Darth Jebus

Just curious. I've been playing WoW, and Guild Wars and just started CoH. I'm wondering how a full blown DnD MMO will shape up. Any thoughts? Here's the link: http://www.ddo.com/index.php?page_id=66&pagebuilder[module]=article&pagebuilder[display_item]=84

Wasn't there a droid in the catacombs in the original KOTOR on Dantooine that was like 50,000 years old or something? It was like a guardian droid or something that oversaw the slave workers. So I guess it is possible to have droids that functioned that long. Having said that, I see nothing wrong with capitalizing on the success of the KOTOR series. In fact I think it's a nice touch. It ties both series' together. And like Hades pointed out, Star Wars does belong to LA so they can do whatever they want with it. They would be stupid not to take advantage of a proven hit. I'll bet my bottom dollar that nearly all the people that are still playing SWG will be turning the black void of space red trying to turn up the HK quest, no matter how much they moan and complain about it. It's no different than the prequels. Everyone complained about TPM and AOTC. Everyone talked about how they were aweful and terrible and how Lucas was an untalented hack that couldn't write or direct to save his life. And then May of this year rolled around and every single one of those people that bemoaned the prequels were among the first in line to give ROTS one of the biggest openings in box office history. To date the movie has beat Return of the King to become the 7th highest grossing film of all time. So, not to repeat Hades, but if you don't like it, don't buy it. For example, I have never played SWG and don't plan on it. I swear it seems like fanbois are not happy unless they have something to bitch about for bitching's sake. It's like a kneejerk reaction to all things.

I've been playing WoW for a couple months now and I'm almost level 60. And right about now I'm really starting to question what the point of all this has been. I've started posting questions over on the WoW forums like, "So, what do you do after you hit 60?" The most common response? "Roll an alt, noob." Most people just grind the same high-level instances (dungeons, for those not familiar with the lingo) over and over again when they hit level 60 for the purpose of getting epic gear and gold. Which again, leads me to the same question: so then what? I mean, what do you do? Which leads to the above response of, "Roll an alt, noob." Again, for those not familiar with the lingo an alt is an alternative character starting at level 1. Which means, essentially, start the whole game over again. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there is no real sense of accomplishment in MMOs. At least in WoW. I find the game alot of fun but ultimately, there's no point to it. There's no real sense of consequence or role-playing because there is no real story. What makes or breaks an MMO is the community. And that's what keeps WoW fun, IMO. Going to the forums and seeing all the people you played with last night. You actually start to make friends there and you find that you begin to "hang out" in the game. But there comes a point when you realize that all this amazing loot you've acquired means absolutely nothing. That lvl 60 elite dragon you and your guild just slew? It'll just respawn for the next guild to fight. That epic sword you've acquired that's worth hundreds of gold and can kill things with one or two blows? There's at least a dozen other players with the exact same weapon as you. There's really no self-worth in the game because everyone is doing the exact same thing you're doing. Some of them even look like you. So I don't know. It's fun but if you're into story and actually trying to accomplish something that affects the world in which you play in, you'll probably be disappointed.

You assume that "just another Jedi" implies that Jedi is somehow weak or clumsy. That's not the case. All it means is he/she isn't widely considered the saviour of the galaxy. For example, Revan fits into the "chosen one" category because he's lauded as the one that turned the tide in the war against the Mandalorians, saved the galaxy *before* the player even had a chance to play as him. The Exile, while not to the same degree, is similar in that he had a huge part in the Mandalorian wars *before* the player had access to him. In other words, these two characters were great before we, as gamers, even had a chance to mold their identity. On the other hand, a "just another Jedi" hero could be just that. Someone who didn't have an outstanding past, or had no real backstory except that he was an average student at the Jedi Academy and then found himself in a situation where he had to act. And that's where we, the player, come in. We're the one that make him evolve into a greatness from nothing, rather than being given a great individual and told to save the galaxy with him. In summary: Let us make the character become great. Don't hand us a character that is supposedly this all-powerful Jedi hero and then tell us to maintain that greatness. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> This is one of the things that Fable actually did well. At least you got to start out as a boy and then shape the character from the ground up. Had we had the option to create the character with gender, looks, and all of that stuff, Fable would have been dramatically better just because of that aspect, IMO.

Um...I know I'm probably going to get flamed for asking such a stupid question because I'm clueless on this but, aren't they talking about Activision and Marvel? Does Activision own Obsidian or something? Has Obsidian entered into some sort of a deal with Marvel as well? Otherwise I can't see how this announcement would have anything to do with Project New Jersey. They're talking about Activision. This is Obsidian Entertainment. Did I miss something?

This might sound like a dumb question, since I'm posting it in a K3 thread that is 14 pages long as of this posting, but does anyone on here even care about any of this anymore? I mean truly. This all just seems like a conversation piece. Not a real debate about what could or shouldn't be in a probable K3. Just speaking for myself, I hardly post here that much anymore. Partly because I've been spending alot of time playing WoW and Guild Wars, but also because OE hasn't made much of an effort to keep the community involved. We don't know anything about their new project other then it is not K3, they hardly ever update the front page anymore, and when's the last time a dev has posted on these forums? Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see a K3 just as much as the next fan, but until OE starts to be active again, I kind of have a ho-hum feeling about it all. And not to mention I'm kind of Star Warsed out.

Which is why I still think it's pointless to suggest story-related suggestions. With game feature or item suggestions, atleast the devs can say "hmm..hooded robes, yeah we can do that". But I don't see whoever is writing the story to use someone else's material. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> And on that note, here's my suggestion for a possible K3: I'd like to see a larger variety of portraits for both male and female characters. I'm hoping they do some tweaking to the loot system so that certain items are not random. It's one thing for credits or some other low level item to drop from a dead Duros gangster or some cannock. But when Jedi robes are dropping from a detonated gun turret, that's a little much. Random loot, which was one of the very first gripes about K2 going back, is not so bad as it is used in just about every RPG and MMO out there today and from yesterday. But after playing K1 which used some sort of a hybrid random loot and set loot drop system, where epic items ssemed to drop off of the appropriate target, while other things were more random but would still drop off of the appropriate low level target, it did get kind of frustrating running around with your level 15 Jedi without any Jedi robes and one lightsaber. And going further down that path, it would be cool to see more customizable armor and weapons. I know this isn't an MMO we're talking about here, but it would be nice to see more crafting features and more class specific items, as well as customizable lightsabers. And not just crystals, but also hilts. I guess this goes hand in hand with upgrading the workbench. It would be cool to be able to gather cloth from different merchants or stuff you've killed or farmed, and then be able make your own Jedi Robes or Sith Armor depending on your crafting skill. Or even set aside a high level area where you shouldn't go until the end of the game where all the bad guys (or good guys, depending on your alignment) you face drop epic Jedi or Sith gear. Just a few random thoughts I have.

Not necessarily, no. Have you played Guild Wars? Everything in that game is instanced. Meaning you don't see any other players while traveling throughout the world UNLESS YOU ARE GROUPED. NC Soft has implemented a system that tries to make the player feel unique while still taking into account grouping together with other players, or just questing with your guildies. This is the way to do it, in my opinion. You can mess around with other players while you're in a town or a village or something. But the second you pass through the gates, you're on you're own. So to speak.

I'm playing both WoW and GW simultaneously. And its giving me a good side-by-side comparison of the two. As of right now, I'd have to give GW the slight edge. Here's why: GW at least tries to make the player feel unique and it does have a coherent stroyline. The only time you see other players is when you're in a town or a village, or grouped together with other players. This is actually kind of nice because while you're off questing, you won't get an annoying whisper from someone looking for help or wanting you to do something because you're about 10 levels above what they are, and they can't complete their quest on their own. This happens alot in WoW. Plus, people can just be annoying sometimes. I can't tell you how many times in WoW, I would get a whisper from someone asking me if I wanted to group with them to do a Deadmines run or a Black Fathom Deep run and I would tell them, "I'm wrapping up a few quests right now, but I can join you in like 20 minutes." And then five minutes later, "So, you ready for the invite?" WoW, as much fun as I've been having playing it, seems to be your standard MMO. You do get the feeling that you are only one of literally tens of thousands of players worldwide that are populating a large world in which you are an extremely small part. There is a players-on-an-assembly line, level grinding-wait-your-turn feel to it. There's no real storyline but there is a story. It's just the story of Warcraft, the world in general. Not a main storyline that you have to follow. It's the community that makes this game fun. For example, the server that I'm on in that game is relatively small so I don't really experience any lag and you get to know everyone pretty quick. It makes it fun to go on raids or just mess around with people. Also, I think I like the game because its my very first time I've ever played an MMO. Oh, and about GW: did I mention its free. That's always a plus. heh heh I've heard that GW is designed for pvp and I know another poster on here pointed out that there's no real incentive to get to level 20, but I dunno. I like the fact that there's a storyline and an attempt by the game to make the player actually feel like the hero/heroine. They get kudos for that, in my opinion.

I've heard this was one of the main problems with Star Wars Galaxies. A low level player that has just started playing could actually kill a very high level player with hundreds of hours of gameplay experience because the newbie could equip the exact same blaster or whatever, as a high level player. This turned off alot of people from what I understand. As for the rest of your post, I thought you really hit the nail on the head. What's going on with games today is indicative of what's going on in our culture as a whole. Like any other mass market product, video game developers are just reflecting the times. And its unfortunate. You can see it on television, at the movies, on the newstands. Its all about style over substance today. And a direct casualty of this is content. I've been playing WoW for about a month now. I'm having alot of fun but only because I knew what to expect. I wasn't expecting storyline. I was expecting...well hell, I don't know what I was expecting now that I think of it. I just knew not to expect story or any of the other things that I love about a single player RPG. But one thing that makes WoW and now Guild Wars (which I also just purchased) fun is the community. And thats what another poster on here was saying. Communities are what make or break an MMORPG. Thats what seperates it from a traditional rpg. If there's a good community then the game can actually be saved. Or at the very least, the gamer can overlook alot of the faults. Take Matrix Online for example. I went into my local EB Games yesterday and the store clerk told me that he hated Matrix Online but one thing that was cool about it was the strong community involved in it. And the community was almost strong to a fault. It's so strong its almost unhealthy. But anyway. I just think it's a sign of the times. And it's kinda sad.

Yup. IIRC, KotOR II has sold 1 million copies worldwide. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It did sell well but that doesn't mean the game wasn't flawed. And the devs know it , too. Also, I have to disagree with Volo's assertion that LA is not going to be "paying real close attention to idiotic internet geek morons." on this subject because they just sent out a survey asking gamers alot of questions about K3. And let's face it: the only people who are probably going to take the time to complete that survey are people like us that post on development company forum boards. By the way, I do agree with all the whiners about K2. You can go back and look at these forums back in December and January and see how I was one of the first people to tell all the haters to shut their mouths unless they had something constructive to say, other then "THIS GAME IS HORRIBLE AND SO IS YOUR MOM!!!111" But, those idiot morons DID HAVE AN EFFECT. Remember Aurora's thread? Remember how that made international news? How that thread was linked on just about every videogame/scifi/fantasy and geek website across the net? Every site from Gamespy to Gamespot, from IGN to Slashdot, from Penny Arcade to TheForce.Net had an article or two about that thread and the other goings on here on these boards. That's why at one point Feargus threatened to have the boards shut down because it was bad PR and LUCASARTS WAS NOT HAPPY ABOUT THE NEGATIVE BACKLASH THE GAME WAS RECEIVING. If you don't believe that, go to Gamespy's website and do a search for KOTOR 2 where they said that their article about K2 in connection with what we were saying did not go over well with the powers that be over at LA. So, in light of all that, I have to say that though LA is only about money and meeting their bottom line, as all businesses are, OE is a tad bit different because thay are still new and trying to establish for themselves a reputation in exCellence. Quality means alot to OE. That's why they are so interactive with the gamers. Just like the BioWare devs are. That's why I hope they pass on KOTOR 3.

I've been playing WoW for a couple weeks now. And surprisingly I'm totally addicted. I didn't think I would be. Like others have said on here, I never saw the point of having to pay a monthly fee to play a videogame. It was just kind of dumb to me. Also, the lack of a coherent storyline was really bothersome to me. I kept asking people that raved about WoW what the point of the game was. What is it you do? Are you out to achieve something or is it just questing everywhere all over the place all the time. Which I guess was a stupid question seeing as how you have to pay a monthly fee to play it. Why would anything that has a recurring fee have an ending? Anyway, the answer to the question was obviously, you just do whatever you want with the "object" of leveling up and getting new equipment, spells, and weapons. And once you get to lvl 60, then the game is basically over, because there is nothing in the game that can challenge a lvl 60 player, and also, the game caps at lvl 60. But surprisingly there IS a semblance of a coherent storyline if you choose to do certain quests that either involve your class, race, and/or specific locations in the game. These quests can actually get really interesting and complex depending on what lvl you are. And more importantly, it makes you want to play it more. This is probably why it's actually not a pure MMORPG, but rather more like a hybrid MMORPG/CRPG or like Kal said, an MMORPG with training wheels. For this reason I don't really mind paying for the game because I'm paying for something I like. I think I finally caved in and started playing because half my office is playing the darn thing and also, I just needed an RPG fix. And seeing as how there are no RPGs coming out soon that I know of, I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did. Since this is my first experience with an MMORPG I have no complaints. But it's certainly no comparison to a good old fashioned RPG, IMO.

What does AFAIK mean?

I not only can't wait to see this video, but this just totally made my day. The mere thought of these two idiots nearly lighting themselves on fire in a freaking lightsaber duel is enough to send me into hysterics.

That's what I thought, too. The only way I could justify it in my mind was that Sidious was THE Sith Master so he executed a move that no one had ever seen before. I know thats stretching it, but thats the only thing I could think of. Only Mace, being the senior member of the Jedi Council, knew how to defend against it. But all in all, I really thought the Jedi were a bunch of panzis. Especially after how they were portrayed in the Clone Wars animated series. In Clone Wars, they pretty much lived up to my imagination of what a Jedi Knight would be like in his or her prime. An unkillable bada@#. But in ROTS, they are not only disposed of by Clone Troopers, but they are completely lacking of any kind of intelligence. They just walk right into traps blindly and seem only concerned with their own Order as opposed to the Republic itself. After watching the way Lucas portrayed them in the movie, I was left wondering how they survived THIS long. Also, the way Anakin fell made him look like a complete idiot. I'm sorry, but it did. He goes from, "What have I done??!", to willingly walking into a room and killing a bunch of innocent children. WTF? This is why I've always said that Anakin should've started off the prequels older. His fall to the darkside should've started at the end of Episode I, which is also where I thought the Clone Wars should've started. The second episode could've just been a balls to the wall Clone Wars movie, while still showing Anakin's gradual fall to darkness. At the end of EP2, he would've made a decision that pretty much would have sealed his fate. By the time we got to EP 3, he would pretty much be Darth Vader. There would be nothing left to do but show the fall of the Jedi at the hands of Vader and Sidious. But oh well. I mean, Lucas is a visionary and I totally see where he was going with Anakin's fall. He planted the seed in TPM when Yoda tells Anakin in the Jedi Council chamber that fear is the path to the darkside. All this time, Anakin was terrified of losing Padme. It was this fear that lead him to be angry, but most importantly desperate. He was desperate to save the woman he loved. His wife and the mother of his children. But he didn't know how. All he knew was that there was this horrible prospect of loss in his heart that he couldn't bear. This caused unimaginable fear. That's why Yoda tells him in EP III that Anakin must learn to let go of all that because it's greedy and selfish. However, in the end, human nature got the best of him. Could any of you honestly say that you wouldn't "go over to the darkside" in an effort to save the ones that you love if you thought they were in danger? Especially if you thought that by doing so, you would ensure the safety and security of your friends and/or family? Remember: you are DESPERATE here. You honest to goodness believe the person that is THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN YOUR LIFE (your wife, husband, mom, dad, best friend, girlfriend/boyfriend, whoever) is going to die and you feel utterly helpless to stop it. And then someone who has always been in your life, a mentor to you, someone you trust and has always looked after you and showed you affection and respect where no one else would, offers you a way to save this person. Would you honestly turn this down when you feel that no one else hears you or understands how you're feeling. When you are generally confused and caught up in the vacuum of a huge war while you're only in your 20s and have been told that, oh by the way, you are the chosen one who will bring balance to the Force. This poor man was FATED to go over to the darkside. Seriously. This is why Anakin and Darth Vader in general, is a tragic figure in every sense of the word. He allowed himself to be duped because he was desperate to save the woman he loved, to defeat the aspect of doubt in his heart. But when all was said and, there was only suffering. Which is exactly what Yoda said in TPM. The problem is Lucas did a terrible job conveying all this in a script or on the big screen. It just comes off as rushed and empty.

I just thought of something. In all the weeks and months leading up to the release of ROTS, I kept reading from alot of people involved with the project about how we were going to see lots of Jedi with double-bladed sabers in this one. I didn't see a single staff lightsaber in the entire movie.

Well, considering Leia was perfectly white and the Organas were perfectly hispanic, I don't believe for a second that Leia looked at them and believed they were her biological parents. The problem is Lucas has been making up this story as he's gone along. When he came up with the story for ROTJ he had no idea what Luke and Leia's true back story was. He only had a general, vague idea but nothing concrete. And Lucas said so himself. During Celebration III a month ago or so, there was a Q&A session where a fan apparently had the cajones to ask Lucas why the OT was so good and interesting and the prequels weren't. Lucas' response was that only about 10% of the original backstory that was in his treatment (outline) for ANH was in TPM and AOTC. Everything else was completely made up. However, nearly 60% of that story is being seen in ROTS. But even alot of that was still made up because the actual telling of the story had yet to be worked out. The same thing goes for the Threepio creation inconsistency. When Lucas was working on the OT, he had no idea where the droids really came from. He made all that up in 1994 when he started writing the script for Episode I. Everything that you are seeing now in Ep 3 was made up over the last couple years or so. At least in terms of the actual details of the story. The concept may have been written up nearly 30 years ago, but the actual story wasn't developed until just recently. So, yes, Leia having some memory of her mom is a bit of an inconsistency. But at this point, who cares?

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet or not, but Fable had homesexual and bisexual options available to the player. In fact, when I played that game I remember a couple guys falling for me. And in Jade Empire you can develop a lesbian relationship with Silk Fox, IIRC. I don't think they showed anything, just the female PC and Silk Fox staring longingly at each other and Fox' lips quivering. And then just before they kiss, the camera cuts away. Also in JE, if you're playing as a male Way of the Closed Fist character, rape and dominance over women is actually implied after you bind your entire party to you. There was an exchange between the PC and Dawn Star that went something like this: PC: Look at me when I talk to you. DS: No. I can't. I refuse to look at you. PC: You will look at me when I address you, Dawn Star. I want you to look at me the same way you looked at me two nights ago. DS: No! That was a lie. All of it! (The PC, invoking is power over her, forces Dawn Star to look him in the eyes.) DS: You're a horrible monster! My body may do what you tell it to, but it is against my will. PC: That is of no concern to me, Dawn Star. You will look at me when I tell you too. And later, we will decide when and how often. Despite how utterly horrible that sounds, this actually serves the story if you know the history between the PC and Dawn Star. It wasn't something that was just randomely thrown in there to show how evil and cruel the PC had become. This relates to the question of pedophilia in games. It has absolutely no place in the game unless it somehow directly reflects the overall story. To just put something that despicable in a game for no apparent reason just smacks of over-reaching to me. You have to remember, society looks upon pedophiles as far worse than the most sadistic serial killer.

Hey, I don't know how old you are or if English is your second language, but you might want to use punctuation and stuff the next time you post something. I seriously had no idea what that post was about.

I don't mean to resurrect an old thread but I just wanted to say, like a complete idiot I just bought WoW over the weekend and am now playing it. For someone that created a thread titled, "PC Gaming is not for me" I'm sure doing alot to stand by that sentiment.[/sarcasm] I still don't think PC gaming is for me but I have to say, I just got more RAM for my computer and suddenly, even with the most basic of ATI Radeon PCI graphics cards, a game like WoW runs as smooth as silk. Seriously. I haven't experienced any lag or glitches whatsoever. I don't even know how this is possible. Alot of people in my office play this game and I've heard horror stories about the game crashing and them having to shop around for specific video cards, preferrably Nvidia cards that have some sort of 3D accelerator capability (or some such crap - I really have no idea) and that most old or cheap cards won't work with WoW. Either Blizzard did an excellent job designing this game or the secret to PC gaming is to just buy as much RAM as possible. I'm kind of betting on the latter. I mean, I've been to places in the game that are crowded with alot of activity going on and the most I've ever experienced is a little choppiness. I went back and checked out NWN: HOTU and now this game runs as smooth as silk. I wonder if I should dare try Bloodlines again. I dunno. But the thing is...I'm not looking forward to upgrading my computer agian in the next year or two. Especially now with the Xbox 360 on the way.

I wrote this in the "Let's Face it" thread.

Do. Not. Buy. This. Game. I repeat. Do. Not. Buy. This. Game. I made the mistake of buying this game on Friday night. I only bought it because I had a few old games to trade in so I didn't have to pay full price for it. Let me just start by saying that if you are trying to remain spoiler free for EP III then playing this game is like getting all the answers to your final exam before taking it and then getting your professors personal notes on the subject as well. Seriously. It's basically the entire movie. I know the title of is Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, but I read somewhere (I think on here) that the game was not actually going to follow the movie, but rather would take the player to different worlds and trying to accomplish different missions that coincided with the movie while the events of the film played out in the background. Similar to Lord of the Rings: The Third Age. And then all of the events would coincide with the epic lightsaber duel between Anakin/Vader and Obi-Wan. This is not true. It follows the movie almost to a T. Literally. As the opening crawl and the first few minutes of the film all play out. And also, again kind of like LOTR:TTA, a cut scene of the movie will play as you complete a level and just before you start a new one. This is also the point where your game saves. And this can be kind of annoying because this is ONLY TIME your game saves. So, if you die while trying to fight your way through a level, you better keep choosing the "CONTINUE MISSION" option, because if you decide to quit, you have to start ALL THE WAY OVER AT THE BEGINNING OF THE LEVEL. No matter how much progress you've made. That can get exceedingly frusterating. And to be honest, that's one of the main reasons I didn't like LOTR: TTA. Being spoiled by the KOTOR games, I had forgotten how annoying Star Wars games can be. Not only is the AI spectacularly stupid, but your enemies are so damn annoying that sometimes you want to put your fist through the television set. This is mainly because in combat (which is real-time of course) if your character gets knocked off his feet, it can be extremely difficult to get back up and flip out of the way. Your enemy will just continue to pound on you even if he is about to be incinerated by one of his own gunners standing behind him shooting indescriminately at anything that moves. Including his own men. This happened frequently. Especially on Mustafar. And another thing about combat, you don't have the multitude of Force Powers that the commercials would have you believe. It is nowhere near the Obi-Wan video game where, even though that game sucked, it was fun to use the legion of force powers you had at your disposal. In this game, you primarily have Force Push, Throw lightsaber, and when your playing as Anakin/Vader, Force lightning. And you also pick up objects and throw them at your opponents. But this feature really only works on droids and Clone Troopers. When your fighting against other Jedi they will flip out of the way or they won't take nearly as much damgage from throwing objects at them. Also, throwing your lightsaber or other objects requires you to aim at your target. This is horrifyingly annoying because of the terrible camera view. It's not third person from behind like most action games. It's third person from where ever the hell we feel like putting the camera. Sometimes its at your side, sometimes it's behind you, sometimes it's in front of you, and sometimes it's at a funky 45 degree angle ensuring that the player as absolutely no chance of killing anything whatsoever. And if you don't aim PERFECTLY AND PRECISELY , you not only will not hit your target, but you'll waste valuable Force points as well. The good thing about this, though, is that your FP build up rather quickly so it won't take long to have a full blue bar of FP to utilize. It's just too bad that you don't have alot of Force powers to use. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to use Stasis Field or Force Wave to combat a room of bad guys standing in my way. But that would have made this game REALLY easy. The only real fun parts of this game that I found were playing as Anakin. If the movie shows him half as dark as he is in this game, we're in for a real treat. Anakin in this wipes the floor with anyone standing in his way. As the player controlling him, you have to fight Dooku, Mace Windu, a score of Jedi when you march on the Temple and a few Jedi Masters as well. They are all no match for Anakin. Also, it's just fun being so dark. You not only see Anakin mowing down a bunch of innocents, but you as the player, have to do this, too. You get to kill a bunch of cowering Seperatist leaders on Mustafar who tremble as you approach. And the sound quality is great. It rattles and rolls as this happens so you feel like you're in the movie. That was a plus. Playing as Obi-Wan wasn't nearly as fun IMO. He wasn't as fast or as strong as Anakin and didn't have the deadly combos that Anakin did. And BTW, the combos are pretty easy to execute. Just hit the x button repeadedly for fast attacks, the y button for charging attacks, and the b button for slow but really strong lunging attacks. Very similar to Jade Empire in this regard. And yes, you can flip around all you want this game. That was cool. I didn't experience any framerate issues in this game but I have to say, though the characters look like the actors from the film, the graphics looked kind of blockish. Maybe it was just me but I can't remember anything visually from the game that stood out. Nothing that makes me want to write about it. The combo moves looked good during combat but there wasn't any real texture to anything I was seeing. It really just kind of underscored the feeling that this game is little more than hack and slash action. No real story at all. Which is kind of unusual because the game is based on a movie. It takes no time at all to wrap this game up as it's just basically kill as many bad guys as you can, beat the end boss, and then move on to the next round. The only thing in this game remotely resembling an RPG is the leveling up aspect of it. But even this is really shallow. You gain experience depending on how well you dispatch your enemies. During combat, you'll get an indicator that will tell you if you've done fair, good, impressive, or masterful in how you killed a bad guy. This determines how much XP you get which you can then spend on your ability skills or Force powers. All these little missions you've been hearing about in the commercials are nothing more than, "Find a way across the bridge", or "Defeat Clone Gunships", and then the game proceeds to tell you EXACTLY HOW TO DO THIS by highlighting a panel on the wall that you have to cut through which will then expose a cable or something that you cut, which then activates the bridge. Mission accomplished. There's some secret areas you can try to find, but unlike Jedi Academy, you don't get any goodies. You just get an increase in FP and health. Finally, one real nice touch to the game was the really cool nod to KOTOR. When your playing as Anakin slaughtering Jedi in the temple, the music that plays is the Onderon combat music from KOTOR 2. In fact, alot of the music used in ROTS is from KOTOR 2. And they mix it in seamlessly with John Williams score. It was just really cool that the devs of this game, possibly on orders from LA, decided to highlight the kindred spirit between Revenge of the Sith and The Sith Lords. Nicely done as it seems to basically say, Star Wars is ONE UNIVERSE. Interestingly, the only time the KOTOR 2 music seemed to play was when you were playing as Anakin. I could be wrong on that, but thats when you really seem to notice it. But other than that cool tie-in, the game leaves alot to be desired.

in a sense, you are right...if you treat SW as a sci-fi franchise, it sucks. But SW is not really sci-fi, it is a moralistic swashbuckler set in space. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> So in other words, it's sci-fi. "

That

I was all about Thundercats when I was a kid. I had every single action figure, including the Thundertank and Cat's Lair. Later, they came out with the Berserkers and, from the movie, the Lunatacs. And of course, the movie revolved around the three Thundercat refugees who survived Thundera's destruction. Their names were Linx-o, Pumira, and Bengali. Once they joined the Thundercats, they erected a tower for themselves known as the Tower of Omens. Aaah, the nostalgia. But by far my favorite Thundercat episodes was a mini-series known as the Annointment Trials. I remember me and my buddy RUNNING home from school to catch the next trial. It started out Monday with the Trial of Strength, where Lion-o had to fight Panthro. Then on Tuesday he had to race Cheetara in the Trial of Speed. On Wednesday he had to best Wilykit and Wilykat in the Trial of Cunning. On Thursday he had to face his greatest fear against Tigra in the Trial of the Mind. And lastly, he had to defeat his greatest enemy, Mumm-ra, in Mumm-ra's lair without the Sword of Omens. In fact, he faced all of his trials unarmed and unaided. The episodes were well written and wll put together. At the end of the Trials, Lion-o was then annointed as the official Lord of the Thundercats. The only thing that was kind of goofy was how Lion-o ended up defeating Mumm-ra: by damaging his sarcophagus (which I had as well, btw). I mean, your the greatest evil the world had ever known and a Robear Berbil could beat you by just beating your sarcophagus, which was exposed and unprotected for everyone to see. Kind of cheesy, but hell, for an 8 year old, it worked. I still have alot of the old cartoons audio taped from twenty some odd years ago. I don't know how they survived but I have them. I can't believe my voice was so high back then. My dad must have been really worried about me. I was also a huge fan of MASK, Galaxy Rangers, Bionic Six, Defenders of the Earth, He-Man, She-Ra (don't ask), GI-Joe and of course Transformers. But by far my personal all-time favorite was Robotech. It still holds up today Edit: By the way, if you've played Jade Empire, I swear the actress that voiced Minmei is the ghost of the little girl in the Ruins outside Tien's Landing that is terrified to cross the puddle of water.