New Star Wars title

[MatchBot]

The latest issue of the US magazine Game Informer contains new information on the upcoming next generation Star Wars title which is currently in development by none other than LucasArts.

The project name of the game is Star Wars: Force Unleashed and it is supposed to take place between Episode III and IV. A very interesting time in the Star Wars universe in which Darth Vader sets out to kill the last surviving Jedi.

The player will play as Darth Vader's apprentice, taking out the emperor to rule the galaxy side by side with Darth Vader and George Lucas taking an active part in the development process could unearth some new characters.

But Star Wars: Force Unleashed is not just another Star Wars game, it is also set to feature the Euphoria engine which calculates environmental damage such as smashing crates in real-time. A crate for example will break differently depending on how it has been hit.

Force powers include the "cannon ball"-like force push, with controls presented in a similar vein to the excellent Psi-Ops.

The information released so far definitely sounds promising, especially when throwing in multiple endings and rumours of being able to control several rancors. A release date has not been set, but the game is pencilled in for this year.



More... (http://www.matchbox360.co.uk/news/360 Games/New Star Wars title)

[Razor]

It'll be interesting to see if this lives up to the standards set in KOTOR or Battlefront 2 both class star wars games.

[kurosaki7]

This is about the video clip i was going on about last year, this game will be coming to PC though like all the JK games etc before it. On the 360 it will be meh though, as they always ruin the control schemes for them.

[carocat]

This is about the video clip i was going on about last year, this game will be coming to PC though like all the JK games etc before it. On the 360 it will be meh though, as they always ruin the control schemes for them.
JK games?

Yeah, it was previewed at E3 I believe.

[kurosaki7]

Jedi Knight of course! And yes it was at e3 last year :)

[carocat]

Oh, ok.

I didn't think that the control scheme of the Jedi Knight games was too bad. Granted I've only played Outcast something and Jedi Academy, but Jedi Academy is a very decent game.

[gradinator]

Who's developing it?

I ask because there was strong rumours than Free Radical were doing something with Lucas Arts.

[carocat]

As far as I know Free Radical are creating the next installment in the Star Wars Battlefronts series.

[carocat]

There is some artwork out now:

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/764/764506/star-wars-the-force-unleashed-20070214104126018.jpg

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/764/764506/star-wars-the-force-unleashed-20070214104121658.jpg

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/764/764506/star-wars-the-force-unleashed-20070214104122877.jpg

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/764/764506/star-wars-the-force-unleashed-20070214104123893.jpg

There are some more images here (http://uk.media.xbox360.ign.com/media/823/823667/imgs_1.html).

[Xg Corkin]

I just hope they bring out a new Star Wars : BattelFornt. IMO the best online experience i had on the Xbox.

[Pie In The Sky]

Don't know whether i like the police-baton style 'sabers :|

[carocat]

Don't know whether i like the police-baton style 'sabers :|
I think they look quite cool actually.


A new Q&A:
Australia, March 7, 2007 - During our time at LucasArts last month, we had the distinct pleasure of chatting with Hayden Blackman, Project Lead on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Not only did he lead us (verbally) through some of the work-in-progress levels, he also showed us the amazing tech behind the game - Digital Molecular Matter and euphoria. You can read all about our impressions here. We took the opportunity to ask him about some of the creative decisions behind the game, such as having a Sith character as lead, and some further detail on their approach to using DMM in-game, cutscenes, and casting.

IGN: Was writing a likeable 'dark' character as the lead more of a challenge than creating a standard heroic lead? And why did you go with an evil lead?

Hayden Blackman: We wanted to create a new take on it, a new approach. At LucasArts, we're big believers in concept testing, going out and getting feedback from players and Star Wars fans. The idea of playing as Darth Vader's secret apprentice - just those four words - really, really resonated with people, so we wanted to focus on that. We've created a character that is very humanised, though; I mean, he's got a past and you'll learn all about that. I think that gives empathy.

I think that, more challenging that writing just a dark character, is writing a character that players can inhabit, who doesn't have too much personality that it overshadows the players' motives. That's a balance that's maybe a little more difficult to strike. We just had a read-though with the actor who's playing him, and some of the other characters, and I think we've captured a character who is pretty diverse and complex, but is also likeable and fun to play and goes on a pretty exciting journey.

IGN: While DMM provides new, literally-groundbreaking physics for gamers to exploit, how will DMM help tell a better story?

Hayden Blackman: We're focussed on giving the player a different experience every time. While the central storyline is hugely important - and I don't want to downplay that in any way - one of the other things we're focussed on is the stories other players tell each other. How you experienced a certain encounter or how you defeated a certain boss, how you traversed a certain part of the environment. Any simulation-based technologies really feed into that.

There's certain things animation is always going to do, that hand-crafted animation will always do better than any kind of simulation. We always want to pick and choose; but there are some areas, like explosions and whatnot where DMM can really help provide more pay off.

IGN: Will cutscenes be rendered with in-game graphics or pre-rendered - in the tradition of the films?

Hayden Blackman: We do have a pipeline that we are building, as part of our toolset, working with ILM. We will be able to bring over some of those tools and techniques from ILM, so we will have facial mo-cap, facial likeness capture for all of our cinematics. They will be using in-game assets but some will be specifically created for the cinematics portion of the game.

IGN: Are there any well-known actors on the cards to voice the characters? Will there be crossover with any from the films?

Hayden Blackman: We can't really discuss any of those details yet, unfortunately. It's funny - I've worked on a lot of games and done a lot of voice direction, and when you're casting a voice it's a whole different process than casting the character itself.

We've got some really talented actors who definitely have some impressive credentials, but the most important part of casting these characters is making sure that they not only sounded the part, but they looked the part and they can act with facial expression. Just from looking at the cinematic script, which again we looked at earlier today, it's a far less wordy game than any that I've worked on. Because of these technologies and the quality of the actors, we're able to convey so much through facial expressions and things like that. I think the actors we've cast add a whole new dynamic to the characters, because they're able to be on-screen and actually able to act with their faces and not just their voices.

IGN: Would you say that this is the most 'cinematic' game you've worked on so far, in terms of mirroring film production?

Hayden Blackman: I think, for us, it's certainly an entertainment event in and of itself. It's a game on the one hand, because you're going to be playing the character, but you're embroiled in this epic storyline - which, again I think is very cinematic and very true to the movies. The cinematic moments in the game are part of telling the story - that's one component of it - it feels very cinematic because of the quality of the technology we have going into it and the quality of the actors we've been able to leverage.

IGN: Do you see The Force Unleashed as a good example of the games industry converging with the film industry? Or is the games industry expanding at the expense of films?

Hayden Blackman: Well, games are always going to be fundamentally different from films because you're not passive - you're interacting. You're there and you're engaged with the controller in your hand. But I truly believe that games are the next big form of entertainment, that every big game should be an entertainment event that everybody should know about - like everybody would know about a major blockbuster. We want the game to be immediately accessible, with broad appeal - obviously with advanced skills and techniques for hardcore players - but being able to play through the central storyline, have a really good time use your core Force powers, feel like you're using your force points for progress - that should be easy. My dad should be able to do that. And that's saying something.

IGN: Can you discuss how you approached creating the spin-off products? The toys, the comics and other merchandise?

Hayden Blackman: It was really exciting. It's been great. I mean, LucasFilm Licensing has gotten way behind this project, and part of my job has been working with LucasFilm Licensing. They've always been great with everything we've worked on, but again, because this is the next chapter in the Star Wars saga, they're behind this in a huge way. So we sat down with Hasbro and we helped which characters were going to be turned into action figures, and they've constantly been coming back to us for more - more types of characters, more feedback and keeping us in the loop on how characters have been developed.

I'm actually writing the Dark Horse comic, so the storyline will be very close to the game. But there's always been some stuff that I've wanted to explore with secondary characters that we'll be able to do, so that'll be awesome. There's also a novelisation and I've been working very closely with the author, Sean Williams. Del Ray is publishing it. So, we've been very involved - and I go back and forth with the author all the time and we've been able to do different things in the novel than we've been able to do with the games. If you read the novel, it adds to your knowledge; if you read the comic, it adds a little more and you make up your own stories with the action figure, so for me, it's really exciting that all those things are coming together.

IGN: Is this something that George Lucas really pushed for - making The Force Unleashed a 'complete experience'? Or was this internally pushed?

Hayden Blackman: This is an initiative of LucasFilms' - certainly, [George Lucas] has been involved in those discussions, but we're all part of LucasFilm and we wanted to make sure that this is a Star Wars event, just like any other one. I think we've achieved that with all the stuff that's going on and that's associated with it. There are going to be some additional things too, that we can't talk about yet; additional tie-ins and products.

IGN: Thank you for your time!

Hayden Blackman: No problem.
IGN.com (http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/770/770549p1.html)


Some more new and pretty images:


http://media.1up.com/media?id=3218177&type=lg

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/770/770534/star-wars-the-force-unleashed-20070305081343049.jpg

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/770/770534/star-wars-the-force-unleashed-20070305081421172.jpg

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/770/770534/star-wars-the-force-unleashed-20070305081441171.jpg

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/770/770534/star-wars-the-force-unleashed-20070305081509107.jpg

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/770/770534/star-wars-the-force-unleashed-20070305081720287.jpg