Star wars pod racer download pc

Watch the cinematic trailer for a look at the Guardian. Get a new cinematic look at the upcoming tactical multiplayer first-person shooter, and also find out what content packs will be available.

World War 3 2. Check out the trailer for a look at the characters in action. Their arrival kicks off an in-game event featuring a new game mode called Street Brawl where players will fight Street Fighter-style with health bars to show who will be the first to fall in the 2-D fighter setting.

Plus, a new K. Carth tells her that the Republic fleet picked him up from the planet surface and that he informed them of her betrayal. He also told them that he couldn't give up on her. He started to persuade her back to the light when Bastila entered the room and convinced Revan to stay on her current path. In a cut-scene that did not make it to the final game, Revan had a third option to kill Bastila and die aboard the Star Forge with Carth.

It was not placed in the final version because the developers did not have enough time for finishing the game. However, these features can be returned to the game through modding. If Revan was specified as a woman, the player and Carth would start flirting on the surface of Taris right away, [32] though they would verbally fight later over Carth's trust issues. The story in the middle is the same until they reach Lehon.

After Revan returns from the temple, Carth and Revan admit their feelings for each other. A female Revan can also tease Carth throughout the story. Nothing else is said between them about it for the rest of the game. Cut content features the planet Sleheyron and an alternate ending for a dark side female PC's romance with Carth, which the player could choose to kill Bastila and die on the Star Forge with Carth.

Rakatan computer terminals the player encounters on Dantooine mention six types of planet environment, and five of them correspond to planets where the Star Maps are located: [38].

In an attempt to truly complete the game, Team Hutt from Holowan Laboratories has been attempting to restore Sleheyron. Several sequences were also cut out of Tatooine.

One of them was that the Star Map was originally supposed to be located in the maw of a Sarlacc pit and the character had to find a way to reach it without being eaten. Another was the character could become a messiah figure to the Sandpeople and would lead them against Czerka Corporation. There was also cut content relative to the planet Taris, cut mostly due to pacing issues rather than time constraints. Initially, there was to be another level to the Vulkar base there, [40] containing a spice lab, staff housing, and the base's heating control system.

The player had to retrieve the keycard that would access the garage elevator from a Vulkar who would trade said keycard in return for some spice. Another means of taking it from the gang member was by killing them.

The level was accessed by an elevator that would have been the armory in the final version and was guarded by the same pair of droids. Also included on the cut level was a female Twi'lek pazaak playing member who was left with a male voiceover in the data left by Bioware. Additionally, there were two other confirmed sequences cut from the game.

One takes place on Manaan if the player beats Bendak Starkiller in the dueling ring on Taris. Deadeye Duncan shows up in the docking area, telling how he escaped the destruction of Taris and asks if he can use the name Mysterious Stranger.

If Revan provoked Lashowe during their first meeting then Bastila would have interjected. Though not necessarily cut content, as it was left unsuppressed in the game files, Bastila was originally supposed to have a scene with Nemo , an elderly Jedi from the enclave.

They'd known each other for a long time and he asked her if she'd gotten her anger problems under control, revealing that her master used to dump water over her head when she became frustrated.

This scene is impossible to view outside of modding as when Bastila rejoins the party so they can go to the mysterious ruins, Nemo has already gone there ahead of them and died. Some of this content, including the Deadeye Duncan encounter on Manaan, the alternate dark side ending, and the extra scene with Bastila can be restored in the form of community-created add-on modifications.

These are only available for the PC version. These include Rakata Prime , Taris , Malachor , terentateks , Manaan and the selkaths , Sphyrna -class Hammerhead corvette , and pazaak. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a role-playing game in the Star Wars universe and is set across different planets.

The player's character and his party collect numerous items, armor, weapons, and learn many abilities along the way. Many different objects can be found by Revan scattered all through the game world in different containers such as in footlockers , baskets, and corpses.

What items can be taken from the containers are determined through random drops unless said item is required for story progression. Items can also be bought or sold in shops spread through the game through an exchange of credits, the game's monetary unit.

All items are organized in an inventory which can be reached in the start menu at any point outside of a conversation. It has the ability to filter in a specific type of item, such as weapons, so that only that kind of item is shown. It is organized into all items, utility items, usable items, equippable items, quest items, and new items, which are marked by a purple coloring.

Utility items include stimulants which raise stats for a short amount of time, medical items such as medpacs or antidote kits used for regaining health or fixing status effects, multiple types of grenade that cause different damage types or status effects, many kinds of armable mines , armor, weapon, and lightsaber upgrades such as different crystals ; as well as spikes for hacking computers or bypassing security.

Quest items include items required for advancing the story, such as the Star Map data, or for completing many side-quests, such as datapads. Useable items also include medical items, stimulants, and equippable personal shields. Equippable items are collected throughout the game and are used to enhance the party. There are nine equipment slots per character: headgear, implants , armor, gloves, personal shields, right and left shoulders; a belt, and weapons; right and left hands. Headgear includes anything worn upon the character's head, such as a helmet or visor , and normally are used for either protection or sensory enhancement.

Implants are placed in the character's body to enhance certain statistics and sometimes grant Feats or Skills. Armor is worn on the body for protection and for modesty. Personal shields are worn upon a character's shoulders and they create a protective force around a person in order to protect that person from damage for a limited time. Belts are worm around the character's waist and increase certain stats. Weapons are tools the character can use to kill enemies both organic and droid.

They are carried with the character's hands and increase damage dealt by the character. Unarmed combat is also possible and skill with this style of fighting increases as the character gains levels. Weapons are items found throughout the game world, primarily in shops or in lockers. They can be equipped to each character individually, held in the hand equip slots, and add to the amount of damage points a character can deal to opponents.

Generally, one weapon can be placed in each hand but some, such as blaster rifles or bowcasters , must be held with both hands, forfeiting the second slot. The player can decide which weapon is in the character's dominant hand, which will never receive penalties in combat, while the other becomes the off-hand and will receive damage and accuracy deductions because of it.

These penalties can be offset by certain advanced Feats or Skills as well as using a short blade in this hand. Certain weapons require specific Feats and Skills to be learned before they can be used. There are two forms of weapons found in Knights of the Old Republic , melee , generally swords , and ranged, blasters.

Each has different strengths, weaknesses, damage types, and upgrades. Weapons can be upgraded using workbenches and different parts gathered by the player. Melee weapons are used to assist hand-to-hand combatants at short range.

These include various swords, staves , vibroweapons , axes , and lightsabers. These weapons cannot be used at a distance but have great effect against unarmed opponents or those carrying blasters.

However, because of their limited range, a character using a melee weapon is vulnerable to an enemy using a blaster at a distance and must first close that distance before they can attack. Certain swords and other melee weapons can be enhanced by using a workbench to add parts collected throughout the game.

There are three specific parts that can be added to enhance applicable standard melee weapons. Lightsabers are another form of melee weapon that can only be used by a Jedi. They come in various colors and with various damage types, depending on different lightsaber crystals inserted in three crystal chambers.

Ranged weapons are all the various blasters and other guns the player can use. They are used primarily from long range, many combatants preferring to switch to swords when pressed into close quarters combat. They use another set of upgrade items, different from melee weapons, including a hair trigger and scope which increase the weapon's accuracy or damage. A Level is a number used to define the strength of a character.

As a character gains Levels, by accumulating experience, they earn points which are spent on augmenting the character's Attributes and Skills.

They are also given the opportunity to learn new Feats and Force-sensitives have access to the discovery new Force powers. Experience, abbreviated XP, is accumulated by completing various quests and defeating enemies.

After reaching a certain number, which rises with each level, the character will "Level Up" and be given the chance to allot the new points to the attribute fields. Equal experience is given to all party members, regardless of whether the character was in the three-man squad used on the planet or not. Revan begins the journey at Level 1 and after he character surpasses Level 6, new characters are brought into the party at Level 6 with all experience gained through the journey shared with them.

The player's Force attunement is determined by actions taken through the game, mostly through conversation. As the player talks to the many NPCs through the game worlds, he will be confronted with moral dilemmas and it is up to the player to decide how he should respond. While talking to the characters, the player is given options for him to say, some that lean towards the light side of the Force, others that lean to the dark, and some more neutral responses that lead to no shifts.

These decisions, when they lead to an alignment shift, culminate in accumulating light side or dark side "points" which are used to determine how far the character leans to one side.

As the player leans more to the dark side, his appearance begins to change, relative to the character model chosen at the beginning of the game. Generally, he becomes pale and his hair color starts to fade.

When player leans completely to one side, he earns "Mastery" of that side and surges with the Force, earning a bonus in battle. Upon starting a new game, the player is given a choice between three different classes for the player character: Scout , Scoundrel , and Soldier.

Each has the player character's abilities develop in a different way, accentuating different styles of play, and grant different starting abilities. After the player character is taken to Dantooine, he becomes a Jedi Padawan. At this point, the player is given another choice between three classes. These in turn alter the way the player character's Force powers develop.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was originally conceived around the year and was initially planned to be a game set around or during the Clone Wars , something like the storyline of Star Wars : Episode II Attack of the Clones , it was even supposed to have a subplot focusing on clones but it was cut so it wouldn't spoil the then upcoming movie.

The game is almost the same as it was envisioned by its creators graphically and storywise, with no major changes being made to it aside from the naming of Bastila Shan and Juhani. However, because of issues about the name 'Sunrider', this was changed to the current version.

From the beginning, the game was planned to have a cinematic feel, where you could see your character, and your party members at all times, like in the movies.

Having up to date lighting and the best graphics of its time made this game more incredible than the designers could have imagined. When creating the planet of Taris , the game developers wanted to give the player an extended look at a world as an introduction. The decision to ravage the surface came with the need to provide the games's antagonist, Darth Malak , with a defining, establishing moment.

They wanted to use the player's affinity for the world to make this action more poignant and a strong representation of just how evil Malak was. Knights of the Old Republic has been made available several times since its initial release. The general critical response was enthusiastic even before its release. Since its release, KotOR has won one-hundred-twenty-six awards.

One of the criticisms of the game is that it can involve extensive back-tracking. That is, the player has to make frequent, time-consuming, in-game trips back to a previous locations along passages that have already been explored and cleared. When Knights of the Old Republic was ported to iPad in by Aspyr Media , there was renewed interest in the game, overwhelmingly positive.

Multiple game review outlets still considered it one of the best Star Wars games ever made ten years later. They praised the port's handling of the touch interface on all counts, from combat to menu maneuvering, aside from movement, which required dragging a finger across the screen. Development for this game began about the same time the first game released, July 15 , The game introduces a new protagonist, the Jedi Exile , on a mission to reunite the members of the Jedi High Council following the Jedi Order's virtual elimination at the hands of two Sith Lords, Darths Sion and Nihilus [76] and game features a brand new party, with HK , T3-M4 , and Canderous Ordo , now using his new title as Mandalore , returning.

The Exile travels to six new worlds as well as two planets, Dantooine and Korriban, that were part of the original game. The Ebon Hawk also returns as the player's primary form of transportation. The game also added hundreds of new weapons and characters to Star Wars canon. Some characters from the first game reappeared in roles of varying importance.

Vrook Lamar makes a reappearance as one of the Jedi Masters that the Exile seeks out during her journey. Revan and Malak both make reappearances as visions to the Exile in the Tomb of Ludo Kressh and both characters are defeated by the Exile. Bastila Shan and Carth Onasi, both major players in the Republic, return in minor roles. It keeps track of what your party members feel about your responses to certain situations or how you talk to them in conversation.

By gaining amounts of "Influence" with a certain character, through player actions or choice of conversational topics, they may reveal more about themselves or allow you to instruct them in the ways of the Force so they can re-class as Jedi. Depending on the "Influence" level you have with a party member, that party member will be either drawn closer to or further from your alignment, unlike the first game. Many of the characters in your party will have different appearances based on their alignments, just as the player's character does.

Another new game mechanic introduced is the prestige class. After a certain point in the game, the Exile may choose one of three classes. Alternatively, if the Exile chooses to follow the dark side, the choices are changed to a counterpart of the Light Side classes, namely the Sith assassin , Sith Lord, and Sith Marauder respectively.

If the Exile shifts her Force alignment after choosing a prestige class, the class automatically changes to reflect that by becoming its counterpart. First announced in July of the previous year at Comic-Con, the series would take place between and BBY , detailing the life of a brand new protagonist named Zayne Carrick , a Padawan framed for the murder of his fellow students at the Jedi Tower training academy on Taris. The comics also coincided with the run up to and outbreak of the Mandalorian Wars, a conflict heavily referenced in both the original Knights of the Old Republic.

The series ended with Demon, Part 4 , the 50th issue, released on February 17 , Many characters from Knights of the Old Republic cross paths with Carrick. Carth Onasi, first as a helmsman aboard the Republic ship, Courageous , in Issue 8 , and later as a Lieutenant in his next appearance, Issue 14 onwards.

In Issue 31 he was removed from his bridge post for "losing" Carrick after fighting alongside the Jedi and developing a friendship with him. He was reassigned to a squadron of Aurek-class strikefighters , Onasi allowed Carrick to escape from him yet again, this time from an engagement between the Aurek squadron and the starship Moomo Williwaw.

Carrick slinked away in the junkhauler Deadweight. In the penultimate issue , Onasi was given back his post, on the bridge of the Inexpugnable -class Swiftsure , and fought to capture a slaver ship called the Gladiator.

Saul Karath made an appearance, still an officer with the Galactic Republic as the story takes place before the Bombing of Telos IV, he first appears in Issue 8 aboard the Courageous , he presided over the Republic forces during several battles of the series, earning the rank of Rear Admiral. Later, before Issue 30 , he was given command of the Swiftsure , ending a Sith Acolyte's rebellion against the Jedi Order. The bombing killed many and was officially blamed on the Mandalorians, with Karath publicly prociaming his everlasting vengence on the accused.

This incident would cast Karath as a hero in the minds of the Republic's citizens. He last appeared in Issue 49, commanding the Swiftsure when it captured the Gladiator. After that Zayne Carrick, who had anonymously informed Karath of the Gladiator ' s presence, asked for passage to the planet Osadia. Though Karath initially refused, Carrick threatened to reveal the truth of the bombing of Draay's estate, which prompted the Admiral to order the Hammerhead -class Testament to take the former Padawan to his destination.

Mission Vao, then a five year old, met Carrick in the streets of Taris and became fast friends with him; going so far as to bite the leg of the then-Hidden Bek Brejik to protect the Jedi, though she was quickly pulled away by her brother Griff.

Gadon Thek appears, still with his sight, in every issue of the Knights of Suffering arc spanning from Issue 22 to Issue The Jedi Enclave Council makes an appearance early in the series, Issues 2 a flashback , 4 , and 6 though its members appear in other parts of the series as well.

Zhar Lestin appears only in Issues 4 and 6; Vrook Lamar appears in 4, 5, and 6, last appearing in Issue 33 leading the assault on the Draay Estate before being forced back due to Karath's orbital bombardment. Vandar Tokare also appears in Issues 2, 4, 6, 9 in a hologram , 12 , 29 , and last appeared in Issue 31, hearing Jedi Master Xamar confess to being part of the cabal known as the Jedi Covenant. Dorak , who appeared in the game as a member, was not yet on the council.

Revan himself appeared in the series, still a Jedi Knight at the time, but his face was always shrouded. He was known as "the Revanchist" as the leader of a faction of Jedi who followed him to battle during the Mandalorian Wars. On the planet Cathar a dozen years before the events of the comics, Revan and the original Revanchists went to Cather searching for proof of the Mandalorian atrocities.

There, he found the mask of a Mandalorian interred in the sand, which triggered a vision of the Battle of Cathar for all present. The group witnessed a group of Cathar running from a band of Mandalorians when one of the attackers pleaded for her commander to stop the attack as they'd already taken the world. Her words were unheeded, and she was killed alongside the Cathar; who were virtually rendered extinct.

Revan put on the mask, which he would later wear as the Dark Lord, and swore to keep it on until the Mandalorians were wholly defeated. Issue 42 was also his final appearance. The future Darth Malak, then known by his birth name of Alek Squinquargesimus, [85] was depicted as Revan's loyal friend and a devout Revanchist. Alek was featured even more extensively than his "Master," [86] garnering appearances in 15 separate issues, giving context for several of his features in the game.

For example, in Issue 29, an arrest warrant was placed on members of the Revanchists and when Malak was involved in a plan crafted by Zayne Carrick in Issue 31, he got his trademark blue tattoos before taking up the moniker "Captain Malak" as a disguise to avoid capture. The comics serial also revealed that Malak fell in love with an Arkanian Offshoot woman named Jarael , who did not feel the same for him.

Cassus Fett , a Mandalorian whose weapon and armor can be found in the first Knights of the Old Republic game, appears extensively in the comics series as a high ranking Mandalorian soldier who is second only to Mandalore the Ultimate , [88] another individual mentioned in the game. Fett first appeared in Issue 8 and would appear in Issues 23, 27 , 42 in a flashback , and The Mandalore appeared in Issues 8, 20, and A Dynamic -class freighter also makes an appearance in a tactical hologram that Fett used to monitor a battle taking place in Issue Another sequel, entitled Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 3 , was put into extensive preproduction around , but the game was canceled when LucasArts hit an economic rough patch.

Some planets were also confirmed to have been planned to make appearances in the game: Coruscant ; Mandalore with a location known as Mandalore City ; Rodia ; and Taloraan.

However, no plot details were released except that one of the characters in the game, with accompanying artwork, was a female named " Naresha. After the second game was completed, Obsidian Entertainment expressed desires to make another sequel, as did LucasArts.

However, no plans of making another Knights of the Old Republic game have come to fruition although representatives from LucasArts have said that they would not abandon the "franchise. Formerly projected for a Spring release, BioWare began development on Star Wars: The Old Republic in December [91] at a satellite studio in Austin , Texas constructed primarily for the project.

Dark Horse Comics released an online-only comic book series entitled Star Wars: The Old Republic, Threat of Peace based on the game, also covering its backstory and introducing some characters expected in the game. The comic is released in three page spurts every other Friday.

After three arcs were released and Threat of Peace was completed, a new serial entitled Blood of the Empire began being released on the same schedule. A series of in-universe videos chronicling the history of the galaxy leading up to the game was also released, detailing in reverse chronological order how the political setting of the game had been in the making for thousands of years.

These retconned the reasons that the pair set out in search of the Star Maps. They established that instead of seeking them out of their own volition, the two had met the Sith Emperor when they journeyed into deep space following the Mandalorian Wars. It was the Emperor who turned them to the dark side and told them to find the Maps. Additionally, the game spawned a series of novels, the third of which was entitled The Old Republic: Revan. It served as a sequel to both Knights of the Old Republic games and explained what happened to both Revan and the Jedi Exile, identified as Meetra Surik, after they both left for the Unknown Regions.

What Revan had remembered after the events of his game was the Sith Empire and he had left to fight them. The novel saw Revan placed in stasis, from which he was woken three-hundred years later as a character in The Old Republic.

Bastila Shan also appeared in the game as a projection from the Noetikon of Secrets , a holocron that contained her wisdom and personality alongside two other Jedi Masters. HK had searched for his master for the full three centuries before being reunited with him and assigned to defend a Rakatan space station called the Foundry. Taris returns for The Old Republic as a world still in ruins, the former ecumenopolis being claimed by forest growth and a rakghoul infestation.

Primarily, white rakghouls like those from Knights of the Old Republic are encountered, though they have evolved over the centuries, but certain ones are colored red as seen in the comic series. Early on, the creative team behind The Old Republic wanted to include a planet from the original game and they felt Taris would be an interesting setting, allowing players to see after so long what had happened to the surface of the iconic planet.

As a major planet, it was cast as a world that was very symbolic to both of The Old Republic ' s factions, the Sith and Republic. The Republic wanted to rebuild it to show they could beat back the Sith while the Sith wanted to stop the restoration efforts to prove the Republic could not overcome them. As an RPG, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic produced a large amount of new continuity, much of which is composed of minor characters that have no great impact upon the plot.

Wookieepedia Explore. Star Wars. Clone Wars Droids Ewoks. Administrators' noticeboard IRC Discord. Tutorials Editing sandbox Things to do Status article nominations Featured article nominations Good article nominations Comprehensive article nominations.

Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. View source. History Talk Do you like this video? Play Sound. This article is about the video game.

You may be looking for the various other Knights of the Old Republic projects. To use their own knowledge against them? This section of the article assumes that the player chooses only "light side" options in the course of the game. Alternate stories are noted in the " Behind the scenes " section.

Note: The events in this section may or may not have been confirmed as canon within the Star Wars Legends continuity. See also: Attack on the Endar Spire. See also: Rescue of Bastila Shan. See also: Rebellion on Kashyyyk. See also: Raid on the Sith Embassy.

See also: Skirmish aboard the Leviathan. See also: Skirmish on Korriban. See also: Battle of Rakata Prime. Assumption ends here. I am a servant of the light now.

Main article: Revan. Main article: Darth Malak. Main article: Saul Karath. Nobody 'owns' me! Main article: Bastila Shan. There's a difference. You get to race on multiple tracks strung across eight distinct planets, each with its own theme and style of racing. As you successfully finish each race, you will gain Trugats money that enable you to upgrade your podracer and prepare for the next race.

Finish first and a new podracer is unveiled that you can use for future races. This is where the "storyline" in Racer starts to get iffy. You never really get a sense of belonging to your pilot or podracer. Since you can choose from multiple pods and multiple pilots, it kind of lacks continuity. I would have liked to see the same pilot used and you be allowed to upgrade from there. If you decided to try a different "character" from the movie, you could have chosen that pilot at the start of the career.

How does it play? Simply put, if nothing else, Racer simulates speed better than any other game I have ever played. It's a hard thing to describe in words As you may have read in my other reviews, I am a big fan of force-feedback. If implemented correctly, this can entrance me into a state where my joystick becomes an extension of my persona Racer does this oh-so-well and has now become my 'reference'?

I cannot believe how good Racer translates the physics and handling of the podracers through a simple joystick. From G-forces and failing engines to running smack-dab into a canyon wall, it's all there in its lap-slapping, wrist-wreaking glory.

The interface for preparing for a race, upgrading your podracer, and just about anything other than actually racing is confusing as all get out. At first, before reading the manual, I would just get mad and go on to the next race. After reading the manual, it started to make sense You see, in some menus you need to use the mouse; in others, the keyboard; in others only the game controller seems to work. I ended up juggling so many peripherals around to upgrade my pod that I wound up ctrl-alt-elbowing my way into a frenzy.

Coincidently, LucasArts posted a little blurb on their support site about this shortcoming. What's their answer? Allow me to quote: "For navigating through the interface we recommend using the keyboard and mouse; joysticks, gamepads and wheels are not fully supported for the Front End interface.

You can interact with some items using the mouse and others with the keyboard. We recommend exploring the various menus thoroughly to find a method of getting around that suits you best. I need to explore and see which controls work and which do not? Funny how when I get stuck, it's the joystick that gets me out of the jam -- something that isn't "fully supported.

I'll admit though, once you "explore" and "memorize" how to get through various screens, there is a lot to be done. The interface provides a lot of flexibility, but isn't fully realized compared to the quality of the race sequences. So the game goes like this: Race, win, race, win, upgrade, race, lose, upgrade, re-race, win, and so on.

The difficulty goes from absurdly easy to pretty challenging with little in between. You actually "desire" to get to the next track to see what LucasArts is going to throw at you.

Although I am still struggling in the final stages of the Galactic Circuit, I have many friends who have since finished the game. What is there to do at this point? You either shelve it or play on the net, right? If you are lucky enough to have a LAN available, the game can be quite fun to play against friends or foes. Multiplayer mode supports up to eight podracers which would be quite a blast, I bet Reviewer's Note: The 'force'?

I could not for the life of me get my home network up and running. I am suspecting Bantha fodder, but I have used too many geeky Star Wars terms in this review already. Graphically, this game has very few equals. If you slow the podracer down, you may notice some minor graphical glitches Since this wasn't made to be perused at anything less than mph, trust me when I say you won't notice.

If you do notice, well, you must be one of those 3D rendering vs. Each planet, each track, is exquisitely rendered with tons of eye-candy and if you spend too much time gawking -- well, trust me when I say that at mph you need to be looking at the road ahead instead of the pretty countryside. You can drive your podracer from one of four different views. This is where complete and utter Star Wars -Geek-Immersion comes in. Turn out your lights, crank up the rear speakers, and choose the 'driver's seat'?

It left me speechless. The only oddity for me was the garish low-resolution map overlay that appears on your Heads Up Display. Everything else in Racer 's podracing sequences is so beautiful that this fluorescent green eyesore really stands out. Thankfully, LucasArts allows you to change this to a more suitable progress-bar view that is more helpful in the long run. Oh, and get this: The game has the ever-so-popular "lens flare. I am just happy that Racer allows you to turn it off.

One thing that Racer does right is to immerse you in an audible world so convincing that you'd swear you are either in the theater all over again or actually racing down a canyon. It's hard to describe how sweet this game sounds when you have properly set up surround sound on your PC.

From Doppler effects to the thump-thump-thump of Sebulba's engines My wife will sit and watch me play just because "it's like watching the movie. It's not only a perfect example of how to use surround sound a decidedly new technology for PC gaming to enhance the gaming experience, but LucasArts does the right thing and makes it highly configurable.

And if you can still fit into those Underoos The documentation is quite good. In reality, the documentation becomes a lifesaver since a lot of the between-race interface can be quite infuriating without some additional guidance. There is even a good attempt to suck you into the storyline like that would be hard. Each of the eight planets is given a back story along with a small blurb about each of the podracers you are allowed to drive. I would have liked the manual to include a little more information on the various upgrades that you have available for your podracer.

The interface limits most of the information to performance bar graphs without really understanding the impact of what you are adding. I really, really wanted to score Racer much higher. In some parts of the game I would lose my sense of reality and become that young kid again who dreamed that one day Stormtroopers would invade a little town in Idaho and I would be the hero of the At first, the lack of Internet play really bugged me.

How can a company release a title that screams 'net play'? Then it made sense to me. We often spend a lot of time cursing at companies for doing Internet play badly such as Unreal , so it's almost refreshing to see a company say, 'We can't do it Regardless of the technical reasons, though, a successful implementation of Internet play would have gone a long way in increasing the "it's still on my hard drive" life of this title.

What it boils down to is this Be prepared, though, to be confused in almost every aspect of the game except for the actual racing. Since racing is where Racer shines, enjoy yourself and scream like a Wookiee as Sebulba knocks you onto the service-ramp The Trade Federation has planned an attack on the peaceful planet of Naboo. Upon arriving on the Trade Federation ship, the Jedi sense that something is afoul.

The Neimoidians have planned a trap for them and are proceeding with their plans of taking over the planet. Meanwhile, on the planet's surface, the Queen and her faithful aide, Captain Panaka, are in a desperate battle of their own to try to escape from the planet and proceed to Coruscant to speak with the galactic government about their situation.

But I will tell you that you will meet up with a slave boy named Anakin Skywalker and that there is a new villain named Darth Maul. But of course, you already knew that. The Phantom Menace is a new top-down shooter based on the movie.

It requires a quick hand and a little bit of luck to get through the game. While I am the type of person who likes the first-person perspective, it was kind of nice to play a game from the top-down angle, although I would have liked to be able to change the camera view to make it easier to see things in front of me.

I had very little trouble setting the game up to play. After changing all my options for my joystick I was ready to begin mowing down some droids. Upon starting the game you are Obi-Wan and all you have to defend yourself is your trusty lightsaber.

While this weapon is very good at close range it has something to be desired at a distance. But the programmers knew this would be a problem so they gave you the power to redirect the laser fire from your enemies back at them. Now that is where the game is really fun! There is nothing like standing in a crowded hallway just flailing your lightsaber around and seeing laser fire shoot in every direction. It takes a little bit of timing to "hit" the laser with your lightsaber but once you "master" it get it?

Jedi Master? One area that could be improved is the artificial intelligence for some of the characters. There is a level in the game where you have to escort the Queen to her ship. I wish I had a quarter for every time I had to go back and guide the Queen around a corner because she got stuck somewhere. And you have to be careful because if you get too far ahead of her, she will be killed and you will then, of course, die also. The Phantom Menace is very pleasing to the eyes, as it should be when you consider that it requires a 3D accelerator card to play.

The backgrounds and cutscenes were stunning. I was impressed by the perception of depth throughout the game. There is a level in the game where you Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are fighting Darth Maul on these round platforms that are floating in this big tube-like structure.

I never really liked heights very much as it is, so when I had to jump from platform to platform it kind of made my stomach queasy. Performance wise, the game never once bogged down on my system and there was plenty of action on the screen at all times. My hat goes off to the folks who did the score for this game. Here is where the game truly shines. The music for The Phantom Menace sounded like it came straight from the movie itself. LucasArts game soundtracks always seem to impress me.

The crackling of a lightsaber, screeching blaster fire, and mechanical droids all made the game more realistic and enjoyable. It brought me back to the glory days of the original trilogy. The book that is enclosed with the game is more than sufficient to get you up and running as fast as possible. It gives a brief storyline and the usual descriptions of some of the people you will encounter in the game.