Star Wars- The Force Unleashed

Good to know! I have an Xbox 360 but it's been sitting idle for a while. I was using it more as a Media Center extender but if I get U-Verse, I'm not going to be using that. Will have to get that downloaded and give it a try!

Well, I picked up this game last week and after spending a few hours playing it over the weekend, I have to concur with the majority of the professional reviews which state that it plays like an unfinished game that needed another year of development.

Pros:
-Some of the graphics are amazing.
-Story is still a video game story, but it's just interested enough to make you want to see what happens next and the characters (despite being video game characters) have more depth than any of the characters in the last 3 movies.

Cons:
-The game is glitchy. Both the picture and sound freeze for about half a second here and there. It's not frequent enough to make the game unplayable but it happens just often enough to be annoying.
-The cut scenes and transitions in the game are horrendous in how they pop in and out. The scenes themselves are well written and acted, but the cuts when they start playing and where you're dropped after they're done playing are abrupt and really take you out of the flow of the game.
-The enemy design is cool (the way that the different enemies look and move), but despite the variation in enemy design, hacking and slashing and using the same tactics seems to be enough to quickly dispatch any and all of them. It gets kind of reptetive.
-The level design is horrid- really, really bad. The missions are all extremely linear (you're given an objective- kill the boss- and you have to work your way down a fairly set series of paths to get to that boss). What makes the levels bad is two fold. One, there are a lot of small areas that you can get too that serve no purpose and were obviously not intended for you to be able to get to them- like jumping behind a barracade that results in half your character disappearing until you figure out a way to jump back over the barracade. And two, there are far too many similar hallways/paths in the levels that are just plain not well thought out.
The best explanation I can think of to describe the bad level design is if a level were designed to look like an ordinary house (none of the levels are, but if one was), you'd expect a kitchen, a bathroom, a living room, and one or more bedrooms. In this game the house would be a couple of living rooms with multiple doorways and a bunch of hallways and nothing else. In other words, a level that takes place on a spaceship should be laid out like a spaceship would be designed. The individual rooms and hallways look fine, but when you add them all together they don't make sense- too many hallways to nowhere- too many similar looking rooms.

So my final verdict: I'd give it a 6 out of 10. Not horrible, but not worth $60. Rent it or wait for it to come down in price.

Ya this game kind of sealed the deal for me. I dont feel like spending 60 bucks on games any more. I am going to stick to used or renting. For one the games are way to short. For example multiplayer games like Halo 3 point more to online play than the story. I am getting through games in like 2 days and the replay is low. Dont get my wrong the graphics from 10 years ago and the story lines have changes dramatically but I just feel like I need more bang for my buck. I was really excited for this game and actually went to rent first but it was out so I just bought it. The game is fun but it is repetitive and short.

WELL, i bought it and i love it! but all you people are right its way to short and horrible replay value, GAMEFLY HERE I COME.....2nd TIME! lol

Guess I'm a glutten for punishment- I'm taking a trip soon and wanted a new PSP game to take with me to keep me occupied in the airports. Traded in a few old games and got the PSP version of the Force Unleashed and just played through the first 2 levels of the PSP version last night. The story appears to be the same as the 360 version but the levels themselves are a lot different. The PSP obviously can't match the 360 as far as graphics go. The graphics don't have the "wow" factor that the 360 graphics do but for the PSP they look pretty good. It's got some control and camera issues, but none of the glitches and jarring transitions when the cut scenes take place like the 360 version does. Since I'm expecting it to be short too, I'm gonna hold off playing it anymore until my trip but my initial reaction is to give it a higher rating than the 360 version. (The PSP version also has some bonus gameplay modes that the 360 version doesn't- unlockable boss fights based on fights from the movies that you can play, like Darth Vader vs. Luke Skywalker.)