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Star Wars The Old Republic News
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Tightening Up the Graphics
Jan 16th
The lack of high-resolution character and armor textures outside of cutscenes in Star Wars: The Old Republic turned out to be an intentional move by Bioware and has stirred quite an uproar in the player community. We offer our thoughts in this week's SW:TOR column.
Players have been wondering about the non-functional ‘High’ setting in the game’s graphics options for some time now. If you’re unfamiliar, setting the game’s graphics settings to ‘High’ is visually no different from setting the game to ‘Medium’. Players also noticed that they were unable to achieve the same graphical quality they were seeing in the game’s cinematic dialogue while playing out in the game world. With enough folks clamoring for answers to both of these concerns, BioWare’s Stephen Reid promised to get them one.
Read more of Michael Bitton's Star Wars: The Old Republic: Tightening Up the Graphics.
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Five Reasons to Play Galactic Republic
Jan 16th
In SWTOR, the Sith Empire may be "cooler", but they don't have wookiees. In this week's List, we take a look at five reasons no one should miss playing a member of the Galactic Republic.
This may not be a good idea, starting off the List with a reason that's essentially: because you can still be an evil bastard. But it's true. In SWTOR, during the course of your Galactic Republic goody-two-shoes' story, you can choose to be as much of a prick as you want to be. You can walk the line and make sure you're still on the "good side" while being a total sleaze-ball. That is, if you have the stomach for it. It's a bit like playing the good-guy card while harnessing the Dark Side of the Force, but it's worth it if you want all the nifty Dark Side gear from the Republic Fleet.
Read the rest of The List: Five Reasons to Play Galactic Republic.
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Incoming Patch Highlights
Jan 13th
Bioware has posted the patch notes for next week's Star Wars: The Old Republic update. MMORPG.com's Mike Bitton has graciously combed through the notes to give us the highlights of big changes coming down the pike:
Biochem
- All Energized, Exotech, and Rakata adrenals and stims now require 400 Biochem for use.
- The Exotech Medpac is now named “Exotech Med Unit.” Its overall healing has been reduced and is now in line with similar level medpacs, and it temporarily increases the maximum health of its targets. Use of this item now requires 400 Biochem.
- The amount healed by Rakata Medpacs has been reduced. This item now additionally increases maximum health briefly. Use of this item now requires 400 Biochem.
Cybertech
- Wynz-Tek grenades now require 400 Cybertech for use.
- Wynz-Tek Grenades have had their damage reduced to bring them more in line with grenades of similar level.
- The Wynz-Tek Firestorm grenade’s damage has been reduced to bring it in line with grenades of similar level. It now deals damage every 3 seconds over 12 seconds.
Bioware has also posted an explanation regarding the changes noted above that is worth time reading on the official Star Wars: The Old Republic forums.
What do you think? Good changes? Bad ones? Let us know!
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Star Wars: The Old Republic: Innovation in the Old Republic
Jan 12th
One of the things that many players clamor for in their games is innovation, something new and never before seen. In today's Player Perspectives, we take a look at several ways that Star Wars: The Old Republic has advanced the MMO genre with innovative features, if only through small touches. Check it out and then let us know what you think.
Over the years, one of the constant mantras of MMO gamers has become “We want something new!” – and I’ll be the first to agree that in many ways the MMO field has been rather stagnant of late. The problem is that it’s not easy to invent something entirely new; and more to the point, it’s usually risky, which in industry terms means that a whole lot of money might be sunk into a project for nothing. People who provide funding don’t usually like that sort of proposition, with good reason, and gamers have an unfortunate tendency to forget that game development takes money – these days, a great deal of money.
Read more Isabelle Parsley's Player Perspectives: Innovation in the Old Republic.
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Rise of Rakghouls Trailer
Jan 12th
Bioware and the team behind Star Wars: The Old Republic have announced that a new content patch will be released on January 17th. Called "Rise of the Rakghouls", the update will feature a new flashpoint called "Kaon Under Siege" and a new Operation called "Karagga's Palace". This new trailer shows off a cinematic to introduce us to Kaon Under Siege. Enjoy!
“A month ago when we launched the Early Game Access program for Star Wars: The Old Republic, we promised our fans that this would just be the beginning of our journey together,” said Dr. Greg Zeschuk, General Manager of the BioWare Label’s MMO Business Unit and Co-Founder of BioWare. “Rise of the Rakghouls adds a lot of the things our community has been asking for – additional higher level group content, features like anti-aliasing, PvP bracketing and more. In the future, game updates will be even more substantial, as we promise to continue to not only add to The Old Republic, but to also improve and refine the experience with the full Legacy System and new Guild features.”
Find out more on the Star Wars: The Old Republic site.
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Pokket’s Guide to the Voidstar
Jan 11th
In the latest episode of Game Face, MMORPG.com's Pokket takes a look at The Voidstar, one of the warzones in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Pokket gives her thoughts on the best strategies and layouts for winning the epic battle. Come back every Thursday for more MMO goodness from Pokket. Check out Game Face #19: Pokket's Guide to the Voidstar.
Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Future of the Old Republic
Jan 11th
Star Wars: The Old Republic has taken the MMO gaming world by storm over the last month. We had the opportunity to chat with Game Director James Ohlen about what the team has planned for the future for SWTOR. Check out our exclusive interview and then let us know what you think in the comments.
James started off by saying that launch went well and was smoother than they expected. They have now gotten queue lines under control. They are also focused on the population across game levels to keep track of how many players are hitting end game early. The team has been using their maintenance window to fix bugs in weekly patches and have been successful in cleaning some of the problems early on. One of the great things James pointed out is that the average play time per player remains very high. Bioware is excited about this because it measures player retention and give them some accurate metrics to go over.
Read more of Garrett Fuller's Star Wars: The Old Republic – The Future of the Old Republic.
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Make Your Own Load Screen
Jan 10th
According to a thread on Reddit, Star Wars: The Old Republic players have the ability to create their own load screens using layered images of their characters or whatever they wish. The thread comes packed with ideas and even a Photoshop template to use.
Check it out on Reddit and then post a picture of your new load screen image for us!
Via PCGamer.com
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Make Your Own Load Screen
Jan 10th
According to a thread on Reddit, Star Wars: The Old Republic players have the ability to create their own load screens using layered images of their characters or whatever they wish. The thread comes packed with ideas and even a Photoshop template to use.
Check it out on Reddit and then post a picture of your new load screen image for us!
Via PCGamer.com
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Make Your Own Load Screen
Jan 10th
According to a thread on Reddit, Star Wars: The Old Republic players have the ability to create their own load screens using layered images of their characters or whatever they wish. The thread comes packed with ideas and even a Photoshop template to use.
Check it out on Reddit and then post a picture of your new load screen image for us!
Via PCGamer.com