Just picked up my copy - haven’t bothered with the disks as I already have it on VHS and LD.
Spent the morning hacking about on the demo of Battlefront (XBOX) and it is fantastic! Have a feeling this will keep me occupied until Halo 2 or Half Life 2…....
I’m glad I have the LD versions after reading about the audio issues on this release. It was interesting that I walked into Best Buy on Tuesday at noon and was only the 8th person to pick one up. The guys there said that they expected people to line up, but maybe demand has cooled a bit.
[quote author=“TobyAnscombe”]Spent the morning hacking about on the demo of Battlefront (XBOX) and it is fantastic! Have a feeling this will keep me occupied until Halo 2 or Half Life 2…....
I was about to pick up this game till I read all the bad reviews on gameplay, AI, and graphics…now I think i’ll wait a bit.
1) The familiar Force theme trumpet fanfare that used to play right after Red Leader says: “This is it!” and just as the X-wings start diving towards the Death Star’s surface has been dialed back in volume so that it’s almost inaudible - it’s almost completely buried in the surround mix.
2) The audio quality varies wildly as Tarkin says the line: “You would prefer another target, a military target? Then name the system.” - almost as if the master sound element was damaged.
3) Also, John Williams’ score for the film seems to have been flipped in the rear channels, so that what should be the left rear channel seems to be playing from the right rear channel (and vise versa). What this means is that the rear channels don’t match the front channels - instruments heard from the front right channel come from the left rear instead of the right rear. It’s hard to notice, but we’re getting a number of reports from people hearing this.
These problems would seem to be severe enough to merit a repressing/exchange of the disc. We’re waiting to hear back from Lucasfilm on this issue and we’ll update this review with the details as soon as we do.]
Am I one of the few that will wait till after episode three? Yeah the first three episodes aren’t great, but after episode three I foresee a special DVD collectors edition of all 6 episodes…at which point I will indulge. P.S. keep us informed about the possible disc exchange.
Maybe it’s just me, but as a “child of the 80’s”, the original trilogy is the real Star Wars. It’s cheesy, but it’s one of the things I had growing up that aged well. Re-watching things like the Transformers and Alf are painful. :o Unlike a lot of people I don’t really mind the changes done to the movie except for “Greedo shoots first” (for thematic and important character arc reasons), the Jabba’s palace song and pasting Hayden Christianson’s head on Sebastian Shaw’s body at the end of Jedi.
The new trilogy has its moments, like the full reveal of Darth Maul and subsequent lightsaber fight (particularly the interlude between the red force field) and the scenes where Anakin leaves Padme and searches for his mother, but they’re not Star Wars, just stories set in the same universe. Oddly, I’ve gained a certain appreciation for Episode I (with the exception of all the Gungans and much of Jake Lloyd’s perfomance) and for Qui-Gon Jinn. Episode II was a piece of shit. Any scene with Anakin or Padme automatically invites the next chapter button.
I’ll buy exactly one more Star Wars DVD, but the inevitable 6-movie set will have to have something damn special for me to even consider. Hell, I only bought the current trilogy set because my bootlegs are non-anamorphic and don’t have a great Dolby audio track.
[quote author=“Drachen”]Maybe it’s just me, but as a “child of the 80’s”, the original trilogy is the real Star Wars.
Agree 100%. IMO CGI killed the newer Star Wars…the old models were so much more realistic. Anyway, the only part of II I liked was the final battle with Yoda…thats about it.
I don’t like the re-release but since he won’t release the originals on DVD, i’ll take what I can get.
[quote author=“tifosiv122”][quote author=“Drachen”]Maybe it’s just me, but as a “child of the 80’s”, the original trilogy is the real Star Wars.
Agree 100%. IMO CGI killed the newer Star Wars…the old models were so much more realistic. Anyway, the only part of II I liked was the final battle with Yoda…thats about it.
I don’t like the re-release but since he won’t release the originals on DVD, i’ll take what I can get.
Erik
I guess there’re three of us then. I still have the original trilogy on LD. But have been so unimpressed with Lucas’s “milk it” episode releases, I don’t care to own them.
Hopefully the love affair is over between Padme and Anakin since he is set to go postal on the Jedi. I hope Episode III brings the “goods” with Darth Vader’s back to the future cameo. I too am a huge fan. If I had one request it would be for Lucas to eliminate the temptation of putting in characters like Ewoks and Jar-Jar Binks as comedy fill in. I know the kids love it, but those of us who grew up in the 80’s aren’t kids anymore. Bring us some non-stop action, George! Don’t go out like a punk. :|
You’re ignoring the pattern. The movie Lucas had the least direct involvement with, Empire (he did plotting and took over producing duties when Gary Kurtz just about sunk the production) was easily the best one and it’s been steadily downhill from there. We’re guaranteed more Anakin whining, bad comedy from C3-PO, R2 saving the day, more video game-inspired action sequences, more overchoriographed lightsaber fights and characters only vaguely aware of their surroundings and/or other characters.
[quote author=“Drachen”]You’re ignoring the pattern. The movie Lucas had the least direct involvement with, Empire (he did plotting and took over producing duties when Gary Kurtz just about sunk the production) was easily the best one and it’s been steadily downhill from there. We’re guaranteed more Anakin whining, bad comedy from C3-PO, R2 saving the day, more video game-inspired action sequences, more overchoriographed lightsaber fights and characters only vaguely aware of their surroundings and/or other characters.
It’s sad really. Star Wars, the little B movie that made good, taught hollywood how to produce a space opera. Nine years earlier Kubricks’ technically perfect 2001 A Space Odyssey demonstrated that interstellar craft did not need tail fins. Both deserve credit for convincing hollywood that there was a market for good science fiction—given writers and directors who had a clue.
An avid reader of science fiction, I could never stand to see what hollywood foisted on the public. When it came out, I had to be forced to go see Star Wars as my (then) wife and some friends wanted to see it.
After seeing Episode I, I came to the sad realization that the best Lucas could do was make big budget B movies. That Star Wars was pure serendipity.
I picked up SW Battlefront for the PC…man does this game suck! It is way too easy, and just annoying…its not as your in the movie as they said…blah, its going back to Walmart tomorrow…what a waste.
