Star Wars: KOTOR Updated Impressions

Now that the Xbox version of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic has been released to glowing reviews and impressive sales figures, LucasArts is showing off the PC version of the game. We got to see it running at the company's press event in downtown San Francisco today, and we also spoke briefly with Julio Torres, producer on both the Xbox and PC versions of the game. Though there were no significant differences between what we saw on the PC and what's already available on the Xbox, we did get to learn a few new details about the PC release of what many think is a landmark RPG.

For now, the official line on Knights of the Old Republic for the PC is that it will effectively be the Xbox version, enhanced with all of the PC-specific accoutrements you'd expect; scalable graphics settings, multiple video resolutions, and a keyboard-and-mouse-style control scheme will of course be available. As for actual new or changed content and features that will be included in the game, Torres told us that the team is currently mulling over a list of possibilities but isn't ready to announce anything publicly at this time. As for the size of the game, it sounds like KOTOR will occupy a whopping four CDs--this surely owes to the enormous amount of spoken dialogue in the game. When asked about the feasibility of a DVD version of KOTOR on the PC, Torres said that the current installed base of DVD-ROMs is being examined but that the game would probably only see a release on CD.

Indeed, the current build of the PC version of KOTOR that we saw looked virtually identical to the Xbox version. For now, the release date is somewhere in a November time frame, and we were told a more specific announcement pertaining to the game's release will be made soon. In the meantime, we'll bring you more on Knights of the Old Republic for the PC as it becomes available.