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BioWare Targeting Spring 2011 For Star Wars: The Old Republic Launch
MTV's Multiplayer blog reports on comments from BioWare employee Sean Dahlberg, which indicate that they are aiming to release the game in spring 2011. He said, "While we have not announced a specific date, we can confirm that we are targeting a spring 2011 release for Star Wars: The Old Republic. We've got a lot of exciting updates and reveals planned throughout 2010, including the first-ever hands-on testing for the game. ... We can't wait to share more about the game with you as we progress through the year, so make sure you stay tuned to the official website for details." Recent posts to the game's developer blog provide details on the Imperial Agent and the Jedi Knight. They also released a video which gives insight into their design process for the Dark Side.
Cruising through space on my compaq 386 SX4 with 16 MB ram and 40 MB HDD. No spacecraft sim game ever topped it.
And X-wing FIGHTER was a cheap rip off shame on you George Lucas.
Lightning, choking, beating shit up. The light side wants to either get past without a fight, talk about your feelings, or avoid hurting people as much as possible. The dark side wants to fuck your wife, take your lunchmoney, and key your car.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
As great as KotOR and Mass Effect was, why can't they just do KotOR 3? Why does everything always have to be an MMO these days?
BTW, that was a rhetorical question. I am well aware why game producers love MMO's.
Slow Down Cowboy! It's been 1 hour, 47 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment
hmm.... X-Wing is older than Tie Fighter.
Do you mean X-Wing VS Tie Fighter when you write "X-wing FIGHTER"?
Anyway, these games were pretty cool but the Wing Commander series is superior in all points, if not why would Luke Skywalker be in it?
No dancers? No nerf herders? What are the Care Bears going to play? Tell me there's Ewoks!
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Anyway, these games were pretty cool but the Wing Commander series is superior in all points, if not why would Luke Skywalker be in it?
Wing Commander forevaaaaaaaa!
To Grandparent: Keep radio silence.
To Parent: Attack my target!
I played a lot of XvT myself. I bought Wing Commander at one point but it simply would not work on my system way back when, it had some sort of issue with my graphics card IIRC. I took it back to CompUSA and got my money back, which should tell you how long ago that was.
Never ended up playing Wing Commander.
I agree, it's too bad they didn't do more single player with it, but I'd like a cool Sci-Fi MMO too. Hopefully this will end up being it. MMOs are fun in a different way than single player RPGs. Neither is better or worse, just different and I like both. Well, there's been some good single player Sci-Fi RPGs, but no good SCi-Fi MMOs.
Also it isn't as though everything has to be an MMO. Note that since they've announced this Bioware has released Dragon Age and is going to release Mass Effect 2, both single player RPGs. It isn't as though Bioware has said "Fuck all other markets, we are MMO only!" No, they just want to get in on the MMO action. Personally, I'm very hopeful their offering will be a lot of fun.
The choice of KOTOR for the MMO also makes sense. It was done quite some time ago (they've been working on this since long before it was publicly announced) and they didn't have the Mass Effect universe to use. Plus people love Star Wars, having a popular universe helps. Lucasarts was also looking for someone to do a new Starwars MMO. They'd given the original one to Sony thinking that Sony would do a good job since at the time they had one of the few successful long running MMOs out there (Everquest). However Sony is retarded and they ran it in to the ground.
At any rate, I'm excited to see it. I like the Starwars universe and I could go form some Sci-Fi in my MMOs. I've gotten a little tired of WoW and nothing else has held my interest.
What is up with BOTH _IMPERIAL_ Agent & Old _REPUBLIC_
Either you're in the old republic or you are in the Sith Empire. One of the two.
You shouldn't have imperial agents running around in a republic.
Having played those games back then, I personally would have given preference to X-Wing over Wing Commander 3. Not in story, but just in raw gameplay. Both were good games though. I did REALLY like Wing Commander Privateer though which was a more open ended pirate/trading game in the spirit of Elite.
I must say though that as far as combat and story went, I much preferred Descent Freespace over either X-Wing or WC. Very engaging story and good engine.
I really find it kinda sad that space sims as a genre have kinda died out. That was by far my most played type of game "back in the day". There's still some open source ones that are out and available, but nothing really like a complete and polished studio game.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
They were both great series, really. The ancient Wing Commander games (1 & 2) were mostly a 2D affair, and they simply can't compare in depth or complexity. I believe the technology was too limited at the time to really let them open up a whole sci-fi world to the player. They did have a cartoony fun side to them, though, and were certainly enjoyable. They paved the way for the next wave of space combat sims.
However, before the really big Wing Commander game came out (WC3 with Mark Hamill), there was a space of time in which the X-Wing and TIE Fighter games were released. Those games were a huge step forward, by including full 3D environments that included high resolution (for those days) at very reasonable performance on a modest system. There were a large number of missions, different craft, and of course STAR WARS! Back when Star Wars was still awesome -- before the "Special Editions" and crappy prequels. Back when the three movies you bought on VHS were the same as what was released originally in the theaters. I think some Slashdotters are starting to forget how cool Star Wars was back then. To fly in an imperial fighter, chasing after Rebel X-Wings and those damn fast A-Wings, after the music kicked in was awesome.
Then Wing Commander 3 came out, and it was just a whole different ballgame. In some ways it was a simpler game with more cinematics, but the resolution and realism of the whole thing made it pretty much THE space combat sim to beat. As a kid, I was just thrilled to be able to play a game like this at full speed at the nice resolution. For any boy with an imagination, it was amazing.
I guess all three phases were special in their own ways, but to me, the X-Wing and TIE Fighter games really opened up a whole different world, and gave a sense of freedom that I haven't experienced in any earlier games. Wing Commander 3 added a nice story and extra realism that really set the bar high after that for space combat sims. For those who never played these games from the golden age of space combat, they are certainly worth a go today. Unfortunately WC3 is 4 CD-ROM's of data, due to the AVI files. The TIE Fighter game easily fits on one CD-ROM, though.
Systemd: the PulseAudio of init systems
Hear hear! Freespace was the last great space combat game. It is one of the few games where you basically spend the entire game getting your ass kicked and retreating. Not that being a Neo/Frodo/teh one/etc that runs around kicking ass isn't fun, but being a small fry running for your life is a nice change of pace. Freespace 2 was pretty damn awesome in terms of game play, if less engaging in terms of story.
We need to end the serie of "WoW clones", if SWTOR is anything like a WoW clone (and in some ways It will probably be) we don't need it, nor in 2011, or 2014. If it is different and really may change the scene, we need it now.. but you can have nice things always wen you need it, so maybe It will pay to wait (note that the concept of 'wait for a mmo' is broken. You just forget about it, till is released).
If we have learned one thing from 2009 is to ignore all mmos (NO EXCEPTIONS) till 4 months after release. There are too much hype on these games before release and the first months, to really tell if a game is pure garbage (and almost all are really boring games) or something that really could be interesting to play.
-Woof woof woof!
hmm.... X-Wing is older than Tie Fighter.
I loved both X-Wing and Tie Fighter but I think I honestly liked X-Wing more for some reason. I think it was the rebels space craft.
While by no means new, Allegiance is newer than most of the games you mentioned. It is also unusual in being a studio game that was released commercially, then later open-sourced. It is still receiving development and improvements today. While its graphics will probably always look severely dated to modern players, the gameplay is quite engaging and the engine is fairly advanced - the game runs fine on modern systems, supports high resolutions and a variety of input devices (all remappable - and note how joysticks seem to have gone out of style too), and the physics are actually quite cool (mass matters including stuff in your cargo, pushing slower ships like bombers from behind is a common tactic to get them into range of an enemy base faster, and you have to lead your shots based on how far the enemy is, how fast your projectiles fly, and how fast they're going in what direction).
The game is also very different from most in terms of gameplay - it's almost a "Team Fortress" type of game but with an even stronger emphasis on teamwork, longer games with more strategic goals, and RTS elements involving mining resources (via NPC ships), building bases, and researching technologies. Basically, you select a ship (many are free, but some require money that could go into base building or research instead), select a loadout (again, certain modules may add cost though most are free), and undock for to fight. Combat is very dogfighting-style, with guns and missiles, shields and armor and chaff, mines you can lure enemies onto and stationary turrets you can use to guard strategic points, nanite guns that repair allied ships' armor, asteroids you can hide behind and cloaking devices that conceal you from enemy sensors, afterburners that trade agility and stealth for raw speed, teleport systems to get you in or out of a fight at the risk of a couple seconds of flying straight, and more. Ships range from short-range interceptors through long-range scouts with good sensors and fighters with good weapons, to bombers with anti-base missiles and anti-fighter turrets manned by other players and capital ships with heavy defenses and weapons capable of engaging a small fleet successfully. You also have specialized ships, like stealth fighters that mount cloaking devices and sneak into the enemy territory to kill their pilots with long-range missiles or their miners and builders with special anti-utility cannon, or troop transports that mount no traditional weaponry but are capable of capturing an enemy base intact.
The community is fairly small but I found it to be welcoming of newcomers, and there are both training missions against NPCs and extensive online tutorials to help people get started. It's free to download and play. Check out the website, at least.
http://freeallegiance.org/
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
and all hell will break loose ?
oh well. at least it will be a whole new experience in fallout style post apocalyptic gameplay afterwards.
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the icon of that dark side has been cut in half by the sissy that prefers talking about your feelings than beating shit up.
hmmmmmmmmmm.
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There were a large number of missions, different craft, and of course STAR WARS! Back when Star Wars was still awesome -- before the "Special Editions" and crappy prequels. Back when the three movies you bought on VHS were the same as what was released originally in the theaters. I think some Slashdotters are starting to forget how cool Star Wars was back then. To fly in an imperial fighter, chasing after Rebel X-Wings and those damn fast A-Wings, after the music kicked in was awesome.
Star Wars is still awesome. Let's ignore the fact that the much-criticized Special Editions don't actually really change anything, and that the prequels do an even better job at the point of Star Wars than the originals do (since Star Wars was always just a flimsy excuse for a plot so we could get to the good battle scenes... not to mention that I personally find "gradual, unknowing descent into evil" a hell of a lot more compelling of a story than "generic coming of age tale"). Even if we leave that aside, and you still have a vendetta against the new stuff for some reason, you can still just ignore it, and nothing has changed. If you're incapable of doing that, that's a result of your lack of mental discipline, not Star Wars magically becoming less awesome.
I'm not trying to unload on you personally, mind you, so much as I'm just frustrated with a large portion of the fan base's hypersensitivity to stuff and crying that Star Wars has somehow "been ruined", or that George Lucas "raped [their] childhood". Lucas didn't send agents into your home, confiscate your old copies of Star Wars, and replace them with new ones. The copies these people have are exactly the same as they've always been, but somehow they're ruined? Give me a break.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
currently, I'm preparing for this MMO more than I have in the past.
I already have forums set up where some of my friends can discuss guild/clan/party configurations and loot systems. We are already discussing lightsaber building, quest groups, times to get together etc.
We are going over the old KOTR games to figure out what crafting items will be available in game and who will craft what.
I only have a few folks atm that are all real life friends working on this, but we are very serious about this MMO.
I am glad bioware is taking their time with this, we need more companies to get it right in the beginning. I don't want to be an MMO game tester and have all my abilities nerfed within a month of release.
`1
Allegiance is the best game you've never played!
Insert witty sig here.
Unfortunately WC3 is 4 CD-ROM's of data, due to the AVI files. The TIE Fighter game easily fits on one CD-ROM, though.
Indeed. X-Wing was my first game I bought on a PC. It was when my dad bought our first 486 system. It came on like 8 3.5" disks. Tie Fighter, I believe, also came on 3.5" disks. So, yeah. It would have easily fit on a single-layer CD. =) Those where the days.
I believe i bought X-wing vs Tie Fighter was on CD. But I will always remember X-wing for my first "real" experiance flying around the Death Star freely, and blowing up turrets before hitting the trench. I believe I just flew around destroying as many Imperials as I could before doing the run. It was way better than all the other "on-rails" like trench runs in games before that.
I remember TIE Fighter for it's included book that had this pretty interesting back story.
Wing Commander... yeah, there was a lot of talk about it, I recall, but I never cared much for it. I remember the god-awful film though. I saw it in the theater and the real broke. I got a free ticket out of it and only lost a couple hours of my life.
Now if only I could get a copy of Day of the Tentacle. I missed that game back in the day.
"The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth." ~1984 George Orwell
Of course he didn't, but only because he couldn't. When everything is served from "the cloud", the next George Lucas will.
(Posted vaguely intentionally to be anonymous)
I had a chance to sit down and talk with one of the developers too at the Ginger Man pub in Austin. A grad student friend of mine was down for a supercomputing conference...I dare say it was the only place in Austin she could find gluten free beer.
Some guy sat down at the table with her and I. We found out a few things about him: he was working as a level designer for the Old Republic. He was extremely proud (dare I say arrogant?) about it but had never worked on any other games before. More importantly though, I thought he was hitting on me, so I asked him if he was straight. He said he was, and complimented me for knowing a lot about video games for a girl. We laughed, but for different reasons than he did.
This is the guy who's designing levels in the Old Republic: a straight guy who prefers men who haven't shaved in a week to tall skinny blondes into supercomputing research. And I thought slashdot was bad!
Good luck bioware!
All other problems aside, and it has a great many, it is a game designed for griefers. It is designed to reward and cater to those that find fun in making life difficult for others. Well that right there is enough to ruin it for me. That's not fun for me and the only reason I play games is fun. If they don't amuse me, they aren't worth my time.
I suppose I should have mentioned that in my post since I know there are EVE head on /. and it isn't surprising one would try to sell me on it. However I've tried it, in my opinion it is a horrible game that offers me nothing at all I find fun.
I WAS looking forward to this game, but come on, over a year still to go? Really sick of companies announcing games that are YEARS away.
Good-bye
Played it and didn't like it :( Something about the circle strafing shooting didn't really sit right with me. Also, while giving it a lot of time in terms of reading/learning about it, was just still confusing for me to understand what was going on or where I needed to be when playing.
Anyway I still think the game is awesome and definitely has its place in the world.
For me the only thing I really liked about star wars was the ship designs, sound effects, and the fact that the jedi were fantasy sorcerers in space, with technology. Later on I kinda liked the plot a bit, but really for me it was about the world the effects team created. (Am 30 now for age reference).
In the new movies, I hate the ship designs, and sound effects were trying to be 'almost' like star wars ones. If they had just used the same ship tech or more similar design concepts it would have been better. Otherwise they did jedi in the new one way better then in the older movies.
Whoever came up with that tie fighter sound and light saber hum is a genius, that's really what its about :)
With a couple of minor tweaks, X-Wing Alliance will run on XP. It was pretty much overlooked, but is the best example of the X-Wing flight sim series that was made. And it still plays very well, in fact. I really doesn't feel dated at all.
As for this MMOG, it will probably be like D&D Online or some rubbish. Unless it is almost entirely based upon space and hyper-spacing/warping around and ship combat, with some interactions on planets and missions as a side thing(X3 or EVE Online as examples), it will just be another MMOG with a Star Wars paint-job on top of it.
Oh lord, just shoot me now. Grinding levels in a star wars MMOG like that would be more painful than a root canal.
They should just stick to making another flight sim or another KOTOR installment.
> not to mention that I personally find "gradual, unknowing descent into evil" a hell of a lot more compelling of a story than "generic coming of age tale"
I still think maddox did a good summary of this 'gradual' change http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/images/ep3_tot1.gif . I think the change could have been interesting, but they totally screwed it up. You'd think most people would think twice before slaying a whole bunch of children "in exchange for a vague promise about a cure for a potential ailment" for ones wife, but not anakin, nooooo. Gradual my ass.
Slightly more ontopic, why hasn't anyone mentioned X-wing alliance yet? It was pretty awesome.
The "X" series is worth checking out if you're looking for something similar to Elite. X3: Terran Conflict is probably the best one to get - the interface has been greatly improved in it.
If you still have cravings for space games, and Privateer type games in general, you may want to check out the X series by Egosoft (the most recent being X3). Very open ended gameply, excellent graphics, and lots of player made mods to extend gameplay even further.
You're joking, obviously, and unfortunately it just isn't that funny.
Okay, you're probably not, but then I only have to assume you have no concept of someone ruining something. As in there are no amount of bad acts that, in your view, can detract from the original experience. I would assume, for example, that if you had a wonderful evening of some of the best sexual experiences in your life, only to discover that 'she' is actually a man (or your sister, or whatever), and this wouldn't detract from the experience for you. You may not realize, however, that this makes you somewhat unique.
I'll give you just one example of what I mean: Han Shot First:
In the original version you have Han Solo the man of questionable ethics blasting a slimeball before making an illegal getaway.
In the modified version you have Han Solo the bona-fide hero defending himself.
Never mind that the modified scene simply does not work. The angles are all wrong, the plot is more confusing this way, etc. Forget all that and just look at how this changes the end of the movie:
In the original version something about the conflict changes Han Solo into a hero and he returns, by complete surprise, to save the day.
In the modified version Han Solo goes off on some sort of asinine bender, gets all selfish, and for reasons not on screen returns to his old noble self in order to save the day.
If you see nothing lost here, I suppose you'd be frustrated by those that do. Just as we are really disappointed that you wouldn't sympathize with those of us that feel a loss over it. Content creators, such as Lucas, have a responsibility to their audience to either free the content or be good stewards of it. George has done neither, and personally I think it is about time we do something about it.
But I do realize that THAT desire probably makes ME unique, so I don't tend to get that frustrated over it.
First, you're quite correct that I'm not joking. However, I think that first of all, your example of a great night of sex being ruined is very inaccurate. In that instance, the original experience is never coming back. However, my point is that with something like a movie, the original experience is always there at your fingertips. No one is forcing you to accept a newer version, after all. In fact, people ignoring disliked changes to a beloved piece of fiction is fairly common.
Second, it's not that I don't sympathize with the Han shot first crowd, it's that I don't see what they're complaining about at all. I consider that scene such a minor, minor detail that it's more or less irrelevant. No matter which way that scene plays out, Han is a selfish, bad-ass scoundrel. In neither version of the movie can he be, at any point, called a noble character (until the end, of course). I would be understanding if there was a major change in his character, but my problem with the majority reaction to this (and everything else fans complain about in the special edition) is that in my opinion, there is no real difference.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
In the example of the encounter, what would exclude you from finding that person and repeating it? If knowing what you know now has no impact on the experience, then go for it. If you can't enjoy it based on what you now know, but you didn't know before, then there's that, too.
It's basically the same thing.
And, second, if there's no real difference then I suppose you're just not that interested in movies with detail. And that's okay, too.
Not exactly what you're looking for, but check out Eternal Silence.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)