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Intrepid Homoludens

Jedi Knight II owns my ass

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jkout7a.jpgstar_wars_jedi_outcast6.jpg

Highly recommended. I played the demo (which is a level not in the full game) to death like a sex starved nympho in a cashmere lined room full of Christian Bale clones, and then I finally got the full game. One of the first things you notice is the obscenely vast sense of scale of this gameworld, interesting for its tension between the dizzyingly colossal architecture and the comparably tiny brilliant minds who built them and populate them. Acrophobes be warned. I cranked up all the graphics settings (except for volumetric shadows, which slowed down the framerates considerably but were atmospherically useless anyway), and Kyle's universe came into sharp focus with sheer sceen-lickable precision.

And all that before I finally got my lightsaber. Those of you who've played this otherwise underappreciated spectacle, you know what I mean. The lightsaber is as close as you'll get to a high tech sex toy surrogate. I mean, that mofo is up there with Alice's darkly twisted toy arsenal. And in combination with your increasing force powers, well....let's just say that it's practically sinful. Gameplaywise, there are near Half-Life moments where I would enter a room and all hell would break loose.

Another good recommendation: play it while your six-year-old nephew is watching. Many were the moments when mine laughed uncontrollably as I switched the lever that opened a hatch and caused a dozen storm troopers and imperial guards to get sucked out into outer space, screaming to their icy eternal stillness. Of course, I saved that part of the game just for him to watch whenever he wants. He asked me why the bad guys were after Kyle Katarn, so I made up a story about Kyle having a really hot ass and that all those imperial guards and storm troopers want to grab it, and Kyle hates that. Natch, right after that I entered a room with a bunch of them and one of them shouts, "Get behind him!" My nephew and I never laughed so hard together.

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Stupid fact: Jedi Outcast's dialogue was written by Sam & Max's Mike Stemmle.

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This post has tempted me to find my copy and play it again tomorrow, you've truly sold me on the coolness of it all again. I'd forgotten about that bit where you suck all the stormtroopers out into space, that kicks ass.

More great things Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast that spring to mind:

- First time the lightsaber actually looked like one, rather than a big green toy stick (as in Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight. The glow is awesome.

- Lightsaber is fun and the moves on the keyboard make good sense. Though annoying (pre-patch) when it came to multiplayer, the backward lunge was incredibly satisfying in single player to finish the bad dudes off. Throwing in all the rolls and jumps cleverly was just a lot fun.

- Tons of saber fights - the plot allowed for a silly amount of 'saber fodder' Dark Jedi so you got to kick ass very frequently in the later levels. They still had the tough bosses though, so it wasn't too easy.

- Recreates an original trilogy feel pretty well, like very few of the Star Wars games have. Decent cutscenes with Luke etc. whilst never feeling like it wanted to be a movie.

- Cloud City was done really well.

- Decent multiplayer levels and options, Duel mode was fun.

I'm kind of shocked it wasn't received better than it was, actually. It wasn't panned but I don't think it's regarded as one of the greats of its year, however I enjoyed the hell out of it. I'd say this was actually the best Star Wars game ever, for a short spell - before Knights Of The Old Republic, came out. There was recently a kind of sequel, Jedi Academy, but it was effectively like an add-on (same interface, Quake3 engine use etc) - anyone tried it? I heard it wasn't up to much.

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More great things Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast that spring to mind:

- First time the lightsaber actually looked like one, rather than a big green toy stick (as in Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight. The glow is awesome.

There was once a project for Jedi Knight called Glowsaber.

The team there created an enhanced lightsaber to the game.

It actually looked a lot better than the original, but of course Outcast's lightsaber is far more superior than that Glowsaber.

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And Kyle has such a hot ass!

I left off at the level where he had go back to the Jedi academy to save it from Desann's wrath. Did anyone here try collecting green men? I think they're called swamp troopers, and they give up so damn easily. Just give 'em a little force grip and they'll willingly become your captive (maybe they just love having a captor with a hot ass, I dunno). It's hilarious. The most green men I captured were seven (I'll post a screenshot soon), but I think it's possible to round up a lot more than that. The trick is to 'transport' them all to one place, but sometimes one or two try to run away to look for weapons. Also, be careful transporting them, they can be delicate, and a slight bump will kill them.

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Jedi Outcast wasn't a critical darling, but it didn't do too poorly in the magazines. It also sold incredibly well. LucasArts was pleased as punch with the sales of the PC versions. Console ones, not so sure.

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There was once a project for Jedi Knight called Glowsaber.

The team there created an enhanced lightsaber to the game.

It actually looked a lot better than the original, but of course Outcast's lightsaber is far more superior than that Glowsaber.

Yeah, I remember having that, it was pretty cool to have it looking more real. I tried a lot of the mods for the first JK, I remember there was one ridiculous one that made Kyle somersault every time he jumped, even if it was a tiny little jump he'd miraculously spin round in mid-air.

On the subjects of Jim Cameron and Kyle's hot ass, I agree that Kyle looks quite like the famously stroppy Aliens director, but I've not really noticed the latter.

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You know, if you wanted to make Kyle's ass even hotter and give him a pair of those Prince style pants (yes, you know the ones), I did write a tutorial.

Well, not specifically on making Kyle's ass hotter, you understand.

http://web.archive.org/web/20030411053810/http://www.theforce.net/games/jo/skinning.shtml

It's offline right now, so some of the images in the archive linked above are broken. I'm slowly reformatting it, bringing in some 3rd party help on JA specifics and sound and converting to pdf to post at the usual modding sites.

And here's one reason for owning Jedi Academy (the JKII sequel);

http://darkforces.jediknight.net/

One level demo out now, 3 level demo in final testing for release in the next month or so.

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One level demo out now, 3 level demo in final testing for release in the next month or so.

Apparently the demo is actually for JK2. (Says the readme files, and the fact that it won't run in JA.)

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Apparently the demo is actually for JK2. (Says the readme files, and the fact that it won't run in JA.)

Oh, yeah. The old 1 level demo is for JK2 (though I thought Jedi Outcast mods worked in Jedi Academy // shrug //).

The development has been ported to Academy, and the upcoming 3 level download will be Academy only, trust me.

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I think that the main reason that it was paned by critics was that you don't get your lightsaber untill a good bit into the game. Remeber the pitch black caves and walker level? :frusty: And when you finaly get the light saber the first level they through at you is one of the games hardest. It actually gets easier as the game goes on. It's certanly not horable though, as I seemed to enjoy it more a second time through.

Multiplayer deathmatch owned though, but the capture the blank modes were not as well concieved.

Those dark areas can actually be done with out the funny gogles, just go into the optoins menu and rase up the brightness really high.

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I must agree that this game is awesome. My only problem with it being that level inside the Star Destroyer where your trying to set the communications codes by jumping across multilayered platforms over what seems to be a bottemless pit. Inside of the Star Destroyer. Ponder that. Oh and not having the lightsaber blows. My second time through the game I used cheats to give it to me instantly to see what it was like. That's highly recommended, along with full force, you just wander around slaughtering countless stormtroopers thinking about how it used to be kinda hard.

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Life before the light saber (and force powers) was sheer torture. But I understand why they did it that way, even though they should have given you one big-ass powerful gun at that time to balance it out (and scarce ammo for that gun so you have to use it wisely).

I finished the game the other night. That was a great trip. But the final boss battle was alarmingly easy! I thought, what?! All I had to do was slash the mofo a few times and he croaked! The battle with Fyyer was hell compared to that.

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