Star Wars: 1313 - new "darker" game franchise

Buzz Bumble

Buzz Bumble

Furry Ewok
LucasArts has announced a new "darker" game based in the Star Wars universe. There's some fan-speculation that it might be the lead-in to the live-action TV series, or possibly be instead of the live-action TV series (using the story / script ideas).

This is the report from ComingSoon.net ...

starwars1313b.jpg

LucasArts Announces Star Wars 1313
LucasArts is diving into the most dangerous depths of the "Star Wars" criminal underworld with their newly announced internally developed videogame franchise, Star Wars 1313. Players will take control of a lethal bounty hunter in the never-before-explored expanses of Level 1313, deep below the surface of Coruscant. Using an arsenal of exotic weaponry to hunt down marks, the player must also uncover the truth surrounding a criminal conspiracy in this third-person cinematic action adventure game. It's a bold new take on the "Star Wars" galaxy, intended for mature audiences.

Star Wars 1313 emphasizes epic set pieces and fast-paced combat with a mortal, well-equipped hero who cannot rely on supernatural powers to survive his dangerous environment. The game benefits from an integrated development approach that brings together artists from across the entire Lucasfilm organization, including LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm Animation Ltd. and Skywalker Sound.

The game will make its formal debut at E3 in Los Angeles, June 5-7th. More details about Star Wars 1313 will surface in the coming months at StarWars.com and at StarWars1313.com.
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There will be a trailer released on Monday, 4 June (US time).

Hopefully they make a Mac version, and that I have a new Mac that can run it, and that it doesn't make me extremely seasick within five minutes, ... and that I actually have some ability / skill to actually play it. :)
 
Buzz Bumble

Buzz Bumble

Furry Ewok
TheForce.net has more information and a link to another video at IGN.

MTV also more screenshots.

One of the Star Wars NZ members actually got to attend the presentation ... lucky swine!
I was privileged enough to get into the E3 presentation of Star Wars 1313 and I have to say I was blown away at how awesome it looks so I thought I'd share my experience with you guys.

Lucasarts wasn't showing this to the general pass holders and was by appointment only in a private viewing room. The room was made out like the cockpit of one of the shuttles seen in the footage-we were only allowed photos of the room and not the footage so I'll get the pic shortly. I can't state how hard it actually was to get into the viewing.

Key staff were on hand to introduce the game describing it as the first mature themed Star Wars experience, emphasising a key focus of never doing stuff in cutscenes that the player should be playing instead and no quick time events.

A short clip was shown with interviews with key staff across all of the Lucas companies and the cooperation across the different departments and challenges therein. An indepth look at the making of one of the scenes was shown next using the performance capture rigs they were using which combined mocap, facial movement & voice recordings.

This lead into to the live gameplay demo which was simply awesome to behold even in this pre production stage.

One of the key points was that the character shown as the player IS NOT the final player and is actually a stand in for this demo as they have decided to not reveal the player character just yet. Having said that the onscreen performances were eerily lifelike picking up all the nuances of the actors original performance who were also the models for characters. Cutscenes flowed so smoothly into the live play that it took a few seconds to realise you weren't watching a movie. The quality of the cgi was near on cinematic Revenge of the Sith quality and just worked perfectly. The entirety of the game will take place on Level 1313 of Coruscant and the demo showed the players descent down a "Cloud City" style air/ transport shaft before being attacked by an unknown assailant. The presenter also mentioned that The Force won't be in the game and a big emphasis on how dangerous the game world will be.

The movement and fluidity mixed with the rapid paced action was very Uncharted in its approach and having the visual quality of the Prequel movies just took it to the next level. I must also say the quality of the sound really set it apart from other Star Wars games as the combination of the sound fx & the score really sold its Star Warsness.

Overall I was very impressed and it was an easy standout at E3 and it hasn't even begun full development yet.

- thehiflyer (Star Wars NZ member)
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Buzz Bumble

Buzz Bumble

Furry Ewok
I'm not sure if they're all new, but PCAuthority.com.au has a gallery of screenshots from the Star Wars 1313 game (13 of them, of course :rolleyes:). It didn't say if they're actually in-game screens or from intro movie-clips though, possibly even from the teaser trailers ...

Image 01

Image 02

Image 03

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Image 05

Image 06

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Image 08

Image 09

Image 10

Image 11

Image 12

Image 13

(They're almost all very dark on my Mac screen, I had to download and tweak the brightness / contrast to see anything.)
 
darthskellington

darthskellington

Dark Lord of the Typos
Your screen might be going out. I had that issue a few years back. Is it an old vacuum tube monitor?

Anyway, the pics look awesome. Some of it looks familiar from the teaser video from last year, but the droid character is all new.
 
Buzz Bumble

Buzz Bumble

Furry Ewok
Nope, that's just what they mean when they say it's a "darker" game ... you won't be able to see anything. ;)

It's actually caused by Windows, as usual. Windows PCs have a different gamma setting to [older?] Macs, so images that look okay in Windows are usually darker on a Mac ... and images from a Mac usually look lighter in Windows. (I have no idea what happens under Linux or any of the mobile platforms.) Everything else looks fine and my CRT monitor is calibrated (via software) ... occasionally. :)
 
Buzz Bumble

Buzz Bumble

Furry Ewok
This is from GamePlanet.co.nz ...

Rumour: Star Wars 1313 on hold
New film trilogy Disney's focus.

Three sources familiar with game development at LucasArts have told Kotaku that Star Wars 1313 is on hold and that the game will miss its 2013 release goal.

The sources claim development ceased on the title last October when Disney acquired LucasArts.

Allegedly the company’s focus is now on the new film trilogy and the JJ Abrams-directed Star Wars: Episode VII.

LucasArts would only say that the game hadn’t been cancelled.

"LucasArts has been working diligently to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities that the new Star Wars movies present," said a spokesperson.

"Star Wars 1313 continues production."

Star Wars 1313 was originally an open-world RPG in the vein of Knights of the Old Republic, but under former LucasArts president Paul Meegan it was transformed into an Uncharted-style action-adventure game.

The game's story allegedly reveals the identity of Boba Fett and the Bothan spies, and explains why Han Solo was working for Jabba the Hutt.

Star Wars 1313 was shaping up pretty well when we previewed it at last year’s E3, but there has been little news about it since.
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