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Catching Up With Star Wars: The Old Republic Posted By Mike on December 4, 2011
Following up on our TOR beta test round-up post, we have a number of new updates from the official Star Wars: The Old Republic site along with a variety of new previews and articles.
SWTOR.com let loose with a number of updates and we'll start with their addition of a new "Choose Your Side" video. In the latest match-up, Senior Writer Alexander Freed and Designer Ken Dilks defend the Imperial Agent, while Writer Jo Berry and Designer Jason Attard cheer on the Jedi Consular.
Razer is now offering their line of TOR peripheral products for pre-order. The line includes keyboard, mouse, headset and mouse pad selections.
According to SWTOR.com, if you follow Star Wars: The Old Republic on Facebook and YouTube, you can get new original TOR music daily until the December 20th launch date.
And at this point, the TOR Pre-Launch Guild Program has ended. Here's the announcement from SWTOR.com:
"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 server your guild has been assigned to, so you will know which one to select when Early Game Access begins. While we will do everything we can to ensure that your Allies and Adversaries are on your server with you, we can?t necessarily guarantee that every guild will see their Allies and Adversaries on their server with them.
We want to thank each and every one of you who took part in the program, and we look forward to seeing you all in the game!"
Moving away from the official TOR site, let's touch on a couple of random articles before we commence with another list of beta test impressions and conclusion excerpts.
Auther John Jackson Miller discusses the inclusion of Carrick Station to Star Wars: The Old Republic in a blog entry that you can read here.
VideoGamer.com discusses TOR revenue and notes that 35% of that revenue will go to LucasArts. Eurogamer.net has more on this.
Shockingly, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick isn't convinced that TOR will be very profitable for EA according to an article at GamePro.com.
MMOSite.com went a different route than your standard game prieview and is offering up "Tips and Tricks from Star Wars: The Old Republic Beta."
And as for those additional beta test preview links and excerpts...
We begin with a preview at MMOMFG.com from a non-MMO enthusiast who really liked the story:
"There?s a lot to consider when analyzing how good SWTOR can be and the amount of potential it has. In my opinion (and that is the opinion of someone who generally doesn?t play an MMO past a month or two), Bioware has done a great job putting together an MMO that has enough to distinguish itself from other MMOs on the market. It may not be reinventing the wheel like the upcoming Guild Wars 2 or TERA, but with their focus on story, they very well may change how we perceive an MMO. I?m sure there are going to be plenty of people who skip through the dialogue, and could care less about the story, but they would be doing themselves a huge disservice. Playing through and experiencing the flashpoint was some of the most fun I?ve had in an MMO since my PvP days during Ultima Online. Will there be pointless quests that include running around and collecting X amount of items? Of course there will. Will there be a bit of downtime running from one place to the next? Most certainly. There are still inherent problems with MMOs that drive me crazy, but from what I?ve seen so far, BioWare is giving me enough reasons to ignore the cons and focus on the pros. The game is already oozing with plenty of lore and atmosphere to satisfy even the most die hard Star Wars fan. Let?s hope the finished product coming next month is even better. For fans of Knights of the Old Republic that wished for a third title, this is capable of being parts 3 through 10."
Per the beta test impressions from VideoGameWriters.com, it's typically a good sign if you're left wanting more:
"Overall, I was left craving more of SWTOR. It may not be an entirely innovative game, but its strong use of Star Wars content, solid visual style, fun gameplay and most notably the quality storyline and voice acting, makes this a guaranteed pleaser for most MMO fans. It has everything that?s needed to succeed at launch, with much more promised down the road. Whether or not it will be the WoW-killing, second coming of MMOs can?t be determined yet, but it certainly has a strong shot."
411mania.com is a bit more measured with their enthusiasm noting that the game may not take down WOW, but should care out a nice market niche for itself:
"All in all, the game looks to be nearly set in stone, which is good as the game's Early Access for those who pre-ordered the game starts in just two weeks. Will this game be the mythical WoW-killer that people have been waiting for for years? No, but I say that only because I don't think there ever will be a WoW-killer. BioWare seems to have been smart by carving out their own niche; they don't seem to be trying to take on the hack-slash nature of Blizzard's monster and instead are going with a game that will appeal to more story-focused fans. That may well give them the chance to survive in a way that many games--its predecessor Star Wars Galaxies included--failed to do."
Finally, AttackoftheFanboy.com will continue to be positive about the game so long as it continues to deliver for the fans in the long run:
"In the early goings for The Old Republic, it's explicitly clear that Bioware is trying to focus on you, your character, and your storyline before sending you into the Massively Multiplayer part of this online Star Wars adventure. From what we played, around 30 hours in all across each class, the opening for Star Wars: The Old Republic is strong, especially for those that are looking for more out of there next MMO than what is currently the standard. But it's not the opening of this MMO that will keep players coming back and plunking down their hard earned cash month after month. There's going to need to be a significant late stage draw to get players to keep playing. If they can nail the back-end high level content as well as they have on the front-end, and look for a way to get players together as well as RIFT did. The Old Republic should have no problem leaving its mark on the MMO world in 2012."
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