As part of this Friday Update we get a surprising new feature. It is a video showing progression of a class from the very beginning with some early combat, through advanced class branching and finally we realize that the character is capable of awe inspiring feats as it reaches its full potential. The honor to be featured this way goes to the Jedi Knight (according to some sources the most popular class among game testers). It was very fun to see how the Jedi Knight goes from practice sword to light saber and how armor looks better and better as the character gains more experience. Also, I must say I am amazed by how epic both advanced classes feel and look with their final armors. You can check out the official Friday update page here or watch the video bellow:

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.

Darth Hater just released a video they shot at the SWTOR booth at Pax East where a demonstration of the Space Combat feature was held live. Presentation was hosted by Daniel Erickson and Stephen Reid and the footage is amazing in all of its Full HD glory. The video shows awesome footage of the space map and then shows us space combat inside an asteroid field. Darth Hater is working on one of their famous dissections of the video and you can find it here.

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.

So here we are. The Bounty Hunter trailer we have all been waiting for. I don’t have to talk about it to explain it, it speaks for it self. Watch and see.

So yeah, I’m a convert. It wasn’t hard to hang up the big guns of the Trooper and find my way here. Good side Bad side, it doesn’t matter to me. all that really counts, is that I get paid. I find the Bounty Hunter appealing, but the fact that I can be a Healer as one is what really draws me to the class. I don’t expect many will play the BH as one, but I will. It will be interesting if I shoot darts at everyone or send out medic Droids to do all the work. I can’t wait.

IGN got another exclusive coverage of The Old Republic by releasing a video for the Bounty Hunter class on a Thursday, one day before the official site releases the information. Just like all the previous class videos this one does not dissapoint and we can see some cool action and voiceover work. Some abilities we never saw before can be seen as well and that scene where the Bounty Hunter is delivering a carbonite frozen victim is just too cool. I am seeing a lot of AoE action and stuns, but in short – explosions, explosions , explosions. You can check out the video bellow:

LogunOne – remember that name – He is a fan of the Old Republic and creates awesome videos on Youtube. He uses all the released videos and screenshots to examine how far the game has progressed. His video compilations of certain game mechanics are awesome looking with great editing skill and insightful comments. His latest video is a fun little compilation of run/walk animations he gathered from all the material released so far. He has that great ability to make something so common, as run animation, seem very cool. Check out his YouTube channel here and make sure you subscribe and you can watch his latest video bellow.

It is Holiday season and if anything we expect to see less news. Instead, we get a Thursday update (and the power in charge are promising a Friday update as well!). I guess Santa is making his rounds and visiting SWTOR fans as well :). Check out the video that was released on Gamespot a few hours earlier showcasing the Republic Trooper class.

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.