The Complete History of Star Wars Games

[GameBanshee News]

NowGamer is offering up a two-part history (here and here) of the many Star Wars video games that have been released over the last three decades. The games of most interest to us:

KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC SERIES MADE UP OF: STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC (WINDOWS, XBOX, MAC; 2003) / STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC II: THE SITH LORDS (WINDOWS, XBOX; 2005) Fleshing out the Star Wars extended universe like no game had done before, RPG stalwarts BioWare would adapt the meticulous attention to detail and epic narrative of PC games Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights into the Star Wars world. Knights Of The Old Republic was a sprawling role-playing game that used a combat system more commonly seen in collectable card games (which Darran can happily chew your ear over for several hours a day). It also actively jotted down your speech and actions, so if you acted dishonourably your appearance would evolve accordingly. For the sequel, The Sith Lords, development duties would be handed over to Obsidian Entertainment at the bequest of BioWare and, set a few years after the original, would simply offer more of the same immersive Star Wars gameplay.

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GALAXIES SERIES MADE UP OF: STAR WARS GALAXIES: AN EMPIRE DIVIDED (WINDOWS; 2003) / STAR WARS GALAXIES: JUMP TO LIGHTSPEED (WINDOWS; 2004) / STAR WARS GALAXIES: EPISODE III: RAGE OF THE WOOKIEES (WINDOWS; 2005) / STAR WARS GALAXIES: THE TOTAL EXPERIENCE (WINDOWS; 2005) / STAR WARS GALAXIES: TRIALS OF OBI-WAN (WINDOWS; 2005) / STAR WARS GALAXIES: STARTER KIT (WINDOWS; 2005) / STAR WARS GALAXIES: THE COMPLETE ONLINE ADVENTURE (WINDOWS; 2006) MMORPG series from the makers of EverQuest set inside the Star Wars universe that was predominantly a ground-based RPG. The first expansion pack, the idiotically titled Jump To Lightspeed, would jettison the game into the far reaches of space and the third, Rage Of The Wookiees, would capture the release of Revenge Of The Sith by adding it into the narrative of the new trilogy. Numerous other expansion packs would work to flesh out the universe and provide a comprehensive and realistic Star Wars world for PC owners to potentially while away a few light years with.

[fable]

Quote:

Fleshing out the Star Wars extended universe like no game had done before, RPG stalwarts BioWare would adapt the meticulous attention to detail and epic narrative of PC games Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights into the Star Wars world.

Reads just like a bad PR release, doesn't it? You can practically hear it being parroted over a megaphone to an audience of 10-year-olds. And the remarks about the combat system? Has the writer never played the BG series? And this is news? Even the horrible style isn't news.

[Nightmare]

Haven't played any of the games from the first part (I was never big into arcade games), but I played a significant amount of those in part 2.

They rather oddly downplay TIE Fighter, saying it didn't have much improvement over X-Wing, which is plain false. It doubled the resolution (yay for 640x480!) and the interface and ship graphics were far, far better. The game itself was also much more detailed and well written than its predecessor. Just seems odd to me, since its considered to be one of the greatest games ever, let alone Star Wars games.

Reading the article makes me a bit embarrassed about how much of a Star Wars fanboy I am, since I'm picking up a number of factual errors in a number of the blurbs about each game.