Tucked away
on the second floor of West Hall (once again in room 518), LucasArts
allowed access to the limited few with appointments made well before
the E3 madness. For the third year running we made our way into
this intimate space, expecting to be intrigued--instead, we were blown
away. Yes, there was evidence of platform-porting reruns and
console-specific titles; however, LucasArts has some GREAT BIG THINGS
heading our way on the PC, in fact they're so big that room 518
couldn't hold 'em all!
Okay, first
things first. Ported to the PC is Super Bombad Racing, an arcade
kart-style racing title, and Star
Wars Starfighter, a five-star game that looks even better on the PC
(where it was originally developed for the PS2). Moving from the
PC is Escape From Monkey
Island (yet another five star game) for the PS2. Finally,
other titles for console gamers include Obi Wan for the Xbox, Star Wars
Racer II for the PS2, and Star Wars Rogue Squadron II for the GameCube.
The big news
on the PC front starts with Star Wars Battleground, an RTS title built
on Ensembles AOEII, The Age of Kings engine. It's be difficult to
imagine there's anyone following LucasArts and Star Wars franchise that
hasn't heard of Star Wars Galaxies, but did you know about the
expansion? There's big news in the RPG genre with the announcement
of Star Wars: Knights of
the Old Republic (so fresh there's no images yet available).
Finally, there's the announcement of Star Wars Jedi Outcast: Jedi Knight
II (also very fresh but with five exclusive screenshots released here
for the first time!) Here’s a closer look at
each of them, along with a peek at just one of the Jedi Knight II
screenshots:
Star Wars
Battleground
Star Wars
Galaxies
Star
Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars
Jedi Outcast: Jedi Knight II
Al
Wildey |
