“Early Game Access* for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ is only a few days away! Starting December 13, 2011, The Old Republic will begin emailing invitations to start your Early Game Access.” This just in from the official website news section- are you ready to play? The announcement adds: “To ensure that players can get into the game as quickly as possible when their Early Game Access begins, we are now allowing everyone who has redeemed a Pre-Order Code at our Code Redemption Center to pre-load the game to their computer”. Bioware’s Courtney Woods announced that the game is available for pre-load to anyone who has already redeemed their pre-order codes. Stephen Reid also clarified the announcement on Twitter, and notified the community that the Early Access section of the Preorder FAQ had changed. You can now preload the game if you pre-ordered by visiting the SWTOR official website and…
SWTOR Game Cards Now for Sale
The time has come and we know the release of SWTOR is imminent when we see that now game cards are available for purchase! Electronic Arts is offering Star Wars: The Old Republic 60-Day Pre-paid Time Cards on Amazon and other retailers for $29.99. If you haven’t already written your letter to Santa this year or given family stocker-stuffer ideas, then now is the time to ask for some extra game time cards. As of now, we can’t find evidence of any 30-day cards, 90-day cards or longer but there has been hinting that other denominations will come later. If you don’t have a credit card or don’t want to use a credit card to put your game subscription time on, then SWTOR game cards are perfect for you. So what’s your plan? Are you going to stock up on a few cards, buy some for friends or family or…
The Guild Sphere: vindicatum
Welcome back to another edition of the Guild Sphere. This time vindicatum took the time to answer our questions. Vindication is Is a guild with high ambitions supporting the republic. Check it out: Where did your guilds name come from? Vindicatum was an amazing guild back on my guild’s old World of Warcraft server (Icecrown, I believe) and they stood for something that we really wanted to emulate: Success. They were one of the best guilds in America, and tore apart any competition on our server. We also believe that Vindication is something that really stood strong in the Jedi and Republic ideals; so that’s something that we really wanted to reflect into Star Wars: The Old Republic. Can you give me a quick 2-3 sentence description of your guild? We’re just a group of guys that want to be known. At this point, we’re all focused on leveling and…
12 Days of Smack Talkin’
The lads over at Gamebreakers has released an epic WoW vs SWTOR machinima throwdown, Christmas carol style: As you know, of course, Darnell is the most-excellent PvPer extraordinaire. In fact, last week, Blizzard itself made a commercial featuring his awesome awesomeness. However, few people know that our famous World of Warcraft machinima phenom is actually an accomplished singer. That’s right, you may remember his smash hit “It’s So Hard To Say Good-bye to SWG” and “Imma Bunny,” both currently holding steady on the Orgrimmar Top 40. Now, Darnell is ready to top the charts again with the Twelve Days of Christmas. Wait. What was that? Someone jumped in on Darnell’s recording session? Can’t we just re-record it? Oh, not in the budget… OK… Well, Darnell likes duets, and we know you do, too. Darnell graciously invited Mr. Darth Inquisitor from Star Wars: The Old Republic to accompany his melodic undead…
The Sith Inquisition: What Makes Us Sith
Good afternoon Sithizens, In these days between the end of the beta and the beginning of a glorious dawn for the Sith Empire, we have time to sit back and look at what makes us Imperials greater than our weak light side brethren. Why consider us better, why do we even embrace the Dark Side in the first place? As strange as it is for good Sith such as ourselves to think on these things, it’s not unreasonable to want greater knowledge on our existence and what makes us stronger, then use that knowledge to again reinforce our place at the top. Is it our unyielding focus on strength that allows us to trump the Jedi, or is it the idea that we don’t fear reaching into ancient and dark knowledge for greater untold power? Does our constant desire to prove ourselves over our superiors make the next generation all…
Secrets of the Mind Part 1 and 2
Our good friends over at RepublicTrooper.com, has something really interesting to keep you entertained – least part of the time that you are waiting on that December 20th launch date. Mike Kern brings us Secrets of the Mind part 1 and 2 for your enjoyment. Here’s a snippet of Part 1: Marik watched his sister float in bacta, unchanged for weeks. After the disaster on Balmorra, he had gone for more intensive combat training while she underwent surgery after surgery. Despite all the efforts of a dozen surgeons, Kira had lapsed into a coma. Leaving her side was the hardest thing he’d ever done and the six weeks spent on Ord Mantell had felt like six months. Returning to Coruscant was all he wanted and now that he was here, he felt helpless and useless. “I-S-One Thorne.” Marik stiffened and snapped to attention as he whirled on his heel. The voice…
Facebook Image of the Week #41
You know it’s wednesday when BioWare updates the official Star wars the old republic Facebook page with a new screenshot. This time we get to see some Rancore action. Remember we also got our own Facebook page, and we would love to see you there. Anyways. Here is today’s FB pic: On Belsavis, a group of Imperial forces defend one of their strongholds from a deadly rancor.
SWTOR Level 50 Gear (Screenshots)
Not everyone got far enough into the beta testing/ game testing of SWTOR to be able to see level 50 gear. You may not have ever even seen a level 50, much less achieved the level cap for yourself. Here are some screenshots of the different classes with level 50 gear so you can see what it all looks like. The poster says: “High settings but with no AA forced on. Male human body type 2.Keep in mind this is just the gear available at vendors in the fleet, there’s still tons of other gear styles out there such as boss loot, quest rewards and crafting. So if you’re thinking oh man thats ugly, never fear, there shall be alternatives. Also: mod system!Apologies for no Republic stuff” So here you go! Have a look and let us know what you think. Bounty Hunter Sith Inquisitor Imperial Agent Sith Warrior…
SWTOR to Arrive in Australia?
The Australian Government Classification website has listed a new PC game titled “Paper, Scissors, Stone” that has some interesting similarities to what one might see under a SWTOR classification. Does this mean that the game might finally be headed down under? This mystery game is classified “M” and consumer advice says “Science fiction themes, violence and drug references; Online content variable”. The author is listed as BioWare & “Lucas,” and the publisher is listed as Electronic Arts. Based on this info, it seems pretty likely that SWTOR will be coming out in Australia. It’s great news for the Aussies but is it really such a surprise that the game would eventually be released there? It was bound to happen eventually and with us growing closer to launch, I’m not too surprised to see this news. The only downside is that this really only confirms the possibility that EA/Bioware may have…
Official SWTOR Forums to be Wiped on December 10th
As we continue to count down the days to SWTOR launch, we will see different changes in the community. The beta testing period is over and the official forums will be getting a new facelift. This is reported to be more than just a makeover and in fact, a total overhaul that will wi pe all the current posts and private messages.Allison Berryman has announced the changes coming to the SWTOR official forums, including the data wipe. The changes will also include a new community blog. She explains: Another new feature we’re implementing is our Community blog, which will appear at the top of www.SWTOR.com/community. We’ll use this blog for important community announcements, updates, and to post articles of interest to our community members, so make sure to check it out frequently! Sounds interesting for sure and we can’t wait to see it. But what about all the current data…
MTSBWY: Cello Wars (Star Wars Parody) Lightsaber Duel – Steven Sharp Nelson
Long ago in a galaxy far, far away… Cello Wars (a Star Wars Parody) Lightsaber Duel was held. It was an epic battle, Vader plays the accordion and Chewy dances. It’s not a meeting you will soon forget. We love that these guys pulled off this very fun video and of course, had to share it with you. This is what they have to say about their feat: “We announced CELLO WARS on September 19, 2011 thinking we’d be able to deliver on our promise within a few weeks. We had NO IDEA. 70 days later, more than 7,000 frames, 72 audio tracks, 24 hours of filming through the night in front of a green screen, the most props and costumes we’ve ever used, several broken bows and strings, and over 1,000 hours of editing and rendering — we felt like we had taken on the entire EMPIRE!” It’ pretty…
Lusinchi brings Some Clarity to Item Modification Issues
Associate Lead Designer, Emmanuel Lusinchi posted a very long revision today on the official SWTOR forums about the modification system patch notes. He says his patch notes were poorly written and that he wanted to make the post to clarify any confusion. It was a bit of wall of text, however, and I honestly don’t see how the modification system changes were so confusing in the first place. Lusinchi says: To start with, we’ve introduced a new color and item type: the Custom items. Those are shown with an orange border and are fully moddable. This change is purely cosmetic. What we have done is take all fully moddable Prototype items (blue) and simply changed their icon color. This helps us create a better and more unique identity for fully moddable gear. Ok, we’re with you so far. He then describes the main issues with the old modding system: The…
Thanks for the amazing beta Bioware
Now the SWTOR beta has officially come to an end and we are all awaiting the December 20th launch that is just a couple more weeks away. While some were able to game test for an extended period of time, others were at least given a weekend to check it out and the reaction from the community of testers was mostly positive. Nearly everyone who tested and was surveyed said they would recommend the game to a friend. In honor of the end of beta and the upcoming launch of SWTOR, we are asking you all to share with us your favorite moments or experiences of beta testing- no matter how long or short your experience was. Did you play with friends or solo explore? Did you rush to level as quickly as you could or take your time to experience all of the story line? Did you try different…
TOR TV: The Inquisitor Takes You Through Athiss
Greetings good Sithizens and other lowly Jedi. Normally we make our Sith Inquisition posts here on Thursdays, but we just finished production on a very impressive video yesterday and we wanted to share it with all of you. This is a full playthrough of the Planet Athiss flashpoint from the perspective of the Inquisition’s Lord himself. We go through all three major bosses and get a basic grasp of the mechanics, as well as the trash and mechanics of the flashpoint overall. It’s just under an hour long, and brought to you in full 1080p eye bleeding quality. Feel free to ignore the chatter throughout the video, we were discussing the flashpoint, some basic mechanics, and other happening during the last day of beta, but I turned it down specifically so the audio of the flashpoint could be heard. You can find more great videos of The Old Republic Here!
A 43-Year Old Gamer’s Rant about SWTOR
The thread, “Seriously!? (great wall of text from a 43 year old gamer)” is posted on the Official SWTOR forums and is well worth a read, despite the fact it’s roughly 1,000 words long. While it is a rant, the TLDR version will give you some insight to the game and it also makes you think for a minute before whining and complaining about SWTOR. Of course we get that it’s every gamer’s right to whine and complain when they don’t like something but then again, we have to be realistic about our expectations from the games we play these days. While I’m nearly half his age [EDIT: LOL Lisa 😉 ], I’ve been playing video games, including MMORPGs nearly as long as I can remember and I agree with much of what he has to say. A snippet: “I shake my head (but understand) at 90% of the poster’s…
SWTOR Brings in 2 Million Game Testers
We know that SWTOR is popular. In fact, unless you’ve been living the past few months under a rock, you are aware of the hype that surrounds this upcoming MMO. What you might not know is just how much interest there really is in the game. There is such a strong interest in SWTOR that Bioware has broken records with pre-orders and possibly records with game testing as well since they brought in 2 million game testers- all volunteer testers at that. Testers averaged 12 hours each over Thanksgiving, according to Gamespot.com. Instead of enjoying turkey with the fam (or maybe after enjoying their dinners) there were still tons of gamers who found time to pop in and check out SWTOR for themselves. EA says more than 725,000 unique players joined the game over the Thanksgiving weekend, making it “one of the biggest beta tests in history.” 2.4 million gamers…
Macro Possibilities in SWTOR
One of the biggest complaints to come out of SWTOR testing so far has been the lack of auto-attack. Another “issue” with the game so far is that there is no ability to create macros. As any MMO vet will tell you, macros are essential to play the game to its fullest potential. There are also certain games and classes that would be nearly impossible to play efficiently without great macros (think of warriors in WoW). The only way to do this currently in SWTOR is with the Razer keyboard and while it (and the mouse) are pretty darn nifty, we don’t all have the funds to spend on such items just to get the most out of our game. They can be very pricey- after you’ve already paid a great deal on the game itself. When staff was asked if they would change this in the future, they did…
SWTOR Mosaic – What to Do with 13,000 SWTOR Screenshots
So what would you do with 13,000 SWTOR screenshots from the beta? There are probably a lot of ideas you can come up with but will any of them be as cool as what this player did? Michael Guy (t0liman) created a fantastic SWTOR mosaic out of all of this screenshots from the final beta weekend. He captured over 24 hours of game time on the final weekend of SWTOR beta and also created a 35 minute montage video from the screenshots: This is how he says he did it: “Using “Foto-Mosaik-Edda” to do the heavy work of rendering the mosaic, I then reduced the size to fit the 10mb file limits for twitter using Photoshop (Plus, finding the point between juggernaut 200 megapixel posters and “instantly crash all apps in windows” with 8GB RAM, 400 megapixel’s, then working out how to resize 900mb PNG’s to 9mb, is fun) the…
Walmart SWTOR Pre-Order Fiasco
Uh-oh! Sounds like Walmart has goofed on gamers who pre-ordered copies of SWTOR from the retail giant. Great concern surfaced today from customers who had preordered their copies of SWTOR from Walmart only to find out that the retailer had cancelled their status but failed to notify buyers of the news. The official forums for the game were set ablaze overnight with complaints from gamers who say they preordered from Walmart but that when they went to check on their order it said they were cancelled on Saturday “due to a lack of product availability.” You can imagine the panic that ensued as gamers worried whether or not they would be getting their copy of the game, especially with the launch date quickly approaching. Bioware’s Online Community Manager Stephen Reid also acknowledged the issue on the Old Republic forums: “Hello everyone, We will investigate this issue ASAP, although we may…
SWTOR Pre-Launch Guilds Are Locked
Its official now- SWTOR pre-launch guilds are locked. If you didn’t get your info in on time, you will now have to wait until after launch to sort out your guild. Per SWTOR official news: “Today we are announcing that the Pre-Launch Guild Program for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ has come to an end. Guilds that have met the prerequisite of having four members redeem their Pre-Order Codes at our Code Redemption Center are now locked for transfer into the game in time for our December 20th launch. If your guild has qualified for import, you can expect to receive an email at some time over the next several days. This email will give you further details on how to check the status of your guild as well as further details about how to join your guild once you’re in the game. Your email will also tell you which…
The Guild Sphere: Aureus Knights
It’s the first day after the end of the last Beta session of Star Wars: The old republic. I hope you all had as much fun as I did. In today’s column The Aureus Knights took the time to answer our questions. Aureus Knights are a world wide community of online gamers. Although many members are MMO veterans from the early UO, EQ and MUD days, the members span all demographics and play styles. The guild strive for a fun, laid back and social gaming environment that anyone can feel welcome in and enjoy. read more after the jump. Where did your guilds name come from? Aureus is latin for Gold. So our name means Golden Knights. The guilds founders were sitting in EQ2 (the game where our guild was first formally created) and we wanted to create a name involving Knights but we didn’t want to be one of the million…
TOR TV: What to Know
Youtuber LumpOfCole has created a short video guide on all the basics there is to SWTOR – Assuming of course that you know how to play a MMORPG. This is a great video for people who haven’t played the Beta or didn’t get there characters past level 10. Definitely a video I would recommend people to share with there fellow guild members and friends who will be green when SWTOR goes live. Enjoy!
Amazon Germany Showing SWTOR Ship Day December 15th
Possibly due to stocking days when most stores fill up their shelves, some reports are saying that SWTOR will ship to Europe on December 15th. This news came after the confirmation that SWTOR would, in fact, be a worldwide release on December 20th and that European players would not have to wait days after North America to get the game for themselves. Some gamers are reporting stores in Europe letting them pick up pre-orders on the 13th as well as having email alerts of shipping on the 15th or arrival by December 15th. One poster on Reddit had this to share: I just got an email from Amazon (Germany), stating that the “release date” of SWTOR has been moved up to the 15th and that they will ship it earlier because of that. However, the email also states that the official start is still the 20th and only preorders will…
The great hunt: SD-01 Strategy
Welcome to “the great hunt”. Our new column here at SWTOR strategies, were we will talk strategies for each world boss in the game. My name is Zexu and I’ll be running through how to defeat every world boss on the Galactic republic worlds. Today we’ll be going over SD-01, a large droid found on Corusant. This footage was taken during the November 25th weekend beta test, so SD-01’s abilities may have changed. This encounter was completed with ten players at levels 16 through 20. We used two tanks (Jedi Shadow and Jedi Guardian), three healers(Scoundrel, Sage and Commando) and five DPS. Let’s go over his abilities. SD-01 has two abilities. The first ability is applied to the highest threat target IE your tank. The stack increases how much damage the tank takes. It stacks up to ten times making your tank un-healable. To combat this simply have an off…