New developer diary on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

I hope it's good. It looks like it could be a great game if they don't fuck it up.

George Lucas involvement /= good

I'm seriously hyped for this one. It looks like exactly what I've wanted as an evolution of the Jedi Knight games.

I don't want guns. No more blasters, no more thermal detonators, no more fucking Bowcaster. I want to wreck shit sideways with Force powers.

The fact that George Lucas has a hand in it makes me less excited...

The first KOTOR wasn't that bad. I hope that this game will be playable. May the force be with you, George Lucas.

The video also shows you the blinkered way in which Lucas approaches storytelling. Telling the developers they have to have these played out archetypes in the game -- gotta have a love interest, gotta have a comedy sidekick -- it's like, can George Lucas ever do something original? I'm sorry, but the first three Star Wars films were VERY generic fairytales. The man is mediocre at best.

Yeah, Lucas' involvement is DEFINITELY going to be the X-factor here. I was (and am - I'm replaying KOTOR the First as we speak) a major fan of the Knights series, and the reason why is because they were totally extended universe.

Basically, Lucas - in my opinion - laid the groundwork for some very interesting CHARACTERS, and the universe itself as a stage, but his writing and storytelling ARE quite average, if you REALLY watch the movies (the original trilogy). In fact, all of my interest in the original Star Wars trilogy came entirely off the strength of the talented writers who expanded on Lucas' groundwork. And repeatedly, Lucas has done shit to totally undermine them. Is it HIS franchise to butcher if he wishes? Sure - but in my opinion, it makes him a very weak writer AND businessman if he doesn't understand just how much the people who have elaborated on his original idea have helped the Star Wars franchise.

Yeah, I've always felt Lucas got extremely lucky with the original Star Wars films and his involvement with Indiana Jones... Most of what was great about those films have more to do with other people's contributions rather than his own. I've always felt A New Hope was painfully dull at times and overlong. He had good ideas he cribbed together from various mythological sources and foreign films, and made an homage to the cheesy sci-fi Buck Rogers serials out of them.

This game still looks pretty rad though.

Can't wait. So excited this is coming to the Wii

Jim is referring to the original trilogy and he is right. Lucas is a hack that got lucky with a generic story that managed to pull off sci-fi in a way nobody had seen at the time. It's popularity was carried on by fans and THEY made it into the legendary universe it is today.

I'm not a Star Wars fan, but this game just looks amazing. And I agree. Please don't suck.

George Lucas used basically the oldest type of story known to man, the Hero's Journey. Obviously he wants this type of story to be in the game, and that requires a Mentor, a love interest, and comedy relief. It doesn't HAVE to be a droid or a wizened old Jedi, but if the duck fits, wear it.

I'm a Star Wars fiend so I'm gonna be getting this anyway. I'd love to stab someone in the face with the Force.

EPIC WANT.

Jim! No JIM! DON'T DO THIS TO ME!

(wets his Ewok sheets)

George Lucas can't even create original characters. Even his most iconic creation, Darth Vader, is practically devoid of character and fits into the old "hero turned villain" mold. Outside of that, he's just a cool looking guy in a black helmet who says threatening things. No personality.

Han Solo is a typical wisecracking rogue, Luke is a whiny bitch who becomes a Jedi with zero personality. Leia's character has been done as far back as monochrome movies.

Any characters that people latch onto, like Boba Fett, have only been made as good through other people writing for them in books and comics. In fact, once George Lucas got his filthy hands on Boba Fett for Attack of the Clones, he went right ahead and introduced Jango, said he was a clone and shit over all the hard work people had done in making Fett a mysterious but awesome character.

I have never before claimed that a person doesn't understand their own creation, but since Lucas let so many people improve his franchise, then systematically undermined all their hard work, I have to say that he does not understand his own creation.

L'apprenti de Darth VADOR!!!!

@bleep
Flawed argument is flawed. They can't fit every goddamn thing in the movies. And you can't trust Lucas to write anything good, these days. The extended universe has added more to the mythos than Lucas has, since the first three films.

And Jim is mostly right. Star Wars is a very simplistic story. All the characters are fairly simple types. However, with the original trilogy, the actors and the heart behind the story made it work. The first three are, for lack of a "cooler" word, delightful. Lucas couldn't duplicate it with the prequels, even though he was using a very similar forumula, because his actors didn't know what to do with the material and Lucas is an out-of-touch twit who can't write anymore. "Comic sidekick"? Ugh, die.

Anyway, this game looks great. The story sounds much more believable than I thought it would, and we could have a great cross between Jedi Outcast and KOTOR here.

Marvellous. We get to watch Kratos Skywalker McMary-Sue tilt planets on their axis and render the power of all other jedi irrelevant.