Force Unleashed gets ported to PC (Nov 3, 2009)!

[JesusIsGonnaOwnSatan]

Kurgan, could you post links to the exact gameplay vids you're referring to?

also, can you give me a heads up on spoilers? ive stayed away from the tfu forum for that very reason. (except this thread).

The camera is zoomed waaay out, and for the saber duels

it suddenly turns to a side view like Soul Calibur (and zooms way out to

keep both combatants in view)

sounds ok, but also quite different to JK... i'll have to play it myself to make any judgment.

However the saber control looks like a major step backward.

It appears to be hack and slash... like Jedi Power Battles.

No dismemberment, and it sometimes takes more than two

hits to kill somebody. A stormtrooper takes two hits and

slooowly slumps over (or you can pound him four or five times

and he goes flying).

never played or seen jedi power battles, but this sounds like BF2 saber combat...

It's strange that you hold your saber behind you, what's

the point of that? (other than it looks "kewl") It helps if

somebody is trying to shoot you in the back, but otherwise

he just takes hits like an idiot.

personally, i think its just a marketing gimmick for tfu that they're injecting into the rest of canon for the sake of tfu. more annoying is that the backhand thing is now the Shien saber style, which was one of my favorites before the whole backhand thing came along. now a bunch of people just like it because of the backhand, and not the style itself.

 

You get health back for slashing people (like the "Vampire Sword"

powerup in RUNE, it even has the little colored wisps coming out of the

victim to heal you, although they're green instead of red).

they should be red...

Looks like you can do things like double jump, glide forward, and pause slightly

in mid-jump, or create a shockwave with your saber (stuff we hadn't seen before

in the JK games).

...like vader and palpatine in BF2?

i think the whole explosive-saber-ground-stab thing was first seen in lego star wars and BF2, then put into other sw stuff, which is funny because when i saw it in lego sw, i thought it wouldnt be seen elsewhere because it seemed a rather strange thing in terms of existing sw canon, and more of a flashy "newer video game move". i wonder what they've canonized on how this thing works...

I also don't see any vehicle usage.

thats somewhat disappointing...

imagine the stuff you could do with the crazy tfu force powers and vehicles! (perhaps itll be in a tfu 2?)

 

There are no video settings in the game

WHAT.

I'm told that there is ABSOLUTELY NO MULTIPLAYER WHATSOEVER

(which is too bad, the bare bones dueling from the Wii version

looked pretty pedestrian but it least it was something, oh well).

thats just going to limit the game's life like crazy. and if ther'es no modding... o_O

[Kurgan]

I'm going to post the SPOILER videos in their own thread. Check them there.

[Zwier Zak]

There is no multilayer.

 

The game uses checkpoints for save games.

 

AMD Athlon Dual Core 2.81 ghz

2 gb ram

GF 8500 GT 512 mb

Soundblaster Audigy 2

Windows XP

 

I'll see the other stuff later.

[Zwier Zak]

http://forums.lucasarts.com/thread.jspa?threadID=140841&tstart=0

 

Looks like someone is modding it!

[Kurgan]

So what's the WEAKEST system anyone has gotten the game to run on?

 

 

Again the official specs are:

 

PC Minimum System Requirements

 

* Operating System: Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista SP2. Windows 7

* CPU Processor: 2.4 GHz Dual Core Processor (Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon X2)

* Memory: 2 GB RAM

* Hard Disk Space: 23.8 GB + 1 GB Swap File

* Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

* Video Card: 3D Hardware Accelerator Card Required – 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible 256 MB Video Memory with Shader 3.0 support (Radeon HD 2900/ Geforce 8800)

* Media Required: 8X DVD-ROM drive

* Windows XP/Vista compatible mouse and keyboard or Microsoft Xbox 360 Wired Controller

 

This product does not support Windows 95/98/ME/2000/NT.

 

Recommended System Requirements

 

* Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core 5200+

* 512 MB 3D Hardware Accelerator Card

* Video Card (ATI): Radeon HD 4870

* Video Card (Nvidia): Geforce 9800 GT

* Memory: 2 GB RAM

 

NOTICE: Some 3D accelerator cards with the chipset listed here may not be compatible with the 3D acceleration features utilized by Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Please refer to your hardware manufacturer for 100% DirectX compatibility.

 

Supported Desktop Chipsets

 

* ATI RADEON HD 2900, 3850, 3870, 4850, 4870

* NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800, 9600, 9800, 260, 280

[Zwier Zak]

Here is a list of bugs found by the users on Lucasarts official forums:

 

- The game crashes to the desktop randomly

- Using the xbox controller makes the frame rate drop down dramatically also on hi end computers

- The sound tends to turn itself of from time to time. A restart of the game fixes the problem

- Sound problems during the cut scenes. The sound slows down and mutes it self from time to time.

- Only the default costumes have "good looking" cloaks. All the other costumes don't seem to use any physics

- Juno costume is missing

- An update to the minimal requirements is in order since the game runs fine on all GF 8XXX graphic cards.

- Starkillers costume on Hoth has some problems with the "ponytail". I have not seen this my self.

- Sometimes the game gives me a blue screen and restarts my computer. But I think this is a hardware

problem because my graphic card is not officially supported.

- Some people get an error during the installation process. "Internal error: An attempt was made to expand

the "group" constant before it was initialized."

[Kurgan]

Sounds like many of those problems were fixed in the official patch (1.1). Here are the list of changes:

 

* Added a detail setting to improve performance on lower end (dual core) machines

* General performance optimizations

* Addressed audio stuttering issues

* Optimized in-game cloth handling

* Optimized in-game tree leaf handling

* Addressed options disappearing briefly after pressing [Esc] at the Main Menu

* Addressed flashing placeholder text

* Added additional controller support:

o Xbox 360 Controller for Windows

o Xbox 360 Wired Controller

o Logitech Rumblepad 2

o Logitech Cordless Rumblepad 2

o Logitech Dual Action Controller

o Saitek Cyborg Rumble

o Saitek P32 Rumble

 

 

Apparently there is a "trainer" out there that lets you save anytime

(as well as toggle on various cheats).

 

Sadly I can't share where to get it here, because it may use a hacked EXE file.

 

(Use any unofficial tools at your own risk, of course)

[daventry]

What was their excuse to tell us that we PC Players can actually play this Game with all the nonsense back then when the Game would be to much to handle on a PC.

[Kurgan]

I guess that more people didn't have 2 gigs of ram a year ago?

[Kurgan]

And we got a 1.2 patch for TFU:USE, and a 1.1 patch for TFU2.

 

Well I'll say after playing through the first game on PC that it was pretty fun, albeit repetitive. It's a very consolish pc game that's for sure, in fact, I might even go so far as it to style it an "arcade" game. The main fun in the game is coming up with creative ways to wipe out your enemies... tossing objects around, maneuvering them through windows and so forth.

 

The storyline is kind of fun, but it's nothing too deep we haven't seen before, just another way to cleverly insert "your character" into the heart of the Star Wars saga and go with it, an excuse to put you in lots of Star Warsy situations. It was short, but fun. I see along the way they had to to give you lots of little upgrades and lightsaber colors or costumes to keep it from getting to boring. Not a bad game by any means, but nowhere near the depth of a Jedi Knight series installment. It's worth getting, if you've got a decent system and a controller adapter (I used my 3 in 1 Magic Joybox from Mayflash, so I can use real Xbox, GC or PS2 controllers, no need to buy a special usb 360 pad). TFU2 seems like more of the same (and no huge wait this time, thankfully), though you can change the menus with the mouse (something you couldn't do in the first game which was really annoying). But TFU2 doesn't work with my controller, unless I plug it in AFTER booting up the game. The graphics in the sequel are way richer than the previous installment (though there's a lot of motion blur, which you can turn off if you prefer). Plus there's a higher framerate possible (unofficial framerate unlocker is out there) and dismemberment, but once again, many of the same weaknesses, like no multiplayer and not much editing potential. The "DLC" for FU2 is some extra saber colors, costumes and five extra "challenges" (looks like you can post your "challenge" scores on some online leaderboards, which I'm not too concerned about, but if that's your thing).

 

Was it worth it to port these games to PC? Absolutely. I'm glad it happened. And they will look and play slightly better on a decent PC than on a console, even though it's basically the same exact thing as the 360 or PS3 playing on our screens. But I am also glad I didn't spend $60 on each of these games (and shell out for a brand new controller to play them, in addition).

 

The other upside to the PC is that it's possible to play the Wii version of either game (via emulation) and take advantage of the multiplayer that way. You can even hook up a Wiimote to your computer, as long as you have a compatible blue-tooth device and some free software from the internet. So you can get the best of both words... (even if the MP for these games is pretty basic, especially in the sequel).