E3 2001 First ImpressionStar Wars Starfighter

When we ventured into the LucasArts booth at the 2001 E3, we were surprised to find Starfighter running on the PC. According to LucasArts, however, the space shooter, which was released for the PlayStation 2 last March, was originally a PC game to start with, so the decision to port it back to the PC was an easy one. For those that aren't familiar with the game, Starfighter isn't as challenging as its classic X-Wing series--it's much more similar to the company's Rogue Squadron franchise in that there's little, if any, flight simulation aspects to the game at all. Starfighter takes place during Episode I, and you'll be able to pilot one of three different vehicles, including the elegant Naboo fighter across 14 single-player missions and a handful of multiplayer scenarios.

LucasArts says that because the PC platform is open-ended, the designers for the game aren't as constrained as they were while working on the original PlayStation 2 version of Starfighter. As a result, the game boasts a clear graphical advantage over its console sibling. One such improvement is an increase in texture size on all the ships from 128x128 to 256x256. LucasArts hopes that the game will be visually comprable to the PlayStation 2 version on a 300MHz Pentium II-equipped system with a 3D video card. With those specs, LucasArts claims that the game will run at 30 frames per second. As it stands now, the game is scheduled for release in January of 2002. We'll keep you posted with more details on Star Wars Starfighter for the PC as they become available.