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Fun with Editor's Day '02 Page Two
After a short break that consisted of harassing and being harassed by Gladius Marketing Manager Sam Saliba over our E3 coverage, the press event resumed with a presentation of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Jim Tso, who is producing this title as well as Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb, started playing a level that had Mace Windu walking around on a battle field and slicing droids up with his purple pimpin' lightsaber. We were told that no mission in this game consists entirely of walking around, so Mace quickly boarded a flying assault vehicle to hover around and blow a bunch of stuff up real good.
This game may be compared to Rogue Leader by some, but as it turns out, a lot of the action in this game does not take place in the air. Terrain battles seem to take the focus of this title with tanks and other vehicles running around and firing at each other. Also, the ability to run over battle droids in your tank seems equally amusing.
The graphics in this game are good. The highlight for Andrew was when the Trade Federation globe ship crashed on the desert planet, causing a huge dust storm that severely hindered visibility. This was a very nice effect and helped make the player feel like he was actually in the middle of a hectic battle.
If the player gets bored of fighting against entire armies, there are quite a few multiplayer games to enjoy. Along with the usual death match and co-op mode, there are also some unique multiplayer games where players build forts that spawn additional units. You must destroy the other player’s fort before they destroy yours. This seemed a bit too complicated for Jake and DJG during the hands-on playing time. However, it’s debatable as to whether or not this was because of our short playing time and/or our staff’s mediocre game playing ability. [DJG says, “We didn't know the controls, damn it!”]
In retrospect, Clone Wars doesn’t look like it contains any amazingly groundbreaking aspects, but that’s okay. It looks like a lot of fun in a console kind of way, and I think we’ll definitely be playing this one when it comes out this Fall.
After this presentation concluded, we then got to look at the console ports of Jedi Outcast. There’s not much to say about this game that hasn’t already been said. However, it does seem that LucasArts has made sure that this title seamlessly made its way from PCs to consoles. The man demonstrating the game commented on how, in their opinion, the lightsaber gameplay is even better on a console game controller. If you haven’t checked out Jedi Outcast yet and don’t really care about the whole online multiplayer aspect, you will probably enjoy the console port this winter.
Following a brief nap (hey, playing upcoming LucasArts games is really exhausting), the editor’s day concluded with a lovely dinner at Piatti. Public Relations Manager Tom Sarris soberly assured us that there are some pending announcements in the near future that should be of particular interest to our readers.
As always, there’s more to the story. Check back next week to hear about our visit to Tim Schafer’s company, Double Fine Productions, where we looked at Psychonauts and met a special mystery guest. (Oh, how we love to tease.)