Celebrate Star Wars anniversary with Force Unleashed video doc

by Justin McElroy { May 26th 2007 at 3:15PM }

Wow, how rude of us. Star Wars had a birthday yesterday (the big three-oh!) and we didn't so much as take it to Baskin-Robbins to get its free scoop, let alone throw it any sort of party. To try to make it up, we're sharing this new video documentary about the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

If you still don't have enough midi-chlorians coursing through your veins, check out this interview with project lead Haden Blackman. He's talking locations (there will be some from IV,V and VI), comboing lightsaber attacks with Force powers and some other details. Also, he reveals that Sam Witwer, Lt. Crashdown on Battlestar Galactica, will play the game's star, a secret apprentice of Darth Vader. So, Star Wars, we hope this makes us square. Now come blow out these candles with your mind.

Tags: ps3, starwars, unleashed, xbox360

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Fernando Rocker @ May 26th 2007 3:30PM

This will be perfect for the Wii... all the movementes will be awesome with Wii controls. Hope they release an exclusive Star Wars Wii title.

Ian Von Porter @ May 26th 2007 3:46PM

I guess next gen = 360/PS3 ... wii wouldnt be able to handle the physics engine.

And, the video sounds like a tribute to lucas more than a video doc.

XGamerX @ May 26th 2007 3:47PM

I think they said they had this in development for many years. But they really dont say how far along they are. Im hoping for a fall release but theres a 99% chance that wont happen.

http://gamergeddon.com/

Alcevious @ May 26th 2007 3:52PM

I'm pretty sure I heard a mention of Spring 2008 somewhere.

Alcevious @ May 26th 2007 3:52PM

PS - it looks awesome. This coupled with Halo 3 might make me finally pick up an XBox 360.

Kinjor @ May 26th 2007 4:33PM

what if they use the PS3 motion controls for the force skills...

OH MAN.. if done correctly that may be the best use of the motion controls ever........ ever.

God doesn't exist @ May 26th 2007 4:35PM

I can't stand Star Wars. I wish it would just go away! F**k Star Wars! And F**k George Lucas!

Every time I see something about Star Wars, I wanna just throw up. I can't believe people still enjoy this shit.

Go to hell Star Wars, go to hell!

aaron @ May 26th 2007 4:35PM

Fernando: "This will be perfect for the Wii... all the movementes will be awesome with Wii controls. Hope they release an exclusive Star Wars Wii title."

Perfect, Wii, Awesome, Wii, Exlcusive Wii. Okay, calm down Fern.

stafford @ May 26th 2007 4:38PM

It better have 1st person view (jedi knight series was awesome)

For some reason third person has never sat well.

Neebs @ May 26th 2007 4:45PM

I was born on the 15th anniversary of Star Wars...now I wonder if there was anything like this that day.

noran @ May 26th 2007 4:45PM

ok after watching that vid i'm kinda not as hyped as i was for this game as before. As Ian said "And, the video sounds like a tribute to lucas more than a video doc." call me pessimistic but i'm doubting they will deliver on the graphics in those trailers - i'v yet to see a 'next gen' title that has.

Neebs @ May 26th 2007 4:46PM

Also, if you doubt the Wii could handle a decent physics engine, go play Half-Life 2 on the Xbox.

Jess B @ May 26th 2007 5:04PM

"wii wouldnt be able to handle the physics engine."

So what, are you developer? Then you can probably explain to me why we can get a decent physics engine on the PS2 or Xbox and not on a more powerful piece of hardware.

Jess B @ May 26th 2007 5:09PM

Oh, and fcuk Lucas, the derivative, greedy little toad. He had three beautiful sci-fi films that he totally ruined when he swapped out the revolutionary model and blue-screen work for some half-assed CG that now makes his "special editions" look more dated than the remasters of the originals. It doesn't help that all the plots and characters of the original series (and some of the new trilogy) are lifted from Samurai movies, Kurosawa, specifically. Go watch Yojimbo, Sanjuro, and the Hidden Fortress, and you'll find Luke, Han, Leia and the droids, and the source of much of the Star Wars saga's storytelling style.

The Almighty Dollar - Ruining legitimate art for hundreds of years.

cc123 @ May 26th 2007 6:00PM

After watching that video I have to say...you wii fanboys are as delusional as you are stupid if you think something like that would run on the Wii.

Don't forget kiddies powerful systems do more than just pretty graphics. Those physics, destructible objects, and animations need some horsepower under the hood.

If you cross your fingers maybe you will get some half assed spinoff.

anghus @ May 26th 2007 6:07PM

that was so sad.

they said "because of George's schedule, we had to send him the story in memo form."

then he talked about huddling around the fax machine waiting for notes.

so i guess George doesn't really give a shit about the games now, does he.

Mr Khan @ May 26th 2007 7:10PM

Looks awesome for Star Wars fans (such as myself)

thats the excellent thing about the star wars universe, it can always be expanded upon, and rarely have the expansions failed to please

As for this being done on the Wii, i don't see how it would be less awesome if they ran it off of a juiced-up version of Factor 5's GC gfx engines, and made up for the lack of particle physics with the wii-remote scheme

LongshotX @ May 26th 2007 8:08PM

Will they ever make Episodes after Return of the Jedi? I know they said no, but one can only hope. Anyone else heard differently?

Mr Khan @ May 26th 2007 8:24PM

@ Longshot X

they've already done a broad book series (sanctioned by Lucas as "canon" and fully in-universe, but otherwise not influenced by him) that goes all the way to about 25 years after Return of the Jedi

The best of those are the ones by Zahn (the Thrawn Trilogy and the 2 Hand of Thrawn books) and those by Kevin Anderson (Jedi Academy and Darksaber)

t_m @ May 27th 2007 1:49AM

The story and characters look cool, and i hope it's true that they are going for a deeper plot, with more complex character interactions. The last few star wars games have had characterisations so thin it was painful. (Since Jedi Knight, basically).

But (and i'd expect this is just me) "kicking someone's ass with the force" sounds neither that fun, that challenging, or that Star Wars. Star wars never seemed to be about super heroes.. It was farmboys and scoundrels in a world of sci-fi meets mad-max. It was more of a samurai adventure than a comic-book action movie.

Still, if they get the characterisations and story right, it could be a pretty fun tech demo to play around with.

I've ceased to take star wars games personally.. and realised that all most people want is more lightsaber and force. But if its fun then i'll pik it up.

ZippyDSMlee @ May 27th 2007 2:18AM

Its on the PS2.....thus its on the WII and PC , YAY!

gok @ May 27th 2007 6:06AM

1. Are you seriously comparing Half-Life 2 physics to this? Go watch some other videos and see how much they differ. This game actually hast best physics and breakable objects I've seen.

2. Why are you guys focusing on bad star wars games? Sure many of them are bad but some are just legendary. Dark Forces? I'll never forget. Kotor I and II too? One of the best rpg's I've played. Rogue squadron II? Awsome.

incrediblebulk92 @ May 27th 2007 9:14AM

"1. This will be perfect for the Wii... all the movementes will be awesome with Wii controls. Hope they release an exclusive Star Wars Wii title."

Man I'm getting sick of every game that comes out some twat coming on here at some point and saying YAY! this game is perfect for the Wii!!! fuck you. I wouldn't buy it for my wii, id rather ply this on my 360...get over it

Mr Khan @ May 27th 2007 11:49AM

@ 23

many people still believe in the Wii's revolutionary capabilities, and in this case, i happen to agree

Jedi + Wiimote = awesome, but it seems like no ones trying to follow up on that

LongshotX @ May 27th 2007 11:51AM

Mr. Kahn

Yeah I heard about those. I really meant would they make more movies.

LongshotX @ May 27th 2007 12:05PM

"Oh my goodness when you have the power of the 360 and the PS3 suddenly you can payoff that unleashed feeling, in a way you couldn't do before."

Not to make another Wii bash but basically what this is telling ME is that in other words the Wii isn't powerful enough to do this game justice.

WamBam @ May 27th 2007 12:33PM

Ever Wii geek gets a hard-on whenever someone mentions the wiimote and star wars in the same breath. Until the wiimote can pick up true 1:1 movement, then wielding a lightsaber will nothing but a wet dream for fanboys.

idiotek @ May 27th 2007 12:57PM

@27: Given the Wii's track record so far, we could see a Star Wars minigame. Shake your Wii controller to swing the lightsaber. Shake the nunchuk to make the Ewok dance! Gameplay over graphics my @ss.

LongshotX @ May 27th 2007 1:03PM

Well I like Gameplay with great Graphics. Some people don't agree with this. But as the Wii comes ever closer to eclipsing the Xbox 360 sales and effectively eliminating the PS3, I get worried that the cycle of throwing out crappy games just to take advantage of a controller is going to increase tenfold. I hope this doesn't happen, but it looks like traditional gaming is going to be upseated by simple casual games. Just look at Zelda: TP, it hardly made a splash in Japan. It just seems like the games especially Nintendo have gone too "commercial" as we say in hiphop, and its all about the benjamins.

cc123 @ May 27th 2007 1:25PM

@LongshotX

That's exactly how I see the Wii! It's a like a band that goes commercial. The quality and uniqueness of their music gets destroyed and they start to sound like the rest of the top 40 bs. But sales go way up!

The Wii is like a beacon for shitfest games.

idiotek @ May 27th 2007 1:30PM

I don't understand why we can't have gameplay and graphics. It's a funny argument anyway, practically every cross-platform title that has been released for the Wii has the same problem: Crappy controls and crappy graphics. Even first party titles...there have been times where I just wanted to hit a damn button when the controls get unresponsive. Sure, sales are up, but it's due to non-gamers. That doesn't bode well for game selection for people who play real games.

Grog @ May 27th 2007 1:33PM

You guys act like it's impossible to make good games for the Wii. In reality, there *are* good games for Wii already, and more are on there way. A few minigame collections are on their way just because one or two have been shown to be successful so far - once some epic games come out and sell millions, the 3rd parties will start making those too (though less frequently, since it's harder to do).

The same thing happens with any popular game system. Doesn't anyone remember how many crappy games were made for the NES, SNES, PS1, and PS2 just because they were the biggest systems at the time?

LongshotX @ May 27th 2007 2:04PM

Grog,

You don't seem to understand. Many of us feel like the Wii is overly commercializing Video Games. There may come a time when developers stop turning out these games with bleeding edge graphics and sound, excellent gameplay, and story in favor of simple games that appeal to everyone. They'd be enticed to stop making high budget games because they'd be able to profit more on low budget high exposure, wide audience type games.If this happens gaming will be forever be destroyed. I mean not everyone can play Halo or GOW, Zelda, sometimes even Mario. But anybody can play Wii Bowling. Imagine if in the future that is how all our games were. Overly simplistic waggle fest...That's not how I want it to end.

Grog @ May 27th 2007 3:02PM

First off, I would love if there were more games like Wii Bowling that have intuitive controls and simple but solid game-play. With that said, what you've stated is about the biggest bunch of paranoia since the Moon-Landings-Were-A-Hoax! documentary of a few years ago.

Gaming is a commercial industry. Halo wasn't born out of some artist's dream, but because the FPS market has grown exponentially in the past 10 years (especially since Goldeneye). It's a solid game/series, but is nothing more than "overly commercializ[ed] video games." I'm not a big FPS fan, but I haven't seen the downfall of gaming despite the hundreds of Counterstrike-clones that have come out in the past couple generations. You might as well say that the industry has succumbed to Pokemon, DDR, and Guitar Hero games just because they've sold millions of copies.

Guess what? The Wii is not the end of "hardcore" gaming. Red Steel was more hype than follow-through, but it still has sold more than 1 million copies. When someone ends up making a better game of the same genre, it'll sell even better. The same goes for anything else. Just because Wii Sports, Ravin' Rabbids, and Warioware have done well doesn't mean others can't. Yeah, minigames like that have an easy time getting accepted fast (and they're easier to develop), but the Million-Plus club for the Wii also includes Zelda: TP, Super Paper Mario, and Red Steel. We will see more non-minigames in that group soon, it's just taking longer for developers to put this games out (especially since so many 3rd parties didn't believe they'd need to put them out).

JonnyBoy2U @ May 27th 2007 4:43PM

Basically people like Longshotx and all the other Wii haters are bashing our system because they're stupidly scared that their shoot and hack 'em games are going to disappear forever. Thats the dumbest reason I've ever heard. So because the Wii is so popular and Nintendo created a great system you think that gaming will be destroyed? Get real. As long as theres as a market for violence, naked women, and loads of blood and bullets you're view of "gaming" will continue to thrive.

The real reason you hate the Wii is because its Nintendo and what Nintendo represents. Well I'm sorry you don't like Mario anymore. Truly I am. I'm sorry that you feel its kiddie to enjoy Mario Party or Legend of Zelda year after year. But thats YOUR problem and guess what? MOST of us don't share it. Most of us don't really need the graphics or the extra crap that comes with the ps3 and in some cases the XBox 360.

Anyways I just got an Elite so I'm definitely gonna get this game whenever it comes out. Sounds like they're scared to death of George Lucas.

WamBam @ May 27th 2007 5:01PM

Nintendo actually hates black people. Complete the game 100% and during the end credits, use the Wiimote to make a cross in the air. You'll then see a burning cross and Mario dressed as a KKK member!!!!!!

BiggerBoat @ May 28th 2007 10:21AM

@ LongshotX

Yes there will be plenty of minigame compilations and other simpler, more accessible games but like any other market there'll be a saturation point at which time there'll be so many similiar products that only a select few will bring in profit.

This is true of any genre and soon enough the pick-up-and-play genre will find a balance just like FPSs and Racers. As long as there is a market for a specific type of game it will be catered to. The most frustrating thing is that I think you're more than capable of thinking this through and coming to the logical concluion but your anti-Wii agenda prevents you from doing so. You need to grow up. Nintendo is expanding the market not canibalising it.

As for other's comments on how the Wii couldn't cope with 'X' game's physics or 'Y's AI, just stop. Do any of you really know how demanding certain programs are and what spec is needed to run them? My guess is no. From what I've heard AI is far more dependent upon the time spent writing the routines than the processor speed or number of cores.

The truth is we never really got a true indication of what the GC could do as it only had a fraction of development time and effort in comparison with the much weaker PS2 which continues to this day to set new standards for itself. The Wii's CPU has a higher clockspeed whilst being more efficient and for all I know various other enhancements which could be more than adequate for most games this gen.

I hope but rather doubt that people will start to think before they post nonsense which does nothing but reflect their bias towards or agianst a certain platform.

Fernando Rocker @ May 28th 2007 11:29AM

@Longshot X

Maybe you want to check this:

http://www.gameswank.com/content/view/142/1/

So yeah, Wii is going to be the best system this gen.

cc123 @ May 28th 2007 11:33AM

@BiggerBoat

You mean like the wishful nonsense you just took the time to write out? What exactly do you think is in that shiny white box we both own? It doesn't have any hidden features. You won't be getting a fw update that unlocks the GOOD hardware.

There is a law of diminishing returns when it comes to games and hardware. As in it takes a massive jump in hardware power to show good amount of change in what the game can do. If your expecting current gen stuff from your Wii then you bought the wrong console. At best you will get a few games that are a little better than the GC's best. I've read up on what Nintendo did with this console and it's really pathetic.

Back on topic. I've been paying attention to this game cause it has some really cool new stuff in it. The animation engine is very nice. It's the reason all character movements look so fluid in the vid. There is also a material modeling engine that let's wood act like real wood, glass like real glass, etc.. And as you can see the physics are top notch.

cc123 @ May 28th 2007 11:50AM

@ F Rocker

You do realize the link you just posted is to a fake rumor? The guy went on neogaf forums and posted it with the source as gametrailers forums. Then he went on gametrailers forums and posted it with the source as neogaf forums.

The mods at gametrailers warned him with a permaban and took his post down. It got ripped apart at neogaf.

Here are the links:
http://forums.gametrailers.com/showthread.php?t=102295
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=158865

Not to mention people that were actually there already confirmed that some of the games this faker so vividly described weren't even present at the media summit.

So good job retard...way to spread idiotic rumors.

Alex @ May 28th 2007 5:02PM

Why is this here as a crappy transcoded video instead of a pointer to the nice clean one on the actual LucasArts site?

BiggerBoat @ May 29th 2007 7:11AM

@ cc123

By wishful nonsense you mean open-mindedness regarding something I don't have enough expertise on to make an accurate claim? I'm guessing your no programmer or tech whizz either so think it's premature to predict what the Wii can and cant do.

I bet if power bowling(think that's what it's called) where you're hitting up to nearly a hundred pins which each react accurately & independently was on the 360 or PS3 with shiny graphics people like you would be proclaiming that the Wii could never dream of pulling of such a feat but would be absolutely incorrect.

Ragdoll physics made numerous appearances last gen so that's not a problem. As for destructable environments, fluid animations & complex physics calculations, who knows. Maybe each feature could be scaled back for the Wii without taking anything meaningful away from gameplay.

It just annoys me whenever a game is shown on the 360/PS3 people automatically assume that every aspect of the game would be impossible to implement on a last gen machine or Wii when infact it's not doing anything that special.

This thread may alraedy be dead but thought I'd attempt to curb your arrogance on the off chance you'd read this.

cc123 @ May 29th 2007 11:52AM

@BiggerBoat

"I'm guessing your no programmer or tech whizz either so think it's premature to predict what the Wii can and cant do."

Wrong. I have my bachelors in CS and have been programming since I was 14. I also build all my own computers and have a pretty decent understanding of hardware.

It is not as premature as you may think considering Nintendo went with a very similar architecture for the Wii. When people say the Wii is an overclocked gamecube they are right. It has a few more features of course but in general the hardware choices Nintendo made are pathetic at best. Basically they did just enough so they could say "it's faster than the Gamecube".

So saying that the Wii will only be capable of doing a tiny bit more than the Gamecube would be right on the money.

Your open-mindedness will not get you past the hardware limitations. So keep dreaming.

And it annoys me how Nintendo managed to sucker everyone with this console. They are quite literally selling very outdated hardware at todays prices. People that swear by the Wii need to realize that they gave up more than just HD graphics when they signed up.

BiggerBoat @ May 30th 2007 4:54AM

@ cc123

Fair enough, you seem to know what you're talking about but you failed to respond to the majority of my points.

Look at GoW2, now this is probably more graphics related than computational but who would have thought that a PS2 game could look that good, you look at the 1st gen software for the console and there's just no comparison. Considering the GC had a significant advantage in terms of power I think it's a little too early to write the Wii off after a handful of ports and rushed cash-ins.

I've heard that Force uses Havoc which the Wii has integrated, whether it's an inferior version I'm not sure but again I think it's too early to make assumptions. Hell, out of all the games released this gen on any of the 3 consoles I'd say the one that has used physics to further gameplay the most is Elebits, which probably only uses a fraction of what the Wii's got to give.

Suppose time will tell!

Sablcious @ May 30th 2007 9:39AM

Wii this... PS3 that...360 this... oh my FREAKIN god! Talk about a trailing off topic! Who gives a rat's rectum whether or not the Wii can handle 'Euphoria' or 'DMM' (it won't/can't incidentally... just use your eyes!)
Why not concentrate on the REAL issue of import here- the progression of the Star Wars franchise...?

'Ooooh! I've got a degree as a loner keyboard jockey!' ... 'I was frigging myself over MS DOS before your mom was lactating... nerrrr!'
What a bunch of no-life, forum trolling, console fanboy n00bs!
Here's some salutary advice>>> Get a life your freakin zeros!