Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, 1 and 2.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is one of my favorite games. It took a great story ark, being in the Star Wars universe, and combined it with many elements from games being released at the time. Now with the development and release of the sequel, we will see if they can reach the bar set by the first one.

The First Game - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was one of the most innovative games of 2008 and combined familiar elements with new ideas. This is true in the story, the gameplay and the graphics.


Story: The story takes place, If you are familiar with the Star Wars series, between the two trilogies. You play as the secret apprentice of Darth Vader who is sent to wipe out the last remaining Jedi in the galaxy. The writers took the time to write a story that would not conflict with the story of the films and also offered some explanations for things that occur in the films. For example (spoiler alert), at the end of the game when after the main character faces off against Vader and dies it is shown that his family crest is the symbol that will later become the symbol of the rebel alliance, thus tying the two stories together. This attention to story is what has set Star Wars based games apart from the usual movie based game.



Gameplay: The gameplay has many elements of other good games of the time but combined them in a unique way. It has some of the elements of Assassin's Creed combined with the fighting style of Ninja Gaiden, and God of War. It also adds a new element, force powers. Now, you would think that it would be difficult to control telekinetic powers in a 3d world, but the controls work well. The powers (on PS3) use the analog sticks to move objects in all six directions.



Graphics: The game's graphics are amazing. But one element that sets it apart is the physics. The game itself runs on the Havoc engine but also uses DMM which stands for Digital Molecular Matter and offers better particle physics. The game also contains an advanced artificial intelligence program called Euphoria. This allows the NPCs to react better to your actions.




Now there is a sequel to The Force Unleashed that is coming out soon. It will be interesting to see how, if at all, they add to the story of the first game without losing continuity. And it will also be interesting to see if they can improve on the game elements of the first one or will it fall short.

Rampage: Universal Tour - Classic PS1/N64

Rampage: Universal Tour is the sequel to Rampage: World Tour. It was a 2d side-scroller in which you play as monsters on a quest to destroy the world. You set off through the world going from city to city knocking down buildings. The great part of the game is that it was a three player game and you work together to take down each city. The plot is that three of the characters are held captive and you must free them.  The game had various characters with their own special abilities. Some of the characters included a lobster, a werewolf, a gorilla, and an alien. This game was simple but still one of my favorite games for the Playstation One system. The game was fairly long with nearly a hundred cities.

The game's simple nature is what made it appealing and with the rise of app gaming, a game like this would be perfect. I would love to see this game on an iPod or iPad. Also in making new app games developers should look at classics like this one. 

Motion Control: Move and Kinect

Since Wii debuted several years ago and began to out sell both PS3 and Xbox 360, they have been trying to find a way to cash in on the motion control craze. They have both created their own motion control add-ons for their systems; the Playstaton Move and Xbox Kinect. These two, however, take different approaches to motion control and attempt to improve on this new technology.

First off: What is motion control? 

Motion capture technology replaces button combinations with a series of movements captured using various sensors. Wii was the first video game system to implement this technology but now Sony and Microsoft are following this trend.

Playstation Move: The Playstation Move adds a controller simillar to the "Wii-mote" to the system but uses a light orb that can then be captured by the Playstation Eye webcam. This is very different from the Wii controller and hopes to offer more accurate controls. 

Playstation Move Demo

Microsoft Kinect: The Kinect takes the motion control idea to a new level. It loses the controller all togeather. Players stand in front of a motion capture sensor bar and it tracks their movement. This is meant to give much more accurate control and only use the movement of the players to control characters on screen and also use camera technology to put players in the game.

Kinect Demo

Both the Playstation Move and the Microsoft Kinect are coming out soon and it will be interesting to see if they are successfull or not. I think they will show if motion control is the wave of the future for gaming or just a fad.