After months of rumours and badly-kept secrets, we finally have the official announcement of Star Wars: The Old Republic. As expected, it turns out to be an MMO, and set in the Star Wars universe; more specifically, the KotOR era.
We’re just a few hours out of the great revelation and the official site has gone online. Information is flying all across the Internets and we bring you the lowdown on what The Old Republic is going to be all about.
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Dragon Age, BioWare’s much-awaited dark fantasy game that will be bringing them back to their classic D&D-style hardcore roleplaying, will be coming at this year’s E3, courtesy EA. In fact, it will be one of their “premier” titles at the big gaming showdown next week. A select press will get the chance to get their hands on the game.
More interestingly, the game has been renamed. Yes sir, you’ll refer to it as Dragon Age: Origins from now on. The name change may not seem like a whole lot, but I honestly like it: it adds more class to what was originally a pretty generic name… (then again, no offence to BioWare, an epic fantasy hardcore D&D roleplaying game does sound a tad generic).
Staying truthful to their promise of “More on July 9th”, the official website has also been updated. Not that it really gives you a whole lot more. I love the logo, which I have graciously pasted above. But an interesting bit of info it gives it that the First Trailer will be coming out on Spike TV and Spike HD this Friday at 1:00 am. Of course, it will be then uploaded to Gametrailers in glorious HD-ness.
The website also gives you two newsletters to subscribe to: one for info on the game in general, and another for “world-builders” (read modders). Hmm, perhaps BioWare is going to put a lot of focus on moddability and customization, like Neverwinter Nights. The more I hear of this game, the more I can’t help believe that it’s a spiritual successor to Neverwinter Nights in some way or another.
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Now there’s something you don’t hear everyday. Veteran RPG developer BioWare mentioned in an interview by MTV that they are interested in the cultural phenomenon that is the Apple iPhone. Of course, there’s no hard words here and it’s all just speculation for now, but BioWare definitely have their eyes on the Jesus phone.
BioWare is currently working on Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood for the DS, which surprised fans since BioWare isn’t exactly known for developing much outside the PC frame. Of course, they did make the Xbox 360 hit Mass Effect, but it was ported over to the PC anyways, so BioWare wasn’t completely out of their element. When asked on the handheld experience, Greg Zeschuk says:
“It’s actually been great fun. That was almost one of the sort of hidden reasons to do a handheld game. One thing was to try something different and explore a different platform, and as you know, kind of sort of work in a lighter flavor of environment in terms of the game we’re working on. We’re nearing the end and it’s turning out really great.
In terms of handhelds, it’s been great because it’s also so fast. The cycle to make changes and improvements is very short compared to the hundreds of thousands of text in a full next-gen console or PC product. The iteration cycle is really short, and that makes it ideal for a short-attention span where you want to do something different every day. [laughs] It’s pretty exciting, actually. It’s been a really unique experience and one we’re definitely interested in pursuing.”
And when asked on whether they are interested in the iPhone,
“We look at every platform that comes along. Obviously, something that’s as big a cultural and technical success as the iPhone is something you really got to take a close look at. Certainly, there’s nothing written in stone yet but we’ve got a lot of folks looking at it. It’s intriguing. I think one of the things that we’ll have to see how it shakes out is what type of consumer buys games on it and what type of experience they’re looking for. You want to always mash the consumer experience with what you’re building. We want to understand what people are going to do with it. Who knows. We’re definitely looking at every platform.”
Still, BioWare is committed to the PC, for which they will be releasing their original IP, Dragon Age, a fantasy RPG that doesn’t really rock our socks yet. They are, of course, working on Mass Effect 2 and some more mysterious products.
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