Gaming Rogue Squadron 3: Rebel Strike (screens again)

[Semjaza]

Gamers.com put these screens out. They are basically the online version of EGM... EGM has a big cover story on the game this month, with like 40 pics, most of which aren't in this thread (and are in my opinion even more impressive). So you might want to check out the issue.

Anyway, yet another Rogue Squadron from Factor 5. There are some nice new additions though that I think make it worthwhile. It's like the entire trilogy in game form, and not just flying areas that concerned the films in some fashion. It seems like you'll mostly be playing as Luke (unlike the last one), and even Chewie judging from the screens.

There were a few points in the article that are worth addressing.

1.) The flight mechanics are apparently mostly the same. They thought about doing a more sim style game, but since it doesn't fit in this series they've done... they decided against it. Controls are basically uniform (as in A always shoots) despite you being in a ship or running around.

2.) Hoth is back again... However you won't be flying in snowspeeders and tow-cabling AT-ATs... You can see in the pics what you do instead heh.

3.) The terrain (according to the article) is 16 times more detailed on Hoth alone texture wise... although shots make it seem a bit more varied in elevation too. Hoth even has volumetric fog on the ground now, which is quite neat. Other areas, such as Endor, are even more impressive... Especially some of the shots in the mag of Endor (Luke using speederbikes, with Ewoks running around AT-STs just like in the movie). There are nearly 3 times as many TIEs on screen at once in some shots (that means 120 TIEs, plus your ships and this huge cruiser), although not all are up close. All the ships and such seem to have a noticable texture and polygon improvement (although it really doesn't look all that different based on the shots I'll post --- again, get the magazine lol).

4.) Like mentioned, there is now land based areas... There seems to be a lot of indoor 3rd person battles now. The magazine says that you get to play as every version of Luke at some point (and they show like 12 models). There seems to be character models of everyone important, and they all look pretty damn good.

5.) The game has multiplayer now. It's 2 for sure, might go to 4. LAN play is still rumored.

6.) ALL of Rogue Leader is included on this game. Even the bonus missions. The catch is that you can only play them as two player co-op. Whether or not you can do them single player somehow, I don't know. Didn't sound likely. They were quick to mention that no missions in 3 are rehased from 2... so no more Death Star runs and such. The visuals are supposedly updated too... but the fact that they are rendering RL TWICE is amazing in itself.

So that's about it. It's still obviously rather simliar. More geometry and effects, and apparently even better lighting. Gamers.com is supposed to have video before E3 of next month.

I have a PDF of the magazine if anyone wants it. Of course you need Adobe Acrobat to read it.

More random points about the game from Bub on GA that I misesd (edited them though):

[list]
[/list] [list]
[*]All vehicles open in vs multiplayer mode
[*]2 long one player campaign modes... either Luke (mostly land) or Wedge (mostly air).
[*]tons of side missions with playable chewbacca, han solo, leia
[*]on hoth, you can travel all the way up into space to fight TIEs, then fly back to the ground at any time to see the ground battle still raging
[*]real time day/night with lights and shadowing changing accordingly (the article actually mentions that the sunsets and rises are beautifully done - Sem)
[*]Super Star Destoryer level (biggest ship in star wars)
[*]2 or 4 player vs. multi to feature ground troop bots you can control, and your very own wingmen.
[*]Character models have been created perfectly. Han Solo looks great. You will be able to play as Luke Skywalker in every variation from farm-boy Luke to Jedi (as I mentioned before - Sem).
[*]Control an AT-ST through the forest in Endor, shoot the enemy and command your Ewok troops.
[*]Just about every scene from the Star Wars classic trilogy, including those famous lightsabre battles.
[*]Speederbike missions through forest recreated. You can be on foot and hit the enemy on speederbike with your lightsabre at one point in the game.
[*]Landspeeder racing on Tatooine.
[*]Near DVD quality footage from the original Star Wars trilogy to intro/outro scenes (perhaps using Factor 5's Divx codec? - Sem).
[*]There will be a mission on Geonosis from Episode 2. (You should get the mag and see this shot, it's freaking gorgeous - Sem)
[*]Versus multiplayer mode (dogfights), and "capture the base" mode. This will be for at least two, and possibly four players.
[/list]






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Rogue Leader Co-op:
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[Guest Crimson Spider]

What is LAN. Does that mean it's online. I hope it is because not everyone has a friend that they can play the game with.

[Desbreko]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Crimson Spider [/i]
[B]What is LAN. Does that mean it's online. I hope it is because not everyone has a friend that they can play the game with. [/B][/QUOTE]
[color=indigo]LAN stands for [u]L[/u]ocal [u]A[/u]rea [u]N[/u]etwork, which means hooking two or more sytems together. So no, it isn't the same as online play, but it means more than four players if you've got two GCNs and two TVs.

Hmm, this looks pretty good. I just hope they keep the in-cockpit view that they had in Rogue Leader. I much prefer that over a third-person view for flight sims. That, and the targeting computer in Rogue Leader was really cool.

Another thing I like is multiplayer. I hope they have co-operative, counter-operative, and deathmatch. It'd be really fun to fly as TIEs against a friend that's trying to complete a mission.[/color]

[hiachi]

8 players Starwars sounds like the next best thing to Galaxies.......:)

[Turkey]

Okay, this game awoke the graphic whore inside me. If they are pushing 60fps on this, I'll be beyond impressed (then again, Factor 5 said that they were gonna push the GC to the limit with their next game). However, I hope they use the special fur effects on Chewbacca.

I am pretty sure that the areas on-foot will be amazing, since they created the excellent Super Turrican. Maybe this is what Tornado became...

*Hears the sound of $50 being spent*

[SS5 Gogeta]

I was just about to post this. This is looking almost better than RL already and it's still in development, just thinking about combating 50 or so tie fighters with coop makes this my most anticipated game that's probably gonna come out next year.

[Tricool]

[color=red]Man this game looks awesome! I'm glad that there making a multi-player for it and I'm also glad they did the inside-cockpit-view again. The only thing better than multi-player is a co-op story mode though.[/color]

[Senor Ding Dong]

Two words: Holy.........Sweet.

[Semjaza]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Smoky Joe [/i]
[B]However, I hope they use the special fur effects on Chewbacca.

I am pretty sure that the areas on-foot will be amazing, since they created the excellent Super Turrican. Maybe this is what Tornado became...
[/B][/QUOTE]

You can't really tell by that shot, but Chewbacca [i]is[/i] fur shaded, or whatever you want to call it.

Also, I remember reading something about how the people renderer they were using in Thornado is what they are using in this game for the characters. You don't see any in this shot, but they are rather well done considering how many are on the screen at times.

As for this being graphically amazing... it does look a lot like the last one, but there are obvious improvments. Crispin of EGM posts at another forum I go to, and he seems to be pretty damn impressed by all they were shown.

He mentioned that in Endor, the leaves and branches on the trees sway in the wind... and that the light coming through the top sways around on the ground floor. He was also quick to say that these were real light sources, not some predone trick.

The Super Star Destoyer areas sound great too... Star Destroyers were in RL, and they were HUGE. I can't imagine how big these will be. The scale would just be amazing. I guess there are two areas to it... one where you fly around it in the distance, and one where you're actually flying through its trenches.

Anyway, I'm excited.

At the same time, part of me doesn't believe this is all they are doing. There's no way, especially since this is obviously the same game engine with enhancements (the people parts are basedoff the hanger area in RL). They must be doing something else, or at least I hope so. I'd really like to see what they could do with something that's all their own.

[Sniglefager]

I can't wait till this game comes out. The only complaint that I had with #2 was that it didn't have any 2 player modes. Now, my friend and I can finally work together, and then kill each other afterwards.

[Solo Tremaine]

Fantastic! Starfox: Armada will have a lot to live up to, methinks. Especially with a two-player co-op mode.

They'd better still have the Imperial Shuttles in, though.

[Semjaza]

There's a high resolution Quicktime file of this game on [url]www.gamers.com[/url] now. It's about 2 minutes in length, and it looks amazingly good.

It's all realtime too... which is rather surprising at times (although it was more impressive when we had a really bad video this morning, as it made everything look like the movie lol).

Endor looks great. Explosions are vastly improved, and so is the lighting. Even the co-op of Rogue Leader is improved graphically, and it's still rendering it twice at 60 FPS. Very impressive.

I hope the rumors of Factor 5 doing the next GC Pilotwings pan out... that would be amazing.

[Shinmaru]

Again, I am so behind the news. I mean, I knew of this game and I read the cover story in EGM like 15 times, but I hadn't seen the actual game in motion until a couple of days ago. All I can say is: wow. This game looks incredible! The graphics are truly amazing and a real testament to what the GameCube is capable of. This game looks much better than Rogue Squadron 2 (and that's no big feat, because the original GameCube Rogue Squadron was drop dead gorgeous).

The gameplay looks good, although I'll still have to wait on that. But if does have the same great controls as Rogue Squadron 2 (with improvements, of course) then the gameplay should be even better than the graphics because just looking at what this game will have you do has reawakened the Star Wars geek lying dormant inside of me. The branching off in levels sounds cool. You know, if you play as Wedge, you play in mostly flying levels and if you play as Luke, you play in mostly land based levels. That is very cool. And all that stuff they'll have you do as Luke is nothing short of amazing. Come on, who [i]hasn't[/i] wanted to rescue Princess Leia from the Death Star?

I'm also jazzed about the co-op version of Rogue Squadron 2 that's in this game. One of my friends told me that's the sole reason he's getting this game, and I can't blame him (well, I can blame him for ignoring everything else about the game). Just imagine if LucasArts took it a step further. Like during the Death Star level; you'd have one person play as Luke, going down the trench to blow up the Death Star, and another person could play as Darth Vader trying to stop him. And just imagine, if more than two people can play, as I have heard, a third person can join in as Han Solo and prevent Darth Vader from killing Luke! The possiblities are nearly endless!

The only thing that disappoints me about this game is that I heard that there won't be any Darth Vader/Luke Skywalker lightsaber battles. After hearing everything that this game was gonna let you do, that was kind of a letdown, but I still can't wait for this game to come out. It's gonna be awesome!

[hiachi]

just FYI, but i saw a comercial for RL3 today, that was a surprise, because i thought it was still too early in developement to have ads already...

[Semjaza]

Nintendo is advertising games like RL3 and F-Zero before they come out... much like Sony is advertising Jak 2. Just building up hype.

There is a new preview for this game at IGN... Factor 5 has already addressed control and animation problems and has fixed many other things. I'm glad it's coming along.