BioWare have updated there SWTOR Facebook page with a new weekly Star Wars: The old republic Image. the description goes as this: High among towering mountain peaks on Alderaan, this settlement shows no obvious signs of the growing political unrest that plagues the planet. I really hope that building has some sort of anti-snow on stairs device working. Extremely hard to imagine no snow on a building that is in the highest points of a snowy mountain peak. 5000 years later… BOOOOM!
Entire Star Wars “Return of the Jedi” in MS Paint [GIF]
A long, long time ago in a galaxy quite close to here- it was this column actually- we brought you the first two original Star Wars instalments redone in GIF form on MS Paint by a genius with a lot of time and the kind of dedication that inspired the building of the Death Star. Check out A new hope here and Empire strikes back here Part of those links was a promise that the third and final instalment would follow soon, and here (albeit almost a year later) is the fruit of that promise: The creator- FoldsFive (otherwise known as part-time pixel-masher David Court) offered the following response on Digg when the A New Hope GIF found its way back into the collective Geek consciousness that calls itself the Internet: Sometimes I find myself amazed by the internet. How something I made an age ago can suddenly pick up…
The Guild Sphere: Browncoats
Today I sat down with the leader of the Browncoats, a Republic guild that has an interesting commonality binding them all together, and had a very entertaining interview with her, yes guys a female guild leader and look out, she really knows her stuff, read on for the rest of the interview. Q) Where did your guilds name come from? Firefly (TV show). Browncoats fought for the Independents against the Alliance. “Browncoat” also means you are an avid fan of Firefly / Serenity. Q) Can you give me a quick 2-3 sentence description of your guild? “Tell you, we get a mechanic, get her up and runnin‘ again, hire a good pilot, maybe a cook. Live like real people. Small crew, them as feel the need to be free, take jobs as they come. Ain’t never have to be under the heel of nobody ever again.” — Captain Malcolm Reynolds,…
SWTOR Fan art by Tony Vassallo
In this weeks search for SWTOR Fan art, I came across Tony Vassallo. He goes by the nick name vassdeviant on deviantart.com. Personally I love Tony Vassallo’s comic book kind of art — and apparently I’m not the only one. Tony was selected for a DC talent search portfolio review at C2E2 2010 and was lucky enough to win the coveted $5,000 DC scholarship, which has made him totally fired up to improve his skills over the coming year and hopefully land him a job right out of school. So if you in this business, keep an eye on this guy.. You can check out more his on his personal website here or his deviantart profile here, and off course see some featured art below: Bounty Hunter Mercenary Bounty Hunter Mercenary Pencil Sith Juggernaut Sith Pencils Sith Inquisitor Sith Inquisitor pencils Sith Juggernaut Marauder Pencils Sith Juggernaut pg 1 of 7 Sith…
I’m Chewbacca, And The Rebel Alliance Was My Idea
..or at least, I’m pretty sure that’s what the big hairy fella is saying in the hilarious Windows 7 video parody below anyway. The Chewbacca version is definitely the best, thanks to the glorious inclusion of the clearly clueless Storm Trooper signing a “translation” to what everyone’s favourite Wookie is actually saying. Perfect, perfect touch. The other two parodies are no less than brilliant either, as you’ll see below: Here’s the Storm Trooper… And here is the Cosmic Kraven himself, Darth Vader… Thanks to YouTube user SneakyZebra for posting these videos- and kudos for the quality.
London SWTOR Event roundup
Entryway to London Press Event Last week in London, some very lucky SWTOR fans were able to get a hands-on sneak peak at the game. The upcoming MMORPG from BioWare has fans in the UK and the US drooling for the opportunity to get their hands on it. This London event divided into two seatings of about 50 each and allowed players to go through about an hour worth of plan of the origin planet of the class of their choice. It was then followed by a quick Q&A with the developers, including Writing Director Daniel Erickson and Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid. There are now more than 70 pages worth of content on the SWTOR community boards from people who attended this glorious event. Skimming through those posts will lead you to numerous reviews, news and opinion pieces about the user experience directly from those who…
Sith Speak in a British Accent
Jono Bradley posted an audio log and transcript of the second Q&A session From the SWTOR London Hands-on Event. The session has some interesting answers in it and definitely worth a read/listen. Here’s an excerpt showing a question about accents: Question: Erm; why are all the Empire characters British? Daniel Erickson: That was actually my decision; really early on I wanted too evoke really my memory of the original trilogy and in the original trilogy – although there are a couple of exceptions.. Stephen Reid: Some really weird exceptions; Daniel Erickson: Yeah; you know Kenobi and that sort of thing but all of the officers that are evil have that great sort of upper-class British accent and one of the things we wanted to do at the beginning was – we always have to look at the fact that we know where the history goes; so we know at some…
Know your lore: Dor Gal-ram
Dor Gal-ram was a Sith Lord in the years leading up to the Great Hyperspace War, 5,000 years before the Battle of Yavin. A member of the Sith species, Gal-ram was native to an area of space known as the Sith Empire. After the death of Dark Lord of the Sith Marka Ragnos, Gal-ram sided with one of the contenders for the title, Ludo Kressh. Kressh’s main rival was Naga Sadow, a progressive Sith Lord with expansionist ambitions. In 5,000 BBY, Sadow staged an attack on the Sith Empire, meant to appear like a Galactic Republic assault, and used this opportunity to declare himself the new Dark Lord of the Sith. This led to a schism between Sadow and Kressh, with Gal-ram siding with Kressh. Sadow then staged another raid, this time leaving evidence that he was actually complicit; upon seeing this evidence, an angered Kressh ordered Gal-ram and a…
Star Wars: Building “Empire” by Jamie Benning
A fan documentary like no other on the planet, Jambe Davdar brings us “Building Empire” via YouTube in one huge, insightful project that is more than worth the time it takes to watch them. The result of eight months of hard work, author Jambe Davdar ( or Jamie Benning which is his real name) brings us a collection of all the material from “Star Wars : The Empire Strikes Back” in one epic fan documentary that beats the documentary included in the Bluray boxed set by a longshot. Davda’s labor of love gives us Star Wars fans an extensive look at the making of Episode V with deleted scenes and more background story than you’ve ever heard before. The documentary contains rare alternate takes, production audio, on-screen facts, cast and crew commentary, re-created scenes, storyboards and behind the scenes footage that you will not believe. As you watch, on the top or…
The Art And Making Of SW: The Old Republic Cover
Last month we wrote about an upcoming book about the making of Star Wars: The old republic. The book was announced on Amazon, and will be relised in November this year. Get it here Recently the cover of the book has been reviled, and it looks like this: Here are the details: Hardcover: 160 pages Publisher: Chronicle Books (November 1, 2011) SRP: $ 40.00 Language: English ISBN-10: 0811875008
Friday update: SWTOR Dev Blog – Advanced Classes Update
Following last week’s April Fool’s joke, it looks like BioWare decided to make today’s dev blog entry on the Star Wars: The Old Republic site an in-depth and interesting read. Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller has given players an update on the game’s Advanced Classes, and he covers everything from skill trees to improvements that have been implemented through game testing. Players will choose their advanced class at level 10, and each base class offers two advanced class choices (i.e., the Smuggler will need to select either the Gunslinger or Scoundrel as her advanced class). Each advanced class provides two exclusive skill trees and shares a third tree with the other (non-selected) advanced class. Zoeller also covers how the team makes these important class-changing decisions. He shows off a couple of images from their metrics system that feature death details and character movement on Ord Mantell. Of course, the…
SWTOR: The Past and the Present
RedRancor have created yet another movie you definitely should check out. This time he takes a journey from 2008 to today through all of the work that BioWare has done on Star Wars: The Old Republic. The movie is 30 min long, and features some of the classic Star Wars music from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. This video delves through all of the imagery released by BioWare for their upcoming MMO. If you didn’t catch his last video about healing in SWTOR Check that one out to:
God Says Minecraft, RIFT & SWTOR Are Turning Your Children Gay
Well not God exactly, more Bryan Blake, ChristWire Network Host and “Radio Guru”, who has some, let’s say interesting, views on the effect that certain video games, including SWTOR are having on the impressionable young minds of gamers all over the world. Blake seems to have particular problems with the over-use of phallic idols (i.e. great big willies masquerading as things like light sabres and Creepers), which he claims have been hidden in video games by some mass homosexual conspiracy with an agenda to “poison” gamers. I’m sorry Mr Blake, but let’s break this down for a minute: I personally think that it is the person who insists that everything shaped a bit phallus-like penile who has the pre-occupation with penises. So, I’m going to revert to the age-old, scientifcally sound theory that It Takes One To Know One. Here’s a sample quote of what the faith-wielding, jargon-spouting Idiot Savant…
The Guild Sphere: The Knight’s Who Say Ni
This week I sat down with Jono from “The Knight’s Who Say Ni”, for a quick question and answer session about The guild and their expectations for Star Wars The Old Republic. Check it out after the jump: Q. Where did your guilds name come from? A. The guilds name is from “Monty Python”, anyone who doesn’t know what that is should go and look it up. It’s very funny. Q. Can you give me a quick 2-3 sentance description of your guild? A. The Knights Who Say Ni has been around for a 4 years now; KWSNi is a multi-game guild which includes plenty of experienced gamers. We’re on a mission to recruit new members and play The Old Republic with style. Q. How did your guild come about? A. The current iteration of the guild was formed in LOTRO at release by 2 members from DAOC’s KWSNi, so…
Script Changes That Could Have Saved The Star Wars Prequels
Those purveyors of finest Geek humour at Dorkly have published a hilarious list of seven script changes that could have made the Star Wars prequels trilogy. And I have to say I agree with pretty much all of them, especially the Darth Maul line below: I’ve always thought a spin-off or prequel dedicated to Maul’s story would be the best approach to extending the franchise again. But then, sometimes, it becomes clear that logic and intellectual progression aren’t always the driving forces behind the Star Wars universe. Anyway, here are the images in question… Head over to Dorkly for the other four suggested changes. Remember to follow me on Twitter @SiTheMovieGuy for further ramblings on everything geek related (or head over to ObsessedWithFilm.com to read my movie based writings).
Facebook Image Of The Week #7
It’s wednesday, and BioWare have posted another Facebook Image on there official Facebook page. This description of the image goes as following: The experimental high-tech systems on the X-70B Phantom require frequent maintenance and diagnostics.
Another look at the character selection screen and London Hands-on Event Impressions
Even though no news sites are allowed to posts images or write reviews about the UK Press Event a few pictures has already shown up. This one was posted by Stephen Reid, who buys his contact lenses online, via Twitter just before guests showed up: I expect many interesting reviews, pictures and movies to show up the comming weeks, until then, we have to settle for the hands on that was posted on the official forums Many of you are aware of the UK Community Event we’re holding at Gamerbase, where community members get some hands-on time with the game. If you got to play, we want to hear your impressions! If you’re one of the lucky folks who attended the event, let us know how it went for you and share your impressions with your fellow community members. I know everyone is eager to hear your stories, and the whole…
Cracked.com Shows Why ‘Star Wars’ Is Secretly Terrifying for Women
Had to share this one from the geniuses at Cracked.com who have consistently been making me spit coffee out of my nose since I started avidly reading the site some time back. Look out for further adventures in movie philosophising from the After Hours team, as they tackle life’s most important questions: including Which Ninja Turtle Are You? A question I have lost a good few nights worth of sleep to, I have to admit. Turns out I’m April O’Neill. Sometimes the mystery is better than the truth… Anyway, who’d have thought George Lucas was a big ole sexist?
Played Dragon Age II? Get Mass Effect 2 Free
You loved Dragon Age II to the tune of 1 million unit sales in under two weeks, and now BioWare wants to love you back–by handing out free downloadable copies of sci-fi roleplaying epic Mass Effect 2. The PC version, that is. “””As a special thank you for helping with the game’s early success, BioWare would like to present you with a download code for 2010’s Game of the Year, Mass Effect 2 on PC,” it said on a page dubbed “The BioWare Sequel Celebration.””” The company also revealed Dragon Age II was faster off the mark than its predecessor, Dragon Age: Origins–no slow-starter itself. If you want to grab your copy of Mass Effect 2, you have until April 30th at 11:59pm PDT. And the offer’s not just for existing Dragon Age II owners: All you need to snag a code is a copy in hand before that end-of-month…
The Guild Sphere Returns
I am very proud to announce the return of the guild sphere, a weekly column featuring some of the more prominent guilds for Star Wars: The old Republic. With so many new guilds popping up on the forums I felt it would be good to showcase some of the guilds for those that haven’t found their perfect guild yet, or are looking for some guilds to ally with. Some guidelines though, please be sure your guild is at least 4 months old, no Vapor guilds please. Please be sure to include a link to your guilds website if you have one and/or your guilds page on the SW TOR forums, as well as your guilds current thread. Please send info to ralley752@gmail.com with Guild Sphere in the subject line. A little about myself, started getting serious into gaming shortly after joining the military, since then competed and won a few…
SWTOR PAX East 2011 Highlight Video
BioWare just published a short video showing some of the highlights from this years Pax East. The video provides footage of fans rushing to the SWTOR booth, as well as fans standing in line and talking about what they experienced. We also get to see clips of Daniel Erickson and Stephen Reid at the Space Combat Demonstration. The video definitely captures the excitement of being at PAX East. Check it out below:
Awesome Street Art “I Am Your Father”
I love Street Art (even if Banksy’s gone a bit too bonkers for my liking recently), and find the culture of making art readily accessible to everyone by their position in full view on street walls, and other ingenious urban canvases. Trawling through the net yesterday, I discovered this little beauty, which probably owes a lot to Banksy’s style (given the humorous tone and stencil work), but which in itself is pure brilliance… Don’t know about you lot, but I think it’d make a great poster addition to my already way too dorky movie room at home. From Norwegian street artist Dolk
How Stuff Works: Valley of the Dark Lords
The Valley of the Dark Lords, also known as Valley of the Sith Lords was a valley and burial ground of Korriban’s Sith Lords. The Sith Great Temple was located in the valley. A number of different layouts and appearances have been given to the valley in various publications. This is, in the case of video games, mostly due to memory restraints and practicality. For instance, its appearance in Knights of the Old Republic lends itself to being easily traversed and places less demand on hardware than a full scale valley. In Darth Bane: Path of Destruction it was found that the road from the Academy to the Tombs was actually quite long and the area that the actual Valley was barren and harsh, hard to travel through for even the Sith Lords. In Jedi Academy, on the other hand, the valley is designed similar to the appearance of the…
Mos Eisley Radio host Joins The SWTOR Team
Brooks Guthrie, co host on the popular Mos Eisley Radio podcast, has been hired as audio editor at BioWare Austin, to work on up and coming SWTOR videos. Brooks will be working with Brandon Miletta, who were formerly host on the TOROcast podcast. Mos Eisley Radio was the 1st site to be featured in SWTOR’s Fan Site Spotlight, and has grown big audience over the time. In their most recent podcast the guys made it clear that Mos Eisley Radio and Open Bounty will continue as a podcasts with a new unannounced host. All the best to wishes to Brooks Guthrie getting a dream job on the SWTOR Team.