The only thing that companions do that is innovative is take the work out of crafting, next up, companions that play the game for you.
LOL! Best. Comment. Ever.
That guy almost sounds like he enjoys sitting in front of a forge, staring at a percentage bar going from 0% to 100% for 27 times in a row before he can continue playing the game. There are some of us who enjoys playing the game for the whole time logged in, that's why this is the first mmorpg where I actually keep my crafting skills up to date.
...
Because all MMO crafting is clicking "craft" and waiting for the progress bar.
Apparently you've never played EQ2, Vanguard, SWG, or UO.
There use to be a time when crafting actually meant something, and took dedication and skill to do well at, and of course the reward was actually creating useful things. These days crafting is a side-show mechanic that everyone and their mother is expected to pick up and muddle their way through with little effort.
But we are not talking about EQ2, Vanguard, SWG or UO. We are talking about TOR and the crafting it has, and IMO the companion approach works very well within that system.
That may be true but I still prefer crafting that takes some degree of skill instead of click and wait.
Different people like different things, I dont mind complex and time consuming crafting, I would actually be happy that "the crafters" would then get their own sub-game, I just personally would not touch that since I dont like such.
Here's hoping for a mmorpg where you can do "standard" stuff with light crafting, and amazing and epic stuff with complex and time consuming crafting, I'd be fine with that as long as I can make my own standard medpacks and stims with the light version.
This is what's wrong with people giving opinions about games when they've hardly played them. If reviewers held off for about a month and then gave a review of the game they might give a more informed opinion that will better help sway the views of their readers.
The article was probably misleading in its title. It probably should have been called "First Impressions Review Roundtable" so as not to confuse it with Mike Bitton's official MMORPG.com review posted later. My 8/10 was definitely a 1st impressions review score.
ok, so what would you score it at NOW?
OK before I tell you what I would score it as now, I want to remind you that this is MY score only, my PERSONAL score, not the score for MMORPG.com. Obviously, a lot of my co-workers will disagree with me which is cool and what makes working here so much fun.
OK.
I would give SWTOR a 6.5 as it stands today for many of the reasons I mentioned above. I say that with the caveat that that score will undoubtedly rise as the game matures and as more patches are applied. SWTOR has a boatload of potential. I hope that potential can be realized.
This is one of the reasons that this site can be so frustrating. You guys always seem to want to have your cake and eat it to.
You release an official review giving the game a certain score and then to maintain your street cred you have a bunch of other articles that qualify that score, or modify that score, or say, "Well if it would've been me the score would've been ________" with everyone playing their part to keep all the readers happy with at least a certain portion of the writers/reviewers
And this article is no different. Neither side is really passionately arguing their point. The only innovative thing that the game has introduced is story quests and I feel great/lukewarm on that... Two paragraphs later, "The companion system is actually one of the better systems that Bioware brought into the genre" So which is it? No innovation? Or did they actually innovate (expand on) a system that you actually enjoy?
And I'm sorry, but when someone says that space combat being on rails is, "Game Breaking" I have to wonder if they are just choosing "gamer words" out of a hat. That is game breaking like not having voice over would be gamebreaking. Which is to say, it's not. It's a design choice. You might not like, you might think it's the wrong choice (and I wouldn't disagree) but game breaking it is not.
There are so many people who really do not know what a rpg is, you want to skip ahead of quests and just get to the action, then there's fps for that. The element in a rpg is story plain and simple. Swtor is a fantastic mmorpg ( I say mmorpg because the raids are alot of fun and hard mode flashpoints require groups ) I never knew single player RPGs to have raid groups, player guilds and of course pvp.
Mmos that charged a monthly fee do so to fund development costs of the game further down the road, which means more content and further expansions onto the game world.
This is a game meant for people who enjoy the true rpg element IE story , and sorry to say this but the wow community or people who simply don't enjoy RPGs will not enjoy swtor , and that ladies and gentlemen is why we have topics like these all over this site.
OMG another "mmo's had no feature like that 23213213 years ago" post. Jeeeeeeeeez its 2012 and u still gonna bring stuff that was happening in the last century. "MMO"s had no feature "X" 10 years ago and noone was upset about it". OMFG. ITS 2012, it's an era past that times. If u compare everything to what was there x years ago ur a caveman....
Not only is the room architecture repeated a lot, the NPC faces are repeated way too much. I have seen the same quest giver's look on many differetn people handing out a quest. Look at the Esseles flashpoint once you get with that genral that makes the distractions. The other cadets with him have one of three faces it seems, one run all four looked like they were identical twins (yeah yeah, but clones are later!!)
Suzie is right. For 200m$ BW made best, best, bestest singlepalyer mmo in the world. I think they deserve some kind of a reward for doing it. Like ... I dunno... 2011-new-genre-mmo award? Because imho it is a new genre. Let's adapt it to common language! S for single P for player MMO.. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN new online gaming genre has arrived! SPMMO!!!! AND btw, I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!!!
EDIT: or make it B2P. I am used to pay for singleplayer this way.
The voice overs are misleading. Often they give you three choices and two result in you saying the same thing, sometimes two both sharing dialogue... and rarely all three being identical responses.
More often it's 3 choices where two are identical. Often these are reused options from earlier. I heard "sounds like a good opportunity for violence" at least 20+ times on my warrior. I also escaped out to listen to all possible dialogue.
The voice overs are misleading. Often they give you three choices and two result in you saying the same thing, sometimes two both sharing dialogue... and rarely all three being identical responses.
More often it's 3 choices where two are identical. Often these are reused options from earlier. I heard "sounds like a good opportunity for violence" at least 20+ times on my warrior. I also escaped out to listen to all possible dialogue.
"I'm putting it out there: Player versus Player sucks in most games. But not this one."
Wow, really, REALLY? MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Oh man, thanks for the laugh!!!!!
You weren't serious, right?
I mean really man?????
SWTOR PVP is terrible, even worse than WOW's. World PVP is a joke, and is next to non-existant, and there are no world PVP rewards (except for really, really rare crate spawns. Mercenary commendations what?). Ilum is the worst PVP designated area in the history of MMO's, and it simply rewards the team with the biggest zerg - and crate clicking? REALLY? Not to mention the objectives... that you can cap in >30 seconds by clicking 3 mechs... lmao
PVP in SWTOR is nothing but a shoebox, instanced, minigame grind for gear. Yup, that's right, grind 3 minigames from 10-49 for PVP gear and comm's (so much for massively multiplayer right?). Then at 50, get stomped by endgame geared players. Then you are forced to grind those same 3 minigame for endgame PVP gear so you don't get stomped, and can then stomped undergeared players. Oh, and have fun with the fabulous RNG box system... grind wz, get comm's, hope the RNG is kind -rinse + repeat- times infinitum. Yipee!!!!!
You also mention hutball as being good? Haha. With the endless CC spam in the game that wz is terrible. You spend most of your time getting pulled, pushed, stunned rooted, choked, knocked back, knocked up, knocked sideways, slowed, spun... yeah, that's definitely great PVP alright! You know the best way to remove player skill from the equation? Add so much CC that the player is nothing but a spectator. In addition, stunball favors certain classes much more than others... i.e. force speed, jump, pull etc. *yawn*.
PVP in SWTOR is terrible, it's nothing but gear > skill, and a forced minigame grind. Yay!!
But as you think that PVP in most games sucks, it's pretty clear that you aren't in a position to be talking about the PVP topic at all. Let me guess, the only 'PVP' (i use that term loosely) MMO's you've played are WOW, WAR and SWTOR?
The only thing that companions do that is innovative is take the work out of crafting, next up, companions that play the game for you.
Well, I leveled whilst sexing my companion last night. First time I've seen any MMO offer the option to romance your Companion and get xp for it. And honestly, I thought that was an excellent contrast to the usual game mechanics of xp for killing stuff.
I hear alot about the fact that it is not star wars... And they are right.
First of all, it is FAR from a 'fact'. This game feels more like Star Wars than SWG ever did, and is on par with the excellent KOTOR series. So yeah, this IS Star Wars.
I hear alot about the fact that it is not star wars... And they are right.
First of all, it is FAR from a 'fact'. This game feels more like Star Wars than SWG ever did, and is on par with the excellent KOTOR series. So yeah, this IS Star Wars.
Hmm, so how does the space on rails or the stationary, in limbo "fighting" NPCs fit into Star Wars?
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
Despite TOR telling you where to go, you still listen to the Mission because its immersive. Interesting enough the mission boxes...I have not read a single one...I have however listened to every mission. Why? Because I assume if someone has gone to the trouble to add a voice to it. It must be important.
The voice acting works. Every MMO is a single player when questing...This is a truth we need to start admitting to ourselves...
Hmmm maybe I was expecting something else from the title..... After reading it my feeling is MMORPG.com should have had a contest or selected members from the boards here to be good cop, bad cop I think it would have been far more entertaining/amusing
Good cop was rather weak what "I read" was its talking star wars /drool and the bad cop while slighly better did not give the knock out punches needed. Come on SB you can hit a lot harder than that! Think they both need to watch some movies/tv shows with good cop, bad cop.
also its not Star Wars. Star Wars is the first 3 movies (New Hope, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi). Any other "SW" story created in different ages are just simple sci-fi with some stolen SW element
Why is it always when someone says they hate 1,2 and 3 that its always JarJar's fault? I always saw the way adult Anaken was portrayed as the thing that killed it for me. I want to just say it was Hayden Christensen's fault all together. 1 was an ok movie and had left the story with such potential to grow out to be as epic a series as 4,5 and 6.
I hear alot about the fact that it is not star wars... And they are right.
First of all, it is FAR from a 'fact'. This game feels more like Star Wars than SWG ever did, and is on par with the excellent KOTOR series. So yeah, this IS Star Wars.
Hmm, so how does the space on rails or the stationary, in limbo "fighting" NPCs fit into Star Wars?
Ah yes, the rhetorical fallacy of cherry picking in attempt to prove a point. Well, let's see. How does the best representation of Coruscant in a video game NOT fit into Star Wars? How does the the best recreation of Tatooine, Hoth, Ilum, Corellia ever seen in a video game NOT fit into Star Wars? How does great alien voice acting, with all the strange dialog, NOT make this Star Wars? How does the battles between Light Side Forces and Dark Side Forces NOT make this Star Wars? How about those choices we have for land vehicles...that CERTAINLY isn't Star Wars, is it? How about all those strange creatures we see, some recognizable from the movies, some new but fitting...NOT Star Wars either? Or how about BioWare's intrinsic, complete understanding of the Star Wars military-industrial paradigm, and its impact on the ridiculous scale of things that are built within the world? Nope, BW doesn't understand Star Wars at all (/sarcasm).
Compare this to SWG pathetic planet of Corellia, LOL. Coronet, the supposed capital of one of the most important planets in the SW universe, was what? ten building that you couldn't enter? What a joke. How long did it take SOE to give us one land vehicle? LOL. Now I enjoyed SWG...I had a Master Creature Handler decimated by the NGE. But SWG never captured Star Wars Universe well at all.
There are many things to criticize about SWTOR. That it doesn't capture Star Wars Universe isn't on that list. Period.
I dont know if its been mentioned, but suzie was 100% wrong about her claim that bioware "Bioware never trumpeted SWTOR as the next great leap forward in MMO gaming in the history of mankind".
They did EXACTLY that in many of their promotional videos. Unfortunately im at work so i can use youtube and link the video, but if neccessary i will come back and post it to prove just how wrong she was.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
Comments
Different people like different things, I dont mind complex and time consuming crafting, I would actually be happy that "the crafters" would then get their own sub-game, I just personally would not touch that since I dont like such.
Here's hoping for a mmorpg where you can do "standard" stuff with light crafting, and amazing and epic stuff with complex and time consuming crafting, I'd be fine with that as long as I can make my own standard medpacks and stims with the light version.
This is one of the reasons that this site can be so frustrating. You guys always seem to want to have your cake and eat it to.
You release an official review giving the game a certain score and then to maintain your street cred you have a bunch of other articles that qualify that score, or modify that score, or say, "Well if it would've been me the score would've been ________" with everyone playing their part to keep all the readers happy with at least a certain portion of the writers/reviewers
And this article is no different. Neither side is really passionately arguing their point. The only innovative thing that the game has introduced is story quests and I feel great/lukewarm on that... Two paragraphs later, "The companion system is actually one of the better systems that Bioware brought into the genre" So which is it? No innovation? Or did they actually innovate (expand on) a system that you actually enjoy?
And I'm sorry, but when someone says that space combat being on rails is, "Game Breaking" I have to wonder if they are just choosing "gamer words" out of a hat. That is game breaking like not having voice over would be gamebreaking. Which is to say, it's not. It's a design choice. You might not like, you might think it's the wrong choice (and I wouldn't disagree) but game breaking it is not.
the part of the article admitting openly that the MMO genre is not about MMO anymore, is shocking.
the best blog of the net
OMG another "mmo's had no feature like that 23213213 years ago" post. Jeeeeeeeeez its 2012 and u still gonna bring stuff that was happening in the last century. "MMO"s had no feature "X" 10 years ago and noone was upset about it". OMFG. ITS 2012, it's an era past that times. If u compare everything to what was there x years ago ur a caveman....
Not only is the room architecture repeated a lot, the NPC faces are repeated way too much. I have seen the same quest giver's look on many differetn people handing out a quest. Look at the Esseles flashpoint once you get with that genral that makes the distractions. The other cadets with him have one of three faces it seems, one run all four looked like they were identical twins (yeah yeah, but clones are later!!)
Suzie is right. For 200m$ BW made best, best, bestest singlepalyer mmo in the world. I think they deserve some kind of a reward for doing it. Like ... I dunno... 2011-new-genre-mmo award? Because imho it is a new genre. Let's adapt it to common language! S for single P for player MMO.. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN new online gaming genre has arrived! SPMMO!!!! AND btw, I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!!!
EDIT: or make it B2P. I am used to pay for singleplayer this way.
More often it's 3 choices where two are identical. Often these are reused options from earlier. I heard "sounds like a good opportunity for violence" at least 20+ times on my warrior. I also escaped out to listen to all possible dialogue.
More often it's 3 choices where two are identical. Often these are reused options from earlier. I heard "sounds like a good opportunity for violence" at least 20+ times on my warrior. I also escaped out to listen to all possible dialogue.
"I'm putting it out there: Player versus Player sucks in most games. But not this one."
Wow, really, REALLY? MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Oh man, thanks for the laugh!!!!!
You weren't serious, right?
I mean really man?????
SWTOR PVP is terrible, even worse than WOW's. World PVP is a joke, and is next to non-existant, and there are no world PVP rewards (except for really, really rare crate spawns. Mercenary commendations what?). Ilum is the worst PVP designated area in the history of MMO's, and it simply rewards the team with the biggest zerg - and crate clicking? REALLY? Not to mention the objectives... that you can cap in >30 seconds by clicking 3 mechs... lmao
PVP in SWTOR is nothing but a shoebox, instanced, minigame grind for gear. Yup, that's right, grind 3 minigames from 10-49 for PVP gear and comm's (so much for massively multiplayer right?). Then at 50, get stomped by endgame geared players. Then you are forced to grind those same 3 minigame for endgame PVP gear so you don't get stomped, and can then stomped undergeared players. Oh, and have fun with the fabulous RNG box system... grind wz, get comm's, hope the RNG is kind -rinse + repeat- times infinitum. Yipee!!!!!
You also mention hutball as being good? Haha. With the endless CC spam in the game that wz is terrible. You spend most of your time getting pulled, pushed, stunned rooted, choked, knocked back, knocked up, knocked sideways, slowed, spun... yeah, that's definitely great PVP alright! You know the best way to remove player skill from the equation? Add so much CC that the player is nothing but a spectator. In addition, stunball favors certain classes much more than others... i.e. force speed, jump, pull etc. *yawn*.
PVP in SWTOR is terrible, it's nothing but gear > skill, and a forced minigame grind. Yay!!
But as you think that PVP in most games sucks, it's pretty clear that you aren't in a position to be talking about the PVP topic at all. Let me guess, the only 'PVP' (i use that term loosely) MMO's you've played are WOW, WAR and SWTOR?
Really dude?????
Well, I leveled whilst sexing my companion last night. First time I've seen any MMO offer the option to romance your Companion and get xp for it. And honestly, I thought that was an excellent contrast to the usual game mechanics of xp for killing stuff.
First of all, it is FAR from a 'fact'. This game feels more like Star Wars than SWG ever did, and is on par with the excellent KOTOR series. So yeah, this IS Star Wars.
Hmm, so how does the space on rails or the stationary, in limbo "fighting" NPCs fit into Star Wars?
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
I love waffles also.
But, more than waffles, I love honest reviews that don't feel like there's been any compromise involved, either journalistically or monetarily.
Re: SWTOR
"Remember, remember - Kakk says 'December.'"
300$ million kinda makes you expect innovation... I think the release of WoW was like 35$ million...
Hate both though as they are themeparks and im a old timer!
Despite TOR telling you where to go, you still listen to the Mission because its immersive. Interesting enough the mission boxes...I have not read a single one...I have however listened to every mission. Why? Because I assume if someone has gone to the trouble to add a voice to it. It must be important.
The voice acting works. Every MMO is a single player when questing...This is a truth we need to start admitting to ourselves...
Hmmm maybe I was expecting something else from the title..... After reading it my feeling is MMORPG.com should have had a contest or selected members from the boards here to be good cop, bad cop I think it would have been far more entertaining/amusing
Good cop was rather weak what "I read" was its talking star wars /drool and the bad cop while slighly better did not give the knock out punches needed. Come on SB you can hit a lot harder than that! Think they both need to watch some movies/tv shows with good cop, bad cop.
I want a rematch! This one ended in a boring tie.
The game feels like WoW, but extremely more confining and single-player-like, while my sword was replaced with a flashlight.
"SWTOR: no one seems to be able to agree on what’s good and what’s lacking in BioWare’s first MMORPG."
Not sure, I'd say pretty much everyone agrees on:
Textures are bad, especially due to the lack of high textures
In game shadows are even worse.
Playing wookies or others non "colorized" human is lacking
Character body customization is poor
End tier and PvP gear looks really bad, sometime even silly
The game lacks appearance tab and gear dyes
Jedi Story is B O R I N G
Dark choices are too often about greed and $$$, Yeah my Sith loves money.
Side quests totally lack any replayability factor as you don't have the choice at all, just go kill and come back for your candy.
The world feels like a graveyard, it's lacking critters, NPC AI and why not day/night cycles
Travel time sinks and loading screens are tedious
Crafting is unappealing but for maybe Biochem and Cybertech
The space tunnel isn't even as good as Starfox and just slightly better than CWA
Housing is... ok it's better than Wow
You only have one weapon choice per Advanced Class... it's a choice right?
Talents trees are a miss, again lacking
Wolrd PvP does not exists in this game.
Huttball is making all saber wielders proud to wear glowing bats, so much for feeling an heroic force user
The UI is really well.. is there a UI?
There's no LFG/DM nor even Guild banks
Now on the good part:
V.O. Classes story
OMG what ? You actually get to meet Revan in this game.
You totally get the feeling it's Star Wars.
www.heroesofanatolia.com
That was more like good cop, middle of the road cop.
___________________________
Have flask; will travel.
Tweak the ini file.
+1 for Suzie
also its not Star Wars. Star Wars is the first 3 movies (New Hope, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi). Any other "SW" story created in different ages are just simple sci-fi with some stolen SW element
Why is it always when someone says they hate 1,2 and 3 that its always JarJar's fault? I always saw the way adult Anaken was portrayed as the thing that killed it for me. I want to just say it was Hayden Christensen's fault all together. 1 was an ok movie and had left the story with such potential to grow out to be as epic a series as 4,5 and 6.
Ah yes, the rhetorical fallacy of cherry picking in attempt to prove a point. Well, let's see. How does the best representation of Coruscant in a video game NOT fit into Star Wars? How does the the best recreation of Tatooine, Hoth, Ilum, Corellia ever seen in a video game NOT fit into Star Wars? How does great alien voice acting, with all the strange dialog, NOT make this Star Wars? How does the battles between Light Side Forces and Dark Side Forces NOT make this Star Wars? How about those choices we have for land vehicles...that CERTAINLY isn't Star Wars, is it? How about all those strange creatures we see, some recognizable from the movies, some new but fitting...NOT Star Wars either? Or how about BioWare's intrinsic, complete understanding of the Star Wars military-industrial paradigm, and its impact on the ridiculous scale of things that are built within the world? Nope, BW doesn't understand Star Wars at all (/sarcasm).
Compare this to SWG pathetic planet of Corellia, LOL. Coronet, the supposed capital of one of the most important planets in the SW universe, was what? ten building that you couldn't enter? What a joke. How long did it take SOE to give us one land vehicle? LOL. Now I enjoyed SWG...I had a Master Creature Handler decimated by the NGE. But SWG never captured Star Wars Universe well at all.
There are many things to criticize about SWTOR. That it doesn't capture Star Wars Universe isn't on that list. Period.
I dont know if its been mentioned, but suzie was 100% wrong about her claim that bioware "Bioware never trumpeted SWTOR as the next great leap forward in MMO gaming in the history of mankind".
They did EXACTLY that in many of their promotional videos. Unfortunately im at work so i can use youtube and link the video, but if neccessary i will come back and post it to prove just how wrong she was.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche