The Old Republic

[deject]

New videos and shit have been shown at E3:

http://www.shacknews.com/article/68851/ ... r-wars-old
Intro Cinematic: http://youtu.be/D3kc1kamwew
Trailer: http://youtu.be/W-CTmGpA0Eo

I think I'm liking the more KOTOR-esque storytelling aspect, but I don't know if I can get over that MMO gameplay. I definitely will be trying it out though, hopefully there will be a trial available.

What do you guys think?

[Dog Pants]

Depends on how many 5punkers take it up for me. I'm really not that interested in it - if it wasn't for me liking Star Wars I'd have no interest at all. In fact scratch that, I have no interest in this era of Star Wars, and I think they've fucked up the setting anyway. If it wasn't for the fact it was Bioware I'd have no interest in it. They might still make it good, but I'm expecting something pretty generic. That said it's Star Wars, so I'm sure it will sell in the bucketloads.

[Thompy]

I think it looks bland and dated, in gameplay and graphics. Standing still pressing action bar buttons just doesn't seem good enough for a Star Wars game. The only thing of interest is the supposed vastness of the story, but the "MMO" part is just a copy and paste of the current template which again just doesn't feel right given the subject.

I'm completely jaded from WoW though, so it will take a lot from an MMO to get me back into the genre. However there's nothing I'd like more than to sink my teeth into a one for a good number of years.

[Roman Totale]

I'm usually a sucker for cinematic trailers, but this just leaves me a bit cold - pretty much every single aspect of the trailer was a regurgitation of something else ("fastest ship in the sector" - am I supposed to cheer because they made yet another nod to the original film?).

That's just me being picky though. The game will probably be ok, but I don't know what direction MMONGS can take these days that doesn't feel tired after a month.

[Thompy]

I don't know what direction MMONGS can take these days that doesn't feel tired after a month.

While I don't have anything to offer, you'd think that you could take the "MM" part and apply it to virtually anything without tacking on quests, dungeons, loot.

Basically if a developer wants to make an MMO, the go to suffix is RPG, and not one of the other countless game types.

[Joose]

While I don't have anything to offer, you'd think that you could take the "MM" part and apply it to virtually anything without tacking on quests, dungeons, loot.

Basically if a developer wants to make an MMO, the go to suffix is RPG, and not one of the other countless game types.

Ive often thought this. I think partly its the money men fearing change (change is risk, risk is bad for profits), and partly devs making what they know.

The reason it doesnt worry me is because of how the FPS developed. First there was Doom and its million clones*, then Quake and its million clones. Eventually, people started getting bored of the exact same game with different sprites, and now we have everything from Portal to Battlfield.

I think we are already starting to get more diversity in MMOs, albiet in a small way. The new Age of Empires is an MMO, for example.

[friznit]

how do they differentiate between M and MM?

[Dog Pants]

From a cynical point of view, persistence seems to mean MM in PR terms. Look at World of Tanks - while I like the game, I think it's title of MMO is ridiculous. It offers 32-player maps with a progress tree. BEEF did that and wasn't considered an MMO. Personally I'd define Massively Multiplayer as big enough to have more than one player focus - i.e. enough space and players that multiple simultaneous events can be happening, be they battles, quests or otherwise.

[Joose]

From a cynical point of view, persistence seems to mean MM in PR terms.

Yeah, but theres a fair argument to say that truly MM games are rare as hell. In fact, the only one that comes to mind is EVE. With your average WoW-like, the only interaction you have with most other players is chat, and even the biggest raids are comparable to large scale shooters like Battlefield.

Although, saying that, even when they talk of persistence they generally only mean character persistance.

I nicely polished, truly persistent, actually Massively Multiplayer game would be an awesome thing.

[Anery]

Not going to be buying this on release day for a number of reasons:
Servers populated by Jedi/Sith
Predictable balance issues, unless you want Jedis to use horse choke?
Servers populated by Han Sulu and Bobba Fetta
Everyone has a sidekick, they are the same for eveyone within a proffession
Mulitplayer is multiplayer only when it suits

Will wait for a free trial to test the waters, this is waaay down my excite-o-meter. Just behind new crockery

[Thompy]

I got an e-mail about testing, as anyone who signed up to the newsletter will have. I filled in a survey and:

Survey Completed - Thank You

Thank you for completing the survey. Based on your answers, you have been selected to participate in an at home test of Star WarsTM: The Old RepublicTM. You will be receiving communication from the Star Wars: The Old RepublicTM team in the near future with more information about this test. May the horse be with you!

No idea if I'm lucky or just 1 of millions and despite my reservations about the look of the game I'm eager to try it out.

[spoodie]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnE8RitIN4s[/media]

[Sol]

The cinematic trailer/game intro was farily good, and if the actual game play's graphics looked like that and not the cel-shaded-a-like bullshit that it is i think I'd like it a whole lot more.

[Thompy]

I got access tonight, but unfortunately the download is 30GB. Pretty astonishing considering WoW with all its expansions is just over 20GB after a fresh install. A sign of the amount of content? Or probably just a ton voice acting weighing it down.

I have a slow ass connection but that's not a problem, as downloading is what sleepy time is for, but my plan is capped at 40GB. Most average plans from the major ISPs are around that amount so I'd imagine a lot of people are going to have to forget about testing.

Oh well

[buzzmong]

THIRTY GIGABTYES? Fucking hell. That's massive.

[Stoat]

Is that 30GB download or install? That's a couple of months bandwidth allowance for some!

[Thompy]

Download, yes. 40Gb install. I don't know how it'll work but there could well be another 10GB of cached data building up over a year, then all the expansions to come. It's going to bugger up some people's SSD systems.

[deject]

Supposedly that's mostly voice work too. Every story NPC is fully voiced in the game.

[buzzmong]

I think Bioware aren't aware of the term "compression".

[deject]

I think Bioware aren't aware of the term "compression".

I bet it all is compressed to some degree. The sheer number of NPCs in an MMO is probably a very large number. Giving each one a few lines of dialog, even compressed with OGG or something would still be huge.