Editor’s Choice: Star Wars: The Old Republic (Bioware Austin / EA)
(Our Preview / Our Video Interview)
It is the biggest name, will undoubtedly make far and away the most money, and really put on a kick ass presentation. It would have been easy to just follow the crowd and hand this title the big fancy sticker, but the fact is, it’s far too soon to tell.
;)
They have clearly focused on a tight, directed story, in a signature Bioware style, which is exactly what one would expect from a Bioware MMO. This is a fully voiced MMO with single-player style dialogue trees that really change the outcome of individual events.
Visually, the game seems to have some of the best animations of any MMO on record. Light sabers bounce off each other, sparks fly and the characters – who look straight out of Attack of the Clones – move and jump around to create the feeling of heroic Star Wars battles.
The classes they’ve revealed so far play the part perfectly, and really seem to have their own distinct outlook. Each one approaches the same situation differently and Bioware promises a story for each that is totally different from the last.
So why isn’t this our E3 2009 Game of the Show?
;)
Well, it remains to be seen how this all stitches together. Frankly, it’s way too early. The story elements could be the meat of the progress through the game, or it could be five minutes of epic voice overs and battles every ten levels. They also have not yet revealed most of the guts of what makes their game an MMO, what the day-to-day experience is like, and what people will do once they run out of highly polished, story-driven content.
That’s not to say this game won’t be hugely successful. Everything they’ve said so far sounds great, but it will be a while before the full picture comes into focus. They’re easily the likely front runner for the hardware in 2010.
So, if Star Wars doesn’t take it home, who does? Click on to find out.
