Continuing to cover the Electronic Arts keynote/press conference the highlight for me was the final title they spoke about. With an entrance that looks like this and the John Williams melody playing in the background, BioWare introduced us to their latest update regarding online MMO - Star Wars: The Old Republic and boy did they ever!
New things we've learned based on what they said:
Two factions: Empire vs. Republic. This was likely a no brainer, but it's great to get some closure on the fact that there will be two sides competiting against each other. While I am a little surprised that they went with the "Empire" title, as it doesn't exactly fit with lore (the Sith would have been a better decision) it fits with novice's understanding of the franchise and I guess then that that is ok by me.
New Class -- Trooper: Ironically this will be a republic character, as opposed to an Imperial stormtrooper (perhaps parent class to the trooper) this class will likely compete against the "Bounty Hunter" class that has already been mentioned. It also appeared like perhaps the Empire would have an "Assasin" class (likely similar to World of Warcraft's "Rogue) based on pure speculation from the video (see below).
There will be Jedi: Again, not surprising, but nice to know that the franchise will revolved around these mythical heroes and villains. It did surprise me though that the trailer focuses on a Sith Lord victory, certainly grabs your attention as so very rarely is the Empire ever successful (sans Empire Strikes Back perhaps). Making quite the bold entrance though seems to be the return of everyone's favorite villain Darth Malak. The quintessential Sith, Maluk is a great leader for the Empire and a character that stirs deep emotions with fans of both sides. My confusion is though, that after the previous BioWare installments, he's dead (or is he?).
Fully integrated dialogue: Unique to the max, BioWare seems to think that this will "redefine" the MMO genre (I tend to think that Project Natal will be however). Regardless, it will be quite interesting to have fully integrated dialogue between characters, instead of having to read, read and read some more.
It's also worth noting that this game was listed as EA's biggest title. It appears that the RPG genre is definitely getting some much needed limelight, and it means big things for MMOs as well.
