Cloned for Xbox Live

What is wrong with LucasArts these days, eh? They seem to get so very excited when they realise they can complete the Herculean task of porting their average Star Wars Shoot 'Em Ups to other consoles and cram in stuff in the intervening year.

The Clone Wars is of course what we're talking about. Hyped with much fanfare for its incredible, detail packed landscapes and the prospect of taking part in the titular Clone Wars, it landed like a damp squib on our desks and inspired about as much enthusiasm as the other fairly tedious Episode I/II Star Wars outings we've seen recently - Bounty Hunter, Racer's Revenge, etc. A good game? In places, yes. Something to get really excited about, splash covers on and waste thousands of words of copy getting to the root of? Undoubtedly no.

"But, but, but!" the publisher screams this morning. The Clone Wars on Xbox will support Live! Admittedly, this fundamental change could be all for the better, but the scant details we've seen don't exactly gang up on us to overturn the 6/10 the game just about earned on GameCube. What we know thus far is that there will be medals to earn, online rankings and a new team-based "Conquest Mode" for online players, whatever that may be. Other than that, the Xbox version gets boost power-ups and "battlefield teleportals" (spawn points?). We're not sure whether to be excited or concerned for LucasArts, who are trumpeting their first Live-enabled title as though it was phenomenal in the first place.

The Clone Wars is due out in "fall 2003", which means we'll get it over here around the same time as we got The Clone Wars on Cube. Let's hope they work on the graphics a bit and address the other issues we felt plagued the game. Then we'll look like ninnies for complaining, but at least we'll be happy ninnies. At the moment, we're supposed to be excited, but with these screenshots and a fairly boring press release, somehow all we can think about is how good Rogue Leader would be on Xbox Live. Bah.