Our friend OneMinuteGalactica is at it again. This time he has gone and farted up Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. If you enjoy this you are juvenile and immature. If you hate this you are pompous and need to loosen up a little bit. As rude and as crude as fart videos are…. who doesnt love the superb matching of the faces with the sounds of disgusting bubble farts?
Damion Schubert On The Death Penalty
The death penalty of various MMORPGs is a topic of interest to many people – I’ve seen a number of thought provoking posts, and what is a more cheerful topic than death of your virtual avatar. Yesterday Damien Schubert made a great post about this issue on the official Star Wars: the old republic forums. In summary, the death penalty of a game is a powerful tool which strongly influences how much risk the players are willing to take. Theoretically you could make a game with permadeath, where when your character dies, you need to roll a new one. Obviously in such a game you would see people not even daring to attack to bunny without a group. Given how many fights you do in a MMORPG, even a 1 in 1000 chance to die would be far too dangerous. In games with corpse runs and lots of xp loss,…
The Old Republic To Be Released This Fall?
According to mcvuk.com, the long awaited release of Star Wars: The Old Republic is now schedule for September 2011, not Spring 2011. This is not confirmed by Bioware yet though, but looking at the current state of beta, I’m not surprised if it’a true. Still I have to say that I am very sad that I can’t get it now; well this does give me a bit more time to buy a new gaming computer for all the new specs my computer now can barely dish out. Still, I am very sad. I am going to play the heck out of this game unlike WoW I will have hundreds of really powerful characters by the time BioWare releases something new and with that I won’t have a life anymore, lol. This game is predicted that it will last as long as the rest of the decade. I’m happy for all of us, Yay!
May the schwartz be with you: A Honky Tonk in Cloud City
Kick ass mashup of the Coasters song, “Down in Mexico”, set to The Empire Strikes Back. Dripping with coolness! The rhythm and timing to the imagery is awesome!
SWTOR – The risky investment by EA
World of Warcraft is, without reason of doubt, one of the best successes on the market that, even though it has aged and should have been dead already (in theory only – because game rarely “live” more that 2 years). But WoW is still the leader, the moneymaker, the game that drives so many people crazy – destroys marriages, makes people rich and so on. And it keeps going. A hit MMO like that can be an huge thing for the investors on Wall Street. If a MMORPG has success, it can offer a certain degree of predictable revenue. For example, there’s a certain degree to which World of Warcraft subscription revenues are a sure thing each quarter for Activision Blizzard. Electronic Arts and BioWare are well aware of the stats, and they’re making sure their entrant in the genre is well prepared: EA is spending more money on the…
RIFT review – RIFT Better then SWTOR?
Last week I wrote about the upcoming MMORPG – RIFT created by Trion Worlds. Back then I mentioned that I might be picking up a copy for their hard earned effort. Right now I have changed my mind though. Watching the Yogcast 1 hour review of RIFT on Youtube I have to admit I lost all interest in the game. First of all the game looks too much like WoW. Not that there is anything wrong with World of Warcraft, but as Aion, Warhammer online, Age of Conan and other WoW clones found out – it just doesn’t work. The guys in the Vcast liked how the game looks, but fancy graphics just doesn’t cut it anymore. Actually Remove the graphics and give me a good old fashion MUD if the game play is good. The second reason I won’t be playing Rift is the fantasy genre. I am just fed up with it. One more dragon and I’ll puke! Apparently I stand alone with this…
Know your Lore: King Adas
Adas was an ancient Sith warlord who lived circa 28,000 BBY, long before the exiled Dark Jedi of the Hundred Year Darkness conquered his species. He used his knowledge of the dark side of the Force to conquer and subjugate his homeworld, which he ruled as king.Adas, in holocron form, first appeared in a brief vignette featured in the 1996 sourcebook, Tales of the Jedi Companion, written by George R. Strayton. His role and biography was later expanded in 2006’s Evil Never Dies: The Sith Dynasties, written by Abel G. Peña. In that article Adas is identified to have been a member of the Sith species, and to have had interactions with the Rakata introduced in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Adas’s character would later further be used and expounded upon in 2007’s Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force by Ryder Windham. Korriban, Adas’s world….
More Space Combat footage in Jace Hall Show Episode 11
The Jace Hall Show Episode 11 has just lounched! (watch the movie below) This time it showcases more of the Space Combat that the last episode teased us with . Two new pieces of information is revealed in this video: 1) You can make your ship do a barrel roll by pressing the space bar. 2) It looks like space combat has a soft auto targeting feature. I guess this makes it more user friendly but whether that’s good or bad you have to decide. I also like how Jace Hall showed a flash of Star Trek online box art when they were explaining what NOT to do in a MMORPG. Timestamps for the Bioware scenes in the below movie are as follows: 1:35-2:32 3:29-4:01 5:57-6:37
How to create your own SWTOR Podcast
Ever wanted to create your own SWTOR Podcast. It seems to be the hot thing these days. Personally I have a hard time going through some of the 75 min long monstrosities that seems to be really popular within the SWTOR community. That’s also the main reasons we don’t have our own podcast here at swtorstrategies. we do however post our favorite podcast – created by torwars – on our facebook page when they come out. However… If you want to create your own podcast, the guys over at Mos Eisley Radio ( these guys also run a cool podcast that I recommend) has put together a video overview that covers the basics of creating a podcast. A must see if you a new at creating podcast, or you are thinking about making one. Easily the most common question we have received since posting the first episode of Mos Eisley Radio is “How do you make the podcast?” From deciding…
Friday Update: New Planet – Quesh
This Friday BioWare awaits us with a new poisoned planet called Quesh. The planet looks and sounds like a Hutt holiday resort, and from the description that’s not entirely wrong. Well, except that none of the Hutts involved are really happy with the whole thing, but that’s probably just a Hutt thing. In a distant corner of Hutt Space, the poisonous planet Quesh orbited untouched for centuries, until the surprising discovery of rare adrenal chemicals drew the Galactic Republic to further explore this dangerous world. Unable to process the chemicals into adrenals, however, the Republic was forced to turn to the Hutts for help. Recently, the Sith Empire learned of this secret and lucrative operation, and swiftly came to steal the prize. The battle over this toxic treasure may be one of the most brutal ground conflicts the galaxy has ever seen, but the winner will gain access to powerful…
Daniel Erickson: The “Treaty” of Coruscant
Daniel Erickson has given us more story with what is going on in the worlds we have yet to explore. With the conquered world of Coruscant in the hands of the Empire, The Emperor has issued a treaty to The Republic. This treaty is give peace to both sides but the Empire has clear advantage of power over the Republic they could win with enough time in my opinion, but I guess even evil needs to take a holiday. It couldn’t be that peace is the only agenda that this treaty has to offer in my opinion. Daniel Erickson also says that the attack on Coruscant took years to plan making me believe that this treaty is foot hold in Republic space without taking a step back. The empire can play dirty without causing to much suspicion, but I’m not so sure that the Republic can do that and especially…
EA crowned top publisher of 2010
Electronic Arts has been named the leading games publisher for the second year in a row. The firm took the biggest share of the UK games market in 2010 in terms of revenue generated from games and units sold – as it did in 2009. Data from GfK Chart-Track revealed that Activision Blizzard and Nintendo took the second and third biggest share of the market in terms of value, while Ubisoft and Nintendo were the No.2 and No.3 publishers in terms of games sold. 2010 was also a bumper year for Microsoft as Xbox 360 took the biggest console market share. It took 35.2 per cent of the market in terms of value and 28.9 per cent of total retail game sales. To see the full charts and analysis, read the top publishers of 2010 list.
TOR Is In Sight
On our three year trip to a galaxy far, far away I need this. With Stephen Reid revealing another healer but has kept his lip tight on which advance class it actually is. I believe they haven’t gotten that far yet, which class do you think that would make a great healing class? Whichever it is I can dig it. Stephen likes to take the philosophy of not talking too much giving the excitement of game without revealing it all. Read more of Star Wars: The Old Republic: Speaking Up by Michael Bitton.
Unknowing Compition For SWTOR?
I have recently read an article that has stated an older game called RIFT created by Trion Worlds that is at least two years old has flopped in their previous trails to envelope the MMO community. But in these recent times Trion Worlds has seemed to be working on their game really well that ones that can beta test this game have really nice things to say, but can it compete with the release of the MMO that everyone and thier pets are waiting for SWTOR. RIFT is in the genre of D&D style, a truly fantasy like world, but can we accept a game like this with so many other games in the same world, Vanguard, LOTR, and DDO. I don’t know, maybe. I can say that I am intrigued in a game that rereleased itself so it can have fighting chance in our Massive Multiplayed World. I’m picking a copy, are You? Read more by Brian Rowe on RIFT vs Star Wars: The…
Amazing Star Wars art by Randy Gentile
Randy Gentile started his careerer as an intern in the famous Marvel Bullpen and was able to turn that into a full-time gig in the now defunct Marvel in-house lettering department. He later transitioned to Chris Eliopoulos’ Virtual Calligraphy lettering studio. With VC he lettered damn near every Marvel book at one time or another including Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Uncanny X-Men, Punisher, and Daredevil. After 7 years Randy decided to make a go of it on his own without the aid of “Obi-Wan” Eliopoulos. Since then he’s begun lettering for DC Comics where his work can be seen in funny books like Batman, Detective Comics, Gotham Underground, Teen Titans and Booster Gold. Outside of his lettering work he self-publishes an autobiographical comic called NYComix, which has been featured numerous times on the popular comic book podcasts Fanboy Radio and Comic Geek Speak. In 2010 he…
Coruscant? Republic Only!
For all the guys (and girls) who will be fighting for the Empire and who wanted to visit Coruscant – we have bad news for you. Stephen Reid just said: Coruscant will be for Republic only. So will be Dromund for the Empire. Georg Zoeller confirmed that you will be able to respecc within your advanced class. If you can change your AC is not sure yet. It isn’t going to be able to change your class at all.
The Jace Hall Show visits BioWare
The Jace Hall Show is a video game show hosted by Jace Hall consisting of interviews with celebrities and those involved in the video game industry. The Jace Hall Show is a production of HDFILMS and is distributed by IGN Entertainment. In this episode Jace Hall took a trip down to Austine to visit Bioware. Out of that came some strange stuff, along with some new space footage at end. Enjoy:
Faction lore: Czerka Corporation
Czerka Corporation, founded as Czerka Mining and Industrial, was a galaxy-spanning business. It controlled interests on Korriban, Kashyyyk, Taris, Tatooine, Telos IV, and countless other planets. In Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II—The Sith Lords, although not the primary villain, Czerka is presented as an amoral entity; not only they are allied with the Sith but frequently use underground means for their ends, such as stealing from rivals, having financial motivation for everything, using violence and slavery, hiring mercenaries, smuggling of weapons, etc. They will often ask the player some jobs which are generally “dirty.” In general, Czerka are the secondary villains, and the player follows the Czerka quests if he chooses the dark side options. However, that doesn’t mean that Czerka is a representative of the Dark Side or her employees are inherently evil: the Tatooine quests are the…
Planets of Star Wars the old republic: Nar Shaddaa
Nar Shaddaa was the largest moon of Nal Hutta. More commonly known as the Vertical City, the Smuggler’s Moon and Little Coruscant, Nar Shaddaa was similar to Coruscant in that its surface was entirely overgrown with city sprawl since 24,500 BBY But unlike Coruscant – which was only relatively dangerous on the lower levels of the world city – Nar Shaddaa was filthy, polluted, and infested with crime throughout. History When the Hutts left their homeworld of Varl, they displaced the Evocii, native to Nal Hutta, to Nar Shaddaa in 25,000 BBY and immediately destroyed the remaining Evocii agriculture after the Evocii’s eviction from their own homeworld. Eventually the moon was annexed by the Hutts, who started to force the Evocii into slave labor, building spaceports and docking bays across its surface, some stretching out into orbit. Although the moon’s urbanized construction had just started, it quickly began to prosper,…
Know your lore: Loppak Slusk
Loppak Slusk was a male Quarren crime boss on Citadel Station representing the Exchange, an intergalacitc crime syndicate. Instructed by G0-T0, the Nar Shaddaa crime boss, Slusk came to Citadel Station over Telos to try and integrate the Exchange into the new Telos. Making an alliance with the Czerka Corporation brought the attention of the Jedi Exile, a Jedi who happened to have a bounty on her head. When Slusk tried to collect the bounty, the Exile resisted, and Slusk’s operations almost came to an end. He appeared in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords Biography Around 3,951 BBY, Slusk was instructed by his boss, the Exchange crimelord Goto, to start a new Exchange cell on Citadel Station. After the planet Telos was bombarded by the Sith Empire, the massive Citadel Station had been constructed to serve as a home for displaced Telosians as well…
Star Wars Rarities: Han & Leia Deleted Scene from Episode V
Here is a great deleted scene. It takes place on Bespin (Cloud City) as they are struggling with trusting Lando. I think it’s a great scene because it really does a better job at establishing the romantic relationship between Han and Leia. For your eyes only: I squealed with girlish delight as I watched it! I wish they hadn’t taken it out. There’s just something about a Scoundrel and a Princess that makes my heart melt every time I think about it. If you didn’t see the lost scenes of Star Wars a new hope, check em out here.
Friday Update: Starship Design, Fan Q&A
BioWare has posted two updates on the Star Wars: The Old Republic site today: a Fan Friday segment and a Studio Insider article that contains a developer Q&A and an in-depth look at the creation of the X70B-Phantom starship. The Studio Insider article contains the meat of today’s update. Senior Concept Artist Ryan Dening and Senior Environment Artist Christopher Reeves provides a ton of detail on how an in-game ship is created, and the Q&A with Senior Producer Blaine Christine answers some interesting questions that were submitted by fans on the official forums. Community Q&A We took some of your questions from the last Community Q&A thread to Senior Producer Blaine Christine to get answers, and here they are! Q: How diverse can I expect the enemies to be? (asked by mattjorgdbb) A: Our Design team and Artists have been putting a lot of time and effort into ensuring that…
Fan Friday
As always, the Fan Friday segment contains New Fan Stuff by the Geeks to the Geeks. The most noteworthy portion is the announcement that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be present at PAX East this year. The convention will be held from March 11-13 in Boston, Massachusetts. Other then that you can find tons ofother cool stuff: New Smilies and avatars pics for www.swtor.com. Dont miss the New Studio Insider this month for an in-depth look at the design of the Agent starship and more Community Q&A answers. If you have some talents you wish to share then visit the community forums. Greighson from the SWTOR forum community created Sith-themed propaganda. Another member named Crypticgrrl detailed close-up portraits. They look really awesome. There are Some really nice Fan Fic work. The story’s called Final Ex a member named Kharnis. If I finish any of my Star Wars stories then…
Georg Zoeller reveals more info on healing
On the official German Forums for Star Wars: The old republic – Georg Zoeller (Zöller??), Principal Lead Combat Designer – did some more explaining about healing in SWTOR Quote from Bench Alright , but i don’t believe in healing Troopers, Jedi, Sith or Bounty Hunters Georg: Two Healers are in that listing. Who exactly? Sorry, won’t tell just yet Georg: To be a little more precise than in the English forums Each Side will have four starter classes with 2 advanced classes each , starting at lvl 10 Three of those starter classses can choose an advanced class that’s a full value healer with the respective abilities Check out the original post here (scroll down to his post) Below is the German version: Um ein wenig praeziser zu sein als im Englischen Forum. Jede Seite hat vier Start Klassen mit jeweils zwei Erweiterungs Klassen waehlbar ab Level 10. Drei dieser…