Star Wars: The Old Republic - Beta Sign-ups!

Well, the day is here.

It's time to sign up for the SW:TOR beta and then wait and pray for a slot.

The possibility of an imminent beta announcement was circulated around the net by various blog writers. I got my info from Wall of Text who I've followed since the late stages of Warhammer Online's closed beta.

Bad news as of 12:13 p.m. eastern time is that the SW:TOR site is currently down for maintenance.

Now, a big question will be how they will actually pick their testers. Community involvement is a huge thing for them, but a lot of gamers don't want to be involved in all of that speculation and drama. Will BioWare overlook potential testers who have little-to-no involvement with the community up to this point? There is merit in picking some of the best contributors from their forum community.

I just hope they'll have mercy upon me. I have ideas, I want to test, I know how to track issues and I feel I have a good grasp on the universe they are attempting to recreate within their game. And yeah, I have some experience.

Hope and pray... Hope and pray.

DarthHater's PAX Coverage of TOR

DarthHater has been covering The Old Republic and done a wonderful job getting everything to the community.

The latest post shows Trooper gameplay plus a little bit of death...

The trooper is actually just as intriguing as any of the other clsses that have been demonstrated so far. According to the speaker they start on Ord Mantell which I believe is also the starting point for the smuggler class (I'll research that a bit more.) The first ability displayed in the video, fire bomb, looks absolutely amazing and devastating. They also demonstrate a detonator ability toward the end of the video that ticks away with the classic sound of a thermal detonator. It appeared to take out one enemy and left another temporarily knocked down.

So the question for Galactic Republic fans is now: Smuggler or Trooper? I like both of the classes, I'm not actually impressed with Bounty Hunters in comparison to the other three classes demoed. But I know that there is a lot more to be revealed about each of the classes, plus four that have yet to be unveiled.

Big thanks to DarthHater again for the great coverage of SWTOR at PAX.

The Sith Warrior is Officially Official

BioWare has posted their class page on the Sith Warrior.

I'll admit, I did not believe at first that this was an actual class; more of a path that the Sith force user could traverse. But no, the Sith Warrior is the newest reveal for SWTOR's line-up.

It leads to some questions about BioWare's plans for the rest of the classes. Yes, there will be at least one force-capable class on each side, that much is clear. But will there be two on each side?

BioWare's goal is to provide an iconic experience. There has to be a desire by the player base to experience the game as Emperor Palpatine rather than Darth Vader. The Sith Warrior could provide this experience through an alternative path to what we've seen demonstrated in the recent Gamescon Walkthrough. But it doesn't seem to be evident in the class description.

"Combat Tactics

A Sith Warrior’s skills with a lightsaber are unrivaled. Driving at their enemies with strong, crushing blows, the Warrior quickly beats his foes into submission or death. Though the lightsaber is the Warrior’s primary method of attack, he also uses his dark command of the Force to paralyze, terrify, and kill. Protected by heavy armor and his powers of intimidation, the Warrior wades into the thick of the fight and unleashes pure hatred and fury to eliminate all who would stand against him."

This part of the class bio seems to indicate that the warriors are more inclined to do their talking with a lightsaber. And the next excerpt shows even more evidence there may be another force user for the Sith:

"These cold-blooded conquerors waste no time with cunning manipulations and carefully-crafted plans. Sith Warriors crush their opponents and stride toward their goals with dreadful determination, leaving ruin and annihilation in their wake. Emanating awe and terror at every step, they accept nothing but absolute obedience from their followers. In turn, Sith Warriors can serve as loyal subjects to their own dark masters, often surprising enemies and allies with their rigorous honor and perfect discipline."

It seems that there will be a group of Sith who are more dedicated to manipulation and deceit. And who are these "dark masters" that are referred to in this excerpt? Obviously they will be powerful Sith Lords tied into the Warrior's story arc.

This leads me to believe with about 90% certainty that there will be two force-capable classes within each faction. But will having four force users in total lead to a diverse and unique experience for each class? You have to imagine that force users will be closely tied to each other in each faction. But BioWare's claims lead are that each playthrough will result in no repeated content.

Could I be misinterpreting their statements or will the style of these second set of force users lead to a totally different storyline? It is implied that another force using class (on the Sith side at least) will be more manipulative or possibly more political. At the very least they will be less capable at melee combat and more inclined toward the mental and "magic"-using side of the force.

I guess we'll have to wait for the next reveal to see what BioWare's plans will be. My guess is that they'll reveal a Republic force user.

Star Wars Combat

We've all done it in some form or another. Mock light saber battles against invisible opponents, with our friends, and well... Some of us post it on the 'net even!

But unless you're about to be cast in a new movie based in the Star Wars universe the closest, and most realistic, you'll get to having a light saber battle is through a video game. (Assuming you're not a martial arts expert.)

Light saber battling in video and computer games hasn't always been stellar. In fact at times it's been downright awful. Yes, I look back on those nostalgic games like Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back for my SNES and cringe when I think about the superior gameplay of a game like The Force Unleashed or even Jedi Academy. What great strides the industry has made in their ability to immerse their consumers.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is the next game in line to allow you to immerse yourself in light saber combat and force use. It is the iconic combat (non-space) of the Star Wars universe. But it is not the only combat in Star Wars.

BioWare is working hard to make each of their classes feel as heroic as their recently revealed force class: the Sith warrior. The bounty hunter has a lot of moves you would see from Boba or Jango. The smuggler is dirty just like Han or Lando. And the Sith warrior? He reminds me a lot of Galen Marek.

The combat in the starting areas appears a little stale, but toward the end of the recent developer walkthrough they turned it up a notch by teaming up the warrior and bounty hunter. The action did not stop and there was a good amount of teamwork involved in what looked like a fun leg of the demoed mission.

SWTOR: GC Walkthrough vids

So BioWare had a demo of Star Wars: The Old Republic at GamesCon. Darth Hater has already dissected the videos to point out various features and abilities.









Here's how I see The Old Republic right now: it's an exciting and innovative game for many reasons. The classes so far look amazing and I really want to try all of them. The Smuggler and Bounty Hunter have really stolen my attention away from any of the force users. I can't wait to see what other classes they announce.

I haven't blogged much since the announcement that TOR was going to be the first fully-voiced MMO. I think this is a great step forward for the genre. Currently World of Warcraft saves their voice-overs for certain content such as bosses and epic moments in the storyline. It looks like TOR is going to take this to the next level.

And the cutscenes with the dialogue options? Wow! I'd really like to see and understand fully how it works, especially with another group member. What decides who says what? And how does that radial menu function exactly? We only saw one limited conversation for the Sith Empire and the Bounty Hunter class. How exactly will these decisions affect my character? Killing someone gives darkside points but to what extent? And they say that it changes the types of enemies you will encounter, how so? Will they be more powerful? Less powerful? Different mobs entirely? Obviously there is more that we need to learn about this game and there is tons of time. When does beta start?

Speaking of beta, I think BioWare should do something unique. Like not hold their testers to an NDA. Champions and WAR held their testers to this until fairly close til release and it leaves the public misinformed. Or uninformed. I would rather see beta diaries from various bloggers that I trust than depend on only the information that BioWare gives me. (Sorry BioWare, you have a good track record, but it's your first go-round in an MMO.)

Thanks to br3ntbr0 over at Wall of Text for keeping me up on the development of this game. I've been following his blog since shortly before the release of WAR and he always has some good finds.