Battlefront III and the tale of Free Radical

Started by Jedikiller, May 12, 2012, 03:45:51 PM

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http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-04-free-radical-vs-the-monsters

I don't know if any of you guys have seen this, but I figured that it might make an impact on the community. This is a long and in-depth article about LucasArts and Free Radical, and the hidden story of the rise and fall of Battlefront III from a highly innovative game to largely a pile of junk, and LucasArts' effect on it.

I came away from this article disappointed. LucasArts hasn't put out anything good lately, and I think that it's largely because of their terrible business practices. I hope that one day, they will turn themselves around and become the publishing powerhouse they used to be - with games like KotOR, SWBF1, and Republic Commando.

Interested to hear you guys' thoughts.


(•̪●)=ε/̵͇̿̿/'̿'̿ ̿ ̿̿ ̿ ̿"" (-_-*)

I did in-fact read about this, somehow I'm not surprised that super-crazy money hungry nutters destroyed the project.

From what I've seen the Alpha build was fairly amazing. I imagine that the psychopath at Lucas Arts  the free radical guy mentions must have been some kind of soul-less bean counter who didn't know the first thing about games and creation in general.

It's certainly disappointing, considering Free Radical are responsible for the greatest FPS series ever. FACT

The pre-alpha build that we see on Youtube shows that the game had environments on a scale never really seen before and that was pre-alpha footage! Imagine what the final build would have been like. Hard to believe LucasArts canned the project that late in it's development.

In my imagination and memory, I will always hold the image of Mr. Lucas working with special effects guys, trying new things and revolutionizing an entire industry with real artisans, designers, and writers.

I am very sad that that only exists in memory and imagination, now.

The lesson (for me) is that if I enjoy doing something, never let a bean counter near it.