Xbox KOTOR II goes gold

If you felt a small disturbance in the force recently, that's because Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords has gone gold. Though originally slated for a simultaneous release on the PC and Xbox, only the console version of the game is in production. Rated T, The Sith Lords will hit stores December 6, while the PC version is now due in February 2005.

As its title suggests, The Sith Lords is the follow-up to last year's groundbreaking Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Adored by critics and gamers alike, the game was set 4,000 years before the events of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. Ironically, the game's rich storyline--in which players' choices turned them to the dark or light side of the force--restored the enthusiasm for the Star Wars universe many sci-fi fans lost after The Phantom Menace. It topped many best-of-2003 lists, and was GameSpot's Xbox Game of the Year.

The first KOTOR was set during a war between the evil Sith and the Galactic Republic. Players started off as a Republican trooper, but eventually became a Jedi and discovered some very large skeletons in their closet. In The Sith Lords, players start off with an even more mysterious past, waking up on a space station in the galaxy's outer rim with no memory. Eventually, they learn the Republic has collapsed to the point where it no longer extends to the outer rim, which has become a sort of sci-fi Wild West rife with Sith.

As one would expect with any Star Wars game, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords is published by LucasArts. However, development duties have gone from BioWare, the original game's creators, to Obsidian Entertainment. The game will be the indie studio's first since it was formed last year by a group of veteran RPG developers who had left Interplay's Black Isle Studios, creators of the acclaimed Fallout series. As revealed in our series of Designer Diaries on the game, Obsidian is giving the series a darker spin, as well as adding new characters, classes, locations, and force powers.

To take a look at the near-final version of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, check out our updated hands-on.