Star Wars: The Force Unleashed has been highly anticipated in nerd circles for quite some time now, as the lure of playing the ridiculously powerful
apprentice of Darth Vader is strong indeed for most people.
Lucasarts today confirmed the game’s release date(s) in September.
The U.S. will get it on September 16th, Southeast Asia and Australia on
the 17th and Europe comes in last once again (do you know they still
don’t have Rock Band over there? Poor suckers.) on the 19th.
Messing with the official storyline, the game will see your character secretly assisting Vader
in killing off as many of those damn Jedi as he can find. Purists should
take note that the story will take place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, and even the most jaded and childhood-raped of you have to admit that
there’s some good potential with this plot. Let’s hope they don’t mess
it up.
The big draw of this game is that the apprentice you control has force
powers far beyond anything seen in the films. Your character will of
course have to increase his strength, and the videos (like the one
below) that show him just
destroying people and rooms don’t even show a little bit of the power
you’ll gain. Like, the power to take down a Star Destroyer. Makes you
wonder why the Sith lost.
The one thing I hope they tweak? The ridiculous Euphoria engine.
That’s the AI system for the characters in the game that in some cases
makes them grab onto whatever they can when being lifted into the air.
That video shows what I mean- whether a guy’s holding onto a crate or
a fellow stormtrooper’s leg, it just looks weird.
Anyone hoping to see new footage from the game will have to keep an eye
on Spike TV. The TV channel has teamed up with Lucasarts to not only
show a whole bunch of Star Wars flicks, but show exclusive videos
detailing aspects of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
Here’s the full schedule for that-
• April 6 at 7:58 p.m. ET/PT – between the premiere of Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith
• April 11 at 10:52 p.m. ET/PT – At the end of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope
•
April 12 at 12:00 a.m. ET/PT – throughout an episode of GameTrailers TV
with Geoff Keighley filmed at LucasArts’ headquarters in San Francisco
• April 12 at 5:06 p.m. ET/PT – before Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope
• April 13 at 5:06 p.m. ET/PT – before Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back
Course,
if you miss it, it’ll show up on the internet in one form or another.
Keep in mind that besides the clearly most anticipated version that’s
hitting Xbox 360 and PS3, there’s also two other versions being
developed. One is being done by n-Space, who’s working on the the DS
version, and Krome Studios is working on the other, which will be
hitting the PS2, PSP and Wii. Each version of the game will have the
same story but of course take advantage of the system’s strengths.
Could this be the first game to finally use the Wii remote as a
lightsaber, and do it well? Looks like! There’s even a “Duel Mode”
included where you can have one on one battles with your friend, using
all sorts of classic characters.
Course, a new game for every major system isn’t big enough for Star Wars–
there’s also going to be novels, figures, comic books and all kind of
other tie-ins to this game. Plan on hearing a lot more on this game in
the upcoming months, and check the official site for more info.