If you’re looking for an additional bonus to help you enjoy SWTOR a little more, consider picking up a copy of Prima’s Star Wars: The Old Republic Explorer’s Guide. This official Prima guide for SWTOR has many amazing features and benefits to this guide but before you buy a copy, it’s important to know what you’re doing and what you’re getting when you buy it. First one, this is not a leveling guide. It will not tell you where to go to quest or how to quest. It’s not necessarily going to help you level faster. Instead, it’s an atlas for SWTOR full of class-specific tips, detailed maps in full color and descriptions of each location. Some of the benefits of this Explorer’s Guide includes: Summaries of the classes and specializations with detailed descriptions of the class and the character creation menu. Beautiful color maps of every area within the…
Author: Lisa Clark
Did SWTOR Fall Short of Expectations?
Since the release of SWTOR in December, we have brought you news, reviews, updates, funnies and everything else we can find SWTOR related. Most of our readers are fans of the game or fans of Star Wars. However, we would not be fair and unbiased if we only brought you news of the good stuff. There are some fans and gamers who feel let down by SWTOR. In some ways, I have to agree with the points they make. While I still play the game and intend to keep playing, there are some areas of the game that I am disappointed in. I feel like BioWare made some pretty big promises that were hard to back up. The Picky Geek has some reasons why they think SWTOR fell short as well: The bugs – “From graphical quirks to game breaking glitches, SWTOR’s seen them all. While every game has bugs,…
Former SWTOR Devs Introduce “The Banner Saga”
Star Wars: The Old Republic is easily considered one of the biggest games of the year. It has yet to make its debut in Australia and already we’re hearing about it all over the world. Those of you who have been following for some time now know that it is a game that has been many years in the making. Some of the people who were involved in the early days of developing SWTOR have now moved on to other projects. Three of these devs in particular, are now introducing a new project called “The Banner Saga”. Games.on.net brings us the news about this new game: Under the new studio of Stoic Games, the talented trio have created what their website calls a “role-playing meets turn-based strategy, wrapped into an adventure mini-series about Vikings.” I am sold already a billion times, especially when I saw the bits about “pain-staking hand…
Are Online Games Destroying Marriages?
An article on US News, just in time for Valentine’s Day, reminds us that doing things too much without your spouse could put a strain on the marriage. Whoda thunkit? MMORPG giant WoW was singled out in the piece but other MMOs were named the culprit as well. The article covers a study done on 349 couples where at least one spouse games online. According to US News, “The results confirmed what Neil Lundberg, one of the study’s authors, already suspected: “Gaming widows,” spouses who lose the attention of their significant other to gaming, aren’t happy with their marriages.” Fill in the word “gaming” in that sentence with anything else and you get the same result- gambling, cheating, eating, watching football, picking their nose… Not spending time with your spouse = a strained marriage. Gaming is just the scapegoat once again in another poor study that makes video games the…
Guild Summit Update and Your Chance to Ask Questions!
Attention SWTOR guild leaders: Did you get an email about your application to the Austin guild summit? All emails have now been sent out so if you applied and were chosen, you would have gotten the notice and the window has now passed to accept the invitation. For those guilds who did not reply in the 48 hour window, or those who were unable to go, BioWare will now turn to the backup guilds that were on the waitlist. So your chance to get in is still there. David Bass updates on the forums: All emails have now been sent out. Please check your inboxes if you applied for the Guild Summit, and email guilds@swtor.com if you do not receive an email within the next hour or so. For those who have been put on the waitlist, we’ll contact you sometime within the next week if a space opens up…
Reddit User Says: “I’ve silenced C2-N2 and You Can Too”
Who else is tired of hearing C2-N2? If this droid is driving you nuts like so many others players, then there might be a solution short of decommissioning him. Remember this video we brought you the other day, “SWTOR Horror”? Well, you don’t have to end like the player in the video. There is another option and it’s a pretty simple fix. This Reddit user explains: All you have to do is replace this file with an empty file by the same name. · swtor_en-us_cnv_comp_chars_rep_1.tor · (swtor_en-us_cnv_comp_chars_imp_1.tor if you’re an imp) It appears the above file contains all the voice acting done by your companions based on your location. Like when you leave the base on hoth your companion says, “Hoth, it’s so damn cold blah blah blah blah blah” It was cool while leveling, it’s annoying now. It also has the chatter from c2-n2 every time you run past…
SWTOR Shirts- Finally!
Ok, so I now know what I want for my birthday. Star Wars: The Old Republic shirts are available over on Jinx and I have to say, I really love the designs. There are simple “Light side” and “Dark side” designs as well as some really awesome class designs for each of the classes in the game. Shirts are available for men and woman and in a variety of sizes. Prices are decent with the men’s running $19.99-$22.99 and the women’s are $21.99-$22.99. Each t-shirt design is done on a solid black background, allowing the colors and design to show more clearly. I’m a huge fan of the classic black tee so I really love that they chose this for the base on every t-shirt. Each t-shirt design also has a fun description in theme to the class or design that it sports. It’s fun to click through them and…
SWTOR Community Q&A February 17th
It’s that time of the week again- time for the SWTOR Community Q&A. I think this is going to grow into a fun and interesting weekly event. BioWare staff planned to answer 10 questions in this week’s Q&A but actually managed to get in the answers to 12. They have also openedup an officialthread for next week’s Q&A, which will stay open until 2pm CST onFebruary 21st (8pm GMT/9pm CET). So here’s a snippet of what this week’s Q&A covered: DarthBelkar:Can we look forward to server-wide special seasonal / short-term events? DanielErickson: Yes! Expect them to fit into the world andsetting, involve a fair bit of discovery, and offer special rewards that willbe there one day and then gone forever. And expect them soon. Darthinfimus: Doyou plan to implement a /roll or /random command for use in master lootersituations? DamionSchubert: Diceslingers of the world rejoice! /roll hasalready been implemented on our internal development…
Star Wars The Old Republic Gaming Mousepad By Razer: Review
Are you wondering if the SWTOR gaming mousepad from Razer is worth the expense? You won’t be the first gamer or TOR fan to ask the question. The good news is we have a review for you to help you get the scoop on this gaming accessory. Capsule Computers had a lengthy review of this mousepad (over 1,000 words long) and you can read it in full on their website. Here’s a snippet: As the mouse pad is most certainly an aesthetic piece, the most important thing to immediately review is its physical design. Breaking away from their traditional colour scheme, Razer has dropped the usual black-green colour product colour scheme in favour of a more contextually appropriate White-Gold-Black. The choice in colour scheme I feel is highly appropriate given the sci-fi nature of the universe. The design is simple and straightforward, just as many of us assume that futuristic…
Kentucky.com Reviews SWTOR
It seems that everyone has something to say about SWTOR these days, even Kentucky.com. Special to the Manifesto for their Gaming section, from Shannon Reynolds is this review of SWTOR. It’s short and sweet and honestly, it’s much more of an “impressions” piece than an actual review but it gets the people in Kentucky aware of a really cool game and that’s something, right? This reviewer says: Developer Bioware took Yoda’s teachings to heart — particularly “Do, or do not; there is no try” — when crafting Star Wars: The Old Republic. There’s no evidence of a mere “try” here. The company made a game worthy of the sprawling and beloved Star Wars universe. And perhaps there’s no universe better suited for a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. While some SWTOR-haters might argue, I tend to agree. Is this the best MMORPG that any gamer can dream up brought to…
A Warning for all Security Key App Users
If you want a little extra security for your SWTOR account, you have two options: the authenticator key and the security key app. However, many players suggest that you go ahead and get the actual physical keychain version rather than the app. There are several benefits to this. For one, if anything happens to your phone, you won’t be able to access your game account. If you are using the security key app, one Reddit user has a little warning for you: “If you ever have to delete the app off of your device you are screwed. I had to reinstall Android on my Droid Bionic and when i restored all my apps from backup the swtor app didnt work. I reinstalled it and called Customer Support to remove the current one so i could add the new one. They were able to remove the old one but said as…
Sith Purebloods – Why Did they Disappear?
A common question in Star Wars lore is what happened to the Sith as a species? Early in the Sith storyline in SWTOR, we see references that there are few “purebloods” left. But does SWTOR offer us any clues as to what happened to the Sith? Actually, it does and Loregy.com attempts to explain to us. SWTOR drops us little seeds of the lore of the Sith. These little pieces of information drop us hints as to what happened to the Sith and it’s possible they might one day completely reveal this part of the story for us. To understand, you have to know the real story breakdown of what happened to the Sith. They are not extinct as there are still some of them around. However, something did happen to them. Most of them seem to have been killed off and if there are some remaining, stasis may be…
SWTOR’s Local Launch: Your Questions Answered (For Australian Players)
As we all recently learned, Australian gamers will be getting their launch of SWTOR soon. After big success in its current markets, SWTOR is now releasing to Australia and the surrounding region. March 1st is the big day and if you have any questions about the upcoming launch, the Toroz team has you covered with this post: What a day – after such a long wait for the details, we pretty much know most things about what life will be like post March 1 as SWTOR players. Although there’s no shortage of information around, I thought it might be worth rounding up the key facts: March 1st is launch day – 12.01am to be exact. Oceanic servers, located in Australia, go live at exactly the same time. There’ll be optional free transfers to the new servers for anyone meeting these criteria See all seven points and the link to the…
Drew Karpyshyn Says Goodbye to BioWare
Drew Karpyshyn promised big news on his weekly blog updatetoday but we had no idea how big this news would be. He has now announced thathe will be leaving BioWare after 12 years of working together. He notes thatthe decision was 100% his and that he is leaving BioWare on good terms. Drew writes: Forthe past twelve years I’ve had the privilege to work at one of the bestcompanies in the video game industry, side by side with the most talented andincredible group of people I’ve ever had the good fortune to know. I’ve enjoyedmy time at BioWare immensely, but it’s time for me to move on. I’mleaving to focus more time and energy on my novels and other non-video gamerelated projects. But even though I’ll no longer be working on games forBioWare, I’m not going to be severing all ties with them. Many of my closestfriends still work at…
The Old Republic Asia Pacific Launch
BioWare and LucasArts are excited to announce that Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ will officially launch in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore on March 1st, 2012! This is very big news today and much earlier than many fans in those regions were expecting to get this news. BioWare announced today: Our biggest priority for The Old Republic has always been to deliver a high quality product and high quality service and we are pleased with our results in North America and Europe. We appreciate that our fans in these countries have been patient and we are excited to deliver this same great customer experience to players this March. As for pricing of the SWTOR release to these zones: Star Wars: The Old Republic will be available in both Standard and Digital Deluxe editions. The Standard Edition will retail for $79.99 AUD / $89.99 NZD / $389.00 HKD /…
Guild Summit Application Status
News has now been released about the Guild Summit application status. If you applied to represent your guild, you will be receiving an email shortly (if not already) that tells you whether or not you were selected. If you were not chosen for the first round, hang on to your hats for a couple more days. Chosen guild leaders have 48 hours to respond to reserve their place or other guilds who have been placed on a waiting list will be chosen in their place. So if some of the guilds are unable to attend or fail to respond in time, you could still be receiving an invite. Don’t book any flights until you’re 100% confirmed that you will be going to represent your guild. From the Official SWTOR Community: Hi everyone, Thank you so much to everyone who applied for the Guild Summit! We received thousands of applications, have…
Awesome SWTOR Lego Sets
I have been a Lego fan since I was a little girl. My kids are now also Lego fans and my boys, as well as my 3 year old daughter, love Star Wars Legos. Too bad we couldn’t have all been at the New York Toy Fair on Sunday because those who were there told us all about the awesome Star Wars and SWTOR themed Lego sets that were presented. Kotaku has some great pictures of these sets in their gallery. Dual Shockers also wrote about the SWTOR legos on presentation: We all know that LEGO produces a very successful series dedicated to the Star Wars franchise. What we didn’t know yet is that they are releasing two kits dedicated to Star Wars: The Old Republic. The kits, showcased at the Toy Fair in New York, will be themed after the Imperial Fury class interceptor (that you can pilot as…
SWTOR Community Q&A
For some reason we fogot to post this one. Better late then never I guess. BioWare has an official Q&A thread for questions to be answered for the February 17th, 2012 Q&A blog post. This is an effort to keep the community of players more involved with the game and changes that are incoming. It’s also an opportunity for fans and players to tell the staff what they want to see in the game or what changes they would like to see happen. Here are the rules to asking questions: Keep your question relatively short. Background details are welcome, but don’t go overboard. Please actually ask a question. We want to hear constructive feedback elsewhere in the Forums. Use common sense – we cannot answer everything, especially on far-reaching content. This should go without saying, but be respectful. Limit yourself to one question in this thread, please. You can always…
Review of SWTOR Gaming Headset By Razer
If you’ve been thinking about getting the new SWTOR Razer gear but you’re not quite sure if you want to shell out that much cash yet, then now is a great time to read this review of the Razer gaming headset from Capsule Computers. While all of Razer’s peripherals look great, looks alone are not enough to drop $200 on a piece of gaming/computer equipment. So it pays to find out more about what people think about it. All in all, they give it a positive review. Some features are the fully functional 7.1 channel surround sound. Some down points to note: To be honest, the additional software is a must to get the most out of this device. You will need it to be able to configure the many awesome bits of the device, such as the lighting effects and game synchronisation which also affects the lighting of the…
George Lucas Says Han Never Shot First; Addresses Disgruntled Fans
“Changes are not unusual — I mean, most movies when they release them they make changes. But somehow, when I make the slightest change, everybody thinks it’s the end of the world,” Lucas told the Hollywood Reporter. Remember when we told you about George Lucas retiring from Star Wars and how he blamed the haters? Well, he’s back with another interview to defend himself and his creative works. He’s been doing quite a few interviews lately to help promote his newest brainchild, “Red Tails”. He discusses how the fans take his work so seriously and says “When I make the slightest change, everyone think it’s the end of the world.” When you look at all the controversies that have come up regarding Star Wars, the movies and the different versions of them, it’s easy to see where he gets this opinion. As a Star Wars fan, I can understand but…
Guild Summit Update
For those of you awaiting news about the upcoming Guild Summit in Austin and whether or not your guild was invited, BioWare has given us an update on the official SWTOR blog. They have received the applications and should have responses coming out to everyone soon: Thank you to all of the guild leaders who submitted applications to attend the first Guild Summit in Austin. We are currently reviewing guild applications and will be responding back to everyone who applied in the next few days. For those who are unable to attend the Guild Summit for one reason or another, we’re very happy to announce that we will be providing a livestream of select events during the Guild Summit, including developer presentations and feedback discussions. These livestreams will allow players from around the world to observe and participate in some of the event discussions as well. As a reminder, the…
Create Your Own SWTOR Loading Screens
Do you want to know how to create your own loading screens? A lot of SWTOR players were having a lot of fun creating their own custom loading screens to help bring a little something new to the game. Well now you can learn how to do it on your own. Dijon posts on SWTORpano.com: As requested by a number of users, I’ve created a simple template for making loading screens and will include loading screens for each panorama I create from now on. It’s very easy to replace your loading screen – make sure to create a backup of the original! Bioware has suggested to be cautious with this, patching may require a repair if there is an altered background. Honestly, I’ve never encountered this. But beware! Panorama update tomorrow! Cheers, Dijon Along with it you will find several great panorama templates to help you make your own custom…
AIAS Awards: SWTOR Wins Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has recently announced the winners of its 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards and not surprisingly, Skyrim took home big prizes. But SWTOR was also recognized as it took home “Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay” and we tend to agree with this assessment. According to Gamasutra: The AIAS is a not-for-profit organization that celebrates creativity in video games worldwide. The IAA ceremony took place last night as part of the 2012 D.I.C.E. Summit. Skyrim won a total of five awards, including Game of the Year, while both PlayStation 3 hit Uncharted 3 and Valve’s first-person puzzler Portal 2 took home three awards each. You can see the full list of winners on the Gamasutra site. So what do you think? Did SWTOR deserve the recognition? There were some big names in the running this year and I am happy to see SWTOR bring at…
Incoming changes to ‘global cooldown’ UI
There has been a lot of talk recently about SWTOR global cooldown UI, the interface changes that were made as part of patch 1.1.2 as well as what players would like to see in the UI. Many players also had opinions and complaints about the look of the ‘global cooldown’ animations. So BioWare staff listened to these concerns and took them seriously. Now they have announced on the official SWTOR blog thatthere will be some incoming changes to the global cooldown UI. This announcement explains: OurUI team took this feedback to heart and worked up a solution which gives everyplayer a lot more choices in how cooldown animations are displayed. If you’rehappy with the way the game currently looks, you can ignore these changes – butwe think some of these preferences will be welcomed by many players. Currently,these new preferences are scheduled to be added to the game in patch…