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2 years ago
It may have absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the average MMO, but this new trailer for the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic [official site] expansion - Knights of the Eternal Throne - is well worth a watch. It's essentially a six minute mini-movie, beautiful CGI telling the story of a young girl's discovery of the Force. And perhaps not in a way that you…
3 years ago
Things I never expected to hear myself say: "I'd quite like to go back to Star Wars: The Old Republic" [official site]. This SHOCKING turn of events is in the wake of news that its new expansion, Knights of the Fallen Empire, restores a little of the KOTOR-era Bioware magic that was sadly lacking from the majority of the base game. I suspect most of…
4 years ago
To my eye, Star Wars The Old Republic was an awkward marriage of BioWare's singleplayer storytelling and World of Warcraft-derived MMO mechanics. It's a marriage which seemed to satisfy no one, dooming SWTOR to a brief honeymoon and a slowly diminishing life of quiet desperation. A sad, science fiction Revolutionary Road. Nice of BioWare to throw the game and its players a little lovin' then,…
5 years ago
Sometimes I take a story because it matters - because I'm all rip-roaring and fired up about change and subtext and gravel-voiced men yammering at each other for reasons. Videogame reasons. Other times, it's for the headline gag. This one is absolutely the latter. Star Wars: The Old Republic - which I haven't played since The Old Republic was still a A New-ish (And Not Yet…
Unless JJ Abrams does something so spectacular and most of all so charming with his Star Wars sequels that my 15 years of ennui towards the house that Lucas built then liberally daubed with some sort of turd-based paint, I can't say I have any particular issue with EA being sole providers of Galaxy Far, Far Away games for the next decade. There's plenty of…
Did you know that there are ships in Star Wars? It's true! I was under the impression that everyone just skywalked everywhere (I mean, why else would anybody name someone that?), but nope, space ships. They fire lasers, too - colorful bouquets of molten, flesh-searing doom. Delightful. It's like a giant, often fatal rave up there, the raddest of space parties. Don't believe me? Well…
Galactic Starfighter is SO the name of a videogame. Except it's actually the name of expansion to a videogame, which I suppose is the same thing, albeit a subcategory thereof. Anyway, SWTOR steps into the spacebiff with "12v12 free flight combat", which involves getting hold of a customisable starfighter and doing pew-pew in various locations around the SWTOR universe. And it looks okay! Or at…
Reports have appeared on our Ewok-o-tron that suggests Ewoks will soon be available as companion characters in SWTOR, via the 2.3 patch. To unlock the 'wok, you need 1 million space cash and a legacy level of 40, apparently. Tweek, for that is her Ewok name, will be a tanky/healer sort of companion. That, I know, will make someone in this world very happy. You…
Operation Nightmare is currently available with the latest update of Star Wars: The Old Republic, and this means unpleasant-sounding "Nightmare Mode" in Terror From Beyond. That's pretty much as it sounds: a tricky level 55 challenge: "The fight to seize control of the Gree Hypergate will leave you gasping for breath as you battle the five main bosses, now amped up to challenge even the…
6 years ago
The more disenfranchised portions of the peanut gallery have spent years calling EA an evil empire and claiming that it's done every horrific act short of blowing up Alderaan with a Death Star, so this feels oddly fitting. It's probably not the headline you were looking for, but it does not lie: EA has officially snapped up rights for all things Star Wars and videogame-y.…
The next SWTOR update is all about customization, allowing radical visual overhauls for any and all characters. Nice move, space developers, but what won't get me playing your game is the inclusion of cat-people. As we all know, the inclusion of cat people in any franchise (we'll omit Thundercats for now) is an admission of creative bankruptcy. Yes, even in Elder Scrolls games. It's just…
What I mean is, the 2.0 update for Star Wars: The Old Republic is live (and trailered with a video entitled "Scum & Villainy", in reference to something Spock once said in Star Trek). The update adds a hard mode to operations and flashpoints (weird dissonance there) which preps the ground for the Rise Of The Hutt Cartel expansion, which arrives in a couple of…
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II was utterly masterful. Sure, it had more rough edges than a Sarlacc Pit who's also a door-to-door woodchipper salesman, but the underlying tale mixed oppressive darkness, moral grays, and an eye for exactly what makes Star Wars tick to stirring effect. Personally, I think it far outstripped KOTOR 1, but to each their own. Naturally, though, I…
First those ding dang dern Triads and now Hutts? Jeez, what won't rise these days? I mean, at this rate, everyone and everything's going to start rising, and then that'll just be the new normal, non-risen plane of existence. Where's the fun in that? Oh well, though. Star Wars: The Old Republic: Rise of the Hutt Cartel: The Subtitling is now officially a thing, and…
Star Wars takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, and Star Wars: The Old Republic is set an even longer time ago than that. Thus, this Hypergate - which is positively ancient, even by SWTOR's musty standards - must be older than time itself. Naturally, then, people (and blue not-people and green not-people and spiky faced not-people) must risk reducing…
There comes a time in every young MMO's life when it has to start facing facts and accepting the horrible, domino-like deterministic path cruel fate has set all of us on. Primarily, this means coping with the fact that World of Warcraft looms over its genre compatriots like an imploding sun, and its black-hole-like pull will devour all subscriber money from now until the end…
Disney owns Star Wars now, so what better way to celebrate than with the most un-Disney character in the entire Star Wars universe? In fairness, Hk-51 isn't HK-47 (who has already appeared elsewhere in Star Wars: The Old Republic), but they're quite obviously cut from the same organic-life-loathing cloth. They probably also both loathe cloth, for that matter. Point is, don't go into a frothy…
Soon, everyone will be able to play Star Wars: The Old Republic*. Oh, that asterisk? Sorry, my entire-one-to-one-scale-replica-of-The-Death-Star key is broken. Still though, the point remains: SWTOR's gearing up for a F2P relaunch, but there are some nearly moon-sized restrictions keeping it grounded. Fortunately, after initial complaints and some time on test servers, BioWare's seen fit to scale them back - if only just a…
"Hello, Guinness Book Of Records? Was Star Wars: The Old Republic the fastest MMO to go from subs-based to free-to-play? Why yes, I could go away and do the most token amount of research instead, but I wanted to hear a human voice for a change. Also, can I have a pint of Guinness please? Yes, Extra Cold, thanks." And now you can try out…
Hmmm. Mmmmm. Ehhhhh. Errrrrr. Also harumph. Oh, hello, didn't see you there. When I enter my Contemplate-O-Sphere, I tend to just lose track of the world around me and emit a series of guttural droning sounds - eyes wide yet unseeing, as though I'm possessed by some kind of brain ghost. I believe many of you call it "having an idea." Only I'm having many…
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