This table appears in the esseles since the last build. If we click it say “this table does not accept new player at the moment””. To me it seems like BioWare are finally including pazaak into SWTOR. It would be pretty strange not to really, as pazaak was a big deal in the KOTOR games. Now we only need swoop racing.
SWTOR PVP Zone Outlaws Den
You will find open world PvP with plenty of scum, villainy and excitement to spare at Outlaw’s Den in SWTOR- or at least that’s the idea. There will be a special spot in Tatooine for those who love to take PvP to the next level, those who want a little more risk in that casual trip to the vendor and those who just need something to do to break the monotony of leveling. At the recent fan site summit in Austin, TX, Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Lead PvP Designer Gabe Amatangelo revealed Outlaw’s Den, a place designed to give you all the good stuff you could ever imagine from a PvP free-for-all zone. What kind of goodies await you in Outlaw’s Den? Well, you can kill members of your own faction so there is that… and you can fight for rewards, fight for the vendors or just fight to…
Intergalactic Intel: The trooper
“So how was the weekend beta?” My friend Vash was always had questions about The Old Republic though he had no intention of playing. “Crowded. A lot of trash talking. An average day in any other game really.” “So what class did you play for your blog?” “The class you wanted to play after seeing the “Hope” trailer. Trooper.” Welcome back to another installment of Intergalactic Intel. This week we’re talking about the trooper. A powerful ranged class for the Galactic Republic. Two reminders before we begin I’m looking for a co-host for my new Old Republic podcast, and these reviews are only levels 1-16 so classes may change drastically to level 50. Story: Maggot! Should have been the first words I received when I loaded in. Your the newest member of an infantry squad known as Havoc. The most elite squad in the entire Galactic Republic. You could swear…
This is what would happen if SWTOR dialog was put into WoW
This video might be old for some of you, but there is no doubt that it is funny. I should properly have been posted in a “May the schwartz be with you” column, but with all buzz about World of Warcraft loosing subscribers, and SWTOR getting so close to release, I thought I would just release it as a regular blog post. Anywas… The guys over at Gamebreaker.tv run a show called BlizzBlues with the host Darnell. In last weeks episode, they speculated how World of Warcraft would be like if you implemented the dialog from Star Wars: The old republic.
Legacy System Revealed
The Legacy System was officially revealed yesterday as James Ohlen made a forum post about it. While the details given thus far aren’t too in depth, they provide a good idea of what to look forward to from the system: Hey Everyone, This build has our first iteration of the Legacy System! At its core the Legacy system is about allowing players to create a family tree of characters. Family is pretty important to the Star Wars universe, with the Skywalker family having one of the most interesting dynamics in movie history. This version is just the foundational components that we will use to build upon in the future. Here are the features of this iteration: Once your character has completed their Chapter 1 storyline, they will be able to choose a Legacy Last Name. This Legacy Last Name must be unique and is shared across all characters, on all…
Friday Update: “Bringing Down the Hammer”
Yesterday BioWare updated us with yet another of there always anticipated Friday updates. This time the guys shed some insight to the new flashpoint “The Hammer”. The Hammer, is a powerful battelstation that was thought destroyed but is now occupied by the less than friendly Advozsec. The Hammer, a powerful prototype battle station developed by the Republic, was believed to have been destroyed during the war. However, this terrible weapon has re-emerged in the hands of the Advozsec, who are using it to conquer unaligned worlds in the Outer Rim. Setting out to stop the Advozsec’s campaign, an Imperial strike team assaults the Hammer and battles to take control.
The Unofficial SWTOR Girl Gamers Thread- and Why it’s Not for Me
San Diego Comic-Con 2008. Photo Courtesy of Jason Scragz For those unaware, there is an “unofficial girl gamers” thread on the SWTOR forums. It’s in its 4th incarnation last I checked and is garnering thousands of replies. From this thread has also grown a number of girl-gamer websites for female SWTOR fans such as SW Girls started by Amonette. There’s even a girl SWTOR Wiki. No, I’m not kidding you… It’s the go-to place if you’re a female planning to play SWTOR who wants to hook up with other females but it’s not for me. I just like to play my game my way and meet people along the way, regardless of their sex, race, religion or other affiliation. To me, it just doesn’t matter. This got me thinking about the whole gamer-girl thing and how the video game industry has evolved over the years that I’ve been a gamer….
It’s official- The NDA is no more!
I wrote the other day about how it’s time to drop the NDA for SWTOR. With so many people testing now and an upcoming open beta weekend session, it seems pointless to keep the tight NDA restrictions in place for game testers. Apparently Bioware was thinking the same thing as the time has come. This just in today from GregZeschuk: Folks, As of now, the non disclosure portion of our Game Testing Agreement isofficially lifted. While all players must still accept the Game Testing Agreement,from this point on testers may now freely talk about their experiences thispast weekend in the game, as well as post screenshots and gameplay videos oftheir testing experiences. We encourage you to come join us on the official Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Forumsto share your experiences! The Star Wars: The Old Republiccommunity site will have a copy of this message on the forums and it…
BioWare Targets November 25-28 for Last Beta Weekend
Earlier today , the official Star Wars: The Old Republic Twitter feed, and Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid (AKA @Rockjaw) confirmed that the ‘everyone is invited‘ beta weekend is on track for November 25-28. This is basically an open beta event and the invites should be coming this upcoming week. But now we also know when we will be playing in this massive beta event. Some have asked if this date for the weekend was intentionally chosen on Thanksgiving weekend, a holiday for those in the United States. Maybe they were thinking fewer people would play during this time? Or maybe the exact opposite was true and they were thinking that people would be off for the holiday season, giving them more time to play and enjoy the weekend. Will you be changing your holiday plans in order to beta test SWTOR? How much time do you think you will…
SWTOR OPEN BETA!
Still not in beta yet? Are you itching to get your chance to try SWTOR for yourself before launch? You are in luck because we found a great little piece of info today straight from the source himself, Mr. Stephen Reid. Stephen Reid tweets: “Everyone who signed up for #SWTOR testing (yes – everyone), including those redeeming keys from our partners, will get invited next week.” This means everyone! Basically this is now going to be an open beta situation where anyone who is interested in getting to play, will get to play. It’s beneficial for them to do it for a variety of reasons. For one, they get to test the servers and make sure they have stability for the loads of people who are going to want to play. Another benefit is that this will give more people the chance to be sure they want to fork out…
May the schwartz be with you: Awesome Star Wars Advertisements
May the schwartz be with you this holiday season, especially if you are shopping at Curry’s PCWorld. The British electronics store has gone all out for its Christmas campaign, licensing the cast of Star Wars for a series of ads that get you in the Star Wars holiday spirit. You can see Darth Vader, Chewbacca and R2D2 shopping for gifts, exploring the store, learning new things and even finding potential love. Currys PC World 2011 Official Ad – Vader’s Visit Director’s Cut (Darth Vader Star Wars) In this one, Vader himself stops by to ensure staff have been properly trained. Currys PCWorld Official – Chewbacca Makeover Here Chewbacca learns why a great hairdryer is a girl’s (or wookie’s) best friend. Currys PCWorld Official – R2D2 Error Poor R2D2 runs into a bit of trouble. Currys PCWorld Official – R2D2 & Hetty Hoover But don’t feel too bad for R2D2 because…
The Guild Sphere: Avant Garde
It‘s thursday, and time for us to have a chat with a new guild. This time Avant Garde was so good to answer our questions. Avant Garde, is a North American raiding guild founded in March 2011 [US West (PST)]. The guild has a laid back atmosphere but when it comes to PvE progression they put in 100%. Many of their members also enjoy PvPing or levelling alts to raid with on their off days. Chec kout the interview below: Where did your guild’s name come from? Our name is a throwback to an old WoW guild that several of our members were a part of. Literally translated Avant Garde means Vanguard, in that sense our mentality is to be on the cutting edge of progression. Can you give me a quick 2-3 sentence description of your guild? Progression and endgame will be taken very seriously but no one’s looking for…
Should SWTOR Drop the NDA Already?
The NDA, or non disclosure agreement, on SWTOR is what prevents testers from talking about certain aspects of the game when they play it. These types of legal agreements are in place to protect a company’s creative licenses and for a game like SWTOR that is highly based in story, it’s to be expected. MMORPG writes in a column that they believe it just might be time to drop the NDA already. They think since beta testing is being offered to basically everyone, that it’s time to drop the NDA. They write: “Recently, BioWare concluded their largest Beta Test Weekend yet, and they’re already in the process of revving up for a final big smash of a Beta Test Weekend. If you thought this past weekend was big, well it looks like everyone who has signed up for Game Testing, as well as those who never bothered, will have a…
Leaderboard: SWTOR vs. GW2 cinematic cutscenes
Justin Olivetti from over at Massively had a few things to say about SWTOR cutscenes- a huge part of what TOR is all about. Star Wars is all about the storyline and in SWTOR, this is one of the things that we see which sets in apart from other games, namely other MMORPGs. But they are not completely alone in this as GW2 has some cutscene action of their own. Olivetti decided to explore this area of the game in a Leaderboard column for the popular gaming website, Massively. He says: “OK, you knew that sooner or later there’d be a face-off between Star Wars: The Old Republic and Guild Wars 2 in this column, although today’s poll might not be what you were expecting. Instead of getting into “Which game that hasn’t released is better than the other game that hasn’t released?” let us examine each title’s approach to…
SWTOR had over 1 million hours of testing last weekend
We know that last week’s SWTOR game testing weekend was massive. It was the largest beta weekend so far and quite possibly the largest beta weekend for any MMORPG in history. Just how massive it was, we had no idea. But BioWare has now revealed that over a million hours of testing went into the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic last weekend. 1 million hours!Tens of thousands of people played the game in order to test for a smooth launch coming December 20th. With only a month to go, it was the perfect time for BioWare to see if the servers would handle such a large influx of players. It’s also a fantastic opportunity to get more gamers into the SWTOR rage who may not have previously pre-ordered the game. BioWare co-founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka told Eurogamer about the weekend game testing event in an interview at…
Facebook Image of the Week #38
Today BioWare updated there Facebook page with a screenshot of the Eternity Vault. The flashpoints we get to play in 30 days ( if you pre ordered). As far as I understand this flashpoint should give us some more inside to what happened with the Infinite Empire – the guys that made The Star Forge. Check out the screenshot below: The Eternity Vault, a remnant of a once powerful empire, is believed to house ‘The Infernal One,’ an ancient and deadly evil that poses a risk to the entire galaxy.
SWTOR Impressions: Thoughts from an old school MMO player
We have written here before about the thoughts and impressions of veteran MMO gamers when it comes to SWTOR. In fact, we’re long time MMO players ourselves and we love to hear what others have to say as well. We stumbled across this Reddit post, a la SWTOR review, from a self-professed old school MMO player. What did he have to say about SWTOR? The poster starts with their background in MMO gaming: “My first MMO was Everquest and this was after it had been out for a while” And then some info on other games he’s tried/player: “Since then I have played DDO, STO, and Champions, as well I have tried the trial versions of most other MMO’s out there currently and while some offer a unique experience none have matched the polish and ease of teaching you how to play the game like WOW, until now.” Ok, so…
SWTOR Jumps to Number 1 on the Pre-Order Charts
SWTOR has received a lot of attention especially over the last few months but with the launch scheduled for only a few weeks away, it’s gaining even more attention. Last week, I told you how SWTOR was in the top 5 preorders. Well, just as I predicted, it’s now number 1 on the pre-order charts. That’s right, it’s at the top of the list and this jump does have a lot to do with the beta testing that took place over the weekend. After gamers had a chance to spend a little time playing the game, they seemed to be hooked right away. Most players found the game to be intriguing and a few hours of play only made them more curious as to exactly what SWTOR has to offer. Many gamers waited to get a taste of the game to see how they felt about it before placing their…
LucasFilm registers “Star Wars: Identities” domain names
“The acquisition of a new domain name has fueled speculation of what the intergalactic franchise has in store for the future,” writes IFC.com. This is actually really interesting news for fans of Star Wars. There could be something new and exciting in the horizon for the franchise. Lists of recent domain name registrations show that LucasFilm were planning a site called “Star Wars: Identities” of some sort but no one knows exactly what it’s all about. It sure is a lot of fun to try to guess what it’s all about though. Fusible reported that the company registered a number of domain names for this new title. Could it be a series? A game? A movie? Something is in the works at LucasFilm, that’s for sure. Registered names include: StarWarsIdentities.com, the typo-friendly StarWarsIdentites.com and even sw-id.com. In this article, Fusible theorized about what “Star Wars: Identities” might be. Is it…
SWTOR Beta: First Impressions from MMO Crunch
SWTOR beta first impressions are coming in and so far, most players have positive things to say about the game. With so many people who have now gotten to try it out after this past weekend, we’re going to keep seeing those SWTOR reviews, previews and impressions. Here’s what MMO Crunch had to say about first impressions of the game. Players were impressed with how smoothly it ran with no lags or crashes and with the wonderful graphics. SWTOR offers several options for customizing the characters, which is a big plus. Some of the options for characters include different hairstyles, faces, makeup and skin color. Some races even have ridges in the faces, jewelry, horns, scars and tattoos leaving a lot of room for the imagination. Players did notice that some races have more options than others do but this wasn’t a really big deal. One of the main complaints…
New beta build coming in.
A new beta build is coming in this Thursday. This time testers have to download 20GB to keep on playing. The good thing is characters from the last phase of testing will not be wiped and will carry over to the new build. Hello testers! We are preparing to deploy a new build of the game! This Thursday, 11/17, at 7:00AM CST (13:00 London, 14:00 Paris/Berlin), we will bring the servers down for maintenance. Then, at 10:00AM CST (16:00 London, 17:00 Paris/Berlin), the servers will become available again with a 20GB patch, which will contain the new build. You do not need to uninstall your previous game installation, but we do recommend uninstalling in order to save space on your hard drive and to assist with any necessary troubleshooting. Good news: characters from the last phase of testing will not be wiped and will carry over to the new build!…
Star Wars Books Interviews Drew Karpyshyn
As we celebrate the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan today, Star Wars Books, has released an interview with author Drew Karpyshyn. In the interview, Drew Karpyshyn Talks about every thing from his work on the Mass Effect series, new Darth Bane stories plus goodies about the new SWTOR Book we talked about a few weeks ago. Can you reveal anything about next TOR novel you’re writing, currently set for a Fall 2012 release? I can’t really say anything right now, other than that it will take place after the events of the game. One of the criticisms of The Old Republic, based on the cinematic trailers we’ve seen, is that the technology is too similar to that of the Original Trilogy. What do you think about that? Should the technology used 4,000 years before A New Hope be extremely primitive compared to what we see in Episode…
Random gameplay videos and screenshots
The internet has been surging with new beta gameplay footage since this weekends beta session. Here is a compilation of the best material found on Reddit. Check it out: The Smuggler, world’s greatest actor! How to properly play the Jedi Consular. Bounty Hunter Healing PVP Huttball Lots of beta screenshots in 1920×1080 resolution More screenshots:
Get a SWTOR Beta Key Guaranteed
Would you like to be one of the first players to experience SWTOR? Now’s your chance because EA and CVG have teamed up and they’re offering Star War fans 13,000 SWTOR beta keys, guaranteed! With that many keys being offered, you have a great chance of taking part in the test BioWare and the Publishers of SWTOR have planned. The stress-testing weekend will take place very soon and if you receive one of the keys, you can be part of all the action. Collecting a beta key is easy but first, you need to be registered for the testing program. Once you’re registered, simply visit one of the sites offering beta keys such as Massively or Computer and Video Games.com. If you’re not already registered, you can take care of this technicality at either of these sites and then you can claim your key. Be sure to redeem it by…