By Jim Rossignol on January 29th, 2011 at 11:49 am.
Today I will start the day (late) having blown up my PC. [For the purposes of science, you understand. My experiment told me what I needed to know, at least. At the cost of one power supply.] Then, having repaired stricken PC, I shall use it to watch this trailer from The Old Republic, below. It’s a splendid affair which details Taral V, which is one of The Old Republic’s “flashpoints”, or as we call them in the past, “dungeons”. It’s the highly-scripted instanced adventure that will make The Old Republic into something akin to a classic Bioware RPG, only with additional MMO wheels for internet travels. And it looks good.
29/01/2011 at 11:56 dadioflex says:
Old made up CGI trailers > real gameplay trailers
29/01/2011 at 12:02 Tei says:
I am playing DC Universe ATM, that have some epic dungeons, and I approve these levels of awesomenes. Maybe Star War The Old Republic will be to star wars what LOTRO is to the ring books?, a way to immerse yourself in the lore?
29/01/2011 at 12:02 Jhoosier says:
The instaplay trailer might be bad for those at the office on a weekend, but then, I’m sure they’ve found out by now.
Edited for spelling errors. I’ve evidently forgotten how to type.
29/01/2011 at 12:05 dripgrind says:
Why is Yoda talking like that?
29/01/2011 at 12:25 gibsnag says:
It isn’t Yoda. TOR is set a long time before the films.
29/01/2011 at 15:51 Marshall Stele says:
He looks so much like Yoda that hey may as well be. And it looks like he even serves the same purpose to the plot. He’s Mr. Exposition Man. At least Vandar’s voice actor was kinda growly… gravel-y? Whatever.
29/01/2011 at 17:25 Mr_Day says:
Even in Kotor there was a member of the same species as Yoda who spoke normally. According to Old Republic lore, Yoda is the only one of that species to be a backwards speaking, near-gibbering idiot.
Which is kinda funny.
As for the trailer, I see the combat still looks to be characters cycling animations and powers at each other.
31/01/2011 at 22:45 PaulMorel says:
I thought the original Yoda only spoke that way because of years of isolation on Degobah.
29/01/2011 at 12:08 DSR says:
Yeah, “great” idea with those cinematics…
I already can see it:
(In a group)
-WTF are u stuck? Buff and go. Cinematic? SKIP IT. NOOOB GOO!!!!!!!
-g2g shool sooon. plz go fast plz.
-But I’m first time here… Awww screw it…
I’m not even talking about all those cinematics haunting you on your 101st run.
Remember the “Culling Of Stratholme” rp intro which lasted like 5 minutes?
Some people preferred to ragequit and get a debuff.
It may be enjoyable and fun to see for the first time when soloing.
But even when playing with my friends I prefer to skip such things. Hell, I even skipped Lich King outro cinematic on our first kill just because my friends blabbling on teamspeak were much more entertaining to listen.
29/01/2011 at 12:13 Vandelay says:
Which is exactly why this being an MMO and not a single player RPG is terrible.
29/01/2011 at 14:45 JKjoker says:
agreed, this game wants to be a single player game so bad, why dont they just let it ?, the combat doesnt look very exciting and its impossible to enjoy a story with other players screwing around
29/01/2011 at 16:15 bob_d says:
@ JKjoker: If they could figure out a way of making all the players pay them $15 a month until the first expansion comes out, I’m sure they’d be happy to make it single player.
29/01/2011 at 18:05 ANeM says:
“Remember the “Culling Of Stratholme” rp intro which lasted like 5 minutes?”
Actually it took nearly 10 from the time you zone in until the first pull when you do the opening sequence. This was frustrating when you consider there were other dungeons that could be finished (although not ‘completed’) in that period time. It was annoyingly long, and completely un-skippable for the longest time. I have probably spent more time watching that sequence play out than it took to play through the entirety of Mirrors Edge or FEAR2
29/01/2011 at 12:24 westyfield says:
“The fortress defenses are crumbling!”
Was that Admiral Ackbar?
29/01/2011 at 12:30 kyrieee says:
I really don’t like the voice acting or the writing
29/01/2011 at 12:37 BooleanBob says:
Don’t worry, when Obsidian do The Old 2epublic (which Eidos will apparently publish) these will be much better handled. The game will be a broken mess, natch.
Also, the instatrailer is an invidious instrument of cold pure hatred. Stop it plz Rupus.
29/01/2011 at 12:32 Tomski says:
Worst Yoda voice ever!
29/01/2011 at 12:53 Markachy says:
It’s not Yoda, thats why. Yoda wasn’t even an inkling in his greeat great great great grandyoda’s lusty eye in this game#s setting.
29/01/2011 at 13:25 Creeping Death says:
It surprises me how so many people aren’t aware of TOR’s setting…
29/01/2011 at 13:26 Malawi Frontier Guard says:
I tried to look up the species of Yoda to be a smartass, but apparently it’s unknown and only listed as “Yoda’s species”. There you go, I guess.
29/01/2011 at 13:30 Tomski says:
Ah, well now I know why, thanks.
29/01/2011 at 23:40 Hoaxfish says:
Yoda’s species is clearly “grammar goblin”
30/01/2011 at 00:29 Werthead says:
“It’s not Yoda, thats why. Yoda wasn’t even an inkling in his greeat great great great grandyoda’s lusty eye in this game#s setting.”
Slight exaggeration. Yoda lived to be like 900 (as he liked to tell Luke every five minutes for no discernible reason), so in his race’s terms this wasn’t that many generations earlier (about 4-5 to be precise).
31/01/2011 at 03:39 Devan says:
Right, I know it’s not Yoda but that voice still doesn’t match his tiny stature and it’s not the only voice that feels out of place. I hope they include an option to disable the VO for the player character.
29/01/2011 at 12:35 shinygerbil says:
My graphics card blew up the other day. I think it may have taken the motherboard and possibly the power supply with it. Huge success?
29/01/2011 at 12:44 BooleanBob says:
~You’re the Jedi prisoner’s only hope of escaping alive.
Well, you and the 750,000 other subscribers who will run this instance.
~The fortress defences are crumbling! There’s no more time!
Fuck! We gotta go! Jog to the exit! Jog faster! JOG FOR YOUR LIVES! Best, uh, keep hold of that huge, bulky gun, though. Guns are scarce in this war-driven fantasy universe, after all!
~We will rescue your prisoner. No matter what it takes.
Unless Mike has to be up for work early tomorrow, and Amaar decides he’d rather catch CSI.
~This isn’t the first time I’ve grassed(??) one of the Empire’s parties.
No comment.
29/01/2011 at 13:20 dadioflex says:
crashed…
29/01/2011 at 15:01 Rinox says:
All those things apply to a singleplayer game too, though.
29/01/2011 at 15:28 WJonathan says:
Say what you will about the Empire, but Palpatine threw the most kickass grass parties.
29/01/2011 at 17:21 Nick says:
“All those things apply to a singleplayer game too, though.”
Apart from the fact the 750,000 other people aren’t in *your* game.
29/01/2011 at 17:57 Rinox says:
Yeah true. Still, they’re not in the same instance as you for the main quest usually, so they may as well be playing a separate game story-wise.
29/01/2011 at 23:37 Tomm says:
Now that’s not fair Bob, Amaars far more likely to get halfway through a dungeon and then ragequit and go watch CSI.
29/01/2011 at 12:49 noom says:
Did you flick the 230/115v switch? I tried that once. Left my ears ringing for a while…
29/01/2011 at 13:01 stahlwerk says:
Oww, why would you do that?
29/01/2011 at 13:25 Starky says:
Haha, I’ve not seen one of those switches in years – almost every decent power supply now has automatic voltage control, because like you too many people exploded theirs with that switch.
29/01/2011 at 23:43 Hoaxfish says:
You haven’t lived until you “accidentally” flip that deliciously mysterious red switch and blow out the fuse for your wall-sockets.
30/01/2011 at 03:58 Bhazor says:
I actually got a single fat spark shoot out of the PSU when I did that. I found it strangely satisfying.
29/01/2011 at 13:08 Dyst says:
My power supply also exploded this weekend except it’s a fucking pain for me to replace it. Ordered a Corsair 430w for £37 (including VAT and shipping.) Is that a good deal? I probably should have asked first.
On a more relevant note, I’m excited for the story aspects of TOR but the combat and MMO shell are really worrying me. I (and I’m guessing most other KOTOR fans) would have preferred a true sequel to KOTOR2
29/01/2011 at 13:41 Starky says:
Assuming that is a CX 430 then yes 37 quid is reasonable, if not towards the cheap end.
It’s obviously not a highest quality power supply for that price, but as a corsair branded CTW DSA (the manufacturer) they tend to be pretty good low rating supplies (the OCZ stealthxstream 400 is based on the same platform).
28 amps on the 12v rail is enough to run almost any medium budget single GPU system (only the really high end £300ish ones will need more), it isn’t the most efficient or the best build quality but it s good for the price.
It is quiet though and has acceptable voltage regulation.
All in all you’ve got a good budget power supply, but not a great power supply. But certainly in the upper end of supplies you can buy for less than £50.
29/01/2011 at 13:43 JFS says:
Yes… if only this wasn’t an MMO.
29/01/2011 at 16:05 Vandelay says:
Lost my PSU last weekend too, as discussed in a forum topic. Brand new in a brand new build. Had only been switched on for about 10 hours tops. Was installing SC2 and surfing the web when the computer shut off with pop. Tried turning it on and nothing. Tried again the next day and got another even bigger pop from it the second I flicked the PSU switch. It was a Coolermaster Silent Pro M 600W.
Just heard from Scan yesterday that a new one should be getting sent to me, as they needed to test it first.
29/01/2011 at 14:02 Gap Gen says:
Oh man I want an Operation Flashpoint/ArmA MMO now. It would be wonderful, and also completely broken.
29/01/2011 at 14:30 RedViv says:
My word! A scripted instance with a quest chain revolving around it, which tells every player that they are THE saviour, carrying out their heavy burden through routineously pushing the same combo of hotkeys? How refreshing and innovative. I’m sure those dozens of millions of bucks EA spends on it will just fly back onto their bank accounts.
Can hardly wait for game that does not pretend to do what it does not. Like, say, Guild Wars 2…
29/01/2011 at 14:53 ScubaMonster says:
Yeah, the more I see of this game, the more I’m not interested at all. Guild Wars 2 here I come.
29/01/2011 at 17:16 Dances to Podcasts says:
That’s the strange thing about TOR. They seem to want to be an alternative to WoW, with a different kind of setting, while in most people’s minds they seem to be competing with GW2 instead. And GW2 actually tries to push the genre forward, so TOR comes off badly.
Maybe it’s because Star Wars so permeates our culture that is has as much become shorthand for ‘generic’ as any fantasy setting? (Not to mention that Star Wars is just fantasy that happens to be set in space…)
30/01/2011 at 02:11 Eversor says:
Yes, Guild Wars 2 that is going be SO FUCKING INNOVATIVE IN EVERYTHING EVER and kick everything’s ass. Or something. Do you people even listen to yourself? You should fucking know by now, ALWAYS take big promises with a large pinch of salt. But no, I guess GW2′s gonna be SO FUCKING AWESOME that it will pull off absolutely everything the developers promise.
Rule number one about upcoming MMO’s. Don’t hype yourself up.
30/01/2011 at 03:23 Sarkhan Lol says:
The original Guild Wars was innovative as hell, and it just made people angry. “There’s one racial choice, you can only bring eight skills at a time, the level cap is 20, everything’s instanced and you CAN’T JUMP?? This game is TERRIBLE!”
Then they’d spaz out and froth angrily about how much better WoW was going to be. Now look at us. How the tables have turned.
30/01/2011 at 04:46 Serenegoose says:
@Sarkhan.
To be fair, the one racial choice and 20 level cap and inability to jump did bug the hell out of me. It’d probably have bugged me less if the racial choice wasn’t human, but that’s because I automatically drop a few points off of any RPG that ditches one of its most essential components (to me) in depth character customisation in favour of forcing me to play as The Most Boring Race. I got used to the 20 level cap and the inability to jump, they were just jarring for the first few moments, but I never really forgave it for the forced human choice.
30/01/2011 at 11:43 Tei says:
I will be a good idea to trust Eversor. Guild Wars 2 may not be as cool as some people is painting it, fun, but not jesus-mmo. And TOR may have fun to it.
31/01/2011 at 15:53 Dances to Podcasts says:
I think you’re confusing me with Wulf. While I don’t think GW2 will be the greatest MMO ever*, I do like the fact that they’re improving on the weaknesses of the first one and trying to add some new elements. It seems to be another case of starting the hype machine so early that by the time of release its features will be considered old…
*That’s reseved for Titan. :p
01/02/2011 at 14:12 RedViv says:
Who said that Guild Wars 2 will be innovative? They’re just saying they will improve upon their known and beloved recipe for a non-sub MMO. No fuzzy talk about how innovative the dialogue will be, that this game will change the way MMOs are perceived, bla bla, yadda yadda…
TOR will bomb, no matter how good it is (yeah, I’ll play it anyway…), if it really is as expensive as claimed.
29/01/2011 at 14:35 Backov says:
This game still looks like it’s going to be a giant bomb. Same horrible stand in place and shoot your gun at the dude 10 feet away combat as the last time.
29/01/2011 at 14:57 JKjoker says:
heh, and apparently the costs were SO HIGH that it could bomb even with a decent amount of subscribers, on the bright side, the massive bombing of this game has a good chance of slapping some sense into publishers and make them stop filling an overcrowded market with more mmos
29/01/2011 at 17:21 Dances to Podcasts says:
It’s not that there’s too many MMOs, it’s that there’s too many sameish MMOs. It seems the high cost of creating an MMO makes publishers really conservative, and as a result, ironically, all these me-too products never do that well. So let’s hope that GW2 does well and TOR doesn’t, so they’ll finally learn.
29/01/2011 at 15:03 Rinox says:
I don’t know what the general dislike is about. This looks like an updated Kotor that I can play together with my friends. Sign me up!
29/01/2011 at 15:25 JKjoker says:
multiplayer doesnt go with everything, i dont think you would have liked Kotor if you had played it with a friend that kept bitching for you to skip cutscenes, to hurry up buying items, to skip that side quest, to pick x choice because y is lame and to stop reading item/skill descriptions and just pick X already like everyone does
i remember trying to play Baldur’s gate with friends, combat was pretty fun, everything else was ass, everyone wanted to go a different way, it was impossible to read anything, and so on
29/01/2011 at 15:37 Wilson says:
@JKjoker – Yeah, I’d agree with that. It’s hard to enjoy plot or really consider things in RPGs when you’re playing multiplayer if you’re doing it with other people. It’s not reasonable to expect other people to wait around for five minutes while you try all the conversation choices/carefully compare all your gear. So it’s a Kotor without time to savour the plot or be fully in charge of your choices. I suppose it’s too early to judge really, but that trailer just looked extremely naff to me. Actually, I should clarify that. It looks good, until people start fighting, at which point it looks naff.
Though, that said, if they had been more bold with this perhaps they could have made an RPG specifically designed to be played multiplayer, but also cleverly made to avoid all the problems you’ve mentioned. It would have to be quite different to anything around at the moment though.
29/01/2011 at 17:19 Rinox says:
@ JKJoker:
Well, no, but I try to play with friends that aren’t total asswipes. ;-) But I thought Bioware actually wanted to make the game so that all players in the party participate in a conversation in some way, so the dialogues are a “group” event. Wasn’t that the entire point of The Old Republic to begin with? Try to be different from WoW by not just having groups of people grind dungeons but to have them actually enjoy the story together?
So, while I’m certainly not saying that these trailers are blowing my mind (hah), I’m gonna wait and see how they’re gonna handle the RPG side of things. I can’t imagine they’ll just impose the Kotor singleplayer RPG on an MMORPG. But I guess that’s what they get for only showing cutscenes, fighting and pre-rendered stuff.
29/01/2011 at 17:36 JKjoker says:
@Rinox:
those things i described are perfectly normal events in any coop multiplayer game, asswipes and griefers could be much much worse (im assuming you have some control over who joins your instance), i think you are greatly underestimating the degree of chaos that other humans bring into a game world
29/01/2011 at 17:55 Rinox says:
No no I agree with what you said in general, but I meant that I would play it with my friends who I know and trust not to be assholes. I’d never want to play any game that teams me up with random strangers (except for a team shooter perhaps, and even then).
29/01/2011 at 19:01 opel says:
Playing only with people you trust defeats the whole purpose of that big first “M” in MMO.
29/01/2011 at 19:21 Rinox says:
I thought the ‘mass’ stood for the fact that there are tons of players active in the world at the same time, not that I was obliged to play with them in the same party.
I’ll happily trade with people I don’t know and if one of my friends vouches for someone I’ll gladly have them tag along, but I don’t go around LFG’ing and talking to random people in MMORPG’s, is all.
29/01/2011 at 15:45 Alaric says:
This looks so… bad. =(
I want my old BioWare back! The one that made Baldur’s Gate. Can I has?
29/01/2011 at 18:06 H8Cr1me says:
Now I don’t want Bioware to touch ANY of my favorite franchises. I hope someone picks up the Forgotten Realms license for a new game before Bioware decide that they want to give Baldur’s Gate another shot.
29/01/2011 at 20:57 Zogtee says:
I can’t get past how stiff and awkward the characters move in combat. I’m all MMO’d out, though, so I’ll give this a miss. At this point, the only MMO that gets me interested is GW2.
29/01/2011 at 15:51 sendmark says:
blimey that was a poor trailer, can only assume it was done as a bit of expectation management.
Cinematics and voiceover can work well, Tortage in Conan and Guild Wars spring to mind.
29/01/2011 at 16:01 Jacques says:
The combat looks so un-dynamic. What a shame :(
29/01/2011 at 16:32 Westcreek says:
I’ll have to admit.. Nothing I have seen about this game have made me remotely interested yet.
I guess it is for the hardcore fans.
29/01/2011 at 17:17 Legionary says:
Disappointingly mundane. It could be a reskin of just about any current MMO so far as I can, albeit with voice overs — some of which were a bit… rubbish.
29/01/2011 at 18:56 pupsikaso says:
Pff, after watching that raw footage of GW2 that Dominic posted in the comments yesterday this looks so pathetic it’s laughable. I mean when you’ve got raw, unedited footage that is a hundred times better than what your carefully edited and scripted trailer can show, your game is in big trouble.
Also, wtf happened to Yoda? Did he get laryngitis?
29/01/2011 at 19:02 opel says:
http://www.eurogamer.net/videos/star-wars-the-old-republic-fake-trailer
29/01/2011 at 19:26 Flakfizer says:
Did anyone else think that someone in those fights would look at his watch and sigh while standing there blasting away innefectually at somene mere feet away?
29/01/2011 at 19:27 Darko Drako says:
really not a fan of the art style. It already looks very dated. I don’t imagine I will find it very immersive as the character faces all look like children’s cartoons.
29/01/2011 at 20:00 Sarkhan Lol says:
Very authentic — I could have sworn George Lucas was directing it himself!
29/01/2011 at 23:18 Hallgrim says:
/winsthread
29/01/2011 at 20:22 DJ Phantoon says:
Booooooring.
I can’t imagine this game going well, looks like the same exact style of gameplay that WoW has.
Which is NOT a good thing.
29/01/2011 at 22:04 Rinox says:
It looks more like the gameplay of the Kotor games to me tbh.
29/01/2011 at 23:48 Hoaxfish says:
I haven’t played either of those games, so I’m just gonna go with “it looks shit”.
It doesn’t even look like it’d successfully compete with GW1 (which I have played), let alone GW2.
29/01/2011 at 23:56 Rinox says:
Yes it looks shit, but it’s an RPG with combat based on skill checks and dice rolls. It’s always gonna be clunky and weird. I don’t know why people expect this to look like, say, the Arkham Asylum combat combo’s (unfortunately).
30/01/2011 at 00:14 Hoaxfish says:
I’m not sure it is about the basic combat-style (i.e. how responsive it looks, or how it flows), but more that the individual animations look very bland, and the actual combat doesn’t seem to have any real “tactics” except attack until it dies.
It doesn’t feel like there’s any life to it, as if the guns were made out of paper-mache, and the characters are string-puppets.
I’ve played turn-based MMOs that seem to convey better “aggresion” than some of the stuff shown here.
29/01/2011 at 20:31 carlthuringer says:
“It’s a trap!”
29/01/2011 at 23:35 neolith says:
This.
29/01/2011 at 21:28 ZIGS says:
This is gonna be the best single player online game ever!
30/01/2011 at 01:52 jaheira says:
I’m not sure if you are being sarcasticus maximus Mr. ZIGS, but this is exactly what I am hoping. A Kotor that never ends is a pretty good description of my perfect game. Last year (I think) Jim asked if people would be willing to pay a subscription to an ever evolving single player game. The answer from most people (ridiculously) was an infuriated NO!!!!! My answer was “Yes if what you get is worth what you’re paying”. It’s a superb idea. I don’t know if TOR will fit this mold, but I have hope. A New Hope, if you will.
29/01/2011 at 22:01 Cronstintein says:
The new metal gear slicing game looks to be what lightsabers should have been all along. One hit kills with lots of enemies and things to chop.
30/01/2011 at 20:10 bascule42 says:
That doesn’t even sound like Yod…Ha! Just kidding.
I think EA ought to add £1 or $1.65 (ish) onto everyones subs for 3 months to pay for the publicity machine. I’m just saying.
31/01/2011 at 03:58 H8Cr1me says:
Dated, Childish Graphics
Stiff Animation and Gameplay
Space Combat on Rails
…looks like a huge turd to me.
31/01/2011 at 11:24 tigershuffle says:
@bioware…….
You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!
31/01/2011 at 19:59 xaiax says:
Well, what a bunch of useless hate posts.