The Old Republic's 'tunnel shooter' space combat explained

Specifics about the recently announced space combat mechanics in LucasArts and BioWare's upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic, have been awfully hard to come by. Rumors have circulated claiming the game's aerial component would resemble an on-rails shooter, while others say it would give players full control over their ship's movement. The real answer, as revealed by the October edition of PC Gamer, falls somewhere in between.

According to our MMO-friendly sister site Massively, the magazine explains that players will come across "tunnel shooter" instances while traveling the stars, which will send them down a fixed path while giving them the ability to maneuver around obstacles and shoot enemies. These encounters will feature missions, achievements, cosmetic upgrades to your ship, and could eventually be opened up to PvP and co-op modes in the future. That actually sounds a lot like Kingdom Hearts' Gummi Ship segments, if that means anything to you.