[PC] Ultimate Sith Edition: PC Version Reviews Thread (SPOILERS)

[Kurgan]

Okay, as you all know, the PC version of TFU "Ultimate Sith Edition" ("USE" for short) was released today (Nov 3), and the Mac Version gets released on Nov 23.

Update: New Reviews, thanks to Metacritic:

http://www.metacritic.com/games/plat...atesithedition

(Note, I just quoted summaries, click the link above to find links to the full reviews)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review.

75
IGN

It doesn't fix or change anything in the original game - it just gives you a few more levels and some new skins. If you don't already have the game, give it a look. If you do, you might just want to go the DLC route.


72
GameZone

Given the emphasis on storytelling and single-player action, The Force Unleashed is tragically flawed execution of a great concept.

71
Gamers.at

The gameplay doesn't really satisfy me, but what's worse are the technical issues. Still, the game has its moments and can be great fun because of the story and the force powers.


50
Cheat Code Central

A plentiful amount of technical bugs and lazy development for the platform make for a frustrating experience despite there being a fun game buried beneath.

50
GameSpot

A slapdash porting job turns the Force into a farce in this Star Wars action game.

Please post your personal reviews and any reviews you find on the net, with comments if you like!

Remember this is for the PC VERSION OF THE GAME ONLY. We already have a sticky thread for the console versions. (If you want to post reviews of the CONSOLE versions, try this thread instead).

To start off, I read that IGN gave it a 7.5 out of 10.

Here is a review given by a youtube user by the name of Skyburnbright (using a review copy, from Oct 31st):

I'll just get straight to the point and tell you this is unfortunately not a good port. There are no advanced graphical options to speak of, you pick your resolution from the game launcher and that's it. The game is capped at 30 frames per second, which is what the console versions run at, regardless of how good your computer is. The game manages to run pretty steadily at 30 frames, but it does stutter from time to time. The graphics themselves look about the same as the Xbox 360 version, which I have played, except that this has no antialiasing setting, while the Xbox 360 version I believe uses 2x AA, which is at least something. So there's jaggies everywhere. The strange thing about this, is this game comes to a massive 24.6gb installed, which I see no reason for considering the graphics have not been overhauled whatsoever from the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions of the game.

Okay, moving on from the graphics, the game controls fairly well with the mouse and keyboard, I'm still getting used to them in this video, but they are pretty easy to use. I've posted a listing of the default controls in the video discription for those of you who are curious. The game also fully supports use of the Xbox 360 controller if you have one.

So yeah, overall a pretty disappointing job from Aspyr on this. I would strongly recommend getting either the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 version if you can. The game does not run or look better on the PC, and takes up quite a large chunk of hard drive space, making it inferior in just about every way to the consoles. If you have a high end PC and do not own a console, it is a pretty fun game itself and you should enjoy it, but don't expect to be blown away by the PC version.

Thank you for watching.

MOUSE AND KEYBOARD CONTROLS
--------------------------------------
Move Left - A
Move Right - D
Move Forward - W
Move Back - S
Force Dash - L Shift
Jump - Space
Pause - Enter
Camera - C
Options - Esc
Attack - Mouse 1
Block - R
Force Grip - Mouse 2
Force Push - E
Force Lightning - Q
Toggle Lock - L Ctrl
Action Camera - V

COMPUTER SPECS
--------------------------------------
Intel Core 2 Duo e8400 @ 4.0ghz
nVidia GTX 260 Core 216 @ stock settings
4GB DDR2-1066 RAM
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

Captured using Fraps and Rendered using Sony Vegas Pro 9.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbdgErSDrII (with gameplay footage)


PS: As you can see, this person posted her/her PC specs. That will be helpful if you're doing your own review, as we can get an idea of the overall performance.

[Kurgan]

Here's the spoilerific IGN video companion to their review (contains info on the PC as well as other USE editions):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo6YtIrx8b4

[Kurgan]

The game has absolutely no multiplayer on PC.

[JKAMaster]

Did they add modding/editing tools?

[Zwier Zak]

No they did not.

[Kurgan]

A new review from GamingHeaven (CONTAINS SPOILERS) http://www.gamingheaven.net/gamingre...p?reviewid=844

N4G gives it 80/100 (not much of a review, just a description really):

http://www.n4g.com/pc/News-423059.aspx




--------

No official modding tools, but this guy figured a way to hack your character model:

http://forums.lucasarts.com/thread.j...40841&tstart=0

Looks like you can change your blade color too, but that might already be in the game.

[PastramiX]

I was always expecting a half-a**ed console-to-PC port, seeing as it's coming from Aspyr, who always does a botched job with Mac ports, but I never knew that it would be this bad of a port. The lack of advanced graphical features is even more disheartening, seeing as TFU could inherently have a lot more performance potential over consoles when running on a PC.

To be honest, it's this sort of apathetic treatment of PC ports is what is hurting PC gaming.

[Kurgan]

That said, I'm not sure what is WORSE about this than the Xbox360 version.
I mean, no features are MISSING, right?

It's just that the PC is CAPABLE of much more, and they haven't given that to us.

Though I guess hacking the files is a plus (and low detail mode will help people like
me with ancient PCs), even if so far we can only change a few character
models/textures.

[Zwier Zak]

That's right Kurgan.

[Kurgan]

CNET gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars here.


Gamespot FINALLY posted their review (5.0, mediocre out of 10):

HERE.

Quotes:

A slapdash porting job turns the Force into a farce in this Star Wars action game.


The Good

* Intense story is one of the best Star Wars tales in years
* Fantastic physics engine lets you pull off all sorts of cool moves
* Includes three extra chapters not included in original console release.


The Bad

* Unstable frame rate and other performance issues
* No effort to tailor the port to the platform
* The new Hoth mission isn't very good.

Note that Gamespot usually recycles a lot of their review material, but take it for what it's worth.

Also, Metacritic is posting a list of reviews:

http://www.metacritic.com/games/plat...atesithedition

[Kurgan]

Reviews have started to appear on Amazon.com

Note that there is an official PATCH out now which may affect people's opinions (it's a big download at over 400 mb). (Thanks to Nestortight for bringing this to our attention!)

[Kurgan]

New reviews from metacritic...

http://www.metacritic.com/games/plat...atesithedition