September 5th, 2009 -- BioWare showed off more Star Wars: The Old Republic gameplay at PAX 2009, and dispensed one minor reveal as well.
The minor reveal is that Coruscant will be a 'playable' planet in the game.
Presenters also showed off gameplay with a female Bounty Hunter (in case you were wondering), as well as some video of the Smuggler using cover in a firefight with multiple opponents (in addition to pulling off some very Han Solo-esque shooting-from-cover maneuvers).
LucasArts was also nice enough to hand out free codes to download a free copy of Knights of the Old Republic through Steam or Direct2Drive to every single member in the huge demo theater. Odds are they'll be repeating this give away at Sunday's demonstration, so if you want a free copy of Knights of the Old Republic 1, go see the demo.
In addition to this tidbit, they demonstrated more gameplay, although it was largely the same as the previous videos with a minor difference: instead of slaying the starship captain that disobeyed orders, they spared him. This resulted in some slightly different conversation trees, but ultimately still lead to a combat mission that culminated in the same Sith/Bounty hunter vs. Jedi boss battle (previous videos here).
They also showed off the cover-system in the game, which allowed the Smuggler to duck behind rocks and fire off snapshots and barrages of blaster fire in heated firefights.
Re-inventing the MMO -- through single-player storytelling
Although Star Wars: The Old Republic will have many of the hallmarks of typical MMOs -- classes, levels, auction houses, crafting, and social gaming aspects -- it is ultimately looking to re-invent the MMO gameplay experience by being the first MMO to offer a single-player story driver RPG experience in an MMO envelope.
For example: Star Wars: The Old Republic will be the first MMO to have a multi-player, interactive conversation system. In addition, every NPC will also be completely 100% voice-acted.
Every class will have it's own story arc, which can branch in many directions depending on the choices you make in the game. and completely different set of missions. No content or story will be repeated between different stories -- so a Sith Warrior, a Bounty Hunter, and a Jedi will all see completely different content. In effect, this means Star Wars: The Old Republic will be "Knights of the Old Republic 3, 4, 5 and beyond" to loosely quote the presenters -- at least from a story telling standpoint.
Also like the Knights of the Old Republic games, your character's actions and choices affect relationships with various NPC's, as well as the types of powers and abilities that become available to you as your character progresses. A Jedi leaning toward the Dark Side in their actions might unlock different powers as they progress through the game than a Jedi walking the straight and narrow, for example.
Star Wars: The Old Republic doesn't have an official release date yet.
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