It has been speculated for some time that Corellia is going to be one of the planets players will be able to play through and this Friday’s update confirmed those suspicions. In the first Friday update that was not posted by long time community manager Sean Dahlberg (he left Bioware a few days ago) we get a brand new Corellia Holonet page with all the basic information about the planet we could want. Things you should know about the planet:
A founding member of the Galactic Republic
Symbol of personal and economic freedom
Birthplace of Han Solo (3000 years in the future from TOR)
Main Starship production planet
Contact has been lost with the planet. Some images show destruction from bombardment but no solid info is available.
Check out the official news item here and you can see the screenshots and concept art of the new planet in our galleries below..
The biggest event for The Old Republic fans was SWTOR panel. We got loads of new media and information and AskAJedi.com was there to cover the whole event and provide us with a video showing all the great stuff revealed. Here are some of the things you can see in the videos below:
Jedi gameplay and backstory on Tython (Part 2 video)
More Republic group gameplay and dialogue footage (Part 2 video)
Empire group gameplay and dialogue (Part 3 video)
Companions seen in group action (Part 3 video)
PvP(vE)? There is some Empire group footage that ends with Empire group meeting up with Republic group after some PvE content (Part 3 video)
Live multiplayer demo with members of the SWTOR fan site community controlling the characters. Darth Hater, TOROCast and LordHammer representing Guild Umbra and TORSyndicate were the ones involved (Part 3 video)
Doors of the Penny Arcade Expo have officially opened and North American gamers can finally sink their teeth into Star Wars: The Old Republic. Covering the event are several SWTOR fansites. Darth Hater continues with their excellent coverage where they update their PAX dedicated page constantly throughout the day with new info. These are some of the more interesting things they noticed with their hands on experience:
All classes except the two Jedi ones are playable to the public at low level for approximately 15m.
The line to play is at least an hour.
Sith Warrior was a human female with cybernetics on face.
Ask a Jedi is also covering the event live with a constantly updated page. They had a chance to do a quick Q&A with Senior Producer Blaine Christine and Lead Writer Daniel Erickson. They covered advanced classes, companions, “is it an MMO?” and more. We’ll let you know as soon as they post this on their site. In the meantime you can read some highlights here. The same page also holds some hands on impressions and good screenshots. Also, they tweeted that:
Nothing new revealed today, but the inside word is that tomorrow will bring some GREAT news.
Within the next few hours Penny Arcade Expo, one of the biggest gaming conventions in the North America is about to begin. It is a very big convention for all the Star Wars: The Old Republic fans because, traditionally, it is the place where big reveals happen. Last year we got some gameplay footage and all attendees of the SWTOR panel got a copy of Knights of the Old Republic game. This year we’ll be having the first hands on event in the North America and all the PAX visitors will get what is called the SWTOR virus that can only be cured by more “gameplaytimis”. Some gamers will be lucky enough to get the elusive “betainvitis”, but for all of you out there that lack any of these rare and expensive medicine, we bring you the last of our gameplay videos we shot at this year’s GamesCom. This is the longest video we have and it features gameplay from most of the classes. You can see some cool Inquisitor action where he one shots some enemies with force lightning (at around 1:50). Present are also cutscenes and some more combat.
We’ll continue to monitor all the information pouring in from PAX and we’ll keep you updated with the most important news and footage. For now I would like to draw your attention to Jedi Archive Online, that have their man Lordhammer, from Guild Umbra, on the spot. They have the first images from PAX available here. Also covering the event are Darth Hater and ToroCast.
Today’s Friday update is not among the most informative ones. It, basically, told us about the special page on the official site that is dedicated to the space combat feature. The page contains the space combat trailer and a few screenshots, along with a description of what we can expect from this feature. There has also been an update to the screenshot and concept art sections of the site including new images for player ships. You can find the space combat page here and here’s the excerpt from the official news item:
Blast your way through asteroid fields, enemy fighters, and a variety of other obstacles as you encounter fast-paced Space Combat missions in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. In these occurrences, you’ll fly your personal starship to various “hot spots” on the galaxy map and experience gameplay that will evoke memories of some of the great Star Wars™ space battles …
… Also check out the media section to see screenshots, concept art, and wallpapers portraying these heroic battles in space.
As you might have noticed, we have been on a short hiatus caused by our recent move to a new place. Our plans to have the internet service and our computers up and operational the moment we entered the new place were thwarted by a number of unforeseen circumstances. After a long and exhausting fight with a lot of bureaucrats we emerged victorious and are continuing to supply you with fresh news from the galaxy far, far away. Here’s an image that shows what we’ve been up against during our move:
GamesCom 2010 ended over the weekend and I can’t say that I won’t miss it. You get drawn in into the whole convention madness. Free swag, people doing crazy cosplay, meeting Darth Vader in person and games, games, games everywhere. If you are a gamer in heart (like me) you surely would appreciate the atmosphere. To share some of the atmosphere of the show we present you with a video of the crowds at the SWTOR booth (that is the place we hung out the most after all) and a gallery of images. We hope you enjoy them.
Our visit to this year’s GamesCom gaming convention has been crowned by a very special meeting that we didn’t even hope for. We had the pleasure and honor to sit down with Mr. James Ohlen, Creative Director and Lead Designer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and ask him a few questions. The short chat we had about the game was focused around space combat, player ships and advanced classes.
The spaceships are going to be used for a type of housing. They are a kind of a community feature. They are used for traveling and for space combat. There are many features incorporated into the player ships.
James Ohlen: That’s correct. We felt that in the movies, that is what you see them used as. It’s kind of a home base for some of the main characters, (especially the Millenium Falcon in the whole original trilogy), than it’s used, obviously, to travel from planet to planet (that is its main use), but also, you have space combats that are famous from the movies, like the one from the Return of the Jedi, or the asteroid one in the Empire Strikes Back.
In the midst of all the GamesCom madness people of Bioware managed to release a new Fan Friday as part of their continuous Friday SWTOR updates. First up is the update to Holonet with a new starships page. Although we saw all the other ships in the recently released space combat trailer, only two previously announced ships are in the starships holonet page, the Fury and the Defender. There are some new screenshots if you go onto the individual ship pages so make sure you check it out.
Fan Friday wouldn’t be complete without some awesome fan created art. Two of the most impressive fan created sketches I’ve seen have been made by Kromnz adn have been posted on the official SWTOR forums. “Jedi reading” sketch and “Three Deadly Siths” are surely worth seeing. You can find the rest of the mentioned art at the Fan Friday page on the official site.
The best is, as always, left for last. In the developer corner we get a full list of the advanced classes and some details on them. The list is very close to the one we provided from our GamesCom exclusive coverage, but with more details on some of the advanced classes we didn’t manage to write down.
