The Old Republic

Played about three hours. Fired off a few bug reports for them.

First impressions? Standard RPG but with a Star Wars theme. Usual RPG issue where large maps = large travel times. I'm sure it'll get better as I get into it but for now I'm slightly underwhelmed.

The opening cutscene though... :drool:. Amazing.
 
Just played the Smuggler class to level 10, here are my impressions:

The Good:

The voice acting and cut scenes are terrific, for the first time in an MMO I actually give a shit about why I'm doing the quests. In truth, the quests are still your typical "kill x number of mobs, collect x number of items" etc but they're so well incorporated in the story of each quest that you hardly notice.

The combat itself is also pretty familiar but feels far more action orientated. Instead of smashing one mob until its health depletes you now deal with many enemies at the same time, throwing explosives all over the place, really making the fights come alive.

The whole feel of the universe is refreshing too, maybe its because I'm used to the orcs and elves of WoW and Everquest, but there was something genuinely original about the whole Star Wars old republic setting, I actually felt like I was playing a Han Solo-type character in the universe.

The Bad:

The cover system seems a little flimsy to me, it works most the time but there are times where it refuses to commute and you end up rolling around the place like a moron. I can also see it being a serious liability in pvp - but if you don't plan on playing a Smuggler or Imperial agent then this shouldnt be an issue.

Grouping - Theres no grouping tool, you have to stick to spamming the general chat to find a group, though it took me approximately 2 minutes to find a group for a few challenging quests.

Technical problems - I know its beta but for something less than a month away from release there were still many noticeable glitches, bugs and quirks. For example I had a recurrent glitch which saw NPCs talk without their mouths moving, as well as my character gliding instead of walking, and the various texture popup issues. Oh and theres this annoying dead pixel near the chat box (experienced by everyone it seems), but that should be a quick, easy fix. Lag wise - well there was a bit of it but I suppose that would be natural since there were so many players packed at the starting zones, but all in all it was a non issue really.

Conclusion: I think I'm going to stop playing that character so prevent further spoiling myself or perhaps I might experiment with a couple of other classes, but from what I've seen so far it looks like its going to be a pretty big hit. Despite its technical issues the game also looks very well polished over all and I have no doubt it'll succeed. December 20th (or earlier) can't come any sooner!
 
Played about three hours. Fired off a few bug reports for them.

First impressions? Standard RPG but with a Star Wars theme. Usual RPG issue where large maps = large travel times. I'm sure it'll get better as I get into it but for now I'm slightly underwhelmed.

The opening cutscene though... :drool:. Amazing.

Really? I think it's absolutely brilliant. It's not a revolutionary RPG but it's so well made and the combat is really fun, very polished too.

No wonder it's the most expensive game ever made, it's fecking huge!
 
The "Flashpoint" bits are great, the regular questing is the same old shit though. Everyone having a voiceover doesn't solve that problem.

I do hope Guild Wars 2 sets a new standard for MMO games.
 
Really? I think it's absolutely brilliant. It's not a revolutionary RPG but it's so well made and the combat is really fun, very polished too.

No wonder it's the most expensive game ever made, it's fecking huge!

Like I said, I don't think I've levelled up enough to really get into it. It didn't hook me though, admittedly. I'm going to give it another go tonight.

The "Flashpoint" bits are great, the regular questing is the same old shit though. Everyone having a voiceover doesn't solve that problem.

I do hope Guild Wars 2 sets a new standard for MMO games.

Oh man I've been following that game for so long and now it all seems so silent. What's happenining? It was looking awesome for a long time.
 
Is it not the 20th it's out?

How many hours does it take to get a character to 50? I'm on 13 now and I've gotten there almost entirely by questing. Is that the case the whole way through?

The early access begins the 15th. So if you pre-ordered you will be given access priority based on how long ago you pre-ordered.

I would say for your very first character through, if you watch and listen to all the voice acting around 200 hours.

Once you know what you are doing and just skip the VA work you can do it in 60-70 hours, even faster in some circumstances. Due to the companion system, and the way bonus XP is awarded grouping is extremely fast. A two man group can face roll content while leveling with companions.

As a soloist, if you want to level the absolute fastest way possible you grind whenever possible.
 
From the little bit I got through, only a few levels, it was an entertaining game. It's not too groundbreaking, but most people aren't going to get to some of the better parts of the game, like the character's spacecraft, PvP, bigger dungeons, etc.

The companion thing is pretty nifty. Just send it to go sell all your junk while you keep questing or farming. Or on other errands. It's not necessarily new, but it's something I would have liked in WoW.
 
The early access begins the 15th. So if you pre-ordered you will be given access priority based on how long ago you pre-ordered.

I would say for your very first character through, if you watch and listen to all the voice acting around 200 hours.

Once you know what you are doing and just skip the VA work you can do it in 60-70 hours, even faster in some circumstances. Due to the companion system, and the way bonus XP is awarded grouping is extremely fast. A two man group can face roll content while leveling with companions.

As a soloist, if you want to level the absolute fastest way possible you grind whenever possible.

Crikey! I'd prefer that to grinding anyway.

I'll probably pre-order on the new equivalent service EA have to steam if that's the case then. if I buy the came, which I'm tempted to do but also terrified about doing!
 
Got back from shopping to see that the beta is still up and running. :drool:

Made my char, a Zabrak bounty hunter, it doesn't run at all well on this laptop but when my new PSU arrives tomorrow get to play it on the PC. Watched all the cinematics, saw 2 of them already before the game was released but hadn't seen this one.



Can't wait to play properly tomorrow.
 
other than questing and grinding, what else is there to do ?

what happens when you finish the whole story and reach level 50?

are you able to transfer your level 50 jedi knight into a level 50 bounty hunter, or would you have to start from fresh ?

is there space combat ?

can all jedi use - double bladed, 2 sabres and single sabre or are they exclusive to certain classes/ranks ?
 
loads to do I assume.

First off join a PvP server, that's what you would mainly be doing at level 50, you fight other people not just monsters. I would guess there would be massive "dungeons" with mega bosses that large amounts of people are require for, and great loot is acquired after.

They haven't just made the game so that people are going to run out of stuff to do at level 50.

and yeah there is space combat I think.
 
Been playing this some more and have realised there's a few more things I really dont like about it:

1) Character customisation - its pretty feckin abysmal, usually BioWare are very good in the plethora of options they give you to mould your perfect avatar, but all they have here are a select few anime hairstyles, some hideous face presets (which you cant customise) and the body types....oh god the body types - for males you have a choice of Anorexic, then short skinny....then it shoots all the way up to roid junkie, then morbidly obese. What happened to an 'average' body type eh BioWare?! Not all of us want to look like freaks. This has also led to everyone more or less looking the same, I mean I was grouping up with another trooper who looked EXACTLY like me...pretty disconcerting that.

2) The Dark side/Light side options...whoever designed this needs a hefty slap. Not only are they very cliched choices (i.e. kill orphan kittens or cure world hunger) but they're morally confusing...not in a good way either. Take one quest for example where the parents of a lost boy want you to seek our their son in an enemy rebel base camp. Upon reaching the camp the boy has clearly been brainwashed since he now sides with the enemy. Your choices are either to convince the boy to come back to his worried parents or grant his request of letting him escape the planet and run away from it all, sounds simple enough except forcing him to go home to his worried parents gives you Dark side points....I mean WTF?! Surely its in everyones best interest for the boy to return home safely to his worried parents as opposed to letting him roam the galaxies as a space hobo..I mean that really had me bemused. There are plenty of other examples too but I can't be bothered naming them.

3) Glitches - there's still many of em! I hope they iron most of em out by launch which is not too far away.

Sorry for the long rant, in truth I'm actually very excited for its release but having followed this eagerly for years I really want it to succeed and give me years of social life-destroying joy.
 
other than questing and grinding, what else is there to do ?

what happens when you finish the whole story and reach level 50?

are you able to transfer your level 50 jedi knight into a level 50 bounty hunter, or would you have to start from fresh ?

is there space combat ?

can all jedi use - double bladed, 2 sabres and single sabre or are they exclusive to certain classes/ranks ?

Space combat is a rail shooter, basically. I found it a bit boring but as it's not mandatory it's not a big issue.

You can't transfer from one class to another that way, you have to start from fresh. But each class has its own storyline so it's worth it.

There are flashpoints, heroic flashpoints (for excample, you can repeat the first Republic flashpoint, the Esseles, with much higher difficulty at level cap.), operations (which are raids, basically, 8- or 16-man raids) as endgame content. Also, there's solo endgame content on Ilum, of this they haven't revealed much and I haven't got that far in the beta. Ilum is also the dedicated PvP world if you're interested in that thing.

Lightsaber type is restricted: Jedi Sage, Jedi Guardian, Sith Juggernaught and Sith Sorcerer use single-blade, Jedi Shadow, Jedi Sentinel, Sith Marauder and Sith Assassin use double-blade or two sabers.
 
The space will be expanded in the future. I'm hoping for more towards a SWG type system in space.

I'd even be pleased with a rail shooter if the ship had at least some different abilities or shields that are only temporarily usable or something. Right now you can fire rockets or fire "normal" laser. That's it.

As far as I'm aware, upgrades merely improve the power of these but do not add variety. I might be wrong though.
 
So you lads going Empire then?

I'm seriously tempted to ditch my Imperial Agent for a smuggler...had waay too much fun with him at Beta
 
So you lads going Empire then?

I'm seriously tempted to ditch my Imperial Agent for a smuggler...had waay too much fun with him at Beta

Me and an old mate I've played MMOs with for about 10 years are going Empire, 2 of our other mates from the same games are going Republic so should have a bit of friendly competition. we played SWG for a bit as well and were both Bounty Hunters so we're gonna go BH and set a guild up straight away.
 
The PvP server populations are going to favor Imperials about 65-35%.

The PvE servers will be about 55-45%.
 
Have you guys been allocated a server yet?

They've put our Republic guild on Frostclaw (PVE).
 
I preordered about 10 minutes after it announced, I didn't put the code into the website however until the 24th September. :(

Everybody who put the code into the website up to and including July 27th has had their early access email. No more today so hoping I get in tomorrow.

If I had just put my code from Origin into the website as soon as the email arrived I'd be in now.
 
What the feck?

Ordered the game and got the email confirming it, but there was no pre-order code in the email? There's instructions on activating it, but no fecking code.

Am I missing something here?
 
In fact I don't even have a product code. When I log in to Origin it says no games detected. Such a load of bollocks.

EDIT: Zarlak, how many mails did you get off Origin?

I have one entitled "Order - Order confirmation for #xxxxxxxx"