Force to be reckoned with: LucasArts joins forces with NaturalMotion and Pixelux to unveil a new era in gaming.(Gaming)(Star Wars: The Force Unleashed )(Cover story)

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If you believe Roger Ebert's old adage that a story is only as great as its villain, then you'd have to agree that playing through the stories in most computer games can seem predictable and preprogrammed. Truth be told, that's exactly what their villains are--preprogrammed and predictable, incapable of truly matching the player blow for blow and, ultimately, deflating any sense of accomplishment.

But now LucasArts, armed with a relatively new technology called Euphoria from NaturalMotion, is about to draw the curtain on what many are calling "the silent era" of computer games and usher in a new era, one in which nonplayer ...