2012 - Time for JK4

[Master Temporal]

definitely true. i loved the mechanics (for the most part) but the storyline was infamously bad.

 

I thought the same thing too.

 

BTW I just KNEW Jan wasn't dead in JO.

 

I think the story line for both JO and JA were geared for ages 8 and up. It comes off as kind of corny in some places, I thought other parts were pretty clever and funny, like when Kyle says to Luke "You ALWAYS sense a disturbance in the Force", stuff like that :-)

 

A more hard core version might alienate some of the younger players.

[Ham Yoyo]

I would love another Jedi Knight game but I don't think we are going to see one. Its been 9 years since the last one. I like The Force Unleashed but these games need to have more levels in them.

[irish_texan]

That would seriously suck if the next JK game was unmoddable and the only extensions it had were DLCs >_<

 

um... yeah. that would. i wouldnt even consider it a JK game if that were the case. lol that would be disgraceful.

 

 

You are absolutley right. Main problem is convincing Lucasarts that this game will make them money. I mean BFII is said to be the best selling Star Wars game of all time, and yet no sequel ever saw the light of day. Bottom line, Lucasarts does not subscribe to the "if you build it they will come" process. So I guess have fun with your wii clone wars games and nods for ten year old games.

 

that is true. the people at lucasarts seem kind of stupid when you put it that way. BFII was a massive success and they could have made millions off a sequel, but they never did. same with the jedi knight series. its a sad shame... smh:disaprove:argh:

 

 

I thought the same thing too.

 

BTW I just KNEW Jan wasn't dead in JO.

 

I think the story line for both JO and JA were geared for ages 8 and up. It comes off as kind of corny in some places, I thought other parts were pretty clever and funny, like when Kyle says to Luke "You ALWAYS sense a disturbance in the Force", stuff like that :-)

 

A more hard core version might alienate some of the younger players.

 

yeah, for sure. i actually liked the JO plotline and cutscenes; but in JKA seemed like the writers were trying too hard to be funny and witty, and the whole storyline suffered from it because of the lack of attention to creating an actually decent plot.

 

and honestly, i dont think JO was intended for a young audience... JKA definitely was though; think about the difficulty of the levels... JO was definitely harder and the plotline was not nearly as juvenile as JKA. i dont know why they started off so well and then suddenly directed the sequel to younger kids, but youd have to ask someone at LucasArts bout that.

 

anyway, even if it was directed at a younger audience for JKA, i think that due to the massive modding community that has sprung up, the audience is definitely older now, and a more hardcore JK4 would be a better option. a dramatic plotline and a tad more violence, you know?

[CrisG]

Great summary there Dominus, you said it all ..and even gave links.

 

I have heard that LucasArts is working on a new title, with an open world, but I do not know the subject or the way it may relate to SW, Sorry, I too agree the Jedi Knight series has plenty of life in it and hope for another one..and as has been said here and elsewhere anything can happen in Game development, just look at series that have been added to, both immediately or years later, and or brought back from the grave...with new versions. The entire series of SW games that has been modded is probably the best example of fantastic modding in any game genre...and we do have simply amazing map and mod makers helping expand all of them still. The game engines for Jedi Knight Outcast and Academy are some of the most successful for mods that there is in any game genre, including the Elder Scrolls Beth games which even come with construction sets. So I will hold out hope for more JK.

[Ham Yoyo]

I just bought The Force Unleashed II for the Xbox 360 last week a I'm really enjoying it. My only problem with the game that its to short but the price is down to between $10 and $20 for the game. Two years ago I bought The Force Unleashed 1 for the Xbox 360 and loved it too. I think The Force Unleashed is Lucasarts' idea of a Jedi Knight game on the next generation game systems. You don't use guns but the lightsaber and force powers are so strong you wouldn't use the guns anyway. There are holocrons hidden throughout the levels which take place of secret areas. There are also puzzles to figure out. I've been playing The Force Unleashed on my 50 inch Panasonic Plasma HDTV and the Star Wars universe looks amazing in HD. The John Williams Star Wars music sounds great on my dolby pro-logic surround sound receiver.

 

If anybody hasn't played The Force Unleashed games the price is right to try them out. You will be glad you did.

[Alexrd]

I think The Force Unleashed is Lucasarts' idea of a Jedi Knight game on the next generation game systems.

 

I disagree. The Jedi Knight series is basically a lightsaber simulator, while The Force Unleashed series is a Force one. They are two different concepts. But as I mentioned before, LucasArts did consider a spiritual sequel to the Jedi Knight series when they were discussing concepts for a next-gen game.

 

But I quite liked the first TFU for PC.

[Ham Yoyo]

The lightsaber and the force are so much bigger in TFU than they are in JO and JA. I know I'm in a minority but I use mainly guns when I play JO and JA except during the lightsaber duels. In TFU the lightsaber is so much easier to use and does so much more damage. Also it has all the lightsaber combos that the Jedi Knight series doesn't have.

[Alexrd]

The lightsaber and the force are so much bigger in TFU than they are in JO and JA. I know I'm in a minority but I use mainly guns when I play JO and JA except during the lightsaber duels. In TFU the lightsaber is so much easier to use and does so much more damage. Also it has all the lightsaber combos that the Jedi Knight series doesn't have.

 

I'm not sure how. In JO and JA, you actually control your lightsaber and it does dismember things. It doesn't take 3 or 4 hits to kill an enemy. The same can't be said about TFU. I'm not judging their choice of how they have used the lightsaber in terms of gameplay, but I think it's far from JO/JA accurancy and quality. TFU, as the title says, focuses on the Force. And in my opinion it excels at that.

[irish_texan]

In TFU the lightsaber is so much easier to use and does so much more damage.

 

It doesn't take 3 or 4 hits to kill an enemy. The same can't be said about TFU.

 

im going to have to agree with alexrd on this one; how can you say the lightsaber is more powerful in tfu when it takes several hits to kill a stormtrooper or rebel soldier, and in JA those mobs are always one-hit kills?

 

however, i do agree that a new jedi knight game ought to have more violent graphics, like the knockback in tfu when you slash someone with your lightsaber.

 

i think thats what made you say "more damage", ham yoyo -- the graphic effects and knockback physics are better in tfu which makes it look like your enemies are getting more beat up by your saber, but technically speaking, the actual dph (dmg per hit) in the jedi knight games was way higher than in tfu.

 

however, back to my point. i think a new jedi knight game could take a few leafs out of tfu's book when it comes to lightsaber/environment effects. a super-powered lightsaber, along with better force powers, would make jk4 pretty damn cool.

that being said, i dont want jk4 to be tfu3. i still want the elements of jedi knight, with the awesome graphics and physics that are now available.

[Ham Yoyo]

im going to have to agree with alexrd on this one; how can you say the lightsaber is more powerful in tfu when it takes several hits to kill a stormtrooper or rebel soldier, and in JA those mobs are always one-hit kills?

 

I was playing TFU 2 the other day and one slash will kill a stormtrooper or rebel soldier. The difference in TFU and JA is in TFU the stormtrooper or rebel soldier keeps standing up if you keep slashing it when in JA the slash makes them fall imediately. But in TFU combined with the many combinations and the force lighting lightsaber swings are much more powerful. There is one combo that lets you slam the ground with your lightsaber and it sends the enemies flying. The lightsaber in TFU is much more fluid from slashing to blocking. In JA and JO there is sometimes when a stormtrooper is standing in front of me and I swing my lightsaber and miss him. That never happens in TFU.

[Scorge]

Theres going to be a JK4? [Yes...I read the first post]

[Kurgan]

Whatever happens, the next JK game will NOT be like Force Unleashed. I've played both FU games on the PC (yeah,that acronym never gets old) and while it may be fun for what it is, it's NOTHING like the JK series.

 

The JK series has always been about a combination of force, sabers (that aren't just button mashing), and other weapons, and a combination of engaging single player and robust multiplayer. Additionally it has both first and third person perspectives. That's the direction of the series since 1997 with Dark Forces II. Anything less and I just can't accept it as part of the series, whatever else might be different. Another part of the series has been the ability to edit and create mods. Not the most important, but a big part of it for many of us. You don't get that with console games.

 

The Force physics in TFU/2 is pretty nifty. I'm sure if that were part of the JK series, people would appreciate it. However the rest of the game would need to be completely different. If it were a button mashing linear console game, it just wouldn't do it.

 

Obi-Wan, ROTS, Force Unleashed are Jedi games that have come out in the last decade, but none of them are really connected with the JK series. So I look forward to such time, when they create a true successor.

 

As others have said every time we're discussing a sequel, the new game, at minimum, has to do what the previous game in the series did, only better.

 

One other thing... in JK2 and JA, it's true the saber didn't usually kill enemies in 1 hit on default settings, however there was always an option for "realistic" saber damage, such that the sabers cut down enemies in 1-2 hits (not just with certain power moves) and dismembered them. Since that was there, nobody ever complained, really. If the game forces the saber to act like a nerf bat, and requires you to use combos with every attack (anyone remember "Jedi Power Battles"?) it gets annoying and starts to lose that Star Wars feeling and that JK feeling. All considered, the JK games have a staying power that goes beyond a single player campaign or a fun weekend rental of a few rounds of multiplayer. That's why the next JK game has a great legacy to follow and big shoes to fill.

[Giant Graffiti]

LucasArts hasn't even released a game in over a year.

 

Crazy.

[Kurgan]

Star Wars: The Old Republic? (even if not developed by them, it's still considered a LA licensed game)

[Giant Graffiti]

Wait, did they publish that? Maybe I'm wrong, but I seem to remember LucasArts backing out of publishing it, so EA could.

 

Even LucasArts did publish it, that's still only one game in one year. What's going with LA these days? They seem to be doing worse than usual, especially with having three presidents in like four years.

[Ham Yoyo]

Lucasarts has been working on Star Wars Kinect which is just a tool to sell more Kinect systems. They should be working on JK4 with the latest graphics for the 360, PS3, and PC. Plus put at least 25 levels in the SP campaign.

[irish_texan]

The Force physics in TFU/2 is pretty nifty. I'm sure if that were part of the JK series, people would appreciate it. However the rest of the game would need to be completely different. If it were a button mashing linear console game, it just wouldn't do it.

 

thats pretty much what i meant; the great force physics of TFU plus the lightsaber combat of JK would be a pretty good combination.

[Tinny]

Dudes.. i am so glad they are not making another jedi knight and focusing their efforts on awesome stuff like this:

 

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/im-han-kinect-star/728712

 

Warning: what is seen cannot be unseen..

[irish_texan]

Dudes.. i am so glad they are not making another jedi knight and focusing their efforts on awesome stuff like this:

 

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/im-han-kinect-star/728712

 

Warning: what is seen cannot be unseen..

 

what can i say? they appeal to the masses. apparently there are masses of little kids out there who like star wars video games. back in my day little kids colored pictures and played outside, and video games were reserved for people with better motor skills, strategic thought processes, and hand-eye coordination (aka teenagers, adults)... but apparently thats changed.

i guess you cant blame lucasarts... they do what they can to make money and apparently this is what people want these days.

[Zwier Zak]

what can i say? they appeal to the masses. apparently there are masses of little kids out there who like star wars video games. back in my day little kids colored pictures and played outside, and video games were reserved for people with better motor skills, strategic thought processes, and hand-eye coordination (aka teenagers, adults)... but apparently thats changed.

i guess you cant blame lucasarts... they do what they can to make money and apparently this is what people want these days.

 

Your avatar shows what I feel looking at that game.

[Razor_Face]

Your avatar shows what I feel looking at that game.

 

lol i totally agree xD so true. its sad that this is what star wars has come to

[kasser]

I am very positive that whatever Lucas's intention of the Unreal Engine is to appeal to our kind of audience again.

 

Lucas went through many transitions in the past years. Since the release of critic-successful Star Wars games (Jedi Outcast, KOTOR, Republic Commando), president of LA has been changed multiple times, key people left, employees firing and as well as new faces joining. During of this chaos in the company management, we seen Lucas putting all of their focus to produce games to appeal to the so called "masses". True that TFU 1 cashed a lot of money but that did not mean the game was complete success. Original Lucas audience did not love it, and critics gave it slightly above average score. However, Lucas did not understand this and thought "well, it cashed the first time, why not the second?" and then we all know how horrible TFU2 got in the press.

 

Now we see Lucas crawling slowly back to what they were best at. It began with the return of Monkey Island (3 Monkey Island games!) and giving The Old Republic back to BioWare and we see it now as MMO (I hoped for an RPG but hey, maybe they will make one after the fanbase expand!).

 

So that is why I am positive that the licenses of Unreal Engine means they are making a game (or more?) between those three titles: Battlefront, Jedi Knight and Republic Commando.

 

Unfortunately, Jedi Knight is a tricky series to continue. It is risky because the series is unknown to the current market (no guarantee that it will sell high) specially that JK follows a classical fps gameplay approach. If you all remember, the 90s fps games had a kind of "sense of exploring". You always get stuck at least three times in a level and you try to think out-of-the-box to get to another stage. You have a lot of moments where the player is alone and the environment is too quite and suddenly you find yourself going inside sewers, jumping from roof to roof, messin around inside a spaceship engine room. Now all current games aren't like that. People of this generation are mostly in "cover and shoot" or fast slashing action. The only series I can think of that is still to its root is Half-Life and Valve still did not announce anything about Ep.3.

 

My bottomline is: I just hope Lucas makes the right direction for us, JK audience. I hope they modernize the series so it attract more fans but as well as it stays to its origins to satisfy us.

 

sorry for the long post but I just wanted to express my feeling on all of this .

[Alexrd]

Original Lucas audience did not love it,

 

Who's part of the "original Lucas audience"?

 

Now we see Lucas crawling slowly back to what they were best at. It began with the return of Monkey Island (3 Monkey Island games!) and giving The Old Republic back to BioWare and we see it now as MMO (I hoped for an RPG but hey, maybe they will make one after the fanbase expand!).

 

Well, Darrell Rodriguez was the one who brought Monkey Island back to the spotlight again and he wanted to do the same to the rest of LucasArts adventure games catalogue. However, he left LucasArts back in 2010, and the plan to bring those back seem to have died with his departure. As for The Old Republic, well, it's not like they were giving it to someone else.

 

We know that they were making BFIII, but the developer went bankrupt and so the build died there. They have interest in releasing it, that for certain.

[Twilight-Kun]

I want a JK game with Force Unleashed lightsaber combat (lightsaber/force combos, with blasters and tiered force powers)

 

perhaps a game based during the Vong War?

[Alexrd]

I want a JK game with Force Unleashed lightsaber combat

 

Really? I'd rather have a The Force Unleashed game with JK lightsaber combat than the other way around. The lightsaber combat of The Force Unleashed was very basic, unlike the one from the JK games.