I think there might be something wrong with me. For whatever reason I periodically get obsessed by the Smuggler’s “Dirty Kick” skill. You know that one stun skill that comes from the Smuggler kicking people in the nads? Yes, that one. I, personally do not fancy getting hit in the balls, nor hitting other people, so I really can’t tell what the source of this obsession is. Nevertheless, I have already created a webcomic about it and today I got this idea in my head that I just had to bring to life. Without further ado I present to you the “Ode to Smuggler” video.
Oh sweet summer, how I missed thee. And with the incessant humming of every AC unit in the neighborhood, I am reminded that we are one more season closer to a SWTOR launch. Well that, and that I’ll be paying through the nose on my next electricity bill… But as always, I digress.
Our very own MrWarlock penned a delightful piece highlighting the 10 updates he anticipated the most, and one of these got me thinking, specifically his thoughts on micro-transactions – what sorts of plans do you imagine BioWare might have cooked up for SWTOR in the MT (micro-transaction) department? Well, let’s take a look at what else has been done.
Flack from E3 is still being published and as part of it we got the Alderaan group quest video during this Friday update. This seems to be a shorter version of the video we’ve seen during live presentation at E3. For those of you that have not been following, here’s a recap of what this video actually shows. On planet Alderaan you get a chain of quests that is only doable by a group. The last quest in this chain requests of you to kill Bouris Ulgo, the usurper of the Alderaan throne. After taking care of some trash there is a final fight with Ulgo and his adds. There is a mechanic where while fighting waves of enemies you need to pick up rocket launchers standing around and destroy 4 shield generators that protect Ulgo himself. Upon doing so you finally get a chance to take down the naughty general and claim your reward. The curious thing is that it seems we will be seeing a lot of these group quest chains with special story backgrounds throughout the game, so in addition to the instance mechanic that brings people together we will have these world quest arcs to also provide content you can beat only with your friends.
On a completely unrelated note; how about that epic beard on Dallas Dickinson?
I’ve seen many a Friday update come and go while following SWTOR. So I, like you, have had to ride the roller-coaster ride BioWare gives us each and every week.
We are all waiting for different things to come to light, some solid information on something that has had been shown for the breathiest of moments.
Well, these are mine. You may notice I will not mention Raids or Quests in my top ten list as I would like to experience these things in-game.
This is my list of the holly grail of reveals in reverse order of importance for me –
Wednesday has two things in store, official screenshot released on Facebook and some community news by yours truly. The facebook screenshot is rather cool, because it has Jawas in it and everything with Jawas in it is cool in my book. These kinds of screenshots are what excites me so about this game. A possibility to have my character move among those Jawas and in that market.
Cantina Cast, SWTOR dedicated podcast, has made its dreams come true by upgrading their website with new looks. It is much better than the previous one and I really like their logo, but it could still use some web design work. However, I believe that everyone that invests their time in creating something for the community needs to be commended for what they are doing. It is, after all, more than what 99% fans are willing to do.
There is investing time in creating something for the SWTOR community and than there is Ask a Jedi. They have a new daily column on their site called “Blue Milk & Cereal“. The column discusses interesting questions and asks the community to participate through voting in a poll and leaving comments on the daily subject. So far they haven’t had a single poll I didn’t want to participate in and I left quite a few comments and thoughts as well. That is how engaging this new column is. Have I said that they post a new article every day! Let me tell you, that takes some time and dedication.
If you still need something to read, what better way to lighten up your day than read some SWTOR comics. Tor Wars has started publishing their webcomic called Fail Hunter and let me tell you, it’s a winner. They are up to page 6, but you can find all of them at this here link.
Published by Mikro under E3, video on Jun. 20. 2011.
It has been two weeks since E3 finished and still there is footage that deserves to be shown or talked about. That is what makes the Electronic Entertainment Expo so epic. Where else would you be able to come across a Space Marine from Warhammer 40000 universe and Boba Fett (and some storm troopers) taking photos together and than initiating what looks like might become the most epic fight since Obi Van and Boba had their little altercation. Watch the video for yourselves and let me know what you think happened next!
It is that time of the month again, time for another Fan Friday. The honor of being featured as a spotlighted Fan Site goes to Ask A Jedi, a great site for all The Old Republic fans to visit regularly. If you don’t have them set in bookmarks and as part of your regular rotation you are at loss. They have some of the best columns out there and are very knowledgable and just nice guys overall. They get my full recommendation. You can read their interview for the official swtor.com site here.
As part of the fan friday we also get to enjoy some great fan art, new icons and some surveys. Due to all the recent E3 happening there was no time to do the regular Q&A session with the developers, but we do get a nice article about polishing the world of the Old Republic based on writer’s feedback. Ian Ryan, writer for SWTOR, gets a chance to tells us about the process of improving the overall feel of the worlds player will be able to visit in the game based on writer input. Turns out that writers are the first that finished their job. Based on their writing other teams started working. Once the first version is done, writers go back and give suggestions on how to improve the looks and feel of certain places to better reflect the storyline that they are trying to convey. There are some great before and after screenshots in this article so I wholeheartedly recommend you read it. Personally, I love the huge golden statue of a Hutt on the main promenade of Nar Shaddaa better than what they had before the writer’s input.
SWTOR managed to grab a few (well deserved) rewards from the press at this year’s E3. About this and overall impressions from the biggest gathering of gaming professionals you can read in the article on the official site.
It’s amazing how a day of two can give you a new view on a given subject. What once was greeted with great anticipation and high hopes falls at the very first hurdle.
I’m thinking about Origin and the new wave of beta invites.
I was kind of indifferent to this news when it hit. I don’t have many Steam related games on my account as I tend to play MMO’s and you don’t need a second party platform to enjoy them fully. Also I though having SWTOR exclusive for digital download from Origin made good business sense. After all, doing it yourself gives you a greater income before the more important subs start rolling in.
Published by Mikro under Beta, news on Jun. 16. 2011.
It seems that the Beta expansion is starting effective immediately. Not long after stating that they “recently transitioned into longer-term and larger-scale testing” it was announced yesterday that a batch of survey emails were sent out to people “across the US, UK and EU”. This survey comes from their external testing partner Magid so don’t get confused. These surveys are part of their marketing research and upon completing them you should get a “real” beta invite email if you are eligible for testing.
Just to make things perfectly clear, the order of steps for this latest beta invite is the following.
You get an email from Magid inviting you to fill out their SWTOR testing related survey.
Once you complete this (and if you are eligible) you should await for a subsequent email from Bioware telling you you’ve been admited
Being that these situations are what phishers love the most please check if your email is really from Magid and don’t go giving out your passwords, credit card numbers of firstborn children if asked to.
Also, here’s a list of steps you should take if your inbox is as empty as mine (or if you are Canadian):
Compared to the excitement of the past 10 days it seems as if though today is a rather slow news day when it comes to SWTOR. Being Wednesday we got the above screenshot released on the official TOR Facebook page.
In other news … BioWare’s Alexander Freed will be signing his new Dark Horse Comic publication Star Wars: The Lost Suns. Yes, that is the cool one with Satele Shan kicking ass on the cover. The signing will take place in Austin Books & Comics at 4:00PM Saturday, June 18th.
There’s a new episode of Mos Eisley Radio out – number 41. They have Larry Everett,SWTOR columnist from massively.com, as a guest. The show is a bit on the long side, two hours, but it is Zach and if you don’t love Zach by now you will after listening to his podcasts.
There was a glitch in the official swtor.com forums that redirected you to main page after you post. Trolls were not happy. Let me ask you; when trolling a troll is that a good thing or still a bad thing?
