KOTOR Kicks AOTC's Ass

I hope someone at Lucasfilm is paying attention. Knights of the Old Republic, the game it seems like everybody is playing, is setting sales records, racking up killer reviews and reminding people why they liked Star Wars in the first place. I, for one, am completely hooked. Considering the fact that I'm not really a huge fan of RPGs, that's saying something. Lucas should take a long hard look at Bioware's game and take some notes.

Here's what I've learned from playing Knights of the Old Republic:

Star Wars prequels work better without the old characters: I love the fact that my character can visit places alluded to in the original films like Anchorhead on Tatooine and Dantooine. I'm doubly happy that I haven't run into Hammerhead's great-grandfather or Snaggletooth's second uncle on his mother's side.

Master Yoda must have some kind of speech impediment: I've spoken to my Jedi masters quite a bit and the one that looks like he's from the same species as Yoda hasn't uttered a single ass-backwards sentence. With Yoda's brain something is wrong there is.

Droids can be evil: The surly assassin robot HK-47 is pure genius. Six years from now, when George Lucas sits down to fiddle, enhance, re-edit, and re-think Episodes I, II and III he needs to morph C3-PO and R2-D2 into evil robots who serve Count Dooku. That, at least would explain why R2-D2 can fly - his primary function is to rain droid death from the sky!

Everybody loves a scoundrel: Of all the characters Lucas carbon-copied for his new trilogy, he forgot Han Solo. I started my character, Tura Satana, in the character class Scoundrel. She's currently taking walking the path of the Jedi, much like the samurai that inspired Lucas, Mushashi Miyamoto. Shame on Lucas for forgetting to include a loveable rapscallion in his the prequels..

Bounty hunters are bad-ass: Ever notice that every bounty hunter in the new trilogy dies? In the original trilogy only a few of them croaked. Sure Calo Nord, the bounty hunter baddie in KOTOR was a bit of a pushover, but he sure as heck outlasted Zam Wessel.

The old soundtracks remain the best soundtracks: It may not be time for John Williams to put down his baton just yet, but after reliving some of the original score's best moments in Knights of the Old Republic, it's fairly obvious that his newer work doesn't even come close.