So here we have Star Wars The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition (EU release date is Friday 27th but some etailors are obviously shipping it now as it missed its initial release date last Friday).
You really need at least a Quad Core & Mid Range or higher graphics card as well as around 30GB free HD space & 4GB physical Ram. Its a hardware ball breaker for sure although the box lists min specs much lower its unplayable on most low spec PC's. Also, its retail DVD or nothing as no current plans for a PC digital download due to the massive file size. Install time is over 1 hour as so much data copied and the 400MB patch takes around 25 mins alone.
Essential 1.1 Patch (but game is fine without it really patch adds a few cloth sim tweaks & more gamepad support amongst other things) is hosted here for now by Aspyr: http://www.aspyr.com/software/news/117/305
http://worthplaying.com/article/2009/11/10/news/70098/
No graphical settings to adjust except high/low quality and the reason for this is the hardware specs (remember when Lucasarts said last year no PC version as it needed a powerful machine well they were right!). This game has just under 18GB of high res textures
& 8GB of HD FMV. For once the PC gets what looks like the uncompressed raw data and you need a total of 29GB free space after the patch has installed an extra 4GB of data (from a 400MB patch!!).Gameplay is a slightly dumbed down Jedi Outcast and its nearly all wall to wall combat with some minor physics puzzles. You enter a new area and have to battle your way through using various force powers & or combat moves to the next area. Then depending on how many hidden force cubes & holocrons you collect you can upgrade force powers before the next level starts (not in-game as that would unbalance the gameplay). The game is at its best when you can combine force powers & go on a massive kill frenzy this combined with the Star Wars music & atmosphere is pretty effective!!
PC version has some incredible graphics in several places and also comes with all 3 console DLC mini-levels included within it. I bought this game on PS3 then after selling that console got it on X360 in the summer.
PC is totally superior looking as the console versions have the most attrocious screen tearing as they could not handle this game so ingame and cutscenes all had screen tearing which totally ruined the atmosphere.
There is 1 moment in this game which is without a doubt one of the most cinematic & incredible you have ever seen on any game on any platform. You will know it when you see it!!! ILM provided most of the cutscenes & John Williams movie music is the main soundtrack along with some great SW sound effects.
If you like Star Wars & appreciate a reasonable 3rd person combat action adventure then this game is the one to get. Not as good as Jedi Outcast gameplay wise but still the best looking SW game ever and a reasonable amount of gameplay as it will take around 15-20 hours to fully complete & see all content. Do not be tempted to use the console cheatcodes as these disable all saving!!
Also, its likely to have a healthy mod scene as well. Some US gamers have already used Texmod to alter ingame assets so now its finally out in EU you can expect a lot more mod activity.
Screenshots below are all 1920x1200 max everything (except for no AA) mainly taken from the 1st level (which is more of a tutorial with Vader which is pretty sweet
). All these shots are only from the first few seconds as well and ingame engine AA must be forced in your drivers control panel but you need some serious hardware to use it as the physics alone are very demanding. I only have a GTX260-216 but on both the rigs in my signature the gameplay is very fluid and smooth (its also an Nvidia sponsored TWIMTBP title).
It looks alright but nothing special. Bit like the game actually, worthwhile rental but quite flawed.
