News: I'll never see daylight again
Ctrl+Alt+Del — And in other news... I appreciate everyone voting and participating in the Choose Our Adventure storyline, but a friendly reminder: If you aren't sending your vote to CAD.VOTE @ GMAIL.COM your votes isn't being counted.

First SW:TOR documentary reveals some combat, Jedi swing fast
Destructoid — ... The most exciting thing about Star Wars the Old Republic is the fact that LucasArts and BioWare are both actively working on the project. The video above ...

Star Wars: The Old Republic Movie
Blue's News — Video Documentary #1 on the Star Wars: The Old Republic Website offers developer commentary from BioWare and LucasArts about the upcoming Star Wars MMORPG, as well as the debut of some preproduction footage of gameplay, primarily combat with lightsabers. The primary topic of the commentary is the emphasis they are placing on taking storytelling in an MMORPG to a new level while creating an environment where your actions have consequences. Other topics are the role of companion characters, "stylized realism" art design, supporting various play styles, and more. According to ...

Take a peek at the making of Star Wars: The Old Republic
Big Download Blog — ... This video documentary for Star Wars: The Old Republic, the first in a series, takes a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the upcoming MMO. It also includes never before seen game footage and a ...

First Star Wars: The Old Republic gameplay footage debuts
Joystiq — ... BioWare has unleashed the first in-game footage from its upcoming Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic. Presented in documentary format, it's quite heavy on lightsaber dueling (thankfully with ones less chubby than those in ...

'Star Wars: The Old Republic' First Video Documentary Goes Live
G4 TV - TheFeed — ... BioWare releases their first video for Star Wars: The Old Republic featuring in-game footage  on their official site. Join the respected developers as they take us through the upcoming MMORPG's promising features. ...

SW:TOR - Video Documentary
MMOWatch Newsfeed — First early in game footage of SW:TOR. BioWare and LucasArts share the vision for Star Wars : The Old Republic in our first video documentary, complete with new concepts, new screenshots, and real-time pre-production gameplay video. Hear about the approach to storytelling straight from The Old Republic s Creative Director and Lead Designer James Ohlen and Principal Lead Writer Daniel Erickson, and watch Art Director Jeff Dobson discuss the aesthetic appeal of stylized realism. Watch the latest video documentary and experience the look and feel of Star Wars: The Old ...

A First Look At Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO [Star Wars: The Old Republic]
Kotaku — ... one created with the help of BioWare. In this vid you catch a glimpse of some pre-production gameplay, new concept art, new screens and hear a bit about the game's vision. Which, as BioWare tells it, isn't just about monthly subscription fees and a virtual economy. I will remain stubbornly disinterested until The Old Republic proves itself better than all of those other MMOs that have wooed me in the past with sweet talk and fancy trailers. ...

Star Wars, The Old Republic: Gameplay footage and developer documentary
A wall of text on mmo gaming — I'll be following this game as close as I possibly can, because I've heard good things about Bioware and I love the Star Wars intellectual property. Recently they've posted alot of concept art and articles over at the official site, but the dropped a great video on us today: Looks fantastic, great choice by going with stylized graphics. I think Age of Conan showed us how problematic photo realistic graphics are in an MMO, and games like City of Heroes, WoW, and others show that stylized ...

Video: Star Wars: The Old Republic
GayGamer.net — I really loved Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. And Jade Empire. I didn't play the second KOTOR because a friend told me it wasn't as good, and BioWare didn't actually do it themselves. So I was quite thrilled to see this 5 minute teaser documentary on their newest project, the MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. It looks fantastic, and that's just early gameplay footage. But more intriguing to me was their insistence that they're really trying to bring storyline into MMOs. I'll be ...

SWTOR: Republic Revealations
gamebunny — STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC: Well, here it is…finally. BioWare’s STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC MMO - in-motion, in-game and in-your-face! Soak up the debut video below featuring developer and publisher commentary, numerous lightsaber battles and peeks at a few different environments. Missing in action is anything other than lightsaber battles (what, no blasters?), and anything resembling space flight (OK, technically, there’s one blink-and-you-miss-it shot). Still, it’s a start, and we’ll be inundated with additional media in the months to come. I do have a minor gripe I have to ...

The Arrogance of BioWare
MMORPG Games & MMO News - MMOCrunch — BioWare has popped up a new video with a lot of talking heads saying how great the new Star Wars MMO — and, by extension, their own creative efforts on it — is going to be. And it again trots out the whole, “We’re bringing story to MMOs…” line that the company started spouting when the game was first (officially) announced, and is hammering even further today. And you know what? For my two cents, it’s starting to border on arrogance. There are loads of MMOs with storyline. If BioWare’s big point of difference is stopping the action every now and then to ask stuff like, “Do you help this old lady across ...

Thoughts on SWTOR’s first “gameplay footage”
Keen and Graev's Gaming Blog — BioWare and Lucasarts timed the release of their official “sneak peak” at the “gameplay footage” for SWTOR pretty well. It follow marketing’s panic attack after John Riccitiello goofed and revealed that the upcoming MMORPG would be utilizing some form of microtransaction system. I won’t bother turning this into a post about my feelings on RMT/Microtransactions (RMT = fail) but instead focus on what I saw during the footage and what I heard the developers/producers say. First, let’s look at the graphics, animations, and the overall appearance. BioWare’s own words are “stylized realism”. I ...

New Footage and Info Regarding Star Wars: The Old Republic
Aeropause Games — As I watched the Bioware faithful talk about their plans for Star Wars: The Old Republic, I heard a thousand dollar bills scream out and the disapear from my bank account.  Yes, for the first time, I think I might of found an MMO that will get me to pay for play.  Yeah, I would not mind plunking down $15 a month on this game, especially with the Bioware team backing it up, makers of the best Star Wars game to date. Note the inclusion of an accompanying character, that will give you moral guidance as ...

“Ultimate Star Wars Game” Old Republic Footage
Rock, Paper, Shotgun — Impressive developer-narrated video of The Old Republic after the jump. It includes the first footage of the game in action, with some dudes thrashing about with their light sabres. More interesting, perhaps, is the continued explanation of story within the MMO, with discussion of your journey towards the light or dark side, and the role of companion characters. There’s also a closer look at the visual style of the game, which they’re calling “stylised realism”. You’ll want to watch this one. (...) (...) Read the rest of “Ultimate Star Wars Game” Old Republic Footage (0 words) ...

The OLD Republic
Heartless_ Gamer — Bioware has released the first gameplay video for Star Wars: The Old Republic, but unfortunately they say one thing and show another. The developer interviews in the video talk about exciting, action-packed combat. Thirty seconds later, actual combat is shown from the game. Characters stand still, spam some abilities, hit some air, all while their intended target stands there and takes it; flailing limbs included. I'm sorry Bioware, but for a first, this video sucks. Give us something that will make us believe this game won't just be a Star Wars wrapper over the cliche that is MMO combat. The OLD republic indeed.

TOR, where's the MMO?
Werit — As you probably know, Bioware released a video documentary about their new game: Star Wars: The Old Republic. The video was ok, most of what was said could already be found here. I am not going to write about the graphics or anything, as they do not really matter. I want to know about the gameplay and what this project actually is. The game is based on 4 pillars: combat, exploration, progression and story. To me, these have always been pillars of an RPG. Usually in a MMO story has been replaced by loot, so it will be nice to see a developer try to really focus on the story aspect. Will players at large buy in? That is a whole other ...

Guild Wars 2 Crumbs: NCSoft Conference Call
Kill Ten Rats — This is not recent news (the NCSoft conference call was held on, I believe, November 12, 2008), but I had not seen this on the ’sphere or Guild Wars fansite forums.  Thanks to Sente for the tip on the Guild Wars 2 tidbits in the conference call. The first interesting note was the marketing strategy for Aion, the upcoming NCSoft MMO currently in beta in Korea.  NCSoft was pretty happy that they did not spend any money on advertising/marketing until the beta dropped.  They just used “buzz and viral marketing” to generate interest for the game.  Amazingly enough, their kooky strategy worked, and Aion is currently ...

Good gawd….
The Common Sense Gamer — I’m, ummmm….can I have a sock? D out.

Star Wars: The Old Republic - The Making Of Tython
GayGamer.net — ... Today the Bioware team sent out the first of their newsletters for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Included, this video on the making of the starter world, Tython, which is apparently the world the first force users banded ...

Recognizing Something Special
MMOG Nation — I didn’t embed the Tython video from BioWare last week, but I meant to. I actually took a couple days to watch it because the end of my week was busy and hectic; when I did my jaw dropped. I mean, dropped open. Physically, with distance. To say that it’s impressive is an enormous understatement. It’s gripping, it’s compelling, it yanks you off your feet. I have a comparison for you to watch. Pay attention to everything in the Old Republic video, of course, but look at how much fun the actual in-game footage looks too. Now look at this, a trailer for a little game that you might have seen or heard about once or twice in the last four years: There’s this … frission to ...

The Old Republic: Your "Personal Star Wars Saga" [Star Wars]
Kotaku — Bioware and LucasArts have put out another video documentary on Star Wars: The Old Republic, teasing the storyline and characters of the MMO, set in a "relatively unexplored timeframe of the Star Wars canon." The writers and the producers discuss the TOR universe, which they hope will create a "personal Star Wars saga," for everyone who plays it. Video Documentary #2 [SWTOR.com] ...

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Bounty Hunter Revealed in Video Documentary #2
A wall of text on mmo gaming — Here we are again, walking that long and hard road of anticipation for a great game. BioWare is bringing us Star Wars: The Old Republic and I personally can't wait to log into this game. Bioware recently published a new video documentary on their site, announcing the Bounty Hunter class, explaining how the time and setting fit with having so many Jedi/Sith in the game, and showing a few game play tidbits. Behold: This is one of the few games out there that gets me excited with anticipation. Yes, I know I'm doing it all over again and setting myself up here. But, I can't help it, I will anticipate this game being great and look forward to the day it launches ...

SWTOR: Bounty Hunter Scum Confirmed
Rock, Paper, Shotgun — This latest huge documentary from Bioware/LucasArts (below) features of tonnes of new information about the upcoming Star Wars MMO, although the in-game footage is somewhat lacking. The piece mostly looks at the story and player experience, heavily illustrated with concept art, whilst also exploring some of the context for the Old Republic - the treaty between Sith and Jedi that creates the tense period in which the game starts out. It’s pretty interesting - suggesting more and more than this might just be the Star Wars MMO that works. Go take a look. (...) Read the rest of SWTOR: Bounty Hunter Scum Confirmed (0 words) ...

Ripten Interview: Founders of BioWare talk Mass Effect 2, Story in Games and Psycho Mantis
Ripten Video Game Blog — ... different from any of these products, different in the setting, target audience, business model, the genre, the gameplay, some are more of those different aspects. So I’m just very excited about all those things because I think they’re all cool in different ways. I love playing them all. They’re all unified by the story, by the vision of emotional engagement, but beyond that they’re all quite diverse and different. JZ: Expound on that emotional engagement concept, ...

Creating Worlds: SWTOR Devumentary
Rock, Paper, Shotgun — simonkaye : Do you remember how, during install and setup, it would do a momentary check and then report back something like "whoa, you've got a fast ... on MegaBiff! It’s MegaRace Sam : I'm going to go with the curmudgeonly response here. It's not like I've been playing TF2 a lot recently anyway (partly because of the increasing ... on Team Fortress 2: Haberdashery Secrets wvanh : How many people here actually bought it and gave it another try? Some games, for me, sit solely in the realm of good memories. In ... on MegaBiff! It’s MegaRace Optimaximal : It’ll be interesting to see how it works in combination with Steam’s ...

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Sacking of Coruscant Trailer
Digital Something — For those of you who haven't seen it yet since first airing at E3, here's the latest cinematic trailer for SW:TOR! ...

TOR @ Comic-Con!
Moon Over Endor — ... Friday, July 24 from 5:15PM-6:15PM in Hall H.Unfortunately I'm out of the country that weekend, but I'll report all that there is to report as soon as I come back. For the rest today's update is community highlights and a couple of new official polls (can find them through the link I posted above). But hidden between them is a new wallpaper as well. This one is based on the Deceived cinematic trailer they released during E3: And that's pretty much it. Will keep you ...

Star Wars The Old Republic new video features Mandalorians
Oklahoma City MMORPG Examiner — Star Wars The Old Republic 's website has a new video up called "The Return of the Mandalorians." Many are thinking this is a showing of a new player race. Even if it's not there's great lore here so check it out. The official site has this to say about the video,

SW:TOR fully voice acted MMORPG documentary
Oklahoma City MMORPG Examiner — Star Wars: The Old Republic keeps teasing us with all kind of media. Now, there's a new documentary about the voice acting in the MMORPG. It's a great undertaking considering the game has over 40 novels worth of talking. SW:TOR is the first MMORPG to be completely voice acted and that's a big deal. Check out the video because you also get a good look at the interface and some combat."Personally, I'm just here to kill people and cause damage."

Mostly a trailer about full voice acting, but check out the...
MMOBlurbs — >

A Real Story Driven MMO?
N/A — ... The Old Republic is making big promises. Promises of being a true story driven MMO. I think most of us who were fans of KotOR were a bit skeptical when we heard about the MMO that was going to take up the reins of this game. Can a MMO truly have the depth of story of a stand alone game? According to BioWare, yes. Their latest release show the depth of voice acting that they plan to use in order to add to the element of the story. Hopefully, BioWare will stay true to form for this game ...

Developer Blog: Creating the Smuggler
NEWS | Star Wars: The Old Republic — [image] [image] Try this hypothetical scenario… you’re relaxing at the local cantina when three trigger-happy Rodian mercenaries pick a fight with the most attractive Jedi Knight you’ve ever seen. After the smoke clears, the Rodians are carried outside and the Jedi apologizes to everyone for making a scene. Do you: Crack a joke to relieve the tension; Demand the Jedi buy you a drink to replace the one that got spilled during the fight; Smoothly invite your new friend back to a private booth to get better acquainted. The answer, of course, is (d) All of the above. What’s that, you say? “All of the above” wasn’t among your options? Consider that your first taste of the ...