Bioware’s Alistair McNally had an interesting tweet this week after the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Diego last week. He says he wore a t-shirt to the conference that referenced Bioware’s new IP and it appears no one even noticed. Sneaky! Also it was fun to walk around GDC2016 in a t-shirt with our new IP on it and no one batted an eyelid. — Alistair McNally (@Al_McNally) March 18, 2016 So of course, this got the Twitterverse in a tizzy as people realized their miss and some frantically searched for pictures from the event to try to see this shirt in action. There have been articles written about it, forum threads posted on it, social media dialogue and even debate over it, but still we don’t know what the new game is, or what was on his shirt. And it looks like we might be waiting awhile for…
other games
Hesitating Over EA Access? Maybe It IS a Good Deal
If you’re like most of us gamers, it seems like there is a ploy around every corner to get more money from you and it can be difficult to know where and how to spend your money wisely. Believe me, I know all about this as I was addicted to Humble Bundle before they came out with their monthly subscription offer and I have been known to spend real-world cash in WoW, Steam, and various games that I play. Hey, some people go to expensive movies, concerts, or dinner dates and some people get their entertainment online. The point is, EA Access may have seemed to a lot of us like another money grab from EA but is it really? Could it be that it’s actually worth it after all, at least for some gamers? Let’s explore this idea for a bit, shall we? Connor over at MMO Fallout makes…
Sims 4 Patch Adds More Star Wars Costumes
After The Sims 4 was released in September of last year, it was criticized for having little content, which includes toddlers, swimming pools, and family trees. After a few updates quite a bit has been added to the game, making it the game it was hoped to be. The latest patch fixes bugs, and adds new features, including several new Star Wars costumes to celebrate Star Wars Day. The new Star Wars costumes that have been added to the game are Boba Fett, Aayla Secura, and Darth Maul. You will find these new costumes under “Styled Looks” in Create a Sim.
Four of the Best Star Wars Cameos in Non-Star Wars Video Games
Star Wars video games are great, but they aren’t the only place that your favorite Star Wars characters show up! You might be surprised to find out that you can play as Yoda, Darth Maul, Han Solo, Darth Vader, and Jango Fett in other video games. Here are a few of my favorites. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater In Pro Skater 3, you can unlock Darth Maul as a skater, and Pro Skater 4 includes Jango Fett. Use the power of the Dark Side to take your skateboarding to the next level! Darth Maul keeps his lightsaber at the ready and uses the Force to help him out with some tricks, and you can see here that Jango uses his jetpack as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3msAX-31Ec There’s reportedly another Pro Skater in the works, so hopefully we’ll see some more Star Wars characters in the next one, too. Soulcaliber IV What better kind of game to feature Star Wars characters than…
Crowfall; A new MMO from creators of Ultima Online and SWTOR
ArtCraft Entertainment currently has a new MMO game in production called Crowfall. The game is getting much support on the ever popular crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter. The team includes Gordon Walton and J. Todd Coleman, who have worked on games such as Star Wars: The Old Republic and The Sims Online. Gamers have their hopes high on this new MMO. Crowfall is being described as a Throne War MMO and some inspiration from Game of Thrones is blended into it. In the game the heroes are immortal and they are constantly fighting through different worlds that only exist for a limited time or until a certain condition is met. The games world has four different seasons it goes through, just like here on earth: Spring, summer, fall and winter and with each change of season the map becomes harder. After winter has finished, a winner is announced and the world goes…
Star Wars Rebels Skin Pack Comes to Minecraft for Xbox
A few of the characters from Star Wars Rebels are going to be on Minecraft for Xbox only consoles. A few examples of characters you will see are Chopper, Zeb, Sabine, Hera, Ezra, and many more. Last November, the release of the Star Wars Classic Skin Pack for Minecraft was a huge hit. Now, Disney, Xbox, and Lucasfilm have come together to bring you the Star Wars Rebels Skin Pack. This cool collection is only $2.99 and it features 23 characters from Disney channel’s XD animated series to the awesome world of Minecraft. The full character list includes: Ezra Bridger Kanan Jarrus Hera Syndulla Zeb Orrelios Sabine Wren Chopper Inquisitor Agent Kallus AT-DP Pilot Stormtrooper Commander Stormtrooper Tagged Cikatro Vizago IGRM Droid Variant 1 IGRM Droid Variant 2 Lothal Farmer Gotal Minister Maketh Tua Tseebo RX-24 Ezra Bridger Imperial Cadet Commandant Aresko Azmorigan Senator Gall Trayvi
Bioware Canceled Shadow Realms to Focus on SWTOR
Today, GameInformer reported that Shadow Realms, a 4v1 action RPG in development at BioWare Austin, has been canceled. Shortly after this new went out, BioWare Austin GM Jeff Hickman confirmed the news himself. “We’ve made the decision to not move forward with development of Shadow Realms,” wrote Hickman in a post on the official site. He went on to explain that “right now there are other projects for the team to work on within the BioWare studios for the coming year and beyond,” citing Star Wars: The Old Republic as the biggest focus, followed by Dragon Age: Inquisition, the next Mass Effect game, and “other new IP.”” This is unfortunate news for fans who were looking forward to the game and also some may find it disappointing to see so many potential games getting the axe before they ever get to production. The downside here also is that this was to be BioWare’s first original game…
SWTOR Ranked third most popular MMORPG by the Xfire community in 2014
According to the Xfire community Star Wars: The Old Republic did very well on their final ranking for Digital Dozen. The scores were calculated by taking each weeks rank for the game and the games average ranking. If a game was not in the top 12 it did not end up on the list, giving it a score of zero. SWTOR ranked number 3 on the top 12. Its score in 2013 was 10.1 and rank was 3. The score for 2014 is 9.4 and the number of weeks that it was in the rankings is 52. The score for SWTOR did not drop nearly as much as its rival Guild Wars 2. SWTOR had an amazing strength during the last part of 2014 and took the number 2 spot away from GW2 in the last week of the year, after Bioware included new content, such as Shadow of Revan….
SWTOR Stays at the 14 most played PC game in December 2014
It’s that time again to take a look at Raptr’s Top 20 Rankings and where our beloved SWTOR placed at the end of last year. According to the stats, Star Wars: The Old Republic close the year out as the 14th most played PC game. This isn’t the best ranking but it certainly beats out not being on the list at all. SWTOR released Shadow of Revan in December and the play time jumped by 33.35%. This is probably because of the release which gave Star Wars fans something new to be excited about! LoL closed off the year in the number one spot, no big surprise there! The play time for LoL jumped by 30.09% in December. Other notable games in the rankings are WoW which placed second, Dragon Age: Inquisition placed 6th and raised in the charts by 4 spots! Overall, SWTOR finished out the year of 2014…
The Five People You Meet In A Bioware Game
BioWare is known for their huge open-world games with to-die-for graphics, unique characters, and long stories. The bottom line is that you go on missions, long journeys, boss fights, and then you are able to return to your spaceship, castle, or camp to talk to your recruits and friends you made along the way. Keeping this in mind, here are the top five characters that best stand for what BioWare is and shows off their games the best. Bastila Bastila is a beautiful Jedi that and she makes video game relationships seem quite real, plucking your emotional heartstrings along the way. She is the perfect example of how video games can make you feel like you’re actually falling in love. I’m not here to state that Bastila was a particularly unique character. She was, and is, some moonlit, sultry-toned lady Jedi existing solely to pluck the heartstrings of young men slowly…
BioWare’s Shadow Realms In Flux, Possibly Rebooted
Last year BioWare Austin had a surprise announcement about Shadow Realms but there is word that it may have some large changes, possibly being completely rebooted. The Austin branch of BioWare is famously known for making Star Wars: The Old Republic had originally announced the news of Shadow Realms to be an online 4 vs. 1 action style role playing game and it was to be released in the beginning of 2015. However, this is all changing. There are two different industry sources that are stating they heard Shadow Realms would be cancelled but another third source that is familiar with news about BioWare Austin, states that the game became overhauled in the later part of October. Now the latest plans for Shadow Realms is that it’s to be released in 2017 for the Xbox One, PC, and PS4. Shadow Realms, last year’s surprise announcement from BioWare Austin, is going…
Three ex-BioWare employees create best video game of 2014
With all the larger sites, picking other games, as the game of the year winner. A small news site called The Fresno Bee, has picked The Banner Saga, as Best Video Game of 2014. “The Banner Saga” is the first-born son of Stoic Studio, an independent game development company created by three former BioWare employees who had worked on “Star Wars: The Old Republic.” The trio followed the increasingly common trend of abandoning steady work at a large studio to start their own company, and they raised nearly $750,000 in a crowd-funding campaign to get them on their way. Its four main strengths: a dazzling art style rooted in a familiar place, a harsh storyline fit for times of war, the resurrection of “Final Fantasy Tactics” combat and the best musical score in video game history. Read the full article over at The Fresno Bee. If you are not sure what the game…
Win A Diablo 3 Reaper Of Souls CD Key!
Cheapdigitaldownload.com the top Digital Download Store and swtorstrategies.com the most dedicated SWTOR, Star Wars Battlefield and StarWars news site on the web today, brings you the biggest event for this month. Win a free Diablo 3 Reaper Of Souls CD key! Get it free! Swtorstrategies.com teams up with Cheapdigitaldownload.com Swtorstrategies.com partners with Cheapdigitaldownload.com. Cheapdigitaldownload, with its exceptional service, provides the most competitive prices in the market. They have tested, and frequently continue to anonymously check CD key vendors that they present, to offer you a great quality of service and allow you to buy your PC games, Gamecard and Xbox products (Xbox points, Xbox live and Xbox games) with extreme confidence. What’s CD key? It’s a multi-digit code that the store will send you via e-mail after your purchase. You will then use this code for official download platforms such as (Steam, Origin, Uplay or Battle.net) to activate and download your game…
Kickstarter Campaign: Sabertron: Foam sword play with wireless electronic scoring
We love bringing you fun stuff, especially great crowd funded ideas. This one originates right here in Austin where I’m from and it already has 350 backers and growing. They earned over $26,000 in the first 24 hours but they need more help to reach their goals. Learn more on their blog or visit the Kickstarter page itself. Description: Upgrade the foam sword fight with an interactive LED health meter on the handle. It’s like laser tag, but with swords! You have until February 28th to get in on the project if you want and there are some cool prizes for backers who give $25 or more such as a t-shirt to show your support, A pair (2) of Sabertron soft touch interactive swords, in your choice of color, with matching blade illumination color, A pair (2) of Sabertron soft touch interactive swords in medieval style. This is a new…
Star Wars Galaxies Fans Teased by SOE President: Unannounced MMO
If you loved Star Wars Galaxies then you might get excited about the info released at a recent AMA on Reddit. SOE president John Smedley has teased an unannounced MMO that will appeal to fans of Star Wars Galaxies. “SWG players – our next game (not announced yet) is dedicated to you,” Semdley continued. “Once we launch it… you can come home now.” So we admit the message is pretty cryptic and we’re not even sure what it means but you better believe we’ll be keeping a look out for more information. And as soon as we know more about this unannounced MMO, we’re going to pass it on to you. So what do you think about this mysterious game that will be dedicate to Star Wars Galaxies fans? Will it be another Star Wars game ( it’s confirmed it won’t be a Star Wars game) or will it be a…
Sony to Shut Down Free Realm, Vanguard and Clone Wars
Sony Online Entertainment announced that they be closing down four ongoing MMORPGs: Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, Free Realms, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, and Wizardry Online. Free Realms and Clone Wars Adventures servers will shut down on March 31, while Vanguard and Wizardry servers will stop on July 31 Lack of interest is the reason for the Free Realms, Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes closures. A Sony representative told Kotaku that all three no longer have the pull they once did. The player population has been decreasing over the years, and it’s just a case of these things happening. However, Sony did not offer a reason for the shutting down of Wizardry Online, though I wouldn’t be surprised if it was for similar reasons. Wizardry isn’t exactly the most popular series around. Michele Cagle wrote in a statement: At Sony Online Entertainment, we are always evaluating our portfolio to ensure…
EA’s Star Wars Game Deal will be 10 Years Long
A lot can happen in 10 years and for Star Wars gamer fans, we’re hoping this means good things in the way of some new games from EA. Remember that deal they made with Disney that gave them exclusivity to Star Wars games? Well, we have found out now it’s actually for the next decade. Eurogamer tells us a bit more about this: Fortunately it sounds like none of EA’s new Star Wars games will be movie tie-ins aping the new Star Wars films, the first of which appears December 2015, directed by JJ Abrams. “We’ve done movie games over the years and we wanted to make sure that we weren’t doing a movie game – i.e. a game based on the movie,” EA’s chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen said at a UBS conference (transcript by Seeking Alpha). “The beauty of the Star Wars franchise is that it’s so broad and…
Cool New Star Wars Game: iOS Card Battling Game
There’s a new Star Wars game on the way and this one sounds pretty interesting for those who like card battling games. Konami just announced a brand new Star Wars-centric card battling game called Star Wars: Force Collection for iOS. “It will have more than 230 heroes, villains, and vehicles from all six episodes” which will be used to build decks to complete quests, participate in “massive battle events,” and more. They said there will even be a light and dark side system. Details are still vague at this time but there is a bullet list with some details on the game’s website. It will be interesting to see how this game will develop over time. iPhone users have been asking for a new Star Wars game for some time now. What do you think- does this sound like a game you would want to try or will you leave…
Star Wars Insider Features 10th KOTOR Anniversary
The newest issue of the Star Wars Insider has an article on the 10th anniversary of Knights of the Old Republic and the Star Wars and SWTOR community is buzzing about it this week. It’s actually a really good read and as always, it’s great to see some of our favorite games getting recognition that they deserve. Unless you purchase the digital download, there is no online copy of the article but someone did post some screenshots to an imgur album so you can read it and see the images so big thanks for that! If you look closely at the images, diehard KOTOR fans will notice a slight discrepancy with one of them. It’s on the last page- can you spot what it is? So in honor of this story and recognition of the anniversary of KOTOR, shout out in the comments and let us know what you love…
Star Wars and Planetary Poker – A Perfect Home for Card Gamers and Star Wars Fans
Today’s television series has enjoyed much enthusiasm from fans of different backgrounds now that there are multiple genres which modern filmmakers, writers, and directors are exploring. One particularly interesting genre that sparks the imagination of its viewers is the sci-fi genre. Although it may not be new to the public, this type of television series dared to go beyond what is currently known and explored the possibilities of non-existent technologies. This kind of setting is well-embodied in the Star Wars series, be it technologies used in warfare like lightsabers or space vehicles like the Millennium Falcon. These gadgets may not exist yet but it cannot be denied that these films have inspired engineers and scientists to develop groundbreaking machinery and tools. Today, we have the likes of Google glass or holograms that back then were once only considered as figments of our playful imagination. With such success, the Star Wars…
How non-paying players can positively impact a game’s success
Since Star Wars The Old Republic (SWToR) changed its subscription model to Free-to-Play (F2P), a lot of opinions were raised about whether it was the right thing to do or not. Some quickly labeled SWToR as a failure that didn’t live up to the hype , while others saw this as a necesary change that helps the game’s long-term growth. Whether this change was successful or not remains to be seen, however first indications as reported by James Ohlen and the recent EA investor’s call are positive. Free-to-play might not be such a bad thing after all! A new article over at Gamasutra.com, argues that non-paying players, actually help the growth of such games. The author of the article cites three major reasons for opening up a game to freeloaders. Among other things F2P players help bring in other new players that eventually will turn into subscribers, they show their appreciation…
Electronic Arts launches new cross-game pet promotion!
In an effort to draw more attention to other Free-to-play (F2P) titles, Electronic Arts (EA) recently started a new cross-game pet promotion for Star Wars The Old Republic (SWToR). EA’s catalogue of free games is quite extensive and using a popular game like SWToR certainly makes sense. To get these pets, all you need to do is register with the games listed below by April 1st and you will receive an in-game pet. The mini-droid pet you get for Battlefield It’s worth noting that this listing is incomplete since only the following games have been confirmed. This doesn’t mean that other EA F2P titles aren’t eligible. (In parenthesis is the name of the pet) Command & Conquer Tiberium Alliances (2C-TA Commander) Battlefield Heroes (J9-BH Mercenary) Battlefield Play4Free (BF-4F Warrior) Need for Speed World (N4-SW Runner) Lord of Ultima (LU-20 Builder) Does this mean that SWToR’s conversion to F2P is yielding the expected for EA results? If…
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic Movie?
Will there be a Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic movie? Many fans would be ecstatic to hear this is true but we can’t find any evidence that it’s valid. With Star Wars spinoff rumors in the mix, it’s easy to see how some could quickly believe this one might be true but Karpyshyn himself said on Twitter that he knows nothing about it. @agentjaspor @headgeek666 this would be awesome, but I haven’t heard anything about a #KOTOR movie. But I’m not at #bioware anymore so… — Drew Karpyshyn (@DrewKarpyshyn) February 23, 2013 Ain’t It Cool News, cited sources at BioWare and said that Karpyshyn was secretly working on a screenplay for a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic feature film being developed by Lucasfilm. It’s a nice thought but doesn’t seem to be true. However, this wouldn’t be the first time a rumor was denied when it was leaked too…
BioWare Doctors to Speak on Sex and Video Games at GDC
BioWare writer David Gaider plans to tackle the issues of sex in video games at this year’s Games Developers Conference (GDC). He will be holding a talk called “Sex in Video Games”, which is explained below: Games have reached the point where realistic portrayals of sex and adult relationships are possible, but what does this mean to us as developers? How much responsibility do we have in addressing issues of sexism and sexuality, and are we inadvertently making statements about what is acceptable, even when we don’t mean to say anything at all? Our industry is struggling with a conflict between the desire to be taken seriously as an art form, and the desire to avoid addressing social issues because what we make are “just games.” These things have implications on our sales, and while they can be addressed, it can only happen if we are willing to acknowledge that…