24th May 2004, 2:41 PM
Not that they don't know how, but that they have forgotten that such a possibility exists. They didn't use to make many SW games. Those NES and SNES titles weren't made by Lucasarts... and I don't think they were published by them, either. By the mid '90s they built up SW production. And by the late '90s it was the majority of their lineup. Now they make nothing else. Sad. Oh, some of their SW games are great, but LA was great for more reasons than just Star Wars!
I can't say that 'as they made more SW games they got worse', though, because they've made some truly great Star Wars games. The problem now of course is that they lost their talent, and their ideas... their SW games now are not in the same class as the greats (TIE Fighter, Jedi Knight, etc).
So, what I think is that they can make SW games, and in decent quantity, if they want -- that's what they did for years. But what they are doing now is ONLY making SW games, and not making games that are original... and their quality level has fallen so precipitously since about '98 that it's really amazing. In the sad way.
At this point all I can hope for is for them to continue outsourcing. Internal Lucasarts is just about useless now, so for good Star Wars games we have to be happy that they got others in once they failed to keep decent developers.
I can't say that 'as they made more SW games they got worse', though, because they've made some truly great Star Wars games. The problem now of course is that they lost their talent, and their ideas... their SW games now are not in the same class as the greats (TIE Fighter, Jedi Knight, etc).
So, what I think is that they can make SW games, and in decent quantity, if they want -- that's what they did for years. But what they are doing now is ONLY making SW games, and not making games that are original... and their quality level has fallen so precipitously since about '98 that it's really amazing. In the sad way.
At this point all I can hope for is for them to continue outsourcing. Internal Lucasarts is just about useless now, so for good Star Wars games we have to be happy that they got others in once they failed to keep decent developers.