Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Game Review)

…Or how to use Force Lightning to fry Jawas*. *note - no Jawas were hurt during the making of this blog

I finished Star Wars: The Force Unleashed yesterday and was overall pretty happy with the game. The plot is very straightforward but adds more depth to the already impressive Star Wars canon. The timeline for this game takes place between Star Wars III and Stars Wars IV. Vader has decided to train a secret apprentice and is using him to hunt down enemies of the empire, all the while promising him that they will destroy the emperor and together rule the galaxy (sound familiar? Like the end of Star Wars VI, maybe?).

The graphics for this game were very impressive, with very well fleshed out environments that just help to add to the feeling of being on an alien world or running along the decks of a star ship. The cut-scene cinematics were fairly impressive with a wonderful attention to detail, e.g. stubble on the main characters face removing a level of plasticity usually seen on computer animated humans. Once again though, the main problem with the cinematic cut-scene comes from trying to have the lips move to match the words being spoken. Computer generated graphics and motion captures have come a long way, but we’re still not quite able to capture the nuances of the human face.

The gameplay was very fluid, with the action flowing quite nicely during fights. The combos were easy to execute and easier to remember, allowing the user to use his lightsaber effectively to mow down enemies in front of him. I’d personally classify this game as a platform/action adventure game (with some role-playing elements) and as such I do have some problem with the platform aspect of this game. At times, the appropriate platform on a wall or bit of rubble won’t be as apparent as it should be, especially if it is necessary to advance further in the level. While the double-jump and dash is helpful for trying to fix mistakes made while reaching the next platform, it takes some practice to get used to, and ultimately use it effectively. Compounded with this problem is the issue of missing a jump and hitting an invisible barrier that prevents you from performing a double-jump and/or dash to salvage the situation.

Another technical issue that bugged me was the camera for this game. The user has some measure of control over the camera using the right analog stick, but at times this makes little difference as items in the foreground block your view or worse, become only partially transparent leaving thick lines that still impede vision while somehow becoming more distracting.

Finally, throughout the game are various achievements, like collecting “holocrons”, objects that either give you items that change your lightsaber or contain costumes. While playing this game I decided to make it my mission to finish all the objectives including getting all the hidden holocrons. I was looking forward to the last level, because it contained the famous “Black Lightsaber Crystal”. Needless to say as soon as I picked it up, I equipped it…and was very underwhelmed. Maybe I had built it up in my mind too much, but honestly, it just wasn’t as cool as it should have been. The costumes were nice but quickly lost their novelty.

In the end, I don’t think that this game has a high replay value, but idea of being able to run around and use Force powers at will is definitely appealing. If nothing else, I’d get the game for the ability to play the first level as Darth Vader. It is just the coolest thing on earth. Fun Fact: He only has two speeds while you play as him – walk, and walk with more anger! He never runs. Ever. And I’ve got to say that there is nothing better than Force grabbing a wookie who’s leaping toward you and throwing him back at his fellow wookies. One of life’s greatest pleasures.

Next time: A retro game review – Secret of Mana.

KOTOR - And it is finished (A retro-game review)

...Or how I destroyed Lord Malak, saved the girl, and looked darned good doing it!

Alright so I finished Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) last Sunday. That particular file took me about 26 hours to finish (I probably could shave off a bit of that time, but I’m guessing no more than a couple of hours at best). All I’ve got to say is this: Wow! BioWare once again lived up to all my expectations.

*Spoilers Ahead! Do not read this if you intend to play the game and don’t want the final battle ruined*

My main character was the ultimate light-side Jedi, one who maxed out persuasion every chance he got allowing me quite a few of the special cinematic scenes or encounters – like saving Bastila (who admitted her love for me….awwwww) or resolving the Romeo/Juliet storyline on Dantooine by not only uniting the families but also encouraging them to buy the kids a home for the purpose of establishing “neutral ground.”

When it came to the last fight of the game, I figured out quickly that I was going to have to out-duel the end boss and avoid a straight battle of Force Powers (much like Count Dooku and Yoda). I must have tried that final battle about 5 or 6 times Saturday night, each time getting quickly frustrated. To summarize, the first time I just tried to overwhelm Lord Malak and unfortunately was just worn down via attrition (namely, Lord Malak uses the power of the Star Forge to refill his life by using captured Jedi – all being held in tubes placed around the room). The second through fifth tries I ran around the room and tried to free the Jedi and thus prevent Malak from refilling his life.

It didn’t work.

By running around, I was leaving myself wide open and Malak would just pick me apart. I became very frustrated and decided that I’d better just come back to this later.

Sunday evening, I sat down in front of my gaming system while Misti called her grandparents to tell them the good news. Having had a chance to think about this final battle, I decided to take a more patient approach. I loaded up my character with every enhancement possible, saved the game, and walked in. After a bit of dialogue, I saved the game again (just in case I died, I wanted to avoid all the dialogue again). Once again, I out-dueled him with my lightsabers (yes, I was dual-wielding), but this time, I didn’t follow him or try to free the Jedi. Instead, I got a bit of distance between us and used the time to refill my health and reset my enhancements. Each time he came back with refilled health, I was also at full health. Rinse and repeat X number of times. Finally he had no one else to tap for health and I used a couple of flurries and down he went. Some more dialogue about the quirks of fate and then a final scene similar to the end of Star Wars: A New Hope (Episode IV).

*End Spoiler*

All in all, it felt like I was playing through a Star Wars movie. The characters were great, with wonderful interaction, not only with the main character, but also chatting with each other. For a bit of humor, try placing Bastila and Mission in your party for a bit and watch their interaction.

The entire game was very heavily D&D based, starting with the choice of attributes (Strength, Dexterity, etc), skills, feats, and so on. Everything was determined by a d20 roll (a twenty-sided dice, the staple of all pen-and-paper games) and your success was based on the random number rolled plus your attribute modifier plus any ranks you may have in the skill check compared against a Difficulty Check (an established number). For example, trying to convince an enemy to trust you would have a higher DC compared to a neutral party or a friend (DC’s might be 25, 20, and 15 respectively). Let’s say your persuasion was at a skill rank of 10 (9 ranks of the skill plus an additional +1 charisma modifier). To convince your friend you would need a 5 or higher, whereas the enemy would require a roll of 15 or higher to guarantee success that he would trust you. Not too hard to follow.

The graphics on the game weren’t too dated all things considered, but honestly, anyone playing the game at this point would be playing purely for entertainment and nostalgia purposes anyway. The storyline itself was immense and had wonderful side-quests/branches that allowed you to not only make your main character more powerful, but also learn more about your companions and their personal quirks. Like all RPG’s (role-playing games, for you none gamers out there), it was important to talk to everyone, however (like most BioWare games), you quickly learned to look for named character’s only. Citizen didn’t have much to say to you, whereas Todd McEnpeesee could let you know about the increasing number of monster attacks in the area.

So the final verdict? This was a great game and well worth playing and replaying.

My next review will likely be Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Not quite a retro-game for the purposes of reviewing, but a fun one none-the-less.

May the Force be with you...

...Or why I'm excited about Star Wars again!

For those of you who may not know me (but are getting to know me via this blog), I am a longtime gamer. Board games, Consoles, Pen & Paper, and Computer games - I have played them all and will continue to play them all for as long as I am able. Now computer games for me have always been a bit hit or miss, not because the games themselves are inferior (far from it), but rather because of the resources necessary to often play the new games. Anytime a ground-breaking game comes around, it usually requires a new processor, graphics cards, and memory upgrade, none of which are very cheap. On top of that, a new graphics card will be middle-of-the-road quality after a year or two and obsolete in less than 5 - not a very solid investment and one area that consoles are superior in, since a console is all but complete from the moment you open it. Plus if you find the right console (Super Nintendo, PS2) you have a wonderful library of games for a very long time (the PS2 is still selling strong, almost a decade later).

That being said, every so often a game comes along that makes me look at upgrading my computer to prepare for it. And now, that game is Star Wars: The Old Republic. What is it about this game that has me so excited? First of all: It's freakin' Star Wars!!!!! I mean, it is one of the best, most complete universes out there with a rich sense of history, tradition, strong iconic characters, and so on. Secondly: It will be a collaborative effort by the company BioWare and Lucas Arts.

Check out the E3 trailer here: (awwww....yeaahhhh!)

I'm a huge BioWare fan. My love for the company starts with a computer game series that I picked up at Costco (the first Baldur's Gate) and then played through the sequels and expansions for the next year. I've never had a game hold my attention for that long, but the series itself had so much depth, so many story lines, that I just kept playing through, trying to find every nook and secret possible. Whenever I see a BioWare logo, I know that I'm getting a strong story-based game with wonderful characters (just ask any fan about Minsc).

Later BioWare teamed up with Lucas Arts to create one of the most iconic games for the Xbox (and, in my friend Chip's opinion, one of the main reasons to own an Xbox): Knights of the Old Republic.


Once again, you had a great character centered, story driven game set in the Star Wars Universe. Glorious, doesn't even do the game justice. *I'm currently playing through the game as I write this*

And now, that wonderful team has once again joined to create a new Massively Multi-player Online game (MMO): The Old Republic. My faith in BioWare is so strong, I know that this game will be great. Looks like it may be time to get back into MMO's, a particularly addicitive genre. But I'll talk about that later, as this blog is getting long enough.

One Game Ends, Another Begins... (An OgreBattle Retro-Game Review Conclusion)

…or Hooray! I finished Ogre Battle. Next up is Knights of the Old Republic.

So as Misti can attest to, I finally finished the SNES game Ogre Battle. Like a true military campaign, I plotted my every move, marshaled my troops, paid close attention to detail and in the end, was rewarded with the best ending for the game.

*Begin huge Video Game geek Rant – Skip it if you have no interest in Ogre Battle*

So here was my reward –

Best (Male) Ending - 100 pts - *Highlights* Lans wishes that the Hero would rule, but understands that Tristan is the heir. Warren and Lans disappear in a war a few years later. Tristan and Rauny get married and rule as the White King and the beloved Queen. The hero (Kaylos, as I named him) heads off to fight an invading army from the North – various characters accompany him. – interesting sidenote: before the end of the game, I got an extra Crown and used it to change Rauny from a Muse to a Princess.

How did I accomplish this? Well I spent time and effort managing my alignment and charisma for the main Hero and my overall reputation. To help make sure I was victorious, I created some uber-powerful units: my Death Units.

Here are my two strongest death dealing units: 1) a Princess in the back leading a group with a Lich and Monk, and a Tigerman and Vampyre in the front. 2) Warren as a Lich accompanied by a second Lich and a Monk in the back row with two Tigermen up front. These two were able to hold off the last boss’s waves of units while my good guys liberated all the towns.

However, these powerful units tended to be very chaotic (since they destroyed anything in their path), so I had to create another special unit. In fact, the final series of bosses were taken down by my specialized boss-killing/final-town-liberating unit: In the back, we had Norn as a princess standing next to Yushis (Seraphim) and Aisha (Monk), with Tristan and Debonair (both Generals) up front. With Norn leading the group, everyone got one extra attack. That’s right 8 slashes from the generals, 2 jihads from Yushis, 3 healing+s (a.k.a.“everyone gets healed”) by Aisha, and 2 starlite attacks from Norn. All those attacks equal one very dead boss.

As a side note: I just did a review for the Nintendo Wii version of Ogre Battle. Feel free to read about it here:

review for the Wii version

* End huge Geek Rant regarding Ogre Battle*

I have to admit I’m a bit sad to end such a great game (comforted by the fact that I can always go back and play it again), but I have a new game to play, dictated to me by my best friend.

You know how you have a mental list of books for people to read that you constantly recommend to family and friends, books that you feel they’ll enjoy or give them a new appreciation of life? Or perhaps you have a list of movies that you recommend? Well, my best friend has a list like that for me; a list of games that he loves and feels I must play for my own edification. Previously, I was required to play Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Awesome Game!). Next up is Knights of the Old Republic.

Time to head back to the Star Wars Universe.

ECCC: Part 2 - Costumes and Celebs

Dawn of Oz print by Josheph Michael Lisner for the comic con

...or the many hues of man!

So as promised, here is the second part of my ComiCon experience. First off, here are a couple of celebrities who were in attendance at the convention.

You may recognize Jewel Staite as "Kaylee" from the series Firefly or perhaps as "Dr. Keller" from Stargate: Atlantis.

Next up, the Ambassador of Geekdom:

That's right - it's Wil Wheaton. Well known blogger, geek, and fellow Farker. Interestingly enough, even though Jewel Staite was in the next booth, and Ray Park ("Toad", "Darth Maul", "Snake Eyes") was one booth over, Wil's crowd managed to dwarf both lines combined. The man is a geek icon. I'm kicking myself for not waiting in line to meet the man, but $25 an autograph is a bit steep for this young hero, at least at this time.

And now, time for the costumes!
First, we have Tony Stark, with the Scarlet Witch, (not sure who the female on the left is...maybe some other comic geek can help a brother out?).

"Nurse" Joker from the latest Batman film.

Here we have the Samuel Jackson inspired "Ultimate" Nick Fury...who has done a bit of shopping at this convention, it would appear.

Ahh....Poison Ivy. An Eco-terrorist peacefully attending a comic convention.

Here we have a bit of NightCrawler action. Nice dramatic crouch there.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Check out the heroic pose!

Here are some animated heroes - The Wonder Twins, and Comic heroine, Bat-Girl!


Next up, we have Akuma, Velma, Cthulu, and a Ghostbuster !



And here we have some awesome Dragonball Z characters - Goku and Chi-Chi, in a dramatic martial arts pose.
And here's the final series of costumes, for what convention of all things geeky would be complete without the Holy Grail of Geekdom: Star Wars!


Hmm...without the Sith around, the Jedi apparently really let themselves go...

And Leia? I'm guessing the tattoo is a hold-over from her rebellious youth on Alderaan.

Anyways, that about that does it for now. Hope you enjoyed this glimpse in the realm of geekdom.

Fear the geek. Love the geek.