Star Wars: The Force Unleashed • Eurogamer.net

Xbox Game Pass gets four Star Wars games

It's true. All of it.

Xbox Game Pass just got four Star Wars games: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2.

One idea for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 3 was Darth Vader and Starkiller co-op

I think I need to Leia down.

There were two Star Wars: The Force Unleashed games, one great (if you ask me - no one ever does) and the other a bit ropey - but there was never a third. There was never even close to being a third, but there were ideas.

Cancelled Star Wars games: a Dark side Rogue Squadron and Chewbacca action adventure

Well Wookie here.

Which Star Wars game would you have preferred: a Dark side Rogue Squadron, called Dark Squadron, or a Chewbacca action adventure?

That's exactly the dilemma publisher LucasArts faced in late 2003, according to a new video by DidYouKnowGaming?. On the one hand there was Factor 5, developer of the Rogue Squadron series, and on the other, LucasArts' internal development studio. The latter prevailed but never saw the light of day, because George Lucas himself canned it, apparently not keen on the idea of Chewbacca leading a game.

The Chewbacca game concept followed his life as a bounty hunter between Star Wars films 3 and 4 - his journey from a warrior on homeworld Kashyyk to co-pilot of the Millennium Falcon and best bud of Han Solo.

UPDATE: Backwards compatibility list adds Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut, Runner2, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

UPDATE 10/05/2016 8.56pm: Another Xbox One backwards compatibility update has added Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut, Faery: Legends of Avalon, Final Fight: Double Impact, Frogger 2, and Puzzlegeddon.

Cancelled Star Wars Episode 7 game starred Luke's son

Facing off against an evil Solo.

Back in 2008 a series of logos for cancelled Star Wars games were revealed in the book Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts. Yesterday it came to light that one of these titles, Star Wars Episode 7: Shadows of the Sith, would have starred Luke Skywalker's son facing off against an evil Solo offspring.

Former LucasArts creative director Haden Blackman told Cinelinx that this was basically his concept and it was conceived back in 2004 when George Lucas was adamant that Revenge of the Sith would be the final film in the franchise. The thinking at the time was that the series' chronology could continue in game form.

"Episode 7: Shadows of the Sith would have put you in the role of an adult Ben Skywalker," Haden explained, referencing Luke's son who was born in the Star Wars Expanded Universe book series New Jedi Order.

Order 66 per cent off.

Steam has discounted more than a dozen Star Wars games by 66 per cent in celebration of this year's "May the 4th be with you" weekend.

Lucasfilm domains reveal Star Wars: Identities

The name of a new video game?

Lucasfilm has been spotted registering domains for something called Star Wars: Identities.

Star Wars dev making openworld RPG

New Star Wars game cooking?

The maker of Star Wars The Force Unleashed is hiring for an openworld role-playing game.

LucasArts promises to make better games

"High quality" Star Wars games coming.

Star Wars The Force Unleashed creator LucasArts has admitted its recent games haven't been good enough – but promised to do better in the future.

New Star Wars game to be announced?

Award ceremony teaser would suggest so.

A new Star Wars game looks set to be announced at this year's Video Game Awards ceremony.

That's one way of looking at a new Spike TV teaser video, anyway. Over footage of previous SW games a voice says, "You've seen every film over 200 times, you know the Skywalkers better than your own family, you have a stronger knowledge of the Force than Yoda himself - but one thing you don't know is what's next. Find out at the 2009 Video Game Awards."

Said Awards are being held on 12th December so expect more news then. Will it be a sequel? A brand new franchise? Or just another class or something for Star Wars: The Old Republic? Clouded, the future is etc.

PSN update: Smash Cars, Battle Tanks

Plus Buzz! Home space and loads of DLC.

The PS3 Store refresher boasts new games, demos and DLC aplenty, while PlayStation Home opens a new Events Space for Buzz!

Get questions right and a tomato will be lobbed at a rotating Buzz statue. Get 10 questions right in a row and you will unlock a tomato head to put on your Home avatar.

Smash Cars and Battle Tanks are the low-key PSN additions, although their price - Ł12 and Ł8 respectively - is steep. Conversely, Crash Commando has had a price-cut to promote new content added today.

Force Unleashed to get new DLC level

Plus: special edition due for PC and consoles.

Another downloadable level is on the way for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed this autumn.

New Force Unleashed DLC released

Extra level and new costumes available.

New downloadable content packs for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed are now available via Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.

PSN update stuffed with new content

Games, LBP costumes, songs, Hasselhoff.

Sony has crammed plenty of content onto the PlayStation Store this week.

The most of expensive bits are full downloadable versions of PSP games FIFA 09 (GBP 29.99) and puzzler The Cube (GBP 15.99), which we had no idea were turning up.

However, the most interesting - for us at least - are the new costumes for LittleBigPlanet. Yes, we do like dressing up. There's a free Sack-eating-plant outfit, and four more costumes at GBP 0.79 each: Lily Pad, Hugo (a gorilla), Great Blue and Frost-e. These are bundled together in an Animal Costumes pack for GBP 2.39.

Q3's top five best-sellers revealed

Madden, Wii Fit and Star Wars win out.

Electronic Arts notched up the world's biggest selling game from July to September with Madden NFL 09 shifting 2.994 million units, according to a new report combining US, UK and Japanese sales data.

Digital FoundryXbox 360 vs. PS3 Face-Off: Round 15

BioShock, Dead Space, Pure, Midnight Club, Spidey, Star Wars.

Eurogamer's dogged, relentless coverage of the latest in cross-platform console development continues into this mammoth 15th round, where six more high-profile games are torn apart to the sounds of rage, applause and occasional reasoned debate from the internet assembled.

Of course, you all know the deal by now. Key to our quest is mastery of the video outputs of the respective consoles. Zero-compromise 24-bit full-range RGB captures from the HDMI ports of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 allow us to produce the best comparison screen grabs, while Eurogamer's h264-equipped video player means the best in streaming video (make sure you have that 'high quality' feature enabled). And if all that isn't good enough, the high-def captures in all their 720p 60FPS majesty can be downloaded for playback on fast PCs, Xbox 360 or PS3 via the author's blog where similar content for the technically obsessed can also be found. [Enough plugs. - Ed]

In terms of releases covered this time around, we've centred on a collection of the most recent, interesting or controversial titles:

Star Wars: Force Unleashed to get DLC

New mission plus Indy character model.

LucasArts has announced it's working on downloadable content for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Force Unleashed dominates UK charts

Hell's Highway, Pure feature. Top 40 inside.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is sitting pretty at the top of the UK all-formats chart for a second week running.

Force Unleashed sales total 1.5 million

In just five days since release.

LucasArts has revealed 1.5 million copies of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed were shifted around the world in just five days.

The game came out on September 16th in North America, with a European release following on the 19th.

LucasArts has already shipped 4.3 million copies of the game, but it's proved so popular they've told the factory to make some extra copies. Looks like The Force Unleashed could be the most popular Star Wars game to date - unsurprising when you consider it's one of the least rubbish, as Johnny found out.

UK charts: Force Unleashed the new star

WAR also strong. Top 40 inside.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed has crushed opposition and taken top honours in the UK all-formats chart this week, in what was the biggest multi-platform launch since GTA IV.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Delusions of grandeur?

Well, they weren't lying: the events of The Force Unleashed will change your understanding of the original Star Wars trilogy. The game has, of course, been relentlessly hawked to fans as much for its narrative promise as its gameplay. And the team can be forgiven for a little over-zealousness: the title's Episodes III and IV-bridging plot is fully Lucas-authorised and canon. It fills in the blanks between Palpatine's formation of the Galactic Empire and the fall of Anakin Skywalker, and the creation of a Rebel Alliance to strike back at the newly operational Death Star.

Moreover, we have been promised that the story of Darth Vader's secret apprentice would shed new light on the final three cinematic chapters of the saga. And while it was never going to be an "I am your father" moment, The Force Unleashed pulls this off with élan through a darkly ironic twist at its climax.

LucasArts' other grand promise for the game has been emancipation from the restrictive, wishy-washy moral code of the Jedi order with an experience that is indiscriminate in its application of the mantra, "Kicking ass with the Force." You can't argue with the sales pitch, and if you've been paying attention to our earlier previews and the trailers, you should already have an inkling that the studio has made good on that, too.

Force Unleashed "fulfils high bar".

LucasArts producer Cameron Suey has claimed that over-excitement with the licence and lack of ambition are to blame for previous lacklustre internal Star Wars titles - but insists the studio has delivered with The Force Unleashed.

Force Unleashed demo on Thursday

For 360 and PS3.

Activision Blizzard has told Eurogamer that a demo for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will be available this Thursday on Xbox 360 and PS3 and detailed its contents.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

The more you tighten your grip...

I went to see a play recently called "Contains Violence". In the programme, the writer mused over the choice of name, saying in effect that if you're going to call a play "Contains Violence" it had bloody well better do, or else the audience may decide to invent their own. At your expense. So it is with The Force Unleashed. If you're going to make a promise like that, you'd better come up with the goods. Even more recently, we sat down with the functionally identical Xbox 360 and PS3 builds of LucasArts' latest to see how they do.

Former LucasArts staff share secrets

KOTOR 3 and Battlefront 3 among them.

Former LucasArts staff are letting all sorts of secrets fly including word on a Knights of the Old Republic MMO following a round of lay-offs earlier this week.

Secret Apprentice for Soulcalibur IV

Vader's student for both 360 and PS3.

Namco Bandai has decided to include the Secret Apprentice from The Force Unleashed in its upcoming fighter Soulcalibur IV.

FeatureStar Wars: The Force Unleashed

Observing PS3/360, playing Wii, chatting to producer.

Last time LucasArts popped across the Atlantic to chat to us about The Force Unleashed, it had plenty of impressive videos to show, and big promises to make. Now, with only a few short months to go before the launch of the game, the team has returned to make good on those promises.

Force Unleashed PS3/360 "indistinguishable"

"If we've done our job right," says producer.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed producer Cameron Suey says that the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of his game should be "indistinguishable" from one another.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Next-gen Star Wars shapes up.

Play as Vader in Force Unleashed

You can choke Wookies.

LucasArts has revealed that you will be able to play as Darth Vader in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Star Wars: Force Unleashed dated

Simultaneous release in September.

LucasArts has slapped a fresh release date on its in-house Star Wars action blockbuster, The Force Unleashed. The game will be unleashed on September 19th in Europe, just a couple of days after it appears on the 16th in the US, and the 17th in Australia and South East Asia.

The Eurogamer TV Show - Episode 22

LucasArts' secret treasures, including Force Unleashed and Indy's planned outings...

"Always two there are; no more, no less: a master and an apprentice." Yoda's stark pronouncement after the demise of double-ended laser-dildo freak Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace nails down the structure of the Sith order. Apparently, this is known as the Rule of Two.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Star Wars music.

FeatureStar Wars: The Force Unleashed

Only an apprentice of Evil.

Thirty years. That's how long it's been since Star Wars first dragged cinema-goers off to a galaxy far, far away. Obviously, this means one very important thing; if you remember the film's original release, you are now really, really old. Sorry.

Force Unleashed in November

For next-gen, PS2, PSP, DS.

Whilst meditating on the merits of the Lightside this morning we sensed a new website for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which confirmed the game's development for unspecified next-generation consoles, as well as PSP, PS2 and DS. The page tentatively lists November 2007 as a release date.

Next-gen Star Wars revealed

Force Unleashed on next-gen.

Star Wars is heading to next generation consoles (yes we're shocked too), with LucasArts' UK distributor Activision today confirming reports that a next-generation adventure is in development.