I don't think I'll ever fully understand the arcane geometry of public relations. I will never truly grasp the Orwellian mechanics of crafting the elegant, eloquent bullsh*t that comes out of some developers' mouths.
Speaking with Eurogamer, Force Unleashed producer Cameron Suey explained that since Star Wars is "such a great license," it was easier for LucasArts dev teams "to get excited about that and not set the bar high enough." This very clearly explains why the past handful of Star Wars games have been wholly mediocre in every way. It wasn't that the games were poorly written, or sloppy, or featured broken and tired gameplay -- they just weren't ambitious enough.
What does that even mean? I don't get it. Did the developers and designers get together and say, "Ok, guys, here's the deal: we're just going to half-ass this thing every step of the way. And people will buy it, and it'll be pretty rad." It's not that you guys didn't set the bar, you just did a bad job.
And really, that's ok. As long as devoted fans keep buying Star Wars shovelware, it makes absolute sense to squeeze more blood out of the franchise. I can sleep soundly at night, knowing that supply and demand is in full swing.
Nevertheless, Suey promised that the upcoming Force Unleashed is plenty ambitious, adding that LucasArts "really fulfilled the high bar we set for ourselves." To be honest, this is the only Star Wars game to really spark my interest in the past five or six years, and early reports seem to suggest that Suey is keeping his promise. I only hope that the recent delay was to give them enough time to crank that bar a little higher.
Or maybe LucasArts just fired everyone who wasn't ambitious enough.
[Via Eurogamer, via Kotaku]
Contest:
1:19 PM on 09.04.2008
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The demo was awesome though.
*Epic cheers throughout the dungeon*
"I'm soooo excited I can't even think straight so it will most likely lower the quality of work I put out but it's Star Wars so it will HAVE to rock"
That was the lamest thing I have read for why their games suck.
@holyetheline
I thought the Force Unleashed demo sucked...lol
Welcome to the EA business model.
@MotoRobo
KOTOR is an okay series, but the combat is just terrible. If they make a third KOTOR game (as opposed to the MMO), they need to make it a straight action RPG. None of that wooden, dull "queuing up attacks" nonsense. The characters and story were good, though.
B. Me gusto RPGs mucho, but I didn't gusta KotOR at all. Sharpless is right -- the combat blew.
I didn't always hate the combat. I just found myself not wanting to go back and play the games anymore. After thinking about it for a while, it occurred to me that it was because of the combat. I mean, I'm not a big fan of turn-based combat to begin with, but this is just a bastard-child amalgamation of the two extremes and it does not work at all.
What was wrong with the jumping?
Ba dum bum ching.
KOTOR was fucking overrated beyond belief.
The controls for The Force Unleashed are a little clunky to me. It seems pretty decent from the demo but I'm not awestruck. Maybe it'll get more epic further through the game.
The reason I thought most Star Wars games sucked was because George Lucas had a say in them.