Bioware’s top-secret MMORPG based on KotOR?

Cropped version of Knights of the Old Republic cover

Good followers of gaming news will have known by now that Bioware’s Austin Studios have been working on an MMORPG project for quite a while. They still haven’t announced what the hell it really is, then again, they didn’t tell us the meaning of life when we asked them. But Primotech is reporting a rumour that this mysterious game is in fact based on Knights of the Old Republic franchise, owned by LucasArts.

KotOR, entirely developed by Bioware and published by LucasArts, quickly became an RPG masterpiece and yet another notch in Bioware’s worthy hat. It’s a really great game – you should go play it right now. It was followed by a very rushed sequel, developed by Obsidian. While Obsidian didn’t do a bad job on it, LA gave them an unreasonably small development time, which made for a hurried game. It could have been an epic game had it been given its time. Even then, it’s a decent game worth playing.

This is Bioware’s first MMORPG project, but it isn’t a first for LucasArts (that is, if the rumour is right). LA had earlier come out with Star Wars: Galaxies, whose popularity graph resembles Microsoft’s sales graph – in reverse. With a world so dense and rich to tap, there is no doubt that LA will persistently try open-world games in Star Wars, and another MMORPG, based on one of their best property’s – KotOR is rather predictable.

Now, I’m a KotOR fan and my response is mixed. First off, KotOR is LucasArt’s first singleplayer RPG in the Star Wars universe, which makes it an important game. It did not ship with a multiplayer, and hence was completely built on singleplayer (which ended up in one of the most richly-made singleplayer game I’ve ever played.

Taking KotOR straight into massive multiplayer is a bold, albeit predictable step. After all, the stories of both KotOR games were epic enough – it’ll be sort of silly to have a string of epic events within a span of fifty years. A MMORPG’s story will be considerably toned down and open. How that will fare for KotOR-style gameplay, I find it difficult to guess. But even then, I’m a little disappointed, because if the rumour is right, there is a good chance that a singleplayer KotOR III will not come not. (

But fear not, spacers. We will bring you more news and toilet paper as they become available.

Call of Duty 4 Demo

Call of Duty 4 Demo 

Call of Duty 4 is something of an odd game. While it has the gloss a modern game the mechanics are the same as they were in the very first title. As the demo goes it can be narrowed down to a few very simple conclusions.

 The main issue is an infinite amount of enemy spawns. A constant line of more and more keep on coming until you decide to push through and that’s when suddenly you have taken them all out. Its a serious flaw and ruins the enjoyment. The other matter is the demo length. It does allow you about 10-15 minutes of play but unless you have a good amount of bandwidth its not really worth downloading the large file and there is very little replay value.

 Is the demo worth trying? In short, yes. If you are looking for a first person shooter giving the usual WWII shooter style but against a modern backdrop its for you. If on the other side you are after something new its not what you are looking for.

Remember, this should not be considered a review of the full game just an opinion on the PC demo.

Child’s Play being remade, promised to be “more terrifying”

Chucky, from Child’s Play

David Kirschner spilled some beans when he was asked to spill some beans on his upcoming movie, Martian Child. But the beans he spilled had nothing to do with Mars, but lots to do with Child. To avoid further annoyance, I’ll put this straight – Kirschner is working on a Child’s Play sequel, but this one is going to be a remake of the original. That’s right, folks Chucky is coming back.

Before you start signing death threats, let me inform you that things can actually be good here. Kirschner has worked on every Child’s Play movie to date. Also, the screenwriter of the original Child’s Play is writing the script, which is supposedly very true to the original with a few twists here and there. No director has been attached yet. All the details above are subjective to change, however, as the movie is still very, very early in production. Kirschner has promised, though, that this one will actually be “more terrifying”. Sounds good, baby.

Considering the sort of horror we get these days, I’m thinking it’d be great to have some of that old-time horror again. Or perhaps a fusion of time, if they get a modern director on it. Also, I wonder if Chucky is going to be the same, classic red-haired, freckled doll or a new piece altogether. I suppose you can expect violence to be severely increased in this movie (as if it was any less in the original). Maybe a viral marketing campaign some time before the release? That’d be plain awesome. I can’t wait!