Star Wars

[The Legonater]

I agree. There are a lot of aspects of the Thrawn Trilogy that make it work well as a Star Wars movie, and is probably the closest thing in the EU to one. Even other works by Zahn like the Hand of Thrawn duology would be ill fit for a movie adaption, for some of the reasons you've listed above (which does sadden me a bit, because the second book contains one of my favorite scenes from anything, ever).

Personally, I'm sort of expecting a MCU sort of thing out of this. I may wind up being completely off base, but I wouldn't be surprised if the movies picked and choose parts of the EU for them to use. It'd be a smart choice, too - I'll be the first to say there's a lot in the EU that just doesn't work well, but there's also a lot that could turn out great, even if only the concept is used.

[BrickG]

JJ is so hit and miss. If anyone can do it I think he has a good chance at it. But at the same time he makes some pretty bad movies. I mean Star Trek vs Star Trek Into Darkness was night and day. First was great, second was so ridiculously filled with references, so mirrored with the Wrath of Kahn without surpassing it... it's not a terrible movie just not nearly as good. I don't understand why they thought it would be a good idea to try to one up what was previously known as one of the best or not the best Star Trek movie :P.

I hope Ep VII doesn't have ridiculous amounts of references that add nothing to the story besides an easter egg. You can't make a story out of nothing but easter eggs.

[The Legonater]

I thought the total opposite of the two Star Trek's. The first one was pretty good at best, being a rather bland movie, but okay. Into Darkness was great. I don't understand why people keep complaining that it was similar to Wrath of Kahn - that was the whole point.

[BrickG]

I thought the total opposite of the two Star Trek's. The first one was pretty good at best, being a rather bland movie, but okay. Into Darkness was great. I don't understand why people keep complaining that it was similar to Wrath of Kahn - that was the whole point.

I think people don't like the second one because while that is indeed the whole point... it doesn't matter to a lot of people. Some people just don't like mirrors. It feels like a rehash and one that isn't as good as the original. I think I'd prefer original content or something SIGNIFICANTLY better than the first version.

[Faefrost]

I thought the total opposite of the two Star Trek's. The first one was pretty good at best, being a rather bland movie, but okay. Into Darkness was great. I don't understand why people keep complaining that it was similar to Wrath of Kahn - that was the whole point.

Wrath of Khan was a near perfect Star Trek story and it was a phenomenal movie on its own, standing apart from simply being Star Trek. It had deep layers of structure and story. At it's heart it was a story about the end of the Star Trek Journey. Of facing age and retirement. Of your sins catching up with you. It was a tale of veterans and old soldiers. and it was wonderfully done. Every scene, every line, every cut and every queue served not just the immediate scene but those overarching layers of allegory and story. It was a brilliantly crafted piece of cinema. It gets better with further viewings.

Whereas Into Darkness was a hamhanded attempt to shoehorn that story of old soldiers into a young tweenage crews first adventure. You have the shallow surface story beats. But you have none of the layering that makes the original work. Kahn only works because he and Kirk had faced each other before. They had history. They had enmity. They had both sinned in the past. And you didn't need to have seen that prior encounter. Wrath of Khan simply let you know that it had occurred and Khan had been bad, and Kirk had in turn wronged Khan. without that connection things start to go flat. And perhaps the greatest sin was there was no reason to call back to Wrath of Khan. That was the single worst decision they could have made. That forced comparisons to the original, and honestly no filmaker would want to do that as it rarely if ever ends favorably. (John Carpenter succeeded with the Thing, I can't think of many other positive examples). If Abrahms had just started from one of the early TOS episodes instead he would have been golden. Heck the "Where No Man Has Gone Before" second pilot and first Kirk episode would have been perfect. Cumberbach would have been perfect as Gary Mitchell, Kirks friend given godlike powers and driven mad. Alice Eve looks so much like a young Sally Kellerman that she could be her daughter. It would have worked and it would have been both comfortably familiar and startlingly new. Instead of that "been there seen that" feel that Into Darkness leaves you.

I am actually a bit more hopeful with Abrahms regarding Star Wars. The franchise seems a better fit for his stylings. (when in doubt throw in bigger and bigger ships and things exploding!) plus the studio seems to be keeping him on a much much shorter leash. Disney knows that it was lack of proper editing and oversight that was the main cause of the awfullness that is the PT. Thats why they glued Lawrence Kasdan to him. Plus they have one of Hollywoods best script doctors in the primary cast. I would not be surprised if they were throwing her some extra work.

[Mr Man]

Kahn only works because he and Kirk had faced each other before. They had history. They had enmity. They had both sinned in the past. And you didn't need to have seen that prior encounter. Wrath of Khan simply let you know that it had occurred and Khan had been bad, and Kirk had in turn wronged Khan. without that connection things start to go flat.

I disagree. Khan in TWOK was a poor villain. He had no reason whatsoever to hate Kirk, his superbrain should have been able to rationalise that what happened to Ceti Alpha was not Kirks fault at all. In Space Seed he was enthusiastic about building a life on a harsh world, he never saw it as being marooned.

ID is SS not TWOK, Kirk is meeting Khan for the first time. Khans grievances in ID are against Marcus and S31 not Kirk, Kirks a tool to be used not an object of vengeance. I also never saw any of TWOK in ID beyond Khan and the radiation scene.

In my opinion TWOK doesn't work nearly as well as The Undiscovered Country, that contained a villain (the Klingons) that had had 5 series and 6 films worth or relationship issues with Kirk.

[BrickG]

Bought the Steam Star Wars bundle on sale. Playing Force Unleashed II for whatever reason. The first was terrible. The second is terrible too apparently.

I mean if you can catch a Star Destroyer with your force powers why not just use those force powers to destroy them? What is the need for ships? Why not rip the things apart with your mind? I'm falling through orbit at one point and using the force to push gigantic cruisers out of the way. How does this kind of power not get used on all the enemies? If you can move a Star Destroyer you should be able to squish a d00d without a second thought. The extreme exaggerations of the Force in this game make me want to die.

Kind of makes me glad LucasArts is dead. Nothing they made for years was any good.

[simonjedi]

I'm guessing, like the original clone wars that a lot of the force powers were exaggerated mainly for entertainment/gameplay, and 'realistically' he was just a powerful dude,

It's been a while since i've played that level of TFU, but wasn't the Star Destroyer crashing towards the surface? He was just using the force to change it's descent before it crushes everyone.

[BrickG]

I'm guessing, like the original clone wars that a lot of the force powers were exaggerated mainly for entertainment/gameplay, and 'realistically' he was just a powerful dude,

It's been a while since i've played that level of TFU, but wasn't the Star Destroyer crashing towards the surface? He was just using the force to change it's descent before it crushes everyone.

"just" lol. That would still take 10000x more power than has ever been presented in any of the hard canon (movies, tv). I cannot take something seriously that takes so many huge liberties. Why would Luke ever have to use an X-Wing if he could just force grip and crush ties by the dozens?

I also hate how they essentially did to Vader what they did to the Borg in Star Trek Voyager. The Borg were this powerful menacing threat. Then Voyager made them look like weak chumps that could be easily defeated. Same happens here for Vader. He's supposed to be one of the most powerful Jedi to ever exist. Yet this new kid from nowhere just makes him his play thing. Heck he basically beats Vader and Palpatine combined.

Also his love for Juno comes out of nowhere. There was zero character development in the first game. Then suddenly he's in love. I understand the books are much better but seriously, that doesn't matter.

*spoilers*

Then the Dark Side / Light Side choice didn't make sense. It wasn't really a choice... something completely unrelated would happen in each one. If you choose to make the dark side choice another clone of you runs in and kills you before you can kill Vader. If you make the light side choice that guy doesn't even seem to exist! What the crap? The choice alters the whole of reality or something!

Then in the light side choice that robot d00d says "I cannot revive her" talking about dead Juno. I guess he was joking because she woke up anyways. What a jerk...

God... The latest Lucas Arts games were just plain terrible. I know people are weeping over "cool looking" games like that 1313 or whatever but I'm pretty darned sure it would have sucked just as much. I have more confidence in EA's ability to make decent games though not their ability to refrain from microtransactioning us to death.

[Nom Carver]

Lucas Arts had a few decent games, like Republic commando, Battlefront I and II, games mostly not related with using the force, I also agree that lately force powers have been massively exagerated making games like TFU very distasteful to me, the whole idea of crashing star destroyers and beating the crap out of Vader twice makes me sick .

[Brickdoctor]

Yeah, some of the later games did seem like they just wanted to look like one of the 'cool games', with the insane powers and the flashy graphics effects and the grungy look.

I grew up playing Dark Forces; Battlefront and Empire at War look like the advanced graphics games to me.

[Im a brickmaster.]

I liked TFU II quite a bit. Tho some levels were infuriatingly difficult, like reactor robot fight thingy, but the costumes and powers were pretty BA. I don't know why he doesn't have a even a small part in Rebels

[Nom Carver]

I liked TFU II quite a bit. Tho some levels were infuriatingly difficult, like reactor robot fight thingy, but the costumes and powers were pretty BA. I don't know why he doesn't have a even a small part in Rebels

I seriously hope he never appears on that series or any other SW related media, he should remain into the expanded universe severed limb to rot into oblivion (sorry if I am being to harsh but I really dont like Galen Marek to interfere into the SW universe any further).

Regarding to episode VII, I think the movie is going to be quite good but the story will never convince me since I had my own unofficial cronology of events after the battle of Endor, if it happens to be similar I may get more interested, but I will be seing them all either way, it will be the PT all over again, not the originals but always fun to watch.

[Faefrost]

Yeah, some of the later games did seem like they just wanted to look like one of the 'cool games', with the insane powers and the flashy graphics effects and the grungy look.

I grew up playing Dark Forces; Battlefront and Empire at War look like the advanced graphics games to me.

Bah! You think Dark Forces are primitive? We grew up playing the Star Wars Arcade cabinet. X-Wing was advanced graphics for us

[Brickdoctor]

Bah! You think Dark Forces are primitive? We grew up playing the Star Wars Arcade cabinet. X-Wing was advanced graphics for us

Yeah, I know; I'm too young to really grasp the huge advances in computer graphics.

[Fives]

I grew up with the Battlefront games ( I was 9 or 10 when the first game was released in 2004), and I still believe those are the best Star Wars games ever made. Thats just my two cents on that subject.

[Faefrost]

I grew up with the Battlefront games ( I was 9 or 10 when the first game was released in 2004), and I still believe those are the best Star Wars games ever made. Thats just my two cents on that subject.

I have some heartbreaking news for you then. As of today Electronic Arts is shutting down the Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2 servers (and a ton of other game servers) on June 30. so online play of SWBF 1 and 2 will no longer be possible. EA is opting not to migrate the older games off Gamespy.

[BrickG]

Battlefront games were really the last decent Star Wars games. But even then it relies on the Star Wars license. If you took Star Wars out of it the thing would probably be considered an average shooter. I believe you have to make a franchise game great as if it wasn't in the franchise. Some of the earlier Star Wars games did that. Rogue Squadron and a lot of the PC games would be fully awesome even if it wasn't Star Wars.

[Ultron]

Battlefront games are awesome. So looking forward to the next one! I hope in this one though that the enemy sith/jedi will come and fight you. In BF2 for the psp, a few times during a battle, the enemy would send out a sith or jedi and it would be fun to go and fight them. Don't think that happened on the Playstation 2 version I had.

[Brickdoctor]

Battlefront games are awesome. So looking forward to the next one! I hope in this one though that the enemy sith/jedi will come and fight you. In BF2 for the psp, a few times during a battle, the enemy would send out a sith or jedi and it would be fun to go and fight them. Don't think that happened on the Playstation 2 version I had.

The PS2/Xbox/PC version had enemy heroes, but the enemy AI in general just wasn't very good, so I'd often see AI heroes sitting in a turret or doing something useless like that. (The most glaring deficiency in my experience was the Kamino level — it's already a sniper's paradise with all the platforms and cover, but the AI units too often would just stand in the middle of a walkway, or they'd prioritize running to man a turret even though you're camping on a platform getting an easy headshot on anyone who enters that turret. With regards to heroes on that map, I can't count the number of times I saw AI Obi-Wan just run right off the central platform into the ocean.)

[Fives]

I have some heartbreaking news for you then. As of today Electronic Arts is shutting down the Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2 servers (and a ton of other game servers) on June 30. so online play of SWBF 1 and 2 will no longer be possible. EA is opting not to migrate the older games off Gamespy.

I never played online, so this doesn't really bother me much. Anyways, they are making the new game (they are planning on releasing some more info at E3) which may push to finally get a PS4 (all I have is a PS2, Wii and N64). If they are smart, they won't make this new game feel too much like a Star Wars version of COD. The one thing that I always liked more about Battlefront over most other shooters was its accessibility. A Star Wars game aimed at the more hardcore gamers, while amazing, could alienate too many younger fans who may be put off by too intense of a game.

[BrickBob Studpants]

If they are smart, they won't make this new game feel too much like a Star Wars version of COD.

That's exactly what I'm afraid of EA is known for milking all of their franchises to death by releasing new, nearly identical installments year after year after year and the same thing might happen to Battlefront How dare they mixing one of my favourite (SW) with one of my most hated franchises (COD)

[Piranha]

Battlefront games were really the last decent Star Wars games. But even then it relies on the Star Wars license. If you took Star Wars out of it the thing would probably be considered an average shooter. I believe you have to make a franchise game great as if it wasn't in the franchise. Some of the earlier Star Wars games did that. Rogue Squadron and a lot of the PC games would be fully awesome even if it wasn't Star Wars.

That logic doesn't really work. That is like saying if you took the SW out of KOTOR it would just be an average RPG. Or if you took the SW out of the Death Star it would just be a space station. Of course the IP is what makes those things special.

That's exactly what I'm afraid of EA is known for milking all of their franchises to death by releasing new, nearly identical installments year after year after year and the same thing might happen to Battlefront How dare they mixing one of my favourite (SW) with one of my most hated franchises (COD)

EA said they are alternating between three games, so no yearly SBF installment and DICE said it will have a 3rd person mode.

[CMP]

EA doesn't produce Call of Duty, they produce Battlefield (with two year long gaps between installments). They also have Visceral working on something Star Wars too. Them and DICE are probably some of the best developers EA has, so at least they know just how significant the license is and who would handle it best.

Edited May 13, 2014 by CallMePie

[Brickdoctor]

That logic doesn't really work. That is like saying if you took the SW out of KOTOR it would just be an average RPG. Or if you took the SW out of the Death Star it would just be a space station. Of course the IP is what makes those things special.

I think the point he's making is that as a shooter, Battlefront really doesn't have very many features. You have a couple basic stats, a couple abilities, and some cookie-cutter classes equipped with cookie-cutter weapons, and you do pretty much the same thing in every battle, both in Instant Action and in Campaign. (Shoot this, capture that, hold here, get there.) The squad commands are extremely limited, the AI is primitive, and the options you have seem uncreative.

The main reason we like Battlefront is because we get to play as Star Wars characters; if it was a WWII shooter instead, I doubt it would sell that well. You can't just say that that's the same as saying, "if you took the SW out of KOTOR it would just be an average RPG", because KotOR would probably still be a novel and popular concept if it were, say, medieval fantasy RPG instead of Star Wars RPG.