balmorra posts

SWTOR fan friday introduces 'Developer Corner' feature

by Kyle Horner Jan 15th 2010 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Video, New titles, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

Fan art and fan fiction are in full effect in this week's Fan Friday for Star Wars: The Old Republic. However, BioWare's added something new to the mix this week -- the Developer Corner. Before getting to that, we'd like to briefly mention that the above preview of scars for our potential characters is superb. We especially appreciate the wide range of options, some of which show of the ability of the game's graphics engine to render subtle details.

The new Developer Corner segment offers the briefest peek at in-progress game elements that are intended to be interesting and completely new. It may not always be a video, but as it happens we lucked out. This week features a short video clip that's void of sound yet full of grandiose level design strokes. Focus is on the Imperial military base of Sobrikill Valley on the planet of Balmorra, where the Republic is raining down laser bombs like nobody's business. Thankfully, the Imperials have setup a large force field overhead, which creates some significant visual oomph. We can only imagine what it must look like from the ground level!

Tags: balmorra, bioware, developer-corner, ea, electronic-arts, fan-friday, lucasarts, sith-empire, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, the-old-republic, trailer, video

Star Wars: the Old Republic has a literal powder keg on Balmorra

by Eliot Lefebvre Oct 16th 2009 at 4:30PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Lore, Previews, Star Wars: The Old Republic

Like it or not, Star Wars: the Old Republic is not so dissimilar from its source materials -- its planets universally have themes. There's the city planet, of course, and we all know there's going to be the desert planet. And, as it stands, we're now poised to have the weapons planet -- which promises to be as explosive as such a title would suggest. The game has recently unveiled Balmorra, the site of an ongoing struggle between the Republic and the Sith Empire, where the victor claims the preeminent weapons manufacturer in the Core Worlds. The planet started as an ally of the Republic, but during the long war with the Sith Empire the Republic was forced to scale back its efforts to help perserve the planet's independence, culminating in a full withdrawal of its reinforcements to the world.

The Sith quickly claimed the planet in force, with only an underground resistance left with some Republic support to fight back against the invaders and do what damage was possible. Of course, when you're on the most deadly weapon-making planet in the area, you can do quite a bit of damage. The rejuvenated Republic is now returning its troop presence to the planet's surface in hopes that it can wrest the world back after the brief lull of peace, but the Balmorrans haven't exactly forgiven and forgotten the earlier abandonment. For more information on what promises to be one of the most explosive areas in Star Wars: the Old Republic, take a look at the official page containing more pictures and information.

Tags: balmorra, bioware, previews, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor