E3 2010: Battlestar Galactica Online utilizes Unity engine

Bigpoint's got it made in Europe, but the online-game publisher saw greener pastures across the pond. San Francisco is now home to Bigpoint's States-side operations, and they were present at E3 last week to show off their upcoming MMOG Battlestar Galactica Online (BGO).

The series began way back in the late '70s and hasn't stopped since. BGO takes place within the Battlestar Galactica universe and promises to keep things canon. Players are separated by faction, depending on whether they choose to play as humans or Cylons. It really comes down to whose ships you prefer, as the gameplay is totally ship-based. Think Sins of a Solar Empire, where you control spaceships of various make and model, and everything happens on a much larger scale -- in space.

You can't get more epic than space, a concept so grand that I would be justified in italicizing the word in every piece of writing from here on out. As things stand now, all exploration is done from the safety of your ship, and resources will likely come from farming/mining planets or asteroids.

Not much else has been revealed in terms of gameplay, though Bigpoint has confirmed both PvE and PvP combat. During the demo, we witnessed a little human scouter ship taking on multiple Cylon crafts with a peashooter, and the ensuing battle was pure eye candy.

You won't need to worry about specs or OS support either, since BGO is a browser-based MMO. Surprised? I certainly was.

Everything is made possible by the Unity engine, a multiplatform development tool that boasts the most powerful engine "this side of a million dollars." Basically, it's like Flash but better in nearly every way. On Flash, BGO wouldn't look so awesome or run nearly as smoothly.

Being browser-based and free-to-play, the game will support microtransactions, though it's currently unclear what you can get for real money.

After about four months in development, Battlestar Galactica Online is expected to launch in another six months, give or take, and beta is practically a sure thing.

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