STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC comes to the iPad!

When I first heard about it this morning, it was only from a report and there had been no announced availability but my first reaction was already "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!"

Guess who just spent ten bucks on the App Store?

BioWare's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, deemed by many to be the greatest Star Wars video/computer game ever and one of THE best games of all time period, has been ported to the iPad and is on sale now!  Ten years after it was first released, Aspyr Media has taken this much-beloved classic and put the whole experience in the palm of your hands, to enjoy wherever you happen to be.  It requires at least an iPad 2 to run and it needs iOS 6.  As well as some hefty space for the install (1.9 gigs free but I'm hearing at least 2.5 is recommended).

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is available for $9.99 on the Apple App Store.  Go download it now, meatbags!

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"Missing" content finally restored to STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC II

While we're waiting for Star Wars: The Old Republic (and BioWare is now taking applications for closed beta testing if you're into that sort of thing) maybe this'll satiate your appetite in the meantime. About five years ago Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II came out but instead of BioWare doing the follow-up to their original game, work was contracted out to Obsidian. Now don't get me wrong: Knights of the Old Republic II was a superb game ("some" people, ahem, even claim it's better than its predecessor).

But even the most casual players found that there were obviously things... wrong... with KOTOR II. Some more tech-savvy folks went looking through the game's CD-ROM discs and found huge chunks of content that Obsidian had intended to put into the final version, but for one reason or another chose to instead yank it out. But the "missing" resources, like cutscenes and dialogue and even an entire planet (to say nothing of that elusive HK droid factory) were still there amid the files. And it wasn't long after the game was released that a community of fans coalesced together to modify the game and restore the deleted material.

It's taken nearly five years, but at long last the Knights of the Old Republic II Restored Content Project is darn nearly in its final form. The developers are calling the latest version of their mod an "open beta", but by all accounts this is the game as Obsidian first envisioned it. The modders are recommending a clean install of Knights of the Old Republic II and using no previously saved games. Here's the current complete list of download links and other info on the project's official website.

Maybe after I finish playing Batman: Arkham Asylum (not to mention Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and Halo 3: ODST) I'll check this out :-)

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STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC now available on Steam

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, LucasArts and BioWare's 2003 role-playing game, has just become available for purchase on Steam. For $9.99 you can download and play what many deem is not only the greatest Star Wars game ever, but has been wildly praised as one of the finest computer games of all time.

Set four thousand years before the rise of the Empire in the film series, Knights of the Old Republic depicts a "more civilized age" for the galaxy. Unfortunately a Sith Lord named Darth Malak is leading a vast army of Sith against the Republic and especially any Jedi that happen to get in the way of his conquest. The game begins with the player's character waking up on a Republic ship that has fallen under attack by the Sith. And what happens from that moment on is entirely up to you: the choices you make during the game affects pretty much everything else that follows afterward, right up to which ending you get. Play the straight and narrow and you'll wind up a hero of the Republic, while yielding to temptation will lead to the Dark Side and all the power and glory and pleasures befitting the fallen.

Long story short: it's a very good game that's more than worth the purchase price. And hopefully LucasArts will also have Knights of the Old Republic II for sale on Steam sooner than later. So what are you waiting for? Buy it today, ya meatbags!

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Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic MMO is coming, confirms EA head

Why is it that really good news happens when you're away and you only find out about it later?

A few weeks ago at E3, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello confirmed something that has long been in the rumor mill: that a massive multiplayer online role-playing game based on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is coming. BioWare, the company that produced the first Knights of the Old Republic game in 2003, has been working on the project since way before they were bought by EA last year.

I don't do the MMORPG gig much anymore, but this might be the thing that reels me back in. In my opinion Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is the best Star Wars video game ever produced, and the sequel wasn't too shabby either (once the bugs were worked out). The saga has already gone the MMORPG route with Star Wars Galaxies, but Sony Online Entertainment botched that one so bad that it rates as one of the worst business stories of the past decade. The fact that this new game will be using the Knights of the Old Republic era (set four thousand years before the time of the movies) and that BioWare is handling things promises great things for a saga that many believe has become stretched too thin. Right now it's the direction for Star Wars that has the most promise to keep the franchise fresh and interesting.

The game should be coming out in 2009. Is that soon enough for you meatbags? :-P

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Rumor: BioWare making a NEW Star Wars MMORPG...

...and it might be set 4,000 years before the time of the movies.

Here's the story at TheForce.net and it's breaking out in quite a few other outlets right now too. The full scoop is that, allegedly, BioWare is creating a massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG for short) based upon Knights of the Old Republic, their 2003 smash hit which is widely hailed as the best Star Wars game of the past several years. Knights of the Old Republic broke away from the traditional "Rebels versus Empire" motif of just about every previous Star Wars game and went into bold new territory: a time four millennia before the rise of Emperor Palpatine.

I loved Knights of the Old Republic (it equals TIE Fighter as my all-time favorite Star Wars game). It's an extremely beautiful and well-crafted game. And it's setting in Star Wars history is lush with untapped potential.

I hope BioWare is really doing this. Heck, I hope BioWare is making any Star Wars MMORPG. The already-existing one, Star Wars Galaxies, has devolved into a glorious mess because of incompetence on Sony Online Entertainment's part. Star Wars deserves better than that. Maybe BioWare will be the company that finally does this right.

How's that for a story, ya meatbags?

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