Lucasarts Games come to GoG

[Syt]

I suspect this is the kind of thing that sounds awesome...until you actually try playing the game and the horrificly dated graphics makes your eyeballs bleed.

That is what happened to me when I revisited Jedi Knight.

The RPS article has a few comments from folks who played it recently and said it still holds up. I will give it a spin this weekend, I suppose.

[Syt]

Well, they have the '93 original release of TIE-Fighter and the '98 Enhanced Edition CD-ROM (You get both on purchase), the '98 version being a remake using the XvT engine. They don't include the '95 collector's version.

The '98 version looks and plays fine on first try (though doesn't properly support widescreen, of course, so image may be stretched unless you run it in a window).

The main downside to playing the '98 over the (missing) '95 version is that they replaced the awesome adaptive iMuse soundtrack with the orchestral movie score (which already sucked in XvT). And from what I read it may also lack some of the in flight voice acting the '95 release had.

EDIT: someone at GoG pointed out the differences between the '95 version and its DOS and '98 counterparts:

Main differences from DOS Floppy editon:

More animated cutscenes and fully voiced briefings
Support for 640x480 resolution.

Main differences from XvT engine 1998 edition:

dynamic imuse soundtrack
no weird upscaling problems with the art
sold-color polygons instead of bad 1998 texture filtering.
doesn't absolutely require a joystick.

I guess in an ideal world you would have the sound from '95 in the graphics engine of '98.

[Syt]

Comparison '95 version vs. '98:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t92rzvjNU4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J0oSU2jvgU (note missing voice overs and random music titles playing)

My advice: if you really enjoyed the '95 experience, wait until GOG adds that version.

[DontSayBanana]

Joystick is definitely a good thing to have for this.  My Xbox controller works just fine, but this got me to the other side of the fence I'd been sitting on to pick up a Thrustmaster T.Flight HOTAS X joystick.

[MadImmortalMan]

I can't imagine playing TF without a joystick. I still use the same Sidewinder I had back then.

[Syt]

It appears there's a mod to restore dynamic music and extra speech to the '98 version.

http://www.savingcontent.com/2014/08/09/guide-play-x-wing-tie-fighter-series-on-windows-7-windows-8-windows-8-1-with-an-xbox-xb1-playstation-ps4-controller-flight-stick/7/

[Syt]

The next batch is in:

- X-Wing Alliance
- Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds (basically Age of Kings total conversion into Star Wars - a friend and I played ti a fair bit)
- X-Wing vs. TIE-Fighte - Balance of Power
- Dark Forces (has been on Steam for a while)
- KotOR II (also been on Steam for a bit)
- Star Wars Battlefront II (see KotOR II)

COMING SOON: Grim Fandango

[Queequeg]

I don't think Fandango has aged that poorly.  The backgrounds are static. 

[DontSayBanana]

The next batch is in:

- X-Wing Alliance
- Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds (basically Age of Kings total conversion into Star Wars - a friend and I played ti a fair bit)
- X-Wing vs. TIE-Fighte - Balance of Power
- Dark Forces (has been on Steam for a while)
- KotOR II (also been on Steam for a bit)
- Star Wars Battlefront II (see KotOR II)

COMING SOON: Grim Fandango

Alliance and XvT?  Dang, son.

Dark Forces is good just for Kyle Katarn, but this is getting distressingly close to a rerelease of Rebel Assault.

[Syt]

Rebellion and Rogue Squadron have been added too. I loved Rebellion in the day, even though the AI was utter rubbish.

You know what would be sweet? If they also released the pod racing game. One of the best things to come out of Episode 1.

[MadImmortalMan]

Get RebEd and tweak the hell out of Rebellion. I have it kitted up so that I actually lose the game about 75% of the time.

[Syt]

Does it improve the AI or just make things cheaper for it, so that it throws more stuff at you?

[MadImmortalMan]

You can mod anything in the game with it. Edit the characters, ships, troops, etc. Re-arrange the map. Costs of things, hit points, starting conditions, whatever. You can be pretty creative about how you make the ai better.

[Syt]

More Star Wars coming on Tuesday.

What's left (of games that aren't also on Steam, like Force Unleashed, or Jedi Outcast)?

Force Commander
Episode 1 Racer
Episode 1 game (there was one following the movie's story)
Yoda Stories
Battle for Naboo
Rebel Assault 1 & 2
... and a bunch of other bottom of the barrel kinds of deals.

I would REALLY like Episode 1 Racer (though I doubt it aged well).

[Syt]

You can mod anything in the game with it. Edit the characters, ships, troops, etc. Re-arrange the map. Costs of things, hit points, starting conditions, whatever. You can be pretty creative about how you make the ai better.

Hmm.  I'll check it out.

I'm trying to get into Empire at War for the umpteenth time. And I'm looking at the Republic at War mod, which is a Clone Wars total conversion. EaW did well enough to warrant a (retarded) expansion, so it seems weird that an absolute no-brainer like giving it a Clone Wars paintjob wasn't done officially.

The mod takes characters, vehicles and planets from the prequel movies, but also from the animated series which fleshed out the arsenal and character pool a lot more, plus the troopers from Republic Commando are also in.