For this Friday’s update we were treated to a video from GamesCom of the play through of the Eternity Vault, operations raid, narrated by Dallas Dickenson. This raid or as Bioware likes to call them “Operation” looks like a blast. Groups of 8 or 16 players Republic and Empire alike will discover this mysterious location on the planet Belsavis and attempt to confront ancient force-wielders and other serious contained prisoners that who’s release could threaten the entire galaxy.
Sitting here last night playing the beta of the Neverwinter heroes facebook game, I happened to do my nightly stroll across the swtor.com web page on crew skills before I went to bed, just to check on my pretties you understand, when I saw that the rest of the blanks had been filled in. I have been waiting for this day and still it took me by surprise.
We’ve heard that it was demoed the first day of GamesCom 2011. Now we get to see the demo video by ourselves in glorious HD. The pit is the latest PvP warzone we are hearing about and it is the place where Huttball matches are being held. Hutball is a vicious sport played where two sides try to pass the ball across the opponents goal line. All moves are allowed including force lightning, stabbing and cheating. See for yourselves in this fun little video showcase of the Pit. I wonder if this is the PvP arena Daniel Erickson told us about in an interview at E3. He mentioned that it is so much fun punting your opponents into fire.
There are also two pieces of news you should all check out. First is a Q&A with Bioware’s good doctors Ray and Greg. They talk about beta weekends and raids and you can check it all out at Ask A Jedi.
There was apparently an impromptu Q&A session held on Twitter with Stephen Reid and Gabe Amatangelo straght from Germany. You can check out the full transcript at Tor Wars
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.
Most of us have been in the place when the mmo we are playing just ain’t fun anymore.
Most of the friends you have made are all still playing, but not as much as they once used to. You’ve also been thinking of leaving for such long now but you are invested in the game. All you seem to think about is the amount of time you have dedicated to playing and you hope things will get better, something beyond the next patch that will bring back the glory days of old.
I know I’ve been in this place a few times first being with Ultima Online followed by SWG. But never again will I be duped into thinking that I can’t leave for some obscure reason.
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.
Dr. Ray Muzyka will be holding a live presentation of SWTOR during the EA press conference
image of rehersal
The conference is about to begin
We will see 10 games that we will play this year *wink wink – nudge nudge*
We are seeing Fifa Street and Need For Speed titles and their presentations
Dr. Ray is here talking about Dragon Age: Legends and Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes, a new PvP Play4Free game for the PC.
gearing up for smooth launch. Record breaking pre-orders of SWTOR. Quest sequence in German being shown now.
Open testing beta weekends upcoming
Talking about end-game Operations (raids) – showing live demo of Eternity Vault
8-16 players in raids
Eternity vault is an ancient prison and we are seeing turrets attacking the team and Agent healing the Juggernaut tank
I am seeing Rockjaw among the people playing the raid.
We are seeing a lot of AoE skills from different classes
Turrets are destroyed and after cutscene a huge annihilation droid boss lands and we are seeing a nice boss fight.
New Eternity Vault footage trailer being shown
That is it for SWTOR. Talking about MAss Effect 3 now. I ust say that footage looked good. The only real reveal is 8-16 people in raids. Whether this will be normal raid size is 8 and heroic raid version is 16 – remains to be seen
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.
The unofficial offical Twitter hashtag for This year’s news from Gamescom and PAX Prime is #ComPAXTOR
There will be some footage about SWTOR on BiowareTV. We’ll update you with details once we find out more.
If you are lucky enough to be present in the area at GamesCom this year in Europe you will have the opportunity to meet the Bioware developers at a “meet and greet” that they will be putting on.
