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In the remaining weeks leading up to launch, aside from getting a game testing invite it doesn’t get much more exciting than a new trailer. Coinciding with Bioware’s presence at New York Comic Con is a tasty new trailer called Signs of War.
There’s nothing ground-breakingly new in there but it achieves exactly what it should: it makes you salivate to see more.
Have a gander for yourself:
It’s well into the frenzy of New York Comic Con and the announcements from Bioware on Star Wars: The Old Republic are filtering out. One of the smaller ones is the ‘global launch’ date for SWTOR of the 20th December this year. For those new to the issue, the half of Europe having a formal launch (i.e. able to buy copies of the game in their country) were getting access to the game 2 days later than their USA counterparts.
Now, they’ll have access the same day – a positive sign one would think on Bioware’s readiness for the influx. Sure, they’re different servers anyway but the support services are still more likely to be pressured if ‘everyone’ starts access at the same time. So, a good sign.
All that said, if you live outside North America or the parts of Europe slated for the launch, you need to pre-order the game from an overseas retailer in order to be playing around the 20th December 2011. To be fair, that probably does make it a global launch, just not one we’re used to where you can lay your hands on a box on the day.
A small portion of joy was handed out to Oceanic SWTOR players overnight, with the announcement that game testing invites have gone out to selected Australian and New Zealand players.
More specifically, it’s a time-limited test of the Californian data centre which will be the main point Oceanic players access the game. The direct info from Allison Berryman:
This test is a small, limited-time test including testers from New Zealand and Australia. Data from this test will be used to inform decisions about the launch of the game in Oceanic regions. We currently have no updates regarding the launch of the game in these or other territories, but will provide information as it becomes available.
So for those invited, enjoy! If you haven’t got an invite then you won’t at this stage as all invites for this specific test have been sent.
Here’s a prediction though: testers will be at least happy and possibly pleased with the ping times i.e. they’ll probably be incredibly similar to say World of Warcraft where ping times of under 300ms are the norm usually. If that ends up being the case then we have a very playable game (PvP’ers need not flame me with diatribes of how 300ms = death in PvP).
I love a good ‘Star Wars in the real world’ vid and this one’s another one to add to the collection. Watch some ‘thugs’ engaging in some good old-fashioned buffo leading to some serious Jedi action.
Enjoy:
As always, plenty to talk about. Beta weekends, Jedi Knight vs Bounty Hunter and companion characters dominate proceedings this episode. Also hear host David pronounce ‘Beta’ two different ways in the one podcast!
Points of discussion:
– Galaxy Map
– Bounty Hunter vs Jedi Knight
– Companion characters
– Beta weekends and oceanic players participating
– Bioware at NYCC
– Brief discussion on other game betas out there (Battlefield 3, Wrath of Heroes etc)
– Shout outs for our forums, Facebook page, Oceanic Guild listing, and Twitter account.
Listen via iTunes or right here:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:13 — 40.1MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
This week’s update sees a great video from Bioware debating the merits and fighting strategies of the Jedi Knight and Bounty Hunter. Before watching the video I was admittedly a little cynical about what would be that new or interesting in the video, but I was more than pleasantly surprised. Have a look for yourself:
Just a quick note to say that we’ve had a number of oceanic players email / phone us to confirm they’ve received beta invites for Star Wars: The Old Republic. As you can imagine, they are pretty damn excited.
So, if you were cynical about oceanic players getting more widespread beta access, then maybe it’s time for a Force-induced attitude adjustment!
UPDATE: Some great comments pointing out that invitees may have registered their SWTOR account under a US address – we’ve confirmed with one invitee that that was indeed the case.
[Picture courtesy of Walk Sydney Streets]
Well, not really, but this I love this YouTube vid of a Shaman in WoW doing some serious lightning work as it’ll appear when the next WoW patch (4.3) drops. There’s certainly a similarity there!
If you get the reference in the story title, then shame on you. That aside, a pretty damn cool update from Bioware this week.
The Galaxy Map is an interactive, 3D and 2D combo extravaganza that had me sold from the first few minutes of playing around with it. I love anything that provides a glimpse of the scope of a game and the Galaxy Map delivers that in spades.
The interface takes a little bit of familiarisation but once you get the hand of it, there’s plenty to explore and you can drill down to the 2D content describing the history of particular planets. There are short non-narrative videos for each, mostly containing footage you’ll have seen before but still useful all the same.
One thing: you will need the Unity web player plugin for your browser to be able to use the map.
Anyway, enough gushing, check it out for yourself.
It’s time for our weekly humour post. At TOROZ we’re unadulterated Chad Vader fans, and he’s had a busy time over recent weeks attending Dragon Con. Aside from mixing and commenting on the fans, the second video below shows Chad meeting up with George Lucas himself – or does he?.
Enjoy!
It doesn’t get much bigger than this – about a quarter of the way into the podcast the ever-observative Ed saw the announcement pop up on the SWTOR site. So we’ve ended up with a CNN-style live on the spot coverage of the announcement. Well, not really but as you’ll hear it certainly changed the course of the podcast!
Points of discussion:
– PvP details
– ESRB rating for SWTOR
– the release date announcement
– Guild alignment
– Companion characters
– Shout outs for our forums, Facebook page, Oceanic Guild listing, and Twitter account.
Listen via iTunes or right here:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:03 — 63.2MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Big news. Bioware co-founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk have just announced the release date for Star Wars: The Old Republic at the Eurogamer Expo.
December 20th 2011 is go-live for the US, with Europeans getting access 2 days later. As expected, it’s a monthly subscription model:
1 Month Subscription: $14.99 (£8.99/€12.99)
3 Month Subscription: $13.99 per month (one-time charge of $41.97/£25.17/€35.97)
6 Month Subscription: $12.99 per month (one-time charge of $77.94/£46.14/€65.94)
We’re recording a podcast right now, so stay tuned for much more discussion. In the meantime, over to you. Are you excited? Jump on our forums or check out the excitement on the official forums!
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