Gametrailers.com has posted an exclusive look at the Felucia level in The Force Unleashed. The Fulcia level looks absolutely stunning and the graphics are amazing. This little sneak peak, for me anyway, gives a better look into how the actual gameplay is and gives a better feel of the game.

Here’s some additional info on the planet Felucia:

Felucia had a diversity of bizarre plants, fungi, and animals which were almost rubber-like and translucent, as well as enormous Pitchers. When the sun shone, the environment glittered like multicolored glass. Most of Felucia was entirely covered by a humid, fetid landscape of huge fungal forests, and its wildlife included native gelagrubs, immigrated acklays, and a prodigious sarlacc.

During the Clone Wars, Felucia became the headquarters of the Commerce Guild which supported the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Felucia would become a valuable member world and was as a result named by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine as part of a “Triad of Evil,” alongside Mygeeto and Saleucami.

The planet was attacked during the Outer Rim Sieges. After the first attack, 19 BBY, Barriss Offee and Zonder were imprisoned on the planet. Aayla Secura took the Intrepid to Felucia to capture Shu Mai and rescue Barriss and Zonder; meanwhile, the Separatists began their attack on Coruscant.

Clone troopers on the surface of Felucia.With the help of Padawan Ekria, Aayla rescued Barriss and Zonder from the Nigkoe Detention Facility, resulting in a full-fledged ground battle. The Republic forces then assaulted Shu Mai’s personal compound, not realizing Mai had already evacuated and was on Utapau.

The Jedi infiltrated the compound, found Mai long gone, but managed to shut down the droid army remotely, letting Commander Bly’s clone troops into the compound, at the same time the Invisible Hand was crashing onto Coruscant.

Unfortunately, the compound was booby-trapped, and released toxins, killing many clones. The Jedi barely escaped before the entire compound exploded, but many clones did not. The trap also triggered a “poisoned well” policy to keep the planet from being of worth to the Republic, unleashing a highly poisonous biological agent into the water supply of Felucia’s natural planet-wide aquatic distribution system, capable of infecting the entire planet in four days.

Shu Mai had left behind forces ordered to fortify the planet’s major water treatment facilities. They knew the only way to prevent the deaths of millions was to take over the facilities and contain the toxin. The Jedi Council sent Stass Allie with clone reinforcements to Felucia.

Stass dropped off the clone reinforcements and Padawan Drake Lo’gaan on Felucia and then headed to Saleucami. The Republic forces split into three forces, each headed toward a different facility: Barriss, Lieutenant Inc, and Lieutenant Barr to Har Gau; Ekria, Zonder, Drake, and Lieutenant Galle to Jiaozi; and Aayla and Commander Bly to Niango.

AT-OT in use on Felucia.Barriss’s forces defeated a Commerce Guild patrol, at the cost of Lieutenant Inc’s life. Barriss ordered Lieutenant Barr’s troops to abandon her and go get Lieutenant Galle for help.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Galle used a staged retreat to distract the Commerce Guild forces from the facility at Jiaozi, which the Padawans were able to infiltrate. The Padawans completed their mission at Jiaozi by shutting down the outgoing pipes before the arrival of the toxin, but were unable to access the controls of the Niango and Har Gau.

Ekria was puzzled when she detected a Confederacy-encrypted holo from Coruscant being received by Bly, not understanding that it was Darth Sidious relaying Order 66. Ekria was able to tap into the clone-cam feeds of Bly’s troops and behold Aayla, who was spooked by the complete silence of the wildlife as she and Bly headed towards Niango. As Aayla was distracted by a native bird taking to the air, she was gunned down from behind by Bly and the other clones.

Simultaneously, Barriss was fighting alone, surrounded by droids. To her relief, she saw Lieutenant Galle’s men seemingly rush to her rescue, but instead they shot her down.

The Padawans were horrified by Aayla’s murder, but able to decrypt the message and hear Order 66. They then heard a new message on Republic channels from Coruscant: “Calling all Jedi. This is Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. The war is over. I repeat, the war is over. All Jedi are ordered to return to the Jedi Temple immediately. You will receive further instructions when you arrive.”

The Padawans then checked Galle’s clone-cam, and saw that Galle’s troops were about to burst into the Jiaozi facility to kill the Padawans. The Padawans barely escaped, and would later head to Coruscant.

The Felucia landscape.After the clone wars, the damage to the eco-system combined with the pain and suffering felt on the planet caused many of the force sensitive Felucians to teeter dangerously close to the dark side. This made Felucia an even more dangerous place.

During the Great Jedi Purge, Darth Vader sent his secret apprentice Galen Marek to Felucia to deal with Force-sensitives there. Master Shaak Ti had exiled herself to this planet, where she was training Jedi and Force sensitives on Felucia for a confrontation with the Dark Lord. The Empire established a prison facility on Felucia, from which agents of Bail Organa rescued Admiral Gilder Varth.

The Empire would occupy Felucia into the time of the Galactic Civil War. Jabba Desilijic Tiure had sent a Sith holocron that he spent half his wealth on to Felucia to be protected by the Empire, where it was stolen by the Zann Consortium. It was during this time that Tyber Zann here led a contingent of his underworld mercenaries against the Imperial forces. However, Zann would get captured by Imperial forces as part of a trap set up by Jabba, although he would later escape.

Source: Wookiepedia

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I’ve seen this around the net alot today. It seems Gamespot.com have put up something called The Force Unleashed Launch Center, which is counting down 11 days and says, “review coming soon”. I have no idea what this could be, I suppose it could be a pre-release review or something.

In the meantime dozens of sites have now posted their reviews of The Force Unleashed demo. You can check out some of them below, courtesy of TheForce.net

From Examiner.com:

If the Star Wars Force Unleashed demo is any sign of things to come, there are going to be a lot of late nights spent slicing and dicing with lightsaber in hand. The game has a nice mix of fast-action gameplay and strategic decisions and promises good role-playing value and puzzles to boot. And, with its open-ended storyline, it might be the type of game you can play through time and again making different choices and exploring different areas of the game.

Star Wars Force Unleashed Demo - Gameplay
The demo’s mission is a relatively simple affair where you are sent to an installation and ordered to kill everyone inside. It guides you through using your force powers to blast through doors and unlock hangers while you practice picking up barrels and throwing them at groups of the enemy. All of this ends in a huge battle against an AT-ST that is finally defeated by doing a special move to split the thing in two.

While the Force Unleashed demo doesn’t allow you to delve much into the character building aspects of the game, it does demonstrate one crucial point: Star Wars Force Unleashed is going to be well worth the wait. It is like a super-charged Knights of the Old Republic with all the theatrical feel of the old X-Wing and Tie Fighter games. In other words, it feels like you are really inside the Star Wars universe, and it’s a blast.

Star Wars Force Unleashed Demo - Graphics, Sound and Controls
A game lives or dies based on solid gameplay, but its the graphics and sound that take it from good to great. And there’s no doubt that the Force Unleashed is going to end up in the great column. Playing on the Xbox 360, the graphics are gorgeous. The game has a dark feel to it combined with the cinematic of the Star Wars universe. The sound is also dead on from the whirl of the lightsaber to the buzz of a Tie Fighter zipping past.

The controls are also very sweet. Getting the camera angle just right so that you can throw a barrel down a hallway and into a pack of the enemy can take a little getting used to, but for the most part, the controls come quick and easy. I really liked how I could jump into the air and hover a few moments by swinging the lightsaber. I was also able to slip around corners and zig zag to evade incoming fire on my way for a fantastic leap into their midst.

The free and easy feel of the controls makes taking on a pack of enemies a real blast. My favorite tactic was to start with a leap, knock them back with a force push, slice through them with my lightsaber and — coming to the last of them — cackling a little before unleashing a lightning attack. But, hey, that’s just me.

From SoundAndVisionMag.com:

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

We explore the first four levels of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on the Xbox 360. The Dark Side never looked so good.

As this magazine’s videogame reviewer and a longtime Star Wars fan, I was so eager to get my hands on an early copy of The Force Unleashed that I considered storming the Presidio. Luckily, however, LucasArts was kind enough to deliver an exclusive preview (for Xbox 360) right to my door. And based on the four levels I was given (about 40% of the finished game), I’m confident that, throughout, The Force will unleash superb graphics and sound for your home theater. What’s more, the gameplay itself is revolutionary in its vivid verisimilitude and unprecedented A.I. — all in a compelling plot that’s true to the spirit of the Star Wars films.

Set between the prequels and the classic trilogy, The Force Unleashed finds the Jedi Knights to be all but extinct — and you’re on a mission to hunt down the final few who have gone into hiding. That’s right: You’re on the Dark Side in this game. In fact, you begin play as Darth Vader himself, sent to exterminate a lone Jedi on the Wookiee home world of Kashyyyk. Then, starting with Level 2, you become Vader’s Secret Apprentice, armed with flashy lightsaber attacks and other powers unlike any you’ve seen in a Star Wars game — or a Star Wars movie. Here, for example, the Force grip is no longer merely for tossing foes aside. Now you’ll suspend them in midair, shock them with Sith lightning, and slam them down to the ground to explode like a bomb. The dramatically diverse environments of the first four levels are a showcase for the game’s graphics and physics. From the first moments on Kashyyyk, you can see how everything reacts with extraordinary realism. Crash through the Wookiees’ barriers, and the wood breaks and splinters as it should, depending on the impact.

In the second level, where you infiltrate a TIE Fighter factory as the Secret Apprentice, you’ll notice how your enemies act like real people by revealing their sense of self-preservation. Use the Force to attack a Stormtrooper and send him flying through the air; arms flailing, he’ll desperately try to grab onto something to prevent himself from falling. Dispatch another one, and he’ll even try to grab onto his already airborne squadmate. (“Wait a sec,” I can hear you asking. “Infiltrate a TIE Fighter factory? Attack a Stormtrooper? You said I was playing on the Dark Side.” Remember: You’re the Secret Apprentice. And there can’t be any witnesses.)

The next stop on your epic journey is the junkyard planet of Raxus Prime, where the wreckage of Jedi Starfighters, Republic Gunships, and Imperial Walkers can be seen in the amazingly detailed rubble. The fourth and final level I played is set on the overgrown planet of Felucia. It’s a beautifully rendered environment of towering vegetation — but don’t get too distracted, because you’ll have to square off against hulking Rancor monsters and, from the prequel films, a certain Jedi Master that fans might recognize. Like the graphics, the immersive surround sound is impressively dynamic. At the end of each level I played, a bone-crushing battle gave my subwoofer a serious workout. All of the voice acting is first-rate, and John Williams’s stirring film scores blend seamlessly with 90 minutes of original music to help create an aural tour de Force.

Judging from this preview, it’s a safe bet that the complete game of The Force Unleashed will deliver an unforgettable Star Wars experience.

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Sweet! GameTrailers.com has posted some very cool videos on The Force Unleashed.

In the first video, entitled, “Star Wars: Force Unleashed - GC 2008: Developer Overview”, Assistant producer Cameron Suey, takes you through the first level of The Force Unleashed for the XBOX 360. He discusses the many Force Powers of The Secret Apprentice including the different combos you can use in the game.

The next two videos entitles, “Star Wars: Force Unleashed - GC 2008: Developer Walkthrough Pt. 1 and Pt. 2″, Cameron Suey takes you through the Junkyard World of Raxus Prime. He also dicusses the technology used in the game using examples throughout the leve. One of my favorite parts in this movie is when he force punts the Jawa!!! That’s awesome..

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Well my Forceunleashians, today is the big day! The Force Unleashed Demo is now out! You can grab it throught the XBOX marketplace and the PS3 marketplace. There is an overwhelming response from it, more than I expeceted to be honest. All the reviews i’ve heard so far indicate that it is totally amazing!!

A little trick one of my forums members made:

“the ones that don’t have a gold membership, make a new account and you will recive for free a month of gold membership and you can download the demo. i’ve descover this now and i’ve played the demo it’s awesome. the limit for accounts per console it’s 3. who allready had 3 accounts, sry for them. if you have one or two accounts make a new account and download the demo”

Just in case some people didn’t know that.

From Team XBOX:

LucasArts has released a playable demo of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. An entirely new chapter in the Star Wars Saga, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed casts players as Darth Vader’s “Secret Apprentice” and promises to unveil new revelations about the Star Wars galaxy. The game’s expansive story is set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. In it, players will assist Vader in his quest to rid the universe of Jedi - and face decisions that could change the course of their destiny.

The demo (905 MB) gives players a taste of one of the early levels in the game: the TIE Fighter Construction Facility, under siege by a Jedi general named Rahm Kota. Also included in the demo is a tutorial intended to teach players how to use their Force Grip power.

For all you folks who can’t get your hands on the demo yet or don’t have the right account to download it, check out some actual gameplay of the demo. This gameplay was done by a fan by the looks of it, it starts off from when you first start the demo!

More gameplay, courtesy of our forum moderator Grand Moff Dave, thanks man!

and some more gameplay, courtesy of Gametrailers.com:

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TheHDRoom.com has posted some pretty cool and exclusive screenshots of the upcoming Demo of The Force Unleashed. The Demo is due out on Thursday, August 21. Yup, that’s right two days!! I’m sure everyone is getting pretty ancy on getting their hands on the Demo.

These screens include some gameplay action, the new game screen, and the more popular screenshot that seems to be taking all the buzz, is the XBOX 360 controller map. So it gives you some insight on how to warm up your fingers and practice so you’ll be all set when the demo comes out in two days.

Listen up, young Padawans. This Thursday is the day you become a Sith, err, man, and take control of LucasArts’ Star Wars: The Force Unleashed demo on either Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. The Tie Fighter factory awaits your raw Force powers.

The next “Controller” screen appears before a loading screen and stays up until you press “A” to continue. The controls are quick and easy to learn, especially if you partake in the quick tutorial, so one glimpse should be enough to get going.

Check out the screenshots below:

Check out the full article here!

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All of a sudden we’re being bombarded with some fantastic gameplay videos of The Force Unleashed. The has been definitely a great couple of weeks for the game. Thanks to everybody for all there help in sending in, information for the site! Special thanks goes out to a great member of our forceunleashed.org forums, rrmmstein

IGN.com has posted four great gameplay videos of The Force Unleashed, check them out below, they’re fantastic!

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Now this is more like it!! GameTrailers.com has posted 5 exclusive Force Unleashed videos. The first video is the World Exclusive Trailer video, which is pretty damn awesome, you have to love cutting a AT-ST in half.

The second video titled Exclusive Mission Cinematic, gives you a look into your first mission as The Secret Apprentice.

The next three videos entitled, “Exclusive Massacre Gameplay”, show, well exactly that, The Secret Apprentice running around rampant while shoving force lightning up Storm Troopers asses. I so want this game right now… i’m practically drooling.

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So Forceunleashians, this is what we’ve been waiting for all week. The big announcement from GameTrailers.com is that the Demo will be released for the Playstation 3 and XBOX 360 on August 21!! Sweet! At least now we have an actual date, so there is no more wondering.

They also showed a sneak peak of what you’ll be able to do in the demo, which looks pretty cool. Other than that, it was an actually disappointing segment. I think it only lasted about 5 minutes if that. All the hype about the big announcement, I have to admit I was a little let down, I expected it to be a little bigger. Although the Demo release is pretty huge!

Updated with the video:

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That’s right Force Unleashians… According to a post on the LucasArts Forums, GameTrailers TV will reveal something big about The Force Unleashed as well as show some never before seen footage. Be sure to catch the episode on Spike, Friday, August 15th.

There are a couple other things I wanted to post as well that were kind of interesting. According to SliceGaming.com, they’ve got word from LucasArts that the demo will not be released at all this week. So we have to hang on until at least next week before we get our demo.

Heard rumour that LucasArts were bringing a demo for their much awaited Force Unleashed to Xbox Live and PSN this week? Well we hat to crush your dreams but there will be no such thing say LucasArts.

“The Force Unleashed demo is not coming out this week. If X-Play said that it’s coming out this week, they’re wrong. They will have more information about the demo in their show on the 14th.”
And no Star Wars fanboys, I doubt that a Jedi mind trick will work on these coporate guys.

And last but not least, according to TalkPlaystation.com there will not be a Trophy System incorporated into the Playstation 3 version of The Force Unleashed.

News has just come in that LucasArts upcoming Star Wars game, The Force Unleashed will not support the Playstation 3’s Trophy system.

Are you going to buy it? Do Trophies mean a lot to you?

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This I thought was really interesting. According to a post on the LucasArts forum I found today, Jacob Nion is not the name of The Secret Apprentice. I guess Jacob Nion is the name of The Secret Apprentice in the German version of The Force Unleashed novel. Now apparently someone in Sweden got a hold of the English version of The Force Unleashed novel (How, I have no idea) and the name of The Secret Apprentice is Galen Marek.

Again, this is just a rumor, but there is a screenshot of the English version that seems to provide some solid evidence of this. Again, this can be easily photoshopped and what not, but I figured i’d post it anyway. There has been a bunch of rumors this week and quite honestly I have no idea which ones are accurate. Some, I figure, are just made up to provide some extra hype before the release of The Force Unleashed.

This was a post I picked up off TheForce.net mesage boards:

The SA’s true name is Galen Marek. (Galen means “crazy” in Swedish, so I suspect it is something similar in German, hence the renaming) About the existence of the Death Star: Galen learns the name and location from a vision, but I do not think it is ever said that he mentions the name to anyone. There is also no mention about the rebel prisoners seeing the superlaser-test. (Yes, they have a view over the dish, but it is not explicitly said that the lasers are actually made to converge in the test) The book is told using tight third-person POV of Juno and Galen, with a short passage from Vader if I remember correctly. So all insights about the nature of the Force and such are Galen’s own, and he is pretty kriffed-up and no denying it.

Personally, I liked the book. But it reads very much like a video-game walkthrough in parts. About the Force powers I didn’t find any single action of Galen to be too over-the-top, but the fact that he kept doing these incredible feats without ever slowing down or resting was a bit much. And also: two dying Jedi doing some kind of exploding/ghosting thingy? What was that about

Check out the picture below.

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