Sept 13, 2007

Despite its fire-breathing credentials, developer Factor 5's PS3 dragon-driver, Lair, struggled to raise the temperature of the game's critical reception to anything much above chilly. We can't imagine that gamers will be petitioning for a sequel anytime soon. However, love for the developer's Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series is much more abundant, with fans hoping for another chance to slip into the cockpit of an X-wing and fight in a galaxy far, far away all over again.

We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Factor 5 boss man, Julian Eggebrecht, and we asked him whether another Rogue Squadron game might be a possibility. "I would go back to another Rogue Squadron in the Classic Star Wars universe. I still can't relate much to the new trilogy, so LucasArts can keep that. But, yeah, if it would be Classic and if we could find a new hook..."

If the series was revisited in the future, however, Eggebrecht wouldn't simply settle for old mechanics boosted with improved fidelity. "It can't be just to redo it in HD," he explains. "The Star Wars universe being relatively grey was actually represented really well last-gen already and so I don't think the HD step would be a huge jump forward. It would be much more about gameplay. What would probably excite me the most in Star Wars at this point is probably the lightsaber with motion control, things like that. But that wouldn't be Rogue Squadron."

And while Eggebrecht thinks motion-sensing was a perfect fit for conveying the feeling of flying a dragon in Lair, he would be more hesitant employing a similar control scheme for manoeuvring Star Wars' iconic vehicles. "If I was to do a game with an X-wing, I don't know if I'd necessarily use motion control. It might be [analog] stick, because that is how you'd be controlling the craft - it might be more appropriate."

So, there's a glimmer of hope for fans but, unfortunately, while Eggebrecht admits that he would return to the Rogue Squadron series, it's certainly not an imminent project in the Factor 5 development pipeline, saying with a smile that, "there's a ton of other cool things to work on..."