Third-person Jedi action of Star Wars The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition will be turning up on the PC in the Autumn, according to Lucasarts. The PC game is an expanded version of the original Force Unleashed game, with three extra single-player missions. Bizarrely, the new missions set up a parallel timeline within the Star Wars universe, in which the events of the original films play out differently, according the events of the game. The second new mission in this rebooted version of the game “re-imagines the Star Wars Saga as if the Secret Apprentice had taken Darth Vader’s place at the Emperor’s side, becoming the most powerful Sith Lord in the universe. The story picks up as the Emperor sends his new apprentice to Tatooine to dispatch Obi-Wan Kenobi – who has been hiding on the planet ever since the events of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith.”
The final new mission apparently sees you facing Luke Skywalker in the assault on Hoth, via a quick visit to Tatoonie, natch.
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@Hunam: That spoilered story sounds freaking awesome, from a “running around and killing guys” point of view. I’m in!
Speaking as somebody who (on occasion) writes very long stories that publishers look at, there are different kinds of story. Sometimes, there’s E. Annie Proulx. On the other hand, there’s Chuck Kinder. Sometimes you write affecting stories that make a whole lot of sense, and sometimes you just chuck around and tell tall tales and generally have fun with your characters. The latter is just fine by me.
@ Muzman: “They should give up and just go completely Rosencrantz and Gilderstern Are Dead with these plots. Make the lead hilariously responsible for all the mishaps that befall the main characters (think ‘Concerned : The rise and fall of Gordon Frohmann’) and lead fulfilling and creative lives behind the scenes, only to be killed off for the sake of continuity.”
They actually did that in the comics. Tag and Bink. As far as I remember, it was surprisingly good.
On the subject of the lightsaber not hitting as hard as people would have liked, I think it’s because they actively wanted to move in a new direction with this game. Almost every Star Wars game to date has been largely about running up to someone, hitting them once with the lightsaber and you win instantly.
Force Unleashed was definitely less about the saber, and more about – y’know – the Force. THAT became your all-purpose deathdealer, and your lightsaber got downgraded to being your close combat backup weapon.
It may not be SW universe canon, but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t fun to swing it more than once per fight.
Anyway, why’d you want to stab a guy when you can pick him up and throw him into the flight path of a passing starfighter, causing both of them to explode spectacularly.
I dunno, Dom, the wild insanity of the lightsaber battles in Jedi Academy (and by extension, JK2) was pretty damned amazing. Even the one-hit kills were gratifying. That might just be my particular bent, though.
@Baris: Sorry, It was a typo error or a freudian slip, but It was absolutelly not intended.
I like Lucasarts new administration. Maybe now they decided to hire good programmers, so there’s no need to have a $4000 system to run the game.
Really, whoever made that stupid affirmation should be fired or at least be forced to see The Phantom Menace for 24 hours nonstop.
Hopefully the next news from Lucasarts are a Monkey Island 2 remake.
The Hulkster agrees with this trend of releasing polished versions of console exclusives on the PC.
Wasn’t this game shit, though?
I don’t know, was it?
Quite enjoyed the game on my PS3, though the levels could have definitely used some work (and I’ll second the GODDAMNED Star Destroyer), but all in all, I’m glad I bought it. Abusing the telekinesis is what really made it worthwhile, from putting people in the way of TIE Fighters or huge lasers, flinging them into the abyss, or even just letting them float there while they occasionally try to shoot you and then spin around from the recoil- it never got old.
This potential of the Ultimate Sith Edition having the exclusive lock on the Hoth level irritates me though, as Hoth is my favorite part of the entire Star Wars canon and I don’t want to buy the whole game again for the privilege of playing it.
What on earth are you lot talking about?
This game got 70+% on Metacritic on the next gen systems.
AC runs great on my mid range three year old rig.
What bad Lucas ports?
Please, please, please don’t turn this blog into a “Dirty Consoletards” site.
It won’t, but the game is pretty awful.
@Tei: Damn, sorry about that. I’d been reading some Kotaku comments earlier and it was getting on my nerves…
@ Bhazor: The “dirty console-tards” remarks are daft. However, LucasArts effectively not only ditched the PC version because of piracy, they then said that wasn’t the reason honest and instead talked about how you would need a $4000 PC in order to play it, which you know, was obviously better.
You have no idea how much “PC gaming is dead
OLOL” crap this spawned.
So to recap, the port’s coming out on the PC a year after release on every other platform (including the PS2 and iPhone) when anyone who wanted it already has it. It was also a game with middling and mediocre reviews, it’s completely missed the critical advertising / hype phase (which is crucial for any game, it’s one of the main reasons the PC release of Dragon Age is being held back for the console versions, for a combined advertising campaign), and it’s also releasing during the busy part of the year when all the really major hitters are coming out.
I can’t see how this isn’t too late. The game’s going to sell poorly, there’s little other way of looking at it. About the biggest saving grace it has is that it’s from the Star Wars franchise.
All you need then is a LucasArts exec to comment about how bad the sales were on the port, make an offhand comment about how it’s solely to do with piracy levels, and then the entire freaking cycle has started all over again. Freaking joy.
Unnecessarily cynical? Undoubtedly. But it wouldn’t exactly be a shocker if it played out that way. I’m certain even you’ve seen plenty of this stuff as well, I suspect you wouldn’t be surprised either.
71-73 to be more precise. Which they translate as “mixed or average reviews”. With user score being even lower, 6.2-6.4.
No need to pretend this elephant ain’t in the room; TFU turned out to be a mediocre game, so hardly worth excitement it’s getting a PC port now.
@ subedii: “everyone who wants it already has it” I’m sure that isn’t true and that’s one way in which it isn’t too late and never could be. Thing is not everyone can afford to own a console, not every gamer has anything but a PC. I know I didn’t when I was growing up, I wanted a console because I wanted those console exclusives but a console cost more than I got given in presents for a whole year so I never got one. I did however have a PC because my parents could see the educational value of it. I can’t imagine there aren’t people in similar positions today and some of those people will be huge Star Wars fans who have been dying to play The Force Unleashed and for those people it won’t be too late, far from it, for those few this will be some of the best news they’ve had all year. In some ways I kind of envy them that.
I agree with Persus-9. Why would I buy a machine just for playing when I can have a better, more powerful machine for playing, writing, listening to music, surf the web, watching movies, doing graphic design, etc, etc, etc? PCs maybe more expensive, but I think they give you more for what you pay.
Consoles are just a trend and they will pass vey soon. PC won’t. So I wouldn’t buy a console just for a game. So, no I haven’t played TFU yet, but I’m not sure if will, if only to give a message to developers to never do something as stupid as Lucasarts made here (The $4.000 PC crap).
I want to think that they will bring TFU to PC now, just because of the new administration and their new love to PC and adventure games. If that’s the case then there’s some chance I could buy this game.
Anyway I would play it more for the story which I think is rather good, more than for the gameplay.
A shame no one wants this game, porting this tripe to the pc so long after release can’t and undoubtedly wont be encouraged.
Persus 9: I don’t mean that in the absolute and most literal sense Persus, and your taking it as such misses the point.
If you want an explanation, then it’s pretty evident that from those that wanted the title, most will have already gotten it on the platform it was already available on. That’s a huge chunk of sales that the PC platform will never see right off the bat, outside of an extremely hardcore few who’ll buy it twice just for the Sith edition.
The statement isn’t about how everyone has a console. Not literally everyone does. It doesn’t change the fact that most gamers do (at least in the US / UK region). For them it wasn’t a question of choosing the PC version over the console version, that choice was already forced when the game was released and wasn’t available on what might have been the preferred platform, just one they had access to. Heck, it’s still questionable about getting TFU on PC instead of on console right now, the console version’s selling second-hand for about £10.
Then you’ve got people like Pilouuuu, who leaving all other factors aside, feel slighted over how obtuse LucasArts was over the whole thing to begin with.
All of these are factors that add, and none of them point towards good sales, or at least not nearly as good as the game could have had. Like I said, the biggest thing it has in its favour is that it’s from the Star Wars franchise. But the hype has past, the reviews weren’t excellent, the advertising isn’t there to make people aware, MOST (is that sufficient?) people who had a console and wanted the game will have already bought it, and it’s releasing when other, new AAA titles are coming out at the same pricepoint (ignoring the fact that it’s already cheaper on the consoles if you stop by any CEX or Gamestation).
So now where at this stage. Deny all existence of a PC version for fear that piracy will eat into your sales (whilst simultaneously making crap comments about the platform, even by most standards that’s pretty stupid). Then release it after the main sales period has passed, and get mediocre sales because of that. Rinse-repeat.
The game isn’t coming out too late for anyone who only had a PC and is wanting the game, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying it’s coming out too late for Lucasarts, it’s too late to make the money they could have on it, and quite likely, any decent money at all.
After which, we go into my own personal sphere of cynicism, where Lucasarts loudly announces how badly the port sold, announces it’s all pirates anyway, kicks over the pram and takes their toys home with them. This is not to downplay the effects of piracy (or turn this into one of those discussions), but when a product fails on the platform, it’s almost never attributed to one of the myriad other stupid decisions they made along the way, and is instead solely pinned on everyone owning a PC also being in ownership of a looted naval vessel and peg-leg.
Ridiculous. Like the rest of LucasArts.
Bizarre. It’s like they’re actively trying to insult our intelligence.
As someone has said, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy; because of piracy worries, bring out a mediocre game months after anyone has stopping caring about it, while making it obvious that you previously lied to the target audience about the reason for delaying it. See the game torrented by hoarders who simply want to add it to the collection, while most people’s reaction is “meh”. Then, rather than try to attribute any self-blame to your sales and marketing strategy, which, remember, involved not just lying but dumb lying (that is, lying that is eventually 100% certain to be found out) use the external excuse of piracy and carry on as normal.
P.
Lucas arts allowed Republic Commando to exist, that is the only smart thing they did in the last 10 years until the steam releases.
I only have a PC, and at the time I was looking foward to this game, before I heard it wasn’t coming out on PC. Now, I don’t really care ,especially with the things they said about it.
Silly, silly Lucasarts. I wonder how much more sales they could’ve made if they’d released both at (about) the same time. Now, especially given the (not-so-positive) news on the game, a lot of people may not even bother to get it at a discount.
@Skinlo
you said it man, they might of been able to dupe me out of a sale a year ago, but now i know it’s a steaming turd.
the sith edition isn’t exclusive to the pc btw
*sw fanboi need*
Predition:
1) There will be little to no advertising for the game, so casual gamers won’t know it even exists on the PC.
2) Harcore gamers who would buy it either: already played it on another console, heard the reviews said it was okay but not great, or just can’t be bothered because there have been a lot of better, more current games out there to play in the past year or so.
3) Citing bad sales, Lucasarts representativeswill blame it all on rampant piracy. Then they will feel justified as they knock off work early to take naps on their giant piles of money.
It´s a fun game, not particularly brilliant in any way but fun in a “throwing-stormtroopers-around”. Don’t expect a Jedi Outcast type of game, it´s more a Beat’em Up with a very cool physic engine and overpowered use of the Force.
@ subedii. I pretty much agree with all you said.
I (want to) think that this sudden change is due to Lucasarts new administration and their new love with PCs. The game will probably sell quite badly due to all fact you mentioned. But they would disappoint me (once again) if they start boycotting the PC again and blame piracy due to that. They should have all those factors in consideration. They could simply have said “we sold a lot of units on consoles. Let’s make some extra money on the PC”, but without big hopes of it being a best seller.
What I’m more worried about is the sales of The Secret of Monkey Island SE, so Lucasarts sees that there’s still a market ofr adventure games and for GOOD games that are not based on the Star Wars franchise.
“i hope this is a proper release and not another move from the new milk-the-old-games department of Lucasarts
im still hoping for a Tie Fighter remake ….”
Wow, you managed to negate your initial comment with the very next sentence you typed, congratulations.
Sigh. Do people even read what they type anymore?
@ Fumarole
lol Lucasarts are definitely confusing gamers with their announcements and the subsequent expectation created. Maybe they are using jedi mind tricks on all us.
Just give us Monkey Island 2 and I’ll be happy, dammit!
I have see some videos. It looks like a really boring game.
What is wrong with these guys? I *hard* to make a bad Star Wars game.
Ok , new rule, no commenting about quality unless you’ve played it. I haven’t, so I won’t but christ some of you are taking it personal.
Meh.
unclelou says:
Too little, too late, after too much bullshit, and in the busiest season.
Once it hits the bargain bins, maybe.
jon_hill987 says:
This will sell badly, it is too late so no one cares any more, had they released it at the same time then it might have sold, but Lucasarts are just going to end up blaming the pirates for their own stupid mistake.
The whole business about the $4000 PC was a load of bull as well, a $400 PC is as powerful as an XBox 360 these days.
Pretty much sums up my feelings.
I read that supposedly Aspyr will be porting the game to the PC and Mac. Unfortunately, Aspyr doesn’t have a very good track record when it comes to porting games.
Still, so much for the “you need a $4,000 PC” lies from LucasArts last year. I hope the producer who said that was eventually reprimanded for making such an blatantly false, idiotic comment.