The Matrix Online Previews

A couple of new previews for Monolith's The Matrix Online have surfaced on the web, just in time for the game's release this week. The first is at GameSpot:
To nail down the look and feel of hand-to-hand combat, the developer turned to ZeroGravity, a martial arts stunt team that does work for motion pictures and television. The ZeroGravity team helped choose the martial arts styles that would be included in the game and then assisted the animation team to ensure the animation was smoothly executed. Its first goal was to choose three styles that looked very different from one another visually, while the second goal was to make sure the styles chosen were expandable in the future, to perhaps support the addition of martial arts weapons. As a result, the team chose kung fu, karate, and aikido as the three primary martial arts styles for the game.

And the second is at MSNBC:
With the blessings of the Wachowski brothers, who conceived of the Matrix saga, comic-book creator Paul Chadwick has written a year's worth of "Matrix Online" scripts for developing the story arc from here. The game re-creates the gritty, Gothic city that's the focus of the Matrix films, right down to the subways, the teleporting phone booths and the dark-alley hangouts.