Humble Star Wars Bundle

[Dominus Atheos]

Since some games were in both bundles, everyone who buys them can gift the extra keys to anyone.

Here's kotor 1
https://www.humblebundle.com/gift?key=eB2Nu4DfdxZnhe5b

Kotor 2
https://www.humblebundle.com/gift?key=Aq2wFVwd6HRw4tD

Eaw gold
https://www.humblebundle.com/gift?key=Uxe3RuBMx3xUe6e4

I wouldn't expect those links to work after about 5 minutes.

[Dominus Atheos]

Or maybe they will still work 2 hours later, who knows?

Please leave a comment on this thread when you claim them.

[Esquire]

EaW still works.

[Elheru Aran]

X-Wing vs TIE Fighter and X-Wing Alliance? Goddamnit...

[Dominus Atheos]

Did people not open this thread because they assumed it was old or something? I was expecting there to be several people offering their doubles. Maybe I'm just really nice?

Anyway, the sale is over but they added several games last week, all doubles from the first one, so as previously first come first serve:

<i>Star Wars</i>™ The Force Unleashed™: Ultimate Sith Edition
https://www.humblebundle.com/gift?key=8VXthFuUmp3F83zh

Star Wars™: The Force Unleashed™ II
https://www.humblebundle.com/gift?key=kvw2NsrPmPx73zkb

Star Wars™: Dark Forces
https://www.humblebundle.com/gift?key=3yKRbehAedcedHEX

Star Wars™ Battlefront™ II
https://www.humblebundle.com/gift?key=ErB6kRHd8BXZbEFA

I accidentally hit the wrong button on "Star Wars™ Jedi Knight Dark Forces II", so it just spat out a steam activation key: " 77QGB-ITP4G-LKVH3 ". Try plugging that directly into the steam client, it might work.

[Ralin]

Thank you. I've never played any of the Star Wars games past the SNES era, and I always heard good things about most of them. The Jedi Knight II code worked fine

[Elheru Aran]

Already got the first one with those games in it. Haven't gotten the one with the X-wing etc. games, though.

[TheFeniX]

Thank you. I've never played any of the Star Wars games past the SNES era, and I always heard good things about most of them. The Jedi Knight II code worked fine

Lucasarts had been wringing money out of the SW IP for years. There's a reason no one cried when Disney shut them down, then people DID cry when EA Games got the new Star Wars monopoly. There's a whole lot of garbage games under the Star Wars heading, but those that stand-out (like some of those found in the Bundles) are some of the best games of all time. JKII definitely ranks up there.

Replaying it a few years ago, I had forgotten just how well designed the AI was in that game. Makes most modern games look like a fucking joke. However, the game is in that time period between "keyboard only" vs "mouse-look" and can be kind of janky. Mouse-look is so standard these days, it makes JKII feel a bit antiquated vs something like Jedi-Outcast.

Two lesser games of note I would love to play through again are Jedi Power Battles for Dreamcast/PSX and EPIII for Xbox. Neither was particularly great, but they were fun games. Unfortunately, I don't own a Dreamcast and the PSX version looks like garbage. EPII might work on my 360.... if my 360 still works.

[Cykeisme]

Thank you. I've never played any of the Star Wars games past the SNES era, and I always heard good things about most of them. The Jedi Knight II code worked fine

Lucasarts had been wringing money out of the SW IP for years. There's a reason no one cried when Disney shut them down, then people DID cry when EA Games got the new Star Wars monopoly. There's a whole lot of garbage games under the Star Wars heading, but those that stand-out (like some of those found in the Bundles) are some of the best games of all time. JKII definitely ranks up there.

Replaying it a few years ago, I had forgotten just how well designed the AI was in that game. Makes most modern games look like a fucking joke. However, the game is in that time period between "keyboard only" vs "mouse-look" and can be kind of janky. Mouse-look is so standard these days, it makes JKII feel a bit antiquated vs something like Jedi-Outcast.

Two lesser games of note I would love to play through again are Jedi Power Battles for Dreamcast/PSX and EPIII for Xbox. Neither was particularly great, but they were fun games. Unfortunately, I don't own a Dreamcast and the PSX version looks like garbage. EPII might work on my 360.... if my 360 still works.

If I'm not mistaken, Jedi Knight II is Jedi Outcast.

I played the games in the series multiple times, so purely off memory, I think these are the titles in chronological order:
Dark Forces
Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight
Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

There's also Mysteries of the Sith and Jedi Academy, which are also worth checking out.

I love these games to death, but I must say, the titling is rather odd because the subtitle of the previous game became the heading of the next, with a sequel number at the end.. and this happened twice..


On another note, I do regret never having purchased any consoles if it meant I missed out on some decent SW games because of it.

[Elheru Aran]

Wasn't Mysteries of the Sith properly titled "Dark Forces II: Mysteries of the Sith"? Likewise I think Jedi Academy was "Jedi Knight II: Jedi Academy"... it's been awhile though, I could definitely be wrong.

[TheFeniX]

If I'm not mistaken, Jedi Knight II is Jedi Outcast.

I played the games in the series multiple times, so purely off memory, I think these are the titles in chronological order:
Dark Forces
Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight
Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

There's also Mysteries of the Sith and Jedi Academy, which are also worth checking out.

You are correct, sir. MotS got a bad rap because you get dumped off with Mara Jade out of nowhere and she wasn't an established character back then, at least to non-EU fans. Further, what people complained about in JK, the live-action cutscenes, they complained about NOT HAVING in MotS. Also, colored lighting support..... Still, a good expansion. Academy is also well worth the time and is easily a stand-alone game, if not a little short. But the controls have held up considerably well as have Jedi-Outcast's.

It's Jedi-Knight that takes some time to get used to again. Might be worse for me since I played it almost exclusively with the keyboard, and was still Hell on wheels in Multiplayer. Good ol' Slayer187 on the MSN gaming zone..... jesus, Slayer187. Holy shit I was a jackass. God damn, I can't believe I'm even telling you people about that. Whatever, I was 15, cut me some slack.

I love these games to death, but I must say, the titling is rather odd because the subtitle of the previous game became the heading of the next, with a sequel number at the end.. and this happened twice..

Yea, which combined with the time involved explains why I kept calling it JK2. Academy dropped the two, so it was just Jedi-Knight: Jedi Academy. They dropped the Dark Forces tag with Jedi-Outcast. I always figured Lucasarts wanted to make sure the names kept calling back the original games, without getting too long. But it makes for a confusing series title-wise.

On another note, I do regret never having purchased any consoles if it meant I missed out on some decent SW games because of it.

Keyword: Decent. As much as I liked some of them, Jedi Knight would be the only one I would consider it a huge loss to have not played. One I forgot about: Dark Forces clone in third person: Shadows of the Empire for N64. So mad I lost my copy. A great stand-out N64 title. That IG-88 fight though.

Wasn't Mysteries of the Sith properly titled "Dark Forces II: Mysteries of the Sith"? Likewise I think Jedi Academy was "Jedi Knight II: Jedi Academy"... it's been awhile though, I could definitely be wrong.

I'd have to check my discs (still have them) but I think they even dropped the Dark Forces label with MotS.

[Elheru Aran]

I played Shadows of the Empire on PC. Fun little game. Fighting Boba Fett with a jetpack? Holy hell. One of the more genuinely challenging games I've played. Also you got to trip AT-AT's with your snowspeeder. That was awesome.

[RogueIce]

I'd have to check my discs (still have them) but I think they even dropped the Dark Forces label with MotS.

Yeah, it was Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith. But then, the original JK was titled as Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (LucasArts website on the Wayback Machine) so there you go. The JK title had primacy from the start.

[Elheru Aran]

Welp. That's what not playing those games for ~10 years will teach me...

[TheFeniX]

I played Shadows of the Empire on PC. Fun little game. Fighting Boba Fett with a jetpack? Holy hell. One of the more genuinely challenging games I've played. Also you got to trip AT-AT's with your snowspeeder. That was awesome.

I completely forgot that had a PC release. What did you play it with, a Dual-Shock knock-off? Games of the N64 era, at least for me, were played in the vein of "thank God these controllers are so tough" because I've tried and failed to smash them a lot. That swoop level, man. I'd have nightmares about it. Freakin' Battletoads of that generation.

Don't get me wrong, there's hard games out there even today. But I hear about kids playing up Dark Souls and all I can think playing it is "Have they even heard of King's Field?" Shadows was just... damn that game was hard. Legitimately: without just dumping on the player in a "haha, Imma kill you now" way. I got lucky because Boba Fett got clipped into a piece of the level and bugged out so I just went to town.

There really wasn't a lot of bullshit that I remember, enemies just hit hard and were tougher than you. One of my complaints even in Jedi-Outcast/Academy was that bosses tended to be force immune, but would force bitch-slap you constantly. You might get a push/pull off on Desann if he was in the air or managed to turn his back on you, but otherwise he would shrug it off and answer back with extreme prejudice.

[Elheru Aran]

I actually just used a keyboard and mouse. I might have had a joystick.

What really pissed me off was you couldn't get a decent ending to the game without playing on Hard, and I was damned if I'd go that far. It was tough enough on Easy.

[Cykeisme]

Ah, I stand corrected, it was Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II.

Well, I think it's a huge shame they didn't title that last game Dark Forces IV: Jedi Knight III: Jedi Outcast II: Jedi Academy

Unfortunately I never played Shadows of the Empire. Probably largely due to the fact that, oddly, I've never owned a console. Missed out big time on that, I guess.. the setting (between EpV and VI) is interesting, which in a way is very much like the entire Clone Wars sub-franchise taking place between II and III.
So you could say that Shadows of Empire is a prequel inter-episode sub-franchise to the Clone Wars.. in other words, in a sense, it could retroactively be referred to as The Clone Wars II: Shadows of the Empire. Or would it be the other way around?
I think I'd better stop now..


Regarding the JO and JA bosses, I assume they had to make them immune (or rather, very very resistant) to Force powers, otherwise they''d be a bit too easy. Unfortunately there isn't any sort of "mini-game" mechanic for Force Pushing harder (perhaps spamming a button, like saber locks), otherwise we could still have a chance at consistently having an effect, perhaps?
As it is, they do appear to be less resistant as you chip away at their health. Together with good timing (e.g. boss is jumping, boss is swinging his lightsaber, boss has his back turned, or preferably some combination of those), though, you have a good chance of getting in a successful Push or Pull, whereby you can immediately hit Force Speed so you have more time to chain multiple precise strikes to their head in while they get back on their feet

I do remember something I discovered back then.. bosses countered Speed by casting Speed of their own (basically negating it), but as mentioned, they couldn't cast it when they were knocked down/still getting up. Also, interestingly, if you cast Speed when you're a moderate distance away and out of line of sight, they wouldn't immediately cast their own, so you could scurry up to them and get in a few cheap shots before they counter your Speed.

So yeah, there were enough cheap tactics available to the player to avoid it getting frustrating

It's Jedi-Knight that takes some time to get used to again. Might be worse for me since I played it almost exclusively with the keyboard, and was still Hell on wheels in Multiplayer. Good ol' Slayer187 on the MSN gaming zone..... jesus, Slayer187. Holy shit I was a jackass. God damn, I can't believe I'm even telling you people about that. Whatever, I was 15, cut me some slack.

Chuckled at this.. the person I was when gaming online back in the day, well over a decade ago, probably wasn't the most pleasant one, either

[TheFeniX]

Well, I think it's a huge shame they didn't title that last game Dark Forces IV: Jedi Knight III: Jedi Outcast II: Jedi Academy

Add: "A New Generation" and I'm sold. Even better, "The Next Generation."

I do remember something I discovered back then.. bosses countered Speed by casting Speed of their own (basically negating it), but as mentioned, they couldn't cast it when they were knocked down/still getting up. Also, interestingly, if you cast Speed when you're a moderate distance away and out of line of sight, they wouldn't immediately cast their own, so you could scurry up to them and get in a few cheap shots before they counter your Speed.

Raven's AI was hilariously fun to mess with. They relied on a "cheap" trick to simulate difficulty: reaction times. Basically, the computer always knows where you are and is always tracking you. To simulate reaction times, they can just add dead cycles or timers to when the AI can't take any action.

J-O differs than a lot of shooters because this also applies to tracking because there is melee combat. This is why they miss with attacks and don't always just turn their body mid-swing to counter you strafing them. Otherwise you'd just always trade blow for blow. Contrast to many standard shooters where the AI stares you down constantly, but only fires at a given rate. The J-O/JA AI isn't allowed to do that.

The Reborn and other force users would react to a "Force Grip" with "Force Push" after a given amount of time based on difficulty and the "rank" of the enemy. Shadow Troopers had lower response time than Reborn, etc. But, since reaction time also factors into aiming: if you grip an enemy and then spin like crazy with your mouse you can either beat them to death on walls or throw them 500 yards. The whole time, because they can't track the player fast enough, they miss all their pushes and die horribly.

This worked even on Tavion. However, Desanns reaction times were set to super-human. Really, I think he just immediately read your button presses and reacted accordingly. However, if you could half-way bug out his AI, the grip trick could work for a given time. But he took very little damage from it and wall smashing. I think his resistances to everything but the lightsaber was in the 99% range. But it's been years.

Chuckled at this.. the person I was when gaming online back in the day, well over a decade ago, probably wasn't the most pleasant one, either

I was a really cool guy even then. At least in gaming. Rarely talked shit, played for the team. All that good stuff. The name was an extension of my AOL account (I had that and MSN for gaming because AOL sucked). I used it up until I.... kind of called Elaine Cunningham a hack for Daughter of the Drow... in the official DND AOL room..... on a day she was actually scheduled to come in and talk about it (that's why the topic came up).......... while she was there.... To be fair, I didn't think the actual author would be in there and I wasn't just talking shit, but pointing out actual issues with the storytelling in at least a well-explained way.

Man, can you imagine how much of a douche she probably thought I was? "Slayer187 doesn't like my book. OH NOES!"