At the end of this interview with LucasArts 2nd in command, Peter Hirschman he says, tragically and somewhat patronisingly;
Q: A new flight sim game in the style of X-Wing, like Totally Games used to do?
A: Oh goodness, I am such a fan of Larry Holland and what Totally Games has done. X-Wing is personally one of my favourite Star Wars games of all time. Larry is a hero! I've been fortunate enough to personally tell him that too.
I think that with Star Wars Battefront II, which is on PC, Xbox and PlayStation 2, we're delivering a bit of that experience. It's very accessible Star Wars space combat. I've always enjoyed what Factor 5 did with the Rogue Squadron series, but it was very much arcade oriented.
I think what Pandemic Studios is delivering with Battlefront II is much more akin to what Larry did with his X-Wing series. It's very accessible, yet has some depth and true flight mechanics. I think people who loved X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter are going to love Battlefront II. It's the first time in a long time that you're going to be able to have multiplayer battles - X-Wings vs. TIE Fighters - over the Internet. It looks great.
I don't think that we'll ever do just a dedicated X-Wing or TIE Fighter flight simulator again. Genres lines have blurred so much that people expect more, and frankly, we want to do more.
The point is that hardly anyone loved X-wing vs. Tie Fighter. Why? Because it had no plot. They hastily put togeter Balance of Power to accomodate all the negative comments from the press and fans. The greatest thing about X-Wing, Tie Fighter & Alliance is the wonderful story progression. All throughout that article Hirschman's going on about LucasArts' new mission to make games with compelling stories and characters. The old X-Wing series (except X vs T) had that in bucketloads. And unless there's a radical shift in direction in Battlefront 2 the plot and characterisations will be almost non existent.
And there's more that we already know in the article regarding Star Wars, Indiana Jones & Mercenaries. He even namechecks Grim Fandango and Sam & Max.
Source: Globe Technology