BATTLEFRONT III RELEASED or: Resident Evil: Battlefront III

[Lephenix]

The game might have been amazing at the stage of first leaked vid, finally movie accurate locations, all was amazing .

[willinator]

[rant] I fully agree with WULFMAN; just because this footage is released, doesn't mean there is an announcement upcoming(There is other evidence for that). However, I think it would be very helpful to developers if they are making Battlefront III. They can look at the footage, and take it from there. It would be nice to have the game from the footage, but that is really just Elite Squadron for consoles. It would be nice, but not that great. If Spark Unlimited, or any other developer, is making this game, they should make it differant than the footage. Otherwise, why credit them? [/rant]

[Moving_Target]

If this footage does anything it reinforces to LA that fans are still waiting and are still excited. It also is free feedback from future customers and fans. Or could be the opposite and FR and SS are just indirectly pushing pressure on LA to make some kind of announcement or such.

[Fusion]

If Spark Unlimited, or any other developer, is making this game, they should make it different than the footage. Otherwise, why credit them?

Rebellion seemed perfectly fine with not crediting the people who actually made the maps. Not one mention of Free Radical in their credits. I should know, I played the campaign on hard mode the other day.

[Cerfon Rournes]

http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/89734 ... ncellation
This game reached final it's final stages before was cancelled.

[giftheck]

I thought Spark confirmed while they had suggested making BFIII to LucasArts, they were turned down.

[Fusion]

http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/89734 ... ncellation
This game reached final it's final stages before was cancelled.

Confirmed by many former employees to be exaggerated. They hadn't even recorded most of the voices and sounds (which explains why the handheld games' stories were so truncated) and were in the process of trying to remove the ground to space mechanic (which was a major reason why LucasArts removed the project from them as they had already made a CGI Trailer showing it off as a major feature).

[Xavious]

I thought Spark confirmed while they had suggested making BFIII to LucasArts, they were turned down.

They did, so I'm not sure where the article is getting this:

As for Battlefront III, the latest rumours indicate it's being started again from scratch by Spark Unlimited - the team behind critical disasters Turning Point, Legendary and the forthcoming Lost Planet 3. It's suggested LucasArts may be planning a reveal at E3 in June.

Especially since Spark Unlimited's other project is apparently "a 3rd person action/slasher horror game." (http://www.justpushstart.com/2012/04/sp ... onslasher/)

[[TFA]Padawan_Fighter]

Kinda buggy if you ask me. Where's the ground-space transition they promised?

[Moving_Target]

After rereading Guru's post on the front page, it reminded me that I read that article a few days back. Anyways, it's quite sad that not only LA went insane, but they single handedly killed off one of my favorite developers.

The bigger question is why would they do this?

[Teancum]

Yeah, the whole story makes me dislike Lucasarts a LOT more. They've been in a slump for the last 5 or so years. LEGO games (which are getting old) and SWTFU are the only decent things they put out, but roughly 1997-2006 I loved every game they released.

[Fusion]

I stopped liking LucasArts when they were all like, "Watch the VGAs for the sequel you've all been waiting for...FORCE UNLEASHED 2!" right after the Battlefront 3[FR] footage leaked.

Free Radical closing wasn't their entire fault, the other problem was no one wanting to publish TimeSplitters 4, but yes, they're half responsible. Rebellion's also to blame, as they tried to convince LucasArts that they could just upscale their PS2 port of Battlefront 3 for PS3/360/PC. You can infer this upsets me greatly because there is not currently even a PS2 version of Battlefront 3, just a PSP version and a DS version that might as well have never existed.

[Marth8880]

Those Rebel scum...

[Teancum]

Rebellion's also to blame, as they tried to convince LucasArts that they could just upscale their PS2 port of Battlefront 3 for PS3/360/PC.

Where did you hear this? I work in the media and haven't seen that rumor/statement. That's interesting.

But back on the LucasArts thing, Jim Ward's restructuring to develop games internally circa 2005/2006 really put too much on the company. They've ended up outsourcing yet again (Telltale, Free Radical, Rebellion, etc) and it just put them in the port-a-potty. AAA games are just too difficult to both make and publish in-house anymore. Every other big publisher either owns dedicated development studio subsidiaries or outsources.

On another interesting note I bought "Rogue Leaders: The Story Of Lucasarts". It's a great book, and details some great games that got canned during concept phases: KotOR 3, Imperial Commando, Rebel Warrior (shot down by George because you would've played as a wookie), and others.

[Fusion]

Where did you hear this? I work in the media and haven't seen that rumor/statement. That's interesting.

A few former Free Radical employees post here and there (I can't remember where, this was a few months ago) and they heard it from their higher-ups. Might just be an industry rumor as one Rebellion employee hadn't heard about it other than a few musings that if Free Radical couldn't do it they would try. The PS2 version was being made until LucasArts pulled the plug on that too for some reason, most likely because releasing a game like this only on one last generation console in 2008-2009 would be pretty weird.

[Twilight_Warrior]

releasing a game like this only on one last generation console in 2008-2009 would be pretty weird.

Tell that to Super Fighter Team

[Moving_Target]

At this point Lucas just needs to step aside. Heck I remember a DS game taht did ok where you played a female Twelek and had a wookiee companion. Either way this is quite sad and I hope they get their heads on straight and announce something the fans want at E3 since they have no titles announced at the moment. I can understand the move to more inhouse, but there is a physical limit of how much you can do. They should have certain IPs that are allowed to go 3rd party, while certain ones that need that Star Wars magical touch stay in house. Which could be like 2 or 3 games at most.

Did they say Tean, the reasons why some of the titles got canned? I bet LA is thinking twice about Kotor 3 now. Imp Commandos, huh, and I thought that was just a fan idea.

[THEWULFMAN]

I bet LA is thinking twice about Kotor 3 now. Imp Commandos, huh, and I thought that was just a fan idea.

Well there was an Imperial Commandos book, so it does make sense. I seriously doubt we'll see KotOR 3 anytime soon, as TOR was supposed to replace it.

[Teancum]

Did they say Tean, the reasons why some of the titles got canned? I bet LA is thinking twice about Kotor 3 now. Imp Commandos, huh, and I thought that was just a fan idea.

I can look it up later. If I remember right Imperial Commando was one that got axed during the restructure of the company. I'll have to double check, though.

[Grev]

I may be wrong, but I'm fairly sure the wookie game concept was the pre-cursor to The Force Unleashed, but Lucas didn't think we would "connect" with a wookie, and so Starkiller was born.