It has been a while and a lot of thought has gone into this so that it may continue in the long term. I am pleased to introduce my first blog following the new format published in the end of December.

Now a bit about the PCīs Iīm testing our beloved games out on.

Review PC #1: The powerful PC. Runs Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit, AMD Athlon 64X2 3800+ at 2.4Ghz, Nforce 430 chipset, Nvidia Geforce 7600GT graphics and about 330GB of total hard drive space 1256MB RAM. Used for testing new releases on a midrange system, as upgrades occur to this system Iīll keep you informed.

Review PC #2: The Windows XP machine. Represents humbler origins, runs 2.4Ghz Pentium 4 processor, Nvidia GeforceFX 5200 graphics, 200GB of total hard drive space and an Intel 845GV chipset, 768MB RAM. Used mostly for testing games that either do not run on Vista, or for multiplayer testing with the aforementioned PC.

Review PC #3ĻThe legacy PC or should I say laptop? Runs Windows ME, 2Ghz Pentium Celeron processor, 512MB RAM, 30GB HDD, ATI Mobility Radeon 16MB graphics. Used for testing 90s era games and DOS games via DOS Box emulation.

Console wise - Thereīs a Playstation 2 need i say more?

Great now that the introductions are done letīs begin...

News

Old news to you guys but for me since Iīve been away over the break a surprise to see Star Wars The Old Republic still going strong. After every possible comment against it been thrown all over the internet (mostly along the lines of where is my KOTOR3??????) and the groan amongst the entire tech industry known as MMORPG strikes back (c.f. Galaxies) Bioware in the great 5 mile long article seen on gamespot I think talks of the next generation in online gaming. Apparently the story in the game is going to work in such a way that decisions cannot be changed (see f5 quick save button in KOTOR) and that your character will be part of a much greater world which constantly changes and morphs while not been restricted to good and evil if you join the Sith or the Republic or vice versa. Obviously there would be Jedi classes but others have not been announced as far as I know. (If they have let me know just post a comment and Iīll get an e-mail.)

Hereīs the catch, by my understanding it sounds like every character is a protagonist and while Iīm hopeful as to the future of this amazingly sounding game I am wary at the same time of this feature. What made single player KOTOR so good was that admittedly your character was the protagonist, you were the one making the decisions etc. Kudos to Bioware and the development team if they can pull that off in the final release product without a hitch. If not then I admire their tenacity for trying.

As for the story due to the nature of the blog system I am not allowed to make any changes or suggest any however it seems like a good one once more choosing a time virtually unexplored by the current expanded universe. The story goes along the lines of the Sith that Revan went to the far reaches of the galaxy to fight come back with a vengeance eventually leading to what would become a war of attrition with the Republic. You choose your side in the conflict: Sith or Republic and ultimately make your decisions fall into light and dark.

Overall here are my thoughts: An MMORPG allows for a constantly shifting and updating world. Nothing to me is better than a constantly updated game especially if its good. However, we are naturally selfish people and will all want to be the protagonist in this epic story, how will Bioware pull this off I cannot tell you and because of this my wish is for them to release KOTOR 3 at the same time with a constantly updating subscription system that allows for new ingame content if they want to join the subscription based gaming money making business. Or release them for free (no complaints here). Indeed the game could be a huge success or a giant flop, I guess weīll have to wait and see wonīt we?

Game Review

Todayīs game is a favourite of mine, and pretty much every Star Wars gamer on the planet and in light of tying it in with the above I bring you Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic.

The game was released in 2003 by Bioware and won god knows how many awards in the end for its incredible story line and precise game play, coupled with the sheer range of worlds and side quests to explore.

The story line is incredible and giving any of it away is a sin in my view.

Now performance on my testing systems and nuts and bolts reviews.

On the powerful PC it zoomed through no apparent problems with everything turned on high at 1280x1024 resolution. The graphics look amazing for a 2003 era game with all the settings turned on. The sound too through the onboard HD audio sounds incredible with the music really adding something special to the already spectacular game. However, under Vista the game does have compatibility issues I have discovered of late. It is really due to the Bink video technology employed by the gameīs cutscenes which Vista has trouble with. It may depend on your configuration since I tried the game on a friendsīs Vista PC and it worked no problem. Just watch out because apparently I am not the only one.

On the Windows XP PC things turned out a bit differently. Everything seemed to be fine all the way through Taris and I thought this is great no problems so far until I reached Dantooine. Now saying the slowdown in the gameīs frame rate was chronic is an understatement. I turned everything off shadows, grass, pretty shiny filter, resolution down to 640x480 (itīs a CRT monitor so things donīt look so bad at lower resolutions.) But the game still stuttered like crazy. This is a PC that can handle Battlefront II not problem at a decent resolution. To worsen the problem is the fact that the Minimum Requirements on the box say that the game can run on a 32MB Hardware transform and lighting graphics card. Strange, that sounds like a Geforce 2 can run it on low specs but my 128MB FX 5200 canīt. As a lesson to you all make sure your system meets most of the recommended specs on the box for a smooth and enjoyable gameplay experience.

As for the legacy PC I decided to try the game and I wish I had a photo. The game runs on Windows 98 and ME as well as 2000 and XP however stuttering and playing a game at 7 frames per second resulted in me giving up and uninstalling the game five minutes later.

Overall KOTOR will run no problem on all of todayīs PCīs with a decent graphics card and if you havenīt played it yet go find it in your budget row at the local gaming store. It would be well worth the experience.

As for those of you who have only played it once. Play it another time this week and see how much the game can change.

Mod review

Todayīs mod is one for Star Wars: Jedi Knight Jedi Academy. Itīs called the JA+ mod version 2.3. It adds a whole lot of interesting little tweaks to the game both in single player and multiplayer though the real fun is in multiplayer in this game with mods.

It adds new force power animations to the game, new lightsaber moves, the ability to use melee combat whenever you want, rgb sliders when customizing your lightsaber colour in order to get that perfect colour and customizable beams for you lightsaber in case the classic style isnīt for you as well as numerous other tweaks that the author felt the original game didnīt include. The total list is staggering.

Overall the modīs features work well IF INSTALLED CORRECTLY. Please read the Readme file before installing as some features may not work correctly if the mod is not installed perfectly. I had trouble enabling everything due to the sheer number of mods on my Jedi Academy installation. Thankfully I found a compiled installer on Lucasfiles that does the installation for you. Isnīt that handy?

Overally the mod still needs a few more touches before its completely perfect but as it stands it works well and is handy to increase the enjoyment out of your good old copy of Jedi Academy, go on get it out of the cupboard, brush the dust off it and watch an old game learn new tricks.

Final Comments

2009 seems to be a year of innovation for the gaming industry as the last generation of games for Windows Vista come out before Windows 7 hits the shelves in 2010. Itīs a year of transition with old techniques being remodeled as more and more people leave the 2001 era technology that Windows XP brought us and join the new completely redesigned generation of Vista and eventually 7. In the end however I find that some of these golden games from earlier this decade stack up a lot better than some of the games that have been coming out of the major design studios. Hopefully another game just as good as KOTOR might be around the corner.

Alpha Evolution signing off and as always comments encouraged.