star wars

[Projects] The KotOR II Beta Restoration

kotor2betarest

Fans of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II probably know how much fun the game was, but also how much stuff that was shown in the beta screens was later removed from the final game (yeah, we still need to write an article about that on U64…).

KotOR II’s producer Chris Avellone in an interview after the game’s publication stated that he wished “there had been more time” to work on the game, and that a large amount of content — a droid factory, an entire planet, and other locations — was cut.

Because so much content was cut, however, a couple of teams of modders  have been working on an unofficial patch to restore the missing content, thanks to unused stuff still hidden in the game’s code and lot of patience. A couple of days ago, one of the team released their first Beta Restoration patch and now KotOR II’s fans all around the world are able to play the game with some of the removed parts! You can find a complete  (huge!) list of what’s restored in here.

You can download the KotOR II’s Beta Restoration from the Deadly Stream Forum. Huge props to Zbyl2 and DarthStoney for their work! 

Star Wars Battlefront IV (4) [X360/PS3 – Concept]

When LucasArts terminated their contract with Free Radical Design (nowadays known as Crytek UK), the studio was not only working on Star Wars Battlefront III and Time Splitters 4. Instead, the company started the pre-production of another Star Wars Battlefront game.

As the status of Star Wars Battlefront III (Free Radical version) is currently unknown, we do not expect any news about a fourth SW Battlefront game in the near future.

Thanks to Hey Hey.

Images: 

Euphoria Engine Tech Demo

What is Euphoria?

Euphoria is a game animation engine created by NaturalMotion based on Dynamic Motion Synthesis, Natural Motion’s proprietary technology for animating 3D characters on-the-fly “based on a full simulation of the 3D character, including body, muscles and motor nervous system”. Instead of using predefined animations, the characters’ actions and reactions are synthesized in real-time; they are different every time, even when replaying the same scene. While traditional physics engines uses ragdolls (like the Havok Physics Engine) for animations generated on the fly, Euphoria employs a more complex method to animate the entirety of physically-bound objects within the game environment. According to its web site, Euphoria runs on the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC hardware platforms.

In February 2007, NaturalMotion and Rockstar Games announced that Euphoria would be used in future Rockstar titles. A press release that was enclosed with the second trailer eventually confirmed that Grand Theft Auto IV is the first of Rockstar‘s games to feature Euphoria. In April 2006, LucasArts announced that their next Indiana Jones game would use Euphoria.The current Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 title Star Wars: The Force Unleashed also uses Euphoria.

In August 2007, NaturalMotion announced Backbreaker, an American Football game for next-generation consoles that employs Euphoria to generate tackles in real-time, as opposed to playback animation. [Infos from Wikipedia]

Engine Tech Demo:



GTA IV Tech Demo:



Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Tech Demo:

 

Star Wars Battlefront 3 [Cancelled Free Radical Version / Proto – Xbox 360 / PS3 / PC]

In 2006, LucasArts announced an agreement with UK-based and now shut down developer Free Radical Design. Although no further announcements were made about the game, it was well known that FRD was working on Star Wars Battlefront 3 for next-generation platforms.

Several issues including delays and “communication problems” made LucasArts cancel the project and leave Free Radical Design without funding. As a result, the studio had to close in December 2008 as publishers showed no interest in either buying or investing into FRD.

While Star Wars Battlefront 3 will be finished at Rebellion Studios, the other FRD game (TimeSplitters 4) will probably not appear in the near future.

In April 2012, more screens and videos from an alpha version of Star Wars Battlefront 3 Free Radical version were shared online by Past to Present Online

Also as we can read from PC Gamer:

Betagames have found remnants of a Battlefront project in the form of images stashed away on the Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City disk. That seems like an odd place to leave some spare files, but Raccoon City developers, Slant Six were rumoured to have been working on the third game in the Battlefront series for a while. The files include a variety of pro-quality loading screens and some odd bits of texture work, including a hideous image of Luke Skywalker’s face stretched out on a 2D plane. Eeeugh.

Images:

Video:

 

Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic [XBOX – Beta]

ENG: This entry in the archive doesn’t have a description yet. If you want to add some info about the beta / cancelled stuff that you see in these images, just write a comment or send us an email! We’ll add your info in this page and your name in the contributors list. Thanks a lot for your help! :)

ITA: Questa pagina dell’archivio non ha ancora una descrizione. Se vuoi aggiungere delle informazioni riguardo le differenze della beta o la descrizione di un gioco cancellato, lasciaci un commento o mandaci una email! Inseriremo le tue informazioni nella pagina ed il tuo nome nella lista dei collaboratori. Grazie per il tuo aiuto! :)

Images: