Burdokva2

The original X-Wing, TIE-Fighter and X-Wing: Alliance are some of my favourite Star Wars games. All three actually build a loose but cohesive story of the Galactic Civil War from a few years before the Battle of Yavin straight through to the Battle of Endor.

Even better, all of them have active modding communities and there are fantastic things coming our for all three.

I strongly recommend to anyone that likes the X-Wing series to check out the following links:

X-Wing Alliance Upgrade Project
https://youtu.be/NtHGgAs33Iw

This has been an ongoing effort to improve the graphics of 1999’s XWA. Over the last year it seems that they have finally reverse-engineered the engine and have added new shaders, bloom, high-resolution backgrounds, TrackIR/VR support, in addition to the new high polygon 3D models and high-resolution textures. All now bumdled into a single installer “XWAUpgrade 2020 Patch.” From what I gather on the forums, they’re working to add multi-threading support to the engine, which will remove the biggest bottleneck in the engine (dependant on high-speed single CPU thread) and allow for smooth framerate during massive engagements.

TIE-Fighter Total Conversion
https://youtu.be/d8EbwANhJDQ

Built on the upgraded XWA engine using the XWAU project resources, requires the TIE-Fighter CE disk to play; they’ve completely rebuilt the campaign, rescored the dynamic soundtrack and redone the voice overs.

X-Wing Virtual Machine
https://youtu.be/IiOhc_DPQNY

Another “remaster” - this is a full port of the original X-Wing (94 CE) in the Unity engine. New 3d models, textures, graphics, they are remixing and cleaning up the sounds, voice over and soundtrack. Requires the original game to play as it will use of the original mission assets, including the expansion, for a full carrier mode.

Fate of the Galaxy
https://youtu.be/KNUgfPwoskk

Full Star Wars game based on the open-source FreeSpace2 engine, itself having been constantly upgraded and expanded since it became open in 2000. New original score, voice overs, full campaign mode with an original story, gorgeous graphics, multiple ships for both sides.

I understand XWVM and FotG are trying to not to gather too much attention prior to release after the Disney/EA issued the Cease&Desist to the KotOR remaster mod. All have been in development for years now and should be released or near release later this year or early 2022, XWAU is already complete and playable, and still being improved.

I plan to play all of them in a chronological order when released and I am really hyped. Hope this might give some smiles to those of you who have fond memories of the series but you haven’t played them in a while. They are all up to modern space sims graphics quality now.

I grew up with the Original Trilogy on ancient VHS tapes back in the early 90s. One of the first movies I ever saw and remember was Star Wars/A New Hope when I was three or four, so about 1991-1992. The X-Wing/TIE-Fighter series, Dark Forces/Jedi Knight, and my parents took me to see the Special Editions on the big screen. These are the foundations of my Star Wars fandom, and combined with my profound love for aviation and spaceflight, I’ve always taken more enjoyment from the space battles and just space travel than the Jedi/Sith conflict.

I don’t hate the SEs as some people do. Many of the changes are unnecessary (Han shooting second, etc.) but the actual revised special effects were great. And the SEs had great color gradients!

Then the prequels came. I saw The Phantom Menace on cinema in late 1999 (it was released in late September in my country). I still enjoy that film despite it being a bit boring and not because of nostalgia - in some weird way, being so different than the OT, it manages to evoke that feeling of being in a Galaxy far, far away. Every later Prequel was a disappointment for me because I had great hopes for them; then the Clone Wars followed in 2008 and that was the final nail for me. A childish animation with an unbearable lead character. I started to hate and bash the Prequels despite enjoying some aspects of the world building and visual design in them.

Looking back, the early 2000s were a fantastic Star Wars period. Reinvigorated fandom, lots of EU material (building upon Zahn’s Trilogy and Stackpole’s X-Wing series), absolutely amazing games - Republic Commando, KotOR, Empire at War.

After the Disney acquisition, Lucas being ousted and the marketing for The Force Awakens started, some friends managed to get me to watch the entirety of the Clone Wars animated series. They were right, it definitely improves over time. The Prequels, while I never grew to love them, started feeling like a nostalgic part of my childhood. Flawed, bad movies but full of wasted potential and many, many original ideas.

I loved the first half hour of The Force Awakens, and thoroughly disliked the rest. I wasn’t really invested in the Sequels, but then Rogue One came out and that was pretty decent, even if heavily pandering on nostalgia.
Then The Last Jedi happened. I completely lost any hope or passion I had left for the Sequel trilogy. I never saw TROS and have no intention of ever of doing so.

The two seasons of The Mandalorian and the last season of the Clone Wars have, surprisingly, restored a lot of my love and interest in Star Wars.

I still adore the Original Trilogy. It has its flaws, no doubt. Maybe it’s nostalgia or too ingrained in my childhood but it doesn’t matter. Some pieces of the old EU also hold a place there.

The Prequels are… more difficult to place. I haven’t suddenly started looking through rose glasses at them but I have started to appreciate what they gave rise to, novels, games, characters, generally the additions to the world building. They are mediocre films at best. A great story concept told in a poor way

My opinion of Lucas has also changed. I still think he’s a mediocre director and a horrible screenwriter but he definitely had lots of ideas and passion while making the Prequels. There was so much talent involved in the Prequels, if he had only accepted (or asked?) for screenwriting and directing help from people like Speilberg. The Prequels will always irritate me because I can imagine what they could have been rather than what they turned out to be.

The Sequels, I used to loathe them. I am now growing increasingly indifferent. They are the reverse-Prequels for me, if I can say so. I do not enjoy the visual designs, nor the soundtracks, nor the setting. I can summarise what I did enjoy in those films and, oddly, it seems that it’s all in TFA - the new T-70 X-Wing, Star Destroyer, TIE-Fighter and Stormtrooper armor (re)designs, Adam Driver’s acting as Kyle Ren was top notch (only good thing about TLJ), Rey’s Theme and the visuals on Jakku, seeing Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford back in a Star Wars movie. Sadly, that’s it.

Yes, they are better movies than the Prequels - better direction and pacing. But the underlying story is so haphazard, lacklustre, nonsensical, I just cannot enjoy them at all. There’s not even that “what could have been” feeling with the Sequels for me.

Overall, I’m a lot less optimistic and cautious about new Star Wars content than I was 20 years ago.

exitzero said:

B-Wing Pilot-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQYvxxeHftk

Howard Day’s channel has some amazing Star Wars CGI shorts - he has really captured the scale model feel. This is definitely my favoirite and just looks like part of RotJ - https://youtu.be/KIHwQyvVdVY.

Or this, part of the DS1 trench run -
https://youtu.be/QRG1kRR_c9Y

Wonder if any his stuff will make it into the Revisited editions?

EddieDean said:

What other avenues can we pursue for getting a little more Dooku in TPM?

Make Dooku a hologram throghout most of the movie and have him completely replace Palpatine role?

I always had this this idea that the Confederacy is created aboard Nute Gunray’s flagship over Naboo with the only time Dooku appearing in person with his own ship arriving - it can be either at the very beginning of the movie coinciding with the Jedi arrival (but then you’d have a consistency problem of why he’s a hologram if he’s on board) or after the occupation of the planet. You have the main antagonist faction established, and a serious threat with a powerful, charming leader, already in the first movie. Would require altering the Geonosian meeting room set to a ship one, though.

Then if you keep the meeting scene between Dooku and Palpatine at the end of AotC it’s actually a twist and way more powerful one. Your supposed main vilian was a puppet all along and the true bad guy is none other than the Chancellor himself!

Anyway, if he’s in as a (small) hologram in several scenes in TPM, I guess it should be more easier to disguise any editing, rotoscoping, cropping etc.

J0E said:

I still maintain that The (theatrical cut of the) Phantom Menace has aged the best out of the prequels. It’s pacing, it’s tonal consistency mixed with using actual sets, miniatures, costumes, etc. It’s sound design is absolutely fantastic. It’s a competently made movie that’s bogged down by cringe slapstick and bad writing. Overall though, it’s a 5.5/10.

I concur. Visual design, sound design and soundtrack, great sets and props, and that overall feel of a wonderous, new universe are strong point of TPM and this makes it the best prequel movie for me. I find it to be more of a boring than a bad movie. And one that can be salvaged by a good fan edit. I wonder if Deepfake will soon be advanced and easy enough to use by someone to attempt to “hack” AotC’s 19 year old Anakin into TPM as a more rogue-ish hotshot pilot wannabe Jedi in place of 9 year old Jake Lloyd. That, and a suitable replacement for Jar Jar plus some dialogue changes and minor restructuring might actually turn it into a solid, good movie.

The less said about AotC, the better. There are a few good things about it - I liked some of the vehicle designs, Across the Stars, Geonosis as a locale and Jango vs Obi-Wan on Kamino was a refresher from lightsaber duels - but overall it is just a bad, boring movie. I see it best serving as a source for fan edits of TPM and RotS as a duology.

RotS is a mess. It has frequent tonal shifts that completely take you out of the moment, such as the jarring switches between serious (and great) and terribly badly written, acted and directed segments of the Battle of Coruscant. The movie does have some, few, high points. Padme’s ruminations scene comes to mind. But its lows are really, truly bad. People sitting on sofas and talking Yes, RLM was right about this one and it definitely has not aged well. With some exceptions, them being parts the space battle and the duel on Mustafar, the CGI has aged very badly. The climactic duels were too drawn out and over the top, Order 66 was a boring montage, Grevious was awful and Dooku died way too early. Anakin’s fall was just atrocious.

Someone very talented with a decent budget could cut AotC and RotS into a decent, watchable movie. But for me, RotS has never been a favourite and in fact, has aged quite poorly

Apologies for typos, writing from mobile.