To: NorList 
From: David Masters 
Reply-To: teroknor{at}yahoogroups.com

I've been testing out the new Toshiba the old fashioned way... beating the
hell out of a game that pushes the system near to its limits.

"Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast" from LucasArts. Standard
first-person shooter stuff, from a Star Wars perspective. It uses the Quake
III Arena engine, so the 3D graphics are crisp and sharp, and quite
detailed.

Lots of nice things in the game. Unlike previous "Jedi Knight"
games, there is no mapping feature - but it's not really needed except in a
couple of areas. There are still secret areas to find, but they're not
required this time... in the previous games, finding a secret area got you
a star, which you could apply towards your Force powers at the end of the
level - and there were many Force powers to choose from, so many that there
was no way to get them all unless you cheated.

In "Jedi Outcast" you get your Force powers - and the upgrades to
such - when the game decides you do, in a set progression, so by the end of
the game you've got them all. It's got the basic Force powers... Push,
Pull, Speed, Jump, Mind Trick, Heal, Grip and Lightning. Each Force power
has three levels, with - obviously - the highest levels being the most
powerful. As an example, with Grip
level 3 you can not only strangle the bad guys from a distance, but you can also
pick them up and throw them around... Grip them, dangle them over a ledge
and let go. Bang them into ceilings or walls. Use 'em as human shields
against their
compatriots' fire. Grip them, raise them high in the air and drop them... and as
they fall, Push them hard so they go flying like a cheese-powered pi¤ata.

The Lightsaber has changed a little bit as well... there are three
different styles of fighting available, Medium, Fast and Strong. As you get
each style you
can rotate through them at any time, even during a fight. Saber Defense is
beefed up as well... as with the Force powers, anything involving your
Lightsaber (other than the fighting styles) has three levels... on Saber
Defense
level 3, 99% of all shots directed at you will be deflected - and you can
aim the deflection, so if a gun turret is firing at you, you can deflect
the fire to
not only take out the gun turret, but any Stormtroopers in the area as well.

Another new toy for the Lightsaber is actually another Force power... Saber
Throw. Each weapon in the game has a secondary or alternate method of fire
- for
instance, the secondary fire of the Heavy Repeater is Concussion Grenades.
With the Lightsaber, secondary is Saber Throw. It still uses Force mana, so
you've got to be careful... but it's a riot. Throw your saber out and take
out a swath of troops at a time. And, at level 3, you can actually direct
the Lightsaber when you throw it, carving a path through the vicinity.

Other toys for the Lightsaber include the ability to change the color -
nothing to do with the game, just fun. And one of the cheats available is
"saberRealisticCombat"... literally slice & dice with the
Lightsaber, lopping off heads, arms, whatever - instant sushi. And since
lopping off anything on a character kills them, and since LucasArts added a
"slow motion death" option to the game... slice off someone's
hand and watch them go through a B-movie death scene. Even better (?) is
the fact that you can keep chopping at them while they're dying, slicing
off more and more parts... and those parts will continue to go through the
death throes.

Cheats such as that have to be entered at the beginning of a level in order
to be used, which can be a pain to type in when you're under fire... but
another nicety of the game is the ability to 'bind' keys to a command -
creating your own hotkey for that command. So instead of typing
"g_saberRealisticCombat 1" in at every level, just bind it to a
hotkey...

One other interesting toy in the game is the ability to spawn npc's... call
up any character in the game, including your own - call up various Jedi to
fight on
your side, call up a swarm of Stormtroopers to mow through, call up various Dark
Jedi and their apprentices... you can even call up characters found only in
cutscenes, such as Mon Mothma (though she doesn't use any weapons and dies
very quickly). Luke Skywalker will join you in a fight, and he can fight
quite well. You can even call up an AT-ST to fight against...

LucasArts also cleaned up the demo for the game and reissued it... it's
still short and easy (it can be done in 5 minutes), but it can be fun as
well. At the end of the demo you get to fight a Reborn (Dark Jedi wannabes
that weild Lightsabers and use the Force) in a hanger with a mirrored floor
(which can chew
up tremendous amounts of graphics power and memory if you have an older machine).

You can do just about everything in the demo that you can in the full game,
including spawning characters. There's only one catch: if you spawn a npc
not found in the demo, they'll show up represented by a Stormtrooper. Call
up a Jedi
- which aren't in the demo - and you'll end up with a Lightsaber-weilding
Stormtrooper that fights on your side.  Even cuter, when you
spawn a different type of Jedi, it shows up as (as mentioned) a
Lightsaber-weilding Stormtrooper... without a head. This headless
JediTrooper will fight all comers (enemy ones of course) without a head...
really freaky.

I've played through the game 5 times so far... twice at "Padawan"
difficulty (easiest), during which I wrote my usual complete walkthrough
for the game (available at http://roundhouse.8m.com/ on the 'other games'
page). Played through it again at "Jedi Knight" level (third
level up) and once at "Jedi Master" level (the most difficult).
Since then I've played it again at "Padawan"
level... just having fun. I've even got one area in the game saved as a
spawn arena... at that point in that level, all the bad guys are dead and
you've got all of your Force abilities at their maximum power - so I just
sit there and spawn various bad guys and carve 'em up.

Toys, toys, toys...
.
.
David Masters -- dmasters{at}jlc.net
.  http://roundhouse.8m.com/index.html    http://foundry.4mg.com/index.html
.  http://foundry.4mg.com/myth/index.html http://tnhp.tvheaven.com/index.html

... Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee



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