lucasarts posts

Everybody loves a good cantina fight in Threat of Peace, issue #20

by Kyle Horner Nov 20th 2009 at 11:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, New titles, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

And so the plot thickens, as the identity of the man attempting to dissolve the peace treaty between the Republic and the Empire is now closer to being revealed. Yes, this week BioWare continues their free online comic Threat of Peace with issue number 20, which largely focuses on the Bounty Hunter known as Braden.

The developer's propensity for seeding hints at future in-game content through this series continues, and in that statement we mean to say Nar Shadda is most likely going to be a playable planet in Star Wars: The Old Republic. We also wouldn't be surprised to see Dantooine become an in-game destination as well, since it's both a classic location and apparently the future site of some intrigue for Threat of Peace readers.

We suppose it'd be easy enough to assume most planets featured from the movies and previous KOTOR games will end up in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Nonetheless, it's fun to play the guessing game when it comes to a highly anticipated MMO. We're hoping the next official planet announcement goes to Nar Shadda, as it's just such a lovely place to visit.

Tags: bioware, bounty-hunter, braden, dantooine, darkhorse, ea, electronic-arts, empire, lucasarts, nar-shadda, republic, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, the-old-republic, threat-of-peace, webcomic

The balance of force in Star Wars: the Old Republic

by Eliot Lefebvre Nov 15th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Classes, Game mechanics, New titles, PvP, Opinion, Star Wars: The Old Republic

It might be a slight exaggeration to say that everyone in the world is looking forward to Star Wars: the Old Republic... but only slight. With the latest class reveal, the Imperial Agent is poised to give an excellent sneak-and-snipe playstyle to the Sith side of the game. All well and good... but as Kill Ten Rats notes, how is this game going to get any PvP balance? To the best of everyone's knowledge there's no equivalent ability in the Smuggler's arsenal, the Republic's counterpoint to the Agent, and it's not much of a matchup when one side is invisible and the other side isn't.

Overly Positive recently made a few observations regarding the class balance, noting that BioWare seems to be taking an approach a la Warhammer Online -- each class has a loose equivalent on the other side, but they don't result in being direct copies of one another. However, the downside to this approach is that you can easily wind up with one side's class being overpowered in relation to the other. Direct equivalencies leech some of the flavor, but they ensure that the game remains perfectly balanced for both factions. It's a question worth considering and keeping an eye on as the game moves through development -- after all, if a Jedi and a Sith Warrior can't face off in fair combat, it'll be a sad day for many players.

Tags: balance, bioware, class-balance, classes, game-mechanics, imperial-agent, jedi, kill-ten-rats, ktr, lucasarts, new-titles, opinion, pvp, sith-warrior, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, war, warhammer-online

SWTOR's Imperial Spy gets an official reveal

by Kyle Horner Nov 13th 2009 at 7:00PM

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

We've pretty much known about it for a while, but Star Wars: The Old Republic now officially has an Imperial Spy class. Granted, even before, we had a pretty good inkling that some kind of spy or rogue class was in the wings for the Empire players -- especially since the Smuggler had no logical counterpart.

So what's the big deal about an official announcement? A class page full of juicy information just waiting to be devoured by eager fans. The combat tactics movies are easily the most impressive section of the class page, simply because the abilities shown are exceptionally fun. We can't decide which we like more: the stun dart / targeted blaster strike or the orbital bombardment. Even the ability to throw down an energy shield in the middle of combat looks pretty cool.

Whatever your favorite ability or class happens to be, there's no doubt these new screens are looking better than before. We're always excited to see progress being made and it's heartening to have a visual reminder that Star Wars: The Old Republic is coming along.

Gallery: Star Wars: The Old Republic Screenshots

Tags: bioware, class, classes, ea, electronic-arts, empire, imperial-spy, lucasarts, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, the-old-republic, tor

The Digital Continuum: Five exciting MMOs in 2010, part 2

by Kyle Horner Nov 9th 2009 at 12:30PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Opinion, The Digital Continuum

Tags: bioware, blizzard, ea, electronic-arts, gazillion, gazillion-entertainment, jge, jumpgate-evolution, lucasarts, netdevil, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, the-digital-continuum, tor, world-of-warcraft, wow

Star Wars: The Old Republic senior writer talks about writing the Jedi Knight

by Rubi Bayer Nov 8th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Classes, New titles, Star Wars: The Old Republic

Drew Karpyshyn is the senior writer for the Star Wars: The Old Republic team with plenty of experience writing characters from the dark side, but now he's stepping out of his comfort zone to take a walk on the Jedi side. The fun he's having writing the Jedi Knight class comes through clearly in Friday's developer blog entry: "Nothing says Star Wars like a brown-robed figure brandishing a shimmering energy blade of righteous destruction."

Exploring the Jedi Knight class meant delving the Jedi Code and how it works in theory vs. how it works in practice. What happens when you take that code and mix in a hefty dose of "what if?" is a recipe for all kinds of possibilities, and Karpyshyn is having a great time exploring them. His experience writing the dark side gives his version of "what if" a little edge, exploring thoughts of renegade Jedi Knights who are willing to bend the rules for the greater good.

It's a fun read, with a great look into Karpyshyn's thoughts on the class -- you can take a look at the full entry on the official site.

Tags: bioware, classes, developer-diary, Drew-Karpyshyn, jedi-knight, lucasarts, new-titles, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor

Star Wars: The Old Republic reveals Imperial Agent its newest class

by Rubi Bayer Nov 6th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Classes, New titles, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

We've got Trooper, Smuggler, Jedi Knight, Bounty Hunter, Sith Warrior, and now Imperial Agent. BioWare revealed the sixth class for Star Wars: The Old Republic today on their forums. This news comes as absolutely no surprise to those who attended the EA Press Tour earlier this week -- they enjoyed advance information from producer Blaine Christine.

Imperial Agents are a rogue class of sorts, doing their work for the Empire with high-tech tools to help them infiltrate the republic and assassinate enemies of the Sith Empire. The announcement from Sean Dahlberg says that Imperial Agents are "heavily inspired by several classic Star Wars characters such as Zam Wessel and Grand Moff Tarkin. [...] Players who choose to be Imperial Agents in The Old Republic (TOR) will see the underbelly of the Empire in a whole new light."

The Holonet will be updated next week with the Imperial Agent, but the class already has its own forum on the official site and discussion is going strong.

Tags: bioware, classes, imperial-agent, lucasarts, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor

Jedi Knight officially steps into The Old Republic spotlight

by Kyle Horner Oct 30th 2009 at 12:00PM

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

Rumors and speculation have been floating around this week about the Jedi Knight, so no big surprise when BioWare reveals that, yes, Knights of the Jedi persuasion are in fact a player class in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The news comes with all the expected class page accoutrements such as screens, concept art and a few videos showing off three Jedi Knight attacks. It's all standard practice information release at this point, which only slightly dilutes the excitement of the announcement.

The videos all show the proper level of Jedi powerhousing that you'd expect, although we're not entirely cool with all the droid destroying that's happening. Sure, we're aware that unlike Sith, Jedi are limited to disabling droids and pushing things around but that's no excuse to pick on the little helpless mechanical people. Yes, we said people -- robots are people too!

In all seriousness, this is probably the class reveal everyone has been waiting for and/or expecting all along. Jedi and Sith were a given, so from here on out it's almost entirely anyone's guess. Spy? Rogue? Droids? Wookiees? Albino Ewoks? Okay, that's a little silly, nobody wants to play a rogue over a spy.

Gallery: Star Wars: The Old Republic Concept Art

Gallery: Star Wars: The Old Republic Screenshots

Tags: bioware, class, ea, electronic-arts, ewok, ewoks, jedi, jedi-knight, jedi-knights, lucasarts, rogue, sith, spy, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, the-old-republic, tor, wookiee

Embracing the Sith in Star Wars: The Old Republic

by Kyle Horner Oct 5th 2009 at 12:00PM

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

Everyone is worried about the Jedi player population when it comes to Star Wars: The Old Republic, but the Sith are in every way a likely -- if not moreso -- threat. With franchise analogs like Vader and Maul, there's going to be a lot of people auto-running around the game to the tune of Imperial March.

Even BioWare seems to think the Sith are kind of a big deal in this new developer blog promoting the greatness of embracing the darkness within us all. We're not even exaggerating in this case, the blog really does go on for quite some time about how awesome dark Jedi are -- so don't be too shocked when legions of Sith roam the battlefield looking for Republic blood.

Tags: bioware, ea, electronic-arts, empire, lucasarts, sith, sith-warrior, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, warrior

Enjoy some comic geekery with SWTOR's Threat of Peace update

by Krystalle Voecks Sep 26th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Lore, New titles, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

With the convention craze of the summer - E3 into San Diego ComicCon and then PAX, the news for Star Wars: The Old Republic has been crazy hot and heavy. We've heard about new classes, seen new video and gameplay, and even landed some rumors that are continuing to pique interest. Meanwhile, the co-operative webcomic between BioWare, LucasArts and Dark Horse Comics have been coming out steadily, overshadowed by their shinier brethren.

As a bit of a breather, the team at BioWare have focused for the last couple of weeks exclusively on the comic - we're sure to allow the story to shine on its own. Well, that and we're told they're working on another big announcement for next week's update, which is sure to send the Star Wars: The Old Republic fan-base into another string of vociferous nerdgasms. For now, enjoy some fresh new webcomic geekery while we all wait with bated breath for yet another wave of news.

Tags: bioware, dark-horse-comics, lucas-arts, lucasarts, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, update, webcomic

SWTOR's Coruscant artwork and PAX video

by Kyle Horner Sep 13th 2009 at 4:00PM

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

So maybe you missed out on seeing the glorious video reveal of Coruscant at PAX this year. No worries, because BioWare's been kind enough to release a high quality copy of the video into the wilds of the internet. We've posted it after the break in case you'd like to simple jump right into it.

There's more news beyond the video being available on the game's official website, though, such as a bevy of very cool concept art that should entice any Star Wars: The Old Republic fan for several minutes bare minimum -- some of us may spend longer amounts of time staring.

None of this is a big reveal, but that's perfectly understandable given the team's presence at PAX last weekend. So what about next weekend? Well, next weekend they'd better deliver or else we'll have to uh- well we'll just be sad if they don't, but it'll be a really vicious sadness that sends chills down spines!

Tags: bioware, coruscant, ea, electronic-arts, lucasarts, pax, pax-2009, penny-arcade, penny-arcade-expo, star-wars, swtor, tor, video

PAX 2009: Massively interviews BioWare and LucasArts on SWTOR

by Kyle Horner Sep 7th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: New titles, Massively Interviews, Star Wars: The Old Republic

PAX 2009 played host to the first North American public demo for Star Wars: The Old Republic and by the cheering and applause of a packed theater at Sunday's stage demo, we'd say it went exceedingly well. Luckily for us, we had the opportunity to sit down and chat with LucasArts producer Jake Neri and BioWare producer Blaine Christine.

Read more below for the inside scoop on what's new for the game at PAX and what we were able to pry from the lips of BioWare and LucasArts.

Tags: bioware, blaine-christine, ea, electronic-arts, featured, jake-neri, lucasarts, pax, pax-2009, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, the-old-republic

PAX 2009: Massively interviews BioWare and LucasArts on SWTOR part 2

by Kyle Horner Sep 7th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: New titles, Massively Interviews, Star Wars: The Old Republic

Tags: bioware, blaine-christine, ea, electronic-arts, jake-neri, lucasarts, multiplayer-dialog, pax, pax-2009, roleplaying, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, the-old-republic, tor, webkinz

Rumor: SOE to launch casual browser MMO for Clone Wars

by James Egan Sep 4th 2009 at 5:30PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, MMO industry, New titles, Browser, Casual, Rumors

We're chalking this one up as a rumor for now, but word has it that Sony Online Entertainment is developing another Star Wars MMO property, a casual browser game specifically based on the Clone Wars IP. The info comes from Ten Ton Hammer's Cody Bye, who writes:

"Ten Ton Hammer has learned from an inside source that Sony Online Entertainment has once again partnered with LucasArts to do another Star Wars MMO. While we have not yet learned the title of the upcoming game, it sounds like SOE is planning to use the browser-based Free Realms engine to power the game, and the game's setting will be the Clone Wars."

Massively has not heard anything yet to corroborate this as fact, but let's face it -- this was just too juicy to ignore. If we hear more on this while we're at PAX and Dragon*Con, we'll be sure to let you know.

[Via Shacknews]

Tags: breaking, browser, casual, clone-wars, cody-bye, free-realms, lucasarts, mmo-industry, new-titles, rumor, rumors, shacknews, soe, sony-online-entertainment, star-wars, ten-ton-hammer

SWTOR's Sith Warrior detailed, cataloged

by Kyle Horner Aug 29th 2009 at 12:00PM

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

Gamescom provided us with plenty of information on the newly revealed Sith Warrior class for Star Wars: The Old Republic. So much is already known, making the newly revealed official web page feel like a safe place to keep all that information rather than a source of geeky revelation.

We're nothing if not persistent in our quest to discover curious new things, and such is what we found in the concept art on the Sith Warrior's Holonet entry. BioWare seems to be outdoing themselves when it comes to designing various lightsaber hilts for the unscrupulous Sith. Additionally, reading the overview text for the class reveals two storylines: One where your character aligns themselves with the recently formed Dark Council, and the other a path of the renegade seeking their own goals.

Watching the short videos cemented it for us, most likely. BioWare will be hard pressed to show us another Empire class that warrants a significant chunk of our time. Then again, with PAX just one week away, they may just do that.

Gallery: Star Wars: The Old Republic Concept Art

Gallery: Star Wars: The Old Republic Screenshots

Tags: bioware, ea, electronic-arts, lightsaber, lucasarts, sith-warrior, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, the-old-republic

Rumor: The Old Republic to have player housing?

by Kyle Horner Aug 27th 2009 at 4:00PM

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

Player housing seems to be an oft requested feature for generally any MMO, but the last place we expected to hear rumors about it was for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Granted, this rumor stems from a BioWare employee at Gamescom being a little too tired and letting "housing" slip as one of the many features of the game. Of course, it's also just as likely that said person was so tired they simply misspoke.

Rumors have a way of digging into the brain, though, and this one is no different. If you think back to KOTOR and Mass Effect, both games had a kind of home base for the game's main characters. Wouldn't housing be pretty much the same thing? Yeah, we just went there.

Tags: bioware, ea, electronic-arts, knights-of-the-old-republic, kotor, lucasarts, mass-effect, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, the-old-republic