Obviously The Ziff-Davis Empire is launching a campaign of exclusivity on fans of KotOR, because they allegedly have some exclusive information on Sith Lords, the now confirmed sequel that takes place five years after the original. The information, screenshots and concept art were slated to appear in both of their gaming mags this month. But everyone knows this doesn’t last long – even the previously mentioned MP2 screens were originally in the print version of Game Informer, and succumbed to the same fate. But these are just technicalities; gamers don’t care where the information comes from – they’ll devour anything that even resembles the taste of meat.

Gamesradar has posted more substantial information, bringing out some great new points about the game. Development will be handled by Feargus Urqhart’s Obsidian Entertainment as rumoured earlier this year. I think it will be a given that the same graphics engine will be used – there weren’t many complaints on that front for the original and it gives the developers more time to focus on story. Combat will remain the same, but this time you will have two quickly selectable weapon configurations like NWN or Lord of Destruction. This is a great addition, in my opinion, because switching from blasters to melee weapons mid-combat can get annoying fast – especially when enemies retreat.

Something that KotOR did extremely well is the way it handled your character’s alignment. Depending on what path you choose, you can open up a whole different set of quests. Of course, you essentially end up at the same place, but the journey is always different. I think there’s room for improvement here though, as I found it unfortunate that another plot doesn’t develop when you turn to the Dark Side – surely the killer of fellow Jedi or innocent civilians would develop some sort of reputation. This is something I’m hoping that Sith Lords addresses. One thing that has been considered is the effect of your character’s alignment on the party. This time you won’t have NPCs like Carth or Bastila clucking in the background when you do something evil – they’ll simply go along with it and eventually become evil too. I see posibilities for some really inventive story-weaving and gameplay here.

I go out of my way every month to read PC Gamer – but it’s coming to point now where its monthly input is almost cursory to the mass of websites I frequent. The Slow Death of Video Game Magazines has been heralded by the online gaming media for years, but I haven’t see any real change in print media’s landscape to adapt. There will always be print-only exclusives like the recent MP2 and KotOR2, demo CDs, or some other tantalizing morsel that will try and make you pay for the whole package, even if it involves grumbling under your breath the entire time. I’d like to think the quality of writing is better; after all, instant presses are more succeptible to rumourmongering and just plain sloppy journalism. I think that print gaming magazines are where the industry needs to start changing – they have a guaranteed source of income that they can afford to spend on refining the craft to create a genuine model to follow, instead of relying on sensationalist headlines, annoying flash advertisements or clickthrough pages. To leave gaming media in its infant state to the easily swayed drones of online Big Media would be grave mistake.

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