2012 - Time for JK4
 

Now, I know many of you will immediately say "It's not going to happen". It has been over a decade since Jedi Knight Outcast was released and it was a major success. Jedi Academy was released coming up to 8 years ago but wasn't as successful, but still did well. I don't know the exact stats so correct me if I'm wrong.

Through these years we've seen many games come and go. Through this time Star Wars Galaxies was released and then shut down, The Force Unleashed came out and everyone hated it, TOR has just come out and although it's quite good, I don't see it lasting (People are going to get bored). It's clear that the people want a Battlefront 3 and a new Jedi Knight-styled game, a "JK4" maybe.

The reasons the Jedi Knight series still has a population today is clear... It has something for everyone. I don't consider myself a gamer by any means, yet some may argue a gamer is merely someone who plays games. I've played Jedi Academy for five of its eight years of existance because I found it's Multiplayer feature very good for roleplay. I also found that the combat was awesome, and was enjoyed by many FFAers giving options to use saber or guns.

The years have brought a lot of custom content enjoyed by the community such as JEDI's RPMOD and Movie Battles 2, something not easily re-lived with other games.

2012 is the time for JK4. Lucas arts needs to listen to its fanbase and understand what we want. We need to gather and support it!

On the book "The Art and Making of The Force Unleashed", when LucasArts was discussing ideas for a next-gen Star Wars game, one of them was called "Star Wars: Jedi Master", a spiritual successor of the Jedi Knight games. Eventually it was dropped off because their concept was too "gore"(?).

That makes me think that if they eventually want to continue this series, it won't be a 'Jedi Knight III'. It will be something similar to the 'Jedi Master' concept.

Ideally, I want a JK4, but if it came to it, I wouldn't mind a spiritual successor. But that would depend on how faithful the successor was in capturing the feel of JK.

Damn right we need a new Jedi Knight :)

It has been, by my reckoning, nine years since the last game. I'm all for another Jedi Knight... but do we really want a remake or spiritual successor to Jedi Academy? I mean, the game had cool elements (particularly mission choice, upgrade options, lightsabers and the multiplayer), but the storyline was, it must be said, pretty dreadful.

How can you say that, I wrote the Pulitzer-winning Jaden Korr - Darth Qollous off of it :S

I wouldn't say dreadful, but it just wasn't better due to the random mission based gameplay.

The main reason why I want a new game is to play a JK MP that actually has people playing. MP is dieing (If you haven't already considered in dead). Imagine if we could re-live those days when people would flood onto your servers!

this and something that uses more than OpenGL 1.1

From the other thread:

So yeah. It's about time to bring Kyle back into action.

Good point. I actually never thought about that. Either if it's BFIII or JK3, I'll be happy.

The mention of Unreal really has me excited, considering that LA just signed a deal with Epic about using the engine. Here's to hoping. :cheers:

I must admit I'm hoping for JK much more than BF.

So the project was worked on for 2/3 years, that's a decent time frame. We should hear more about it this year I suppose.

We also know that Spark Unlimited never worked on a hi budget game before. They have some good ideas and concepts. Legendary wasn't that bad. Never played Fall of liberty though. :raise:

Me too. But with all the evidence that a BFIII was in the works, I was expecting it more than a JK game.

LucasArts has said time and again that they will not make another Jedi Knight game. Don't let your hopes drop though. Our mod team is working on creating a Jedi Knight 4 mod for Jedi Academy. Here's our ModDB page:

http://www.moddb.com/mods/jedi-knight-jedi-betrayal1

ooooh, purdy... did you guys want help in getting that in MP to have coop?

You are absolutley right. Main problem is convincing Lucasarts that this game will make them money. I mean BFII is said to be the best selling Star Wars game of all time, and yet no sequel ever saw the light of day. Bottom line, Lucasarts does not subscribe to the "if you build it they will come" process. So I guess have fun with your wii clone wars games and nods for ten year old games.

Really? I haven't seen that quote. Could you link it?

Well anyway it's been 9 years since Jedi Academy, their policy could change. After the mixed reception of TFU and TFU 2, the clone war games and the terrible upcoming Kinect game, going back to one of their most beloved franchises and characters seems like a good move.

no-one will play Jedi Knight Jedi Betrayal unless you have some magnificent plan for advertising to an audience beyond the old JKA players by chiming in with posts about your mod. It's the second time I've seen you link JB. players making mods for JKA does not fulfil my desire to have a more active community.. I still want to press for a JK4 or successor

JK4 would be incredible.

I'd be happy with a recoding of Dark Forces and Jedi Knight. I'd be pretty cool to play them again on a modern engine. (we need a new X-Wing game too.)

24 levels!? That's a ton of work for non-professionals. Do you really need that many?

I would love to see another installment in the series. The one thing that separates Jedi games from most other FPS is the Light Saber and Force Powers.

It really is an elegant weapon, unlike anything else out there.

Maybe they will need to release another prequel/sequel to Star Wars before it will happen since they have already included just about every type of planet, vehicle, creature, race and weapon from the movies?

Maybe they don't want to re-hash the same old thing?

definitely true. i loved the mechanics (for the most part) but the storyline was infamously bad.

summary
 

That would seriously suck if the next JK game was unmoddable and the only extensions it had were DLCs >_<

I thought the same thing too.

BTW I just KNEW Jan wasn't dead in JO.

I think the story line for both JO and JA were geared for ages 8 and up. It comes off as kind of corny in some places, I thought other parts were pretty clever and funny, like when Kyle says to Luke "You ALWAYS sense a disturbance in the Force", stuff like that :-)

A more hard core version might alienate some of the younger players.

I would love another Jedi Knight game but I don't think we are going to see one. Its been 9 years since the last one. I like The Force Unleashed but these games need to have more levels in them.

um... yeah. that would. i wouldnt even consider it a JK game if that were the case. lol that would be disgraceful.


that is true. the people at lucasarts seem kind of stupid when you put it that way. BFII was a massive success and they could have made millions off a sequel, but they never did. same with the jedi knight series. its a sad shame... smh:disaprove:argh:


yeah, for sure. i actually liked the JO plotline and cutscenes; but in JKA seemed like the writers were trying too hard to be funny and witty, and the whole storyline suffered from it because of the lack of attention to creating an actually decent plot.

and honestly, i dont think JO was intended for a young audience... JKA definitely was though; think about the difficulty of the levels... JO was definitely harder and the plotline was not nearly as juvenile as JKA. i dont know why they started off so well and then suddenly directed the sequel to younger kids, but youd have to ask someone at LucasArts bout that.

anyway, even if it was directed at a younger audience for JKA, i think that due to the massive modding community that has sprung up, the audience is definitely older now, and a more hardcore JK4 would be a better option. a dramatic plotline and a tad more violence, you know?

Great summary there Dominus, you said it all ..and even gave links.

I have heard that LucasArts is working on a new title, with an open world, but I do not know the subject or the way it may relate to SW, Sorry, I too agree the Jedi Knight series has plenty of life in it and hope for another one..and as has been said here and elsewhere anything can happen in Game development, just look at series that have been added to, both immediately or years later, and or brought back from the grave...with new versions. The entire series of SW games that has been modded is probably the best example of fantastic modding in any game genre...and we do have simply amazing map and mod makers helping expand all of them still. The game engines for Jedi Knight Outcast and Academy are some of the most successful for mods that there is in any game genre, including the Elder Scrolls Beth games which even come with construction sets. So I will hold out hope for more JK.

I just bought The Force Unleashed II for the Xbox 360 last week a I'm really enjoying it. My only problem with the game that its to short but the price is down to between $10 and $20 for the game. Two years ago I bought The Force Unleashed 1 for the Xbox 360 and loved it too. I think The Force Unleashed is Lucasarts' idea of a Jedi Knight game on the next generation game systems. You don't use guns but the lightsaber and force powers are so strong you wouldn't use the guns anyway. There are holocrons hidden throughout the levels which take place of secret areas. There are also puzzles to figure out. I've been playing The Force Unleashed on my 50 inch Panasonic Plasma HDTV and the Star Wars universe looks amazing in HD. The John Williams Star Wars music sounds great on my dolby pro-logic surround sound receiver.

If anybody hasn't played The Force Unleashed games the price is right to try them out. You will be glad you did.

I disagree. The Jedi Knight series is basically a lightsaber simulator, while The Force Unleashed series is a Force one. They are two different concepts. But as I mentioned before, LucasArts did consider a spiritual sequel to the Jedi Knight series when they were discussing concepts for a next-gen game.

But I quite liked the first TFU for PC.

The lightsaber and the force are so much bigger in TFU than they are in JO and JA. I know I'm in a minority but I use mainly guns when I play JO and JA except during the lightsaber duels. In TFU the lightsaber is so much easier to use and does so much more damage. Also it has all the lightsaber combos that the Jedi Knight series doesn't have.

I'm not sure how. In JO and JA, you actually control your lightsaber and it does dismember things. It doesn't take 3 or 4 hits to kill an enemy. The same can't be said about TFU. I'm not judging their choice of how they have used the lightsaber in terms of gameplay, but I think it's far from JO/JA accurancy and quality. TFU, as the title says, focuses on the Force. And in my opinion it excels at that.

im going to have to agree with alexrd on this one; how can you say the lightsaber is more powerful in tfu when it takes several hits to kill a stormtrooper or rebel soldier, and in JA those mobs are always one-hit kills?

however, i do agree that a new jedi knight game ought to have more violent graphics, like the knockback in tfu when you slash someone with your lightsaber.

i think thats what made you say "more damage", ham yoyo -- the graphic effects and knockback physics are better in tfu which makes it look like your enemies are getting more beat up by your saber, but technically speaking, the actual dph (dmg per hit) in the jedi knight games was way higher than in tfu.

however, back to my point. i think a new jedi knight game could take a few leafs out of tfu's book when it comes to lightsaber/environment effects. a super-powered lightsaber, along with better force powers, would make jk4 pretty damn cool.
that being said, i dont want jk4 to be tfu3. i still want the elements of jedi knight, with the awesome graphics and physics that are now available.

I was playing TFU 2 the other day and one slash will kill a stormtrooper or rebel soldier. The difference in TFU and JA is in TFU the stormtrooper or rebel soldier keeps standing up if you keep slashing it when in JA the slash makes them fall imediately. But in TFU combined with the many combinations and the force lighting lightsaber swings are much more powerful. There is one combo that lets you slam the ground with your lightsaber and it sends the enemies flying. The lightsaber in TFU is much more fluid from slashing to blocking. In JA and JO there is sometimes when a stormtrooper is standing in front of me and I swing my lightsaber and miss him. That never happens in TFU.

Theres going to be a JK4? [Yes...I read the first post]

Whatever happens, the next JK game will NOT be like Force Unleashed. I've played both FU games on the PC (yeah,that acronym never gets old) and while it may be fun for what it is, it's NOTHING like the JK series.

The JK series has always been about a combination of force, sabers (that aren't just button mashing), and other weapons, and a combination of engaging single player and robust multiplayer. Additionally it has both first and third person perspectives. That's the direction of the series since 1997 with Dark Forces II. Anything less and I just can't accept it as part of the series, whatever else might be different. Another part of the series has been the ability to edit and create mods. Not the most important, but a big part of it for many of us. You don't get that with console games.

The Force physics in TFU/2 is pretty nifty. I'm sure if that were part of the JK series, people would appreciate it. However the rest of the game would need to be completely different. If it were a button mashing linear console game, it just wouldn't do it.

Obi-Wan, ROTS, Force Unleashed are Jedi games that have come out in the last decade, but none of them are really connected with the JK series. So I look forward to such time, when they create a true successor.

As others have said every time we're discussing a sequel, the new game, at minimum, has to do what the previous game in the series did, only better.

One other thing... in JK2 and JA, it's true the saber didn't usually kill enemies in 1 hit on default settings, however there was always an option for "realistic" saber damage, such that the sabers cut down enemies in 1-2 hits (not just with certain power moves) and dismembered them. Since that was there, nobody ever complained, really. If the game forces the saber to act like a nerf bat, and requires you to use combos with every attack (anyone remember "Jedi Power Battles"?) it gets annoying and starts to lose that Star Wars feeling and that JK feeling. All considered, the JK games have a staying power that goes beyond a single player campaign or a fun weekend rental of a few rounds of multiplayer. That's why the next JK game has a great legacy to follow and big shoes to fill.

LucasArts hasn't even released a game in over a year.

Crazy.

Star Wars: The Old Republic? (even if not developed by them, it's still considered a LA licensed game)

Wait, did they publish that? Maybe I'm wrong, but I seem to remember LucasArts backing out of publishing it, so EA could.

Even LucasArts did publish it, that's still only one game in one year. What's going with LA these days? They seem to be doing worse than usual, especially with having three presidents in like four years.