the game's trickier than I had expected! Some of the Jedi Holocrons (which unlock features and give bonuses) are difficult to get! Sure, FU would've greatly benefited from a few months extra development, but the ambition is clear, and some of the force powers and combo's are fun to play with. This is NOT a mediocre game. It's flawed, but ambitious and quite often fun to play. And it's also one of the best Star Wars stories I've seen so far, movies included.

YARRRRRR! I'm donning the ol' eyepatch and skull 'n crossbones when I hit the streets today!

They are not mutually exclusive!

Haha, well, I just bought it for the 360 and I'm loving it. Sure, there are some glitches and the AI seems to freeze, but I just love the art style, the atmosphere in the game and the instantly likeable cast. It's funny that they've managed to capture the Star Wars feel from scene 1 perhaps even better than the new movies did. And you know what? It really does feel like canon Star Wars. The stuff that we didn't know happened between movies 3 and 4. Who knows, maybe my opinion will become as bitter as Twmac's in a few levels, but the first two were long, shiny and did not disappoint. But it might help that I'm not playing this for the gameplay, but for the story and atmosphere. As an actiongame it's pretty generic, yeah, and it suffers majorly from too many vague combo's that it's too chaotic to use anyway.

The guy is just trying to be supportive. In the only language he knows.

To me, The Fellowship always seemed a big perpetrayor, with the cave troll which just didn't have the same three-dimensional depth and depth of shadows as the rest of the scene. Creatures like the tentacle-monster at the beginning of the mines of Moria were a lot more convincing. But it's all still infinitely better than the new Star Wars films. Especially part one and two have aged dramatically. I remember being completely sold on the special effects the first times I saw them, but upon rewatching it was more like I was looking at some bad FMV adventure, with blue screen edges and unrealistic scenes. Wow.

Well, they're really pushing this game, so it's not weird that they're capitalizing on the Star Wars brand's popularity. They were really smart about the presentation as well. Having perhaps noticed that the game's gameplay garnered a lot of negative reactions, the presentation focused on the story. The general emphasis was: this is the new core canon Star Wars. At that point it became irrelevant that the game might not be good, since it as simply something a Star Wars fan would have to play.

Is this new? Old? Does it mean anything?? (It's about the front page quote)

I'm still kind of struggling with understanding where Force Unleashed went wrong. This was the first Star Wars game I had been getting excited about in ages. It seemed to be pretty sweet, with the novel technology and systems it used, a smart story, engaging characters... what happened?

The first Tomb Raider was the subject of such immense juvenile behaviour in the 90s that it kind of blew all the credibility the series had for me. I never played it. The baggage it had was just too unattractive for me to invest in it.

I don't know anything of this game, except that it has an awesome song attached to it. You can download it on the game's official site. Oh no you didn't!

Also, I can't believe NCSoft accidentally THE WHOLE COMPANY

Jeeeeeesus H Christ! What happened? Did Richard Garriot's space programme cost a trifle more than expected? But in seriousness, I hope you find something else that's ultra cool. And forming your own gaming company might not even be such a weird idea. I certainly wouldn't mind helping you out in any which way.

Nixxes, who are working together with Eidos to create the new Tomb Raider. Go Dutchies!

As a rule, foreign people are always interesting to interesting people. You'll have no end to the chats about politics and culture. At least, that's how it's always with me. As soon as I know someone's from abroad, I zoom in on them and begin discussing these things. Just ask Ron Gilbert Since about a year or five we've got a pretty good Video game industry building up. We've got the big boys like Triumph (Overlord) and Guerrilla (Killzone), and the guys who are making the new Tomb Raider, and then there's a slew of interesting companies underneath that. Anything from Chronicles of Spellborn to Swords & Soldiers. So there's definitely something there, even if it isn't yet to the level of, say, Britland.

They kinnae do tha! They taught me how to speak Scottish! The site was getting slimmer and slimmer all the time, but let's hope we get some sort of official statement soon. A world without Consolevania or Videogaiden... the internet just got a lot less fun. Still, they left an ageless legacy of dozens (maybe nearing one hundred even?) of episodes that are still fun to watch even as the games aren't new anymore. I feel like rewatching Gaiden S2. TEAM!!

Morrowind was a pretty well-established, novel setting though; rife with cultural depth and little touches. Managed to sweep me away wholly. Oblivion proffers nothing more than clichéd fantasy pap though. Still fun, but not at all as engaging or exciting.

If he does, I'm actually afraid he'll die within the first few months. I think Palin is a lot scarier as a leader than McCain.

Hey, I recently spoke with such an immigrant who worked at TomTom in Amsterdam =) Good call.

(I still want to live some time in America though, just to see what it's like.)