KOTOR
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Knights of the Old Republic, Jedi Knight 2 now on Mac via Steam
May the fourteenth be with you: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast are each available on Mac and are 25 percent off on Steam today, in celebration of "May the 10 days after May the fourth be with you" day or something. Each title costs $7.50 with the sale, which ends May 21 at 10 a.m. PST.Both games first dropped in 2003 but they hold up pretty well nine years on, especially at less than $10 -- at least they've aged better than we imagine The Old Republic will have by 2020.
The Perfect Ten: Ways to prepare for the coming of SWTOR
Welcome to a very special edition of The Perfect Ten, the column that my two toddlers contribute to with their awe-inspiring counting abilities! With last week's dropping of Star Wars: The Old Republic's NDA, the internet has exploded with information, testimonials, and poorly spelled flamewars between the camps of believers and non-believers alike. It's a good time to be alive, eh? In the spirit of the NDA drop and the upcoming December 20th launch -- less than a month! -- I've put together a list of 10 excellent ways that a SWTOR fan can prepare him or herself for the coming MMOcalypse. I totally understand that it can be frustrating to be waiting for an anticipated game launch, feeling impotent with your inability to speed up time. However, taking action in other ways can help with the wait and make us feel like we're being productive. That's what I'm here for today. It's OK, there's no need to thank me. I get Light Side points for this.
BioWare links SWTOR and KOTOR in a new novel
Just about everyone who has played Knights of the Old Republic wants to know what happened to Revan after the game was done. After all, he was the main character for 60-plus hours of gameplay. Who wouldn't be attached? BioWare announced today that those fans will get their wishes fulfilled. Drew Karpyshyn, a principal writer for Star Wars: The Old Republic and author of the Bane novels, has set his pen to another Star Wars book. This one simply titled after its primary protagonist: Revan. In an interview on the official SWTOR website, Karpyshyn gives us a tease as to how this novel will relate to the new MMORPG. I think the novel will give them a much better understanding of the Sith Emperor and the Empire, for one thing. The Old Republic Sith Empire is very different from what people know from the movies, or even from the Great Hyperspace War comics that focus on characters like Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh. The novel will also give them some very direct background and detailed information that ties in directly with key Flashpoints in the game. I can't say too much, of course, but like any great prequel the books will give you the details of what came before to add an extra layer of depth to the experiences in the game. Although he does not mention an exact date for the book's release, we do know that it will come later this year. This reporter hopes that it is before the release of SWTOR.
Hyperspace Beacon: The BioWare schtick
I'm going to dote a little on BioWare for a bit. Specifically, I would like to dote on Knights of the Old Republic, the precursor to Star Wars: The Old Republic. I want to accentuate the positive up front here, because in a moment I will say things that may be construed as negative. However, they're not. I have complete respect for what BioWare has done and is doing. KOTOR was built on an original gaming engine (the Odyssey Engine). This gaming engine was designed as a 3-D version of the Infinity Engine, which is video game engine specifically designed to emulate mechanics found in the Dungeons and Dragons pen and paper game. In 1998, Baldur's Gate (Infinity Engine) -- which was said, at the time, to be like Diablo but more story-driven -- won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Computer Game. KOTOR, using a 3-D version of the same engine, is not lacking in its awards. It won game of the year from the Game Developers Choice Awards, Computer Gaming World, IGN, GMR Magazine, PC Gamer, Xbox Magazine, and G4, among other awards too long to list here. The point of this is to show BioWare's track record and to show that BioWare went so far as to build a story-making game from the ground up. Now, based on reports from Gamasutra, BioWare is using the HeroEngine for SWTOR, but that, obviously, does not mean there will be less focus on storytelling in the game. But has BioWare's storytelling energy finally run out? Have the original ideas presented in KOTOR and Baldur's Gate diminished to monotony? Has BioWare become -- dare I say it -- predictable? If it has, is that a bad thing? Continue reading to explore these ideas.
SWTOR finds a companion for the Jedi knight
In SWTOR's Deceived trailer, there was an odd shot of the Jedi leader giving a signal to an astromech droid. Per usual, the writers at BioWare do not put anything into their trailers without a specific reason. This past Friday, that little droid was revealed to be a companion for the Jedi knight class, named T7-O1 (tee seven - oh one). This little bot calls back to both T3-M4 of Knights of the Old Republic and, of course, R2-D2 of the Star Wars movies. In fact, his attitude is very similar to R2-D2's. According to the companion page on SWTOR's official site, he considers his owners to be more like partners and less like masters. T7-O1 was activated over two centuries before the Treaty of Coruscant and has yet to be memory-wiped in that whole time. He remembers every organic he has ever worked with, from the petty smugglers, to Senator Oodora of Manaan, to Captain Nico Okarr, and to Jedi Master Ven Zallow, whom we witnessed being killed by Darth Malgus in the previously mentioned trailer. For your Jedi knight character, you can expect this droid to be an invaluable source of information. His surveillance, cartography, and data-slicing skills are unmatched. BioWare has not revealed where your Jedi knight will meet T7-O1, just like every other companion mentioned for this game, but rest assured, he's waiting for you somewhere in that galaxy far, far away.
Cats invade Star Wars: The Old Republic in this week's Fan Friday
The community of Star Wars: The Old Republic did not quite make the Twitter and Facebook goals, so the developers decided to punish us by announcing another species that we will not be able to play. (Just kidding, it wasn't punishment.) In addition to spotlighting fan art and video, this week's Fan Friday column mentions Cathar as being another species players of SWTOR will bump into on their travels across the galaxy. The feline species from the planet bearing the same name was first mentioned by name in Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith, but gamers are probably more familiar with it from the other BioWare game, Knights of the Old Republic. Although the devs did not say where or how the players will run into this highly anticipated species, fans are hoping for a Cathar companion character. As mentioned above, the social media goal was not reached. Even so, the community team did give the fans some gifts. The Fan Site Kit has been updated with more digital goodies. New avatars, screenshots, and biographical images can now grace your SWTOR fan site. Not to mention, the team has included six new desktop wallpaper images straight from the exciting "Hope" trailer. Be sure to check out all of this and the amazing new fan art on the official SWTOR site.
Taris adding a little post-apocalyptic flavor to SWTOR
For those of us who played Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the name Taris will immediately spark up some memories of those first few hours of playing the original game that started it all. Taris, for the record, was an ecumenopolis (or city-wide planet) much like Coruscant, only unlike the more famously known hub of the galaxy, Taris was destroyed and forgotten during the events of KOTOR. This week's new Developer Dispatch video covers the dev team's efforts to make a uniquely post-apocalyptic zone for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and it really delivers. Even if you haven't had the pleasure of playing KOTOR, we think Taris is going to be something to really look forward to -- except perhaps those Rakghouls. Find the video below the break.
Taris announced for Star Wars: The Old Republic
Fans of Star Wars: The Old Republic are most likely veterans of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, for reasons that should be immediately obvious. So the announcement of Taris on the official site is no doubt going to bring back some warm feelings of nostalgia... or irritation at the planet that you had to spend roughly seven years on to find Bastilla. Maybe a little of both. Of course, by the same token players might remember that Taris didn't exactly make it through the end of the game intact. Being leveled by an orbital bombardment left the planet a smoldering ruin for the rest of that game, and according to the planet's official dossier, the better part of three hundred years. The Republic is attempting to re-colonize the planet in a show of defiance against the Sith, but they're running into a few problems. The rakghouls and plagues that marked the planet's lowest sectors remain amidst the ruins, along with the Sith attempting to block the Republic from the obvious symbolic victory of retaking the world. We're still a year out from Star Wars: The Old Republic, but with a few of the sites we can look forward to visiting, some players might feel as if they've never left.
Ray Muzyka: Bioware producing a lot of content, more to come at E3
Bioware's Ray Muzyka has been spilling some Bio-beans over on Eurogamer today. In the public interview, he says that while there is both PDLC (the "P" stands for "Premium") being developed for Mass Effect 2 and expansion content planned for Dragon Age: Origins, most of the core team for the sci-fi series has already started working on the as-yet-unannounced Mass Effect 3. He does promise that there's been a vision from the beginning and that the vision has been tweaked and changed as the games are coming along, so hopefully the trilogy will lead to a worthwhile conclusion. He also hints that there's lots more to see coming from Bioware -- Muzyka is working on both PS3 and 360 titles (some still secret) "across the studios I manage," and of course The Old Republic, which he describes as "KotOR 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 in one project," is in development as well. And at the very end of the interview, to a question about what we can expect at this year's E3, he only answers a cryptic, "Yes!" Maybe Muzyka should have been in charge of the dialog trees in Dragon Age; the game would have been a lot shorter. [via NeoGAF]
The Digital Continuum: SWTOR's 'inquistoring' Consular conundrum
The revealing of Star Wars: The Old Republic's final two classes has incited much discussion amongst the community and inside my own brain. On one hand, lots of people are happy to have more Sith and Jedi classes to choose from. However, on the other hand, some people are disappointed in the lack of creative and unexpected class options. In all reality, BioWare probably made the right choice, but let's look at the view of both sides for the sake of argument and to have a little fun.
Direct2Drive slashes prices on LucasArts games
Direct2Drive is offering some pretty good deals on LucasArts games this week. Three bundles are on offer, one catering to the adventure gamers out there, another for Star Wars afficionados, and a third that combines the first two into a massive LucasArts love fest. The bundles include the likes of Dark Forces, Indiana Jones, KOTOR, Jedi Knight, Monkey Island, Armed and Dangerous, and plenty more. The smaller bundles have been discounted from $49.99 to $24.49, while the massive bundle has been reduced from $99.87 to $39.95. Not bad for LucasArts fans. The sale ends November 23 at 10:00am PT. See details of each bundle after the break.
BioWare Producer on heroism and villainy in Star Wars: The Old Republic
BioWare Producer Blaine Christine recently sat down for a Star Wars: The Old Republic interview with Steven Crews at The MMO Gamer. The interview hits on a number of facets of SWTOR's gameplay and the process of creating the title. They also discuss how BioWare is designing the game to dissuade everyone from (only) running around wielding lightsabers through the unique strengths of each class, but their talk really focuses on the game's story. Blaine discusses how the story for SWTOR players, whether they choose to be good or evil, will always be more than kill ten rats or "collect ten boxes for some random vendor." That story you play through fits the role you've chosen for yourself. Blaine likens a player's story progression to Knights of the Old Republic. He tells The MMO Gamer, "If you look at KOTOR and how that worked out, if you played light side versus dark side, there were distinct differences in the story, and distinct differences in how your character developed. It's going to be very similar to that."
MMOs top Steam and Direct2Drive weekly charts
We told you September was going to be a crazy month for MMOs! It seems that for the week of 9/6 to 9/12, MMOs topped both the Steam and Direct2Drive sales charts. Aion: Collector's Edition was first and Champions Online second on Steam and and it was the same for D2D, except they swapped first and second positions. Fallen Earth (preorder) was third on D2D, while not for sale on Steam. The Aion: Standard Edition took tenth on Steam and fifth on D2D.It's also worth mentioning that Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, while not an MMO, ranked highly for the week as well (third on Steam and fourth on D2D). BioWare announced a special $10 deal for KotOR at PAX last week for fans of their upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic. People buying KotOR through D2D will receive a 25% discount on SWTOR when it releases. Speaking of D2D, you should keep your eye on their special Five Year Anniversary page because next Monday ten RPG/MMOs will be going on sale for $5.00 each!Update: Thanks for the fix, cb!
PAX 2009: BioWare offers Star Wars: The Old Republic fans discount on KOTOR
We're all about MMOs at Massively (shocker), but once in a while something from our RPG past resurfaces and captures our attention again. Clearly we've got a number of Star Wars fans among our readers looking at how many people are following our Star Wars: The Old Republic coverage, and for many gamers the original Knights of the Old Republic (circa 2003) was a memorable experience. BioWare announced at PAX 2009 that they're handing out $10 doses of nostalgia by offering KOTOR downloads for PC through both Direct2Drive and Steam. Getting back to the MMO angle, there's another 25% off of that for Star Wars: The Old Republic community members who download the game from Direct2Drive. Sure, PAX attendees get their KOTOR downloads for free -- damn you, Kyle Horner! -- but seriously, it's only $10 to begin with. If you missed Knights of the Old Republic the first time around, this is as good a time as any to catch up. Check out the announcement over on the official SWTOR site and create your account before September 15th if you're really adamant about saving a few bucks.
Star Wars: KOTOR on Steam, Direct2Drive now - free for PAX panel attendees
At this afternoon's Star Wars: The Old Republic panel at PAX, attendees were given a special treat: knowledge that LucasArts continues to expand its digital offerings, bringing the BioWare-developed classic (and precursor to SW:TOR) Knights of the Old Republic to both Steam and Direct2Drive for $10 ... starting today. KOTOR joins a digital lineup of LucasArts adventure game classics, as well as some more recent fare like Republic Commando. Still missing: X-Wing, TIE Fighter, X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, and X-Wing and TIE Fighter Meet Frankenstein. We suppose the free Steam download code they Oprah'd away ("You get a code! And you get a code!") could be considered a treat by some; however, we've already given ours away on Twitter (@joystiq) convincing ourselves that sharing the knowledge is a far greater treat. Right? [Note to PAX attendees: There's a repeat of today's panel tomorrow morning at 11am; even money is on Lucas repeating this code-away there. That's from us to you. Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush.]
Rumor: The Old Republic to have player housing?
Player housing seems to be an oft requested feature for generally any MMO, but the last place we expected to hear rumors about it was for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Granted, this rumor stems from a BioWare employee at Gamescom being a little too tired and letting "housing" slip as one of the many features of the game. Of course, it's also just as likely that said person was so tired they simply misspoke.Rumors have a way of digging into the brain, though, and this one is no different. If you think back to KOTOR and Mass Effect, both games had a kind of home base for the game's main characters. Wouldn't housing be pretty much the same thing? Yeah, we just went there.
The Digital Continuum: Let the Star Wars races begin
I've been holding off on this for a little while, but it's the kind of subject that is impossible for me to avoid indefinitely. Classes were the last topic I touched upon, and there was quite a lot of conversation. In fact, there was a whole bunch of it to follow. So let's discuss the potential races for Star Wars: The Old Republic and, as usual, feel free to toss in your thoughts and picks in the comments. It wouldn't be the same without them.
Star Wars: The Old Republic reveals Ord Mantell as its newest planet
BioWare has revealed Ord Mantell as Star Wars: The Old Republic's newest planet via a flurry of screenshots, concept art and even a new wallpaper. It reminds us a lot of Dantooine from the original KOTOR game, but with a little more going on than a Jedi Academy and tons of grass.Don't get us wrong because we enjoyed or original stay in Dantooine, but reading the lore piece on Ord Mantell is causing a noticeable unnatural buildup of saliva. Embroiled in a ruthless civil war? Mountainous plains and volcanic islands? A corrupt government? These are all the makings of a wonderfully fun adventure for any player of either faction.We're mostly excited about the ongoing battle between the Republic loyal old government and separatists looking for independence. As the marauders, Nar Shaddaa black market tech and elite Republic forces are all likely to be converging just as we -- and you -- arrive on the planet once Star Wars: The Old Republic launches sometime in the hopefully not-too-distant future.%Gallery-35033%%Gallery-35034%%Gallery-35036%
The Old Republic's timeline as voiced by Lance Henriksen
If there's one thing a self indulging Star Wars fan knows, it's that lore is bountiful in our favorite science fiction pastime. So it comes as little surprised that a series high quality weekly webcomics just isn't enough for Star Wars: The Old Republic. BioWare has gone the distance and begun to put forth an audio timeline leading up to the current peace between the Galatic Republic and Sith Empire.The historical record will be spoken by Master Gnost-Dural, Keeper of the Jedi Archives, who is in turn voiced by actor Lance Henriksen. BioWare fans will recognize him as the voice of Mass Effect's Admiral Hackett of the Human Systems Alliance. As for how many of these we should plan for, looking at the timeline reveals several more historical points (we counted 18) that took place before this inaugural first.We'll try to feign a little surprise when "history" from the Knights of the Old Republic RPGs crops up somewhere in here, although hopefully it'll be more than a recap of those game's storylines.
The Digital Continuum: Where mundane and fantastical merge
The wizard leaps across the chasm, deftly avoiding a hurled ball of fire that the Goblin shaman had thrown in a rage. A space fighter weaves through suspended rocks in space as hostile blaster fire scorches the tips of his wing span. A retail employee swings the massive hammer he found in the home improvement section, saving a co-worker from the blood-thirsty sprite from another world?
