Have you seen the face of the voice behind Satele Shan? What about the female Sheppard in Mass Effect? Or the femtrooper in SWTOR? Yup, all voices are done by Jennifer Hale. She is an amazing voice actress who always goes above and beyond in the roles that she plays. If you are a Jennifer Hale fan, then you’re going to appreciate the exclusive interview over at TORWars this week. Recently, Deirdre from TORWars was able to sit down and pick the brain of the beautiful and talented Jennifer Hale and they’ve been kind enough to post the two-part video series on their site for fans to enjoy. Some topics of conversation? What it’s like to do voice acting for one of the biggest names in the video game industry, her singing career and more. There are two parts of the ongoing series now live and they say to check…
Author: Lisa Clark
SWTOR for $39.99 on Amazon Deal of the Day
This just in from Amazon’s Deal of the Day today- SWTOR for only $39.99 and it ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. If you’ve been waiting to buy SWTOR until the price comes down, thinking about buying it for a friend or a family member or wanted to get yourself a second copy, this is the perfect time to get the savings on the initial purchase. You save $20 on the game when you buy- today only- from Amazon.com. This special price is for the standard edition. It is in stock and ships immediately after purchase. Platform: PC (Windows Vista / XP) Product Features (from Amazon listing) Platform: PC | Edition: Standard · Define Your Star Wars Saga – Choose from one of eight iconic roles · Choose the Light or Dark Side – Meaningful choices throughout your journey will determine the light or dark side · Adventure with Companions –…
SWTOR Scheduled Maintenance Tonight
This week will see SWTOR updates back on the regular Tuesday night schedule. There will not be a new patch this week, only regular maintenance. Here are the details. via the SWTORforums: Hello everyone, we wanted to let you know that we will be performingscheduled maintenance for four hours on Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 from 2AMCST (12AM PST/3AM EST/8AM GMT/9AM CET) until 6AM CST (4AM PST/7AM EST/12PMGMT/1PM CET). All game servers and SWTOR.com will be offline during thisperiod. This maintenance is expected to take no more than four hours, but couldbe extended. For our new players, this weekly maintenance is done in order to makegeneral improvements and to check performance of the game so that we cancontinue to provide a consistent, quality experience. Quite often (but notalways) after a maintenance period there will be a patch to download. This weekthere will be no new patch, but we will be performing…
SWTOR Fans Build SWTOR-Themed Beer Pong Table
Are you looking for something fun to do on patch day? Why not enjoy some SWTOR-themed beer pong? These two friends built their very own beer pong table inspired by the two sides in SWTOR. It’s a bit crude, but we got a kick out of it and if someone else is bringing the beer, we’d sure join in, too. Not sure what beer pong is? First, what planet have you beenliving on and secondly, you can read the officialrules of beer pong from The NationalBeer Pong League (yes, there is even a World Series of Beer Pong). Here are the basics of beer pong People Needed: 2 or 4 people(head to head or 2 on 2) What you need to play: (14) 12 ounce plastic cups (6 per team and 2 water cups) (2) Ping-pong balls (preferably more incase one gets broken or lost) (2-4) 12 ounce beverages per game A flat level…
SWTOR Faction Balance and Population Numerical Data
Here’s some really interesting information about US PvE/RP servers regarding faction balance and population. If you love data (like me), you’re going to appreciate this one. There’s not a lot of current information out about the server population. Which servers are over populated? Which servers are dead? Are you looking to join a server that will have people to play with regularly or do you want a low-pop server where you can just do your own thing? This is valuable information for any gamer and a poster at Reddit has helped us out with some data: That being said, there has being hardly any numerical data on the server population and Imperial/Republic balance. Bioware is unlikely to release this data anytime soon, if ever. I went to 79 PVE/RP servers and created two level 1 characters per server over the span of 3-4 days and recorded the population data for…
Community Q&A: Feb 24th 201
It’s time for the Community Q&A again and this week, some really interested questions were asked and answered by official staff of BioWare. It’s all laid out on the community blog but here’s a snippet of the questions: Chyp: Can we expect to see any animation/damage timing consistency changes between factions? Georg Zoeller (Principal Lead Combat Designer): Yes. The animation team has been working on a new set of animations for abilities like the Trooper’s Mortar Volley to provide closer matching of animation timings and improved combat responsiveness. We expect to roll these changes out with Game Update 1.2. Zennis: Has there been any discussion to streamlining the Space Port process? Perhaps allowing speeders in the Space Ports besides the Fleet? Brian Audette (Senior Designer): We’ve absolutely heard what the fans are saying and have been exploring options to address these issues. While we are still investigating allowing speeder use…
SWTOR Players Average 4 Hour Sessions
According to Greg Zeschuk, head of BioWare Austin, the average SWTOR player plays for four to six hours per session. This is a startling number to non-gamers but not so shocking to those who enjoy spending some quality time in a good MMO. “When they play, their sessions are absurd,” Greg Zeschuk said in a recent interview. “What it implies is that we’ve managed to pull off this ‘just-one-more-quest, just-one-more-thing’ feeling. I find myself doing that all the time. I just get sucked back in. The playing of the game is off the charts.”” Many of us who have been playing for awhile now can understand this first-hand. Really, isn’t this what every MMO strives for? When you add the story elements that BioWare has in SWTOR, it’s easy to see how players can get sucked in for that “one more thing” and end up playing for several hours. In…
Penny Arcade Report Interviews BioWare Founders
Penny Arcade’s Report column has an interesting interview with the BioWare founders. Drs. Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka visited with Penny Arcade editor in a nice hotel suite in Las Vegas doing yet another interview for the press. These guys never seem to mind talking about what they do and sharing info and fun with the fans. Ben Kuchera interviews the doctors and talks about TOR launch, ending a trilogy and what many people are asking- will there be a Mass Effect MMO: “We’re the fastest-growing MMO in history, and it’s really a credit to our fans,” Muzyka said. “The launch was fantastic.” Taking on World of WarCraft was considered a near impossibility in the world of online games, but Bioware has the strength of the Star Wars brand alongside the company’s ability to tell wonderful stories. It’s a hard game to say no to, even for MMO beginners like…
How to Master Huttball: SWTOR PvP Guide
When you load into your first Huttball game, you may be totally confused. It may seem like a very complicated game but in reality, it’s pretty simple after you get the hang of it. Huttball isn’t a typical PvP scenario in the sense that killing isn’t your main objective. Instead, your main focus is on scoring goals. Think football meets an army obstacle course and you begin to get an idea of what you’ll be dealing with. You’ll have to deal with many obstacles such as multiple levels, fire pits and of course other players. You have to remember that your main goal is to score points. If your team has the ball, help get it to the other team’s pit and if the opposing team has the ball, kill them or intercept the ball. Whichever team has the most points at the end of the game, wins. If there…
Zombie Star Wars Cosplay
This photo was taken on February 18, 2012 using a Nikon Coolpix S205. Who would survive a zombie apocalypse in a galaxy far, far away? These two might have some answers. Vill4no grabbed this awesome photo of zombie Star Wars cosplayers at Megacon 2012. This looked to be an awesome event and while this isn’t the only great photo he got, it was by far by favorite. In fact, it’s my favorite Star Wars cosplay yet! Check out his full photostream on Flickr for more great pics from the event- including more Star Wars (The Emperor, droids, dark side R2, jawas), Link, Drunk Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, Punisher, Batgirl and many more.
SWTOR PvP Healing Gripe: Long Player Names and Titles
There have been many gripes about SWTOR thus far and a lot of them I agree with. In some ways, it’s because the game is new and BioWare still needs to make some tweaks and changes for everything to roll out properly. In other ways, it’s just because gamers will forever complain about PvP until the end of time. It’s the nature of the beast. But some recent complaints I’ve heard about healing in PvP don’t make sense to me. I’ve read it on the forums and this user Darchseraph on Reddit posts: As a healer I find myself missing a lot of heals that result in people dying because I simply can’t click select my heal target. Yes, you can choose directly from Op screen, but sometimes there are multiple people getting low, but only 1 or 2 actively taking damage. I have to look at both screen and…
Understanding the Galactic Trade Network in SWTOR
If you have yet to use the Galactic Trade Network (GTN) in SWTOR, you might not realize yet that it is not an Auction House. Those who come from WoW or similar MMORPGs may be used to the auction house format but BioWare has done something different with the GTN. Different is not necessarily better for a lot of players. The GTN works by allowing the player to post an item for sale at a fixed price, along with every other player’s items. An auction house system allows players to post items with a minimum bid and lets the other players bid up to as much as they want for the duration of the auction- or to get it instantly with a “buy now” price. This isn’t the only difference with the GTN model compared to the models most MMOers are used to. The search function is also a bit…
Media launch of SWTOR to Australia on March 1st
It’s official and SWTOR will be launching to Australia on March 1st. That’s just a few days away and while there is no public launch event for the Aussies, BioWare and EA Australia do have a few things in mind to ring in the big day. TOROZ.com.au covers the news as well as an “ask Gabe a question” event that will take place at the launch. There will be a small press event in Sydney on the 1st with a special guest, BioWare’s Lead PvP Designer: Gabe Amatangelo. TOROZ is attending the launch and will have some time to speak with Gabe and ask him questions from the community so if you have a question you want them to ask, head on over to their site and leave it in the comments. They will be choosing the best questions for their interview session with Gabe. Read more at TOROZ and…
BioWare’s Mass Effect 3 Coming March 6th
The big day is almost here for Mass Effect fans. The third and final game in the Mass Effect series has a lot to live up to and if the single and multiplayer demo (recently released) is any indication of how the rest of the game will play, fans of the series have nothing to worry about. Mass Effect 3 comes out on March 6 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. ($59.99 on Amazon) Here’s some interesting Mass Effect 3 news: Razer And BioWare Reveal New ‘Mass Effect 3’ Gaming Gear Minimum System Requirements: OS – Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1, Win 7 CPU: 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (equivalent AMD CPU) RAM: 1GB for XP / 2GB RAM for Vista/Win 7 Hard Drive: 2.5 GB of free space Video: 256 MB* (with Pixel Shader 3.0 support) *Supported chipsets: NVIDIA 7900 or better; ATI X1800 or better. Please…
HeroEngine surpasses 5,000 licensees in part due to SWTOR
HeroEngine from Idea Fabrik now has more than 5,000 licenses, a feat they credit partly due to BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic, which uses the platform. The success of SWTOR has been big and the German company believes that SWTOR’s success is one reason there has been such a spike in the licenses for Hero Engine. Following Star Wars: The Old Republic’s release, Idea Fabrik received thousands of inquiries about the engine last January from studios both large and small, more than in any other period in the company’s existence. Idea Fabrik believes it was able to attract its new licensees because large games built on its platform helped prove that its technology — which accommodates a wide range of online projects, from MMORPGs to social games — could handle titles of their scale. “This lowers the perceived risk of developers in adopting the HeroEngine platform,” claims Idea Fabrik…
TOR TV: Assassin vs. Assassin Duels. Zybak vs. Jerk
Are you wondering about PvP in SWTOR or looking to learn more about assassin vs. assassin duels? For anyone who plays assassin or just wants to learn a bit more about the class in PvP, this is a great video. It’s also fun to watch if you just want to know more about how PvP in SWTOR works. While each class is different in the abilities you can get, this video shows some techniques that are helpful to any player. Uploader Zybak explains the video, “This video is intended to show tips and tricks on how to beat other Assassins/Shadows in 1v1 duels. I duel the best Assassin on the server, Jerk. He is nearly valor rank 80 and has full Battlemaster pvp gear.” Check out the vid:
Mass Effect 3 : “Take Earth Back” TRAILER
The time is almost here and the Mass Effect 3: “Take Back Earth” trailer has been released and is boosting the hype for the new game. The trailer first aired on Sunday night and has gone viral on YouTube and Facebook in less than 48 hours. The fans are truly pumped up about this one. EA originally plannedto release the game in 2011 but delayed the launch until early 2012. It is oneof the most anticipated video game launches of the quarter and expected to be alarge market opportunity for EA. First week sales of Mass Effect 2 reached 2 million units,which can lead us to only guess that ME3 will do as well or better. Mass Effect 3 will be released onXBox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC starting with a US release on March 6. So here is the trailer if you’ve yet to see it for yourself:
Rare Video Interview with Ackbar Voice Actor
“It’s a trap!” San Francisco’s SFGate.com has a rare video interview with KPFA radio dramatist Erik Bauersfeld. For those not up on their Star Wars trivia, Bauersfeld is the voice of Admiral Ackbar from Return of the Jedi. He is responsible for the iconic “It’s a trap!” line and he was also the voice of Bib Fortuna and he even auditioned for the voice of Yoda. Here are some interesting facts from the interview: When the movie first released, he wasn’t listed on the cast but has been credited since then. He was unaware that his famous line had become an Internet meme. He’s still never seen the original “Star Wars”. He saves Star Wars fan letters in a filing cabinet and writes a personal response to each one. Here is a few more videos you should checkout:
Some Kudos for BioWare Customer Service
We have seen a lot of posts about Bioware being evil and SWToR support being horrible. We’ve even published quite a few of those complaints here on the site. But now we’ve found another good example of BioWare staff doing something good. Some players have received automated responses from the CSR team saying their account is suspended for spamming or other violations of the terms of use but they don’t provide any information on what they did. When these players then contact the customer service team to get more clarification on what they did wrong, they sometimes receive the same automated-type message back. But here’s a player who feels he was wrongfully banned, wrote to BioWare customer service to try to find out what he did wrong (and avoid doing it again) and he got a positive response. BioWare admitted they made a mistake, removed the ban and compensated the…
SWTOR Review from TechTalk
Once again, we see SWTOR in a big news source. CBS News has a review of the game in their TechTalk section. Their piece titled “Star Wars: The Old Republic puts the role-playing back in the MMORPG” tell us just that- how they feel BioWare put the role-playing aspect back into MMORPGs. This is a good point to make about the game. The story is the biggest selling point of this game and it’s the one thing that stands out and separates the game from other MMOs. They tell us: The Old Republic brings these staples of any good BioWare game and throws them into the culture of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG). The result is something that feels markedly different than anything other MMORPGs have to offer, while never straying too far from the established formula. This review is less of a review in the traditional sense and…
Some Useful PVP/Warzone Stats/Info
Do you love PvP in SWTOR? Are you into warzones or just wanting to learn more about them? Whether you’ve reached the level cap yet or not, PvP can be fun in SWTOR. Warzones can break the monotony of leveling or give you something to do at level 50. It’s also a way to build gear for yourself. If you want to learn a little more about the warzones, there is a useful resource you need to bookmark. Dulfy’s Healing Corner has some very useful warzone information and statistics for SWTOR. I love charts, stats and graphs so this is right up my alley. It covers gear, expertise and PvP bonuses, warzone medals, valor and amount needed for next level, resolve system details and so much more. It’s one of the most complete SWTOR PvP resources I’ve seen so far. For example, here are medals that you can…
PSA: Macro keyboard/Mouse are NOT Allowed
An interesting post on Reddit claims that macro keyboards and mouse combos (like the SWTOR branded peripherals) are not allowed in the game. This is a topic we’ve written about here before. We’ve all been told that BioWare will not allow in-game macros for SWTOR. And yet, they are endorsing these SWTOR themed peripherals (at a very high price tag) that allow macroing. So the argument can be made about why can someone with these types of peripherals use macros but regular players cannot? He posts this as a response he claims to have gotten from a BioWare customer service member: Greetings Xxxxxx, I am Protocol Droid U3-L0 of Human-Cyborg Relations… I have received your transmission regarding your query about the Swtor gaming keyboard and mouse by Razer. All of us here on the Star Wars: The Old Republic team would like to thank you for your support, and let…
TOR TV: Ode to Corso Riggs
Corso Riggs… do you love to hate him? Then you will absolutely love this song, “Ode to Riggs”. Fcroaonlk has created this fantastic song that will give you a lot of laughs. The song is divided into some of his main issues with Corso. The song download link will be available at 1000 views so check it out and share it with your friends, too. It was originally inspired by Suzume_Bachl’s… interesting post on the SWTOR forums. Here are some fun facts about the song: 1) I’m wearing a Yoda shirt that says, “Trust me, a Jedi I am”. 2) This was created with FL Studio, an H4n microphone, iMovie, fraps, and a smart-phone video camera. 3) I have exported this video about… 10-12 times since (a) my computer can’t handle the large video files, so I can’t actually watch it unless I export it and (b) I was working…
SWTOR Endgame Gearing Guide for Empire Players
One of the biggest questions gamers have when they reach level 50- the maximum level- is what to do next. How do you get geared up? What is there to do in endgame? SWTOR is still a new game so there is not a lot of advice or “common knowledge” in the gaming community yet about what to do. In fact, many players are leveling to the cap and then stopping because they don’t know what to do next or there are not enough people playing to do anything with. But you can bet that as the game has been out longer and more and more players get into it and reach the level cap, there will be more gamers to play with. So you can start right now getting geared up so you’re ready to go and you will be a few steps ahead of others, giving you an…