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The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed | 
 enlarge | Authors: Haden Blackman, Brett Rector
Creator: Hayden Christensen
Brand: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $11.95
You Save: $18.00 (60%)
New (35) Used (8) from $11.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 103148
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 160
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 9.8 x 8.9 x 0.7
MPN: GKW34098
ISBN: 1933784253
Dewey Decimal Number: 794.8
EAN: 9781933784250
ASIN: 1933784253
Publication Date: August 19, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: New - may have a small remainder mark on the edge.
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Product Description
The Star wars art book has 224 fully colored pages inside.The Star Wars saga continues! The Force Unleashed: Art of the Game chronicles the four-year development of the anxiously awaited, action-packed video game developed by LucasArts from conception to completion.The book reveals innovative game design concept and images, three-dimensional renders, and behind-the-scenes photos. The Force Unleashed game casts players as Darth Vader's "Secret Apprentice" and promises to unveil new revelations about the Star Wars galaxy.The expansive story, created under direction from George Lucas, is set during the unexplored era between Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.The game re-imagines the scope and scale of the Force by taking full advantage of new technologies that will be seen and experienced for the first time, such as Digital Molecular Matter (DMM) by Pixelux Entertainment and euphoria by Natural Motion Ltd., paired with the powerful Havok Physics (TM) system.These new technologies create gameplay only possible on the new generation of consoles. DMM incorporates the physical properties of objects in the environment so that every element reacts exactly as it should--wood breaks like wood, glass shatters like glass, Felucian plants bend in their unique way, and more.Meanwhile, as a revolutionary behavioral-simulation engine, euphoria enables interactive characters to move, act, and even think like actual human beings, adapting their behavior and resulting in a different response every single time.Well before its release, The Force Unleashed game is already buzzing on blogs and gamer websites, at gamer conferences, and among Star Wars fans.LucasArts is fully backing the promotion of the game to the tens of millions of Star Wars fans around the world.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Choked Full With Art and Insights September 17, 2008
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2GX6YMYRUK8Q2 The Art and Making of Star Wars Force Unleashed brings you behind the scenes into the game development process, while staying close to artists' drawing boards.
This book is choked full with breathtaking concept art, character designs, diary entries and screenshots from the game. It features over 300 pieces of art work in 168 pages. On two pages are pasted paper pockets, with each containing 5 character cards.
If you've owned the "art of" series for the Star Wars movies, expect the same high quality environment paintings. But this one goes up one notch with beautiful page layouts. It's the art magazine type of layout, so the every page design is essentially art in itself. Great effort from the book designers.
The 6 chapters in the book explains the game creation process in depth. That's from the development of a concept, to the pitch and approval stage, next to character studies, then environment and finally the technology behind.
There are lots of nitty gritty details that you won't read on Internet interviews. The authors bring you to the cutting floor and let you read all about the discarded ideas.
After reading the book, you'll literally feel like you've worked with these people (most probably as an intern).
For Star Wars fans, you have no reasons not to get this book. For people interested in concept design and animation, this book has lots of insight for you. This book is a great source of inspiration.
Be careful of the binding though. The part where the cover meets page 1 seems like they will come apart in the future. Easily fixed by pasting some clear tape to fix the problem before it develops.
There are more pictures on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for my blog's link.
If the game is as good as this book, we're all in for a treat. August 20, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I recently watched The Clones Wars and thought it was average; it felt more like an homage, than the real deal. And although I enjoyed the prequels, my faith in "a galaxy far, far away" had slowly waned until I got this book. The imagery is stunning and true to form; it looks and feels like a perfect "bridge" between Ep 3 & 4.
Clearly is takes on a new realm in the Star Wars universe - "the force unleashed" but the designers give reasons why we have never seen someone of this power before; all conveyed through hundreds of amazing, beautifully presented images.
From concept to completion, this book tells the story of every facet of the games development including original titles and designs. In honesty, there was only one design (a single page) that I thought looked too far left of center. Other than that, this book is one of the finest "making of" books I have bought in years.
For any Star Wars fan - or someone interested in the tireless amount of effort that goes into making a game - this book is a must.
Hope this helps...
Behind the Scenes August 25, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
It's very interesting to read just how much time and effort goes into making a game, specially one within the Star Wars Universe. From all the different story concepts, to deciding on the timeline of the game, to which characters would make an appearance.
The artwork is nothing short of amazing, with all the different concepts for the Jedi characters, to the look of the Apprentice, to the characters that were not included in the game.
The book of course details the finished game as well, discussing in length the plot of the finished game, so if you don't want to be spoiled then wait until the game comes out to read it.
Amazing September 8, 2008
i saw this book at borders for double its price glad i held out and bought from amazon no free shipping which is weird lately amazon has been charging trying to make their money either taxing you or for shipping
An essential addition to the personal collections of dedicated Star Wars fans September 8, 2008
Star Wars is a cultural phenomenon of global proportions. What began as inspired and inspiring science fiction action/adventure movie trilogy has expanded into novels, comics, video games, fan conventions, and memorabilia that seems to increase in popularity every year. The collaborative work of Star War's enthusiasts W. Haden Blackman and Brett Rectork, "The Art And Making Of Star Wars Force Unleashed" is a profusely illustrated compendium of information about the creation of the 'Star Wars: Force Unleashed' video game that takes place within the Star Wars universe between the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Rebel Alliance. The cutting edge of game design as applied to this Star Wars theme entertainment is fully described and illustrated with more than 300 conceptual artworks. Readers are provided with a virtual tour of the development process, provided with details of unused game concepts, story meetings with George Lucas as well as commentaries and interviews with other key members of the video game design teams. Enhanced with ten Character Cards, "The Art And Making Of Star Wars Force Unleashed" will proved to be an essential addition to the personal collections of dedicated Star Wars fans and enthusiasts as the Star Wars phenomena continues to unfold as a multi-faceted, multi-platform, multi-format entertainment.
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The Nintendo Wii goes on sale on Sunday, November 19. Thanks to the inclusion of the simple--but infectiously fun--Wii Sports game, the Wii is the first console in recent memory that lets you have fun straight out of the box. Still, there are a few key Wii accessories you'll want to pick up to maximize your Wii experience--especially if you're buying it as a gift.
Extra controllers: Like all recent consoles, the Wii ships with just a single controller (well, one two-part controller: one Wiimote, plus one nunchuk). But the real fun of the system is playing the head-to-head Wii Sports games such as tennis and boxing. To do so, you'll need at least one extra set of controllers--and again, that's one Wiimote ($28.99) plus one nunchuk ($12.99). The Wii supports as many as four, but just the one extra controller set should suffice--at least for Christmas morning.
Rechargeable batteries: The Wiimote takes two standard AA batteries. They're included--with the Wii, and with the sold-separately version of the controller mentioned above--but avid players may find the juice draining pretty quickly, especially if they keep the nunchuk attached (it draws its power from the Wiimote). Instead of buying an endless stream of costly AAs, consider investing in a set of rechargeables. You can score a charger and four rechargeable nickel-metal-hydride batteries for less than $25.
GameCube controllers: The Wii is fully backwards compatible with the Nintendo GameCube, but there's a catch: to play the GameCube games, you'll need a GameCube controller ($15.99). You can even go wireless with the Nintendo WaveBird ($59.99). If you already have a GameCube, your existing controllers will work just fine--just plug them in to one of the four ports underneath the flip-up panel on the Wii's topside. GameCube controllers should also work with the Wii's "Virtual Console" games--which saves you the trouble of having to buy a Classic Controller.
GameCube memory cards: One other annoyance when playing GameCube games: your progress can only be saved to GameCube memory cards, not to the Wii's internal memory or to an SD card (we're hoping Nintendo fixes this with a future firmware update). Like the controllers, your old GC cards will work just fine--there are two slots right next to the GameCube controller ports. If you don't have any onhand (and you want to save your games on GC titles), you'll need to spring for a $26.90 (2GB) memory card.
Wii Points: One of the big attactions of the Wii is its Virtual Console, which lets you purchase classic games that originally came from the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the Super NES, the Nintendo 64, the Sega Genesis, and the TurboGrafx16. By the end of 2006, at least 30 titles should be available, including Donkey Kong (NES), Super Mario 64 (N64), and Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis). To purchase the downloadable titles, you'll need to use a Nintendo currency known as Wii Points (similar to the Microsoft Points on Xbox Live), which currently have an exchange rate of 100 points per U.S. dollar. You can buy Wii Points directly through the console's online store, or use prepaid cards (2000 Wii Points) available in various denominations.
SD card: If you're close to filling the Wii's built-in 512MB of storage with your Virtual Console games, you can always expand your available space with an SD card. Nintendo sells its own, but any run-of-the-mill card will do. Fairly spacious 1GB cards are available for less than $20--even less with mail-in rebates--and they'll work in plenty of other gadgets as well.
Wireless access point: In addition to the downloadable Virtual Console games, the Wii offers online "channels," including news, weather, and even an Opera Web browser (head-to-head online gaming is said to be coming sometime in 2007). You can get online for free via the Wii's built-in Wi-Fi. To do so, of course, you'll need a nearby wireless access point or router. Alternately, you can plug the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector into any nearby PC on a wired network, and the Wii--plus your Nintendo DS--will be able to use it to get online instead.
Component video adapter: The Wii doesn't have the graphical horsepower to handle high-def graphics, but it can do DVD-level 480p video, which will look considerably better on large HDTVs. To see the Wii's games in 480p, you'll need Nintendo's proprietary component video adapter, which should run about $20. |
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www.seeker-wii.com | |
