Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- December 04, 2003 14:06 PM PST
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Technical problems can?t destroy one of the best games of all time, but they sure try.
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KOTOR Strikes Back If you?re reading this, you most likely have either played Knights or saw someone else playing it. Basically, you create a character using stats and skills based on Wizards of the Coast?s d20 system and begin the plot as an amnesiac aboard a rapidly collapsing starship. Over the next 40 or more hours of gameplay, you eventually become a powerful Jedi and make your decision to either save or destroy the world. There?s more to it, but that?s the gist, and to tell you even a sentence more could spoil what has been one of the coolest plots in recent gaming memory. Not only has BioWare surpassed most of the RPGs on the market with this one, but it has also cleanly stolen the crown from Lucasfilm as the premiere story writers for the Star Wars franchise.
The PC version of Knights boasts higher resolutions and a different, though not particularly better or worse, control scheme. The mouse-and-keyboard controls feel fine, but they don?t mix as well with the Xbox-inspired way you move your character. A point-and-click movement scheme might have felt better. Graphically, the game looks much clearer, cleaner, and prettier on the PC, but the frame rate vibrates pretty wildly, even on a machine that?s much higher than the minimum specs. More importantly, the game shipped with major crashing problems, especially for ATI graphics boards. Until BioWare posts a patch to address these crashes, plan to save every couple of minutes to avoid some deeply frustrating replay time.
The Hardware Menace It?s a testament to the strength of Knights? original design that it manages to be gripping and engaging while in the midst of distracting technical problems. If you have a good PC and can get a patch to fix the crash problems, this version of Knights is a fantastic way to spend your time.?Dunjin Master
