BlueAlien.org

What could BioWare / Pandemic Studios do to improve Jade Empire? Toss in some astounding graphical effects add a few new martial art forms, selectable difficulty, smarter AI, new weapons, new creatures and enemies and viola perfection.
Checkout the screenies below, and see the rest of them in our gallery:

BioWare / Pandemic Studios have reached a "nerd trilogy" of sorts as they started with AD&D material with their legendary Baulder's Gate series. The second treatment was their great interpretations of the Star Wars universe with Knights of the Old Republic I & II. Now they retackling the Kung-Fu setting paying homage to modern inspirations such "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" along with classics such as "5 Deadly Venoms." Like Yin and Yang BioWare / Pandemics Studios zen like ability to create wonderfully engaging stories, rich environments and interesting characters combined with a martial arts tale of revenge - how can a gamer go wrong?

Some easily apparent differences from the PC version and its XBox brethren is the load times or rather the lack there of. The loading times during the demonstration were barely noticeable. The graphical eye candy is plentiful from massive fireball explosions to foes annihilated into bloody spatter as the goodness abounds at now higher resolutions. Newer graphic cards are beneficial but don't be put off as the game will work just as well on lower end system albeit with some minor differences. AI has been given new life as now the baddies better react to your advances and tactics resulting in varied encounters. Three difficulties settings allow you to kick back and enjoy the story to seriously challenging your abilities. With the new difficulty levels BioWare / Pandemic Studios has addressed the complaint of some of the "too easy" trek through the original XBox version. Tons of new content such as weapons and foes have been added while the same story remains intact. This means no new areas or quests however if it ain't broke don't fix readily applies here. For those familiar with earlier XBox version take not that game-pads are supported but the old standbys of the keyboard and mouse work just as well if not better as being more suited for PC gamers.

Choice is import and Jade Empire for the PC is no exception. Now when interacting with NPCs while selecting text your character's facial expressions will visually dictate the tone of your conversation. Fighting styles are now more varied with two new choices of Iron Palm and Viper Strike. Speaking of choices hundreds of combinations and styles and weapons are at your disposal.

The same thirty plus hours can be expected in a romp through the Jade Empire with now even greater replay value with all the great new enhancements. The team mentioned a planned Q4 release with the caveat only when the game is finally done will it be released.