WGA award loosed onto Force Unleashed

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Feb 9, 2009 5:42 pm PT

LucasArts actioner beats out Fallout 3, Red Alert 3, Tomb Raider, and Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble for Writers Guild award.

In late 2007, the Writers Guild of America announced a new category dedicated to game writing in its annual awards. However, the following February, the Hollywood trade association got off to a questionable start by bestowing the honor onto the tepidly reviewed Dead Head Fred. The D3 Publisher game beat out such higher-profile nominees as Vivendi's Crash of the Titans, Electronic Arts' The Simpsons, CD Project Red's The Witcher, and World in Conflict, also from Vivendi.

One year later, the WGA has bestowed its second award for game writing to the team behind Star Wars: The Force Unleashed--writers Haden Blackman, Shawn Pitman, John Stafford, and Cameron Suey. The LucasArts game, billed as the seventh chapter in the two-trilogy Star Wars film saga, beat out several high-profile contenders, including Eidos' Tomb Raider: Underworld, EA's Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, and Bethesda's Fallout 3, GameSpot's top role-playing game of 2008. The casual PC game Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble! was also among the nominees, which must be written by WGA members to be considered.

Developed internally at LucasArts, the best-selling Force Unleashed is set between the ending of the movie Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and the beginning of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. The secret apprentice is tasked by Vader to rid the world of the scourge of the Jedi, and the game adds a new layer of backstory to the Star Wars saga.

For a detailed breakdown of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed's gameplay and storyline, read GameSpot's full review.

92 Comments

  • Maj_Wood

    Posted Jun 27, 2009 5:53 am PT

    Get this game on the sliver screen please!

  • adam111111

    Posted Mar 5, 2009 4:21 am PT

    Well, the game was harshly reviewed. But the story was superbly written. No surprise it won.

  • ThePowerOfHAT

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 3:31 pm PT

    It was better than the prequels, I'll give it that. Loved the story, pretty good acting as well.

  • rebel_punk34

    Posted Feb 11, 2009 2:29 pm PT

    Force Unleashed really did deserve the award, I've been a fan of the star wars saga for years. And the story just made it even better, filling in that 20 year gap. Hopefully we will see more games like this in the future.

  • jedi-gamer

    Posted Feb 10, 2009 9:55 pm PT

    This game really deserved it.

  • buft

    Posted Feb 10, 2009 7:04 pm PT

    the story in this game was pretty good , i really liked it ,that may just be cause im a big starwars fan

  • ShadowXStorm

    Posted Feb 10, 2009 3:39 pm PT

    Awesome I really loved this game, I give it a thumbs up with this award it really deserved it.

  • tidyspidey

    Posted Feb 10, 2009 2:55 pm PT

    Deserving award - fantastic story, even if the game itself had a few very minor weak moments, this didn't impact the story. Nice to see TFU got some praise as I thought some people were a little too harsh on it. I really enjoyed it.

  • WeWerePirates

    Posted Feb 10, 2009 1:56 pm PT

    RE Force Unleashed movie...

    Remember the live action Star Wars TV series that's in development set in the same time period? Remember the appearance of characters in TFU are modelled on their actors?

    I doubt there will be a movie but if the live action series does get off the ground I wouldn't be surprised to see some TFU characters even if it is just cameos.

  • Darth_Nater307

    Posted Feb 10, 2009 1:44 pm PT

    Wula_
    Posted Feb 11, 2009 8:53 am GMT -12

    Am I still one of the few hoping for another republic commando game?

    No sir, you are not.

  • HD360gamer

    Posted Feb 10, 2009 1:37 pm PT

    not surprised actually. I am a huge fan of the game but the story of the force unleashed is definitely better than the main story of that game or any other that came out recently. and i am not being that biased as far as being a star wars fan either.

  • jrabbit99

    Posted Feb 10, 2009 1:30 pm PT

    Wow, i would never have seen that coming

  • saturo123

    Posted Feb 10, 2009 1:19 pm PT

    It thought it was pretty fun, I wouldn't be surprised to see another star wars movie come out of it. They can call it episode 3.5 or something

  • gormo4

    Posted Feb 10, 2009 1:02 pm PT

    It deserved it.

  • Wula_

    Posted Feb 10, 2009 12:53 pm PT

    Am I still one of the few hoping for another republic commando game?

  • Amir29

    Posted Feb 10, 2009 12:25 pm PT

    A good Star Wars game... FINALLY!! Now, that it's got recognition, how about a sequel announcement?! PLEASE?!

  • msharki

    Posted Feb 10, 2009 11:20 am PT

    I have heard talks of a Force Unleashed movie on IMDB. George Lucas would be crazy to not want to capitalize on the success of the game.

  • delcidanddarth

    Posted Feb 10, 2009 11:14 am PT

    What a load of tripe. Any "award" that requires you to be a (paying) member of the group that sponsors the award is just terribly self-indulgent. As my favorite protagonist in a Russel Crowe gladiator movie once said, "The time for honoring yourself will soon be at an end."

  • Buttonio

    Posted Feb 10, 2009 11:10 am PT

    I would love to see a force unleashed film, though it wud need a different name and they shud definately have the same guy as starkiller ,i thought he was pretty good, i noticed hes in the mist aswell

  • sdkingsht

    Posted Feb 10, 2009 10:48 am PT

    dapoochiman...if it's written by a WGA member it's eligible. MGS4 is not. it's written by the people who have always handle the series.

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