UPDATE: EA has responded to the speculation about KOTOR 3, essentially saying don't jump to the wrong conclusions - the follow-up article with this in can be read here.
Original story below:
One of our favourite rumours is back - that BioWare is working on a brand new Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars RPG. But this time word suggests that it's not going to be of the previously tipped MMO genre. And looking at the uproar an MMO would create from past comments, that's a good thing.
Kotaku reports that "during an EA analyst report it was revealed that in addition to working on more Mass Effect, Dragon Age and a 'New MMO', BioWare is also handling a new Knights of the Old Republic title. Which means it's not their upcoming MMO."
It's also being reported that Pandemic is at work on a new Lord of the Rings game. But there's nothing more than that. Sorry Rings' fans. And that there'll be more Burnout and Skate games coming, but that was a given anyway, right?
With so much going on at BioWare, and its structure left pretty much intact after the EA takeover, it wouldn't surprise me if this was a casual project until more resources can be expended on the development. A late '09 release date sounds realistic to me.
Sweet! Although I think it could be a good idea to make KOTOR an MMO i still prefer the single player game. Also knowing that Bioware are making this one is a good thing.
I'm in the minority and wish that Obsidian were developing it.
While the rest of us want to play a finished game.
i thought obsidian done a good job. they had to make it a bit different from the first one. roll on kotor3 though whoever makes it. i for one can't wait.
I loved KotOR II, much better than the first one. If Lucasarts hadn't pushed for a Christmas release it would've been completely finished, so don't go blaming Obsidian for that.
As for the possibility of KotOR III, this is indeed good news and will hopefully finish the story started in the first game nicely.
I'm in the minority and wish that Obsidian were developing it.
I'll kind of second that. I'd definately prefer to play an Obsidian game over a Bioware one any day of the week, especially after Mask of the Betrayer. However, I'd also prefer Obsidian not to work on franchises that revolve so much around moral absolutes (Kreia aside). I'm quite keen to see what they do with that CIA thriller RPG that's been rumoured to be bubbling under the surface over there. mmmm intrigue
I'm in the minority and wish that Obsidian were developing it.
While the rest of us want to play a finished game.
That's absolutely no fault of Obsidian's whatsoever. The blame lies with LucasArts for forcing them to release a game that wasn't finished.
Hopefully Lucas have learned their lesson.
For a great example of Obsidian are capable of when not being rushed along by their publisher, see Neverwinter Nights 2 (which, incidentally, is about a kazillion times better than the Bioware-developed NWN 1).
I'm in the minority and wish that Obsidian were developing it.
While the rest of us want to play a finished game.
That's absolutely no fault of Obsidian's whatsoever. The blame lies with LucasArts for forcing them to release a game that wasn't finished.
Hopefully Lucas have learned their lesson.
For a great example of Obsidian are capable of when not being rushed along by their publisher, see Neverwinter Nights 2 (which, incidentally, is about a kazillion times better than the Bioware-developed NWN 1).
Neverwinter Nights 2 was every bit as unfinished. It had countless features cut, shipped without a DM client (Which defeated the entire point of NWN as a multiplayer D&D package) and was buggy, resource hungry, ugly game at release (Only with the expansion/1.10 patch getting it up to scratch IMO).
Obsidian (And Black Isle & Troika before them) have been getting away with "It was the publisher's fault" for too long. They've always had a history of releasing buggy, unfinished games no matter who published them. For their next game they need to go out and hire a decent Project Manager instead of telling their publisher, "Sure, we'll have it done by Christmas" and whinging when they don't.
I'm in the minority and wish that Obsidian were developing it.
While the rest of us want to play a finished game.
i thought obsidian done a good job. they had to make it a bit different from the first one. roll on kotor3 though whoever makes it. i for one can't wait.
Agreed. I loved both KOTORs, so as long as I get to play another I'm not fussed if it's Bioware or Obsidian as they both made a great game each. Maybe they can work together on this one?
hopefully bioware can erase the crap stain that is kotor2. mass effect is like the worst version of kotor imaginable. plz dont make jade empire 2, the 1st was boring as hell. keep working on dragon age, kotor3. you guys need to work on your good titles like nwn,bg,fo. i'd even like a new icewindale over the current crap u guys have been shovelling and thats sad. lol. no more dumbed down kid friendly console rpgs plz. the combat in mass effect is horrible and the gfx are all 1 color and washed. leave fps to games like halo and keep rpgs turn based. the ai is horrible. stop trying to make things look cartoony. jade empire was like a really bad version of diablo 2. you guys need to make a new darksun game. those were the best.
While its great news, I just hope EA don't go forcing too many projects on Bioware at once, forcing them to rush out half-finished games... Personally I'll take somemore Mass Effect and KOTOR.
Obsidian (And Black Isle & Troika before them) have been getting away with "It was the publisher's fault" for too long. They've always had a history of releasing buggy, unfinished games no matter who published them. For their next game they need to go out and hire a decent Project Manager instead of telling their publisher, "Sure, we'll have it done by Christmas" and whinging when they don't.
You're absolutley wrong. Obsidian clearly blamed LucasArts for TSL's release, but they did not blame Atari at all for NWN2 or MotB. When and where did they blame Atari?
Mask of the Betrayer is a buggy and unfinished game? OMG.
I'm in the minority and wish that Obsidian were developing it.
While the rest of us want to play a finished game.
That's absolutely no fault of Obsidian's whatsoever. The blame lies with LucasArts for forcing them to release a game that wasn't finished.
Hopefully Lucas have learned their lesson.
For a great example of Obsidian are capable of when not being rushed along by their publisher, see Neverwinter Nights 2 (which, incidentally, is about a kazillion times better than the Bioware-developed NWN 1).
Neverwinter Nights 2 was every bit as unfinished. It had countless features cut, shipped without a DM client (Which defeated the entire point of NWN as a multiplayer D&D package) and was buggy, resource hungry, ugly game at release (Only with the expansion/1.10 patch getting it up to scratch IMO).
Obsidian (And Black Isle & Troika before them) have been getting away with "It was the publisher's fault" for too long. They've always had a history of releasing buggy, unfinished games no matter who published them. For their next game they need to go out and hire a decent Project Manager instead of telling their publisher, "Sure, we'll have it done by Christmas" and whinging when they don't.
You're right about NWN2, but Obsidian had less than 12 months from start to finish to do KOTOR2. Compare that to the three and a half years Bioware had to do KOTOR1 and the difference is clear!
The problem is that Bioware are a lot bigger and more powerful than Obsidian, so they can negotiate things a lot more on their terms.
In this instance the culprit was clearly LucasArts for bullying Obsidian into an unrealistic release schedule.
I remember Jim Ward from LucasArts being on the CVG news section before, wittering about how unacceptable it was for developers to miss their release schedules.
He was a c**k then and is obviously still a c**k now!
Sith Lords - Greater customisation of equipment. - More variety in force powers.
New things that should be added; - Option of hooded or unhooded robes, a la Fable. (Or indeed, Toggle Helmet from Mass Effect) - Maps that aren't Dantooine. - A Twi'lek Jedi/Sith holding extra lightsabers with cybernetic head tenatcles.
Neverwinter Nights 2 was every bit as unfinished. It had countless features cut,
If having features cut makes a game "unfinished", then pretty much every game Bioware ever made is unfinished, too. Both Baldur's Gate games had a TONNE of cut quests and characters, for a example.
This also means World of Warcraft is unfinished, Morrowind and Oblivion are unfinished, half the Ultima series are unfinished, etc. Outside the RPG genre it means Half-life is unfished, and by the definition that "cut content = unfinished", Doom 1 is the most unfinished game ever made, since almost none of the original levels that were planned, and most of the monsters and weapons envisioned at the beginning of development never made it into the game.
I think it's safe to say that if having content cut makes the game "unfinished", then most games in existent are "unfinished".
shipped without a DM client (Which defeated the entire point of NWN as a multiplayer D&D package)
Why would a game which doesn't feature DeathMatch have a DeathMatch client? Semantics aside, unlike NWN 1, NWN 2 was first and formost intended to be single player - which is why they hired a developer well known for single player focused games to create it.
and was buggy, resource hungry, ugly game at release (Only with the expansion/1.10 patch getting it up to scratch IMO).
9/10 of PC games are buggy and resource hungry upon release, a problem which has existed for a LONG time and is now starting to affect console games, too. (developers of PC games have the excuse that are so many possible combinations of hardware, it's impossible to test them all, and therefore bugs and unoptimized performance are inevitable; console developers have only themselves and their publishers to blame).
The initial version of NWN2 certainly wasn't "ugly", and looked one hell of a lot better for it's time than NWN 1 did; that game looked several years out of date even when it was first released. The main problem in NWN2 was the shadows; if you turned them of, the game ran fine. They've since been further optimized, but the fact is shadows are a problem in many PC games; Crysis, The Witcher, Oblivion, etc all run *much* faster if you turn shadows down/off.
Obsidian (And Black Isle & Troika before them) have been getting away with "It was the publisher's fault" for too long. They've always had a history of releasing buggy, unfinished games no matter who published them.
Erm, what? Neither Icewind Dale game was buggy, nor were they "unfinished" - there was hardly any content removed from either. Planescape Torment wasn't buggy, though there is some cut content (nowhere near as much as in Baldur's Gate 2, however). Vampire: the Masquerade: Bloodlines wasn't especially buggy, and didn't have all that much cut content.
The only other particularly buggy Troika game was Tower of Elemental Evil.
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