After Bioware's announcement that Star Wars: The Old Republic would feature space combat, forum buzz across the 'Net began. Some wondered if space combat meant mini-games. Others opined that it meant fully-featured immersive combat that would enhance and complement the ground game. This week, MMORPG.com's Mike Bitton takes on the issue of space combat, discussing his hopes and concerns.

“How can you release a Star Wars game without space?” This is a valid concern to be sure and there is some precedent for such thinking. Bioware had been relatively hush-hush on anything space-related up until E3 2010 where they revealed player starships as a feature for the game, though they described the feature as being very similar to the way player starships were represented in the Knights of the Old Republic games. For those who don’t know, the Ebon Hawk in KOTOR and KOTOR II really only served as a base of operations and a hub from which to travel to locations across the galaxy (selected by way of a galaxy map). If this was to be the limit of the player starships feature, fans were decidedly underwhelmed. The hopeful hold-outs for a full fledged space component were left, ironically, less hopeful after the reveal of player starships at E3.

Read SWTOR: Space Combat and add your voice to the discussion.