If you love Star Wars games as much as we do, then you might want to consider Zen Pinball 2. I’m actually a big fan of pinball games so when you combine the both of them into a mobile game, I am hooked! C Net says: The good: Star Wars Pinball has some of the sharpest graphics we’ve seen on Android. The bad: The physics of the game could use some work. The bottom line: Whether you’re a fan of “Star Wars” or pinball, or both, this game is a visual delight that’s worth its price. Very nice but what is it really all about? Well it may be 2013 but pinball is still alive and well- only now we have ePinball. Game creators at Zen Studios have two new innovative titles – Star Wars Pinball and Zen Pinball 2. “”Star Wars Pinball” is for iOS and Android devices. It’s…
Servers going down at 6PM PDT tonight
BioWare are taking all the servers down later tonight for maintenance and the launch of Game Update 2.0: Rise of the Hutt Cartel. SWTOR: RotHC will go live tomorrow for everyone, whether or not you’re in Early Access, or have pre-ordered the expansion, but for all of you with Early Access, the servers will come up at approximately 12PM pacific. On April 8th at 6PM PDT (April 9th, 1AM GMT) all game servers, SWTOR.com, and the launcher will be unavailable as we perform scheduled maintenance. Game Update 2.0 will be implemented during this downtime. After maintenance, Early Access will begin for those who preordered Rise of the Hutt Cartel by January 7th, 2013. For more information and announcements about this exciting new Digital Expansion, please visit our Digital Expansion Page. Details are as follows: Date: Monday April 8th- Tuesday April 9th Duration: 6 hours Time: April 8th, 6PM PDT (April 9th, 1AM GMT ) – April…
Developer Blog: PvP in Game Update 2.0: Scum and Villainy
Assistant Designer Alex Modny made a developer blog Friday, about the upcoming PvP changes coming with Game Update 2.0. SWTOR’s current bolster system is receiving a complete overhaul as part of the 2.0 update. It should fix issues of fairness which are encountered when players turn from level 49 to 50. Now, rather than a universal buff to their abilities, players will receive a boost determined by the equipment they have attiring their character. With Bolster, the most important change is that the stats are no longer granted on an assumption of stat power based on character level. Rather we look at each one of the Item Ratings (including the Mods, Augments, Armorings, etc. that go into the armor/weapon) of the current equipped gear and base the amount of stats given based on these values. The worse your items are the more stats you are given to get you to the base value we want…
Star Wars: The Old Republic Community Cantina Tour – Dallas May 17th
BioWare have announce the next Star Wars: The old Republic Cantina Tour will be held in Dallas May 17th 2013. Check out the full announcement below, and let us know if you will be attending: We’re happy to announce that the next stop in the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Community Cantina Tour will be happening on Friday, May 17th, in Dallas! This is your chance to join the Star Wars™: The Old Republic community for a development team Q&A as well as complimentary drinks*, food, and giveaways. Every attendee will be receiving a highly coveted Tauntaun Fawn code. If you’re in the area, make sure to stop by and hang out with us! Venue: Wyndham Las Colinas Date: Friday, May 17th, 2013 Time: 8-11PM CDT Address: 110 West John Carpenter Freeway, Irving, TX 75039 Space will be limited, so be sure to arrive early! You can RSVP on Facebook here (Facebook RSVP is not required for attendance). We look…
SWTOR Last Double XP Weekend
Are you ready for Makeb? It’s the last double XP weekend and the last weekend before the release of Game Update 2.0 and Rise of the Hutt Cartel for those who are eligible for ‘early access’ so this is your chance to get the most from this experience while you still can. Friday through Monday, April 8th at 12AM PST, those who still don’t have a level 50 character can take advantage of the event this weekend just before the Makeb content releases on the 9th. You can get up to 310% experience points using the double XP, XP boost and legacy perks. This is your chance to take full advantage of this experience boost and get your character to max or level up a new character as far as you can while it is still available. Then, we will see Makeb and the Rise of the Hutt Cartel so…
Star Wars Episode 7 Rumor Roundup
We’re all anxiously awaiting Star Wars: Episode 7 and with the news of Disney letting LucasArts staff go, we’re even more interested in what will happen with this new film series. So this is why we’re keeping up to date on all the hottest and greatest news about the new movie. This means a lot of talk about what Abrams will do with Episode 7 as well as what kind of records the film might set when it makes it to the big screen. Let’s take a look at what some others are saying about it. Den of Geek says: We seem to be in a bit of a limbo at the moment with regards Star Wars: Episode VII, with the thinking being that Lucasfilm will wait until JJ Abrams is fully finished on his new film, Star Trek Into Darkness, before making a full and formal announcement about the…
Developer Blog: Key locations overview of the planet Makeb
Yesterday BioWare posted a new new developer blog on the official Star Wars: The old republic website. The focuses on this blog post was on the key locations from around Makeb in the form of an SIS report. It highlights many interesting new locations, and is most definitely worth a read. You can read the whole developer update here, and see the amazing new screenshots just below:
EA Pays Probst Seven Figures, Looks for New CEO
CEO John Riccitiello recently resigned from Electronic Arts but executive chairman Larry Probst is reportedly taking the reins until a suitable replacement is found. But his temporary position of two roles will not come cheap- As reported by GameSpot, an EA filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week revealed that Probst will be paid an annualized salary of $1.03 million for the duration of the search for a new CEO. In addition to the seven-figure salary, Probst stands to earn an additional one-time bonus for his work from the Board of Directors for his temporary stint as executive chairman of the company. Of course, Probst will be abstaining from any discussion the board has on that particular topic since it would be a conflict of interest. He is also foregoing his board of directors cash retainer fees (which were $100,000 for the company’s fiscal 2012) for the duration…
ROTHC is Download Only : EA Says Digital is 50% of Sales by 2015
Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore said digitally delivered video games may account for 50 percent of sales by 2015 as more players migrate to tablets and smartphones from consoles. (via Bloomberg). As more players are migrating to tablets and smartphones from PC and tablets, mobile seems to be the way to go which means digital downloads of games. While this might be the future for EA, some hardcore PC fans are not as excited about it. ROTHC is download only but some gamers really like getting a boxed set. Our current home office is surrounded by shelves of boxed Collector’s Editions of various games that my husband and I have purchased and played over the past 10 years or so. We love getting boxed sets, expansions and collector’s editions of the games we loved because they usually contain extras such as music, figurines, posters and more. Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI)…
15-Month SWTOR Review and Never Hit Level Cap
Would you review a video game you hardly played? What about an MMORPG when you never hit the max level cap? Well, let me ask you this one- would you come back and review a game 15 months later and say it was a “Take two” on the game but then admit in this very same review that you have never experience any endgame experience of this particular MMORPG? Well, that’s exactly what one Massively writer did and it beats us why this ever got published in the first place. Now let me preempt this and say that we are not afraid to publish negative things about Bioware and SWTOR here- in fact, we’ve done it on multiple occasions. We like the game but we are also committed to the truth. SWTOR is not perfect and Bioware has made mistakes along the way. We’re not denying it. But haters hating…
Developer Dispatch: Legacy Achievements
With all the action yesterday with Disney closing down Lucasarts, We completly missed that BioWare posted a new Developer Dispatch. This time the topic is Legacy Achievements. Lisa made an extensive guide to this back in February wich you can find here. However, the article BioWare just posted does good job of explaining it as also. Achievement Completed: Breaking the Writer’s Block. Description: Wrote the first sentence of my developer blog. This achievement doesn’t reward me with a title, but it does increase my Galactic Reputation with the Community Team, so I’ve got that going for me! Game Update 2.0: Scum and Villainy introduces the Legacy Achievements system, a means of recognizing important accomplishments and milestones for your entire Legacy. Achievements are like badges awarded for completing content, defeating enemies, exploring new regions, and a whole lot more. The Achievements you gather are displayed in a new section of your Legacy panel,…
Disney Shuts Down LucasArts and Cancels Star Wars Games
(image belongs to Kotaku- see their version for funny annotations that say how we all feel) Just recently we brought you the rumors that LucasArts is facing a shutdown. While we didn’t have enough proof to call it a fact, we highly suspected the confirmation was coming soon. Today was the formal notification. According to a source reliable to Kotaku, the staff was informed this morning that LucasArts was shut down. Publicly, Disney is saying their current games could be licensed out to a different publisher or developer, but according to our source, that’s unlikely. Our source says Lucas has pursued the option for “one or both games,” but nothing happened. “”With the teams now basically being dispersed I think both games are effectively dead forever,” our source said. A second source also told Kotaku this afternoon that the chances of Lucas licensing out 1313 are very slim. The odds are “effectively zero,” the…
PSA: Class XP Boosts/Unlocks Do Not Affect Makeb Quest XP
Just another friendly heads up. Don’t waste your credits / cartel coins on XP unlocks from the cartle market. Eric Musco just confirmed via a forum post that they do not benefit you in Star Wars: The old republic Rise of the Hutt Cartel. I believe this have been pointed out before but the BioWare developers, but since there have been some confusion was to whether any of Makeb’s quests count as class quests or not, I thought it was appropriated to do a PSA about it 🙂 As some have already alluded to in the thread, class mission bonus experience will have no effect on Makeb. Technically speaking, the missions you will be going through in Rise of the Hutt Cartel are planetary arcs, etc. and are not classified as class missions. Thanks! -eric
Gamestop/Best Buy SWTOR now sells Cartel Coin Cards
A few months back, we heard rumors about Gamestop and Best Buy selling Cartel Coin cards in their stores that would also get you an exclusive mount. So what did I do? I ran out to my local Best Buy to check it out. Admittedly, I had something else to go for that night anyway, but this just made me more motivated to get in my car and head down to the shopping center. So there I am in Best Buy when not one, but two, friendly employees came over and offered to help me but alas, there were no cartel coin cards. In fact, they didn’t even have a clue what I was talking about. That’s because the information was leaked early and they were not available yet. But these cards were in the works… And the story is that they are finally live! But there are a few…
SithTalk ep 51 – Jedi Sulu? Oh My..
Sith has just launched it’s podcast number 51 were they talk about the George Takei April Fools post as well as JJ Abrams and the Star Wars episode VII. The guys also talks about the new Log In procedures that started at the official Star Wars: The old republic website yesterday, and of course the upcoming expansion Star Wars: The old republic: Rise of the hutt cartel. Check it out below:
Reminder: Display Name Only Log In Now Live (Also Self Service Security Key)
Just a friendly reminder that Display Name Only Log In is Now Live. People are still debating if Display Name Only is more secure then email login, but they way I see it there’s now no link between your login name (Display Name) and your email address. If someone gets a hold of your swtor password, they still can’t get your email address because it’s obfuscated (shows up as m*******@gmail.com). That adds another obstacle for them to overcome to hijack your email address (the more important account imo). If someone has control of your email address, you have much bigger problems to worry about than just your swtor account. Keep in mind that their security system has always been built around the assumption that the hacker already knows your username. They’re keeping things secure by using a combination of password and security questions/key. Anyways, below is the news update from BioWare: Display Name Only Log…
SWTOR Climbing Since Going Free to Play
So has changing their game model to free to play had any impact on SWTOR for BioWare? , creative director on Star Wars: The Old Republic says yes at GDC. He revealed that the number of players has now increased to 4.5 million, up from 2 million, which makes it a rate of 10,000 new players each day. This switch to F2P has been a real game-changer for SWTOR, that was losing its player base. Ohlen goes on to explain how SWTOR had more problems on launch than just its subscription model (ya, think?) He explains that the lack of a group finder was a major downside to the game and also the poor implementation of the Public Test Realm (PTS). No group finder meant it was hard to players to get together to experience much of the content in the game and the poor PTS meant there were a…
George Takei to Star in New Star Wars Film
What’s more awesome than Abrams directing both Star Trek and Star Wars movies at the same time? George Takei acting in them both! As he shared on his Facebook wall today, George Takei will be starring in the new Star Wars films, directed by JJ Abrams: Friends, I am thrilled to announce that I’ll be starring in the Star Wars reboot directed by JJ Abrams. I’ll be playing Master Ceti Maru, a member of the Jedi High Council. The new film, entitled “Star Wars: Galactic Empire,” is greenlit and will begin filming sometime early next year. It is truly a moment for The Star Alliance. Thanks to all my fans for their decades of support. Geeks of Doom gives us more info about the famous actor’s new role: Now, the actor, best known for his role as the original Sulu in the Star Trekuniverse, revealed that he’ll be starring in a…
Scheduled Maintenance: April 2nd, 2013
Just a quick heads up to let you know that BioWare will be taking down the servers tomorrow April 2nd for Scheduled Maintenance. It more than likely is the changes to the display name only login and security key self service changes with this patch. You can read more about this here ( Display Name Only Log In – Coming April 2, 2013) And the announcement below. On Tuesday April 2nd, all game servers, SWTOR.com, and the launcher, will be unavailable as we perform scheduled maintenance. Patch 1.7.3a will be implemented during this downtime. Details are as follows: Date: Tuesday April 2nd, 2013 Duration: 6 hours Time: 1AM PDT (9AM BST) until 7AM PDT (3PM BST) Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.
J.J Abrams talks Episode VII
I’ve been a fan of Abrams for a long time now but these days, when you mention the name JJ Abrams, one question comes out of everyone’s mouths: “When will we learn more about Episode VII?” It’s safe to say that Star Wars fans all over are excited about the new movies and while Abrams was able to work on Star Trek with some level of objectivity, we have to wonder if he will do the same with Star Wars. He is admittedly a big fan and it begs the question of how he will approach this very big task. Empire Online had the chance to sit down with Abrams for a bit and ask him a few questions about Episode VII and his plans for the movie series: “I don’t know because we’re just getting started. So it’s a great question that I hope I’ll have a good answer…
SWTOR Sith Inquisitor Sorcerer PVP Build For 2.0
This post will give you a PVP build for the expansion pack 2.0 in SWTOR. The class we are going to focus on is the Sith Inquisitor Sorcerer. Point Allocation: 2/2 Will of The Sith 3/3 Calcify 2/2 Disintegration 2/2 Parasitism 3/3 Force Horrors 1/1 Death Field 3/3 Sith Efficacy 1/1 Madness 2/2 Corrupted Flesh 1/1 Wrath 1/1 Deathmark 2/2 Haunted Dreams 2/2 Lingering Nightmares 2/2 Lightning Burst 3/3 Creeping Death 2/2 Devour 2/2 Focal Lightning 2/2 Shapeless Spirit 1/1 Creeping Terror 3/3 Seeping Darkness 2/2 Force Weaver 2/2 Reserves 2/3 Electric Induction You can also see how to allocate the points here: For complete leveling guides and build guides updated for 2.0 head over to http://www.swtorsavior.com
Tales from the Imperial Fleet
Major Brelga shifted uncomfortably. Sith Lords were always unsettling – a fact someone serving the Empire quickly came to terms with – but Lord Veskis made him especially uneasy. “So Major,” hissed the hooded figure. “Do we have a deal?” “… so I slammed the Jedi against the cliff face, then turned and sliced his padawan nearly in half! The soldiers with them wet themselves and ran!” “My dear, you’re so beautiful when the bloodlust rises in you <3” “Did you see the new robes Darth Jiannis was wearing? It looks like she skinned a Varactyl for them.” “Ugh, I know. It’s like all the good fashion designers work for the Republic.”” “Reports say the base was obliterated. Excellent work, hunter! My Lieutenant objected to collaborating with savage aliens. But he was wrong about you and your team!” “Ah yes, Lieutenant Orbos. A real… shame he didn’t survive the battle….
James Ohlen at Game Developers Conference 2013: TOR is one of the largest micro-transaction money-makers for EA
Following our recent post about Bioware’s Creative Director James Ohlen and his speech on the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC), additional details have emerged over at Massively. Bioware’s Creative Director James Ohlen The site has posted a detailed account of Ohlen’s presentation at the event where the latter covered the challenges Bioware faced during launch, its conversion to Free to Play (F2P) and the concerns the Austin-based developer had about Guild Wars 2 and Mists of Panderia. He also went into details about what the studio went through when the game started losing subscribers and how they managed to turn it around with F2P.
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…