First off this collection comes on two discs (one for each game), and the total install size is 4gb and 5gb, respectively. This game does require a disc-check of some type, or in other words you must have the disc in tray before it will let you run it. That being said, you can play either game with either disc in the tray. This is sad news for netbook owners and folks that don't have cd drives in their laptops.
Now for the part that everyone is waiting for:
This game does run on W7 64 bit. I didn't have any crashes or errors, though it did take a bit to install KotOR2 (about 15 mins versus 5 for KotOR1). Graphical options are exactly the same for both games, so there's no need to list them separately.
Resolutions (I just took the "higher" resolutions and put them here):
1280x960, 1280x1024, 1600x1200. That's it, no higher than 16x12, such a wasted opportunity on this refresh.
Now for the options:
Shadows (on/off), Grass (on/off), Low/Med/High presets, AA (Off/2/4/6/8), Anisotropy (Off/2/4/8/16), Frame buffer (On/off), Soft Shadows (on/off completely greyed out for me), and Vertical Sync (on/off).
All in all, this is barely worth the price of admission for people who already own this game. The only additional selling point is integration with W7.
That being said, I'm not upset about spending another 20 on these classics, however I am disappointed by the mindless cash grab, by Lucasarts on this collection, without updating them further, for more modern machines...I didn't previously own KotOR2 on PC, and it's $20 to buy that game alone at retail, so both for 20 is ok.
However, if you've never played these games and have an older computer/laptop/netbook (with a disc drive), then I believe that you owe it to yourself to pick this up and give it a play through. Both games are great, with awesome stories, production values, and are great fun on top of that.
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Both of these games are superb titles. The first one is the superior of the two, seeing as how KOTOR II was never really finished before release and LucasArts has had a long standing policy not to care, despite re-releasing it twice. This is a relatively minor issue, however, since the fans themselves went out of their way to polish the game and release the Sith Lords Restoration Project, which makes some major improvements to the content itself. Almost ten years after the release of the original Knights of the Old Republic, I'm sure there are more than enough reviews on the story and gameplay itself to satisfy anyone looking to explore it for the first time. This review is primarily about this software bundle.First off, the installer has some issues. It doesn't prevent game installation but it is sluggish and non-responsive, which will leave you thinking, "Is it doing anything?" It is, it just takes some time to process whatever you're telling it to do. Don't hit install multiple times or it'll try to run multiple times and it's just a headache. Overall, this isn't that big a deal. For a third release, however, I do have some complaints. I know upping the resolution on certain things can be tricky and that it needs to be done right but it can be done. This game's resolution still maxes out at 1024x768. In an age where 1080p is all the rage, they could have at least given us something. 720p hi def would have been nice. It seems like a waste. Really, I think that the only thing that they bothered to fix in this bundle is the fact that neither game worked well on Windows 7 64bit. I'm happy to say that this seems to be a thing of the past. I've made it through the prologue of the first game and it hasn't crashed as the Vista version was prone to doing, so I'd say we've taken a step in the right direction.
My biggest complaint is that the game still uses disc verification checks to make sure that you haven't stolen the title. While I am against pirating software, I really hate this method of security. I own an Alienware m11x netbook, which does not have a disc drive. I have an external drive that I can plug in for installing software but it isn't portable and sure as heck isn't good when I want to be ignoring lectures in class or am on an airplane. Short story, I can't run these titles on my laptop. In today's day of digital downloads and netbooks, LucasArt could have found some way of getting with the times and finding a better alternative.
Overall, if you're just trying to get into the games for the first time or want to revisit the old experiences from ten years ago on a newer platform, this is a great buy. There are no improvements to be found, which is disappointing, but acceptable.
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For anyone hopping they would fix some of the bugs that broke the games don't bother wasting money on this pack. A lot of spoken lines are skipped, stilled, and they didn't even bother to up the game to 1080p. In fact a lot of the movies still run in a 600x400 format so the picture can get quite small at points. It's a real shame as the games story is still some of the best out there, so be ready to get a ton of fix up mods, or keep waiting until they release a patch or new version one day that will hopefully bring the games to the way they should to be played.Honest reviews on Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic I and II PC Bundle Pack
These are great games, but don't spend your money on this hoping to have a version of these games that will work on Windows 7, they don't actually work at all. The game doesn't go past the initial Lucasarts screen, instead going to a black screen before minimizing itself after which you have to do a hard shut down through the Task Manager. Though I didn't buy this through Amazon (got it at Wal-Mart, planning on returning it), I wanted to warn others away from purchasing this. You're better off finding an old X-Box (they won't run on a 360 without a lot of slow down, stuttering, and framerate issues) and getting these games on that system.Edit Okay, I got it up and running on my system. I had to alt-tab out before it would lock up and go into the Processes through the Task Manager and set the CPU affinities so it would just run off of a single CPU. Works great now, so I am editing my review. It still locks up after the Lucasarts screen, but only every once in a while now. I've managed to get through a good portion of the first game with no troubles. It would have been nice to have it working right out of the gate, and maybe it will/does for most people.
Anyway, I will say that the graphics overall are a bit dated, but I can deal with that since they are actually better on the PC than they were on the original X-Box. The environments seem more alive on the PC version. Also I've found that the controls on the PC version are better than the X-Box version, which were a little clunky to be quite honest. Overall I am just happy to be able to play a slightly better version of the games I remember playing years ago. Also it's helping me to remember story details that I had forgotten about which is increasing my enjoyment of the SWToR MMO a little more now.
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This is one of the best Star Wars games to date. A solid story set thousands of years before the original Trilogy. Bioware put together a great game with fun characters and even gave SW fans a new favorite character.Something to keep in mind, this is still an older game and at least for KOTOR I, may require you to tweak some settings on your computer if your running Windows 7.
Also, for KOTOR II check out some of the mods like the lost content mod which adds some new game play that Obsidian had to cut out in the original release.
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