Basically the gimmie gimmie gimmie generation of instant gratification kids wont like this game. Leaving it clear for the rest of us that want a more immersive experience
Atleast thats the way I am chosing to read it, seriously after all the plugging of story story story Bioware have done, you skipped past all that and for some reason acted suprised when you felt you were missing something.
Hardly suprising.
Totally agree, I can not stand the gimme crowd of late. Earn something you lazy sobs.
I actually LOL'd when I read this. Then I paused, read it again, chuckled, and finally finished reading the article.
Ya know, that succinctly sums up my opinion of this MMOSPG (mmo-single player game) thus far, based on this and other information that I've seen come out of E3... but the slugs thing, that's just... like "O.M.G." so epic.
When I think of the evil, dark side wielding Sith the FIRST thing that I think of is killing slimy spelunking (were they spelunking?) slugs. Not manipulating people and events by snatching away a relative, not forcefully threatening someone to arrange events in a certain way, and certainly not... oh I don't know.. arranging for the demise of an unfavorable.
The reviewer's opinion took a nose-dive for me when he admitted to not even paying attention to the quest dialogue and just went straight for the killing.
This is not an MMO. It's an MMORPG. Bioware is trying to revive the RPG aspect that MMO's came from and I worry that it will be lost on the people that are only in it for bigger, faster, more shinies.
Not everyone is all about the loot and levels. I care more about the story and lore Bioware will create and finding a way to make my own character's story blend with and grow from that.
The reviewer's opinion took a nose-dive for me when he admitted to not even paying attention to the quest dialogue and just went straight for the killing.
This is not an MMO. It's an MMORPG. Bioware is trying to revive the RPG aspect that MMO's came from and I worry that it will be lost on the people that are only in it for bigger, faster, more shinies.
Not everyone is all about the loot and levels. I care more about the story and lore Bioware will create and finding a way to make my own character's story blend with and grow from that.
Don't know why it is so hard for you and other people with the same complaint to grasp what happened, especially when it was clearly written out for you right in the review. THEY DID NOT HAVE TIME! Stop acting as if they had hours or days to sit back and relax and enjoy the game, this is not an in depth review of the game and all its details. They had a few minutes, and even if they had paid attention to the dialouge/story they would have gotten to see just a few minutes of it and thats all... there would have been absolutely no point, cause they cant see anything beyond those first few minutes.
These demos, and the limited time to play them are much better used to focus on trying out the actual gameplay and mechanics. They will try out the story stuff and go mor ein depth when they get a chance to play a REAL demo, with lots of time to put into it, not a 15 minute ssample of the game.
The reviewer's opinion took a nose-dive for me when he admitted to not even paying attention to the quest dialogue and just went straight for the killing.
This is not an MMO. It's an MMORPG. Bioware is trying to revive the RPG aspect that MMO's came from and I worry that it will be lost on the people that are only in it for bigger, faster, more shinies.
Not everyone is all about the loot and levels. I care more about the story and lore Bioware will create and finding a way to make my own character's story blend with and grow from that.
Don't know why it is so hard for you and other people with the same complaint to grasp what happened, especially when it was clearly written out for you right in the review. THEY DID NOT HAVE TIME! Stop acting as if they had hours or days to sit back and relax and enjoy the game, this is not an in depth review of the game and all its details. They had a few minutes, and even if they had paid attention to the dialouge/story they would have gotten to see just a few minutes of it and thats all... there would have been absolutely no point, cause they cant see anything beyond those first few minutes.
These demos, and the limited time to play them are much better used to focus on trying out the actual gameplay and mechanics. They will try out the story stuff and go mor ein depth when they get a chance to play a REAL demo, with lots of time to put into it, not a 15 minute ssample of the game.
Poor guy, he did not had the time to make a good review, so he made a bad one, give him a break !
The reviewer's opinion took a nose-dive for me when he admitted to not even paying attention to the quest dialogue and just went straight for the killing.
This is not an MMO. It's an MMORPG. Bioware is trying to revive the RPG aspect that MMO's came from and I worry that it will be lost on the people that are only in it for bigger, faster, more shinies.
Not everyone is all about the loot and levels. I care more about the story and lore Bioware will create and finding a way to make my own character's story blend with and grow from that.
Don't know why it is so hard for you and other people with the same complaint to grasp what happened, especially when it was clearly written out for you right in the review. THEY DID NOT HAVE TIME! Stop acting as if they had hours or days to sit back and relax and enjoy the game, this is not an in depth review of the game and all its details. They had a few minutes, and even if they had paid attention to the dialouge/story they would have gotten to see just a few minutes of it and thats all... there would have been absolutely no point, cause they cant see anything beyond those first few minutes.
These demos, and the limited time to play them are much better used to focus on trying out the actual gameplay and mechanics. They will try out the story stuff and go mor ein depth when they get a chance to play a REAL demo, with lots of time to put into it, not a 15 minute ssample of the game.
Poor guy, he did not had the time to make a good review, so he made a bad one, give him a break !
You still dont get it, when its so simple... this was not an in depth play test, it was a quick little time restricted demo and he had no control over how long he got to play or anything like that. BIOWARE/EA or whoever the hell was there presenting it for them controls their time they get to play, not the reviewer. I don't know hwo to explain these things any simpler for you to be able to understand.
Anyone proficient in WoW-tard speak available to translate it?
The reviewer's opinion took a nose-dive for me when he admitted to not even paying attention to the quest dialogue and just went straight for the killing.
This is not an MMO. It's an MMORPG. Bioware is trying to revive the RPG aspect that MMO's came from and I worry that it will be lost on the people that are only in it for bigger, faster, more shinies.
Not everyone is all about the loot and levels. I care more about the story and lore Bioware will create and finding a way to make my own character's story blend with and grow from that.
Don't know why it is so hard for you and other people with the same complaint to grasp what happened, especially when it was clearly written out for you right in the review. THEY DID NOT HAVE TIME! Stop acting as if they had hours or days to sit back and relax and enjoy the game, this is not an in depth review of the game and all its details. They had a few minutes, and even if they had paid attention to the dialouge/story they would have gotten to see just a few minutes of it and thats all... there would have been absolutely no point, cause they cant see anything beyond those first few minutes.
These demos, and the limited time to play them are much better used to focus on trying out the actual gameplay and mechanics. They will try out the story stuff and go mor ein depth when they get a chance to play a REAL demo, with lots of time to put into it, not a 15 minute ssample of the game.
Poor guy, he did not had the time to make a good review, so he made a bad one, give him a break !
You still dont get it, when its so simple... this was not an in depth play test, it was a quick little time restricted demo and he had no control over how long he got to play or anything like that. BIOWARE/EA or whoever the hell was there presenting it for them controls their time they get to play, not the reviewer. I don't know hwo to explain these things any simpler for you to be able to understand.
Anyone proficient in WoW-tard speak available to translate it?
no....but i assumed you could translate your own post!
It wasn't the Holy Scriptures that the article poster delivered, he had already explained in a follow up post the settings regarding his demo gameplay, and it sounded fair to me. But what you see is posters either condemning him for how he played and wrote his piece or grabbing the bits of it that conveniently suits their prejudices.
If some people still like to think that Bioware will make some singleplayer game of SW ToR and nothing more, I think the people that will play ToR can agree upon being glad that that donkey-stubborn sort of players will as a result be less present in SW TOR, nobody needs people that won't use their brains except to fool themselves.
-I started out with my regular attack, the rocket launcher ability that we have all seen, as well as the flamethrower. I also had the ability which lets me “vent” the heat I build up from using my abilities. (If you don’t already know, the Bounty hunter has a heat gauge, the more you use your gadgets the closer to overheating you get, think of it like a reverse mana bar)
-It wasn’t 5 minutes into my game before Samm who was playing next to me went “Hey... is that you?” Sure enough we had bumped right into each other... /invite
-So we grouped together and decided we were going to take this on as a multiplayer game. We headed out and decided we were going to focus on my quests as a bounty hunter since he was playing the Imperial Agent and we already had a feel for his quests from Tuesday. I stopped to notice the level 37 Nautolan female NPC who was hanging out in the building we started in.
-Inside the same building as we were exiting, we noticed a terminal that let you bind yourself to it. We assume that using an ability, probably the “Call Shuttle” ability that is common to all classes, would teleport you back to that location with a really long cool down timer.
-I also saw a bounty terminal, which when I clicked on it gave me some text about a bounty I could do, and I could either take the bounty or pass on it. I passed.
-We went outside and approached a small hut that had someone who I was supposed to talk to in it for my main quest. Initially it had a big red barrier in front of it for Samm, but a green one for myself. After I walked into it however it then became blue for Samm, allowing him to come in behind me.
-It looks like main class story NPC’s that give you your main story quests might not let you engage in multiplayer dialogue, but from what we saw everything else did. When one player engages a conversation with an NPC that is multiplayer dialogue capable, a green circle appears around them on the ground, and a timer pops up for both players. Since Samm initiated the conversation, I had about a minute and a half to get to him and the NPC and right click the NPC to participate. I could have clicked the “x” in the countdown timer to discard it and let him go on without me, or he could click a button that lets him stop waiting for me and continue on with just him in the conversation.
-It looked like a random roll of the dice, but I don't think it was. We had seen stuff about “Social Points” being acquired while we played together, and we think that has an impact on your conversations.. perhaps giving a boost on your dice rolls.
-We went to the spaceport, as part of my quest. We fought our way into one of the hangers (Samm couldn’t go in because it was my quest, but once I went in it opened up for him to follow me) where my target was standing near his ship repairing it, and I engaged him in conversation. One of my options had “[Wound]” at the end of the sentence.. so of course I picked that dialogue choice and sure enough my character quick drew his gun after a tense stare down and shot the guy, knocking him down and wounding him a bit, this option was like a hybrid between normal conversation options, and the quicktime mouse events in Mass Effect 2. This gave me the JUST the edge I needed in the battle, because after I did that his henchmen appeared from the other side of the ship... but Samm was there hiding behind a bunch of boxes, and he popped out and distracted them from cover while I fired my rocket to push back down the main “boss”. Then one of the NPC’s started closing in on Samm and was about to nullify Samm’s cover.. so I ran over there as fast as I could and used my flame thrower to force them back a bit so Samm had more padding. I then turned around to check on the Boss who had just gotten up and started firing again, putting severe damage into me. I fired another rocket to keep him down as Samm finished off the henchmen. Now that they were gone Samm was able to throw me a bone with the boss and put a laser on him that would increase damage done to him by 20%. A few blaster shots later he was down.
-I looted his corpse and acquired a new blaster pistol that did more damage. I think I went from a gun that did 14-26 damage to one that did 16-30 damage. It was a bind on equip item. Also somewhere in between all of that I looted some new bracers which fancied my character up a little more and gave me some more armor. Later on in my play session I managed to score a much better chest piece. Taking my armor from like 8 armor all the way up to 26. While we are talking armor.. I noticed at one point in my character sheet there was a green bar that displayed my armor was 90%.. not sure what that means though, Samm thinks it could be durability. Also one of the armor slots looked like it could be for an eye piece or goggles. It was an image of a head with a robotic looking eye piece on, it wasn’t for a helmet because there was already a different slot for that.
-After finishing him off, Samm went and explored around in the other hanger, where he thinks your Player Ship might end up being. I went on looking around in the first hanger and thought “I wonder if I could climb that mountain and come out the other side”.. basically to get to the hanger we had to go through a building that tunneled through the mountain, so I wanted to be able to go over the mountain back to the other side. Sure enough I was able to.. but you wont be able to in the full game. It became clear that that will be a closed off area that we wont be able to get up to, because we could see the edge of the ocean and some of the trees were floating a bit. So by release expect that to be closed off. Either way we were able to do it, so there is no visual trickery going on to pretend that there is a big mountain. Samm ended up killing himself or something but I was too busy going back down the mountain to the ground. I noticed some falling damage but my character rolled in a cool way when I landed.
-We began to split up a little bit and explore the world. It was much larger than I thought it would be, and the rumour on the street is that this is one of the smallest of the planets. It took a little under an hour to roam from one end of Hutta to the next, but that was on pretty much a straight line with only a couple little side ventures. To cover every inch of the map, would take a pretty good chunk of time, and that's if you stayed outside and didn't go into any of the massive interior sections. It looks like the highest mobs just running around there were around level 7 or 8, so I would imagine you would be ready for other parts of the galaxy a little after reaching that level.
-Because we grouped up we were able to venture further in than if we were alone. We saw a few different creatures that were really fun to fight, and had some great animations. Some of the creatures knock down animations were a bit on the cartoony side however. There were also some larger mining robots that walked around on three legs which were fun to fight, but the best was the large Chemilizards, once you fire at them they would begin to charge at me, and I would then fire a rocket just in time to knock them out of the way. Think Jango Fett dodging the Reek in AOTC.
-Early on in our adventures I had found a NPC by a bunch of speeders, he had a purple icon above his head. I right clicked him and it said something along the lines of “Location stored..” I tried again and it said “No connecting routes..” I think you can see where this is going. Since we were grouped up and working together, we were able to cover a lot of ground, and Samm found a second Speeder Vendor with the same logo above his head. He tried to use it thinking he could ride.. but no dice. However he had not talked to the first NPC like I did... so I ran over there and BANG! A map of the area popped up with a line connecting from where I was with that NPC back to the original one, and clicking on it would cost me 20 credits. We all know what this is. I clicked on the location and I was off on my speeder.. it was on rails and moved pretty fast. I was able to look around and everything, and before you knew it I was back at the first NPC... so I rode it back again. I think that makes me the first and maybe only person outside of Bioware to ride a speeder!
-I noticed that in one of the major friendly areas there were a bunch of level 50 NPC’s, I got the gut feeling of “Okay, this must be the max level right now” that comes from my past MMO experience. Usually NPC’s in major cities, especially guards and important NPC’s tend to be at max level to prevent them from dieing easily or to allow them to be strong enough to defend the area from gankers. Really I am sure the max level for the game is still in the works, and even if they have one locked in it might be higher or lower than 50 for players. But its something worth thinking about.
-To finish our grand adventure (we probably could have stayed playing the game for another hour if we wanted, but we wanted to spend that time with some people from Bioware instead, which you will be seeing a couple more videos soon from that) we thought “Hey... lets go into Fa’anthra’s temple and see if we can take down a big fat Hutt!” We got there and knew it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park, and we would have to work together to make it through the level 7 characters with our lower level characters. The NPC’s at the entrance and inside seemed to be amped up a bit. They were taking cover which forced me to flush them out with the flamethrower while Samm focused on sniping from a distance and weakening the tougher tank type enemies.
-We got to the throne room and.. he wasn’t there. We could see what looks to be his chair but it was empty. I think Bioware removed him for this gameplay demo.. Darn. But that didn't stop us from heading to the elevator that we saw on the map. We were curious if we would finally get a loading screen from that. So we went there and it asked us where we wanted to go.. it gave us no options.. But Samm figured out that if he pressed the Space Bar it would show us our options anyways. So we went straight down to the bottom to a place called the Beasts Lair. No loading screens, we just popped down to that floor and we were there. I immediately pressed “m” to see what we might be dealing with, and ahead of us was a giant open cave like room.. so we ran in there guns blazing as it was crawling with large Chemilizards, there were (I believe they were called this atleast..) “Ancient Chemilizards” that looked kind of like the creature Obi-Wan rides in Revenge of the Sith. But it was at this point that we had to get off so we could make it in time for our interview.
-Samm played around with Armor and Weapon vendors, and also played around with something called a “Bazaar” which was what the Auction House terminals were called in SWG. I will let him go into those details on his article. He also found a blueprint vendor, well that's what I assume when he said “oh a blueprint vendor”...
-It appears all classes will have a revive ability, which lets you revive a fallen party member while out of combat. -I was killing guys around a tree and noticed I was getting shot at from in the bushes of a tall tree, I looked around and saw an NPC standing on a big thick branch shooting at me.. so I fired my rocket to knock him off of it and he fell to the ground, so that I could rip at him from there. Not sure if it was a bug or intentional, but it was pretty sweet.
-Several times I looted a “dud grenade” which had a tooltip that hinted at the possibility of a way to make the grenade usable.
-As a bounty hunter, I was able to use Heavy, Medium, or Light armor after I leveled up once. I think initially I was only able to use light armor, but I could be wrong.
-My game ended up crashing to the desktop pretty early on, a little while after we grouped up. Someone from Bioware came to assist me in getting the game back up. So I was able to see some of that. The icon for the game (come on, this probably will all change but its fun to be nerdy about it anyway) was the helmet of the bounty hunter that we have been seeing so much of. When he clicked on it, it launched the website launch.swtor.com and he was able to launch the game from there... The character select screen popped up and it had a cool look to it. It shows your character model on the entire left side of the screen, and on the right side of the screen was your character’s name and level. There were plenty more slots for characters, I want to say 8, but I am not sure. Either way that's probably going to change between now and release. Then FINALLY I saw a loading screen. It was just of some concept art and had a description of what the bounty hunter class is, again I didn’t dwell on all the details of that because I am counting on that changing too.
-Going in and out of instanced areas was again very seamless. Obviously no loading screens help with that but, I ALWAYS felt like I was in the MMO world and never like I was in my own personal instance (even though at times I was). This game gave me a feeling of “on the other side of that wall there could be something going on with other players”. This is good news for anyone who was hoping for that big living world feeling, which a lot of MMO’s have strayed from lately.
-Overall, this play session taught me that SWTOR really is an MMO, and not a single-player game. We were able to group together from the very start of the game and start adventuring together through quests and we could explore all over the place together. Let me assure all of you that this game is an MMO.. I know there has been a lot of concern about that, and I think that most of those concerned people will be very satisfied once they get their hands on the game.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
All this epic storyline will be lost on me. I prefer to be given the tools to walk my own path. Choosing to reply with the snarky, good natured, and neutral options just doesn't do anything for me. I want to play the game not watch a movie. I really don't have much to say to the citizen requesting 10 slug parts. Either way, the genre could use something that's story-centric so I hope it works out for the people that are interested in such things.
The reviewer's opinion took a nose-dive for me when he admitted to not even paying attention to the quest dialogue and just went straight for the killing.
This is not an MMO. It's an MMORPG. Bioware is trying to revive the RPG aspect that MMO's came from and I worry that it will be lost on the people that are only in it for bigger, faster, more shinies.
Not everyone is all about the loot and levels. I care more about the story and lore Bioware will create and finding a way to make my own character's story blend with and grow from that.
Don't know why it is so hard for you and other people with the same complaint to grasp what happened, especially when it was clearly written out for you right in the review. THEY DID NOT HAVE TIME! Stop acting as if they had hours or days to sit back and relax and enjoy the game, this is not an in depth review of the game and all its details. They had a few minutes, and even if they had paid attention to the dialouge/story they would have gotten to see just a few minutes of it and thats all... there would have been absolutely no point, cause they cant see anything beyond those first few minutes.
These demos, and the limited time to play them are much better used to focus on trying out the actual gameplay and mechanics. They will try out the story stuff and go mor ein depth when they get a chance to play a REAL demo, with lots of time to put into it, not a 15 minute ssample of the game.
Really. So in the short time he spent skipping things in the demo he had enough time though, to give a skewed personal opinion. If he didn't have the time to do nothing more than run around, then don't you think the demo review should have been more focused how combat felt, graphics with that game build and so forth.
By his ranting off on how boring the story and the actual choice you can make as well as how people will just skip all the dialogue to run through to end game for the highest gear set, spews a somewhat biased opinion or maybe a love for WOW.
It's his job to go and make a sound assessment on what was presented. If he didn't have the time to do so, then surely a little professionalism should have been applied and not this jump to conclusion dribble that he posted. Like this site needs more fanning of the flames.
This is coming from someone, who like alot of others are looking forward to playing, but not so in love, with everything that Bioware has released about TOR.
The reviewer's opinion took a nose-dive for me when he admitted to not even paying attention to the quest dialogue and just went straight for the killing.
This is not an MMO. It's an MMORPG. Bioware is trying to revive the RPG aspect that MMO's came from and I worry that it will be lost on the people that are only in it for bigger, faster, more shinies.
Not everyone is all about the loot and levels. I care more about the story and lore Bioware will create and finding a way to make my own character's story blend with and grow from that.
Don't know why it is so hard for you and other people with the same complaint to grasp what happened, especially when it was clearly written out for you right in the review. THEY DID NOT HAVE TIME! Stop acting as if they had hours or days to sit back and relax and enjoy the game, this is not an in depth review of the game and all its details. They had a few minutes, and even if they had paid attention to the dialouge/story they would have gotten to see just a few minutes of it and thats all... there would have been absolutely no point, cause they cant see anything beyond those first few minutes.
These demos, and the limited time to play them are much better used to focus on trying out the actual gameplay and mechanics. They will try out the story stuff and go mor ein depth when they get a chance to play a REAL demo, with lots of time to put into it, not a 15 minute ssample of the game.
Really. So in the short time he spent skipping things in the demo he had enough time though, to give a skewed personal opinion. If he didn't have the time to do nothing more than run around, then don't you think the demo review should have been more focused how combat felt, graphics with that game build and so forth.
By his ranting off on how boring the story and the actual choice you can make as well as how people will just skip all the dialogue to run through to end game for the highest gear set, spews a somewhat biased opinion or maybe a love for WOW.
It's his job to go and make a sound assessment on what was presented. If he didn't have the time to do so, then surely a little professionalism should have been applied and not this jump to conclusion dribble that he posted. Like this site needs more fanning of the flames.
This is coming from someone, who like alot of others are looking forward to playing, but not so in love, with everything that Bioware has released about TOR.
Please point out to me exactly where did he do any of what you and the others are saying in regards to his opinions and the stuff regarding story? In the post he made her ein this thread he simply asked the question of how many other people will skip through that stuff too when playing the game. It's a valid point to make, because with all the focus theyre putting on how the game is great because it has such an epic story if many people skip through it, it kind of nullifies all the effort they put into the story aspect.
Other than that, in the article itself he said: "I will say that for all of the story and personal achievements Bioware is hyping up in this game, killing slugs at the start just seemed like another MMO in my book". I could see how people might misconstrue what he's saying here, but he's right. For all the talk of epic storyline and stuff, it seems to still start out with the same old routine of "Kill 10 rats" type quests, only you're killing slugs instead. He did not say anything bad about the story itself, and admitted he skipped through it, but simply pointed out that the quest design seems to be mor eof the same in the starting areas. If you can't handle that fact, that's not his problem really, take it up with Bioware/EA.
Also, as the title says, this is an article about his playtime as a Sith Warrior, not a general combat review or anything like that, there already are and will continue to be reviews / articles focusing on things like the combat. You folks really need to learn the difference between an article focusing on 1 particular aspect of a game VS covering all aspects in detail of the entire game.
So with all this story in SW-ToR, no matter how good it will be most players will just rush in the game and rush to endgame then fucking complain about no content when it was there from the start. See MMO games feed people the thought only to be the best, better than the next player, it is never about the story, it is about maxing out a toon as fast as they can... become powerful. As for me I follow the story and enjoy as much content as I can and I still in up just like that player that rush to endgame, the only difference is I will know the game.
So many people are being hard on this guy cause he skipped the dialogue. Quite frankly i do not read quest dialogue and i'm not a new MMO gamer i've been playing since 1996. I play to make my own story personally and I know many others who do the same, my father being one who is 59 years old and not some dumb kid.
Some people play to play the other aspects of the game, not to play the story line. If i wanted to play for the story and not to play to fight and compete against 100's of other real people, i'd play a single player RPG
I dislike comments criticising articles, and I understand that this is an informal hands-on preview, but....
This is the second article I've read on this website where the reviewer has said they've space-barred through the quest text. Yes, I understand this in not for everybody. Yes, I understand that your demo time may be limited. Yes, I understand that you may be excited and want to get straight into the combat...
Nevetheless, this site is called MMO"RPG".com, and you may therefore surmise at least a few of us are interested in the RPG side of things. The only things I learned from this article is that you don't like quest text, you fight slugs as a starting Sith, you're one of those "it's the same as WOW" guys, and that you have deep concerns about being ganked by ranged players.
All we can ask for is an objective evaluation of your experience...I don't think we got that.
**sigh** not this again... refer to my last fe wposts, or Garret's own post in this thread regarding limited time to play, etc
As he said in his own post, if he were actually playing the game at home or whatever, he would have taken the time to do that thing. Why the hell you expect them to sit through 14 minutes of dialogue in a 15 minute long demo, and then still have time to check out the actual gameplay and the class itself (which, again, is wtf this article was about) and give you a review on anything besides the dialogue is beyond me...
If you want a review on the story, dialogue, etc.... then go read a review about THOSE things, don't expect every single article about the game to repeat every detail of the entire game, especially when they haven't had a chance to REALLY play the game.
"The dialogue is again one of the challenges of Old Republic. Many players like it and it has served Bioware well in the past, but again it seemed a bit tedious. My answers were all snarky and evil of course, but in the end I used the space bar to get my quest and get moving. I'm a Sith Warrior after all. I don't need to remind myself I am evil. I just want to hack Jedi apart."
Hey Garret, dont write an article on another MMORPG until you learn to experience and understand what an MMORPG is. What I said may sound harsh, but to write an article and skip over dialogue only tells the hard core MMORPG players that you dont care about the game and that basicly you are just a power leveler. If you want just action with lack of dialogue go play Force Unleashed.
**sigh** not this again... refer to my last fe wposts, or Garret's own post in this thread regarding limited time to play, etc
As he said in his own post, if he were actually playing the game at home or whatever, he would have taken the time to do that thing. Why the hell you expect them to sit through 14 minutes of dialogue in a 15 minute long demo, and then still have time to check out the actual gameplay and the class itself (which, again, is wtf this article was about) and give you a review on anything besides the dialogue is beyond me...
If you want a review on the story, dialogue, etc.... then go read a review about THOSE things, don't expect every single article about the game to repeat every detail of the entire game, especially when they haven't had a chance to REALLY play the game.
I am sorry, but you cant give an accurate assessment of a game until you can at least experience every aspect of the particular part of the game you are writing about. If there was a time limit that restricted him from experiencing all the content then maybe he shouldnt have wrote anything or at least just spoke about combat and not being so snarky about the dialogue....
" it seemed a bit tedious"
" I'm a Sith Warrior after all. I don't need to remind myself I am evil. I just want to hack Jedi apart."
In my opinion a person writing a report on something without giving it a chance whether its because he dont like it or is restricted because of time should leave out opinions on that particular matter.
See to me, running around being a Moisture Farmer was not my idea of "being in the Star Wars world."
But being a part of great stories with great characters set in the Star Wars universe? That's Star Wars.
Even playing the Star Wars Roleplaying game (paper and imaginations) it was still participating in a fun, hand-crafted Star Wars story.
I enjoy reading Star Wars books because they have such great characters and story.
Remove all of that and say "go fend for yourself in Mos Eisley and watch idiot 12 year olds make fart jokes and bunny hop around"
yeah.. that's not the Star Wars I want.
Bravo! Now if we can get all the 12 year olds into programming their own little sandbox worlds on their own systems maybe the rest of us can get something done!
"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule." Neitzsche
I would have to say that I am surprised, I do not fully understand why you would play an MMO. Story and options for answers that affect direction/change in a massive story is what an MMO is all about. I have yet to ever see Bioware not do what they say they will do in a game, which is more then likely why the game will not be released in 2010 nor in 2011, this will come out in 2012. As far as I am concerned what I saw for TOR at E3 considering the 1 plus years left to finish the game, I was pleased. I have never seen any other MMO in the past or present that has so much done already and in place while at the same time having plenty of time avalible in order to improve and polish the game further.
This is the biggest myth I hear from people. Story and options have nothing to do with an MMO. Honestly, single player games have always done it better. MMO's developed to allow people to play together, and to bring a world to life. This can be done with linear story, dynamic story, or no story at all, leaving it to the players to create their own.
Personally, I think the problem with forcing story as a central component of the game is that it splits people up too much. In quest/story dependant games, all to often you get a group to do a quest, and as soon as the quest is done the group breaks up as inevitably not everyone has te same quests, or are on different stages. I miss the earlier games where you grouped up and went out into the world to find a good place to kill things at. Those groups would last for hours, and you formed friendships/guilds in the process. That is what an MMO is truly all about.
I've beaten (with my friend's help) all of GuildWars. My friend's left (for various reasons) and I was left without a guild. I joined one, and now all I get are snarky 14 year olds trying to come up with ways to beat GW without being twentyth level or trying to get their glowing gloves or bandanna's and such. THAT is why I left GW! No more content 'till GW2! Otherwise I can't stand the "Let's sit around the fire and sing 'Kumbya'! "that passes for intelligent conversation!
"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule." Neitzsche
The reviewer's opinion took a nose-dive for me when he admitted to not even paying attention to the quest dialogue and just went straight for the killing.
This is not an MMO. It's an MMORPG. Bioware is trying to revive the RPG aspect that MMO's came from and I worry that it will be lost on the people that are only in it for bigger, faster, more shinies.
Not everyone is all about the loot and levels. I care more about the story and lore Bioware will create and finding a way to make my own character's story blend with and grow from that.
Don't know why it is so hard for you and other people with the same complaint to grasp what happened, especially when it was clearly written out for you right in the review. THEY DID NOT HAVE TIME! Stop acting as if they had hours or days to sit back and relax and enjoy the game, this is not an in depth review of the game and all its details. They had a few minutes, and even if they had paid attention to the dialouge/story they would have gotten to see just a few minutes of it and thats all... there would have been absolutely no point, cause they cant see anything beyond those first few minutes.
These demos, and the limited time to play them are much better used to focus on trying out the actual gameplay and mechanics. They will try out the story stuff and go mor ein depth when they get a chance to play a REAL demo, with lots of time to put into it, not a 15 minute ssample of the game.
Really. So in the short time he spent skipping things in the demo he had enough time though, to give a skewed personal opinion. If he didn't have the time to do nothing more than run around, then don't you think the demo review should have been more focused how combat felt, graphics with that game build and so forth.
By his ranting off on how boring the story and the actual choice you can make as well as how people will just skip all the dialogue to run through to end game for the highest gear set, spews a somewhat biased opinion or maybe a love for WOW.
It's his job to go and make a sound assessment on what was presented. If he didn't have the time to do so, then surely a little professionalism should have been applied and not this jump to conclusion dribble that he posted. Like this site needs more fanning of the flames.
This is coming from someone, who like alot of others are looking forward to playing, but not so in love, with everything that Bioware has released about TOR.
Please point out to me exactly where did he do any of what you and the others are saying in regards to his opinions and the stuff regarding story? In the post he made her ein this thread he simply asked the question of how many other people will skip through that stuff too when playing the game. It's a valid point to make, because with all the focus theyre putting on how the game is great because it has such an epic story if many people skip through it, it kind of nullifies all the effort they put into the story aspect.
Other than that, in the article itself he said: "I will say that for all of the story and personal achievements Bioware is hyping up in this game, killing slugs at the start just seemed like another MMO in my book". I could see how people might misconstrue what he's saying here, but he's right. For all the talk of epic storyline and stuff, it seems to still start out with the same old routine of "Kill 10 rats" type quests, only you're killing slugs instead. He did not say anything bad about the story itself, and admitted he skipped through it, but simply pointed out that the quest design seems to be mor eof the same in the starting areas. If you can't handle that fact, that's not his problem really, take it up with Bioware/EA.
Also, as the title says, this is an article about his playtime as a Sith Warrior, not a general combat review or anything like that, there already are and will continue to be reviews / articles focusing on things like the combat. You folks really need to learn the difference between an article focusing on 1 particular aspect of a game VS covering all aspects in detail of the entire game.
No, what you need to learn is that if he didn't have the time to really get involved then why make the assumptions that he made. It works both ways. You can't say you have no time to actually play and then ramble off how he thinks others will play the game and what they will skip, and on the other hand, sit back and say, well i didn't have enough time to make a fair game assessment. The most unprofessional thing about this whole article is that, it never should have been written for the little time he had to play, and then to write the piece and then give a skewed opinion about it. Demo or no demo, there are times when to be heard and times when to be silent and this definitly falls on a time to be silent.
"The dialogue is again one of the challenges of Old Republic. Many players like it and it has served Bioware well in the past, but again it seemed a bit tedious. My answers were all snarky and evil of course, but in the end I used the space bar to get my quest and get moving. I'm a Sith Warrior after all. I don't need to remind myself I am evil. I just want to hack Jedi apart."
Hey Garret, dont write an article on another MMORPG until you learn to experience and understand what an MMORPG is. What I said may sound harsh, but to write an article and skip over dialogue only tells the hard core MMORPG players that you dont care about the game and that basicly you are just a power leveler. If you want just action with lack of dialogue go play Force Unleashed.
**sigh** not this again... refer to my last fe wposts, or Garret's own post in this thread regarding limited time to play, etc
As he said in his own post, if he were actually playing the game at home or whatever, he would have taken the time to do that thing. Why the hell you expect them to sit through 14 minutes of dialogue in a 15 minute long demo, and then still have time to check out the actual gameplay and the class itself (which, again, is wtf this article was about) and give you a review on anything besides the dialogue is beyond me...
If you want a review on the story, dialogue, etc.... then go read a review about THOSE things, don't expect every single article about the game to repeat every detail of the entire game, especially when they haven't had a chance to REALLY play the game.
I am sorry, but you cant give an accurate assessment of a game until you can at least experience every aspect of the particular part of the game you are writing about. If there was a time limit that restricted him from experiencing all the content then maybe he shouldnt have wrote anything or at least just spoke about combat and not being so snarky about the dialogue....
" it seemed a bit tedious"
" I'm a Sith Warrior after all. I don't need to remind myself I am evil. I just want to hack Jedi apart."
In my opinion a person writing a report on something without giving it a chance whether its because he dont like it or is restricted because of time should leave out opinions on that particular matter.
Well said.
Really, the difference in coverage between writers here at mmorpg.com and sites like Darth Hater or the coverage posted earlier from TOR-aid is AMAZING.
TOR-aid: informative, detailed, descriptive and informed
Really Garrett, especially when compared with other impression pieces, you come across as impatient, selfish and gear-obsessed. You also haven't done your homework with respect to wanting your toon to feel like a particular character from the movies. In the end, one wonders what the point of having these articles is. I enjoy this site for its abundant information and lively forums but since following TOR I've realised just how shallow the writing is.
I'd sincerely recommend you review the standards here.
Really? comparing a general gaming / MMORPG sites coverage of 1 particular game at a convention of many games, to the depth of articles posted on sites DEDICATED to covering that game? Of course those sites are going to have much better written and in depth articles and information when it comes to that particular game.
That's like watching G4TV, which covers all aspects of gaming, and covered the entire convention and then sending them angry letters that they didn't spend the entire week covering only SWTOR because it happens to be what YOU are a huge fan of.
Or watching ESPN which covers various sports and throwing a fit because it's not all NFL all day every day.
The reviewer's opinion took a nose-dive for me when he admitted to not even paying attention to the quest dialogue and just went straight for the killing.
This is not an MMO. It's an MMORPG. Bioware is trying to revive the RPG aspect that MMO's came from and I worry that it will be lost on the people that are only in it for bigger, faster, more shinies.
Not everyone is all about the loot and levels. I care more about the story and lore Bioware will create and finding a way to make my own character's story blend with and grow from that.
Don't know why it is so hard for you and other people with the same complaint to grasp what happened, especially when it was clearly written out for you right in the review. THEY DID NOT HAVE TIME! Stop acting as if they had hours or days to sit back and relax and enjoy the game, this is not an in depth review of the game and all its details. They had a few minutes, and even if they had paid attention to the dialouge/story they would have gotten to see just a few minutes of it and thats all... there would have been absolutely no point, cause they cant see anything beyond those first few minutes.
These demos, and the limited time to play them are much better used to focus on trying out the actual gameplay and mechanics. They will try out the story stuff and go mor ein depth when they get a chance to play a REAL demo, with lots of time to put into it, not a 15 minute ssample of the game.
Really. So in the short time he spent skipping things in the demo he had enough time though, to give a skewed personal opinion. If he didn't have the time to do nothing more than run around, then don't you think the demo review should have been more focused how combat felt, graphics with that game build and so forth.
By his ranting off on how boring the story and the actual choice you can make as well as how people will just skip all the dialogue to run through to end game for the highest gear set, spews a somewhat biased opinion or maybe a love for WOW.
It's his job to go and make a sound assessment on what was presented. If he didn't have the time to do so, then surely a little professionalism should have been applied and not this jump to conclusion dribble that he posted. Like this site needs more fanning of the flames.
This is coming from someone, who like alot of others are looking forward to playing, but not so in love, with everything that Bioware has released about TOR.
Please point out to me exactly where did he do any of what you and the others are saying in regards to his opinions and the stuff regarding story? In the post he made her ein this thread he simply asked the question of how many other people will skip through that stuff too when playing the game. It's a valid point to make, because with all the focus theyre putting on how the game is great because it has such an epic story if many people skip through it, it kind of nullifies all the effort they put into the story aspect.
Other than that, in the article itself he said: "I will say that for all of the story and personal achievements Bioware is hyping up in this game, killing slugs at the start just seemed like another MMO in my book". I could see how people might misconstrue what he's saying here, but he's right. For all the talk of epic storyline and stuff, it seems to still start out with the same old routine of "Kill 10 rats" type quests, only you're killing slugs instead. He did not say anything bad about the story itself, and admitted he skipped through it, but simply pointed out that the quest design seems to be mor eof the same in the starting areas. If you can't handle that fact, that's not his problem really, take it up with Bioware/EA.
Also, as the title says, this is an article about his playtime as a Sith Warrior, not a general combat review or anything like that, there already are and will continue to be reviews / articles focusing on things like the combat. You folks really need to learn the difference between an article focusing on 1 particular aspect of a game VS covering all aspects in detail of the entire game.
No, what you need to learn is that if he didn't have the time to really get involved then why make the assumptions that he made. It works both ways. You can't say you have no time to actually play and then ramble off how he thinks others will play the game and what they will skip, and on the other hand, sit back and say, well i didn't have enough time to make a fair game assessment. The most unprofessional thing about this whole article is that, it never should have been written for the little time he had to play, and then to write the piece and then give a skewed opinion about it. Demo or no demo, there are times when to be heard and times when to be silent and this definitly falls on a time to be silent.
quoted from Garrett:
"2. In skipping the dialogue (again due to limited time), I came to the question of....gee, will players skip the dialogue eventually when there is so much of it? Hmmm....maybe...could this become a problem in the game...maybe....therefore I presented the question in the article."
That's a question, and a very valid one (especially considering people's responses in this thread that specifically state they will not pay attention to the dialogue), not an assumption. You argument would be much better if you a) new the difference between assumptions and questions/concerns and b) actually paid attention to other people's opinions which validate some of the point smade in the article rathe rthan vehemently defending your opinion and ONLY yours based on how you choose to play
and from the article: "Many players will be rushing through the content to get to the cool looking armor sets and higher level gear."
Do you deny that people do this in MMOs? Do you know how others are going to play? Apparently so since youre so angry at him for claiming players might play one way but you insist he's wrong and he shouldnt be making that assumption. Pot, meet kettle.
The reviewer's opinion took a nose-dive for me when he admitted to not even paying attention to the quest dialogue and just went straight for the killing.
This is not an MMO. It's an MMORPG. Bioware is trying to revive the RPG aspect that MMO's came from and I worry that it will be lost on the people that are only in it for bigger, faster, more shinies.
Not everyone is all about the loot and levels. I care more about the story and lore Bioware will create and finding a way to make my own character's story blend with and grow from that.
Don't know why it is so hard for you and other people with the same complaint to grasp what happened, especially when it was clearly written out for you right in the review. THEY DID NOT HAVE TIME! Stop acting as if they had hours or days to sit back and relax and enjoy the game, this is not an in depth review of the game and all its details. They had a few minutes, and even if they had paid attention to the dialouge/story they would have gotten to see just a few minutes of it and thats all... there would have been absolutely no point, cause they cant see anything beyond those first few minutes.
These demos, and the limited time to play them are much better used to focus on trying out the actual gameplay and mechanics. They will try out the story stuff and go mor ein depth when they get a chance to play a REAL demo, with lots of time to put into it, not a 15 minute ssample of the game.
Really. So in the short time he spent skipping things in the demo he had enough time though, to give a skewed personal opinion. If he didn't have the time to do nothing more than run around, then don't you think the demo review should have been more focused how combat felt, graphics with that game build and so forth.
By his ranting off on how boring the story and the actual choice you can make as well as how people will just skip all the dialogue to run through to end game for the highest gear set, spews a somewhat biased opinion or maybe a love for WOW.
It's his job to go and make a sound assessment on what was presented. If he didn't have the time to do so, then surely a little professionalism should have been applied and not this jump to conclusion dribble that he posted. Like this site needs more fanning of the flames.
This is coming from someone, who like alot of others are looking forward to playing, but not so in love, with everything that Bioware has released about TOR.
Please point out to me exactly where did he do any of what you and the others are saying in regards to his opinions and the stuff regarding story? In the post he made her ein this thread he simply asked the question of how many other people will skip through that stuff too when playing the game. It's a valid point to make, because with all the focus theyre putting on how the game is great because it has such an epic story if many people skip through it, it kind of nullifies all the effort they put into the story aspect.
Other than that, in the article itself he said: "I will say that for all of the story and personal achievements Bioware is hyping up in this game, killing slugs at the start just seemed like another MMO in my book". I could see how people might misconstrue what he's saying here, but he's right. For all the talk of epic storyline and stuff, it seems to still start out with the same old routine of "Kill 10 rats" type quests, only you're killing slugs instead. He did not say anything bad about the story itself, and admitted he skipped through it, but simply pointed out that the quest design seems to be mor eof the same in the starting areas. If you can't handle that fact, that's not his problem really, take it up with Bioware/EA.
Also, as the title says, this is an article about his playtime as a Sith Warrior, not a general combat review or anything like that, there already are and will continue to be reviews / articles focusing on things like the combat. You folks really need to learn the difference between an article focusing on 1 particular aspect of a game VS covering all aspects in detail of the entire game.
No, what you need to learn is that if he didn't have the time to really get involved then why make the assumptions that he made. It works both ways. You can't say you have no time to actually play and then ramble off how he thinks others will play the game and what they will skip, and on the other hand, sit back and say, well i didn't have enough time to make a fair game assessment. The most unprofessional thing about this whole article is that, it never should have been written for the little time he had to play, and then to write the piece and then give a skewed opinion about it. Demo or no demo, there are times when to be heard and times when to be silent and this definitly falls on a time to be silent.
quoted from Garrett:
"2. In skipping the dialogue (again due to limited time), I came to the question of....gee, will players skip the dialogue eventually when there is so much of it? Hmmm....maybe...could this become a problem in the game...maybe....therefore I presented the question in the article."
That's a question, and a very valid one (especially considering people's responses in this thread that specifically state they will not pay attention to the dialogue), not an assumption. You argument would be much better if you a) new the difference between assumptions and questions/concerns and b) actually paid attention to other people's opinions which validate some of the point smade in the article rathe rthan vehemently defending your opinion and ONLY yours based on how you choose to play
and from the article: "Many players will be rushing through the content to get to the cool looking armor sets and higher level gear."
Do you deny that people do this in MMOs? Do you know how others are going to play? Apparently so since youre so angry at him for claiming players might play one way but you insist he's wrong and he shouldnt be making that assumption. Pot, meet kettle.
The thing is, i'm not giving an opinion on how others will play, cuase i really don't care. To be honest, skipping all the story in TOR is possible and if you are a power leveler and want to rush through all the content to get to the so called end game, it's the player's choice. Bioware has stated that if you don't want to do your personal story you don't have to, but if you don't you will miss out on alot of content.
Comments
Totally agree, I can not stand the gimme crowd of late. Earn something you lazy sobs.
END OF LINE_
~V
"I eventually challenged the boss slug"
I actually LOL'd when I read this. Then I paused, read it again, chuckled, and finally finished reading the article.
Ya know, that succinctly sums up my opinion of this MMOSPG (mmo-single player game) thus far, based on this and other information that I've seen come out of E3... but the slugs thing, that's just... like "O.M.G." so epic.
When I think of the evil, dark side wielding Sith the FIRST thing that I think of is killing slimy spelunking (were they spelunking?) slugs. Not manipulating people and events by snatching away a relative, not forcefully threatening someone to arrange events in a certain way, and certainly not... oh I don't know.. arranging for the demise of an unfavorable.
No sir. It's slugs.
... I lied. It's not.
i love to watch starwars.. not to play...
HuNd3Rz
The reviewer's opinion took a nose-dive for me when he admitted to not even paying attention to the quest dialogue and just went straight for the killing.
This is not an MMO. It's an MMORPG. Bioware is trying to revive the RPG aspect that MMO's came from and I worry that it will be lost on the people that are only in it for bigger, faster, more shinies.
Not everyone is all about the loot and levels. I care more about the story and lore Bioware will create and finding a way to make my own character's story blend with and grow from that.
You are missing a lot then, there are some very good Starwars games out there, you should check them out.
He's missing out, but we certainly won't be missing him in-game.
Hate them all you want, but the fainboi's are going to make this game a blast!
Don't know why it is so hard for you and other people with the same complaint to grasp what happened, especially when it was clearly written out for you right in the review. THEY DID NOT HAVE TIME! Stop acting as if they had hours or days to sit back and relax and enjoy the game, this is not an in depth review of the game and all its details. They had a few minutes, and even if they had paid attention to the dialouge/story they would have gotten to see just a few minutes of it and thats all... there would have been absolutely no point, cause they cant see anything beyond those first few minutes.
These demos, and the limited time to play them are much better used to focus on trying out the actual gameplay and mechanics. They will try out the story stuff and go mor ein depth when they get a chance to play a REAL demo, with lots of time to put into it, not a 15 minute ssample of the game.
Poor guy, he did not had the time to make a good review, so he made a bad one, give him a break !
You still dont get it, when its so simple... this was not an in depth play test, it was a quick little time restricted demo and he had no control over how long he got to play or anything like that. BIOWARE/EA or whoever the hell was there presenting it for them controls their time they get to play, not the reviewer. I don't know hwo to explain these things any simpler for you to be able to understand.
Anyone proficient in WoW-tard speak available to translate it?
no....but i assumed you could translate your own post!
ba-dum-ching!
Ok, enough.
It wasn't the Holy Scriptures that the article poster delivered, he had already explained in a follow up post the settings regarding his demo gameplay, and it sounded fair to me. But what you see is posters either condemning him for how he played and wrote his piece or grabbing the bits of it that conveniently suits their prejudices.
If some people still like to think that Bioware will make some singleplayer game of SW ToR and nothing more, I think the people that will play ToR can agree upon being glad that that donkey-stubborn sort of players will as a result be less present in SW TOR, nobody needs people that won't use their brains except to fool themselves.
As an addition, here's another demo review, a Hands On Group Play experience:
-I started out with my regular attack, the rocket launcher ability that we have all seen, as well as the flamethrower. I also had the ability which lets me “vent” the heat I build up from using my abilities. (If you don’t already know, the Bounty hunter has a heat gauge, the more you use your gadgets the closer to overheating you get, think of it like a reverse mana bar)
-It wasn’t 5 minutes into my game before Samm who was playing next to me went “Hey... is that you?” Sure enough we had bumped right into each other... /invite
-So we grouped together and decided we were going to take this on as a multiplayer game. We headed out and decided we were going to focus on my quests as a bounty hunter since he was playing the Imperial Agent and we already had a feel for his quests from Tuesday. I stopped to notice the level 37 Nautolan female NPC who was hanging out in the building we started in.
-Inside the same building as we were exiting, we noticed a terminal that let you bind yourself to it. We assume that using an ability, probably the “Call Shuttle” ability that is common to all classes, would teleport you back to that location with a really long cool down timer.
-I also saw a bounty terminal, which when I clicked on it gave me some text about a bounty I could do, and I could either take the bounty or pass on it. I passed.
-We went outside and approached a small hut that had someone who I was supposed to talk to in it for my main quest. Initially it had a big red barrier in front of it for Samm, but a green one for myself. After I walked into it however it then became blue for Samm, allowing him to come in behind me.
-It looks like main class story NPC’s that give you your main story quests might not let you engage in multiplayer dialogue, but from what we saw everything else did. When one player engages a conversation with an NPC that is multiplayer dialogue capable, a green circle appears around them on the ground, and a timer pops up for both players. Since Samm initiated the conversation, I had about a minute and a half to get to him and the NPC and right click the NPC to participate. I could have clicked the “x” in the countdown timer to discard it and let him go on without me, or he could click a button that lets him stop waiting for me and continue on with just him in the conversation.
-It looked like a random roll of the dice, but I don't think it was. We had seen stuff about “Social Points” being acquired while we played together, and we think that has an impact on your conversations.. perhaps giving a boost on your dice rolls.
-We went to the spaceport, as part of my quest. We fought our way into one of the hangers (Samm couldn’t go in because it was my quest, but once I went in it opened up for him to follow me) where my target was standing near his ship repairing it, and I engaged him in conversation. One of my options had “[Wound]” at the end of the sentence.. so of course I picked that dialogue choice and sure enough my character quick drew his gun after a tense stare down and shot the guy, knocking him down and wounding him a bit, this option was like a hybrid between normal conversation options, and the quicktime mouse events in Mass Effect 2. This gave me the JUST the edge I needed in the battle, because after I did that his henchmen appeared from the other side of the ship... but Samm was there hiding behind a bunch of boxes, and he popped out and distracted them from cover while I fired my rocket to push back down the main “boss”. Then one of the NPC’s started closing in on Samm and was about to nullify Samm’s cover.. so I ran over there as fast as I could and used my flame thrower to force them back a bit so Samm had more padding. I then turned around to check on the Boss who had just gotten up and started firing again, putting severe damage into me. I fired another rocket to keep him down as Samm finished off the henchmen. Now that they were gone Samm was able to throw me a bone with the boss and put a laser on him that would increase damage done to him by 20%. A few blaster shots later he was down.
-I looted his corpse and acquired a new blaster pistol that did more damage. I think I went from a gun that did 14-26 damage to one that did 16-30 damage. It was a bind on equip item. Also somewhere in between all of that I looted some new bracers which fancied my character up a little more and gave me some more armor. Later on in my play session I managed to score a much better chest piece. Taking my armor from like 8 armor all the way up to 26. While we are talking armor.. I noticed at one point in my character sheet there was a green bar that displayed my armor was 90%.. not sure what that means though, Samm thinks it could be durability. Also one of the armor slots looked like it could be for an eye piece or goggles. It was an image of a head with a robotic looking eye piece on, it wasn’t for a helmet because there was already a different slot for that.
-After finishing him off, Samm went and explored around in the other hanger, where he thinks your Player Ship might end up being. I went on looking around in the first hanger and thought “I wonder if I could climb that mountain and come out the other side”.. basically to get to the hanger we had to go through a building that tunneled through the mountain, so I wanted to be able to go over the mountain back to the other side. Sure enough I was able to.. but you wont be able to in the full game. It became clear that that will be a closed off area that we wont be able to get up to, because we could see the edge of the ocean and some of the trees were floating a bit. So by release expect that to be closed off. Either way we were able to do it, so there is no visual trickery going on to pretend that there is a big mountain. Samm ended up killing himself or something but I was too busy going back down the mountain to the ground. I noticed some falling damage but my character rolled in a cool way when I landed.
-We began to split up a little bit and explore the world. It was much larger than I thought it would be, and the rumour on the street is that this is one of the smallest of the planets. It took a little under an hour to roam from one end of Hutta to the next, but that was on pretty much a straight line with only a couple little side ventures. To cover every inch of the map, would take a pretty good chunk of time, and that's if you stayed outside and didn't go into any of the massive interior sections. It looks like the highest mobs just running around there were around level 7 or 8, so I would imagine you would be ready for other parts of the galaxy a little after reaching that level.
-Because we grouped up we were able to venture further in than if we were alone. We saw a few different creatures that were really fun to fight, and had some great animations. Some of the creatures knock down animations were a bit on the cartoony side however. There were also some larger mining robots that walked around on three legs which were fun to fight, but the best was the large Chemilizards, once you fire at them they would begin to charge at me, and I would then fire a rocket just in time to knock them out of the way. Think Jango Fett dodging the Reek in AOTC.
-Early on in our adventures I had found a NPC by a bunch of speeders, he had a purple icon above his head. I right clicked him and it said something along the lines of “Location stored..” I tried again and it said “No connecting routes..” I think you can see where this is going. Since we were grouped up and working together, we were able to cover a lot of ground, and Samm found a second Speeder Vendor with the same logo above his head. He tried to use it thinking he could ride.. but no dice. However he had not talked to the first NPC like I did... so I ran over there and BANG! A map of the area popped up with a line connecting from where I was with that NPC back to the original one, and clicking on it would cost me 20 credits. We all know what this is. I clicked on the location and I was off on my speeder.. it was on rails and moved pretty fast. I was able to look around and everything, and before you knew it I was back at the first NPC... so I rode it back again. I think that makes me the first and maybe only person outside of Bioware to ride a speeder!
-I noticed that in one of the major friendly areas there were a bunch of level 50 NPC’s, I got the gut feeling of “Okay, this must be the max level right now” that comes from my past MMO experience. Usually NPC’s in major cities, especially guards and important NPC’s tend to be at max level to prevent them from dieing easily or to allow them to be strong enough to defend the area from gankers. Really I am sure the max level for the game is still in the works, and even if they have one locked in it might be higher or lower than 50 for players. But its something worth thinking about.
-To finish our grand adventure (we probably could have stayed playing the game for another hour if we wanted, but we wanted to spend that time with some people from Bioware instead, which you will be seeing a couple more videos soon from that) we thought “Hey... lets go into Fa’anthra’s temple and see if we can take down a big fat Hutt!” We got there and knew it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park, and we would have to work together to make it through the level 7 characters with our lower level characters. The NPC’s at the entrance and inside seemed to be amped up a bit. They were taking cover which forced me to flush them out with the flamethrower while Samm focused on sniping from a distance and weakening the tougher tank type enemies.
-We got to the throne room and.. he wasn’t there. We could see what looks to be his chair but it was empty. I think Bioware removed him for this gameplay demo.. Darn. But that didn't stop us from heading to the elevator that we saw on the map. We were curious if we would finally get a loading screen from that. So we went there and it asked us where we wanted to go.. it gave us no options.. But Samm figured out that if he pressed the Space Bar it would show us our options anyways. So we went straight down to the bottom to a place called the Beasts Lair. No loading screens, we just popped down to that floor and we were there. I immediately pressed “m” to see what we might be dealing with, and ahead of us was a giant open cave like room.. so we ran in there guns blazing as it was crawling with large Chemilizards, there were (I believe they were called this atleast..) “Ancient Chemilizards” that looked kind of like the creature Obi-Wan rides in Revenge of the Sith. But it was at this point that we had to get off so we could make it in time for our interview.
-Samm played around with Armor and Weapon vendors, and also played around with something called a “Bazaar” which was what the Auction House terminals were called in SWG. I will let him go into those details on his article. He also found a blueprint vendor, well that's what I assume when he said “oh a blueprint vendor”...
-It appears all classes will have a revive ability, which lets you revive a fallen party member while out of combat. -I was killing guys around a tree and noticed I was getting shot at from in the bushes of a tall tree, I looked around and saw an NPC standing on a big thick branch shooting at me.. so I fired my rocket to knock him off of it and he fell to the ground, so that I could rip at him from there. Not sure if it was a bug or intentional, but it was pretty sweet.
-Several times I looted a “dud grenade” which had a tooltip that hinted at the possibility of a way to make the grenade usable.
-As a bounty hunter, I was able to use Heavy, Medium, or Light armor after I leveled up once. I think initially I was only able to use light armor, but I could be wrong.
-My game ended up crashing to the desktop pretty early on, a little while after we grouped up. Someone from Bioware came to assist me in getting the game back up. So I was able to see some of that. The icon for the game (come on, this probably will all change but its fun to be nerdy about it anyway) was the helmet of the bounty hunter that we have been seeing so much of. When he clicked on it, it launched the website launch.swtor.com and he was able to launch the game from there... The character select screen popped up and it had a cool look to it. It shows your character model on the entire left side of the screen, and on the right side of the screen was your character’s name and level. There were plenty more slots for characters, I want to say 8, but I am not sure. Either way that's probably going to change between now and release. Then FINALLY I saw a loading screen. It was just of some concept art and had a description of what the bounty hunter class is, again I didn’t dwell on all the details of that because I am counting on that changing too.
-Going in and out of instanced areas was again very seamless. Obviously no loading screens help with that but, I ALWAYS felt like I was in the MMO world and never like I was in my own personal instance (even though at times I was). This game gave me a feeling of “on the other side of that wall there could be something going on with other players”. This is good news for anyone who was hoping for that big living world feeling, which a lot of MMO’s have strayed from lately.
-Overall, this play session taught me that SWTOR really is an MMO, and not a single-player game. We were able to group together from the very start of the game and start adventuring together through quests and we could explore all over the place together. Let me assure all of you that this game is an MMO.. I know there has been a lot of concern about that, and I think that most of those concerned people will be very satisfied once they get their hands on the game.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
All this epic storyline will be lost on me. I prefer to be given the tools to walk my own path. Choosing to reply with the snarky, good natured, and neutral options just doesn't do anything for me. I want to play the game not watch a movie. I really don't have much to say to the citizen requesting 10 slug parts. Either way, the genre could use something that's story-centric so I hope it works out for the people that are interested in such things.
Really. So in the short time he spent skipping things in the demo he had enough time though, to give a skewed personal opinion. If he didn't have the time to do nothing more than run around, then don't you think the demo review should have been more focused how combat felt, graphics with that game build and so forth.
By his ranting off on how boring the story and the actual choice you can make as well as how people will just skip all the dialogue to run through to end game for the highest gear set, spews a somewhat biased opinion or maybe a love for WOW.
It's his job to go and make a sound assessment on what was presented. If he didn't have the time to do so, then surely a little professionalism should have been applied and not this jump to conclusion dribble that he posted. Like this site needs more fanning of the flames.
This is coming from someone, who like alot of others are looking forward to playing, but not so in love, with everything that Bioware has released about TOR.
Please point out to me exactly where did he do any of what you and the others are saying in regards to his opinions and the stuff regarding story? In the post he made her ein this thread he simply asked the question of how many other people will skip through that stuff too when playing the game. It's a valid point to make, because with all the focus theyre putting on how the game is great because it has such an epic story if many people skip through it, it kind of nullifies all the effort they put into the story aspect.
Other than that, in the article itself he said: "I will say that for all of the story and personal achievements Bioware is hyping up in this game, killing slugs at the start just seemed like another MMO in my book". I could see how people might misconstrue what he's saying here, but he's right. For all the talk of epic storyline and stuff, it seems to still start out with the same old routine of "Kill 10 rats" type quests, only you're killing slugs instead. He did not say anything bad about the story itself, and admitted he skipped through it, but simply pointed out that the quest design seems to be mor eof the same in the starting areas. If you can't handle that fact, that's not his problem really, take it up with Bioware/EA.
Also, as the title says, this is an article about his playtime as a Sith Warrior, not a general combat review or anything like that, there already are and will continue to be reviews / articles focusing on things like the combat. You folks really need to learn the difference between an article focusing on 1 particular aspect of a game VS covering all aspects in detail of the entire game.
So with all this story in SW-ToR, no matter how good it will be most players will just rush in the game and rush to endgame then fucking complain about no content when it was there from the start. See MMO games feed people the thought only to be the best, better than the next player, it is never about the story, it is about maxing out a toon as fast as they can... become powerful. As for me I follow the story and enjoy as much content as I can and I still in up just like that player that rush to endgame, the only difference is I will know the game.
So many people are being hard on this guy cause he skipped the dialogue. Quite frankly i do not read quest dialogue and i'm not a new MMO gamer i've been playing since 1996. I play to make my own story personally and I know many others who do the same, my father being one who is 59 years old and not some dumb kid.
Some people play to play the other aspects of the game, not to play the story line. If i wanted to play for the story and not to play to fight and compete against 100's of other real people, i'd play a single player RPG
I dislike comments criticising articles, and I understand that this is an informal hands-on preview, but....
This is the second article I've read on this website where the reviewer has said they've space-barred through the quest text. Yes, I understand this in not for everybody. Yes, I understand that your demo time may be limited. Yes, I understand that you may be excited and want to get straight into the combat...
Nevetheless, this site is called MMO"RPG".com, and you may therefore surmise at least a few of us are interested in the RPG side of things. The only things I learned from this article is that you don't like quest text, you fight slugs as a starting Sith, you're one of those "it's the same as WOW" guys, and that you have deep concerns about being ganked by ranged players.
All we can ask for is an objective evaluation of your experience...I don't think we got that.
**sigh** not this again... refer to my last fe wposts, or Garret's own post in this thread regarding limited time to play, etc
As he said in his own post, if he were actually playing the game at home or whatever, he would have taken the time to do that thing. Why the hell you expect them to sit through 14 minutes of dialogue in a 15 minute long demo, and then still have time to check out the actual gameplay and the class itself (which, again, is wtf this article was about) and give you a review on anything besides the dialogue is beyond me...
If you want a review on the story, dialogue, etc.... then go read a review about THOSE things, don't expect every single article about the game to repeat every detail of the entire game, especially when they haven't had a chance to REALLY play the game.
I am sorry, but you cant give an accurate assessment of a game until you can at least experience every aspect of the particular part of the game you are writing about. If there was a time limit that restricted him from experiencing all the content then maybe he shouldnt have wrote anything or at least just spoke about combat and not being so snarky about the dialogue....
" it seemed a bit tedious"
" I'm a Sith Warrior after all. I don't need to remind myself I am evil. I just want to hack Jedi apart."
In my opinion a person writing a report on something without giving it a chance whether its because he dont like it or is restricted because of time should leave out opinions on that particular matter.
Bravo! Now if we can get all the 12 year olds into programming their own little sandbox worlds on their own systems maybe the rest of us can get something done!
"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule." Neitzsche
I've beaten (with my friend's help) all of GuildWars. My friend's left (for various reasons) and I was left without a guild. I joined one, and now all I get are snarky 14 year olds trying to come up with ways to beat GW without being twentyth level or trying to get their glowing gloves or bandanna's and such. THAT is why I left GW! No more content 'till GW2! Otherwise I can't stand the "Let's sit around the fire and sing 'Kumbya'! "that passes for intelligent conversation!
"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule." Neitzsche
No, what you need to learn is that if he didn't have the time to really get involved then why make the assumptions that he made. It works both ways. You can't say you have no time to actually play and then ramble off how he thinks others will play the game and what they will skip, and on the other hand, sit back and say, well i didn't have enough time to make a fair game assessment. The most unprofessional thing about this whole article is that, it never should have been written for the little time he had to play, and then to write the piece and then give a skewed opinion about it. Demo or no demo, there are times when to be heard and times when to be silent and this definitly falls on a time to be silent.
Really? comparing a general gaming / MMORPG sites coverage of 1 particular game at a convention of many games, to the depth of articles posted on sites DEDICATED to covering that game? Of course those sites are going to have much better written and in depth articles and information when it comes to that particular game.
That's like watching G4TV, which covers all aspects of gaming, and covered the entire convention and then sending them angry letters that they didn't spend the entire week covering only SWTOR because it happens to be what YOU are a huge fan of.
Or watching ESPN which covers various sports and throwing a fit because it's not all NFL all day every day.
quoted from Garrett:
"2. In skipping the dialogue (again due to limited time), I came to the question of....gee, will players skip the dialogue eventually when there is so much of it? Hmmm....maybe...could this become a problem in the game...maybe....therefore I presented the question in the article."
That's a question, and a very valid one (especially considering people's responses in this thread that specifically state they will not pay attention to the dialogue), not an assumption. You argument would be much better if you a) new the difference between assumptions and questions/concerns and b) actually paid attention to other people's opinions which validate some of the point smade in the article rathe rthan vehemently defending your opinion and ONLY yours based on how you choose to play
and from the article: "Many players will be rushing through the content to get to the cool looking armor sets and higher level gear."
Do you deny that people do this in MMOs? Do you know how others are going to play? Apparently so since youre so angry at him for claiming players might play one way but you insist he's wrong and he shouldnt be making that assumption. Pot, meet kettle.
The thing is, i'm not giving an opinion on how others will play, cuase i really don't care. To be honest, skipping all the story in TOR is possible and if you are a power leveler and want to rush through all the content to get to the so called end game, it's the player's choice. Bioware has stated that if you don't want to do your personal story you don't have to, but if you don't you will miss out on alot of content.
So, i really don't care.