LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (5th April 2022)

[Julius]

1 hour ago, Happenstance said:

Still a shame about the voice acting. I just prefer Lego games without it.

Yeah, I'm right there with you, there's a timelessness to the silent skits and visual gags of the older LEGO games which I'll always be fond of, felt like a throwback to silent films.

Granted, there is Mumble Mode in the cheat codes so that you don't have to play with voice acting if you don't want to, which is a fine addition, but it's pared back in the sense that it is essentially just the original scenes dubbed over with said mumbling, so it's still a step down in that regard. 

To compare the "No, I am your father" scene in this game to the original (first video is linked to the particular scene in the trailer):

 

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I'm still back and forth as to whether or not i'll pick this up. The reports that were released at the start of the year about staff at the studio being overworked, underpaid and generally bullied left me feeling conflicted. I'd like to play it but I don't really want to support these kind of working conditions. It's getting to the point now where just about every company in the industry has some skeletons in their closet. 

Yeah, I can totally empathise with this, I think it's a line getting harder and harder to walk with every passing week having new headlines of employees being treated like dirt. Almost the entire industry needs a shakeup, because it's had it's chance for wake-up calls and done nothing with them. 

Selfishly (and not?) I think it's something that shouldn't even need to be on the mind of the consumer when picking up a game, it shouldn't be a question of the wellbeing of the team behind these games because they shouldn't even be in these positions in the first place. It basically presents people searching purely for entertainment with a moral and ethical quandary, and to add some level of irony to it, it's only those who are quite into games in the first place and keep up with it who actually keep abreast of what's going on who might end up hindered by this; the average casual gamer - the ones who actually have buying power en masse - have zero idea what's going on 99 times out of 100. 

Personally, I avoid Ubisoft and Activision games right now, have done for a while now, but then I bought and adored Red Dead Redemption II last year, which makes me feel like a hypocrite. It's tough, but I guess similarly to my view on the whole controversy surrounding Hogwarts Legacy, there unfortunately isn't a one-size-fits-all solution, and it really just needs to come down to the choice of the individual.

At the end of the day when it comes to things like this I tend to ask myself "would I feel like I'm robbing myself of a worthwhile experience which I might find joy in and/or learn more about myself from?", which I guess personally would outweigh whatever sense of guilt I'd have in the pit of my stomach. I love Star Wars, as I know many here do, but even if I take away the fact that this is a Star Wars game, the first LEGO Star Wars game was the game myself and all of my friends had growing up, and I still remember flicking through a game magazine on the floor of the tiny off-licence next to my primary school and learning about - and counting down to - the release of LEGO Star Wars II. So there's almost too much nostalgia for me not to? 

But then, I mean, that just brings up the poison chalice of corporations preying on the innate and uncontrollable feeling and desire for nostalgia in the first place, which is to say that we're all doomed 

[Hero-of-Time]

Yeah, it certainly is a sticky situation and not one limited to the games industry. I mean, I talk about the way employees at TT Games are treated and yet Amazon is always being criticised for such things but I'm a Prime member and still buy from them. You hear about workers getting treated like rubbish at supermarket chains such as Tesco and Asda but obviously people still get their shopping there. Lastly, you have the big one and that is China. How many of our goods are produced over there? Most of our electronic goods come from China and yet we happily purchase consoles, phones and TVs knowing full well what goes on in that country.

Unless you live in a bubble and refuse to buy anything at all then you will always be supporting some greedy SOB at the top who will happily mistreat their staff in order to make more money.

Like you said, @Julius, it's upto the individual to pick and choose their battles in this regard. To add to this, nobody should be called out or feel pressured just because they buy a product knowing what is happening behind the scenes. That is their choice and it should be respected.

[Ronnie]

Getting great reviews! It's sat at 85 on Metacritic atm (on PS5). Can't wait to dive in over the next few days.

@Julius have you decided whether to play now or around Celebration? I think you should play now 

[Julius]

14 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Getting great reviews! It's sat at 85 on Metacritic atm (on PS5). Can't wait to dive in over the next few days.

@Julius have you decided whether to play now or around Celebration? I think you should play now 

Man, those are some great scores. I'm very excited for it! 

I think I'll be holding off and wait until Celebration/the long Bank Holiday weekend, kind of craving something else at the moment and spent a fair bit on games recently, so I need to be a sensible adult and wait...right?  

Take it you're planning on picking it up at launch @Ronnie? If so, have you decided which trilogy to start with yet? 

[Ronnie]

1 hour ago, Julius said:

Man, those are some great scores. I'm very excited for it! 

I think I'll be holding off and wait until Celebration/the long Bank Holiday weekend, kind of craving something else at the moment and spent a fair bit on games recently, so I need to be a sensible adult and wait...right?  

Take it you're planning on picking it up at launch @Ronnie? If so, have you decided which trilogy to start with yet? 

Yeah should be arriving in the next day or two, but no still not decided where to start 

I could make a case for all three, prequels (chronologically makes sense), originals (the ones that started it all), sequels (I'm massively into them). I guess I'll do it properly and start with Ep 1.

[Ronnie]

Heads up on this if you have both an Xbox and PS5, play this game on Xbox (or PC), the PS5 game is a terrible version apparently, technically.

[Julius]

Casually - and unsurprisingly - done gangbusters. 

Quote

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has already sold over 3.2 million units globally in its first two weeks, Warner Bros. Games revealed today. In doing so, it has surpassed all previous LEGO console game launches. The game exceeded sales records across every platform, region, and edition.

Look forward to seeing how future LEGO games learn from this, and of course looking forward to diving in myself next month 

[Hero-of-Time]

 

[Happenstance]

In a bit of a Star Wars mood again today (and I expect to orrow that will shift to a Star Trek mood!) so I'm tempted to finally pick this up. The Galactic Edition is out now with all the dlc and is discounted on both consoles so I'll probably just get that.

[Happenstance]

Ended up resubbing to gamepass to play this and I'm glad I did that instead of buying it. I've just completed Phantom Menace and don't think I'll bother carrying on. The game looks great but that's about all it has going for it. The gameplay is so boring that I'm just racing through from cutscene to cutscene and I'm not enjoying the Lego charm the same way I used to.