Are you a fan of Darth Malgus? Would you be enough of a fan to buy this action figure? Darth Malgus will now be an action figure, thanks to Hasbro. This is pretty cool news for any SWTOR or Star Wars fan and collector. Stephen Reid tweeted a picture of the action figure this week. ToyArk.com announced at the Hasbro Star Wars panel that Darth Malgus will be available as Wave 3 of the Star Wars Vintage Collection this coming April. Since he is expected to be a major character in the game, this is fun and exciting news. On their website, ToyArk also has some great slideshows from the Star Wars panel and some other SWTOR and Star Wars related news. It’s definitely worth heading over to check out their slides and stuff.
SWTOR
NYCC 2011: STAR WARS THE OLD REPUBLIC Panel
It’s what we’ve all been waiting for at NYCC- the Star Wars panel! What kind of fun, exciting info is coming out of there today? Fans are hungry for info and NYCC attempts to give us anything new they can at Friday’s panel. Newsarama has been giving us the best coverage to come out of NYCC and has this to say about the Star Wars Panel: BioWare Austin’s Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid led the panel, joined by Game Director James Ohlen, Writing Director Daniel Erickson, and Cory Butler, Live Producer. They went on to provide an overview of the game (in case anyone in attendance actually did not know already) and Reid explained the backstory a bit. “But we’re making an MMO, not a movie, and gameplay is very important to us as well,” said Reid. Those of us following SWTOR already know all too well how important story…
GDC Online 2011: SWTOR’s Georg Zoeller and Game Feedback
We’re getting closer to the SWTOR launch and we’re trying tokeep you updated on everything relevant and interesting about the game. At this year’s GDC Online Principal Lead Combat Designer GeorgZoeller demonstrated some of the tools that the team uses to analyze playerfeedback and data, and then he explained how, through sophisticated technology,the team can make appropriate adjustments to the game as it wraps up betatesting and prepares for launch. Massivelycovered this story and it’s nearly 1,000 words of info on the game, much of itstraight from Zoeller himself. Massivelysays: He detailed what content creationinvolved, starting with assets, including creatures (which can take up to manyyears of work), static geometry, dynamic objects, special effects, visualeffects, and animations. Testing has gone on for more than a year, and BioWarehas gone through several iteration cycles. Each time the devs test, they gainfeedback and make necessary improvements. This is interesting to anyone currently…
Stephen Reid interview on Newsarama
Star Wars: The Old Republic‘sSenior Community lead Stephen Reid did a live interview today with Newsarama. He talked about his launchbeard (no shaving until TOR launch), about the importance of story and how muchfans are really looking forward to it. He talked about how he likes to playSmuggler but is waiting for launch and that he enjoys the Bounty Hunter. There aren’t any big reveals planned for NYCC, apparentlybut there are some “visuals” on the way. Maybe that means we will see some newtrailers or something. Another interesting bit from the interview was thatBioWare intended to announce the launch of SWTOR at NYCC but things did not go accordingto plan. Newsarama has a livestreaming event cam at New York Comic Con on their website. The fullschedule is also listed on the home page. Stay tuned here throughout the weekend for more news from NYCC.
Star Wars: The Old Republic Will Feature Achievements at Launch
Many MMOs that we have come to love feature achievements andStar Wars: The Old Republic will notbe any different. However, the type of achievements will be a little differentfrom what you may be used to, at least at first. These are not your typical WoW-typeachievements. At this time, Daniel Erickson, the lead writer of Biowarestated that “achievements” would appear in SWTOR when it launches. However, theones that appear with the launch will be detailed achievements for doing heroicthings such as fighting the bosses on each planet. Just what kind of achievements are we going to see on ship? Erickson explains to DarthHaterat Eurogamer Expo: They’renot going to be the achievements, the crazy achievements that you have to placeeverywhere, that are like, “Hey if you drink 6 beers and fart in acantina,” those are not going the achievements to go in. Version 1 of theachievement system which go in, which is…
Guild Alignment Begins- SWTOR News
In other news today, BioWare announced that official Guild Alignment begins on their news page. The important bits: “With Phase 2: Alignment, we are introducing new features which allow guilds to set their allegiance with other guilds in The Old Republic. Now a guild leader, along with members who have the proper permissions, can select up to three guilds as either Allies or Adversaries, depending on their faction affiliation. Qualifying guilds that are marked as Allies and Adversaries of other guilds will have the highest chance of being placed in the game together, allowing these guilds to coexist on the same server. Another feature being implemented with Phase 2 is the ability for guild leaders and members with the proper permissions to invite friends to join their guild via email. You can start recruiting new members today!” So there you have it. If you’re a guild owner like me,…
EA at Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference: SWTOR to Release in March Quarter?
Or is it? I love to keep up withwhat is happening at EA and with gaming in general. Since Eric Brown,CFO of Electronic Arts, is at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference, Iwanted to listenin to the call to see if any important infomraiton was disclosed about EA,BioWare and of course, Star Wars: The Old Republic, a huge source of thefinances of EA right now. If investor financial calls are not your thing, you’velucked out because I took a listen and I will pass on the important bits toyou. The conference happened at 1:10P PT / 4:10P ET and containeda lot of the usual boring bits. I entertained myself messing around on Twitter a bit and waiting forgood parts. One of the most interesting questions was in regards toSWTOR: Q:Can you give any updates on how pre-orders and awareness level are trackingagainst your milestones and what are some of the factors…
Empire to outnumber Republic 2-to-1 on PVP Servers?
Where’s the balance? The game isn’t even released yet and already people arecrying about imbalance. Is there a legitimate basis to this claim? A post on the official SWTORforums seems to think so. The poster, Aneu,brings up some stats and facts about the game so far in beta stage and hisconcerns for the current state of play. He pulls some stats from another threadon the forums that show a trend in number which favors the Empire to theRepublic. He then brings uphis concerns: “Thisis very worrying indeed. My main focus on this post is the pvp balance withregards to OWPvP and server balance. How is it possible to make balancedservers with these types of numbers? You have almost double the amount ofguilds going Empire, what will happen? Will Bioware make servers where thereare just Empire since there is an overflow of Empire guilds/members or will theRepublic be put up against…
SOE Says SWTOR Can Hit 2 Million Subscribers
As we grow closer and closer to the date that SWTOR will release, we hear more talk about subscribers, player base and just how many people we can expect to be playing the game. BioWare expect it to be so big that that are putting restrictions on the initial sale and release of the game. Now an industry expert says we might see 2 million subscribers. John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment believes that BioWare might see some big numbers with SWTOR. “It’s fair to say that subscriptions are likely going to be a strong component of revenue for the foreseeable future, although I don’t believe they will be remotely as dominant over time,” Smedley wrote in an exclusive opinion piece for GamesIndustry.biz. This is actually impressive news in the online video gaming industry where more and more games are going free-to-play, particularly over at Sony. Just today, SOE…
SWTOR vs. WoW – How They’re Similar, and How They’re Not (Infographic)
We often compare SWTOR With World of Warcraft. Some might ague that this is wrong as it is two different games in two different settings. While I agree with that argument, it’s only fair to say that World of Warcraft is the dominating MMORPG in the world and there for the only game to compare against when we talk new MMO’s, and there is no question that these two games will come head-to-head in the MMO battle of the decade. Gamefront.com has put together this chart showing some prevalent features and which of the two titles possess them. Check it out:
PAX Will Have a “Big Reveal” Regarding Companions
We’re all excited to hear all of the SWTOR news coming out of PAX this year but MMORPG.com has given us one more reason to get excited about PAX. In an interview with Rich Vogel, we learn some great things about the game as well as some things most of us already new. Still, it was a solid interview that’s worth the time to read over. The real big news came at the very end with a reference to a “big reveal” about companions at PAX. From the article by Carolyn Koh: “Companion characters will not be able to die,” said Rich, “we try not to let players do things that will hurt themselves. Companions can, however, be hurt, be captured, and not be able to adventure with your for a while.” There was more to the Companion system that I asked about, but they were saving it for a…
Stephen Reid Clarifies Details on Operations
Stehen Reid posted in the official forums to clarify some issues and details about Operations. “To clear some of this up… First of all, loot containers. After every boss is defeated during a normal difficulty Operation, every player will receive a loot container. Inside that container each player gets a chance for loot specific to them, or commendations that can be exchanged for other loot. So to be specific (because this seems to be confused by PC Gamer) that happens after each boss is defeated in a normal difficulty Operation, and not just once at the end of the Op. (There are multiple bosses in Operation: Eternity Vault for example.) Second, Gabe was misquoted a bit on the lockout thing (it’s a bit loud here on the show floor!). There are lockouts, but they are designed to be ‘flexible’. This means, for example, if I have killed Boss 1 in…
Giant Official Gamescom Coverage Links on the SWTOR Forums
If you want to keep up with anything and everything from Gamescom, then this official list on the forums will help you do just that. All you have to do is visit the link and then scroll down to the relevant day to find the links to information and coverage fresh from Gamescom so you can stay fully updated on everything. It even features old info from Gamescom 2009 and 2010. For 2011 you will find dates, schedules, timelines and of course, links to coverage of the events each day. Some Friday highlights include: Written:Huttball Preview: Here SWTOR Preview: Here Interview with Emmanuel Lusinchi (Written in German, Video in English): Here In Depth look at Huttball: Here Video:The Doctors Interview: (Starts around 4:20) Here Cliff Notes from it: – Not shipping with a built in Chat program. – Beta Weekends in the fall. – Guild Phase 2 is coming very…
Full Alderaan PVP Match on Video
This 20+ minute video from THE-FORCE.EU features a full Alderaan PVP match, mostly from the point-of-view of gunslinger as well as some views of Eternity Vault. You will see a whole PVP Warzone playthrough on Alderaan, Trailer for Huttaball, Some Footage from the Bioware Booth and some more gameplay from the Eternity Vault.
SWTOR Will have a Limited Release, Not Just Pre Orders
The wait is over! … Or is it? If you plan on playing SWTOR you should buy ASAP because the news is out that there will be a limited release, and not just on preorders. When the news was first announced by EA that pre-orders were ready, gamers scrambled to ensure they would get one of several limited Collector’s Edition copies of the game. But now the news seems to be the same for any edition you want to buy and not just for pre-orders. Game Informer reports that there will be limited copies of all versions of the game- both digital and physical. Just how many copies will that be? Well, your guess is as good as ours because they’re keeping the number secret. The report says: “The representative said that EA has an exact number set for how many copies will be sold before the publisher turns off…
First SWTOR Guild already Blacklisted
A couple of days ago, David Bass (@doctordake) tweeted, “I’ve blacklisted our first guild. Congratulations, dumbass.” Once we got over the giggles, we wanted to see who it was. Who wouldn’t be interested in the details of the first guild blacklisted from SWTOR? The speculation about who they were and what they did was hilarious (TP’d Bass’ house, naming violations, etc) but the real reason was likely less interesting. There was almost instantly a thread about it on the forums but of course, Bass himself wasn’t going to provide details via Twitter (saying only “they know who they are”) so we had to do some digging. Seeing as how the “you jelly” submission is gone from my r/swtor front page, we guessed it was that guild and a Reddit post called “don’t be jelly” posted a screenshot of the invite email that guilds receive when they are invited to the…
SWTOR Patch Notes 8/16/2011
Yesterday a user over on Reddit posted SWTOR Patch Notes (with possible spoilers) for readers to enjoy. It’s pretty interesting and something you won’t see unless you’re in the beta (or have a friend inside) but it gives us some good little tidbits about the game. The post reads as follows: Welcome to Star Wars: The Old RepublicEvent 8/18: Space CombatOn Thursday at 7:00PM CDT, head to your personal starship and try out Space Combat! Watch for in-game Sever Admin messages during the event for further instructions. We’re looking forward to your Space Combat feedback on the Testing Forums! Notice: This server is now a PvP Server.Weekly Focus This week, we’re looking for specific feedback regarding: Companion roles and UI Space CombatPatch Notes 8/16/2011 General Several server and area stability improvements have been implemented. Classes and Combat Alacrity rating now properly decreases activation and channeling times. This is reflected on…
Old Republic Looks As Interesting As a Naboo Trade Blockade (Kotaku Opinion Piece)
Not every Star Wars fan is a SWTOR fan. Here is an interesting but fun review of SWTOR from Kotaku. It’s one person’s opinion, of course, but as we always say, the reviews of others are really helpful when forming your own opinions and whether you agree or not, there are good points to learn from it. Luke Plunkett from Kotaku is not as impressed with SWTOR as some of us and spends nearly 2,000 words explaining why. Here are some highlights: “BioWare is going out of its way to tell the world how Old Republic will revolutionise the MMO. That line was thrown out at least twice during my showing. But this game? What I saw today isn’t doing it for me. It’s telling me that it’s revolutionising the genre, but all I’m seeing is just another MMO.” Okay, fair enough. But how much does he really know about…
James Ohlen Interview
Ten Ton Hammer posts a really interesting interview with James Ohlen that’s worth the read if you have yet to see it. Reuben Waters of Ten Ton Hammer has the opportunity to sit down with Ohlen, creative director for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and ask him some questions about the game. Highlights include companions, grouping with other players, banking and money systems, PVP and chat functions and the mail system as well as whether or not you can check your mail while on your ships. There’s a lot of great info in here, some of which I don’t remember ever hearing being covered in another interview or article to date, making it well worth the time to read it over. Here’s a snippet I found interesting as I had been wondering about this myself: Ten Ton Hammer: That brings up a very good point in terms of how things…
SWTOR Wins ‘Best Online Game”
Europe’s Gamescom conference has revealed the winners of its best in show awards and SWTOR has won the coveted “Best Online Game” recognition. EA received several awards actually: Best Online Game honors for Star Wars The Old Republic Best Console Game for FIFA 12 Best Browser Game award for The Sims Social (a new award) As you can see, it was a good day for SWTOR and EA. A complete list of the winners is as follows: * Best of Gamescom: Battlefield 3 (Electronic Arts) * Best Hardware or Hardware Accessories: PlayStation Vita (Sony Computer Entertainment) * Best Console Game: FIFA 12 (Electronic Arts) * Best Mobile Game: Uncharted: Golden Abyss (Sony Computer Entertainment) * Best Online Game: Star Wars: The Old Republic (Electronic Arts) * Best PC Game: Diablo III (Blizzard Entertainment) * Best Browser Game: The Sims Social (Electronic Arts) * Best Family Game: Sesame Street: Once Upon…