Jedi Knight 3 in the making

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SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – April 3, 2003 -- Continuing the epic legacy of the critically and commercially acclaimed Jedi Knight action game series, LucasArts, a Lucasfilm Ltd. company, announces Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy for Windows PC and the Xbox™ video game system from Microsoft. Expected for release fall 2003, this latest chapter in one of interactive entertainment's most celebrated game series extends the partnership between LucasArts and Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), through its developer Raven Software.

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is the follow up to Star Wars® Jedi Knight® II: Jedi Outcast™, the best selling premium priced PC game in America, United Kingdom, and Germany upon initial release in 2002.

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is a dynamic single and multiplayer action experience featuring an all-new epic story. Players are immersed in the role of apprentice at Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy where they learn the power – and danger – of the Force. Amidst a multitude of complex and richly detailed Star Wars environments, including twice as many unique locales as those in Star Wars Jedi Outcast, players face a variety of powerful and insidious enemies.

For the first time in a Jedi Knight series game, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy allows players to create and customize their own characters by choosing various characteristics including species, gender, clothing, and physical attributes such as hair and facial features. In addition, players can create a custom lightsaber, selecting from hilt and blade color. As apprentices progress in their training, different lightsabers will become available, such as the double-bladed lightsaber or dual lightsabers.

"With the overwhelming success and critical acclaim of Star Wars Jedi Outcast, continuing an alliance with Activision and Raven Software was a clear and very easy decision," says Simon Jeffery, president of LucasArts. "As they did with its best selling predecessor, Raven will bring to Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy innovative, dynamic, and challenging game play that honors the well-respected legacy of the series."

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy begins shortly after the conclusion of events in Star Wars Jedi Outcast. Players create a Jedi apprentice character and join the Jedi Academy on Yavin 4 to learn the ways of the Force under the tutelage of Luke Skywalker and Kyle Katarn. While the young apprentice embarks on various missions to hone their skills and abilities, a mysterious group is discovered creating havoc throughout the galaxy. Until order is restored, the fate of the Jedi Academy – and the future of the Star Wars galaxy itself – hangs precariously in the balance.

While players will be able to accomplish more by using the lightsaber in Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, they also will have a variety of weapons - new and old - at their disposal including a blaster, blaster rifle, Wookiee bowcaster, Imperial repeater, and a Destructive Electro-Magnetic Pulse gun.

A unique level selection system allows players to choose their own path through the game as well as the missions they undertake to improve their Jedi skills. The game will add new multiplayer modes and bring back the most popular modes from Star Wars Jedi Outcast.

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy will be published and distributed by LucasArts in North America. Activision will publish and distribute the game in all other territories worldwide.


- Can't wait, I was just thinking today how it would be nice to play something like Dark Forces and JK again, and then I saw the news...
I'm getting only good news about sequels lately...first Heroes 5 and this

[ April 07, 2003, 00:00: Message edited by: Elendil ]

 

OMG! Dual lightsabers?
A Drizzt like Jedi? That sucks, i don't like Darth Maul's either.
But finally we got rid of Kyle Katarn.

 

They are allready had Darth Maul's lightsaber. Its some kind of server opition or mod. I was playing in this clan server and they turned it on. It was really neat. Everything worked nicely, the movement, the sounds, the whole nine yards.
I loved JK2 I hope this one is just as good.

 

I'm pretty stoked, but I really hope that when they say "including twice as many unique locales as those in Star Wars Jedi Outcast," I hope that means levels as well. I'm really sick of short games lately. I'm not one to wait till the price drops to buy a game if I really want one, but then when I beat it inside of a week it gets me all cranky-like. I hope they really put in the hours and make it a long, involving game. JK2 was so impressive, this should really be one to watch for.

I'm all for it.

 

OMG OMG OMG!!! I cannot wait!!!!!

 

I never liked the first or second Jedi Knight. neither of them where very good IMO. In fact I think most of the star wars games are terible and the movies have turned into crap.

 

Woohoo!! Dark forces 1&2 and Jedi knight 2 are some of my favourite games, I cant wait for the sequel.
Too bad you dont play as Kyle Katarn though.

 

Actually, I think it will be a great change of pace to create your own character. The 'dashing stubborn lone wolf' thing is a little tired for me. At least this way you can design a character you want and follow your own path, good or bad. It's like an RPG and an FPS all in one.

This one should be really good though, considering they've brought back the same design team. I hope so anyway - not just another attempt by George Lucas to bombard the planet with more crappy merchandise he thinks people will buy just because they have the words 'Star' and 'Wars' on them.

Sidenote - I really hope episode III justifies the disappointment of I and II. Special effects? Killer. Script? Sub-bar. Acting? Gawd-awful. But anyway, I digress...

 

There are humdreds of mods for jedi outcast, that include Darth Maul style double bladed sabre, and dual sabres.
It's all good. Can't wait to see shots of this game in the making.

 

JK3?! I wan't this game now! Seriusly, this game just has to be a good one, no one can mess that game up.

 

I wouldn't be that sure. From the screenshots and their talkings it's easy to get the impression that it'll become a console version of "Jedi Wars" (note, Jedi Wars is not a real game).

I'm afraid you'll have 10k Jedi vs. 10k Jedi, where all immersion and StarWars realism is gone. 3 lightsaber hits to anyone to kill them, and the classical Dark Forces 1+2 problem where whenever you got force powers they became useless since the enemy always got relatively equally strong to resist them.

There were too many Jedi in Outcast already. But at least there the general feeling was good enough to make it a fairly good game. Add any more Jedi to that (I have a hard time believing they can come up with something reasonable enough to get a good well-grounded reason for an army of Jedi, for the second time), and force will cease to be the mystical power that it is. Becoming a casual entertainment to keep those little kids interested in what can only be described as blasphemy towards the StarWars universe.