Quote: "Actually the testing process on the consoles is *extremely* hard line. There are manuals that are hundreds of pages long for each console with standards down to capitalization and wording of the controller. Most companies have to hire special QA that just handle checking every screen for violations that will hinder them for release. At least with PC games you can always release the game then patch it later. Not on the consoles--- they won't let you get away with any small thing."
While the ghist of that is right, especially about the pages of TCR hoops you're suppose to go through; I don't think that it really is as applicable as it once was. Companies who already are known for releasing stable software do often get fast-tracked through such things as well when they shouldn't (:coughTombRaiderAngelofDarknesscough
Plus developers are now moving towards the whole "we can patch after release" on consoles too. Several Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 titles suffered from nasty crashes, hangs or bugs that weren't limited to only a handful of users or even rare occurrances.
Civilization Revolution, GTA 4 are the first two which are actually fairly recent releases that suffered from such things; particularly in multiplayer circumstances and on both of the "hardcore" platforms.
Sure, the PC is fair more prone to this sort of issue; but recently I've actually noticed far more PC titles are being released in more stable states than their console counter-parts.
Back on subject however... (and a little towards the later as well)
I've noticed a number of reviewers mentioning some pretty bad bugs with TFU. Like laggy/unresponsiveness in boss fights, or getting constantly stuck on terrain.
I must admit, I did get stuck in a tree once during both play throughs I've done so far; but honestly no slow-downs, no unresponsiveness, nothing like that. There are some niggles with the gameplay and such that do sometimes get frustrating but tbh I think they're only as noticeable as they are because the game most of the time looks and feels great.
The story frankly is awesome, and both endings really leave you wanting more. Although it's extremely obvious, which one you're suppose to do
This said to be quite honest the amount of characters that should've died (the first jedi you face for example... seriously?! he survives that?!?!) well they'll always find a way for someone to comeback despite them suppose to be dead.
Hell in the Star Wars universe, Emperor Palpatine came back 3 times before Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade finally made sure he never could again.
Gameplay wise, yeah you're probably looking at between 5-10hours of playtime depending on how quickly you blast through missions; how much you want to explorer and most importantly the difficulty you're playing it on.
On Sith I got through the Tie Fighter level in about an hour or so... on Lord it took me an hour and a half and on Master it took me nearly 3 hours. The AI, amount it takes to kill each person and the sheer requirement to keep leveling yourself on the harder difficulties really do help give the game longer life in that respect.
This said, personally that story just keeps me wanting to replay it. Also the different combos and moves really give me drive to find all the crazy ways to kill Stormtroopers and other things as possible. I had quite a bit of fun constantly lobbing crates through windows and watching them all get sucked out of a room.
Although the game is a bit more linear than I would've liked, and the Force powers are also a bit more limited in terms of what is realistically available. Simply being able to combine them in the way you can does make it a lot more enjoyable for me.
I do feel they cut the game a little short, and while you do basically revisit 4 locations you previously visited again (plus a new one) they're not the same location but part of the planet/station/etc... I did like that.
The quicktime events as well, didn't feel like something thrown in their just for kicks to watch you fail at either. They felt more natural. In-fact when you fail the QTEs for Bosses they spar some more before giving you another chance, while with larger vehicles/monsters you go back to fighting them.
It's also only the Boss finishers you HAVE to do as QTEs, the monsters and vehicles you get the option once they're low-enough health; but you can waste them in your own way.
Something I felt the QTEs really helped were in the Jedi vs Jedi, some requiring tapping; others required a bit more participation. Like 2 lighting attacks meeting brought up a circular ui where you had to tap the Y button whenever it was within a red zone. Was a nice change of pace, and I think they could easily expand this for more force power battles.
I was a tad disappointed with no online either co-op or multiplayer, the systems they have in place definately would translate over nicely to online deathmatch or such. Although I think the blocking system could do with a bit more work, as from behind you're utterly defenseless; plus the aiming system can be a tad unspecific at times. It would've been nice to have a little reticle even if it was just a little dot that was white and turned red over an object or the object had a bit more of an obvious highlight glow around it rather than inside it. Still it's only a niggle rather than much else.
This game is good though, damn good! I think the prologue level also really gives you so much to look forward to as well... as you get to play as Vader and get a taster of whats in store when you upgrade yourself enough.
I think part of the brief feeling of the story also comes from the fact that story dialog only really happens between missions and while there is enough to peak the interest, I don't think it quite goes as deep as it might do to really get in to any of the main characters quite as much as the team hope you would.
I think if we'd been playing with these characters for longer with a bit more story before the betrayal, it would definately had been way more of an impact. Maybe not had the game quite as linear either, something like KotoR for example. Where you have the first few missions that are linear, then in the break (for example when Vader tell you that you call the shots) you then get a few worlds/missions that while are related to the story are a bit more free-roaming; before blam you're back in the linear section again.
That with more freedom force-powers wise (a bit like they were in Dark Forces 2 : Jedi Knight) or maybe they're things you picked up from the free-roaming missions. Like each enemy you killed had a holocron for you to then train with that skill or was a jedi themselves. Definately that would've rocked.
Damn it, why do I never get to work on games like this
Well anywho, who knows what the promised DLC will be; could be a couple of new levels or story extensions. Never know
The story definately seems to feel like it was sliced down a bit, atleast to me.
