Star Wars: The Old Republic weekend pass starts now

Bioware is giving curious gamers a treat this weekend. From Thursday, March 15th, 12:01AM CT / 5:01AM GMT to Monday, March 19th at 2:00AM CT / 7:00AM GMT, you get a free pass to Star Wars of The Old Republic.

It's not a full access to the game, but it sure gives enough meat to see if it's a game worth investing in. You get full access to all eight of the classes origin worlds and their faction worlds. You can also try out the pvp aspect of the game by joining the warzones provided. If your curious of pve play,  you will have access to two flashpoints(The dungeons in the game), The Esseles and The Black Talon. Sadly, your weekend can only make you reach up to level 15.

If you have anymore questions about this free weekend pass, check out the FAQ for more information and any restrictions. You can also head to the official site for more information about the game and the Weekend Pass.

I've tried the game in one of its beta testing weekends for a day, so wasn't able to experience much. Going to give it another shot this weekend to see how the game feels after it's release.  The weekend trial has started and the client is around 26GB so I suggest you start downloading.

Star Wars: The Old Republic was released last December and received a good reception to critics and has a steady population so far.

Impressions - Star Wars: The Old Republic weekend beta test

I was given a chance to try out Star Wars: The Old Republic last weekend during their weekend server stress test. Problem is, I found out I was invited the weekend it was happening which resulted in around just about a day of testing out the game.  Lesson learned though: Emails must be checked religiously when applying for beta testing. Regardless, I did get enough game time to get a feel of how EA's new MMO plays.

I just had to realize the invite late...

It sucks, I know. Found out last friday that I was accepted and received the link to download the client, but with how big the client is,  it took me two days to download it. 20gb was it? I do have decent connection but I occasionally turned off the PC to de-stress it since it's usually oven hot in the afternoon, which resulted in me having the client all patched up and ready for use by Sunday afternoon. Then when I saw the login screen all ready for me to add my info, I had to go out for the night. Before leaving though, I quickly created my character so it's all ready when I get back. I knew server's were going down after the weekend and that I had a very small window to try out Star Wars: The Old Republic. So I decided that when I get the chance, regardless of how late it already is, I'll try the game. 1AM in the morning, I started my Human Smuggler class.

There where 2 region's to choose from: North America or Europe. With me living in Asia, lag was inevitable with those choices, but Europe felt like the best choice to have less lag, well that's what  I thought. I had a latency of 600-800(1-2 bars) which was close to annoying at certain points during play. I bet there will be asian servers but during my time with the game, I had to live with it.

Fully voiced NPC's makes a HUGE difference

While I did start having my first character as the Han Solo class of the game, the lag avoided me from enjoying the unique cover system for the class, so I quickly switched to something easier, the Jedi Knight class. What came out awesome when I started with both characters was that each class has it's very own prologue. With the jedi Knight class, the prologue has you coming out of a transport ship, with a training lightsaber stick equipped ready to be assigned as the new Padawan of a Jedi Master. The back story given gives you a sense of how important you are to the story it tries to tell, and with the whole game fully voiced, it's the best introduction you will experience in any MMO.

The conversations you have is as if your playing a Dragon Age/Mass Effect game which is the games strong suit because it actually works well. Choices at times also matter since there is light and dark alignment. If you choose a more jedi-like approach(Which is always the top choice), you earn light reputation; If you pick the dark choice(always the bottom choice), it will earn you dark reputation. They say raising this will give you access to certain items depending how high you are in that alignment, so there's a bit of an incentive to choose what path you'd like to take for your character. It's literally Bioware's conversation wheel in their past RPGs but now placed in an MMO.  You will see a conversation bubble above a player's head to indicate that he is engaged in a conversation with an  NPC.

Gameplay is nothing much to mention since its very similar to World of Warcraft but with a slower pace. Which is proven by WoW to be a very effective format, so why change it? Quests still require to kill this much, or activate certain devices but again what makes it unique is that you can engage in conversations that make you care about the quest a bit more.  Even with a mini boss that die in like 2 minutes, you first talk to him and have the option to find out his intentions(If you really want to care). Thanks to this sto-driven element they focused so much on, this MMO will definitely stand out and make players look the other way, question is for how long.

I sadly only was able to produce a level 8 Jedi Knight and was so close to finishing the prologue to see the game outside the introduction. Was close to collapsing so had to call it quits. They say around level 10 is where you get out of the prologue and at the same time pick your specialization(two for each class) - For my Jedi Knight, I had the choice to be either more damage focused or more designed for the tanking role.

Star Wars: The Old Republic Opening Cinematic

Am I Interested?

No. While I enjoyed how this MMO is very story-driven , the gameplay has too much similarities to a game that I've spent 2 years of my life on. While it's a formula that just works in the MMO world, I personally don't plan to go through it again. Thanks to this beta opportunity, I get a chance to get rid of my curiosity in Star Wars: The Old Republic. For avid MMO gamers though - It's worth exploring and is definitely THE Star Wars online that fans have been waiting for. Its sound score gives me goose bumps as I charge through a group of droids and the quality of the voice acting is one of the best, just as expected from Bioware. How I wished I had more time to explore more of what the game has to offer but If I was still into MMO's, I'd definitely pick this game up, even pre-order it since you get to start playing the game 5 days earlier.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is out this December 20 for PC only. It will have a monthly fee of $14.99 with other payment plans like a 3 month plan or a 6 month plan. If you want to gather more info, head over the official site or check out the game's FAQ.

Star Wars: The Old Republic gets a release date

One of the most anticipated MMO's has finally received a release date. Was expecting a longer wait sometime next year, but looks like there will be a new big MMO to try out before the end of the year.  Bioware has been patient with the development of their first MMORPG, which is great, so I'm really hoping that this triple A MMO will be as ground breaking as they say. 

Update your calendars, Star Wars: The Old Republic comes out on December 20 and December 22 for Europe. They also announced the payment fees:

• 1 Month Subscription: $14.99 (£8.99/€12.99)
• 3 Month Subscription: $13.99 per month (one-time charge of $41.97/£25.17/€35.97)
• 6 Month Subscription: $12.99 per month (one-time charge of $77.94/£46.14/€65.94

Each copy of Star Wars: The Old Republic will have a 30 day free subscription, just like any other MMO. After that, you'll have to go with either one of the 3 options after the free month.

The game looks pretty sweet, but the fact that the gameplay feels a bit similar to other big MMO out now leaves me worried. Is the solid story telling enough to give Bioware a successful MMO title? well, we got only months left to find out.

[Source: Gameinformer]

Leaked info on supposed WoW expansion

So, here's some "news" on the world's best-selling MMORPG franchise...

Yes, I'll admit it. Though I've already quit WoW (about 4 times now), I still like to read up on the updates... I guess there's just that part of me that still wants to play, but I just can't find a good enough reason to do so. So when I saw a Facebook post from WoWhead, talking about the supposed "leaked" info on the new expansion, I just had to click the link.

Short summary:

1. Raised level cap from 85 to 90

2. New Horde race: Naga

3. New Alliance race: Etherial

4. New starting zones for both races (1-10): Deadwind Pass for Alliance and Coralbreach for Horde.

5. Game moves back to Outlands

6. Main antagonists: The Burning Legion

7. Four new "planets"/ Outland zones

Whether or not this is true or not remains to be seen, but it's still a pretty fun read.

Two games that might get you back into MMORPGs

I've had my fair share of MMORPG's. My first ever online game was actually the Korean MMORPG Ragnarok and from there I've applied to various Asian online game's that created the definition of 'grinding' in MMORPG's. I soon got tired of the grind fest and aimed for the bigger titles.

I picked up Guild Wars and was really sold because of the no monthly fee and had a blast. With only 1 year of Guild Wars, got tempted and went even higher, and finally gave in to the biggest beast of them all, World of Warcraft. When my 10 day trial was up, I quickly bought the game and was set for another 3 months. Before i knew it, I've played World of Warcraft for 2 years. Addiction took over, I was in a guild with 3 raids days every week. It was crazy. Being in college, playing World of Warcraft almost everyday, and having responsibilities to take care of in the house, it was hard to manage.  To this day I still wonder why I placed myself in that situation.

But when I hit year 2 in WoW, I also hit my senior year with just two semesters away and my internship nearing its end, I knew I was so close to graduating, but I need to make a choice.  In order to absolutely make sure I graduate, I needed to quit WoW in order to have all my focus on my studies. And just like that, I quit. My guild mates were very supportive and respected my decision. I graduated and had no intention of coming back, that is when Cataclysm was released.

Yes, I went back for 3 months. My friends tempted me to go back with them to check things out, But with all our friends from our old guild all gone it was easy for us to say no to it again since paying every month again and trying to get into another unknown guild felt like a chore. We contacted our old guild friends and heard they moved on, good for them. So we decided to just quit for good as well.

WoW is finally dead to me, Cataclysm just made me realize that since I quit, everything felt the same in terms of game play so paying monthly for it didn't seem worth it. My MMO craze is still there though, and I need a game to scratch that urge to play an MMORPG. The current online game's out now won't cut it, They are either WoW rip offs or grindfest MMORPG's that make you mindless zombies. So far, there are only two MMORPG's that seem to be bringing something new to the table. Two game's that I hope will make people forget about WoW for good. it's time to move on guys.

Guild Wars 2

I'm a huge Guild Wars fan. Since it's reveal, I've been keeping myself updated to the latest new about this sequel. Their going all out for the second game. It's now open world and they say the world is huge. Quests is more dynamic and they aim to make the quest feel like an actual quest. Not those collect x flowers or kill 20 wolves to kill your first 2 hours. The whole game is also going to be fully voiced.

There will be five races to pick from in Guild Wars 2; Humans, Charr, Asura, Norn, and the Sylvari a race new to the Guild Wars world. There is also seven professions to pick from. Only six so far has been revealed, so there's still one more proffession for them to reveal. The proffessions announced so far are Engineer, Thief, Guardian, Necromancer, Ranger, Warrior, and Elementalist. Check the official site for more info about the professions.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI3e7PP_wNU&feature=feedu_more]

The game looks amazing and I love the fact that they kept the same art style and just worked all the improvements around it. It's still going to be free to play which makes it THE MMORPG to buy. Have no idea how ArenaNet is doing it but the first Guild Wars is still around and still going strong. No date yet and when asked about the released of Guild Wars 2 they reply by just saying "When it's finished". The game looks so good already. They want to get everything perfect and ready and I respect the no rush attitude. A must buy indeed.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Now this MMORPG grew on me. When it was first revealed, first thing that popped in my head was WoW. The interface and game play seemed similar. But as more information started pouring in, I see myself getting more excited for this title. The last Star Wars MMORPG was a complete failure and failed to capitalize on this huge franchise. This game on the other hand is a different story. With Bioware working on this, I knew they wanted to bring something different. It will be also fully voiced and will give players choices to shape the narrative. To what degree we will have to see, but the famous conversation wheel seen in most Bioware game's like Dragon Age and Mass Effect is used for the conversations in The Old Republic.

Each faction will have four classes each. The Galactic Republic will have the Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Trooper, and Scoundrel(a class built around Han Solo) while the Sith Empire will have the Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, Bounty Hunter, and Imperial Agent. But classes on each side will be somewhat mirroring each other in terms of roles(for example, Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior). The cool thing about the classes in this game though is that each class will have  two specializations to pick from when you hit level 10, so character customization is looking deep. There is also so far 17 planets confirmed in The Old Republic making it a huge world to explore.

Every player will be assigned their very own Millennium Falcon. Well not the Millennium Falcon but your very own ship to explore the galaxy with. There will also be ship battles and companions that can join you in your adventure. The typical PVP zones, raids etc is said to be there. It looks like it's heavy on content but hopefully it doesn't come out repetitive.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEz8c_qW09E]

Any Star Wars fan will appreciate this game, at the same time, this "Fully Voiced" feature that Bioware is pushing is a great idea. They want story to be a big factor in The Old Republic, and with voices added to the mix, it just makes the experience more compelling compared to reading a wall of text only to find out your tasked to kill 10 rats or escort an NPC. I really want The Old Republic to work. Star Wars is just a perfect world to make into an MMORPG. They failed the last time, so hopefully everything works well for The Old Republic. It's said to have a release somewhere at the end of 2011 but I have my doubts on that and expecting an early 2012 release. I'm definitely picking this up on day one and we'll see if the monthly fee is worth it. check their official site for more info about Star Wars: The Old Republic.

One of these has to be the WoW killer. People have predicted game's like Warhammer Online or Rift to dethrone World of Warcraft but have been proven wrong. What do you guy think? do these game's have a chance at grabbing millions of subscibers or will WoW reign for a couple more years. I think these two are the best bets at going toe to toe against World of Warcraft. if not, then Blizzard might do it themselves with their hidden MMO project that is currently in development.