Star Wars: The Old Republic's ongoing development switched last year from creators BioWare to Broadsword, with promise that the 13-year-old MMO would continue to receive new story content and improvements.
The approaching update 7.5 looks to bring both, alongside a Spring Abundance festival that includes "seed collecting, dancing, pie-baking, animal rehabilitation, and a galactic egg hunt."
]]>Earlier this month EA confirmed reports that they were in talks to transfer development of long-running MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic from its creators BioWare to an external studio. Today, BioWare confirmed that Broadsword would be taking over development, and that "not every role" would move with the game.
]]>EA are in conversations to move ongoing development of BioWare MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic, to a third-party developer, Broadsword Online Games. IGN reported the news earlier today, after which EA confirmed that conversations were taking place.
]]>Ah, Mandalorians. Can't live with them, can't live without them. The 7.2: Showdown On Ruhnuk update to saber-swinging MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic has you hunting down a rogue member of that pesky warrior clan, landing/crashing you on a new planet with fresh daily missions and a story questline. There's a big PvP revamp, too, along with substantial changes to how gear works.
Planet Ruhnuk is the beigest entity I've ever seen, but you're not there for your holidays, are you.
]]>It's been a hot minute since we last gathered round the RPS Time Capsule vault (thanks, Gamescom), but at long last we have returned with another cracking year of PC games to preserve: 2011. In hindsight, it's a bit of an interesting year for Time Capsuling purposes, as we're now getting to the point where games from this era are getting their own remakes and remasters, or fancier, super duper director's cut special editions. We've included the original 2011 release of one of these games in this month's Time Capsule, but there's another notable exception we've decided to save for further down the line. I mean, seriously, would you really recommend vanilla Skyrim from 2011 over 2016's Special Edition?
]]>The description under the video below says it is being released "in celebration of 10 years" of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Ten years! I'd have sworn it was 9, tops. The video itself is a 4K remaster of The Old Republic's original reveal trailer. If you like the ol' space biff, this is some really high resolution space biff.
]]>While BioWare are keeping their lips sealed on Dragon Age and Mass Effect newness for now, they've announced some surprise newness for their 10-year old MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic. They're launching a new expansion named Legacy Of The Sith, which will add new story, combat styles, areas and more. It's coming out towards the end of this year, and the devs say this is the start of a year-long celebration for the game's 10th anniversary (so even more updates will arrive throughout 2022).
]]>If you're looking for an entire second life, we're here to judge. We're only here to serve, which is why we've curated a list of the best MMOs and MMORPGs on PC right now. There's many a massively multiplayer experience to find out there these days, running the gamut from fantasy to sci-fi and... well mostly those two things, but you can still build a little you and live in a whole new world, make virtual friends to share your life with, engage in huge battles against massive enemies, and spend your evenings on raids to grind out levels. Some of the games on this list are tried and true classics that have stuck around for the long haul, and some are newer entries, but all offer deep worlds that you can disappear into.
]]>A long time ago, on a launcher far far away, you couldn't play Star Wars: The Old Republic on Steam. But the old EA order has given way to the new, and for the past month, a fleet of games once exclusive to Origin have found their way into Valve's orbit. Today, The Old Republic joined that armada, bringing the venerable MMORPG alongside its Star Wars brethren on Steam for the very first time.
]]>Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is out today, letting you follow in the roguish bootprints of young force punter Cal Kestis, played here by Archie of Archie comics. In celebration of his boyish padawan appearance, and the way he uses a deadly weapon like you’d use a torch app with dodgy permissions to find your keys, let’s make a list. A list of the least qualified Jedi (and Sith) in PC games.
]]>Last year was a good year for Star Wars games, since we got the release of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and there are more Star Wars game adventures to come, so it seems like a good time to check in on the best Star Wars games on PC. 2024 hasn't started off quite so well, with EA cancelling the Star Wars FPS game Respawn were working on. But there's a new Jedi game in the works there, Star Wars Outlaws at Ubisoft, and the mysterious Star Wars Eclipse at Quantic Dream. That's a lot of Star Wars still coming down the laser cannon, so you'd better get some practise with the Force in now. There are, of course, a lot of Star Wars games, from Lego adventures to podracing, amnesiac Sith and everything in between - which is why our list of the best Star Wars games is so useful. Whatever kind of Star Wars story you're after, you'll find something to enjoy on our list of the 10 best, right here, right now.
]]>With all the news of the new Star Wars hotness this weekend, it's easy to forget that BioWare are still hammering away at Star Wars: The Old Republic, their once-troubled MMORPG. Among Saturday's glut of news from a galaxy far, far away was the low-key announcement of Onslaught, the first major expansion for The Old Republic since 2016's Knights Of The Eternal Throne. The old war between Republic and Sith is flaring up again, and players will get to revisit planet Onderon, previously seen in Knights Of The Old Republic 2, plus the new asteroid pirate city of Mek-Sha.
]]>The game trailer is a sly creature. It wants to entertain you, to excite you, to embolden you with curiousity. But it also wants to sell you a bunch of code wrapped up in some 3D shapes. Some trailers turn out to be more artful than the game they’re hawking, others plant sneaky emotions in your head with music. However, some are better than others. Here are the best conflagrations of light and noise in PC gaming.
]]>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 might expect.
]]>HO HO HO. Christmas is practically upon us, and games eveywhere... well, mostly online... are joining the party. Whether they call it Winter Veil or Frostfell, it's a chance to deck the hubs with bonus XP and let everyone from elves to orcs don Santa hats and hand out treats to the good little wizards and barbarians. Here's a few of the events going on around the worlds over the next week or so. Is there something cool happening in one of your games that you think folks would find fun? Wrap it up nicely in a comment and leave it under the tree. By which I mean the article. Sorry, that metaphor seemed to be going in a better direction at the start of the sentence.
]]>As the dragons finally return to their nests to hibernate and the ghosts don their chains to help remind misers of the meaning of the season, we approach the end of another year. As is tradition, that is time for we at the guild-house to award both quests and questers the ceremonial Scrolls of Honour™. (Chorus of affordable angels)
Scribed upon only the finest vellum in ink taken from a particularly recalcitrant octopus from the Abyssal Depths, they are a testament to skill and imagination and occasional disappointments that mean exactly nothing whatsoever except that I have a column and so I can hand out whatever made-up crap takes my fancy. Lo! We begin!
]]>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 us expected that EA would leave the over-hyped and, at least initially, underperforming MMO to die a slow, quiet death on its own, but instead it seems they're taking advantage of unchecked consumerism excitement around The Force Awakens, and making TOR a far more appealing prospect for people who can't get enough of Far Away / Long Time Ago. Steven's hands-on report last week detailed why this is worth paying attention to, especially if you're more of a solo roleplayer, and now the expansion's actually out. Trailers and whatnot below.
Star Wars: The Old Republic [official site] feels like it has lived in the shadows of its ancestors, Star Wars Galaxies and Knights of the Old Republic, doomed to be eclipsed by their legacy. But after a night of playing, when what was meant to be a quick dip into the new expansion turned into a full-blown binge until little rays of dawn peeked through the curtains, I reckon The Old Republic is close to stepping out of that shadow.
]]>This month, it seems like just about every major RPG out there is getting a major update. Divinity: Original Sin. Wasteland 2. Guild Wars 2. Even Deus Ex! All we need is for someone to announce that they've secretly been upgrading Darklands on the sly and we'll have the whole set. Here's a quick look at what's taking a level up on a PC near you.
]]>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, in a new expansion called Shadow of Revan. It's raises the level cap to 60, adds a couple of new worlds like Yavin 4, offers new high-level raids, and introduces a new "discipline system" which will affect everyone, including those who don't buy this $20 add-on. There's an announcement trailer below.
]]>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 Free-To-Play) Republic - is adding player housing. That's kind of exciting... I guess? Trailer in the Rancor pit beneath these words.
]]>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 other science-fiction, you know, though in fairness not much of it is afforded the same kind of budget as Star Wars stuff enjoys. But if you were holding out hope for an Obsidian-developed Knights of the Old Republic 3, or fun little experiments from random indie chancers, you probably shouldn't, given the 10 year deal between EA and Disney likely covers the full span of Episodes VII-IX and thus is likely to be very focused on whatever they do.
]]>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 then, you'll just have to watch this trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic: Galactic Starfighter: The Coloning.
]]>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 least not completely terrible*. There are different deals within this expansion depending on whether you are a SWTOR subscriber, or a dirty freeloader, and those can be examined here, with the first wave of space dudes grabbing their space wings on November 1st.
]]>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 can watch said Ewok in action below. Spoilers of a kind, natch.
]]>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 most skilled group of players!" There's also a bunch of guild features and similar things included in this update. Later on Nightmare Mode will also be applied to Legion Of Scum & Villainy, for extra scummy and villainous difficulties.
The trailer for all this is far, far away, and a long time ago, etc.
]]>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. DICE, Visceral, and BioWare will be doing development honors on various offshoots, apparently. So then, Battlefield: Star Wars - Old Knights Dying In Space (On Ice!) in 3... 2... 1...
]]>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 not okay. If you are looking around for that other race, the crazy alterative to elves or stormtroopers, and the best you can come up with is a man that looks like a cat, well... no. Anyway, that's what this next update brings. Not player Jawas, or anything like that. Hell, even Star Wars Galaxies had playable Ithorians.
Grumble. Videos below.
]]>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 days (or right now if you pre-ordered). That's an actual expansion that you will have to pay $20 for, just like they did when my pappy was a boy.
2.0, meanwhile, also overhauls PvP, changing the way that characters are "bolstered" when they enter a PvP area. Wow, that really does seem like a band-aid sort of mechanic, doesn't it? Hmm. Anyone with extensive SWTOR PvP experience able to shine a light on that?
]]>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 nearly grinned my face in half when Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart told me his Black-Isle-based collective is lobbying heavily to develop a new Star Wars RPG. "I would say it's within the top three pitches we've ever come up with," he told RPS during a recent interview. But wait, what about the EA-shaped Death Star hovering over The Old Republic? Well, Obsidian's new tale is set in a very, very different time period.
]]>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 it's coming soon to a galaxy near (read: far, far away from) you. But what will it entail? Am I finally about to get the Hutt crime empire management sim of my dreams? Cross your slimy slug fingers and head past the break for details.
]]>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 the precious relic to ash by waging brutal, ceaseless wars over it. That's just how these things work. And now you can join in on the ill-advised carnage for absolutely no money*. No strings attached**. Nope, none ***. Seriously****!
]]>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 of time. Not even Star Wars: The Old Republic - the last great white hope for subs in a post-WoW world - could change that. And so, not even a year after launch, it'll be flipping the F2P switch on November 15th. But, of course, there are some strings attached.
]]>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 mouthed state of paralytic shock if your new companion combines the words "meat" and "bag" to form a phrase of a far more sinister nature. But the galaxy-spanning quest to secure an adorable HK-51 of your very own is only a small part of SWTOR's upcoming update 1.5. The rest appears in a hyper-advanced eyeball stimulating holocron after the break.
]]>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 bit.
]]>"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 SWTOR's freeiness to playiness for yourself, albeit in a contained, reduced version, as the first vestiges of it are now live on that MMO folly's test server.
]]>A long time ago, in a galaxy that was still this one, Star Wars: The Old Republic lead systems designer Damion Schubert was one of the principle minds behind Meridian 59, a bonafide pioneer of MMORPGs as, well, things. Since then, he's worked on Shadowbane and The Sims Online, among others. During GDC Online, however, he gave a talk regaling tales of Meridian clone invasions and other such emergent madness interspersed with rather comical regrets (Fun fact: It was the first 3D MMO. It also launched without mouse-look). Afterward, we sat down for a chat about how MMOs have changed since Schubert first helped hand them a lunch bag and usher them onto the bus back in ye olde 1990s. And while his eyes lit up as he reminisced about Meridian's good old days, he was also quite adamant about his preference for SWTOR's story-driven approach over, say, EVE-Online-style emergent madness. All that and more after the break.
]]>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 ideas - mostly prompted by Star Wars: The Old Republic's fairly alarming approach to free-to-play. In short, if you're only playing for solo story, you're in luck. But, if not, well...
]]>SWTOR's fresh content mill continues to crank on the missions for light-saberists and chums. Speaking here, Bioware's Austin bossbloke Matt Bromberg said: "We’re committed to: about every six weeks, doing a major update for the game -- which would be a new Warzone, a new Operation, a new Flashpoint, a new event -- and to doing that on a really frequent cadence, every six weeks." So that's EVERY SIX WEEKS. Got that? (Nice use of the word "cadence" there, Matt.) The upcoming 1.4 update is proof of this policy, because it contains a new operation called "Terror From Beyond". This features the Gree planet of Asation, and a "hypergate", which you can see in action below.
]]>Yesterday's news about The Old Republic means that this morning we see a wave of editorials suggesting that subscription-based games are over, and that "free" is the only way MMOs can survive. This, of course, is because "MMO" essentially translates to "quest-based online RPG" (99% of the industry can't see any other way to do it) and that tired old road is having to find new ways to keep people coming. There is another path, however, a less travelled one that might sustain the subscription model. The MMO which epitomises this is EVE Online. A sandbox model, where player-interaction is the content.
But will we continue to want to pay subscriptions for that? Or is it just a matter of time until that is made free?
]]>Well, that took all of about a fortnight. Pretty much everyone called this one, given the age of the expensive monthly subscription game seems to be over, bar a few very particular exceptions. So it is that the struggling juggernaut that is EA/Bioware's MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic is to join the rapidly-swelling ranks of free to play. They've just announced that play up to level 50 will be gratis and open to all as of this Fall Autumn. That's no moon - it's a fully-armed and operational new business model.*
And it'll be terribly awkward for you, because it's not who you think it is. You'll be like, "Hey, HK-47, how's it going?" And HK-51 will be like... well, I don't know what he'll be like, because he's a new character. He and his exceedingly murderous brethren are, however, something of a throwback to cut content from KOTOR 2, so you might not end up totally out of your depth. For now, though, BioWare's prepared a lavish CG trailer, because - and I guess this should've been the headline for the story - gameplay doesn't exist anymore. It disappeared forever while you were asleep. Games are now cobbled together from CG, live-action footage, and meticulously photoshopped still images. You can't actually play them, but you can hit the pause button whenever you want, which offers a truly unprecedented level of choice in how you approach every situation.
]]>Star Wars: The Old Republic now has a free trial, hooray! Anyone is eligible, which is a good thing, and the main limiting factor is that it caps you to level 15 (the level cap is 50 for subscribers, so this will get you off the starting world to Coruscant, but not much further.) PvP and flashpoints are also available in the trial. There's a bunch more information in the FAQ, but overall this seems like a good move for the game. Allowing folks to try it out before they plunge into the depths of their wallets is always a good idea.
]]>"Come Back and Play at No Charge* for Up to 7 Days!" Says the SWTOR site. Ha, what's that asterisk in there? Why it's the expiration date on this offer, which is July 17th. And this is an offer for lapsed subs only, of course. Returning folk will no doubt be thrilled to "receive an exclusive in-game pet, the Gannifari [pictured], and 25 Black Hole Commendations to use towards high level gear." So that sound useful, if you're a pet-loving ex-Jedi/Sith/Miscellaneous.
SWTOR is currently sitting at update 1.3, which focuses a bit more on PvP and grouping. "Grouping" is a funny word... Trailer for 1.3 below!
]]>I remember when games used to be obstinate, unyielding creatures. They'd prance through the room, coated in all manner of dust and bugs and glitches, and they just didn't care. Now, though, they heed developers' every beck and call post-launch. The things can practically grow extra arms on command. Case in point: SWTOR's latest patch, which brings it up to not-quite-light-speed with modern MMOs and, of course, Team Fortress 2's recent case of Pyromania. So then, let's have a gander at what's on the menu.
]]>No, BioWare hasn't suddenly made a lightspeed jump to F2P, but - speaking with GamesTM - it changed its tune quite a bit from "subscription-based forever." So then, the obvious (in almost every situation ever in the whole of human history) question: why? Well, it's certainly hard to ignore SWTOR's 400,000-person slide into the subscriber Sarlacc Pit, but BioWare contends that there's more to it than that.
]]>Bioware send word that they're having another free-to-party party this weekend. It's taking place from Thursday, May 17th at 12:01AM CDT / 5:01AM GMT, and ends on Monday, May 21st at 2:00AM CDT / 7:00AM GMT. The usual limits apply: Level 15 cap, but you can freely play PvP zones. Only people (or email addresses?) that have not played the game previously will be able to participate in this free weekend.
]]>Yesterday was EA's annual fiscal earnings call, which meant another night of the publisher baying about sums of money beyond all human imagining to stern shareholders and jumpy journalists. The headline numbers were revenues of $4.1 billion and earnings of $76 million, and a claim that it will be throwing $80 million down the gluttonous money-pit "in development of games for Gen4 console systems." So consoles didn't start until PS1, huh? My sister's still-used Sega Mastersystem says otherwise, bucko.
But enough about the willy-waving. Let's talk willy-shrinking too. Back in March, EA claimed its frighteningly expensive MMO goliath Star Wars: The Old Republic boasted some 1.7 million active subscribers. It's now the merry month of May, and the earnings call brought news that subscribers are down to 1.3 million. So that's 400,000 chappies gone in just two months, eh?
]]>Not such a long, long time ago, in galaxy much like this one, only more naive, youthful, and able to pull off those jeans the Milky Way no longer has any business shimmying into, Star Wars: The Old Republic was the Next Big Thing. It was billed as a tale for the ages - or six tales for the ages, really. Some soup-tin-sized lightsaber hilts aside, it could do no wrong. Fast-forwarding to today, however, paints a significantly more disenfranchised picture. Where once the level cap was a mystical thing - like the bell at the top of one of those strongman hammer dealies at fairs - now everyone's dinging it. The credits have rolled, show's over, and the theater's empty aside from an incredibly cute cricket and tumbleweed couple in the throes of deep, eerily silent love, right? Wrong. That, lead designer Daniel Erickson told RPS, is a classic case of the Internet's peanut gallery making a lightspeed jump to conclusions.
]]>I never play MMOs enough to receive awards. Actually, I do play them, but don't play, so while everyone's grinding and high-fiving over getting level quad-squlllion, I'm jumping up a mountain the wrong way, attempting to find a stray polygon to land on to climb higher and higher. It's important research. So I'm physically shrugging at Bioware's gift of 30 free days of game time to every SWTOR player that's reached level 50. It doesn't affect me in the slightest that my pioneering playstyle goes unrewarded. It might affect you, though, and for that I'm happy and seething with envy for you. It's to drag everyone back into the game to experience the delights of the massive Legacy update. As an extra incentive, they're throwing in a cute little baby Tauntaun.
Enough about the freebies. Here's what the update looks like.
]]>The second free weekend for Star Wars: The Old Republic has been announced. The SWTOR team writes: "...we are excited to announce that individuals who did not take part in the first Weekend Pass Free Trial will have another opportunity to live out their very own Star Wars™ saga, for free, with the second Star Wars: The Old Republic Weekend Pass Free Trial! Participants in the previous Weekend Pass Free Trial and any other free trials are not eligible for this upcoming Weekend Pass Free Trial period." This free weekend runs Thursday, March 22nd at 12:01AM CDT or 5:01AM GMT to Monday, March 26th at 2:00AM CDT or 7:00AM GMT. It also has the same limitations as the first, with a level cap, and chat exclusions. And it's free! Freeeeeeeeeeee! Ahem. Sorry. I'll make some tea.
]]>EA send word that their game of multi-player laser-swords will soon be featuring free weekends, the page for which is here. It reports that the first free weekend is "Thursday, March 15 at 12:01AM CT through Monday, March 19 at 2:00AM CT." There are some more details just here, most notable restrictions on chat options to stop you being a big old gold spammer, restrictions to "Origin World, Capital World, the Fleet, all Warzones, and in their first Flashpoint", and a level cap of 15. Should still be enough to give you a good free taste of the thing, of course.
]]>Mass Effect 3 is still a day away in the US and four days away in the UK (unless you happen to know of some way to make your PC's IP address appear to based in Hong Kong, in which case you could play the game right now) but we are left with another option if we're craving immediate Biowarian intergalactic adventures. If you don't have a subscription to Star Wars: The Old But Mysteriously Similar To The New Republic but know someone who does, you could be in luck. Starting tomorrow is the Friends Trial, which means subs can invite in chums for a week of free play and access to everything the game contains up until level 15.
]]>James Ohlen is a senior creative director at BioWare, and has spent the last six years working on Star Wars: The Old Republic. We spoke to him to find out how he thinks the launch has gone, how the game is being received, and what we can expect to see in the first update, due next week.
]]>Next week's update for Star Wars: The Old Republic is to be called Rise Of The Rakghouls, and plans to add some major new content to the game, focusing on story-heavy features. Senior Creative Director James Ohlen explained to us in an interview we're posting very soon that along with "a lot of bug fixes and modifications", there would be the titular new story-focused flashpoint, as well as expanding Karagga's Palace to have five times as many bosses (five). And this is just the first of many updates they're already working on. March promises a new planet, warzone, operation, guild banks... And then there's the updates they're already working on for next year. You can see the accompanying trailer below.
]]>For all the grumbles you may have read, Star Wars: The Old Republic is undoubtedly one of the most remarkably complete and solid MMO releases we've seen so far. It's where most MMOs get in about six months. And this patch adds more content. But there are still things to fix, and the first major patch (ie. one that doesn't just remove an exploit) is due very soon. In fact, as Eurogamer point out it's been released on the test servers, which means we know what's in it.
]]>Taptaptap. Is this thing on? One, two, one two. Hello mum. One two. Two. Two. Two. And she's buyyyyyyyying a stairway to heavennnnnnnnnn. One two, one two. Okay, 2012 is go!
I've occasionally wondered what it would have been like had RPS been around back when World of Warcraft first launched. The excitement, the moaning about queues and bugs and griefers and customer support, the mad little adventures in a new world. SWTOR offers a taste of what might have been, though the deep familiarity of EA's MMO means RPS as a whole hasn't been able to conjure the drooling desperation to play that we had for WoW back in the day. I am quite sure, however, that we would have found all sorts of things like this to post about - an exploit that keeps your character safe from harm if you can activate a safety dance in time.
]]>Well this is all jolly interesting. Remember the story about Star Wars: The Old Republic banning a player because he'd been to Ilum at too low a level, and been looting the containers? And remember how it looked pretty dodgy, and was probably a fake? Well here's the thing: it wasn't. It was real. But, as you might imagine, there were a few details missed out.
]]>Oh goodness me, can this really be true? A pic of an email is circulating this morning purporting to be a communication from EA, informing a player that their account has been banned from playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, because their character visited, and looted within, a high level area. Because, they say, this violates their terms of service. If this proves to be the case, and that's purely the reason, it may be the most ridiculous EA ban yet. However, there are a lot of reasons to assume it's either a fake, or things are a lot more complicated. Take a look.
]]>Ever since I became the Bastard Of The Old Republic, I've found it an awful lot easier to delve into the crueller side of gaming choices. So it is that I've chosen to spend my time with Star Wars: The Old Republic as a Sith. And not some stupid do-gooding Sith who just happened to be born on the wrong side of the galaxy. I mean a Sith, cruel for the sake of being cruel, delighting in mindlessly murdering innocents and needlessly upsetting everyone I meet. And in the game. And in doing so, I'm discovering that making an entire race of baddies is a pretty tricky challenge.
]]>Edit: Turns out you can't redeem codes anyway, as that's broken at the moment. A lot of players are a touch upset that their 30 days free with the game aren't actually accessible until you enter payment details to pay for the next month.
Aaaand now my patience has run out. As if the extensive hours-long queues to get in to play Star Wars: The Old Republic weren't frustrating enough (that's if the game's online to let you play, of course), now BioWare/EA's infrastructure can't cope with people trying to visit their website. I have never, in my life, ever seen a queue to visit a website before. Yet that's the position I'm in, trying to enter a code so I can carry on playing the bloody game. A queue I can't seem to win at.
]]>Fancy a game of Star Wars: The Old Republic? Well tough, because the servers are all down this morning until 12pm, for scheduled maintenance work. And this isn't the first time. In what appears to be a very strange decision for such a high profile game, European servers are all being taken offline for hours during the daytime, for a game that's only just launched. And even more strange - doing this takes down the entire www.swtor.com website too, meaning anyone wanting to say, learn about the game, can't. And then you notice this is an international thing, and Europe starts to look a little unloved.
]]>We at RPS know what it's like to be too popular. Unable to walk from our Limousines to the exclusive clubs and restaurants we frequent without being assaulted by mobs of screaming, frantic fans, we completely understand the challenge it offers. And BioWare/EA are discovering the same with Star Wars: The Old Republic. The queues: they are long.
Which is a bit of a shame in your first week. With queues for servers sometimes stretching to over two hours, it is a bit offputting. And BioWare are warning it's not going to get better soon.
]]>Today's the day, then. The day the world finally discovers if EA's long-gestating, mega-hyped Star Wars MMO is KOTOR 3+, WoW in space, Galaxies without the madness, a Wookiee or a Jawa, a winner or a loser, an Empire Strikes Back or a Phantom Menace, a Sarlaac or a Hutt. (I don't even know which of those is better). Many John Walkers died to bring us thoughts on the game, which we hope to have next week. I too have a copy I plan to look at as soon as humanly/wookieely possible, though I've been too busy breaking my beloved record player today to get started as yet.
So, who's in, who's out, who's Light side, who's Dark side, who's loving it, who's hating it and who's going to waste everyone's time by posting 'meh' and having it silently deleted a few seconds later? Also, below is an eight-minute 'launch documentary', which is a fancy way of saying 'advert.' Warning: it seems to auto-play, which I can't work out how to stop. Sorry.
]]>If you're one of the lucky ones able to access your Origin account, and you've pre-ordered The Old Republic, you'll be pleased to learn you're going to get access to it a week early. Which is in five days! Five days! Coo lummee - it feels like this game's been in development for over a thousand years. I've certainly been to a thousand preview events. And it's any pre-order that gets you early access, not just one of the fancy special editions. You also get 30 days of "free" play (I love the idea that it's free, after you've just spent £30 on the game), before the tithing begins at £9 a month (with discounts for buying in lumps).
]]>Seems like the Activision bossman thinks that Electronic Arts aren't going to be printing spacebucks with their forthcoming Star Wars MMO, and said as much to his investors. As reported over here by Reuters, Kotick poured scepticism onto the up and coming MMO, saying: "Lucas is going to be the principal beneficiary of the success of Star Wars. We've been in business with Lucas for a long time and the economics will always accrue to the benefit of Lucas, so I don't really understand how the economics work for Electronic Arts." He went on to say ""If you look at the history of the people investing in an MMO and achieving success, it's a small number." And his company are, of course, one of that number, and must be a little nervous about possibly losing subscribers to the enormous Star Wars project. EA, meanwhile, claim that SWTOR will be a success if it hits just 500k subscribers, a figure that looks to be well within their reach.
]]>Given the choice between being a Jedi Knight (nahyt) n. a mounted soldier serving under a feudal superior in the Middle Ages, and a Jedi Consular (kon-suhl) n. an official appointed by the government of one country to look after its commercial interests and the welfare of its citizens in another country, it seems hard to imagine why anyone would choose boring Mr. Government for Star Wars: The Old Republic. But the video below attempts to show you why melee lightsabre combat might be something worth avoiding in favour of making people dangle in the air like twits. And the sneaky-sneaky.
]]>You know how we're giving away 12,000 beta keys for a weekend of Star Wars: The Old Republic? (There are still a few left, although not many - you need to claim yours before Friday at midnight - go here for all the details.) (Well, not all the details, or there'd be no reason for this post.) We finally have a date for it. It's the weekend after this one. Things kick off on the 25th Nov, and come to an end on the following Monday, 28th. So there you go.
]]>Would you like to play Star Wars: The Old Republic for a whole weekend? For free? See, I thought you would. EA plan a free server-stress-testing weekend in the very near future (they haven't quite nailed down which weekend it will be yet, oddly enough), and we have 12,000 keys to give away. No, I typed that right. Twelve thousand. It's first come, first served, and we recommend you click below right away before the rest of the internet gets wind of this.
]]>Well here's a special thing - seven new Star Wars: The Old Republic screenshots that are a) mostly not rubbish, and b) not ruined by a giant and pointless BioWare logo! What better way to start the day? (Um, cuddles and pie, maybe?)
]]>I've had access to The Old Republic for the last couple of weeks. Which is good. Below is the first of a series of articles I'm going to write about it, thinking about different aspects, and playing as different Republic classes. Today it's Jedi Knight, and just how it is that BioWare's moral choices and quest styles fit into a massively multiplayer world.
]]>When twas announced that Star Wars: The Old Republic was releasing on the 22nd December in Europe, people stared at the screen and mumbled, "But... Christmas?" Admittedly it was only slightly louder mumbling than that from America, where the given date was the 20th. An odd choice, presumably trying to capture that elusive, "I hate my family" market, but one that's at least been made slightly less odd by bringing them together. Us EU types will now be seeing the game on the same day as you US types, which both acknowledges that there are no oceans on the internet, and that people might want to get to level 15 before Santa arrives. How do we know this? Joystiq told us so. We'll have lots of lovely new SW:TOR info for you in a few days.
]]>I do so love maps, and just one of the maps I have been taking a look at this morning is this one from Star Wars: The Old Republic. As if there were any doubt about the amount of content Bioware are churning out for this MMO, this Unity-powered map details every planet that features in the game, across five sectors of space, and even details a number of the spacecraft that will feature in the game. I think it's a bit of a shame they didn't opt for a "zoom" sort of navigation of the maps, but it's fun to see the game laid out in this way.
]]>Star Wars: The Old Republic has a release date or two: December 20th in North America and on December 22nd in the Europe. Speaking at the Eurogamer Expo, Bioboss Ray Muzyka said: “This is an incredible moment for everyone at BioWare and our partners at LucasArts who have dedicated their lives to build this extraordinary game. We appreciate the patience from the millions of fans who have been waiting for the game’s release.” No problem, Ray! We had plenty of other games to play, to be fair.
]]>Last month, John wrote about same sex relationships in Skyrim and SW:TOR. Specifically the fact that the Elder Scrolls will allow them while Star Wars will not. Now, in what I’m going to refer to as an extraordinary volte-face, BioWare have confirmed that “same gender romances with companion characters” will be in the game. As a “post-launch feature”. The full official quote, which I extracted from The Old Republic’s forum, is below.
]]>Star Wars: Galaxies had a brilliant idea at its core; to let people live in the Star Wars world without letting them all be Jedi from the moment they register. You had to earn the right because it doesn’t make sense for every single person to be a member of an exclusive and rare sect. In Star Wars: The Old Republic, I have no desire to be a Jedi at all. I want to be a smuggler and Bioware have released a new trailer to show exactly why.
]]>You'd imagine gaming would lead the way on more liberal values, but it's surprising still how rare LGBT characters are in games. The compromise tends to be Sims-like universal polysexuality, almost no characters deliberately written as anything other than straight, with rare exceptions. One such company that tends to recognise a same-sex relationship is BioWare, which makes the news that The Old Republic won't be supporting them a little surprising. It seems Star Wars might not have room for gays. However, in better news, we learn today that the realms of Skyrim will not only allow same-sex relationships, but also same-sex marriage.
]]>EA have been busy at Gamescom. Here they are showing what it looks like when a team of eight players go on a mission to stop a dangerous bloke escaping a prison, in Bioware's upcoming space-friends MMO, The Old Republic. Here's four minutes of unedited (but likely heavily rehearsed) in game footage:
]]>A few minutes ago I didn't know, but now I do - that's the magic of online marketing materials for The Old Republic. They're not just entertaining, they're educational! And when it's your job to be an enormous nerd on the internet, as mine is, it's good to know this stuff. I've posted the Jedi Consular trailer below, so that you can see it too. Being a Jedi Consular involves wearing very large shoulder pads, looking at glowing machines, deflecting energy bolts, and basically being a big old space wizard. Good times.
WARNING: The trailer auto-plays, for some reason.
]]>You think you have had enough of The Old Republic news? WE ARE JUST GETTING STARTED. By the end of the year you'll actually have had your childhood memories replaced by SW:TOR marketing materials, and the world will seem a better place for it. The latest cocktail of sparkling hype-juice to be pumped energetically from the info-nozzle of Lucas/EA/Bioware is the Join The Fight trailer (below), which shows the various character classes strutting their talent trees. Each class has a pithy line and a bit of fighty to illustrate their unique appeal. Off-screen, however, it's my suspicion that the Sith Warrior looks at the Imperial Agent and says "Lol, nerd."
Go take a look.
]]>Every MMO developer likes to think that their game will last longer than the norm. That norm, for AAA Western MMOs, is growing increasingly brief. Which makes BioWare's ambitions for Star Wars: The Old Republic, impressively bold. Discussing what their game will be doing in 2025 requires the sort of cajones that can only impress us into believing them. That's what Eurogamer reported that Darth Hater reported.
]]>Riding high on the wave of fan contentment generated by news that upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will absurdly cost between £45 and £130 (depending on which increasingly bonus-fatted version you want), EA/Bioware have dropped some more major news. Hopefully, this one isn't quite so distressing.
Eurogamer brings word from EA of the closest we've had yet to a release date - "the second half of 2011."
]]>Update: GAME are now selling the Collector's Edition for... £130!
Yesterday's leak of the Star Wars: The Old Republic special edition has proven, not surprisingly, to be accurate. With ComicCon starting today, EA have somewhat pre-empted their in-show announcement by going official with the various packages on their site, perhaps in response to the rumours that swirled yesterday. However, while confirming everything that was expected (including that spunky mouse), they've yet to add a proper price to it all, despite claiming you can pre-order now. And as for the regular versions - the prices out there are looking ridiculous.
]]>How much do you think you'd pay for Star Wars: The Old Republic? Signs point toward BioWare/EA opting for an old-school subscription model, as well as charging for a boxed copy of the game to start - so very 2007. So, perhaps £30 for the game and £8-£10 a month thereafter? You'd be happy with that? Well, some rumours revealed by NeoGAF, as posted on BetaCake, seem to suggest you could opt to pay an awful lot more for a special edition. A special edition with an awful lot of stuff.
]]>There's been a fair bit of grumbling and grief about the upcoming closure of olden MMO Star Wars: Galaxies, with some players reckoning the decision makes no sense and wasn't necessary. I should probably insert some sort of Star Wars quote here, but I'm a 32 year old man - can't I stop doing that now? There's a petition against the closure, of course. There's always a petition. Whether 3000 signatures are enough to change SOE's mind seems unlikely - especially given SOE boss John Smedley has shone a little more light on just why Galaxies was fed to the Sarlacc pit.
]]>The hype-train for Bioware's upcoming MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic is trundling along nicely now. All aboard! Next stop: a two minute trailer walking you through what looks like one of the game's instanced missions. Population: The Internet. If you wanted to get off at Tatooine, you've missed your stop, but I can let you off here.
]]>While the waters around Crysis 2's sudden disappearance from Steam last night remain somewhat muddy, EA Games prez Frank Gibeau has spilled a few heavily suggestive beans about the big brass balls the publisher has about its proprietary download service, Origin, and how it intends to keep any other download service's grubby mitts off a few of its choicest games.
]]>The Star Wars: The Old Republic intro movie may have been so monumental that we entirely deliberately and definitely, definitely not accidentally posted it twice, but it sure did get a few backs up. All very pretty and very Original Trilogy, yes, but what on Earth has all that pre-rendered willy-waving got to do with playing an MMO? Fortunately, Bioware are now letting us a little closer to their multi-million-dollar baby, with a guided walkthrough of whiny Luke's adopted homeland - the desert planet known as Tatooine.
]]>Will there be a #2? I've no idea. But for now here's a collection of some games I saw at E3 2011 and the accompanying thoughts. Below you can find The Old Republic, Telltale's latest crop, and Codies' F1 2011.
]]>Bioware have released the six minute intro cinematic that'll be featured in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Critics (alright, me) are describing the video as "long", and "a bit like it was written using a flow chart of scenes from previous Star Wars cinematics".
Ah, look at me being negative in the face of lightsabers and smugglers and a pseudo-R2D2 in a budget Millenium Falcon piloted by a pretend Han Solo. But some of you lot have got to feel the same way, right? In giving gamers environments, characters and attiudes that we recognise, these games make the universe seem thinner and more boring than it really is.
]]>How's your keyboard? Old? Stinky? Are there so many crumbs under the keys that you can barely type, and when you can it sounds like somebody eating biscuits?
Well, Razer's just announced a new range of PC peripherals branded around upcoming MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, and... well, it's not like I can tell you whether they're any good. They've only just been announced. But they're certainly the most ludicrous bits of kit I've seen in a while, so top marks there. You'll find the trailer after the jump. Yes, a trailer. For a keyboard.
]]>This ludicrously high-gloss CGI intro cinematic for Bioware's Star Wars MMO goes to great lengths to stress that is very much a Star Wars game, despite the an even longer, long time ago era it's set in. It's like a Greatest Hits of Star Wars, but starring dudes you don't recognise. It's also a chance to admire the essential archetypes in the game, with the Han Solo type throwing all metaphor to the wind and actually being a bloody cowboy here. Jolly impressive stuff, but obviously it tells us Wookie-squat about what the game actually plays like. Forunately, we have a video for that too...
]]>Last week we brought you word of the impressive-looking PvE content in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Now is the turn of the PvP. How does this fit into a game that's so story-focused? Read on.
]]>I had the chance to sit down to play The Old Republic for a couple of days. News about the PvP side of things will be with you in just over a week, but below are my impressions of a big chunk of time with the Imperial Agent's PvE. There's also some brand new screens, that you can click on for larger versions. How does the game balance RPG and MMO? Is this really KotORs 3, 4 and 5? I have some thoughts to share.
]]>Thwack! Bap! Thunk! CVG have spotted the latest trailer for upcoming Bioware MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, this time covering the path of the Jedi, showing how Jedi players will work their way up from nobodies running around twatting ugly dudes to mighty warriors who run around twatting ugly dudes. The overall impression I get is that the Jedi Knight is certainly the bane of ugly dudes the galaxy over, but also kind of a jerk and somewhat at odds with the heroic brass accompaniment in the backgrounds. Come see if you agree!
]]>A few moments ago, in a convention hall reasonably far away, Bioware unleashed a super-shiny new trailer packed with in-game footage of their upcoming Star Wars MMO: The Old Republic.
It looks improbably glossy and exciting. Can the game itself possibly live up to such visual promise? Well, depends to some extent whether your PC can run that much anti-aliasing.
]]>We're still Mystery Months away from getting to play Bioware's Star Wars MMO The Old Republic, but clearly they expect their players to be organised. No hanging around the newbie areas yelling "PLZ HELP WERE IS RANCOR TUSK NEED 1 MORE LOL" on your todd - you can get on with pre-registering your guild, or joining another, right away. Step to it, magic soldier.
]]>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.
]]>Here's a big quote from EA on the future of The Old Republic, as reported by MCV: “Our assumptions for break-even and profitability are not seven-digit subscribers. We think we can run and operate a very successful and profitable MMO at different levels," said CFO Eric Brown, speaking at and event in New York. “The key thing here is to really perfect the product. We’re shooting for an extremely high quality game experience. We view this as a ten-year opportunity.”
]]>See what I mean about the videos? Another one! The Old Republic has got them coming out of its ears. If an MMO has ears. Open posts? Something like that. But actually this is a bit more like it: a demonstration of one of the PvP maps, or "warzones", in action. It looks like a pretty spectacular venue for competitive space biff, even if they combat looks pretty standard fare for an MMO. The big gun firing on the spaceship floating in the distance is exactly the sort of stuff I demand to see in my sci-fi games.
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