"We're also going to have positional damage on all of the models as well," says Tosti, "this means when you shoot an enemy in the shoulder, he'll fall backwards or forwards, dependant on the location of the hit. We really can't say right now whether you'll be able to cut off limbs with your lightsaber, but it's in discussion." When he wasn't looking, the person playing the game for us proceeded to cut off a Stormtroopers arms and legs with the lightsaber. "You didn't see that," laughs Tosti. We're hoping they keep it in.

Although multiplayer Jedi Outcast was mentioned, nothing was etched in stone, unfortunately. "Since we're not shipping till early next year, we haven't really fleshed out multiplayer yet," explains Tosti, "don't worry though, we're making quite a few enhancements for multiplayer that I think you'll really like. That's all I can say right now."

They also dropped in some NPC jedi into the duel and at one point had three independant duels going on. Each of the NPC's seemed very intelligent as they all used the force powers, the all blocked attacks, and took advantages of openings in their opponent. Also shown to use was part of a new level that had never been seen before. It was the Hangar on Yavin 4 complete with war room.

The levels we saw running included Luke Skywalker's Jedi training Academy on Yavin 4 and Kyle's one-man assault on an Imperial base on a deserted moon. The Jedi Academy was particularly excellent, with both light and dark Jedis going saber-to-saber in a kind of giant team deathmatch - special challenges designed to exercise your Force powers - and even an arena to practice your lightsaber skills against flying drones (as Luke did on the Millennium Falcon in Episode IV).

Indeed, Raven has developed and released a whopping 12 full games since the company was founded, (not counting expansion packs and collected editions of games) and is currently developing three more titles: the first person shooter sequel Soldier of Fortune II, the highly anticipated Star Wars: Jedi Knight II, and the just announced Doom 3 engine powered game Quake IV.

JKII Multiplayer is coming along - I got Ghoul2 in there and working, so we can use all the single player assets, which is cool. Makes building an MP game a ton faster when all the assets just translate over. Going through the Quake III code again inserting my stuff makes me appreciate once again how clever and elegant the multiplayer design for that engine really is. Everytime I find what I think is a hole, I find that although the hole in question is never specifically addressed by code, that hole never crops up because of the smart design behind the system in the first place.

I could write an entire article just on that in fact. SOF II and JKII single player are coming along great guns from what I have seen. There is some interesting stuff going on in those games that I've not seen done before. John Scott's terrain system in particular looks very striking. For those that saw it (and JKII) at QuakeCon I think I can speak for most here when I say a huge thank you for all the kind words that have been directed at us. This makes a difference to us here in many many ways. I think every developer gets revitalised when they know that people are looking forward to what we are building.

I realize that alot of you have sent levels to the levels account and are wondering where did Rob go? Well I'm still here and I still will be posting levels and such.

I am asking you all to be patient as I just got my life on track. Please do not send any levels you have previously sent. They are all still here. Also please follow the submission guidelines thoroughly. There are alot of levels that haven't been sent correctly, and with our server difficulties I can't reach you to tell you to resubmit. After the server difficulties are corrected I will promptly contact those who have not submited correctly.

Sorry for the delay in postings. It is a pleasure serving you. Thankyou for your patience.

Rob

Damn, I knew there was something else I should have asked at QuakeCon!  But there were a few times in the demo that Kyle spoke, and it sounded like the MotS Kyle, Rino Romanio.  I don't know if that was new dialogue or recycled from MotS, though.  I  also don't know if the voice was representative of the finished product.

One thing to keep in mind: Romano also did the voicework for Alexander Munro, the male version of Elite Force's player character.  Since Raven did that game as well, they might use him again.