Jade Empire 2

[Tullaryx]

This little bit of news came right under the radar with the holiday season in full swing. Anyone who has been a big fan of BioWare know and played pretty much all of their titles going all the way back to their PC titles like Baldur's Gate. One of their more experimental outings had been their original IP, []bJade Empire[/b] which BioWare opted to develop instead of working on the sequel to Knights of the Old Republic. This Asian-themed action rpg was an Xbox-exclusive which sold quite well for that console.

From Dean Takahashi's Mercury News blog we now get news that BioWare is at work on the sequel to Jade Empire and that the sequel will definitely be coming to the 360. Any hints that it will be exclusive to that particular console hasn't been made, but with EA having bought bioWare/Pandemic for close to 900 million dollars it will really be hard for EA not to port the title later on to the PS3 in order to maximize revenues and profits on a popular and up-and-coming franchise. Microsoft may end up having to pay a pretty penny to keep this title exclusive and with their cash reserves it's not out of the realm of possibility that they'll pay for either timed or out and outright full exclusive rights to the title.

Jade Empire 2 is coming to the 360

Anyone else play the first title?
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[Himuro]

Yes, and it was the worst Bioware game of all time.
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She knows stuff.

[Tullaryx]

Oh, I didn't think it was that bad. For an action-style rpg they got the controls down pretty well. I never had a major problem switching from the many different styles of attacks to chain combos together. Now when compared to past BioWare titles which took a more traditional rpg route it does come up short. But I thought BioWare was pretty good to try something new and still stick to levelling mechanics they've been finetuning since Baldur's Gate.

If I had any complaint with the game it would be the short playing time. I think only Fable disappointed me more in terms of how short the game was. The storyline they came up with was actually quite good and the surprise 2/3's into the game was more than just a twist but put a whole new spin on the story prior to it. I'm going to assume that they'll be using the dialogue engine they created for Mass Effect and make the Open Palm and Closed Fist paths even more interchangeable for the sequel.

Another thing about the game which I was really impressed with was the soundtrack. Jack Wall has been doing some great work in terms of game soundtracks and his last two for BioWare (Mass Effect and Jade Empire) gives some new blood to the usual classical soundtracks usually composed for rpgs.
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[Blackjack]