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The Old Republic hands-on by GamesRadar - *hype alert*
Routver
Member Posts: 383
Found this article, good read about SW:TOR :
I have mixed feelings about this, the word "instance" didn't make me happy, and GR is a site full of hype about pretty much anything. But if it's going to be really different than most MMORPGs released recently, who knows, maybe it will be fun?
Comments
That was a good read
Since we know nothing of the gameplay and are just relying on reviews like this, its really hard to form an opinion. I'm excited, but at the same time cautious. I would worry about the instance thing too much, it sounds like instances will exist, but for big parts of story line. It doesn't seem like every mission will be an instance, that would just blow
I see their instances like the 5-mans or WoW, but unlike in WoW TOR's instances are major plot points to the greater story of your character.
All this sounds like fun and I seriously can't wait, but I will hold off judgement until I see a somewhat final product and gameplay.
I Reject your Reality and Substitute it with My Own!
swtor suffers from one MAJOR problem.... Nasty character models.
http://static.gamesradar.com/images/mb//GamesRadar/us/Games/S/Star%20Wars%20The%20Old%20Republic/Bulk%20Viewers/PC/2009-06-02/Confrontation--screenshot.jpg
However funny enough (like Vanguard) it only seems to look REALLY bad when they're in clothes and looks alright when they're in armour.
http://static.gamesradar.com/images/mb//GamesRadar/us/Games/S/Star%20Wars%20The%20Old%20Republic/Bulk%20Viewers/PC/2009-06-02/Trooper-03--screenshot.jpg
This screenshot shows it the best ^
I hope they make them look good before launch or I just can't play.
The stylized-realism they got going doesn't bug me so much, because it is different from most MMOs out right now. However, I know a lot of people can't stand the models, but I do not think this will hamper BioWare's sales of TOR. WoW has cartoonish characters and it has millions of subscribers. I've played WoW and I can't stand the cartoonish look, but the fun of the game made up for my dislike and I hope the same can be said of TOR.
I Reject your Reality and Substitute it with My Own!
Thing is Zelda Wind Waker, Street Fighter 4 and WoW are all examples of stylized games which great character models and even Champions online does them really well and thats a superhero comic like game. Where as swtor went for stylized and got the character models so odd looking and wrong that I wish they'd revise them and make them look more in proportion. Right now it's like they have tiny bodies and ultra long limbs which are all a weird shape like the muscle is in the wrong place or something. I have a feeling they tried to go for the comic book like style and got it wrong, just look at Champions Online and see how right they got it.
People think you hate stylized games when you say you hate the character models but no I don't have a problem with that. All the games I listed I really like, it's just theres good and bad and Bioware got the character models bad. It's like them ultra big Light sabers they showed when they first released screens of the game.... they were bad.
Space Combat sweet
Good read!
Im still gonna try it out when it comes out.
Played : WOW, LOTRO, COH/COV, EQ2, SWG, and WAR.
Playing EVE Online and AOC.
Wtg for SW:TOR and WOD
I am no friend of the stylized chars. They look butt ugly, and I hope it changes at least some way over the time. It is after all alpha, and we see the same male and female face over and over, so maybe it is just a placeholder.
The story has a few interesting parts, like this:
"Sith character is deflecting their blaster fire with his lightsaber while we come to grips with his abilities. He earns points by swiping and smashing; he can then spend them on finishing moves."
That sounds like they go away from the mana-pool based combat of the old MMO days, and it sounds like the Champions Online combat concept. You fill your power bar with some moves and thus get "points" to use to powerful moves. (No NDA break, that is common knowledge by now.) It results is a very action based combat feeling, since you always do something, you never stand and wait for spell timers or mana to regen. I think IMVPO that is the combat model of the future. You will be very fast spoilt once you experience such combat, and all old fashioned mana-pool based combat will feel very slow and boring to you, trust me.
"They want to introduce genuine consequence, giving parties of players the kind of moral choices their single-player games have become famous for."
That still makes me wonder. When I am in a party, how do we decide? By vote? Or does everyone play and experience his own different consequence? I am not so thrilled by the idea to be overruled and have to live with the decisions of others in my group.
"Each of the six player classes..."
Six? Hadn't it been eight???
"“I don’t know if you noticed,” Vogel says, “but it’s all synchronized combat. We have a synchronized animation system - it’s not like every other MMO where it’s two guys dancing, watching each other run through the animations. This is like KotOR. Blades hit, we can block stuff, people are actually parrying – you always know why he hit.”"
THAT sounds very cool. I always loathed this symbolic combat of the EQ-era.
"Where are the PvP arenas? Or the large, 25+ player raids? Or auction houses? Or, hey, space-combat? Vogel raises an eyebrow. “Oh, we have all that too. We’re just going to wait a little bit to show you that.”
Good grief, they really aim for "everything". I wonder if we are really supposed to believe in that miracle after all the letdowns? I guess most of us want to believe, that The Force can do it.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Very cool read. Bioware knows how to make good games. Whether it is a massively co-op single player game or not it will be a fun, entertaining, and meaningful experience. Definitely going to buy it and play through the story. Interested in seeing the direction they take after launch as well.
I don't care if it's an MMO or offline RPG or if it has PvP or large group content or is all solo...
It's Bioware and it's Star Wars and even better it's Knights of the Old Republic.
It's going to be amazing.
Is it going to be the hardcore MMO players game? No. They aren't trying to do that. They are making a Bioware RPG that is online. It's going to be a lot different then we are used to in terms of a MMO.
That being said, I am very interested to see how much "MMO stuff" they actually put into the game, or if it really is going to be a small-group mulitplayer KOTOR/Mass Effect. Either or, it'll be great.
I really enjoyed Kotor & Kotor2 along with Bioware's other rpgs (ala Mass effect, Baldur's gate, etc). Bioware is one of the few companies that I will buy a game from on shipping. As long as Bioware maintains the same level of quality, I will continue to do exactly that.
Heres another thing I don't get.....
How is Bounty Hunting an Imperial role?
How is Smuggling a Republic role?
Surely they're both roles that go to the higest bidder.
Good read. This is looking very similar to WoW's launch, except, apparently, this game is already polished.
1) It has a popular IP, even more so than Warcraft.
2) This is a time where people seem disenchanted and bored with the market; they want something new, and even if it resembles WoW, if it's good, they'll play it.
3) WoW took the best things from its predecessors and combined them into one package. Bioware has the advantage of WoW plus 5 more years of MMOs to build off of. While this is both a good and bad thing (see "WoW Clone11!!1!1!"), it's mostly good.
If Bioware pulls this off, this will be a serious competitor to WoW (note I didn't say "killer").
Agreed, you'd think the Republic would higher Bounty Hunter to take out some Sith, and the Imps would higher some Smugglers. Oh well as long as there are light sabers and lasers I'll give it a try!
The Bounty Hunter one I agree with, but it turns out Smugglers saved the Republic by destroying a Mandalorian Blockade on the most critical trade route in the galaxy. Only makes sense they'd have some allegiance to the Republic in-game.
"As the aforementioned Force-choked trooper slides to the floor, clutching his chest, a horrifying truth becomes apparent: The Old Republic is a credible World of Warcraft killer."
Oh dear God in Heaven... When will people, especially interviewers, learn to stop saying this?! I really hope they didn't just completely doom this game. Otherwise, great article, thanks for the link OP!
Edit: "We have to ignore the top of the hardcore,” says (Gordon) Walton, talking about those players who will simply ignore the story and min-max their way to the top end of the game. “We need to make a game that is accessible to the Star Wars fan, and the BioWare fan. Because really BioWare is a company that is about making a great RPG experience, not about making games for a hardcore MMO audience.”
HAHAHA!! This is just awesome. It's impossible to focus on your own story as long as you have leet d-bags all around you, but it might be possible to focus on the canned story if the devs specifically try to eliminate said leet d-bags. I'll play this game for that reason alone.
There's a sucker born every minute. - P.T. Barnum
That is seriously the best thing that I've ever heard a development company say.
Bugger the all-too-pandered "elite" 5%, and make content aimed at people who just wanna play games and have fun.
Playing: EVE, Final Fantasy 13, Uncharted 2, Need for Speed: Shift
That is seriously the best thing that I've ever heard a development company say.
Bugger the all-too-pandered "elite" 5%, and make content aimed at people who just wanna play games and have fun.
Amen to that! I am sick and tired to see MMOs are shaped towards the 5% loudest player group.
Games should be leisure and fun, and not teethgrinding work & 24/7 commitment to even reach minimal goals.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
The most exciting thing I read in that article, was that it's been in development since 2006.
By not over hyping this game like Mythic did with WAR, they bought themselves some very nice breathing room, and made it so that when they wanted to start to leak info it was on their terms and not an expectation at the end of every month.
Well played Bioware.
I'm very excited about this game, but I'm very worried about them even implementing raiding. If it's just one of many paths of progression then that would be fine, but if it ends up being the only high end progression like every other piece of crap MMO out there, then I will seriously have to consider not playing this game.
With PvE raiding, it has never been a question of being "good enough". I play games to have fun, not to be a simpering toady sitting through hour after hour of mind numbing boredom and fawning over a guild master in the hopes that he will condescend to reward me with shiny bits of loot. But in games where those people get the highest progression, anyone who doesn't do that will just be a moving target for them and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay money for the privilege. - Neanderthal
I'm hoping their instances can involve others that didn't necessarily make the same choices you did. It seems feesable. Their storyline might involve a different goal than yours but still take place in the same instance involving the same npcs. Like instead of getting an item drop from <misc. mob> ,like you might need to do, they need to get a letter from the <misc. mob's> hut.
The Bounty Hunter one I agree with, but it turns out Smugglers saved the Republic by destroying a Mandalorian Blockade on the most critical trade route in the galaxy. Only makes sense they'd have some allegiance to the Republic in-game.
Yeh but didn't they just make that up for the game?
I mean smugglers arn't a group of people who stick together lol. I don't remember Han Solo being the member of the Smuggler race who're tied to the Republic. Anyone can smuggle illegal stuff pass guards and that.
Thats what makes no sense to me and why BH and Smugglers should be Neutral
Troopers I can understand being an army stuck to one side but anyone can kill people for money and anyone can smuggle illegal items.... lots of people smuggle weed past police each day and that doesn't mean they're all buddies.
All this means is if I want to be a smuggler or a Bounter hunte but don't wanna be tied to the Imps or the Rebels then I don't have a choice. Atleast if you're gonna dumb Star Wars down and only allow a choice of 2 factions let you choose which one you wanna join when that only makes sense for them classes.
You had me at "They want to reduce the grind – removing the tedious fetch 10 and kill 20 quests that plague the genre – and tie everything into their story."
Yeh I'm hoping the quests will be more like Oblivion or Fallout 3 where they're all unique with story and really fun and even better than the main story.
I agree with several posts, in how good is BioWare's way of handling hype and expectations, by not building hype on top of more hype, no "ToR is steak" comments and so on, quite the opposite.
If they're supposedly testing this game for a long time period as was claimed, it is also good news. Not the sure recipe to the success, but already a big step ahead of AoC and WAR, in terms of polish, content and also PR. So far the answers covered in there inspired confidence in the developers, even with my persistent pessimist attitude (nothing personal, it's just going to stay that way), it sounds like a possible better MMORPG launch already to me.
In fact, the hype comes directly from the site. But it's alright, if you read two or three previews in there you'll see the pattern.
That was my favorite quote as well. I am looking forward to this game alot.