On BioWare Social, Chris Priestly announces that Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age II DLC will come to San Diego Comic Con. “BioWare is once again returning to the San Diego Comic Con and this year, we are bringing Mass Effect 3 and a never before seen, Dragon Age II DLC with us. Comic Con begins Thursday July 21 and runs through Sunday July 24 and we will have all sorts of awesome BioWare coolness at our base in the Hilton Gaslamp hotel. This will be the first opportunity for fans to play Mass Effect 3 as well as the next Dragon Age II DLC. In addition, we will be hosting the first annual BioWare Costume Contest on Friday, July 22 for the best BioWare inspired costumes. We’ll be giving away awesome convention swag, opportunities to meet members of the BioWare staff, and we’ll have a special designated area…
Moral Issues in SWTOR and more Tidbits from the Forums
The Star Wars: The Old Republic official forums were abuzz yesterday with talk about dark/light side morals and choices, rumors of a release date and more. Damion Schubert stepped in to add more insight to the topic as well. Zoeller talked about questing and how it will operate within SWTOR and explaining that there will be some repeatable quests/content within the game but that the game won’t rely on it completely. Zoeller also discussed where we will be able to fly within the game: “Once you have your ship, every planet in the galaxy can be flown to. Of course, flying to a level 40 planet at level 12 might not be the greatest idea, but still, you can do that.” Then Stephen Reid also talks about morals and light side/dark side choices: “The Light Side / Dark Side symbols only appear when using a mouse to hover…
20 min Jedi Knight Class walk through
FTWBroadcasting has just posted a 20 min Jedi Knight Class walk through video, containing all confirmed and speculative information from all over the web: Jedi Knight Class Story Companion, Armor Weapons Abilities Advanced Classes Star ship and More. The video contains all the latest footage, wallpapers, promotion videos, and website coverage edited into the video. Enjoy!
Facebook Image of The Week #17
It’s the next best day of the week. The day were BioWare spoils us with a new screenshot of the game. This image was published on their Facebook page earliere today. Jawas, notorious tinkerers and collectors of discarded desert junk, carefully inspect an astromech droid at one of Anchorhead’s many trading posts.
Retail dates SWTOR for September?
Could Star Wars: The Old Republic be coming out in September after all? According to ShopTo, an online UK retailer, it might be. After a recent update to the site, it now lists upcoming EA MMO title Star Wars: The Old Republic with a release date of September 9th in the UK. What does this mean? MCV wrote about the topic today, describing the update on ShopTo that added this release date for the game. Back in January, MCV also wrote about the fact that EA executives were planning for a September release of the game. Disgruntled fans had a lot to say about this delayed release date that later seemed to be pushed ever farther into 2011. After recent events and E3 news, most fans would be delighted to hear about a September release since a release any time before the end of the year was starting…
Species of Starwars: Rodian
The Rodian are a bipedal race with tapir-like faces and multifaceted eyes, native to the planet Rodia, which is located in the Tyrius system. The skin of a Rodian is green in color, and there is very little physical variation within the species. Thus, non-Rodians often cannot tell two Rodians apart. The Rodian race has ears that swivel in their sockets, allowing them to hear in several directions. There is a ridge of spikes which crests their skulls, and their long, flexible fingers are tipped with suction cups. They are a race of hunters by nature, and bounty hunting seems to hold a place of high esteem. As a race, they evolved as hunters, surviving their planet’s tropical environment and establishing a series of war games which lasted for thousands of years. When an Old Republic scout team landed on the planet, the Rodians were there to meet them, armed…
Lego Star Wars Coming to TV In September
Odd but exciting news has just come to my attention (after it was announced at the recent Licensing International Expo 2011). According to ComingSoon.net LEGO Star Wars is set to land on screens this Autumn (likely late September) as a TV special. The site discovered the upcoming project thanks to the poster below, and announce that it will be based on the video game series, which is itself based on the TV show. Don’t think about that too much, it gets a little confusing. ComingSoon also ran with an official update on the upcoming Star Wars cartoon series: Today, George Lucas is hard at work on a second animated series that will complement ‘The Clone Wars’, taking ‘Star Wars’ in a completely new and fun direction. What with the release of the Star Wars blu-ray collection, and the 3D cinematic re-releases that I personally will only watch begrudgingly, it’s an…
Replayability of SWTOR
Georg Zoeller spoke on the official SWTOR forums this weekend about the replayability of SWTOR and same class replay. Many have questioned this and the issue of mob grinding in relation to SWTOR. MMORPGs are famous for grinding and mindless quests telling you to go here and kill x number of ___. This mindless, repetitive gameplay is what BioWare says they are trying to avoid in SWTOR. The discussion that ensued on the forums was an interesting one on this topic. Orcron posted: “Well thanks for clearing that up. But why is it you made the class quest far more richer with goodies so to speak then taking side routes to level up? Such as flash point running or random mob killing an so on.” Zoeller came in to answer the question: “I wouldn’t say richer – after all Flashpoints, PvP and other activities have…
Star Wars: The Lost Suns signing by Alexander Freed
501st Stormtroopers, R2-D2 and Alexander Freed signing SWTOR: The Lost Suns comic! This week I wrote about the Star Wars: The Old Republic- The Lost Suns author signing event but yesterday I was lucky enough to be able to attend and it was every bit as awesome as I expected. As a video game writer myself, I was super pumped to meet Bioware Senior Writer Alexander Freed. We talked about SWTOR (sorry guys, nothing new that we didn’t already know. :/) They weren’t going to let him divulge any spoilers, even if he wanted to. We talked about gaming in general and how exciting it is to be behind the scenes of a game’s development, especially a game as big as SW:TOR. Alexander was everything I expected- a really, chill guy, creative and a huge Star Wars fan. While we were chatting, my husband disarmed a Stormtrooper and my daughter…
What If Those Scanner Guys Weren’t Such Wimps?
Ever since the internet allowed fans to start sharing their own takes on scenes from their favorite movies, a number of fan re-edits have appeared to various successes. The most infamous example of course was The Phantom Edit, in which some Mike J Nichols re-jigged The Phantom Menace, “fixing” scenes featuring Jar-Jar Binks, removing the Battle Droid dialogue and generally recutting the film to match the style of the original trilogy, to resounding success. But there are others, ranging from full recuts to humorously re-edited single scenes like the one below. YouTuber OneMinuteGalactica – who also edited the Existential Star Wars clip we brought you a while back – has this time turned his attention towards the Imperial scanning crew sent onto the Millennium Falcon to search for anything untoward. Obviously in the film, they last roughly ten seconds before tasting Wookie knuckles, but OneMinuteGalactica’s cut ask an important question: what…
SW:TOR Updates: Writer Blog and Fan Friday
Writing is one of the key elements to crafting a living world and few understand that better than BioWare and the vision they have for Star Wars: The Old Republic. This week’s update is all about those guys that shape the world and keep it evolving to fit the lore – the writers. This week BioWare Writer Ian Ryan takes us through the writing process and how writers continue to shape the game world long after the final piece of the story has been written. The writers continue to play the game and examine each area for subtle details that need improving. One example given is the vast improvements made to the planet of Nar Shaddaa, which has been given quite a new glamorous look to better match the taste of the Hutts thanks to writer feedback. If you’re curious to see the impact that these talented writers have on…
18,000 Accounts Compromised in BioWare Breach
BioWare has joined the illustrious club of the recently violated after a hacker gained access to a decade-old community server system associated with their Neverwinter Nights forum on June 14th. According to a post from BioWare’s Edmonton Studio GM Aaryn Flynn, hackers breached the server and may have gained access to the account details of around 18,000 users that include user account names and passwords, email addresses and birth dates. But if you linked your legacy BioWare account with an EA account, additional information may also have been compromised that includes: your name, mailing address, billing address, language, game entitlements and games played, and other game-specific account information. Luckily, the BioWare investigation has determined that no credit card information was lost in the breach. As a security precaution, BioWare is suggesting that players change their passwords. Yesterday (June 14), we learned that a hacker gained unauthorized access to the decade-old…
Stephen Reid clarifies on EA Origins
If you had questions about EA Origins and how it relates to getting your own copy of SWTOR, Stephen Reid has made a lot of clarifications on the official TOR forums. We’ll save you the trouble of hunting and sum it all up for you here. Q: Do I have to install Origin to play the game, get updates and more if I purchase a boxed copy? Reid answers: “No, you won’t. While Origin will be the exclusive digital retailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic (in other words, if you want to buy it online and download it, you’ll do so through Origin) that does not mean that Origin is required for you to access or play The Old Republic. Origin is a digital storefront, and the desktop application is there to give you quick access to Origin exclusives and deals. However, you won’t need to launch…
Damion Schubert: Story Does Not Kill Community
Damion Schubert takes some time out for a long post on the official forums about community and how story does not kill it. The TLDR version: “What is going to be good for any particular MMO’s community is going to be wildly divergent between MMOs, depending on each MMO’s focus and feature set. We’re continually keeping an eye on our community to be sure that they remain healthy, but for the most part, there are some really neat interactions going on.” This is a great post to read over although commenters have varying opinions on how they feel about the topic. Some people feel the forum moderators and staff do not have the interest of community as a top priority but others feel strongly about the positive SWTOR community, stating it as a big reason they want to purchase and play the game. Schubert says they want it to be…
Cross-Faction Chatting
One question going around the forums this week was in regards to cross faction chatting in SWTOR. While there are obvious reasons why it might not be good to have cross faction chatting, there are also some reasons why it would be beneficial. Many of the RP elements of the game would be taken out if players had no capability for cross-faction chat at all. So some fans are asking if there will be cross-faction chat in certain local chat or in shared towns and cities. Many believe that local chat should be open to both sides. Stephen Reid, Senior Online Community Manager addressed this issue on the forums stating, “That’s one of the options that’s being looked at right now. As I said, a final decision hasn’t been made, and this is a feature that’s in testing. Your opinions on the topic are welcome, as long…
How To Turn To The Dark Side
Ever wanted to follow in the footsteps of Darths Maul and Vader? Ever had a hankering to liquidate a whole community of Jedis? Well do we have the instructional video for you?!! Thanks to the guys over at Howcast (who posted this brilliant video on their YouTube channel), we can now bring you this enlightening public interest film on how to master the skills needed to become a bona fide Sith legend in double-quick time. Feast your eyes on this, just make sure your boss isn’t looking over your shoulder – I’m pretty sure a desire to wipe out all the goodness in the world is classed as gross misconduct these days. Bloody bureaucrats.
KOTOR: Now widescreen with new content and customizable robes!
Thinking about trying out KOTOR before SWTOR comes out? Sure you do – if not, your missing out. If you already played it, you know how awesome it is – but here is a chance to make it even more cool. JAG from fileplanet has created a list of mods that will make the game even more mind blowing then it was the first time you played it. Here is a short run down of the most important: Widescreen Modification by Widescreengaming: The original game lacks widescreen support that brings those lovely Twi’lek females up to date. Using this file, you will be able to boost the resolution to modern wide-screen monitors. Make sure your game is patched and Steam versions follow this guide¨.. Power Overwhelming Mod by Niuhaka: Now that the game is looking good, it’s time to make your character into the gorgeous badass he should be. This amazing modification will replaces the third male Asian head…
How Stuff Works: Protocol droids
A protocol droid was a type of droid designed to assist sentients in their relations with one another, often as translators between sentients or between sentients and computers. They also possessed knowledge about various cultures and customs, in order to advise those for whom they are working, and also so that they themselves may behave in a diplomatic and culturally sensitive manner. Protocol droids constructed around 4,000 BBY (around the time of the Great Sith War and the Jedi Civil War) were frequently engineered with certain situational and behavioral shifts set to occur whenever another design-generation was reached. A number of these droids underwent radical changes with each new generation—for example, when a C7-model droid supplanted the C6 variety. Each numeric “jump” in sequence could have had wide-ranging changes in functionality and temperament during that historical period. Cybot Galactica, the most famous and successful manufacturer of protocol droids, outfited…
High Scale Beta at the end of June?
A conference call on June 14th between William Blair and company analysts and CEO of Electronic Arts John Riccitiello discussed beta testing for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Certain information had players questioning the betas and what this means for a launch date. Daniel Erickson already previously confirmed there will be no open beta before launch so what exactly does “high scale beta” mean? John Riccitiello stated “we’re in mid-scale beta, we’ve got a high scale beta at the end of June.” Riccitiello added “and only the foolish assume they know the outcome of a beta in terms of whether it’s a six week hit or not.”” Stephen Reid responds to John Riccitiello’s comments on the official forum: “Take a deep breath, everyone… Game Testing is currently ongoing for Star Wars: The Old Republic. This isn’t news – it’s been ongoing for quite a while. At different…
Star Wars: The Old Republic- The Lost Suns Author Signing Event
If you’re going to be in or around the Austin area on Saturday, June 18th, you must stop by and check this out. I plan to be there and if I make it, I’ll pop back in here with some photos and a recap of the event. Austin Books & Comics 5002 N. Lamar Blvd. Austin, TX Saturday, June 18 · 4:00pm – 6:00pmYou can have the first issue in the new Star Wars: The Old Republic comic series, The Lost Suns, signed by the author himself, Alexander Freed. How awesome is that? This will be more than an ordinary comic book signing though. There will be an appearance from the 501st Legion Storntroopers from the Star Garrison as well as the fully automated R2-D2, courtesy of roboteer Jamie McShan! The Lost Suns is the third limited series based on the SWTOR MMORPG. It’s different from the prior two installments…
Daniel Erickson goes into detail about the number of Companions
Players have been asking a lot of questions about SWTOR companions, including how many we will be allowed to have per character. Recently Daniel Erickson, Lead Writer for SWTOR, shed some light on this situation on the official forums. Erickson says, “There will be, at launch, five unique companion characters per class. Plus your resident butler/crafting/welcome home droid on the ship which is different per faction.” In his post, Erickson goes on to explain how since you will get five unique companion characters per class, plus a resident butler droid on the ship, you will have over forty companions within the game that can have more than a dozen romances, intricate plotlines and hundreds of hours of development. The possibilities are endless to what your companions can do. The storyline of SWTOR is really what makes or breaks the game so all of the staff…
Awesome Star Wars/Batman Mash-Ups From Draw2D2
Ah, the mash-up – that gloriously geeky medium that allows creative fans to show new levels of appreciation for multiple projects by marrying them together in genius combinations to create something all together more beautiful than the sum of its parts. The new kings of this world are undoubtedly Draw2D2, a collective of artists who post a series of mash-ups every two weeks devoted to two “Geeky References”, and who definitely deserve more attention for their exploits. So far the artists have mashed our beloved Star Wars up with Pirates of the Caribbean, and more recently Batman (a geek marriage made in Heaven), and the results have been uniformly exceptional. For me, the pick of the bunch, in terms of the Star Wars material is this retro-flavoured poster of R2D2 and C3PO as Batman and Robin swinging through the night sky, byAdam Carlson. The word genius is bandied around a…
Facebook Image of The Week #16
We diden’t get a Facebook image last week from the BioWare crew, but they are more then excused due to all the nice E3 Updates. But now the world is back to normal for a while and BioWare is teasing us with a new screenshot from SWTOR. This time we get a new image of the Dark Temple on Dromund Kaas. The courtyard of the Dark Temple is frightening enough to keep away even those few willing to challenge the Emperor’s decrees.
MSNBC awards SWTOR “Best Multiplayer”, “Best Sound Design” and “Best Trailer” from E3 2011
E3 Might be over, but news and tidbits are still rolling in. Here is the first E3 award for SWTOR I have seen. MSNBC awards SWTOR “Best Multiplayer”, “Best Sound Design” and “Best Trailer” from E3 2011. Check out the short video below: