Commencing The Old Republic Beta Deep Dive

Today is the start of the four day *almost* open beta test that Bioware is conducting for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Depending on when you signed up for the beta you will be allowed to start testing on different days. I have been lucky enough to get access in the first wave.

Due to a busy schedule for me over the weekend, I will sadly probably not get to play all that much, but I will try to get a decent amount of hours in and report back to you with my impressions and opinions.

Since I'm going to try to squeeze in as many beta hours as possible, this might mean I won't have time to do more posts over the weekend, so if the site is quiet for a couple of days, then you know why!

I hope that any of you that were interested in participating in the open beta weekend have all gotten your invites and are ready to go!



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Saints Row: The Third Impressions - Stupid fun in all the right ways

I had hoped to be able to get a full review of Saints Row: The Third ready for you this week, but unfortunately I’ve only been able to get about half way through the campaign so far. And with The Old Republic beta testing happening this weekend there is a snowballs chance in hell of me spending time on wrapping up the game.

But I have played more than enough to give you my initial impressions of Saints Row: The Third. 


Here’s a hint: It’s pretty crazy

Saints Row has always tried to be the crazy cousin to the Grand Theft Auto series. In Saints Row 2 for example, you were able to steal a sewage truck and spray the innocent citizens with the slushy contents.

That’s the kind of humor that you need to appreciate if you’re going to enjoy Saints Row: The Third. If a giant purple dildo mounted on a baseball bat makes you do the Picard Facepalm rather than chuckle with pubescent amusement, then you need not apply. The wacky and often below-the-belt humor of Saints Row: The Third is a big part of what makes it fun to play, so you got to roll with it or go back to something more somber like Batman: Arkham City (But why so serious?).

Even the logo is silly, with silhouettes of women and guns all over the place 

If you *do* enjoy the crazy humor in Saints Row: The Third however, then you are in for a great experience. So far I’ve skydived onto a penthouse apartment to the tunes of Kanye West’s “Power”, saved a pimp that speaks only in auto tuned sentences from a SM themed brothel and driven a convertible across town with a tiger in the passenger seat.

Sci-Fi Do Want: The Warhammer 40k Chainsword

Picking up from the last Sci-Fi Do Want, the Predator Shoulder Cannon, we continue on to another science fiction weapon that has plenty of style and coolness factor.

The Chainsword from Warhammer 40k has none of the elegance and sophistication of the Shoulder Cannon. But what it lacks in sophistication it makes up for with big buckets of spinning monomolecular-edged metal teeth.

The Chainsword is something of a Warhammer 40k icon. Simply put it is a large sword that has sharp metal teeth running around the outer edge of the blade, just like a chainsaw. When powered on, the Chainswords roars its angry buzzing across the battlefield, announcing the imminent separation of limbs from limb-owners.

To make it even more deadly (‘cause just strapping a chainsaw to a sword isn’t all that impressive in the 41^st millennium), the edges of the teeth are sharpened to be monomolecular. That means that the very edge of the blade is *one molecule thick*, which makes it insanely sharp and able to cut through just about anything short of tank armor.

It’s a brutal weapon that won’t leave the victim with a nice clean cut. No, the Chainsword is going to rip your flesh to shreds as it grinds its way through whatever appendage that has been unfortunate enough to get in its way. Great spouts of blood is pulled from the wound by the whirring teeth, covering both attacker, victim and the general surrounding area in a layer of red (or whatever color blood the victim might have).

The Chainsword is all square corners and sharp teeth. Just what every defender of the Imperium needs

Indeed, the Chainsword is a nasty and brutal weapon in a universe that is every bit as nasty and brutal.

Will The Old Republic manage to be a WoW Killer?

There have been claims of the coming of the fabled "World of Warcraft-killer" for many years now. Despite the best attempts of some of the biggest publishers and developers in the world WoW is still sitting comfortably on the biggest slice of the MMO pie (sounds like a good way to ruin your pants. Mmmm...soggy).

Will the "lightsaber effect" prove to be a danger to the dominance of WoW?

But Star Wars: The Old Republic could have the best chance of any MMO released post-WoW to finally knock WoW off it's place as king of the hill.

I wrote an article about this over on MMOCrunch. An interesting debate has ensued and I invite you all to check out the article and share your thoughts either here or on MMOCrunch.

I am currently on a trial period as a writer for MMOCrunch, so look for my posts there (Labelled as being written by "Technomancer")



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Guns of Icarus Online Gameplay Trailer - Steampunk Airship Combat

The upcoming "Guns of Icarus Online" is something as unique as an online co-op steampunk airship game. Taking the role as a crew member on board massive airships that travel over the remains of a war ravaged land, you will get a chance to do your part in aiding the destroyed world with rebuilding itself and flourishing once more.

Players can choose between different classes and you'll need to work together to manage all the complexities of airship combat. Some players may need to focus on repairing the ship while others are manning the weapons or steering the airship.

This just released gameplay footage gives us an early look at the gameplay of Guns of Icarus Online

Gatling guns and flamethrowers? Don't mind if I do!
Steampunk seems to be getting quite popular nowadays, with City of Steam also bringing us an online steampunk experience. That's a nice breath of fresh air and a setting that I don't think we've seen too many games use, so I'm quite interested in seeing how Guns of Icarus Online pans out.



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Sith Inquisitor Info Bonanza

I recently posted an article about the process of my class selection for The Old Republic. After much deliberation and pulling of hair (mostly my own), I finally settled on the statically charged Sith Inquisitor.
With the NDA on the TOR beta test going down just this last weekend, we now find ourselves with more info than we know what to do with.

I thought that it would be interesting to plunge a straw into this bucket of condensed TOR info and try to suck up as much as I could find that deals with the Sith Inquisitor. After a diligent extraction process, I present the results to you here.

This Sith Inquisitor class trailer should give you a good idea of what you are in for

The Basics

The Sith Inquisitor is the "caster class" for the Empire. Able to hurl lightning at his enemies, he is a class that lets you live out all your Palpatine fantasies, sans the melted face part. Inquisitors are the scheming puppet masters of the Empire. They are the keepers of the powerful secrets of the Dark Side. Where the Sith Warriors are blunt instruments that excel in subjugation by brute force and maximum destruction, the Inquisitors rely on more precise and subtle means of influence.

Of course, should that fail, they are more than capable of resorting to burning the flesh off your bones with crackling blue force lightning. You have to keep an open mind and stay flexible, after all. And if you really want to get up and personal, naturally the Sith Inquisitor is also quite capable with a lightsaber, for all your slicing and dicing needs.

Advanced classes

Upon reaching level 10, you will have a choice between two different advanced classes. For the Sith Inquisitor you have the choice of becoming a Sorcerer or an Assassin (no white outfit or wrist blades, sadly).

Gearing up for Light Speed Gaming Sci-Fi Game of the Year 2011

The end is coming!
The end of 2011 that is. Soon we'll all be nursing another case of New Year related hangovers and wondering how it can already be 2012 (besides wondering where you left your keys and your pants).

The ending of a year means it's time to look back and think about the things we liked. And among those things are of course the greatest video games.
Now, here on Light Speed Gaming I love a chance to write about science fiction themed video games, but I don't exclusively deal with sci-fi games. That's going to change for the Game of the Year segment. You can find plenty of other Game of the Year lists out there on the mighty info tubes that is the internet, so I'm gonna give you a reason to look at my list.

So for the Light Speed Gaming Game of the Year 2011 I'm going to be looking exclusively at science fiction themed games. I'll leave the deliberations about the qualities of Skyrim versus Batman: Arkham City to the more general gaming sites.

You probably won't believe it, but I actually totally made this myself!

I'll be kicking off the process next week, where I'll be bringing you my top 10-6 sci-fi games of 2011.
The week after that will be for the positions 5-3, while the last week will be reserved for the winner of Light Speed Gaming Sci-Fi Game of the Year 2011 and the runner up.
So things will be wrapped up around December 16, just in time for the Holidays.

Coming up on the week of November 21 on Light Speed Gaming

It's been a week full of adventuring through Skyrim for me. Dragons have been roasted, ancient treasures unearthed and random flowers have been picked.
There was also time to take a look at and review "To The Moon", which is distinctly free of any traces of dragons, yet still manages to present a gripping experience.
Oh, and helping me keep the posts flowing while I was off picking dragons and burning flowers (or was that the other way around?), guest poster Jordan Siron took us down nostalgia lane and rekindled our love for the first "Alien" movie.
Rounding out the week was a Modern Warfare 3 review with a twist. I focused completely on the campaign of MW3, digging into if the single player story is worth spending your time on, or if you should only spend your time on the game if you're going to be playing online.

Yes, there is also singleplayer in Modern Warfare 3

And as usual I'm lining up another week of yummy content for you to gobble down as a side dish to the turkey shenanigans (for those of you that celebrate Thanksgiving. All the rest feel free to gobble it down as a side dish to whatever you feel like. I recommend a pepperoni pizza...Mmmm... Pizza).