Lucas Arts throws PC Gamers a Bone, sorta

[Alyeska]

So I just bought The Force Unleashed for PC today. While reading the back of the box I noted something interesting. Required HD space of 23.8 gigs. When I installed the game it was 24.6 gigs in size. Wow, just wow.

Anyway, rant mode on.

Recommended Specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8 GHz or better
2 gigs of RAM
512 mb video card, GeForce 9800 GT

Yeah, Lucas Arts, or should I say Cameron Suey, was full of shit. "We aren't releasing TFU on PC because we don't want to release a substance experience and it would cost $4,000 for a PC that can match the console". Nothing but a lie. The specs I just read a year ago weren't even close to $4,000. Better yet. A year ago Crysis Warhead was released and PC Gamer was able to build a rig that could run it on decent graphics. Total cost, $600. Cameron was so full of shit and it was blatantly obvious.

Even still, I cannot be too angry with the actual release. Get the full game and all DLC, just pay $40. Had to wait a year, but thats not too bad. I just wish they hadn't lied about it last year. I can wait. It really doesn't bother me. Just tell me the truth is all I ask.

So, its installing. Gonna give that game a whirl and see what its like.

And now that I've had time to play a bit, here are some things of note.

There is Zero mouse support in the game menus. Yes, you can use the mouse to move your view in game, but the menus have absolutely no mouse support of any kind. There is a single graphic option. Resolution. Thats it. The controls are clunky as it was a 100% hack job port direct from console. Your camera is controlled by your mouse, but your aim is whatever your character is looking at which isn't necessarily what your mouse is doing. Absolutely no crosshair or direct mouse support of any sort. When you configure controls separate from default, the game blatantly admits that all tips are listed in default controls and will not match custom controls.

So I guess Lucas Arts wanted to get the last laugh in after they caved and released a PC version. They let Aspyr make the most craptacular port.

[Vympel]

Lazy fucks. I'll stick to my PS3 version and screw the extra two levels of play, then.

[Tanasinn]

You paid 40 bucks for that piece of shit?

To each his own, I guess.

[Alyeska]

It does beg the question, what the hell was Lucas Arts thinking? It would seem that the PC release was an afterthought. Rather then spend any effort on a real release, they want to catch a few casual sales. So they put in the least possible effort. I guess they just don't see the PC as a place to get any sales.

[Alyeska]

Lucas Arts is handling this well.

Didn't like the PC version of Star Wars The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition or some aspect of the game? First, bear in mind that the PC version was published by Aspyr so your best bet is to contact them about the game. http://support.aspyr.com

What bullshit. Aspyr isn't going to do shit to help the PC players unless directed by LA.

[charlemagne]

Yeah, Lucas Arts, or should I say Cameron Suey, was full of shit. "We aren't releasing TFU on PC because we don't want to release a substance experience and it would cost $4,000 for a PC that can match the console". Nothing but a lie.

Where is that bullshit reasoning coming from, anyways? That "taking away from the experience" nonsense gave us useless crap graphics options in GTAIV, too. How fucking stupid is it to have to resort to some kind of hack to be able to scale down things like reflection maps? It's such a fucked-up way of thinking.

On PC, it's always been like this for most people: either put up with scaling down graphics in the latest games, or upgrade your rig. Do people like Suey actually believe that PC gamers nowadays are too stupid to realize that "older PC = not the shiniest graphics in the latest games"? I can't really believe that, I think it's just bullshit to cover them for being too lazy/cheap to build good, scalable graphics engines. Only being able to change resolution, I mean what the fuck. That's not even a real option when using an LCD monitor.

[Dooey Jo]

While reading the back of the box I noted something interesting. Required HD space of 23.8 gigs. When I installed the game it was 24.6 gigs in size. Wow, just wow.

How did they manage that? Doesn't that thing play on the 360, presumably on only a single dual-layer DVD? That's something like a 200% increase in size.

[Zixinus]

How does the game play with a controller (an xbox 360 one)?

And yeah, welcome to the PC market everyone: if the game was made a consoles, the ports usually range from tolerable to horrible. Sometimes, you'll be lucky to be able to play it on a top-notch PC with a decent performance.

How did they manage that? Doesn't that thing play on the 360, presumably on only a single dual-layer DVD? That's something like a 200% increase in size.

Horrible compression.

[Ryan Thunder]

While reading the back of the box I noted something interesting. Required HD space of 23.8 gigs. When I installed the game it was 24.6 gigs in size. Wow, just wow.

How did they manage that? Doesn't that thing play on the 360, presumably on only a single dual-layer DVD? That's something like a 200% increase in size.

Perhaps they're attempting to deter piracy by making it unreasonably painful to move around?

[Vendetta]

How did they manage that? Doesn't that thing play on the 360, presumably on only a single dual-layer DVD? That's something like a 200% increase in size.

Higher texture detail, less texture compression. It's fairly common these days for PC games to have monster installs due to their monster textures.

[Zixinus]

Perhaps they're attempting to deter piracy by making it unreasonably painful to move around?

That would be nice way, except that it becomes clear that LucasArts doesn't care that much about the success of the game.

[General Zod]

Perhaps they're attempting to deter piracy by making it unreasonably painful to move around?

That would be nice way, except that it becomes clear that LucasArts doesn't care that much about the success of the game.

What are you talking about? It's already made bank on the 360 and the PS3, so saying they don't care about the success is a bit farcial considering the console market outweighs the PC gaming market these days. So unless you were referring explicitly to the PC version, that's rather erroneous.

[charlemagne]

What are you talking about? It's already made bank on the 360 and the PS3, so saying they don't care about the success is a bit farcial considering the console market outweighs the PC gaming market these days. So unless you were referring explicitly to the PC version, that's rather erroneous.

I think Zixinus means that LA clearly could have made a better port than they did, thus not really caring if it's a high quality game on PC or not. I guess they're counting on TFU being a success on PC either way, they just did a lazy port of an already polished console game, so there isn't much money at risk here.

[Zixinus]

So unless you were referring explicitly to the PC version, that's rather erroneous.

I am talking about the PC port. If nothing else, they could have compressed the textures and stuff for PCs to at least fit on one double-layer DVD, as opposed to two, which is a bit insane (and costs more money, as you need to supply two disks, not one).

If they didn't do that measure, as well as allow scalable and adjustable graphics, then I doubt that they made such particularly unique anti-piracy measures unless the port-developer has some very weird priorities.

[Tolya]

[Cartman] Fuck you Luasarts. Fuck you Cameron.[/Cartman]

Obviously, they are not faring too well. They wouldn't be releasing a craptacular PC port in a last ditch attempt to make some money. I am not going to touch the PC version with the long side of a stick. On principle.

[General Zod]

[Cartman] Fuck you Luasarts. Fuck you Cameron.[/Cartman]

Obviously, they are not faring too well. They wouldn't be releasing a craptacular PC port in a last ditch attempt to make some money. I am not going to touch the PC version with the long side of a stick. On principle.

Not faring too well? I figured they've already made their cash off the console versions, so any incidental PC sales were just a bonus by hiring out the cheapest team to do a conversion they could.

[Kurgan]

There's a low detail mode hack:

There are no video settings in the game but there is an unofficial way to change
the game mod to "low detail". Here's how it works:

In the Application Data folder there is a file called "Config.xml". In this file there is a line:

<s id="LowDetail">0</s>

And if it's not there just add it. Now change the 0 to 1 and there you go. The game
loses some of it's looks (not much) and runs MUCH better.

This concerns you only if you don't have a high end computer.

The game was running at 20fps before I changed this setting. Now it runs full speed with
some minor slowdowns when some areas load. But trust me it does not influence the game play.

Also, modding has begun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1torJXlPPM


Doesn't look like a worthy successor to the JK series (more like RUNE with a gravity gun and double jump), but still...

[Executor32]

Also, applying the No-DVD fixed my performance issues. It would work fine for about a minute, and then slow down to 3-4 FPS for no reason whatsoever. Sometimes it would clear up momentarily, usually at a checkpoint, but most of the time it would remain like that until I quit. After cracking it, I get a (comparatively) butter-smooth 20ish FPS unless there's a lot of shit going on.

[Zixinus]

And yet another low reached: pirates win again and then Lucasarts goes around talking how PCs are unprofitable.

[Kurgan]

Also, applying the No-DVD fixed my performance issues. It would work fine for about a minute, and then slow down to 3-4 FPS for no reason whatsoever. Sometimes it would clear up momentarily, usually at a checkpoint, but most of the time it would remain like that until I quit. After cracking it, I get a (comparatively) butter-smooth 20ish FPS unless there's a lot of shit going on.

Interesting, so copy protection is slowing the game down? What a waste (if true).

They could fix this by releasing an official patch that checks to be sure you have the official disc(s). Though I guess pirates could still share their officially purchased copy with their friends who could then install it and apply the patch...

[charlemagne]

Interesting, so copy protection is slowing the game down? What a waste (if true).

This isn't exactly news - many games run smoother and especially load faster with no-dvd-"patches" installed. Since all data is copied to the HD anyways nowadays, any accessing of the DVD drive is slowing things down. You don't have to be a pirate to enjoy the benefits of no-dvd-cracks

[Kurgan]

Interesting, so copy protection is slowing the game down? What a waste (if true).

This isn't exactly news - many games run smoother and especially load faster with no-dvd-"patches" installed. Since all data is copied to the HD anyways nowadays, any accessing of the DVD drive is slowing things down. You don't have to be a pirate to enjoy the benefits of no-dvd-cracks

Fair enough. I had only noticed it recently with games that use Starforce Protection (various retro-game collections), which actually minimizes the game, makes you stare at a "loading" status bar and then goes back into the game. When it gets to that level of annoyance, I can't blame people for cracking games.

I don't have any ethical problem with it (people who own something using cracks for convenience), but I understand why companies continue to use copy protection schemes. And it's even sillier when we get to emulated games which anyone can find in five minutes for free with none of this nonsense (the makers of those anthologies should make them attractive by being BETTER than the free equivalent, not worse).

I got a used PS2 recently and half the new DVDs out there it won't play, I imagine mostly because of copy protection that arose after this model was produced.

[Zixinus]

They could fix this by releasing an official patch that checks to be sure you have the official disc(s). Though I guess pirates could still share their officially purchased copy with their friends who could then install it and apply the patch...

Then the pirates would crack it again, just as quickly. You cannot "fix" a crack, you'll just get a new one if not another kind of security exploit.

[Kurgan]

No kidding, I mean that for the average consumer who wants to just use their dang product without nonsense should be offered an official patch to get the benefits. If the copy protection ruins the game it should be fixed, they shouldn't have to rely on anonymous crackers to get the most out of their product.

From the standpoint of the publishers, the protection is meant to slow down piracy of their game during its peak sales period. So I guess you could argue just leave out protection period, if all its going to do is make the game worse, and be cracked immediately. I'm not here to argue for/against that, just saying the company should make the "crack" official.

[Kurgan]

And.... the patch is out. It's 403.58 megs

This patch is an official update for North American Retail version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. THIS PATCH IS FOR THE NORTH AMERICAN RETAIL VERSION OF THE GAME.

This update includes some general performance improvements including the following:

-General performance optimizations
-Optimized in game cloth handling
-Optimized in game trees leaf handling
-Added a detail setting to improve performance on lower end (dual core) machines
-Addressed audio stuttering issues
-Addressed options disappearing briefly after pressing [Esc] at the Main Menu
-Addressed flashing placeholder text

-Added additional controller support:

Xbox 360 Controller for Windows
Xbox 360 Wired Controller
Logitech Rumblepad 2
Logitech Cordless Rumblepad 2
Logitech Dual Action Controller
Saitek Cyborg Rumble
Saitek P32 Rumble

Official Download page at Aspyr