Preview KotOR E3 write up at Gamer's Pulse

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

<a href="http://www.gamerspulse.com/">Gamer's Pulse</a> is offering up a <a href="http://www.gamerspulse.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=GPPreviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=173">preview</a> of <a href="http://www.swkotor.com">Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic</a> based on what they saw at E3. It covers the basics, like the real time combat, the dark side stuff, and this:
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<blockquote>One of the more interesting recruitable party members is a droid known as HK-47. A combat/assassin droid that's highly illegal, HK-47 seems to be a great source of comic relief, ala Minsc in the BG series. I saw a particularly humorous conversation between the main character and the droid regarding his master's status as a "meatbag," the rules regarding ownership of the droid, and even the threat of the droid to report himself as stolen goods.</blockquote>
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I thought combat droids didn't become illegal until the founding of the Empire due to the whole Trade Federation issue. Then again, I'm not a huge fan of <i>Star Wars</i>.
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Spotted this at <A href="http://www.homelanfed.com">HomeLAN Fed</a>.

 

[Azael]

Well, it bears to reason that assassin droids were never particular legal.

As for a comical relief character like Minsc, allow me to puke.

 

[Vault Dweller]

As for a comical relief character like Minsc, allow me to puke.

I second that.

Initially he looked like a normal guy, but once becoming a dark Jedi, he developed pasty white skin, evil eyes, and a "don't @*!$# with me" stance that would scare off a Rancor.

Huh? Where did they come up with that? So in this game, do all dark Jedi look the same? Can somebody play a dark Jedi that looks normal and charming, without evil shifty eyes and a mean stance to scare people off?

where weapons can be modified (including changing the color and abilities of light sabers).

Abilities? As in +1 vs space goblins or something else? Anybody knows?

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Huh? Where did they come up with that? So in this game, do all dark Jedi look the same? Can somebody play a dark Jedi that looks normal and charming, without evil shifty eyes and a mean stance to scare people off?

I was thinking that was rather cheesy as well. After all the scariest evil is the evil you DON'T see coming at you, the one that's not obvious. So much for stealth when you're glowing with teh 3v1l.

Abilities? As in +1 vs space goblins or something else? Anybody knows?

That'd be my guess.

 

[Jed]

Huh? Where did they come up with that? So in this game, do all dark Jedi look the same? Can somebody play a dark Jedi that looks normal and charming, without evil shifty eyes and a mean stance to scare people off?

Perhaps it will be like the dog in the Simpsons episode where Homer and Mel Gibson remake "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"...

 

[Ausir]

Dooku and Palpatine in E1 and E2 certainly didn't look like that...

 

[Vault Dweller]

Perhaps it will be like the dog in the Simpsons episode where Homer and Mel Gibson remake "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"...

Yeah, good call
"Homer: They will if you set up that the dog is evil. All you do is have to show him doing this. [lowers eyelids and glances around in shifty-eyed fashion]".
It's nice to know that Homer and Bioware boys think alike, 'cause obviously there is no other way to tell apart a good jedi from an evil jedi. Some people might get confused

Dooku and Palpatine in E1 and E2 certainly didn't look like that...

Well, Palpatine often had a hood on, so I'm sure he was doing the shifty evil eyes routine all the time But, yeah, I agree, and I don't recall Darth Maul being all that "pasty white" either. Go figure

 

[Jed]

Well, Palpatine often had a hood on, so I'm sure he was doing the shifty evil eyes routine all the time But, yeah, I agree, and I don't recall Darth Maul being all that "pasty white" either. Go figure

Yeah, but Darth Maul was pointy. By the way, anyone else think that Dooku is the worst name for a villain EVAR? Chris Lee deserves better...

 

[Vault Dweller]

After all the scariest evil is the evil you DON'T see coming at you, the one that's not obvious. So much for stealth when you're glowing with teh 3v1l.

You are right. A player should not see an evil character right away as being evil, every npc should be presented to a player as is, at face value, and then let a player figure out what's right and what's wrong in terms of the player's own agenda.

It would be nice to be joined by a nice looking npc, go through a big chunk of a game, and later realize that's the guy is actually evil, and that you have become evil as well by listening to his advices and by agreeing to take certain actions that seem to be okay without thinking them through, trying to understand them, thinking through the consequences, figuring out the agendas of every side involved, etc

 

[Jed]

You are right. A player should not see an evil character right away as being evil, every npc should be presented to a player as is, at face value, and then let a player figure out what's right and what's wrong in terms of the player's own agenda. It would be nice to be joined by a nice looking npc, go through a big chunk of a game, and later realize that's the guy is actually evil, and that you have become evil as well by listening to his advices and by agreeing to take certain actions that seem to be okay without thinking them through, trying to understand them, thinking through the consequences, figuring out the agendas of every side involved, etc

*Sigh...* That would be excellent, but never in a Bioware game. Those sort of moral ambiguities might show up in a Troika or Spiderweb game, but are far too subtle for the Biowarez and their fans...

 

[Constipated Craprunner]

Darth Maul was not even Human, but I second the Homer thing.
They could have done somthing less obvious in terms of visual telling that someone is "evil."
Sense the Dark Side is most likely just a metaphore for Fascisim, why not just make them well shaven, clean, and a bit more aristocratic and haughty?
The Dark Side is more about Social Darwinisim and evolution; and frankly Spazmo with a lightsaber is not the best that mankind (or any species) can achive.

 

[Vault Dweller]

By the way, anyone else think that Dooku is the worst name for a villain EVAR? Chris Lee deserves better...

It's a terrible name, especially since it's Count Dooku. Thanks to the name and the outfit, I was expecting him to turn into a bat at any moment.

 

[Psilon]

Sense the Dark Side is most likely just a metaphore for Fascisim, why not just make them well shaven, clean, and a bit more aristocratic and haughty?

Such as, say, making all the Imperial officers speak with a British accent as in the original movies?

 

[Constipated Craprunner]

I tought German, or French, but British works.

 

[Azael]

Jesus, one wonders how Palpatine managed to fool the entire Jedi Council if the Dark Side is so easily spotted. Bioware are getting worse and worse by the minute it seems.

 

[Ausir]

But, yeah, I agree, and I don't recall Darth Maul being all that "pasty white" either. Go figure

Well, it would be hard for a Zabrak to be pasty white .

 

[Vault Dweller]

Sense the Dark Side is most likely just a metaphore for Fascisim, why not just make them well shaven, clean, and a bit more aristocratic and haughty?

The Dark Side is just a side, you can do with it what you want: Fascism, Communism, Fundamentalism, Capitalsim, etc. The Empire is a different story though, it did have a lot in common with Fascism, it almost looked like the Fourth Reich.
So, like I said before, I think that all and any common traits should be manifested by and related to a faction rather then to the Dark Side in general.

 

[Sabotai]

Jesus, one wonders how Palpatine managed to fool the entire Jedi Council if the Dark Side is so easily spotted. Bioware are getting worse and worse by the minute it seems.

Seems it's BIObash hour. Two threads going on now and SoU and Kotor both get hammered.

 

[Vault Dweller]

But, yeah, I agree, and I don't recall Darth Maul being all that "pasty white" either. Go figure

Well, it would be hard for a Zabrak to be pasty white .

No excuses, rules are for everybody, so if a zabrak wants to join the dark side he better starts wearing some white make up if he wants to fit in

Seems it's BIObash hour. Two threads going on now and SoU and Kotor both get hammered.

It's always "BIObash hour" at RPG Codex

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

It would be nice to be joined by a nice looking npc, go through a big chunk of a game, and later realize that's the guy is actually evil, and that you have become evil as well by listening to his advices and by agreeing to take certain actions that seem to be okay without thinking them through, trying to understand them, thinking through the consequences, figuring out the agendas of every side involved, etc

I think the problem with BioWare is that they simply can't pull that off well. Look at NWN with Desther. He was a bad guy masquerading as a good guy, yet it was just so utterly obvious that no character in their right mind could be tricked or fooled in to doing his bidding if they weren't forced in to doing it.

Jesus, one wonders how Palpatine managed to fool the entire Jedi Council if the Dark Side is so easily spotted. Bioware are getting worse and worse by the minute it seems.

I don't recall Anakin developing teh 3v1l look in Episode 2 when he was genociding the sand people children, either.

This kind of thing seems a lot more like a poor gimmick than a decent feature to the game. It's almost like they played Black & White and think that feature should apply to any CRPG. Of course, it was a gimmick in B&W, too, but it didn't come off as a silly one.

 

[Nomad]

Unfortunately, you can't really blame this on anyone other than Mr. Lucas himself. Or don't any of you remember seeing Anikan and Palpatine at the end of Episode 6? Bio's description of what will happen to your character over time seems consistent with the movies.

It seems to me that your irrational hatred for all things BioWare is clouding your judgement, young padawans.


N.

 

[HanoverF]

Er Vader lives in that iron lung thing, I dont remember him getting much sun, and the emperor is pushing what, 200?

 

[Sabotai]

It seems to me that your irrational hatred for all things BioWare is clouding your judgement, young padawans.

It's more like cultivated hatred.

But you have to agree that BIOware hasn't been able to provide really dastardly evil gameplay possibilities and that their characters in NWN are shallow at best. Heck even regular multiple gameplay possibilities in Kotor seem mediocre at best. In the Gamespy preview: "...and sometimes you'll enter an area and become completely bewildered with the sheer scale of everything you can do. This includes speaking with everyone, unlocking doors, and following numerous quests." Unlocking doors as a gameplay option, come on. But I think there is a whole thread on that subject.

As it happens I quite liked BG2, maybe a bit heavy on the killing side and too few roleplay possibilities, but alas. It's NWN and the whole BIoware attitude that has made my opinion of them spiralling down to earth; no crashing down is more like it.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Unfortunately, you can't really blame this on anyone other than Mr. Lucas himself. Or don't any of you remember seeing Anikan and Palpatine at the end of Episode 6? Bio's description of what will happen to your character over time seems consistent with the movies.

I suppose the light side of the force makes people look like Yoda then? Seriously, Anakin lives in that suit because he suffered some kind of catastrophical accident, not because he turned to the dark side of the force. That's why he needs that suit to survive, as Luke mentioned at the end of Return of the Jedi. If it were because of the dark side dealie, he'd start growing grosteque in Episode 2 after slaughtering every living sandperson in that village as revenge for his mother's death, including the children. Revenge alone is the path of the dark side, and I'm sure genocide factors in there as well. Where's Anakin's horns, baby?

 

[Azael]

Unfortunately, you can't really blame this on anyone other than Mr. Lucas himself. Or don't any of you remember seeing Anikan and Palpatine at the end of Episode 6? Bio's description of what will happen to your character over time seems consistent with the movies.

It seems to me that your irrational hatred for all things BioWare is clouding your judgement, young padawans.


N.

Anakin was horribly injured when he became Vader, presumably from falling into a pit of nasty stuff in a fight with Obi-Wan and Palpatine is old like hell, plus probably a special case since I doubt anyone had dipped quite as much into the Dark Side as he did.