Zero Punctuation: Star Wars: The Old Republic

[ThreeKneeNick]

Gee Yahtzee you almost made that combat system sound exciting. I wonder if there will ever be a time when you don't treat an MMO as a waste of time. You are right to do so though, i think they really need to change to be less linear.

 

[InevitableFate]

You failed to mention that the bad guys all have British Accents.

Which they do. It's just Bioware realised that there's more than one accent in Britain. Which is why there's Welsh and Scottish Imperial Officers giving you missions on the Imperial side.

I find it hilarious.

 

[Foxeh Chandonnet]

I love your videos but this one let me down. You gave your World of Warcraft review more playtime than you did SWTOR and thats unfair. You should have, atleast, played a Bounty Hunter and a Jedi Knight. Super easy way to rape everything and get a firm feel of both sides of the universe.

First off, in conversations, you get the light or darkside points for the choice you picked wether your group member wins or not- its based off your intentions. Who gets to talk is based on a roll with some ppl being able to crit their roll. Your personal story is divided into chapters with each planet being a new chapter in your story leading to your 'legacy'. You will be able to choose a surname and make a family tree- offering perks to your rerolled toons like; getting their speeder at an earlier lvl, Bind to Legacy Gear or changeing how fast they earn exp.

This game is nothing like WoW. I do admit they took alot of controls and options from WoW, but its a comfortable system almost all MMO's use and why fix whats not broken. Still, even with takeing a few of WoWs controls, the game leaps far ahead of what WoW is offering. WoW is about to take a page from Kungfu Panda and Pokemon (Pandarans and Pet Fighting System). Why is all of Azeroth ripped in half but the Land of Pandera is so unmolested? And yes, fellow nerds, i know Panderans are in the lore, what im saying is- its gay. Its gayer than me and im a homo.

I sat on the SWTOR website for 2 years before this game came out. You couldnt spend a whole month just to give it more than a "first impression" review?

Sidenote: Its pretty lame to compare every MMORPG to WoW, especially when WoW wasnt the first MMORPG. Its just the one that killed Neverwinter Nights, Ultima Online and Guild Wars with a redundant system that keeps players paying 14 bucks a month just go to "Oooo! But this gear is BETTER!" and tell Chuck Norris Jokes.

 

[Bluecho]

I think the only way moral choice systems can work is if the actual determining of whether one choice is good and the other evil is never given. As in, you're given a choice but not told which one is the light/dark choice.

Let's take the Mass Effect example. I haven't played them myself, but in one of the games (SPOILER ALERT I guess) you're given a choice between destroying a hostile race and brainwashing it to be not hostile. Which of these is the morally right decision? Beats the hell out of me, though the game awards its Paragon/Renegade points like the choices aren't both morally dubious.

As such, the best moral choices are the ones that really make you wonder which of them is the morally right choice. Anything else, and you're just perhaps choosing plainly evil choices for the sake of being evil. Or because they yield money.

 

[CapitalistPig]

I imagine Yahtzee would like the Sith Warrior campaign more seeing as you get to torture people within the first hour.

Aw crap I'm an accidental Logo copy cat. Good choice though sir. Not that I need to tell you.

 

[Bloodysoldier]

-200 (PEAK HOUR)people IS a graveyard. Hell, even low hours this is lousy. This number is laughable and shameful compared to other mmos. WoW, EvE online and even RUNESCAPE servers number their online population in the THOUSANDS.

I doubt it. I played WoW for 6 years and have never seen more than 200 people in any faction capital at any time during the day. He's not saying 200 total, he's saying 200 on the fleet, per factions, which is a fraction of those actively playing at any one time.

-Several people have reported FPS issues even on high-end machines. This was thanks to the unfinished, buggy hero-engine they decided to use. They reported these issues on the official forums. Most of them were dismissed, like you're dismissing my claims now, and eventually removed as "spam" or "trolling", by the mods.

The only threads I ever see shut down are the ones started by people in the wrong area, or are already made somewhere else. Honestly 99% of people aren't even having any issues, I run a high end rig and I never drop below 60 fps.

-I've seen the mmohunter graph, for one. It's declining at a steady pace.

First month just ended, everyone should be expecting a drop off in the number of players

-And instead of the monsters and grinding.. What? Single-player missions? Those twilight-grade romance quests? HUTTBALL?!

A story where I care about the people in the game. Not just single player either, which is a misconception.

So people aren't really experiencing fps drops and constant bugs and glitches? They're just imagining or trolling. And the lack of end-content- No wait, you're going to say "You just played the game too fast".

There are a few bugs, but nothing game breaking, and nothing that would completely stop anyone from playing the game. As I said before, not everyone is experiencing FPS drops, I'm certainly not, neither is most everyone I know.

2 Raids at launch, both with 6 bosses each, with hard modes of every flashpoint in the game, is plenty of endgame content to hold the community over until March when 1.2 drops and we get a lot more stuff. WoW has gone the greater part of year on only 12 bosses, so now it's unacceptable to only have 12 in the first 3 months?

Or hey, maybe you're already thinking of a good comeback to the "other mmos" argument. This is a ToR forum favourite "WELL MAYBE YOU SHOULD GO BACK TO [Insert MMO], IF U LOVE IT SO MUCH"
Oh here's one your people like to use on the server population (Lack thereof) argument
"GOOD, LESS KIDS IN THE SERVER TO ANNOY ME" or "I like to play this as a single-player game anyway".

Honestly, you're either one of the "official" bioware apologists or a very deluded person.

In fact, why am I even telling this to you in either case!? It's not like you care in your happy little boat there.

You sound like someone who gets all their arguments from 4chan, next you'll be spouting off about how the game is somehow doomed to fail. Maybe you should experience the game yourself and not let others spout off their misinformed opinions for you.

You beat me to it sir, You should give him the link to wow's bug/patch list. That mmo was so much buggier than swtor at launch.

 

[schiz0phren1c]

you do know you can turn that tosser corso rigg's harpoony shot off right Yahtzee?
doesn't matter anyway the game was broke during beta and only got more brokeder since release,
its a pile of rancid bantha poodoo,
funny review as always matey boy mc persony chap.

 

[CapitalistPig]

There is really no reason to play Tor.

When you are in "for the story" buy a single player RPG which has no monthly cost and a way better story as it does not have all this MMO baggage attached to it. And when you are in for the MMO part then there are way better MMOs out there as Tor is really lacking in that department as their only selling point is the story. Everything else is outdated compared to other modern MMOs and Tor is still very buggy.

Agree on all notes. Its like coffee vs tea. They each have pros and cons but I have a separate coffee maker for both of them. And I'll be damned if I ever put them in the same cup and call it a revolutionary new drink. Then again maybe that would work but I'm not going there. Point is story is for story games. MMO's are for excellent client support, grinding, quests (that no one honestly reads the background for and if you do well good luck to you sir/Madam), and gear. Oh, did I mention gear? Because percentage wise gear is about 99% of it. What do you care about more a patch opening up new story content or the newest gear, and GUI adaptations? Bioware has this monstrous game that is buggy and obviously getting a lot of bad press, yeah its new and I understand a lot of that stuff gets worked out quick which warrants a reprieve before we rip into them........oh wait they kinda declared themselves overload of the universe while sitting on a throne of skulls for their "revolution" in the MMO world. I'm sorry but a 1+n installment of Everquest with a new story line does not make you the best, and certainly not revolutionary.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Funny as you are, Yahtzee, you need to stop reviewing MMO's. You can only play them for a week, which is criminally insufficient to explore the content of anything, especially the multiplayer mechanics that they're built on.

 

[De_Roll_Le]

I really enjoyed the video.
Nice ^_^

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Hey Yahtzee, since when have you ever been a productive member of society?

 

[schiz0phren1c]

Oh man how did no one make a joke about "Han Solo" until Yatzee did? (Unless they already did and I didn't see/ hear it until now).
I wonder if his opinion would changed if he had a longer time to play it?

my smuggler is called Han Jobb Solow...

 

[Kanatatsu]

There were over 200 people on my server last night at about 7 pm central time. So yeah, not EVERY sever is a graveyard. In fact I'd doubt even most of them are.

200 people on a server at 7pm central is a graveyard server.

 

[Kanatatsu]

I doubt it. I played WoW for 6 years and have never seen more than 200 people in any faction capital at any time during the day. He's not saying 200 total, he's saying 200 on the fleet, per factions, which is a fraction of those actively playing at any one time.

No, that's not what he said.

 

[ServebotFrank]

I doubt it. I played WoW for 6 years and have never seen more than 200 people in any faction capital at any time during the day. He's not saying 200 total, he's saying 200 on the fleet, per factions, which is a fraction of those actively playing at any one time.

No, that's not what he said.

It's impossible to know how many people are playing on a server because the game only tells you how many people are around you. 200 in the fleet is pretty large. Normally I see 60-100 per planet and there are a lot of planets separate from each faction. Also consider the fact that there are a TON of servers. I hardly see any of them below the Heavy status.

 

[Ixal]

There are a few bugs, but nothing game breaking, and nothing that would completely stop anyone from playing the game. As I said before, not everyone is experiencing FPS drops, I'm certainly not, neither is most everyone I know.

2 Raids at launch, both with 6 bosses each, with hard modes of every flashpoint in the game, is plenty of endgame content to hold the community over until March when 1.2 drops and we get a lot more stuff. WoW has gone the greater part of year on only 12 bosses, so now it's unacceptable to only have 12 in the first 3 months?

1. Tor has way more than "just a few bugs". It is very buggy, especially the end contend and many several of the bosses in the raids are bugged so hard that it is impossible to complete them (or the challenge is more to avoid bugs than to kill bosses)


2. What WoW had at start doesn't matter and using this argument is a sure way to identify Biodrones.
Tor has to compete with the MMOs currently on the market and that includes WoW as it is now in 2012. It also includes WAR, Rift, Lotr, EQ2, Aion, AoC, etc.
And compared to all of them Tor is outdated and lacking. Bioware simply ignored all the advances made in MMO mechanics and hoped that the story alone would make their MMO special, completely ignoring that the story ends at 50, thus providing no incentive to keep playing. ALso, the story only makes up 20% of the game. The rest is generic MMO grind or PvP which is laggy for many people.

No moveable UI, no dungeon finder tool, unbalanced and useless crafting, confusing auction house, etc.
All those things show how outdated Tor already is.

2 million copies sold, 1.7 million subscribers.

Which is bad. Thats compareable with Dragon Age 2 so they could have had the same result with a single player RPG (Kotor 3) for much less production cost.
And considering that the story won't keep players continue to pay when they reach 50 expect a sharp drop in subscribers in 1-2 months.

 

[daxterx2005]

I hate Starwars, so by default I don't give a crap about any of the new games/re-re-releases of the films in 3D/comics/toys/anything else people give George hack Lucas money for.
Its always great to watch a video of Yahtzee cutting something down that you personally don't like to begin with.

Also, lol at "han solo" classic Yahtzee

 

[sifffffff]

Honestly, you're either one of the "official" bioware apologists or a very deluded person.

I'm shocked you didn't throw a UMADBRO in there too... And I'm the one who got a fucking warning.

There were over 200 people on my server last night at about 7 pm central time. So yeah, not EVERY sever is a graveyard. In fact I'd doubt even most of them are.

200 people on a server at 7pm central is a graveyard server.

200 on the fucking republic fleet. 70 - 80ish on all of the planets I joined. Sorry I didn't spell it out perfectly for you.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

Not playing this one till I know if its true that you get banned for being in a higher level than you're supposed to, and I'm really hoping its fake.

Totally fake, I've helped people in flashpoints when I'm 10 levels higher than them. Its exploiting that bans you. The only thing you lose for doing missions much higher than you is xp.

 

[CapitalistPig]

Agree on all notes. Its like coffee vs tea. They each have pros and cons but I have a separate coffee maker for both of them. And I'll be damned if I ever put them in the same cup and call it a revolutionary new drink. Then again maybe that would work but I'm not going there. Point is story is for story games. MMO's are for excellent client support, grinding, quests (that no one honestly reads the background for and if you do well good luck to you sir/Madam), and gear. Oh, did I mention gear? Because percentage wise gear is about 99% of it. What do you care about more a patch opening up new story content or the newest gear, and GUI adaptations? Bioware has this monstrous game that is buggy and obviously getting a lot of bad press, yeah its new and I understand a lot of that stuff gets worked out quick which warrants a reprieve before we rip into them........oh wait they kinda declared themselves overload of the universe while sitting on a throne of skulls for their "revolution" in the MMO world. I'm sorry but a 1+n installment of Everquest with a new story line does not make you the best, and certainly not revolutionary.

I think you should wait and give the game a shot when they've incorporated some kind of free trial. You may be pleasantly surprised by what you see. They've said before that TOR is not revolutionary, but evolutionary. It doesn't discard the parts of MMOs that people dislike the most, but tries to, and for the most part, improve them.

So far my favorite of all time MMORPG's that I continually go back to are actually Free to Play (but im extremely picky with those too), where innovation isn't dead and the casual gamer can still find a home (like me.) They only exist because the true hardcore gamers keep using the premium items, therefore they understand that innovative content must develop along side story content or else the big guys just get bored and server population drops off. And when that happens you're screwed. I mean WOW just incorporated re-skinning (and they called it something stupid) a month or so back but has had like what 4 expansion packs? That's been on every one I've seen since 2008 if not earlier. If thats the kind of customer service these companies give in the past it certainly doesn't inspire me for the pay per use MMO's of the future. The fact that its actually launching in similar fashion shows me its just another behemoth of money/time gobbling slime to be avoided. The funny thing is all of the pay per use MMO's I've played actually have all the same problems I had with the crappy free to play ones. Which is mostly lousy production values, poor GUI (thats the biggest for me), and all around too much focus on questing. And as far as the difference between evolution and revolution, while that applies to the real world here in lala land thats the same thing. The point is they had a bad reception to start and instead of trying to fix it they snubbed their noses at the consumers and said "well we're different." Like their some mentally disturbed artists or something. And no offense but your response sounds like an Ad for Bioware.