For some reason BioWare updated there facebook page with a new screenshot late this week. But here it is: A group of Republic heroes consults with the commanding officer of the Esseles after their ship comes under attack from an Imperial aggressor.
Interesting screenshot: Modular Equipment
Fans not lucky enough to get into a beta or player trial of SWTOR are hanging onto every little piece of news they can get to tell them something more about the game before release. Screen shot leaks from beta are one way that some of us are getting a sneak peek into the game and what it might hold. While it’s important to remember that anything released early, especially from a beta, is subject to change. In fact, it probably will change- several times- before making it to the final version of the game. However, sometimes there is a screenshot that really gets you excited or makes you think. We found one today that shows modular equipment and really brings the concept to life. This screenie posted on Reddit shows what we have heard referred to a few times before. Remember when it was said that you could start…
Star Wars: The Old Republic Breaks EA Pre-order Record
As we reported with yesterday’s EA Q1 Earnings Conference Call, Electronic Arts is doing pretty good with SWTOR. But just how good is that? Well, apparently they have broken their record for pre-order sales for a game. According to EA’s Q1 FY12 Financial Results they have the fastest pre-ordered title in the history of EA in just the first five days. EA’s previous pre-order record was set by Battlefield 3, while SWTOR far exceed BF3‘s pre-order sales, beating their expectations. “We’re well over 200,000 pre-orders in the first five or six days. From an EA perspective, that is significantly greater than any other EA title we’ve ever had in the first week,” said the company’s finance chief, Eric Brown. President Frank Gibeau said, “In September, we will be in a position to call the ball and give you a hard ship date””. That means the rest of us will have…
Fatal Alliance vs. Deceived via Mark Pajor
The guys over at Corellian Run have some things to say about the characters of two SWTOR novels. Well actually, one guy in particular, Mark Pajor (@mpajor on Twitter) has an interesting write-up about the novels. Mark admits to never reading a Star Wars novel before this but decides he should become familiar with all areas of the lore, as he hopes to be a writer for Bioware one day (wouldn’t we all, Mark?) so he takes up Fatal Alliance and Deceived. I have yet to read them either so I appreciate Mark taking the time to give us some info. He starts off: “Fatal Alliance was my first Star Wars novel, and it confirmed all of my fears and reservations of reading one. Deceived, on the other hand, relieved my distaste quite a bit. Now, there’s a lot I could complain about writing-wise for both books. Instead, I’m going…
Imperial Agent talent trees leaked- Medic/Operative
Someone leaked screenies of the Imperial Agent talent trees over at Alter SWTOR today. They are interesting to say the least, but have some people questioning whether or not they are legit. As with anything that is leaked during a closed beta, we can’t be 100% certain it’s real unless we have played the game ourselves. And even if it is real, there is the disclaimer that this is just beta and many things- talents and talent trees included- are subject to change by the time the game releases. So while it may be little more than speculation, let’s go ahead and entertain the idea that these leaks might be legit and take a look. We get a nice peak at the UI, the talents and what levels they will be available to the class. We also get some info on what each ability does, the cooldowns and the amount…
‘Blasters, Beggars & Credits: Schubert Says No Infinite Money’
Lots of interesting news is coming out this week about SWTOR, much of it from SDCC. When it comes to the latest TOR news, we have got you covered. However, every now and then there is a post that someone else has just already covered better or that is exclusive to another fansite or news source but we have to bring it to you here because it’s interesting. Today, Ask A Jedi had one such post. This one comes from Momus, long-time reader and first time author. He talks economics- something that makes the MMO world go ‘round and tells us about two interesting interviews with Damion Schubert, Lead Systems Designer for The Old Republic. Important points made in the post: “Cost of sending companions on missions exceeds the vendor cost of materials returned Anticipating supply/demand economies (not a huge reveal there, I’m afraid) Won’t be able to just gather…
Interviewing Vette
Being a gamer girl and Star Wars geek myself, I was excited to see this exclusive interview by TORWars with actress Catherine Taber. If you don’t know who she is by looking at her, you’re sure to know her voice. She played Mission Vao in KOTOR the voice of Numa in The Clone Wars, and she’s also the voice of Padme Amidala in The Clone Wars. Now she has a new role and it’s a pretty important one for upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic. Taber plays Vette, the blue skinned Twi’lek companion character that we have all seen in advertisements and videos for SWTOR. Taber was at SDCC and was kind enough to take the time to give TORWars an exlcusive interview which they have up for the rest of us to enjoy as well. They talk with Taber about the roles she’s played, her voice acting and what…
Electronic Arts Q1 2012 Earnings Conference Call Live Blog
Today was the EA Q1 2012 Earnings Conference Call and we were interested in one thing- what they had to say about SWTOR. With this game being the pinnacle of the company at this time, you can guarantee they had a few things to say about it on the call. Here is an overview of the highlights of the call: John Riccitiello says that there were strong preorders for The Old Republic. He goes on to say, “Origin will scale quickly with Battlefield 3 and Star Wars: The Old Republic later this year.” Frank Gibeau says, “SWTOR targeted to launch in Holiday 2011, is able to ship with a variety of launch dates.” He adds to expect higher revenue from subscriptions for The Old Republic. John Riccitiello says, “We will launch SWTOR and battle to take a slice of the MMO market.” The conference calls move into the question and…
Bringing Generations Together
I wrote yesterday about how SWTOR was set to be a game to span decades. It’s also a game that seems to bring generations together. I’ve actually met countless people when talking about SWTOR who say they will be playing with their children, parents, siblings and other friends and family. My mom is 50 and she’s a big Star Wars fan. She’s interested in the game because of the storyline. My 5-year-old plays Lego Star Wars on his DSi and is just as excited that mommy will be playing TOR. But we’re not the only ones who have seen that SWTOR can bring generations together. Hellsworn made a heartfelt and interesting post about it on the official forums recently. He says: “So I am a older player. in my mid 40’s. So Star Wars in near and dear to my heart as it brings back very fond memories of my…
Video Roundup – the international pre-order madness
FTWBroadcasting has released an in depth video about the international pre-order madness. It includes videos, articles, and answers to many of the key questions out there for the international community.
Actual Confirmation – No Region IP block
When it comes to region blocks and no SWTOR on initial release to certain areas of the globe, there have been many, many questions. Allison Berryman, Senior Community Coordinator for SWTOR attempted to clear up some of the questions on the official SWTOR forums. In a post from earlier, Berryman explains: “Hello everyone. We know that you have questions about this topic, and we hope to have more clarification for you all very soon. For those who may not have seen Stephen Reid’s tweets from this weekend regarding some of these subjects, I’d like to share that information here. Regarding whether the game will block players from some regions by IP address: currently, there is no plan to block players from the game by regional IP blocking. Playing on servers physically distant from your location might mean you experience some issues with latency, but at this time we don’t plan…
Community Interview with James Ohlen
Of all the interesting interviews coming out this week and past weekend from SDCC, there was a great on one the SWTOR forums from community members GamewizX and Montybrython. If you’ve spent any time at all on the SWTOR, you probably know these two. Well, they were able to interview James Ohlen, Game Director of Star Wars: The Old Republic, and barrage him with questions directly from the community. You can find the entire lineup on the official forums and even post your own comments to the discussion. Here are some of the highlights: XYondaimeX asks: Will there be a Guild “tabard” (not an EXACT guild tabard ala WoW, just something to display a guild symbol.) or some other way to dis play a guild emblem? James Ohlen: Currently there is no sort of Tabard or emblem however it is something that is huge that we are missing. Jooki asks:…
BioWare Hopes to Expand Star Wars: The Old Republic into 2025
As reported by Darth Hater in a SDCC panel, BioWare hopes they will take MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic into many decades. What many are calling the first game to usurp World of Warcraft, it’s definitely possible if they pull it off. They hope to take SWTOR into 2025. Senior creative director, James Ohlen, explained at Comic Con that they the game has 19 major worlds. “Then we have an indeterminate number of minor worlds. And our goal, obviously this being an online game, that we’re hoping is going to last for decades, we’re going to be, obviously, adding more to the galaxy map as the game progresses.” He said. Ohlen adds, “We want to add dozens of worlds. Hundreds of worlds eventually. In 2025, we’ll hopefully have 500 worlds.” That is an enormous game! With each of the six classes promising 200 hours of gameplay, not counting things…
The Guild Sphere: The Rakatan
The Rakatan Infinite Empire has chosen site. You guys are all fucked! But It seems like they are nice guys. Read on below. Where did your guilds name come from? The name ‘The Rakatan” comes from an exploration of Star Wars lore that pre-dates the age of KOTOR, SWTOR, and the classic Star Wars galaxy at large, yet the themes presented by the Rakatan legacy are inexorably intertwined with the fate of the galaxy as a whole. The Rakatan Infinite Empire, for those who aren’t particularly familiar with the lore, was the Galactic Empire that constructed the star forge that figures prominently in the first KOTOR game, is at the crux of the Jedi Civil War and is ever present in the Star Wars backstory. The Rakata themselves were a sort of “master race” that became affiliated with the dark side of the force, founded the first truly galactic empire,…
BioWare Base Q&A #3 Video: SDCC News and Updates
Gamespot talks to Cory Butler, Bioware Producer, at San Diego Comic Con in one more piece of their great coverage of SDCC so far. Butler gives some general information about the game, most of which we already know, but interesting anyway. While this video doesn’t say a whole lot that hard-core fans of SWTOR don’t already know, it’s a great video nonetheless and it’s also very helpful if you’re still trying to convince your significant other of why you dropped that $150 on the Collector’s Edition pre-order. Check out the video here:
Teasers Of Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Lost Suns Issues #4 And #5
Dark Horse had good news for Star Wars comic fans recently. Not only will the Star Wars comics be available in digital format but they also released a small preview of each of the remaining two issues of Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Lost Suns series, Issues #4 and #5. They are available for pre-order but previous issues sold out super fast so don’t wait if you want to get your hands on these comics for yourself. Here is info from Dark Horse on each new issue: Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Lost Suns Issue #4 Captured by the evil Sith Empire, Republic spy Theron Shan is about to find out what secret sacrifice brought about the end of the great war. But once the Imperial’s covert activities are revealed, will he be able to act on his devastating discoveries? Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Lost Suns…
No SWTOR for the Aussies- Maybe Someday but Not at Launch
We previously wrote about how (and potentially why) there was no pre-order available for SWTOR to Australia, or anyone outside of the US and Europe. While many were searching for answers and speculating on the reasoning behind this, Darth Hater set out to get us some answers at San Diego Comic Con this weekend. They posed the question to Stephen Reid as follows: Darth Hater: We know that publishers have a variety of problems when trying to launch a game overseas that range from regional politics, ratings boards, server infrastructure, localization, distribution, and more. Why did you choose not to launch in certain regions? Stephen Reid: The answer is “none of the above.” We didn’t make that decision because of ratings board issues, localization or whatever else. What it ultimately comes down to is simple, but it is kind of a difficult concept to grasp: it is about quality of…
Dallas Dickinson Interviews from Comic Con
There’s lots of cool stuff coming out of San Diego Comic Con this week, part of which are great interviews with Dallas Dickinson, Director of Production on Star Wars: The Old Republic. The first, with fansite TORWars, has a lot of great information. Here he discusses some of the reveals from SDCC such as the speeder bikes, the model they are based on and the fact that they are now tweaked so that the rider does not get knocked off so easily (although it is still possible to get knocked off). While he could not go into a lot of detail, he also talked about the customizable companions and teased about some new changes such as being able to interact with the companions and control them during combat scenes in the game. To what extent this will be, we do not know yet but he says it will be released…
Star Wars Classic Movie Mash-Up Posters
More impressive poster based shenanigans have come to my attention from Design You Trust, who have posted (via artist Matt Ranzetta) three mash-up posters melding classic movies with a Star Wars flavour. The posters, based on three of the most iconic films of modern cinematic history are each an accomplishment of simplicity and observation, and the artist deserves a hearty pat on the back for pulling them out of his clever head. Ranzetta actually released the posters, including the two further additions I have included below back in 2010 to huge acclaim, and thanks to the response, actually released both prints and T-shirts based on all five designs. Do yourself a favour, try and get your hands on at least a couple. As promised, here are the other two posters that make up the series…
The SWTOR Forum Walkthrough Episode 2: Attack of the Dopes
A few weeks back I posted the first episode of RussellW218’s SWTOR Forum walkthrough videos, which chronicled a mind-boggling real thread from the forums in which an obvious idiot aired his “opinions” on how to make SWTOR all sorts of awesome. Didn’t really paint him in the best light, but then the guy clearly didnt understand the fundamental nature of MMORPG gaming. Anyway, here’s the second episode, animated in the same way using XtraNormal (despite the posters continued assertions that it sucks), in which a new forum user – Mrs. “”Paylin” – shares some of her own suggestions for The Old Republic that she feels will be absolutely earth-shattering. Needless to say, it doesn’t quite work out that way. Greatest line… “”Welcome to Star Wars, houses can now fly.”” Seriously, these forum moderators need knighthoods, one for the shit they have to put up with from morons trying to suggest…
Star Wars Blu-Ray Boxset: Teasing The Deleted Scenes
For Star Wars fans, there’s pretty much only one blu-ray release to pay any attention to at all this year, and the long-awaited high-definition treatment of George Lucas’ galactic franchise epic will finally land on shelves on September 12th in the UK. I’m in the lucky position where I’ll probably get hold of a copy to review early on, but for everyone else the prospect of having to wait just a couple of months will seem a yawning chasm of time stretching before them. So it’s with great pleasure we can bring you a teaser video of some of the Deleted Scenes to be included in the mammoth Complete Saga blu-ray release. I still maintain that the cover should have been better thought-out, but the following teaser at least shows promise of the exciting content within… Exciting times ahead what with SWTOR and this blu-ray about to land in the…
Comic-Con ’11: player vehicles
5 new vehicles screenshots was shown at Comic-Con today. Gotter love nice wheels right? And like Boba. We all need a nice wheels:
New Trailer: ‘Join The Fight’
BioWare has used this Friday update to release a new Trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic. The video was also shown at yesterdays official SWTOR Comic-Con panel discussion. The trailer is made up of only in-game footage and looks really nice. We are excited to present Join the Fight, an all-new in-game trailer for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ that premiered at San Diego Comic-Con 2011. The uneasy peace established by the Treaty of Coruscant is broken and both the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire build their armies. As both sides prepare for open war, a new generation of heroes must rise up to meet the challenges of a volatile age, declaring their allegiances and fighting for what they believe in.
Joe Johnston Wants a Boba Fett Movie
Not content with bringing one iconic hero of American cinema, Captain America director Joe Johnston has his eye set on another, even more awesome figure for another upcoming project. Boba Fett. That’s if he can convince George Lucas to get on board. I’ll let that sink in. Boba Fett. Just imagine for one minute the possibility of a spin-off of arguably the cult character of the entire franchise (alongside Darth Maul perhaps), playing out like a sort of Die Hard meets Dog The Bounty Hunter. And while I don’t have great faith in Johnston’s directorial abilities (aside from his early work on Jumanji and The Page Master) – he made The Wolfman remember – he does already have experience directing jet-packed superheroey type folk thanks to his time helming 1991’s overlooked gem Rocketeer. In conversation with ScreenRant, Johnston admitted his intentions: “”I’m trying to get George to make a feature…