By Alec Meer on June 2nd, 2009 at 12:16 pm.
I adore the sheer arrogance of this video. The Old Republic setting requires leaving familiar Star Wars characters behind, right? Well, seems Bioware have said “fuggit – let’s just put Darth Vader in there anyway.” Clearly it’s not actually ol’ talk, dark and bronchial, but, y’know – it really is. And, come the end of this video, it’s the Vader vs Obi-Wan lightsaber fight the world had been praying and hoping Episode 3 would offer, and that it so summarily failed to deliver upon. This cinematic, then, may not be explaining all that much about how the game plays, but it is saying one thing loud and clear – “we’re going to fix Star Wars.”
As if a million voices cried out at once, and were suddenly fanboys… I’m bored to my last midichlorian of Lucas’s milked-dry sci-fi franchise, but this trailer managed to reawake the teenager in me several times. From judicious use of Luke’s theme at the start to the promise of mass Jedi vs Sith pile-ons and that final “yeah, I’m Vader” shot, I got far more excited than I’d ever have expected. But… what of the game itself? For details of that, we have the SWTOR slice of EA’s E3 press conference yesterday:
Oh, bless those LARPers. And full spoken dialogue throughout? Lawks. That’s going to be one big install. Lucky I bought a terabyte hard drive last month.
Individual, per-class storylines too, apparently. Big, big promises. I’ve heard far too many big, big promises from this genre, so forgive me for keeping one suspicious eyebrow raised until I see this wonderful-sounding thing in action.
wait what? Vader?
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Ugh. Sorry, but this is another step back. Rather than having fun and playing with the mythos, being inventive, they’re just making small restylings on everything. Stormtroopers are still stormtroopers, Star Destroyers are still Star Destroyers, and apparently now we still can’t live without Darth Vader so he gets stuck back in.
To say nothing of the entirely un-mmo mechanics being brought in. As someone with – let’s say emotional investment in KOTOR, this is appealing to me less and less. And it didn’t start particularly well.
Give me the rhythm-action extravaganza Hutt Hutt Revolution over this any day.
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Horrrrrr-purrrrrrrrrrr
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The cinematic trailer is jizz in pants worthy. So epic.
Gives me confidence that Bioware won’t bend this over.
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I can’t wait to be my mandalorian merc and laugh at you all obsessing over the stupid force
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gahh!! cant play video content at work!! I
s he joking about Vader? Is it just to pull in the great unwashed to get em hooked?
I thought the whole point of this was to re-invest in the KOTOR era..not SW episodes 4,5,6. Even my 7yr old son (yes he does want to be a BountyHunter when he grows up) loves the idea of Sith v Jedi battles. Mandalorian armoured dudes not more shiny white clones. and Vader again?! (he got bored of Force Unleashed on Wii cos of Vader) me confused. Will watch the vids when i get home and hopefully all will be clear.
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@Bobsy
He didn’t mean it’s literally Vader. It’s just a badass sith lord.
Also, this is set just before KoTOR, not thousands of years before.
Sorry, but the general look of things is set in stone for that era, in KoTOR.
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Not sure whether I’m liking what little I know (or think I know) of this game thus far, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think the trailer was good fun.
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The good guy looks like David Beckham!
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Good god, that trailer is BRILLIANT. My jaw dropped several times, which has to be a good thing. Give me a TV series of THAT, Lucas, and I might just watch it.
Still, it’s an MMO. I’m doubt much of that excitement and drama will make it into the game proper, but I’ll get keep one lazy peeper on it, just in case…
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Don’t fuck this up, Bioware! PLEASE!
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@Psycopomp: As I understand it, it’s set a couple of centuries AFTER KOTOR, which is still thousands of years before the films. There’s no real reason to make everything emulate the same old characters/places/spaceships we’re oh-so-familiar with other than making us go HAY LOOK VADAR IT MUST BE JUST LIK THE FILMS THEN LOLOLOL
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@psychopomp …..
cheers for clearing that up the Vader thing. The fanboy redmist descended for a moment then..
*counts to 10 and hugs Bioware*
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@ Bobsy
Upon further inspection, you are correct.
Still, you reaction is puzzling. You expect a art shift? No matter the period, everything in Star Wars has looked vaguely the same.
Also, god forbid they try to evoke the image of one of the most iconic villians of the modern age, as marketing tool. *Blasphemy*
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the obi vs vader lightsaber battle was awesome. on what level did it not deliver?
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Okay, I got frissons of delight when I watched that cinematic trailer, and I don’t particularly care about the star wars franchise. Just seeing the beautifully choreographed chaos made my heart soar in that special childlike way.
The following trailer, where the mysterious cloaked figure throws open his hood to reveal a balding bespectacled man who you readily expect to discuss your tax with you, on the other hand…
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I don’t care about the game, I want them to remake the so-called ‘prequel’ movies. That short trailer entertained me more than the last three Lucas movies combined.
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I get exactly what you mean Alec! Its like Bioware are like, ” this is what the prequel trilogy SHOULD have been”. That trailer in particular is giving me feelings i haven’t felt since the good old days.
Really hope this turns out awesome. And that Chick is hot. Something Star Wars needs.
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Video looks great.
But, needs the game. Video ain’t the game.
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Well, I’m not going to judge it yet I’ll wait untill it’s released for a month or two and then see if it’s worth to buy it.
I’m really cautious about mmo’s these days, so many but oh so many are bad.
They should have just made KotOR 3 in my opinion.
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OHGODOHGODOHGOD! Watching that trailer has made me physically anxious. I want it now! Ohgodohgodohgod. Pew pew, zzzchmm!
Like Mr Meer says, this has woken up my inner fanboy.
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If I never see another Star Wars product of any stripe, it’ll be too soon. This has got to be the single most overrated series in the history of the universe.
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The only problem whit those kind of cinematic is that the game is usually quite far from this feeling when played. We can see bounty hunter killing grunts in a heartbeat, combat look very dynamic (you dodge my light saber, ok take my push in the face then)… I doubt it will be the same in the game, which is a shame.
Very sceptical about their claim for the game, haven’t we heard this before? (yes AoC I am looking at you).
But my inner geek is screaming “pleeeeeease bioware, don’t f***k this up!!!”
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Bioware absolutely HAVE to make sure the Light side guys win and are twice as awesome as the Sith in their next video or suffer the same imbalance that plagued Warhammer Online as a result of Mythic pushing Destruction as being the uber side.
Not that I even want to be a Jedi. Smuggler all the way playing in the middle that’s what I want.
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I’m not skeptical, I’m scared. It’s a bit too ambitious and I’ve never seen an MMO since WoW to deliver at least a part of it’s promises.. I really hope they don’t blow this. It would be a great disappointment.
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@Chris Hyde
Just don’t play it. Is it so hard?
@Psychopomp
You said it happens before KOTOR.
From what I heard it happens three hundred years AFTER kotor games. thousands years before Vader and pals.
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Yawn. Light saber battles are old hat. And they can’t come up with some new villians? They look the same as ever, as do the Jedi. And they’re still trying to pretend that people who have no force powers have any relevance in a battle between sixty %^&*ing people who can shoot lightning out of their ass.
KOTOR was great for its game-play and storyline, show us some of those please.
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Lol, Bioware made a trailer that was better than the entire three prequals put together. Why couldn’t they have produced them in CGI instead of Lucas.
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I have said this before,and is needed to be said again:
Video of Videogames is a art at itself. THIS video is awesome. If the MMO (videogame) is based on is never released, is not even important anymore, because the urge to make a KOTOR MMO has delivered THIS video. And for this, that urge is sacred, beatifull and do-godder.
I say.
Note: Now I have to watch it with sound :-)
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Fixed… well, maybe not fixed but he does look the part.
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I think the sith was Darth Malak.
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Well, to me the look of it was straight out of the prequels. The brief look of the Star Destroyers, everyone in long cloaks, that hallway (which I’m sure looks the same as the hallway when they return from the very dull space battle at the start of Ep.3 – whatever happened to the great dog fights of Star Wars universe?)
Having said that, after my initial worry of it looking just like the prequels, I was settled by the amazing action sequence that beats anything from the prequels. Truly incredible, but it has no bearing on the game itself.
The idea of an MMO that is heavily story driven is very appealing to me. But until we really see the thing in action, I don’t think we can judge.
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That trailer there is better than the entire new SW trilogy.
Also, I’m wondering if Hawaii Five-O Theme (since in my mind that theme is superimposed over every trailer I see nowadays) could be applied to this trailer as well, or would you suggest some other theme? Discuss!
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Amazing, that one cinematic was pretty much better than all the prequels.. always wanted to see a large scale sith vs. jedi battle!
Does look like the Republic will be fairly useless versus all the fancy toys of the Sith though.
Yeah, they aren’t going for the more unique look of KotoR.. shame… but I guess movie (and very prequelish) visuals sell.
Shame this is a MMO really and the real combat will be *click on an enemy, do +5 damage*
We need a new Jedi Knight game.. none of these console imitations.
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@schizoslayer: good point. I always worry when I see MMOs taking one particular side and advertising how ‘badass’ they are. An MMO needs roughly equal numbers of players on both sides.
Hopefully TOR won’t be a WoW-clone with PvP, “need dps and healer” etc, so maybe it’s not even relevant. I’m hoping it’s KOTOR with multiplayer, rather than Warcraft with X-Wings. If that’s the case then there’ll be less of an issue with the rule of cool dictating player populations.
It seems fairly likely that there’ll be a heck of a lot of Sith players though. Dark-side is often more fun, as John Walker found out in Bastard of the Old Republic – and if he can be seduced by the dark side, anyone can.
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Why oh why oh why oh why oh why do they have to pump out an MMO. The KOTOR games were some of my favourite pc rpg’s ever. I understand this is a much more profitable endeavor for them but I’m still massively disappointed. Regardless of how immersive and wonderful the plot of this game will be, it will be ruined by the players that you are forced to interact with.
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Cool video, but I’m more interested in what the gameplay will be like. If it’s your standard MMORPG style gameplay, I’ll stay well clear.
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@Sartoris
WHAT HAVE I DONE?
@Disco
Go play the fuck out of KoTOR 2, then we’ll talk about how jedi/sith aren’t the gods people they are.
@Chris Hyde
1.Then don’t click on the Star Wars articles
2.Opinion, motherfucker, do you speak it?
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@Psychopomp
Emulating the style in a general sense is all fine and pleasant: see KOTOR 1. But this is far too heavy handed, bringing in far-too-blatant copies of the same old tired shapes. So for instance, the Sith cruisers in KOTOR 1 had parallels to Star Destroyers, but their sleek curved hulls and the beak-like shape gave them a style and history (churned out by the Star Forge) of their own. Then you get to KOTOR 2 and the Star Destroyers are just Star Destroyers, right down to that hemispherical tumour on the underside.
The first shots of TOR had Sith Troopers that were standard familiar Stormtroopers but grey and more spikey. And now we have Vader.
The reason this matters is because it weakens the identity of the Old Republic part of the franchise. If everything looks and feels identical to the “classic” era, why don’t we just put it in that classic era and be done with it? One of the old strengths of Star Wars has been that it’s inventive. But then post-90s it became more and more stagnant and zombified. The same old creeping flesh of the franchise shambling about looking for brains to chow down on.
Om nom nom nom.
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Personal Notes:
The action on this video is better than most of the prequels, or it feel better.
I hate these “Kung-fu movie” moves, and the bullet-time. Now all movies/trailers/games need bullet time and kung-fu? Everything is tryiing too hard to look badass. …
…CliffyB has infected the S XXI of his personality. We need a exortizer that show something could be cool, withouth cheap badasery.
Public notes:
There are 2 mmos with linear history: LOTRO and Age of Conan. The AoC missions are poorly designed, and the linearity of everything else in the game make then feel worst, also are 1 man missions, so suck somewhat. LOTRO missions are multiplayer, are well designed and are cool. Everything else is no has linear as in Age of Conan, so the game is better for it. I expect SWOTOR to be a “WoW clone” with the error’s of linearity of Age of Conan. It will be boring 4 levels before the top… after 3/4 months playing. But for 2/3 months, it will be a really fun game. People looking for a new gamplay in the MMO genre, probably must search elsewhere. SWOTOR will be “dead town” in 2 years after release, because linarity have no replayability.
Anyway, I could be wrong, we don’t know much about the game. Maybe Bioware can pull a “Anarchy Online”-ish mmo, I doubt it.
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I still have high hopes for this. Wish they’d shared more info about the actual gameplay mechanics of the game.
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This is even better than the cinematic trailers for Hellgate London…………………
exactly
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Erm, are they going to do procedurally generated voices?
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Oh the pity that this is an MMO =(
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Indeed. I’d prefer a new Jedi Knight game set in this era than that..
With heavily inspired Deus Ex style RPG elements.. oh yes.. yes please.
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Colour me very, very skeptical. Even the vast majority of games that try to do super dynamic combat in the style of Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden (or the Star Wars, and Matrix films) fail, or only seem to embraced by a minority ala DMC again. The entire RPG genre has never sucessfully achieved dynamic combat of this nature (though obviously some have good combat systems, just not like this). RPG MMO’s seem to be virulently allegic to such things.
To be honest the trailer looked great, but how does it right the wrongs of the prequels. All the trailers for the new films looked great whilst the films were lacking (the poor script / plotting were esy to hide) and this trailer looks just like them. Worse still, those trailers were of stuff that actually appeared in the film, the same cannot be said of this. Also, look at the sabers in darkness shot and the actual deathstab / keel over of Jedi shots – Both are very reminiscient of shots from the new films, the latter is Qui Gon Jin style death. Admittedly this sort of death by sword and the portentious light in dark motif are common imagery in the visual arts.
The game might be good, but it will not be this trailer and I would have preferred a KOTOR 3.
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Force-Push when your opponent is jumping was a filthy trick ever since Jedi Knight 2!
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Looks like someones been learning from Blizzard. Was instantly reminded of the video from Warcraft 3 where Arthas walks in the castle to kill his father. The sith’s clothing looked a lot like Arthas as well. The intro to WoW also has a lot of similar things in it. Like some of the classes showing what cool stuff they can do. Still, very impressive video.
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Why oh why oh why oh why oh why do they have to pump out an MMO. The KOTOR games were some of my favourite pc rpg’s ever. I understand this is a much more profitable endeavor for them but I’m still massively disappointed. Regardless of how immersive and wonderful the plot of this game will be, it will be ruined by the players that you are forced to interact with.
THIS! I mean seriously, you nailed it right in the head. This is why MMOs suck. When I play a RPG, I want to be fully immersed in it and play it when/how I want. MMOs are just an excuse for companies to charge a monthly fee for what would otherwise be a “normal” game. “Hey, you pay a monthly fee but you also get a shitload of other people running around you and spamming text massages while you’re trying to enjoy the fucking game!”
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I don’t even play these games but that was an excellent trailer. They should have let them make the Clone Wars shows.
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*edit*
never mind, misunderstood
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It’s not Vader or Malak, it’s a Strogg!! http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/8633/strogg110247689ij.jpg
Awesome video. I’m sold on that alone.
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You know what this trailer needs? A Marilyn Manson soundtrack.
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Impressive trailer – yes, fixing Stars Wars? Hardly, the first KOTOR did that quiet adequately, if anything a focus on Wire Fu combat reminded me of Attack of the Clones.
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Absolutely agree with Bobsy. It already feels old and tired… The Star Wars universe must be big enough to come with other stories.
I prefer what Star Wars Galaxies tried before the NGE or whatever it was called than this game, sorry.
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I think I got more joy out of that first video than I managed to glean out of all the prequel episodes combined. I don’t care much about how this game plays (I won’t play it, probably), but I would become a Star Wars fanboy all over again if the Bioware trailer-makers would remake episodes 1-3.
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Lol, in one cinematic trailer bioware have made something more enjoyable that the entire set of the last three star wars films. Yes, the good guy does look like Beckham.
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I admit I’m not really up on my star wars lore, but shouldn’t Obi-Wanesque dude have disintegrated when he was killed? Isn’t that how jedi die, or am I remembering that wrong? I just vaguely remember that happening in Episode 4.
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That was a very
very very
very
very good trailer.
Bloody hell.
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That video from Bioware was fantastic almost to the point of me not hating star wars anymore, whoever did it at Bioware is better than anyone working at Lucasfilm.
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@The Archetype
It seemed to happen in episodes 4, 5, 6, but not in 1, 2, 3 or in the KotOR games. Not sure whether its been explained in the lore or not.
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-snip-
I’m bored to my last midichlorian of Lucas’s milked-dry sci-fi franchise.
-snip-
I edited your line to be more in line with my feelings. I took out the comma, and the but, and just left the period there at the end. I think my desire for this product might go up if it’s not subscription based or it allows me to play through, talky and all, for an SP price just so I can enjoy the game without all the other people and stuff I really don’t care for. Heh. Maybe I should put a humbug somewhere in there. The video wasn’t bad, it’s just the license I am saddened by/tired of.
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I’M DARTH VADER MO FO!
this is gonna be awesome, 1st MMO i ever actually buy? yessum.
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Wasn’t the disintegration thing only because Obi-Wan basically instantly turned himself into a “Force Ghost” (which they can’t all do, I gather) so he could go and tell Luke to run the hell away?
Something like that, I think. I could be wrong, I’m not a nerd in the sense of knowing How Stuff Works in Star Wars.
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Pretty much echoing everyone else – trailer is a large part of what Ep. 1-3 should have been, and I actually got goosebumps watching it. And of course, the game will be nothing like the trailer. I also agree that timeline-wise, having everything have the same basic shape/feel of the classic series doesn’t make sense. (Did anyone else think the “transition” in Ep 3 from Flash-Gordon to Classic Empire decor was, well, rather sudden?)
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Beautiful trailer. Too bad it’s for a mmo.
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Wish it wasn’t online.
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@ Scandalon Yes it was (too) sudden, and for some reason it really annoyed me that the CG painted head of Tarkin (at end of III) looked crap, cheap and fake. For all the money they spent on putting ETs, Blade Runnner Spinners in the backgrounds, why could they do a better job on that far more important detail. It felt disrespectful to the great Peter Cushing somehow.
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Still looks likt there trying to stick a single player game onto an MMO. Still no information on what the game will actually be like.
And your still excited..shame on you. A random fight between Sith and jedi won’t get me excited for a game which will probably have none of it. What really is the point of a cinematic trailer of an MMO. If there was like the first 5 levels or something of the game shown then I may have been interested but no Bioware you just show us a trailer that tells us nothing, and you yourself tell us nothing.
Also the end Battle on Episode 3 was awesome. What you going on about Alec that it disappointed you?
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@ James G and The Archetype
It is all explained in the prequels. That was a new hability learnt by Yoda from Qui Gon and passed to Obi Wan later, so no, he shouldn´t disappear.
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@Ian
Having had the nerdiness to read some star wars books and comics, I can confirm that Jedi do indeed have bodies when they die, unless they ‘become one with the force’ sort of thing, which Obi-Wan and Yoda do.
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So…
I’m betting this flop is what will put Bioware and Lucasarts out of business.
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That’s not Vader. Your fanboy desires are coming through.
Also, Episode 3 kinda rocked.
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“Clearly it’s not actually ol’ talk, dark and bronchial”
Read, Dem, Wordz. Also, it’s a strogg.
Strogg in Star Wars, Riddick drones in Mass Effect. It’s like we need new humanoid enemy designs or something.
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FernandoDANTE says :
“Also, Episode 3 kinda rocked.”
Not all of it.
“Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”
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“we’re going to fix Star Wars.”
At this point, sadly, it just can’t be done. It CERTAINLY can’t be done with a subscription-based persistent online milk-fest.
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@ Kris
Tarkin’s head wasn’t CG painted in, it was Wayne Pygram (Scorpius from Farscape) in prosthetic makeup.
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Does this mean you can crash a spaceship into a building in the game?
Because if so, then I’m buying.
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I am still sad for this to be an MMO. But I wait with more anticipation than before.
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To all the people disappointed by it being an mmo I felt the same way until the people at bioware confirmed that it’ll be EXTREMELY soloable. In fact, you may have ai henchmen following you about just like in the previous games. So I’m pretty exited for this game simply because I plan to close all chat windows and play it more or less as an SP game.
Also, kinda let down by the announcement thing, they just copy-pasted their first dev videos from six months ago. We want NEW info damnit!
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Jim Rossignol says: Read, Dem, Wordz. Also, it’s a strogg.
Jim confirmed it. The Makron is making a move into Lucas territory. Let the stroggification process commence!
Strogg, Strogg, Strogg!!!
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Hokey, derivative and contrived. Try inventing a new IP; this one’s gumming beets in a nursing home.
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@ Dan. Damn I feel stupid – though it still looked wrong like when a CG object artificial lighting doesn’t quite match the filmed stuff. In fact, why do the Ethan Hunts masks looked more lifelike (even in the pull facer off shot) in the mission impossible films look better than this guy with prosthetics?
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If I was a Jedi I’d have a red lightsabre.
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Is a new genre!
SinglePlayerOnline MassiveIntanced CausalFriendly RP Game!
SPOIMCFRPG!
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I’m looking forward to playing as an astromech droid. BOOP BEEP BEEP BOOP zzzzt
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I only finished KOTOR because I had become invested in the story. Bioware knows how to tell a good story. But I’ve never been able to go back and play again because: the gameplay is uninspired, borderline awful, and I’m still amazed that I was able to finish the game despite it. Same deal here guys. The gameplay will make or break this game, for me at least. I’m sure plenty of little fanboys will flock to it no matter what. Hell, I might even be taken in, you know? I’m a whore for good science fiction. But really, for this game to appeal to the not so fanboyish masses, they’re going to have to build a game where the combat A. Makes the player feel involved B. Is fun C. Is balanced & D. Makes sense. They need to create a group dynamic that makes sense, and is genre appropriate. WoW works as well as it does because they did all of these things RIGHT. I want TOR to be the next WoW. Insanely popular, BECAUSE IT IS A GREAT GAME.
-Snuffles
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I’m all for playing a MMO like a Single Player game (and that is how I run Guild Wars most of the time, with my henchmen and heroes) as long as I can pay for it like a Single Player game (again, pointing to Guild Wars). ;)
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I’d prefer it if it was a just a MORPG instead of a MMORPG. Buy the game once, play drop-in, drop-out co-op with friends like how it can be done with pen and paper.
You do a quest, go back to a safe place, choose a new quest and then if you need party members you have a bunch of random online applicants to choose from. Might be difficult with no GM though.
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Maybe Christopher Nolan can hop on this license and bring new life to it like he did the Batman films.
The action sequences were awesome in the trailer, but I think people are interested in seeing a darker universe, no more Jar Jar’s. When the universe is at war, there should be some good material there, but it seems to have been bled dry. This trailer gave me hope again that it might be going in a great direction.
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Why in God’s name does that pre-rendered trailer make me want to play this game :(
Does though…
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Tei: So catchy! It just rolls off the tongue.
Spoymcufurpeguh!
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If we ask nicely, could they just skip making the interactive bit and give us about two more hours of cinematic like that? That would nicely make up for the prequel trilogy.
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That trailer is made of every kind of win, but I’m still skeptical about this game having any sense of a meaningful story. EVERY MMO says it’s going to have this great compelling story, and while the Star Wars mythos is perfect for an MMO with a good story, the MMO genre simply does not lend itself to compelling story. Compelling story requires that your actions have some visible impact on the world, and you simply can’t do that in a massively multiplayer environment.
Also, I’m so incredibly sick of every bandwagon hopping toolbox on the interwebs talking about the cheese of episodes 1-3, as though they contain so much more of it than 4-6. Go actually watch the old ones again. Episode 4 contains the single cheesiest fight scene of all time, Episode 5 has its very own Skywalker “NOOOOOOOOOoooo” moment, and Episode 6 has an army of midget furies fighting stormtroopers. You only think the first 3 movies were better because everything was more awesome when you were 8 years old.
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@Generico – Heh, you have a good point about the first films. I think I mentally edit out the ewoks whenever I think about Star Wars.
I also think it would be very difficult to put a decent story or single player type aspect into an MMO. But you never know, anything could happen.
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@generico, @Wilson: The way it works in LOTRO make a MMO with history work. You have like a “quest line” that is loooooooong, you will continue this questline from level 1 to level 70. The missions on this questline are dungeons instanced, very scripted missions, and some are very fun and challegen (for group smallers than the recomended or underleveled)… These missions are divided by “books” and “chapters”. Is a very good system, and if KOTOR as anything like that, It will work. Or course, around this questline is everything you expect on a WoW clone. Lots of UPS missions and “gimme 10 rat tails”
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I have just perused the Old Republic website, and the timeline videos made me go HOLY CRAP more than once
http://www.swtor.com/info/holonet/timeline
Go!!
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Normally I have nothing but scorn for pre-rendered trailers that have nothing to do with the game but my god if that isn’t one hell of a trailer. The biggest success of KotOR was distilling all the things that were really ace about Star Wars and injecting it into the videogame format and watching that I have renewed hope they might just be able to do it again.
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@Generico: The ewoks were the single worst part of the old series, so I think it might be unfair to point them out as representative of the whole. Plus, there’s a huge difference when you have Harrison Ford there to act out the cheesy scenes for you. That’s what people reflect on when they bash the utter POS acting in the new movies, which made the cheese more visible.
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Hmm, that did look like Malak. Only, a thousand years (or so i’ve heard) have past since KOTOR. Anyways, i downloaded this from GT and watched it over and over again. It is amazing at the details that you pick up after each viewing, e.g. the pores on the bounty hunter/maladorian’s face.
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That duel…wasn’t nearly as well done as the one in Episode 3. The same three or four moves over and over, a cheesy ass Matrix slow motion moment don’t overcome the actual hours of choreography and invented sword fighting techniques in the episode 3 fight.
I am very disappointed in you RPS.
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After reading the forums. Seems this game have companions (humanoids NPC pets), the blue lady with dual laser pistols could be a companion, and the astromech robot another one. It seems the game will have 8 classes, where 2 are confirmed: tropper (your generic “soldier”) and bounty hunter. It probably will have a sith lord, jedy, spy(?), smuggler(?). Also, these forums are poorly informative (?), maybe because theres too few information atm.
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Some people sayign they are exceited about the solo ability about this…what the feck is the point of having a Massivly Multiplayer Online Game where you basically just play by yourself. Why the hell not have a single player game then.
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@Xercies
It’s called having options. Being able to play with other people when you want to (or when your friends are around) is nice, being forced to play with other people is crap.
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The ships involved seem completely out of sync with the prequels? When is this set?
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Xercies: because some people (me) like being antisocial, but we still want the option to be social when we feel like it.
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http://www.swtor.com/info/holonet/timeline
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What’s crap is being forced to play an MMO to get your next fix of Bioware-styled Star Wars RPG.
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Very impressive trailer…but still have my reservations about the ‘stroggification’ of the Sith as spotted by earlier posters, and the obvious Vaderalike, ObiWanalike and the BobaFettalikes. The template in Kotor for the Sith/Jedi such as Kreia etc seemed more plausible for the period. Always seems a bit of a sellout for constant tech revisionism.
I just hope they try to keep to the tech lore as set out in Kotor and not just pinch all the goodies from the classic films era.
It smacks of trying to please/appease as broader market as possible, which I suppose makes business sense for an MMO.
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YAY!
Also, it isn’t Malak, cos canon says he’s dead. Yeah, canon, baby.
Game site says it’s Angral, who’s here http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Angral
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@Crispy
No argument.
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Now that was a damn sight better than anything in the prequels.
Also, redhead bounty hunter lass has akimbo arm-mounted flamethrowers. Lessthanthree.
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Go play the fuck out of KoTOR 2, then we’ll talk about how jedi/sith aren’t the gods people [say?] they are.
Seconded. KOTOR II has one of the greatest stories ever told in the Star War mythos — which isn’t saying much, really, considering that most of the Expanded Universe lost that “mythic” aspect that made the original trilogy so fun and instead opted for some strange alternate history approach that felt at once boring and derivative.
KOTOR II though — man. So great. It delves so deeply into the idea of the Jedi/Sith, the myths around historical figures/events, and the metaphysical that it almost seems more like a deconstruction of Star Wars than an (in my view) essential part of it.
But then, I’ve already broken several KOTOR fan taboos, so I’ll stop there.
Good trailer. Sucky game concept. Still skeptical.
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I suppose another Star Wars MMO was inevitable after Sony murdered Galaxies… I wish it weren’t, though. Can we just move on, as a community? They’re boring, derivative, time-consuming, money-grubbing, soul-less pieces of crap. IMO, naturally. Freakin MMOs.
Also, I synced the trailer with the Night Court theme (here). It was beautiful. Truly a sight to behold. But the video’s a bit longer, so the music cut out as that Kenobi-esque guy collapsed.
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clearly NOT vader
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Man, that trailer was GOOD.
Like, REALLY good.
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It all depends on how well they do it. If they nail the tremendously fun quests of WotLK (as opposed to the mind-numbing grind of earlier content) and pull off an involving and fun game, I see no problem why this game won’t go far.
Crashing ships into other ships and having huge Jedi/Sith battles aboard space ships? Yes pls.
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What on earth do they make their floors out of? Just sliding over it causes it to shatter. The Old Republic has no Health & Safety Executive.
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Yeah, I thought he bore more of a resemblance to Malak. And his friends all seemed to have Revan’s outfit.
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Wow.
I know KOTOR canon says everyone (even the Jedi) used to wear armor in that era, but I couldn’t help feeling the Jedi looked like space marines with lightsabers. And hoods.
Anyway, the Revanchist helmet (originally Mandalore’s?) seems to have caught on. And no sith lord’s ever felt as menacing as Darth Malak in KOTOR. Not this one, at least not just from the trailer.
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OK.. Absolutely amazing video. Fangasmic. Screw Lucas bring on Bioware rah rah!
erm. But uh.. after disposing the guards in front… why did they need to wreck that purty space ship and risk having it blow up like a thousand Sith body part grenade when it could have just landed outside and dumped them at the door?
er.. anyway. AWESOME VID.
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@DSX………. I guess the Sith were the Millwall of their day.
No one likes them and they dont care!
They seem to have a total disregard for spaceport alighting protocols too. Im writing to the Daily Mail to complain about these hoodies right this minute.
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“An elegant weapon for a more civilized age”
I for one liked it when lightsaber battles were expressions of personal character and focus in a narrative setting. All this flying through the air and collapsing pillars nonsense is just annoying. Give me footwork over wire-work any day.
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@Tunips: agree. Also, I’m going to be very disappointed if the Jedi/Sith classes aren’t able to choose between the different lightsaber forms.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lightsaber_combat
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@ Dan & Turnip. I assume you mean original trilogy duels over wire-fu prequels. If so I agree, and fact it was often few, pivotal, symbolic, one on one duels has far greater power and impact.
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My mind is blown by the number of people complaining that the forthcoming Star Wars MMO is either:
A) a Star Wars game
or
B) a MMO
If you have a major problem with either of these things, why not accept that it’s Not For You, and look forward to one of the many many games being made that aren’t Star Wars MMOs?
Seems kind of silly to complain that a company is making a game that you don’t want to play.
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I pretty much creamed myself during that video.
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“why not accept that it’s Not For You, and look forward to one of the many many games being made that aren’t Star Wars MMOs?
Seems kind of silly to complain that a company is making a game that you don’t want to play.”
Because it means there won’t be another KOTOR? Y’know, hard to enjoy the many many other star wars rpgs that are being made, isn’t it?
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Doug F hit the nail on the head. Next we’ll be having people commenting on how they find video games repulsive, and they should have made a board game instead. Or better yet, no games, let’s instill some work ethic into our young!
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Nick:
I’m still confused on the part where you or anyone else gets to tell Bioware what game(s) they should be making? Aside from voting with our wallets, that is.
Game companies are going to make some combination of the game they want to make, and the game that will make them enough money to keep making games.
Making the game that a vocal minority wants is going to fall somewhere beneath those two on the priority scale.
Would I enjoy another single-player star wars RPG? Of course I would? Do I begrudge SWTOR for not being that game? No, because that will be silly.
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@DSX Because the Sith have style and flair unlike the Jedi. They wanted to make a statment that even the walls of the Jedi Temple itself can not hold the Sith out. ( I’m just guessing ) Mostly though I think they did it because it is a LOT more cool then just landing.
This video is extremly awesome! I love the light saber battles in the newer series of movies and games because they make more sense. If Jedi/sith has enhances abilities then their battles should be fast and destructive with both parties going for kiling blows/dodging or parrying killing blows unlike the first three movies where they just kinda hacked at each other like unskilled robots. (in Vader’s defence is part robot so . . )
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“I’m still confused on the part where you or anyone else gets to tell Bioware what game(s) they should be making?”
And I’m confused at the part where we aren’t allowed to be disappointed at it being an MMO. Or should everyone just shut the fuck up and toe the line?
It’s no great newsflash that the games industry (key is in the second word there) is out to make money, but I would venture a guess that a large amount of those who enjoyed KOTOR would like another SP game like it and I don’ think people being dubious about MMOs in general is some sort of vocal minority demanding they make the game they want to play.
In short.. expecting people not to be somewhat upset in this instance is what is silly, moreso telling them off for daring to express it. I don’t see anyone demanding they cease and desist and make the game they want, just people upset at the direction of the series.
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That WAS probably the second coolest lightsaber fight ever.
(Coolest being the Obiwan vs Vader in A New Hope. No fancy dancy twirly stuff in that one)
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Our skepticism is warranted.
If they can make a MMO that plays as brilliantly as their SP titles do without the slide into repetition or grinding as virtually every single MMO does, then I’d happily pay the monthly fee and consider it an amazing value over the single expense and limited scope of a SP title.
It will be a huge task, a task that will either set stunning precedent, or lay in the shadow of failure with other grand promises from developers just as competent.
I truly wish them success, however if they do fail, I wish they have the insight to realize it, bow gracefully out of MMO territory and then return to the SP market that they and the IP stand out in.
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Really good looking video. I’m not really expecting the game to be anywhere near as exciting as that. But if they can pull it off..
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