I was just looking at our YouTube video that we released when UFO was a Jedi Academy gaming clan.  You know, it's not bad.  It's a shame that they probably won't make another Star Wars multiplayer game along those lines with a better engine.  I mean, I don't know that, but it's all about the MMO now, isn't it - it's the direction that PC gaming has gone, perhaps never to deviate again!  Again, that's a guess, but I haven't seen a game with the level of variety that Jedi Academy had since its release.  Sure, it was built on the Quake III engine and so easily lent itself to the FPS side of things and had an impressive array of weapons including such faithful firearms that grace game after game, as well as our expectations.  The sniper rifle, the repeater rifle, the shotgun, the heavy pistol, the crossbow and the rocket-propelled grenade launcher. 

So that's a regular game, right there.  Add in the vehicles you could man, the twin ion engine (TIE) fighter, the TIE bomber and lambda shuttle, the iconic vehicles from the franchise.  Not only that, but why not throw in a lightsabre.  But instead of making it a hack-and-slash button mash affair, how about making it artful and clever in a subtle way, so that you can actually make combinations but no fuss is made of them.  Tied in to player movement, lightsabre swings reflected your directions and provided a plethora of different and stunning attacks that were to be strung together during combat.  Anyone who entered a duel without this knowledge was certainly doomed.

And then there was the addition of the Force powers.  Light or dark side, there was enough to get your teeth into there.  Force grip, lightning, push, pull, all very flexible to your needs and combining all these elements together, along with various NPCs, environmental hazards, beautifully-made custom maps, the game was so rich in what was possible that it kept us, as a clan, busy for three years.  

We played tennis using rocket-propelled grenades, batting them to and fro using Force push.  We spawned two NPCs of opposing alignment and took bets on which would win.  We rode rancors and, well, sort-of jousted.  We flew in space in our TIE fighters and shot the crap out of everything that moved.  We re-enacted famous Star Wars movie moments and came up with our own imaginative back-story.  It was a great game and thus far, nothing has rivalled its potential for multiplayer experience. 

But whyever not?!