The voice acting is great, gameplay is fun and maybe the trash planet Hutta doesn’t make for the most impressive starting area, but there are few complaints beyond game-balance tweaks. A hands-on look at the highly anticipated sci-fi game.

Wired Top Stories

March 9 is slowly creeping up on us, which means we’ll all be sitting on our couches and playing Final Fantasy XIII until the wee hours of the morning. To keep us busy, Square just released a new trailer set to the game’s main theme, “My Hands,” performed by Leona Lewis. (At least I think that’s the main theme.) This trailer features the English voice cast, so put on your headphones and take it all in!

A few thoughts:

• Leona Lewis has a nice voice

• The animation is damn good

• The voice acting is no worse than your typical BioWare game’s (I say this now having played Mass Effect for around five hours now)

• The story feels very Japanese (not that that’s an insult, but you absolutely can tell this game was developed in Japan)

• I want an asymmetric haircut like all the male characters have—maybe they’re all AFI fans?

But yeah, it looks good. It’s been a while since I’ve played a JRPG from start to finish.

Those crazy Star Wars types. Always like to make a scene. The music came on with no warning so I missed the first part of the fanfare, but I sure didn’t miss the two dozen lightsaber-bearing eunuchs (I think) that accompanied the Bioware and LucasArts dudes on the stage. They announced that The Old Republic will be the first-ever fully voiced MMORPG. That’s a lot of voice acting, and they say it might even be the most in any single project ever. Aside from that we got to see the first cinematic trailer, which gives literally no idea what gameplay might be like, yet is totally awesome.

Why can’t the movies be like the Star Wars games?