New York Comic Con isn’t the only event going on this weekend. Across the pond, Senior Writer Hall Hood, and EU Community Manage Chris Collins, will be attending inferno Online – at the worlds biggest eSports erena in Stockholm Sweden. SWTOR will be playable at this event, and the BioWare devs will have a Q&A. Danish, Norwegian and Swedish SWTOR fan sites will be at the event, so if you speak a Scandinavian language, remember to visit there sites, or ells stay tuned here, as we will do do our best to keep you updates on any news coming out from the event.
I’ve got the Moobs Like Jabba
Maroon 5 have recently been killing it in the charts on both sides of the Atlantic with their homage to the big-lipped prancing lead singer of rock icons The Rolling Stones, and now they’ve been treated to an altogether more heady accolade than the money and fame that comes with being Number One. Because thanks to Break Originals, “Moves Like Jagger” has been given a Star Wars injected make-over, and it’s one of the funniest things I’ve seen and heard recently. The first line tells you everything you need to know about the cover’s awesomeness: “He’s Jabba the Hutt, he’s a gangster, 90 per cent butt…” Profound.
Another Ackbar Potato Discovered!
About a year ago Admirall Ackbar showed himself in a potato. Now this spud resumes. I don’t know if it is a sign, but he shows up around the same time each year, so maby now he deserves his own ship, and maybe some sour cream and chives.
Facebook Image of The Week #33
It’s that time of the week again… BioWare have posted a new screenshot on the official Star Wars: The old republic Facebook page. This time of a smuggler and his pet Bowdaar. Flanked by his companion Bowdaar, a Smuggler attempts to use his wily charms on a nearby Jedi.
Tips, tricks and knowledge from SWTOR Beta
With more people playing SWTOR beta and game testing now, we are seeing more info coming out about it. While these players are still bound to the NDA, it is to be expected that some general knowledge will come out about the game. The closer we get to December release, the more info will come out to the public. On Reddit we are finding several posts started by users looking to share tips and tricks and other knowledge. Here is a snippet from one post, for example: Vehicle training costs 40 000 credits and a vehicle costs 4 000. Have at least that much by the time you hit 25. Companion weapons are upgradeable with mods, do not vendor them! You can only have one crafting skill but can have 2 gathering (may require confirmation). When in doubt, follow your class quests. More often than not your story quests will…
WoW Number One Due to Lack of Competition
For the past seven years, World of Warcraft has ruled the MMORPG scene. I know as I have played off and on since beta. I took “WoW breaks” and it seemed I would return again and again when I grew bored of whatever MMO I was playing at the time. It’s a great game despite what some haters will say but even I, a longtime fan, grew bored of it. I wanted something new, something different, something more… but I still loved many of the things that made WoW so great. Some people believe that WoW has survived for so long because it has not had any real competition. Although I love many things about the game, I have to agree on this. I’ve tried many other MMOs, including nearly every free-to-play MMORPG I could find to download to my computer and none of them had the total package that…
GDC Online: Taking Your Game Everywhere
GDC Online officially kicked of yesterday in Austin but today was the first day at the industry conference where Bioware developers were scheduled for sessions. One session that was especially interesting was “Taking Your Game Everywhere”. This panel featured BioWare’s Erik Olsen, Curse’s Donovan Duncan, ZAM’s Cody Bye and Red 5′s Mark Kern and was led by former BioWare Austin Co-Studio Manager and current Playdom exec Gordon Walton. This session addressed the idea that gamers want to be able to take their online games with them, outside of the game itself. Make sense, right? I mean it’s like a handheld but where you can still check in to your online game. It combines the appeal of games and apps for our smartphones, iPads and other mobile devices. This popular trend is something that game studios will want to get in on. Gamasutra has a summary of the panel which gives…
Character Poll on Official Forums
This character poll on the official forums about what people plan to play for their first character. It’s really interesting as a topic because I have been asking my fans, friends and readers what they will play. So to see the poll put up to try to put a number on it is pretty interesting. Some of the numbers are unexpected even though this is not a definite example of what will happen when the game launches. For example, there are more people saying they will play Human than I thought. What do you think the numbers mean? Do you think they are a good representation of what will actually happen after launch? What do you plan to play?
Compare/Contrast SWTOR to other recent MMOs
Everyone’s talking about SWTOR and if it’s going to be any good as well as how it compares to other recent MMOs. You’ve heard all of the comparisons to WoW. We’ve heard all of those a million times, it seems but World of Warcraft is not the only game it’s being compared to. One Reddit user did a write-up on how it compares to other MMOs of today in terms of gameplay, zones and maps and more. Here’s a sampling: Leveling is slow-paced. You have to do fairly significant travel and quests for each level in comparison to WoW and WHO. Quests stayed consistent through 20 levels. ll quests are accepted via cutscene and voice over, with various conversation options that add more dialog before eventually getting to the accept or deny dialog. (Dragon Age) The UI is nothing special and doesn’t appear to be customizable. The user puts both…
Screenshot Extravaganza
The second Beta weekend for Star Wars the old republic is over and tons of information has started to hit the net. So far all impressions i have been reading has been positive, and people is already missing the game. Below is a bunch of screenshots from the beta, all hosted in standard Imgur albums, so be sure to use the arrows to check out the everything the album contains.
MMOSite Previews SWTOR
As we get closer to the eventual release of SWTOR, we see more reviews and previews coming out. For those who have not yet had a chance to beta or review the game, these previews and write-ups are a great way for us to learn more about the game. But as I always warn here, you have to take it for what it’s worth, which is another person’s opinion. As far as opinions go however, we can usually rely on the gamer sites like MMOsite to give us good reviews and previews of upcoming games and that is exactly what they’ve done here. Their preview is a great overview of the game for those who do not have the time (or desire) to want to go through all the videos, trailers and other information out there about SWTOR. Here’s a snippet: One of the most prominent aspects of SW:TOR is…
C3PO: Now With Added Jive
According to a newly released video, featuring never-before-seen footage from A New Hope, not all of George Lucas’ heavy-handed edit choices made it onto the Complete Saga blu-ray release that has no doubt burned a sizeable hole in every Star Wars fan’s bank account in the past few weeks. Some, even the Great Bearded One didn’t have the guts to go with. This jaw-dropping video shows how Lucas was toying with the idea of having a “more modern, urban sounding” C-3PO, to add slightly more diversity (and thus an added injection of realism)into Episode IV. What resulted has now become legenday… The dialogue, which adds a whole new level of cool an attitude to c3PO, or C3p-DiddyO as he should perhaps now be called, was written and voiced by Brett Bayonne and published on YouTube thanks to The Distinguished Gentleman.
The SWTOR RP Class Selection Flowchart!
A Reddit user, DarthRevan, created and shared a class selection flowchart to help us all out. His post reads: I made it relatively quickly in MS Paint, so I apologize if it’s not so visually appealing. It was meant to be functional, and is a first draft of sorts. I would love any feedback, and I might even revise it if people find it helpful with some tweaks. If someone wants to make a flowchart based on gameplay & mechanics (which I also think will be very helpful), I invite them to do so because I admit a lack of expertise on that. So without further ado: The SWTOR RP Class Selection Flowchart! Edit: I also found in the process of making this chart that it is very difficult to find short statements that encapsulate the actual choices, which are more complex. I tried my best, though. Edit 2: People…
Species of Starwars: Quarren
Quarren, or “Squid Heads” as they are sometimes rudely called, are an alien species characterized by the four tentacles that protrude from their jaws. They have deep turquoise eyes, and each hand is capped with finned or suction-cup tipped fingers. They are capable swimmers, and like the squids they resemble, they are able to spit out clouds of ink as a defensive measure. Quarren hail from the planet Mon Cala, a world they share with the Mon Calamari. The Quarren evolved in the depths of Dac’s oceans. When they were first discovered by the Mon Calamari (who evolved in the shallow parts of the ocean and on Dac’s few islands ), there was conflict between the two species. Circa 4,500 BBY, the Quarren attacked the Mon Cals. However, the Mon Calamari, though less aggressive by nature, had much better technology, and won the war. In order to prevent future wars,…
The Guild Sphere: Condemned
We haven’t had a guild interview up for a few weeks. but we will try to make up for it, with a rather long interview with hte Team-Focused PvP and Raid Guild Condemned. Enjoy! Where did your guilds name come from? While our guild initially formed back in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, the current tag was not instituted until our second title Warhammer: Online. Upon our entrance to Warhammer, we began the process of selecting a new tag and worked to find a name that represented the feel of what we envisioned the guild to be. A thread was posted on our forums requesting members to post suggestions. We knew we wanted the name to be both concise and serious in nature. Once we had gathered a substantial amount of names via member submission, leadership whittled down the available options to a list of the top five. With list in hand we…
Fan Film: Dark Resurrection Vol. 0
As fans of the medium, and of Star Wars – which seems to give birth to a disproportionate amount – sometimes we have a bit of fun with some fan films that fans have cobbled together in their bedrooms, enjoying them exactly for the short-term thrills they are. But then, there are some productions that don’t really seem to fit in with that categorisation of a “fan film”, because their production quality and general execution make an absolute mockery of most that has come before. Italian film Dark Resurrection was one such production: released back in 2007 (and featured on this very site two years later), it ran circles around most other fan-made films that had captured our attentions up until that point. And now, excitingly, we can bring you the follow-up, which is not, as expected Volume 2, but a prequel, entitled Volume 0. Originally conceived as a prologue…
Intergalactic Intel: PvP vs PvE
Intergalactic Intel: PvE vs PvP “Please it’s not even hard they don’t think for themselves. It’s the same thing every week!” “It’s not you even have to try. You just pick whatever class is flavor of the month and just win.” “Let’s ask Nigel.” “Ask me what?” “Which is harder? PvE or PvP?” For as long as I have played world of warcraft the question of which is harder, and more fun has always been an issue amongst the higher end players of the game. This week I’ll delve into my experience of with both forms of game play. Player versus environment, or PvE, is a form of play in which players do battle against enemies who have been programed by the developer. This usually includes quests, leveling and dungeons. But PvE truly becomes a challenge in raiding environments where users have to fight enemies that are far stronger than…
Revan Mini Excerpts
Del Rey’s Star Wars Books Facebook page has posted a mini-excerpt from Drew Karpyshyn’s upcoming novel The Old Republic: Revan. Check it out below: I should have guessed it was you.” Revan rose from his chair to face the speaker. She wore the robes of a Jedi Archivist, though she was in fact a Jedi Master. She was young for the position, but her hair was platinum white. She had cold blue eyes, and a pale complexion that spoke of a life spent inside the Archives, sheltered from the sun. “Atris,” Revan said, silently cursing. Aparently Del Rey’s Star Wars team will continue posting mini-excerpts from upcoming Star Wars novels on their Facebook page every Thursday. Besides Del Rey’s first mini-excerpt, RandomHouse.com has also posted a new audio excerpt for the upcoming novel as narrated by Marc Thompson. Listen to it below:
Try out SWTOR at New York Comic Con
We previously wrote about all the Star Wars events and guest attending to this years New York Comic Con, but yesterday BioWare posted an official update regarding Star Wars: The Old Republic presence there. Players who come by the booth will have the opportunity to try out both the Alderaan and Huttball Warzones. New York Comic-Con attendees will also have the chance to play through some of the Origin Worlds content on the showfloor. In addition, three separate panels will be held to give fans and medium more detailed information. Those who come by the booth will have the opportunity to experience both the Alderaan and Huttball Warzones. New York Comic-Con attendees will also have the chance to play through some of our Origin Worlds content on the showfloor. If your not able to attend the the official avent, BioWare will be holding a Meet and greed on Wednesday, October 12th 2011: The BioWare team…
Drew Karpyshyn on the “Revan” and “Exile” story lines
Drew Karpyshyn had some words for the haters on his personal site. He discussed the “Revan” and “Exile” story lines as well as perspectives on KOTOR, ToR, and his upcoming novel. It’s a long but worthy read, especially since the ending paragraphs are my favorite. In this update he has details about the NYCC schedule as well as a rant about some Star Wars fans taking things out of context and blowing them out of proportion. We brought you the story recently of the supposed “leaked copy” of the Revan novel, set to release in November and the accusations that it “attempted to retcon elements of KOTOR 2: The Sith Lords”. I had no proof that this message board member really read the Revan novel, although he did supply a photo of what was supposed to be the cover of the proof copy or something. Regardless, I prefer to make…
How SWG Will Be Won
The last days of Star Wars: Galaxies are drawing near and the game plans to close off “with a gigantic PvP throwdown for dominance” that will tell us all who runs the galaxy- Empire or Rebels. Of course some fans are saying that this is not the end and that SWG will live on- even if unofficially- but for the sake of technicalities, the end is coming. So how will this official end of it all battle be scored? How will SWG be won? Winning the Galactic Civil War explains in detail: “Meanwhile, let’s say Region Two is worth 3%, and that in this same period of time three Imperials earn 50 GCW [Galactic Civil War] points in the region and no Rebels show up at all. Region Two would give the Imperials a full 3% in the galaxy score for next to no effort compared to Region One. All…
BioWare Hinted the Possibility of a Mass Effect MMO
How great would it be to have a Mass Effect MMO? There are certainly a lot of fans out there rooting for this very thing right as we speak. While BioWare is busy cranking out SWTOR to have it ready to ship by the promised date in December, we hear rumors that there could be more online titles in the future. It would be a win-win for BioWare and gamers alike if SWTOR was a huge success that led to more MMO titles in the future… possibly even a Mass Effect MMO. BioWare heads Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk seem open to the potential idea and even hint around that it might be considered in the future. “You never know,” Zeschuk replied to the Mass Effect MMO query by Industry Gamers. . “”I think once The Old Republic is done, we’ll take a fresh look at the market….
Friday Update: Companion Character Dev Blog
In todays second Friday update Senior Game Designer William Wallace has written a blog entry that delves into the subject of companion AI and how it will affect the group dynamic. In particular he touches on the ability of the various companions to fill the role of a player character during more challenging quests. Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ features a large amount of group content, including Heroic Quests (challenging quests requiring 2 or 4 players to complete) and Flashpoints (highly engaging instanced story content for groups of 4 players). One benefit we’re seeing from our new, fully featured companions is additional flexibility about how players approach group content. A full group in The Old Republic always has four players. Any player leaving the group can be substituted by a companion of the group’s choice, with the party leader in control of which player gets to use their companion.
Friday Update: Choose Your Side: Jedi Knight vs. Bounty Hunter
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…