StarWars KOTOR

[blazing-star]

Fedex is the safest & quickest option, packages are fully traceable and arrive within 2 days, downside is its $8 more and you'll definitely get charged duty if you order more than one game at a time.

[Ish]

Where I live in the UK (Bedford) FedEx are absolutely useless. They've got to the point of issuing legal proceedings against me for supposedly unpaid bills (they hadn't actually billed me for anything it turned out) and have also lost two parcels. One they delivered to a neighbour. No card through the door. The other they delivered 3 doors down the road from where I live, gave me no card, and according to there records it was in the warehouse. They had no idea where it was. They were on the point of doing the insurance bit when I decided it might be an idea to walk the street. It was only after knocking on peoples doors that I found my package...

Funnily enough I've had a lot of refunds off of them. So you might want to consider using them as if they're a free delivery option.

In fairness its Business Post who handle the final delivering where I live and they seem to be the main cause of the problems. Still - I'm paying FedEx....

[JRMacumber]

All i mean is can you just press X and swing your lightsaber across opponent or A and swing from below opponent etc. And then you can do magic, techniques whatever you want call them, if you want to? Or is every move a technique or you have pick to swing at them?

No, it's nothing like that at all. This isn't like a fighting game, or Jedi Knight where you actually swing your own saber. In this, and other Bioware D&D games, you tell your player what to do, and they do it themselves, with all hits and damage controlled by "dice rolls" (random computer generated numbers) that are modified by attributes, etc. You give your characters orders, and they follow them. You don't actually swing the saber yourself, or aim for them.

[Brats]

Where I live in the UK (Bedford)

Yay! Another Bedfordian . Where abouts in Bedford do you live?

[polygon_monkey]

I have ordered from DVDboxoffice. First time I have ordered from there. Any idea how long it takes DVDBO preordered games to arrive? Would I be faster to cancel and get from Tronix?

[Ish]

Where I live in the UK (Bedford)

Yay! Another Bedfordian . Where abouts in Bedford do you live?

I live out the back of Wootton off the A421. How about yourself?


polygon_monkey - DVDboxoffice can take quite a while to deliver. Cheap, reliable - but slow.

[Garibaldi Biscuit]

I have ordered from DVDboxoffice. First time I have ordered from there. Any idea how long it takes DVDBO preordered games to arrive? Would I be faster to cancel and get from Tronix?

DVDBoxOffice can without a doubt give you the cheapest price, but the product usually takes about two weeks to arrive, so if you're as desperate to play KOTR on release as I am you'll be better off going for Tronix with super-fast Fedex ( although there's not an extreme difference between that and their regular postage methods ).

[polygon_monkey]

I cancelled my DVDBO and ordered from Tronix. Thanks. I need this damn game now.

[Prine]

Hype train in full force

IGN 7.5

The locations in KOTOR are so beautifully rendered, you've got to think that George Lucas himself would want to pay a visit to Bioware to find out how they created such impressive digital mountains and buildings. You'll go from the murky Shadowlands on the surface of the forest-planet Kashyyk, to the bowels of a Sith battleship to the dusty dunes of good old Tatooine in this game and never does one environment look or feel like another. The grasses on Dantooine and Kashyyk bend and sway as you disturb them walking by, an effect that at one time was supposed to be the hallmark of an Xbox game. On Tattoine you'll be able to see little swirls of dust spin up into little whirlwinds and dissipate. Even when you reach the limits of areas you can explore and are looking out at the backdrop painting on, say, the ocean world of Manaan or rocky planet Korriban, that painting is so detailed that it looks like you could venture out across the rest of the planet if only this was an action game with a jump button. We end up getting the same effect in a Star Wars videogame that we get in the movies.

There are unique dueling animations that take into account the number of sabers involved in the fight and the proficiency of the combatants. A lightsaber fight against a Dark Jedi early in the game may look nothing like a fight against a Dark Jedi Master later on because both you and your enemy will be stronger by then. At first you're simply happy to see your Jedi whirling and slashing a saber by throwing multiple flurry attacks against an enemy. By the time you level up to a 15 or 16 Jedi, you'll be mixing in force powers in between lightsaber swings and enemies (even soldiers wielding conventional blades) will have better defense. This is how you'll get spectacular lightsaber clashes with all of that glowing energy and that crackling sound. But you'll actually see your character and enemy lunge and parry and end up with their blades crossed, each pushing into the other trying to get the advantage. It's all very quick and subtle but also very satisfying if you pay attention.

In covering those four bases, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is not only providing one of the very best interactive Star Wars experiences, but it's tapped into the very soul of the Star Wars universe that drew hundreds of millions of fans to the franchise in the first place. Developed by Bioware, Knights of the Old Republic is stronger with The Force than any George Lucas-powered movie that's come out in the last 20 years and lands on the Xbox as one of the very best titles the system has to offer.

There's tons of character development, a combat probability system and a giant inventory to manage, so I guess KOTOR gets clearance as a role-playing game. But as both an RPG and a Star Wars title, it strikes a marvelous balance of hardcore authenticity and accessibility for the uninitiated. Pen and paper players can check the log of dice rolls used to calculate the success rate of every trigger pull or lightsaber swing. Freddy Fanboy can geek out for hours at how well the Jawa language has been adapted for a videogame. And even the coolest of the cool hip kids will be able to see the appeal of swinging double lightsabers and choking fools from across the room.

Score - 9.5 :P

So the KOTOR review is up, everyone and there grandmother is gonna get it. If you're on the fence, let me tell ya one thing about the reviewer, Mr. Aaron Boulding. He hates RPGs. Hates them. Seriously. I've seem him have to play them. Hates 'em. He, obviously, loves KOTOR. So, all you RPG-haters out there, take a look at the game. If Aaron can love it, then probably most non-RPG types can too.

P.S. For the record, I'd have given it a 9.6, but I'm an RPG fan.

Oh, and shameless guides plug. We'll have the first part of the guide this week. It will be all about character creations, choosing your path as a jedi, how you evil things can change gameplay, how to play the mini-games, etc. That's the stuff yours truly is busy on. We have a quality freelancer doing the walkthrough and we'll be putting up parts of it right as he finishes it. But hopefully my meaty part of the guide will help everyone get off to a good start.

-Hil

[PeteJ]

10.0 Presentation
There's more real Star Warsedness in this game than in the last two movies combined. Great menu system has the best use of triggers we've seen in a while.

9.0 Graphics
A hiccup or two here or there, but for the most part, this is one of the prettiest Star Wars games on any system in any genre.

10.0 Sound
The sound effects are given but the voice-acting was so amazing, we think the standard has just been raised.

9.0 Gameplay
It moves like an action game, plays like nothing you've played before and makes role--playing exciting again.

10.0 Lasting Appeal
This will probably be the deepest single player experience available on Xbox when all is said and done. Wait there's going to be downloadable content too?

9.5 OVERALL:

[Garibaldi Biscuit]

Now I see why so much importance is now being placed on the length of ntsc-uk reviews by writers ( excluding my recent Brute Force waffle opus ), IGN reviews are seldom short but they expect me to trawl through four pages to get the jist of KOTR? Maybe I'm lazy but.......ugh.

Anyway, tis an encouraging result, even if this is IGN where the average grade is a 9.0.

[PeteJ]

I like this quote - "P.S. For the record, I'd have given it a 9.6, but I'm an RPG fan. "

I find that funny for some reason

Only a few days to go! I can see this game destroying my Summer...

[Treble]

I've never understood the approach of writing reams of text for your review.

Oh, wait, yes I have: it's so you can mention every stray thought that comes into your head without having to write in any kind of journalistic style. Thanks again, IGN!!11!!

:tsk:

Anyway, as impressions go (I can't call what IGN do 'reviews') these are extremely promising. I just bet I pick a character and attributes I love, then there's an FAQ or thread on here saying "Don't, whatever you do, pick a ***** class character, as it is wank and your hard drive will melt and you'll get scabies". Or something.

[scottcr]

argh... the decisions...

I want it asap, which means an import xbox version, but, then I'll miss the live updates (can't go live with my chip enabled)... so... I'll probably wait until the PC version comes out.

[Treble]

Well, I don't even have live, but I'm going to blag the content off the net or someone's DVD anyway. Like Clyde, any which way but loose for me.