The Old Republic Goes Free-to-Play - Will I fall to the Dark Side once again?

With the newly announced free-to-play option for Star Wars: The Old Republic I've been thinking a lot about if I want to jump back into my lightsaber rich adventures once more.
Back when SWTOR launched in December I played the game for quite a lot of hours and managed to get my lightning tossing Sith Inquisitor up to level 50 and complete his storyline.

While I did have a lot of fun during my time with SWTOR, I found it to ultimately be a disappointment for me and I ended up only paying for a couple of months of subscription before my enthusiasm for the game dried up like a Gungan in a Sarlacc pit.

Soon all of these lightsabers can be yours for 0 monies!

The big problem with SWTOR for me is that my motivation for playing it comes largely from experiencing the story, but to fit the game into the structure of a MMO Bioware padded out the trip through your character story with many many hours of uninteresting side quests and awful space combat missions.

On the other hand I found the character stories compelling enough that I wanted to play them all, but I felt like I was being conned out of my money by being forced to spend so much time doing things that I had no interest in.

My 3 personal Star Wars peeves - AKA "Actually, that doesn't make any sense.."

If you really take a hard look at the Star Wars movies you'll quickly see that there is a bunch of stuff in there that just makes no sense. The most obvious and talked about peculiarity is the comically poor ability for Stormtroopers to hit anything at just about any range, even though they are supposedly some of the finest soldiers in the galaxy.
Or like the absurdity of those same elite forces being beaten by a tribe of angry teddy bears with rocks and spears.

Then there are things that you might initially not really think about, but then after seeing the movies a few times you go "hang on a minute..."
I've gathered my three favorite/worst of those moments and I submit them to you here:

1) Jabba the Hutt getting killed by Leia

Jabba the Hutt was supposedly one of the most badass crime lords in the galaxy at the time of his demise. He was obviously no stranger to people wanting to brutally murder him, as we can see from his calm reaction to first being threatened by a person with an armed thermal detonator and then a Jedi.
Hell, just having two people trying to murder him is probably a slow day in the office for Jabba.

So you'd think that he'd be pretty interested in some high quality bodyguards. You know, someone who wouldn't immediately abandon their post as soon as the shit hit the fan. People that would have a vested interest in the continued well being of their boss and employer and not let him get slowly strangled by a female slave.

"I could have been able to afford decent bodyguards if only I hadn't wasted all those money on liposuction"

Seriously, how the hell do you have a skiff full of guards, bounty hunter, mercenaries and criminal scum in general and as soon as there's a small explosion everyone just freaks the hell out? No one saw an opportunity to get on Jabba's good side by making sure he got out of there alive?

It wasn't even like it was a deadly Jedi with a lightsaber that was assaulting Jabba. All they had to do to save him was just shoot Leia in the back. 5 seconds of work for the gratitude of the most notorious Hutt in the galaxy.

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).

Sci-Fi Do Want: The Imperial Star Destroyer

Welcome to the first post in my new series "Sci-Fi Do Want", where I will be writing about my favorite gadgets, vehicles and technology from the realm of science fiction.
These articles will contain no useful information whatsoever, but will let us all nerd out to the awesomeness of the coolest pieces of tech from books, movies, games or any other medium that science fiction is present in.

For the first "Sci-Fi Do Want" I present to you: The Imperial Star Destroyer

The pagoda like superstructure of the Star Destroyer makes for even more hard angles
on the already aggressive looking design

The Imperial Star Destroyer has always been a very special spaceship for me, ever since I saw the Star Wars movie.
The awe inspiring intro that the Star Destroyer makes in Episode IV establishes it right off the gate as a giant bird of prey that will mercilessly hunt down any ship that is unfortunate enough to be labelled as an enemy of the Empire.

Dancing Darth Weekend Fun Time!

What?

Well... This!

And now you're ready for the weekend!

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Will "The Old Republic" make Lightsabers seem mundane?

As most Star Wars fans, I have always been really fascinated with the lightsaber.

I think I first really fell in love with them when Luke and Vader fought in the Sky City on Bespin.

There is something indefinable cool about a lightsaber that is hard to describe.

The glowing blade that gives it a distinct visual presence and the eerie low level buzz that promises ozone scented mutilation and/or dismemberment.

This picture can still give me goosebumps

And of course, the awesome sight and sound of two lightsabers striking each other, sending sparks flying every which way, with a sound that leaves no doubt about the deadly potential of these weapons.

Finally, lightsabers are very rare weapons in Star Wars.
The are carried by elite samurai-like warriors that use them with expert skills that make them much more deadly than a solider with a common blaster.

All this has made lightsabers become possibly the single most recognizable science fiction weapon in movie history.
Endlessly parodied and copied in other movies, games and various other media.

Choose your side - Jedi Knight or Bounty Hunter

Speaking of the Bounty Hunter, which was in the very run up of my class consideration for ToR, I saw that a new trailer has gone up from Bioware, showing off the Bounty Hunter and the Jedi Knight Class.

The trailer is set up as a face off between the two classes, and the community can decide who will win this confrontation by adding a tag on their tweets (get that viral PR going Bioware).

As a big Bounty Hunter fan and a not so big Jedi Knight fan, I will of course be rooting for the jet pack touting, flamethrower blazing and all round awesome Bounty Hunter.

Here's the trailer:

The Old Republic - The agonies of your first class choice

Christmas is going to be December 20 this year for me (or whenever the early access for The Old Republic preorders starts).

"Just hang tight for a couple of months more!"

I am looking immensely forward to this game and, like many other fans I'm sure, have already started thinking long and hard about what class I am going to play, when I finally get my grubby hands on it.

So far I have narrowed the choices down a bit by method of elimination:

The Old Republic Companions Update Part 2 -Almost as good as a real player

I've previously written about the "companion characters" of Star Wars: The Old Republic.

These are characters you meet and that can accompany you in your adventures through the game.

Today Bioware has released more info about companions in ToR.

It seems that they were initially quite autonomous and players had very little control over them in combat.
Since this was a problem for a lot of people, as the AI is not always smart enough to know that throwing a thermal detonator right into that pack of Rancors might not be the greatest idea, Bioware decided to put in some manual controls for the companions as well.

Time to practice those micro skills. You know what I'm saying?

This gives players the option of for example setting the companions to not use area of effect attacks, or gives the the chance to activate some of their special abilities in a pinch.

10 clues that your boyfriend is a Jedi

You've seen the signs.

The blue glow and low humming noise coming from the living room, when your boyfriend thinks you're asleep.

The constant talk about inner peace and calm from emotions.

His best friend is a poorly dressed scoundrel that's always hanging around with a Wookie.

"This? No, this is just a big glowstick, hon"

These are subtle hints that might make you think; "Hang on, is my boyfriend a Jedi?!".

Well, here are 10 clues to help you determine if the Force is indeed strong with him.

Deus Wars? Star Ex? If only this was an upgrade to the elbow blades in Deus Ex

The Force Unleashed 3 maybe?

5 Reasons not to invite Darth Vader to your dinner party

You may think that having the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader, to your party is a great idea.

You’ll impress your friends with your connections to people with power and in case your kitchen appliances break down while you’re preparing dinner you’ll have someone around that’s good with his hands around (even if they are strictly speaking not *his* hands).

Do not sit him at the Younglings table

However, before you make this decision I  will give you 5 reasons why this is a bad idea.

3 Star Wars moments that George Lucas ruined

With the new Star Wars Blu Ray double trilogy pack just out, a lot of people are buying (or re-buying, or re-re-buying...) the Star Wars movies.

Sadly, in his infinite descent into lala-land, Lucas has seen fit to once again grace us with changes to the movies, to bring them more in line with his vision (or oxygen deprived fever dream as the case may be)

"Actually I'm not crazy about the yellow anymore. Can we do lime green?"

Some of these changes you will maybe not even notice.
A few even make sense, like swapping out the hologram transmission in The Empire Strikes Back with Ian McDiarmid, the actor who played the Emperor in Return of the Jedi and the new trilogy (The original hologram was actually a woman with the eyes of a chimp superimposed on top. That's not a joke that's what they actually used).

However most of them are just unnecessary and awkward (Han Solo meeting a super bad looking Jabba the Hut in the Tatooine spaceport) and some straight up break the whole feel of the original scenes.

I have picked out what I consider to be the 3 worst offenders:

Old Republic officially scheduled to hit in 2011 (barely)

Yesterday saw the long awaited announcement of the release date for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

December 20 will be "lightsaber on!" time for American jedi wannabes, while Europeans will have to keep their Yoda in their pants for two more days until December 22.
Thus fulfilling my previously stated hopes of being able to go on a Jawa killing spree before New Year.

"It was like that when I got here, I swear!"

Well, at least I know how I'll be spending Christmas this year!

You can find the official press release from Bioware here

Old Repbulic companions -Pets with personality

Now that my hopes of Diablo 3 in 2011 have been crushed, I turn to my other hope of 2011, which is the MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic.

With a glowstick like that, he'd be the king of any techno party

Star Wars certainly does not hold the same magic to me that it once did and it's been a while since the last really good Star Wars game came around (Republic Commando maybe? Or even back to Knights of the Old Republic).

Nevertheless I get suckered right back in, when you show me lightsabers and big Star Destroyer-like capital ships, like an abused spouse coming right back for more (Really, it was my own fault for expecting too much. This time it will be different...).

On the official Old Republic website there is a weekly update every Friday giving you a brief glimpse of some aspect of the game.
This week it's companion characters.

New X-wing game in the works?

In space no one can hear you go "Noooo!", but I'm sure George Lucas would like to fit it in there some way all the same...

One of my most fondest video game Star Wars moments is that of playing Tie Fighter for the PC.

I came slightly late to the party and so missed out on playing the original X-wing game, which was also hailed as very good game.

Tie Fighter presented a pretty deep "sim-like" experience of piloting the spaceships, leaving you to do stuff like energy management and diverting shields forward or aft to boost your defense.

It allowed you to zoom through an epic space battle between Rebel Mon Calarami Cruisers and Imperial Star Destroyers (or older Victory Class Star Destroyers or Nebulon-B Frigates or... well, you get the picture. I like Star Wars).

Racing at full throttle along the side of an Imperial Star Destroyer while blasting at the X-wing in front of you presented you with plenty of "Hell yeah!" moments for true Star Wars geeks like myself.

And the graphics were very good, which really helped to put you in the universe.

Honestly, I swear, at the time, this was good look graphics...

Now it seems that the X-wing series may get a long long long overdue revival.
LucasArts are hiring some new people, among them someone with experience in "aerial combat games", particularly "space-based shooters".

Now I don't want to get my hopes up too high but if there really is a new X-wing game on the way then I may experience full nerdgasm...

You can check out the story at GameSpot here: LucasArts hiring

Just...just don't be prequel era games...