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General Info
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Developer
Factor 5
Publisher
Lucas Arts
Genre
Action
Default Players
TBA
Net Players
TBA
US Release Date
TBA
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Specific Details
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Specific Game Type
3rd-Person Flight Shooter
Origin
US
Director
Network Server
TBA
Size
TBA
Peripherals
TBA
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Preview:
| Star Wars:
Rogue Squadron 2 |
| It's not even confirmed, but the Spaceworld demo
tantalized me to write a preview on this quite definite title... |
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| ExciteMeter will drastically change as more game details/screens
and playable versions are released. |
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The title isnt confirmed, and this is the first preview of its kind on
this site featuring a game made by a 3rd party developer. Factor 5 is what
many people call 'Nintendo's 2nd party developer to a certain degree',
and I have even included them in my 'Dream Team II' list. Factor 5, with
most of their games based on the Star Wars license, has a very close relationship
with Nintendo and LucasArts, and doesn't mind featuring their games only
on N64. They have created PC titles such as Indiana Jones and X-Wing vs
Tie Fighter, then made the mose onto the N64 with Star Wars: Rogue Squadron.
Also owning their own franchise that was Turrican Hero on SNES, they sadly
lost the name for that license in a problem with their publisher, and is
coming up with Thornado for Gamecube. As you can see, they are already
supporting the Gamecube with an exclusive title in development.
This doesn't mean that I'll be writing reviews or previews on titles
made by 3rd party developers, but only will if they are made by a 3rd party
that has a close relationship with Nintendo and the title is exclusive
to NGC.
Factor 5 is one of those.
At Spaceworld (2000), an impressive 'Rogue Squadron' demo was shown
which wa sactually being played with a controller by a factor 5 member.
It was only using half of Gamecube's power, it only took them days to make
the demo, the Gamecube's 1st-generation life cycle hasn't even started
by a long shot, yet the demo was better than anything action or battle
games seen on PS2. The X-Wing was being controlled which flew over a very
large, complex death star, and many sites, including IGNcube and daily
Radar, described that 'The demo looked exactly like the original Star Wars
movie'.
It was that impressive folks. The only problem I had withnthe demo
is that it was basically only grey and silver and black just like the death
star, so we would have felt the visual treat much larger if the environment
was more colourful, baried and detailed. It keeps leaving me think what
it could have looked like in a more 'varied' environment.
I would with confidence say that Factor 5 was one of the best developers
on N64 in terms of getting the best visuals out of the N64. Rogue Squadron
was the first to fully utilize the 4MB RAM Pak, and it looked incredible,
and Battle for Naboo looks even better, and I could never put down factor
5 for their effort on making Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine look
as close to the PC visuals as possible. They push the limits on the N64.
My only problem is that the gameplay of their games that addictive or innovating.
I personally prefer StarFox64's gameplay much over Rogue Squadron, because
it's much more fun and it feels so extraordinary.
.
Outlook
In terms of graphics and presentation, as well as music and sound FX,
don't even worry a single bit. These guys know Nintendo stuff, and they
know it well. They just gotta tweak that gameplay on their games a bit
so it's more addictive and has a more deep, special feeling of their own...
because their gameplay isn't really innovating.
What if Factor 5 develops for PS2? No worries, this is what their president,
Julian said when he was asked about Gamecube and PS2: 'Why would we spend
huge amounts of time, resources, and effort on a machine so hard to develop
for when Gamecube is so much easier?' Heh. It wasn't exactly like that,
but something along those lines... but I'm 100% sure he WASN'T interested
in PS2 at all. *Cough Nintendo acquire them as 2nd party Cough*...but then
they wouldn't be able to make Star Wars titles. Oops. |
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