My original post for this weeks edition was all written up and all I had to do was type it out. So what happens? My brain starts thinking about things that would be nice to have in edition to playing Swtor and I had a post ready to go on the forums. I head over there and BAM, it’s already got a post, dated today about the same topic I was thinking about. So while it is fresh on the mind, I decided to switch gears and pop out this little post, even though the thread was just started.The thread, and my thoughts, center around Swtor and the Razer Switchblade.

Where's the Jump button?

So are you interested yet? Read on then friends!

Continue Reading »

Pure joy on their faces

As we reported earlier today, there is a hands-on event being held in London today where lucky people that applied for a pass at the official forums are now enjoying all SWTOR has to offer. They all get to visit the Origin worlds and here are the first impressions from the gamers.

deanogee @ official forums said:

I thought the (Jedi Knight) gameplay was pretty smooth and the story progressed nicely as your were immersed straight away into a “heroes” role. Despite playing for an hour It felt like I was only a small percentage of the way through the sub plot upon the orgin world Typhon, progressing only 2-3 levels in the process. Nevertheless with the whole game being bigger than every single previous BioWare project put together I see this story lasting a very long time and loads of tiny sub-plots along the way.

p.s Titles are confimed (i.e Darth’s, Lord’s etc) and you apparently hit the advanced classes around lv 10.

I also found the two Jedi Knight buffs at the start allowed either you to buff yourself so you did more damage, or/and buff players around you.

Plus in pretty much every fight you are in – an enemy drops something which you can pick up.

Darth-Reaver @ official forums said:

Ok so i just want to say it was great to meet and chat to Daniel Erickson and Stephen Reid

So i played the Sith Warrior for half my time and the other half i played a Bounty
Hunter, the game runs nice and smooth quest system was easy to follow.

Combat is very similar to WOW both mele and ranged, i did find vendors, trainers and a taxi system on my short travels.

the games is looking very good, however i did notice some very minor bugs while i was playing.

But very fun to play.

We had a small Q&A after with Daniel Erickson and Stephen Reid and as others have said Darth Titles are confirmed I asked if there was still going to be an open Beta before release and i was told “No Comment”

We got a cool poster that i got signed and choice of T-Shirt, i got the Sith one

Ilmarian @ Twitter said:

Had an awesome evening at #SWTORGB Big thanks to everyone at Bioware for making this happen. I think #SWTOR is the first true mmoRPG!

qmyn @ Twitter said:

#swtorgb was totally surreal. The BioWare guys are truly inspiring. Amazing game coming to a galaxy near you soon.

aartanaway @ Twitter said:

• Play time is nearly over, having fun but there is just not enough time!!!
• Smuggler – fun play quite a lot of ducking/diving, fun ranged stuff. Game isnt too buggy but there are a few annoying things.
• Jedi guardian – much more fun opening area IMHO, some beautiful graphics. Combat feels great with the test sabre 🙂

You can find more impressions as they come in on the official forum thread or on Twitter.

Update with more impressions and pics:

Dariel at the official forums said:

Played a Sith Inquisitor tonight at the event.

Only got to level 4 but I absolutely loved the voice over. Even the random NPCs standing around which don’t have much of a purpose are talking to each other and they have voice over too whilst they chat, continuously found my self stopping and listening to what they had to gossip about.

The phased story areas were pretty awesome definitely felt very cinematic and heroic every time you went into one. I had one scenario where I was interrogating a guy and had the options to reason with him, talk trash or just straight up electrocute him . There were some traditional kill x and collect y but nothing in terms of having to grind mobs as you were usually leading yourself to the next part of a story or phased area.

At level 4 i had 4 attack abilities and 1 buff, i only learned from the trainer twice and peeked at what i could expect, i can truly say i was always excited to level in that respect. I had learned force lightning at level 3 and overload which was a AOE knockback at 4.

Combat did feel a little button smashy at first until i did get overload which sort of put me into a bit of a rotation but can’t comment much past that with only being so few levels in.

Questions were answered in the last 15 minutes, highlights of that were : No companions in Warzones, there will be titles e.g Darth / Lord etc Daniel Erickson briefly explained they were ranks you gain but nothing else on that, no more planet announcements, flashpoints can have companions but only filling the main 4 group spots.

At the end of the event we all got decieved posters (choice of malgus or the jedi) which Daniel Erickson, Stephen Reid and Gabe Amatangelo signed and a choice of Empire and Republic Shirts.

matteh at the official forums said:

I played the trooper, had a great time playing grouped with another 2 troopers

One thing mentioned is that we were playing off the NA servers and there are no European servers currently (I could stand corrected on how far along they are) but could show how far/close are from release or open beta.

Took me about an hour and a half to get to level 5.5 skipping a few conversations to get a bit further. Also there is a queue group/solo button for joining warzones don’t know if its been mentioned before. I ejoyed the mini map and the whole transparent part of it. The questing as a group was well put together. Any of other questions about the trooper or the gameplay I’ll be happy to answer

Nighthaunterz at the official forums had a very long post that you can read in its entirety here. Here are the most important things to know:

There is no swimming in the game.
There is a maximum of 4 characters in a flashpoint, this limit includes companions.
There is auto facing, it is odd.
NPCs could shoot through solid objects, maybe a bug.
There will be no other major planets announced (planets whith 10+ hours gameplay).
Staying alive is pretty easy, you can handle 5+ mobs at once.
There were class specific areas in certain buildings.
There was a clear indication of when you were choosing a light side or dark side answer prior to getting points.
You can refuse quests through conversations.
The voice acting is very good.
There is an ear equipment slot…
I didn’t notice any weather.

Hello gentle readers. Let’s step into the way-back machine and journey all the way back in history to the golden age of  2002.  Lets re-live a moment of Star Wars mythology that to me at least, was so awesome and anticipated, I have to say it was my single favorite scene in the movie.  In case there was any doubt in anyone’s mind about which piece of awesome I refer to, it is: The minute Yoda went all Toshiro Mifune on Dooku.  If there was such a thing as getting pimp slapped by the force, that would have been the definitive example.

Yoda was a Rogue you see.  Seriously.   He was fast, used little shoto saber(s), did lots of spinny, flippy shit, and tried to basically turn Dooku into some force inspired origami meat-swan. That’s what rogues do, right? Fast agile attacks meant to inflict maximum damage with minimum exposure?  I’m pretty sure that is right, and if not, Sorry.  I’m rusty.  I just couldn’t help but think “WoW, that’s how I fight with my rogue in WoW!”  Are mmo’s borrowing from the movies and lore, or are the movies and modules borrowing from mmo’s these days?  Can all my Iconic Star-Wars Classes be broken down and classified with mmo standards?

There was a great disturbance in the force when BioWare announced the classes and some of the advanced classes that all but confirmed we would be seeing a “Trinity-like” setup for grouping and endgame.   One of the big worries was the newly verified scientific law called “WoW in space” or simply “Whiner’s law”, which states:

Part 1

With all games being equal, World of Warcraft will always rank exponentially lower on the innovative scale, and higher on the casual fanboy scale than any other game it is paired with.  Therefore, any game who makes any decisions based on the success of WoW or it’s business model is doomed to utter failure as it will be too similar and / or too different than WoW, and as no two identical / opposite things can occupy the same mmo-sphere, the larger of the two (Being wow) will consume the smaller of the two (being everyone and everything else) and eventually remove it from the time stream as well. If it is like WoW it is a horrible idea, only because WoW was so successful. We love WoW so much it’s like Diabetes.

Part 2 of the law states:

Bibbity bibbity boo.  There is a God and his name is Celery.

Because it’s like WoW it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Doesn’t mean it’s a brilliant idea either.  My concern personally (other than dying before the game actually launches) is that I will be playing a rogue with a lightsaber, or a paladin with a lightsaber or a hunter…. with a lightsaber.  Will my Jedi, I have waited so long for, play like every other button spamming raid donkey or will it be a unique and new play style.  Do I want that comfortable feel of long played and tested mechanics or that totally new type immersion?  At this time I have to say I just don’t know.  I trust BioWare to make great games, but this idea of going further than imitation into flat out cloning of another game’s mechanics is something I didn’t expect.  I’m not sure if it is going to turn out well for them along a critical reception point of view. Until some widespread people get more hands on time with the game, we just don’t know. An hour here or 15 minutes there is nowhere near enough time to form an opinion.    Just remember folks,  If it looks like a rogue, and stabs like a rogue, well hell….  It might be a Jedi, and I think i’m ok with that.

Visitors of Penny Arcade Expo have been busy recording various gameplay sessions all throughout day 1 of the convention and we have gathered all the relevant videos in this one post. There is some more footage of Taral V flashpoint as well as some starting planets gameplay. We also have Daniel Erickson giving a few more presentation of various planets and I suspect we will be seeing all of these videos as downloadable content from the official site. Until then enjoy.

Taral V Jedi Knight group gameplay

Video shows full in-game cinematic for the instance telling us the background story of why are we fighting this hard fight. Flashpoint footage is from the first third of the instance and the person playing is a clicker (you have been warned). Quality is Full HD and the video is worth your bandwidth.

Taral V Jedi Knight group gameplay – Last Boss

Video shows the last third of Taral V instance including the fight (and wipe) with the last boss. *spoiler alert* Last boss seems to have an add so it requires some coordination and unfortunately the Trooper died and Jedi Knight was not able to take aggro from the healers quickly enough (not his fault). The person playing seems to be a veteran MMO player and you can see just how smooth the gameplay is when played by a knowledgeable player. The video is HD and gets 5 stars from me.

Taral V Jedi Sage group gameplay

Jungle part of Taral V from the Jedi Sage perspective. Video is HD with detailed shot of the UI in the end

Bounty Hunter Hutta gameplay

We see the starting zone for Bounty Hunter with some great cutscenes and a chubby BH as our protagonist. HD quality is available and I recommend watching it this way because it brings out the best out of the game footage.

Hoth – presented by Daniel Erickson

We see some areas of Hoth with surprising volcanic activity and future questing grounds set inside ice caves and ship graveyards. Available in HD quality as well. Thanks to Engrey for the footage.

Tatooine – presented by Daniel Erickson

Official trailer showing in-game footage of Tatooine vistas.

Sith Warrior – 14 minutes on Korriban

The video shows all cutscenes and footage from questing inside a cave on Korriban. This is footage similar to the one we’ve see at Gamescom last year, but nice to see it again.

Ask A Jedi just released a 15 minute video of gameplay from PAX East. The video shows flashpoint Taral V. The footage is extremely high quality and shows Jedi Knight gameplay. In my opinion this is the best in-game footage we have seen so far. The game looks EPIC. Please visit Ask a Jedi website for more coverage from PAX and interviews with the developers. We’ll start our dissection of the video in a minute.

To start their Penny Arcade Expo presence with a bang Bioware released a new trailer for Star Wars The Old republic that consists of mostly in-game footage. We have Jawas, Rancors, PvP action, force powers and all that Star Wars goodness we’re all dying for. You can find the official news posting about the trailer here and here’s an excerpt:

Tension between the Republic and the Empire is running high. The uneasy truce established by the Treaty of Coruscant is quickly tearing apart at the seams, and a return to all-out war has begun in all but official terms. A new generation of heroes, both light and dark, emerges to face the difficulties of these chaotic times, and fight for the fate of the galaxy in this most desperate age.

We will continue our PAX East Day One minute by minute coverage so make sure you check it out here.

Several major gaming magazines and web sites have participated in a special event held by Bioware, where they were able to sit down and play Star Wars The Old Republic for 5+ hours and experience the game the way MMO is supposed to be experienced (not 15-60 minute gameplay sessions we heard about so far). Reviews are generally favorable and most of the reviewers finally confirm what Bioware has been emphasizing for so long – story does bring a new dimension into the gaming experience and it does make this game stick out.

Things to note from all the articles I’ve read so far is that you get to forge your own lightsaber at level 10 and are faced with a mini boss encounter at that point (like we saw in that PAX video). Some of the reviewers even managed to leave Tython and get to Coruscant. There is a flashpoint while traveling to Coruscant where you are faced with a moral dilemma to save some engineers and take a harder route in order to save the attacked ship, or flush the engineers into space but repair the ship faster. All of the flashpoints can be played with a group and the content scales with the group’s size.

Here are some quotes and links to articles I found more interesting out of the bunch:

Curse:

I often find myself concerned with being “hooked” by early starting experiences after the Age of Conan debacle in which 1-20 was amazing and then the rest of the game lackluster, but Tython felt like a small sampling of an even greater experience. It easily rivals the Goblin and Worgen starting experiences found in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, and in some ways tops them thanks to the questing system.

IGN:

I’m told by one Jedi trainer to keep an eye on a young couple. It seems they might be in love, an emotional bond considered dangerous amongst Light Side saber-wielders. I track them down, learn their love to be true and am faced with a decision. If I turn them in, I get the standard quest reward and Light Side points. But if I decide to keep their relationship a secret, I get the bonus of a lightsaber crystal. Since there’s no reloading the game in an MMO, these decisions are permanent, and I find I’m actually spending time thinking about how I want to treat these characters instead of blindly focusing on amassing money and experience.

TOROCast:

It was not an easy fight, and it really proved to me that they can make the one on one battles feel heroic too. At one point I charged towards him and used my “Force Wave” ability in the hopes of pushing him back and down to the ground, but at the same time he stomped on the ground! The result was my companion, him, and I, all hurling back in opposite directions just like Obi-Wan and Anakin in their duel on Mustafar. I eventually took him out, but not before getting down to around five percent health even after using a stim pack during the fight.

Within the next few hours Penny Arcade Expo, one of the biggest gaming conventions in the North America is about to begin. It is a very big convention for all the Star Wars: The Old Republic fans because, traditionally, it is the place where big reveals happen. Last year we got some gameplay footage and all attendees of the SWTOR panel got a copy of Knights of the Old Republic game. This year we’ll be having the first hands on event in the North America and all the PAX visitors will get what is called the SWTOR virus that can only be cured by more “gameplaytimis”. Some gamers will be lucky enough to get the elusive “betainvitis”, but for all of you out there that lack any of these rare and expensive medicine, we bring you the last of our gameplay videos we shot at this year’s GamesCom. This is the longest video we have and it features gameplay from most of the classes. You can see some cool Inquisitor action where he one shots some enemies with force lightning (at around 1:50). Present are also cutscenes and some more combat.

We’ll continue to monitor all the information pouring in from PAX and we’ll keep you updated with the most important news and footage. For now I would like to draw your attention to Jedi Archive Online, that have their man Lordhammer, from Guild Umbra, on the spot. They have the first images from PAX available here. Also covering the event are Darth Hater and ToroCast.

By popular request, we bring you another video from Gamescom 2010 hands on experience. It shows some gameplay from the trooper and smuggler as well as a cutscene of the Sith Inquisitor. There is a brief glimpse of very cool feature where the map goes transparent when you move your character. Hope you enjoy it.

You will be able to get some hands on gameplay with The Old Republic this year at the GamesCom convention in Cologne, Germany. The whole experience is divided into sections where you are taken through three introductory 15 minute videos, where you are given general information about the game and shown the Hope trailer. The last 15 minute section describes how to play the game and than you are taken into the open area with various characters already setup for you to play with.

Jedi Knight and Consular are still not available. There are the Republic table and the Sith table so there is some competition going on.

We’ll give you our impressions on the gameplay later on, for now here are the images we took at the booth.