BioWare Releases Shiny New Old Republic In-Game Trailer

[John Funk]

BioWare Releases Shiny New Old Republic In-Game Trailer

[video=2886]

The galaxy is divided, and only you can help decide its fate. It must be Tuesday in Star Wars.

Today officially kicks off PAX East 2011, and to celebrate the opening of the East Coast's premiere gaming convention, BioWare has pushed out a new trailer for some little upcoming game it's working on - I think it's about old Republicans or something? I was never very clear on this, really.

All kidding aside, this is the latest trailer for BioWare's hotly-anticipated new MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. It's nothing we haven't seen before: The galaxy is divided, blah blah, choose your side, yada yada, you know the drill. If you've seen any of the SW:TOR trailers before this one, then you've seen the story elements already.

What is nice is that we get a look at some of the in-game environments through which players will actually be adventuring. The scenery looks quite nice, and it's clear that SW:TOR has come a long way from its more modest graphical beginnings. It's all very pretty, to be sure, and if you have the machine to pump all the settings up to max you'll be sure to enjoy the view.

All we need now is an official release date. In the meantime, why not pre-register your Old Republic guild already [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108388-Pre-Register-Your-Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic-Guild-Today]?

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[John Funk]

THIS IS AMAZING!

Honestly, I was thinking of not picking this up (Yes Blasphemy, I know) but this cements it, I WILL BUY THIS. WHERE IS THE LIMITED EDITION?

Also Mr. Funk. I am going to guess that you will do a grand unvieling of the Limited Edition like you did with SC2 and Cata?

It's a safe bet that SOMEONE will.

 

[LavaLampBamboo]

Heh, protocol droids are awesome.

The trailer looks pretty, good and the dialogue does add a certain element to it. It should be a real big launch, but only time will tell how it does in the long run.

 

[Radoh]

Alright, I've been following this game for a while now and now that I get to see some of the environments I think I'll be picking this up if not just for a test drive.

Also, was that HK-47 in there? Say what you will about LucasArts, but they know what the people want.

 

[deth2munkies]

HK-47 is the only thing extraordinary about this trailer.

DO WANT.

 

[Mrsoupcup]

HK-47 is the only thing extraordinary about this trailer.

DO WANT.

Silence. Meat bag. (Yup I just about jizzed)

 

[Jingermanoo]

I, and apparently everyone else to comment so far, is literally buzzing off this trailer.
Makes me wish I had the hardware to run such games. Alas.

 

[Sixcess]

The environments look great, but I still feel there's something off about the animations. The pistol shooting in particular looks really stiff. I think it's the way they always seem to stand ramrod straight.

 

[luvd1]

Hk 47? Oh there is a god... And it's sith. But still not enough to get me t buy it.

 

[dagens24]

I don't like how the classes are caricatures of famous Star Wars characters. Either let me play as Han Solo (which really isn't possible given the setting and the fact there would be a thousand Han Solos running around) or do something unique. Hey look, I'm a smuggler with a wookie sidekick! Am I Han Solo? No. I'm some generic other guy that existed a thousand years before who just happend to act exactly like Han Solo and who just happend to have a wookie sidekick. Hey look, I'm a bounty hunter who uses jetpacks and flamethrowers and dual pistols! Am I Boba Fett? No. I'm some genertic other bounty hunter with all the same equipment and characteristics whi existed a thousand years before who just happens to be almost exactly the same. Etc.

Listen, nostalgia is great but not worth the cost of trivializing the awesomeness of these iconic characters and settings. Please stop with the watered down Han Solos and Darth Vaders, create new and interesting content that compliments the Star Wars universe rather tries to recreate it with a slight twist.

Anyway, that's how I feel but I'm sure for every me there are two who see the bounty hunter and are all 'Sweet, can't wait to eff some guys uuuuuup Boba Fett styles!'.

 

[Something Amyss]

The environments look great, but I still feel there's something off about the animations. The pistol shooting in particular looks really stiff. I think it's the way they always seem to stand ramrod straight.

Some of the saber combat seems off, too.

Still seems pretty decent. Will I shell out for an MMO? Still undecided. But the trailers are nice.

 

[Therumancer]

It looks decent. I'll be honest in saying that the fact that the character models seem a little "off" is a good thing in my mind, since it seems to be showing the game as it actually is. In many cases it seems like they show perfect footage of MMOs in action from some kind of developmental demo, and then the actual results wind up being a lot stiffer (like we see) due to changes needing to be made from all the people acting at once.

Of course if it turns out that this is a sexed up version of it, and what we're going to see is a lot stiffer and a bit more "off" than that... well that's going to be awful. We'll see what happens when they game comes out.

Simply put I'm hoping it's a case of "truth in advertising" this time, if the game is like that in actual play, I'll be pretty happy.

One nitpick I have though is that Bioware needs to do their homework, in general I think tha the lore has been safe in their hands, but it bugs me when they do a lot of things right and then mess up crucial details.

In this case the Old Republic should not have "seen peace for one thousand generations". That's incorrect actually, since what we're seeing is the end of an era of evil, The Sith Empire is about to be wiped out so entirely that at the end of the beginning cycle of good nobody will remember what a Sith was with any certainy.

What's more this picks up from where KotOR2 left off, and what happened with Revan/The Last Jedi figures into the lore. "One Thousand Generations" of peace had not transpired. We had the Jedi and Sith both nearly wiped out by Kreia, we had planets getting wiped out, we had armies of Sith taking over and occupying planets and flying around with legions of space fighters... and oh yeah, a desperate race to find "The Star Forge" to prevent the creation of a droid army. Not to mention massive criminal syndicates run by things like GOTO, and not only the antics of Bounty Hunters, but also an Assasin's guild. Peace has not been reigning for a thousand generations.


Of course please don't tell EA I criticized Bioware here, I mean my copy of "Dragon Age 2" just arrived. Despite my problems with it, I've been wanting to play it after watching my parents play theirs (I ordered from Amazon to save a couple of bucks). I don't want to be exiled from their community and locked out of my game, or being able to actually play Old Republic Online for daring to have an opinion on something other than their irrefutable greatness.

On second thought, I can't risk it. The game is perfect, the animations are utterly perfect, better than reality could ever produce and OBVIOUSLY that is going to be how it is. Obviously god's hand was at work through the EA/Bioware coders, and we should be honorerd to breathe the same air as such a generous, talented, and entirely infallible group of people.

 

[Throwitawaynow]

Snip

Dealing in semantics, black op things, things that don't directly involve the republic as in the government not the age, jedi and the republic being seperate. It's a 1000 generations of peace from a lot of perspectives.

 

[Nick Holmgren]

The more I see of this the more I get the feeling it is going to play like WoW but with mroe cut scenes and maybe more instancing.

 

[Therumancer]

Snip

Dealing in semantics, black op things, things that don't directly involve the republic as in the government not the age, jedi and the republic being seperate. It's a 1000 generations of peace from a lot of perspectives.

A lot of these events were not on a small scale. Don't forget that Darth Malak (I think it was) scotched a planet in the first KotOR to wipe out the Jedi. Then we had battle fleets clashing through KotOR2 and everything else. This stuff wasn't exactly quiet, nor was the universe being portrayed as being peaceful.

I understand their need to be dramatic, and wanting to try and set the tone, but I think Bioware of all companies should be being a lot more anal on the details, especially with them being lionized for their treatment of the universe.

Now, if you wanted to lead into the Star Wars prequels by saying "there have been a thousand generations of peace" before what happened there, that's fairly reasonable. After all a military enforced trade embargo/isolation is getting galactic attention. The end of the Sith Empire is supposed to have heralded that age which was ending then.

Right now the state of the universe is supposed to be an era of evil and chaos, things work in cycles, and we're seeing the brief period of balance before the beginnings of the Republic as it exists in the Star Wars timeline. I could rant more about it, but the point is that the pre-amble is kind of contrary to the presentation we should be seeing.

Of course properly representing The Republic as it should exist right now, would probably make people think "OMG, your ripping this off from Warhammer 40k"... well maybe not that extreme in the same ways, but similar.

Simply put The Force has decreed it's time for the new cycle (which nobody realizes). It's time for the bad guys to get theirs. The Sith Empire is manipulated by events into encounterng "The Republic" which is less evil than they are, and engaging. At which point their powers are going to fail, the force is going to become "cloudy", and the other side is going to hop up. They are going to go from "OMG, we're mighty" to getting shattered like a group of little girls and being chased back to their own planets for a good old fashioned round of Genocide to the point where nobody even knows for sure who these guys were come the time period of the movies. You might be going "but wait, good guys won't committ genocide", well yeah... but that's the point, this is the period of balance, they aren't supposed to be peaceful and goody-goody yet, just the seeds that lead to it.

 

[Irridium]

What's more this picks up from where KotOR2 left off, and what happened with Revan/The Last Jedi figures into the lore. "One Thousand Generations" of peace had not transpired. We had the Jedi and Sith both nearly wiped out by Kreia, we had planets getting wiped out, we had armies of Sith taking over and occupying planets and flying around with legions of space fighters... and oh yeah, a desperate race to find "The Star Forge" to prevent the creation of a droid army. Not to mention massive criminal syndicates run by things like GOTO, and not only the antics of Bounty Hunters, but also an Assasin's guild. Peace has not been reigning for a thousand generations.

Actually, it takes place 300 years after KOTOR2. But still, peace has not been around for thousands of generations as the video said. There was the Jedi Civil War, the Mandalorian Wars, the war with Exar Kun... I could go on, but I think I made my point.

More on topic: Looks interesting. I don't mind the art style/graphics actually. All that means to me is that I'll be able to run it pretty well.

 

[Buizel91]

Alright, I've been following this game for a while now and now that I get to see some of the environments I think I'll be picking this up if not just for a test drive.

Also, was that HK-47 in there? Say what you will about LucasArts, but they know what the people want.

Was thinking the exact same, although he is probably just a quest...

*Hopes for Atton Rand and Carth Onasi!*...(Sigh never mind, just read the above post...ok then T3M4!)

Anyway, I'm sure i read somewhere the graphics were awful, and it's just WoW clone...

I laugh at them people. =D

 

[waive]

I, and apparently everyone else to comment so far, is literally buzzing off this trailer.
Makes me wish I had the hardware to run such games. Alas.

BW said they don't want people to have to upgrade their computers to play the game, so as long as yours isn't over 4 or something years old, I really bet your going to be in the green.

*snip*.

For a while I did agree with you, but after some time it seems like you will get quite a few different companions to chill with, and after seeing what some of the classes armor looks like, it really looks like you could play a Han Solo Clone, or run around in a trench coat with a Twi'lek wrapped around you while you shot gun everything into red mist.

I was really happy to see the recent Smuggler not looking like Han in any way, shape or form, and not acting like him much (instead healing and tossing grenades)