It’s another double header Friday update as we get to see BioWares first episode of the new four-part “Choose Your Side” video series, in which two classes are pitted against each other one on one. During the video members of the Star Wars: The Old Republic team choosing their favorite class in a one-on-one fight. The first episode pits the Jedi Knight against the Bounty Hunter. In “Choose Your Side,” members of the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ development team debate the merits of the various in-game classes to see who will truly reign supreme. In the first installment in this four-part series, the noble Jedi Knight squares off against the nefarious Bounty Hunter. In support of the Jedi Knight is Senior Writer Hall Hood and Designer Austin Peckenpaugh, while Senior System Designer Pete Warner and Writer Randy Begel defend the Bounty Hunter. Take a look at the Jedi Knight…
Author: Soeren Kamper
SWTOR Gameplay Impressions from EuroGamer Expo 2011
The guys over at GamerEuphoria uploaded there game play impressions from this years EuroGamer. They call the game disappointing but with potential. We must be near the tails end of info coming out of last weeks Euro Gamer Expo 2011 now, but check out the video below, and tell us what you think.
Character Creation videos
Beta Footage have uploaded a few Character Creation videos showing Rattataki, Chiss and Mirialan An interesting view if your a groing to play one of these species, but also an interesting watch if you have been following the development of the game graphics. Chiss Random Character Creation: Mirialan Jedi Consular Creation: Rattataki Random Character Creation:
Facebook Image of The Week #32
It’s Wednesday again and time for new screenshot on the official BioWare Facebook page. This time BioWare chooses to recycle an older screenshot ( or at least the settings) that has been around for a while. Stille a nice screenshot. A lone Jedi Knight does battle against a disciple of the dark side. Remember this image??
Stand Up To Cancer’s Star Wars Parody
It might have been around for a while now, but this video from Stand Up To Cancer is both funny and very worth, thanks to its championing of a massively important cause, in the shape of cancer awareness, so it’s still worthy of note now. Featuring the cause’s Celebrity Ambassadors – Aziz Ansari, Zach Galifianakis, Bill Hader, Ed Helms, Ken Jeong, Jaime King, Seth Rogen, Andy Samberg and Emma Stone – along with Star Wars actor, and all round shouty bad-ass Samuel L. Jackson – the video recreates classic Star Wars scenes with a comic spin. My personal favourite moment is Bill Hader’s impression of a Taun Taun. Chillingly realistic… Stand Up To Cancer’s mission statement reads as follows, and needless to say, it is a cause that deserves attention, and as much investment as everyone can spare: Stand Up To Cancer is a new initiative created to accelerate groundbreaking…
NY Comic Con: Star Wars Guests & Events
A few weeks ago we reported that BioWare will have two Panels At NYCC’11. Now – Thanks to theforce.net the full program of this years big event in the big apple has been revealed. Star Wars Guests Mark Hamill – do you really need an explanation? Ashley Eckstein – Ashoka Tano voice on TCW Peter Mayhew – OT and PT Chewbacca Katie Cook – SW artist Spencer Brinkerhoff – SW artist More artist, comic and entertainment guests can be viewed here and many are also noted in the event schedule below. Star Wars Events and Panels Star Wars: The Blueprints by J.W. Rinzler Date: Friday, October 14 10:45 am – 11:45 am Location: 1A03 Description: New York Times best-selling author and Lucasfilm Executive Editor J.W. Rinzler (author of The Making of Star Wars) discusses his latest book–about the unsung heroes of the Star Wars movies: the production designers, set dressers,…
First look at the SWTOR Collector’s Edition Store
Edit: This is just in from a beta tester Aparently the elevators take you to the VIP section: We aren’t allowed up the elevator at the moment. When you step on the elevator it boots you off immediately saying that you need a VIP card to access the elevator. No one has actually been able to go up inside of the VIP area that I’m aware of. I’m a CE owner and beta tester and I’m not allowed up there. The area around the elevators is NOT the VIP area, that is just a general social hub/cantina area in the middle of the new space station hub. Anyone is allowed in that area, just not up the elevators to the penthouse room. This video was mailed to us last night. It shows the area that will be available for people who ordered the Special edition or the collectors edition of SWTOR….
Video: Totalbiscuit – Level 14 Jedi Sentinel PVP – Huttball
At the Eurogamer Expo 2011, TotalBiscuit was able to play a game of Huttball using the Jedi Sentinel class, a heavy melee damage dealer. As always “The Angry Brit” has some awesome commentary good for a laugh. The video is filmed at 25fps, 1080i resolution, so it’s really decent footage. TotalBiscuit has commented a few times about the game, here is one of the most interesting points: There is a scaling issue, far as I can tell, due to how PvP works. At lower levels, you have too much health and not enough damage. Bioware is aware of it and they’re tweaking it, but it’s particularly frustrating with melee classes. If I’m chopping you up with a lightsabre, you should probably die. With the Trooper I can stand at range mowing fools down with area of effect sprays, grenades and such, plus I can take a beating up close and do massive…
Darth Vader Is a Yes Man
Ever noticed how many times Darth Vader says No? Obviously it’s one more time than it used to be, thanks to George Lucas’ broken brain that inspires him to make precisely the opposite creative decisions that everyone wants him to, but even without that edited in addition, it’s a lot. Hardly the most cheerful of fellows, thanks probably to uniform chaffing, Vader has infamously made a name for himself with a fairly closed mind: it’s the Dark Side or nothing for this particular Sith. But now, thanks to the editing skills of the inimitable OneMinuteGalactica (who we love around these parts), Darth has decided to change his ways, and follow in the footsteps of British writer Danny Wallace, and rubber-faced acting talent Jim Carey by saying Yes a lot more. Okay so it’s hugely silly, but I couldn’t help but smile at it.
Friday Update: Galaxy Map
This weeks update brings us a new updates to the SWTOR Holonet — Galaxy Maps. Now you have the chance to explore the five regions of known space in a standard or 3d view. There you can find information on all notable planets as well as a video for each. Here are the 17 planets and six starships you can learn about in the new Galaxy Map: Coreward Worlds: Alderaan, Corellia, Coruscant, Ord Mantell, Balmorra, Tython Seat of the Empire: Dromund Kaas, Korriban, Taris Hutt Space: Hutta, Nar Shaddaa, Quesh, Voss Distant Outer Rim: Belsavis, Hoth, Tatooine Unknown Regions: Illum Starships: XS Freighter, Defender, BT-7 Thunderclap, X70-B Phantom, D5-Mantis, FURY Official Devtracker Post: The Star Wars™ galaxy is massive and you will be able to visit numerous worlds during your travels in the The Old Republic™. To give you an early taste of what the experience will be, we’ve added…
Latest Beta Patch notes
Since we are so damn close to the release of SWTOR we thought it was only reasonable to start posting patch updates so people could start getting an idea how far the game has come. These updates are only a few days old and was released september 27, and we are really down to small tweaks now. Of course there is still bugs, and there will be for years after the game is out, but BioWare is really doing a good job killing all the game breakers. Nice to see boys! General Players may now toggle their Away From Keyboard status with the /afk command Classes and Combat General Fixed an issue that caused players to continue along their movement path after being affected by any immobilizing ability. Bounty Hunter Shoulder Slam now has no cooldown and its effect on Strong enemies has been significantly reduced. Jedi Consular Tumult now has no cooldown and its…
Returning To Jedi: The Best Ever Fan Edit?
There are a nuumber of great Fan Edits available for the Star Wars films – the most famous of which is probably The Phantom Edit which righted the many wrongs of George Lucas’ first prequel film (chiefly by removing Jar Jar Binks influence), but by far the best, in terms of the effect the edit has on the viewing experience of the original film has to be Jambedavdar’s Returning To Jedi. The edit is effectively a ‘commentary documentary’, combining existing behind the scenes footage with a newly created audio commentary and text facts, and despite not having all of the details released as part of the Complete Saga blu-ray release (yet) it still stands as one of the most in-depth and informative companion pieces to the entire Star Wars universe. And the good news for all Star Wars fans is that Returning To Jedi is now available in its entirety…
Facebook Image of The Week #31
BioWare have updated there Facebook page with a new Screenshot. This time it’s an image from the planet Voss. The Gormak, in their never-ending bid to dominate Voss, have built large complexes underneath the planet’s surface.
BioWare: ‘We have an aggressive post-launch plan’
SWTOR fans have been asking “When will the game finally launch?” and now that this massive question has finally been answered, we see new questions creeping up in the minds of players everywhere. One thing that players want to know is what is going to happen post-launch. We already know how much is being put into launching a fantastic game but is it going to last? What happens next? How many other MMOs have we seen launch successfully but fall short post-launch? In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, BioWare’s Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk discussed their plans for the future of SWTOR and they definitely have a post-launch plan. “””We have a really aggressive plan post launch to build content and take the feedback to heart that we’re getting from players and what they want for continued expansions, and use that feedback to build new content,” Muzyka promised. The…
Is SWTOR the Avatar of Gaming?
A lot has been said about SWTOR already and it’d be a great understatement to say the game will be good. Just how good it will be is still up for debate. The Daily Mailsays it could be the video game version of James Cameron’s billion-dollar blockbuster, “Avatar”. Wow! That’s a pretty big claim but SWTOR just might be the game to be able to live up to such prophecies. The Daily Mail points out: The game is among the most expensive ever made – rumoured to have cost games giant Electronic Arts more than £100 million. But it could ‘earn billions’ say game industry insiders – dwarfing even the amounts earned by cinema blockbusters such as Avatar. World of Warcraft has had up to 11 million monthly subscribers, earning the company a reported $500 million a year in subscription fees – on top of disc prices for the game…
BioWare Opens New Customer Service Center in Ireland
EA announced yesterday that they will be opening a new customer service center, this one in Ireland. EA Senior Vice President Ray Muzyka spoke at the inaugural event in Galway, Ireland said, “MMO launches are complex, and we are determined to set a new standard for a high quality, stable, smooth launch for our fans. Our new BioWare facility and team in Galway is critical to ensuring we deliver on that goal. We’ve got a solid base of people here already in Galway . . . we’re looking for more. From Ireland . . . from the rest of Europe to support our German and French customers . . . from all over the world. We want you to join us here at BioWare Ireland.” This will be a first for BioWare and it can mean big news for the company as well as for European gamers. This will be BioWare’s…
Eurogamer Expo Gains Attention thanks to SWTOR
Eurogamer Expo’s time has come, says Patrick Garratt and it is in part due to BioWare’s The Old Republic announcement yesterday. VG247 is a media partner of Eurogamer Expo, and is partially owned by Eurogamer Network. They had an interesting write-up on the Erogamer Expo and what SWTOR has done for it in recent days. Sometimes all it takes is one popular topic to put an event on the map. This is especially true when it comes to entertainment and media. In the video game world, people, including media, are often drawn to what they know. They won’t always go out of their way to visit or report on expos, conventions or events until they are made “big business”. Sometimes an event just needs that one thing to come along to put them on the map. And that’s exactly what SWTOR did for the Eurogamer Expo. As Patrick explains in…
Craig Morrison on SWTOR Launch and Success
Craig Morrison (Game director of Age of Conan) talks about the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic on his blog and brings up some really good points about the potential success of SWTOR. His very thorough (long, but worth the full read) post brings up some very good points. He addresses different reasons why the game is showing early success, how it compares to the massive MMO hit from Blizzard and also, where it might go in the future. A snippet: The game will most likely sell extremely well out of the gate, almost certainly the most successful first month sales of any MMO ever, and probably by a wide margin…it will then possibly even retain over a million subscription customers (something it should be remembered no game other than World of Warcraft has managed)…truly massive numbers…unless the game somehow collapses it is going to post seriously impressive numbers…yet…you…
Interview with Chris Collins
The guys over at www.swtor-europe.com did an interview with Chris Collins about European Community during Eurogamer Expo. It’s great to see some info other then the release date coming out of the Eurogamer Expo, but I guess Chris Collins don’t have much experience doing interviews, or he just weren’t allowed to give out any new information. With blessings from www.swtor-europe.com we are posting the full interview below, but joine the discussion on the article right here! Hi Chris, thanks for taking some time to talk to us, I know it’s very busy here today. No problem, good to hear from stwor-europe, I like the site. Now firstly I’d like to kick off with some questions that specifically concern the European fanbase, one of which is whether the Red Zone territories will have access to the game, or if they will be IP blocked. Any official word on this? So, if you check on the FAQ, anything official is held within that. I…
Bioware: No Lifetime Subscription Option For Star Wars: The Old Republic
Now that we finally have a release date for SWTOR, many gamers are planning their playtime and devotion to the game. Some so much so that they are ready to pledge themselves to a lifetime subscription to the game or at least wondering if there will be an option to do so if they end up loving the game as much as they are predicting they will. I enjoy following Stephen Reid, SWTOR’s Senior Community Manager on Twitter because he is always a wealth of information in a hilarious package. His snarky responses when people try to get snippy with him can be pretty funny, too. Ultimately it’s a great source to get your quick-hit SWTOR questions answered and you can learn a lot from the answers he gives to others as well. On the topic of lifetime subscription options for SWTOR, Reid clarified that they do not have any…
Did EA Capitalize On the Diablo III Delay by Announcing the Release Date of Star Wars: The Old Republic?
The guys over at DualShockers.com had a really interesting theory on the announcement of SWTOR coming after the Diablo III delay. The piece they wrote on the day after the SWTOR announcement describes a possible connection between the news about Diablo III and the release date announcement: “Yesterday Blizzard announced the delay of Diablo III to early 2012, today Electronic Arts announced the release date for Star Wars: The Old Republic for December the 20th, on a Saturday. Extremely convenient. Even a bit too convenient, maybe.” I’m not usually the conspiracy theory type but it’s a pretty good point they make here with the linkage of the two announcements. Did EA/Bioware see this as their ideal time to jump on the announcement of the official release date? Sounds like a good theory to me… The article gives some pretty compelling ideas about why this theory might be true: “Thirdly, by…
Return of the Jedi STOLEN!
A blast from the past now, thanks to this clip from British TV news which details a shocking and frankly deplorable case of grand theft. One of the original copies of Return of the Jedi was snatched by cunning street urchin pirate types from a cinema in Hastings, despite ridiculously tight security measures. including having an old lady as the film’s security chief. Shocking. And people say piracy wasn’t rife until people could mass circulate/share pirated goodies on the internet! All moral issues aside, this clip throws up one glorious question: just think, someone somewhere might well be sitting on an original, unedited version of the film. And it might just be the last one in existence. Remember, kids, don’t be a Video Pirate, or you might have someone like Helen “Crazy Eyes” Ganz on your case. And no-one wants that.
Intergalactic Intel: PvP
“OH MY GAWD.” My ear drums were being destroyed by my team mate. “Dee, you need to stay calm and not panic we’ve go-” “HE’S CHARGING ME!” I was interrupted and drowned out. “GET IT OFF ME!” “DEE! Calm down!” “ARGGHHAHHHHE’SKILLINGMEAGHAAAHHHH!” “DANGLES SHUT UP!” The yelling ceased. “Interrupt his next cast and we’ll focus him. Dangles you’re fine I’m throwing heals on you the entire time.” Player versus player, or PVP, is a popular form of game play in video games today. I personally have spent my week playing Team Death Match in Gears of War 3. Shooting everything that moves and giggling crazily. I always get asked why PvP in MMO’s? It’s very interesting journey that has much to do with the progression of MMO’s in general and me as a player. When a player hits maximum level or very high level in MMO’s they begin something called, “End…
Totalbiscuit interviews Daniel Erickson
TotalBiscuit interviews the Lead Writer of Star Wars: The Old Republic and multitalented Bioware veteran Daniel Erickson on how to tell a story in an MMO as well as information on the morality system of The Old Republic. This is the first time we are seeing what biscuit looks like I believe. First I thought he was going to be the guy on the left before i played the video, but then I saw the tophat and I was like yep thats him. The ending made me laugh a bit when Daniel Erickson said that the first chapter would take longer to complete than KOTOR. And there’s 8 of them. Theres three chapters, eight trilogies Kind of misleading, but thats what he meant.