Escapist Magazine has something fun for fans of Star Wars: Episode 1. Star Wars week happened to fall on a week in which Movie Defense Force was not scheduled. May God have mercy on Jim Sterling’s soul, for Star Wars fans have none to spare. For even more Jim check out Jimquisition. Follow Jim on twitter for a chance to win Twitter updates from Jim: @JimSterling Don’t forget to get to watch Jim with Yahtzee in their Rhymedown Spectacular. New episodes of Movie Defense Force appear every other Thursday only on The Escapist. Do you remember the first time you saw Star Wars: Episode? Where were you? Did you like it? How many times have you seen it? Was it different each time? The Escapist : Movie Defense Force : Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
BioWare Easter Egg in SWTOR
Just when you feel like game developers have lost their spirit of fun, a group like the team at BioWare comes along and does something neat. In this case, it’s a hidden “Easter egg” in SWTOR’s macrobinocular missions. Old school gamers will get a kick out of this one if you haven’t seen it already. The mission “All The Pieces” has a part you have to jump across moving garbage vehicles and speeders. If you felt some déjà vu going on during this part, there might be a good reason for it. If this part of the quest feels strangely familiar to you, it’s not just you. The mission is actually a reference to the Ord Mantell Junkyard mission in the old N64 game Shadows of the Empire! Here’s a clip of what we’re talking about: And if you missed it in SWTOR, here’s a video of the actual mission:…
SWTOR Tauntaun Mount: A Guide on How You Can Obtain Yours
Don’t forget to check out constantly growing list of guides for Star Wars: The old republic If you’re one of the many SWTOR players that have anticipated the arrival of Tauntaun mounts, get ready to celebrate because your wait is over. They’re finally here! BioWave added Tauntaun mounts to the 2.3 update, so you can now travel through the galaxy on one of these incredible animals instead of a vehicle. It gives the game a completely new feel and you’re sure to enjoy the change. Now that they are here, the next big question is how do you get one? Well, you have two different options. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but buying a Tauntaun mount with cash is not one of them. Here are your two options. Use Credits to Buy Your Tauntaun Mount The easy, simple way to obtain your Tauntaun mount is to be a…
Tips for Getting the Most of Game Update 2.3
SWTOR Game Update 2.3 is now live. Titans of Industry is here and it’s time to say hello to the Czerka. If you spent any time on the test servers, you might already be somewhat familiar with this game update. But if you’re just jumping right into that new content, then you might want a few tips to help you get started with a bang. Get your group on- First, if you’re going to dive in and enjoy the new content, don’t be shy. Just like with other game updates, this new content will be easier, faster and more enjoyable in a group. The quests are not hard but just as always happens when new content releases, the areas are going to be super crowded with all the players trying to get things done. Grouping up will help you complete the quests, rather than fight over the zone space. Don’t…
Scheduled Maintenance: Server Consolidation
Tuesday August 13th is the day BioWare will be closing down the APAC servers. All servers will be consolidated into West Coast North American servers from that day onward. CourtneyWoods On Tuesday August 13th,2013 we will be performing scheduled maintenance for consolidation of APAC into West Coast North American servers. There will not be a patch to download during this downtime. Details are as follows: APAC and NA-West Coast Servers will be unavailable from August 12th 10PM PDT (August 13th 5AM UTC) until August 13th 10AM PDT (5PM UTC). To minimize downtime for other services, NA-East Coast and European Servers, SWTOR.com, and the game launcher will remain available for several more hours. We anticipate they will come down on August 13th between 12 AM and 4 AM PDT and will remain unavailable until 10AM PDT (5PM UTC). During maintenance, updates and additional information will be posted on our Twitter account….
SWTOR Community Cantina Chicago Details Emerge
IIt’s another SWTOR Community Cantina and we are finding details from the new thumb drive and exclusive info being released to those who were present. Lucky for us, the fansites and news sites who are there are releasing some exciting sneak peeks of what we can see to come soon in SWTOR. I really love that Bioware continues to hold these Community Cantinas and get the community and fans involved. TORWars has some great details from the Chicago Community Cantina and exclusive thumb drive assets. Their gal at the event, Jean, shared some pics from the thumbnail which you can see over on their site and also some info about a new Operation or Flashpoint with all the palace concepts, bad guys and it appears, a new boss. And what about a new mount? That’s something that gets players pretty excited. Well, it sounds like we’re getting one of those,…
Lukewarm Tauntauns, Star Wars The Old Republic Ranked Guild Interview
It’s a long interview but one I recommend people watch, especially if they want a glimpse into the world of high level ranked PvP and the players behind it. Play it in the background while playing SWTOR or something. 🙂 Good questions asked and hopefully Bioware actually sees this to see what some of their ranked players are saying and thinking.
Patch Notes – 2.3.0b
BioWare implemented a small client-side patch yesterday. You need to restart your client for these changes to take effect. I’ve noticed recently that if you leave your client open (at the server selection screen) during these patches, you’re not always forced to restart the game. This has led to some weird behaviour – e.g. the last patch I couldn’t use warzone medpacs (in warzones) and this time I lost the ability to interact with my UI. I often leave my game running overnight (and am booted to the server selection screen after a given period of inactivity) and I think previous patches forced my game closed so I’m not sure if they’ve changed anything. Below are the patch notes: General Implemented a fix for a client crash that was occurring in the lobby of Czerka Flashpoints, as well as other locations in the game.
Developer Blog: Color Palette Update
BioWare posted a new developer blog on the subject of the recent changes made to the game’s color palette. Game update 2.3 Features more vibrant colors, as well as a palette that suits the various settings, the game is looking more amazing than ever if you ask me. The blog post outlines the culmination of hundreds of manhours from extremely talented industry professionals. Artists, graphic designers, software engineers and production staff. He outlines how this team developed a custom set of tools and then used those tools to modify the game. This is an extremely challenging project, that was well managed and performed by some of the best in the industry. You can read the full developer blog, over at the official site and check out the .GIF animations that show the differences from before the update and after, or check out snippet below: Several months ago, our engineers added a…
Exclusive to USA Today The Star Wars Trailer
Before Star Wars, there was The Star Wars! This is the authorized adaptation of George Lucas’s rough-draft screenplay of what would eventually become a motion picture that would change the world. We’re talking about Lucas’ original galaxy as it was conceived in “The Star Wars” and the Dark Horse Comics series will show you a new side of Star Wars that you have probably never seen before. See the exclusive trailer here: USA Today got the exclusive on the trailer and brings us a little background info: Luke Skywalker as an old, gray-haired general? Darth Vader as just a dude? Han Solo — secret-agent lizard? The new Dark Horse Comics series The Star Warssounds like alternate-universe weirdness for fans of George Lucas’ influential sci-fi franchise. Instead, it’s just the filmmaker’s first pass at his galaxy far, far away. The eight-issue comic launching Sept. 4 is an adaptation of Lucas’ first…
Facebook Connect is Now Live!
BioWare have now added a Facbook connect service, that make it possible to spam your friends with all your awesome in-game accomplishments. If you don’t want to keep your mmo life and real life as separate as possible that is. I guess it works well with the new Friends of SWTOR Program though. Check out the announcement below. Remember also to check out our own facebook page to follow our daily updates. Facebook Connect is Now Live! Now, reaching out and connecting with Facebook friends from your Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ account is faster than the Rakghoul Plague can spread! Connecting to your Facebook account is easy: Log in to your account Visit your My Account page Click on the Facebook Connect link in the left-hand navigation bar and within seconds you’re connected! You can share your awesome in-game accomplishments and invite friends to join you on your saga! Get ready for more…
Star Wars Fan Film: SMUGGLER’S RUN
Here is a brand new Star Wars Fan film by Director Oliver Thompson. The fan film project is named Star Wars: Smuggler’s Run and it’s available to view right now. Check it out below: STAR WARS SMUGGLER’S RUN from Oliver Thompson on Vimeo. Star Wars Smuggler’s Run is a 22 minute fan film, that has been filmed on location at the original sets in Tunisia. The story is set between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. Director Oliver Thompson has written an original story set within the Star Wars Universe. They used guerilla filmmaking techniques to make this movie and edited (video and SPFX) the project on a single Mac Book Pro. The music was composed by Gary Gibbons of World Worm Studios. The short film stars Warren Laker, Rodney Wong, James Gitsham and Kim Haslam, it features the voice talents of Russell Wait, Phil Bagshaw and James Gitsham….
New Friends of SWTOR Program Live (New Rewards)
The new and improved “Friends Of SWTOR Program” is now live with great new rewards! Rewards are retroactive even though they said this would not be the case – which is awesome. What is less awesome is the “within 14 days of signing up” limitation on getting your rewards. Some people referred friends at the launch of the Hutt Cartel expansion but they were unable to play it due to school/work/etc. Now that they’re able to actually play and have the desire to subscribe, I find that I won’t be getting anything for telling them about this game since it’s WAY past 14 days. I guess it’s not too bad though. I’d rather have people to play with than a bunch of droids. Though that speeder would have been nice… Step 1 – Invite Your Friends As an active Subscriber, you have a personal referral link to send to your friends! Refer friends who…
SWTOR Arenas are on the Way: How Will It Affect Gameplay?
SWTOR game update 2.4 is coming in the fall and it’s adding arenas to the game that features the small-scale 4v4 battles. Not all the details are known at this time but we do know that it is an addition to the current Warzones, and adds a new competitive element to PvP in SWTOR. Therefore, it will give players more PvP action after leveling up than you have now. While this is certainly a good thing and many SWTOR players are very excited about this new update, others are not so happy. (No surprise, right?) Adding arenas to The Old Republic has both good and bad points to consider. Based on other MMOs, here are some of the ways adding arenas to SWTOR could affect gameplay. Some Players May Have an Advantage Some players are concerned that adding the arenas will give others players more of an advantage. There has…
Maintenance: August 8th, 2013
BioWare is deploying a quick fix to one of the bugs we told you about yesterday. Patch is about 25 MB and fixes the the cooldown on the Czerka Corporate flashpoints. Check out the patch notes in Ambers forum post below: On August 8th, all game servers will be unavailable as we perform maintenance. Patch 2.3.0a will be implemented during this downtime. Details are as follows: Date: Thursday August 8th, 2013 Duration: 2 hours Time: 3AM PDT (10AM UTC) – 5AM PDT (12PM UTC) Patch Note Flashpoints Completing either Czerka Corporate Labs or Czerka Core Meltdown in Story Mode will now update [WEEKLY] Czerka Takeover (Republic)/[WEEKLY] Czerka Dissolution (Imperial) in all instances. Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.
Only a few days remaining to voluntarily transfer off the SWTOR APAC servers
Just a heads up that On Tuesday, August 13 the APAC servers will be demolished and all characters on them forcibly transferred to a new server. Eric Musco writes;; Hey folks, Just to clear up any confusion from the email yesterday, the consolidations are going to happen on August 13th as listed, which is quite a bit more than one week away. That actually gives you approximately three weeks before the consolidations happen. Just to reiterate, the consolidation will happen in approximately three weeks on August 13th. Sorry for the confusion, thanks everyone! -eric For those of you that will be affected by this consolidation, here the following servers tranfers: Dalborra -> The Harbinger Master Dar’Nala -> The Bastion Gav Daragon -> Bergeren Colony If you’d like to actually choose where your APAC character ends up (you can pick from any non-Asia-Pacific server), you need to follow these instructions: Go…
Varactyl mount is coming!
Check your mail! You should Just have received an email from BioWare saying that there is an upcoming varactyl mount in the new “Freelancer’s Bounty Pack” in SWTOR. The Varactyl was also a rideable mount awarded to any player who bought the digital download edition of Rage of the Wookiees in Star Wars Galaxies. This species of cliff-climbing lizards is native to the planet Utapau. Loyal and smart, these creatures are often ridden for quick transport from one place to another. A loyal, plumed female varactyl named Boga is the mount of choice of Obi-Wan Kenobi during his pursuit of General Grievous in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
Consolidated Bugs Update
With a new patch, comes new bugs. Here is consolidation of all the BioWare posts on the official forums regarding bugs. Post 1 AmberGreen Can’t complete New Frontiers mission for TFB | 08.06.2013, 01:29 PM Hi there folks, We are adding this to the Known Issues today, but New Frontiers/Ancient Allies is currently bugged for players who have already completed the mission “Terror From Beyond” and we’re currently planning to have this fixed in Game Update 2.3.1. Thanks for your reports and patience while we get this resolved for you! Post 2 AmberGreen Kolto Tank/Carbonite Chamber/Chair/Remote Ship do not regen energy. | 08.06.2013, 01:02 PM Hi there! I would like to get some more information from you folks about this to be sure that we catch all instances of this bug. Right now, each item does not appear to be broken across the board for each Class. For instance, in…
Purchase Cartel Coins In-Game – Coming Soon!(TM)
BioWare have some news for us today regarding Cartel Coins. These will in near future be purchasable in-game. This is something that will only increase the number of impulse buys players make. I really get annoyed having to sign into the site, especially having to use the authenticator each time I want to buy some more coins. And, more money should mean more quality content, so I am very happy to see this added. Get ready to purchase Cartel Coins from inside the game! We’re working on a more convenient way for you to purchase Cartel Coins directly from the Cartel Market. Plus, Subscribers will have a limited-time opportunity to save 50% on their first in-game purchase of Cartel Coins! Check back for more details in the coming weeks and get ready for big savings!
Men Roleplaying Females in Games: Where My Girls At?
So here’s a topic I have had with male friends and even with my husband- the topic of males roelpaying females in video games. When you ask where someone stands on this issue, you can get a great deal of varied opinions, something I find really interesting. As for me, I don’t really care. I treat someone as what they represent themselves to be online. Several years ago, I played WoW as a priest in a raiding guild back when 40-mans were the top-tier endgame content. There was another priest, a female Night Elf who was a senior player to me. She taught me how to play priest, how to keep up with the tanks and when to take mana breaks without holding up the whole flow of the run. She taught me a great deal about mastering priest healing in the game and even how to lead healing for…
Blog – Welcome to Game Update 2.3
Senior Producer Bruce Maclean posted a blog post on the new Game update 2.3 and alle the cool stuff that comes with it. The blog posts goes over graphic updates, the new companion Treek, the new TaunTaun mount and off course Czerka Corporation. Check it out below: Hi there! Today we are very excited to release Game Update 2.3: Titans of Industry! This update features Czerka Corporation’s facilities on their privately owned moon, CZ-198, our first animal mount, a game wide palette graphics upgrade, reward vendors for an all new event starting next week, a new companion character and the normal assortment of bug fixes, game tweaks, and continued under the hood performance optimization tweaks. “Titans of Industry” is a new story arc encompassing two new Flashpoints at level 55: Czerka Corporate Labs and Czerka Core Meltdown. These Flashpoints can be accessed by traveling to a small daily mission area, CZ-198 via your ship or the…
SWTOR Companion Guide: Treek
We are super excited about the new SWTOR companion, Treek. We’ve written about her here before and we’re super excited to tell you now how you can get her for yourself! This cute little female Ewok is the companion that everyone wants and lucky for us, BioWare has given us several ways to obtain her. In this blog post from staff, we learn of the different ways to get Treek companion: Our first new Companion Character since HK-51, Treek, arrives with Game Update 2.3: Titans of Industry. This mysterious alien mercenary is available for all character classes, and can be earned in-game or purchased directly from the Cartel Market. To help clarify these different options, here is an explanation of the different means to acquire Treek. All methods begin with acquiring Treek for a single character: From the Cartel Market: The first step to gaining Treek is to purchase the…
Star Wars and Planetary Poker – A Perfect Home for Card Gamers and Star Wars Fans
Today’s television series has enjoyed much enthusiasm from fans of different backgrounds now that there are multiple genres which modern filmmakers, writers, and directors are exploring. One particularly interesting genre that sparks the imagination of its viewers is the sci-fi genre. Although it may not be new to the public, this type of television series dared to go beyond what is currently known and explored the possibilities of non-existent technologies. This kind of setting is well-embodied in the Star Wars series, be it technologies used in warfare like lightsabers or space vehicles like the Millennium Falcon. These gadgets may not exist yet but it cannot be denied that these films have inspired engineers and scientists to develop groundbreaking machinery and tools. Today, we have the likes of Google glass or holograms that back then were once only considered as figments of our playful imagination. With such success, the Star Wars…
Patch Notes – Game Update 2.3 – Titans of Industry
Servers are down for maintenance but patch is up for download via the client for all who want to start patching early. Check out the patch notes below and get ready for Treek and Tauntaun mounts ( as well as many other new things) when the server comes back up. Game Update 2.3: Titans of Industry – 8/6/2013 Highlights CZ-198, a new Level 55 Daily mission area, is now available! CZ-198 is a small, private moon where Czerka Corporation‘s most secret and dangerous data, research and technology is stored. The facility has recently entered an emergency security lockdown, and both the Empire and the Republic have descended on the moon in order to seize control. Details under Missions New Level 55 Flashpoint: Czerka Corporate Labs! Infiltrate Czerka’s corporate headquarters on CZ-198 and take down Rasmus Blys, the Czerka scientist responsible for developing the company’s most dangerous weaponry. Details under Flashpoints New Level…