So many good things are happening in gaming this year. It seems like we just saw the end of Comic Con and we are still sifting through all of the info that came out of it. Now the PAX schedule has been released by Penny Arcade. This is great news for SWTOR fans, too because BioWare will be there with a TOR panel. Here is the schedule and info: Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Force is Strong with This One Main Theatre – Sunday 2:00pm – 3:00pm The master storytellers at BioWare and LucasArts have worked together to create an immersive experience with Star Wars: The Old Republic. The Old Republic team will be in full force at PAX this year, with a new presentation showcasing the development and progress of this genre changing story-driven MMO! Expect new reveals, exclusive gameplay footage, and a Q&A with attendees. Join us!…
The Guardian Says SWTOR Coming In November
SWTOR release date? Such is the fervent desire among Star Wars and MMORPG players these days to find out when we’ll all be able to play SWTOR , that anyone with the actual release date for SWTOR could make an absolute fortune right now. So every time someone reports a date, or even a general time of the year as fact, we’re all bound to pounce on it and further fuel the rumour mill. Today, that reporting body is the UK’s The Guardian newspaper – and despite the track-record of British newspapers in the past few months, we might actually be ready to believe their statement that “Star Wars: The Old Republic is set to launch on PC in November”. That brave statement came at the end of an excellent article on Bioware, in which SWTOR director of production Dallas Dickinson explained why Bioware were brought on-board to build the…
Star Wars Fan Movie Best Comedy: “Solo Forever”
More news from the Star Wars Fan Movie Awards now, as we can announce the winner of the Best Comedy category to be filmmaker Trey Albright’s film Solo Forever. The Los Angeles-based waiter was presented the award by Lucasfilm and Atom at San Diego Comic-Con, and having watched this video a good few times now I whole-heartedly endorse the choice. Solo Forever charts one fan’s attempts to break the cycle of addiction to his Star Wars toys, which brilliantly he draws on a parallel to class A drug abuse, via a Se7en reference or two and a genius Viking style sea-burial for his prized possession. Watch it, love it, share it… For anyone who missed the competition, here’s the low-down from the official Star Wars blog: The Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge is produced by a long-running partnership between Lucasfilm and Atom, to celebrate the best in fan made videos…
James Ohlen Q&A: More SWTOR Info
Many great things came out of SDCC and of the exciting news and interviews, we found one with James Ohlen. An in-depth question and answer session that answers so many questions. This Q&A posted over at Newsrama, is well worth the read. They spoke with Game Director James Ohlen about the new features, release dates, and how fan feedback affects development. The interview starts off with a reference to and question about the incredible success of the pre-order. Newsarama: James, obviously the big news of the convention for you guys was the pre-order going live. Were you expecting any level of the response you got from the pre-order, with Origin.com and Amazon.com selling out in one morning? James Ohlen: The truthful answer is, yeah. Yeah, we know we have a ton of hype. Right now, we have a ton of hype and that puts a lot of pressure on…
EA Reorganizes Divisions: BioWare Now ‘Own Label’
A story reported by Gamasutra says that Electronic Arts is making some changes in their company, including shuffling divisions and calling BioWare their own label. They will now take control of Dragon Age Legends studio EA2D. EA’s Frank Gibeau will run the new “EA Labels” that include BioWare, EA Sports, EA Play and EA Games. This is the first big change to the formation of EA Labels. Basically it means that BioWare is no longer part of EA Games but is instead its own label. Here is some information from the story on Gamasutra: EA Sports president Peter Moore, the former Microsoft executive who helped launch both the Xbox and Xbox 360, has been promoted to chief operating officer of Electronic Arts. According to company filings, he will oversee “EA’s global publishing organization, global online initiatives including the Origin platform, media sales and central development services.”” Finally, the company revealed…
Fan Plays Alderaan Warzone 13 Times at SDCC
Lots of great things came out of San Diego Comic-Con, making me sad that I don’t still live there so I could have attended myself. One of the more exciting stories was from the fan who played Alderaan Warzone 13 times. He was kind enough to gloat about share his experience with the rest of us as follows: “Okay, okay. I was able to hang out at Bioware Base for 4 days and maybe was able to play some PVP matches while camping the lines. It may or may not have been 13 times. Muawhahehahehah. Jealous? I know I would have been if it wasn’t me. It’s taken a bit to collect my thoughts and type all the details up on all my matches, but here it is, folks. I hope there’s no typos or horrific grammar, but this has been a long few days working on this. Be gentle….
Jedi Consular Records
There is power in wisdom, study, and diplomacy. These are the words of the Jedi Consular Records as reported on the SWTOR.com news feed. “There is power in wisdom, study, and diplomacy. The Jedi Consular wields that power with an even hand. Consulars study the mysteries of the Force. They use their knowledge to bring peace, but when words fail, their understanding of the Force makes them dangerous foes. Choose your Consular’s path – become the strong, silent hand of the Jedi Council as a Shadow, or immerse yourself in the mysteries of the Force as a Sage, healing and empowering your allies. Learn more details about the Jedi Consular: · Meet Qyzen Fess, a mighty Trandoshan hunter who joins the Consular’s cause · Find out more about the mystical Mirialan, wise Force-sensitives who often become Jedi Consulars · Take a tour of the Jedi Starship, the Corellian Defender-Class…
2011 SWTOR Launch Claims Reiterated
Star Wars fans feared that the launch of SWTOR would run into 2012 but MCV reports that this is not the case. According to Ben Parfitt, publisher EA states that the game will be released before the year is up. This is great news for gamers who are anticipating the release of this MMO. In January, fans thought the game would be released sometime during the first six months of the year while MCV reported that EA planned to release TOR in September. In May, this SWTOR was completely removed from the “EA’s release schedule” and this got gamers worried. Many begin to believe it would be sometime in 2012 before they would have the chance to play this long-anticipated game. VP Ray Muzyka, co-founder of BioWare and EA senior, put these fears to rest by announcing this is not the case. He told MCV that this game is expected…
Highlights of the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con
Highlights of the San Diego Comic-Con were announced on the official SWTOR site and they were happy to report that “Star Wars: The Old Republic was a big hit at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con!” There were literally thousands of gamers and Star Wars fans showed up to make it a huge success. Excited gamers filled the show-floor booth and the Hilton Gaslamp hotel, which was the base for BioWare. They had the chance to play through an hour of Origin Worlds and Esseles Flashpoints. Some of them even got the unique opportunity to be the very first gamers to play “Player versus Player” combat on the planet Alderaan. SWTOR.com said, “The crowds were incredible and once again we are grateful for the consistently positive responses to the game”. They were happy and amazed to see so many fans (over 2,000) show up to take part in the stimulating “Join…
SWTOR Launch Predictions for Countries Not Initially Targeted
If you live in a region not getting SWTOR on launch, then you might be wondering what’s going to happen for you. When will you get to play? Can you pre-order from the US and play anyway? Will there be restrictions? How bad will lag be? What about avoiding spoiler content until you get the game? Oh yes, EA/Bioware opened a whole new can of worms with this one and there are a lot of opinions about it and whether or not they made the right choice. Games.on.net had a few things to say about this news and some launch predictions of their own. “What a dog’s breakfast. EA, one of the largest publishers in the world, is sitting on an MMO that, in their own words, has broken their all time pre-order records. Meanwhile, Blizzard lounges in their gilded tower, confidently unworried but surely casting a furtive glance in…
IS SWTOR a WoW-killer?
There have been numerous reports and accusations that SWTOR is a WoW-killer. For many, it will be a good thing if it is. Some are tired of WoW and tired of WoW-clones. They’re looking for something new, something to make a big splash in the MMO scene and SWTOR claims to be it. This article on Product-Reviews.net takes a look at this notion and whether or not SWTOR will really be a WoW-killer. “Most gamers will agree that the notion of any such game being able to topple the might of Blizzard’s WoW will be like saying; the Mega Drive can compete with the PS3’s graphics. However, SWTOR has so much more to give gamers, more in fact than Wow, but there is still much more to consider. Gamerzitch has now weighed in on the argument saying that BioWare has developed a game that makes you feel important, but is…
James Ohlen: Companions, Release Date Talk
James Ohlen says large component of SWTOR still un-announced and he explains to Newsarama why this is the case. With all the hype and anticipation that’s been building for this game since it was first revealed, BioWare wants to make sure it lives up to its expectations. The director says “it would be terrible if something went wrong just as the game was getting going,” especially after BioWare has put so much work into TOR for several years. They want to ensure the launch goes smoothly without any major issues. Ohlen also states that any catastrophe such as the games servers going down would be upsetting and disappointing for everyone from the players to the team developing the game, which has worked diligently to get things ready for the big release day. He also said there is more to The Old Republic than what gamers know about so there will…
SWTOR Beta Review
If you’re looking for information about Star Wars: The Old Republic beta play, the good stuff will be few and far between. This is because the people who have access to the beta are prohibited from talking about things that BioWare has not already released publicly, as with any closed beta. Yet, just like with any other popular game in beta, there are going to be leaks. AlterSWTor is one such place where beta leaks exist. This is where we came across an interesting SWTOR Beta review but consider yourself forewarned that SPOILERS exist. Here they have a screenshot from the SWTOR beta forums along with a thorough review about the game from a beta perspective. This is interesting stuff for any fan looking for more info who has not had their own chance to preview or get into beta. The TOR Beta review includes info like: Character Classes (Will…
The Fan Fiction Contest Is Now Underway
Corellian Run Radio discusses the Fan Fiction Contest that is now underway. Kellmorn, Star Wars: The Old Republic forums, is putting on this contest and you can be a part of it by sending in your submission right away. Several forms of submissions are acceptable which include comic, written pieces and audio so choose the one that you can do the best. A sketch must be provided along with the submission of the main weapon or gadget used by the character but don’t worry, it’s not about how good you can draw. It’s so Ironcleaver can produce an award for them. The eight winning submissions will receive a high quality 3D image of the main characters weapons or gadget, which is a unique and exciting prize. The Grand prize winner’s piece will be “acted out and recorded in an audio-book format by The Followers of Palawa”. Each submission is done…
Star Wars Episode VII: Battle of The Old Dudes
Ever since someone got the bright idea of animating a light-saber into that fat jedi kid video the trend has established itself as something of a regular feature on the video sharing site. If we’re perfectly honest, the situation has got a little out of hand lately, and its been fairly done to death. But perseverance is a wonderful thing, and just when you think you’ve enjoyed your last light-saber duel, something like this pops up to side-swipe you and reinvigorate the sub-genre again. It all seems to have escalated from a road rage incidence in rural France, with a fairly drunk looking tractor driver taking out his aggression first on his enemy’s car and then on his body. What ensures, with a little animation magic, is a beautiful thing…
How To Secure your MMO Account
This is a Guest post by Tim Hiteshew. Tim is an IT professional living in the San Francisco Bay Area. He blogs at BloggingTor where he shares his thoughts on all things in the SWTOR universe from character creation to endgame content and everything in between. Imagine the horror waking up one morning and discovering that you couldn’t log into your MMO account. Countless hours of questing along with all of your epic gear, money, and even friends list are now in the hands of a complete stranger. Contacting customer support has proven useless. They have no way to verify that you are the rightful owner to the account and no way to restore everything that you’ve lost. How can you prevent this from happening? Following these simple guidelines will help ensure that you will never see your favorite MMO account on the back of a milk carton. Don’t Share. Forget what you learned on…
The Guild Sphere: Council of the Exalted
Thursday meens a new guild feature here on SWTORStrategies. This time the guild leader of Council of the Exalted took the time to answer our questions. Council of the Exalted is a PVE guild playing the republic side in the conflict. Where did your guilds name come from? Well me and my brother were just throwing out random guild names and then this one popped up and we thought it was awesome so we researched it and no one else had it so we created Council of the Exalted Can you give me a quick 2-3 sentance description of your guild? We are the Exalted, Council of the Exalted. We are the fragile line between victory and complete domination. We are in a word, “winners” Stay cool and keep your hood up. REPRESENT. We accept all classes and any race. How did your guild come about? Started as a family and…
TORWARS.COM Community Highlight = LOLz
You are reading an article on SwtorStrategies, so you clearly have excellent taste in SWTOR fan-sites. That being said, you have got to check out one of our fellow fan-sites TORWARS. Their style is much different than the rest of the community because of their sense of humor. They have a comic called ‘Fail Hunter” that stars the worst Bounty Hunter of all time and his adventures through Star Wars MMO-Land. There a tons of MMO, Star Wars and Nerd jokes to go around. Also their featured articles go in-depth into particular topics like classes, planets and even storm trooper costumes. The podcast has an injection of unsavory humor that is infectious. FTW Broadcasting put together another high quality community highlight video that explores the humor and content that makes TORWARS.COM worth checking out…
Facebook Image of The Week #23
It’s Wednesday again, and we the fans get “treated” with yet another official screenshot of SWTOR. BioWare has just updated the facebook fange page with this nice image: Fighting back an invading boarding party, the Smuggler draws his weapon before the Mandalorian can attack. A fair screenshot I guess, but somehow I want more. There for I searched the interwebs and came across this little jewl, showing off Miralukan eye-bands. Enjoy:
Star Wars Fan Movie Winner: Unlimited Power
Comic Con 2011 was a veritable moving feast of delightful nerdery – from new toys an merch unveilings to those over-subscribed panels and sneak peeks at upcoming films and games. And in amongst the cosplay devotees and the casual dorks alike, the winner of the Star Wars Fan Movie Awards’ prestigious George Lucas Selects Award was chosen and congratulated by a host of nerdy on-lookers. This year’s winner of the award, presented by Lucasfilm and Atom, was Los Angeles-based filmmaker Eliot Sirota for his film, Star Wars: Unlimited Power. The film isn’t your usual fan-made fare in that it doesn’t seek to tell a story of a different part of the Star Wars universe to those shown in both trilogies, preferring instead to take the fake marketing approach that serves many fan poster-makers so well. And it was a deserved winner in my book: The film-maker spoke to The Official…
The Fastest and Funniest LEGO Star Wars Stories Ever Told…
Lego Star Wars has a lot to answer for when it comes to fan-made Star Wars films. Thanks to the accessibility of the medium, and the fact that the internet has somewhat unfortunately made everyone with a camera believe they’re an auteur, there are roughly a million youtube videos featuring the iconic plastic toys, and about 98% of them are unwatchable trash. Praise be to Jabba’s Belly then for those members of that sorry 2% who make it through the net and into my lap, because they can be genuinely brilliant pieces of work, like the following two films, posted by Dzine123, which offer an irreverent and hyper-speed version of both Star Wars trilogies to date. They’ve been around for a while now, but they’re still just about the most awesome thing I’ve seen in a while. And then there’s the Prequels… Dzine123 is already something of a legend in…
How Stuff Works: Battle meditation
Battle meditation was a manifestation of the Force which instilled in the meditator’s allies a greater morale in battle and reduced the enemy’s will to fight. Using the Force, one could coordinate entire fleets of ships, allowing them to perform at maximum efficiency, acting as one to counter every enemy move quickly and effectively. A refinement of battle meditation was known as Force Meld. This Force-power was first made famous by the ancient Jedi Odan-Urr, Arca Jeth and Nomi Sunrider. It was also practiced by Bastila Shan, as well as later Jedi Council members Yarael Poof and Oppo Rancisis, who used it in both the Stark Hyperspace War and the Clone Wars. Bastila Shan supporting the Republic Navy in 3,956 BBY in the Battle of Rakata Prime. (Note: visible Force powers are only a gameplay element.) Battle Meditation was not merely province of the light side; Emperor Palpatine and Grand…
Esseles Flashpoint – more gameplay videos
Last Fridays update gave us a developer walk-through of “The Esseles”, one of the earlier flashpoints in the game. An interesting video with commentary provided by Director of Production Dallas Dickinson. Today a few more videos from the Flashpoint has hit the internet. Check them out below:
Red Rancor Joins FTW Broadcasting in SWTOR FTW Video Series
SWTOR Strategies has been following FTW Broadcasting for a while now, and a recent announcement on their You Tube Channel caught our eye: Red Rancor is joining FTW as a video “contributor” and just released their first video as part of the FTW Team. If you aren’t already familiar with Red Rancor’s V-Cast Series, Ashral covers SWTOR Headlines, Friday Updates, Discusses a Topic of the Week, and answers Fan Questions in his “Mailbag” segment. We love the KOTOR music he uses, and the chilled out tone of the show: In addition to the V-Cast, FTW Broadcasting has their SWTOR FTW Weekly News show that wraps up the entire week’s SWTOR news in 15 mins. This Weeks Episode was about Operations, Sales, Advanced Classes, Sanctuary, and Guilds: You can subscribe to their channel if you like what you see. Let us know what you think in the comments…