Ralph McQuarrie, the artist who committed George Lucas’ ideas to canvas when he was trying to drum up interest in ‘Star Wars,’ has died at the ripe old age of 82. If there’s any justice in the world, he’ll turn into a blue-tinted ghost to hang out with Yoda and Alec Guiness. McQuarrie’s role in getting ‘Star Wars’ onto the big screen can’t be overstated. Lucas was getting shot down left and right by studio heads when he went in to pitch ‘Star Wars,’ but after commissioning McQuarrie to generate some concept art, his next meeting — with 20th Century Fox — was a success. From that, we get John Williams’ classic score, ILM, Indiana Jones and Pixar, plus a countless number of future writers and directors inspired by ‘Star Wars.’ How cool would it be to put “Designed Darth Vader” on your tombstone? It should be said that these…
Author: Editor
Species of Starwars: Nikto
The Nikto were a reptilian humanoid species from the planet Kintan in the Si’Klaata Cluster with many subspecies. They have tan, leathery skin and flat faces with multiple breathing holes on their cheeks and jawbones. Radiation from a nearby nova is believed to have sparked rampant mutation among the animal life of Kintan, and has resulted in the Nikto species encompassing a number of distinct sub-races. Four small horns protrude from the Nikto’s forehead. Nikto can be found throughout the galaxy, often involved with shady activities in the galaxy’s fringe. Of all the “client species” of the Hutt Cartel, the Nikto are regarded as the most dangerous, especially due to the actions of a fanatical and fatalistic cult that has long plagued the Nikto people. The Kajain’sa’Nikto, or “Red Nikto” are probably the most common. These desert dwellers are characterized by reddish pigmentation, small horns along the forehead and orbits of the…
Guardian Angel: Getting Geared Up for End Game on the Republic Side
So you’ve made it 50, you completed your story quests(even the ones on Ilum), and you’re sitting around wondering, “What do I do now?”. You’d like to run hard mode flash points or start going on operations, but the people spamming in general chat keep saying something about needing “geared” group mates. How does one go about accomplishing the task of becoming “geared”? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Being a fresh Republic 50 in Star Wars: The Old Republic can be a somewhat frustrating experience if you don’t know what you’re doing. Here are a few simple steps that should help you transition from you under-modded orange gear to some well earned purples. Dailies: Daily quest will be your first step in your quest to gear yourself out for end game content. As the name might suggest, daily missions can be repeated once a day. The first set…
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Passes $1 Billion at Box Office
Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace has officially joined the very exclusive ranks of movies that passed the $1 billion mark. With $1,000,447,819 worldwide, Phantom Menace is the 11th film to reach this milestone and the first in the Star Wars series. Before its current 3D re-release, The Phantom Menace had about $926.1 million worldwide but thanks to a strong $74.3 million gathered across the world in this year, the once mythical billion dollar threshold was finally reached. To think that back in 1999 we only had a single film over that mark, Titanic, while today we have 11 and the number is sure to grow fast in the future thanks to 3D and the constant rise of movie ticket prices. Now The Phantom Menace might not be considered the most worthy of the six Star Wars flicks to reach such heights but realistically speaking, it was the…
Kinect Star Wars – Girly Vader
What do you get when you cross a badass little girl with the scene in Star Wars where Vader first reveals his Force Choke power? You get one awesome commercial for the Xbox Kinect, that’s what… especially when she finds your lack of faith disturbing. Harnessing the controller-free power of Kinect, the game allows fans to physically experience Jedi training, using the Force and battling with a lightsaber. Using full body motions, players can live out the ultimate Star Wars fantasy. Gold bikini optional.
Species of Starwars: Weequay
Often quiet and enigmatic, Weequays can be found throughout the galaxy, from the lower levels of Coruscant to the distant desert flats of Tatooine. They are a humanoid species with coarse, leathery skin and bald heads. By tradition, a Weequay wears a braided topknot on one side of his or her head. Hailing from the arid world of Sriluur on the remote Sisar Run, Weequays are a laconic people deeply rooted in ancient traditions. Much of their culture is structured around the reverence of a pantheon of gods, one of the foremost being Quay, the God of the Moon. The Weequays keep a wide array of trinkets and totems to facilitate communication with their gods. Swindling off-worlder entrepreneurs have taken advantage of this cultural trait, and infested Sriluur with countless useless baubles said to divine the intentions of the deities. Weequay society is clan based, and a Weequay’s identity defers…
SWTOR trick: you can browse who is LFG on the whole server just by typing “LFG level or class
Just need to type “LFG” in the Search Terms. Instead of showing people in the zone. It shows the whole server. Its usefull if you are looking for a healer. You just need to type : LFG Sorc or LFG Merc and then check the comments. Try mouse over on the left hand side over the pink icon if the right side doesn’t work You can also type a level range like LFG 30-35 and it shows all players in that level range. I also learned that when you do /who is doesn’t search for whatever you type after. So “/who vegetto” wouldn’t search for my name, you need to type in the top search box 🙁 One of the few small annoyances I have with the game, I’ve just resigned to pressing ‘o’ instead to keep me from expecting it to work You can combine them as well so…
BioWare confirms that Mass Effect 3 ” Is officially gold”
Mass Effect 3 has been touted by its developer, BioWare, to be the conclusion of the Sam Shepard trilogy in the game’s universe. The action role-playing-game series, which was once an Xbox 360 exclusive has come a long way from its early days and is a major name in the gaming industry. In fact, Electronic Arts, the publisher of the series, even decided to drop the single console exclusivity of the series and release it for the PlayStation 3 console as well. Mass Effect 2 was the first game in the series to be released on Sony’s console and exceeded expectations when it came to sales on the PlayStation 3. That also meant that BioWare had a larger gamer base to cater to with the upcoming three-quel of the. EA and BioWare have been dropping plenty of hints and details about the game for quite some time now. It all…
Species of Starwars: Neimoidian
If there’s money to be had, a Neimoidian will be nearby. So says a common spacer stereotype, justified by the species’ reputation for excelling at business. Neimoidians are a species of green humanoids native to the Star Wars galaxy, closely related to Duros. Neimoidian society is said in certain behind-the-scenes books to be very highly Social-Darwinian, with many more Neimoidians being born than survive to adulthood. It seems that there is at least some purposeful withholding of food from the aquatic larvae in order to encourage survival of the strongest and most cunning. In 25,000 BBY, a Duros colony was established on Neimoidia. Due to the distinct features of Neimoidia, including a gravity which was greater than Duro, the Duros colonists became a separate species from their genetic cousins, thus starting the Neimoidian species. During an expansionist period in the Galactic Republic era, the Neimoidians colonized several worlds. The…
Guardian Angel: Rotations and Tactics
Guardian Angel Hello, fellow SW:tOR fans. It’s Kiran again with another entry into the Guardian Angel blog, a column dedicated to Jedi Guardian tanking. Today I’m going to cover some of the finer details of end game Guardian tanks, namely rotations and tactics. Later on I will also cover stat priorities and itemization. Ability Priorities and Rotations: The first thing you should know about any class in Star Wars: The Old Republic is that there is no set rotation for abilities like there are in other MMOs. Abilities instead have priorities which determine which available ability should be used first. You should also know that all priorities are situational. Hilt Strike might seem like a high priority ability having a stun and lots of threat, but against multiple targets, it’s not as effect as say, Force Sweep. As such, I will classify all abilities accordingly. The first thing we’re going…
New Star Wars Battlefront Game Rumors Surface
Speculation of a third Star Wars Battlefront game has been ongoing. Rumors circulated that Spark Unlimited was developing Battlefront 3 at the same time as it was rumored to be working on a Resident Evil title. Yet, all gamers had to go on were a couple of tweets suggesting the company “couldn’t say either way” what it was working on. That’s all changed in the last couple of days thanks to fresh evidence hinting that Spark Unlimited is indeed working on the game in the form of a job application posted on its website (see below). The developers are looking for someone to work on a “3rd Person Action/Adventure sequel in a high-profile science fiction franchise” who has a “strong sense of story and narrative techniques as they pertain to the gaming medium.” Sounds a bit like Star Wars, doesn’t it? Other evidence comes in the form of two LinkedIn…
Guardian Angel
Hello, fellow Star Wars fans. My name is Kiran and I will be writing a new column for the Jedi Guardian class, which is my favorite class in SW:TOR. From the very first moment I saw the trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic back in 2008, I was obsessed with the Jedi Guardian. The man on the screen was named Ven Zallow, and even though he was defeated, he resembled the kind of Jedi I always dreamed of being. I was all but ecstatic when I was chosen to participate in the beta. Since then I have dedicated countless hours of research and tinkering to playing and maximizing the Jedi Guardian class. Even though I started with my heart set on a Vigilance DPS build, I fell in love with the Defense tank Guardian, which is build I will be covering in this blog. Here are just a few…
May the schwartz be with you: 2012 Volkswagen Game Day Commercial
It’s been 12 days since Volkswagen unleashed “The Bark Side” and started building up anticipation for the sequel to last year’s beloved “The Force” commercial. With four days to spare until Super Bowl XLVI, the car company has released an extended version of “The Dog Strikes Back.” It’s one of three 30-second VW ads that will air on game day and features not only an adorably chubby pooch but also a final-act twist worthy of “I am your father!” Watch below.
May the schwartz be with you: Volkswagen’s ‘Star Wars’ Ad Campaign Has Gone to the Dogs
Coming off of last year’s wildly successful Star Wars themed Passat Super Bowl commercial, Volkswagen is out to continue that success once again. Ahead of the big game on February 5th, the automaker has just released this new teaser featuring another bit of Star Wars reference, only this time it features dogs and not a nine-year-old kid.You have to listen carefully (we had to listen twice to pick up on it), but the canine chorus is barking a very familiar tune. VW claims that the commercial will all make sense come game day. Until then, the teaser is a great laugh and we’ll see if this intergalactic canine bark fest can beat out last year’s fantastic young Darth Vader commercial.
looks like the Romance subplots are getting a big upgrade! [NSFW]
Before you say photoshopped etc, feel free to google ‘swtor.com’ and see for your self. ‘Dat thumbnail. Is that what happens when you reach max affection level for the romancable companions? Cut-scene!
Your guide to this weekend’s beta.
The purpose behind this final weekend beta, is to gauge performance of the game’s current server architecture. Previous betas have had some minor problems with performance, and this test will be the final chance for some meaningful feedback for launch scenarios. So, what can you do to help the most? Attempt to log in AS SOON AS YOU CAN. We want to hammer these servers to hell and back, don’t let up if you have the time to spare. Keep trying to connect if you have problems. Be ruthless. The more performance issues we catch during this beta mean that BioWare will know what to tackle before launch. Don’t start a post on reddit, or the official forums saying “the servers aren’t letting me log in””. Just keep attempting to connect, the server logs they’ll gather will tell them you can’t log in. Severe lag? Log out and use the…
May the schwartz be with you: AC/DC vs Star Wars: A New Hope
We’re kinda surprised no one ever thought to put a montage of Episode IV: A New Hope‘s coolest scenes to an AC/DC song, seeing as how most of the Aussie rockers’ songs are about shooting, or thrilling, or both — and man, remember how Lucas used to do that?? Props to Kalleanka on Youtube for putting together this clever little sequence of events which sum up the first Star Wars movie to AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’, especially since it could have been something really lame like a montage of Darth Vader scenes to “Back in Black.”
Stuff learned from this weeks beta
Here is some hints, tips, and settings that I found doing this weekends beta. If you are using ATI, update your drivers. I think it’s 11.10 right now. You don’t want 11.8. You’ll probably spend about 3-5 hours on your starter planet which takes you to level 10, or very close to 10. At around level 8-9 you’ll get your first companion. Once you finish off the planet you’ll go to your space station hub. As soon as you walk on to the hub, if you are level 10 you will immediately see a quest giver who will tell you to choose your advanced class (AC). You will then go over to your trainer and make your choice. If you’re not level 10 you may wish to remain on your starting planet until you are. At this level you’re ready for your first Flashpoint as well. Make sure to do…
Here’s That Phantom Menace 3D Trailer You Haven’t Been Waiting For
Lucasfilm apparently snuck a trailer for their 3D rerelease of Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace into theaters this past weekend, where it played in front of such not-screened-for-critics fare as The Three Musketeers 3D. (Sadly, I missed Musketeers because I was at Paranormal Activity 3 instead, thinking not so much about that movie but rather about the lady who had brought an incessantly screaming infant to a movie made up of little more than cheap jump-scares.) Here is is: It’s a weird trailer, but if you’ll allow me to get even geekier than usual for a second, it’s interesting to see how it takes a very different approach from Episode I’s original trailer (which I still think is pretty impressive, and which I still have fond memories of watching over and over in a friend’s dorm room on her slow-ass computer, looking at every goddamn frame for evidence of how…
Hammer Station flashpoint video
Before anyone shouts shenanigans I’ll tell you right now the flashpoint is in an extremely unfinished state right now. There’s no map (pretty big deal as it’s a massive instance with lots of paths), bosses don’t drop loot and there’s no convos outside the initial quest. It’s actually one of the more interesting flashpoints so far though. There’s branching paths depending on your professions, boss mechanics are mostly finished and it’s very visually impressive. This is the first example I’ve seen of a flashpoint being done with two people and their companions (and by an agent operative!).
SWTOR Companions List
Here is the full companions List for Star Wars: The old republic. Each class will be able to get a total of 5 companions through out the game. Each companion will be able to do different types of damage or play different roles in a group. Each companion will also give different bonuses to your crew skills in swtor. Pro Tip 1: If you enter your Quest Log, go to Codex then ‘Person of Note’, you can see what your companion likes/dislikes. This way you know what to say on dialogs to get +affection. Pro Tip 2: Companions use crafting materials that are in your cargo hold, you don’t have to carry crafting materials on you. Pro Tip 3: If you hit N for crew skills, you can click the individual crew skill next to each companion. For the longest time I was picking the general “slicing” button at the…
