PC | Star Wars: The Old Republic Updated QA - The Sith Warrior

We get the first details on the powerful Sith profession in BioWare's highly anticipated online game. Star Wars: The Old Republic will attempt to combine persistent online play with the story-rich, role-playing gameplay of BioWare's award-winning Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. To accomplish this goal, the game is being built to offer an entirely different experience for every single playable character class. This time around, we're taking the wraps off the Sith Warrior, a powerful wielder of the Force who made an appearance at this year's impressive E3 demo. For more details, we spoke with creative director James Ohlen and associate lead designer Emmanuel Lusinchi. This is Star Wars: The Old Republic's Sith Warrior. He's here to crush you. GameSpot: Our next profession to discuss is the Sith Warrior, which we believe was shown at this year's E3. Give us an overview of this class. James Ohlen: At E3, we did show off a Sith, and today, we are revealing that the Sith that was shown at E3 was specifically the Sith Warrior. Darth Vader was the primary inspiration for the this character class. The Sith Warrior is a heavily armored Force user driven by darkness and rage. He depends more on overpowering his opponents with martial skills than Force powers but often uses iconic powers, such as [the] Force choke. His story revolves around hunting down and crushing the enemies of the Empire, though sometimes, he is given the task of corrupting--rather than destroying--an enemy. GS: The Sith Warrior is clearly intended to be a combat class. Tell us about this character's role in battle. For instance, of all the characters we've seen revealed so far, this seems to be the closest to a playable character from the offline Knights of the Old Republic games, specifically, a dark-side-specialized Force-sensitive fighter. Emmanuel Lusinchi: The Sith Warrior is a frontline fighter who aggressively uses the Force to augment his destructive power. As such, the character does have elements in common with melee-centric classes from the two Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games. Depending on whether players develop their characters toward pure damage or toward a balanced offense and defense, a warrior can go toe-to-toe against the strongest enemy in the room or take apart a whole mob of lesser foes. GS: Aside from using the weapon to slice through droids and enemy soldiers, what other lightsaber-based abilities will this character have? EL: While Jedi use flowing and elegant lightsaber forms, the Sith Warrior's attacks are all about uncontrollable rage and the overwhelming use of force. Impale, a gratuitously brutal and generally downright lethal attack, is a good example of the Sith Warrior's powers. The ability is what we call a "spender." The character can use it only once he has whipped himself into a fine rage, typically in the middle of a fight. Since such devastating power would be wasted on an already-wounded enemy, the smart warrior prefers to unleash it on a fresh attacker for, under the right circumstances, an instant kill. Also, I find that impale is a very satisfying way to finish a long fight against a powerful foe. GS: We understand that the character will be able to dual-wield lightsabers (as shown at E3). How will that affect the character's performance in battle? Will there be different skill trees for different weapon styles (one weapon, two weapon, and so on) like in the KOTOR games? EL: While we are not quite ready to talk about the specifics of the progression system at this time, I can say that dual-wielding both increases the character's offensive power and opens up certain dual-wielding-only abilities. However, dual-wielding comes with a trade-off, and those who do not go down that path excel in other ways. Pictured: Someone just failed a Sith Warrior for the last time. GS: Even though traditional Star Wars imagery places both Jedi and Sith in long, flowing robes, it sounds like the Sith Warrior isn't afraid to don heavy armor--even experimental stuff. How does the concept of a Sith wearing heavy armor fit into the universe proper? Can you give some examples of established Sith characters who kit themselves out this way? JO: Darth Vader is the most famous example of a Sith wearing armor. While Vader's armor was really a life support suit, we felt that wearing armor was an iconic part of the class, especially if we were going to [emulate] Vader. There are other examples of Sith wearing armor in Star Wars fiction (Exar Kun, Darth Krayt, Darth Bane). Even Obi-Wan from Clone Wars wears armor. GS: In addition to using combat-focused Force powers and being a ferocious fighter, it sounds like this profession has other abilities that make it a natural leader in battle. Do these take the form of party-based "buff" abilities that strengthen the whole group? How do these powers work? EL: Well, I might have to disappoint you here, but the way the Sith Warrior leads is by physically hurling himself ahead of his group and into the fray, not by sprinkling around touchy-feely buffs for his buddies. That's just not his style. Although, if his refrains from Force choking his groupmates, does that count as a buff? GS: Given the heavy armor, lightsaber abilities, and Force powers, how would you characterize the class in the parlance of what people expect from massively multiplayer characters? What kind of player will be most attracted to playing this profession? JO: Players who enjoy being in front of the fight and deflecting enemy attacks will enjoy the Sith Warrior, as well as those who prefer dishing out loads of damage. I know those are two very different roles, but there are certain choices that a Sith Warrior can make that will specialize him in one form of combat over the other. We'll be talking more about that in the future. GS: At E3, we saw the Sith Warrior take part in the game's multiplayer dialogue system. Given that the profession is basically a ruthless, power-hungry sort--yet the game will have heavy story elements, including branching dialogue--how will the game account for different choices made by different players? How will players be encouraged to role-play as this sort of character without feeling hedged in by limited choices? JO: Star Wars: The Old Republic allows players to make moral choices, whether they are a Jedi serving the Republic or a Sith Warrior serving the Empire. The story of this character is written with the assumption that players will faithfully serve the Empire and perform their missions ruthlessly. However, there are many choices where players can choose to resist the temptations of the dark side and try to minimize the suffering that their missions might cause. Because the Sith Warrior is a servant of the Empire, he must perform his acts of compassion carefully. He might tell someone he was ordered to kill to get off-world and never return, thus completing his mission in the eyes of his master but without murdering someone who didn't particularly deserve it. GS: Finally, is there anything else you'd like to add about the Sith Warrior or about Star Wars: The Old Republic? Sith Warriors will be powerful fighters on the front line. EL: This was the first character we built, and in many ways, he is still our yardstick for all the other classes. I would not say playing this character is good clean fun because neither "good" nor "clean" is an appropriate term, but he delivers a visceral and satisfying experience. To quote a line from another venerable story: If you think that what's best in life is to crush your enemies and see them driven before you, you should definitely consider playing a Sith Warrior. JO: Star Wars: The Old Republic will be the first game that allows players to live the fantasy of being someone like Darth Vader. Whether you like engaging in epic lightsaber duels, choking subordinates who fail to do your bidding, or hunting down and corrupting the best and brightest of the Jedi Order, Star Wars: The Old Republic will let you do it. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot "PC | Star Wars: The Old Republic Updated Q&A - The Sith Warrior" was posted by Staff on Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:53:11 -0700

Xbox 360 | DJ Hero First Hands-On

We take our first turn on the wheels of steel in Activision's new rhythm game. Even if most people have never played a real guitar before, they usually understand the basics of a Guitar Hero game more or less right away. One hand strums, the other hand frets--it's basic stuff, and most of us have seen enough guitar players to get the basics in the game down after a song or two. The challenge with Activision and Freestyle Games' upcoming DJ Hero is that few people play "air DJ" in their bedrooms while listening to their favorite artists spinning records. As a result, there's a good chunk of people out there for whom playing DJ Hero might double as their first experience ever with the ins and outs of being a DJ. Chris Watters and Activision's Will Townsend take an in-depth look at DJ Hero.Comment on this video » Watch this video in HD 540p Flash Player 9 is required to watch this video.document.getElementById('flash_video_player_alt_content_6215364').style.display = "none";var expressInstallPath = "http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/cne_flash/production/express/playerProductInstall.swf";var object_ele = '';document.write('' + object_ele + ''); This means that there's a lot to learn. From mixing tracks and adding effects to wrapping your fingers and wrists around the complicated art of record scratching, there's a lot to explore in DJ Hero, which we got to finally play for the first time last week. And while there is a lot of information to absorb in the early goings, in our experience, it doesn't take much time before you're pumping out the jams with something akin to style in the game's upper difficulty levels. Certain aspects of the DJ Hero experience will be immediately familiar for GH fans: You've got a note highway onscreen that scrolls along as the tune plays. Colored gems scroll down the highway; each gem corresponds with one of the three buttons on the DJ Hero turntable. The green and blue buttons correspond to the two tracks being mixed together in the DJ Hero track, while the red button plays from a selection of samples you can switch among by turning a knob at any point in a song. As with Guitar Hero, when a gem appears in the note horizon at the bottom of the screen, you press the corresponding button on the turntable. As with GH's two- and three-button chords, you'll often find yourself pressing the left and right button simultaneously while mixing in the sample button liberally as well. The buttons and onscreen gems follow the basic Guitar Hero flow, but the fader and record-scratching complicate the formula in DJ Hero. The fader switch is part of a snap-on attachment that goes on the turntable and can be attached to either side, which makes it friendly for left-handed DJs. The fader has three positions--left, middle, and right. How you fade between tracks is indicated onscreen by the positioning of the gems along their respective note highways. If the green gem shifts to the left, you move the fader to the left; if the blue gem moves to the right, you move the fader to the right. If either the green or blue gem moves back to center, you move the fader back to its center position--there's a satisfying little click that will indicate when the fade is properly centered. Scratching is an art all of its own in DJ Hero--one that looks to rival the most difficult Guitar Hero tracks in terms of dexterity requirements. At the basic level, however, scratching is simply a matter of holding down either the green or blue button (as indicated onscreen) on the turntable and moving the turntable back and forth for as long as is required. At the basic difficulty levels, even simple movements will play the complicated scratches that abound in the game. Once you amp up the difficulty level, you'll see specific arrows indicating the direction you need to scratch. You'll also have to be more rhythmically precise by matching the rhythms of the track's scratches with what you do with the turntable. If you've never spent any time on the wheels of steel--as was the case with us--it takes some time to get used to the basics of scratching. The challenge lies in the fingers you use to move the turntable in relation to the positions of the buttons. The green button is typically pressed by the index finger and the blue button is typically pressed by the ring finger, but there's a difference in control and strength between those two fingers that's very obvious in practice. It's also worth noting the different circumferences and positions of the two buttons on the turntable: The "inside" blue button is closer to the center of the turntable, which makes it slightly more difficult to accurately push the turntable with the blue button held down. The "outside" green button, on the other hand, is positioned further away from center, making it a bit easier to hold down and subsequently push the turntable. That said, there are tricks you can use to offset these problems--like anchoring your thumb to the side of the turntable and using it to power the turntable's movements. Check out this gameplay mix from DJ Hero's DJ Jazzy Jeff.Comment on this video » Watch this video in HD 540p Flash Player 9 is required to watch this video.document.getElementById('flash_video_player_alt_content_6215352').style.display = "none";var expressInstallPath = "http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/cne_flash/production/express/playerProductInstall.swf";var object_ele = '';document.write('' + object_ele + ''); In our time with DJ Hero, we tried songs from a bunch of different difficulty levels, but we started with the beginning tutorial hosted by Grandmaster Flash. Here, you'll be taken through the basics of the note highway, the turntable, and fading, which is all set to a mix of Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" and Daft Punk's "Da Funk." Once you dive into the proper gameplay, you'll also be able to experiment with the special effects dial, which will let you add envelope effects to the mix at your own discretion during certain sections of songs. Once we finished the tutorial, we tried songs on every difficulty but expert. At the easy level, you'll be dealing mainly with sampling records via the buttons and the basics of scratching. The medium difficulty adds fading into the gameplay, and getting your hands working together between the buttons and the fader is a challenge, albeit a very fun one. Though we hadn't mastered medium, we wanted to see what the game was like at the hard difficulty level, and as expected, things got much more complicated. It's fair to say that the rapid-fire fading between tracks, complicated button combinations for samples, and directional scratching--sometimes all combined in the same section--left us completely and utterly lost in certain sections. As a result, we didn't even attempt a song at expert level for fear of having our fingers fall off completely. Even if you might be lost in certain complicated sections of DJ Hero, the party won't end even if you're screwing things up from the DJ booth. The game has a no-fail system throughout, and all you need to do to get back on track after a particularly difficult section is to hit a few correct notes to kick the jam back into high gear more or less immediately. To that end, you'll be able to make setlists of any of the unlocked tunes in the game and even have fun messing around with the samples button in between tunes during your set. While DJ Hero looks to be fun solo, there will also be some multiplayer modes of note. We got a chance to check out DJ versus DJ gameplay on several songs, which had both DJs spinning it out on individual turntables in a competition for the highest score. Both DJs play the exact same sequences--there's no individual parts swapping from one DJ to the next, and strategic use of euphoria (which is activated by a button that sits right next to the special-effects knob) is essential. Not only does euphoria act as a point modifier, but it also temporarily makes fading automatic, letting you focus just on the turntable scratches and buttons. There will also be a handful of tunes in the game that will let you hook up a guitar accessory and play with your DJ pal--we had a chance to check out a mix of Beastie Boys "Sabotage" and Foo Fighters "Monkey Wrench," which was a good time. It's the Jackson 5 versus Gang Starr in this DJ Yoda mix.Comment on this video » Watch this video in HD 540p Flash Player 9 is required to watch this video.document.getElementById('flash_video_player_alt_content_6215355').style.display = "none";var expressInstallPath = "http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/cne_flash/production/express/playerProductInstall.swf";var object_ele = '';document.write('' + object_ele + ''); Other mixes we played in the game included: • Marvin Gaye "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" versus Gorillaz "Feel Good Inc." • Gwen Stefani "Hollaback Girl" versus Rick James "Give it to Me" • Benni Benassi "Satisfaction" versus Black Eyed Peas "Boom Boom Pow" Even if you've never stood on a raised DJ platform and led the way for hundreds of club-goers to dance the night away, you'll still be able to have a good time with DJ Hero. The game's learning curve looks to gently introduce you to the basics while giving able-handed DJs a chance to flex their muscles with some creative and demanding gameplay interpretations of some extremely cool tunes. DJ Hero is due for release on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii in late October, so stay tuned for more on the game in the coming weeks. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot "Xbox 360 | DJ Hero First Hands-On" was posted by Brian Ekberg on Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:05:36 -0700