Episode III Game Trailer Goes Live

Allow us to take you back for a moment to the heady days of early 1996, when Jar Jar Binks was no more than a pixel in George Lucas' eye and we had yet to be introduced to the Episode I universe. You may recall the excitement that greeted the launch of the Episode I soundtrack, offering as it did the first taste of the most eagerly anticipated film in history. And your ears may still be ringing from the shrieks of horror from spoiler-averse fans that greeted the track listings "Qui-Gon's Noble End" and "Qui-Gon's Funeral". Yes, Lucas gave it all away on the soundtrack cover. Now, with the trailer for the Episode III game, reported here on Coming Soon, it is once again time for fans to be cautious. It may be that what you see here bears no relation to the action of the film, but it looks spoilerific indeed. We're not going to reveal anything more about the game, except to say that the graphics are really rather good, and the action looks impressive - Hayden Christensen apparently did the motion capture himself. That's due out on May 5, 2005, just as excitement about the film reaches fever pitch. Meanwhile, The Matrix continues its attempts to enslave the human race, as it comes to the web in the form of a massively multiplayer online game. For the uninitiated, that allows players to go online in their thousands and continue the story where Matrix Revolutions left off, interacting with familiar characters and possibly making decisions that become part of the permanent legend of the Matrix in a gaming world that recreates the wire-fu combat of the film. Most of the surviving characters from the films are returning to the game, with the movie's voice talent behind them. The actors behind Morpheus, Persephone, The Oracle, The Merovingian, Link, and Seraph have also provided voiceovers and character likenesses, and even the Matrix composer Don Davis is back. That goes live on January 18 here on the game's official website, so stock up on forks before then, because after that, there is no spoon.