Quote:RUMOR #2: LucasArts is ceasing development for the GameCube.

Source: GameSpot's very own and ever-active forums.

The official story: "I have not heard anything of that nature." -- LucasArts' Heather Phillips.

What we heard: Spurred by lengthy forum feedback, we tracked this rumor to its original source, a recent GamesIndustry.biz piece. The article talked about the general decline of support for the 'Cube among third-party publishers outside of Japan. LucasArts was singled out because of the success of its Rogue Squadron series, one of the few successful adult-oriented, nonsports franchises for the Cube. However, a look at LucasArts' game roster does indeed show a dearth of GameCube titles in the works, even though upcoming PlayStation 2 and Xbox games like Mercenaries and Star Wars: Republic Commando are listed.

Bogus or not bogus?: Officially not bogus. The company line reveals that LucasArts still supports the GameCube. But what good is an official endorsement if there are no products in the pipeline?

Quote:ey publishers quietly scaling back GameCube support
Rob Fahey 15:47 24/03/2004

E3 likely to look a bit barren on the Cube third-party front

Third party support for Nintendo's GameCube continues to wane, with the console set to be bereft of a game based on the Euro 2004 football tournament while Lucasarts has confirmed that it has no more titles in the pipeline for the system.

Both Electronic Arts and Codemasters are working on multi-platform football games for Euro 2004 (EA has the official license, while Codies have the England team license), but neither company will be bringing its game to the Cube.

Although Electronic Arts says that its commitment to the Cube "remains strong" despite the decision not to do a Euro 2004 title, and that it will be releasing a number of games for the platform this year, Codemasters has joined the ranks of publishers with nothing in production for Nintendo's home system.

Also joining the swelling ranks of publishers without any Cube titles in their portfolios (which already includes the likes of Acclaim and Eidos) is Lucasarts, which currently has no titles for the platform on its internal schedules. This is more of a blow to Nintendo than the other publishers, since Lucasarts was responsible for the successful Star Wars: Rogue Leader games on the Cube.

Another publisher, Ubisoft, currently has no GameCube titles on its schedule but says that it will be announcing a number at E3 - and of course, a Cube version of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow will appear at some point in future, as will a PS2 version.

While support from Japanese publishers remains strong, with Capcom and Namco both committed to the system while Square Enix and Konami are also producing a limited range of exclusive titles for it, western third-party support for the Cube is facing a serious decline this year.

This leaves the system relying largely on Nintendo's own portfolio, buoyed by titles from key Japanese publishers, and the company is expected to unveil a new range of software at E3 including sequels to Metroid Prime and Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.

Quote:*cough*LIKE ABF WHO STILL DOES NOT HAVE BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL!!!*cough*

Quote:Ahem. *someone* was not paying attention. I bought BG&E over two weeks ago! ... for PC, yeah, but I got it...

Quote:I'm at school and don't have a TV most of the time you know... that's why. It's also why last time I was at the store (when I got 8 games) 2 were PC and four were GBA...

Quote:First sentence of long post, morons!

Quote:Ahem. *someone* was not paying attention. I bought BG&E over two weeks ago! ... for PC, yeah, but I got it...

OB1 you know that so why didn't you say the truth?

Oh, I played it some more today. I'm over 5 hours in now. Got through the Nutripils Factory... but to get the jump thing for the boat I need 15 pearls and I have 9 and they say I should get the pearl detector but I have under 1000 money and need a whole lot...

...erm, anyway...

Rayman 3 runs just fine on my PC except for a very small number of areas that're easily ignored. BG&E? It's odd. I did turn off/down some options, but it still looks very nice... what's odd is that while many areas the framerate is fine in a few it's much lower. The city. The waterway through the city and the walking district are VERY poor framerates... while even the biggest caverns in the "dungeons" run at a much higher framerate and I barely ever notice problems in 'dungeons'... very odd...

Oh, the games themselves! Rayman 3 is a great game. It's like Rayman 2, but more... which was a great decision. I really, really loved Rayman 2 so seeing the third one be similar is great. It's still a linear, immensely fun, and not overly challenging 3d platformer... just with 'uniforms' that last a limited time and have special powers added to the mix. Great game! Get it if you liked Rayman 2... especially if you see it for $10 like I did!

As for BG&E... hmm. It's a very good game. Probably not quite the same 'constant fun' thing as Rayman, but it's supposed to be slower and more thoughtful so that isn't so bad. I like it. The game has fun action-adventuring and nice puzzles... sometimes challenging. The most interesting design decision is the death system. EXTREMELY generous. Maybe TOO generous. Oh, I like being respawned before the action I just did in the room I'm in (and with 4 health -- sometimes quite a gift!), but ... it reduces the difficulty level significantly...

Oh, and maybe I just need to get farther or do more stuff, but I wish they gave you more money. There are a lot of things I want to get... like more healing items AND those cool things...

Anyway, it's a very good game, but has some flaws, including simple combat, for instance, and how in the 'stealth' areas it's so simple -- run into next area/into convenient piping duct/etc and you're safe and they give up, and the story... the story's nice, but not quite as expansive and detailed/twisting as a game as this type could have used. Oh well, still fun, but it could have been better. But still, very good game.

Quote:Erm, back to the subject. You're right, BG&E doesn't support gamepads. Rayman III does, of course... it even supports the second analog stick as the look control! I think that's my first PC game that uses the second analog stick on my gamepad... As for BG&E, as I said a lot of the game, like the 'dungeons', don't have framerate issues; it's the overworld (sailing around in the hovercraft) and especially the city that have them. Oh the controls... it's mouse & keyboard. It works... not sure if gamepad would be better or not (obviously I can't try it) but it works... WSAD, and a bunch of other commands over there (uses Q, E, 2, 3, Shift, Spacebar, maybe another), and the mouse for look/action... the one real complaint I have is the menus. Some you navigate by spinning the mouse and some with the keyboard! It makes no sense... and when you have to use WSAD (or the arrow keys) to move in those menus you still need the mouse because Activate and Back are on the mouse buttons! Argh.

... but that's probably a stupid complaint because you CAN remap some of the controls (not the mouse axes) and have two buttons for each command so I probably could add a keyboard Activate command... I just haven't bothered.