It's about darned time they updated Star Tours. I enjoy it, but from the first time I rode it I thought the motion simulation needed work, it did an poor job of matching up with the visuals (except maybe some of the very beginning, and of course the lightspeed thing where you get pressed into the seat, I love that). And some of the motion in space was completely wrong from a 3-d perspective, they do a maneuver where the ship is banking into the trench, but.. I don't know how to explain it, but it's wrong. Following the starfield the motion doesn't add up, the ship pitches up and banks but doesn't turn near enough, and suddenly it dives down onto the Death Star even though the Death Star shouldn't be there. If no-one else has noticed this maybe it's nitpicking to you, but to me it's really sloppy work. I have pretty good 3-d sense, so it really stands out to me. Not just stands out, but disorients me. I keep thinking "no, the Death Star should be over THERE!" and looking off to the side where it really should be based on the rotation of the starfield. I've been thinking that rides like that are crying out for multiple versions. With the current state of computer graphics it shouldn't be too difficult or too expensive to whip up a new video sequence, and Tower of Terror has shown how much flexibility the ride computers can have. I'd like to see multiple sequences for Mission Space too. I enjoy both Space and Star Tours, but I was never completely thrilled with the story of the rides. In my more obsessive fan moments I've been writing an idea for an alternate story for a Mission Space scenario, conceived as a special event only (which I'm sure wouldn't be practical, but it'd be a lot of fun for the people who got to ride it). I find the story of Anthony Daniels recording new audio intriguing. He's only in the queue NOW.. but what if C-3PO is being moved into the actual ride? I wonder if they're dropping the Paul Rubens voiced robot in the ride and replacing it with C-3PO, it never seemed quite right to split up him and R2D2 for the main ride. I mean C-3PO isn't a pilot, so.. maybe another new character as well? I'd like to see a human pilot, I don't know if there's really any precedent for a droid piloted ship in the Star Wars universe.
