GC10: The Old Republic's Space Battles

Space battles are awesome; it's a proven fact. Space shooter sequences will give anything you throw them in instant credibility. They're fun, flashy, fast, and more times than not, pretty tricky to complete. 

The space battles thrown into the mix in BioWare's latest Star Wars offering, The Old Republic look fairly simple. You head in one direction, on rails, blowing up whatever is threatening your ship and weaving through asteroid fields. Simple, yes, but a welcome change of pace in the MMO landscape that seems to be same old thing game in and game out.

A few things I'd love to get some clarification on: How customizable your ship is, will you be able to install upgrades that affect the space battle segments, and what happens if and when your ship is finally destroyed. 

I don't know how BioWare expects us to wait until next year for this game.