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KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC
Posted by VE Reporter
LucasArts' recently announced Xbox/PC game, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic looks like it will be just what the doctor ordered for the system's growing library. Not only is it an RPG being developed by the BioWare Corporation, whose Baldur's Gate I/II games kick some serious tail on the PC, but it also happens to take place in the Star Wars universe. Set roughly 4,000 years before the events in the original Star Wars, the game will have you adventuring in the Old Republic that has been alluded to in the films. Star Wars fans got a hint of what things were like before the rise of the Empire in Episode I: The Phantom Menace, but Knights of the Old Republic offers a look at the really good old days. The Jedi Knights still maintain order in the galaxy, but they face a sizeable challenge in the form of the Sith order. Unlike the days of Episode I, where the Sith have all but been wiped out, the arcane order is very much alive and well, and it is always on the lookout for new members . . .
If you compare Knights of the Old Republic with Baldur's Gate or Baldur's Gate 2, Baldur's Gate was 100 hours of gameplay or more. Baldur's Gate 2 was 200 hours, and the critical-path play through Baldur's Gate 2 was 75 hours. It is estimated BG2 to be around 200 hours for someone to get through it, and if they did all the subquests and everything else, it was 300 hours. Knights of the Old Republic is smaller than that, dramatically, but even if it is 60 percent smaller, then it is still 100 hours worth of gamplay. The goal of the developers is 60 hours.
The developers are shooting for 60 frames per second on the Xbox. The minimum specifications has not been determined on the personal computer (PC), but it is probably going to be something around what the Xbox is. In terms of the graphics card, they are not going to require a GeForce3, but the game will obviously require a 3D card. The exact computer specifications remain unknown.
The Knights of the Old Republic game engine will be the same for PC as is used for Xbox. The game is being developed in parallel, so whenever the developers have a build that runs on the Xbox, they have a PC build that can demonstrate the same things. The engine itself is based on Neverwinter Nights engine, but it is actually been almost completely rewritten for Star Wars.
For more information, please visit the Gamespot website.
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