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Star Wars: The Old Republic: Flashpoint Video, NDA Lift & Beta Key Extension
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Bioware has released a new trailer featuring one of the flashpoint areas in Star Wars: The Old Republic. This time, players fight for control of The Hammer, "a powerful prototype battle station developed by the Republic, was thought to have been destroyed in the war." Enjoy this Friday eye candy!
In addition, folks looking to redeem a beta code have an extended date to do so. All beta keys must be claimed by Sunday, November 20th.
Lastly, let's hear some of your reports as the NDA has officially been lifted.
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Comments
Good to see the NDA lifted . I played the it last weekend and although its difficult really know what a games like in a single weekend I liked what I saw . Graphically its not as cartoony as Warcraft but not as realistic as say Age of Conan . I had no lag what so ever which impressed me given the amount of people testing it . The UI was intuative in its ease of use .
The world itself seems very well rendered . The overiding feeling I got was that for a new game its increadibly polished . Its also not as instanced as people will have you think . You do go into some instanced caves but that doesn't mean you alone in them theres always other players so they don't feel like instances if you know what I mean .
Combats very fluid from what I experianced . Quest wise its was pretty much the standard stuff to the genre but if you don't like that sort of thing you don't play mmos really do you .
I'm sure there will be inevitable comparisons with other games and in general chat some every now and then came up with "this game isn't as good as WoW etc" you know the same old same old thing you get from same old same morons . Everytime this happened someone or another would bring up Pandas and that usually shut them up It does bring something new to the genre and thats the personal story your character has .
IT It makes the game seam a lot less grindy and a lot more like an RPG . Bioware are very good at this sort of thing .
As I say I had only a limited try at it and up untill this week I'd not pre-ordered the game but after seeing it I know its going to be a very solid and popular release .
I've good feeling about this one .My appologies about the spacing . Its not the way I typed it and I've tried to edit it out so it didn't take up as much space but it doesn't seam to work . :S
[Mod Edit]
The starting area for the Jedi knight is awesome along with the story , I made it to level 19 and was having a blast, I explored afew different planets like odd mandel and tirus, each planet seems to get larger the higher in level you go which is awesome for people like us who enjoy exploring. I also enjoyed my sith asassin last beta, got him to level 24. The story line is amazing, you actualy feel like a sith when you play the immersion is awesome. The pvp is also alot of fun, you get points or tokens for doing pvp to get pvp gear but for those of you who don't like pvp that's ok because swtor caters to pve as well, sometimes mods will drop a token meant for the planet your on, for example, your on tythom and you get a token , that token can only be used at the commendation vendor on that planet for that specific token to get better gear mods for upgrading armor and weapons ect, you can also keep those tokens to trade for other planet tokens for better gear.
I liked the way you could make moral choices that gave you light or darkside points . I imagine how you play it effect they way you progress . I ended up taking the arrogant options with the jedi I had just to see what sort of chastisement I'd get from the jedi masters . lol . Was a lot of fun .
Wow bro, that was a lot of spacing
I enjoyed it during the 2nd weekend test they had. I can't wait for release. I'm happy that I'm not in the general beta as I don't want the game to get "old" before it's even released
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I really enjoyed my Sith Inquisitor/Assassin.
I almost enjoyed the Imperial Agent as much as the Inquisitor (it started off a bit rocky compared to the Sith).
The Trooper was fun, but not my cup of tea, though I did enjoy the Mortar strikes etc, big guns are fun.
And I barely played the Jedi Consular which is basically the same class as Sith Inquisitor, just the light side version of it, the powers were the "same" (Graphically different, but same effects).
Loading times when you either died or ported back home were the biggest issue I had. My character would load in first, then the world would populate around them. Made it appear you were standing on sky. This only lasted a few seconds, but it seemed like it needed some work. I do wish the speeder would come at level 15 instead of level 25
. Walking around some of those big planets after a few times on the same path got old, but then, I was in a hurry 
.
I heard lots of people that hadn't played the game even once jump up and down about how it was going to be a WoW clone. After having played it, the game is really nothing like WoW. It is very different. The only game that comes close to it in terms of how combat flows is City of Heroes. It's much more of an action game then a typical MMO. The whole feel and flow of the game is just very very different. The game IS story, plain and simple. It's very well done. I found every class fun, which is an experience I have never had before in an MMO. The game is just fun. Even the crafting is enjoyable in this game and I *HATE* crafting with an unyielding passion.
Banegrivm
Leader of the 1st Fist of Light
www.1stfistoflight.com
The combat system, flow and art style is alot like many of the standard MMO's - so lets just stop trying to differentiate between the two when all of the appearances DO look exactly like WoW and other tab-target-click-number-button mmo's.
The content, however, is vastly different and more involved. The story and how it presents the story is very MassEffect and alot of people will like it.
Again, it's very much like wow on the outside but once you get past that layer, the game is solid.
I played wow for 7 yrs at this time. Im still playing it . Tor is a better game overall due to its story and choice. That said the mechanics and combat are similar to wow and i love tor.
Ill admit i think tor is a better game by far. Story makes a huge diffrence as does companions. The mechanics of the game from ui to movement are alot like wow and thats a good thing made picking up controls easy.
I dont think the mechanics in mmos need to be changed. They work just fine why change them. The combat is fun and enjoyable for me. Despite the universal cooldown. I acutally enjoyed the combat but i dont want fast twitch based combat in my mmo.
If i did id go play an fps. rpgs were never twitch based or have to block dodge and parry on your own. Thats not my thing. so i enjoyed combat in tot even though it was familiar its nto exactly like wow but it has alot of the thigns lotro, wow, and all other themparks ive played have.
I love tor lets get taht straight had a blast played 5 hrs or more 2 straight p lay sessions. got totally drawn in by the story and the worlds i was playing on. I enjoyed exploring and i never do that in my mmos.
While its not a wow clone it does have similiar mechanics but then so do most mmorpgs. that are themepark. Bioware never said were changing those in fact if u paid attenttion they said were keepign what worked so good in wow, aka mechanics combat and puttign what they thought was missing , story and choice into it.
They did that very well and it makes a huge diffrence to me in how enjoyable it was and i love wow also. Tor was just alot more fun and enjoyable for me. First time a game gave me the same feeling i got as the first time i played wow.
I dunno what happened when I posted it . the paragraphs were all spaced out . I edited it to try and get it to not take up so much space . Would like to thank the Mod for editing it and not deleting it . Gremlins in the works somewhere I think .
Yeah I know whatyou mean it was very absorbing . I think when many WoW players give it a try I've a feeling when they do like you they will enjoy it a lot more . It reminded me just how lacking in innovaton and lazy Blizzard seem to have become when it comes to WoW . Its inevitable they will see massive loses when TOR is released now . Maybe it will make them take a long a long hard long look at WoW and make changes and improve it accordingly . Loses may not actually be bad for the WoW player in the long term because competition always is healthy .
That Hutt is enormous.
Well, the combat system is your typical mmo tab/target, hotkey mash, but...it just feels...better. Hard to explain, but the combat feels more "alive" and action-oriented than in other themepark mmos. Much of that has to do with two things: More detailed animations, and more exciting abiities.
A couple of examples:
Force Leap is basically just like WoW's Heroic Leap, except it's done the way Blizzard should have done it. First of all, it looks better, as your Jedi does a flip in midair as he's leaping towards his target, and secondly, it isn't just a leap forward. It can be used to leap ONTO a target above or below you without taking falling damage. As long as you have line of sight to the targe and they are within 30 meters, you can force leap up to them. And watching a PvP battle with a Jedi Knight whizzing past you and force leaping to a target above them is truly an epic sight to behold.
Death From Above: Easily the best single ability I've ever seen in an MMO. The Bounty Hunter puts a target reticule on the ground, and then his rocket pack shoots him into the air, and anything in that reticule gets absolutely lit up with a barrage. It's awesome to behold.
There are tons of abilities like this for the various classes that are just a ton of fun to use. They, in conjunction with the animations, sound effects, and visual effects just make the combat seem alive, even thought it's technically no different than your standard MMO combat.
Like I said, the gameplay and style is nearly the same thing but that's not what will capture the audience, it's the depth of the story and how that story is presented. This is very much a "Journey" game even if it still is a themepark-ish game.
Great reads guys.. Looking forward to the "server crash" weekend.. Err.. I mean "stress test" weekend..
Hopefully the servers will hold for at least a good 2 hours so I can get a feel for the game..
While I can understand your feeling on the combat, flow and art style; I just can not agree with you. I will grant that the combat system is VERY similar to many MMOs out today, but the feel of it is nothing like WoW. It feels and flows more like City of Heroes, which is a huge leap past what WoW ever did in my book. Also, the art style is leaps and bounds better than anything WoW did. I used to be a little disappointed on this front from watching the viseos and such, but after playing the game last weekend, I am VERY happy with the art style. Maybe if Blizzard had actually cared enough to truly upgrade their art it would have looked this good, but right now SWTOR just puts them to shame.
As for what you said about the Mass Effect comparisson, I agree completely.
Lastly, comparing this game to WoW is like comparing a "Crab Apple" to a good "Red and Delicious Apple". Yea, they are both apples, but one is obviously superior to the other.
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
I would agree with that, except to me, as to many others, animation differences do kind of make a big deal in judging a game's combat. The warrior charge in WoW isn't as flashy, and can't be done to a target above you because their line of sight system prevents it. Like I said, it's a bit hard to explain, but going strictly on the way the combat "feels," I have to say it's more engrossing than the standard, "Go up to your target, stand in front of it, and hack away until one of you die." Sure, it can be played that way, but when your Jedi Knight actually does have an animation for when they block lasers with their lightsaber, you know you are looking at a well-made combat system, even if it's not particularly innovative. Many MMOs still have a turn-based quality to their combat. My guy swings, does damage. Then the mob swipes, does damage. Rinse and repeat until someone dies. In this game, it at least APPEARS as though both sides are actively participating, rather than waiting for the other guy to finish his attack and then attacking themselves.
It's the best themepark/tab target combat I've played in an MMO, personally. JMO though.
As much as I appreciate your enthusiasm, things like Charge, Blink and Shadowstep were cool abilities when they were put in game. Heroic Leap was pretty cool looking too (regardless of the mechanic problems). So I just think it's the "new" feeling that you're infatuated with - which isn't really a problem with me.
I can't really explain it, but I know it's not a "new" feeling infatuation. I've been playing MMOs for years, so I know how combat is supposed to feel in these themepark games, and my personal opinion is that it feels better and more active in SWTOR. WoW had the best combat of any of the themepark MMOs outside of AoC that I've played. It felt responsive, and the animations were better than your average themepark game. But it still had that "turn-based" quality to it. SWTOR just doesn't feel that way. And I'm not saying WoW doesn't have some cool abilities, they certainly do. But SWTOR has done a nice job putting a new spin on those abilities. And yes, they've copied their share as well.
I found this game very boring and linear, I tested through 3 beta builds and the more I played it the more boring it got. I first started out interested in the storyline but found myself using the space bar more and more to skip through the quest cinematics and get back to playing the game, which no matter how you put it, is like WoW, but the only thing this game does better than WoW is the storyline and I hated wow more than I hate this game, maybe because this is star wars.
The game is more instanced and lineat than AoC. If beining funneled from 1 quest area to the next with mountains or some other kind of wall on each side of you limiting any kind of exploring is you're kind of game you'll love this game.
The space combat is weak, you're on rails the entire time, the only control you have of your space ship is when to fire and when to barrel roll.
This game does not feel like an MMO, in most MMOs the environment feels alive, this is just 3 mobs standing around waiting for you to kill them the move to the next 3 and so on till you get to your quest objective then fight your way back through those same mobs to turn in your quest.
This is a single player game with occasional Co-op momments.
I played SWTOR during one of the first beta tests, in Summer 2010. Benefit was getting a very early peak at the game relative to most - drawback was that it was very limited, and had some severe issues. In the build I played, none of the NPC's ever moved which made especially ranged combat against melee rather boring. That said, even though I was limited to level 1-7 BH/Inquisitor starting world, I was enthralled by the quest interactions. With that I mean the dialog system and especially mid-quest choices. Without spoiling the story, there was a quest where I could help the old couple that gave me the quest, or another character (and his family) that I met during the quest. It was a hard choice since both were pretty dire. This wasn't even a dark/light choice, just a personal choice.
Naturally I can't really comment on the recent game since I haven't participated in beta since, but even though it's very much "WoW in Space", I'm looking forward to it greatly. Much of my lack of interest for current MMO's is the all-encompassing fantasy aspect. I'm ready for something that doesn't have mages, trolls and elves.
If end game is half as engaging I can seeing playing it for a long time, if not then I would recommend it just for the story, and play it like a single person RPG.
One of the main gripes I have is that you are more less restricted to the beaten path, and natural boundaries make exploring a rather fruitless endeavor on the starter zones I played.
Yes it does. The following planets get a lot bigger and you will have more to explore off the beaten path.