It seems the rumours that Free Radical are making Star Wars: Battlefront III are true. On Tuesday Amazon showed listings for the game on Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, DS and, most surprisingly, Wii.
The Battlefront games are multiplayer-driven, third-person shooters that drop the player into massive battles on land and space in control of numerous troops, ships and vehicles, including both heroes and villains from the Star Wars movies.
IGN has reported that two independent sources that have confirmed the listings to be correct and that Free Radical are the developers. The listings on Amazon have since been taken down, presumably at the request of publisher LucasArts. This comes almost two years after LucasArts announced that they had signed a development deal with Free Radical for an unnamed game.
This comes as great news to Wii owners, as not only are we getting the new installment of a fantastic franchise, but it comes from the team behind the TimeSplitters series and GoldenEye on the N64 - some of the best first-person-shooters of the past two generations, and games that Nintendo fans will no doubt have fond memories of.
However, with the looming presence of a PS2 title, we can hope that we don’t just get a port to the Wii with tacked-on some token waggle controls, as is typical of multi-platform titles. The cheap cash-in has never been Free Radical’s style though, so we can confidently look forward to a game built from the ground up for Wii.
The big question is can they make a game with this much focus on multiplayer and co-op gaming work well on Wii, or will they drop online gaming altogether for the Wii version?
Perhaps LucasArts know something we don’t about Nintendo’s future plans for online gaming or voice chat (Editor’s note: After all, Vicarious Visions was able to recently confirm that Guitar Hero 4 will feature downloadable content, after previously expressing displeasure at Nintendo’s lack of attention to their online flaws in the Wii).
Either way, at the moment it’s safe to be optimistic about Free Radical’s first outing on Wii. We’ll be watching for this one!
If you aren’t already excited about Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, this clip should do the trick. Courtesy of Gametrailers, developers of the game shed some light on the control scheme of the game at the Nintendo Media Summit.
Simply put: the remote controls your lightsaber, the nunchuk controls the force. Oh, the waggling combo possibilities!
New details into the fencing mechanics of LucasArts’ highly-anticipated Star Wars: The Force Unleashed were recently revealed by Gamepro. Check out the initial preview of the game by MyWiiNews here.
It has already been reported that the Wii version will attempt the most unique and accurate fencing to date for the console. While games like Red Steel and Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors left gamers feeling let down, the gang at LucasArts are working hard to finally deliver what could be the sword-fighting sim that Wii owners have been salivating for since the console’s launch.
The mechanics in The Force Unleashed will allow players to attack in all five cardinal directions — left, right, up, down and a forward thrust — giving gameplay with the Wiimote an edge over other titles that have featured fencing. Although the controls won’t mimic the player’s motions entirely, gamers should still be able to get a more fulfilling fencing experience when playing The Force Unleashed. Not only will the game allow players to get a closer feel to actual fencing, but the gameplay also lends itself for player-created combos.
Another key component to sword fighting is blocking, which LucasArts have made sure to include. Instead of just pressing a button to block, players will have to raise the Wiimote up into the air, as if they are actually blocking an incoming attack. Raise the Wiimote to shield an attack coming at your character’s head, and your dark apprentice will do the same on screen.
The next step for immersion via the Wii is the use of the nunchuk.
The nunchuk comes into play when players want to use the dark powers of the force. Used in conjunction with the motion-controls of the Wiimote, players will be force pushing their way through enemies with ease.
Just like the fencing mechanics, the gameplay when using the force relies on the gamer making the motion of the desired action. For instance, let’s look at the force push; a Jedi/Sith technique that has the character thrusting his palm towards an enemy and sending them reeling backwards. Just as the avatar will extend his hand out towards the enemy, the player will do the same with the nunchuk. By merely pushing the nunchuk towards the screen, the player will perform a force push.
Simplicity and intuitiveness at its best, perhaps.
Other force moves, such as the force repulse, will allow players to send multiple opponents flying backwards through the air by combining the Wiimote and nunchuk movements. To execute a force repulse, players must hold Z and A and swing the Wiimote and nunchuk in a downward motion at the same time.
The Wii version will also offer an exclusive force technique known as the force maelstrom. By performing the motions for the force repulse, while adding a repeated downward swing of both controllers, players will be able to create a larger radius of destruction for the regular force repulse.
But perhaps the most sparkling difference between the Wii and its Xbox 360 and PS3 counterparts, is the exclusive ability to duel other players.
Players will have a variety of worlds to duel on and a lengthy list of characters to choose from, such as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu, Count Dooku, two different versions of Luke Skywalker, and even Lord Darth Vader himself.
Provided LucasArts is able to provide the depth of online play that Wii owners have been begging for, multi-player duels could be one of the biggest things that comes out of the Nintendo camp this year.
Intuitive controls and Wii exclusives make this port of the game a stand-alone title from the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. What the Wii lacks in graphics is being replaced with what Wii owners have wanted all along - innovative gameplay with satisfying results.
It’s been a period of growing pains for sword fighting on the Wii. The gameplay in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess seemed more of a nuisance than anything else, while Red Steel offered movements that were far too scripted. Suda 51’s No More Heroes brought fencing to a new level by actually allowing players to somewhat immerse themselves in the combat control scheme, however the game still failed to provide a truly realistic approach to each and every aspect of combat. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed looks to be the next step in evolution for an authentic fencing simulation for the Wii.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed hits store shelves on Sept. 16. Stay tuned to My Wii News as we continue to preview this exciting title.
In a galaxy long, long ago… third party developers would routinely create multi-platform games.
However, things have changed with the advent of the Wii, and while Sony and Microsoft continue to enjoy graphically-driven titles, the Wii, sadly, has been more or less left out of the picture.
While there are games for all three platforms, none of them really feel unique. Specifically in the case for the Wii, most of those games feel like a bad port.
But that is all about to change thanks to a new disturbance in the force.
LucasArts unveiled game footage of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed at this year’s Game Developer’s Conference (GDC), showing a multi-platform title that displayed not only a new direction for the franchise, but technological improvements for all three consoles.
The Force Unleashed takes place in between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. While young Luke Skywalker is out killing womprats in Tatooine, Lord Darth Vader is feverishly working to rid the galaxy of all remaining jedi. As an end to his means, Vader introduces his “secret apprentice.”
As Vader’s secret apprentice, players will get the chance to revel in the dark side. And although the idea of potentially three siths at the same time violates Star Wars dogma, George Lucas — the man behind the cultural phenomenon — is creating the new story, which the game’s official site says, “promises to unveil new revelations about the Star Wars galaxy,” so purists should wait before they sit down to write their angry letters.
As far as the technology is concerned, developers for The Force Unleashed have created two new advancements to make life as a sith apprentice as immersive as possible. The first is DMM (Digital Molecular Matter), a physics engine that allows things in the environment — such as boards, glass and metal — to respond properly when something collides with it. The hard work and result by Pixelux Entertainment is allowing the player to throw a storm trooper through a board and see the board actually break and splinter where the storm trooper made contact. Instead of predetermined breaking patterns, DMM allows for players to feel immersion through the ability to actually impact the environment around them in an individualistic and unique way each and every time they interact with something.
The second advance is Euphoria, by NaturalMotion Ltd. Euphoria is a behavioral-simulation engine, which will grant life-like reactions to environmental stimulus for NPCs. In other words, when a storm trooper is pushed towards a cliff, they will respond by fighting to get their balance by swinging their arms, etc. Even further, if that storm trooper is dangling from the edge and another storm trooper is pushed off the cliff, the two NPCs will actually try to grab each other in order to save themselves. NPC involvement like this — in a game which allows players to fully-utilize abilities like the force push — should prove for quite an exciting gaming experience for players.
Even though the game is being designed for all three next-gen platforms, the most obvious difference between the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions to the Wii version will be the graphics. As a result, some of the more graphically-demanding levels in the game may not see their way to the Wii console. Whether or not this will affect the amount of immersion that DMM and Euphoria will bring to the gaming experience is yet to be seen.
However, Wii owners will get something that should leave owners of the other two graphically-superior consoles drooling: multiplayer duels. Wii owners will have the chance to pick between 20 different characters to partake in one-on-one duels with other players. The combat will take place in nine different settings, which will all involve environmental hazards and power-ups.
While this should open the Wii experience to some hardcore multi-player action, it has been said that wielding the Wiimote will not exactly be freeform sword fighting. Instead, the developers at Chrome — the gang that’s designing the motion controls for the game — have stated that the game will only recognize cardinal directions, such as up, down, left, right and forward.
It’s more than any other sword fighting title has to offer for the Wii, and I for one can’t wait to thrust the nunchuck forward to perform a force push.
LucasArts is the first developer to show how a game can be created for all three next-gen consoles without the chance for the gaming experience to suffer quality based on which console a player owns. While the Wii version won’t offer top-notch graphics like the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360, Wii owners will get the chance to experience fluid motion-sensitive controls and multiplayer duels.
LucasArts isn’t letting their vision for the game be diminished by developing on all three consoles. If anything, it is providing the level of quality that respective owners expect; ground-breaking graphics for PS3 and Xbox 360 owners and innovative and intuitive controls for Wii owners.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is due to arrive in a galaxy near you this summer.
Chris | July 14, 2008
If you aren’t already excited about Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, this clip should do the trick. Courtesy of 
