In a Galaxy far far away upon the third planet from the Sun lay a strange planet where 94% of the population remains captivated by a series of movies released by a certain George Lucas more than a decade before. Well as the hype begins to build for the next Star Wars movie, The Phantom Menace, LucasArts has released yet another combat flight sim. X-Wing Alliance bring very little new content to the table in terms of originality, however it does bring an interesting plot line, super beefed-up graphics, and a few new space craft to the table previously set by X-Wing Versus Tie Fighter. Now don't get me wrong I, this is one heck of a good game and I won't hesitate to admit that it has had me captivated for the last two weeks (until TFC *g*).

Visuals

The moment you lift off the hanger bay you can tell that someone really cared about making this game graphically packed. As you are launched out of the hanger you can switch views showing off your YT-1300 (the first starcraft you pilot), which looks like a somewhat less equiped Millenium Falcon. From the gun turrets on the side to the wave of engine glow in the back, this looks and feels like a spacecraft you wouldn't mind parking in your driveway. Here's a good time to point out the levels of graphics you can set. When you go to optimize your video settings it gives you three levels. The first level is for anything that is not a Pentium II (or a K6-2), and or that has only 32Mb of RAM. This level of graphics is configured so that you do not get to listen to the awsome Starwars remixed music (I'll get to this later), and the star density is almost nil with no planets or galaxies in the background. Also you can not listen to non-critical voices, like the chatter of your wingmen smacking some Ties ("Imperial training seems a bit lax!" Is repeated just often enough to want to whack an X-Wing too *grin*). In losing some of these features it really takes the feel out of the game and really takes away from the gameplay, but if you are caught in a bind between your CPU or your RAM this might be your only alternative. The Second Level is a better comprimise as you get the music, most of the voices, and somewhat fewer background images. In order to 'qualify' for this level you need less than 64Mb of RAM and less than a Pentium 333Mhz CPU. The final level jacks everything up, all sounds, all graphics, and of course music included. Theoretically you need a Pentium 333Mhz CPU and 64MB of RAM for this setting. But let me be honest here.

As most know, my computer is no prize as it is an overclocked P5-233 @ 266, with 128MB of RAM, and a Pure 3D II. The game ran more than playable on the Level 3 Setting! I would be willing to bet that a Pentium 166 with 64MB of RAM and a good video card could easily run Level 2 graphics just fine. For testing purposes I cranked it down to Level 1 and the only advantage I got was that I could aim moderately better, but that was it. Also engine supports Direct 3D and as another test I tried a Diamond Speedstar 8Mb AGP card on a Pentium II 266, and it ran about the same to my computer with the V2, so don't feel that you have to have a good video card unless you have a slower CPU. One final point is that the game has been limited to 30fps. On the http://www.xwingalliance.com bulletin board, during a poll, no one user out of about fourty could get above 30fps, even on monster systems with Pentium III 500's with 128MB of PC-100 SDRAM. In fact my 266 gets about 22-25 during most scenes in (640x480), very playable. So for the most part you should have to worry about whether or not your computer can handle the game and have it look nice too. Though if you have one of the new ATI 128 Cards or a RivaTNT an increased resolution would really stand out.

Gameplay

Ok, before you even consider purchasing this game you better go and track down your joystick because X-Wing Alliance requires it! You can't get away with only a mouse and keyboard here. However I can't see how you could play this game without one.

Now for my little horror story. When I got X-Wing Alliance in the mail from Lucas Arts I happliy installed it and found out I needed a joystick. So thinking back to the last time I had used it, Descent: Freespace, I scrounged around in the back of my closet. Now I don't usually check out the back of my closet so it was only when I put my foot down in a puddle of brownish water did I realize that water had seeped in under the house and into my closest. And my $180 Joystick and Throttle lay right in the middle of it, very wet. Well I tried drying it out but to no avail, it was a dead joystick.

Well fortunately Wabbit loaned me his old Microsoft(tm) (yeah I don't feel like being sued to day for not putting a 'tm' there or one of those copyright symbols) Sidewinder Pro. Snagged the drivers, plugged it in, and away I went using only two of the numerous buttons, opting to use the keyboard for throttle and weapon switching. This may be because I'm a lefty but it worked well this way.

Type:
Space Simularor

Developer:
LucasArts

Publisher:
LucasArts

Requirements:
Pentium II/AMD K6-2
64MB RAM
AGP Video Card with 8MB + Memory

Multiplayer
Yes :

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For Hardware Review Only Below

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