It’s april fools day, and Bioware has a great one for us – Sarlacc Enforcer, Devourer of Injustice Think you’ve seen all the playable classes in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™? Think again! We’ve saved the best for last! Now you can realize your fantasy of playing as a Sarlacc Enforcer in Star Wars: The Old Republic! For thousands of years, the brave souls who answer to the name Sarlacc have been the ultimate authority on final judgment in the galaxy. A perfect combination of ruthless efficiency and calculated precision, the Sarlacc Enforcers make sure the galaxy’s trash doesn’t have a chance to pile up. Access the latest HoloNet entry now to see a full profile of the deadly Sarlacc Enforcer, including combat footage of the Sarlaccs in action! From the holonet I can read that this is my type of class 😉 Patient, Calculating, & Elusive The galaxy is…
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GDC 2010 Wrap up
With GDC last week, even though Star Wars: The Old Republic had no specific presence, there were a number of interviews and details popping up all over the web. In particular from the off-site event that LucasArts held where the press got some hands-on time with a Trooper. Over on the official forums Sean Dahlberg made a post listing a lot of them (some of which I already reported on before): While there were no panels this year specifically related to The Old Republic during Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2010, there are a few panels that consisted of BioWare developers. There was also an off-site event specifically for The Old Republic that various press and fan sites were invited to. None of this information will show up till early next week so keep your eyes peeled for that. We will be updating the list in this post as more articles…
SWTOR Hands On @ GDC
The Game Developers Conference was held last week and several sites had an opportunity to get a “hands on” with Star Wars: The Old Republic. Both 1UP and Eurogamer were afforded the opportunity to check out the game. Here a couple excerpts from their reactions: Story Driven Experience When playing a story mission in Star Trek Online, it’s all text delivered through a little dialog box. More times than not, it’s usually an alien race harassing a Federation colony, and you need to step in and blast them out of the stars. From the little that we’ve seen of The Old Republic so far, this much is certain: you will have many different story arcs available to your character available out of the box on day one. Recently we saw some of this in action as we got a taste of the Trooper’s story arc, and what it was like…
Fan Friday: Composing the Sith Inquisitor Developer Blog
The latest Fan Friday content has been posted on the official Old Republic site! This week Sean presents the TOR community with a developer blog from writer Rebecca Harwick giving an overview of the Sith Inquisitor: When we set out to build our game, we knew we needed more than one Sith class. The original trilogy only has two Sith in it, but they couldn’t be more different: the heavily armored brutal physicality of Darth Vader compared to the frail but immensely powerful Emperor Palpatine. When we extend our inspiration to Episodes I-III and The Clone Wars cartoons, Count Dooku, Darth Maul, and Asajj Ventress further expand our concept of what a Sith can be. Is a Sith a lithe quick fighter who uses the Force to enhance his/her physical combat prowess, a calculating deceiver adept at Lightsaber duels, or a master manipulator and amasser of dark side secrets? Does…
IGN Video Preview
IGN has a short (two-and-a-half minute) video that they’ve titled “Star Wars: The Old Republic PC Games Preview. There’s nothing new in it at all, it’s just IGN summing up in broad strokes what we already know over a composite of old footage (particularly the gameplay trailers). But it’s a nice overview and might be useful to explain to people roughly what Star Wars: The Old Republic is if they haven’t heard of it yet. I still can’t help but cringe at seeing some of the character models though. [link] to “video preview” at IGN.
Developer Blog: The Imperial Agent
Since the BioWare Team is still on their well deserved holiday we did not get a large update this Friday. Still, everyone who is interested in the Imperial Agent may be quite pleased with the Developer Blog on this class. Senior Writer Alexander Freed explains the general concept behind the Agent before he delves into the specifics of this class. This unusual class doesn’t fit into an archetype of the Star Wars movies, so why did the developers choose the Imperial Agent then? Answers are given in the developer blog. We’re also promised some concrete information, but is actually appeared to have been censored. Instead of real character names we get some XX only: It all starts on Hutta, where XXX XXXXXX is trying to XXXX the XXXXXXXXXX of XXXXXX the Hutt. After XXX XXXXX XXXXXXX, the Imperial Agent XX XXXX XX XXXXXXXXXXX X XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX on behalf of Darth…
Developer Dispatch 5: Designing the Dark Side
Inspired by notorious characters such as Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, the Sith Inquisitor and Sith Warrior take different approaches to their rise to power. The Sith Warrior achieves victory through pure aggression and might while the Sith Inquisitor excels by cunning ambition and Force manipulation. From storyline, to art style, to combat tactics, each design decision was made to support the dark side themes of power, domination, and destruction. Watch Developer Dispatch: Designing the Dark Side, and learn how Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ developers created this dominating force.
An Inside Look at Star Wars: The Old Republic
GameSpy has a preview article up for Star Wars: The Old Republic. This looks to be from the November press event where they unveiled the Jedi Consular and the Sith Inquisitor (and the Imperial Agent IIRC). Here’s an excerpt: Before delving into the gameplay demo proper, BioWare unveiled the final list of classes. The approach that the developers are taking with class design eschews the traditional roles you’ve seen in most MMOs, where a balanced party is comprised of an aggro-generating tank, damage-dealers, and a healer. Instead, the intent is to allow players to live out their Star Wars fantasies, presenting familiar but flexible character archetypes. The eight playable classes are as follows, with noteworthy inspirations from the Star Wars universe. It’s a fairly brief article without anything new that I’ve noticed. In fact, some of their points are questionable (such as their list of iconic characters with each class;…
Sith Inquisitor Class Reveal
The eighth and final (not counting any possible expansions and whatnot) class reveal, the Sith Inquisitor: The history of the Sith Empire is fraught with scheming politics and dark secrets—the lifeblood of the Sith Inquisitor. Treachery hides around every corner in the Empire’s dark corridors, and survival depends on an individual’s natural cunning and the will to manipulate and defeat enemies and allies alike. The Inquisitor experiments with forbidden powers to not only survive in this cutthroat environment, but to excel and seize authority. Access the latest HoloNet entry now to see a full profile of the Sith Inquisitor, including footage displaying the destructive powers of the dark side! Also, be sure to visit the Media section to get downloadable screenshots, concepts, and wallpapers! And wallpapers as well:
Jedi Consular Class Reveal + Threat of Peace, Issue #21
It seems that today we get one class reveal, with the last one seemingly reserved for in a week or two. But first, they also have another issue of the comic. Here’s the official news: The twenty-first issue of Threat of Peace™ begins with Lord Angral returning to Korriban in full fury. Based on the message from Master Dar’Nala, Angral accuses Lord Baras of secretly ordering the recent attacks. Meanwhile on Dantooine, Jedi Knight Satele Shan reacts to the accusations against Baras with surprise and skepticism Check out the latest issue of Threat of Peace now. So next is the official class reveal. Here’s the official news: Channeling the power of the Force for strength and wisdom, the Consulars of the Jedi Order cut to the truth of any complicated situation as cleanly as their double-bladed Lightsabers cut down an army of Imperial foes. Whether unlocking long forgotten mysteries of…
SWTOR video interview covers final two classes and more
The guys at Giant Bomb have thrown up a ten minute long video interview with BioWare’s Blaine Christine that covers topics ranging from details on the Jedi Consular and Sith Inquisitor to how companion characters work in grouping situations. Much of the new info is blended into stuff that’s already been covered, but it servers as a nice refresher course on Star Wars: The Old Republic with some new stuff peppered in for good measure. More than anything else, it sounds like the Consular and Inquisitor are support classes with some offensive capability. The notion makes a lot of sense, considering the Trooper and Bounty Hunter likely perform quite well as ranged DPS classes. Of course, until BioWare begins revealing specific abilities of the classes the best we can do is guess.
December 3rd Information Extravaganza
And as I predicted there’s a lot more articles from the press event that BioWare held in November. But instead of quoting each one of them here I’ll just refer to Sean’s post: As some of you already know, we had two press events last month; one in Europe and one in the United States. Today, articles from various websites (and magazines) are being released based on information collected at these two events. We will keep a list of the articles and update this post as new ones arise. G4 Quote: Star Wars: The Old Republic Hands-On Preview BioWare has just released Dragon Age: Origins… Mass Effect 2 is on the horizon… but there’s a third game in development at the RPG mega-studio and it is none other than Star Wars: The Old Republic, the company’s foray into the MMORPG genre. X-Play’s Matt Keil recently got to check out the…
SW:TOR in Total PC Gaming UK Magazine
I went to buy my Christmas cards today and as I walked past the magazine rack in the store I noticed that one magazine had “Exclusive Star Wars the Old Republic” in big, bold letters on the cover, on top of an image of a Jedi that I hadn’t seen before. Picking up the magazine (which turned out to be “Total PC Gaming”) found that it had a five-page preview (not counting the title page). And since it includes the last two classes it’s definitely new. So I bought the magazine. The magazine comes with a DVD containing screenshots and videos of the game (some 45minutes worth), but it’s nothing you haven’t already seen. All the screenshots can be found on the official website as well (a number of them fairly old in fact). The videos consist of the cinematic trailer from E3, the gameplay walkthrough from CamesCom and the…
Breaking News: Final SWTOR classes revealed: Jedi Consular and Sith Inquisitor
Fans of BioWare’s much-anticipated MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic received some good news today with a reveal of the game’s final two classes: the Jedi Consular and the Sith Inquisitor. A Jedi Consular (also called a Jedi seer) is, like all Jedi, skilled in battle, but rarely entered combat, preferring to study the mysteries of the Force. In Star Wars: The old republic the Jedi Consular is a support class specialized in healing, but with ranged offensive capabilities as well. The Sith Inquisitor is a secret division of Imperial Intelligence consisting of dark side Force-sensitive agents known as Inquisitors (sometimes also as Inquisitioners), or “truth officers”. not surprisingly in Star Wars: The Old republic it is primarily a damage dealer. It seems the first word of the Jedi Consular and Sith Inquisitor classes came from a fan translation at Star Wars MMO.net of the German magazine “PC Games”….
Don’t Be Surprised If You’re Expected To Play Alts
theoldrepublic-online.com has a great article about alts in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Assuming the feature is even implemented, I have more faith in BioWare than that. Indeed, we’ve already seen a “legacy character” system from BioWare previously in Mass Effect. ME handled the “legacy character” concept with the introduction of bonus talents. After playing your first character long enough to unlock some achievements for power use, subsequent characters could select one of the talents unlocked through those achievements for their character. As this system provides no additional talent points to spend on your new character, it’s a far cry from the power-stacking nightmare that concerned so many. If anything, the system provides an ambiguous power increase by allowing power combinations otherwise impossible by the class talent lists, but spreading talent points thinly could hamper a character as easily as it helps it. While any “legacy character” system in TOR…
I’d Actually Play An Imperial Agent, And Here’s Why
As much as I’ve always liked Star Wars, I’ve certainly developed a wary attitude toward the over-saturation of certain, erm, iconic figures in that universe. If you were ever to compile all of the fan-made Star Wars costumes that exist today on the internet, I guarantee you that the breakdown would be something like this: 23% Darth Vader 22% Boba Fett 54% Princess Leia in a Gold Bikini 1% Misc. Bikini Leia and her stunt double nap in the Tatooine sunshine It’s not that I don’t think that Vader and Fett aren’t cool; they are, for various reasons mainly relating to their outfits. But their popularity is way, way out of proportion to what they’ve actually done to earn it. Pop culture and fandom is funny that way. We fixate on something that looks cool and might have been cool, 20 years ago, and elevate it to infallible worship. This…
Did Eurogamer Jump The Gun On TOR’s Latest Class?
6 days ago Eurogamer reported that TOR’s new Sith class is the Imperial Agent: BioWare and LucasArts have revealed the sixth of eight character classes in their Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic: the Imperial Agent. This rogue-style class on the Empire side specialises in subterfuge, infiltration and assassination, doing the Empire’s dirty work behind the scenes. Imperial Agents’ skills will be based around the use of high-tech gadgetary. They will show you “the underbelly of the Empire in a way never before seen,” producer Blaine Christine told press at an EA event earlier this week.. Seeing as how BioWare just announced the Jedi Knight last week and has yet to make the Agent an official announcement, methinks there’s something hinky going on in the state of Eurogamer.
senior writer talks about writing the Jedi Knight
Drew Karpyshyn is the senior writer for the Star Wars: The Old Republic team with plenty of experience writing characters from the dark side, but now he’s stepping out of his comfort zone to take a walk on the Jedi side. The fun he’s having writing the Jedi Knight class comes through clearly in Friday’s developer blog entry: “Nothing says Star Wars like a brown-robed figure brandishing a shimmering energy blade of righteous destruction. Exploring the Jedi Knight class meant delving the Jedi Code and how it works in theory vs. how it works in practice. What happens when you take that code and mix in a hefty dose of “what if?” is a recipe for all kinds of possibilities, and Karpyshyn is having a great time exploring them. His experience writing the dark side gives his version of “what if” a little edge, exploring thoughts of renegade Jedi Knights…
The Old Republic reveals Imperial Agent its newest class
We’ve got Trooper, Smuggler, Jedi Knight, Bounty Hunter, Sith Warrior, and now Imperial Agent. BioWare revealed the sixth class for Star Wars: The Old Republic today on their forums. This news comes as absolutely no surprise to those who attended the EA Press Tour earlier this week — they enjoyed advance information from producer Blaine Christine. Imperial Agents are a rogue class of sorts, doing their work for the Empire with high-tech tools to help them infiltrate the republic and assassinate enemies of the Sith Empire. The announcement from Sean Dahlberg says that Imperial Agents are “heavily inspired by several classic Star Wars characters such as Zam Wessel and Grand Moff Tarkin. […] Players who choose to be Imperial Agents in The Old Republic (TOR) will see the underbelly of the Empire in a whole new light.“ The Holonet will be updated next week with the Imperial Agent, but the…
Jedi Knights: Evenings of Passion
Yup, well, it’s out of the bag now, officially at least. Jedi Knights are in TOR, and they’re pretty much what you expected. More finesse than the Sith Warrior, and more wimpy for it. As you can tell, this news doesn’t get my heart pumping any faster — I’m just not that excited about Force-users in Star Wars. I feel they’re overplayed, over-worshiped, and over-emphasized in any product in which they appear. Plus, I’m envisioning the headache I’m going to get playing in a crowd of 90% lightsaber wielders, who are all jumping around and waving their big rave sticks like Jedi whack-a-moles. I find it not just a bit hilarious that BioWare is referencing Samuel L. Jackson’s Mace Windu as the primary inspiration for this iconic role. Not Obi Wan, Qui-Gon Jinn, Luke or Yoda, hm? Nope, you had to go with the guy who sat on his butt…
Jedi Knight, Defender of the Republic
For thousands of years the Knights of the Jedi Order have been the guardians of peace and justice in The Old Republic. Through disciplined training and meditation, the Jedi Knights achieve perfect union of body and mind, allowing them to meet any situation with focused, fearless attention. Strengthened by the Force, they are able to turn this training into brilliant displays of lightsaber combat inspiring allies and disheartening those who would see the Republic fall. Access the latest HoloNet entry now to see a full profile of these heroic Jedi Knights, including videos showing them in action! Also, be sure to visit the Media section to get downloadable screenshots, concept art, and wallpapers!