E3 2001: LucasArts unveils BioWare RPG

LucasArts showed off BioWare's upcoming Star Wars role-playing game behind closed doors for the first time today. Called Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the game was first announced last fall but has been in full development for only about six months at BioWare, developer of the highly acclaimed Baldur's Gate series of PC RPGs. In fact, the game is very similar to BioWare's Baldur's Gate games, but it uses a brand-new 3D engine with a floating camera instead of a 2D tile-based engine with an isometric perspective.

The game takes place approximately 4,000 years before the Star Wars movies. However, space travel still exists, and the universe is still very technologically advanced. You'll traverse worlds like Tatooine, which will look very familiar to you and yet contain enough subtle cues to remind you that these are ancient times. Keep checking back to GameSpot--we'll have a detailed hands-on preview of this game later on today. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is scheduled for release in late 2002.