If people want to listen to the music in the link posted earlier; they'll have to use IE or some other browser than Firefox, which won't display the flash player that contains the music.
It's standard video game fare, but it has some serious KOTOR 2 vibes, probably because it was co-composed by Mark Griskey. Good thing I loved KOTOR 2's music!
Disabling AdBlock on that page made the flash player display in FF for me.
But really, what was with all the JK hate going on this morning (before the demo came out) anyway?
I hate JK.
Nothing to do with FU or anything.
First-person shooters all have clunky controls to me, and do not make me feel Jedi-like. JK2 had first-person style control, even when in third-person lightsaber mode. I felt it controlled incredibly poorly.
You know how if you move the left stick while force gripping someone and then release RT, it throws someone or something in that direction? My favorite thing to do now is to grip someone, move the left stick towards me, and have it throw said person behind my shoulder. It just looks so damn cool. It's like, "Pffft, you ain't worth my time, Mr. Stormtrooper!"
Dashui on
Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
You know how if you move the left stick while force gripping someone and then release RT, it throws someone or something in that direction? My favorite thing to do now is to grip someone, move the left stick towards me, and have it throw said person behind my shoulder. It just looks so damn cool. It's like, "Pffft, you ain't worth my time, Mr. Stormtrooper!"
I love doing that...especially when throwing them over your shoulder makes them fly into a Tie Fighter.
PunkBoy on
Steam ID:
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You know how if you move the left stick while force gripping someone and then release RT, it throws someone or something in that direction? My favorite thing to do now is to grip someone, move the left stick towards me, and have it throw said person behind my shoulder. It just looks so damn cool. It's like, "Pffft, you ain't worth my time, Mr. Stormtrooper!"
I love doing that...especially when throwing them over your shoulder makes them fly into a Tie Fighter.
I like to flick them straight up too. Also straight down makes them bounce sometimes.
I also grabbed a stormtrooper, lightninged him then throw my saber at him and threw it at the atst.
That was amusing.
I think I'm gonna play this game on easy when I get it the first time, I just want to fuck around unleashing on dudes without worrying about death.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
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Dusdais ashamed of this postSLC, UTRegistered Userregular
edited August 2008
So this isn't JK3. That's okay I guess. I'll probably pick this up when it comes out.
I still want JK3 though. JK2 is easily one of my favorite games ever.
I replayed the demo a couple of more times on each difficulty. The highest difficulty definitely is the most enjoyable, though it's still pretty easy. What concerns me is I spent a lot of time dying not because of the guys shooting at me, but because I was wrestling against the camera and the controls. If the difficulty ramps up further into the game that's going to be really, really frustrating.
Fatty McBeardo on
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Blake TDo you have enemies then?Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered Userregular
edited August 2008
So is there a moves list set out for this game at all?
So, Psi-Ops was one of my favorite games of the last generation, and being able to toss stuff around with SUPAR-FIZIKZ! is too good to pass up. I just got through with the demo and I think it's pretty cool, though I'm going to agree that the camera control is pretty awful for a game like this. I found myself constantly having to fight the camera to get it to aim where I want, and the only times I was really in any danger of dying was because of that.
Saber combat seems really ineffective, and not because it doesn't dismember people. The attack animations seem kinda slow, and they seem like they lock you into a direction for the duration of the animation, regardless of whether the enemy isn't there or you knocked them away or something. I'd swing at a guy, only to miss by a couple inches because I wasn't facing him exactly, then ended up continuing my combo, swinging at the air next to him while he shot at me.
And yeah, you really need to be able to do something while blocking, or at the very least the transition between blocking and not blocking needs to be a lot shorter. The transition time is just bit too long. It's annoying that you can't run at some guys, block some shots, then immediately get back to the ass kicking.
Couple questions though:
1) Where's all this fancy cutting stuff up I've heard about? I was slashing stuff as I was running around, and aside from the glass and the walkway pillars you could bend (and have the tie fighters slam right into them), nothing really reacted other than putting those saber burn marks on them. I though you were supposed to be able to cut stuff in half and shit. I tried cutting the multitude of crates laying around, nothing. I slashed at those hanging wires, and they move, but they stayed in one piece.
2) Is the only way to take out the AT-ST at the end by the God of War-style QTE? I spent a good minute or two chucking barrels (and Stormtroopers!) at it, and it got knocked back a bit, but didn't seem like it was doing anything. Which I suppose isn't too bad, but while leaping around it and cutting it in half in a QTE was cool once, in the video thing at the end you can see the Apprentice do the exact same thing to another AT-ST. Not cool if that's the only thing you can do with them.
3) Is it just me, or does the character model for the Apprentice look a lot worse than the one in Soul Calibur IV? IT seemed like it had a much lower res texture, and the eyelids are some sort of freaky PS2-era polygons.
Dartboy on
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Dusdais ashamed of this postSLC, UTRegistered Userregular
edited August 2008
I must say, I was very disappointed you couldn't hack the AT-ST apart piece by piece. The very first thing I tried to do when I saw it was dash forward and cut that fucking repeater cannon off it's left side, only to find out it was no good. Honestly I'd have rather been able to force push/pull the thing apart, or hack it to bits in a realistic fashion with my lightsaber. The QTE, while entertaining, wasn't exactly what I thought they would release a demo of.
Is the only way to take out the AT-ST at the end by the God of War-style QTE? I spent a good minute or two chucking barrels (and Stormtroopers!) at it, and it got knocked back a bit, but didn't seem like it was doing anything. Which I suppose isn't too bad, but while leaping around it and cutting it in half in a QTE was cool once, in the video thing at the end you can see the Apprentice do the exact same thing to another AT-ST. Not cool if that's the only thing you can do with them.
You can beat it to death, they have a health bar. You can also push it off the edge.
Also in other gameplay videos they show the Apprentice just crushing it utterly, making it essentially implode with his own force power. I think the ridiculous growth of his power will be pretty neat in the game, I mean come on he's pulling a Star destroyer down to the ground in one of those videos.
Is the only way to take out the AT-ST at the end by the God of War-style QTE? I spent a good minute or two chucking barrels (and Stormtroopers!) at it, and it got knocked back a bit, but didn't seem like it was doing anything. Which I suppose isn't too bad, but while leaping around it and cutting it in half in a QTE was cool once, in the video thing at the end you can see the Apprentice do the exact same thing to another AT-ST. Not cool if that's the only thing you can do with them.
You can beat it to death, they have a health bar. You can also push it off the edge.
You can't beat it to death. When the health bar runs out, it allows you to do the QTE.
1) Where's all this fancy cutting stuff up I've heard about? I was slashing stuff as I was running around, and aside from the glass and the walkway pillars you could bend (and have the tie fighters slam right into them), nothing really reacted other than putting those saber burn marks on them. I though you were supposed to be able to cut stuff in half and shit. I tried cutting the multitude of crates laying around, nothing. I slashed at those hanging wires, and they move, but they stayed in one piece.
Don't remember hearing about being able to leave saber slashes on everything, but the corridors of the level dent when you throw stuff against it.
God damn it, I'm working abroad, my PS3 is on the other side of the globe, will be back in time for release of the actual game but reading this thread I really want to give the demo a blast.
In saying that I wouldn't be half as excited if this wasn't star wars, if it was some warrior/mage using magic instead of the force I wouldn't care, or if it was just some random enemies as opposed to Jedi and Stormtroopers.
Maybe I'll change my tune when I get playing the real thing. Have to say though, don't see what all the bitching about QTEs is about, if they are done right I like them. I hate when you finish off a boss with a slash, he falls over, a cut scene is then played showing my char doing something cool, like cut an AT-ST in half, it doesn't feel like I've had much of a contribution in this final move but if the final move is a result of me performing a QTE I at least feel like I have had a hand in the kick ass move my char is about to execute.
QTEs during a cut scene suck because I'm usually in watching mode and therefore am not ready for them but the way the QTEs are described here they sound pretty good to me.
Also were people complaining about there being stormtroopers in the AT-ST when you cut it in half? or was it a lack of stormtroopers? I don't get why an AT-ST being driven by stormtroopers would annoy people so I must have misunderstood?
The opening cutscene stuff was ugly, the level was bland and full of generic crates, and the force powers were... awkward? I don't know. I really ought to play it a few more times before I criticise that.
But I did seem to be struggling to throw things properly, and it annoyed me that the push button seemed to have a more destruction orientated effect than the grab-toss thing. Sometimes I just wanted to scatter stuff in front of me and ended up blowing everything up.
And I didn't know QTE was involved. Of all the things I could imagine could be done to one of those walkers in a game that supposedly lets you unleash the force, that was the lamest.
edit: By which I mean surely I have enough in my arsenal to tear one of these things apart as it is, I shouldn't need context sensitive commands to enable my saber to cleave through it like butter.
A lightsaber should do that anyway.
(Like that first droid I met at the start of the demo. Cut it and the top came off. Highlight of the demo unfortunatly)
Yeah, I'm just not feeling this game. The normal difficulty is too easy, and the step up from that is way too hard; I can't do anything to that AT-ST with the stormtroopers picking away at me, and I can't kill the stormtroopers without the AT-ST blasting me off the edge or something stupid.
You can snipe away the troopers around the AT-ST with thrown objects. Or, you can shock the AT-ST with force lightning to stun it while you dispatch the storm troopers. You can dash to dodge the main cannon of the AT-ST and you can hold down block to deflect the entire stream of machine gun laser fire. I think you can also force push the AT-ST to stun it some as well.
And the camera didn't bug me for some reason. Strange. Usually that is one of my annoyances with games.
When I try to block the laser fire, the small lasers seem to get through anyway, and the big lasers aren't blockable. Anytime I stop to throw something, I get reamed with a big laser. If I ignore the troopers, and just try to beat up the AT-ST, the troopers take me out.
Use all the crates and barrels around as shields. Get a crate right infront of you, and move it along the lasers path right back into the AT-ST's face or a storm trooper and then *SMASH*
For all the people complaining about not being able to throw things where and how they want, did you guys do the force grab tutorial?
I found the grab and throw extremely intuitive. The only thing I didn't like was that even if you gently set a tie fighter down on the floor it still explodes. Other then that, force powers are aces!
You must not have noticed that no matter how you attack it (other then lightning) it dies the same way.
I only did it once, but my normal attacks didn't seem to be doing anything to it ('cept reducing it's health bar, which isn't much fun). That downward slash attack thing was most disappointing. Did bugger all, and then the QTE is pretty much the same move.
I meant the robot you claimed was the highlight.
It only has two death animations, cut in half, or explode.
And no matter how you cut it it dies the same.
The game felt pretty clunky to me, but most games do when you try them first time. So I think it will pas.
You know what sucks, though? There is a bar limit to your force power usage. I know, "it would make the game too easy" and so on if there wouldn't be, but I don't really care about that. Even if there is just couple a second pause, it still stops me from telekinesing the fuck out of everything, and it lessens the fun. Frankly, challenge is not why I would play this game, and I think it has been established that using your force powers is where it shines...so why limit that? Assassin's Creed didn't have a "parkour meter" that says "okay, you need to stop parkouring for five seconds now, you have parkoured enough", it let you do the funniest thing in the game without limits.
If there is an "unlimited force powers" cheat, I'm going to use it when I get this game. In some cases, cheats can make a game more fun.
The game felt pretty clunky to me, but most games do when you try them first time. So I think it will pas.
You know what sucks, though? There is a bar limit to your force power usage. I know, "it would make the game too easy" and so on if there wouldn't be, but I don't really care about that. Even if there is just couple a second pause, it still stops me from telekinesing the fuck out of everything, and it lessens the fun. Frankly, challenge is not why I would play this game, and I think it has been established that using your force powers is where it shines...so why limit that? Assassin's Creed didn't have a "parkour meter" that says "okay, you need to stop parkouring for five seconds now, you have parkoured enough", it let you do the funniest thing in the game without limits.
If there is an "unlimited force powers" cheat, I'm going to use it when I get this game. In some cases, cheats can make a game more fun.
I always hated it when people said cheating sucked, some games are more about the mechanic than the story / challenge, being able to run aorund with all the guns and infinite ammo on some games made them better (for me)
After sleeping on it, I figured it out: I never felt like I had time to really use the force powers, because it was always about killing everything before it killed me. The highlights of the demo were little things, like noticing I could Grip a docked TIE Fighter and throw it - only I didn't notice until I'd killed everyone in the hanger, and had time to explore it. Or some of the shit I'd do to the "last guy". Once everyone else was dealt with, I'd have fun with the last guy. Chasing Last Guy around with a Gripped crate was fun, just knocking him over again and again, until I finally hovered it over his head and tossed it down. Or the one that I raised really, really high in the air, then tossed up. I waited to see if he'd come back down, but after a few seconds, nothing. So, I start off on my way, assuming he hit a bar and went off course or something, and there's a sudden blur right next to me as he finally, a full 10s later, comes back down crashes into a crate, causing an explosion.
FUCK. YEAH.
But, these moments were few and far between. Maybe on easy you have more opportunity to take your time and really get creative, but I'm dropping this to "rental".
I meant the robot you claimed was the highlight.
It only has two death animations, cut in half, or explode.
And no matter how you cut it it dies the same.
Oh. Yeah, I only did that once too. Must've got lucky.
After sleeping on it, I figured it out: I never felt like I had time to really use the force powers, because it was always about killing everything before it killed me. The highlights of the demo were little things, like noticing I could Grip a docked TIE Fighter and throw it - only I didn't notice until I'd killed everyone in the hanger, and had time to explore it. Or some of the shit I'd do to the "last guy". Once everyone else was dealt with, I'd have fun with the last guy. Chasing Last Guy around with a Gripped crate was fun, just knocking him over again and again, until I finally hovered it over his head and tossed it down. Or the one that I raised really, really high in the air, then tossed up. I waited to see if he'd come back down, but after a few seconds, nothing. So, I start off on my way, assuming he hit a bar and went off course or something, and there's a sudden blur right next to me as he finally, a full 10s later, comes back down crashes into a crate, causing an explosion.
FUCK. YEAH.
But, these moments were few and far between. Maybe on easy you have more opportunity to take your time and really get creative, but I'm dropping this to "rental".
You know what would be fun? Auto-block. Blasters should be useless against you, and just create a nice light-show while you're tearing things up, like in the movies.
Change the block button to accurate deflect function for when you want to whittle folks down, and make the game about the big things, like dodging grenades and big lasers and what have you.
After sleeping on it, I figured it out: I never felt like I had time to really use the force powers, because it was always about killing everything before it killed me. The highlights of the demo were little things, like noticing I could Grip a docked TIE Fighter and throw it - only I didn't notice until I'd killed everyone in the hanger, and had time to explore it. Or some of the shit I'd do to the "last guy". Once everyone else was dealt with, I'd have fun with the last guy. Chasing Last Guy around with a Gripped crate was fun, just knocking him over again and again, until I finally hovered it over his head and tossed it down. Or the one that I raised really, really high in the air, then tossed up. I waited to see if he'd come back down, but after a few seconds, nothing. So, I start off on my way, assuming he hit a bar and went off course or something, and there's a sudden blur right next to me as he finally, a full 10s later, comes back down crashes into a crate, causing an explosion.
FUCK. YEAH.
But, these moments were few and far between. Maybe on easy you have more opportunity to take your time and really get creative, but I'm dropping this to "rental".
You know what would be fun? Auto-block. Blasters should be useless against you, and just create a nice light-show while you're tearing things up, like in the movies.
Change the block button to accurate deflect function for when you want to whittle folks down, and make the game about the big things, like dodging grenades and big lasers and what have you.
This and no arbitrary force restriction.
Actually you do deflect most normal basters just walking around (on normal difficulty) The only time I actually needed to use block was on the troopers who were at the stationary guns that did rapid fire.
I played the demo last night and I plan to play it again today. I am really on the fence about it. The over the top force powers are cool but at times it almost felt like it wasn't even worth using them.
And I must say, the empire really needs to invest in stronger glass. I barely touched a pane of glass with a crate and it shattered.
suadeo on
My 360 is [strike]back[/strike] [strike]bricked[/strike] back!
I noticed blocking when I was running away a few times, but was getting shot up whenever I tried to do anything else.
Which resulted in knock back and a tiny sliver of health disappearing, and so was more annoying than anything else.
What difficulty were you on? I noticed my health dropping alot more on Normal than on Easy. It was a significant difference.
But yeah, I noticed the auto blocking system too. It doesn't block when you're doing other things, only when you're standing still. However, remember this game has a leveling system. Perhaps as you level up, the Apprentice will get better at things like blocking.
But yeah, I noticed the auto blocking system too. It doesn't block when you're doing other things, only when you're standing still. However, remember this game has a leveling system. Perhaps as you level up, the Apprentice will get better at things like blocking.
No it blocks while you are moving to a lot of the time.
I don't see why you guys are having such a hard time using force powers in a fight. Lightning comes out very fast and stuns any enemies it hits. The force blast also comes out very fast and knocks down anyone it hits. When you grip one just go grip, hold a direction, release grip as quick as you can and you almost instantly just fling someone. Don't forget you can alter your melee combo into using lightning or ending with a force push.
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Disabling AdBlock on that page made the flash player display in FF for me.
PSN: Milky28 XBL: Milky28
I hate JK.
Nothing to do with FU or anything.
First-person shooters all have clunky controls to me, and do not make me feel Jedi-like. JK2 had first-person style control, even when in third-person lightsaber mode. I felt it controlled incredibly poorly.
That's a shame. I can understand if it's not your thing, but it was really good. Like, surprisingly good.
look like cockroaches
Unless I see a youtube of FORCE NUKE
I love doing that...especially when throwing them over your shoulder makes them fly into a Tie Fighter.
I like to flick them straight up too. Also straight down makes them bounce sometimes.
I also grabbed a stormtrooper, lightninged him then throw my saber at him and threw it at the atst.
That was amusing.
I think I'm gonna play this game on easy when I get it the first time, I just want to fuck around unleashing on dudes without worrying about death.
Satans..... hints.....
Well, you do smash a Star Destroyer into a city.
I mean, that's gotta be at least on par
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
Saber combat seems really ineffective, and not because it doesn't dismember people. The attack animations seem kinda slow, and they seem like they lock you into a direction for the duration of the animation, regardless of whether the enemy isn't there or you knocked them away or something. I'd swing at a guy, only to miss by a couple inches because I wasn't facing him exactly, then ended up continuing my combo, swinging at the air next to him while he shot at me.
And yeah, you really need to be able to do something while blocking, or at the very least the transition between blocking and not blocking needs to be a lot shorter. The transition time is just bit too long. It's annoying that you can't run at some guys, block some shots, then immediately get back to the ass kicking.
Couple questions though:
1) Where's all this fancy cutting stuff up I've heard about? I was slashing stuff as I was running around, and aside from the glass and the walkway pillars you could bend (and have the tie fighters slam right into them), nothing really reacted other than putting those saber burn marks on them. I though you were supposed to be able to cut stuff in half and shit. I tried cutting the multitude of crates laying around, nothing. I slashed at those hanging wires, and they move, but they stayed in one piece.
2) Is the only way to take out the AT-ST at the end by the God of War-style QTE? I spent a good minute or two chucking barrels (and Stormtroopers!) at it, and it got knocked back a bit, but didn't seem like it was doing anything. Which I suppose isn't too bad, but while leaping around it and cutting it in half in a QTE was cool once, in the video thing at the end you can see the Apprentice do the exact same thing to another AT-ST. Not cool if that's the only thing you can do with them.
3) Is it just me, or does the character model for the Apprentice look a lot worse than the one in Soul Calibur IV? IT seemed like it had a much lower res texture, and the eyelids are some sort of freaky PS2-era polygons.
You can beat it to death, they have a health bar. You can also push it off the edge.
Also in other gameplay videos they show the Apprentice just crushing it utterly, making it essentially implode with his own force power. I think the ridiculous growth of his power will be pretty neat in the game, I mean come on he's pulling a Star destroyer down to the ground in one of those videos.
You can't beat it to death. When the health bar runs out, it allows you to do the QTE.
Don't remember hearing about being able to leave saber slashes on everything, but the corridors of the level dent when you throw stuff against it.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
In saying that I wouldn't be half as excited if this wasn't star wars, if it was some warrior/mage using magic instead of the force I wouldn't care, or if it was just some random enemies as opposed to Jedi and Stormtroopers.
Maybe I'll change my tune when I get playing the real thing. Have to say though, don't see what all the bitching about QTEs is about, if they are done right I like them. I hate when you finish off a boss with a slash, he falls over, a cut scene is then played showing my char doing something cool, like cut an AT-ST in half, it doesn't feel like I've had much of a contribution in this final move but if the final move is a result of me performing a QTE I at least feel like I have had a hand in the kick ass move my char is about to execute.
QTEs during a cut scene suck because I'm usually in watching mode and therefore am not ready for them but the way the QTEs are described here they sound pretty good to me.
Also were people complaining about there being stormtroopers in the AT-ST when you cut it in half? or was it a lack of stormtroopers? I don't get why an AT-ST being driven by stormtroopers would annoy people so I must have misunderstood?
The opening cutscene stuff was ugly, the level was bland and full of generic crates, and the force powers were... awkward? I don't know. I really ought to play it a few more times before I criticise that.
But I did seem to be struggling to throw things properly, and it annoyed me that the push button seemed to have a more destruction orientated effect than the grab-toss thing. Sometimes I just wanted to scatter stuff in front of me and ended up blowing everything up.
And I didn't know QTE was involved. Of all the things I could imagine could be done to one of those walkers in a game that supposedly lets you unleash the force, that was the lamest.
edit: By which I mean surely I have enough in my arsenal to tear one of these things apart as it is, I shouldn't need context sensitive commands to enable my saber to cleave through it like butter.
A lightsaber should do that anyway.
(Like that first droid I met at the start of the demo. Cut it and the top came off. Highlight of the demo unfortunatly)
Use all the crates and barrels around as shields. Get a crate right infront of you, and move it along the lasers path right back into the AT-ST's face or a storm trooper and then *SMASH*
For all the people complaining about not being able to throw things where and how they want, did you guys do the force grab tutorial?
I found the grab and throw extremely intuitive. The only thing I didn't like was that even if you gently set a tie fighter down on the floor it still explodes. Other then that, force powers are aces!
I only did it once, but my normal attacks didn't seem to be doing anything to it ('cept reducing it's health bar, which isn't much fun). That downward slash attack thing was most disappointing. Did bugger all, and then the QTE is pretty much the same move.
With far sexier results.
It only has two death animations, cut in half, or explode.
And no matter how you cut it it dies the same.
You know what sucks, though? There is a bar limit to your force power usage. I know, "it would make the game too easy" and so on if there wouldn't be, but I don't really care about that. Even if there is just couple a second pause, it still stops me from telekinesing the fuck out of everything, and it lessens the fun. Frankly, challenge is not why I would play this game, and I think it has been established that using your force powers is where it shines...so why limit that? Assassin's Creed didn't have a "parkour meter" that says "okay, you need to stop parkouring for five seconds now, you have parkoured enough", it let you do the funniest thing in the game without limits.
If there is an "unlimited force powers" cheat, I'm going to use it when I get this game. In some cases, cheats can make a game more fun.
I always hated it when people said cheating sucked, some games are more about the mechanic than the story / challenge, being able to run aorund with all the guns and infinite ammo on some games made them better (for me)
FUCK. YEAH.
But, these moments were few and far between. Maybe on easy you have more opportunity to take your time and really get creative, but I'm dropping this to "rental".
Oh. Yeah, I only did that once too. Must've got lucky.
That sucks.
You know what would be fun? Auto-block. Blasters should be useless against you, and just create a nice light-show while you're tearing things up, like in the movies.
Change the block button to accurate deflect function for when you want to whittle folks down, and make the game about the big things, like dodging grenades and big lasers and what have you.
This and no arbitrary force restriction.
Actually you do deflect most normal basters just walking around (on normal difficulty) The only time I actually needed to use block was on the troopers who were at the stationary guns that did rapid fire.
I am a freaking nerd.
Which resulted in knock back and a tiny sliver of health disappearing, and so was more annoying than anything else.
And I must say, the empire really needs to invest in stronger glass. I barely touched a pane of glass with a crate and it shattered.
My 360 is [strike]back[/strike] [strike]bricked[/strike] back!
What difficulty were you on? I noticed my health dropping alot more on Normal than on Easy. It was a significant difference.
But yeah, I noticed the auto blocking system too. It doesn't block when you're doing other things, only when you're standing still. However, remember this game has a leveling system. Perhaps as you level up, the Apprentice will get better at things like blocking.
No it blocks while you are moving to a lot of the time.
I don't see why you guys are having such a hard time using force powers in a fight. Lightning comes out very fast and stuns any enemies it hits. The force blast also comes out very fast and knocks down anyone it hits. When you grip one just go grip, hold a direction, release grip as quick as you can and you almost instantly just fling someone. Don't forget you can alter your melee combo into using lightning or ending with a force push.