Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

As a foreword to the readers, I really tried to like this game I was super excited that Lucas Arts came out with a game of their own and I really wanted to like this game. I came into the game thinking it was going to be a force-gasm; as you’ll read it ended up not.


Story:

You play as a young apprentice to Darth Vader, who kills your father and swoops you up so he can get his jollies on you, or train you, we still don’t know what happens there. You are then trained as Darth’s right hand to do all the dirty work, like finding Jedi and killing them.

The story of TFU is a great addition to the Star Wars lineage, and with amazing cut-scenes it does a great job of telling it. Also the Voice acting is amazing with perfectly synced actions and the characters really emote well. If Lucas arts is good at doing one thing, it’s making full digital movies that can/could be passed as real.


Game play:

Having the power of the force is one of many dreams of man, with TFU you get to experience all of it. When you first start the game you get to play as Darth Vader and yes he is as badass as you think he is. Darth Vader doesn’t run he walks with a shitload of hate in every step; you can tell that he’s rearing to tear someone in half. Playing as Vader gives you a glimpse of just how destructive and hateful you can make your game play; with strangling your enemies or crushing them into a suitcase size flesh packs. The hilarity that ensues during this initial mayhem is awesome and will make you laugh, but the evil twisted laugh, not that pussy giggle laugh. (thanks to IGN for the picture)

As the game progresses so do your skills and so does the amount shit stomping you do. I was initially playing as a Sith Warrior, which I recommend you not do until your second play through. The game will get really gay really quick if you decided you are already a badass, and at the beginning it might seem that way but shit hits the fan very quick. So just play as the apprentice which is what you are, and you’ll have more fun playing.

The game controls are pretty solid and really lend themselves well to wielding the force. Combos are not really all that exotic with 75% of them have the same beginning with a couple different ending schemes ( X, X, X, X, Y or B or what have you). I have heard some people gripe about how the targeting system is kinda garbage and sometimes you don’t pick up what you want. That’s true, to and extend; targets are selected with the direction of the character, not the camera, so it’s easy to select something you don’t want. There have also been some criticisms on throwing things at people, I so far have not had any trouble crushing imperials with boxes, rock, heaters, barrels, chairs, R2 units, Tie fighters, Tie Bombers, etc etc.

One important thing to learn, which will make your day much easier, is the quick recover. A simple tap of A will make you jump up and recover so you don’t get the HAVOCK engine’s typical, “I just jumped out of my car at 100 mph see how long I can flail” syndrome. No where in the tutorials does it give you this information, which is a damn shame because it is such a critical move to the game not sucking. Staying on moves, the force combo list is pretty decent except that there should be more awesome attacks. Because you only have one character and you have about ~25 combos where as a dedicated fighter games have A LOT of combos and a lot more characters, so I just think it’s a shame many more moves were not added.

Although a lot of this might sound like praise there were numerous things that I thought detracted from the game. Firstly the environments, however pretty, were notoriously glitchy. By that I mean there are a lot of clipping issues where you will get stuck on level planes and many items will fall through the level for no reason. The environments were way too slippery; you will slide off low inclined tank treads or easily fall off platforms. Speaking of platforms, some areas of the game that would seem like they would make perfect sense to jump on to acquire an item are too slippery to stand on let alone use for plat forming. It just really annoyed me that everything seems not well tested, I’ll get to this point later.

It is important to mention the new technologies of DMM and Euphoria that Lucas Arts has integrated into the game. DMM is Lucas Arts way of making materials behave with real world characteristics. Instead of the normal breaking of wood or stone at the same pre-defined areas the material will splinter or shatter in accordance with the stresses applied on it. This for me was the games best aspect because I totally geeked out on it. Euphoria is another tech infusion that allows your enemies to emote in accordance with how bad their shit is getting stomped. Euphoria basically makes the baddies react by trying to grab onto things when they are force gripped or shake like Michael J Fox when they are shocked. Really interesting to see these come together.

To wrap up the game-play section the AI in the game was kind of lacking in some situation the enemies would stand around and not do anything. Also some of the larger bosses, like rancors, would just stand in a dumbfounded state and not attack even when they had close to 1.1 gigawatts to razz them up.


Graphics:

As I have said before graphics are now a very important thing to gamers, if it looks like shit, it’s not fun to play. This is one area where Lucas Arts defiantly is a power house, being next door to Industrial Light and Magic TFU shines and glows in all the right places. Cut scenes are perfectly choreographed and are real a treat to watch.

Real geeks of Star Wars will defiantly geek out on a lot of the geometry used in the game. For me the Junkyard level was awesome, I saw the Millennium Falcon, escape pods, and just things that I “knew” what they were and I am sure that was exactly Lucas Arts intent.

Now Daniel thinks its cool when you get graphics slow down, because he is thinking. “Man I am a badass if I am doing this”. Which he can get pretty crazy at times but I am no where near that and I was able to slow the game down hard. Some areas of intense explosions and action really make the 360 come to a crawl and seem like you are watching a slide show. But the times where this happened was very few maybe three times. Thankfully the game show little to no graphical texture pop-in, something that seemed to plague Mass Effect.


Sound:

ILM has done a magnificent job giving TFU the Star Wars sound. Every sound has been recycled from past Star Wars games/movies/episodes so that when you play it you know it is a Star Wars game. They didn’t really introduce too many new items for the game but everything sounded great one thing ILM and Lucas Arts has always excelled at.


Verdict:

This game was supposed to be a truly epic game, and it is a great game. But unfortunately the game does lack a lot in my opinion. For being a multi-platform release I do not think that they play tested the shit out of the game like some other titles. Many little things plagued the game and made me curse and spit and throw controllers.

Having beaten the game through three times now it’s much more enjoyable; although some of the gripes about game play still stay the same. Until you are leveled enough you don’t get the full satisfaction of totally raping your enemies with the force. Thus the game doesn’t feel too fun on the first play through.

80/100

Waiting patiently

OK so I am waiting here not doing my homework like a good college student and waiting for the release of "star Wars: The Force Unleashed".

Today I decided to look at reviews of the game and gamespot and IGN have given it 75% and 73% respectively. I personally played the shit out of the demo and loved it just because of the freedom it allowed me. I was also geeking out about the DMM technology that they incorporated with the game where materials behave like they are suppose to.

I am also excited about the story, its been a while since there has been a good story game. I really like the games like Gears of War or Halo that although have an on rails play style tell a great story. Many of the criticisms where the "polish" of the game, but they say that the story is the "best" of the Star Wars series. I personally look to games like this as a new medium of storytelling not just another bin to throw my time away.

regardless of the poor reviews so far I am still going to be at our midnight launch.

I am almost thinking that this game will be one of those sleeper "assassin creed" type games. That game got terrible reviews out of the gate, but as others took their time and played the game how they wanted to play it the game really kicked some ass.

I just can't wait to throw some storm troopers into walls and smash R2-D2 out an airlock window.

GRID

To start off GRID is not the super customizable Gran Turismo orgasm that most "racers" are use to. GRID is instead the newest installment from Code Masters that focuses on the actual racing and interaction on the course. So instead of having the only Daihatsu Midget with 500 horsepower you are equally matched up to 12 opponents who tough it out for the win.

Story:

First and foremost GRID is a driving arcade game, story is one of those little things that can be tossed away and forgotten about. The only real story is that you actually have rivals and people who are considered "good" and you have to beat them.

Your role is basically a driver for hire that takes what he/she can get. But let’s face it this is a racing game not Mass Effect.

Game play:

The first thing you will notice about GRID is that it doesn't approach you like a normal racing series genre, it presents itself as something different. GRID wants to focus you on your team and how your team will make money. If you are the type that likes to micromanage then you will like the game just for that.

But for someone that has religiously played the GT series, PGR and Forza this game is something fresh. You are never taken out of your garage when managing your teammates or your cars so it actually feels like you are a team manager. Instead of always coming back to the same boring "home" screen you go back to your lovely garage to drool over your ridiculous looking cars.

If you're one that loves the customizable aspect of most racing games you'll be sadly disappointed. The limit to your customization stops with your paint, no wheels, no engines, no fart pipes. This game is about racing not making a more ridiculous car than your competitors.

Most expect racing sims to be spot on representations of the cars that they are piloting, but suffice to say that 95% of people playing these games will never see 90% of these cars let alone drive them; there’s room for interpretation. The game does an amazing job of blending realistic diving physics with an arcade like feel that doesn't make you feel so disconnected with your car or so limited by your skill. The diving gives realistic feedback to the driver, you feel that car A over steers or car B plows a lot, there is a very palpable aspect to driving different cars. Although if you decide to drive with assists on you will drive better, where as in other games they feel like a hindrance.

Since GRID focuses more on better driving rather than eleventy billion horsepower modded out bean rockets the game is much harder than your average sim. One aspect that makes it much harder than any other series out there is the amazing AI that GRID employs. Take for example the GT series, the cars are slow and predictable and not really fun to race around. GRID on the other hand really throws the racing community a curveball, the driving behavior get more aggressive the higher you move up the field. Cars will block push and generally be totally dicks to you so they will get a better position. But the cars can also spin out by being too ballsy or careless, like the real world drivers crash.

GRID also offers many different driving styles to play around with so you can find your niche and really excel at it; personally I rock the drifting championships. Each graphical locale has a different name for the same style of racing, basically. Japanese have pro-tuned, USA has Grand Touring, same thing different cars different tracks. But a very diverse play arena and it gives a nice break so it’s not always come in first by racing around a track. Its go around and either be more stylized, or just more ballsy to nab first and the fat cash.

GRID is also not a racing game that focuses solely on being first in every single event. GRID will reward you no matter what position you come in, all you have to really worry about is pleasing your sponsors. Your sponsors will reward you if you come in first or make a podium finish, it depends on who is your sponsor. Even if you are an O.C.D. perfectionist the game is still fun.

GRID also brings a new feature to racing, its called flashbacks. Flashbacks are a feature that, when you fuck up, you can rewind to a moment where you aren’t all over the road to help you grab a better spot or win the race. It’s a great new feature that really goes for something new rather than just another racing game with production cars.

The cars in GRID are also very spectacular; GRID doesn’t fill the game with bullshit cars like Daihatsu midgets and 1970s Honda Life Step Vans that do absolutely nothing for you. It instead packs your arsenal with really badass cars that any race head would love to drive. Although not a sim with every car ever manufactured it takes a very diverse fill of cars from the world 43 cars in total from top USA muscle machines to top Japanese tuning cars. The models are superbly detailed and really let the driver know it’s a next gen title. Instead of having to beat a certain area with X:XX amount of time to unlock cars, you can just straight up buy them, like in the real world. It also gives you a chance to manage an eBay account to buy and sell cars so your garage isn’t so cluttered or just because you think the TVR is a horrible car.

Also unlike the GT series you can actually mess up your cars which will affect how they drive, in that race and not globally. So if you ram your opponent at 120mph then yes you will get some damage to your bumper, or yes your bumper will fly off if you hit a parked van. Its just another element of GRID that makes it a more cohesive package.

Interface:

Since GRID is not your typical racing game it approaches you in a different way, instead of a bunch of boring menus and aloof home screens it keeps you in your garage with the racing events sectioned out in a “tool box” fashion that looks natural to a car freak. The garage style of interface really feels homey to me and keeps emphasizing to me that, “yes this is a racing game.”

GRID also brings you into a race in a much more theatric fashion and shows you just who you need to fuck up beat in order to win.

The game interaction is just a total different experience for any seasoned racer.

Graphics:

In this day and age graphics are becoming more and more important

to the spoiled ass 1080p nut hugging teens and gaming aficionados. GRID looks beautiful, cars are modeled so well you might as well be looking at it IRL. Lighting and camera blurs and flares and just general environments look amazing and spot on. For someone that has actually raced in a real racecar and on a track the feeling you get from the cockpit view is like déjà-vu for me.

GRID also does an amazing job with the scenery, maybe not the highest priority on a racers mind but it just makes the whole experience that much more visceral. Having more interactive crowds and a variety of ambiance in the game is amazing. When you get on the Nuremberg you will sure as hell know it.

The replays that GRID offers make it feel like a big blockbuster car scene rather “just” another replay of me destroying the field. With dynamic camera angles and epic music the replays in themselves are treats.

One part that stands out in particular is when you get to do a midnight touge battle its pitch black with nothing but your headlights to guide you. You can’t see shit, but it’s not something to complain about it really makes you feel that you are barreling down some mountain road in the dead of night with an opponent hot on your tail. The effects are just plain amazing in the game.

Sound:

For a racing game sound is critical, the cars sound amazing and near to what you would expect. Although a lot of the cars tend to sound similar at higher speeds, my guess is to give the same illusion of going fast as shit regardless of the car.

It’s not just the sound of the engines themselves but it’s everything else in the car you can hear. For instance if I am driving my car over the rumble strips I hear that familiar noise, or when I hop over a bump I can hear my shocks compensate and squeak as normal race coil-overs do. The tire screeches are also very distinctive, not all tires are the same thus not all tires will sound the same. When in a demo-derby event the dry rotted junkyard tires both grip and sound different than your super sticky racing compound tires. When spinning out the noises are different; in the game I find myself listening to the tires to tell me when I will spin out rather than being backed into a ditch wondering what the fuck happened.

For games getting better and better all the components making a harmonious interaction really make a game great.

Online play:

Since this is one of the first games that I have reviewed with a definitive online section it does show where Code Masters spent there time; a hint, it wasn’t here.

Having played thousands of Halo 3 online matches I have been spoiled by a really optimized multiplayer hopper and ranking system. So I obviously felt let down when I played scrubs on the intarwebs. It made me feel like I was playing in an old school TCP/IP LAN game with friends; it wasn’t enjoyable to me and felt lacking. Games are set up by particular hosts and then the participants (up to 12) will vote on what they want to play. There are no default playlists or a particular area that you can play in, it is really up to the host and its party members to decide. Having played for a while it seems most everyone enjoys the drifting aspect in the game. My guess is that it isn’t that hard to do, and you can get pretty good at it. Yet only a few people can get massive scores and make it look easy.

This was one area of the game that I really felt let down in, I really wanted better ranking and more ways to show off and let everyone know why racing is the only genre I am good at. It might also be that there isn’t that large of an online following for the game, yet.

Verdict:

To say this game isn’t good would be a straight out lie on my part, to say this game is the best is also a stretch. But within its genre it is defiantly unique and has some things that really set it apart. Although having a lacking online component really made me bitter, the game is still by far the most enjoyable racing game I have played this year and in recent memory.

89/100