A screen shot from the forthcoming online game, 'Star Wars: The Old Republic.' The game, which is from LucasArts and BioWare, picks up where the 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' franchise left off.
(Credit: LucasArts/BioWare)Updated at 4:13 p.m. PDT: This story now includes more information from the press event announcing 'Star Wars: The Old Republic' at LucasArts Tuesday.
SAN FRANCISCO--At a press event at LucasArts' headquarters in the Presidio here Tuesday afternoon, LucasArts and BioWare unveiled Star Wars: The Old Republic, a new massively multiplayer online game.
Click tio view image gallery.
(Credit: LucasArts/BioWare)The game is set about 350 years after the popular Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games and about 3,500 years before the Star Wars movies.
The companies did not divulge a release date and it appears that they will not show any live game play. But with the announcement, LucasArts and BioWare--which is now owned by Electronic Arts--have pulled the curtain back on what appears a large-scale online game in which players will be able to take on roles and create their own, personal Star Wars story lines.
"We're excited to be working again in the Star Warsuniverse," said BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka. It's a "rich period, (a) dynamic period full of Jedi and Sith and other dynamic characters you get to play."
Muzyka explained that the designers of the game wanted to ensure that The Old Republic was a story-based MMO that followed in the tradition of the Knights of the Old Republic.
He added that while people have often asked BioWare if the company would ever produce the third installment in the Knights of the Old Republic franchise, this new game amounts to installment Nos. three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and beyond.
"The game is that big," Muzyka joked.
As designers, Muzyka added, he and his team ensured that The Old Republic featured four main "pillars." These include exploration, discovery, combat, and story.
An exterior screen shot from Korriban in the new game 'Star Wars: The Old Republic,' from LucasArts and BioWare.
(Credit: LucasArts/BioWare)BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk also explained that the game is designed around making it possible for players unfamiliar with MMOs or with the Knights of the Old Republic franchise to pick it up and start playing immediately.
James Ohlen, the creative director of BioWare's Austin, Texas, studio, where the game was designed, explained that players would get to choose many different things in the game like class, whether they're good or evil, how the story unfolds, whether they represent the Galactic Empire or the Sith Republic and more. And within separate classes, he said, each class has their own story line to pursue.
For now, the companies are not saying when the game will be released--or even what year--or discussing the business model behind it.
But as Muzyka said, "Fans certainly expect a certain way to get into (an MMO), and we're going to accommodate them."
That suggested that the game would be based on a traditional MMO subscription model in which players would pay a monthly fee to play.
And while Star Wars fans will have to wait some time before getting their hands on the game, there is a full synopsis of the story line, as made available by LucasArts and BioWare in press materials:
The Galactic Republic stood for generations as a bastion of peace in a galaxy of warring star systems. Protected by its stalwart Jedi guardians, the Republic held the greatest hope for the progress of civilization and galactic unity.
Deep in unknown space, however, a mighty Sith Empire was forged, led by dark Sith Lords who dreamt of galactic domination and vengeance against their ancient Jedi enemies. After centuries of preparation, the time came for the Sith to make their return.
With a massive fleet and an awe-inspiring army of fearless troops, the Sith Emperor launched a surprise assault, quickly capturing dozens of worlds in the Outer Rim, and sparking a war unlike any other in the galaxy's history.
From the frozen wastes of Ilum to the desert plains of Dathomir, violent battles killed untold millions. Despite its avowed neutrality, surface structures on the water-covered world of Manaan were completely destroyed, forcing the Selkath to retreat to their ocean underworld. Other star systems fared worse--some destroyed, others left uninhabitable. The carnage concluded with the Sith Empire sacking the Republic's capital planet of Coruscant and forcing the Republic Senate into the controversial Treaty of Coruscant.
In the years since the treaty, fear and uncertainty have gripped the galaxy, enabling the Sith Emperor to pursue his own mysterious purposes while the Republic has made efforts to rebuild its infrastructure and adjust military priorities to the new galactic landscape.
Now, tensions between the Republic and the Empire are running high, and a series of border skirmishes and proxy wars have broken out, even on planets as historically peaceful as Alderaan. The uneasy truce established by the Treaty of Coruscant is quickly tearing apart at the seams, and a return to all-out war has begun in all but official terms.
A new generation of heroes, both light and dark, emerges to face the difficulties of these chaotic times, and fight for the fate of the galaxy in this most desperate age.
The Republic
For more than twenty thousand years, the Galactic Republic has been the most civilized and advanced power in the known galaxy. Governed by the Galactic Senate with representatives from hundreds of star systems and planets, the Republic has been the center of peace and progress, a bright beacon in the darkness of outer space.
The revered Jedi Order has sworn itself to defend the Republic, to battle the darkness, and to bring peace and balance to the greater galaxy. The Jedi have served for millennia in this capacity, and in that time they have earned themselves the admiration of their allies, and the hatred of their enemies.
Less than a century ago, the greatest of those enemies returned...
The onslaught of the Sith Empire caught the Republic and the Jedi completely by surprise, and during a long and arduous war, the Republic was broken. After the capital planet of Coruscant was ravaged by the Sith's Imperial forces, the Supreme Chancellor and the Senate were forced to sign the painful Treaty of Coruscant, which required the Republic to withdraw its support of several long-standing allies, including the ever-loyal Bothans.
Struggling with a wave of withdrawing star systems, an insurmountable supply crisis, and chaos on the streets of Coruscant, the Senate has become paralyzed in the years since the treaty. The bitter and divided nobility of the Core Worlds disputes every decision, damaging the morale of the Republic's already discouraged citizens.
Blaming the Jedi for the failures that led to Imperial domination, the Senate has distanced itself from the Republic's legendary guardians. The Jedi remain committed to protecting the Republic, but the Jedi Council has moved from Coruscant to the ancient Jedi homeworld of Tython.
The Republic has trained up new squads of Special Forces, disciplined teams capable of working together with near-perfect efficiency. These elite troopers still work often in conjunction with the Jedi, but in many places, the troopers have taken the prominent role in providing the Republic's defense.
Despite a post-war economic depression and the continued expansion of its enemies, the spirit of the Republic remains independent, brave, and strong. New leaders are stepping forward even now to stand against the dark Sith Empire, liberate the galaxy, and restore the Republic to its former glory.
The Empire
The true origins of the Sith remain shrouded in mystery. The Sith race was, in fact, largely unimportant until three thousand years ago, when Dark Jedi exiles arrived on Korriban and subjugated the Sith beneath their rule and their philosophy.
As the years passed, the Dark Jedi intermarried with those they ruled, and within generations, the word "Sith" took on new meaning. This powerful new civilization began expanding rapidly, led by a growing population of ambitious dark Force-users. Fifteen hundred years ago, the Sith civilization's boundaries reached the Republic, and the Great Hyperspace War began.
Dark Lord of the Sith Naga Sadow led his armies in an aggressive campaign to destroy the Galactic Republic. Though the Sith were successful at first, the Jedi Order rallied back to defeat their dark counterparts, systematically destroying the Sith civilization on Korriban.
Unbeknownst to the Jedi however, the last Emperor of the Sith managed to escape the carnage and fled into Deep Space with his most trusted Dark Lords. These surviving Sith began rebuilding their society on a distant planet, hoping to one-day return for revenge.
Over the course of the next thousand years, the Sith Empire recovered its strength. The Emperor developed a massive Imperial military, a fleet of advanced warships, and undertook dark rituals which prolonged his life and his undisputed rule.
When the time for vengeance arrived, the Sith began infiltrating star systems in the Outer Rim, sowing seeds of discord and making secret deals with local criminals and warlords. With all the pieces perfectly in place, the Sith launched an enormous offensive which caught the Jedi completely off-guard. In the first wave alone, the Sith succeeded in seizing control of several star systems in the Outer Rim, destroying the Republic's shipyards in the Sluis sector, and strangling the popular Rimma Trade Route.
After the initial crush, the Emperor's brilliant strategies continued and the brutal force of the Imperial military slammed the Republic time and time again, from the deep sinkholes of Utapau to the tall forests of Agamar. Though it seemed the Empire was capable of waging war indefinitely, the Emperor surprised the Republic yet again.
While the Emperor's Dark Council engaged Republic leaders in peace talks, several Sith Lords and an elite Imperial army sacked the Republic's capital planet. Destroying the Jedi Temple and holding the planet hostage, the Sith left Republic leaders no choice but to surrender several outlying star systems by signing the Treaty of Coruscant.
Since the treaty, the Emperor has withdrawn to pursue his own mysterious goals, deferring control to the Dark Council, and setting the stage for a brutal power struggle. In the political vacuum, the strongest and most cunning Sith and Imperial leaders are rising up to assume authority, consolidate the Empire's dominion and crush its enemies.
'Star Wars' creator George Lucas made a surprise appearance Monday night at the launch event in San Francisco for the new video game, 'Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.' Click the image above for a full gallery of game launch photos.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)Update 12:27 p.m.: This story has been modified to reflect comment from LucasArts about interest in the game, as evidenced by pre-sales and number of sales at retail.
SAN FRANCISCO--George Lucas was the "surprise" special guest at the official launch party Monday night here for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the new video game that marks the latest chapter in the epic story line. And despite his only making a two-minute speech, most on hand were excited at the rare opportunity to see him.
Indeed, Lucas doesn't venture into public very often, so for many of the people who had come to line up to buy the new game when it went on-sale at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, his appearance and quick talk were a treat.
The event took place Monday evening at a Best Buy outlet in this city's Mission district, an odd choice of venues for the launch of what many have been calling one of the biggest video games of the year.
On the other hand, the place was packed, something that one store employee said was a very unusual occurrence. So, all in all, the energy generated may have been worth it for Lucas and his crew.
A man dressed as Obi-Wan Kenobi makes some of the guests at the launch event smile.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)The new game, known by many simply as The Force Unleashed, is the first Star Wars game to be considered by Lucas an actual chapter in the overall story line that begins with the three prequel films--The Phantom Menace; Attack of the Clones; and Revenge of the Sith--continues with this summer's animated film, The Clone Wars and then, of course, concludes with the original three films, Star Wars; The Empire Strikes Back; and Return of the Jedi.
In the new game, the main character, played by actor Sam Witwer, is an apprentice of Darth Vader, and the story line centers on that apprentice's path to redemption.
... Read more
Two fans pose for pictures bearing light sabers at the San Francisco launch party for the new video game, 'Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.'
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)SAN FRANCISCO--In four hours, the latest--and maybe greatest--Star Wars game, The Force Unleashed, will go on sale.
No one knows if the game will be a best-seller, but if you judged by the energy at the Best Buy in this city's Mission District on Monday night, where the game's official launch event is being held, it's got a bright future.
There is a special guest scheduled to speak in about 15 minutes, and by now, it's no secret that it will be George Lucas himself.
For now, however, fans of the game--and hired hands--are milling around the Best Buy here in all kind of Star Wars costumes, and every now and then I hear the easily recognized beep bleep bloop sound of R2-D2.
Stay tuned to this blog for more on this event as the evening goes on.
Darth Vader 'chokes' a Best Buy employee at the launch party for 'Star Wars: The Force Unleashed' on Monday night.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)SAN FRANCISCO--If you're a big Star Wars fan, you may find yourself salivating at the chance to play LucasArts' forthcoming game, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
That's because the game will place players inside the films' narrative, in particular in between Episode III and the original film, now known as Episode IV.
LucasArts released a trailer for the film Thursday, and in it, you can see the benefits of two new technologies that should change video games forever: Euphoria, a bio-feedback artificial intelligence system, and digital molecular matter, which provides more realistic physics and physical reactions.
Check out the trailer and see for yourself.
LucasArts' new game, 'Star Wars: The Force Unleashed,' centers around the redemption story line surrounding Darth Vader's apprentice.
(Credit: LucasArts)
SAN FRANCISCO--During the Game Development Conference, which is happening this week here, it's rare that I, or any other journalist cover it, would leave the area immediately surrounding the confab.
But when LucasArts invites you to its famous facilities in San Francisco's Presidio to show off what is being regarded as a ground-breaking game, you get the heck out of dodge.
That's why I rushed across town Thursday afternoon--to see what I believe was the first public demo of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the studio's forthcoming game, and a title that seeks to fill in the chronological gap between the end of the unsatisfactory film, Episode III and the original Star Wars, now known as Episode IV.
In this new game, the main character is an apprentice of Darth Vader, and the story line, according to Haden Blackman, the game's project lead, centers on that apprentice's path to redemption.
According to a recent article in Vanity Fair, the full story line of the game does a good job of letting players feel as if they're getting to actually be in what could almost be a seventh Star Wars movie. The article insinuated that the storytelling was that good and that the graphics only helped cement the illusion.
'Star Wars: The Force Unleashed' features two new, ground-breaking technologies, Euphoria, a bio-feedback AI system that makes it possible to have things happen differently every time rather than looking the same each time; and Digital Molecular Matter, a new physics system that makes it possible for things to break realistically rather than in the sort of cartoon-like way they always have in games.
(Credit: LucasArts)Based on what I saw Thursday, I'd say the graphics were good, but not movie-quality good. Still, I got a chance to see what should be two pretty ground-breaking technologies that the game showcases.
First, is what is known as Euphoria. It is a new form of artificial intelligence software, developed by a company called Natural Motion, which is designed to make it possible for things happen just a little differently each time in the game, even if they begin the same way.
In other words, in most games, if you do the same thing twice, the result will be exactly the same both times because there's no brain in the game allowing for a little chaos to creep in. Euphoria is meant to be that chaos. So things would turn out just a little bit different each time.
The other new technology is called digital molecular matter, from a company called Pixelux, and it is designed to bring more realistic consequences to things like a door breaking, or something smashing into a big piece of metal. That is to say, again, in most games, if you break a door down, it will shatter into a disturbingly unrealistic set of shattered pieces. If you break a door in real life, it would splinter and shatter and bend and there would be shards. DMM, as it's known, is meant to depict that realism.
I would say that the results of DMM, as I saw them, were good. I didn't think I was seeing real physics, or the kinds of special effects I might see in a real Star Wars movie, but it did look pretty good.
All in all, I think the game looked fun, and very complex. I'm not a big fan of the previous Star Wars games, though, so perhaps I'm missing a little context.
And only time will tell whether it really is like being in an actual movie.
NICASIO, Calif.--Search for sounds tagged with the word "funny" in Skywalker Sound's library of more than 120,000 effects, and you get precisely 510 results.
Among them are "animal cow," eight different forms of "human hiccup," six forms of "tuba comedy," and many, many more.
It's vital that the sound design and post-production arm of George Lucas' Lucasfilm empire has such a massive proprietary database of sounds. Its sound designers are tasked with coming up with just the right effects to create things like "rat (point of view)" for the 2007 Pixar film Ratatouille.
What is "rat POV?" According to Randy Thom, Skywalker Sound's two-time Academy Award-winning director of sound design, that was the challenge he faced when creating the sound effects for one particular scene in Ratatouille. He was tasked with making it seem like the world is small and distant when the film's main rat, Remy, is on a shelf high above the floor of a Parisian restaurant. But when Remy falls to the floor, everything needs to sound larger than life.
If you've seen the film, you'd probably agree that Thom succeeded. But you would never know that to create that effect, it took him more than 200 separate sound effects, including footsteps, fire, voices, clattering pans, and much, much more.
This is the kind of work that goes on every day at Skywalker Sound, the main tenant of Skywalker Ranch, a sprawling estate hidden in the rolling hills of Marin County north of San Francisco. And while the recent completion of most of the films with December theatrical releases means it's slow season here, Skywalker Sound is also gearing up for Oscar campaign season, when the company makes its push to get Academy Award nominations for best sound and best sound effects editing for some of the films it worked on during the year.
This year, Skywalker Sound will be making that push for at least four films: Beowulf, Ratatouille, Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
For me, visiting Skywalker Ranch was the culmination of a longtime desire, and the bookend to my tour through Industrial Light & Magic during Oscar season last January when that branch of Lucasfilm was up for nominations for best visual effects for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which it ultimately won.
And here I am, at Skywalker Ranch on a cold, cloudy, early-December day. It is extremely quiet here, and nothing at all like I had imagined. I drove in through the security gate, up a mile or so of road and finally parked in the lot behind the so-called "technical building" that houses Skywalker Sound.
The lot was packed with cars, but there was no sound. And it seemed entirely befitting of a location with its own lake (Lake Ewok), a horse paddock, miles and miles of rolling hills, and even a deserted softball diamond.
But where were the people?
I went into the building to meet my host for the day, and there they all were: musicians and sound mixers and others milling around inside during a break from the recording of the sound track for the Electronic Arts video game, Dead Space.
It turns out that Skywalker Sound is a place where the sound effects are produced not just for movies, but also for (obviously) games and even recording artists like Nelly Furtado, Third Eye Blind, and the String Cheese Incident.
Video: Sounds
of Skywalker
CNET News.com's
Kara Tsuboi listens
in at George Lucas'
sound design studio.
But today, I'm here to talk about mixing sound effects for films.
The bailiwick of Skywalker Sound, while it works on the sound design of Lucasfilm movies, is actually doing such work for dozens of other studios' films. Much like ILM, the company's main purpose is to be, effectively, a hired vendor of specialized services, in this case world-class sound design.
That's why the company has six state-of-the-art mixing studios, 80 sound designers, and that 120,000-file strong library of custom sound effects.
My first stop of the day is a quick tour of the ranch's main house, a giant Victorian mansion that looks like it was built in the 19th century, but is actually from 1985, and is made to look like the grand homes of Lucas' native Modesto, Calif.
The building, which I am led to believe houses Lucas' personal offices, is strangely devoid of Star Wars memorabilia, save for a single display case containing some models and the light sabers of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and others.
The display case also has such holy grails as Indiana Jones' whip and an idol and medallion from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The roots of Skywalker Sound
Then it was back to the technical building for a meeting with Glenn Kiser, Skywalker Sound's vice president and general manager. Kiser explained that Skywalker Sound was created in the 1970s to provide the effects for Star Wars.
"Imagine when George Lucas was thinking about doing Star Wars," Kiser said. "He didn't have the option to go to a sound effects library at a studio for (the effects) for Chewbacca (or) R2-D2. All that had to be created for the film."
And that was the birth of a world leader in sound design, a company that works on between 30 and 35 films a year, many of them independent productions.
But of course, the organization has steady clientele that bring all their films to Skywalker for sound design, such as Pixar and director Robert Zemeckis.
Besides its roster of field-leading sound designers and massive library of sound effects, Skywalker Sound's main assets are its mixing studios and its top-of-the-line digital film consoles, or mixing boards.
Sound designers like Tom Myers--who I visited with next--work in these studios, which seem to be blessed with far, far better speaker systems than most movie theaters I've been to. In these rooms, The designers toil away in solitude, adding sounds to film scenes, one at a time.
When I visited Myers, he was premixing a scene from the forthcoming Lionsgate release, The Eye, trying to find just the right sound effect for the slamming of a car door that was happening on film.
He explained that he generally gets about eight days to work on the sound for a 90-minute film. His key challenge when doing this kind of work, he said, is to produce a mix of effects that all sound good together, but that can be separated out in case a film's director wants to pull out individual pieces.
"You have to be careful not to paint yourself into a corner," Myers said.
He also said that his goal when looking through a film and thinking of the kinds of sounds that will lend emotional weight to the action on-screen is to do more than what's requested.
"You want to surprise them," Myers said of the films' directors, "and give them more than they asked for."
The right levels of reverb
So as he searches for the right car door sound effect, Myers is running through the choices from the effects library, looking for just the right sound to convey the tone of the scene. He listens to several effects, trying to locate just the right levels of reverb for the closing car door. He pointed out that the library contains five or six different effects for the closing of a Ford Escort passenger door.
And he must pick wisely, sounds that are "not just literally right, but emotionally right" for the film.
Among the things he must do to create that emotional verite, Myers explained, is to use sounds that "live below the dialogue, but (which) create a sense of tension." Some of those, he added, are vocal sounds, such as choking, though not necessarily those made by the actors in a scene.
Many such sounds may be in Skywalker Sound's library. But what if they're not there?
"When all else fails," Myers said, "you get a mike and choke and breathe into it."
One additional challenge, Myers explained, is that most films must be remixed when doing versions for foreign markets. That's because the dubbing of the dialogue results in a loss of many of the original sounds.
But what is the method for indexing the library, I wanted to know?
"When putting things into the library," Myers said, "you try to be as descriptive as possible. So it's not just a 'metal bang,' but a 'deep, resonant metal bang.'"
My last stop of the day is with Thom, the Academy Award-winning director of sound design.
He's talking about how he created a particularly intense flame sound used in a scene in which Remy, the rat star of Ratatouille, finds himself momentarily trapped under a professional restaurant oven and narrowly escapes being cooked alive by a massive wall of flame.
The truth, Thom said, is that it was a bit of a perilous process that involved working hands on with recording equipment and high-end ovens. And fire, of course.
"It was put together from lots and lots of sounds of turning on a gas oven, probably higher than you should," Thom said. "The person who's turning on the oven risks being singed."
- prev
- 1
- next
