The gathering of SWTOR fansites in Bioware’s offices in Austin is in progress. 13 of the most prominent sites have been invited to spend time with the developers “in their natural habitat”. We are not sure what is in store during the visit, but we wanted to point out the most exciting news that come out of the event. First off the girls from Corellian Run Radio, Kathy and Roxanne, have had some solo time with Lord Malgus:
Ok, first let me start by saying like many other followers I’m stocked that we have a release date at long last.
But could SWTOR have picked a more awkward date to release a MMO ?
Also the way it was announced was very strange indeed, with no sign that the formidable train was entering the station.
 Tweeted by Chris Collins |
 Tweeted by Antonio Moreno |
 Tweeted by Antonio Moreno |
Eurogamer Expo is the biggest gaming convention in the UK. The Expo features playable versions of the most anticipated games for this Christmas and beyond. Star Wars: The Old Republic will have its representatives there, as well as hands-on stations for people to play the game. Several EU guilds are present and I believe a few fansites as well and we’ll try and cover the news coming in from all those sources. We have also added Twiter feeds in the right sidebar of the site so you can follow the latest tweets coming in from the show floor. Remember, the official un-official twitter tag is #EuroTOR.
The first information coming in from the show say that the lines are not too big and that people are excited to get their hands on the game for the first time. For the first images from the show floor you can check out this Photobucket page updated by Guild leader of Kajidic. We’ll update this post as new information becomes available.
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During the Star Wars: The Old Republic panel at PAX Prime convention held in Seattle it was revealed that previously announced beta weekends in September will already start on the first weekend – September 2nd. There will be a huge wave of new beta invites going out for this beta weekend to new beta testers. This beta test will be held on a new server, different from the one being used for game testers currently in the beta. Huge number of people will be invited in all subsequent September beta weekends. You need to be signed up for beta testing on the official swtor site, if you want to have a chance for an invite into this beta weekend. We’ll see if we can get more news and details posted soon.
There is a special day dedicated to press members only and this is one of the best things I remember about GamesCom. The crowds are much more manageable and if you scheduled ahead you can get most of your work done that first day; fill in the gaps during the other days. This day also is filled with new information and this year is no different.
First we have the video of the presentation held yesterday during the EA Press Conference reorded and posted on youtube by instarwars.de Grman SWTOR fansite:
Next is video of SWTOR booth brought to you by SWTOR EU fansite:
The juiciest piece that came out of GamesCom so far is this video by Darth Hater crew showing The Pit. It is a PvP arena with Capture the Flag rules, only you control a ball and not a flag and you can pass it around. It is a kind of deadly football with lightsabers and blasters and in game it is called Huttball.
We would also like to congratulate Bioware for Winning the Best Online Game of the show at GamesCom this year. It is very well deserved.
Electronic Arts Press Conference, that is traditionally held a day prior to GamesCom’s start, is one of those huge media events that always brings fresh news. There is a live stream available of this event, but as with all the other events so far we will be covering the happening live here on SWTOR Life. We will be updating this post with news as they become available so stay tuned and refresh those browsers. There will be other EA games showcased at the event but SWTOR will have a prominent spot. The conference is only 20 minutes away so stay tuned.
image of rehersal
Open testing beta weekends upcoming
That is it for our live coverage of EA’s press conference. Stay tuned for more news from GamesCom as we cover all the incoming information.
One of, if not the biggest, gaming shows in the world is about to take place in Cologne, Germany, from August 17th-21st. With the release date closing in fast, Star Wars: The Old Republic will have a very strong presence at the show this year. First images that are coming in show that the hands on area this year is much larger (three times as large) than last year. There is a kind of excitement in the air as well because the Beta September is just around the corner and everyone is awaiting more news on this as well. For European SWTOR fans this will also be the first chance to meet the new European community managers. We also know from recent news that footage from the Eternity Vault, end game operation (raid), will be shown for the first time as well.
We’ll be watching closely for all the news pouring in from the show floor so you’ll have one place to go to for all SWTOR news from GamesCom. Here’s a preliminary schedule of things to watch out for and a few images we dug up.
 EA Press Conference preaprations |
 SWTOR Booth |
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 Chris Collins - EU Community manager |
 Release date tease |
Here’s a livestream of all EA booths at Gamescom, including SWTOR.
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Star Wars is in your town, invading your cons
Gamescom and PAX Prime. Two of the biggest gaming conventions in the world that happen back to back and mark “the end” of big convention season. Two locations where Bioware traditionally releases the biggest announcements, or at least the most footage and information. It is also two weeks (and some change) before September when the Pre-Order Beta Testing should start as well. Could this be the greatest two weeks for all us dedicated SWTOR Fans? It sure looks promising.
In today’s Friday update we found out that at GamesCom we’ll see small presentations of Eternity Vault, the only raid in SWTOR at launch (as far as we know for now). There will be hands-on stations of origin worlds, similar to the ones setup last year (this was done for the first time at Cologne last year). There will also be an invitation only Alderaan PvP experience like the one we’ve seen at ComicCon. It also seems that BiowareTV will be live streaming from the show extensively, so even us not being there will be able to get a glimpse of the happenings. This will surely not be the only news from the show floor, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Click here to read our predictions about Pax Prime
If this was any other convention other than E3 I would be kind of pleased with what we got from the show.
But this is not just another convention, this is E3 the biggest and most anticipated show of the year.
Even though nothing was promised we expected a banquet of information. What we got started well yet fizzled out like cheap champagne once the cork was removed.
Hopes have been dashed, our banquet was reduced to a $10 meal. Everything started well true enough, per-show reveals as a good starter. The main meal of almost 1 hour of in-game footage (even lack lustre questions did not ruin it completely) then as we were set for the finest of desserts we were left wanting for 2 more days.
These days were filled with mere leftovers and regurgitated food that we had just digested.
For everyone at E3 they see things differently. It’s amazing how hands on time sways you in favour of TOR. I wish everyone could have at least 1 hour to play along, as this would settle many people’s concerns.
But 99.99%+ of the followers have not even come close to sitting down and playing the game.
Click here to read older and less important entries (the post got too long)
