I’ll admit that I’m not the biggest fan of the Kinect. I have one, and I’ve played games with it, and even spent some time controlling my 360 with it. However, I’m still completely convinced that Microsoft has misplaced their faith in the technology. I’ve yet to see it utilized in a way that doesn’t feel gimmicky. Despite all of that, I’m a sucker for anything that lets me use a lightsaber.

Yes, I am looking forward to the Kinect Star Wars game. Even more so after this latest advertisement. They’ve taken the famous lightsaber battle between Darth Vader and Obi-wan Kenobi, and changed it up a bit. Putting the player in the place of Obi-wan.

Honestly, could you say that you’d do things differently? Everyone wants to play with a lightsaber, swinging it around and listening to the awesome hum. It’s great to see this captured in this humorous ad.

Flight sims haven’t always been my cup of tea, as games like Microsoft Flight Simulator mostly consist of flying around lazily for hours on end. The only excitement comes when you decide to fly under a bridge, or try and land successfully. There was one franchise, however, that I did spend countless hours playing, and that was the X-Wing series.

Since X-Wing Alliance came out in 1999, we’ve heard very little regarding the series. Fans have been clamoring for a new title, but have been met with silence. There may be hope of a new X-Wing game in the future, if a LucasArts job posting is anything to go by.

One of the requirements listed in the post was “Experience with flight sims, aerial shooters, and especially space-based shooters a plus.” Now there is nothing else to help narrow down exactly what sort of game this will be, but a space-based shooter sounds like something Star Wars related to me. Honestly, I don’t care which era the game is based in, as long as it ends up being a successor to the franchise I grew up with, I’ll be happy.

If you’ve been lucky enough to get in on the beta for The Old Republic, I have some bad news for you. Your glory days of playing the game before your friends (and reminding them of it on a regular basis) has come to an end. Thanks to a reader tip, we have been informed that this phase of beta testing is over.

Bioware has sent out a round of emails to all of the current testers, to inform them that they will no longer have access to the game servers. This is curious, since they still apparently have plans to have future Beta Weekends throughout this month. Perhaps they are simply ready for a new batch of testers. Either way, that’s good news for those who didn’t get an invite to the last round.

Unfortunately with this round of testing coming to a close, there won’t be a flood of information hitting the internet. Bioware was quick to point out that everyone involved in the testing is still bound by the NDA they agreed to at the start. If you were a tester, do remember to be discreet about what you saw, lest the MMO gods frown upon your actions.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, EA Games lead Frank Gibeau made a statement that hinted toward Star Wars: The Old Republic featuring 200 hours of gameplay per class. That’s the equivalent of about eight days of nonstop play time.

During the interview, Gibeau was asked about the fact that the game is estimated to cost the company $300 million. In response, he stated, “I don’t pay much attention to that talk, I get a lot of questions from analysts and press about it. What I try and concentrate on is, is it a good game and is it ready to go? You look at a game that has 200 hours of gameplay for each of the six classes, and that doesn’t include the crafting, the raids, the multiplayer. It’s vast. It’s a gigantic game. And that costs money.”

At this year’s E3, there were a lot of games shown off, and certainly no shortage of MMO’s. However, the one I had my eye on has remained the same for several years now. I’m of course talking about Star Wars: The Old Republic. Being a huge fan of the Star Wars universe, (as well as a disappointed fan of Star Wars Galaxies) I’ve been looking forward to seeing what BioWare can do in the MMO genre.

I was able to spend a bit of time with a hands-on demo of the game. I took on the role of a higher-level character, so that I could jump straight into the action. My character for the demo was a level 26 human smuggler. She had a companion droid that would help out with cover fire, and could be upgraded to do a bit of healing in the battlefield. You could also converse with the companion, though it wasn’t always up for chatting.

My character was in the midst of a World Quest. If you’re not familiar with the term, these are a chain of quests found on each world, that take you through a complex story, with each lasting several hours. I was on the planet of Tatooine, where I was sent to dispatch a group of Tusken Raiders, who had stolen something rather valuable.

After jumping on my speeder bike, I headed across the desert to the location I was given. As promised, there were a group of the sand people who were more than happy to give me my first taste of combat. The first thing I did was make sure that my companion was out and set to lay down cover fire. Then, I set down my portable cover and prepared my attack.

The portable cover system was really interesting, and not something that I have seen in other MMO’s that I’ve played. When I think of a smuggler caught in a shoot-out, I usually picture them hiding around a corner and poking out to make shots that count. This portable cover really added to that part of the experience.

From there, I was able to line up a number of ranged attacks to take down my enemies. A combination of blaster fire and thrown explosives kept the fight interesting, but certainly flowing in my favor. After picking up the item I was looking for, I went on to find a Sith that was hiding out nearby. I found him in a cave, after fighting my way through more of the raiders.

Once found, we discover that the Sith we’re after is on the brink of death. I approached him and began a conversation. Instead of having mouth movements with lines of text, this conversation (like every other in the game) was completely voiced. Also, unlike many other MMO’s, my conversation with this NPC is not straightforward. Instead, I am given a number of choices throughout the conversation, each of which not only leads you down the dark or light path, but also determines what happens after you are finished talking. In this case, I could either slay the sith in anger, or leave him to possibly recover.

What is really interesting is that the choices you make in these conversations don’t just influence what happens immediately after you stop talking, but rather it can impact what happens later on in the game. Since my demo only lasted a limited amount of time, I wasn’t able to see how these choices impacted later gameplay. Also, the choices aren’t just limited to conversations with NPCs. I encountered an item that I could destroy, so as to prevent someone else from reading it. I’ll be interested to see how far they take these choices in the finished product.

Overall, the game did play like many traditional MMO’s. However, the voiced dialogue and the ability to make choices in your conversations really made it a step above others I’ve played in the past. I like knowing that I’m not on a linear path, and that even in small ways, I can make a difference in how the game plays out for me. I’ll be looking forward to seeing the full finished product when it is released.

Of course the Knights of the Old Republic screen pictured above is old, but it’s going to prove a point. The latest trailer for the Knights of the Old Republic title from BioWare shows just how much the Jedi have evolved since the days of old. Check it out, and tell us what you think.

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LucasArts has decided that they need more time with the new Lego Star Wars 3, and they pushed the release date for the game back from February 15th to March 22nd.

There has been no detailed reason for the delay, but we can assume that it has something to do with how content-heavy the game will be, and already is. As soon as more is known, we will be sure to cover it.

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Just the other night a friend of mine let me know he was playing Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 and was telling me how he hasn’t been enjoying it. Now I wrote a review of the game a while back, and gave it a pretty decent score. Everyone I’ve spoken to since has had me defend my score, and now I know why. I sat with my friend, David, and watched him play the game from start to finish and needless to say looking at it a second time from a spectator position doesn’t make the game look any more enjoyable than what people are saying about it.

Well the funny folks at Robot Chicken have decided to give us their take on the game, showing us exactly how they think it should have played out. Honestly, if the game was like this it would be the only one I would play. Ever.

Check out the video below.

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OMGEWOKS!

LucaArts as just announced via IGN that the first set of DLC for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 will take place on Endor, home to the friendly and adorable Ewoks during the events of Return of the Jedi. LucasArts Executive Producer in Singapore Gio Corsi describes to us exactly how this fits into the storyline with the previous game’s DLC.

“We like to call it an ‘infinite storyline’ much like the Hoth Bonus Mission from the first Force Unleashed game that gave us an alternate take on that iconic battle from the Empire Strikes Back. We leveled Starkiller differently for the DLC since this adventure falls into the ‘infinite universe.’ He does have the same abilities as he did in TFU2, which allows Starkiller to start kicking ass right from the get go.”

This basically means that players can bring their leveled up Starkiller from the main campaign into the DLC. No solid release date for the DLC has been given, nor has a set price. Good news, though, is that a new character skin pack is coming for the cost of a sweet buck.

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I have to admit, I was pretty excited when The Force Unleashed II released last Tuesday. I couldn’t wait to pick it up and give it a go. As soon as I got home with the game, I put it in, sat down, and just waited to unleash my own Force fury on some unsuspecting Storm Troopers. Here’s our review of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II.

Storyline

Our story begins with a newly-revived Starkiller, who is merely a clone of the original. We find ourselves on the rainy planet of Kamino, at a cloning facility being run by Vader himself. In an effort to reconnect with his apprentice, Vader has been testing clones of Starkiller in training, but they all seem to fail beyond his grasp. The clones have been having meltdowns when faced with the pilot from the last game, Juno. The clone we see in the game is no different. During his training session, he suffers a mental breakdown and attacks Vader, thus ensuing a desperate escape from Kamino. From this point on the storyline simply follows Starkiller on a journey to save his love interest, Juno.

Gameplay

I have to say that the gameplay is definitely one-sided compared to that of the last game. It is good to see Starkiller with the levels of power that he has attained in the sequel, but compared to the actual Starkiller in the first game, the new one makes the old one look like Mary Poppins on a cold winter day. The developers really gave Starkiller an amazing amount of power in the second title. Force Gripping Tie Fighters right out of the sky in crumpled heaps is extremely fun, but in the last game we couldn’t so much as move one. We see Starkiller survive impossible falls, jumps, and many other death-defying leaps of faith that weren’t even imagined in the previous title. Don’t get me wrong, it makes the game extremely fun, but as far as storyline and playability, it is a bit lacking and unconventional.

Starkiller gains a useful (yet bland) assortment of new powers in the game, such as dual sabers and the Mind Trick power. Also, his combo attacks have changed in the new game in such that two button presses will send him into a mad combo, which gets you into trouble. I can’t tell you how many times I had gotten stuck because as I was flailing around like an idiot, all of the enemies flanked me and got me from behind. This was very frustrating, and became the source of a lot of rage quits for me.

One disturbing thing I found about the game is that even though Starkiller is extremely overpowered, the enemies follow suit. Before too long, even the fall-in-line troopers wielding dual sabers, and have Force powers to match your own. The combat isn’t too advanced, it is simply button-mash while in close, block here, Force Push there, end of battle. The only annoying issue I ran into was the constant bombardment of missiles from AT-STs and when the arachnid drones would constantly stop the flow of battle at the most opportune moments, which made my rage mode that much more apparent.

The addition of the new Force overload mode is quite fun, though. Defeating enemies allows you to build a rage meter, then you can unleash it for more powerful attacks, a health boost, and the use of less Force energy. I found this quite helpful while in tight situations.

Of course the saber customization is back. Each crystal beyond the first grants bonuses, and you can mix and match to suit the situation. I really liked this concept, because it turned Starkiller into a Jack of all trades.

The campaign, however, is quite short. On normal you can get through it in about eight hours. With nine levels to go through (including an extremely short two-minute walk on Dagobah), the length of the game is sure to disappoint. It wouldn’t be so bad if the straight-lined mediocre gameplay from the first game was improved to a great extent in this title, but again, therein lies disappointment.

The Verdict

All in all, the game was fun, but somewhat of a disappointment. With the absence of a well-written storyline, repetitive and overpowered gameplay, annoying enemies that make you feel that you’re on the same level as them, and the large lack of gameplay detail, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II is a game that was set up to please, but didn’t achieve much more than a disappointment.

I admit, I had fun playing it, and the gameplay is enough to keep you entertained until you rage quit because of the annoying AT-STs. Of course, it is a Star Wars game to have if you are a collector, but I would urge you to rent it before dropping full price on it. Hopefully, if there are more to come in the future, time will be taken to make it the game we expect from LucasArts.