New trailer for STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC

Star Wars: The Old Republic is looking so good that I have quietly but seriously wondered if this is going to be a real video game at all. What if it's just a front for a "covert operation" by George Lucas to sow the ground on a fertile part of the Star Wars mythology that hasn't been done yet? So far we've seen Star Wars: The Old Republic trailers, online comics, extensive bios and background material, at least two hardcover novels to be released later this year...

What if Star Wars: The Old Republic is like what Shadows of the Empire was in 1996: everything that comes with marketing a video game, without an actual game?

(Look, Star Wars conspiracy theories are few and far between. Indulge me a bit willya? :-)

But while we're waiting for the game itself to materialize on store shelves, BioWare and LucasArts have just released a new Star Wars: The Old Republic trailer at E3 2010. Check it out!

Dang. That looks as good as anything we've seen in a live-action Star Wars flick. Maybe even better. Dare we hope for a CGI-rendered Episodes VII-IX someday?

If Lucas writes it and gives it to BioWare to animate, I'd buy a ticket for that (something I didn't even do for the Star Wars: Clone Wars theatrical release).

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STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC dated for spring 2011

What is perhaps the most anticipated computer game is going to be a bit longer in finally arriving. BioWare confirmed today that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be released sometime in the spring of 2011. It was fall of 2008 when BioWare announced that it was developing the massively-multiplayer online RPG.

Some people are saying this is too long a time to wait for this game. But I remember the winter of 2000 when LucasArts told us that we'd be getting Star Wars Galaxies, and that didn't come until the summer of 2003. And we all know how that turned out to be (okay, to be fair it was a great game at first before Sony Online Entertainment messed it up with "New Game Enhancements"). But this is BioWare we're talking about: the company that gave us Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic to begin with. If I have to wait a little longer to play this game, I can do that 'cuz I've got faith that it's just gonna make Star Wars: The Old Republic even better.

So be of good cheer y'all: soon we'll get to be play Jedi and Sith and smugglers (with - gasp - actual smuggling!) like never before :-)

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