Plano Skywalker

well, I think we do need more "ground exploration" and "free roam" exploration, yes, indeed. and we really don't need to have a ship handed to us on a silver platter within the first 10 hours of the game, either.....nothing wrong with having to pay fare and hitch a ride on a shuttle. That way, when we do get our ship, they wouldn't have to include the worlds we went to in the earlier segment of the game (as they would not be on the astrocharts). If we can't return to worlds like Coruscant, they can make it a much more linear presentation, which is exactly how those worlds should be presented.

I've just started watching Season 2.5 on DVD....all I can say is WOW!!!

Well, if that is the case, I'm thinking we really haven't seen much of Onderon....both the terrain and the city of Iziz....we've only scratched the surface of that place.

Well, it becomes a bit more complicated with a franchise like Star Wars because "all Star Wars is continuity". In other words, for those who follow the EU, Revan has to be a guy or a girl, LS or DS, married or unmarried, etc. Same with Exile. Exile is a "placeholder name" that doesn't really help much with the person's identity when it gets right down to it...it just delays the inevitable (hard-coding). The reasons why KOTOR cannot be a proper trilogy are a bit more complicated than whether the protagonist has a fixed given name, etc. The main reason is that KOTOR simply wasn't paced for it. At the end of the game, the protagonist was, essentially, a god and, while there may have been a little room left for more story, there was no discernable threat and no clear path for the protagonist after that. BioWare and LA were winging it and had no idea what to expect. I think BioWare noticed the angst that this caused and I think that is part of the reason ME is being planned as a proper trilogy (even though each game will have enough closure on its own). But even in KOTOR (which is full VO except for the PC's statements), they could only use your "revealed name" with full VO. The name you gave yourself was only used one time and that is when the Wookie pledged a Lifedebt to you....he did it in his own tongue....that is the only way it could work. With a title (or rank) and a fixed surname, even something like this is not a problem.

really wouldn't mind seeing Naboo, actually, especially if they can do graphical justice to it....that is one beautiful planet (with nice architecture as well). The Obi-Wan game for Xbox is worth playing, IMO, if (for no other reason) it has such a nice map for Naboo. I know it is a world associated with the movies, but I don't know of any continuity reason why it wouldn't be around in the KOTOR era.

Dude, I understand the other position. BioWare folk are not EU canon lawyers and they gave us a game in which Revan was used in a way that might suggest it was a given name AND "Darth Revan" was also used by the Jedi elders in that game. Either way, we have a continuity shift. The Sith do not normally use their given names as their "Darth" names. Hence, it would actually be better for continuity if Revan and Malak were not their given names as well as their Darth names. Sure, it would amount to some creative retrofitting, but would do less violence to EU continuity. They will do what they will do. I am only advancing my theory as to what they might do.

I am soooo looking forward to that game. That will quench my KOTOR thirst for a good while, I suspect. I'm glad they are using the fixed surname concept. If you think about it, it is really the best way to allow the same protagonist to complete an entire trilogy of games.

no, what I meant was, Battlefront is an action game that effectivley eclipses JK on that front. KOTOR is a story-focused game (RPG) that effectively eclipes JK on the story side of things. Hence, JK really doesn't have any room to exist.

I like the idea of a PST-type game using Ancient Greek mythology (and not necessarily using D&D rules) as the setting. The idea, though, that you are not some corpsified horror running around a morgue but a living soul sent to the Underworld as part of some celestial mission. You can stay as long as you like, but if you eat any food down there, you are trapped in that world. Hence, you are forced to constantly reappear in the prime world for food and other provisions. The Underworld is a vast place: Tartarus, the Elysian Fields, the Palace of Hades, the rivers Styx, Lethe, Acheron, Cocytus, and Phlegethon; and many personalities: Cerberus, The Erinyes, Charon the Ferryman, etc. Man, I would love a game like that.

[sOME SPOILERS!!!!!!!!] I agree that the actual dialogues and story bits were very well done. But the overarching story was quite familiar.

well, Diablo-style High Fantasy, yes....undead creatures and beings from the Otherworld but not much in the way of Goblins and the like...which is fine, don't get me wrong but, indeed, it is a High Fantasy game. I think what it is missing is the lack of roaming opportunities....the presentation was very linear, very Yellow Brick Road-ish. I'm thinking if future games have more of a "free-roam" element, that will help a lot. also, lack of party-based combat (while a bold move), probably drove many away.

what holds Jade Empire back a bit is that it is a new franchise with nothing but itself to draw upon. KOTOR and games in the D&D universe have a built-in advantage as they have well-established franchises to draw audiences in...and plenty of cliches to throw around once you get there. if the Jade Empire franchise continues (which I hope it does), it will develop its own lore and cliches, etc that will draw people in for future titles. it appears that it was successful enough for a sequel, though, and that is a good thing. Mass Effect will not have this problem, I suspect, because, even though it is a new IP, it offers a space RPG experience that no one can even come close to.

exactly....the lack of almost any chaotic choices in the dialogue trees. the inability to pursue a diplomatic/chaotic path (either LS or DS).

All told, I think Jade Empire probably is a better product than KOTOR...it's just that KOTOR and KOTOR II feel "fresh" because it is a space setting. You feel like you have a lot more control than you really do because you are navigating to so many different worlds (and making light speed jumps, etc), you have cargo in hold (certain side quests), etc. It feels like you have more control. And Jade Empire, when it gets right down to it, is really just another medieval fantasy game, only with an Oriental twist and with twitch combat. KOTOR is not a medieval fantasy game, thus making it a bit different than the standard fare.

G0TO is a perfect example of a character that, while he played an important part in the story, should have been releasable as a party member....he could have easily reappeared and had plenty of dialogue and cutscenes, even after you released him. but we should not have been stuck with him. having said that, he can be useful, especially at the Dxun Tomb if you give him 2 fully-upgraded Mandalorian Rippers...he becomes a mine-removing, floating killing machine!

good point. games as good as KOTOR are actually meant for 2 different audiences: SW geeks and people who like RPGs. I am something of both. SW geeks want to learn more about the characters in the stories...that is why a "hard-coded" Revan and Exile are inevitabilities...only people with names, genders, homeworlds, etc can have fleshed-out stories. however, by keeping it vague in the actual games, they can avoid offending the crossover people...but that also means that resolution will only come in other EU media, such as comics. ...unless they start using the surname/coprotagonist idea...then we can get some satisfying stories (spanning multiple titles) in the actual games.

it is all about the *illusion* of freedom...obviously, there is still the Yellow Brick Road. let us say that you fired Carth and got another pilot in KOTOR. Now Carth has some important clues to give you about Saul and Malak. Well, he can still give you those clues in a ship-to-ship transmission, a holomessage that your droid picks up on a certain planet, etc. now, if Carth actually dies, it becomes a little trickier but the info can still get to you (a bartender somehow knows alot about Admiral Saul, etc). the idea is not to create another Yellow Brick Road but to give you some options, making you feel that you really are the party leader....party leaders hire and fire people....that cannot (or at least should not) be denied.

Jedi Academy. you see, I am sooo not a twitch gamer and JO was just plain hard and twitchy. now, the story was really decent but I cannot forgive the twitchyness of the gameplay. JA's controls are easier to work with and it has minigames (such as Swoop Bike combat) that help make up for it. I doubt there will be more in this series, though. The Battlefront franchise offers multiplayer (including lightsaber duels) and the story-focused stuff will morph into RPGs like KOTOR (that is certainly my hope, anyway).

there is also a school of thought that says a beginning programmer should start with PASCAL and then move to DELPHI (which is object-oriented PASCAL). PASCAL was designed with instruction in mind and is very clean in structure. However, since C# is essentially a blending of better aspects of Pascal, Java, and C (and retains the very "clean" structure of Pascal), one might argue that C# is the best beginner's language, all told.

you know, I still haven't listened to that one...I'll have to check it out. I've also heard that their "Alive in Athens" is a really good live album. "Days of Purgatory" is also a really good compilation of their earlier stuff.

I just think it makes sense to cut it off at about the time of Darth Bane (and his Rule of Two). You really can't have KOTOR with only 2 Sith hiding about in the shadows. KOTOR is a feudal time with lots of Sith running around.

I've played through KOTOR as both male and female Revan and, I have to say, female Revan works just fine....probably a little better than female Exile. In fact, I believe David G. originally conceptualized Revan as female. But Revan, of course, if a generic, cookie-cutter, unisex name, much like Jaden Korr is in Jedi Academy. And we need to get away from that. Instead of having weak names and bickering over whether that person is this or that, we need to have fixed surnames....as I've said before, the games should be written with the EU continuity in mind and that is best served if the PC's mentor, not the PC himself, gets most of the credit for what happened. "Jedi Knight Bastila Shan and her Padawan Stargazer set off to save....". Who is Padawan Stargazer? Anybody you want, (even non-human if you want). I think that is much better than a unisex name (like Jaden) or a placeholder name (like Exile). People need names and surnames do the job just fine, while still allowing for a bit of flexibility. Now, having said all that, I don't think Revan is a given name. Revan is the man's Darth name.....MARK MY WORDS, BOY! MARK THEM WELL! YOU CAN FRET ALL YOU LIKE BUT YOU CANNOT DENY DESTINY!!!

right....I say let's keep all the movies in "the movie era"...same with any small screen productions. let the other stuff live out its existence in the EU. the KOTOR comic will flesh out the KOTOR story just fine.

Jade Empire....nice little RPG that.

ahhh, gotcha!