The Old Republic

Star Wars has spawned many different types of games from fighting to racing and even a MMORPG(Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.)  They have had varying degrees of success, not unlike the movies, but at the time when the first Star Wars MMO came out it was quite popular.  This changed with bad decisions by the developer and the entry of World of Warcraft into the MMO scene.  However, Lucasarts wants another shot at that giant piece of pie that WoW has carved out for itself.  This time with Star Wars: The Old Republic.

I've been following this game intently since E3 '09 when BioWare (developer of TOR) released Deceived a cinematic trailer to get people hyped for the game.  It did that in spades, but people wanted to know what set this game apart.  BioWare from an early onset said story, or the "fourth pillar" as they call it, would set TOR apart from all the rest of the MMO's out right now. Fully voiced NPC's and missions with a conversation system similar to Mass Effect's dialog wheel; it sure seems like they have that covered.  There is also a big emphasis has been placed on the fact that you will have companion characters similar to the way you had them in KOTOR(Knights of the Old Republic) and will be romancable or killable.  You may want to think about that decision to kill your helpful companion though, this isn't a single player game you can't just reload your save and everything is all hunky dory.

What about the loot, the raids, and PVP you ask?  Well it's all there so they tell us.  They have said next to nothing about raids so far.  Loot has been talked about quite a bit... it will be a heavily loot based game.  crafting skills will apparently take a back seat only the raid gear.  As far as PVP goes this has been discussed by the fansites lucky enough to go play it for 2 days, as fun and not "bursty," which I assume means you can't just unleash everything you got on someone and turn them into a fine paste, and that it "feels like an upgraded Warhammer" style of PVP.  Warhammer had wildly imbalanced classes back when I played but the PVP was fun.  So this all points to what could be an awesome game.

What do you guys think?  If you've been following it at all how does it compare with perhaps an MMO you play now?  TOR should be out by the end of this year if all goes well.
If you want to know more about the game take a look at these:
Hope trailer, Info known so far about the game, and a developer walkthrough